You know when you’re so busy and have so many things to do that you don’t really know where, when and how to start? That’s pretty a bummer by itself, but if you think you are up to your neck with problems to solve and there’s no more room for more bullshit, well, think again. I was forced, sorry, asked to move to another office, the office of the corporate department — my department, in fact. I still have a desk with drawers, I still have a computer, but now have something else on that list: the unbearable “head” of the department.
Needless to say we don’t see eye to eye on many issues. She didn’t know we would have to share the room because her boss forgot to tell her, so her face when she saw me there was priceless. I mean, I know I’m no supermodel but she could have spared me from the disgusted face. I was just as unhappy as she was but did what I had to do. She picked up the phone and talked to my boss and told her that at certain moments I would have to leave the room because she would have to have private meetings (?) with some people. My boss then told her that if she had to have private meetings, she would have to go to another room.
A few hours later, after speaking at the top of her lungs on the phone, banging doors and drawers, in comes the council who has classes at the school. The guy sat down and she said, “Fernanda, would you excuse us?”
OK…
Well, I’m in the middle of writing the assessments, I have a deadline and must send them all asap otherwise there will be very upset people at the company, which by the way has been a partner for a number of years and the program we develop has been much more profitable than her handful of clients. I wasn’t happy at all about it, especially after my boss told her she would have to go some place else in these situations, but I didn’t want to make a scene in front of the guy so I went to the teachers room and waited. After 20 minutes, I went back to the office and saw through the window that they were still there, so I knocked on the door, entered the room, turned off the computer, got my things and went home. Why would I stay there if I couldn’t work? I had to do a previously scheduled phone class from home, and I hadn’t done that in ages.
Something tells me there’s more to come…
As I haven’t been in my best mood lately — and the office situation isn’t helping at all — it only takes a tiny thing to drive you nuts. Whatever happened to people saying “Excuse me?” This is supposed to be a polite expression to tell people to get out of the way or to call their attention, right? But in Brazil, that’s not the case. If you’re in the supermarket, for instance, and there’s a person with their trolley in the way and you say “excuse me,” they look at you as if you had called their entire family the nastiest, most disgusting things in the world. People prefer being bumped into, hit or injured to listening to the expression “excuse me” and I fail to comprehend why that is.
On my way home today, there was this guy on the bus that was sitting behind me. When he stood up to get off the bus, he hit me with his jacket in a way that if I hadn’t been wearing sunglasses, I would have a black eye right now. Did he say anything? Well, maybe only to himself. I was really upset about it, the level of disregard for other people is so high that it boggles the mind. And there is a chain reaction here because you end up becoming irritated, you mistreat others who will get pissed off and probably yell to someone on the street, and so on.
I think we’re at a point that counting to 10 doesn’t work anymore…
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TEDTalks website has changed the way you can apply to translate and review talks. We used to select a particular talk and wait for a few days until the link was available. Now, you can have the link to work on the talk right away and I don’t know if it’s because of this new feature but now there aren’t any talks available at all! Gone! For some reason people started translating and there’s nothing to work on! This situation might continue for some time so every talk that I can translate or review will be very cherished! I’m particularly interested now in talks related to the nature and got the chance to translate this interesting presentation about the Redwoods in the Pacific Northwest by science writer Richard Preston. I don’t know who did the review because this person used a nickname to identify him/herself and didn’t allow any form of contact. Well, thanks anyway for helping! You can check the talk here. (Update: turns out the person has now disclosed her information and her name is Erica Junghans. Thanks for reviewing!)
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Today one amazing person has passed away. Different from what I’ve written about, the guy was always in a good mood. He was a great teacher and taught many generations of students at the school. The “walking dictionary” as he was called is now helping guys out upstairs. Rest in peace, Frantz.
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P.S.: There’s some sort of hinge, or lever or I don’t know what the hell that’s been making this incredibly annoying, irritating noise every three seconds for hours. HOURS! I don’t know what the fuck that is but I’m on the verge of smashing something — seriously, I might do it — if that thing doesn’t stop.
-- Never too many beers -- 