Not so bright, Part 2

6. I met up to shoot pool with a friend in Taipei, after dinner with my aunt. I couldn't find my key to get back into my brother's place, so he left his set with me, and said he would figure out another way. He called me later, rather peeved, because he couldn't get into his parking garage (sensor was with me now).
   
   The next day as we were heading out, I returned his keys. "Where's my mailbox key??" "Oh, I dunno. Ohhh, wait...... that's my set of your keys. Here's yours.... <duck and run>"
   
   I don't get my own set of keys to his place anymore.
   
   
7. I want to be organised. Honestly. So I buy plastic stackable drawers, and paper organisers, and clothes hangers. They now all sit on the floor of my room, alongside the rest of my mess.
   
   My coworker got me a book "No More Clutter" (by Sue Kay) that takes a deeper look into the whys of clutter before the actual riddance. And yes, that book now adds to my clutter.
   
   
8. I grew up drying my laundry in the clothes dryer. I like the extra perk that, if you remove your clothes not too long after drying, they are soft and virtually wrinkle-free. It so happens that one Saturday, I got home unexpectedly late from work, and found my clothes removed from the dryer and scrunched down into my a-bit-too-small bucket. Completely scrunched, dress shirts and all. I was livid. (When I remove someone's clothes from the dryer, I half-fold their laundry - hang shirts and pants over the side of the basket - so their clothes aren't crumpled, because hey, I'm considerate like that.)
   
   As it turns out, that person's load was done, and I wanted to unwrinkle my clothes (by putting them through another cycle). So I removed his stuff and scrunched it into his slightly-too-small basket.
   
   I'm such a bad ass. =P
   
   
9. I can swim over 2000m without any problems... but my calf cramped up when I was getting dressed and trying not to let my pants touch the wet changeroom floor.
   
   
10. I can scooter for almost 10 minutes before making a left turn and being rudely reminded that I forgot to flip up the kick-stand.

Still more to come...

-er or -ee?

I was looking up a synonym for the verb "to manage" at one of my favourite sites, Merriam-Webster, and among other definitions, it offered

1b: to treat with care: husband.

Huh? Intrigued, I clicked and found the transitive verb "to husband":

Main Entry: ²husband
Function: transitive verb
Date: 15th century

1 a: to manage prudently and economically b: to use sparingly : conserve
2archaic : to find a husband for : mate
— hus·band·er noun

Interesting..... So, who husbands who in a marriage? Is the man labelled the husband because he husbands or because he is husbanded? Husbander or husbandee.... All a mystery......

You take that back!

So we happened to have the "pleasure" of sitting with my two-up manager, and conversation starts out about marriage and sports, and then the 3 managers at the table start talking about... management. My two-up is saying how different people have different ways of dealing with stress, and each person has to figure out their own method.

"For example, Nk and I have a habit of leaving everything until the last minute, creating unnecessary stress on ourself, and..."

Excuse me, but wtf??

What exactly were you expecting when you assigned me work on Friday afternoon and wanted it by Monday? It was already "last minute" when you assigned it. Did it even occur to you that I might have plans for the weekend? Or is my 24-hours-a-day-7-days-a-week completely at your disposal? And for what -- a few lousy dollars of OT pay, a foul mood, and sleep deficit?

Considering that my work schedule is dictated by everyone else's deadlines and by when work is submitted for review, the latter has a slight impact on when I can complete an assignment.

If you assign a task with a Monday deadline, and by Sunday evening, I still haven't received more than half the slides I need to review, then hell yeah, I'm going to have some difficulty completing the task. Even if you notify the persons a week in advance, if they don't submit their work until the last instant, I'm the one who pays for it. Don't fvckin' tell me that I leave it all until the last minute and then am not able to make the deadline.

Stupid slave factory.

Not so bright

I am, by far, not perfect.

I know, I know. I'll give you a minute for the shock to subside.

Here are a few oh-so-bright moments, most deserving a laugh, some deserving a smack upside the head. (I actually wrote most of this over a year ago, but these have all happened during my time in Taiwan.)

1. Locked myself out of my dorm - with a bag of laundry, and three 10NT coins. No wallet, no phone, no scooter keys to get myself anywhere. At 1AM. I had to drag my big bag o' laundry to the convenience store and borrow the clerk's phone card so I could call someone to come save me.
   
   
2. After recovering from a scooter accident (open wound and not-so-happy ankle), I finally healed enough to swim again. Yay! Then two days later I was running home, and as I sprinted to catch the traffic light, I tripped and sprawled head first into the street (no cars around). And scraped my elbow and knee up nicely.
   
   
3. I was meeting up with family friends. Suddenly realising that the train I was about to board was heading south (wrong direction), it then dawned on me that I had actually watched my train leave just 3 mins earlier. So I patiently waited for and boarded the next train on that first platform. Then the next train stop told me that I'd boarded a southbound train! By the time I made it to my destination, I'd been commuting for nearly 3 hours, instead of the anticipated 1.5 hours. But what a deal for 85NT! =D
   
   
4. My coworker sent out an away-on-a-business-trip notice to the entire department. To which I promptly wished him a smooth trip and good kimchi. Only, I replied-all. (I'm only thankful I didn't jokingly tell him not to ogle too many Korean girls.)
   
   Actually, I've replied-all on two other occasions as well.... Oy.
   
   
5. On a particularly wet and rainy day (cats and dogs and hippos), I rode through the night market in search of food. Someone's scooter horn was blaaaaaaaaaring annoyingly. I scanned the vicinity, like others around me, looking for the source. And 5 minutes later, I found it.
   
   Yep, it was my scooter. Apparently it was complaining of a couple of electrical shorts.

More to come....

Evolution

There's something to be said for the evolution of the written language.

I saw a character 雦 the other day, didn't know what it was. So I asked my coworker and we started doing some research (okay, she searched while I sat next to her), we found the following ensemble:

• 隹 (zhuī) - kind of bird
  
• 雔 (chóu) - pair of birds
  
• 雦 (jí/chóu) - to gather; archaic form of 集 (jí)
  
• 雥 (zá) - flock of birds
  
• 雧 (jí) - to gather (birds in a tree); another archaic form of 集

Isn't that neat?? Two birds? Just double the radical! More than that? Add another bird! And then put them all in a tree (木)!

How clever is that! =)

(Okay, maybe only a language buff like myself would fully appreciate this.)

I'm awake.

07:23.

I've barely slept an hour the entire night so far.

Why?

Because of ONE mosquito.

I am so tired....

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.

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....

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.

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*]