Kevin Low

Just something interesting here for all to think about: Bingyuan’s blog – a post on decisions. I didn’t know Bingyuan would type such things. Then again, I am confident he copied that story from somewhere. Anyway, the story isn’t logical because if the track is not used, there shouldn’t be any controls that allow one to change the course of the train.

Back to what I am trying to talk about – PC Show. Okay, it is the same every year, they feature everything from mouse, to keyboard and MP3 Players but almost no computers. And I am not talking about laptops. The whole fair is made up of human, people and crowds – nothing much about computers to see. I believe 5o% of the people went there to see their fellow specie. As for me, I was searching for the memory card at the perfect price (which is supposed to mean zero, but never mind) for my fourth auntie who enjoys travelling.

Personally, I don’t usually do such deeds for people, but since I may have to borrow the memory card from her sometimes, for my own use, I decided that it was fair for me to do the shopping and choosing. I got a 512Mb one at a fairly expensive price of $78. It was a SanDisk one. I think that’s the best price it can go unless you are thinking about Lexmark or whatever crappy brand. I don’t usually care about the brands but recently, with the rise of imitations that produces real lousy products, I decided that branding is sometimes important. But not always – especially when it comes to software. Yes, that’s right.

这绝非胡言乱语，这是个歇后语 – 我发明的。不知怎么的，在巴士站口渴了，喝着水，就想到这有趣的‘歇后语’。请别误会，我绝不是在骂任何人。有也是骂自己，巴士过了站才发现自己差点要迷路了。结果足足花了15分钟在走路，才到达目的地，真是白痴。

“憋尿解渴 – 白痴”

就这样，短短一句，随你们要骂谁，都用得着。

Should I declare erpz.net dead? Maybe not. Perhaps I should announce that Mib is gone – though that’s not true. There simply isn’t anything great to talk about at this period of time. Oh yes, there is the bus fare hike. But can we prevent it? No, so why bother to talk about it – the company wouldn’t care anyway. The monopoly is there and you can’t say, “Hey, I am not going to take your bus anymore!” Well, actually you can say that, but not without adding, “I am going to walk! Wait a minute, how far is Bukit Timah from Tiong Bahru?” Erm, there is this little talk about bad attitude taxi drivers over at Terry’s blog, but that doesn’t apply to everyone. Especially those like me, who rarely take taxis to avoid overspending.

Well, I do have a bad experience with cabbies – the reason why I hate to take cabs alone. When I was still rather young, I took a cab along Upper Aljunied Road with a few friends because we lost our way there. Our destination is quite near: Kallang Stadium. That dumb cabby knows where to go, did not grumble, but I guess he was too bored and thought too highly of my friends and I. He started cracking dirty jokes and laughing deviously at himself. Previously, we didn’t really understand what he is talking about. So there was a little forced laughter. My friend, who wasn’t very decent himself, didn’t even laugh. I don’t know whether he was the one who start those jokes but he certainly don’t look very comfortable then. Fortunately, we reached there rather quickly, and zipped through the crowd at Kallang Stadium, not wanting to remind ourselves of that dirty fellow.

As for bus drivers, I have a feud with this idiot who drives Bus Service Number 186 at an unknown time slot. I haven’t seen his face, and I cannot recognise him, but I know I hate this guy, and it should be a guy – if my eyes didn’t fail me then. It was a tiring afternoon at school and I was pissed because of some management stuff in school and I was waiting for that bus at the Serene Centre bus stop. It is not exactly outside Serene Centre but it is quite near it.

I waited for 8 minutes, the bus came. I walked towards the kerb and flagged as the bus was around 40 metres from me. I put down my hand when it was about 10 metres away from me. I then look at my shirt because I realised that there was something wrong with the third button. Damn it! The bus just zipped pass and even when I flagged again, it slowed down, I caught up with it, then it zoom off again. I hate this guy! I ended up having to change another bus because I know that the next bus wouldn’t come until another 30 minutes.

Okay, I am getting pissed as I am recounting. I better start forgetting about this event. Oh yah, I forgot that the title of this post is ‘Lessons Again’, so I must talk about going back to school today. Well, everyone was fine. The hateful ones were as hateful. The kind ones were as kind – I asked for help with Maths and that guy helped. Yes, that’s all. In life, some thing don’t tally, I guess the title of the post need not really tally with the contents.

假期虽忙，今日还是答应了母亲，与她上巴刹去买菜，吃早点。新加坡所谓的早点，是炒米粉，炒面，这一类食品，而非‘点心’。今天特地到中笆鲁巴刹 – 本来这‘ba’, 是头上一个‘山’，下边添个‘合’；翻了词典，发现真有此字，但电脑上却没有，没办法，只好用了同音的‘笆’字。我们主要到那儿去是为了买菜，但听娘说那儿卖的虾面不错，便也就到那儿去尝尝。确实不错。

中笆鲁巴刹其实正在翻新，我们所去的，是暂时搭建的巴刹。虽说是暂时搭建的，设备还是非常完善，决不缺桌少椅的。卖衣的那儿还有试衣室呢！唯一缺的，大概就是空间吧。那儿的摊位，都挤得要命，但这也好，摊主们都在聊天，完全不把‘竞争’放在眼里。

像娘如此管闲之人，认识的人还真多，走不到两步就在跟人到招呼，聊个一二。那些婆嫂，见到我，必对娘说这三句，“这你儿子呀？长得还真高呀。现在读哪儿？”另外添的还有，“怎今天有空陪妈妈到巴刹来？”对于现代‘疼爱孩子’的新加坡父母，巴刹有如是什么禁地，孩子们有空该在家温书，怎么到巴刹来学买菜 – 准是没前途！他们就是以这种眼光看着我。

好了，买菜。

Charles’ theory doesn’t only apply to lifeforms or whatever mutant creatures that might really exist in the very world we live in, it also apply in almost every single part of life. Evolution is something like improvement, but most importantly, it is a change. Supposedly positive one but not necessarily so.

For those who didn’t notice that things does evolve, let me make a simple analogy here. I was originally thinking about food, but I decided that it would be interesting to talk about Air-conditioners. I remember when I was young, Aircons wasn’t really cool, so on advertisements, the different companies will compete at the coolness level. They will try to outperform each other in the aspect of making better cooling system. From ammonia to whatever gas they use, they simply try to make the air that flows out of the machine be at the most suitable low temperature. And soon, the companies came to an equilibrium.

So they started another war. Some dumb company started off saying that their Aircons makes less noise than others. So they forgot about ammonia or freons and turned to the fans. They tuned the blades, switched the axis and twist the plates, did whatever they can in their advertisements to make sure that the consumers were convinced that they make the quiest Aircons. Alright, they now have Aircons that makes no sound at all other than the little ‘beep’ when you turn them on or switched the temperatures. But that wasn’t enough.

Another lame company came along, I think its name starts with a ‘D’, or maybe it was a ‘S’. Whatever it is called, they start telling their customers that their Aircons clean their air. Okay, now it is a battle of purity. Other companies dropped their blades, and heavy machinaries and went into making filters. There was sponge, PVC or whatever synthetic form of trap, that were trapping the dust in the air that is unfortunately sucked into the Aircon. Well, they also managed to make Aircons that spew air, which are almost perfectly clean.

Sorry that the story is so long, even I am bored by it. Now comes along some company that starts with ‘F’, who says their Aircon produces some catechins or whatever and negative ions or don’t know what, which are healthy to the human bodies. Things have been evolving all the time, don’t expect things to be the same as last time. And it is this, that forces us to change and adapt to the environment and surroundings.

My marks for this term evolved, but not my position. Is that a good news? I think not. But my friends told me that is already good because it also mean I am not getting worse. There is this friend of mine obtained a better score than the previous term but dropped by 9 positions. And that is how ridiculous the system is. Too bad, things are evolving into a crazy stage. Even the supposedly best hasn’t make it.

The world is getting scarier. First, holidays are coming. Holidays are not time for relaxation. They are periods of time when we go wild and work madly at home instead of being ‘lectured’ at school. In school, the ‘talk only’ ability becomes powerful especially when everyone assumes that having school would mean lots of commitment and responsibility, so people do not come and bother you. Simply say you are busy when people ask for your favour and the very fact that you reply would be greatly appreciated – no explanation needed (there are tonnes of it anyway).

But holidays are dreadful: You can’t say you have got lessons, or school. Initially, the school gives you a little homework, such as informing your parents about upcoming events and things to organise that comes after the holidays (they assume you have the holidays to plan everything). Next, your teachers give you work – tonnes of worksheet; so much and so heavy that they can squeeze out every single inch of adipose tissue in Bingyuan, and every single molecule of lipid out of Fat Brother. I even have problems bringing them home, if not for the fact that there aren’t many textbooks to carry around. Well, when teacher finishes with their assigning of work, your project and whatever mentors come and nag. They say you are still trailing behind the other mentees, then comment that the project is incomplete or whatever. But take note: They DO guide you with the work, expecting very much in return (in the form of excellence in the project or research quality).

Guys, it is not easy to say that holidays are coming and everything can be ‘taken easy’. If those homework, project and research, plus responsibility for organising whatever isn’t enough, there’s more. Work attachments. I have one, quite nice actually – since I have never been on such thing for all my life, so this is the first time. This one lasts for 5 days – 12 hours of work each day; to film stuff and record details. Yes, sounds simple, but think about doing that for 12 hours, in a day, for 5 consecutive days. Oh yah, and I still got to go back to school – for English Lessons. Okay, that’s all. I have about 25 days of holidays (got ta exclude days like the attachment when I cannot do anything at all). Yeah. That’s life. Too bad. I am not Mib, can’t go US, can’t go out with a bunch of friends and slack, can’t really make a point to blog in the holidays.

Last Friday, when The Economist is supposed to arrive, it didn’t. Okay, I admit I was slacking and didn’t really touched the previous issue on ‘Axis of Evil’, but they should be delivering the magazine on time. I gave them 2 days and finally, I sent a ‘comment’ to them through the net to inform them that my issue hasn’t arrive, yesterday.

They responded almost immediately to this ‘comment’ by sending the issue to my home by hand today. I am pleasantly surprised by such world class services that this company offers. Guys, if you ever subscribe anything academic, I would recommend The Economist, because I believe the content isn’t where a magazine company cant stop at. They have managed to extend beyond just content and provide the service that we need.