Tales of the minority

Note: This post is an attempt at humour.

Note 2: Since it is only an attempt, you may not sue me if you do not laugh.

Now that the terms and conditions are out of the way, let's get started.

You see, at work I am part of the Accessory Software team. We are a sub-group of the software team, and at the same time a sub-group of the Accessory team. And when we move to Innoplex (the new building), these two teams are not moving at the same time.

So who do we follow? Initially we were supposed to follow the Accessory team, and move a week earlier than the rest of the software team. But due to some delays, we were informed that the Accessory team would not move till the 1st of August. So far, so good... everyone's happy with the delay because it means we can keep working close to food outlets, rather than close to other factories. (and that's very important! ;) )

But now the rest of the software team is set to stick to its original move date, the 11th of July. And they are taking the software servers with them. What?! And how about us? We need those servers too!

So for three weeks until our move with the Accessory team, we don't have to work? Nope, no such luck. The thought was to move together with the software team instead. But...turns out that our desks in the Accessory department will not be ready yet. Again, ... What?! Are we going to sit on the floor beside a LAN outlet, with our laptops on our laps? (by the way, we're not even sure whether the LAN outlets would be there yet)

As of now, the plans are either to squat in someone else's (furnished) cubicle, or hijack a meeting room in which to conduct our operations. I kinda prefer the latter. It sounds more classy and we can complain to everyone we meet about our mistreatment. :P

To be honest, there is also the plan to stay put in Cyberplex till the Accessory move date. But that sounds kinda boring, so I didn't include it above... even though it would be our first choice (remember the "very important" thing I mentioned above?)

Letter to the depressed

What can I say to you? What can I say when you are feeling down? What can I say that is not a lie, but which will not depress you further?

I know that you do not want to hear that things will be okay. How would I know that, anyway? You don't want me to tell you that things could be worse, or that some other people have it worse. That would be trivializing your pain. You don't want me to tell you that I know how you feel. How could I?

I guess what I can say is that this is not your fault. And that you are not alone. That this could have happened to anyone in the world, and there are other people in the world who have this kind of problem, even if they are few and far between. That I am lucky that it did not happen to me, for I would not know what to do if I were in your place. That I understand that it is a bad situation to be in, even though I cannot know how it really feels like.

And I guess I can say that this shall pass. Who knows whether what comes next will be better or worse. We hope it will be better. Who knows how long it will take for sorrow to pass. But it will, although we have no way of knowing what will replace it. Or what will dilute it, perhaps, for it will not disappear overnight.

And allowing it time to pass, even though not the most comforting of ideas, is something you can do. Sometimes maybe the only thing.

And I am here for you, if you need me. You just have to ask, for I do not want to intrude.

A short trip to SP and Bedong

So, as promised, here is the curry mee I mentioned in the previous post.

We went all the way to SP (Sungai Petani) for this!

Frankie had told us about this curry mee stall before...about how everyone would line up to buy it. He told us that the stall uses fish freshly caught from the sea (not even refrigerated, though I'm not sure how true that is... don't they refrigerate the fish on the boat when they catch them?) When we reached the food court (Eupe food court, if you want to know) at 9am, he said, "Eh? The stall isn't open?" because there was no queue. But it turned out that they were doing the preparations and just hadn't started selling the noodles yet. When we asked, they said that they would begin selling in 15 minutes. So Frankie and Philips lined up (and a queue formed later behind them) while Doris and I went to take a look at the other stalls.

After that we found a place to sit while waiting for the guys to bring our curry mee (this is the life, huh? lol) As they brought six bowls, the other two latecomers appeared (you'll see them below). What perfect timing!

The curry mee was good... and for RM5 you get plenty of slices of fish! You also get a slice of egg (with the yolk fallen out and needing to be fished out from the soup -_- ), a slice of tomato and a few chunks of lady's fingers. Basically I felt that it was a little like noodles added into a curry fish dish. But it was still good :) (though I'm not sure I would go specially to SP for it)

After the curry mee, we went to a durian farm owned by a friend of Frankie's. The farm is actually in Bedong, close to SP. It was quite a winding road to get to the farm...I wouldn't know how to go there again. This part of the trip is all theirs...as I am no durian-lover.

So I became the photographer as they ate their durians.

A stealthy hand plucking out the first piece of durian

Come have a taste!

I did eat a few pieces (three, to be exact), after checking with the others that they weren't bitter. They told me, "They're all sweet!" All of them preferred the bitter kind, so after that they asked the owner for a bitter durian. Even then, they said it wasn't that bitter... but I still said no, I didn't want any. lol 

Posing with the requested bitter durian

A change in colour

Buying breakfast this morning, I handed over a five-ringgit note and got a five-ringgit note plus a fifty-sen coin in return. When I said "Eh?" the seller said, "Three-fifty ma..."

"But I gave you five ringgit wor..."

He didn't even realise it when I first said "Eh?" Now that would have been a cheap hokkien mee. Buy one large hokkien mee and we will give you fifty sen!

Note: The hokkien mee was a big one, for WW, not for me. I had my curry mee! (Totally different from yesterday's curry mee... which I will post about later)

Edit: Oh yeah, the "colour" in the title refers to the green five-ringgit note and the blue one-ringgit note.

Of kindness

I came across this article today: The Critical Importance of Kindness

It's rather long, with descriptions of the studies that were carried out to arrive at their conclusions. But I wanted to save these bits here, some general truths, we could say.

Extract 1:

There are two ways to think about kindness. You can think about it as a fixed trait: either you have it or you don’t. Or you could think of kindness as a muscle. In some people, that muscle is naturally stronger than in others, but it can grow stronger in everyone with exercise.

Extract 2:

[...] in general, couples responded to each other’s good news in four different ways that they called: passive destructive, active destructive, passive constructive, and active constructive.

Let’s say that one partner had recently received the excellent news that she got into medical school. She would say something like “I got into my top choice med school!”

If her partner responded in a passive destructive manner, he would ignore the event. For example, he might say something like: “You wouldn’t believe the great news I got yesterday! I won a free t-shirt!”

If her partner responded in a passive constructive way, he would acknowledge the good news, but in a half-hearted, understated way. A typical passive constructive response is saying “That’s great, babe” as he texts his buddy on his phone.

In the third kind of response, active destructive, the partner would diminish the good news his partner just got: “Are you sure you can handle all the studying? And what about the cost? Med school is so expensive!”

Finally, there’s active constructive responding. If her partner responded in this way, he stopped what he was doing and engaged wholeheartedly with her: “That’s great! Congratulations! When did you find out? Did they call you? What classes will you take first semester?”

Among the four response styles, active constructive responding is the kindest. While the other response styles are joy-killers, active constructive responding allows the partner to savor her joy and gives the couple an opportunity to bond over the good news.