Run over.

The topic revolved around car incidents, something different from the murder and mutilation we usually talk about.

I think it started when Chantal mentioned the difficulty people endure to cross the intersection that formed the corner of our building. It didn't really help that it had 8 lanes controlled by a multitude of traffic lights. She told us how people were close to getting run over due to drivers trying to beat the lights. Anyway, this got Rayana a bit worked up about her experience with cars and innocent bystanders getting run down (no, she didn't actually do the 'running' down but more of her experience as a spectator.)

* How her husband, after witnessing a girl getting clipped, drove after the perpetrator, whupped his sorry ass making him go back to help the poor victim.

* From where Jane happened to witness a person, unaware of the world around him, nearly got hit if it wasn't for his acrobatic skills. The guy, apparently awakened from his disconnected state, came out shouting "YAHOO!" much to the amusement of the bewildered onlookers.

* And about Rayana's mom getting sued for heavily denting a vehicle that came at her because her hips were too big (which gives us a bit of a clue what her daughter's gonna look like, knowing that genetics plays a big factor in passing off those traits to offsprings).

* And from Jared's gigantic Irish friend who happens to walk over cars if they stop in the middle of a pedestrian crossing.

Too bad I don't have any car-like stories to tell. Never did have an interesting one. When I do get run over, I'll let you know. (I'll make Jared proud and won't scream like a girl when that happens.)

Connections

Over our fish and chips lunch, Rayloc, Steve and Kevin were all talking about some pretty interesting stuff.

"The connection data we're working on seem to be misrepresented." Rayana says. "They don't make sense as there seem to be huge gaps with the segments being reported on."

--- Black out alert!!! ---

"Yeah I agree." replies Steve. "We did some work investigating. Even pre-calculating the median to compensate for the unfactored indeterminates correlating with the pre-balancing issues"

I was just about to reach for a fork when I noticed that it's plastic. "Nahh." I reconsidering the thought as I have to stab myself a couple of times for that to work.

"Would you believe the margin of error to be 23%?" Rayana says laughing (obviously amused). "Even the base deviation was horribly skewed!"

---- Black out ---

"Well it could either be that the data just had some bad sampling or there might be something wrong with the source system load." Kevin says thoughtfully. "You know how that is, given the few issues we have migrating. But happens with every system though." He says reassuringly.

I was about to suggest that the hamster running on the treadwheel might be causing all these issues but got interrupted as Kevin continued on. (much to my despair).

"You know what, I'll check it out. Send me some of the source code used for the ETL. It may well be obvious for us to track down as your analysis may well prove that it's a data defect."

The thought of jumping through the window was now becoming a favourable option.

"Oh, That's nothing compared to the Cubes I'm setting up!" Jared pipes in, joining the fray

Having had enough, I took my mobile out. Flipped it open, even entertaining the thought of using it to club these people back into their senses, and politely excused myself to check my voicemail.

That's actually not a bad product at all, why doesn't anybody introduce a mobile service where you could send a text and an automated system rings you back to save you from that seemingly bad inescapable situations.

*Disclaimer. The part after the first sentence may or may not have happened as my brain was busy re-booting after the outage. I don't think anybody even noticed my eyes rolling due to my chinky features.

Lost

It was dark.

I closed my eyes for a couple of seconds to get accustomed to the darkness. I could barely see anything except for the dingy patterned walls that make up the narrow corridor.

Unfazed with the environment, Jared moves on. I recall a familiar horror movie scene where the football jock charges carelessly into the dark, only to find themselves at the wrong end of a sharp kitchen knife. Scenes as the perpetrator twists the metal object deeper and deeper deliberately making the victim scream out for dear life.

I ran my hand along the walls trying to distract myself from my terrified state, I noticed eerie patterns which wasn't obvious before. Looking closer, I suddenly realised that the patterns themselves were actually symbols of witchcraft and the occult! "What could do they possibly mean?" I thought to myself.

With the faint light available, I could barely make out the staircase as we approached the end of the hallway. I gave Jared my "Are we going up?" look hoping to back out as early as now. But without as much as a hesitation, Jared tests the first step. As he gradually puts all his weight down in one foot. I could hear the board creak as it groans from the massive weight. Pleased that it didn't give way, Jared continues the climb but stops halfway when he saw that I wasn't following. Giving me a stern look, I immediately read his thoughts associating me with a feathered farmyard animal.

"Nobody calls me chicken." I say to myself. Frowning as I reluctantly follow.

The next floor was rather curious as the flight led directly to three doors. All identical except for the colours. We tried the first one in front with no luck as it just led to a small unlit storage space with nothing in it. To save time, we decided to try each door on both sides. We opened them simultaneously and found both leading to long dark seemingly endless hallways. I took a deep breath and went in. I walked a few meters forward before looking back just to see the door close behind me. It's too dark. Too dark to see anything.

I suddenly heard a scuffle behind me. Knowing that I wont see anything, I still look back anyway. My eyes gave nothing away but strained my ears trying to pinpoint where the sound came from.

Then I see a faint glimmer of red just beyond the reach of my eyesight. It seemed to be floating towards me complemented with the slow scuffling sound. The red dot separated into to two as I finally saw an outline of a semi-humanoid form I could barely make out. Then I realised that they were eyes. Eyes atop this hideous creature's head!

I froze in terror. My feet heavy as and held in place by an invisible hand. I could see the flames of hell burning in his eyes as he came closer and closer. The stare alone could shatter a man's will and let him scream for mercy.

It snarled and made a low unearthly guttural sound. Somewhat growling and rumbling, shaking the plaster on the crumbling walls. I knew it was the sound that most predators make just before they jump atop their prey.

And then I ran. I ran like a crazed loon never even looking back. I eventually found my way out and saw myself standing in the sunshine again with Jared shortly coming out, panting.

"Did you see it?" I exasperatedly said. "Did you see the big ugly creature running after me???"

"..."

"That was ME you dumbass."

It hit me hard as it all it all made sense. The red evil eyes was just Jared's irritation for getting lost looking for the food court. The loud rumbling was, of course, his stomach protesting.

The whole thing was my fault as I told him we'll try the back door to find the food place Rayana recommended.I know it's silly to get lost in the same building where the food court is but the signs were really really misleading.

Freedom

she brings a red cup to her mouth patiently waiting for the coffee to meet her lips, only to find that there's no coffee in a cup.

The cup wasn't half empty, it was completely empty and nicely dried with a paper towel only 10 minutes prior.
She stares blankly into a cup and bursts out laughing.

Everyone turns and stares in amusement. It's a first time since she joined the team that they hear her laugh out loud for no apparent reason.

She laughs so hard the tears are bursting out of her eyes and she simply doesn't care. She's finally free to laugh it out. Let them guess what the reason is, they will never know.

Nevada

Sorry, another late post, as I was busy updating my other stuff.

Today, I'm having lunch with my colleagues picking away at my fat covered lasagna which I bought from the cafe round the corner.

The conversation pretty much centred on Vicki and Rayana's conference in Nevada. Jared and I were desperately trying to to pry some details about the trip but came up empty handed. Rayana did squeeze talking about about her mother-in-law's holiday here and how she seems to be doing the house cleaning a bit. She even mentioned how MIL goes through their underwear drawers, sorting them and putting the dirty ones in the laundry.

That is until, Rayana blurted out. "Vicki ate rice balls in Vegas at 2 in the morning!"

Vicki was shocked.

"You're not supposed to tell!! Rayana! Do you even remember what we talked about?" Vicki says (possibly the same tone she uses when one of her daughters does something naughty.) "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas."

(Well, I still think that's an okay thing to do at 2am - as long as you weren't standing in the buffet table 'til 5 having your way with the circly ricy treats.)

Vicki was about to continue and say something Rayana did but took the high road instead. "Too bad." I thought as that would have been a juicy tidbit for the blog.

She instead, deftly manoeuvres to a different topic and told us what she got for mother's day. "My daughter," She says proudly , "gave me a silver ring with a big pink/purple heart shaped jewel on top!"

"while my other daughter gave me a nice yellow coloured underwear... "

As I was just processing that last word, I heard a little voice laughing in my head saying "ha haa! toooo laaaate!" as the mental image burned through the front left and right hemispheres of my brain emotionally scarring me for life.

I didn't even hear "... dotted with pink hearts." as my mind reeled with too much info.

Great. Just another thought I need for the monthly meetings.