Orang nyolot di kantor

Salah satu orang di tim gua di kantor baru-baru ini resign. Hari Jumat ini hari terakhir dia kerja. Gua seneng banget. Senenggggggggg banget.

Mungkin gua udah pernah cerita tentang dia di blog ini. Mungkin belum. Yang pasti, udah gua blog atau belum nggak mengurangi betapa menyebalkannya orang ini. Pertama-tama, tampangnya bikin gua pingin kentut. Kedua, cara pakai bajunya bikin gua beneran kentut. Ketiga, gaya jalannya bikin gua mencret! Perihal penampilannya yang bikin gua stres, rambut orang ini selalu rapi jali (dengan bantuan hair gel dan antek-anteknya yang pasti). Lalu, gaya berpakaiannya dia sangat sok skateboard, dengan jeans yang ujungnya digulung, memamerkan sepatu ketsnya yang bermerk. Ditambah lagi kerah kemejanya yang selalu ditata keatas. Semua itu dibawa jalan dengan postur peacock (dada dan dagu keatas). Ekstrim gak tuh? Tapi itu belum semua! Pasalnya, orang yang sama ini juga punya gaya bicara yang membuat gua berkomentar seperti, "Ih lu najis ya?" tiap kali dia buka mulut. Dan baru-baru ini, gara-gara ada sedikit restructure di kantor dan dia dipindahkan ke tim gua, gua notice kalau dia punya iPhone.

Pertama kali gua lihat dia dengan mainannya ini adalah ketika tim kita makan malam bersama. Gua ingat, waktu itu kita lagi ngobrol tentang bubble tea. Namanya juga bule, konsep bubble tea yah masih sangat asing untuk mereka, jadinya gua dan satu teman yang lain mencoba jelasin ke mereka apa sih yang dimaksud bubble tea ini, ketika tiba-tiba si A mengeluarkan iPhone-nya dan di layar iPhone tersebut tertera sebuah webpage mengenai bubble tea, komplit dengan penjelasan dan asal usul tapioka. Sah-sah aja sampai sini. Resehnya, dia nggak berenti-berenti main dengan iPhone-nya itu. Orang-orang lain ngobrol, dia malah ngutak-ngatik itu barang. Lagaknya kayak businessman yang punya banyak appointment. Hahaha, emang gua bitchy kali ye?

Tapi tunggu dulu, cerita gua belum selesai. Ternyata! Di kantor pun, dia gak bisa terpisahkan dengan iPhone-nya ini! Orang-orang sibuk ngoceh-ngoceh di telepon (urusan kerja maksudnya), jari-jari dia dan iPhone-nya sibuk sendiri di bawah meja. Aduh, pathetic banget. Kayak anak SD yang sembunyi-sembunyi main Game & Watch di dalam kelas. Ngomong-ngomong, masih ada yang inget Game & Watch gak? Gua hobi banget tuh main Game & Watch waktu masih kecil.

Home sweeeeet home

After spending hours browsing the net looking at people's DIY home decoration projects (this is the main culprit: www.apartmenttherapy.com), I've decided to take the plunge.

Today, I painted one of my walls with black chalkboard paint. Which means that I'll be able to write stuff on that wall and easily wipe it off - just like in the old primary school days! Things that I have envisioned to write on that wall include:
1. Calendar for the month
2. Growth chart (although I don't think I'll grow any further, but it'll be a handy super long ruler)
3. Shopping list (unfortunately this will be hard to carry to the grocery store...)
4. Outing plans for the month

In addition, I spray painted one of the plain Jane Ikea dining chairs. I picked a purplish blue colour to go with the yellow cushion. The result looks rather shabby chic, which I'm rather pleased about. Someone's got to put some feminine touch to balance out the zen of this place, hehehe. Now I have to decide if I want to paint the table blue or yellow or another colour altogether. I'm thinking... black, to go with the chalkboard wall that stands right behind it.

Excited. Very, very excited.

Just need to chat right now

I wish I didn’t have to finish off those tax obligations back home, one of them is a few months overdue, hanging off my skinny back. As each day passes, I feel their fangs coming closer and closer. Yet, menacing as these tasks are, I don’t feel compelled to get them over and done with. My writing pursuit comes first. Funny, I feel embarrassed typing out that last sentence.

I’ve read countless articles on being a freelance writer, finding article ideas and writing query letters. I can probably start a book on these subjects without ever having had a feature article in any newspaper with my name as a byline. I guess you can say that I’m overqualified as a freelance writer. The way a 25 year-old Master’s graduate who has never had a job in his field of study is overqualified for his first job.

I cringe every time I think that I’m wasting precious hours in my day job, conducting mind-numbing interviews. When I say mind-numbing, I don’t mean it’s a brainless job, it just means that I’ve known the job so well that I can talk, type, grab a marshmallow, answer an IM message and pick my nose at the same time. My point is, it’s not a bad job, but after almost one year, it is starting to get mechanical.

I did try to do something about it though, spice up my professional life a bit and apply to no less than three internal positions. Failed. Being (or striving to be) someone with high self-esteem, I attribute that to lack of preparation rather than incompetence. But if I want to be more honest, I suspect that I failed because I didn’t really want those jobs. No no, I wanted those jobs, but I didn’t desperately want them. Get the difference? So perhaps, just perhaps, the interviewers caught a whiff of that insincerity.

Happily, I can feel things starting to come together for me. I’ve started writing a query letter, though I’ve stopped short of explaining what my article will actually contain. Ha! But we all start from the bottom, right?

For the second time in my life, I am opting to take the lonely path. That of breaking away from a Monday to Friday, nine to five (or in my case ten to six) job, though this time I am still retaining some of that lifestyle. Mostly for the money, but also to retain a bit of sanity. Repulsive as the word may sound, I do need some form of a r.o.u.t.i.n.e.

I thought 2007 was my year of soul searching and I thought I was satisfied with the results. No. It was just the beginning.