there's something about ..... leading pisa

We were going through the tour photographs of Coolcat during Christmas Eve when we came across those photos taken of Leading Tower of pisa.

It's an amazing structure, not so much of the architectural merits or the wonders why it is slanting, but it has that amazing powers to make EVERYONE do that "hand-supporting-the-tower-and-smile-at-the-camera" pose.

It's simply amazing!

When I was there with my then-girlfriend-now-my-wife, I told myself that I'm not going to do something so silly. It's so bloody embarassing. It's so bloody uncool.

We ended up doing it. And took a picture as well. Bloody hell!

I think the phenomenon to explain this is : conformity.

When in Pisa (Rome), you do what the Tourists (romans) do.

Everyone does that and you decided to conform.

While everyone concentrates on the leading tower, many people ignore the beautiful tower just across the leading tower. It's just as nice except it's not slanting.

Life is so perverse. No one cares if they are normal, people only cares about deficiency. Cludos to Coolcat. She managed to capture the forgotten tower.



So people, if you ever go to Leading Tower of pisa, do pay more attention to the Tower across it.... as well as your pose.

there's something about ..... race

The amazing race still gives me the goose bumps. The finale may not be the best in terms of excitment given that all 3 finalists are nice couples and none has physical advantage, but it still good enough for me.

Damn!! It's going to be another long wait for the next series. I should find myself another fav TV show....

there's something about ..... essense

I was about to fall asleep last night when my wife woke me up to get me to "relocate" a bottle of chicken of essense away from the window.

"why?"

"...because the morning sun would come in tomorrow and may cause the chicken essense to spoil"

"Why don't you drink it now?"

"No one drinks chicken of essense at 1am at night."

"It's ok to leave it there lah."

"you want me to drink something unsafe?"

"it's safe, this whole bottle can put into microwave oven for heating up, so morning sun is not half as bad plus lesser radiation. Also chicken is a farm animal, they like morning sun, so I don't think they turn bad so easily."

"you want me to drink something unsafe?"

She won the argument.

there's something about ..... mac air

Keynote by Jobs



Macbook Air Advert



Macbook Air Advert parody (funny man!)



Mr Brown's experiment!

there's something about ..... protocol

There's always a certain protocol for everything.

Like there is a protocol for finding a urinal in the toilet.... for example, you do not use the urinal next to the one that is being used by another gentleman. You skip that and you use the one 2 urinals away, thus leaving a "gap" between you and that gentleman.

It's almost an unspoken rule.

Like how a packet of tissue paper has a much superior duty of "chopping" seats. 20 cents buy you a sense of security that you can go and buy your lunch and come back to your seat knowing that your tissue paper has done a great job. And after that, you betray the tissue paper by using them and dispose them off.

And I just discovered another protocol. How you should stand in the lift.

When the lift is crowded with strangers, everybody stand facing the lift door and examine the amount of grease on the gentleman's hair in front of you.

When the lift is occupied by a couple of strangers and there are plenty of room to do star-jump, you tend to want to relax and lead against the sides of the lift and you glance sideway towards the lift door like you are expecting something unusual happening to the door other than the door being opened.

When the lift is occupied by 2 others fellow parent of your kid's school after dropping off your kid and if the lift is fully mirrored from all sides, glancing at the lift door means looking at each other indirectly and it's a no-no. Given such a situation, you must lead against the sides of the lift, both hands in front of you and you look down to the floor very much like how you would say grace. That way you avoid all eye contact in a lift.

See.. there is a protocol for everything.

there's something about ..... communication

I have been busy the last 1 over week on my buddy's wedding. Not too often you still have buddies getting married at this age and it's a real blast!!

I was jokingly telling coolcat that maybe it's time I find other buddies that would satisfy my desire to be best man.

They have to be in their late 20s, and planning to get married in about 2 years so that we have time to bond and build the buddy-buddy relationship.

Yesterday at the wedding, we saw how modern technology has conquer our lives. Some of my friends were constantly on the phone with clients and colleagues, even at night!!!

And I just wondered.... wasn't life much easier during the days without such technology?

It's almost a job requirement now for you to reveal your mobile number to your office as well as your client. And when you express privacy as a reason for not giving, one will be given to you... plus a blackberry.

You thought... WOW... blackberry... you take it with a glee...

... and the glee last for 3 days...... and you felt like you have been cursed after that. You wonder which is worse... client calling you after office hours or client sending you an email after office hours but expect you to reply immediately... because you carry a blackberry.

Gone were the days when you carry a pager....

The pager peep..... and you ignore it.

The next day, client ask you why you didn't return the page and you replied that your phone card has no more value or you couldn't find a public phone in the train.

In fact, during those days, clients do not page for you outside office hours. It's almost a courtesy thing to do. Nobody does that. They wait till the next day and if necessary, they faxed across to your office asking you to return the call.

So you are given a blackberry? Good luck to you!

there's something about ..... countdown

... or the lack of any.

It's frustrating. Just when I was hoping in my last post not to have any A&E situations in the new year, I ended up having one spread over the new year.

And by the look of it, it looks like I'm the only one at the A&E.

The queue is extremely fast. 5 minutes and it was our turn.

The saddest thing is that they were putting on Channel 5 on a TV and you could see Gurmit Singh and Mchielle Chia doing the countdown show. Of course, watching that show at home would be equally sad, but imagine watching at a A&E and you really felt rock bottom.

The most defining moment was the strike of 12 midnight. It was so bloody awkard because I was paying up to leave and 12 midnight arrives. I was like their last customer of 2007 and first customer of 2008. The hosipital staff and myself weren't too sure if we should say "Happy New Year".

What's there to be happy? They were doing shift on New Year's Eve and I'm at the A&E which is not exactly a happy place to be.

Nevertheless, we should thank them for working. And I must thank the doctor who rushed down.

Now, I'm not too sure whether I should add this as one of the top 10 notable events in 2007 or 2008.