ode to code

ah, the wonders of technology.

who would have thought that all it takes
to communicate with another
in a remote time zone
on distant co-ordinates
halfway round the globe,
is merely
a decent machine,
a bit of software,
and a few numbers to be fed into the telephone network.

(yes, one has to contend with slow, sluggish dial-up,
when one's area of abode,
running on a fibre-optic network,
has the honour of being 'too high-tech'
to take advantage of currently available DSL services.)

worlds get smaller,
fears are quelled,
worries allayed,
trepidations alleviated,
yearnings fulfilled.

hail, research, development,
progress and advancement!
may there be more to come
(and may there be broadband for some!)

decline, degenerate, disintegrate

You would have heard of the 'Desiderata' (which is, by the way, Latin for "Things to be Desired") - a poem often attributed as "Found in Old Saint Paul's Church, Baltimore: Dated 1692" (apparently there is some confusion as to this history..not to be delved into here..) and found on inspirational bookmarks and plaques all over your nearest gift shop. Stumbled upon the following parody of Desiderata (from National Lampoon). Let's see 'em make bookmarks and gifts out of this!

DETERIORATA

Go placidly amid the noise & waste,
And remember what comfort there may be in owning a piece thereof.
Avoid quiet & passive persons unless you are in need of sleep.
Rotate your tires.

Speak glowingly of those greater than yourself
And heed well their advice even though they be turkeys;
Know what to kiss and when.

Consider that two wrongs never make a right
but that three do.
Wherever possible, put people on hold.
Be comforted that in the face of all aridity & disillusionment
And despite the changing fortunes of time,
There will always be a big future in computer maintenance.

Remember the Pueblo.
Strive at all times to bend, fold, spindle, & mutilate.
Know yourself; if you need help, call the FBI.
Exercise caution in your daily affairs,
Especially with those persons closest to you.
That lemon on your left, for instance.
Be assured that a walk through the ocean of most souls
Would scarcely get your feet wet.
Fall not in love therefore; it will stick to your face.

Gracefully surrender the things of youth, birds, clean air, tuna, Taiwan;
And let not the sands of time get in your lunch.

Hire people with hooks.
For a good time, call 606-4311; ask for Ken.
Take heart amid the deepening gloom that your dog
Is finally getting enough cheese;
And reflect that whatever misfortune may be your lot,
It could only be worse in Milwaukee.

You are a fluke of the universe;
You have no right to be here, and whether you can hear it or not,
The universe is laughing behind your back.

Therefore make peace with your God whatever you conceive Him to be:
Hairy Thunderer or Cosmic Muffin.

With all its hopes, dreams, promises & urban renewal,
The world continues to deteriorate.

Give up.

lactic acid

Yikes. After three years of a relatively sedentary existence in an office building, the old muscles need re-stretching. Guess it's only been two rehearsals and it takes time to crank up them bones which haven't moved significantly for years. (Yes, I did do the can-can routine last year but that was nothing - our kicks were limited to just below knee level [lest the honoured guests in the front row gasp in horror and faint] and the stage was half the size of our current practice studio.) Thanking my lucky stars I don't need to do cartwheels (hope I'm not speaking too soon)!

finally friday

It's Good Friday. The eateries were practically empty during lunch. I was one of two customers at the bank. The lift went straight up to the 20th floor without stopping. And I forgot that Singaporeans have the day off - I had been anxiously calling up a number in Singapore all afternoon and seething about not being able to speak to a real person, when I suddenly realized that the real persons on the island didn't have to go to work today. We need more public holidays in KL .. (who cares if Malaysia is already supposed to have one of the highest number of public holidays in the world) Here's looking forward to the Labour Day 4-day weekend (yes, yes, it's still a month away) ...

wanton verbiage

One hardly converses in Malay anymore when one has left school. (Not that anyone did converse very much in Malay at school; it's just cos the rules said you had to on Mondays (don't ask why) and if you didn't, you'd get an offence slip, and three offence slips meant you had to write an essay or go 'kutip sampah' - that's 'collect garbage' in the national language). Anyway, a bunch of us bored overworked drones in the office had a good laugh at ourselves this afternoon doing total injustice to our long-abandoned tongue, over the e-mail. The usual call to lunch would consist of a mass mail to the regular lunch 'kaki' flashing an e-mail subject of a routine "What's for lunch?" or "Any lunch plans?", or an anxious proposal of "Let's have chicken rice!" if the writer was exceptionally famished. Well, somebody got creative today and launched this spiel.

So it started with
"Aku kelaparan. Lunch nak makan apa?"
[I'm hungry. What shall we have for lunch?]

And continued along the lines of
"Tak nak terlalu pedas, boleh?"
[Don't want anything too spicy, ok?]

Then it got more verbose.
"Wahai kawan-kawan yang bijaksana, bagaimana keadaan cuaca di luar?"
[O my learned friends, what's the weather like outside?]

Passionate, even.
"Malangnya, aku tidak tahu. Tiada jendela di sudut tingkat dua puluh yang terpencil ini."
[Alas, I do not know. There is no window in this desolate corner of the twentieth floor.]

Yes, I know what you're thinking. The people in my profession have an absolutely weird sense of humour. :P

digressing...

Finally getting down to injecting some life to the blog after months of it languishing away in blog-limbo! Have just proudly completed yet another stage of Project Refurbish Room - moving the old Dell CPU from one end of the room to another (you can tell this is gonna be a lengthy Project). And it'll be another few weeks or so before I get down to taking the CPU apart and removing the CD-RW drive to be transplanted onto my office PC. Meanwhile the recently re-positioned hi-fi set in the corner of the room plays "Out There" from the Hunchback soundtrack as loud as is reasonably possible at 1.00 in the morning (a much-loved anthology - mostly cos it's reminiscent of xmas holidays during Uni days in the UK [CD was purchased some time then] - xmas sales / christmas songs on Trent FM / the occasional bit of snow / corridor cookouts / putting on layers of clothing and still freezing your toes off / freezing more toes off while taking a walk down to Sainsbury's to get more chicken for the evening's cookout / more freezing of phalanges as you rush back to Hall before it gets dark at 2pm..) Yes, yes, I've digressed and now I wish I were back in that gloomy, rainy realm getting my boots muddy crossing the field on the way to the 9am tutorial. :-D Ah well, time to hit the sack.. have been feeling exhausted for most of the day thanks to the high-octane Grisettes dance practice on Sunday night... but more on that later ;-)