Exciting Changes

My office building needs some serious repairs. In raining season like these days, water drips from leaks in various parts of the ceilings. There are leaks in the meeting room, leaks in the storage room, leaks in the reception area, and even in the office that I shared with 5 other people.

The worst leaks are ones in the meeting room wall. We’ve been trying to stop it for years with various remedies. We tried wall-papering, we tried re-plastering, all without success. Only a few days after repainting the wall, the leaks showed up again. First as small blots, then they got bigger and bigger.

I invited a building contractor, an acquaintace of mine, to have a look at the place. Accompanied by my GA, we took him on a tour of the place, just so he knew where to look for leaks. Later he came back with his technicians to do a full assessment.

Here’s what he came up with:
- The meeting room wall should be covered with ceramic tiles
- The archive room should get a new roofing
- The entire porch roof should be dismantled to replace the plywood underneath

And that’s just for starters.

Some people can see this as a disaster. But I try to look at the situation from a different point of view. I try to see it as an opportunity to create a new look for the office.

Apart from the repairs, several new recruits will be added to our already 40-strong team. This calls for additional desks and chairs, and for rearrangement of the office lay out.

These changes are really exciting for me. I have discussed with my friend for ideas, and we got some great ones.

The wait for the ideas to come into reality is almost unbearable.

Patience, my soul, patience.

Not So Unique A Name

For many years, I thought I was the only one in the world with my name. I know many Stephens, and I know several Stevens, but no one with the same family name as mine. I tried to Google my name, and the only one that appear with the exact combination of first name and last name was, well, my name.

For many months I got many other things to mind, I stopped thinking about that. I had my blogs to tend, and my networks to maintain.

About two nights ago, after updating my online profile, my curiosity got the better of me. I typed my name into a search engine, and what a result it returned! The last time I tried to search my name, I got only a handful of hits. Now, I got a lot more! Thanks to my blogging and my networks, my name dots the net in more spaces than before.

As I scrolled down from one hit to another, I came across a quote from a news website. It was my name, but it belonged to another person.

And that person was a drug dealer of sort.

The news story talked about an excerpt from a trial of someone alleged of drug trafficking. And the defendant said that he got the stuff from another person who has the same first name and last name as me.

I didn’t believe my eyes the first time, so read the quote several times more. And there it was, in black and white!

Well, at last I know now that my name is not so unique, at all. But then, a terrible thought struck me. What if the police mistakenly suspect me as the drug dealer?

Good thing I have a middle name to differ me from that person. And that middle name is clearly printed on my ID card and driver’s license, and every other official documents that related to me.

Sigh.