Micro-commute

It’s a sign of the times how micro-blogging has become a far more dominant form of internet communication. As attention spans shrink and means of expression follow suit, it’s become more of a chore, and yet ironically, less of a challenge to have a long-ish blog post such as this.

New year, new role, in a new workplace. A nice change from the city, I’m now commuting from my suburb in the north, to a leafy suburb in the east. First two weeks of driving was pleasant enough, but when the full brunt of school traffic kicked in, it would take me an hour and a half to get to work. Unacceptable. So I’ve taken the path of least resistance – the train.

The downside? Feeling an evil, ill wind on me when someone coughs in my direction. I cringe internally far more than I express externally. But the upside far outweighs the attacks on my immune system – I get to work in an hour, I get to sleep/read/watch movies/do Sudoku while I ride, and because of the traffic patterns, I usually have a seat throughout the entire journey.

Today, I’m about to embark on a new phase of my commute – cycling to/from the train station. I’m close enough to walk to one, but there’re economical (and health!) benefits of going to another one just a bit further away (only 2km!). In case you're wondering, my bike is safely stored in a secure cage while I'm at work, thanks to these guys. I’ve yet to work out the logistics of doing this in 40-degree summer heat, but it should be reasonable to assume that it’ll warm me up in winter.

Let’s see how long this lasts eh.

Welcome back Ben

It must be nice to be entertaining again. After all, it's been 13 years since Good Will Hunting. Dogma was entertaining but only served as a brief distraction which unfortunately foreshadowed the earthquake sized chasm that was Jersey Girl and Gigli.

The Town was a well balanced plot, with action, romance and a cast that pulled it all off fantastically, and the biggest surprise was that Ben directed himself.

Two Thumbs Up!

Honey, the giant spider you ordered on ebay has arrived.

Ok. I know what you're thinking. You haven't heard from me in a while, and I show up, with a big spider.

I took that photo just minutes ago, while I was checking the mail box. You can imagine my surprise, especially since she ordered a bird-eating spider. This spider is in no way equipped or capable of catching, much less eating a bird (of course I could focus on the assumption that the bird-eating spider only eats dead birds, and doesn't necessarily catch them, but I like to think that these spiders build giant webs and catch poorly-sighted birds). This seller is SO going to get negative feedback.

Enough about that. Let's work on the earlier part of my opening sentence.

You haven't heard from me in a while. In the era of facebook (which I don't really use), twitter (same), and iPads (ditto), blogging seems to be less relevant. If it takes more than 30 seconds to construct and type, some one else will have captured your attention via facebook about the bad service at their local fast food place, or a youtube video involving a cat, a baby or both.

So why haven't your heard from me? Let's face it, I've been lazy. But I like to think I've got a forgiving audience. As a peace offering, I've got a spider present that I think you'll be very pleased with.

Old Socks

One recent weekend morning, I was struck by an unnerving, yet eerily accurate thought. I've got old socks.

Back when I was a teen, I was always running out of socks. So much so, I tended to 'reuse' socks more often that I should have (but that's a story for another day).

Once, during a significant sock shortage, I remember heading towards my dad's sock drawer in the hope that some of my socks had ended up with his, by mistake. Sadly, the first glance at his sock drawer quickly dashed my hopes. All of my socks were white, all of my dad's socks were black or navy blue.

Now, it didn't really occur to me as a teen, but the aforementioned thought went along these lines - the older you get, the less 'young socks' you have.

See, socks fall into two ages - Young socks used to be generally thick, white crew (polyester or cotton) and sports-ish related with some kind of logo embossed at the side. Old socks were more work related (black, brown or navy), more specific to needs (wool, padded soles) and seldom indicative of brands unless the brand was really worth showing.

So as you may have guessed, approximately 15% of my current sock inventory consists of young socks and even then, 33% of those consist of dark-coloured sports socks. I expect that by the time I'm old and infirmed, the young sock to old sock ratio will be a fraction of a fraction.

(At the risk of spinning off another story, some of my young socks didn't even start out as mine to begin with! But lets leave it at that and focus on my coming to terms with my general aging.)

(image swiped from here)

Google Wave Bye Bye

Ok. I'm sure I'm not the first one to start with that. Nor will I be the last. But if you haven't heard it yet. I think it's funny.

Google's announced that its ceased development of its much-hyped google wave (and I fully expect a similar result with Google Buzz soon enough).

I use Google Docs fairly regularly. It's a great way to work, having instant access to up-to-date documents anywhere with a browser access. No concerns about backing up, version control and the spreadsheets provide enough grunt for normal, everyday use.

But what was the point of Google Wave and Buzz? After playing with it for all of 30 seconds, I didn't see a reason to give it a chance.

Speaking of Google, our household has recently been privy to the 'testing' of smartphone platforms android and iphone. While I'm quite happy with my now relatively small Nokia N95 (people used to tell me the N95 was a 'brick' when it came out) and blackberry, I did play around with the Google android powered HTC Desire and the iphone 3GS.

I must say I can see what the fuss is about. Nice big screen, easy scrolling, amusing apps, but I'm not convinced enough to increase my pocket-laden weight by lugging around a phone bigger than the combined sizes of the two phones I'm carrying now.

I'd rate the android just a little more than the iphone, simply because I'm not a fan of Apple 'dumbing down' their devices. I mean any basic nokia can bluetooth a picture to another phone. But noooo.. Steve Jobs wants to funnel an essentially free service over a paid, inefficient but revenue-earning telco network.

So just in case you were wondering. We're all good over here. Just thought we'd put it out there because this weekend, we've got 11 visitors from Singapore.

Yes. 11.

Time to dust off my singlish.

Wah lau eh.

Old dogs, new pics.

As our canine companions reach their august years, we're increasingly forced to confront the inevitable - one day, they'll be making their way to the big doggie country club in the sky.

So before that happens, I thought I should actively try and collect more happy snaps, in the hopes that these 2D (that's '2 Dogs' for those less technically-inclined people) pictures will provide some fond memories for years to come. Today's trip to the park provided just such an occasion.

First order of business during a visit to a park - Ginger always has a roll around. She's been doing this for years, and it started when we first brought her to the beach at Sentosa - it seemed like she had an itch to scratch, but yet she never did it at home.



And when the rolling ends, the sniffing begins. Sniff this, sniff that. Personally, I don't see what the fuss is about...



Lucy always tries to out-sniff Ginger, so much so Lucy always seems anxious to get her next 'snif-fix'.



And despite having spent less time with us than Ginger, Lucy regularly checks in on how we're doing, and is usually the first to beckon when we call.



In the car on the way home, Ginger shares her take on 'Lost' by contributing her own 'eye opening sequence'.



After getting home, she decides to 'lay low'. Usually a good sign of a day well spent.



I found out later, her desire to remain inconspicuous was entirely because she had committed the heinous crime of...

Dog-napping. *cue law & order music*



As punishment, she was made to scrub bowls in the kitchen.



Trust me, after that gruelling task, I'm pretty sure she wouldn't do it again.

Hope you enjoyed the shots!

In an incident that can only be described as...

PHWOAH!



And wait till you read the story behind it!

HT: DB