RACONTEUR-ESQUE SCRIBBLINGS

Exactly 4 years ago today, I wrote this post which I have copied below:  "I was just thinking that you don't get that many 29 Februarys in a lifetime. Well, at least not as many as say, 29 March or 29 April, which makes this post a once in a 4 year thing. Not knowing what the future holds (in the sense if I will still be blogging in 4 years time - though I don't see it any other way currently) I thought it would be appropriate to say something today. See, now I have a post dated 29 February 2008. Happy leap day... (if there is such a thing!)" I suppose I was right in predicting that I'd most likely still be blogging today and hence have yet another post dated 29 February. As I was looking at the calendar, and recalling having written a post to commemorate Feb 29 of 2008, it got me thinking about this lovely comment my friend wrote in response to that blog post:   Aunty Helpful Dictator Feb 29, 2008 04:14 AM   Also there's the whole t...

In an otherwise almost normal and mundane existence, there is a certain person who calls herself TS who has the occasional need to  throw her hands in the air in frustration, and utter the words - "Just My Luck" Allow her to explain: 1. She has been skeptical about buying things online (except for the occasional plane ticket) for a very long time, until one day, her sister forwarded a Groupon offer to her that was the perfect complement to a certain brand new 'toy' she just got herself. She had finally crossed an unseen threshold and purchased something online, something she's never done before. The item which she purchased at the end of last year was supposed to arrive at her doorstep in mid January. Now, it's nearing the end of February and apparently, the item is still waiting for clearance from China. At least Groupon has been contacting her (and others who took up the offer) and giving updates on the delay, but still... 2. The dentist told her that...

Way back in 1998. In the true spirit of upholding the morality (ahem!) of female students, my residential college decided to hold a talk for all female students who lived there. Attendance was compulsory, they said. On top of that, to make matters even worse, there were rumours that the rooms would be checked during the talk to catch truants. There were a few problems with this, seeing that we had a math test the next day. Being the kind of people who saved everything for the last minute, this talk just threw all the studying plans in a disarray. Secondly, the idea of some stranger trying to instill morality in us was just not my cup of tea. My mom did an extremely good job on that many years before. She still doesn't like it when I use unlady-like words even under extreme provocation, but at least I'm honest enough to use the words in front of her ;) Being first year students then, we duly attended the talk and were bored to death, while attempting math questions i...

It's sad when people think you're being serious when you're not.

Rogue and Molar Warning - may contain some descriptive goriness - so if you're averse to icky things, please turn away. Sorry. You know for a fact that evolution is the name of the game when you have things like your wisdom tooth turning into a rogue and attacking an innocent neighbour. We don't need them anymore, and yet they remain, hidden until they pop out someday, with less than desirable results for quite a number of us. If we were created as the creationists believe, we'd all be sporting perfectly beautiful sets of teeth (28 only) and there wouldn't be dentists around.  Over a year ago, I was shown a picture of the condition of my lower right jaw and it looks a bit like the drawing attached to this post. After having to deal with a series of failed appointments that I decided that it was a sign to not go ahead, I completely forgot about it until a recent visit to a dentist. She too commented on the damage Rogue is likely to cause and advised that I r...

Contradict and Confuse A long time ago in a country which hadn't even been properly formed at the time, a rather devious (but clever) method was employed to ensure that people wouldn't rebel against the powers that be - the ruling class. It was known as 'Divide and Conquer', or "Pecah dan Perintah" in Malay, the language used in our history books.  This "Divide and Conquer" policy worked to a certain extent, until the ruling class got bored/ran out of money/had other interests, and the people begin to see some light. Nevertheless, even after the country was formed, the current ruling class (voted in by us, unfortunately) loved the idea of "Divide and Conquer"so much that they continuously practised it, although they modified it to suit modern times. People have learned though, and some are beginning to reject the "Divide and Conquer"approach.  Now, based on the 'breaking news' topics as seen in the picture i...

Talking about hotels has never been a fun idea of a post, but I seriously thought that this one hotel and our experience with it deserves a special mention as it is the epitome of how everything that can go wrong will go wrong if the circumstances are just right. I suppose the biggest problem of all was that it was raining heavily. The second biggest problem was that the rain was unexpected. In fact, by the time we had arrived, it had been raining continuously for almost two whole days. This website shows how bad it was. The data provided here was from Feb 1 to 7, 2011 . Based on yearly reports from other websites, February is the month that has the lowest rainfall in the year. Our holiday there was from Feb 2 to 6, 2011. Murphy's Law, or a holiday curse? (Please note that the post below talks about the rain and more rain and all rain related disasters and this doesn't even include the burnt socks incident yet) Back to the hotel. Interestingly, the hotel is far ...

The previous post on Sri Lanka ended abruptly with the famous words - "To be continued". There is a valid reason for this. See, back then, I had trouble deciding if I should describe the hotel or Sigiriya Lion's Rock first, without destroying the story telling in any way. Till today, I couldn't come up with a decision, and therefore just randomly picked the Lion's Rock first.  Sigiriya Lion's Rock The Sigiriya Lion's Rock beckons people (and umbrellas alike)  on a rainy afternoon Around 2:30 pm or something, the rain had decided to take a short break and ceased pouring water like there was no tomorrow, so we took the opportunity to go to the rock. It was quite a short drive and we finally reached the gates. It was slightly drizzling at this point, but nothing Malaysians who had to deal with unexpected rain almost every day couldn't handle. The rock apparently was once part of an ancient palace ruin which was recently excavated, and had fo...

We live in a world where making money seems to be everything (more on this later, hopefully!) We are now targets of targeted ads. I noticed this about a year ago when Google searches on places to visit in New Zealand dominated my existence on the internet and I'd suddenly have ads on tour packages to go sightseeing in Waitamo, or blackwater rafting while I was surfing.  A few days ago, G-mail sent us users an e-mail giving an in depth explanation on how now Google will incorporate all of our activity with their various accounts to allow them to advertise us with more relevant ads based on our interests.  While browsing earlier today, I came across this article (linked below) from another blog and figured I'd just check it out:  http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2012/01/25/google_ad_preferences_manager_does_it_accurately_guess_your_age_and_gender_.html According to the article, all you've got to do is click this site and it will attempt to guess your ag...

There are so many things one could blog about, but the moment this post editor opens, it's cursor blinking innocently at you, you realise that there are just too many issues fighting for your attention. Therefore, you just end up typing something of no significance at all and hope that tomorrow will be a better blog day.