January 7, 2002

20:48

There's a coffee machine at my office. Not a normal coffee machine, but instead, an instant one. You put in a flavour packet for coffee or tea, press the 'coffee or tea' button, and it brews it for you. (But not as good as Twinings.)

I don't drink coffee anymore. I haven't since the summer of 2000, after Shad and my 6-cup-a-day staple. I do remember the day I drank my last cup of coffee:

I was down in the cafeteria, doing my usual early-morning caffeine run. I got the standard styrofoam cup, filled it with freshly brewed coffee, and escaped back to my cubicle.

I set the coffee on my desk, and went about programming (Java). A few minutes later...

(My Russian cubicle-mate): "Your Javah is leaking on your desk-top."

(Me): "My ... java? On my desktop?" *scans computer*

"Your java... on your desk... top."

So my very last cup of coffee ended up on my desk. And when I went to go get a wad of paper towels to clean it up, I noticed a trail of little brown dots leading the way to my cubicle.

And I never drank coffee again.

But back to the drinks machine. I've been eyeing a little button on the drinks machine for a while. It's marked 'espresso'. The stuff that comes out of the drinks machine can't really be considered tea. More like flavoured water. Although I give full credit to the inventors of this machine, dubbed Flavia, you just can't make good tea in 8 seconds. As a result of this wateryness, I'm stuck drinking about 3 cups of tea a day, just to stay alert.

So I theorized. Espressos are smaller than cups of tea. Less water. Now, if I put a packet of tea in, and hit the 'espresso' button instead, maybe I should get a much stronger tea? But then, some part of me tells me I shouldn't. It's a machine put there for the entire floor -- it wouldn't be nice to use double as many flavour packs as everyone else. Don't want to be greedy.

But this morning I decide to try it. I stick my mug under, pop in a tea pack, and hit 'espresso'. The machine groans and hums, and finally, half a cup of very dark tea spills out.

I'm cheering at the prospect at a very dark tea, so I put in another package, and press the espresso button again. A full cup of dark tea!

I wheel around, elated with this discovery, and look for the sugar. And right behind me is one of the directors, and he's staring straight down into my tea.

"Uhh... it was an experiment... to see if the espresso button works...", I stammer.

A silence. A chuckle.

"Yeah, I like it too. Gives it more flavour. You should also try mixing two different tea packets for a different taste." And he proceeds to do just that.

No wonder we go through so many packets every day.

January 14, 2002

16:52

I feel like a hobbit. Or a hafling. Or something like that. Some immeasurably small creature trapped in a big world, too big for my own good.

Why do you ask? First and foremost, thoughts of hobbits and haflings are racing through my head today because I just happened to go see Lord of the Rings on Friday. Always having been a fan of the books, the movies did them justice (more or less, even though I'm a bit miffed about Arwen replacing Glorfindel -- but I'll rant about that some other time). It was a good movie, stayed true to the books. Can't wait to see the other two.

Another reason why these medieval creatures are on my mind was because (oooh, bad me) I started mudding again. I don't know what prompted my return -- perhaps it was the Lord of the Rings movie or ultimate boredom in my life. Regardless, I've started, and I don't see any evidene of stopping quite yet.

But let me return, in my usual wayward rambling manner, to the topic at hand: why do I feel like a hobbit? It's the overwhelming feeling of insignificance at times, especially at work. Feeling like I'm always sneaking around in the shadows, playing the unappreciated role. Alright, so my job is interesting, and I feel (mostly) significant. But some times things go unnoticed and worse, taken as someone else's. And quick ventures on emergency support missions for some 'bigshot' users prove to be de-motivating, time and time again.

Almost like Frodo on his long journey. Well, almost.

And finally, to tie everything up together -- I went to thinkgeek just now and noticed spiffy new items for sale - Tolkien Stuff as well as a cute #!/usr/bin/girl shirt (for females, of course). Maybe I'll buy something... Hmm.

January 15, 2002

11:59

I'm sitting at work and wondering if I should revamp this page.

This design is getting old. :P Comments? Questions? Mail me.