Umbrella issue

I remember not so long ago, I was with 2 colleagues and it was drizzling. One of them was carrying a CPU and we were about to walked to another site from my office. Hence, I took 2 umbrellas. Handed one over to them (to ensure that the CPU don't get wet) and one for myself.

When our job was done and were returning to my office (this time without the CPU), it was still drizzling. I opened my umbrella and immediately the duo laughed at me, saying that big men like us using umbrellas in such a weather will make us look sissy. Feeling quite pissed with such a remark, I asked them whether do we look stupid when we have the umbrellas and not using it, even though it was only drizzling. Anyway, one of them agreed with my reasoning and opened his umbrella. Well, the other was adamant and chose to walk in the rain beside us.

Reasons I use the umbrella when it rains (no matter how heavy it is):

Don't want to get wet.

Don't like to wear wet clothes.

Don't want to get sick (not that I am that weak, but why expose myself to the risk?)

Urban area's rain is dirty and toxidic (I strongly believe)

Reasons I can think of why some guys refuse to use umbrellas:

Want to look macho.

Scare people mock at them.

Lazy to carry and use one.

To use or not to use an umbrella; no right or wrong answer to this question. To me, I just think that if I don't take care of myself, no one else will.

Don't know what to write...

It doesn't need too much of an effort to find a handful of blogs which have a number of entries that say "Don't know what to write..." and then follow by a few more words to describe how bored the authors are before ending the entries with normally not more than 5 sentences.

Hmm... not sure if I have done that before. Anyway, I don't intend to find out but would like to tweak this phenomenon a little by starting with "Don't know what to write", and follow by more then 5 sentences:D

Hmmm... don't know what to write... Anyway when I first started this blog, I had in mind to use this space as a journal to keep track of my training activities, and so I created tables and keyed in the figures with some notes. However, along the way, I find that it has made the blog looks very dull, to the extent that I don't even feel like looking at it, let alone updating it. Hence, I started to inject some diary like entries. The whole blog came to a stop when the condition of my knee injury got aggravated, cos this was an exercise blog, so no exercise means nothing to write.

Recently, I have picked up a new hobby, and that is drawing. So I decided to convert this blog from the original "Sports Shop" into my "Art Gallery". And just not so long ago, I find that it is also very interesting to note down and think about things that I see or hear everyday and to pen them down. And so, I think more or less the direction of this blog has been set.

"Don't know what to write..." to me, I find that this a terrible situation to be at. Because that is equivalent to "Brain dead" in that area and is often very frustrating. Take for instance, I used to compose music and filled in the lyrics. And there was a time I find that I was at the peak and was prolific. However, I became too complacent and allowed faltering to take place, and hence went into the "brain dead" situation. And so, frustration sets in. And then gave up everything all together...

I didn't have a good grade for my English during my school days. In fact, I didn't even get a pass for the subject. So by right, I shouldn't be enjoying writing and reading, especially in English, that much. But I do. And I don't know why:)

Not only in writing blogs, during work when I am required to write reports or emails, I would always be more than happy to lay paragraphs after paragraphs on the writing space.

Well, I really don't know what else to write...

Fashion?

Well I am not the type who follows fashion and trend but I definitely is aware of what fashion disaster means and also able to tell the differences between being unique and foolishly dressed or accessorized.

I was at a shopping mall yesterday during my lunch break when I took noticed of a very young man. He looks like he is about 15 - 16yrs old only. Slim built, wore a supposedly tight fitting t-shirt but became a loose fitting T on him, matched with a Bermudas and a pair of slippers. He was with his girlfriend and he looks very proud of everything about himself.

Ok... so far so good. Nothing wrong with this guy, but what caught my attention was what he wore on one of his leg. A Watch! Ok, it was a watch alright, and I think it was a Casio watch. And nope, it is not one of those that prisoners who are released on Home Detention Scheme wear. I have seen enough of those real thing to tell that this silly guy was plainly trying to look stupid! Not that he is aware that he looks stupid, but apparently he feels proud to mislead others in thinking that he is on Home Detention Program.

Oh Holy Shhit!!! This fellow is a prisoner wannabe and probably thinks that having a criminal record would make him looks more masculine! What kind of positive contribution to the society would a person that has this kind of mentality contributes? Hmmm... if he really so wish to go into the prison, I wish him all the best and hope he gets locked up in prison forever!

Home Detention Scheme

Different approach

Dealing with people is never a simple job, and that holds even true when managing difficult people. In my work, it is required to handle problematic "children", though there are also better ones around.

2 incidents which made me wonder what could have been done to better manage the situation if these happened to me.

Incident 1:
One fine afternoon, the "bell" rang which indicates that "recess" is over and time for the "children" to return to their "classrooms". However, one "kid" refused to move and continued to talked to his friend. When my colleague saw that, he went to the kid and reminded him "recess" is over and he should be returning to his "classroom". This "kid", instead of complying, he retorted by telling my colleague to leave him alone. I don't know what happened next, but I believe my colleague must have been angered and the matter was brought to the "principal's" attention.

Incident 2:
When the "children" greeted another colleague of mine, one particular "kid" refused to greet him. When questioned as to why he wasn't greeting, this kid waved his hand in a gesture telling my colleague to go away.

My respond:
So, I have been thinking, how should I respond if these 2 incidents happened to me. For incident 1, I would too approach the "kid" (note: approach, and not confront. They are different), and instead of chasing him away, I would tap lightly on his shoulder and remind him that the bell has gone off, hence wrap up their conversation quickly and return to the "classroom".

My feel is that, if I were to confront him, he would feel that if he comply immediately, that would be succumbing to me, which he would not look good in the presence of other "children" for a person who has an ego as big as the 3 tunnel's tyre. Thus, a soft approach might work better in such situation, whereby I manage to sound my reminder and not humiliating him. Alternatively, instead of talking to this kid, I could just ask the other "kid" he was talking to to quit the conversation. Well, I think either one would have worked.

Incident 2 is an interesting one. Actually that happened to me before, but for my case, the "kid" didn't do it intentionally. He was just day dreaming and forgot that he needs to greet. So, what I did was, after acknowledging the rest of the "children", I looked at the "kid's" direction and I greeted him with a smile, and before he woke up from his dream and greeted me, I pulled a joke saying: "Wow, time has changed. Now "teachers" must greet "children" first." Everyone laughed, and no "kid" was brought to the "principal's" office.

Almost lost a friend

This morning, just like every morning, I took my breakfast at the same cafeteria and my friend Rid just happened to be around. I didn't notice anything at first and was happily talking to him. Then suddenly I realized that my Muslim friend is having his breakfast with me during this fasting month. Anyway he told me that he can't fast as he has been unwell for quite some time, and he started telling me what happened to him...

Few months ago, he suddenly came down with a high fever of 40 degree Celsius and his family quickly sent him to a hospital. While being seen by the doctor, he told the doctor that he feel aches all over his body. Hence, the suspected that Rid has contracted TB and needed to do a test on him. Leaving the fever untreated, except giving him ice pad.

When the result came back as negative, the doctor then said that it could be lung infection and did another test and the result was negative too. And it was when the doctor came and told him that it might be brain infection, Rid and his family thinks that enough is enough, they discharged Rid, and the hospital gave him some medication. By the way, during the whole suspecting and testing period, a test which required to remove some kind of fluid from Rid's back was done and that had left his lower part of his body feeling numbed. When he questioned his doctor, the reply was that one of the risk of doing the test is that the patient could be paralyzed. (And oh, I forgot to mention, in diagnosis which was written in a memo and was given to Rid stated that it was Sinuse!!!)

2 weeks after Rid's discharge, Rid suddenly had chills and felt very unwell, and the next thing he knows, he was in a hospital, surrounded by doctors and nurses with an acute pain at his chest. He was then told that his breathing has stopped and paramedic was called, performed CPR on him, and brought him to the hospital. (That really was a near death experience!)

When the diagnosis came back, it was found out that the medication's dosage Rid had been taking for the past 2 weeks are too strong for any living human beings, and the result of constantly taking those had caused Rid's liver to have expanded and irrgulated his blood circulation.

Rid was very lucky that the day he collasped, his family members were at home, if not he would be gone forever. But believe it or not, Rid said he could remember vaguely that he had a very clear vision of his late father in law and brother, in white, looking at him during the moment he had stopped breathing...