I went to renew the book of philosophy based on TV serials, just so I could continue reading the author's opinion on "Sex and the City" and life's small vulgar pleasures. However, when I tried to use my EZ-link card to pay for the 50 cents renewal fee, the machine didn't allow the deduction cos my EZ-link card is linked to GIRO and there was some kind of firewall.

I was stumped.
"Well, should I write a cheque?" I said incredulously.
"For 50 cents? Nah. Wait till we warn you," laughed the librarian.
"When's that?"
"When your fine hits $6," she replied.

But my fine will never hit that amount.. it's not in my anal nature to allow that to happen.

So now I owe the library money. To me that feels so wrong. lol.

After a chill-out night at Cafe Cosmo, I came home to surf for Argentinian indie music. They sound nice even though I have no idea what they're singing.

It's been a while since I've last blogged. Work has been strange. I lost the projects for 2 countries (Thailand and Philippines) and picked up 2 more (India and Indonesia) within the course of a week. I've become quite nonchalant about these comings and goings, though I would jumble up the different setups sometimes and dial the wrong country code.

I've a knack for fleshing out project activities in painful detail which make people wince, but I think they're glad I bring order to chaos. Or maybe I could have been an accountant.

Tip of the day: always smile during teleconferences. It doesn't matter if no one can see you, cos they can hear your smile and it makes them less defensive. Really.

While wandering round Borders over the weekend, I came across a poetry compilation by Charles Bukowski called "Play the piano drunk like a percussion instrument until the fingers begin to bleed a little", which I don't have yet. I mused over it but in the end, got John Ratey's "A User's Guide to the Brain" instead to see "what ways the structure and chemistry of the brain determines our perceptions, emotions and behaviour, and what we can do to shape its functions to our advantage".

Somehow I couldn't help but feel this seemed to mirror my career choice.

The heart that breaks open can contain the whole universe.
- Joanna Macy, writer and teacher (1929- )

Yesterday was dramatic - Today is OK.

People often wondered how a country of only about 300,000 people can be so music mad. Maybe I should have been Icelandic.

Imagine this.
Person A: "I don't want to lose what I have."
But this doesn't mean A can't gain more than current state. Hence this means >=.

Person B: "I don't want what I haven't got."
But this doesn't mean B can't lose more than current state. Hence this means <=.

So unless Persons A and B are already in the same equilibrium state which includes each other, it won't be possible for them to exist in a relationship together.. don't you think?

Thought of the day.
We ping an IP address to find out if it's alive. But as for sms, we sms sometimes just to get a response, to prove to ourselves we're still alive.

Then, won't a sms be a reverse ping?

Sometimes, I'm taken to be simple-minded because I am easy-going and open.
Please do not make the mistake of thinking that and abusing my trust.
Because then I'll treat you with clinical detachment and all you get is my razor sharp thoughts slicing through you; all brains and no heart.

Please think twice.

I've pretty much settled into my self-contained life again.

I'm now reading 3 library books (depending on whichever is closest to me at any point in time). Along the way, I surf to pick up on what catches my eye. Today's eye candy is Gartner's Hype Cycle.

I think it'll be interesting to do a Hype Cycle based on my own life. Like sudoku has hit the peak and gone into a trough of disillusionment while blogging is in a steady plateau of productivity after all these years. But then trend watch will have to take place at too frantic a pace, and frankly, I'm lazy.

Oh, I've also started listening to podcasts. Today, I listened to one featuring Jimmy Wales on Wikipedia as well as another featuring Alan Taylor on web mash ups, while replying to emails.

Something Jimmy Wales was trying to explain about the volunteer community at Wikipedia struck me, and I hope I didn't get it wrong. He mentioned that while writing articles on Wikipedia, there would unavoidably be different versions. What they try to advocate was that if the article had to be protected (against overwrites or edits), the original author or administrator should always choose to protect the other version and not their own.

It was just like how we should always try to see things from another person's perspective in life, and I hope I've done that to some degree.

What I've been listening to instead of prepping for the Franz Ferdinand gig.

At the coffee dispenser in the office early one morning.
Reluctant to start the day without music, I was juggling a cup of coffee and my water flask, while listening to my iPod tucked under my arm. A colleague then came along to fill up 2 empty mineral water bottles, and he was listening to an iPod nestling in his front pocket.

We didn't know each other but we didn't bother with morning pleasantries.
We just looked at each other and smiled at how absurd we looked.
iPod owners of the world unite. lol.

I believe a random reader stumbled onto this blog to locate the following poem, where the line "Beloved be the one who sits down" was quoted in one of my Jan 2002 entries.

You're in luck.
Here's the poem "Stumble Between 2 Stars", by Cesar Vallejo:

Beloved be the unknown man and his wife.
My fellow man with sleeves, neck and eyes!
Beloved be the one who sleeps on his back.
The one who wears a torn shoe in the rain.
Beloved be the bald man without hat.
The one who catches a finger in the door.
Beloved be the one who sweats out of pain or out of shame.
The one who pays with what he does not have…
Beloved be the ones who sit down.
Beloved be the one who works by the day, by the month, by the hour.
Beloved be the one who sweats out of pain or out of shame.
The person who goes, at the order of his hands, to the movies.
The one who pays with what he does not have.
The one who sleeps on his back.
The one who no longer remembers his childhood.
Beloved be the one who sits down.
Beloved be the just man without thorns.
The bald man without hat.
The thief without roses.
The one who wears a watch and has seen God.
The one who has honor and does not die!

What I've learnt from Mark Rowlands' TV philosophy so far:

Modernity is an ideology based on 4 elements:
a) Individualism
our moral obligation to ourselves to live the best life we can

b) Relativism
different life choices are equally viable, ie. you do what you have to, and let everyone else do what they have to

c) Voluntarism
it's the ability to choose, rather than what is chosen, that makes any choice valuable

d) Instrumentalism
Everything boils down to what you're putting into them and what you're getting out of them.

Buffy is pre-modern because she has a moral obligation to save the world, which precedes her own self-interest to be a cheerleader.

I think I'm seeing Buffy in a new light now. lol.

Long have you timidly waited,
holding a plank by the shore.
Now I will you to be a bold swimmer,
To jump off in the midst of the sea, and rise again,
and nod to me and shout,
and laughingly dash your hair.
- Walt Whitman, "Song of Myself"

I've forgotten how beautiful this poem is.

Markets are conversations; and
Conversation is fire. Therefore,
Marketing is arson.
- Doc Searls, co-author of "The Cluetrain Manifesto"

I went to the library again on impulse and this time I managed to come away with more books:
Keith Ferrazzi's "Never Eat Alone" (a social networking book which glow read before and said it reminded him of me, haha!)

Mark Rowlands' "Everything I know I Learned from TV" (which will be a challenge for me since the most TV I've ever watched is during those months in Hong Kong, but if anyone can use "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" as an analogy to life, I guess it's worth reading)

"Never Threaten to eat Your Co-Workers" (a best of Blogs collection.. I know, why am I reading a printed copy? Don't ask)

I told mum the only dish she could cook that would remind me of Hong Kong was luncheon meat, and I really craved it. So despite her misgivings about its lack of nutrition, mum cooked me luncheon meat.

But still it's not the same.

Sorry for the late response but hey, I've been tagged by Electrin! :)

Name five of life’s simple pleasures that you like most, then pick five people to do the same. Try to be original and creative and not use things that someone else has already used:

Eh. I think it'll be hard not to repeat someone else AND be frank, so I chose the latter. Haha!

1. Music, including
- listening to a song I love on auto-repeat, especially if it's a wrap-around song (ie. the end fits seamlessly with the beginning of the song)
- stumbling onto brilliant musicians I didn't know anything about
- discovering new song/ album/ musician with whimsical names that make me smile even before I've heard them
- discussing music with other enthusiasts, either for nostalgia or to learn something new (even if it involves sound fidelity rather than music per se)
- being given songs which friends want to share (especially as a surprise)
- sampling at music stores for hours on end
- dancing without inhibitions and with my eyes closed
- introducing music I like to people who've not heard it before
- attending concerts and enjoying the spontaneity of music

Hmm. That's more than 5 things already isn't it?

2. Running, especially while listening to music (if only I can run while reading!)
3. Reading, especially while listening to music (but I can read anywhere.. I remember declaring once that I could try to read in a washing machine.. if only I can read while running!)
4. Travelling (to be somewhere else so I can be reminded of how big the world is and to keep our myopic lives here in perspective)
5. Playing pool (for the simple reason that it relaxes me though I'm not that good at it)

Whether you've been tagged before or not (not that I can recall), I'm tagging:
Dave
Quest
Yoyo
my best friend

I realise I've tagged one less than requested but I'm lazy. There you go.

I started reading the Chinese translation of Haruki Murakami's "Kafka on the Shore" in Hong Kong, but only read half the book before I came home. On Sunday, I found the English translation of the book in the library and borrowed that to carry on reading.

It's strange that I didn't have any problem switching between both translations. That must say something about the authenticity of the translations right?

Recently my eyes would get all blurry if I read for too long a stretch. Today, I finally hauled myself down to the optician's to get my eyes checked. I thought woefully that my eyesight has worsened, but on the contrary, I was told that it has improved 50 degrees per eye. And now I have mild astigmatism too. Hmm. I replenished my contact lenses and made another pair of severe black-rimmed school mistress'y glasses. Lasik? No way.

There's an album by Gravenhurst called "Fires in Distant Buildings". I think about that title sometimes and muse over how appropriate it is in my life now. So many things I need to do but am procrastinating against.. they are just like fires in distant buildings, and it's a matter of time till they spread my way.

I'm just waiting to get burnt.

I wanna get a Buddha Machine! Does anyone know how I can get one without mail-ordering it?

At 1.30am on a Saturday morning, my brother and I were fiddling with our respective iPods and sending each other text messages from our own homes. I asked him how he knew I was still awake. "Insomnia runs in the family," he replied. "We probably got it from mum."

But mum is sleeping soundly at this instant you know. lol.

It's a miracle we're still friends despite the distance apart, and I know too well you're just too restless to sit still and email. And yet, you patiently stayed online in the wee hours of a weekday morning to email me all 15 songs of the latest album you like. One by one. Just because you think I'll like them too.

And I do. Thank you.

Today I stumbled across a hardcover version of Stephen Vines' "Hong Kong: China's New Colony" at a bargain booksale near my current office and promptly bought it. (Yes, mobile booksales have tracked me down.)

I guess I'm keen to know more about the fate of friends I've left behind.

If I were not an atheist, I would believe in a God who would choose to save people on the basis of the totality of their lives and not the pattern of their words. I think he would prefer an honest and righteous atheist to a TV preacher whose every word is God, God, God, and whose every deed is foul, foul, foul.
- Isaac Asimov