Addiction

1) I am addicted to ravioli (a type of stuffed pasta). I love it! I can't stop eating the stuff.

I had some Sausage and Meat Ravioli for breakfast today. I had another variation of a meat ravioli for lunch and, for dinner I had... you get the point!

2) I discovered the treasure that is Vanilla yoghurt. It's awesome. I got the cheap version (Giant Eagle store brand). It tastes a little like sweet ogi from Yorubaland. I love it!

3) My netbook has been hacked into. It's horrible. Now it won't connect to the internet. Luckily, this means I can probably send it back to Dell for a system recovery thingy (I tried that already, but it didn't work. I was quite surprised. After about 5 years using HP computers, I had become a pro at the "restore factory settings" business. Or so I thought).

4) The US Open is on now. I'm hoping Rafa Nadal wins it. That'd be awesome. As I type, Wawrinka and Murray are playing. It's the fourth set and both of them are still going at it. Looks like they both took an injury or medical time out at some point.

5) The big audit at my factory will be postponed. I know it. My boss knows it. My factory manager knows it. We will all be in deep sh!t when that happens because we've had over 1 year to prepare. Fortunately for me, I have had just over 4 months here, part of which was spent away: what, 1 week in Arkansas, 2 weeks in training, 2 weeks of shutdown, 1 week in Chicago, etc. So I've substantively been in the plant for just about 3 months. Or less, if you count the 2 weeks I have spent giving training off-site. So it shouldn't be too bad. I suppose.

Still, we are under a phenomenal amount of pressure. A corporate visitor came around for 2 days last week and gave us a massive dressing down. It was a train-wreck. She asked a lot of questions like "Where does the factory stand with THIS or THAT", and I gave her a lot of "I think..." answers. She told me to eliminate "I think" from my vocabulary and tell her instead what I know. I wasn't sure of many of the things she wanted to know.

I know there will be several Come-to-Jesus meetings next week. You know, panic mode meetings. I am braced for it. However the cookie crumbles, we are in deep deep soup.

6) I went to my protege's house on Saturday. She is 15, very bright, very smart, etc. She lives in the ghetto. I hope she makes it out of there some day soon. She is such a beautiful, bright and kind girl. I really want to invest in her, especially in teaching her math and science. I was shocked to see the sort of mindless work she was doing for science work - at that age? She was hand-copying scrambled squares into a square grid, the objective being to form a picture of a panda at the end of the exercise. This was not for art class (as I had assumed), but was for their Physical Sciences class. My jaw fell to the ground when I saw this sh!t. At her age, I was in SS2 or SS3, preparing for NECO, JAMB, GCE and SSCE/WASSCE and had already taken JAMB & GCE once (trial run). I could dY/dX my way to the moon, and could tell you all about the circulatory system, digestive system, etc. This felt like Primary 6 work. And we wonder why some American schools are falling behind. Na wa o.

7) New addiction: iPhone games. Can't get enough of them! "Huggy: - really cute. Kind of like "Crystal Caves". Also, "Angry Birds" (free). "Chicktionary" (free). Toobz (free - like "Angry Birds", was introduced to me by my sister).

8) Looks like more traveling ahead: one week in Columbus (combining work and pleasure), two days in downtown Cleveland for work (I think it'll be in Cleveland - I'm not sure), and between now and the end of October, another 3 personal trips to Columbus.

9) Another corporate person is visiting next week. She is, however, the good cop. So I think she will be less brutal to us. I think. Hope.

10) Oh yeah! Really big news! Duke Nukem game coming out. After over a decade of waiting! Whoooooooooooooosa!


Read about it here: http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/games/blogs/screenplay/duke-nukem-whatever/20100906-14wa5.html

I was about 10 years old when the franchise fizzled out. Yikes!

11) One last note. As I typed, Wawrinka beat Murray. So it looks like Britain's search for a male GrandSlam winner will go into its 75th year. Jesu Kristi. :)

I'm doing Math again

Today, I whipped out my statistics textbook to refresh my memory on some stuff about standard deviations and z-scores and means and medians. It's nice to be doing math again. That's why I love my job so much: so many curve balls. I have done complex statistics, been a graphic designer, spoken in public numerous times, made fancy presentations, coached people, spent a half million bucks and done lots of cool stuff since I took this job. I love it, and I can see that I am contributing a lot! Whooooosa!

I ate some "Russian" bread today. At least that's what it said on the label. It was deep brown (there was some caramel added to it). The stuff is so heavy that the sliced loaf could easily be a defensive weapon in the unfortunate event that one has an intruder. It's like a bloody brick.

And oh, I had some peanut butter with it. That stuff tasted like poison. Apparently it is very popular in the US. Yuk. I hated it. No questions asked. Ewwwww.

Nothing beats loving what you do...

I am incredibly blessed to have my job. Absolutely fortunate....


I love it. I have grown more professionally in the past 3 months than I did for 2 years after leaving college. Really frightening stuff, actually...

I ate some pasta today, made by my company. To say that it blows my mind would be an understatement.

What's better than loving your job?

Having a company that makes an absolutely delightful product and (on the side) delights you at work, too.

Dreams come true!

The best I ever had...

Dannone Yoghurt...

Better than the Yoplait.

Better than the Stonyfield farm.

Two thumbs, waaaaaaaaaay up!

Weekend at home... sort of...

Aaagh. The pleasure of spending a weekend at home.

Well, sort of. I have some Princeton Alumni meeting this weekend. I am, surprisingly, looking forward to it.

In addition, I have some studying to do.

Work is getting a lot tougher, but it's challenging and exciting at the same time. Comparing my position here in this plant with my previous position has highlighted the reason some companies succeed and others don't. This is a professional organization: an organization of absolutely seasoned people who blow my mind every single time I see them. It's a truly remarkable place, where every single person is just bloody bright. I have met two truly forgettable people: one of them was fired, and the other one (word has it) is on his way out.

It's sink-or-swim here.

Upcoming week

I started studying for one of the 3 big exams I have coming up soon. Well, at least I tried.

Yesterday, Saturday, I went to get my hair done. The hair dressers are from Togo, and they are great: very nice ladies. Crucially, they didn't braid the hair unbearably tight, as some people are prone to do.

One deal breaker, though: the lady who did my hair talked on the phone the entire time. She yelled and screamed and hollered and spit on my poor head. It was quite disconcerting. Enough to make me seek another hairdresser, sharpish. Yes, I'm paranoid like that.

Oh yeah, I'm going out to dinner tomorrow with a group of people in a meetup group. SO that's Monday settled, then. I plan to go to work really early, work on some administrative stuff, and then leave work around 3pm, before coming back to my apartment to do laundry and possibly pack. And then go to dinner around 7pm or 06:30pm.

And then Tuesday night, head out to Illinois after work. And then return Thursday night. Sleep over in Cleveland on Thursday (at the airport hotel), and then return to work Friday, and drive to Columbus on Saturday.

Luckily, I am not doing any more traveling for the next few months. I think. Perhaps a drive to Cleveland every now and then. Perhaps.

Not sure... I realized earlier today just how unbearably tired I am right now. I need to start resting a little. Take things easy.

And, yes, I'm thinking of going to the US Open (perhaps even the finals). I kind of wonder how much it will cost. But no matter. Seeing Rafa Nadal is a priceless experience. I hope the knees hold up, and (more importantly), that he does very well at the tournament.

Training and work

Aaaaaaaagh. I hate to keep harping on and on about the same thing. I am definitely going to Illinois next week. Today I gave a big presentation at work - myself and another dude from work. He's very bright, and I was quite impressed with him.

It went better than I expected. I think I was a lot less nervous about presenting to such a large group than I thought I'd be. Indeed I was very confident when I got up to speak before the group. Rather surprising, but for me, what that means is that I will never be nervous again when speaking before a large group. I am that way: once I conquer a fear, there is no going back. And I really think this is one fear that has been conquered.

One more thing, though: I had a 12-hour day at work today. The training session we had was a big eye-opener for us. What it showed us is just how far we have to go. Today, my boss mentioned something to the effect of doing this every week from now until September 30th. AND. I. WAS. LIKE. HOLY. BLOODY. SHIT.

He said we might have to do this 2 days out of every week, and do it every week from now until September 30th, when we have a massive, massive massive audit which our plant HAS TO pass! Scary shit! Tomorrow, we have to sit to finalize what the plan going forward is (i.e. myself, my boss and the bright dude I gave the presentation today with have to have a meeting). Anyway, what matters is that we completed this round of training...