Easily Amused

My cat is sleeping on the bed, oblivious to the thunderstorm brewing outside. His curled up position makes him look like a baby seal, so chubby and cute. But I bet baby seals don’t whine as much as he does (he whines about 179 times a day).

The coffee on my desk is 5 hours old and tastes like what a 5-hour-old coffee should taste like – bitter, with resentment for a glory lost.

I have a handful of pistachio shells on a piece of recycled paper. I wondered what they could be reused for. Googling for an answer, I found “helmets for snails“. LOL :)

PS: Busy week for me, yay for weekends!

Start Up

Sadly, my computer hard disk died on me last week.

Luckily I have back ups done for my client work on a regular basis but 6+ years of personal stuff – sketches, ideas, plans, stories, etc – are all gone.

When I fired up my email application yesterday, my inbox was empty. I’ve lost all my emails too.

A similar event happened to me a few years ago.I used to have backups of all my work on Zip disks then (does anyone remember those blue disks?). When my then PC got corrupted beyond repair, I didn’t really worry because thought I could rely on the backup data on my zip disks. But no – ALL the disk were corrupted and unreadable. 5 years of work gone. ;(

I have to admit there’s a certain amount of liberation, starting on a clean slate. But I’m a little worried about data preservation at the moment. Will my data DVDs last? If they do will there still be DVD readers in future? Do I need to transfer my files onto a new hard disk every few years? Do I need to upload all 89 million terabytes of my digital photos to Flickr? Should I carve my ideas in stone? Or blog every tiny detail of my life online? Hmmm…

Travel Advice

“I’m thinking of going to *insert-country-here* in September/Winter/next year. Any good advice?”

Here are some I received from well-meaning friends as I packed my bags for the trip in May:

“London?! Why? It’s so… dull! Skip London, go Paris instead”

“I didn’t like Paris. Highly overrated! Rude people. Go to Prague, you’ll enjoy it better!”

“No! Don’t. go. anywhere. There this Swine Flu thing going around!”

(Well, okay, the last advice was from my Ma)

London for me was vibrant and full of life; I encountered many helpful and friendly French people (et non, in my eyes, Paris is not overrated at all!) and although I find Prague a beautiful city, I can’t say if I enjoyed it “better” than Paris.

Travel is such a personal thing. Whether or not your experience is a good or not-so-good one depends on so many factors — the weather, the people you happen to meet (or who you’re travelling with), your interests, age and expectations. If I were to take any of the advice seriously, I would end up avoiding most of places I had planned to visit. So my advice is this: if you are keen on a place, do your own research and just go. Don’t let others dictate what your personal experience will be for you.

There and Back Again

Hey everyone, I’m back from my month-long vacation. It’s been one hell of an interesting ride. Highlights of my journey include:

• Venice, ah beautiful Venice, I don’t have a bad word for you
• Amsterdam caught me by surprise! I love the this city
• The charming cottages complete with grazing cows in the very picturesque Swiss Alpine region
• The people! So many helpful, friendly people who’ve helped make this trip a memorable one!

My feet are covered with blisters and my body is aching. It’s been a great experience. But oh, does it feel good to be back home. :)