musing

Funding for the Heap

I suddenly got whacked with a huge credit card outstanding payment for hosting my heap of words; and some pictures. Yes, the returns on the heap hasn’t been very positive. And after more than 9 years, the heap is still going strong, with some fans, and dare I say, it’s a go to resource for littlest known home recipes.

So I sit on my half broken down armchair musing at the bill of renewal for the heap and wonder if I should ever transit to an app where users can easily whip up their mobiles and then see the recipes that they need and then get started on cooking that essential dinner.

Then again, I am like a 1% Elon Musk. I like to engineer on my own but realise that I have a huge attention deficit to following through what I start. If only programming an app was as easy as spending an intense hour on it as opposed to many gruelling hours with no light at the end of the tunnel.

The main trouble is, I have to learn the know how to know how to programme and that fizzles out any semblance of determination I might have. And I don’t quite enjoy the idea of paying some foreign app developer to conjure up code for me.

So here’s what I would do. I will continue to pay the bills to maintain the site and then continue to add sporadic content every now and then and hope that by a stroke of miracle, the site pays itself. Haha.

Didgeridoo Morning (Musing)

Ho Sim Lang

 

Didgeridoo Morning (Musing)

The humming of the electric toothbrush against hard calcified structures that is teeth with the modulating movements of the lips, creating a low hollow sound like the didgeridoo as that sound resonates out of the mouth. It sounds as if I am back to the land of kangaroos, crocodile meat and Aboriginal boomerangs. The inescapable visual imagery of the dry arid parched sandy desert that is the Outback seem to beckon, drawing me into its windy cloudy shades of moving grey, alluding to the hope that there is an oasis within that desert. Wait a minute, is that a well? Or is that merely a mirage.

And the interesting thing was that I am still standing in front of the bathroom mirror looking blankly into the face that was half-looking back at me. What will this face do today? Will it change the world? My eyes half-closed, face unshaven, voice gruff and growly, I am so not ready to meet the day; much less change the world. The sticky mucus between my eyelids seem to be telling me something. As if speaking words that I could not understand, they look like words, but with each flutter of the eyelids, the words seem to lose its meaning and I lose the ability to enunciate my thoughts.

A gargle of the mouth, and we are on to another adventure. There is something about the weekend that drives you to madness, a creative genius that is both unwavering and unyielding, it drives you and it doesn’t stop abruptly like most events. And like the thumping beats of a techno rhythm, it drives you inch by step by yard towards that mysterious alluring light. The song appears in your mind, and you’re ready to move.

Train Fault Day (Musing)

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Train Fault Day (Musing)

It’s the dreaded “train fault day”. Well the good thing is they aren’t saying that it is their trains’ fault today. Instead the messaging has been somewhat watered down to the usual automated voice message.

Voice: “if you are unable to board the train, please board the next train.”

Sounds like what most people would say 废话. But I can totally empathize with their unwillingness to say those two toxic words “train fault”. If well proven to be the case and if they were again unable to handle it, it would prove to be another costly episode.

Well we just have to suck our thumbs and wait.

Honestly, a 6 minute interval at rush hour is kind of unacceptable don’t you think? They could have at least display the 3 minutes train interval display and drag out those 3 minutes to 6 minutes and no one would have noticed.

These days with almost everyone glued to their mobile phones, it’s hardly a wonder if anyone bothers or care about the travel impasse. The bickering about whose fault is it seems to be a matter that is best left to the people who should be in the know of what is happening.

That said, it still doesn’t alleviate my problem. I still can’t get into crowded trains.

By crowded I mean everyone is reasonably comfortable with space enough to view their Korean drama on their phones. That’s our definition of crowded. We can’t compare with economies like Japan where crowded trains have a different meaning altogether.

Someone commented once saying, “if you can see the bus coming in India,  it is probably not very crowded.” It might sound like a joke but the reality of crowded public transportation hasn’t arrived home for us.

Of course that’s no excuse for our transport operators to take us for granted.

Sigh.

Train Strategy (Musing)

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Train Strategy (Musing)

There is a strategy unbeknownst to mankind, but only woman-kind or perhaps it is privy to a kind of woman to notice these things.

I am glad that I married such a kind of woman. She has the ability to make me look good without me trying too hard. For that matter I usually don’t try to impress. She takes care of all my needs. All I need is to take care of her.

So we got on the train today and she immediately assessed the situation and said..

She: “stand here.”

I usually would challenge or query any decision but my lightning quick mind instructed me to implicitly trust and obey. I immediately took her cue and shifted an inch nearer to the macik that sat in an edgy sort of way (sat on the edge of her seat).

True enough the seat became available not only for my wife, but for me as well as we both were strategically positioned and ready to take action and take the opportunity.

This is also true with life and the decisions that we make. If you have a dream or aspiration (I know this is going off tangent from my train muse), not only is it important to keep dreaming, but it is equally important to open your eyes, important to position yourself, and when the opportunity comes, albeit a small window of opportunity, to take action and take it without hesitation.

Sometimes it helps if you have a discerning partner to help you leverage your positioning. But most times if you keep yourself prepared there are always opportunities for you to take action on.

Stand ready on the foundation you have built yesterday, and reach out to tomorrow with your feet firmly grounded in today.