Crazy Captions!

I had written about how lonely I was in the old team at office here. The new team is fun!! I guess it's because there are more members of my age group. We work, we chat, we tease each other and we fight over Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore. It's been about four months and I can say the time has been good.

Now we are at the end of a release. Generally the team celebrates a release by going for a team outing or team lunch. Also a couple of times previously they had ordered similar t-shirts for the whole team. This is the plan for the current release as well. All the previous releases and the current one of our product is named after various breeds of horses. Now you may think how many releases can they name after horses? But I was shocked. Just go check this out!!

Now that I have written about everything except what I wanted to write, let me get back on track. We crazy bunch of teammates started a group chat in the afternoon about what caption should we have on the t-shirt. We laughed our heads off, with the things we came up with. Ended up with the manager and the ODC members staring at us. I thought I'll share it with you guys and lighten your mood (will be best enjoyed by people in the software industry).

The previous t-shirt read "Stallion - Racing Ahead". This release is called "Mustang". This is what we came up with -

Mustang

• Tired after the race
• We build it!! You break it!!
• Errors Redefined
• Wait till the next release
• Bugs extinct*                                         *Conditions Apply
• We build it!! You break it!! We repair it!!
• Error In Code!!
• We Deliver Bugs!
• It's not a car! It's not a horse! It's an EMS!
• License Expired!
• E Mustang S

After all the awesome ideas, we had to put an end to the craziness and think seriously and we couldn't come up with even a single idea. Arrgh!! Why do we have managers?? :( It would be so much to fun to have some funny caption. But I guess we'll have to end up with some sober stuff. :-/

Passion...

...is defined by Wikipedia as a very strong feeling for a person or thing... Well... I am talking about the thing not the person.. :P

What's your passion in life? What's that one thing which interests you? What is it that you wanna do or be in life? I really admire people who actually identify this and achieve it. The people who are happy in the work they do. It's not stressful but enjoyable to them. Majority of us get caught in the rat race from the start. From having to score the highest in class during schooling to bagging a job which offers a high pay. How many of us spend time on evaluating our strengths and deciding the right career path? How many parents today identify the child's skill and encourage it.

Finally when we do end up in a well paid but regular job, we get caught in the routine and the frustration gets to us. I am probably in that phase. I do like programming and logical challenges. But now I am constantly bothered by the question, is this what I would want to do all my life? To top it, I'm just a couple of years into my career. Is this just a passing phase? Does everyone go through it? Even if it is, what bothers me is that I'll just settle for it and keep compromising all my life just like how it is with another umpteen things in life.

How do I identify what'll make me happy? Professions like Architecture, Writing, Editing, Journalism etc always interested me. Sadly I never had the courage to think on it and pursue any of it. Its not just me, I hear it from a lot of my friends too. One of them has a passion for dancing, she even wants to quit and start teaching dance. She's just worried if what she's thinking is right and is unable to decide on it. Most of the people whom I talk to are unhappy in their jobs. There are all kinds... One having a bad boss, one wanting to do further studies but bothered about the fee, one wanting to get married and one who wants to get a job, post marriage.

I guess I cannot change my profession now. Instead what I am trying to do is spending time on other things which will give me a break from the routine. Cooking, reading, crocheting, are some of them. Few other things which have been on my wish list for long are, to learn to drive a car, gardening, to join singing classes again.

Kudos to people who are happy and enjoy what they do. For the ones who are yet to start, I would like to say take up something you are passionate about. For the rest, the ones like me - it's never too late they say. What say? We do something about it??

Solitaire

Am I horrible looking? Do I have bad breath? Do I stink? Do I look like a monster or do I give monsterous looks? Are my conversations irritating/boring? What is it?

Well... I don't think I'm horrible looking, pretty decent. NO!! I don't have bad breath. NOOO!! I don't stink. Infact stinking people and people with bad breath put me off... :-/

Hmmm... I do give monsterous and unapproving looks when I see misbehaving and disgusting people, who think they can stare, whistle and pass comments about any girl on the road, to people who spit on the road, to people who shove others in buses, in queues etc... Yeah, I do have a serious kind of a face, which breaks out into a smile or better into laughter for only familiar, close people, for kids, puppies and on occasions when I remember something funny or read/watch something funny. Quite restrictive I guess. I remember my professor always asking me, why do I carry a serious face and telling me that I should smile more often. Maybe this is the reason...

Ok... Let me come to the point. It has been complete six months since I joined my team at work and I still don't have a single friend in the team. :( When I joined the team it consisted of nearly 40 members, which has come down to about 25 now ( now you must be thinking that I'm a loner :P ). Well, I have hardly spoken to anyone except the colleague who sits next to me or my manager and all talks being majorly work related.

I take time to make friends and I sort of stick to the ones I've made. My closest friends are the chosen few from school and college. When I say few I mean really few. Here at work, we were a small group of friends who got acquainted during training, stuck to each other all the time, during study, assignment, breaks, weekend outings etc. It naturally continued that way once we got into projects, though different ones. Hence my interaction with the new project members was minimal. I wasn't intentional though..

Now, almost all my friends having moved to different cities, only a couple of us left. :( I get terribly bored and feel really lonely when the others are on leave or busy. The almost ever weekend roaming has stopped coz there's no group to enjoy it with. Less interaction with the team adds to the woes.

I'm to be moved to a new project, hope things get better there and hope I interact with more people and take less time to do so. :) Wish me luck...