Just Another Weekday

What day is today? Where am I? Surely this must be an illusion... how can it be Thursday already when I don't remember living Monday through Wednesday? Well, okay, to be fair, that isn't entirely true. Truth is, I was treading the narrow expanse in between a clear consciousness and an involuntary state of grogginess. It has come to a point where it is only routine to be driving on the freeway with eyes half-closed, constantly having to slap my face awake and inflicting pain to keep myself alert. The remaining energy I have left is spent trying to solely focus on the back lights of the car in front of me, while everything else around me fades out into the background.

That said, today has been a good day (that is, if we don't take into account of the same old issues in the living quarter). My palms hurt from trying to smash those tiny little flying red dots to death, and I got my fair share of exercise cleaning up the kitchen floor. Can't be bothered to be mad anymore; it would've been emotionally and physically draining, and right now I need all the energy I can conserve. I could use the weekend off, but boss said there's a high chance we're all working. I just hope only the first and second shifts have to work. As much as I want that overtime pay, I could use some extra time working on my apps and sorting out the problem I didn't foresee before. It's looking quite bleak at this point, but we'll see.

It's been a while since I wrote any 10-page paper for a class, I wonder if I can still do it. This weekend, if I'm not working, will be spent working on a mid-term paper and research on Walgreens' financial ratios. Fun stuff. Maybe I should start writing about health care and keep a journal of what I've learnt so far in class. That should force me to keep up with the class reading.

And We Do, Don't We All?

Jeff Buckley - We All Fall In Love Sometimes (Elton John's Cover)

Wise men say

It looks like rain today

It crackled on the speakers

And trickled down the sleepy subway trains

For heavy eyes could hardly hold us

Aching legs that often told us

It’s all worth it

We all fall in love sometimes

The full moon’s bright

And starlight filled the evening

We wrote it and I played it

Something happened it’s so strange this feeling

Naive notions that were childish

Simple tunes that tried to hide it

But when it comes

We all fall in love sometimes

Did we, didn’t we, should we couldn’t we

I’m not sure `cause sometimes we’re so blind

Struggling through the day

When even your best friend says

Don’t you find

We all fall in love sometimes

And only passing time

Could kill the boredom we acquired

Running with the losers for a while

But our Empty Sky was filled with laughter

Just before the flood

Painting worried faces with a smile

Kindle: oui, ou non?

I have tons of work to do which I haven't gotten around to yet. But for now I just wanna just write about this briefly. Been wanting to write on Kindle a couple months ago, but as always, Procrastination stuck its butt in front of me and tripped me up, hence i never got to it. there's always something else more urgent to get done. There still is, actually, as I sit here and type away. But with the rate it's going, I probably wouldn't ever get to write anything if I keep stalling. So here's my take on Kindle.

Last week (or was it the week before last?) Amazon came up with the international version of Kindle 2 that created a hype around the globe. Have to admit, a while back I really, really wanted one for myself. Simply because, well, I love gadgets for one, and also because I wouldn't have to worry about getting my books dog-eared if I put them in my bag and carry them wherever I go. Nevermind the design of it is sleek, it's thin and it's white--I love all things white; and it's environmental friendly. (Well, so they claimed anyway.) You can have multiple books saved in it--reportedly as many as 1500 books--and can read whichever you want whenever you want, instead of having to choose just one and carry it with you when you leave the house. And with Kindle's wireless service called Whispernet, you can Wiki or Google anything, anytime. It's great if you travel a lot; but even if you don't, it still makes reading so much more accessible no matter where you're at. In this digital age we're living in, it only makes sense to take reading to the next level, right?!

Kindle sounds like a great buy, doesn't it? Except... maybe it's not. I emphasize on "maybe", because this is just my opinion. Back then, when I wanted one for myself, I did a little research on it to see how it fared among the Kindle users. Reviews about it were mixed, but here are a few points that seemed consistent amongst users.1) The visual: The e-paper seemed to be grey-greenish, so for some it might be hard to read. For young invincibles like myself (haha! *rolls eyes*), this might not be a problem, but for others who would be staring at the 6" screen for hours straight, I would imagine they want something of a better quality. 2) E-readers are just not... books. Book lovers would know what I'm talking about. It's just a different experience altogether, and some people just want to enjoy the touch and smell of a book, myself included. And so... for that reason, some might be averse to e-books and all that digital stuff. 3) International fees. You might have heard, if you buy Kindle outside of the US, or if you bring your Kindle out of the US, you might have to pay some additional fees to access your magazine subscriptions that you've already paid for, not to mention a higher price for the same e-book. For some e-books, they might not even be available.

Those are just a few reasons. But if you ask me, I do think there is a future of e-books and digital reading. The market is definitely there, and people will embrace it, just like how they're quite adaptive to the integration of web 2.0 in their daily lives. For now though, technology has yet to catch up with our expectations, like having it more user-friendly, more economic i.e. free wifi and do away with additional fees, longer battery life, transferable e-books either to desktop, laptop, or other e-readers etc. It would be great if we can have encyclopedias, textbooks, journal articles saved in a handy e-book like Kindle. And finally, I don't see why we have to limit our choices to just Kindle. Rumors have it that Barnes & Noble will be coming out with their e-reader in the near future. Sony already has its own e-readers, though strangely enough it's not quite as popular as Kindle... probably due to Amazon's more effective marketing strategies.

Anyway, the verdict? I would say, unless you have extra 359 bucks to spare and don't know what to do with it, don't get it until a better version comes out. It is, of course, ultimately your own choice. But I personally would wait to see if better products will surface, or if the price would go down further more. For a device like this, I think 359 bucks is a little overpriced--at least from an economical consumer's perspective. [So, Mandy, I guess your wish of having a Kindle for your birthday will have to be postponed until something better comes along. :P]


Footnote: 
Here are a few articles if you'd like to read up more on Kindle.
1) Nicholson Baker's extensive review on Kindle and Its Future. A very entertaining and informative read, but be warned, it's 7 pages long. 
2) Engadget's Kindle 2 Review Comparison between Kindle 1 and 2, with images too.
3) Crunchgear's 10 reasons of To-Buy and Not-To-Buy 

Yin and Yang?

noticed this on the wall at the parking structure.

what you wanna make of it is entirely up to you... i will reserve my thoughts on this for myself.

Behold, World

1. i have a request. to food scientist/nutritionist or any food expert out there, can someone please invent chili jam already? chili is good for health (a moderate amount of it), everyone knows that. so why hasn't anyone come up with it yet? all the girl want is some spicy good red chili spread on my bread. instead i had to conciliate with some green paste that marketeers called it Kaya (see below) but it is in essence just sugary paste with green coloring. i want my money back, and i want some good ol' Kaya. but even more so, i want the chili jam i'm talking about!!
2. the other day while waiting to cross the road, i leaned against the lamp post. but as soon as i moved away a splatter of bird shit fell onto the ground exactly where i was standing just a fraction of a second ago. i looked up and saw the glorious butt of a pigeon. it must have had a good meal and it all just came out, in the form of greenish liquidy mush with white spots in it. healthy bird. no constipation at all. i envy the bird... but back to the main story. i was really lucky to have avoided it. or else, it would've been the third time in my life so far to have bird shit fall on me. (the first time was right on my head--on the first day of chinese new year, no less -___-)
3. have i mentioned my favorite sandwich at McD's has always been Fillet o Fish? well, at least in Malaysia that's my favorite. the fillet over here, ironically, is nothing in comparison to the ones back home. why is that? even the one in russia is so much better! :(  i'm never going to McD's for that fillet anymore. hmph. and oh, for the record, eating carl's jr's fish and chips is more like drinking oil. i think i just clogged a few of my arteries because of that oil i consumed. :((
   
4. i have a confession to make: i haven't been keeping my vegetarian vow, at all. :( i should start being good again. *guilt-strickened*

Footnote: Kaya is also commonly known as coconut jam, made from coconut milk, eggs, and sugar, flavored with screwpine extract. it's the screwpine that makes it so flavorful and exotic. it can be golden brown or greenish in color, depending on the amount of screwpine extract used and the extent of caramelization of it. i think. anyway, google it if you wanna learn how to make it. :) [edited: if you succeed in making it, please share some with me. :)) ]

3am

She says it's cold outside and she hands me my raincoat

She's always worried about things like that

She says it's all gonna end and it might as well be my fault

And she only sleeps when it's raining

And she screams and her voice is straining

chorus:

She says baby

It's 3 am I must be lonely

When she says baby

Well I can't help but be scared of it all sometimes

Says the rain's gonna wash away I believe it

She's got a little bit of something, God it's better than nothing

And in her color portrait world she believes that she's got it all

She swears the moon don't hang quite as high as it used to

And she only sleeps when it's raining

And she screams and her voice is straining

[chorus]

She believes that life is made up of all that you're used to

And the clock on the wall has been stuck at three for days, and days

She thinks that happiness is a mat that sits on her doorway

But outside it's stopped raining

[chorus]

three a.m. left right left right left right. i watch my feet bring me from the carpeted cubicle to the non-carpeted floor, pass a door, onto the carpeted corridor, make a right to the coffee room. actually it isn't even a "room" per se, just a counter with the coffee machine, a sink, a toaster and a mini fridge. and as i heat up my "dinner", i think about all the things i have done in the past, some of the things i am doing now, and stuff i will be doing in the near future. sometimes it baffles even myself why on earth i did some things i did when i could have had it a thousand and one other ways. these puzzles are revisited now and then, with me trying to comprehend my actions (and inactions). i try to rationalize things, yet time and again the effort has proven to be less than successful. perhaps it's not that important as i thought, to understand 'why'. perhaps i should just carry on with life and contemplate less about the past. or perhaps i should hop onto a time machine and go back to my past as a third person and see things from the outside to get a better, more objective view...

the beeper of the microwave goes off, i retrieve my cow food and watch my feet bring me back to my cubicle again. if i could find a time machine, if there is such a thing, i wouldn't hesitate for a second to go back to my past. but for now, as i enjoy the tiny slice of haven in the eight and a half hours of mundane routine, i shall pepper my mind with more interesting and stimulating questions. like, where to find a time machine. or how to build an empire to take over the world and demolish the evil power and/or corporations once and for all. maybe hire a mad scientist (who has a good heart) to come up with a protein that could recognize the trait of gluttony (assuming of course, that it is a genetic trait), have the protein couple with that part of the gene and subsequently cause the whole organism to undergo self-destruction. that would be the epitome of applied biotech at its best in the real world, and the world will never be the same again. or maybe i could write a book about intense topics. something like what george orwell or aldous huxley wrote. hmmm.

okay that was me being lame and nonsensical. back to work. (although, i wouldn't mind if someone steals my idea and invent that protein that kills evil, evil people. really, i wouldn't mind.)

happy thursday! will i work this weekend? will see.

p.s. the above italicized portion is the lyrics from the song "3 a.m." by matchbox 20. (in case you're wondering).