Today, I started work for 2012 with a bang. I uploaded four times the number of required stories, then checked to see my team is also on high gear.
Things get done and before I knew it, I was stopped during lunch for a consultation, by another department. Fortunately, I have spent most of my time in the past several months reading. That means four to eight hours every day poring through websites, in search of knowledge.
The consult was concerning a celebration in March and I gave ideas on how to improve a guest speaker option.
Then, it was time for a meeting. I am sometimes obsessed with structure, but this time, I forego the well-thought out introduction to cut straight to the chase - a defining point in a campaign.
This point, if not given proper focus and attention, could make or break the whole thing. Resolution? I will have to write it down.
Writing is my element. As I wrote, several things and methods came to mind and I began to see some ways on dealing with that pivotal point. None offer a complete solution, but it is possible.
Spent time on that for a while, farted, smoked, and then I had several interesting conversations before hooking up with some photographers and realising that I want to start taking pictures again.
Photographers are an uncanny tribe. Just like motoring as well as sports and entertainment journalists. We all think differently than normal news desk people. I was absorbing a lot of their demeanour and having a good time chatting up with them, before we all dispersed.
I found myself at a table of middle-aged newspeople. They listen. They also absorb, so I decided to unload on comic books, OhMyNews Japan and Yomiuri Shinbun. When no one talks, I will open my mouth. When everybody talks, I keep silent. It's a habit.
Then, my appointment showed up, and after two hours, he confided in me a sense of appreciation for people who do not whine.
I cringed a bit because I do whine, though nowadays only to family members and a very select few. I have gone through some bullshit, and I realise that whenever the shit hits the fan, you don't run away. You stand and you face it.
I wanted to run away many times in my life. But I didn't. I was too lazy. Normal people have fight or flight responses. I have fight, flight or sleep.
I won't run away. Somebody ran away once, from his problems. He was a good friend. And he left me with a huge mess. I walked on. Kept my head high. And the motherfucker STILL owes me money.
I'm not a runner. Nothing in this world scares me. There was a point I almost went bankrupt. It was my decisions that led to it. I owned it. I stood tall. It took some elbow grease and working till I literally coughed out blood, but I managed to pay most of what I owe.
My goal for 2012 is to be debt free. I know it can be done. In fact, I did it last year when I paid off my credit cards and half my student loans.
Hard work? Hah! I come from the swamp, motherfucker! My grandfather was in his 80s when he woke up at 6am every day to care for his bonsai trees, his one thousand chickens and 40 dogs. When he first came to Malaysia, sometime in 1917, he slept on a brick pillow and only had the clothes on his back. My other grandfather turned down a comfortable life in the Tun Razak administration, preferring the company of durian trees rather than politicians.
My father opened the village he stays in now, and he dragged it, kicking and screaming into the 21st Century. He improved the lives of so many people, rescued some from a lifetime of drug abuse and taught half the town.
I'm not running. Not fighting either. Definitely not sleeping. Not anymore.
Just bring it.
