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03/03/2006
The BRAIN works in mysterious ways
Ever heard of the saying “God works in mysterious ways”. Well, agree. But so does the brain? The gray matter, so it seems, works in ways sometimes we cannot understand at all. My cousin, Jamie (yes, it’s him again) emailed me this. Despite chasing after deadlines long gone, I decided that…what the heck, I need a break, anyway.
And it blew my mind! That’s why…don’t believe David Copperfield. If a simple ‘gif’ image can illustrate our ‘weak’ our mind is, then so can David Copperfield and the troops of masterminds behind each and every one of his tricks.
Check this one out. Click on picture to view large version
If your eyes follow the movement of the rotating pink dot, you will only see one color, pink.
However. if you stare at the black "+" in the center,
the moving dot turns to green.
Now, concentrate on the black "+" in the center of the picture.
After a short period, all the pink dots will slowly disappear, and you will only see a green dot rotating.
It's amazing how our brain works. There really is no green dot, and the pink ones really don't disappear. This should be proof enough, we don't always see what we think we see.
10:15 Posted in Being human , Blog , Science | Permalink | Comments (3) | Email this | Tags: illusion, illusions, magic, brain, human, beings
02/03/2006
Got in, no out! What kind of stupid intelligent machine is THAT?
I am sort of…no, right off the bat fuming because of a so-called intelligent vending machine provided by TIME Kontact. I’ve never, in all honesty seen a dumber vending machine. Ok, for all of you who are not familiar with TIME, TIME is a Telecommunications company offering a large variety of communication services from Internet to telephone services. Since I am not particularly happy with their services at the moment, I’ll stop right here. Don’t want to give them free advertisement.
Anyway, TIME provides a sort of vending machine that dispenses prepaid cards for our mobile phones. My maid wanted to reload her mobile phone air time and there just so happens to be one of those vending machines beside my Condo’s admin office. It said there, “Please insert exact amount. Does not return change”. Fine and dandy. This happens all the time everywhere, right? So, since my maid wanted to purchase a RM10 reload card, we placed 2 RM5 bills in (new ones, the glossy type) and the notes were instantly rejected.
That’s stupidity No. 1 – How outdated can a vending machine be when it doesn’t recognize Malaysia’s latest legal money format? TIME doesn’t even bother altering their vending machines?
Never mind, we placed a RM10 bill into the machine and then we realized that the lights on the machine were very dim. And we can’t see the ‘SOLD OUT’ beside the reload coupon that my maid wanted to buy. DAMN!
That’s stupidity No. 2 – You expect your customers to only buy your reload cards in the night time, is it? If that is so, place another warning sign there….”PURCHASE ONLY AT NIGHT. DIM LIGHTS ON DIM MACHINE!”
OK, so, since they are not going to return the money to us (can go in, cannot go out, right?) so, we have to buy something. So, I decided to purchase a reload card for MY phone this time. We carefully checked the lights and saw that the ‘SOLD OUT’ sign beside the reload card that I want to buy is off, so, good news there.
Aaahhh…but the bad news is that I want to buy the RM50 reload card and we already have RM10 in pits of this stupid machine, right? So, I need to place 4 RM10 notes into the machine, right? But the problem was, I didn’t have 4 RM10 with me. I had RM50 notes with me. And they didn’t take RM5 notes, remember? I sauntered sweetly into the admin office and asked them to break my RM50 into 5 RM10s. They did.
I came back out and checked the small little screen and it says there “Credit: RM0.00”. What in the world…..???? What happened to the RM10 we placed into the machine? My maid and me stared at each other in befuddlement and confusion. We contemplated….did we or did we not place the money into the vending machine. The kids were running around making a heck of a noise outside the admin office and maybe we forgot that we took the money back. Erm…but that’s not possible because there’s IN for the machine and no OUT.
Logical explanation would be, the money is still inside.
At this point, one of the admin staff in the office walked out and asked us if the money swallowed the money AGAIN? And we were like….”What? This is what the machine usually does? Eat money?” She smiled and nods forlornly.
“After you insert your money into the machine, you must quickly select the option. Otherwise, the machine will just take your money. End of story”, she explained. “Lots of people complained about this machine and we are getting the people to come back and take this machine away instead of causing so much trouble here”.
Stupidity No. 3 – Inactivity for certain period of time = donation. Heck, if I wanted to donate money, I would donate it some poor fellow who actually deserves the freaking money, ok? For cripes’ sake, what kind of a stupid machine is this?
First, it doesn’t return change. Second, it doesn’t recognize Malaysia’s latest notes. Thirdly, the machine operates completely right only in the night because in the day time, you have to, like, cup your hands beside your face and squint into the machine to see whether the SOLD OUT sign is lit or not. Fourthly, they take your money if you don’t act quickly enough! So, slowpokes should not buy from TIME vending machine.
TIME is doing brilliantly in pissing people like me off, man! Buck up or you’re going down for sure, TIME.
08:25 Posted in Ramblings | Permalink | Comments (5) | Email this | Tags: vending machine, angry, sold out, TIME, Kontact, prepaid cards, reload, mobile phone
01/03/2006
Survival is expensive!
The price of petrol goes up…once again! Accordingly, Malaysians enjoy quite cheap petrol prices compared to many developed countries. But still…as a citizen who is ENJOYING the slight advantage we have over other developed nation, it still hurts like mad to know that the price of petrol will be hitched up another notch and we’ll all have to prepare ourselves to pay more for….basically everything! From chicken to computer mouse, from hamster food to CDs. the cost of transporting goods will go up and the consumer bears the brunt of this very cruel joke.
But this is life….but I rather enjoyed the article in today’s The Star on the rising cost of living.
Global Cost of living statistics
Accordingly, Tokyo and Osaka are among the most expensive cities to live in; but the quality of their life is very high. I know we’re heading in that direction although we’re not as ‘cheap’ like Paraguay (which is the cheapest city in the world). I heard that ‘some’ Indonesians need only spend about RM1.00 (USD$0.25) a day to keep a family of four alive! Amazing, isn’t it? All they get to eat is vegetable of the second-rate variety together with rice provided by the government to poor families…and viola, four heads are fed.
And also my sponsored child who lives in Hotan, Xinjiang, China and his family survive on RM50 a month…which works out to be RM1.66 a day. But their lifestyle is unenviable. There’s also a friend of mine who prefers to take a bus to work (I don’t like this idea at all because I hate smelling other people’s armpits whenever they raise their arms to hold the banister screwed to the ceiling of the bus!! Eugh!) instead of driving. He owns a very nice car (not your conventional Malaysian car, ok?) and keeps it safely at home while he jumps into a ‘sardine can’ every morning to work?
But my friend’s decision is actually very sensible. Sitting over cappuccino, he worked out how much he actually saved by taking the bus. He also worked out the many benefits of waking up early to catch the earliest possible bus, walking to the bus stop, reading while waiting for the bus, and getting home dog-tired and sleeping early…and I am like….mmmm….that’s interesting. On the flipside of having to cramp one’s body into a moving sardine can, you get to live a healthier and cheaper lifestyle. I guess if you looked at it that way, it is KINDA great to take the bus to work, huh?
Back to point in contention…..a price rise like this that affects the overall cost of living in a developing country like Malaysia is inevitable. We can’t stay cheap forever and change is unavoidable. But who says we have to smile while ‘change’ comes bossing us around every now and then.
03:17 Posted in Being human | Permalink | Comments (2) | Email this | Tags: cost of living, malaysia, petrol, price of petrol, developing countries, developed, life, living
27/02/2006
And they say English so damn easy!
I know I’ve like disappeared from the face of the earth or something. I know, bad girl, bad girl. But I have not.
Am busy trying to concentrate on staying alive. Trying toggle between washing, cleaning, bathing, feeding, cooking, working, watching my favourite TVB series of all times, and STILL remember to breathe!
But I received an email from my cousin (Jamie) with the following and thought it was pretty funny.
Indeed, as you will see (if you have not seen this before), English is so damn easy!!!
Thanks, Jamie!!
***
Fill in the following blank with "Yes" or "No"
______ , I don't have a BRAIN.
10:00 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: English, english, read, reads, reading, book, books, teach