prime gods

With a theme of “The Nightmare Before Christmas”, my department, the Creative Services, won the Best Decorated Workstation on our Office Halloween Party yesterday!

It took us two nights and one day to finish decorating (plus a significant amount of dough from our own pockets). It was all so great! ^_^ We even had Carlo, one of our team members, dress up as Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town who discovered Christmas Town, but doesn’t quite understand the concept. He was the one who welcomed the judges with a small Pumpkin King speech.

Everyone’s applause and compliments to my team was way better than receiving the actual price of the competition – orlando vacations for my entire department. The first Halloween Party at the office is definitely a night to remember. To cap it off, I finally got to wear a Kaoru costume (Kenshin Himura’s girl at Samurai X), my dream costume since I was in elementary! I looked like Kaoru here in our Halloween Party (with pink ribbon and only without the bangs). Kawaii! ^_^

There are lot’s of car manufacturers closed down this year, so some of the cars they have produced might have voided warranties today. Unfortunately, this included our car. The reseller couldn’t do anything about it. I we obviously cannot make them give the warranty. Anyhow, we have no problems with our car (yet). It was still running smoothly. We were just a little skeptical about the idea of no warranty for the car. Luckily, the fellas from the reselling company where we bought our cars offered us big discounts on third party insurance packages. They offered us the motorhome warranty. The package included extended warranty for our car for the minimum cost. It’s a sort of insurance if for some reason our car breaks down. Now there’s no reason for us to worry anymore. Oh well.

It’s funny how we treat out pets like family. We bathe them in soap and water, brush their teeth, blow dry their fur, clothe them and let them play with our children. We feed them high calorie, high fiber food which they obviously don’t need. We even let them sleep in our own bed. Sometimes it’s hard to distinguish pet supplies from “human” supplies now. Come to think of it, do our pets really like how we treat them?

Veterinarians are aware that pets, though domesticated, still need to be treated as animals – meaning giving them the right shelter, proper diet, and adequate exercise. Although most of us see our fat dogs as “cute”, in reality we are clogging their arteries with cholesterol. Let’s face it people, dogs and cats are natural carnivores. They don’t need to be fed with chocolate cakes and ice cream, even though they can’t seem get enough. Our pets deserved to be loved and treated as a member of the family, but not as a blood relatives.

I’m so stressed at work that I just might need to buy an anti wrinkle cream at the age of 27! God… who invented incompetent Operations Managers anyway? I mean, I know things like dense managers should not bother you since that’s reality, but then again, it doesn’t mean you have to be numb to their stupidity.

I must admit I AM grateful I’m able to pinpoint that they are incompetent. That way, I know what I DON’T want to be when I level-up in my career. However, they are such bad models that I sometimes end up praising myself undeservingly and slacking off since my point of comparison are, well, mediocre.

At times like this, I really feel like Jessica Darling (thank you, Twyla and Karen, for pointing out how Jessica I am way back in college) in “Sloppy Firsts”.

Right now I feel guilty to be alive. Why? Because I’m wasting it. I’ve been given this life and all I do is mope it away. What’s worse is, I’m totally aware of how ridiculous I am. It would be a lot easier if I believed I was the center of the universe, because then I wouldn’t know any better not to make a big deal out of everything. I know how small my problems are, yet that doesn’t stop me from obsessing about them.

We’re going to have a Halloween party in the office this October 30! I’m still deciding on going in breeches like an equestrian, or if I should go on my full Kendo gear complete with bogu and shinai.

Hmmmm… My friend Mark suggested I go for the Kendo gear. After all, the odds of the people from my office ever seeing someone in full battle gear, a girl at that, is, well, zilch. I heard there’s a substantial cash price for it so I’m definitely vying for it. Wish me luck!

For my brother’s birthday last September, I bought him a GPS. Being a gadget and car freak, my options, after all, are limited to car accessories or computer accessories.

Since he’s been eyeing the GPS for quite some time now, I decided to put a stop on his yearning and give it to him as a gift. He was ecstatic, and as expected, he immediately went to his computer to configure his new GPS.

We actually have a road trip to the beach tomorrow and the GPS will definitely help a lot in getting to our destination. I hope he configures the map to our destination well. I’m paying for the gas, after all and I wouldn’t want to pay extra if we get lost.

After three days of cleaning up the house, fixing the furnace filters and mowing the lawn I’m off to the mall to buy Halloween decorations! Woohoo! This is the best part yet. My friends and I are setting up a party on Halloween. It’s a “bring your own booze” type of party but I’ll be in charge of the food and stuff. It’s the first time my parents agreed when I asked permission for the party. They agreed for as long as we don’t mess up the carpet and the furniture.

I’m expecting about thirty guests, most of whom are close friends, and family. It’s a sort of reunion already because we only see one another rarely. Oh and the theme of the party is gothic so I’ll be seeing lots of emo’s on that night. For the program, my friends who are band members are assigned to keep everyone awake for rock music. Now isn’t that cool enough.

You’re working from eight to five to finish the work assigned to you, but the task cannot be completed, so you work overtime. After three days you finished your job, proud of what you did, and so you’re happy. Then another job is assigned, and so again you work on it. Two weeks later you get your pay, you go straight to the supermarket to buy groceries to take home. You pay your bills, settle your debts, and reward yourself with what’s left in your wallet. Then the two-week cycle repeats itself. Then you realize, you have been doing this for quite some time now yet you have accomplished nothing. This is my life, a life typical to the millions of employees around the world.

By the time I retire, my retirement pay will be my only source of income. But can I be sure that it will last long enough? What if I became disabled, can I just depend on social security disability funds? It helps to look ahead. Right now I’m thinking of setting up investments so that in the future I won’t have to depend on the government for income. Maybe you should be thinking too of what to do next.

Being the “Bargain Princess” as my friends put it, anything with the word “discount”, “sale”, “freebies”, “cheap”, and the likes are sure to get my attention. I have been fascinated with a lot of stuff you can get at a cheap rate. However, I was extremely surprised to encounter discount cigars. It is common knowledge after all, that smoking is bad for your health. Putting cigars on sale will definitely NOT help the growing number of people getting lung cancer due to first and second-hand smoking.

Then again, with all the prices going up, a discount for some products like that one is not such a bad idea. Perhaps the rest of the merchandise on the market might follow suit. I’m keeping my fingers crossed on this one.

Have anyone seen an office without office furniture? I was surprised to hear this from a friend of mine who works in a Japanese production firm. They had a sort of experiment about how to make an employee work more efficiently. What they did is measure the usual output of their employees for a month. Then they removed the chairs and replaced the tables with higher ones. The idea is to see if the standing position can make the workers concentrate more on their work.

Of course they are not planning to permanently do this. As I have said this is just an experiment, although the results show that people work faster standing. Hmm… I wonder what will happen if they implemented such kind of policy: “no sitting while working hours” hehe.