07:23.
I've barely slept an hour the entire night so far.
Why?
Because of ONE mosquito.
I am so tired....
2007-11-23
Wake up and smell the java.
My coworker passed me a news article, about how in Austria, housekeeping and child-rearing are still widely regarded as women's responsibilities.
(The article's in Chinese but you can get a crude translation by running the URL through Babelfish. The general gist of the article is that 75% of Austrian men consider housekeeping and child-rearing a woman's job, compared to only 14% who believe men should share part of the burden.)
I'm not surprised that there are still places like that. I'm really not. But as I glanced at the article content, I suddenly became rather weary about why he had made a point of sending me the link. I mean, obviously it was an article of interest, but in what way?
It soon became apparent.
"In comparison," he remarked, "Taiwanese men are pitiable (可憐). They have to help clean, do laundry, take care of children... and they're not allowed to complain."
Come again?? Alright, alright, don't jump to conclusions. It's just a statement, and probably not his personal opinion. I cautiously asked if he thought these chores were the woman's responsibility, even using the ^o) emoticon as a subtle hint that he should answer with care.
"在台灣，只能認命吧。" ("In Taiwan, you can only submit to Life." / "C'est la vie.")
I was livid. And when I reprehended him, his counter?
"In Asia, Taiwan is already pretty good [in terms of male and female equality in society]." He actually did not find anything wrong with how the Austrian men thought, even envied the culture. I wanted to kick the sh!t out of him.
I told him to move to Austria.
I was so pissed off that I stopped MSN'ing him for the rest of the night. Before leaving work, however, I forced myself to be the bigger person and MSN'ed him saying that he was entitled to his archaic opinion and all the power to him if he found a partner who shared it. (He then blankly asked what I considered more "modern". I chose to ignore his cluelessness and closed the conversation window.)
I know that people are entitled to their own opinions, and we should all be open to different perspectives instead of chastising someone because they don't share your views. But honestly, some people's beliefs make you want to disassociate yourself from them.
(The article's in Chinese but you can get a crude translation by running the URL through Babelfish. The general gist of the article is that 75% of Austrian men consider housekeeping and child-rearing a woman's job, compared to only 14% who believe men should share part of the burden.)
I'm not surprised that there are still places like that. I'm really not. But as I glanced at the article content, I suddenly became rather weary about why he had made a point of sending me the link. I mean, obviously it was an article of interest, but in what way?
It soon became apparent.
"In comparison," he remarked, "Taiwanese men are pitiable (可憐). They have to help clean, do laundry, take care of children... and they're not allowed to complain."
Come again?? Alright, alright, don't jump to conclusions. It's just a statement, and probably not his personal opinion. I cautiously asked if he thought these chores were the woman's responsibility, even using the ^o) emoticon as a subtle hint that he should answer with care.
"在台灣，只能認命吧。" ("In Taiwan, you can only submit to Life." / "C'est la vie.")
I was livid. And when I reprehended him, his counter?
"In Asia, Taiwan is already pretty good [in terms of male and female equality in society]." He actually did not find anything wrong with how the Austrian men thought, even envied the culture. I wanted to kick the sh!t out of him.
I told him to move to Austria.
I was so pissed off that I stopped MSN'ing him for the rest of the night. Before leaving work, however, I forced myself to be the bigger person and MSN'ed him saying that he was entitled to his archaic opinion and all the power to him if he found a partner who shared it. (He then blankly asked what I considered more "modern". I chose to ignore his cluelessness and closed the conversation window.)
I know that people are entitled to their own opinions, and we should all be open to different perspectives instead of chastising someone because they don't share your views. But honestly, some people's beliefs make you want to disassociate yourself from them.
2007-11-17
Shut in
Shortly after posting that last tip, I received intel on an impending new policy at our workplace.
Starting next month, MSN and all IM programs will be banned at work. Those requiring MSN for work can apply for it (on a yearly basis). MSN usage and content will be monitored and submitted to your manager each month.
How's that for shutting off any connection to the outside world....
Now I realise that this measure is taken in the interest of productivity, but seriously if there were any way to make your employees feel imprisoned at work, this would be near the top of the list.
I also hear that some floors have already started adhering to another impending policy: no meals taken at your desk. Well, that just sounds absurd. Many employees eat meals at their desk so they can work or nap, or maybe they bring lunch from home. Unless this is only about preventing food spills on $$$$ equipment (sounds more like a high school policy), I don't see their purpose for this one....
What's next, timed bathroom trips? (I do know of one company that restricts employees to 48 minutes per day. Not kidding.)
Just break out the orange jumpsuits....
Starting next month, MSN and all IM programs will be banned at work. Those requiring MSN for work can apply for it (on a yearly basis). MSN usage and content will be monitored and submitted to your manager each month.
How's that for shutting off any connection to the outside world....
Now I realise that this measure is taken in the interest of productivity, but seriously if there were any way to make your employees feel imprisoned at work, this would be near the top of the list.
I also hear that some floors have already started adhering to another impending policy: no meals taken at your desk. Well, that just sounds absurd. Many employees eat meals at their desk so they can work or nap, or maybe they bring lunch from home. Unless this is only about preventing food spills on $$$$ equipment (sounds more like a high school policy), I don't see their purpose for this one....
What's next, timed bathroom trips? (I do know of one company that restricts employees to 48 minutes per day. Not kidding.)
Just break out the orange jumpsuits....
2007-11-11
E-moting
After last month's viral attack, I recovered my laptop computer and painstakingly went through all the installations and uninstallations to restore Toshy to his former glory.
As I logged into the newly upgraded Windows Live Messenger, however, it dawned on me how much I relied on my accumulated collection of dancing moo cows and twirling penguins and the like. The clean emoticon slate left me feeling inarticulate and unexpressive.
This was unacceptable. I would have to rebuild my gallery of expressions.
I nearly drove my coworker nuts as I bugged her to send me emoticons from work and from home, so I could add them again, one by one. I finally decided this was ridiculous, and turned to the wonderful WWW. Sure enough,I found this helpful tidbit:
The custom emoticons are stored in:
C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Microsoft\MSN Messenger\<account#>\CustomEmoticons\
I just copied the entire CustomEmoticons folder and then plopped it into the corresponding directory at home, and - presto! - all my lovely emoticons were once again at my fingertips! Yay!
I read that this only works for copying emoticons from an account to the same account on another computer. I haven't tried otherwise, so I can't verify this.
Apparently you can also do the same for display pictures; they're stored in the UserTile folder.
As I logged into the newly upgraded Windows Live Messenger, however, it dawned on me how much I relied on my accumulated collection of dancing moo cows and twirling penguins and the like. The clean emoticon slate left me feeling inarticulate and unexpressive.
This was unacceptable. I would have to rebuild my gallery of expressions.
I nearly drove my coworker nuts as I bugged her to send me emoticons from work and from home, so I could add them again, one by one. I finally decided this was ridiculous, and turned to the wonderful WWW. Sure enough,I found this helpful tidbit:
The custom emoticons are stored in:
C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Microsoft\MSN Messenger\<account#>\CustomEmoticons\
I just copied the entire CustomEmoticons folder and then plopped it into the corresponding directory at home, and - presto! - all my lovely emoticons were once again at my fingertips! Yay!
I read that this only works for copying emoticons from an account to the same account on another computer. I haven't tried otherwise, so I can't verify this.
Apparently you can also do the same for display pictures; they're stored in the UserTile folder.
2007-11-03
Complete bust
Well. I don't know what to say. My weekend was a complete bust. I had a full weekend all planned out - fun filled up to the brim. And not one of those plans panned out.
Friday night I went wall-climbing, and then had a night snack with the gang. I was going to go on a mini nocturnal adventure (just out wandering at night) but couldn't get a hold of my friends. I was a bit bummed out, so my coworker and I grabbed a drink from the 7-Eleven, chatted at the local basketball court until it started to rain at 03:30. When I got home I replied to a sad e-mail, almost fell asleep. My night adventure friend logged on, and we MSNed. Of course it was 06:00 by the time I really couldn't stay awake, and of course, my plans for the following day started at 06:50.
Saturday was a day in Lugang (鹿港). My coworker (different one) was going with a photography club to take pictures, and since I'd never been, I'd asked to tag along for the day.
But Saturday morning, I woke to a mobile phone displaying 07:10. I hurried out the door, but the bus was nowhere in sight, and that one person I knew going on this photography outing wasn't answering his mobile phone. I gave up at nearly 08:00 and went home, slept until 14:00. And when I woke up, in an equally blah mood... I went to work. But the not-rainy-as-anticipated weather and the nice walk to the office helped my mood immensely. I decided to help the trend by going for teppanyaki for dinner. =)
My coworker wanted to go climbing, so I went to belay for him. The climbing gang was going KTVing (or karaokeing) at midnight and then 4 of us were going to head straight to Longdong (龍洞) for some outdoor climbing. I chose to miss the first half of KTVing to pack my gear and get some work done, but when I eventually got there, I was told that there'd been a little incident and my friend (one of the 4 going to Longdong) had drowned himself in a bottle of vodka. When I left the KTV over an hour later, he was still sleeping it off.... In fact, he was in the washroom the entire time I was there; I didn't even see him. =(
And so here I am, blogging at 05:40 on Sunday morning, after the last of my highly anticipated plans got cancelled. Rightly cancelled, but still, I'd be lying if I didn't say I wasn't a little disappointed.
I think I'll sleep in until noon and then go to work. Work rarely disappoints.
[Editor's note: We'd been praying all week that the rain wouldn't wash away our Longdong plans. Right now, 11:51, the weather is gorgeous.... *sigh*]
Friday night I went wall-climbing, and then had a night snack with the gang. I was going to go on a mini nocturnal adventure (just out wandering at night) but couldn't get a hold of my friends. I was a bit bummed out, so my coworker and I grabbed a drink from the 7-Eleven, chatted at the local basketball court until it started to rain at 03:30. When I got home I replied to a sad e-mail, almost fell asleep. My night adventure friend logged on, and we MSNed. Of course it was 06:00 by the time I really couldn't stay awake, and of course, my plans for the following day started at 06:50.
Saturday was a day in Lugang (鹿港). My coworker (different one) was going with a photography club to take pictures, and since I'd never been, I'd asked to tag along for the day.
But Saturday morning, I woke to a mobile phone displaying 07:10. I hurried out the door, but the bus was nowhere in sight, and that one person I knew going on this photography outing wasn't answering his mobile phone. I gave up at nearly 08:00 and went home, slept until 14:00. And when I woke up, in an equally blah mood... I went to work. But the not-rainy-as-anticipated weather and the nice walk to the office helped my mood immensely. I decided to help the trend by going for teppanyaki for dinner. =)
My coworker wanted to go climbing, so I went to belay for him. The climbing gang was going KTVing (or karaokeing) at midnight and then 4 of us were going to head straight to Longdong (龍洞) for some outdoor climbing. I chose to miss the first half of KTVing to pack my gear and get some work done, but when I eventually got there, I was told that there'd been a little incident and my friend (one of the 4 going to Longdong) had drowned himself in a bottle of vodka. When I left the KTV over an hour later, he was still sleeping it off.... In fact, he was in the washroom the entire time I was there; I didn't even see him. =(
And so here I am, blogging at 05:40 on Sunday morning, after the last of my highly anticipated plans got cancelled. Rightly cancelled, but still, I'd be lying if I didn't say I wasn't a little disappointed.
I think I'll sleep in until noon and then go to work. Work rarely disappoints.
[Editor's note: We'd been praying all week that the rain wouldn't wash away our Longdong plans. Right now, 11:51, the weather is gorgeous.... *sigh*]
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