Withdrawal

My notebook suddenly died on me on Tuesday night. One second it was working perfectly; another second the dreaded blue screen came out. After five years of almost continuous usage – I always had the notebook powered on either at home or at work – the hard drive finally gave way. It even disappeared from BIOS, preventing the system from booting. ARGHH!

A visit to the university technicians the next day confirmed the worst. The hard drive was definitely a goner. So, there was only one thing to do: buy a new one.

The bad things about losing my notebook:

1. Losing all your data. Yup, despite having all those external hard drives, most of my files including class notes and five years’ worth of digital photos weren’t backed up. A hard lesson indeed. I’ve never experienced a catastrophic hard drive failure before.

2. Withdrawal. I’m lost without my notebook and broadband Internet connection.

3. Since the university has this brilliant policy of not issuing computers to non-PhD holders, I have to beg the department administrative staff or sneak into the head of department’s seldom used office to use their computers to check my email etc.

The good things about losing my notebook:

1. Catching up on my reading. I’ve finished two books already and am currently on a third. It is a really wonderful thing particularly that I have two more books arriving from Amazon soon.

2. A perfect excuse to just sit around and do nothing. Well, that’s also only because the semester hasn’t started yet.

One thing that has not changed is my bedtime. Even without the computer and the Internet, I still do not sleep before 2 a.m. The Children of Húrin the other day had me up until 3.

My new notebook will arrive on Monday. May it last at least another five years.

Viva La Vida

Viva La Vida
by Coldplay, from the album Viva La Vida (2008)

I used to rule the world
Seas would rise when I gave the word
Now in the morning I sleep alone
Sweep the streets I used to own

I used to roll the dice
Feel the fear in my enemy’s eyes
Listen as the crowd would sing:
“Now the old king is dead! Long live the king!”

One minute I held the key
Next the walls were closed on me
And I discovered that my castles stand
Upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand

I hear Jerusalem bells are ringing
Roman Cavalry choirs are singing
Be my mirror my sword and shield
My missionaries in a foreign field

For some reason I can’t explain
Once you know there was never
Never an honest word
That was when I ruled the world

It was the wicked and wild wind
Blew down the doors to let me in
Shattered windows and the sound of drums
People couldn’t believe what I'd become

Revolutionaries wait
For my head on a silver plate
Just a puppet on a lonely string
Oh who would ever want to be king?

I hear Jerusalem bells are ringing
Roman Cavalry choirs are singing
Be my mirror my sword and shield
My missionaries in a foreign field

For some reason I can’t explain
I know Saint Peter won’t call my name
Never honest were
But that was when I ruled the world

I wish I had taken Literature in high school and then Philosophy in university so I can make sense of the spoken words, life, and the world better. Take this new Coldplay song for example; I have no idea what it is about, a fallen empire? What matters is that the songs sound awesome, so worry not EMI, for though I’ve downloaded the full album – all hail teh Interwebs – I’ll buy the CD when I find it.

Speaking of leaks, J J Abrams’ new sci-fi/supernatural drama (seriously, why bother with genres anymore?) Fringe looks mighty promising. Perhaps finally we’ll have a worthy successor to The X-Files from Fox. By the way, anybody excited about the new X-Files movie? I know I’m not. Sure, I’ll go watch it at the cinema but I am not at all excited about it. With just a little over a month before the movie opens, there lack of buzz is quite telling. Even the studio doesn’t seem to be very excited about it. What more is left out there? As far as seeing David Duchovny is concerned, unfortunately, I’m more excited about the next season of Californication.

Two weeks on it seems Iron Man is still the best summer movie so far. SIGH.

Meanwhile, though so far only a rumor [UPDATE: confirmed!], the Robotech movie project seems to be picking up with The Empire Strikes Back and Raiders of the Lost Ark writer Lawrence Kasdan joining in. Now that is something to look forward to.

Chicken and Egg

View of the Packard’s Corner T stop as seen from my bedroom window (December 2005)

I don’t think that anybody will dispute the fact that our public transport system is terrible. The last time I used public transport in Malaysia was the few weeks when I first started working before my mother made me buy a car. During my student years at IIUM, and before that in school in Seremban and Mantin, I took the bus or the commuter train all the time. My favorite part was paying the RM1.70 bus fare from IIUM to downtown KL in one- and five-sen coins, to which the Intrakota bus driver would give me a death stare before asking me how much I money I dumped into the machine.

:D

In a way, our public transport problem is a chicken and egg situation. People do not want to take public transport because the service is terrible. However, the bus and rail companies cannot afford to invest to improve their services if they cannot make enough money from the low ridership. The trend of low ridership began as more people could afford to buy their own cars and motorcycles. Therefore, while publicly we all want a better public transport system, in private most of us happily drive and ride our own cars and motorcycles to actually care about public transport. Public transport is used by only a minority of the lowest-income Malaysians and, er, guest workers.

A colleague rides the bus to work everyday while many students drive a car or ride a motorcycle just to get from their hostel to class. She commented recently, the day after the Prime Minister announced the fuel price increase, of how empty the buses were. The quantum of the fuel price increase is supposedly so shockingly high that the economy will collapse and people’s heads will blow. All right, may be not so dramatic, but Economics 101 says that all else equal, when the costs of driving (or riding your motorcycle) increases people will switch to using public transport. If Malaysians are not swarming the nearest bus and train stops anytime soon, then perhaps the fuel price increase is not that high enough that we can still absorb the price increase and be merry.

Things Money Can Buy

People often talk and write about financial freedom, which if I understand correctly means having or making enough money to not worry about money; quite an oxymoron, if you ask me. My idea of financial freedom is to not worry about money period. Somebody told me that I only thinks so because I am single with no dependents to clothe and feed, and don’t live in a shack. Perhaps, but it tells something that the happiest people on the planet live in a remote island nation in the Pacific.

Other than to have a really nice house with huge bathrooms and a huge kitchen, there is only one perverse reason I would want to be filthy rich: I want to hit people with my car.

I don’t know how many times I almost knocked down a motorcyclist running a red light at a junction, or rear-ended a car that slowed down or stopped suddenly without any warning. Some people seem to think that traffic rules don’t apply to them, while others do not care to properly maintain their vehicles. It is perfectly understandable to not noticing a broken brake or signal light, but to allow all your tail lights to fail is simply irresponsible.

So I really, really wish I could hit them – gently – and then tell my lawyer to sue them for running the red light and not having a working tail light to cause me to hit them. Of course, I’d give all the money to charity.

Stay Home, Save the World

Faced with the rising price of fuel (and other items like food) our national leaders’ initial public response was to tell us to change our way of life – tukar cara hidup – in keeping with the new reality. With the current political climate in the country, the call was only met with contempt by the people on the street. Of course the people will adjust; that much goes without saying.

DUH!

An interesting article I read the other day was one on Ohio’s Kent State University, as well as other employers in the US offering employees a four-day work week to allow them to save on fuel expenses from commuting. I wonder if any Malaysian employer would even consider the idea; e.g. allowing employees to work four ten-hour days instead five eight-hour days.

Many jobs don’t even require an employee to be physically present at the work place all the time. The rising fuel price then should also stimulate a renewed interest in telecommuting. Of course, we need employers to be open to the idea of a flexible working arrangement, and employees to be trustworthy enough to actually work while practically unsupervised. We already have all the required technological tools, especially with the widespread availability of broadband Internet connections. So much has been written about the benefits of telecommuting (read: and I am too lazy to write about them) that I actually wonder why it is not more widely practiced. Not only will we save on fuel bills, it is also good for the environment.