Please Give Us Your Phone

If you called or SMSed during the weekend and got a rude reply (or did not get a reply), that was not me. Seriously. Its my cousins who are in the persuasive creation of income business.

Two years

Is the longest I've worked in one place. Got to that milestone last week. As surprised as anyone at how long I've been here, and how fast time moves these days.

At the time of joining, I was in a daze. Had just quit my dream job and wasn't sure what to do next. Sent out my CV cause that's what people did, and attended a couple of interviews cause I was asked to. Apart from the Safcom one that is. I'd not even thought to apply for jobs before that time. So I figured one job would be as good [bad] as the other and it would be the first guy to call me up who'd win the prize.

I think 2 years of serving one master is good enough and a guy ought to contribute to others. So there have been a number of new experiences. Some haven't been what I wanted, but you can't always have M&Ms for breakfast.

So why am I in the office at midnight on a Saturday. I convinced myself that I have to do some stuff over the weekend cause some guys will need some data on Monday and I won't be in the office on Monday. And seeing as I sleep all of Sunday, I had no choice. But like a jamaa who I like quoting says. I don't have to do anything.

Not sure how much further the record will go.

Free at last! - For now.

I'm alone.
At the office. No, at my desk, not at the office.

Crap, let's just get to it. Have had some sort of student/helper for at least two months or so. Or is it one month? I've had someone at my desk for a long time. They've been alternating, one leaves another comes, at times I've had two people here. Watching me. Waiting to be told what to do. Gawking silently at my computer screen.

I'm not a talkative guy. Hey! I'm a frea**ing introvert! So things have been tense at times, to say the least. There I'd be busy checking stuff while the student(s) would sit by quietly waiting for something to do. Which would involve them writing stuff, raising entries and what not. Awkward silences. Me staring straight at the screen. At least there is music from the computer, otherwise I would definitely go bonkers.

They were days I'm sure I made a joke or two. Tried to be funny, jovial, easy going - you know, stuff I only do when I'm high. Come to think of it, those jovial days were most likely on Thursdays and Saturdays. Maybe even Friday, relishing the fact that I was going to hit the bottle in the evening.

Anyways, it was hard work for me most of the time. I thrive on working un-regulated. Un-fettered. I don't like people looking at what I'm doing. Cramps my style. Don't want people around when I'm trying to post something on the blog, unless you can tell them to take a walk, come back after half an hour, if I'm still typing, take another walk. Tedious.

I like to think that I have my own way of doing work, certain steps I take going about my work that I can't pass on to you because it would be like me rubbing off on you. It's like whoever is watching gets to know how my mind works. No!! Don't want that!

So basically what was happening was me doing things at Mach 4. Hands moving furiously over the keyboard, opening unnecessary windows and then closing them,. Handing out petty tasks - 10 copies of this document please, oh I forgot, another 5 copies of that. Please find out if Mr. X is at his desk, you'll have to walk there, he never picks up his phone...like that.

Well, that's done. For now. Had a pretty easy day, don't have to keep showing someone how to think - most of this work is basically routine, a monkey would do it after a week. Wait a minute, that doesn't sound right. Scratch that. Anyways, it is not really proper for me to repeat myself the entire month. Now I can open google and look up anything. Can take breaks cause there is no one at my desk waiting for me to churn out stuff for them to work on. Just me. Work at my own pace.

Maybe now I can get time to blog some more.
Hold on...

On my mind...continued

On my mind...continued...

A Saturday. As usual, the feeling of being robbed of sleep just to come to the office and act like you are working.

Anyways, last time I wrote down what was on my mind (on screen?) I kept to the usual three topics.

Pint - Women - Soccer

Pint:-
Seems I can't quite drink like I used to. And when I say used to I don't mean back in campus. Back then it was amazing the amount of liquor guys could consume and still walk. Now its just a sham. All I'm doing nowadays is sticking to less potent stuff and making a dash for home at the slightest feeling that I'm tired. I get pretty tired real quick nowadays. I've become pretty useless at drinking. But something tells me it's related to my next topic - Women. No wait, lets go to Soccer first.

Soccer:-
Last time Arsenal were top of the league but already losing ground. I mumbled stuff about Wenger not buying guys to bolster the squad. About Man U having the ability to keep putting out quality players every game 'cause of the size of their squad. About it being unfair to let Man U nick the league. Well it happened. Not only have Man U nicked it (can't see them losing to Wigan and imploding in the very last game of the league) but even Chelsea beat us to number 2. Painful. Agonizing. Anger at Wenger. Can't even think of the name Adebayor and not flinch (bloody man could have had 60 goals this season, kept missing sitters...ahhh). A lot of emotions. Love the team, they play very good soccer. Heart wrenching though cause they have to pass the ball at least 25 times before someone thinks of shooting for the goal. Aaaargh!


Women:-
Well, where do we stand. Cherry (aka The Neighbour aka The Girl Next Door) is still there. The Tall One is still around. Bananas too. Melon faded out of the scene (maybe now I can make a play for the sister). Masseuse appears once in a while. She had been replaced by Yammahs (I don't think I've introduced her before). Yammahs is also fading from the scene. T-Girl is around. Remember her? From ages ages ago. When I started working at this joint, there was a good looking lady serving tea. She left. 0.5 met her some day. Well she got my number called me and we did the do. Just once. I don't feel like keeping it going, but she's on the scene. I think that's all I have. Frankly speaking I think I want to ditch each and every one of them.

Bananas is getting too "personal". I don't know the exact words to use. She's taken to leaving her stuff in my house. Saying "feely" words. Asking if I'm ok. Crap like that. Masseuse just sees an ATM. So does Yammahs. Cherry has started weird questions. Got one last night - "What do you think of me?". Oh man. That was just low. All because I didn't open the gate for her some morning. She wanted to pick something from me - cash - but I gave it to her through some gate-window thing. The Tall one was in the house. She suspected as much. So she decided to hit tropez and hook up with some dude. Dude shows up and I know him. She ditches the guy and decides to hang out with her "good pal, just good friends". Some singer/rapper dude - calif records type. Anyway, I left her in tropez and headed home with her buddy whom I tried to entice to my digs but she wasn't that high. Supposed to meet her today - Cherry's buddy who's also a neighbour. Cherry has also been talking about me shagging other women, cause I rarely call her nowadays.

Well, got to go. More later. There's still alot on my mind.

Office romance

So I get a call the other day. At the office of course. IP phone, so I get to know who's calling before I decide to answer. Depending on my mood, I may just watch the phone ring. I usually get the feeling the guy on the other end knows when I'm ignoring a call. Programmers shouldn't have telephones at their desks. Well, I guess I'm not one anymore.

So I pick this one up. You're meant to go something like "Good <appropriate time of day>, this is the IT department, Samborera speaking, how can I help you...", but I find that too much of a mouthful, and don't have enough energy [patience] to be doing that all day. It's why different people do different jobs. Guys complain how writing code is hard. Talking into a phone is way harder. But that's just me.

Anyway. So I do my "Hello?". "Is this Samborera?", she goes. "Yes?". Whenever I answer the phone my guard is up. The guy on the other end must want something. Urgently. So you need to be on the defensive. Her tone changes, to something less official and more playful. Relief. She doesn't want a report or something. But. Wait. Maybe she's just softening me up, so that at the end of it she can ask for that [urgent] report. We've never really talked. Both involved in some project recently, is how I got to know her. From the time I attended my first class in campus, I've been in environments that have been predominantly male. So I don't do much of that flirting business with either of the 3-6 non-married chics at the office. Total mental block there.

But the chic on the other end of the phone wasn't from my department. Most all chics work in other departments. I think it's why you walk into other offices and there's a lot of chit chat and general chirpiness going on. Walk into IT and it's guys staring into black putty screens, who'll barely get their heads up to acknowledge you before going back to their worlds.

So she was just calling to say hi. What a lovely surprise. Two days later and I get a call from that number again. This time she's looking for someone I work with, but before I transfer the call, she'd like to chat and whatnot. There are certain conversations you can't have in the office. In an open plan office that is, so I find myself asking for her number. I send an sms much later when I leave the office. Nothing too forward. I can barely remember how to be forward. The usual I'm so exhausted from work vibe. A reply comes back that I should get some rest. For when she meets me on sato. Pretty forward I'd say. So my Saturday afternoon or evening is spoken for. But this business of fooling around with people in the office... I don't know about it.

Push comes to shove

I had an interesting experience the other day. Yet another late project [are they ever on time. really]. Terrifying deadlines. Crunch time. I was in the company of some "management types" when one declared, "Let's push them, pressure them...". I found it quite amusing. This is how managers talk/think. Hmmmm. Orders are barked around and threats sprinkled here and there. Later, I was in the company of some non-management guys. "Normal" types. One chic says to some guy, "Don't bother too much whether that stuff is correct. Just finish so that we get out at 5". Among yet another group of those being pushed and pressured, the sentiments are similar. "When you die they'll replace you the next day." Interesting. The outcome seems to be the direct opposite of what is desired. At the end of the day, both groups are frustrated.

I'd barely had time to recover from the employee of the year award when I was thrown into the middle of the crisis. Left for home at midnight that Friday. Sato morning and we were back at it. Left a bit early then. 10pm. Took a cab home but as soon as I got there, I decided to turn back and join 0.5 and the ChinaMan in tao. Several alvaros later [that was only the second place I had been able to find the drink], and I was dragging my tired, half-asleep self to the club. Somebody called me an addict. We were meant to check in to work at 8am the next day. Sunday no less. I got there at 6pm. Sure, I was a couple of hours late, but there was plenty of work still to be done. Worked all night, into the next day and finally went home at 8pm on Monday. I'm woken up by numerous phone calls on Tuesday morning. I drag myself out of the house and get to work at about 11am. There's a different deadline everyday. Or is it the same deadline that keeps getting moved everyday. Whatever the case, there's stuff to be done. So I worked all day, and night, and the next day. Got home at 10pm Wednesday. Folks there were extremely concerned. I figured it was over. After all, another "final" deadline had passed. Thursday. Labour day. More frantic phone calls to start the day. I can't believe I'm going to the office but I head there anyway. This is purely on humanitarian grounds. Left at about 10pm that day. Friday. I'd decided to sleep in but the nature of the voice on the other end of the phone got me out again. The best solution is not to answer the phone. If you do, you're sunk. But I was determined to leave the office early. After all, the worst was over. Ended up leaving at 3am and was back on sato 10am. By this time I was a zombie, seeing images of myself collapsing where I stood. Or sat. Left the office at 8pm in the end. I've never done anything quite like it. It would have been a week from hell, had I had time to contemplate on it.