Fatso

Springtech

Even though I work for the computer branch of a huge organization, I’m pretty technically illiterate. I mean, everything I know, I learned from reading instructions booklets and my own trial and error. Heck, I was proud the day I learned how to use a MP3 player, if this gives you an idea.
But this must be my techie month. In the same month, I :

- started a blog
- added a hit counter to it
- bought a digital camera and a memory disk
- learned how to download the pics onto my computer

Nothing a blonde can’t achieve, you will say. Never mind what you say. « I » am extremely proud of myself!
I am also delighted with my new toy. I have yet to get used to the fact that I can shoot anything I want because I can delete. I’m not wasting a photo if it’s bad…
I’ve figured out the basics. Now I have to master the different modes and find out where I can overexpose and underexpose by a couple of stops.

Still, for the first time, I am able to publish a photo whose credit is mine!

This is one of my 3 cats, nicknamed « Fatso ». Not my fault, the idiot moved…so it’s slightly out of focus…. It was his first official – or should I say authorized – time outside this year so he was pretty excited.

I know it’s horribly common and unoriginal to put pictures of your pets on a blog but I do love them dearly. Catlovers will understand. The others can grind their teeth ☺

Peace.

Public exposure

Above is one of my favourite pictures. It’s titled “selfconfidence”. I cannot give credit to the photographer for I have no idea whom it might be. But this is how I TRY to walk through life.

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Yesterday, I made a presentation before fifteen people in a room with no windows.

Years ago, I used to teach scuba diving. It’s easy to hold an audience entranced when you explain how the graceful scorpion fish hides a potent poison in its spinal barbs. Students listen with baited breath, half expectant, half fearful to meet such a specimen in a dark alley on the reef.

Yesterday however, my subject was different. I was invited to talk about Intergenerational Transfer of Knowledge within the Public Service. What can I say? Life takes you strange places. Before you smirk, I want to point out that this was an open invitation conference. People attended on a strictly voluntary basis. I will not name the department, but never did I have such a dull-eyed, sceptical audience.

Sometimes, when an audience particularly intimidates me, I imagine the public in flowery bathing suits, eyes very wide behind the mask. Eyes that say “you’re the only thing standing between me and premature death” or “I’m about to bolt to the surface in panic”. Every instructor knows these eyes.

It helps to look at a stern, high-ranking man in suit and tie, with an expensive watch and distracted look, and imagine him ineffectively dog-paddling with fins on and wide arms swipes, a tentacular jeopardy to any diver within range. It puts things in perspective.

Anyway. Yesterday, my audience was dull, challenging, and unresponsive. That’s excellent. It threw me off balance and took me out of my comfort zone.

Every person that stands in front of others to speak comes bearing a gift or a message. Sometimes the gift is a lousy trinket from a dollar store, not worth your time. Sometimes, the message is so garbled by the speaker’s idiosyncrasies that it gets lost.

But in the end, it’s an offer. The audience is free to buy it or not. Free to like, dislike, listen, get up and leave, clap, become aggressive, thank me or just sit there with dull eyes.

I’m neither a saleswoman nor an advocate, I’m just a messenger. The Intergenerational Transfer of Knowledge in the Public Service is not a matter that grabs my heartstrings. There was a time when I would have been deeply affected; now, I look at a presentation that didn't go over very well…and I’m afraid I don’t overly care. Is that maturity?

Death BY taxes

I pay taxes, like most human beings on the planet. Except the folks in Monaco. And Cayman. And the Bahamas. I think I get it. If you don’t live by the sea where it’s sunny and warm, you pay taxes. There. It’s a lose-lose situation.

In order to save myself the headache, stress and complexity, I usually hire someone to complete the paperwork for me. That way, I figure, it’s done early, properly and I don’t have to worry about it.

That’s when I met the amateur accountant from hell…
She placed an ad, she seemed competent. She promised to do it in five days. It’s longer then I would have liked but I said ok to be agreeable. Hey, I’m easy going.

Then…I can’t go through everything again. Not one deadline was ever met; promises were numerous but never kept, phone calls always 2 days late. By the time I realized I just wanted the hell out, I had been to her house twice for nothing (30 minutes drive). I had done all the research and accounting myself over and over to make sure she didn’t make a mistake. I had to inform her of what was more advantageous for me. I gnashed my teeth waiting on her, waiting on her and waiting some more. The whole time, she danced along, completely oblivious that I was less than happy and that she was giving me a sub-standard service.

I breathed in and out slowly. I went from my lovely friendly self to something barely cordial.

The last straw was after I thought everything was finally done and over with (and I barely avoided an ulcer), finding out that she didn’t seem to have sent the right form. The copy she gave me for my records had other data, depriving me of over a thousand dollars in tax returns.

I paid fifty dollars for the privilege of this nightmare. When I finally gave her a piece of my mind, and believe me, it was a large piece, she was stunned, hurt, bewildered, close to tears. She couldn’t understand. She thought she had gone out of her way to give me good service.

Do you ever find yourself in a situation with another person where you simply think:
“One of the two of us comes from another planet. Is it me or her/him?”
It’s a really odd feeling.

Guess what? Next year, I’M FILING MY OWN.

Lesson of the day:
Self reliance!

At some point, I will share my conclusions from Katrina and the bird flu. Yes, there’s a link. Stay tuned for more on the thrilling life of a North American tax paying citizen. Hey, I don't live by the ocean and it's frigging cold here. The least I can do is pay taxes.

March 24, 2006

Today, I brought home the pair of black leather shoes I kept at the office.

To my many Southern Chinese readers : this means I no longer wear boots to work; this means there is no longer snow on the ground; this means SPRING IS COMING!

Never since Cinderella had shoes brought such delight. Immelda Marcos notwithstanding.



Wisdom of the day :

Nothing is permanent but change itself.

On blogging

Where will it lead, this compulsion since the dawn of times, to leave one’s mark upon the world? Were the arts born from the longing to express oneself or the desire to proclaim one’s existence?

First, there were monuments, sculptures, paintings, music, architecture, literature…then movies…and now blogs. Blogging is not an art, will you argue. Perhaps not. But does it not spring from the same impulses as art? Reaching out to the world, sharing your vision, confirming your existence by expressing your personality?

As on many things, I’m not sure where I stand on blogs. All I know is that there are a few out there that find so enjoyable that I’m ready to endorse the practice with my own participation.

If there are drawbacks to blogging, I’ll discover them as I go. My grand-mother published poetry. My mother wrote a book. My brother wrote a book. For all I know, my cat is recording his memoires. I feel the pressure. I’ll write a blog.

However, becoming a blogger brings on new difficulties : deciding on the blogworthiness of things. Is this thought worth mentioning in a blog? Is that one? How much should I reveal? How much should I hide? Is a blog like a diary? Should I write the Bridget Jones Blog? (Eeeek, no. She annoys me to no end.) I have no fixed idea. I’ll play it by ear…or by nose or other appendices. And in all things, I’ll let my fancy take me to wherever it pleases. How delightful!

WELCOME TO MY BLOG!

In here, you will find my views on books, movies, celebrities, world events and ordinary life in North America in 2006. You will read about being a mother, a single woman, a daughter, a sister, a friend, a worker, a homeowner, a cat lover, a human being. Tongue in cheek is the word, sarcasm and absurdity are my specialties.

More, I cannot promise. Let’s see where it all leads.

You like it, you hate it, you agree or disagree, reach out and leave your mark on my own in the form of comments.

NAMASTE

Brigitte