What did you think you were going to do for a living when you were young? And what happened to make you do something different?

Here's my answer to that...

I didn’t know of too many jobs for women.

In my head, the list was as short as:

·         Teacher

·         Nurse

·         Doctor

·         Air-hostess

·         Secretary

I thought it would be the easiest to become a secretary.

So I learned typing.

But a few different things happened, because of which I became a copywriter in an ad agency, rather than a secretary. 

Here's the story...

When I was in 2nd grade, I won a state-wide SPCA essay writing contest for an essay I wrote called "My Pet".

This was the first sign of my writing talents.

The next sign was after I finished high school and started having boyfriends.

As soon as we got serious, "the boyfriend" would start receiving handmade greeting cards from me.

I would express my feelings in all sorts of creative ways on these handmade greeting cards.

They were low on image quality, since I couldn’t draw to save my life, but they were reasonably good on word quality, it seems.

Because when Boyfriend 2 came along, after receiving the 4th or 5th card from me, he said, “Minoo, you would make a good copywriter”

“What’s that?” I asked. I had never heard of copywriters.

At the time, our city was dotted with some very clever billboards for a floor laminate.

My boyfriend said, “Minoo, you know those billboards with those clever Woody Woodpecker lines - those were written by a copywriter.”

“Ooooh, I would love to do that,” I said, “How can I get to do that?”

“You have to join an advertising agency,” he said to me.

At the time, I was still in college (well, somewhat still in college, if you know my story), so I just filed it away.

But that was sign 2 - the recognition from the boyfriend for my writing talent.

Sign 3 emerged shortly after.

When I should have been in my 2nd year of college, I switched to “external college studies”, which was really an excuse to give myself time to think about what I wanted to do with my life.

As a result, I had a lot of spare time on my hands.

I used this spare time to scribble again.

Since there was no boyfriend, he had departed for another city with my greeting cards, my scribbles took on new form.

I wrote my own guitar songs - lyrics and music, which I found to be more rewarding than writing greeting cards for boyfriends, because I had a larger audience, consisting of family and friends.

And I also started writing middles for the local newspaper.

Writing for the newspaper, was of course, even more rewarding in terms of audience; the audience was as large as the circulation of the newspaper.

And I was to find out how rewarding it was to reach newspaper audiences, when my sister got a call one day from a friend, who said, “We have a job for that sister of yours who writes for the newspaper.”

The friend was calling from an advertising agency.

Shortly after that call, I started my first advertising copy job.

My boyfriend’s suggestion had turned out to be prophetic.

So this is how I ended up being a copywriter instead of a secretary.

In my next post, I will tell you about how I ended up in my next career, which was a completely different career that I got into after moving to America.

Meanwhile, it's your turn. What did you think you were going to be when you were young, and what happened to make you do something different?

Funny Siri Stories - What's Yours?

The first involves a toddler.

It was told to me by a coworker.

To keep her 2 year old daughter occupied, my coworker would sometimes give her daughter her iphone to play with.

Her daughter would get absorbed watching shows and playing games on the iphone, and would not disturb her.

One day, my friend had to take a conference call from home.

Busy with her computer, she had no time for her daughter.

Her daughter was happily playing with the iphone, so she didn't disturb her mother for a while.

But suddenly, her daughter couldn't access the app she was playing on.

She had got locked out.

She came running to her mom and said, "Mummy, Mummy, I need the password to play".

My coworker shushed her daughter away, since she was busy with the conference call.

The child did the next best thing.

From across the room, my coworker could hear her daughter holding the iphone and pleading her case to Siri:

“Siri, please give me the password”

Siri….please, please help me. I need the password, Siri.

Help me Siri, please”

With Siri responding, "Which password do you want? I don't understand you." etc. 

Her child kept going, "The password to play Siri.  Don't you understand. I need the password to play, Siri."

She kept doing this until her mother came to her rescue, laughing.

Here's another from Nina - sent to me on Facebook:

I was in San Diego a few years ago; was at lunch with a friend and our meal came with pickled jicama. We'd never had it before so I asked Siri about pickling jicama and she offered some nonsensical answers and suggestions. I got really frustrated with her . . .

• And yet another from Nina - also sent to me on Facebook:
 

Another time I was on the phone telling a friend how exhausted I was from waking up at zero dark thirty on Friday and Saturday to attend a team offsite in SF. I didn't realize I'd inadvertently turned Siri on . . .



Fun stories, gals....Siriously!

What is the biggest waste of time in your life?

Complaining.

I used to be a big complainer.

Here’s what I was able to tell myself...

Minoo, you are a big complainer.

What good is that?

Be a victor, not a victim.

Here's how you can do that…

1. Be happy with the progress you have made. Accept that achievement is not instantaneous. The important thing is to have put things in motion.

2. Continue to be quietly assertive. Big goals, big ideas may require that.

3. Celebrate the process –enjoy the adventure and the challenges; the knowledge and wisdom gained. Plateau is followed by breakthrough, breakthrough is followed by plateau. This is a well-recognized pattern. Let the current plateau create excitement in you about breaking through to a new level.

4. Use your imagination. Imagination is a powerful tool for dealing with frustrated desires.

5. Stay positive and hopeful – understand the goal may take more time than you expected. The important thing is you are building on your success.

6. Take a break - focus on something else for a while. Pauses often lead to breakthroughs.

7. Look at the problem from a different angle – are you missing something. Could there be a different solution?

8. Try new tactics and strategies. There may be another way to get there.

9. Ask for advice. Someone else may have the answer.

10. Partner with someone, or if you are already partnered with someone, bring in new resources. Take inspiration from people who persisted over a long period of time to achieve their goals. Find ways to keep yourself going.

If everything else fails, transcend the desire.

The more frustrated desires you are able to take in your stride, the more effectively you will be able to deal with reality. You can always use your ability to meditate to achieve that.

This is how I switched my mentality from a victim's mentality to a victor's mentality. If you are a complainer, you can use some of my tools to make the switch that I did. Good luck.  If I could do it (and I was one of the world's biggest complainers), you can too!

Where's My Car?

Funny Parking Stories. What's Yours?

Here's Mine...

At one of the companies I worked for, the annual team building event for our department was held at Vallco Shopping Mall in Cupertino.

We were to go to TGI Fridays at Vallco Shopping Mall, and then go bowling in the bowling alley also located at Vallco Shopping Mall.

Since I had to pick up my daughter after school, I said I would attend the lunch at TGI Fridays, but not the bowling.

Several of us arrived in our cars at Vallco at the same time, and I just followed some coworkers' cars.

We got out of our cars, and then chatting busily, we entered the Mall through one of the Macy’s entrances and someone in our group immediately got some things off the rack and took it to the counter to pay for it.

After she had finished with that, we went to TGI Fridays, which required us to exit the building we were in.

As soon as our lunch at TGIs was over, I said bye to everyone and told them to have fun at the bowling.

This is when the trouble started. I entered the building where the Macy’s was, exited from it where we had entered, and expected to find my car there.

It wasn’t there.

I was shocked. We had entered the mall from that entrance. It had to be there.

What to do next?

I decided to exit from some other mall entrance and search there.

No luck.

I exited yet another mall entrance and searched there.

No luck.

I went back to the first car park.

No luck.

I looked at my watch and an hour had passed.

How embarrassing.

It crossed my mind that some who were leaving the bowling early may run into me and say, “What are you still doing here?” and I would have to tell them I lost my car, and be the big joke at the office the next day.

Meanwhile minutes were ticking away - there was also the possibility I would be late for my daughter’s pick-up from school.

My last hope was to go to the cashier at the counter where one of our group had paid for some merchandise.

I said, “Excuse me, but I entered the mall from this entrance, and I thought my car would be out here in the car park, but it isn’t. Do you know where I might have parked.”

He said, “Yes, Maam, there is another level of parking below this one. Go out and go down those steps over there. You probably parked on the lower level.”

He was right.

I found my car.

I dashed out of that car park as fast as I could.

It was not as much due to my need to be at my daughter’s school on time…

..so much as wanting to escape running into any of the bowlers!

Narrow escape!

I never told them the story the next day, or ever!

Indu's funny parking story next.....

I once set off to shop close to home, went round and round in circles searching for an empty spot to park. Ridiculous! Not one spare space. I crawled on,and on, intent in my search. There at last! Someone pulling out! I hovered, eyes fixed on the space, and smoothly glided in feeling smug, and got out, looking around at last. The building in front of me looked very familiar. Well no wonder. I was right outside my own house again.

Your turn - what's your funny parking story?

Moonlight Baby - Minionese Edition

“Para tu”

“Para me?”

“Para tu”

“Whaat tis pik?”

“Moonlight Baby”

“Moonlight Baby?”

“Moonlight Baby”

“Hapire bida ko nos”

“No, silly,something nunu to da leto”

“To leto. Po ka?”

“Moonlight Baby Ergo Nix”

“Ergo Nix?”

“Certified Fresh. Ergo Nix”

“Banana!  Banana! Banana!”

Translation in English:

“For you”

“For me?”

“For you”

“What is it?”

“Moonlight Baby”

“Moonlight Baby?”

“Moonlight Baby”

“Doesn't look like us”

“No, silly, something to read”

“To read, Why?”

“Moonlight Baby. Certified Fresh”

“Certified Fresh?”

“Certified Fresh. Certified Fresh.”

“Banana! Banana! Banana!”

Moonlight Baby by Asma Menon.

Certified Fresh.

Or as they say in Minionese, banana! banana! banana!

Here's some background about this post: I wrote a review of Asma Menon’s Moonlight Baby, 2 posts ago. When one of my friends saw it, she asked, “Minoo, whatever happened to the Minions review you were planning to write? I was looking forward to reading that.” Yes, my original idea was a conversation in Minionese between 2 Minions, created with a help of an online Minionese translator. Since my friend was looking forward to reading it, I am publishing the original review for my friend, for fans of Minionese, and of course for everyone who didn't read the first review of the fabulous memoir written by Ms. Menon  - Moonlight Baby.