r.i.p.

there is a section of floor in our study where old laptops monitors and tower units go to die. there it is, silently smoldering with technical carcasses and inexorably expanding with the passage of time. 

please, can we throw them away already?

shopping spree

after a full half year of intense searching for a new computer we make our way to the apple store to bite the bullet and FINALLY CONVERT TO MAC.

what this means, in real terms, is that with the expected technical onslaught there will likely be a hiatus to blog postings. so, until i can figure my way around the magnificent monster sitting on the counter, hasta la vista.

couple time

on a nice lazy public holiday afternoon, HOM has a fit of aberration and decides to wash my car. what this means is that, in the course of things, i end up helping him to clean out the garage. so now the old toyota is shinier than she has been in years and you could have a picnic on the floor of the garage.

i intensely dislike fits of aberration.

panda express, revisited

against my better judgment, today's lunch.

gourmet chinese food. as HOM says, it's not gourmet and it's not chinese. and i wish to add, it's not food unless you have pretty low standards.

holiday activity

our family is nothing if not consistent. every memorial day holiday, we:

1. discuss driving to the mountains,
2. debate driving to the beach,
3. end up in the outlet malls, and
4. finish with a late scrumptious lunch.

hey, we may be philistines, but we have new clothes too!

groan

two donuts and cream of tomato soup for dinner. regret strikes swiftly and tarries heavily upon the tummy.

thermostat setting

it occurs to me, in a flash of middle aged insight, that some couples sleep in separate rooms, not because of relationship dysfunction but because her cool is too cold for him to shiver in.

trends'n'times

remember when snooze was the height of innovation?

now with option of multiple recurring settings

 and your personal smörgåsbord of sounds.

uncool

to have to climb out your car window to reach the drive-thru ATM because you misjudge the perspective.

modern malady

it strikes me that we have efficiently parceled off bits of organ systems to sub-specialists each of whom now deeply urges us to screen and to vaccinate. colorectal cancer. breast cancer. prostate cancer. cervical cancer. ovarian cancer. skin cancer. diabetes. dyslipidemia. coronary artery disease. hypertension. liver disease. renal disease. depression. suicidality. sleep deprivation. cognitive impairment. vitamin deficiency. pneumococcal meningococcal influenza hepatitis tetanus diphtheria varicella and zoster.

what we need, i say, in a totally politically incorrect way, is a revival of common sense. 

long term plan

growing out my hair. there! now it's official. it would be nice, i find myself thinking, to have a final flirtation with rich sensuous tresses before the melanin completely packs up for home.

the nagging problem of course is that there is a sizable distance between short'n'sassy and long'n'sultry the first obstacle being my neck.

weekend plans

we want to go on a day trip in four days' time, the entire bunch of us. that is to say, the dog hotel is fully booked and the human hotels are completely taken up so we must needs do something that can be wrapped up in a day so that we can retire into our own baths and beds in the night.

it occurs to me that if we looked at the calendar more often and planned ahead, say, by a couple of months, we might find more options available to us.

at home - bill bryson (2010)

here, in unexpectedly fascinating detail, is the development of anglo-saxon culture from the perspective of their private life. here is what influences the design function and nomenclature of their abodes. this is how they bring up their children. these are their diseases. and eventually, here is what happens to those homes.

there is a disagreeably graphic account of sanitation sewage and toileting in elizabethan and georgian england which follows an unappetising rendering of their bedroom habits. after reading it all, what i say is, barbara cartland had NO idea what her heroines had to endure.




all in all, a smashing good read. i am tempted to give up historical romances for history.

monday resolution

the plan this week i think is to slooowly and determinedly extricate ourselves from this coronavirus instigated mist that currently befogs us all.

special occasion

HOM and i share a celebratory meal. celebrating what, is the question. we neither of us remember, but it's been a special day for 21 years now. he says he proposed marraige. i differ. if a man did that you would expect the girl to remember, now wouldn't you?

hah!

while i understand this is a frothy & frivolous pursuit 

unbecoming of a middle aged baby boomer

with better things to do

i am

totally

gunning for

3000 after this.

translational research

hacking cough

intermittent sneezing

sorethroat

100 % attack rate

winter/spring

i say coronavirus
kof, kof

the story continues

today the system finally allows me in. 

i get to record an away message but not to program in the password to retrieve messages.

so now, you can call our number and hear this:

hi! our voice mail is not currently working so please DO NOT leave a message. bye!

in case you are wondering, the nice voice at the cox hotline says it's cheaper for us to have a non-functioning voice mail service than to discontinue it altogether. something about discounts and the package we are on. if you ask me, this is capitalism gone bizarre.

pain

... about suffering ... God suffers with us. that is the meaning of the cross.
-  lammers & verhey

i wish i could do more than to say i suffer with you.

i am grateful he does no less than to suffer with you.

the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort... comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those... with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.  -  2 cor 1:3-4

ge 2011, aftermath

so... here's the list.

most pleasantly surprised by:

today's cabinet makeover

most disgusted by:

the inappropriate call to repentance

most amused by:

"emeritus"

most disappointed with:

the mainstream media, for unashamed bias in reporting

most impressed by:

exuberant internet creativity

most happy with:

the as yet non-appearance of libel suits

most relevant lesson:
remember animal farm

still waiting for:

the 35 second - 20 minute bridge

with special awards, for 

longest political farewell, to the old man

most ado over nothing, to the young lady

and a super special award, for

supreme chivalry against odds, to the other old man

party!

the youth group drops by to celebrate a birthday. they bring their own food and cooking skills plus their own wii and dvd's. they get the birthday cake and ice cream and even produce their own celebrant. all they need from HOM and me are the dining table some chairs and the tv set. 

the last birthday party in our home dates back over a decade. back then we provided the birthday kid the food the entertainment the brawn and the eardrums.

what i say is, it's nice when kids grow up and can get their own stuff. 

wet

a thunderstorm.

an open-to-the-air carpark.

a malfunctioning car remote control key.

possibly not the most felicitous of permutations.

panda express

HOM's dinner tonight. gourmet chinese food, their advert says. 

it's not gourmet and it's not chinese, HOM says. what it is, is deboned bite-sized deep-fried generic meat awash in a thick sweet colorful sauce gleaming with an overall coating of starch served with rice or noodles. it is non-american fast food for the non-chinese.

what i say is, he chose it. my dinner, which was the napa almond chicken salad sandwich from panera bread, was authentically a delightful delicious bread meal.

woot!

well what do you know? the missing posts have reappeared! perhaps soon we can retrieve our voice messages too.

today in history

1. blogger plays me out.
2. cox plays us out.
3. i learn a new word. friggatriskaidekaphobia.
4. is the anniversary of may 13, 1969.

it surprises me to learn that the state of emergency pursuant to the '69 incident has not been lifted. caprices in high places, it would appear, know no national boundaries.

noooooo 2

your cox voice mail service will receive enhancements, at no additional charge to you, the blurb says. 

so now, you can call our number and leave a message.

however, we:

1. are unable to get into the system,

2. to retrieve any messages,

3. or even to record a new message

4. telling you not to leave a message.

 i want to opt ourselves out of enhancements.

noooooo

my posts from the past two days have vanished into cyber vapor, is what has happened. what i keep saying to HOM and the tech people is, if it ain't broke, please, please don't fix it. i want to opt myself out of scheduled maintenances.

letris®!

voila!

hustings withdrawal syndrome

with-draw-al  n. the group of symptoms that occurs upon abrupt discontinuation of a specified stimulus.  [ME, f. with-away + DRAW]

we need to wean ourselves off our conversational code. the parrot. the old man. the man who cannot sing. the kate spade girl. we need new topics for conversation in fact.

our nights have lost much color.

election sum-up

phrases du jour:

"it was an honest mistake"

"i don't know what to say"

"live and repent"

vox populi

many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the LORD's purpose that prevails.

- prov 19:21

election epiphany

today is polling day.

what crystallizes for me this time around is this: it matters how results come about. it matters more that political candidates have a semblance of integrity than that they should have great capability for success. the old teacher is right when he says, better a little with righteousness than much gain with injustice (prov 16:4).

what does the LORD require of you? to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.   -micah 6:8

trivial pursuit

almost there.

election thoughts

people gush. singapore is so clean, they tell me, so efficient, so able. i always quickly divert the conversation. they do not see the tedious toiling against the winds, only the clever image.

this election heartens me. my country is home to generous ideals intellectual rigor and worthy debate. it is home to compelling passions quirky humor and exuberant creativity. there are citizens with conviction compassion and courage. we all want a place to be privileged in and we want a place for the vulnerable.

for the first time in a long time, i feel proud of my flag.

les misérables (musical)

a sudden whim sets me listening to les miz today. it remains amazing after twenty odd years. how do they do it, i wonder? they take simple words and straightforward melodies and build them up into an edifice that reduces you to helpless tears, every time. 

here is the old girl, deconstructed over the years:

most dashing: 

grantaire from the TAC*

most moving moment: 

grantaire/enjolras exchange in drink with me*

song for post-graduate medical exams: 

do you hear the people sing

song for AH med 1989: 

drink with me

song for the sgp general elections 2011: 

abc cafe/red and black

*tenth anniversary concert

on a sigh

he is homesick halfway across the world. 

we miss his mess and his music.

growing up is hard to do.

be strong. be brave.

remember

our prayers are for you.

publish or perish 2

ideas for papers:

an attempt at quantifying the effect of facebook on the spread of political ideas during a general election in an asian developed country.

• descriptive semi-qualitative study,
• can we take one idea and see how it spreads through the population via facebook compared to via traditional media such as word of mouth, print media, radio and television?
• singapore general elections 2011, when facebook is allowed for the first time in the polls.

the correlation between popularity as measured by the new media, facebook, and electoral success during a general election in an asian developed country.

• descriptive study,
• to include candidates with public facebook accounts,
• comparing number of facebook friends on polling day with percentage of votes garnered,
• checking for significance with the chi-square test.
• we'd have to tweak it for group representation constituencies though.
• singapore general elections 2011.

jus' sayin', y'know.

publish or perish

idea for a paper:

the effect of regular iPad use in early childhood on cognitive and psychomotor development.

• prospective study,
• stratified for cumulative exposure,
• recruiting at 3 y.o.,
• standardized testing at baseline and at 7 y.o.,
• controlling for ethnicity and social class,
• checking for significance with the t-test.

i'm jus' sayin'.