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April 26, 2005
Never Be
There are a few things that are quite impossible for me to do even if my life or my livelihood depended on it.
I know much depends on a person's will. It was an elderly person who once asked me… o' little grasshopper, which do you think is stronger, will or steel?
That question kept ringing in my head as I thought of how I could not sing like everybody else. It seems that almost everyone I know could easily grab a mic and put up a decent performance. But even with machines that are supposed to make karaoke kings out of anyone, my powers to stop happening parties to a screeching halt, would easily prevail. I have tried singing in the car and I end up thinking, goodness, please stop. I think the closest comparisons to how hard it is for me would be executing something like that perfect bowling throw, that dipping goal-scoring free-kick, that multiple-hit connecting combo in your video game, that perfect composition and exposure of every jpeg in your 2 Gb Microdrive containing all your holidays snaps. Implementation is lacking and inefficient - useless even with the precise of all mathematical equations. I just don't have the tools to do it - I end up feeling like a 486 with 8 MB of RAM running the latest version of Photoshop on XP.
I do think that there's enough strength in my conviction to sing. But I also think that there's a reason why prisons had been able to contain criminals for centuries.
Posted by quickness at 02:11 AM | Comments (0)
April 24, 2005
Non-building blocks
Photo block is depressing. Nothing clinical about that description, but it's just is.
Having a sticky shutter doesn't help, but I am sure that it is not to blame since I think the camera behaves the way it's supposed to most of the time. When you're careful about everything and you don't get what you want, you tend to shoot hundreds of careless compositions.
Don't ask me why, but I set the camera settings to iso 800 and forgot to change it back. I think it was after 40-50 shots that I realised my mistake and I couldn't be bothered to redo them. It's the overcast days and high contrast lighting that's playing with me. Maybe I need to do some indoor shots. Somthing not in the apartment. Something with large spaces. Something very touristy. Something that can push that reset button.
Posted by quickness at 11:12 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 19, 2005
Where the sun sometimes shine...
Apart from Mumm-Wraath, we really do have relatively good neighbours.
When we first moved in to our current apartment, some of them stopped by and said hi, and gave some warm words of welcome. I wouldn't have expected this in this city. And we still exchange pleasantries in the morning in the corridor, or in the elevator. We had one immediate neighbour in our previous apartment and I had only seen her once - getting out of the elevator, looking down, walking hurriedly into her apartment, closing the door and bolting the sixtytwo hundred locks on her door. During our stay in another building, we had neighbours who complained when we cook, and who think the world of their dogs, so much so that they think they can let them walk around the building without a leash and let them jump on everybody else.
Anyway, I think it was a couple of weekends ago when we met one of our neighbours who wasn't staying in the same floor as us. N and I had just finished bringing the children to the park when we met this pleasant old man coming out of the elevator in the lobby.
Old Man: Good afternoon! It's a nice day outside....
N: Afternoon. Yes it is.
Old Man: Oh look at them (pointing at Azmina and Farizah)... What are they?
N: Huh?
Me: Eh? Excuse me?
Old Man: What are they? I have one grandchild adopted from China. He's Chinese and he grew up to be a beautiful boy. Are they Chinese too?
N: Eh?
Me: Erm, they're Asian actually.
Old Man: Oh, I see!!! I just want to tell you that they are going to grow up to be beautiful children.
N: Oh-ho-ho, thank you.
Me: Yeah thanks.
We get in the elevator. Door closes.
N and I: (thinking) Did we just moved to a place under a rock?
Posted by quickness at 11:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 12, 2005
Pre-Dinner Conversation
Can you imagine how the conversation just before dinner went?
"Hey.. this looks good... I better get the camera."
(N carries on what she was doing... being used to this)
Flash. Flash. Flash. Flash.
(Get up, change position)
Flash. Flash. Flash.
"Oh, I'm glad you made the mushroom pepper sauce."
"mmm-hmm." Flash. Flash.
(Note: Yes, it was as good as it looked)
Posted by quickness at 09:41 PM | Comments (0)
April 11, 2005
Mumm-Wraath de Otis
I just had to write this.
It is one of the trivial things that I would easily forget, but once it’s here, it’ll become a thought immortalized.
This morning, being just on time leaving from the apartment, the elevator I called had 4 people and a twin stroller.
I took off my iPod headphones, like one does when entering a small public area of one’s apartment building, to exchange hello's and good morning's. I had managed to put myself in front of the only man in the lift, and next to the stroller, when the mother of two said, “Seriously…”.
Now I don’t know this woman even though I have seen her before. And I’ve never seen her talk to anyone, but I thought, she's talking - she might have grown some people skills.
I was satisfied that no part of my body or my clothing had touched anyone or anything when going in, and the elevator door could easily close with my skinny-self in, when she made it clear that she was talking to me.
“Could you wait for the next elevator?”, she continued. She wasn’t even looking at me properly.
I stepped out.
I could have said, “Oh I should have brought my 2 babies into the lift next time”. Or “There is a bigger reason why I am not in this elevator, I wish you, you and you a safe day”, while ignoring the woman. Expletives wouldn’t have been appropriate even in the presence of children spawned by the most evil of beings.
But as I stepped out, the other people in the elevator looked at each other and had already validated my opinions of this woman. I was happy to ignore her and give her that satisfaction. If she’s the least bit human, she'll wonder why people think of her in such an unfavourable way. If not, then, I suppose she is that counterpoising element in the human gene pool, inhibiting our ability to acquire world peace and inter-galactic travel.
I couldn’t really wish any ill-fate or harm to fall on her – she is after all, a mother of two small children. Even if I only pray for a painful abcess, I fear she might take it out on someone else other than herself.
I think a lot of people have used their children to get some sort of special treatment. I’m not saying that one shouldn’t give his or her seat on the bus for people with children, or (reasonably) make way for strollers in the subway, but some people really get out of their way to adopt this “I have children, you don’t know anything, and everyone else is an imbecile and has less rights than I” attitude.
I am a parent of two beautiful and smart children. I am happy most of the time. But I am embarrassed to be associated with people like Mumm-Wraath de Otis, self-appointed schmuck Queen of Elevators.
Posted by quickness at 10:14 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 10, 2005
Dear Bippy,
You betcha it's Spring.
Posted by quickness at 11:26 PM | Comments (0)
April 09, 2005
Tudor City
Posted by quickness at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
April 05, 2005
Acting Tough in Public Transport
Posted by quickness at 07:28 PM | Comments (1)
April 04, 2005
Sunday Starter
Just to show people that N can take photos too, and be as good.
Posted by quickness at 07:54 PM | Comments (0)
April 03, 2005
Spring
I know it has been raining all weekend, but spring is finally here!!! It's time for song and dance. Clocks spring forward one hour ahead, and the day is longer once again....
Posted by quickness at 10:35 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
two, dos, deux, dua, yee...
I was just backing up files on my notebook when I noticed Gmail is now offering 2GB of storage!!!
2 GB... thats... 67 billion times what hotmail is offering me. Well.. actually a thousand times... but it sure feels much more than that... Even my thumb drive is only an eighth of the size....
And I'm also glad that google is using answers.com as its online dictionary service.
Let's just hope that this gets better, and gmail stayes free. Now, if google could just come up with a better IM system than MSN or AIM, which is OS X compatible...
Posted by quickness at 10:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 02, 2005
Still Migrating
I cannot believe it took me 3 days to figure out how the "posted by" field in c.content behaves. I have been looking at the main templates for the first two days, trying to figure out how I can modify the author field. Last night I went straight to the individual archive files and thought that the best way was to actually modify every archive file, while thinking that the new main index template will take care of future entries. Fortunately, looking at the html source knocked me out.
It was only today that I saw another set of templates for archives and learnt that you could change the author name to a nick name.
It feels like Movable Type is wearing a "You Suck" t-shirt and it's forcing me to look.
On another matter, because the two babies are again behaving like a couple of newborns, N decided to cancel our earlier plan to visit the Fulton Fish Market at 2am. It worked out well since it had just started to rain heavily and we could have been stuck or trapped by this spring rain in this awkward hour.
Posted by quickness at 03:08 AM | Comments (0)
April 01, 2005
Dear Friends and Family,
I would like to apologize to all those who I’ve not written back, or never written to, or never called.
If you have written to me at my hotmail address over the last few years, then you most definitely have not received a reply as I rarely use it for email purposes. MSN messenger is the only reason that I keep it; and of course, because my hotmail account name is a word in the English language. The fact that hotmail only gives me a measly 2MB and that it is the favourite email target for spammers, doesn’t deter me as I can still somehow know many of you are alive and well on the other side when you log in.
I now use the gmail account as my primary email address in addition to my dotmac email. And since neitherhere.com is already mine, I might open up another account just for the purposes related to the domain.
If you have any of the above-mentioned email accounts, then that’s fine. I check them regularly – it’s my hotmail that I don’t really check.
I don't have any explanation for it, but I can’t talk on the phone for long periods of time, nor can I maintain a regular email correspondence. Doesn’t mean I forget however, only means that you know a friend who you can count on, but not on writing regular personal emails or make personal phone calls.
By the time this message is posted on this site, I most probably have not sent invites for anyone to visit this site.
Nonetheless, I feel it’s important to say this, because I, we, do miss everyone a lot. You are constantly in our prayers.
Posted by quickness at 03:10 AM