it's a starcraft life...

Dad's back. And suddenly all the machinery at home have begun to work again. Air con units are softer. Water heaters dont run out. Internet doesnt hang (bullshit, it still does).

You know in most role-playing games, there's this one dude in your team who cant fight, cant cast spells, but he's like some sorta techie guy. Just makes your equipment stronger and last longer. He repairs golems and does alchemy and shit and basically just makes sure everything works. The guy usually has an aura around him - "Allies within radius of effect get bonus armor and tech upgrades and shit".

That's dad. Invite him over for tea and suddenly there're no more "birds" on your satellite dish fucking with your ESPN.

The only problem is that techies need $$ to do... whatever it is they do (and do VERY WELL).

I remember tagging along with dad to go to sim lim square once, the sole purpose of which was to STOP him from buying new stuff.

This was at the time when mom was in mental finanial crisis and had managed to get it into my head that we were the poorest families in the world. I was almost convinced that we were SOOO poor at one point and was recycling shit for no reason, until let news that his bonus was in and that he and mom would be going to macau for a holiday. Btw all the money that i've saved up to date from my few years of working - that's approx what my dad got for a bonus. I think. At least it seemed like it did. I'd like to think so - it makes my career goals that much more challenging.

ANYWAY, bonus and lack of money aside, I went with my dad to sim lim at that time, trying desperately to stop him from buying stuff. New motherboard? Nah, we dont need one. New monitor? Ours works just fine. New DVD drive? Nahz, let's wait until it gets cheaper and faster.

Stuff like that. And we left, triumphant in my attempt that we only managed to buy damn thumbdrive.

By the way, it's a Starcraft life. Yeah, it just randomly occured to me.

I always figured that government servants and teachers were like the Protoss - start strong, but that's as good as they get, and progress is expensive with minimal results.

I always thought biz students were like the Terrans. U look at a Terran base and u'd be intimidated. Battlecruisers here, ghosts there, siege tanks all over the place. But actually they're fragile. Resources gone? They'd have to fly away.

And i would like to think that engineers are the Zerg. Starting pay like shit. But it grows and can go quite rapidly if you do ur shit right. Btw, engineers dont really know much. When u see us rub our chins and nod at a machine - here's the truth: WE HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THE FUCK THAT THING IS. But we make up for our lack of knowledge with work. Not that other career pple dont work hard, but i'd like to think that engineers work is more repetitive. And that's the Zerg. Pump hydralisks and swarm.

Just my take. And it helped my bros visualize working life better.

Oh yeah, and your boss is a fucking Overlord. Fat useless shit that just flies around slowly, yelling "You require more minerals!" "You require more vespene gas!" "Spawn more overlords!"

(I like to think that the "Spare More Overlords" thing is a nice sarcastic nudge towards the fact that most companies over-hire on management staff (the overlords) while the real workers are always lacking in manpower.)

Eh, whatever. It's a Starcraft life.