Milestone Meeting

We passed the milestone meeting for the China project this afternoon. I attended the meeting with my regional CIO in his office. The attendees where people from Thailand and China (specifically from Shanghai and Laioning office). After the meeting, I updated my CIO on the offer to work overseas. It was a nice chat and he suggested some tips. I told him my challenges on the transfer and he offered some advice. He was very supportive and he offered to help if I need it. It was a nice conversation and I appreciated the gesture. He is actually a nice person and I had a lot of preconceptions about him. I guess that's the problem of second-guessing.

Before the milestone meeting, I had a pre-audit session with the head of the project office in the morning. I also briefed the CIO prior to the milestone meeting during the same time. Both went well and a good practice for the actual meeting. I spoke a lot to explain the details and a good way to inform and publicize the progress of the project. I felt that these type of sessions are not useful but I should not knock it because verbal communication serves a very subtle process. Certain activities are beyond my sight and may be initiated because of these discussions. It was a bit intense with the meeting with the project office. But I like the guy as he's just doing his work.

I will be in China next week for the training. I will be with my close colleague from France who is helping me in this project. He is a good guy and I would not have survived without his help. It will be an interesting week and will play a large role in the training. Like today's activities, it will be successful despite my worries. I had a lot of doubts and thoughts on my mind about the meeting today but realized most of these doubts are unfounded. It's the constant thinking that will distort the logical progression of ideas. I never learn and persist in thinking to much.

The weekend was eventful: meeting my cousin, going to 'baptismal' party, roller-blading, guitar lessons and watching 2 DVD movies and reading books. I did not have a chance to swim on Sunday because it was raining. I had too much to read and watch movies that I did not have a chance to write. There is a burning desire for me to write but I don't seem to have the time or the strong urge or motivation. Sometimes I think that my age will ultimately prevent me from writing any books. The decline of memory and purpose will eventually do me in.

On this subject, I read a short article from the Oprah website. It says that being distracted is in fact a loss of focus and attention. The mind as it ages cannot focus on the thing at hand because of the myriad distracting activities that divert one's attention. I agree but I realize that to allow oneself to be distracted is a conscious act. Hence, being diverted is a form of procrastination but for creative tasks is in fact a 'disengagement from immersion' as one is not truly ready. So I guess I have to continue reading about being a novelist to learn the techniques. This is the lesson of my procrastination I think.