If you are a gamer or internet geek you might be aware of the phrase “The Cake is a Lie”. If not, then never mind. Today I bring to you a new truth, “The reflection is a lie!”

I would like to quickly share a weird/dumb thing that I think about sometimes. I remembered it after I got home from the gym yesterday.

So I was at the gym, and if you have spent any time in a gym you know that there are big mirrors everywhere. I walked up to the mirror and started doing some muscle man poses. It felt pretty good. I looked at my reflection and thought to myself, “Yup, I am a few steps away from reaching incredible hulk status”.

I went home later that day and did the same pose in front of the mirror in my house.

Hmm, not quite the same effect. I looked skinnier than a 9 year old school girl…

I bought a few pair of jeans last week. If you are in Japan then no doubt you would have heard of a 24 hour shop called JeansMate. I am pretty sure the mirrors there made me look a bit slimmer and taller. But that’s what clothes shops do right? They have those mirrors to try to make you look better in the clothes and trick you into buying them.

I then went to a bathroom, looked at the mirror and felt sad because my eyes were not parallel. It looked like the left one was 2 or 3cm below the right @_@

It kinda makes me wonder what % of mirrors in the world can actually give you a 100% true representation of what you look like. Or are all the mirrors the same and it’s just the angles and lights? Any mirror experts in the house?

Anyway moving on swiftly!!

So over the next few months I might be doing a bit of travelling. I am planning a super last minute trip to Thailand for a few days around the 18^th of next month. I probably will end up going. But it won’t be decided till literally the last minute. I am also planning a trip to Okinawa to a friend’s wedding in September and a trip back home in December.

I have never actually been to a wedding before. Apparently in Japan you have to pay about 30,000 yen (300usd) as a wedding gift if you attend.

At first I was pretty excited about going. People always say that Okinawa is like Hawaii. But after doing some math and adding up money for the plane ticket, wedding money, hotel money, food money, spending money and money for a pimp suit and pimp hat for the ceremony I am starting to worry about how much of a dent this 4-5 day trip is going put on my wallet. The dude is a cool guy and everything, but I might I just have to plead ignorance and not pay any wedding money LOL.

Or I can just be responsible, not go and save myself a ton of money…. But I really wanna go …:(

Sigh, decisions, decisions @_@

Anybody been to Thailand or Okinawa before? Summer is coming yo. Where is everybody going? Or are people calling off their holidays because of the credit crunchers?

 Lunch was really good. Some kind of ramen variation. I will definitely go back again.

Work finished early. It was actually still bright when I left. I got to my station and skipped down the road feeling elated. I was feeling happy and lucky so I decided to play the slots. I walked up to the nearest vending machine and put my fingers in the slot and wiggled it around. Nothing, nada, empty. Oh well, that’s gambling for you. The odds of winning are always stacked against you. The odds of someone buying something from a machine, forgetting their change, and you being at the right place at the right time to capitalize are really low…

I walked into my house and there was a weird smell. What the..? Something smelled pretty foul. A dead rat? Well I certainly hope not!

It was coming from the bin area. I walked over and took a look. Mental note to self, “You don’t have to wait for the bin to start literally overflowing before you throw it out..”

I live on the 8^th floor. I had just got in and really couldn’t be bothered to go all the way back down to throw it out.  I tied it up and left it by the door so I would not forget to throw it out on the way out the next day. You see I am kind of forgetful. I would say my long term and mid-term. But my short and super short term memory is pretty awful. Does this make any sense? I don’t really know the scientific terms for the types of memory.

For example, since I live alone I normally just chill by myself and think about stuff. Have you ever been by yourself thinking about/remembering something so awesome that you are on the verge of cracking a smile even though you are all by yourself?

What I hate is when I am thinking about something awesome and feeling happy then the phone goes off or I hear a noise, and then bang the thing I was thinking about literally 1 second ago is gone. I can’t remember what I was thinking about that was making me feel all happy and shit. I have spent anything from a few minutes to a few days trying to remember what I was thinking about.

Why does this happen so often? And how can it be prevented? I guess it is what is called “losing your train of thought”? It might be worth looking into.

Anyway back to the story. So I leave for work the next day. Have a shitty day at work. Get home late. Open the front door and trip over and hit my head on the floor. I look behind me and see the bin from last night. I left it at the front door so that I wouldn’t forget to throw it out. How did I somehow manage to walk past it and not throw it out??

Oh yeah thanks Rachel. I went on Amazon today and they had a campaign saying that if I order within 22 minutes I can get Derren Brown’s book on the same day of ordering. I am going to try get off work early today so I can be there when delivery dude comes

Email from work I recieved yesterday.

Subject: A little bit of advice…

Prometheus,

Although I hate to be the one to pick on you or the one to be bossy, I’d like to
play the “sempai” = senior card here. Please read the following as constructive
criticism. This is meant to be advice, which hopefully will help you to get by
in this company.

I believe 103 is pretty laid back and we’re getting along cool. That’s great,
but this only works because we all understand that this is a workplace, and we
should maintain a certain level of discipline. Now this is not something we
drill into each other, but yet I believe it is a rule that we naturally abide
by.

Recently, I’m getting the feeling that this professional awareness is becoming a
bit weak with you (it’s quite obvious when you fall asleep during work, or
you’re chatting via Skype or MSN Messenger, or checking your Keitai  = cell e-mail, or
checking your Facebook account or  whatever other pages you may be checking
out). Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for a certain amount of leeway and we all do
some of the above at some point during the day. That’s fine and cool, but it
must remain a secondary if not tertiary priority, which I can’t help feeling is
not true in your case recently (not that I have proof for that, but I think
giving that impression to your surroundings is enough of a reason to think about
it).

You’re a cool guy and I hate to be the one to yell, but I think it kind of looks
bad on you if you keep going with this attitude. The scary thing about this
company is that people are too nice to say anything, but they do take notice and
it does have an impact on your reputation as a workforce. And I don’t want you
to fall into that reputation.

So here are some ideas (my 2 cents if you will):

- Try to reduce the time spent on chatting and private webbrowsing. If you have
too much time, try to find something useful to do. I’m sure you can think of
something. If you absolutely can’t find anything, let me know, maybe I can help
you out.

- Try to keep an eye on what’s going on with the clients, what they are asking
for in the e-mails, how we are going by it etc. (Like John Doe’s case at Company X.
We’re talking about it in the office, but no one will come to you and give you
an extra report. Now let’s say The CEO comes in, and asks you about Company X’s status. How
cool would it look if you could recap the whole thing? …and how bad if you
have no idea?)

- Focus on the topic when others are talking about relevant issues you should
take part in. Don’t address your chat window or keitai=cell phone when people are talking
to you.

- Try to be a more active communicator.
If you get tasks to do from others and it spans across days or weeks, let them
know once in a while how far you got and what you’re up to (remember 104? They
didn’t know if you were still working on their requests and stuff…). Update
your teammates so they know where things are at. Check with them if anything is
unclear.
If the task you are working on is complex, confirm that you understand what you
are being asked to do (as opposed to just a simple “Yeah” followed by silence
until you’re done). Nothing is more comforting than knowing that someone you’re
asking understands your request.

Also, especially this month, you are doing the daily processes. Ask yourself:

- If Mr X and Mr Y were gone, would you be able to run the CD cut with full
confidence? Check the spots you don’t feel 100% comfortable with and check with
the guys. Your goal should be to be able to run all daily tasks and CD cuts, and
be able to take full responsibility for your output. Given your position (one of
the people running cuts and dailies), in an emergency situation you may be on
your own, and then people must be able to trust in your output.

- If The Ceo came in and wanted a recap of todays issue with the CAFs, would you be
able to explain everything? To be honest, I missed some of the things that were
going on this morning myself, since I was busy with other tasks. So what I
did is ask the guys what was going on. You know, just to have an understanding
of the issue. Afterall, you never know when that knowledge becomes important. It
was a bit disappointing to see you sleeping while we were talking (and I wasn’t
the only one to notice…). Try to be aware of what’s going on, especially if it
is something that involves your scope of work (PRICES are part of the database
you are creating today!)

OK, that was a lot of “yelling” which again I’d like to emphasize is meant as
constructive criticism. All of what I wrote is based on what I can perceive from
my desk or when I wander around in the office (I’m not spying on you, it’s just
noticeable). Some of the things I pointed out about you may not apply 100%, or
it may be things that you are already aware of. But I decided to write based on
the impression I get from you, since this may be the impression others may be
perceiving too.

I’m not telling you to be perfect. But you may want to show a bit more proactive
participation. This is me trying to nudge you into the right direction (”right”
as in “the way that is probably expected from you in this office”), before you
get hit by a harder wave in form of a CEO or other influential people around
here. No one knows I’m sending this to you. If this were Mission Impossible,
you’d be now hearing a voice saying “This message will self destruct in 5
seconds.”

Hopefully my message is coming across.
Let me know if I can be of help.

Best,
My T

Meh, it is pretty hard to put any effort in or try hard when the work you do is boring and soul crushing. So thoughts? My tank is on empty lol, not sure if I have the energy or desire to change..

Quit or wait for the sack?