Sunday, September 23, 2007

I almost called myself AstroCat

Astro, the country’s one and only cable TV, oh no, it’s satellite TV – we don’t have cable, I think – whose reception gets disrupted during windy and rainy days, is bringing about a change. Unfortunately it is nothing close to improving the bad reception. Instead they say they’re gonna make our lives easier by switching from a two-figure channel number to three!




See, they said for our convenience. Ya, ya, ya, I know what they mean. They’re saying we can refer here so we know which number to press when we get confused which most of us will probably be.Surely if they didn’t provide us this list we’d be going crazy doing permutations on the remote control. Right? Right. So thank you for saving me that trouble.

Then I saw the words ‘new channels’. New channels! My heart skipped a beat. Maybe they’re gonna bring in so many new channels they have to switch to a three-figure channel number. You know, like how your phone numbers used to be only 5 or 6 digits and now it’s 7 or 8. But that’s far from reality. Even with the two-figure system there were still many empty channels. How many new channels can they bring in? Ya, ya, ya, prepare for the future.


By the way it would be easier if they arranged the channels according to sequential numbers, don’t you think? But no! Look at the news section. The numbers are playing hopscotch! (Or maybe they did? Maybe I should study the list first before saying this. Oh what the heck)



Hey! I didn’t know I have al-Jazeera. I was just wondering which channel was it the other day. This channel has news from all over. Once people were speaking Dutch. Or was it German? Or Portuguese? I don’t know. They all sound the same – incomprehensible.

Anyway…having to memorize an extra number on every channel is not the big problem here. The problem here is the damned channel guide! They changed it from a 24-hour guide to an 18-hour one.


Hello?! I thought you operate 24 hours? And hello?! I start watching TV after 12am? If you’re gonna cut space or ink, do it on those 3am – 9am slots. Who wakes up before 9 to watch TV? You nuts? Now gimme back my midnight guide!

And after all these complaints, I’m still thinking of getting another decoder. Damn. Astro needs a competitor.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

To wash or not to wash: is it that difficult to choose?

While watching CNN yesterday night, one of the newscasters reported about toilet hygiene; washing your hands after bathroom use. A few kamikaze spies who sacrificed their lives to bathrimotoilosis for toilet statistics in Atlanta’s Turner field bathroom said only 57% of men washed their hands compared to 95% of women. Men! Ugh! Don’t hold your boyfriend’s hands!

But whatever happened to the 5% of women?? I mean, what is wrong with you, not washing your hands!? How can you not wash your hands after going to the loo?! It’s downright unacceptable!

I always see people wash their hands after bathroom use. So when I entered university and saw a senior who did not wash her hands after using our school’s stinking, wet, icky, yucky toilet, I was so dumbstruck my jaw dropped open. Of course I had to close it back right away. I can’t risk having bathrimotoilosis infect my gums. They’re fatal. Everyone knows bathrimotoilosis kills. Yet some don’t wash after themselves. Why?

You can read the article here. There are too many statistics my head hurts. If she had reported all the figures last night, I would have switched channel and hence no blog today.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

My father never drove a car

I just want to share this story which I got from CY's blog, a story which he got from Kopi. I don't know why but it made my cry. Hmm...I think it's in a sign that I've got some wires in my brain tangled up. I have wires my brain! Perhaps it's because the story meant a lot to the person who wrote it. It mattered to someone.


My father never drove a car

by Michael Gartner


My father never drove a car. Well, that's not quite right. I should say I never saw him drive a car. He quit driving in 1927, when he was 25 years old, and the last car he drove was a 1926 Whippet. "In those days," he told me when he was in his 90s, "to drive a car you had to do things with your hands, and do things with your feet, and look every which way, and I decided you could walk through life and enjoy it or drive through life and miss it."

At which point my mother, a sometimes salty Irishwoman, chimed in: "Oh, bull!" she said. "He hit a horse." "Well," my father said, "there was that, too." So my brother and I grew up in a household without a car. The neighbors all had cars the Kollingses next door had a green 1941 Dodge, the VanLaninghams across the street a gray 1936 Plymouth, the Hopsons two doors down a black 1941 Ford but we had none.


(click to show/hide)



Michael Gartner has been editor of newspapers large and small and president of NBC News. In 1997, he won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing.

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Flood!

Europe was (or ‘is’? I’m really not updated on anything at all. What to do? No communication with the outside world under my coconut shell) flooded and guess what? So is my Google reader.



I didn’t check it for a couple of weeks and now it’s flooded. See people, I didn’t forget about you, I just didn’t have the time to read blogs. Now I have 90 to read, and I’m not going to read it just yet. Not until another 2 weeks. OMG! What’s it going to be then!?

Talking bout floods. I won’t be surprised if it floods here since we have rain practically all day long. It’s raining so much, Indonesia is shaking in fear. Ok that was a bad pun. Anyway…well, there is no any-way.

Saturday, September 15, 2007

Cam-is-tree

Everything you see is chemistry. Love is chemistry. Now even business and consulting is chemistry. WTF? The facts in interpersonal chemistry are so long, seeing the infinite lines of words makes me wanna puke. You read it. (By the way, forget the title. I just don’t have the chemistry to come up with good titles)

I used to like chemistry mainly because I find it fairly easy to comprehend. And then 2 years later things went downhill. Of course it picked back up relatively quickly and it was smooth sailing for me again until 2 years ago when I almost flunk the god damned paper. I’ve lost the chemistry. I can’t see chemistry anymore. Nothing is chemistry to me now. I hate chemistry. Why can’t everything be anime? Or fiction? Or blogging? Or the deemed stupid black box? Oh fuck! Why can’t everything be anything but chemistry?!

You guessed right. I have a test on analytical chemistry soon. And the subject doesn’t make any freaking sense to me. I hate you, you friggin’ atom, molecule, bah! chemistry!

I command you to be grumpy!

The other day I was in the lab doing lab work (duh!) and there was this guy, whom I suspect is a PhD student, who came to help out. No, ‘to observe’ would be a much more appropriate word, I personally think.

Halfway through, someone said something funny and we started to laugh, I suppose I laughed the loudest, and he turned around and said, “Please don’t laugh.” Har??? I looked at him, totally stupefied, not knowing what to say. You’re not allowed to laugh in the lab? Or you’re not allowed to laugh in front of him? I think I’ll go with the latter. What an ass.

I wanted to laugh in front of him and make him say those words again. Then I would take that golden chance which I missed out and ask him, “WHY?” We did laugh again after that, albeit not as loud (you can’t stop people from laughing just like you can’t stop a man from thinking dirty thoughts) but he didn’t say anything. What’s wrong? Why don’t you say it and give me the chance to interact? Why?

Nobody in my near 22 years of life has ever told me not to laugh. I’ve never heard it delivered to anyone else as well. I mean, you can say, “Please be quiet” or “Please don’t make so much noise” which I would totally understand if it was said in the library but in the lab? And he said “Please don’t LAUGH” not make noise or anything, just in case you’ve forgotten. What’s your problem, man? What’s your problem?? Please don't laugh? So should I cry instead?

Sunday, September 9, 2007

A confession!

I have to say this. I can’t hold it in anymore. I have a confession to make! I love someone. Who? Who? I love…

…myself.

Haha. Nah, I’m just too bored. But that doesn’t mean I don’t love myself :) I’ve been busy since the last day I blogged (can’t remember when, refer below). But it would also be unfair to say that I’m really busy. A real busy person won’t have the time to go online or do nothing at all right? Obviously, I did not spend all my time studying – yes, I’ve started studying, surprise, surprise – because if I did I would have finished whatever I was supposed to cover. So where did the rest of the time go to? Doing nothing I suppose, since I can’t recall anything. Weird, huh? Who the heck has been stealing my time??! I swear I’ll put you to the guillotine if I ever catch you.

Well this will probably be my only entry for the few weeks to come. Here goes.

The other day, I stayed back in school during a 4 hour break in between classes to study. Yes, study again. I’m trying okay! If I went home I’d probably sleep so I was trying to be productive! And then there was this guy pushing this really heavy machine behind me towards the stairs. He couldn’t lift it so it went thump, thump down the stairs. I turned and saw this other guy talking to a girl next to the staircase. They both looked at the man and what do you know, moments later they continued their conversation. And there, I was thinking, aren’t you going to help him? I thought of helping him but what can a weak, frail, girl with flabby arms like me do? Hah! Fake eh? Anyway if I were to go help, that chatting guy will surely lose face. Eh?? Now why the heck did I think of that!!!? Sometimes I just can’t believe my spontaneous thoughts.

I kept the MP4 I was listening to in my bag and was about to go help him lift the thing, whichever ugly way it may be, but his friend had already come to help. Hmm. I wish his friend didn’t come. It would definitely make me feel better to be able to help him, even if it means he might end up having his toe crushed by the machine. Selfish huh? Now, now, for those thinking that he might be cute, he’s not. He’s a god damned old man probably facing mid-life crisis or atherosclerosis. Don’t even wander there. Yuck.

I guess this marks the beginning of my little hiatus. Ok fine, so it started weeks ago. *rolls eyes*