RACONTEUR-ESQUE SCRIBBLINGS

 Keeping this here for posterity.  I had the link to the paper in FB, but the website has been taken down. The paper doesn't exist anymore. Had to take a snapshot on scribd until I check in all my gadgets for the downloaded copy of the paper.

18 Feb, 2025. It's been almost a month and half since then, but ...I had the time of my life in a Greenday concert, in Malaysia. They had closed with this song (one of my favourites from long ago) and it was an apt farewell. Let  us just forget the Good Riddance part of the song. It had rained for most of the evening in varying degrees. Not to the extent of cats and dogs, but still enough to keep a warm sort of sliminess inside your poncho, between your damp t-shirt, and jeans,  fogged up glassess and partially wet hair. We had tried to get seats in the seated area, but couldn't go through during the frantic attempts to buy it when sales for the tickets opened. Everything was worth it though. Even the flu that attacked all 3 of us (Around 3 days of fever and a cough that lasted for a month or so) I had been interested in Greenday's music since I was in my teens. A fan, perhaps, if you could call it that with my limited access to music. Back then Minority was my favourite so...

 Possible spoilers ahead The story continues then... a breakup, an interest of sorts on a fellow classmate, and suddenly, an unexpected twist in Cath's ' love life' Now, I was really invested.  I spent all my breaks reading the book during the day. I was using my phone to read, so it was relatively easy. I was reading while having dinner, during waiting time between medical tests (Had a scheduled medical checkup sponsored by my employer) Despite Cath's sudden interesting love story, she still had to face other issues. After all, a good story has to have challenges thrown at the protagonist from time to time, and as the reader you root for her. You hope gets a happy ending in the end. You hope she finally sits down and finishes the assignment she has to do. You want her to be happy until the end of the book, or if there's a sequel, you root for he to succeed till the end.  End of Review.  Seems more like a summary though. But like I said, I haven't written for a ...

I'm old, sort of. BUT I have a thing for YA books. My most recent purchase on Google Play books was Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. I read the free sample, was intrigued enough that I purchased the book once I was done. I even followed the authors advice to skip the introduction and meet her there later.  I first read a Rainbow Rowell book almost 10 years ago (Eleanor and Park) I wasn't exactly young enough for YA back then too, but that story was compelling as well. I'll get to that a bit later SPOILER ALERTS, I think Like the author, I think if you want to read the book, don't bother with my review. I'm not in the mood for filtering what could or could not be spoilers due to the lack of practice in writing my thoughts and opinions for many years.  It's set in 2011/2012. The story starts with an introduction to Cather (or Cath as she prefers), our young female protagonist. She's 18, is a freshman and at that point has just entererd  her dormroom where she mistak...

Time for the Annual Appraisal again.  It's a cloudy Sunday afternoon, and I had just finished giving scores to my subordinates on their personal KPI performance for the year. It's the task I hate most, even more than figuring out what KPI's to assign in the first place.  Why on a Sunday, though? Because it's supposed to be private and confidential, and despite the physical distancing at the office, there's just way too many distractions. So I dedicate a day on the weekend to review them and compile my results before the dreaded interview sessions.  Now, while I think KPI's help you to focus on things you need to do, I also think they discourage people from doing other jobs that need to be done, but doesn't have impact on their KPI. You also cannot give a person too many KPI's because then nothing will get done. Then there's also adjusting expectations so that everyone in your department falls nicely into the bell curve.  I've read articles before...

  It was Halloween, and although Malaysian culture does not involve trick or treating, we acknowledge that it is fun to enjoy all things scary. The afternoon was warm and sultry and I was heading back home after spending some time with my parents and sister. The radio was tuned to my favourite radio station, and I was just in time to enjoy a special show they had about horror books in which listeners contributed to their favourite horror stories, stories which probably disturbed them the most. This got me thinking about the horror books I read growing up...    Now, while I love horror, I'm what you could call a scaredy-cat. Images of what I just read jump out at me when I'm alone facing the window or looking into the mirror. Sounds which are usually normal seem amplified in their scariness after I've read or watched something scary.  The first horror book I read by myself was one I found in a box in my grandma's house when I was a kid. I wasn't sure whose books ...

This is an attempt to write without filters. Pauses between sentences and ideas will be kept to a minimum. Spelling errors will be there, but hopefully edited out before it gets posted. There probably will be grammar mistakes. Repeated first words in sentences. Sentences that hang unashamedly. I might even start a sentence with "Because" or "And". Because I can This is an attempt to write without giving thought to the beauty of the sentence. There will be no effort to make it roll on the reader's tongue or make them smile in the beauty of the structure of the sentence or how it sounds. That comes much later. Lengths will vary. There will be no uniformity. Adverbs will be abused and misused. Why write badly? I thought I could write. And I did, once upon a time 10 years ago. I had stories which I thought I could tell, because they needed to be documented. Life's experiences were good enough. There was always something funny amidst all the drama if you kn...

Maybe. I don't know for sure.

Continued from here It seems that every hot country in Asia which has had a history with British people at some point when they were on a travelling and colonising spree, would be left with hills where people live, grow tea and ultimately end up being a tourist destination. That is perhaps why we found ourselves in Nuwera-Eliya, a settlement on top of a hill with sprawling tea plantations and known to the locals as Little England. We, on the other hand called it a refrigerator. It was cold. Now, I know my previous posts on travels have been lengthy, but I intend to cover this place in one post, and even if it means typing it out in point form, then point form it is: 1. 7 waterfalls en route. You never know you can get OD'd on waterfalls until you actually do. At this point I just grabbed a photo from inside the van 2. Yes, it rained - on and off. 3. We had the quickest tour of a tea factory with the unfriendliest guide ever. 4. We bought a lot of tea. This was in ...

Some time ago, there was this episode on "How I Met Your Mother" in which all the characters were trying to quit smoking. Watching that episode (and comparing it with some much older movies/literature) it finally hit me how people's opinion on smoking and smokers have changed. What used to be normal way back is now viewed with some disdain.  How else do you explain smokers being given a smoking bay where so many of them sit in cramped up spaces to get their fix AND inhale secondary smoke from their fellow smokers, or even while I was in Japan, where it seemed as though everyone smoked, they were forced to smoke in small groups at little ashtrays by the kerb - hardly a sociable activity, or in some areas, they stood in alleyways behind tall buildings in their nice clothes, smoking mournfully in the cold.  The other day, the papers had a piece on new rules for cigarette manufacturers in terms of packaging size and pricing (among the methods employed to reduce young ...

Eons ago, when I was a student in school, learning English as a second language (though spoken as a first language at home), I met a stumbling block in the form of grammar. Although using correct grammar was never a problem, explaining why I'd pick A over B when given an option between the two was a problem. Without a doubt, my English teacher would have labelled me annoying since I had the cheek to tell her I picked what I did because it 'sounds right'. I'd have been a much better student if I had this book in my grubby hands back then! Missed Periods and Other Grammar Scares: How to Avoid Unplanned and Unwanted Grammar Errors If you're a follower of the blog that goes by the title Missed Periods and Other Grammar Scares , you'll find that the posts explain grammar in a delightfully whimsical style. You'll never know what hit you until the end where you finally realise that you've been given an interesting lesson in grammar. You get an idea of ...

"Guilty until proven innocent - if you can find a way to prove your innocence, that is. Ha ha ha ha" The line above sort of sums up the newly ammended evidence act, where as the owner of a website, blog, e-mail address, facebook or twitter account or even as the owner of wifi connection that someone else is 'borrowing' because your password got hacked, you will be held responsible until you can prove that you're not the one responsible for whatever was posted. How you gather evidence is your choice, but if you can't then be prepared to get sued/go to jail/pay fines, etc.  In view of this horrible development, the CIJ (Centre for Independent Journalism) is organising our very own Internet Blackout Day on the 14th of August. As I do use the internet for blogging, have various e-mail accounts, and use Facebook as well, plus the wifi connection is registered under my name, I think this is an extremely important cause and I'm in full support of the Bl...

It's been a long, long week. Deprived of the much needed mental effects coffee has on me (I'm not phasing coffee out of my life, but due to the fasting month and the fact that the rest of my office is filled with Muslims who are fasting, I have ceased mixing myself a cuppa in the afternoons out of respect for people who would have not had even a sip of water since 6:00 am) and the sudden influx of problems to be solved, I have been having problems sleeping well too. In the end, I'm tired, sleep deprived, irritable and have made zero progress in posting up anything here despite so many interesting things going on.  Losing Hope on Our Only Gold Medal I've never been a fan of watching sports on TV. I do watch the occasional football match, but I hate watching badminton. Nevertheless, I sat down and watched last night's men's badminton final on TV, because Malaysia was playing and there was a chance we could win a gold. We've never really been a country t...

They're centenarians, lined up along the road, providing shade against the sweltering afternoon heat, and giving wannabe photographers the opportunity to get good photos. Back in July 2010, I saw them in person during a visit to the Taiping Lake Gardens . The other day, my mother told me that there was a big issue over some development plans for the Taiping Lake Gardens, in which these 120 year old raintrees may face a situation they have not faced in the past. The very next day, my favourite radio station interviewed a man who started a petition to stop the Taiping Municipal Council from going ahead with their plans of building kiosks at the area despite assurance that the trees will not be in immediate danger. The problem is, you can never tell with development -  what if greed gets in the way? According to the interview, the proposed kiosks will end up blocking the view of the lakes and I'm assuming that the aura of tranquillity which we get there now will be gone foreve...

Dinosaur in the garden: Run!!!! Failure teaches us that life is but a draft, a long rehearsal for a show that will never play - (Quoted from the movie Amelie ) Photo and quote are totally unrelated.

A primary school/elementary level bad joke: Teacher: What is the scientific term used for water? Student: HIJKLMNO Class: Ha ha ha  Bad jokes aside... There has been talk earlier this year that the state I live in will be facing a severe water shortage by 2014 unless the state government allows the federal government to go ahead with their plan of building a new water treatment plant. The state government insists that we do not need a new water treatment plant as reducing the current wastage from the present operational water treatment plants will actually be able to cover the projected shortage. Enter SYABAS, the private water concessionaire who is in charge of the distribution of treated water who shamelessly suggested that water should be rationed from now to prevent the acute water shortage. An article I read * here states that the previous government left behind a very complicated system where water is treated by several different companies, while Syabas is in ...

So, a vending machine company that dispenses toothbrushes and oral hygiene products thought that it was appropriate to post a comment on my blog post about vending machines dispensing sweet drinks. Interesting...

Continued from here It is said that out there in this world (and maybe beyond) there are 6 other people who look somewhat like us. A doppelgänger of sorts. They may be of a different gender, or of a different nationality, but you might someday be walking on the streets of Taipei and think to yourself... "hey that person looks like (insert name of female friend here whom you're sure is back wherever you came from), but it's a he!" My family met a not-so-favourite-uncle's doppelgänger in Sri Lanka. The similarity wasn't just physical. He even spoke like him, wore similar glasses my uncle would have used when he was in his late twenties while wooing my aunt (in the mid to late 80's) and bossed people around just like my uncle. The similarity was freaky but kind of hilarious at the same time (Come to think of it, I should have discreetly taken a video of this man and showed it to my uncle's kids just for laughs)  Due to the rain (I...

After an unexpected quest for a Sony mp3 player and an enthusiastic (and almost obsessive) research for a rugged phone, I have finally crawled onto the smartphone bandwagon with a Sony (Ericsson) Xperia Active.  July 2012 I liked it the moment I saw it on the Sony site, and I knew that I wanted it. It is dust and water proof, can handle tracking with wet fingers and was built to withstand abuse. It isn't the newest phone on the block. Released towards the end of last year, there were only two units left in the country (according to the store I went to) and I had to book a set and wait for them to send it to the store nearest to me. I got them to do so, and they called me yesterday afternoon. By 10:00 pm last night, the phone was in my grubby hands. As I was checking out the phone and setting it up to my liking, I suddenly realised that it has been 12 years since I've been using mobile phones, and how they've changed over the years, both in function and appearanc...

Over my sandwich and a steaming mug of coffee during my lunch break, I often unwind by reading science articles and blogs on Discover Magazine. There, I've openly admitted my pseudo-geek and nerd-like tendencies on this blog for all to see.  A few weeks ago, there was an uproar among the scienctific community that had nothing to do with the Higgs Boson. Everyone was talking about a certain promotional video that was released by the EU to encourage young women to get involved in science. Turns out, the scientific community found the video extremely distasteful that I had to watch it for myself. Here it is, below. To be honest, if I was a young girl on the brink of deciding between arts or science as my future career, I don't think this video would sway my final decision towards science. I thought it was shallow on the whole, like a comment a lab assistant once gave me a long time ago when I first started working. I have long nails most of the time, but it's not bec...