Archive for the ‘Rantage’ Category

Thankfully, I managed to fly back to school about a week after my last post, which mean being back to the grindstone pretty quickly. In the month that I’ve been away from this weblog, I’ve been slogging it out for my A-level exams, which were spread out over the whole of May (with some practical modules taking place in April.) They aren’t finished – I’m on a week break, and have 3 more after this break is over.

But that’s not why I’m posting.

I just learned yesterday that my dad – manager of a medium-to-large call center since its set-up 2.5 years ago, stellar employee who rarely used his paid leave, and earned highest respects from all the agents (even more respect than the CEO commanded – dad was second in command) – was abruptly let go from his position on Wednesday. The powers-that-be from Down Under gave him the news and told him to clear out that same day – apart from him, there were no other “casualties”. And it wasn’t like the company was struggling; if they were, they never let on.

My folks had wanted to wait till the end of the week to tell me over the phone, as I was busy doing papers all that week…but they were afraid that I would find out anyway over Facebook, as plenty of his upset (and mortified) staff had left messages on his Wall. Thank heavens I didn’t see those, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to do my exams, no?

The good news is that plenty of support has poured in from him – my mum’s bosses (also my parents’ old college mates) have offered him some work while he gets back on his feet. It’s not exactly the same thing he’s been doing, and they can only offer him half of his past salary – but it’ll keep him busy, keep his skills polished; plus, he can work from home. Mum and Jerry have been coping excellently; they were still joking and laughing over the phone yesterday. To quote mum: “now he can tidy up the house – and finally exercise to bust his belly!”

The bad news is that it’s eating me up inside. I feel wretched and guilty for being in a pricey school all the way in England; even though I’m on scholarship and that his severance will at least see me through till the end of this school year. I still have a year of A-levels after, though; which means that a) I may not be able to complete them in this same school or b) will not be able to have my family over when my graduation ceremony rolls round. They’ve never visited my school since the time mum sent me off here on Sept 2007 – it’s too pricey.

The irony is that this job was the reason I could attend school in England in the first place. Dad started there the same time I started school here. That workplace was also where I did my work experience last summer, so I’ve had some fond memories of the people there…I’d never thought it would go this sour.

The same staff  who have sent dad wishes have, however, also sent me messages telling me how things have been since (and it’s not been pretty at the workplace), how wonderful a boss my dad had been to them, and that we were both lucky to have each other as father and daughter. One of them told that dad always spoke of us kids and mum “with a proud smile on his face.” Another said that she was proud to have had the chance to see me through my work experience – “your dad thinks the world of you, and it’s very much justified. You made an excellent employee, even though you were just 16 and only worked here for 2 months.”

Oh yes, the same multitude of staff my dad kindly and lovingly nurtured were the ones who nurtured me through my work experience – sort of a cycle, if you will. I knew a lot of them personally. A team leader told him on Facebook about how she was so down and thinking about giving up on a task she had promised she would complete for him by the end of that week; but he told her to hang in there – “think of your baby, complete the task for your agents; they need it to get their commission.” Even after being canned, he was still there keeping her sane!

Perhaps the powers-that-be had a very bad lapse in judgment – let got the outstanding, productive manager because he’s “too expensive”, and pile his duties on to the “cheaper” employees? Nicely done. The “cheaper” employees – employee, rather – who was forced to take on his duties since then is now feeling immensely pressured. Ironically, this same guy was dad’s right-hand man, and I feel very sorry for him – he was yet another guy I know personally who trained me during my early days.

Perhaps the CEO got a tad too jealous – not that my dad rubbed anything in her face; but when it came to birthdays, he was the one getting attention from the staff: pranks (read: a wrapped-up office), a multitude of treats – and even one year, a “World’s Best Boss” award. She didn’t even get that sort of camaraderie in everyday life, so that could’ve fueled it.

Whatever it is, it was cruelty in the first degree. For the first time in my life, I’m truly a wreck and it’s going to take me a fair amount of time to recover.

So it’s day 5 of flight cancellations owing to Eyjafjallajokull – unluckily for me, my flight back to school in the UK (meant for the 18th) got canceled. I’m not the only one though; tons of international boarders at my school who come from Hong Kong and China have also been held up.

The positives:

• Extra days with my family – okay, so my dad gyrates and “squeaks” (intentionally; he can sing well actually!) to Rihanna’s “Rude Boy” for a laugh; but I’m not complaining!
• More time to complete revision (with what books I have back here), as well as music practice.
• A lil’ longer to enjoy the food back here in Malaysia – let’s get real, the flavor in one spoonful of nasi lemak
  beats however many platters of fish and chips present in the UK. And that’s after salting the fries/chips.
• (Possibly) the chance to redeem that rain check for a cinema trip with Jerry! We wanted to watch How To Train Your Dragon last week before I left; but it didn’t seem likely with the workload he was having.

The negatives:

• The folks are stressed – many airlines are saying that what with the backlog, people will have to wait till as late as May to get on a flight out. We’re practically in limbo and the ash cloud’s still stubbornly looking down over Europe, so no one can tell us anything concrete.
• Missing out on friends and lessons. Friends = self-explanatory; lessons = the teachers still have a bit of the syllabus to cover before our AS exams in May. Which brings us to…
• Freaking out over exam preparations. I’m doing all I can back home; but there’s just something about school that enables me to concentrate at optimum.
• …and I’m missing Jack terribly. (Ta-daa, the boyfriend -finally- has a name. :P)

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If there are such words like midlife/quarterlife crisis, I wonder if there’s one for the mid-teen like moi.

Don’t worry, it’s not as morbid as I’m making it out to be. It’s only that I’ve been reflecting on stuff over the past hour and have, in the process, 1) put Surrealle on hold (as if it weren’t stagnant already, feh!) and 2) seriously rethought about clearing the dusty pages on YM.net.

Indeed, it’s been a while since I really sunk my teeth into anything webdev-related.

Yeah, some of you out there will probably be eyerolling-me now and saying “social life, school, exams, blah blah blah — we’ve all had it and we still have (semi-)active websites in the least!”

True. And I’ve been throwing myself more into real-life work instead. In the process, however, I’ve discovered that I’m a lot better at creating computer graphics/art meant for applied (read: real life) use rather than just the internet. Needless to say, the “group” I “cater” to design-wise has changed.

*cue the looks of confusion now.*

Ahem. By that, I mean that instead of creating art/layouts for the web, I tend to do stuff like T-shirt graphics, book covers, and other random computer sketches. In the process, I’ve also felt more accomplished because it’s never been in my genetic makeup to control a pencil well. My pen(cil)-and-paper art skills leave much to be desired; so by turning to the pen tool and Photoshop’s canvas, I’m able to do a LOT better.

It’s not something that I’ve only just started doing. I’ve mentioned making page layouts/designs for my old school’s magazine/yearbook back in 06 and 07. And I’ve also posted a copy of the design I made to cover my current school’s student planner earlier this school year. So yes, I’ve done this before; but

And let’s face it – I no longer have the luxury to sit down and debug rows of code like I used to. If anything, I can take existing code and heavily mod it; but now, the thought of making new code for new layouts will 1) scare me or 2) tire me out + no longer offer me a sense of achievement even after I’m done fixing it. I’d much rather expend that energy doing something I’m more comfortable with.

“So what’s your plan, Ari?” Wellum. To start with, I intend to re-engineer Surrealle; it’s still a portfolio, but no longer the “hybrid” that it used to be. I had it as a dumping round for icons (which I don’t even make as much anymore); now, I’d like it to be a proper portfolio that shows off all the computer graphic work I do for real-life use. I’ll have to dig up those old page templates as well as some draft sketches, but it’ll be worth it later on. Surrealle will be an exception to this self-imposed layout sabbatical of mine; the reason I’m irked with layout design is (more often than not) because of how hard it is to do when you have WP on! So yes, I intend to design Surrealle’s layout and filter extensively what works I display on it.

YM.net will be next. I’m going to dig up all the dusty pages on the site and rewrite/trash them. Some of them have not been updated since 2005; when I first got the domain. The way I sound as a 17-year-old now is FAR from the way I sounded as a 13-year-old. This will be the site that I don’t intend to design layouts for (unless I regain that luxury of being able to sift through WP code again!)
I’m also fully aware of the fact that blog posts on here aren’t as often as they should be – it’s easy to shift the blame on places like Facebook. Frankly speaking, it’s the “dusty” feel of this place that’s sometimes keeping me from writing; and I tend to need time to churn out blog posts (I write, edit, rewrite, re-edit; and it can take up to 3hrs sometimes, even with fast typing!)

I don’t intend to set a timeframe for this reworking, however; only because I’m having A-level study and the workload is expected to be massive; so if I set a timeframe, it’s likely that I won’t adhere to it. Plus, the fact that I don’t have unrestricted internet access at school will hamper me a LOT. Yes, I know that without an exact timeframe, there will be the pitfall of just not handling this reworks *ever*, but I’m just going to have to trust myself to stick to it – by hook or by crook. Easter ’10 sounds about reasonable; Summer ’10 will be pushing it too far, but that’ll be the max perhaps.

Amongst 4 full time + 2 part time A-levels, an upcoming school play to manage, musical (scholarship) commitments and a (sometimes-ailing) social life, I’ll get there somehow.

So there you have it. As a teaser for the kind of stuff you’d expect to see on Surrealle.com, why not head over there yourself.