At the movies

The problem with Hollywood these days isn't that every producer makes a pitch that references at least two other movies (e.g., "It's like The Flintstones meets Jurassic Park but..are you ready for this?...we throw in a touch of Mad Max by setting it in the post-apocalyptic future!") but that they don't rely heavily enough on the movies they reference. If they've already sold the idea, why re-create the proverbial wheel? Why not just take a couple of movies and combine their scripts to create something new? That, my friends, sounds to me like a recipe for success. In fact, I've only been thinking about this for about ten minutes or so and I've already come up with two sure-fire blockbusters.

Movie 1: Dead Again
Movie 2: The Bourne Identity

New Movie: The Bourne Again
Synopsis: In 1949 composer Roman Strauss is executed for the vicious murder of his wife Margaret with a pair of scissors. In modern day Los Angeles a mute amnesiac woman shows up at an orphanage and an amnesiac man who was found adrift in the sea - and who is attempting to discover his own identity - is called in to investigate. The investigation is complicated by the fact that the man, who is proficient in multiple languages, espionage, and martial arts, is being pursued by his former employers at the CIA. Under hypnosis it is revealed that both the man and the woman seem to have a strange and mysterious link back to the Strauss murder.

Movie 1: Shakespeare in Love
Movie 2: Snakes on a Plane

New Movie: Shakespeare on a Plane
Synopsis: A romantic comedy/thriller in which young playwright who is struggling with his latest work "Romeo and Ethel the Pirate's Daughter" decides to take a vacation to help relieve his writer’s block. During the flight, he meets his muse in the form of a flight attendant named Viola. Their budding love story is cut short when they join forces with an FBI agent to defend the passengers from deadly and poisonous snakes that have been deliberately released in an attempt to kill a witness who is being flown from Elizabethan London to modern-day Los Angeles so that he can testify against a mob boss.See? It's easy. Feel free to share your ideas in the comments section. I promise to include them in my next pitch and to make you to know as it appears.

Stupidly busy week, fun weekend

You may have noticed my lack of blogging recently, and in fact my distinct lack of online activity. This has been due almost entirely to the amount of hours I have been putting into work I got assigned to work along with a few others on the conversion project. (Shhhh we are converting another bank over to our side) The bank keeps me busy! It is a good busy not a bad busy like taking endless call after call about why the powers-that-be shut their account off! I’ve had a few tight deadlines lately for some of the project milestones and with the lending officer away on holiday or some stupid stuff. I have been entirely responsible for the direction of everything this last week. I’m very glad I took on the extra tasks though, my work with conversion group has been stimulating and enjoyable, and its great to be so deep into a project so soon, even if it has been a steep learning curve.

When the weekend came around through it was time to really put the busy week behind me and we held another big party on the Friday. What happen was this I joined a club and our first new member happy hour was down in Margarita Mamas in Station square, afterwards we walked over to watch the outdoor concerts. Amazingly the weather afforded us a dry evening if not a bit humid for the concert and BBQ which extended into a warm dry night where the beer flowed freely and the music played loudly. Although a little more rowdy than our last party (due mainly to the attendance of a large proportion of the university rock society) it was great fun. I’d also invited Tonya and friend but she could not come this time. I was sad about that, but the chance to make a few new friends was well worth it!

As the saying goes; work hard, play hard. I certainly managed it last week!

Am I Blogging Under the Influence

I was zigging and zagging my way to work when I saw a rat. It was about fifteen feet away, hulking around beneath a street lamp. I don't know what it was doing. Rats kind of have their own agenda, and they have yet to bring us humans into the fold. One can only hope that the day is nigh when we'll know what the little bastards are up to. Anyway, as I got closer, I realized that it was just a baby rat. It wasn't a gigantic rat. It looked like it might have been the kind of rat that you'd attempt to feed by placing a little bit of cheese between your teeth and letting it walk up to take it directly from your lips. The only thing stopping you, of course, is the Black Plague. If that weren't the case, then I think more people would be feeding cute baby rats in this fashion.

Once I was really close, though, everything changed. I got a good close look at it and it dawned on me that, for a rat, it sure had a whole lot of unnecessary exoskeleton. The feelers also seemed a bit out of place.

Come to think of it, the six legs weren't exactly very rattish, either. It's like I wasn't even looking at a rat.

That's when my brain connected all the dots. I may be a bit of a stupid jack-ass, but you don't have to be the Crocodile Hunter to have figured out that this thing wasn't a rat at all, but rather a rat-size cockroach.

As I stood there, mouth agape, reeling in horror as I watched the hideous beast "taste" the air with its wretched, seeking antennae, it walked right up to a nice couple about twenty feet away, took one quick glance around, and mugged them.

I screamed like a ten year old girl and ran across the street to my building, bolting through the lobby, and making it up to the 2nd floor office as quickly as possible.

I'm sitting here now, can of RAID within reach, trying to make sense of what I've seen.
They don't make bugs like that in Pittsburgh - They just don't!

Do you live life as an Epic?

There was a most interesting sermon given at church on Saturday night, yes I attend church Saturday night. Listen to the sermon and answer the question, do you live your life as an page turning epic? To quote the pastor, "In those quiet, reflective moments of life, have you ever heard that voice from inside whisper; “Something is missing. There must be more to life than this.” He further goes on to say, "Each of us is called to live a life of epic proportions. To live life to the fullest. To not give up when things seem impossible. To make a difference."

Murphy's Law

This past weekend I had an encounter with Murphy’s Law again. Murphy’s Law states that whatever can go wrong, will go wrong, and at the worst time possible. My experience with Murphy has prompted me to develop a strategy for keeping him from messing me up ever again. Here’s my three-pronged strategy for dealing with Murphy whenever he shows up. I call it the ABC’s of dealing with Murphy:

1. Anticipate what might go wrong
Whenever Murphy strikes I rarely am ready to deal with the situation. I may have prepared for the tasks but I am hardly ever ready for the detours. My game plan should be to anticipate what might go wrong so that when it does go wrong, I can deal effectively with it.

2. Bring yourself to a state of calmness
Murphy has a tendency of leaving me in a panic because of the element of surprise. I need to consciously make the choice of staying calm. Getting frustrated or angry about the situation never helps it only makes it worse. Being in a state of calmness will allow me to think clearly and resolve the situation = a little postive thinking.

3. Create systems that allow for success
Success in any endeavor is all about having the right systems. Taking a look at the systems around me, outside of the bars. Everything around me should be geared towards bringing me and you success in our endeavors.

And finally if the steps fail to ahieve the desired result shoot Murphy.

An bachelor's life and managin the money

An bachelor life
As an young professional I am still living the swinging bachelor life, and because of that a disproportionate amount of time is spent on my career or I should say careers, and I have not have had the time to find my soulmate . For those who are in relationships, these are often void of any deep meaning since a full commitment can never be made, and questions often arise about if the person they are currently seeing is the one. I recently went online, again and I may have some interesting posts to add to my blog. Oh yes, some interesting posts but then again I am not going to kiss and tell, or email and tell until I have something worth telling if you catch my drift? The problem with meeting women at this stage of my life is that it is much more difficult to discern if their interest is driven by my remarkable personality, or the thickness of my wallet. The are times when temptation arises to settle down with either the first woman I meet, or the most beautiful woman I meet that happens to give me the time. I have not given up and like I mentioned earlier things on that front might start warming up…

Managin the money
What I should do with my money is another problem that I am confronted with. Should I save for the future or enjoy the money now, rewarding myself for all that hard work with expensive new car (which is, by the way, the number one gift a young millionaire buys himself). Not that I am an millionaire, so I guess I will be content with my sporty little Saturn ION Quad coupe. You know I have gotten many complaints about that newer Saturn. Anyway I know that often, excessive and freewheeling spending leads to my small fortune evaporating more quickly than the time it took to make it. Issues such as investing, retirement plans, and tax planning are put on the backburner. With the focus solely on the present, future plans are usually forgotten in my life. Oh well that is life, I guess.

A professional mistake

Your alarm rings, signalling another brand new day. You get up, looking forward for another new day of challenge, another new day to learn. After washing up, you put on your office outfit, giving you that professional look, one that you believe many out there envy. Breakfast follows (perhaps), and you head off to your office. You’re one of the earliest to arrive, ahead of all your superior and when they come in later, they greet you and you feel all charged up for another productive day. Plenty to do and learn and hence, you are prepared to stay back late to do all that is necessary.If you’re currently doing a degree in finance, accounting or law, the above is probably what you’ve been waiting for all these years. You work your ass off (well… most of you) in university because it’s your dream to join one of those big glamorous firms out there in the market. Lawyers and accountants are the usual suspects for this curse. Once graduated, all of them will run like headless chicken towards those big firms. If you’re an accounting student… you want to be an auditor in one of the Big-4 right?Well, if you do make it, it’s like a dream come true. In such firms, you get a personal computer, maybe a notebook (wow!). All your stationeries are free, and it’s also the first time you step into a ‘pantry’, where you can make your own coffee, just like those nice offices in TVB series. Next, you get an exclusive e-mail, the domain after your name is not the ordinary @gmail.com or @hotmail.com or @yahoo.com… No, it’s not, it’s your-name@a-big-and-glamorous-firm.com. You can’t wait to tell that to your friend.Then comes the feeling of giving a business card with your name on it, and it’s not any other business card, it’s one with your name on it, it’s one that signifies you’re an employee with a-big-and-glamorous-firm. And… the word below your name is not a lowly “accounts executive”… the word below your name is exclusive… the word below your name is… “Associate”. And when your friend gives you the “Wow, you’re an associate with this firm?”… you get into instant orgasm.

3 or 6 months into your job, you will then be experiencing the euphoria of saying… I-am-very-busy… I-have-a-lot-work… I-worked-till-very-late-last-night… I-can't-make-it-for-the-gathering-cos-I-have-to-work-this-weekend. Yeah, it’s an euphoria because to you, it’s a privilege to be busy, it’s very cool to work late, you’re very proud to work in during weekends. When you utter such words, a sense of arrogance and pride radiates from you. You feel great because working so hard means you learnt a lot of things, those not in the professional industry somehow looks lowly to you. You feel big, you feel you’re a level smarter than them . Reality will tend to sink in within 2 years or so, though the duration seems to be getting shorter and shorter now with the younger generation.First, you will probably ask yourself, how come a graduate like you must do all sorts of donkey jobs such as photocopying, checking invoices, going through pile and pile of documents and filing. You will also be wondering how come your superior whom you once looked up to have to suck up to clients. Oh yeah… most all clients are unreasonable.

If you’re an accountant, you will probably realise that there is no such thing called a ‘balance’ sheet. It’s balanced because you did the balancing act so that your big boss can sign on it and certify it as ‘true and fair’. Yeah… signing on accounts, the job that you once dreamed of… isn’t exactly all a bed of roses. You then realise that you will probably never reach that “just-need-to-sign-only stage” but hey… it’s ok, you probably hate that job by now. When you tell your client something, chances are you are just as blur and confuse as them. But you have to act as though you’re an expert because you’re the con-sul-tant. This is just a glimpse of it.Now, all the late nights and irregular meals will probably caused you to age 8 years in 2 years. Those I-am-very-busy… I-have-a-lot-work… I-worked-till-very-late-last-night… I-can't-make-it-for-the-gathering-cos-I-have-to-work-this-weekend will take its toll on your body and it will show. You will probably look very skinny… or very far… you will certainly look old and worn out. Working late and spending weekends in the office is no longer a cool thing but absolute stupidity. But hey… you will still have to do it, because there’s still much work to be done.

If you’re an accountant, you will probably realise that there is no such thing called a ‘balance’ sheet. It’s balanced because you did the balancing act so that your big boss can sign on it and certify it as ‘true and fair’. Yeah… signing on accounts, the job that you once dreamed of… isn’t exactly all a bed of roses. You then realise that you will probably never reach that “just-need-to-sign-only stage” but hey… it’s ok, you probably hate that job by now. When you tell your client something, chances are you are just as blur and confuse as them. But you have to act as though you’re an expert because you’re the con-sul-tant. This is just a glimpse of it.Now, all the late nights and irregular meals will probably caused you to age 8 years in 2 years. Those I-am-very-busy… I-have-a-lot-work… I-worked-till-very-late-last-night… I-can't-make-it-for-the-gathering-cos-I-have-to-work-this-weekend will take its toll on your body and it will show. You will probably look very skinny… or very far… you will certainly look old and worn out. Working late and spending weekends in the office is no longer a cool thing but absolute stupidity. But hey… you will still have to do it, because there’s still much work to be done.

By now, all your friends who ended up as salesmen or doing other thing except being a professional, those whom you felt superior to are driving anything but a proton. But for you, it’s time to think whether you should buy a proton cause your perodua is beginning to give you problem. Of course, if your father is well-connected fella, things can be different. But if you’re not, tough luck. You’ll be wondering how come you’re generally under-paid. Those exposure and learning curve that you once craved are no longer relevant. You want to make more money. But unless you’re a partner of the glamorous firm, money can be a lil tough to come by.At this point of time, probably after 3, 4 or 5 years, you finally realised that document you signed when you first joined the glamorous firm was nothing but lies. Then, you decide to ply your trade in the commercial world, you leave those glamorous firm. You think joining a commercial firm will bring about a good change, not knowing that such move means you switched from being a ‘profit centre’ to a ‘cost centre’. One of the main effect of the switch is that you will be working doubly hard compared to the profit centre, which probably includes a lot of late nights too… but your salary and bonus is much lower compared to profit centre. What does this mean… a story for another time.One thing for sure… your morning will now be something like…Your alarm rings, signalling another day… another weekday. You get up, after snoozing the alarm a million and one times. You hope today is Friday, but it’s not, and you feel like shit. You think of a million and one reasons to take MC, but you realised you have to go to office because you failed to finish the report due today though you stayed till 10pm last night. You tell yourself you need to change job, just like how you have been telling yourself in the last 1 year. Once in office, you’re in a dilemma cause you want time to go slower so that you can finish your work but yet, you want time to go faster so that you can leave the office and go for lunch.During lunch, you will bitch with your colleagues about work and probably the bosses. You will all talk about so many people who seem to be doing so well except for you. You realised you should have done something else while in university. You realised you may have made a mistake in life… a mistake in being a professional… you have made… a professional mistake.

The Packers take the Steelers 13 to 9

Neither Roethlisberger nor Favre did much as the Packers' and Steelers' offensive starters were shut out in little less than a quarter's playing time, with backup QB for the packers throwing a touchdown pass and leading two other scoring drives in Green Bay's 13-9 exhibition victory Saturday night. Tomlin found out why the preseason can be so unpredictable as his starting offense, which has been ahead of the defense so far in camp, lost a fumble and punted on its only two possessions. The Steelers' special teams weren't much better as Green Bay's Michael Montgomery overpowered snapper Greg Warren to block Jeff Reed's extra point after Pittsburgh's only touchdown and a 45-yard Cedrick Wilson punt return was called back for holding. It's gonna be a long season...

general ramblings this morning

Just general ramblings this morning nothing much to discuss... work is going fine. It may not be my ideal job but it sure does beat taking collection calls! The funny thing is the bank i work for takes more of an active interest in how I feel about my job compared to were I came from. They will spend money, company money to improve employee attitude about the company. That is new to me because my last employer did not give a crap about it's employees and the the employees gave only what they had to and nothing more. My attitude towards work has changed, I am more willing to give that 100% to the bank compared to how I felt when I worked for FedEx. In general I like being an banker and for once I in my life I feel that I have a career not just a job.

Steelers Win 1st Pre-Season Game 20-7 Over Saints

There was moments before Mike Tomlin's debut as Steelers coach, wind-blown rain was pelting the field. Suddenly, the skies cleared, the rain ceased and the stands filled. Less than three minutes into the game, the Steelers made it feel like a warm, sunny summer afternoon for the man replacing the retired Bill Cowher. A dominant first half made Tomlin a winner, 20-7 over the New Orleans Saints on Sunday night in the preseason opener. It was indeed a good game but it is just the preseason can they do it come the regular season? We can only hope!

General thought

I can not deny it but I have always been intrigued by Buddhism. It’s perhaps the one religion where there has been no wars fought to extend it’s influence but that is beside the point. One of the many things that I have found interesting about it is the law of karma. According to that movie as well as the teaching Karma by the buddhists is the law of moral causation. The theory of Karma is a basic fundamental doctrine in Buddhism. This belief was prevalent in India before the advent of the Buddha. Nevertheless, it was the Buddha who explained and formulated this doctrine in the complete form in which we have it today.

1. What is the cause of the inequality that exists among mankind?
2. Why should one person be brought up in the lap of luxury, endowed with fine mental, moral 3. and physical qualities, and another in absolute poverty, steeped in misery?
4. Why should one person be a mental prodigy, and another an idiot?
Why should one person be born with saintly characteristics and another with criminal tendencies?
5. Why should some be linguistic, artistic, mathematically inclined, or musical from the very cradle?
6. Why should others be congenitally blind, deaf, or deformed?
7. Why should some be blessed, and others cursed from their births?

Either this inequality of mankind has a cause, or it is purely accidental. No sensible person would think of attributing this unevenness, this inequality, and this diversity to blind chance or pure accident.

In this world nothing happens to a person that he does not for some reason or other deserve. Usually, men of ordinary intellect cannot comprehend the actual reason or reasons. The definite invisible cause or causes of the visible effect is not necessarily confined to the present life, they may be traced to a proximate or remote past birth.

According to Buddhism, this inequality is due not only to heredity, environment, "nature and nurture", but also to Karma. In other words, it is the result of our own past actions and our own present doings. We ourselves are responsible for our own happiness and misery. We create our own Heaven. We create our own Hell. We are the architects of our own fate.

Perplexed by the seemingly inexplicable, apparent disparity that existed among humanity, a young truth-seeker approached the Buddha and questioned him regarding this intricate problem of inequality:

"What is the cause, what is the reason, O Lord," questioned he, "that we find amongst mankind the short-lived and long-lived, the healthy and the diseased, the ugly and beautiful, those lacking influence and the powerful, the poor and the rich, the low-born and the high-born, and the ignorant and the wise?"
The Buddha’s reply was:

"All living beings have actions (Karma) as their own, their inheritance, their congenital cause, their kinsman, their refuge. It is Karma that differentiates beings into low and high states."
He then explained the cause of such differences in accordance with the law of cause and effect.