merry is love ;

Oh indulge me

Emo nemo because it's the time of the month again.

I just realised that I've all but posted 10 posts this year. 10 posts in 90 days. In fact, I've only posted 21 posts since I've started working on 10 August 2010. Do the math.

If blog posts are an indication of how much life I'm having then I must be having a terribly mundane life. Working makes me look at my parents, working uncles, and aunties in a different light. How they survived the last 30 years - I cannot imagine.

I need some inspiration, motivation, and luck. Loads of luck. Please, the powers that be, grant me never-ending good fortune at work.

Also, I've been doing some serious missing of my ex-colleagues of late. Miss miss miss them all.

March is coming to an end

Working in sales make dates and figures important.

The end of March marks the end of a month and the end of a quarter. The rush for disbursements and the desire to finish at the top of the table is evident. By sheer luck, I'm finishing the top of my batch's newbies though I didn't manage to hit my target (we are the bottom four). I put it down to luck because although I only managed to clinch one case, it was good enough to out-size their two or even three cases.

So yes, lucky me.

But my luck seems to be running out. The powers that be - please please please let me continue to be lucky.

On a sidenote: I've been looking for this song for ages because it sorta overwhelms me whenever I hear it.

Be a girl who reads

Be a girl who reads. Be the girl who finds enjoyment in the written word, delights at the thoughts she finds, marvels in the plots and characters.

Read often, and read everything. Have an endless curiosity about the world and those who live in it. Discover new cultures and places; expand your mind beyond your own country and your own life.

Find new authors and new books every day. Compile an ever-growing list of printed materials to read. Browse the stacks of bookstores and libraries; get lost in their mighty labyrinths.

Embrace the popular and the obscure; realize that you need not be confined by genres or labels. Whether they are biography, memoir, fiction, non-fiction …all have a place upon the bookshelf of your mind.

Keep childhood favorites sacred. Never forget the moment you received your first library card, your first book of your own. Remember fondly reading events at school and how excited you were that books were given out for free. Recall how grateful you were, for your favorite book was already worn, pages dirtied, and cover torn by your constant reading.

Recall your first trip to the library, when you wondered how many books you could read in a lifetime and felt utterly certain that the library contained a multitude of treasures.

Bring a book with you wherever you go. Embrace purses and bags, not for their feminine qualities, but because they enable you to carry more books and keep them hidden. Less fights with your parents about bringing books to family reunions, easier to sneak books into classes; become known as ‘the girl with a book’.

Be passionate about books, the ones you love and the ones you don’t. Have opinions. Find other readers and discuss. Share your experiences and thoughts about why this book. Defend banned and controversial books. Understand that people have the right to decide what to read for themselves.

Realize that everyone has their own tastes, their own reading preferences. Suggest books freely but do not be upset when turned down. Remember that we approach books when we are ready for them. The stories are patient. They will wait for us.

Attempt the classics; succeed and fail. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis will be incredible, Les Miserables will be daunting, and Edith Wharton will enrage you. Move on, find other authors. Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett are happy to have you in their readership.

Read the popular titles. Fall in love with Harry Potter, restrain yourself from throwing Twilight . Remember Ranganathan, ‘every reader his or her book’ and ‘for every book its reader’. There are endless possibilities. You’ll find the ones you love.

Be a reader, and be yourself. Don’t waste time on books you don’t enjoy. Don’t convince yourself that there are books you must love. Remember, always, this very simple rule:

When in doubt, ask a librarian.

- Be A Girl Who Reads by The Monica Bird

Working in CBD

Contrary to what many people think, working in a bank in CBD is not that glamorous.

Off the back of my head, there are only 3 pros I can think of:
1. Quite a number of friends work in the area so lunch dates, lunch dates, lunch dates.
2. No worries missing the train in the morning, the next comes in 2 minutes.
3. MyPaper and Today are available every morning.

Cons:
1. Lunch is a jostle for space.
2. Lunch is so damn expensive!
3. Work is definitely more fast-paced.
4. Image is important. Read: Brands.
5. So is dressing. Read: Blazers and covered shoes.

All in, I'm already getting a tad bored at work but I've met some pretty good people. Just pray hope I can hang in there for a year.

Conversation among friends

A colleague and friend asked me sometime last week, "you know what's the difference when friends talk to each other as compared to when strangers do?"

Punctuation. The full stops and the question marks.

Friends do not need questions.

Does grades matter?

Watching One Tree Hill makes me think back on my secondary school and junior college days, especially the day I received my O'Level and A'Level results.

Oh the fear I had. Back then, we thought our results were the most life-altering thing that could happen to us.
Good grades = Good school = Good future
Lousy grades = Lousy school = Lousy future

Little did we know that it wasn't as life-defining as it was made out to be. All of us ended up at the same place in the end. Same university, same kinda work life. Same difference my sissy would say.