random disconcerting soundbites

*overheard during my quick dash into the grocery store*

"ok! you stay outside! monster come and eat you!!" huffs a disgruntled parent as he walks through swinging doors while leaving his truculent child outside. nary a sign of urgency to open that door as the little tyke freaks out and starts bawling to be let back in, all the while exerting maximum strength to open a heavy glass door that his dimunitive size is not equipped to handle.

"why are you still here!!" a seemingly unreasonable and extremely irate lady shouts at her domestic helper (in front of her two young children i might add) " you think i need you? you think i cannot get along without you? go off lah! who needs you?!" as the poor maid trundles along after her employer with tears in her eyes, soon to be out of earshot.

since when did it become fun to wait a good half minute watching your child wail outside a door he can't open before letting him in?

and since when did the term "domestic helper" translate directly into "slave"?

happy birthday singapore, you're getting older, but that doesn't necessarily make you any wiser.

a mac-nificent comeback

he's done it again.

my long lasting G4 17-inch powerbook has come back from certain death and proven to me that it is still worthy to serve and not be replaced. even though i've had it for more than three years, and apple care has run out, the G4 keeps plugging away.

So what if i had to replace the logic board three times in it's first year, it's been going strong ever since. well ever since a couple of weeks ago when the internet connection suddenly slowed to a crawl then went from no internet connection to a wheezing 1kb/s every couple of minutes. "it's had a good run," i told myself, maybe it's time to put it to pasture and spend money i don't really have and get me a brand spanking new macbook pro. but little did i know that no self respecting G4 takes that kind of insult lying down, and so today, after outfitting the old boy with the latest security software (which i incidentally had to do with the ethernet cable plugged in because the airport connection was so spotty that it kept timing out), and restarting both the cable modem and the router, my tarnished, beaten old computer has a new lease on life and is keeping my bank account looking respectable. at least until it's next relapse.

the silver surf(board) has pretty much seen and experienced it all, from the tsunami in sri lanka, the maldives and india, to the bright lights of tokyo, and the unpredictable weather of melbourne. i guess it's not ready to kick the bucket just yet.

and that makes me glad.

blabber

if it was as easy to give up smoking and to start working out again as it is for me to procrastinate blogging, i'd be fit as a fiddle and have smoke free lungs. it actually took a promise to my colleague suan chiang for me to actually post an entry. apparently there are still people who read this and who are curious as to how things are going in my life.

who would have thought?

however, it seems like my bedroom induces lethargy, especially after working all damn day. school is back in session, so what this really translates to is eight hours of newspaper work, followed by three hours of teaching, followed by another three hours BACK at the newspaper, before i finally take off for home, as wrung out as a dishcloth that's had to clean some massive spills.

things are steadily getting better i'd like to think, i'm getting more done at work in less time, and am actually beginning to understand how things work to the point that i preempt mistakes before they even get out. the learning curve is steep, but i'd like to think that i'm giving it the old college try and admirably hanging on.

change is in the air though, lots of it. and while it might mean the marginal tightening of belts, there is no substitute for happiness. money can buy you a lot of things, but if you aren't happy, then what's the point?

now all i need to do is to start quitting them cigarettes, and start hitting that gym.

who knows, it might even happen soon.