My mouse loves attention

My mouse is giving me a reason to feature him here again. Wait, I don’t remember, was my mouse a he or a she? Oh never mind. He can be gay. Anyway I remember the box saying that the mouse has a limited clicking life but did not mention anything about limited cycles the scroller can take before it kongs. Yup, you guessed right, it’s konged. KO, RIP, Bye Bye. Sometimes when I scroll up, it would go down, and vice versa. Sometimes it didn’t take me anywhere.

I got fed up with it so I hit it hard with my index finger and guess what I discovered? When you hit the scroller, a little circle with two arrowheads appears and if your cursor moves down it’ll scroll down and you don’t have to click or use the scroller anymore. How great!

So you already know about this? Ok laugh all you want. Laugh at the Tarzan who has never used the optical mouse. Tarzan who? Surely not me.

Sigh. Not even three months into its life and the scroller is dead. It was already giving me a lot of trouble the moment I got it and now this. Its as good as junk now.

I pulled the string

I finally pulled the string. You can never guess what happened. Okay I don’t have much time, so I’ll keep it short.

So I went there on Wednesday and went straight to the shelf where the string was hanging down. I looked around, and signaled my friend to keep watch. I grasp the string and with a deep breath, I pulled. Immediately the lights which lighten that particular shelf went out. My friend gave a slight giggle.

“Keep watch, you!” I reminded her.

Then I heard three beeps and the next thing I know, all the lights illuminating each alley went out one by one. Oh no! What did I do!? I pulled the string again but there was no response. The lights continued to go off one by one.

“Neko, someone’s coming!”

I could hear quick footsteps heading our way and I knew we had to bolt there and then. We rushed away from the footsteps and my mind was frantically searching for an excuse to bail us out of the situation if we were ever caught. At the same time I was also blaming everyone for encouraging me to pull the string. Damn you guys!

“Hey you there!” a man’s voice called out.

We froze in out steps. I knew he was referring to us. There wasn’t anyone else there. My friend made sure of that before I pulled the string. I turned around and said the stupidest thing ever.

“I didn’t pull it.”

It’s true. I didn’t pull it. And the friend? She chickened out at the last minute. She didn’t even enter the library with me. At least I did, alone. I went to that floor and searched for that alley with the string. It was then that I noticed every alley had one, only that they threw the string up the shelf so you don’t see it unless you were looking for it, that is. And now that I was looking from a far, I also noticed that next to every triangular cone which the string hung to, were two fluorescent lights. I was pretty sure they were for the lights.

But to turn on the lights by going through each alley isn’t very practical. Surely you’d want to wire them to a common spot. Any smart person would have thought of that, no? At least that’s how they do it in the other library.

I was still doubtful. It wasn’t practical at all. At least not for a lazy person like me. so I thought I’d pull it. But there was a room with glass walls directly overlooking that particular alley and a man was in it. And I hesitated. The next thing I know, I was outside, reminding my friend of her promise to pull it with me, which she broke.

I might still pull it. When there really isn’t anybody around. Well, you should be glad I didn’t because if I did, I’m sure the only scenario that will probably happen is up till where that particular light went out. Then it’d be a boring one-of-the-lights-went-out story, and not the interesting story you just read.

Like a greedy kid in a toy store, only everything is free

What do I like about libraries? Simple. You get to read books you otherwise wouldn’t get to unless you pay for them. In the library I get to read for free.

I just went to the library again, nope it’s not the one with the strings. This is the other one in the uni, the one where the staircase smells like that of a newly built multi-storey car park, where the lighting is brighter and the shelves less crowded (i.e. the whole world can see what you’re doing) and where the pull-out book rest on the shelves don’t make high pitch creaks. And also the one where you can find a lot of business related books! I just found that out a while ago. Now I get to read about why McDonalds is where it is and how I can make huge profits on eBay. I’m excited!

There is a catch though. You can read for free, take it home and make hundreds of copies (though I don’t really see the need to) but you can only borrow four. And I’ve already reached that quota! I hate this. I think I have to finish one of the books tonight, return it tomorrow and get another one done as soon as possible too. Damn. I have no time! To hell with the Astro Max advertisement where that Indian man says “I’ve got time, I’ve got time, I’ve got time” repeatedly. Everyone has the same amount of time each day asshole. Just because Astro Max (it's freaking expensive too) lets you record the shows doesn’t mean you’ll have the time to watch it. Just like in my case, I have the books staring at me right now but that doesn’t mean I have the time to finish it. And what am I doing here telling you all this, wasting my time? Heck, time’s ticking!

Kthxbye. And that would be the influence of the folks in ChickenMafia have on me.

Note: Tried looking for the Astro Max advertisement online but to no avail. If anyone happens to know about it, let me know. By the way, Astro is a satellite TV service provider here.

Friendship Book

I learned about the Friendship Book from Tiz and guess what? I want one too! Tiz knows all these cool stuffs. Simply love her!

Ok if you’ve never heard of it, I sure didn't, stupid me, it goes like this: You make a little book with a few pages in it, write whatever you want about yourself and send it to a penpal, for instance. Then he or she will send it someone else and it goes on, traveling the world. But of course you need to have your address there to make sure the book returns to you at the end of the whole trip. Yay! I should go make one soon! Hmm…who should I send it to? I sure hope it leaves the country and comes back to me one day.

Ladies and gentlemen, my new mouse!

I took my mom to the hypermarket today and thought, why not get a new mouse while I’m there? And so I did. Got myself a new mouse, the second cheapest one, because the cheapest one was already sold out. There’s another one much, much more expensive but I don’t see the point in getting one 5 times the price I got mine because a mouse is still a mouse. That goes to show that I don’t know much about mice (hahaha). The one I got is not funky, doesn’t have those leopard skin or whatsoever designs but definitely nicer than my old one, appearance wise, and definitely more handsome than the expensive one too. So since the expensive one did not get its price tag because of its looks than what is it expensive for? Anything I should know about mice?

Here’s what I learnt today about mice…mouses…whatever.

I didn’t know they have a preset life time. It can only last for a hundred thousand hours, that sounds a lot, but shouldn’t it last for as long as I have power supplied to it? And it can only take 3 million clicks, give or take, before it dies? What if I’m obsessive-compulsive and I have to click repeatedly until the page/window shows up? Does that mean my mouse will die after a week? Noooo!!! And there’s a scanning speed? Wonder what that means.

You don’t have to compare yours with mine, yours is probably way cooler. So what? I don’t want a funky one. I may not resist not eating a funky one. Ask philos if you have no idea what I’m talking about. He said I ate my mouse because I’m a cat. Tsk. But I’ll forgive corny people like him.

So what have I got to say about my new mouse? Mousey here is kinda…uh…not as clickable as my old deceased one. I have to put in extra effort when clicking. There goes 0.000000693 calories into that task. Great for those trying to lose weight! And it’s louder too. Plus the sound the left click makes is different from that of the right click. It’s got personality. Wow.

It also moves slowwwwly…When I first plugged it in, it was smooth and fast. I loved it. Then when I actually started using it, it lost speed. It got lazy. What a lazy mouse. Maybe this is what it meant by the scanning speed. Speeds of 1500-3000 per second or lower is characteristic of a lazy mouse. The expensive one is probably a frantic, hectic mouse. Heh.

So I went to Control Panel and adjusted the speed. Still the same. I went back and adjusted it again. It’s still the same! Bah! I went to work and after I came back, I turned on the computer and it was fast again. Huh? Is this some kind of a joke? Does my new mouse hate me like how my touchpad does? *weep*

But of course later I realized. It’s fast when I’m testing it and not actually using it for something. Because when you’re moving it around for a purpose, you tend to hold it down harder. And that’s what makes it go slow. So the trick is to hold it gently, no force, never use force – we know, from the previous post, force is no good. Whichever kind of force is bad – and it’ll go smooth.

I know my mouse inside out! I can even see its insides. Yay! I’m so proud of myself. But I still don’t like it, even after I discovered the trick. You can’t click with no force. And I think since mousey knows I know about his little trick, he’s making the cursor crawl at a snail’s speed all the time now. Fark.

You will be deeply missed, my mouse

Late last night, or early this morning, whichever way you want to put it, my mouse stopped working. At first I thought it was my computer playing the let’s-hang-your-work-and-make-you-go-crazy games but no, it wasn’t, and thank god. I don’t like it when the computer hangs. But I didn’t really like the idea of a malfunctioned mouse too. Now everything feels weird. There’s nothing for me to hold on to. I need to hold on to something or I might rack my nerves. I just might! Plus the touchpad I have is really sensitive and it hates me. Sometimes when I type on a certain line I will end up typing on another instead. I call this the irksome jumping lines prank. So if what I say here makes no sense, don’t blame me. But it’s just not that. Sometimes it’ll play other pranks on you. I can’t think of any right now, I’ll need the brains of a touchpad to think of one, but I tell you, it can sure get on your nerves. One second you’re doing this and the next your screen changes to that and you’ll be like, “The hell!?” And when all these happens your hands will reach for the mouse again, because this is what everybody would do, but oh I’m sorry, it’s dead. That’s when the sick reality drops its bomb on you and you have to use the touchpad. And you need both your hands, sometiu get confusemes, and yo <-- there goes the jumping lines prank; this time it’s jumping letters. Let me rephrase, and you need both your hands, well, sometimes, and you get confused…and… I forgot what I wanted to say. Damn you touchpad! Damn you!

I’m too lazy to go get a new mouse. Why must you die on me?! Whyyyyy!?!??!!? (Jumping lines happened again, but I corrected it of course. I swear my hands were nowhere near the touchpad) I didn’t think optical mice (hahaha!) …mouses…mice (Argh! Which is it?) would die so fast. Well, at least now I have a reason to get a new funky one, after I get out of the lazy spell.

Edit 9:49 PM - I've just noticed a typo. Most probably the doings of the touchpad. Wonder if you realized.

Magic Button

I really don’t know my DVD player or DVDs very well. For example, I put in a DVD last night and funny thing is it didn’t have a menu. Which means I can’t choose the language or subtitles. Which sucked. You can’t watch a movie and not understand a fucking thing they said. I might as well watch Charlie Chaplin if so. I pressed ‘Menu’ but the screen shows ‘Operation not possible’. Fine. I tried ‘Top Menu’ instead. Still the same. Frust! But like they say, when you’re desperate, your brain works better. That was when I found this button!

Yay! Subtitles for me!

P.S: Does anyone know how to solve the problem of menus not showing when you play a DVD in your computer? I know you can right click and choose languages and subtitles there but sometimes it doesn’t work. And my Haali Media Splitter icon never appears on the taskbar. It has so far appeared only once when I was watching one of the DVDs. Is there a setting I should be changing? Or the DVD doesn’t support this?