I have this co-worker about 7 months my senior, who has proven beyond doubt that he is a world-class lazy-ass jerk. Now I don't usually go off bad-mouthing people or write bad stuff about them, but for this one I'll make a rare exception. Like I said, Hall of Fame Jerk 10 times over. Okay, now that I've established that, I should probably tell you why.

When I was about 6 months into my job (I am now well into my 1st year), I was transferred to a shift with a wider scope of responsibility and of a more critical nature. It was exciting and, of course, scared me shitless. Being the competitive idealist that I was, I accepted it head on, knowing that I wouldn't be put in that position unless management had faith in me. It was also guaranteed that a senior will be there to take the lead and guid me through.

The first few days were good. I learned about the business and the way to conduct myself, even adding my own touch to handling issues. Slowly I became confident. I knew I wasn't there yet, but my colleagues and the seniors who had been guiding me were trusting me and teaching me more stuff every day. I was becoming good at my job. Life was beautiful.

Then came a shift change, where everyone's schedule was rotated, and some were moved up or down US primetime business hours. It was decided I was to stay in my current shift and keep at it for a month more, but the senior who was to be working with me would be different. And then there he was. My companion for the morning midshift. I had already heard rumors of the guy. Sleeping, disappearing from the shift, total slacker stuff. So I wasn't shocked to find out it was true. Almost the whole time I was "working" with him, he was either sleeping, not at his desk, late, or absent. Everytime I asked a question, I never really got a straightforward and helpful answer. Whenever he looked and resolved an issue, I never found out how he did it. I was forced to learn stuff on my own, which I think turned out pretty good for me. However, I was also put under a lot of undeserved pressure. I raised a lot of alarms then, as most of the big picture of the business I still could not see (like those huge framed 3-D posters that you have to look at cross-eyed to figure out what picture was hiding beneath all those stuff.) Management talked to me numerous times to find out why I was missing stuff, why issues were not resolved timely. Most of the times I could not get up from my own desk to have lunch because I was alone and there were too many issues to address! If this is not irresponsibility on his part, I don't know what is. I pity his children.

Fast forward to the present -- Mr. Senior is now on the verge of being promoted, so he's taking his gig to a whole new level. He now walks around the area like the self-proclaimed supervisor that he is. Emailing stuff that mentions the things that need to get done. I don't know how many times I've refrained myself from snapping back at his emails or his trying-to-be-witty quips. His luck will run out soon.

Earlier today he disappeared again. Left at lunch and came back at 4:00, an hour before we get off, and did his supervisor thing. Good luck to his subordinates once he makes it as a lead. Time will come, I'm going to have to do a Dogbert.

GoogleTalk is the bomb. I. LOVE. IT. Though it's still in BETA phase, it's approach to minimalism and functionality look to trample Yahoo Messenger and all other IM software around. I'm sure as updates come, it will be so huge it will be scary. Imagine relying on just one source to do all the things you do online -- Google. GoogleTalk has free internet telephony. I've already talked to my girlfriend living 5 minutes away, a fellow techie who's in CDO, and a college buddy who's in Japan, and I could've sworn the quality did not suffer.

Chat messaging is in real-time. So far I haven't experienced lag or downtime (expected since it's in BETA). And the essential beauty of something that's in BETA, you get to suggest what you want to see on the software.

Using GoogleTalk expectedly requires you to have a Google account (sign up here). Easy enough.

I hope all my friends reading this sign up soon and add me up.

No, I'm not getting royalties making this shameless plug.