What'd Saturday Go?

I
My sister asked me to help her setup a new PC she bought for her fiancé late Friday night, and it took me the whole night and almost all of Saturday to download and install updates for the OS and other applications. It just reminded me why everybody hates the evil empire, and why we Malaysians love our very own TM.

The new flatscreen LCD monitor makes me jealous. Our home desktop and my notebook computers are already more than two years old – ancient – but I don't want to buy a Vista PC just yet. Macs are expensive, and I can't be bothered to try out Linux. So what else to do but wait...

In the zone – image capture from Macross Zero

II
I used to find listening to music while driving distracting, especially with the earphones. But then, as I was stuck in traffic, first when they were doing that infamous RM70 million repairs to the elevated section of MRR2, and then with the never-ending road upgrade works between Sungai Buloh and Sri Damansara, I began to listen to the radio. The thing about Malaysian radio is after a while they all sound annoyingly repetitive; playing the same songs over and over again that you want to throw up.

One day, I decided to bring along my trusty iRiver T10, and put it on during the drive home from work. It was really awkward at first, as I was so used to having all my senses ‘present’ when driving. But I adjusted pretty soon, and now prefer to drive with my ears plugged either to the MP3 player or my Walkman phone. There are more songs in the MP3 player, but I love the sound-isolating ear buds of the hand-sfree kit.

I personally feel that my driving is now more focused and relaxed. Studies have linked listening to fast and loud music to fast and dangerous driving. While I cannot say whether I’d consider the songs in Bon Jovi’s Have a Nice Day album – which I’ve been listening and singing to over and over through the past month and a half – fast-paced or not, I do admit to driving just a little bit faster than usual.

So, where I’m going with all this? The new year has got me itching for a new phone. I bought the W800i last year just before Chinese New Year. It’s Chinese New Year now, and the white/orange phone is starting to look boring.

Hopefully this will be released soon.

__________
PS: **Happy New Year**, again.