Viruses

It’s amazing how worms, viruses, trojans, and stuff of that ilk spreads quickly via instant messaging sources.

For example, today I received messages from people like “hey you got a myspace album? anyways heres my new myspace album accept k?”, and “This picture isnt you… right?”, together with them offering to send me a zipped up file, presumably the abovementioned album / pictures.

Ok, so far so good. I presume that I’m supposed to accept the file. But then I think for a bit. First, the person doesn’t have myspace. Heck, most of my contacts don’t use myspace, but probably facebook or friendster. Myspace is probably more well-used in the US / UK. Hmm. I’m getting pretty suspicious. Secondly, looking at the file size, I wonder what kind of pictures and albums are around 12kb. Not very believable. And lastly, I wonder what kind of friend would immediately start sending me stuff without even saying hi?

But seriously, there are a lot of these things floating around, and people accepting them day by day, leading to such messages received. But I wonder why.

Are people really that gullible? Or they just can’t resist being curious, trying to see all these supposed photos. Maybe it’s just a bit of both, but I really can’t see why people would accept such files. What kind of picture, let alone album, can fit in a 12kb file? An picture of stick figures and smiley faces? If it was a file of a few MB, fair enough, I’d understand why people would accept it, but 12 kb is just simply ridiculous.

Or maybe it’s just me, not trusting such files, as nowadays worms, viruses, and trojans are a dime a dozen.

Sometimes, I wish that everyone was more alert, so that such things won’t get proliferated. Then again, that may mean that the creators of such programs will tend to make it more believable, which again is bad for the majority of people.

So I guess this is just a minor inconvenience. Tell the person sending me such files to get his system checked, and don’t be so gullible next time. Or perhaps just ignore him and feel lucky that it’s not me.....

Rendition

There are some movies which, despite any negative reviews you might have read, you know you just have to watch because of certain members of the cast or some such reason. “Rendition” is one of them.

Boasting of a huge star-studded cast, including several of my favourites like Reese Witherspoon, Meryl Streep and Peter Sarsgaard, the movie held a tremendous draw to me despite less-than-favourable reviews in most of the magazines and papers I’ve read so far. Alas, after having watched the movie myself, I have to mirror the conclusion that sometimes, having the best actors around still cannot save a movie that doesn’t have much else to stand on.

Set across two different countries, the movie tells the story of a few different sets of characters who are all connected to a terrorist bombing in Egypt: Anwar El-Ibrahimi (played by Omar Metwally) is an Egyptian-born American chemist accused of providing vital information that led to the bombing and who has been subjected to the titular Rendition process (whereby those suspected of being involved in terrorist activities are taken to secret prisons for questioning without having to go through any red tape); Isabella, played by Reese Witherspoon ,his pregnant wife who goes to the airport to fetch her husband, only to find out that he apparently wasn’t on the plane and who proceeds to spend the movie fretting over his disappearance; Douglas Freeman (Jake Gyllenhaal), the agent sent to interrogate Anwar; and Khalid, an Islamic extremist in training in Egypt, who…well…you can watch this for yourself.

While the constant juxtaposition of the stories of the different characters does provide a different and interesting approach on paper, the execution leaves much to be desired. The pacing of the movie is unbelievably slow and feels much more of a drag than its actual show length would indicate, the characters and storyline not moving much even after an hour or so. The show also suffers from a distinct lack of focus, perhaps due to its segmented style of presentation, the script trying so hard to flesh out all its different stories that, ultimately, none of them have had adequate time to develop properly.

The acting is, as would be expected, solid. Witherspoon shows off her Oscar-winning chops well, bringing life (and sympathy) to the bewildered Isabella who just wants to know what happened to her husband. Metwally’s portrayal of the innocent Anwar evokes strong feeling of indignation in the audience, especially with the excruciating tortures he goes through. Streep and Sarsgaard, as the hard-hearted in-charge of the whole rendition operation and a senator’s assistant who tries to help Isabella, his ex flame, to find her husband, respectively, both put up strong performances, showing a subtle finesse and pizzazz that some of the younger stars lack.

Still, at the end of the day, great acting still cannot save a drowning plot and execution that sends the audience to sleep. Rendition is a thriller that, well, doesn’t thrill.

Geek Health

The Geek Lifestyle is commonly used to refer to someone who lives his life as a technological fanatic. I would say they’re talking about your stereotypical skinny, thick-spectacled computer expert, who you always turn to when your computer needs some doctor-ly love.

(Source: meneldur, Flickr)

Well, jumping into a geeky existence is not without its cons: you are almost perpetually tied to technology, you can’t live a life without electricity; the Internet creeps into your list of bodily needs alongside “Food”, “Water” and “Shelter”, and you get all sorts of aliments associated with being a technological otaku (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otaku).

I came across an article on Geek Health while I was trawling the Internet, and the findings are unsurprising: these people can really get themselves into some terrible sleep debt if they don’t watch their habits carefully. A good night’s rest allows the human body to recharge for the next day. Not having enough sleep is a leading cause of Pricks-in-the-Office, where the patient becomes an irritable jerk for the day.

Preventing this is easy:

(Source: jamesyu, Flickr)

• Use the bed only for sleeping… and the thing you do when you are feeling amorous.
• Stop watching television and the computer for a few hours before bedtime.
• Turn off everything that could distract you from your sleep.
  (i.e. switch off the mobile phone, or leave it far away from your bed side)

That article also raised an interesting phenomenon (probably unique to people working in the field of Information Technology), most probably noted by teachers of IT students, and the bosses of IT professionals during meetings: Geeks appear to suffer from short attention spans. It is not that uncommon to see an entire class of students playing computer games during lectures; in fact, my own class does this all the time. The theory that the author tosses out is that geeks are super-evolved humans who are multi-taskers. This means that they can listen to classes, contribute to a meeting, or eat their meals… while they’re doing something else on the computer.

I’m not that sure if that is the case here. Us technology otakus are mere humans who seem to love to multi-task, but studies have already shown that the human brain won’t work as efficiently as it does while single-tasking. I shrug. While it does seem that much easier for me to survive lessons in class if I had the computer open in front of me (and I would steal occasional glances at LifeHacker whenever the material got draggy), I don’t think it is really good for heavy mental crunching tasks such as programming. Already, many have sworn by the tested and proven pen-and-paper method to stay concentrated in classes, which is probably a vote for multi-tasking without the additional distractions a laptop would provide. So, the jury is still out on this method… until the end of semester results come in.

As for me, I’m resorting to leaving my laptop in hibernation during classes, unless I really needed to use it during the class. While the promises of having written notes right inside the lecturer’s Powerpoint slides is really alluring, that Internet Explorer and Warcraft III lie just a click away makes the computer a real challenge to a mind’s will-power. What about you? Do you multi-task at work?

Mr Woodcock

As NSmen, I’m sure everyone knows (and appreciate) what little bookout time we have and, unless you have an 8 to 5 vocation (to which I’d say, never tell me about it. Ever.) that allows nightly bookouts, chances are you’d want to maximize the weekend time you have with your friends and family and make sure that you make the most out of it.

And, of course, being minimally paid defenders of the nation (in training), we’d want to make sure we get the most bang out of our buck, right? Especially with the prices of movie tickets (more specifically on Fridays and weekends) so astronomical these days, we want to make sure that every flick we catch is worth our money. Well, in that case, don’t watch Mr Woodcock.

While it’s not a terrible movie per se, it’s a terribly underwhelming and mediocre title that would leave you feeling rather unjustified after blowing almost two hours and $10 on it.

The movie, starring Seann William Scott, Billy Bob Thornton (more known to the younger crowd as the ex-Mr Angelina Jolie) and Susan Sarandon, is upon John Farley (played by Scott), a best selling inspirational book author who returns to his home town to find out his mum (Sarandon, who portrays the role with aplomb) is dating (and getting engaged) to his horrifying high school gym teacher, Mr Woodcock (Thornton), the one man he held responsible for a traumatizing childhood.

The rest of the show revolves around Farley, who has abandoned his cheesy, feel-good one-liners and the advice he dispenses in his own book, trying ways and means to break up the couple, usually with embarrassingly, awkward backfires.

While the show isn’t as lame or as slapstick as I thought it might be (judging from the lackluster trailer), the plot is predictable (the ending can be seen from a mile away), the scripting cheesy (and decidedly unfunny for a comedy of sorts) and the pacing utterly plodding.

The supporting cast is the best (and, actually, the only good) thing about the show. Sarandon, as mentioned above, pulls her role with particular finesse while Thornton would tug a spine-chillingly close chord to anyone who suffered under harsh, terrifying teachers (or commanders) and Amy Poehler (of Arrested Development fame) is the only funny thing about the show as the mercenary, quick-talking, sharp-tongued book agent for Farley.

Unfortunately, the list of solid performances is pulled down by the stilted, wooden delivery of lead Scott, who only seems to have a few expressions and provides perhaps the least amount of mother-son chemistry with Sarandon as I’ve ever seen on screen. 

So, unless you’re really strapped for movie choices (like I was, what with both my movie companions having watched most of the other movies this season), I’m sure you’d be much better off watching something else, even in this lull period in the cinemas.

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Conflicting Desires

How do we deal with situations where it involves desires and wants that conflict each other?

Since we all know that health is the best wealth, so when it comes to the fact that we may have to choose between our health or our dreams/career, what would your choice be?

Is there any way where we can achieve both? Well, maybe you can! Like what I did…

Guess what? This is the third time that I’ve fallen sick, with a short window span of about 3 weeks of good health in between.

I was asking myself why? I got various replies from my body.

Yes, I talk to my body. At times, I negotiate with them. Like this time.

I asked them to let my body recover as soon as possible, so that I’ll be ok to speak in my “Relationship Blueprint Seminar” this coming Saturday, 20 Oct.

My body wanted me to rest.

Well, so do I. But with so many things pending, I really couldn’t afford to rest too much. And even when I did, either taking a nap or watching TV, I found myself worrying about the outstanding tasks that I couldn’t concentrate fully on the rest itself.

So realistically speaking, I wasn’t in complete and total rest.

I negotiated with my body – let me pull through this week, have a good seminar and next week I promise I will rest more.

I guess my body agreed, though slightly reluctantly.

You see, what I’m experiencing now is the presence of conflicting desires. While my body would prefer a life with much lesser stress, my spirit and desire is pushing me to do more, like to promote my book, hold more talks, conduct more seminars and workshops, create more products etc.

My spirit is willing to do more so that I can help more singles and couples to have a better relationship; my body is willing me to have more rest. Quality rest that is free of worries and stress, at least during that period.

While I know what the best scenario is, I also knew that this isn’t quite possible in the short term and in the foreseeable medium term. So what I can do to resolve this gap as a result of the conflicting desires is to find a compromising point and do my best to strike a deal.

You heard me correctly. I need to strike a deal so that I can please both sides – my body as well as my spirit. The outcome, though not a complete balance, should still satisfy both sides enough to have a peaceful situation so that I can continue doing what I need to do.

Therefore, I’m still in full force preparing for my seminar and rushing for the last minute marketing and promoting of this event. Though time is really running short, but I’m still very hopeful and very enthusiastically looking forward to this 4-hour seminar.

Reason is very simple. I have so much confidence in the materials and information that I’m going to share that I know whoever who walks out of the event will definitely be much better than before he/she came in.

I have that much belief. The only thing now is to fill up the seats, at very short notice.

Oh ya, and also to recuperate as fast as I can while still finishing up as much things as I possibly could too! 

Releasing school work into public domain

I was thinking about sharing some of my assignments with the world out there, since those stuff usually get treated like most ladies’ clothes. After all that hard work put into the projects, they get a glamorous show-off extravaganza in class, unintentionally also known as the send-off (to the archives).

10 minutes of the most impressive or pathetic show-and-tell later, these assignments are consigned into mere bits and bytes on the hard disk.The next time you come across them, your brain would struggle very hard to remember just what you created that thing for.

To help prevent such a wasteful fate to befall all my work, I’ve decided to publish them whenever I can. As far as I’m aware of, as a student in Singapore Polytechnic, all my school work is automatically released into the public domain. So, there’s no problem of running into trouble with the law if you decide to pass off my homework as your project. (And, you should read carefully: I didn’t say that your teacher won’t decide to bludgeon you if she ever finds that little hidden watermark which trumpets my name as the original creator; not that I care anyway, I’m a supporter of Open Source stuff )

Phew! Anyway, since it’ll take some time to repackage my stuff to make it plagarisable, I’ll start my showcase with the very first piece of work I did on Monday. Burning text!

Download the original Photoshop file and see how Roy managed to do that!

Flyers

Have you ever alighted at a bus stop or MRT station, and meet people giving you flyers? They range from teenagers barely out of school to middle-aged aunties, eagerly thrusting their papers in your face, hoping that you would take one.

Ever since I started taking public transport, I’ve been a victim of these people, they trying to interest me in tution or other services, or enticing me to check out a new store, supported with gaudy advertising and colourful printed paper. And of course, I smile, take the paper, walk around the corner, and promptly dispose it into the nearest rubbish bin.

Of course, it’s a waste of paper, but I’m not really interested in such advertising methods at all. While I understand that sometimes public interest and reception has to be generated for newly started out companies, there really has to be a better way. When someone is tired and coming back from an exhausting day of school, or a tiring day of National Service, or worse, carrying back groceries from the market, the last thing they want to do is to look at a piece of paper extolling the virtues of XYZ company.

To look further into the issue, let us examine how such people come to be giving out these flyers. I believe (perhaps wrongly), that they are part-timers, lured in by advertisements like “Earn $6 an hour! No experience necessary. Part-time”. I do not think that the people giving out these flyers are the main body of the company they are representing.

And for what? For it to be thrown away by people who couldn’t care less except to why you are blocking their way out of the escalator, please move aside, thank you very much. They might as well sit inside a cafe or fast food joint, order some food, and dispose of the flyers in the dustbin and still make $6 an hour. Then again, there is also something about honouring the job. While I may feel that throwing away the flyers would be a better choice,
if I had the job, I would still give them out. There is a sense of duty after all.

Perhaps I’m being a pessimist. I don’t really know, the only use I found for such flyers was to fan myself during a heat wave, and even then, it wasn’t much help. But perhaps my viewpoint may be partially accurate. Just the other day, I was walking past a person giving out flyers, and I changed my direction towards the person, planning on taking a flyer. The person, seeing me approaching, instead of keeping her hand there, thrust it back inwards,
refusing to give me one. As I’ve never seen that person before, I can only guess that the person didn’t have much luck in giving out the flyers, and thought that I also wouldn’t be interested in one. (I was though. I wanted to look busy and walk past the other people giving out flyers while looking at the first one.)

A Journey to Malaysia

There has to be a first time for everything, and it was my first time in Malaysia without any parents or teachers accompanying me, save for two other friends. I have to admit, I felt more relaxed without their prescence. Imagine if I went there with a parent figure, I’ll probably be bored, being not allowed to go to places like Chinatown because “You’ll get mugged and killed”, and not being allowed to go places like Sunway Lagoon because “You’ll drown and die.”

Well, I didn’t get mugged or drown in Malaysia, though a lot of other exciting things happened. While I was holding on to my possessions tightly while walking through Chinatown, as well as mentally going through the moves I learnt in close combat training (Apparently, going Hyah Hyah Hyah and having an intimidating look is supposed to scare away potential aggressors), I didn’t expect a very strong police prescence there. I was happily browsing through things at a store, when there was this collective shout going down the street. Immediately, all the vendors started keeping their goods, and pushing their carts away helter skelter down the road, nearly banging into customers on the way. Naturally, I somehow ended up in a convenience store, trying hard to look like I was there all along and had no idea what happened outside.

However, once the apparent raid ended, I was walking down yet another street, and again, tempted to buy souvenirs and other items.

An important skill to learn is the art of haggling. I don’t really seem to have mastered it very well, as I am rather prone to be sympthatetic to other people’s hardships. Take for example, this conversation in haggling.

Merchant : How can you give this price of RM10? See, all of these keychains are unique, each hand carved and come in variety! It costs RM20, and not a penny less.

Me : See, the keychains are all different because the sculptor didn’t do a very good job. The metal part is gone from this one. I would believe RM10 would be more than adequate.

Merchant : My good sir, these keychains were painstakingly made with hours sacrificed to get each keychain’s details correct. But for you, I’ll lower the price to RM 18.

Me : Yes, but I want the details of exotic Malaysia, not of some other unknown place. Again, RM 10 is more than a fair price.

(However, at this point in time..)

Merchant : I have 7 children to feed. How can I survive on RM 10? I’ll give you RM17.

Me : Ok, here. RM 17.

Or perhaps....

Merchant : Sir, Sir, a wonderful relic of ages past, carved in exquisite and fine detail. The expression on the statue is extremely life-like, and there are no blemishes or cracks at all. I’ll offer it to you at the low price of RM 100.

Me (after haggling unsuccessfully at various stores and getting ripped off) : Sir? You dare call me Sir? Do I look like an officer to you? Knock it down.

To be serious however, there are a lot of curios and knickknacks that can be bought in Malaysia, and while perhaps the majority of them are made to con tourists, they make for an interesting conversation piece. There was this dagger that looked like it came from the collection of the Borgias, and I wanted to buy it, until I realized that it couldn’t clear customs. I ended up buying nothing but keychains instead.

Apart from the dimly lit streets of Chinatown, I (and my friends) went to the many bazaars and shopping centres around the Hotel area. I was quite impressed with one shop, which sold both pirated and original computer games. When I chose an original game and paid for it, the shopkeeper told me that original games were half price, and refunded me half my money. This led me to think and re-evaluate my thoughts of the situation. I believe the shopkeeper has no choice but to survive by selling both pirated and original games. But selling pirated games does not necessarily make one dishonest, as shown in this refunding of money. It is just another way of living.

Of course, the sole purpose of going to Malaysia was not to shop, but rather to have fun at Sunway Lagoon. And at Sunway Lagoon? That’s a tale for another time.....

Honestly… Honesty Is The Best Policy, Until…

I’d like to think twice. I failed to do that during an interview which probably cost me the job. Or so I thought.

What happened was this – I was asked a very simple question then. Simple because if I looked back, that was probably one of the most frequently asked question one can expect in a job interview.

He asked “If you can learn a new skill, what would you like to learn?”

Guess what I said?

“Arranging flowers”

What in the world was I thinking of, or not thinking of, to tell my interviewer I want to learn the art of arranging flowers when I was seeking for a post of a Business Development Executive?

I couldn’t believe it when those words came out from my mouth. I don’t suppose he did too. That’s probably why he didn’t shortlist me for the second round.

I wouldn’t too if I were him.

So much for true-blue untainted honesty in it’s purest form.

In fact, I am someone who loves to learn and pick up new stuff. It doesn’t really come as a shocker that I’d want to know how to arrange flowers since I do love those colourful blooms.

I could have continued rattled on “Learning piano, pick up a new language etc” if not for the disbelief and intense pang of regret I felt after shooting the first answer too fast. In case you are wondering now, I have many areas of interest and I don’t want to be just interested, I’d like to dip my hand into it.

At the risk of appearing silly to you guys, I hope you can all remember what I’ve gone through and learn from my experience.

Of course, honesty is the best policy. We all know and agree. But I’m sure you can give a much better answer, something that will sell your value to the company, and still remain honest.

Preparation is the key here. Plus a healthy dose of confidence (you don’t want to appear arrogant) and you should be on your way to your potential employer’s heart. 

The Second Time Is Always Better

Titanic. Ratatouille. As I searched desperately for more movie names, there wasn’t anymore than these two.

Yes, the reason for such difficulty is because I hardly go back to the cinema to watch a same movie twice.

Oh! Now I remember - “Wallace & Gromit” can now join the ranks.

Though I return to the same show for different reasons, one comman point stood out - the second round is mostly the best one too. Well, not that i’ve tested it enough to make such a bold conclusion. So I shall accompany this with my opinion in a feeble attempt to ‘’justify’’.

I know, the first time gives you all the surprises, or shock for certain films. Perhaps it’s due to such nice unpredictable turns that catches our attention. But as a result, how much of the movie’s plot & internal emotion of the characters do we notice?

The second time lets you enjoy the luxury of not playing the smart aleck figuring out what’s the next scene or who’s the murderer. Thus, we concentrate on the finer things in a movie.

The acting. The story. The expression. The details we missed out the first time.

So I’d recommend those movie lovers & people who appreciate this form of art to see the same movie at least twice. Of course, some discernment is required.

Enjoy your nachos. I mean popcorn. I mean, erh, the movie.

Driving a whole new vehicle

So, I’ve passed my tank handling test and am now officially able to drive and handle it.

Having already procured a civilian driver’s license before enlisting in the army (although it’s only a class 3A one), I thought the limited experience I’ve garnered as a driver (albeit not a terribly good one) on the roads of Singapore would help me when driving the tank. Alas, it wasn’t really to be.

Handling the tank is so different from driving a civilian car. The technical aspects are different and, of course, there’s the fact that there’s no air-con or CD player in the driver’s compartment (although you do have the voice of your vehicle commander constantly in your ear).

Maintaining and servicing the vehicles is tough work, too. Having to go through three intensive checks every single day before, during and after operations, my little team and I have to check for all the billions of oil levels, check that all the important parts are in place and working and check that the tank is in a good enough condition to move out. Having to deal with all the grease, oil, dirt and checking work has given a new-found respect for vehicle mechanics, man.

The driving part itself is fun, if scary at times. I remember fondly the first few lessons when we, after several theory lectures, finally got to lay our butts in the driver’s seat for a few minutes each (too many people, too little tanks = very limited practice time). The thrill of commandeering the tank all by myself was quite exciting, although the controls took a little to get used to (plus, there was the fact that I was quite overwhelmed by the number of parts and controls we had to memorize). Each successful sharp turn or tough maneuver brought a measure of pride to my heart and each unsuccessful one was a learning point or mistake to work on.

Of course, as I mentioned, it can get quite scary at times. The sheer amount of things that can go wrong and the fact that, when we finally return to our companies as drivers we would be ferrying up to ten people in the tanks can be quite a daunting thought at times. Every time I had to cover a gully or scale a steep slope, my heart would race with fear and trepidation.

Still, driving has been quite an experience and something quite different from what I was expecting to do when I first enlisted (not that I had any much idea what I was going to do nor had much control over it, anyway). I guess every vocation has its pros and cons.

Running The Physical Race

Since a young age I’ve always hated to run (not that I particularly enjoyed any other physical activity, being the indoor bookworm I was). My stamina was lousy, I never seem to get the technique correct and I always found it such a drag to do so. I remember the 2.4km runs in primary and secondary school being especially terrible because everyone else seemed to be able to effortlessly cruise to a decent timing while there I was, struggling just to pass.

As I grew older (well, just slightly), I finally realised the importance of running and the wonderful benefits it does to not only your leg muscles and stamina, but also your general fitness as well. Thus, I started forcing myself to run. Although I still wasn’t too keen on it as a pastime and I still didn’t really know how to run properly, I did feel the general effects it had on my health. Of course, being the type of person who doesn’t really push himself to the limit even during exercise, my health benefits weren’t that big but there was a definite feeling of well-being.

After spending four months in NS so far, my mindset has finally changed totally. Unlike last time, when I had to drag myself to put on my jogging shoes, I treat it as a hobby now, something I actually enjoy. Perhaps it’s due to the rather numerous running trainings that I have to go through with high frequency; perhaps it’s due to the fact that, in the army, they help you to push yourself to your physical limit; perhaps it’s due to the fact that I’ve finally found a way of running that fits my physical ability and body condition; or perhaps it’s just the fact that I have finally improved my speed, timing and stamina, but I totally dig running now, much more so than any other physical activity.

So, what’s the point of this entry, you might ask? Nothing much, I guess, just to say that being in NS does have its benefits. Constant training (whether I want it or not), increasing fitness catered to each own ability and a change in mindset. Definitely good news for any of you slothful pre-enlistees out there eh?

The Goggle Box

Back in the long-gone days of youth, you remember how easy it was to get your toddler self all worked up with that new Lego set, or how you followed your parents around the house wherever they went - and somehow it managed to keep your entertained until your 7pm bedtime.

18 years down the road, you found that you couldn’t live without sinking yourself into that leather sofa, whiling your free time subliminally exposed to the goggle box. Television watching is a mindless indulgence that we subject ourselves to willingly, trading our time for some hope of getting entertainment value. That is a very stark contrast from the teething years of the television scene - we’ll all suffer terrible withdrawal symptoms if we had to spend 16 hours a day staring at the rainbow test pattern!

What happened to the easy companionship of our own family, friends and relatives? In my house, the television blares from the moment somebody gets home. I turn it on whenever I’m the first to reach home; it’s an irresistable urge - almost as if you simply have to fill the empty house with sound - any sound. From there, it’s all downhill: the variety shows come on, and you lust enviously at those people moving around inside the box; those travel programmes never fail to pass on the holiday bug. Add a drama or two, the news, and you’re looking at 10pm. Wait, is that my homework still sitting inside my bag?

Television is a nice distraction for the times when we’re alone, but it does appear that we spend most of our non-work waking time idolising The Box. My friends and I never fail to gossip about anime each time we meet up, and classmates hurl abuses at antagonists in drama serials - in fact, The Box has so much mind-space in our heads that advertisers flock literally to the television station to have their products share some memory in that hard-disk-in-the-skull.

While that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it would be a pity if everything else the world has to offer is pushed aside by our pursuit of the lives of fictional characters on the screen, whom ironically, happen to be living their lives away from their television sets. I mean, how often do you see television characters spend time in front of The Box?