my unreasonable fear.

Is there someone in your place of employment who is sour and difficult all the time? The Tallest Woman in the World is kinda that person. She comes in, looks like she's ready to kill someone, and then shuts herself in her office. Occasionally, she'll come out and walk around while muttering various obscenties under her breath. She also has a knack of yelling at the receptionist for no good reason. It's really quite unpleasant.

Ever since my childhood, I've always been frightened of yelling or just generally unpleasant people. I think it traces back to when I was 5 or so and my mom used to yell a lot. I'd be terrified when she yelled because I knew, if she's yelling, it's a matter of time before I get a harsh spanking. Now, I know this woman is not gonna come at me with a spatula, but i'm just naturally worried when she's unpleasant.

I told my parents of this problem I'm having and they told me to grow up. Well, thanx a lot. Rule me with fear when I was little and now you tell me to stop being scared.

This is my 8th day of "training" at this office, and my rate of learning has slowed down steadily since the third day. They lack a good training structure so a lot of the times I'm just sitting here wondering if I'm on the right track. I still want this job, mind you, but if i'm going to be wasting time and not learning, I'd rather be earning $$ while doing so. Like everyone else.

I think I'll speak to my boss about hiring me on Friday. Keep your fingers crossed.

time for: more "learning/training".

things i've noticed...

Sitting here in my little cubicle, I can't help but noticing the weird little things about this office. The people are nice, odd, but nice. The business is decent, as far as I can tell, but some things are just dang weird for an office!

- there's a lack of a cleaning crew, I saw one of the most senior employee (I shall refer to her as the Tallest Woman In The World) on her hands and knees this morning cleaning the bathroom floor. She apparently refuses to let the boss hire someone.

- there's a fridge in the guy's bathroom. That's right, a fridge. One of those little ones. When asked about the reasoning behind this, I was told that it's cuz the boss and the Tallest Woman In The World have bad backs/knees and do not want to walk to the fridge in the lunchroom. So whenever I make my tea in the morning, I go into the bathroom to get milk. (they are those little sealed containers, thank goodness.)

- there are at least five different temperature levels in the office at any given time. My part is cold cuz I have insanely high ceilings.

Alright, my lunch is coming to an end. Damn, I'm still kinda hungry.

time for: some more reading.

stupid blogger.. i curse you.

I wrote a nice lengthy entry when I was back in the office today. Then blogger made up some internal error and ate my entry right up.

So I shall start again.

I've been "working" in the CA firm for a few days now and while I don't love it, I do kinda enjoy it. The first day I worked with tax returns for individuals. Then I moved on to Notcie to Readers and Review Engagements for some small companies. For those who are not familiar with accounting terms: an Audit is a comprehensive look and analysis of not only a company's operations, including internal controls, but also declaring to reasonable extent that the company's financial statements are in good order and there's no evident fraud.

A Review Engagement is one giant notch down. It's indepth in that we would compare the finanical statements with previous years and see if there are any discrepencies. We kinda just sign off saying that after some analysis, the statements look okay.

A Notice to Readers consists of preparation of the financial statements and then bascially saying that, "yeah, we put the f/s together, but the info's all from the client and we can't be held responsible for whether or not it's true". hahah.

So anyway, I've been working on the last two. With the help of previous years' files so I can tell what I need to do. My next goal is to refer to the previous files only once or twice before completing it. My boss says that I'm doing really well, learning very quickly and that he now knows for sure that he made the right judgment call by calling me back last week. He and the quasi-boss are really nice to me. Quasi-boss is a giant of a woman and likes to call me shorty, hahah. I think it's been a while since they've had someone on staff who is completely fluent in english and knows how to joke around with them. There were two other girls who started on the same day as me, both chinese, both girls, both not so fluent that they'd know to interpret some jokes and whatnot. Which is too bad, because they are very hardworking, it'd be nice if all of us can relax and joke around.

Anyway, my entry before wasn't so long and boring. But I can't remember what I have written. Damn.

Oh, one more thing, one of my collegues is a dead ringer for William Hung. teehee. :D

Time for: bus. school. bus. din din with my hunny. really looking fwd to that last part.

a little bit scared..

i've been sitting at my desk reading up on accounting stuff that i need to know to prepare for tomorrow.. and i must say i'm a little worried. this is a lot of material for me to cover, i don't think i'll be able to cover it all and remember everything. hopefully i'll be able to sleep tonite, i tend get a little jittery when i'm nervous and sometimes my thoughts run wild and delays my sleep.

that being said, i really hope i'll be hired in the oncoming weeks. first thing i'm gonna do if i'm hired is... shopping. i went shopping yesterday and it was just awful. whenever i picked up anything i liked, a little voice in my head said, "put it down! you don't know if you are gonna be hired!"... stuipd voice.

time for: some more reading

a sigh of relief.

had my interview today.. and i think it went really well. we talked for about 2 hours, just getting to know the company and my accounting background and whatnot. he went through the kind of work i'd be doing and kinda threw some terms at me to see if i knew anything about accounting at all. basically he knows i have zero experience but he said that i seemed sharp so we worked something out.

we agreed that for the next couple of weeks, i'll go in the office and just play with/learn the software and become familiar with the books and what will be expected of me. they will give me dummy accounts to work with. i won't be paid during this time. but i figure that it's even better.. at least i won't feel bad if i fuck up. and i'm just grateful for a chance to learn anyway, cuz honestly, companies keep rejecting me cuz i have zero experience. so if i'm able to show that i know how to use the software and know what i'm doing with the actual accounting work, i'm hired.

now that i've had a couple of hours to digest this information and having spoken to a few people, a part of me wonder if i'm being "ripped-off".

on the one hand, most ppl pay for training, don't they? but on the other, people (esp. professionals) tend to hire only people with experience.

oh well, i've been rejected by so many firms already, this is really an excellent opportunity to start my career. so i'm happy. yay!

time for: trying not to jump around yelling, "i've got a job, i'm back on track!!".. cuz really, i don't have the job.... yet.

website that makes me laugh.

i've been meaning to link this site for a longest time... it's witty, well written with a side of meaness. so perfect for leisure reading.

oh, and i have an interview in about 17 hours at a small CA firm. i'm not sure how to prep for it except for reading over my old notes from school. wish me luck.

time for: hooking up VCRs so my parents can "dub" stuff.

uhm. happy new year!! yay!

so i ended last year like a real dumbass.

edward and i threw a party for new year's eve and i thought it was lots of fun. the guys were playing poker. the girls mario party. fun stuff. come time for the countdown and everyone had their own little confetti cannon ready to go. my job was to capture the moment when confetti and ribbons go flying in the air. it would've made for a very festive 30-second video. so as for my last decision of the year 2004, i decided to capture the moment with a picture. instead of a video. dumbass. i think that was my greatest regret of 2004.

said picture taken right at 12:00:00:


this is a picture from 12:00:05:


sorry about the cleaning, you guys. i just thought the confetti would be fun. and at least we didn't get the bigger confetti cannons.. next time we can line the ground with garbage bags, maybe?

anyway.. on to the new year. 2004 was alright, but i want 2005 to be ten times better.

so far, there's already been some ups and downs:

- edward's not in t.o for 3 days a week. this is serious, guys. i saw edward everyday except for maybe 10 days last year. we are not sick, we were living in the house! we are used to seeing each other.

- back at school. uhm. ryerson. for nite classes. ryerson is a little.. uhm.. rundown. but i'm enjoying it so far.

- i'm starting to become a job-crazed maniac. the fact that i'm gonna turn 24 this year (24!!!!) hit hard a few days ago. i realized that sitting on my ass all day will not be acceptable at 24. my excuse of being a "recent graduate" is not gonna hold for much longer.

so my resolutions for this year includes starting my career; purchasing something big like a car. (hell, i'd settle for that really thin $800 cell phone).

time for: some reading. taking classes mean having course readings.