Checkpoint #3

1. Swanky 5-Star hotel for accomodation
2.  Private driver to bring us around
3. Clients who actually treated us like fellow human beings
4. Clients who treat us to lunch/ dinner almost everyday
5.  Awesome Indonesian food
6. Sudden realisation that we have a lot more to do than initially thought

These are things which are not usually associated with my line (okay, maybe not no. 6)

It would have set a dangerous precedent had it been my first foray. But being in the profession sufficiently long enough to know that this is a job that will constantly place us in extremely uncomfortable positions?

I am taking everything for as long as it lasts.

Filed under: Career

Checkpoint #2

Here’s basically what I did for the week:

1. Team-in-charge, on first day of job, “I’ll need you to complete most of the balance sheet items. Shouldn’t be too hard as pre-finals are already done.” Rebuke 1, untold: I didn’t do the pre-finals. Rebuke 2, untold too: I joined the firm in what, July?
2. Manager on my next job, “You will need to travel to Jakarta on the 25th for 2 weeks, are you okay with it?” Next few days were spent settling visa, air tickets, and liasing with clients.
3. Mail was flooded by the exchange between manager on yet another job and the client. It’s for the 3 days stock take next week, of which I would be visiting 9 locations, doing a total of 420 stock count samples.
4. Back on point 1. TIC is away 2.5 days. Help? What help?
5. Company is one of the largest logistical company in the world. Team members engaged? 2. Number of days booked? 5.
6. Client’s finance is largely outsourced to Malaysia. Only way is to liase with phone and the mail. Mail was flooded as it was with points 2 and 3.
7. Celebrated a mini victory having balanced my retained profits. Last year’s work was wrong. Cost? 1.5 hours.
8. Lunch time was 1/2 hour everyday- need to work!
9. An email from the Learning and Development centre warned me of an e-learn I have yet to finish. Didn’t they see points 1-8?
10. Bank screwed up with their confirmations, arranged for subsequent procedures. 100% completion of work denied by stupidity.

In my line you aren’t expected to be good just at what you are supposed to do. Fact. And oh yeah, self-motivation helps. It does!

Filed under: Career

FF X-2 Review

Platform: Playstation 2

Genre: Role Playing

The Final Fantasy franchise has never had a direct sequel before the pitiful attempt that is FF X-2. An utterly unnecessary sequel to the critically acclaimed FF X, X-2 achieved nothing short of a distasteful tarnish to the excellent work set by the predecessor.

The decidedly feminine premise is perhaps the least of X-2’s worries; if anything, it’s a breath of fresh air to the shameless regurgitation of the prequel’s art, music, and well, just about everything. What bothered me most was the complete lack of a coherent story, its weak music (for a Final Fantasy title, such is unforgivable), and a game play that resembles more of a collection of  mini games rather than a full fledged role playing game Square-Enix led us to believe.

After the events in FF X, Yuna, the female lead embarks of a journey in search of her love with her new persona- a popular singstress? FF X was an epic tale of love and hatred. X-2 is the video game equivalent of a blasphemy.

It sole saving grace was the fast-paced battle system that puts a twist to the traditional job system Final Fantasy games are well known for. But that is little consolation to the overall package. If this is Square-Enix’s best attempt in tying down the knots of FF X, I would have much prefer to have its curtains closed early. [5.5]

Filed under: Games, Review

Insights from the world

These few days I have had the fortune of welcoming, and then bidding farewell to a friend I made in Japan a couple of years back.

A detailed check with Facebook reveals that I have ‘friends’ from these countries:

Asia Pacific
1. Malaysia
2. India
3. Hong Kong
4. The Philippines
5. China
6. Vietnam
7. Japan
8. Korea
9. Bangladesh
10. Thailand
11. Australia

Europe/ Middle East
1. England
2. Denmark
3. Sweden
4. Norway
5. France
6. Austria
7. Holland

Americas
1. United States
2. Canada
3. Venezuela
4. Brazil
5. Mexico

No matter are they people who would welcome me to their homes at the skip of a heartbeat; or whom I shared a cup of coffee over and would likely never see again; or whom I have never even met in real life (yet), knowing them have helped me understood that there’s always a world greater than our world out there; that despite how similar we have all become, we are nonetheless not homogeneous; and that no matter how disparate we seemingly are, there is always a thread of similarity that ties us all, identifying us as the collective body where we all belong- humans.

Filed under: Life, People

Checkpoint #1

Flash back 2 years. There were only 2 things I wanted to do: (1) Auditing, and (2) Business Consulting. 5 months in my current job, I think I have made the right choice, not that there was much to begin with.

Forming an opinion on how far I can go is pointless, for there are too many things which I do not yet know and have not yet experienced. But work so far has been extremely encouraging. Appraisals from seniors and managers have been favourable; and more so are the ones from fellow peers- some had, quite earnestly, told me that I seem to have what it takes to be in the line.

Audit isn’t easy. It is, if definable, one of the toughest profession I can think of (at least within the Finance Industry). I think I have seen enough of it to pass such an opinion.

An important decision would have to be made a few months down the road- one that would possibly impact the rest of my working life. I need to make the best out of my first audit peak.

So far so good. I don’t dread going to work each day, nor do I look forward only to the pay day of each month. Yes I’ve got to admit, however fleeting it may be, I quite enjoy my job.

Filed under: Career

Green

When judged by the natural order of the realities, reservists too often become meaningless, us all the unwilling parties. One that has been conditioned by the vicious routines of life is plucked and placed in an utterly familiar environment, but for each day we have been away from it, entirely foreign as well.

Detestable, yes; but is that all there is to it? Jokes that never seem to get old, time that abruptly stops, and new stories to be discovered by the same old pasts- military life is perhaps just a different creature, one we ought not to tame with our seasoned selves.

Filed under: Life

The cold air

Sometimes the grind and tow of the days bury a feeling so deep you didn’t know it even existed. Yesterday that feeling was survived.

I meant the anxiety, fear and excitement. Then the dread. And when all is done, the extreme sadness that things just aren’t the same anymore.

Meeting the exchange students who are to tread what I walked almost made me feel like I am doing it all over again. But it wouldn’t have been fair to them. The adventure is to be experienced, not told.

Of all things I missed Edmonton the most, it was the air. I could still smell the air. It never left.

Filed under: Life

Responsibility

“The bad news is, your father’s got cancer”

And the good news is, sensing the ominous moods, “It isn’t as aggressive as we thought.”

To us, it was all good news. At least for the time being.

Cancer isn’t exactly foreign to my family. My uncle was recently diagnosed with it; my aunt was killed by it; my grandfathers were allegedly victims of it; and now my dad’s got it. Could it be me one day? I wouldn’t put a bet against it.

I have always known myself as the lynchpin of my family. This past week merely gave me the opportunity to prove it.

Filed under: Life

Subtlety

However important are what have been said and done, what hasn’t- the nonchalance, the indifference- is suitably more meaningful. But subtlety, alas, is a bridge only when both parties understand the unsaid.

Filed under: Thoughts

Chrono Trigger

Toma, the Adventurer “If I don’t return, come to my grave and pour this on my headstone.”

The group arrives, some 400 years later, on an unnamed isle at the West Cape. There was a sole gravestone.

“The Great Adventurer, Toma Levine rests here… 3/6/634″

The group took out the pop and honoured the man the way he wished. A shining soul rose to the sky, pointing them the direction to the Giant’s Claw. It was where the Rainbow Shell was kept, his last adventure.

It is romantic sequences like this which makes Chrono Trigger such a wonderful and emotionally-charged video game, but not before long the depressing after thoughts that they just don’t make games like this anymore.

Filed under: Games