Sunday, January 14, 2007

Of Nerdy Works and Travels

Meet Mr. Hamilton -- Ex-farm boy, current owner of Nemesis Solutions, generous sponsor of the 10th WA Boys' Brigade Company, and my boss.

It was by his offer that the three stooges (employee gallery below) got our jobs as professional nerds... i.e. web designers. Not a bad arrangement at all -- We get to work at home in our own time!

Monkeys, left to right: Sean "I am a Tall and Ever-Hungy Know-It-All" Meyer, Sze Howe "I Get Lost Trying to Get Home" Koh, Neil "My Brother Drives Me Nuts" Meyer
Feathered mascot: Georgie "I Poop on People's Heads" Meyer

A typical working day consists of much laughing (at each other), screaming (at each other), rib-poking (each other, again), horrible office music ("Oo, ee, oo ah ah, ting tang, walawala bang bang"), communicating with colleagues via MSN (the aforementioned colleages sit side-by-side), biting colleagues who don't comply with wishes (blame the Asian), and last and definitely least, getting work done.

Being employees of the Nemesis Solutions, we familiarized ourselves with some of the company's services, one of which is Workplace Hazard Identification. We have recently determined that Georgie our mascot breaches health regulations occasionally, and it is with great sadness ("HAHAHAHAHA, he pooed!") that we renounced him as our mascot. Nonetheless, we understand that the circumstances were beyond his control so he is still allowed to reside in the office.

Hazard: The by-products of a mascot's digestion

Seriously though, Mr Hamilton does show us some of the inner workings of the company. We were lugged up to Northam (about an hour's drive away) last Tuesday to have a look at the property there. Far from the ghost-town-in-the-middle-of-nowhere image I was given by some people before, the town centre is pretty well-developed and looks just like any other suburb near the city. The outskirts could use some work though... they'll get there eventually.

Anyway, I treated the trip as an opportunity to do some sightseeing and came across some rather interesting sights.

A view from atop a watchtower. This piece is entitled... "Trolley's Demise"

A paint-less, door-less, seatbelt-less (actually, make it seat-less... period) 4WD on the road to recovery

The new era of anti-smoking campaigns -- Smokers get called nasty names (looks that way, no?)

We hung around doing business-y stuff for a while, watched Mr Hamilton re-live his farm days with a sheep-shearing demonstration (we couldn't find a real sheep so we had to make do with a human substitute), then eventually sat ourselves in a pretty awesome cafe. At least, it was awesome to most of us... Sean lost that perception as soon as he discovered, to his horror, that the local Coke bottles only carried 250 mL...

The atrocity! People will starve with servings this small!

My Thai pumpkin soup

We had to head home straight after lunch because Sean had rotten teeth a dentist appointment. Twas a pretty fun day (there are more details, but I don't know whether I'm allowed to reveal them or not), all in all. One final thing to share regarding the day...

My first time seeing an 'L' plate on a truck! (Sakai bah...)

Speaking of which, I had my first driving lesson that day, exactly 1 month before my 19th birthday. ^_^ Kinda sad, but ah well. Speeding around a bumpy dirt field and rattling passengers was a blast, hee...

Go-karting: Another extra-business activity for us on Friday. I learnt to overtake others before learning how to control a car, hmm... *dons a helmet and speeds off, cackling*

6 comments:

Sam said...

Am I seeing what I'm seeing?!?! Whhheeee!!!
That's one scary ex-mascot you've got there lar...

Aquavires said...

...and so, the Updativore departs, satisfied. =D This is the last time you'll be fed by me for at least a week: I'm heading off to a conference tomorrow.

Gerogie's harmless. He's still scared of me. And no, it's not because my wrath rained down upon him for being Hazardous. =P

Anonymous said...

HB. Pretty? This is Northam you are talking about. Perhaps if you went on geog camp you would have a better appreciation of just how fascinating Northam truly is. (Please note the sarcasm.) The middle of town well-developed?, well gentrification along with clever planning which took only like a full hour of explaining to give a justified explanation. Only basically a suburb of Perth due to the fact that it is the major central place for the Western Australian wheat belt, and also due to the parasitic urban sprawl of Perth is quickly becoming a satellite suburb of Perth. If you wish for a truer appreciation of Northam please feel free to borrow my geog book and read all 40 pages dedicated to this most brilliant and worthy topic, only then will I accept you synopsis of Northam being “pretty.” ;-)

Aquavires said...

Well Pip... I didn't go on geography camp so I guess I don't appreciate Northam as much as you do. *smile* Which is true... I didn't study its history in detail so I CANNOT appreciate it in the fullest sense.

In any case, I'm not too bothered by this aspect of my ignorance, so I won't be borrowing your textbook. Thanks for offering, nonetheless.

But hey, it's got a Chicken Treat, it's got contemporary architecture, it's got buildings with modern functions... That shows development! Note that I said "pretty well-developed", not "pretty looking" =P ...even then, the Christmas decor in the streets looked pretty.

Anonymous said...

Ok I know this was an old entry, but geez... I gotta open my eyes wider. You work as a web designer?!?!?! Bahumbug. I want your job. -pouts-

Acutally, any job, er, well-paying job would be nice. Yeah yeah, CNY is just over, but hey, a girl can never have too much cash. ;) I think...

Anyways, never got to say this but congrats on the job. ^^ Doing a good job and keeping aware of the hazards then? I should hope so, or I'd be sending over a bottle of shampoo for your birthday aye. :P

It's 10 minutes to 2 here, and I'm itching to sms you, for the heck of pestering you of course. ^^ But since I'm soooo kind hearted (xP) plus I shouldn't be pestering you since I replied to this blog post late, I'll let you sleep tonight. Besides, there's always tomorrow night... -grins-

Aquavires said...

*pulls Bee's pout-y lip and pulls it over her head*

Who ask you to spend it all? =P No wonder you have nothing left!

I'm a safe worker now. ^_^ But free shampoo is still appreciated.

I switch my phone off at night. You can't pester me if you tried. *smile* Anyway... you were WORRIED ABOUT THE NUMBER! *tease*