Friday, June 29, 2007

Last day and no regrets

It's officially my last day working here at The Edge.

As a "last day" thing, I thought I'd note down some things I learnt during my time here. Firstly, I don't regret leaving this company. I don't think my time here was particularly good or bad, but it was just not what I'm looking for, plus, things were getting pretty chaotic in our department.

I only take the positive in these circumstances, and they are:
  1. I've met good friends.
  2. I've added another software skill to my repertoire!
  3. I've seen my work published and gotten credit for it.
  4. I finally know what working on a magazine is like and have more choices in my career.
  5. I've widened my network of contacts.
  6. I've gotten a bit closer to finding out what I want in my career.


Can't think of anything else at the moment, but to sum it up, I'm glad I worked here, and I'm glad I'm leaving now.

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

The "Get Drunk" Party Premiere

Yo ho ho guys, it was the premiere of our GET DRUNK PARTY last Friday!

Didn't snap any photos that night cuz it doesn't seem very cool to bring a camera to nights out. Seems a little vain, if you ask me. But considering this was our premiere, we really should have brought a cam!

I think the party was a "modest success", as Daniel P puts it. Granted, we did end up with a higher ratio of drivers to drinkers than we wanted, but at least the planners of the GDP succeeded in their mission - "liquid yawning" (as described by Andrew T) all around Bukit Bintang and as for me, hugging the pavement all the way up to my condo because SOMEONE couldn't carry me on his shoulders!

So here's to another great GDP! If anyone sees our mascot up on MSN or on this blog - you know there's one coming up REAL SOON. Here it is.

Friday, June 22, 2007

I could strangle "someone"

Words can't describe how frustrated I am here in the office.

I. AM. SO. FED. UP.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Work, eBay, and work!

Left work at 11.15pm today. That's almost 12 hours of work with only a break for lunch!

My head was starting to spin at about 9pm, and I felt the "adrenalin shakes" creeping up on me at 10pm. Ever felt that? It's like you're just barely shivering. Sometimes synonymous with "shivering with excitement".

On another subject: Have the storms in the last week disrupted any part of your lives? It certainly has mine! I can't flash my access card in and out of my own condo, for one! So I have to wait for the guards to come out with their own access cards to let me enter, while saying "Tomorrow, tomorrow". The storms have also wrecked my office electricity supply. The wiring in the building is already ancient enough, and it just took the storms last week to give us 4 blackouts a day, epileptic PCs and fears of mass electrocutions.

Anyway, hopefully that's all over with. It would be TRAGIC if it happened this week since Off The Edge is due to close (on Tuesday actually, but quel surprise! It hasn't closed yet). We're already facing hard times, what with Grace taking a convenient little holiday a few days before deadline, Nick the Sub flying off to exotic Italy to cover some motoring do, and Danny Lim, our senior writer, in Europe for some glamourous film festival.

Poor me!

And on an unrelated subject, I promise to put up pictures of my nice, relaxing holiday in the UK by the weekend.

Monday, June 18, 2007

Oh gawd, it's deadline week... and nice tea!

I'm so not looking forward to this week! Nick, why do you have to abandon us at this crucial time??!!

Okay, I'm not dwelling anymore on the awful prospect of working 18 hours straight every day this week. Instead, I'll talk about what's on TV right now. Watching [V] Countdown, which I haven't watched ever since I grew up. Haha. So funny.

I'd always rather disliked Rihanna because of her ear-piercing, nails-scratching-on-blackboard voice and super-high forehead, and when I heard the latest single "Umbrella" I was like... uh what?? Okay, the tune is pretty cool but I couldn't understand the need to have "ellaaahhh ellaahhhh eh eh eh eh eh eh blablabla". Then tonight, I just saw her music video. AND IT'S AMAZING. I really love it! Totally turned my opinion of her around. That gal can move! Nice measured movements that are not quite sexy but very (ooh!) appealing. I like it! Keep on dancing!

Other vids like "Big Girls Don't Cry" by Fergie... my sister Elleh Belleh was pestering me to watch it to see Milo Ventimiglia looking all grown up and cool. He looked alright. That boy has a nice face. Very nice indeed. He just looks a bit petite to me. Anyone know how tall he is?

Earlier today, my place was invaded by the Sisters. Yes, Elleh, Asha and Arya dropped by to mess up the place before going swimming. Actually today was one of their better days. The little ones left Elleh and I to catch up on our Heroes while they read, coloured and basically occupied themselves. How cute!

I made some ice tea for after our swimming session.



The glasses are Guinness pint glasses from the brewery in Dublin. They're really great. I love having em and I love using em. Nice and large with enough space to stick your hand when washing up. Anyway, we had Rooibos tea, which I really like, which Grandpa G (we gotta get him a new name - any suggestions?) bought for me since it's not easy to find here. Then we had Very Very Berry and Spiced Apple (a Christmas specialty) from Whittard's. I bought them both cuz the tins are so pretty! HEHE.

Anyway, it's time to go to bed now. Groan. What a day to look forward to! If I'm lucky, I'll be back to post tomorrow. If I'm not, you'll know that I've collapsed on the sofa in a dazed stupor at 6am on Tuesday.

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Supermarket failure

I'm so embarrassed by the local treatment of the big-name supermarket TESCO!

Everything about the local branch of Tesco is disgusting! They've managed to turn the biggest middle-class supermarket in the UK into something, dare I say it, worse than Giant! I say worse because, on its own, Giant is pretty well alright. It's a local hypermarket, it's meant to be cheap, we forgive it for looking cheap.

But Tesco! Tesco in England looks well done - in fact, I admit I've "hung out" at the Telford store for nearly an hour one night - and the items there are very very very buy-able indeed. I don't mean the prices, but the items themselves. They stock non-food items that people actually might look at and start drooling over. When was the last time you saw something like that in Tesco Mutiara Damansara? Dammit, why do we always ruin good things?

On another note, I watched Shrek 3 with the family today. It was pretty funny. Not "roll on the floor" level, but entertaining and amusing enough. After that was lunch at Dome, which is seriously pricey now. Daymn, a nasi lemak is only 50 sen cheaper than a pasta in there! And the white teacup they served us was so old, it had turned black. I'm sure Dome can afford to give away a handful of teacups and replace them with brand new white ones.

Not that Dome is really bad... Secret Recipe is awful!

I would say Secret Recipe is the worst successful food restaurant I've been in. They've only really gone to the dogs this year. Of the ones I've visited, I'd say the ABSOLUTE WORST in terms of service AND food quality is the Taman Desa branch. The floor staff there are, literally, incredibly stupid and uncourteous. I was going to say "next on the list is..." but I realise that the other branches don't even come close to the Taman Desa branch in terms of stupidity. But just for mention's sake, the Mid Valley branch have some pretty brainless hired help too. For example, stretching across a table full of customers to clear some plates, the waiter was told by my mom, "Why dont' you come over to this side?" so it was easier for him to clear, which was also the polite way of saying "Don't stretch across the table in front of customers, you idiot", and the guy came up with the brilliant response, "No, it's okay". Oh... wow. How... considerate...?

Anyway, I digress. Really I do. I was just gonna talk about my day.

Later at night I met up with Sharry Berry and some of the college dudes. We got to talking about our friends who are marrying or have married early. The guys are 25 years old and already getting married. I say, "That's too young, mate!" That's what I say. Yep. So Daniel comes up with the best reason: Some people just don't have wanderlust. Nice word, huh? Some people just don't have the inclination to find out more about the world, to look for something better. Not that people should look for someone better than the person they're currently with, but I'm just saying that "settling" is not always the answer. Why settle when you don't have to settle?

Tomorrow is Father's Day! I'd like to wish a huge Happy Father's Day to my dad (if he reads this blog) and to other fathers out there. Treat your daughters and sons well and they'll be happy and be forever indebted to you. Peace and Love to all mankind! Yowzaasss!!

Saturday, June 16, 2007

Resignation letters and other things

I'm resigning from Off The Edge!

After 10 months I've finally given up working on this magazine for several reasons. It started with the ridiculous hours and the time mis-management of the editor. Then I started getting a little bored of the template. After that, it was because of my boss's own mis-management of people. And the last straw was when I found out that SOMEONE had been complaining about me behind my back, over something that was his own fault in the first place.

The great thing is that I've been planning this for a long time, so my business is all set up and ready to rumble! It's so exciting and I can't wait to start working on different projects and meeting new people. I still have 15 days to freedom... and hopefully that'll pass by smoothly and relatively "painlessly" (dreaded deadline is in 2 working days).

And on the 16th day I can wake up late!! Not that I'm waking up awfully early these days anyway... 10.30am sound painful to any of you out there who work in banks??!! Haha... even Beach Babe Bea starts work at 9.30am. But then she doesn't have the killer night hours I do during deadline week. So it evens out in the end. Although I am jealous that she gets to wear flip flops to work!!

So anyway, tomorrow morning the family and I are going to watch Shrek 3 at Mid Valley. Hope to catch a bit of breakfast before that. But that means waking up even earlier than I ever do on workdays. 9.15am? Outrageous! Hopefully the movie is worth it - unlike the other "3" movies out at the moment. Well, to be honest, I thought Spiderman 3 was alright. Plot was going everywhere but action was good, and frankly, after watching Pirates 3, Spiderman seems darn bloody good! Ocean's Thirteen... well, it was not as attention-grabbing as the first two, but I suppose it could pass with a 5 out of 10 for interestingness of casino goings-ons.

Hmm... I thought of something interesting yesterday... but I can't for the life of me remember it right now. Darn. Looks like you just missed out on another one of my idea gems. You can breathe a sigh of relief now. I'll close my ears.

Thursday, June 07, 2007

There and back again

I'm back...

Ya I'm back... from my UK holiday, and from iloveblog. I'm kind of jetlagged and groggy now but I wanted to write something to tell people that I'm still here, I'm still alive and I'm still... still... still here.

Will put pictures up from my trip soon... if you've been following my blog, you'll know what my "soon" means.

I also wanted to mention that Danny Lim our senior writer on Off The Edge has been given honourable mention at the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) Awards for Excellence in Feature Photography, for his "Ronggeng Revolusioner" in the November 2006 issue. Congrats! And woohoo!

What else?

Well, I'd like to say that Dublin is a strange strange place, with strange strange people. Will elaborate on that point when I put pictures up.