Interesting Couple of Days With Interview, PC Show, and Jamming

I seldom write my blog in an online diary style. Mainly because I prefer subtlety and through the books I review, music I listen to, photographs I took, and movies I watched, I hope I am able to show the facets of me without telling you what sort of cereal I eat lately (hmmm … tempting). However, events of these couple of days are so random that I just cannot find a common theme. So, let’s start with …

[Part 1 of 3 – Interview]

Thursday. Just before lunch I got a call on my wireless phone (a term I learned from watching American Idol).

She: We have spoken couple of weeks before. Are you still interested in the XYZ position?

(more like 2 months in exact)

Me: Yes I am (firm with much enthusiasm).
She: Can you come in during lunch?

I looked at my clock and it said eleven-thirty. Lunch was just half an hour away and if you know me, I think visually. I pictured myself showering, I pictured the need to wear my contact lens and do up my hair, I pictured myself ironing a white shirt, I pictured myself polishing my pair of business shoes, and above all other unimportant images such as breakfast and publishing one of the blog that was written a day before (patting my own shoulder: your dedication to your web audience is quite admirable) – I have to get prepared for the job interview. My buddy BCM has passed me some materials to read in order to get to know what products the company is selling.

I told the person on the line that I was at home and would properly take some time to get to the town center. We then agreed on late afternoon. Between the company and I, we have waited each other for 2 months in exact (I was called one day before I climbed Mount Kinabalu while I was at Kota Kinabalu). I am sure we can afford to wait for another couple of hours.

I love interviews. It is more like a friendly chat between two strangers. A sort of discovery journey not unlike first dates. And since dating is not something I can do these days, job interview is one of the alternative avenues … kidding! Anything beyond the first two and a half sentences in this paragraph is rubbish. On the record, I do enjoy interviews.

After the interview, I had a short coffee break with my buddy BCM just to touch base (“touch base” – such a commonly used corporate phase … I always thought touching base with someone means many things – from patching up from all the corporate backstabbing to “long time no see and though under any normal days I don’t want to see your face but this is business” to “we are both bored at work and let’s kill some time outside the office” to … ahem … corporate intimacy). Of course touching base with BCM was more like old friends who have known each other for 10 years having a crack on my interview and other things in life.

Tried to call up a few friends for a drink in the evening before Cynthia emerged from her office but everyone seemed to have something on. Not to worry. Entertaining myself is one of my strengths – funny that Strength Finder 2.0 did not pick that up. I brought with me a book called “Strategy Paradox” and it is surprisingly a good read. Rare as it is for any consulting book to be entertaining, this one is special. Do keep a look out for the upcoming book reviews in my site.

[Part 2 of 3 – PC Show]

Friday. I have not seen my buddy Mark for a long time and he suggested to see the Friday “PC Show” exhibition. I seldom miss any IT show or motor show for that matter so I eagerly agreed – the same level of enthusiasm as I agreed to that job interview. Mark suggested bringing a camera to take some pictures of the hot babes in the exhibition and I said …

Me: PC Show?!
He: Yes.
Me: But there are no hot babes in PC Show. Motor show, yes. PC Show, no.

Mark then mentioned Nikon and Canon … and ah ha … I remember. Last year, the promoters from Nokia were stunningly attractive posting for everyone to take picture with the new N95 and have them printed out as souvenir (I got a teddy bear phone holder instead). These models were very popular amongst the male population during the last IT show. Funny as I read the last sentence. 99.99% of the people in any given IT show are male … duh!

The PC Show was very crowded. We did one round in the outer circle and then another round in the inner circle and then we gave up. No photos of hot babes neither.

Not knowing what to do next and as Mark’s wife was shopping elsewhere, I suggested to him to hang around with Cynthia and I and I would send him home afterwards. And then there was beer while waiting for Cynthia, Chinese food as three of us chatting on our favorite online game … and three of us were online till wee hours after we returned home. To describe what we have done would have alienated 99.99% of my readers so let’s just say … we’ve had our share of frustration and we’ve had our share of fun. For Mark and I, it was like bringing back old memories two years ago when we first started playing the game.

[Part 3 of 3 – Jamming]

Sunday. After a month and a half of inactivity, my guitarist Jason finally gave me a call to book a jamming session. To be honest, in the name of jamming, I would have dropped any pending activities. As the icing on the cake, Cynthia made it as our bassist too! Hooray to the power Nth! One time Jason suggested that we shall include some of the older songs we have jammed into our open-mic set. So while waiting for this jamming session to occur, I managed to memorize two more songs – “Leaving You” and “Jealousy”. So together with “Something In Your Eyes”, “My Little Swallow”, “Some People Say”, “Feather”, “I Erase Your Face”, and “Kids From The Park”, we have 8 songs in total.

As the cherry on the cream that rests on the icing on that cake, I have invited my sister Lora and her boyfriend Benny to listen to our music. They were clapping and yelling at the end of each song. Probably the most enthusiastic audience we have seen or I have seen.

We did the entire set once and then another time. Satisfied with our progression I asked Jason if there is any song he would like to add onto the set and he suggested “Broken”. We jammed it out a couple of times and though it must have been more than a year if not years since we played that song together, we have it tightened in our second try. Started the session at 1.30pm and by 5pm we were shagged. We were playing non-stop and imagine, three and a half hours of concert … close to 20 songs … it was tiring – to the band as well as the audience (things that our “fans” have to put up with …). Next time we meet, we are going into live recording mode. If Jason and Cynthia manage to memorize some of the chords especially during chorus, we are one step closer to public performance.

Hooray!