almost reaching the finish line!

its around 4:45 am as i'm trying to finish the ironman trailer in time for the deadline tomorrow. It looks...ok. Definitely things that could be improved, but given the work time of 2-3 weeks, i think we did an ok job. I can't post any images here, because that would be unprofessional...unless Marvel decides that based on the teaser, they would like to create a CG series for Ironman. I guess you'll be seeing it on t.v then...heheheh.

Last week, they had the HR manager come over and interview a few people to find out what was wrong with the company and find out what complaints they had. After our inteview, the HR manager said that I seemed really subdued and not complaining/requesting much compared to the others. I told her i was easy to please, just give me interesting work and pay me what i'm worth and i'll be a happy man. All that stuff about socso and epf doesn't really interest me because at the end of the day, i plan to move overseas and use my skills as a way to travel the world and experience new things. So whats the point of epf if i'm leaving in a year or two?

I hope i don't end up like those people who SAY that they want to move overseas but in the end get caught up in their life and career here that they end up staying longer then they wanted and eventually just can't be bothered or are unable to have the freedom of just leaving when they want. I don't think i can stand staying in one place for a really long time now...i haven't lived in a place for more than 3.5 years since i was 11! So in two years, if i DO end up like those people i talked about, i hope i will revisit this post and maybe push myself to do what I always wanted.

new role

well...i have been asked to lead a team for another project for the company. I have been getting more responsibilities these days, even being invited to management meetings and luncheons. I am actually now considered a team leader and what I say will actually make a difference. There is some restructuring going on in the company, and the CEO actually wants to make things better for us. There are a few interesting projects coming up and the one i will be leading seems pretty interesting. Now, the thing is that my contract is still under animator with a low basic pay, so i will have to negotiate a higher salary to reflect my role and added responsibility.

One thing with being team leader so soon though, there was this guy under me who had 7 years experience and i can sense a bit of resentment when I work with him. Also when i give critique, he does not really take it well. I don't really want to be a bastard and say, "hey, i'm the leader so you just do what I say" yet I can't just let it go like that. So i worked around it by getting other people who are more senior than him to give him comments. I guess that for him to be led by someone who just a few months ago was a fresh rookie has gotta be hard so i took it a bit easy on him cos i can understand where he is coming from. He complained though, i think, to one of the directors who told me that he(the guy under me in my current project) wasn't happy being in a subservient role and that he would be leading a separate team in the future. Oh well, i wish him luck.

kickboxing pain

gaahhh...can barely lift my hands up now... who knew kickboxing class was gonna be that torturous..

it started with the warm up, just loosening up on your toes, then 10 seconds of intense high knees. so far ok, then he says "lets try something new today, i want you to step forward, then lower yourself down as low as possible to the ground with your knee barely touching the ground". so i do that and alls fine for about 5 seconds when your knee starts telling you GIVE UP NOW! except the instructor is counting 20...19...18.
so after my left knee is destroyed, we turn to other side and do the same thing so i can be crippled on both legs.

At this point, i'm heaving and puffing and working up a real sweat, and its just warm up!
After warm up, we are split into different groups, half do punching, the other kicking.
I was in the punching class and basically you just do combinations like jab jab cross or jab cross cross or something like that. Well thats fine, except you do it like 10 times and by the end of it you feel like your arms are gonna drop off. If you hit the bag hard like i did, it becomes even worse as you feel the shock throughout your whole upper body. anyway, after 10 times of jab jab cross, he adds to the combination now its jab jab cross hook hook. ok, another 15 times of that and its jab jab cross hook hook body body, more torture and its jab jab cross hook hook body body back to fighting stance jab cross. suffice to say, at the end of the punching session, i could barely lift my hands up to fighting stance let alone punch. if i swatted at a fly it would say "wot, that it?".

Kicking was a bit better, but by that time i was so tired i couldn't kick with full power. The instructor pointed out that i wasn't following through enough on my kicks and proceeded to demonstrate by kicking me backwards a couple of meters. He didn't even look like he was puting much effort into it...hehehe.

Well, all i have to say is that the "trial class" didn't really prepare me for how intense the workout would be. I'd say that it was only about 30% of what a real work out would feel like.

backs been hurting quite a bit lately. i think it has to do with the terrible posture i take while doing my work. half slumped, half hunched... oh, and i'm doing kickboxing now. originally wanted to do just boxing, but my colleague at work was going to this kickboxing gym at sri hartamas so i went to the free trial lesson. was pretty fun, and its a real gym with pros training there too, although the clientele is 90% women. after the free trial i decided to join for 1 month doing it 2 times a week. paola is also doing it with me. I talked to one of the trainers, and he said that if i am willing to compete, then the gym fee can be "negotiated"...heheheh. well, i'll see after 1 month, whether i still want to do it or not.