Selah to Hagah

It was a long hiatus.

Many, I mean MANY, things of course had happened in the past fifteen months. I’m not even sure where to start, but the itch to write is no longer bearable that whatever block a writer might have looked silly. And I don’t even consider myself as one.

I’m looking at a fresh start ahead. A year of new beginning, some say. A time when you close your eyes, a blurry vision tries to get your attention but you’re either still pretty dizzy from trying to focus to numerous spots or just don’t want to get into ponderous zone. Not so soon, at least.

Am getting a new job. “Not software development, but still in IT,” as if you need to make it more justifiable to several questioning pairs of eyes. In fact, you don’t see any question marks but you say it anyway to clear anyone’s doubt. “Your own doubt,” no one yet ever said, though. The last karaoke session was nice. What a bunch of fine folks, missed you already, guys. And the night talks in kopitiam somewhere remote from home when everyone’s posing clownily wise. Fine folks, indeed.

In spiritual front, so far so not bad. The peak was in last May, where nobody said it would be easy organizing a retreat even for a size below a hundred. It’s not. But it’s done anyway, anyhow. God’s grace, great team, wonderful spouse. Cell group grew, too. Many thinkers now, hehehe. I myself can definitely improve my personal time with Him, quality and quantity wise.

My guitar broke! The part that holds the strings near your strumming hand (what’s its name? I ain’t no musician) were detached while playing. No accident, thank God. I need to DIY-repair it soon to record a goodbye song for my soon-to-be-former colleagues. A goodbye song, how cheesy!

House pricing is crazy. Just. Plain. Crazy. I’ll nod my head if someone says the property agents have been conspiring to overhype how gooood our economy is rising like nobody’s business. Yeah, except it’s everybody’s business! Again something to thank God about that my landlords still have merciful heart. I don’t know what next year will bring, really. Plans to make more money have yet to move into inception. Money, money, money, money$.

Speaking about making money, I’ve just read a billionaire philanthropist said “I was set out to make more money, but not to have it.” Niiice, eh? Go ponder.

Hmm, what else.. I replaced my Samsung CRT with a 19″ ViewSonic widescreen LCD. All is well, all is well Half of one of my childhood dreams materialized. The other half? What, another 19″ widescreen LCD, of course! And a big, strong, nice L or U shaped desk, with a couple of Aeron chairs, inside a sound proofed spacious home office room, closable door installed. For a guy who does not fancy cars, mobile phones, watches, and golf sticks, it’s a decent wish, no?

Ok, enough for now. I reached 500 words, not too bad for a block breaker. As parting gift, I’ll just drop a link to a very good blog I subscribed recently: Meditations on Meaning.

Until sometime (I hope) soon.

I’ve been a faithful waiterrant.net reader for about 3 months and continue to be highly entertained and educated (in a subtle way) by his writings. His last post is kind of pointing that to me (the education):

CEOs say how you treat a waiter can predict a lot about character
(USA Today, 14 Apr 2006)

Office Depot CEO Steve Odland remembers like it was yesterday working in an upscale French restaurant in Denver.

The purple sorbet in cut glass he was serving tumbled onto the expensive white gown of an obviously rich and important woman. “I watched in slow motion ruining her dress for the evening,” Odland says. “I thought I would be shot on sight.”

Thirty years have passed, but Odland can’t get the stain out of his mind, nor the woman’s kind reaction. She was startled, regained composure and, in a reassuring voice, told the teenage Odland, “It’s OK. It wasn’t your fault.” When she left the restaurant, she also left the future Fortune 500 CEO with a life lesson: You can tell a lot about a person by the way he or she treats the waiter.

(read more insights from the article…)

Now this is not to say how a great human I am but I’m humbly glad that my parents had raised me pretty well not to have a “situational value system”, as one of the CEOs put it.

As a Christian, we’re not to judge others. Heck, this is also for other beliefs holders. But predicting one’s character is a skill needed by most people if they still live in this earth - thus interact with each other. A lot of decision making require a good observation about the other party. And observing how someone treats a waiting staff will tell you truthfully about them.

By the way, my sis is also in F&B industry. Maybe this is why I tend to see waiting job at a slightly different angle from many of my friends. Not to say that they treat waiters badly, though, it’s just “different” I always see my sis in the person who attend to us whenever we eat. The thing that I still can’t figure out to do nicely is tipping well. In Singapore we have 10% compulsory service charge and in many restaurants you’ll be attended by more than 1 waiters. So, you don’t have a clear gauge of how much you should tip. Well, I know it’s a lame excuse and I should add that 5-10% more on top the compulsory 10% already

Thanks for the tip, Waiter.