My friend evaluates me…

Cup of tea in hand. Legs perched upon a vacant chair. Pen ready to jot down any and every thought. 

My colleague Bundy is ready to have chat. I tell him that we should strictly stick to conversations about milk (the brand that we were brainstorming on). He decides otherwise and I’m drawn into the abyss of gossip and Bundy’s profound opinions on different matters. 

The first topic of discussion was infidelity. We strike common ground. We both hate people who cheat. He prattles on with a true story about his married friend who was cheating, then one day when cheating friend was recounting this story to another friend over a couple of alcoholic shots (remember: alcohol never helps when you’re cheating) his phone had mistakenly (duh obviously) dialled home. So basically his wife heard everything. Bundy sums up the story with a firm “when you cheat, you’re spouse finds out in a really horrible way”. I solemnly agree. 

Then Bundy decides to change the subject and scrutinize me, while I sit still in front of him and half-heartedly nod my head in agreement. He point blankly tells me that I have bad taste in men.

What balls!

Well I’ve dated good-looking guys but yet he feels that I don’t know what real handsomeness is all about. I strongly disagree and make sure that he knows that. Quickly he changes the topic to my ‘outer beauty’. This I wanted to hear so I propped my hands on the table and smiled encouragingly at him. He starts off saying how pretty I look now compared to what I looked like almost 3 1/2 years ago, I apparently have gotten more sophisticated in my dress and grooming and moved away from sloppy looking outfits. I smile as I remember that time, seems like a million years ago. Then suddenly he retorts saying “but you know, you should act like a real woman”. My jaw drops and I go “huh?” (remember: compliment then follow it up with an insult, works wonders) He explains telling me that I should walk into a room with confidence and charisma so that every man will cast their eyes on me and only ME. Also I should walk in a way that attracts attention and learn manners that make men want me and women grow green with envy. I burst into laughter and secretly wonder what possessed him to say such a thing, but I wasn’t going to continue with the conversation so I rudely interrupt his thought process and tell him that he should start a finishing school for woman. His tips will either cause catastrophe or anorexia. 

A very productive brainstorm, don’t you think?

Why do people fear regret?

Even before anything happens.

Have your ever battled the heart and mind at the same time? Our heart much like the Nike tagline says “just do it” and our mind desperately finds ways and means to make us stop committing that strange odd crime called love.

Our mind is an amazing tool it helps us remember every detail of the crime,from that fleeting moment when you see ‘that person’. Then it collects all the other mundane and sometimes interesting information about ‘that person’ and files it until we need to use it later for some abstract compliment or stupid remark. 

Our hearts are completely different. It’s almost like a hopeless romantic thudding faster every time we see ‘that person’.

Our heart and mind complement each other until suddenly they start to disagree, much like marriage, everything’s rosy until someone dares to differ. Then quickly our mind starts pulling out other information against our will and starts pounding every nerve in our brain to make sure that ‘that person’ isn’t the one for us. Meanwhile our heart starts hammering with the cooperation of our gut who much like heart feels that we’re doing the right thing, so they scream in unison “go ahead, just jump right in”.

Confusion. Regret.

and you’ve not even committed the crime but just outlined the strategy. I’ve been doing this a lot lately and I know I’m missing a lot of opportunities but I’m not the only one. A couple of like-minded friends are also doing the same thing (knowing that makes me feel a whole lot better) Sometimes I think I’m doing the right thing but feel like I’m doing the wrong thing.

Confusion and regret. Two things I seemed destined to deal with.

Bank vs Advertising

So I’ve got into a heated argument with Specko who’s a banker. I’ve never been interested in banks because they take our money away, do fancy things with it which they call investments and fill their pockets with bonuses while the country goes into recession. Another annoying reason as to why
banks and I don’t get along is because sometimes I have to do advertising for one of our clients which is a bank and that bank is not a pleasant bank to work with. They always get their strategies wrong and the most irritating thing about them is that they don’t like creative stuff. They think that consumers won’t understand, if the consumer is going to invest millions surely they’re going to understand creative approaches. It’s a bank (shouting) did you hear? Banks are boring hence the need for creative ideas.

So I hate banks!

The conversation I had with Specko made me want to poke my chubby nose into it and actually see what the whole fuss was about. I was only interested in two thing during the whole conversation which was when he point blankly said “multinationals are far better than local banks”. I strongly disagree. I believe that local banks try NOT to rip you off, plus the investments are used for infrastructure and projects within the country. That’s good.

The second area of interest was when I told him that foreign advertising in the local market doesn’t work (that’s what his bank does, they get foreign photographs and put them up on hoardings and every form of communication). He disagreed. He tells me it works well for them. Er… I simply can’t take his word for it, he’s really passionate about his company and feels nothing is wrong with it. Never came across a company that’s 100% perfect but I’ll give the guy a break after all he’s only served the company for 8 months.

Okay so here’s the reason why I wrote this post…I want your opinions.

The questions that’s really bugging me right now are:

1. Do you think multinationals are better than local banks?
2. Does foreign advertising work in a local market?
3. Isn’t a 2-year graduate program in a company almost like an internship
with a glorified title and decent pay?

Please leave your comments. Look I’m not an expert on this topic and I might
be extremely stupid about the whole thing but I got to know…Lohengrin I’m
counting on you.

“Guns to the net”

Your heart starts pumping and the blood in your ears pound. You tell your mind to stop getting so excited because you have so much more to concentrate on.  

The masks start to fog due to heavy breathing but there’s nothing you can do, you’re about to enter enemy territory and one false move is enough.

 

You try to ignore the sweat stench from the long Military Jacket by turning your face to face different angles.

 

Your body is raging with adrenaline.

 

 

 

WHISTLE

 

Shoot blind and try to get to the bunker you’re assigned. Cover the front men so that they could shoot the enemy down and capture the flag.

 

Then aim and shoot while making sure you not in the line of fire.

 

Palms sweat while aiming at a target. Then you get a clean shot but when you fire, your gun gets jammed. You hide behind the bunker, curse and check whether the safety is on.

 

You run to the front, very close to enemy territory.

 

SPLAT

 

You’re dead.

 

Paintball rocks. Try it if you ever get the chance.