rubia cordifolia

and all I ask is a blue sky day with white clouds flying and the wind blown and the seagulls crying…

Hot, hot, hot. It’s so freakin’ hot here in the summer, geesh. It’s “supposed to be” the last month of summer now? and man is it HOT. It’s simply too much for me, can’t stand it.

Anyways… work was busy last week but in the end productive. Still keeping to not letting work get in the way of my personal time. I would stay 15 mins later if I have to, and start an hour or 2 earlier to get things done. But my evening and weekend time are untouchable. It’s very important I set aside time to do my other stuff which is just as important, if not more, than work.

Friday morning I started out around 7 in the morning. It was raining. It was rather dark still and coffee shops were just opening. I could see a few people in there with their morning paper and cuppas. Rainy Friday morning around downtown… reminds me of the time I was in Vancouver.

Saturday… went shopping around for dresses. Finally got the red dress I was looking for. Caught me when I walked past the store, and fit me perfectly. The material is not stretchable and is designed for petite waist so you either fit well in it or not at all. Bought the smallest size, and another 60’s-influenced dress together with that.

Went to Borders and picked up 3 books — The Starbucks Experience, Web Copy That Sells, and The 4-Hour Work-Week. I have enough coupons to buy another book to get the next one at $25 off so am gonna do that one of these evenings. I already know what books to get – something about online marketing for small businesses and small business entrepreneurship. Also needed to get an Australian taxation reference book for small business and investments.

I personally think there is a huge problem with bookstores in “developed” countries – same here, same in Canada. The first thing you see when you walk into a bookstore is FICTION section, followed by overwhelming range of novels, cookbooks, travel books, gifts and stationery. Business, finance, political science, and self-development books are hidden towards the back corners, where big business titles are hard to spot, and the volumes so limited. Of course, it’s all about salesmanship. It is obvious then why the current “reading generation” is dominated by readers of Twilight, Lovely Bones, Harry Potter, and so on. Don’t get me wrong, nothing’s wrong with these books but the balance of availability has become quite ridiculous. Like Zin said when we were shopping around Chapters (the major bookstore chain in Canada), “There is a bigger section for How To Lose 10 lbs in 2 Days than one for The Real Issues With Our Economy and The World”. Very true.

Enough said. Last evening we talked on Skype and bounced around a business idea. Very early still, just something that popped in my head on Friday night.

Woke up past 8 this morning, and spent the morning semi-relaxing… made Yukgaejang (Korean spicy beef and vegetables soup). It’s one of my favorites and never realized it’s so easy to make. Got the ingredients from the Korean grocery yesterday.

Zin is out checking out the Winter Olympics thingy in town. What an irony Vancouver doesn’t have snow this year when the winter olympics is going on, haha, whereas other cities in the States that don’t normally snow are getting snowed in still (and it’s February!). Talk about global warming.

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“Some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case you’ve failed by default.”

J.K. Rowling

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Last Friday after work I had an invitation from the managers at Melb Aquarium to go to their cocktail night. I brought my friend Abi with me, who enjoyed herself to bits and was completely over the moon, haha.

The event started from level 3 of the aquarium with champagne, wine and beer, along with appetizers. When we got there it was past 7. Had some champagne. Food was great. Had fish ‘n chips in tiny Chinese-takeout-style-boxes,  lamb cous cous, mushrooms risotto, and duck spring roll. It was all finger food portion so was perfect. Got to the first level, the overhead fishbowl and sharks area around 8 where we got to sit down to live music and various desserts – lemon cream pies, chocolate mousse and ice creams. I finished with a glass of OJ. The ambience was just fascinating. And getting invited privately made it better, haha.

We walked back to my place (which is about 3 blocks away) around past 9. It was windy, chilly, and still kinda bright so we decided to walk. Man, I absolutely LOVE how my place is a few blocks away from EVERYTHING in town!

Abi stayed around for another hour or so, checking out my place, chatting and stuff before she headed off.

Started my weekend on Saturday as usual — simple luxury of no alarm going off, no snoozes, cuppa coffee with soy, and CNN news. Too bad this weekend is kinda hot (I hate hot!). Went to Richmond to pick up my photo prints and on the way back I met an old Vietnamese couple who are here on cruise vacation from Washington D.C. We chatted for a bit, and the old man, who sounded very educated, asked about where I come from, if I’ve been to the States, and what industry I work in. He was quite entertained when I told him I’ve been to 3 places in the US (west and east coast) and Canada, used to work in Malaysia, and just immigrated here. Then he said something I wanted to hear — “Come to USA”. The conversation went on from there…

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I find it intriguing as I watch, daily, the behaviours of people in the C-world. I’m not nosy. I just observe. They are all around me and I can’t help but.

So they would walk around from one end of the office to another, sighing, badmouthing, and talking behind the back of their victims — whoever they just got off the phone with, or read email from, or whatever. They often spend at least one-third of their days doing this, and then pull stressful and exhausted faces to (implicitly) tell the world (fellow C-world inhabitants) what a day they’ve had, how hard they’ve “worked”. Of course, it’s hard work if you consider what level of brain and physical effort they’ve put in.

Then it comes the classic old pondering… “If one can go around badmouthing others in front of you, what makes you think they won’t go around badmouthing you in front of others?”

Sadly (but fortunately for most including me), the people I have observed with these behaviours belong to the group of “been rotting in the cold, mean C-world for years and way too long we just learn to roll with it”. Yeah, people who have got too “comfortable” living in their cold, mean C-world and get trapped into it each day, along with (1) lack of risk-taking attitudes, (2) lack of entrepreneurialism, (3) a family counting on the paychecks, (4) resistance and fear to change, and ironically (5) too much technical knowledge/skills/employment experience >> which do anyone but themselves much good.

Every time I see a middle-aged person sucking up to their “bosses” in the C-world, I cringe. Even more ridiculous was an experience when I first stepped foot into such an environment and people started putting up their guards thinking I would be one of them… sucking up to the “so-called boss” and soon be in the race with them. Of course, I couldn’t quite figure out an easy way to tell them “Hell NO!”. So I used my good friend, time, to slowly let them know that they are in the race among themselves, and my attitude is “Office politics? No, I’m good, thanks.”

I must say, I have a real problem to suck up to people (a more popular term seems to be “kiss ass”). I do. I don’t see the need. I don’t feel tempted to do (seriously, how good or tempting can “kiss ass” sound?). I respect people that I work with — and a lot of the C-world inhabitants (read: victims) have a hard time understanding why I don’t “just blame the vendors”, why I tell vendors I appreciate and thank them for their good work, why this, and why that. Again, I wish I know the easy way to tell them “I don’t think like you guys, and I’m tremendously grateful that I don’t.”

That being said, my journey in a C-world continues… as I work away I get to meet people, know people, watch people. It helps paint the picture clear of who I do NOT want to be. After all that, thanks to the people I’ve mentioned above. They do help me in my growing up, and if I have to experience C-world from within, it might as well be now.

And lastly, 6-digit figure in annual salary is NOT a lot of money when you have to use a third of every one of your day to help the owners of the business make 8 or 9 or 10 (it can go on forever) digit profits while lying in their beds. Get it, no pun intended!

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