3,2,1...off to ICU!

The last few days have been relatively peaceful. The rudimentary contraption that I now hold, called mobile phone serves its purpose quite well. It is mobile, it is always on the go.

Life is peaceful as the urge to gaze at the screen if there was anything new in the cyberspace or social media did not arise as it is not a very smartphone. It is from the pre-3G dinosaur era.

My life is more serene without the frequent buzzing or vibrations as if a rattlesnake was curling around the inside of my pants.

My friends, however, were under the impression that I had somehow recoiled into my own cocoon becoming an antisocial as all the Whatsapp messages directed to me had gone unanswered.
I, however, miss indulging in my own magical world filled with podcasts from NPR and the like.

Is it a boon or bane? Just like many things (and people) in our lives, we have to learn with it or around it. Priorities in life should be of paramount importance!

My usually smart mobile phone is now in critical condition in ICU. The monitors are still bleeping, indicating remnants of life still clinging on. How long? Can it be resuscitated, or is it going to be a flatliner (a.k.a. asystole) and be transferred to the mortuary? Time will tell...

Best thing since sliced bread?

I was made to think that I was missing the world, that I was outdated, that I needed something to commensurate the amount of time I spent on blogging and that I should learn how to spend for myself too, to pamper myself. I was made to think that I was important and was missing the sheer pleasure and ease of the greatest invention by man.
I went on thinking that I was stupid for not joining the bandwagon. The masters were at work with time-proven business psychological methods of Edward Bernays. Eventually, I started thinking that my mundane life would suddenly morph forever into a psychedelic colour filled Strawberry Fields. I decided that I had to have it at all cost.
And I took the plunge...
Now that I have got it, I have come to realise that life is still the same. There are no flying confetti and rainbow paved pathway. I still have to think and compose with my brain and type intelligently. It is just like art and craft. I have to create the art but craft of performing is different. How different? Just as familiarity breeds contempt, absence make the heart grow fonder..

It takes all kinds

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson 2011 (Biography)
The world takes a leap forward not with soldier ants like us but by those who think outside the box. They have not no qualms about upsetting the status quo and upsetting peoples' feelings. They have a clear vision of what they want to do in life and they pursue their dream at all cost.
After Jobs knew that he was not going to live long enough, he invited a writer, Walter Isaacson, to write his story, giving a one-to-one bare-it-all kind of  exposé. The end product also had input from the receiving end.
It is a thick book, 700 odd pages, graphically narrating all the adventures, misadventures, confrontations, the highs, the lows and the poignant moments in the life of the man who found another use for our fingers, to swipe something off if we do not like it or had enough off.
We all know about Steve Job being adopted and how his mother, an unmarried college student arranged to give Steve away for adoption to a college educated couple. Upon, his arrival. however, Steve became unwanted as they couple wanted a baby girl. And Steve landed up with a mechanic as a father.
The earlier part of the book shows that Steve grew in a loving family with plenty of love and support from his adoptive parents who tried to ensure a college education that they missed out. He had a lot of freedom growing up in the 60s in California.
We also know about his dropping out of school and his liaison with Steve Wozniak. He had a time of soul searching in India after discovering about his adoption. He was wondering about trying psychedelic drugs, Hinduism, Zen Buddhism, veganism, walking bare foot, dressing in traditional Indian garb with a bad case of body odour as he refrained from bathing!
Along the way came a daughter whom he declined to acknowledge till a paternity test approval.  Of course, we all know about his great work in Apple till he was booted out and how he was called back to rejuvenate that later ailing company. He must have a dynamic leader of the companies with many successes to speak for themselves. To be in the same team to share such a feat is something else. One has to has a hide thicker than the hippopotamus', able to withstand his tantrums, unjust demands to brink of tantrums, his reality distortion visions, his piercing eyes that wilt you to submission, a painful character, a slave driver, etecetera...
And the work in animation and Pixar... He did not really invent anything per se but rather he got the right people who would follow the right path to scavenge the technology lying around. There are many inventions lying around where the inventors do not know what their work can be used for! (like the touch technology which was later used in iphone!)
One interesting thing that he mentioned in his lifetime is "People do not know what they want, we show them what they want". In other words, we are all wondering about aimlessly like headless chicken or rudderless boats until someone shows us the way! (my interpretation)
His Oriental based philosophy in life also suggests that everybody is sent to Earth to perform their work and one should excel in theirs. A barber with his tonsorial skills should endeavour to improve his skills to serve mankind and so do computer computer makers. And a lay person, not in that particular field, got no business meddling in others' territory. Hence, the Apple phones are sealed without screws.
Just when you think this man who could and would change destiny and not going to take any setbacks lying down without giving a darn good fight, the coup de grâce came in the form a single mutated cell in the pancreas. After experimenting gravely with alternative medicine, trying state of the art molecular cell targeted genetic level treatment which eventually failed due to mutation of cancer cells, liver metatstasis and transplant, he took his final bow....

Steve Jobs R.I.P. (1955-2011)

A for apple; P for pokai!*

Of late, I have been contributing to the coffers of a multinational company whose brand is so famous its name need not be mentioned (like Lord Voldemort). Its logo itself suffice, whose interior decoration experts believe in minimalist outlook, the emblem of a partially eaten fruit (the first fruit that we learnt in alphabet class in pre-school) - or is the logo a constant reminder of our exodus from the paradise of Garden of Eden for our original sin? In the modern world, nobody gives a damn about inner beauty and endurance, but of external package and presentation, this telecommunications and computer whiz of a company has managed to make that precisely its selling point.

It all started one day when good old el-cheapo cell phone, due to melancholia, decided to take the plunge inadvertently (or on purpose?) into the monsoon drain as I was coming down the car carrying more than I should. Good old faithful must have been feeling pretty withdrawn and small after seeing all the PYT (pretty young things) strutting their stuff while her overused and abused body had seen better days. And the things the newbies could do with their bodies and the way they flaunt their assets would make any man salivate and go ga-ga!

Not to be confused: The original Apple.

Granny Smith; Founded by Beatles. Lost

in a legal battle to Apple Computer.  Now

collaborating music with iTunes. 

I tried to resuscitate the old one via modified surgery of dismantling its parts and drying it thoroughly. It survived for a couple of days but stopped short never to go again when the LCD panel went berserk. So ended the life of cell phone, which served me for more than 3 years and was a hand-me-down from wifey when my previous RM1 cell phone (after buying a TV set) died suddenly.

About that time, wifey's mobile started giving problems. And my daughter suddenly became obsessed and thought that she could not see another living daylight without possessing a particular brand of a laptop with a logo of a fruit from the same brand of the company of indisputable reputation and nothing doing! There was no talk of Sony or Lenovo, or Asus! Everybody has it, so it must be good, and I want it not now but yesterday!

That started my love affair with the forbidden fruit. I soon realised that the moment I attained the impossible, I realised that it is nothing sacrosanct about it after all. But, on the other hand, with more extraordinary powers come great responsibility, and a greater hole in the pants and thinner the wallet becomes...

*Pokai - colloquial Malay term for being broke (financially). Correct term would be muflis, patah kandar or bangkrap. It must have been popularised by P. Ramlee's movies. In fact, P. Ramlee is credited for introducing many new Malay words into its treasure. Some of the words include pawagam (movie theatre) -shortened from panggong wayang gambar; kugiran (band) - from kugiran gitar rancak! How about bedikari (berdiri atas kaki sendiri) - independent?