What Did You Share with Your Child Today?

Text reads:
People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered; Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, People may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies; Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight; Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous; Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough; Give the world the best you've got anyway.
You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God;
It was never between you and them anyway
- Mother Theresa

Is It Too Much to Ask?

I am human. I get angry too. I get that.

And I do acknowledge of the times when I am confronted with excellent customer service. I shall endeavor more to document those instances diligently henceforth.

Okay, enough with that. Here's what happened. This afternoon, my friends and I were at the Maxis Centre in KLCC (okay, so I don't the actual name of the place, but you get my drift, right?). One friend has been harping for a while about getting some sort of e-book or pdf reader thingymajiggie, so that she can read her e-books on the go. Of course the suggestions of Samsung Galaxy Tab and iPad came up, but cheapskate that she was, she refused.

Click image for source

Anyways, back at the Maxis Centre. We were there for quite a bit, waiting for a friend who wanted to cancel her broadband account. While waiting, I noticed something that looked like the 'tab' pc on display, but since it was facing another direction, I did not get a clear picture of the said 'tab'. Okay fine. Moving on. I told the other friend who wanted the e-book reader about the 'tab' on display, and she wanted to go and see the display.

We waited for the other friend to finish, and once she does, we made our way out, which meant we will pass the 'tab' on display. We looked at it, tapped the surface and all that, and not much happened. It was neither Samsung Galaxy Tab or iPad, it was some sort of tablet pc from HTC. I myself am using HTC Wildfire, so I thought, okay, so I can figure this out (maybe, I dunno, somehow, I was that confident on my IT abilities, one of those rare moments of nerdy, tech-geek self-confidence, you know...). Nothing much happens as we explore though (pah! So much for confidence).

Along came this salesperson. It was a guy. His name is Fairuz (I am not sure of the actual spelling, the name was something my friend managed to catch from his name tag). I don't remember exactly what transpired, but my friend who was looking for the e-book reader thingy asked this Fairuz 'fler, "Can this 'tab' read pdf files?" Fairuz quickly answered no.

Okay, now that's weird, because little as I know about IT, I think that smartphones nowadays can read pdf files. So I made a very frowny, weirded out face and said, "Really? Cannot read pdf files? You sure?" I wasn't being a bitch, I was honestly trying to find out if that is the case. And you know what Fairuz said, VERY RUDELY the 'fler was like, "You explore lah sendiri. Tap-tap je. Slide kiri kanan," (Translation : You can go and explore yourself. Just tap and slide left and right.)

Now, thing is, I have a very high tolerance for CRAPPY ATTITUDE. I can tolerate people being STUPID. But seriously, dude? WTF??? Kau ingat kau bagus sangat ke nak KOJAQ ngan CUSTOMER?

I don't get people who does customer service, but have poor people skills. Like I said earlier, yes, I get it, maybe we just got him at the wrong place, at the wrong time. Fairuz is just human, he gets angry too. But seriously, none of us were hostile. We were basically looking at something we could potentially BUY, but thanks to one very RUDE Fairuz (muka macam mamak2 sikit, FYI) in Maxis KLCC, that ain't gonna happen.

You happy now, Fairuz?

Differences

Source

That's a painting by Paul Cézanne. Have you ever heard of Picasso? Well, Paul, the fler who drew all of 'em apples and oranges up there, is actually considered the good ol' daddy o' for Picasso's (and some of other painter fogies') style. Says a lot about them apples and oranges now, doesn't it? Okay, enough with the Art History lesson for today..

Today I want to talk about differences. Apples and oranges.

You and me, we're different, right? I'm okay with that, I hope you're okay with that as well.

One thing I am distinctly different from other people is that I think early-childhood education that primarily consists on rote-learning alone is bullshit. For instance, I consider Kumon and other similar classes for children under the age of 10 is child abuse.

Some parents beg to differ.

I don't mind that. Really, I don't. Go ahead, beg and differ all you want.

But what I do mind is when these parents try to impose their beliefs on me. I don't want to beat my chest ala King Kong and say, "I KNOW WHAT'S BEST FOR MY KIDS!!!" I know I am a young parent. I know I am inexperienced and in most cases, I may still be immature. I welcome constructive criticism that can help me develop my parenting skills. I know that that will help me raise my kids better. And if there's only one thing I know about parenting, it's that I want what's best for my kids.

Thing is, what's best for you might not be the best for me.

Some parents equate intelligence with their kids' glowing report card. Me, I am proud when my oldest beat my score at some stupid online game we play together.

My three year old can barely string a coherent sentence Some parents think this is some form of mental retardation because their darling 2 1/2 year old can order from a menu all by themselves (oooo hyperbole!). But you get my drift, right?

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, I do willfully acknowledge that some other parents might think my seemingly cavalier, careless attitude when it comes to my kids' 'academic achievement' is a form of child abuse as well.

But remember that thing I said about differences earlier? Yep. I couldn't care less about what you think indeed.

My Kids are PERFECT just the way they are.

To Do or Not To Do

Sorry, I don't have the source. This has been in my Wallpaper folder for ages.

This place, this place I'm starting to dislike, has a lot of great friends in it. We bitch and moan a lot. We criticize and complaint (with good reasons, at least we think they're good reasons, or maybe they're just excuses, I dunno...). We just basically do what human with the XY chromosomes are expected to do, we do next to nothing and we bitch a lot. [Please read that with just the right amount of sarcasm you can muster. Seriously. No, SERIOUSLY]

So anyways, I have a bit of a beef. This beef has an easy solution, I should just (wo)man up and tell this person what's what. In fact, if someone were to tell me that they're in this type of dilemma, that would be my advise to them. But of course, I am very much do-as-I-do-not-as-I-say kind of person. So there.

My beef is with one person who asks me to do this favour. I don't wanna go into details, so stop tricking me INTO TELLING YOU THE FRIGGIN DETAILS!!! *deeeeep breaths* Sorry, my bipolar kicked in just there. So this favour, it's kinda like tricking the system (and we all LOVE to stick it up to the system right?). Thing is, I don't want to trick the system. I don't see the point. If you did something wrong, you did something wrong. Most of the time, I know it's not your fault, so that's that. And sometimes, it is your fault, so shouldn't you just deal with it? I know I will.

Thing is, it's been quite a few times (about 13 times so far, yes, I keep track of these nonsensical trivialities) that I told this person, if it was me, I'll just deal with the consequences. After all, when I say 'doing something wrong', I don't mean killing somebody or stealing or anything bad like that. It's just, sort of, like an unacceptable behaviour. But still, it does not necessarily affect your work performance..

And I'm from the school of thought that maybe, in the future, it might just be me in the other pair of shoes. I'm also apt to say, I'll cross that bridge when I get there, if I get there. At this particular moment in time though, I am pissed. You call yourself my friend and you put me in this compromising situation.

extra prescription. one of my undecipherable post, i know. bear with me, this particular bipolar personality is very fleeting. she'll go away soon enough.

Hate Me Today, Love Me Tomorrow

I have a love-hate relationship with my job. No, actually, I love my job. The pay, not so much, but the job is just the right amount of challenge and chill time for me. The upper-echelons here however, is a different story altogether.

I also happen to like working for my direct boss. Crazy at times, undecipherable mostly, but I like working with him. Most importantly, I like to work for him. However, again, the upper-echelons here is a different story altogether.

Ours is not the most traditional set-up for institutions in our field. Even my particular unit was one of kind until not too long ago. The sub-unit I'm under is an even newer, hybrid creature. We're kinda winging it here, you know? We have no idea if what we're doing is right, so yeah, who's to say what we're doing is wrong, kan?

Anyways, in my previous employment, it took me less than a year to get to this point. This point up to here *forefinger levels horizontally a pinch under the hair/tudungline*. And I started writing fiction. Then it was about some off-tangent storyline derived from Bleach, my favourite manganime of all time (I hate Ichigo, but I love Byakuya and whatshisface the funky redhaired dude).

So guess what I'm doing now? 10 points for guessing "writing fiction with Ryan Reynolds as your source of inspiration"!

I am pathetic. Get me out of here. Pwease?