makumaro.net

Seasonal Fashion

• Listening to: Ranma ½ - Ending Theme for Season 9

Yesterday at work, my glasses fell apart. Well, the screw on the right side of my glasses have been loosening itself for a while, and everytime it came off, I’d use my fingernails as a screwdriver to get it back on. Yesterday however, while I was spraying the trays clean, I guess the pressure on the water was too much and my right lens came out, as the screw would not hold the frame together.

Heh, my friend tried to help as we were trying to get the screw back into the frame. However, these things are REALLY, really small. I could barely hold on to the screw and it was just too difficult to manipulate it as there wasn’t much to hold on to. So we used a pair of tweezers (well, the ones that the boss uses to pick fish bones out anyway). We tried but to no avail, and as my friend tried to help me, she applied a little too much pressure to the tweezers and my screw went flying. That is the last you’ll ever hear about that screw as it got lost on the floor. The reason we couldn’t find it was that my glasses are a dark purplish/bluish black. The floor had plenty of dark spots and being that small, the screw was harder to find than a needle in a haystack. My friend was profusely apologising, but I guess these things can’t be helped, not that I minded very much anyway.

Well, I managed to get home in one piece, thanks to cellotape and all, so we got my glasses back into working order, albeit not as pleasant looking. This morning I was rummaging through my old collection of glasses. The thing is, everytime I get a new pair, it’s only cause my old pair is really worn, but not broken. I managed to find to pairs of glasses. One from probably the early 2001-2002 period when I was in first and second year. The other pair was the one prior to my current one. I noticed how the lens sizes shrinks with each subsequent purchase. I guess it’s a fashion, that you want less of a frame so it doesn’t look that obtrusive. The one I had from my earlier years looked kinda dorky by my standards today, or I’m just probably not used to it. It was roundish and kinda large.

Heh, I think I started wearing glasses in Primary 4 (or at the end of it), probably due to the glare from the whiteboards in school. Being one of the tallest in class (heh, am still pretty tall among most 0f my friends), I usually sat at the back, which didn’t help at all so I developed short-sightedness. That and the fact that I was so much more the bookworm in my y0uthful years, hiding story books under the desk during class and reading in poor lighting. Yeah, those were the days when I had plastic frames and looked like a total dork. I guess after 15 years, I’m still a dork with all my technobabble and limited social skills, needing time to warm up to people and for people to get to know me.

Went to work today and only much later in the afternoon did my boss and my friend notice I had changed my glasses. Heh…

Memories

• Listening to: .hack SIGN OST - Key of the Twilight

Your photographs,
the mementos,
like the memories in
our thoughts
once crisp and cherished,
they fade and yellow,
a drift from timelessness,
now forgotten.

Training Day

• Listening to: Sandy Lam - Zhi Shao Hai You Ni

No fishy business today, as my boss sent me to train officially at David Jones. There were three of us blokes from the Seafood department arriving late for training at the HR Department of David Jones, and as I entered the room, I saw ladies all dressed in black (standard uniform is anything black with sleeves on it for girls) while we were clad in multicoloured casual wear and being all guys.

The first thing that hit me was the absolute resemblance of how tutorials were run at Uni. Small class of less than 15 people, and the tutor (instructor in this case) dishing out information while asking questions and expecting feedback from the students (us trainees in this sense). Heck, even the questions asked sounded similar to the course material I’ve learnt over the years in Commerce.

It was basically learning customer service in how you approach a customer and initiate a sale until the final moment when you close it. While in theory it all sounds very good, I find it a bit impractical to do all those things, especially when all you sell is Seafood. The level of personal service required is just not feasible, and probably difficult to implement. However, since it is store policy, I guess we have to try as hard as possible.

In the latter half of the training session (it is a full day affair), we were taught how to use the cash register. While the other trainees had only observed this before (most had experience in familiarising themselves through their managers or colleagues, I think) I had already learnt most of what was being taught. The reason was my section was an entity separate from David Jones, so we didn’t really operate under the same stringent rules. Heh, the weather was warm today and I had as light a lunch I could, but was still feeling sleepy (isn’t that the case with all sessions that resemble classrooms?) and actually dozed off a while right in front of the instructor, for maybe around 5 seconds. Luckily she called us up to practise on the cash registers. Personally find this method of instruction ineffective, as you don’t really learn anything until you have to do it consistently in real life situations, which I have done over the duration of the last 3 weeks.

Was very glad when the training finally ended at 530pm, although I still have to go in and finish up for half a day in a couple of hours time.

On a side note, I greeted the sun this morning. Been up the entire night levelling up to reach that elusive level 40 mark. Heh, must be the rebellious mood that comes with attending classes, you feel like doing something different for a change and not follow the norm. Heh, I don’t approve of it, but sometimes my heart wins over my mind and being sane and rational does not apply anymore.

I finally attained the level 40 status I promised my friend, even if it’s 5 days overdue. At this level, certain equipment and armour become available to me, and the monsters which I’ve had trouble despatching before are now peanuts to take out. Even the really mean monsters can be ass whooped by me now (although they still deal me a heck of a lot of damage, so I shall not gloat in front of them now).

Heh, where my hands and legs were jelly before, my mind has now followed suit. Only 3 more hours before training starts. Am so ‘looking forward’ to it.

Now, I need coffee… lots of it.