Blipvert Update

Blipvert #1

You definitely know when I don’t really have much to write about in the blog when I start falling back to the blipvert format. Things have been fairly routine of late and the few things that are not of the routine … well .. lets just say that they are not blogworthy or blogready to be included here yet.

Blipvert #2

California Fitness gym will be holding their 3 hours charity spinning event this coming 2nd of Aug. I had earlier planned to join in the event considering that they were going to do it at my CaliFit gym branch in Sunway especially when I found out that they will be doing it in the indoor studio instead of Sunway Pyramid concourse that they originally planned. The thought having your behind off the seat, sweating buckets on the bike in such a public space was enough to make me want to run for the hills when they came with the sign up sheet.

In the end, I decide not to join in this year as the date conflicted with another event that I have already planned with friends. I don’t know if I’m even ready for a full 3 hour session yet since the classes that I’ve been in were only 1 hour in duration. I usually come out of those classes totally drenched with sweat and I dread to imagine the state I would end up with if I decided to go with a 3 hour session. I may do it next time when the opportuinity comes up again since it is for a good cause.

Blipvert #3

I realized that I have not really blogged/reviewed any movies at all this year. I still go to movies when I can but just don’t feel up to reviewing them like I used to. I guess maybe I’m not as excited about writing down my thoughts after watching each movie that I seen this year. It’s not that there has been a dearth of exciting movies, in fact I thought that the recent “Dark Knight” movie was brilliant even if it was overly long, but I just not feeling the compulsion to write reviews any more lately. I much prefer sitting back and enjoying the movies with a less critical eye nowadays.

Blipvert #4

I very rarely follow what’s happening with politics in the country because I find the whole subject distasteful. I am of the opinion that none of the politicians, on both sides of the Dewan, are to be trusted when they say anything to the media. Everyone is playing a spin game to further their own personal agendas and to come out on the top. With recent reports like the finger pointing statements and vague mathematics used to justify unnecessary spending of funds in the media, one could be forgiven to think that the country is not heading to a place that we would like to see it head. They say that it could take one person to change things but you’ll be hard pressed to find any politician voted in power today that fit that bill.

It’s hard not to be apathetic towards them when all they do is everything else other than the business of running the nation.

Life Goes On ....

If You Can't Have The Job You Love ...

I’m practically vibrating trying to reign in my frustrations with some of my co-workers this morning. Not only do I need to deal with people who believes that their purpose in life is work avoidance but I have people 2 levels above me wanting to micro-manage my day today as if they don’t already have better things to do with their time. I feel like I’m being spit-roasted but not in a good way!

It’s just going to be one of those days. Days when I have to tell myself that if I can’t have the job that I love then I need to be creative enough to love the job I have. Wished that I could snuggle under the covers and sleep in when it rained this morning. Instead I will have to make do with songs like Carrie Underwood’s “Crazy Dreams” to help me put things in perspective.

Thank God for country music :p

"Crazy Dreams" – Carrie Underwood

Hello you long shots
You dark horse runners
Hairbrush singers, dashboard drummers
Hello you wild magnolias
Just waiting to bloom

There's a little bit of all that inside of me and you
Thank God even crazy dreams come true

I stood at the bottom of some walls I thought I couldn't climb
I felt like Cinderella at the ball just running out of time
So I know how it feels to be afraid
Think that it's all gonna slip away
Hold on, hold on

Here's to you free souls, you firefly chasers
Tree climbers, porch swingers, air guitar players
Here's to you fearless dancers, shaking walls in your bedrooms

There's a lot of wonder left inside of me and you
Thank God even crazy dreams come true

Never let a bad day be enough
To go and talk you in to giving up
Sometimes everybody feels like you
Oh, feels like you, just like you
Yeah

I've met some go-getters
Some difference makers
Small town heroes, and big chance takers
I've met some young hearts with something to prove
Oh, yeah

Here's to you long shots
You dark horse runners
Hairbrush singers, and dashboard drummers
Here's to you wild magnolias
Just waiting to bloom

There's a little bit of all that inside of me and you
Thank God even crazy dreams come true
Thank God even crazy dreams come true
Yeah

Spinning Around

One of the perks of my current employment situation is that my office is located at the client’s premises which incidentally is the same office that I have been working at the past 12 years. As such, I am still very much in contact with the friends that I have known from the first day I stated working in the office. We are a varied bunch and would usually meet up for morning break to catch up with each other’s news without fail for the past 12 years. It’s frightening to think now of how long we have had that ritual going on and the realization that it was not going to be so forever.

That realization came to me when I realized that one my “breakfast club” members was retiring at the end of the week after working for 35 years with the company. She was here when the company first started operations and had gone through all the company’s ups and down periods. It was mind boggling for me not only because she has been working at the same place for as long as I have been alive but that the company was not even doing anything to mark the retirement of one of her pioneer employees in Malaysia. I did ask her if she felt that she deserved better given the years of service that she provided to the company but at this point she was already looking forward to her retirement to care much about it.

Looking back, I do feel a little sad seeing how far things have fallen for my former company. In the past, they really appreciated their staff and knew how to keep them happy to ensure a productive work force. While it was no longer the company that I work with, I can’t help but to feel some allegiance to them given that they were the one who gave me my first permanent job. To see the changes though the years up close was definitely disconcerting but in a way those changes were also happening in other MNC companies globally. Gone were the days that employees were rewarded for the years of service that they provide to the company. More and more, those who have been with the company for longer than 5 years were seen as part of an increasing resource overhead. Even when they are clearly contributing, these employees were seen as those who were stuck in a rut and were not dynamic enough to move forward. Considering to move forward meant replacing an even more deeply entrenched upper management, it quickly became a no win situation for the employee.

These recent events made me think of my own employment history which while technically I have been with 3 different companies since I first started working in 1996, I am still working for the same group of people. There are days that I can’t help but feel that they have taken my loyalty to my employee for granted with me always being the “go to guy” on site when something needs to be done. While I’m sure that the fact that they know that they could depend on me spoke volumes of how they perceived me in the organization but I could not help but wonder if it might limit me as to how far I would be able to progress up the organization chart. As it is now, my benefits package is no longer competitive to get another job with my current level of expertise and I don’t have the necessary skill sets to be in the level that commensurate with my current salary range.

Still .. things could have been worse. I could be out of a job and have other things to worry about other than feeling being stuck in a rut job-wise.

Looking For Shelter

Other than meeting up with friends and putting myself through a 3 hour grueling workout session on Sunday, I pretty much had a lot of time to clear by myself this past weekend. Decided to pop in one of the many unwatched DVDs that was sitting on my “to watch” pile and curl up under the covers to watch “Shelter”

(Official Trailer from "Shelter")

I love this movie! Kind of the type of romantic movies that people usually warn me against watching when I go into one of my moods but I never really listen to that advise anyway. Of course that meant that I’m now walking around felling a bit melancholic about almost everything. Hopefully that would pass soon with the help of all that gym sessions I have lined up for this week.

Still can’t get one of the songs from the movie out of my head.

(Shane Mack - "Lie To Me" from "Shelter" OST)

Struggling with Iwannatravellitis Itch Syndrome

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