Management 101

For months I have been trying to convince my boss that I'm meant to be a worker, not a manager. I think she's slowly coming round to the idea, but I don't think I'm there yet. Managing people is one of the most tedious jobs out there, at least where I'm concerned. No doubt, there are people who love it and would kill to be in a management position. Guess it's just not in me. Plus the fact that I'm just really, really tired of vetting other people's bad reports.

This is the sad truth about working life. It's never about what you want or what you love. The hierarchy has spoken, and the system needs to be preserved. Or all hell would break loose.

Well, it's all a learning process in the end, and I have learnt that I can't manage people for nuts. To do this kind of thing well, one has to have an inclination towards nurturing people and a certain controlling streak as well. Whereas I firmly believe it's bad for progress to have too much control and I definitely don't have the maturity to coach others yet. Not the best type to put in management, I think.

When it comes to work, this one thing is fairly straightforward to me: if your best is deemed unacceptable all the time, you are in the wrong job. And if what you're doing is unacceptable but you haven't tried your best, well, just try harder. These days, it seems to me supervision is over-rated (and leadership conveniently forgotten). The fact is, people who actually have a real need for supervision are doomed to menial tasks, which shouldn't be the case in my unit at all. For goodness' sake, all are tertiary educated and everyone is intelligent.

Even on a good day, I find it utterly ridiculous and unnecessary to have so many checks and levels in the system. These are the organisational death traps that kills the sense of ownership - the very thing that makes people take a more active interest in their jobs.

Legend (Tae Wang Sa Shin Gi)

Watching Bae Yong Jun in Legend was such a strange experience. He's just not suited for period dramas. I think it's his eyes - they are too specky.


Anyway this is really Lord of the Rings set in Korea, oh sorry, Goguryeo. Bae stars as King Damdeok, great-great-great-grandson of King Jumong (remember that guy?). And here's the amazing secret we were not privy to when watching MBC's Jumong - the founding emperor of Guchosun is actually a god who looks like Bae Yong Jun. With flowing white hair. Shudder.

Really brief synopsis of episode 1: The white-haired god (superstar of the entire show) has four other demi-gods watching over him. Except one of them went crazy and tried to destroy the world after her newborn child was stolen from her. Oh, and did I mention she also happened to be the white-haired god's wife? And technically speaking, she isn't really even a demi-god. Yeah, well, it's complicated...

So complicated that it takes us the next 31 episodes to find out if she (acted by my newest idol Lee Ji Ah) is going to be reunited with her god of a husband in their next lives. This show has got everything - mythogical beasts, demi-gods, tribal wars, magical artifacts, even reincarnation. So hang on to your seat.


The cinematography of Legend is really amazing. No wonder Teddy said Japan is actually screening this episode by episode in the cinemas! There are probably plenty of aunties who would gladly pay to watch Bae ride a horse, brandish a sword and look sagely as a legendary king. If you ask me, he's ok. But really not that drool-worthy. I prefer the boy who acted as as the teen Damdeok. :) But of course, the only real idol material who emerged from Legend is Lee Ji Ah (Yoon Eun Hye, watch out)!

Oh, the soundtrack is not bad. Total score 6.5/10.

Ask the Dust (2006)

I caught the film on TV last night, quite by chance. Based on the semi-autobiography by John Fante, it's a somewhat poignant love story set in America in the 1930s. To call it a love story is perhaps doing the film a disservice. After all, the book was considered by many to be the masterpiece among Fante's quartet of novels about a poor, struggling writer, Arturo Bandini (played quite convincingly by Colin Farrell).

With the Great Depression as the background, Bandini's desperation to get published and eke out a living is palpable. Surviving only on cheap oranges and cigarettes, he finally resorts to stealing milk at the instigation of his senile neighbour, Mr Hellfrick (played by Donald Sutherland). That was a great moment in the movie, though. Lighthearted but oddly evocative. I really felt for Bandini. Guess I just love stories of poor writers baring their souls in front of rusty typewriters in sordid hotel rooms (and you get plenty of those in this movie).

Now, where's the romance, you ask? Patience. It comes soon enough in the lovely form of Salma Hayek, who plays a proud and tempestuous waitress working in the cafe where Bandini - as fate would have it - decides to spend his last nickel. The two meet, and it's the beginning of a strangely compelling (but I wouldn't call it beautiful) relationship. Sad to say, the two lack chemistry. You expect two such good-looking people to sizzle up the screen with their sexual tension. But sorry, no such luck.

That doesn't spoil the tale though. Which implies what a well-told story it is. There is nothing epic, extraordinary or even romantic about it. The relationship between Bandini and Camilla Lopez (the waitress) is full of starts and stops, and you're never quite sure what she is thinking. I wasn't so intrigued by that. It's the weaving of the other subplots into the love story I found interesting. There are several sad and deeply flawed characters who enter Bandini's life, and these encounters are the ones that are most telling of Bandini's humanity and decency.

Not to disappoint those diehard romantics out there, the romance between the lovers did take off - after much fighting and denial. But you already know that. :) There were some neat, unexpected moments, like how he was trying to woo her with a book (containing a short story he wrote) and she promptly sent it down a spittoon. It was entertaining, watching the two. But it's not a sappy tale, so don't expect a fairy tale ending.

The movie doesn't hit a lot of high notes, but it does all the small things perfectly. I liked it.

A good year in Cubeville

I'd say so. It's strange that when I was in the midst of it, I was complaining incessantly (mostly about the job). But now, on hindsight, it was actually a good year.

Good in the sense that I seem to have regained some semblance of self-acceptance. I used to beat myself up over small things. Well, yeah, I'm not completely weaned off that, but it's better now. Or maybe - horror of horrors - my standards are just dropping. I hope not.

For some unfathomable reason, both Teddy and I experienced a great deal of job fatigue this year. It's probably worse for him. Work sucks, first of all. And he can't find good lunch kakis. I'm luckier - colleagues are fine, only the work is downright uninspiring.

For the past one year, it's just about doing what gets approved, and making sure things hum along. All my youthful idealism has faded away. It's actually quite distressing, whenever I try to work up some sense of mission but fail miserably in the end. I have lost the desire to create beautiful work in this organisation. Sounds like I'm in some kind of artistic industry - I am not. Furthest thing from it, in fact. It's just a philosophy I subscribe to.

For my own sanity, I have stopped trying to produce beautiful work for this place. And what came out was still acceptable, too. So why was I so obsessed with beautiful work in the first place? Suddenly, my passions and rages felt so unnecessary. I could see why some people were so calm about the state of things. They were realistic.

Now, that was a learned perspective for me. It felt very unnatural, actually. My truest instincts always tend towards the ideal and the foolish. Work should be done to the best of one's ability. Leaders should be men and women of noble characters. Governments should exist to improve the lives of citizens. I lived in a constant state of disbelief at things happening around me. I think for a period of time, I felt very cheated by it all. That was probably what they call disillusionment.

But I'm out of it now. Well, I think I am. :) I don't think my ideals have changed. I still believe in those lofty things (fortunately, or unfortunately). But I no longer feel so aggrieved. It's still frustrating sometimes, but at least I can laugh about it. Woot!

"The Immortal Game" by David Shenk

This is one of those great books to relax in bed with, and yet be mentally stimulated by. How the two can happen simultaneously, I can't say. But David Shenk did a good job in his book, weaving the history of chess with a famous chess game played on 21 June 1851, known as the immortal game.

I'm always looking forward to the next move in this game, which unfolds throughout the book. It sounds darn boring to read algebraic notations in a book and see static pictures of chessboards and pieces, but it actually is very exciting to follow! :)

On the historical side of things, I just got past the origins of the game, and how it evolved across different cultures. Chess was a big part of the Islamic Renaissance, and the Crusaders of those days have their Muslim enemies to thank for the introduction of chess into medieval Europe. For the record, chess was (probably) invented by the Indians. Shenk didn't talk about Chinese chess, so I wonder which came first?

Anyway, some interesting trivia: the Queen wasn't always known as the Queen. She used to be the King's Minister, and her moves were a lot more limited. I guess girl power happened. And the Bishop was fomerly the Elephant, but when chess came to Europe, people didn't know what an elephant was, so they changed the name. Cool.

Pocket Films Festival in Japan

The first Pocket Films Festival was held in France in 2005. The third festival was recently held in Yokohama, Japan. Pocket films refer to works shot on cell phones equipped with cameras.

"Hazy and raw but urgently personal", pocket films are said to be an emerging art form. This reminds me of micro fiction, where you are supposed to tell a story in less than 1000 words. Micro fiction didn't quite cut it for me as a reader but that's just me.

These days, everyone can be a filmmaker, since cell phones with video functions are quite ubiquitous. Well, but the fact is marketable talent is still in short supply. No matter; art is supposed to be intensely personal anyway. It's a bonus if other people are willing to pay for it. :)

The restless sea