Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Social Re-Engineering

Trying to remain anonymous on this hardly-read-by-anyone blog is hard. As you pour your thoughts into a blog, one could soon piece together bits and pieces of a person's life to form a relatively clear picture of who one is.

One of the original reasons I wanted to remain anonymous was because of the job I do. So I'm going to let the cat out of the bag, for the pass few months I've been producing a woman's talk show. The first 2 months doing it was wierd and akward as everyone was trying to comfort me and saying things like "hey, a guy used to produce the show before also". When my boss first proposed the idea to me, I was surprised and I thought it would be cool as I got to do something I always believed in, social re-engineering.

My definition of social re-engineering is to change society for the better by changing processes and habits. Me, I get my jollies from doing social re-engineering subtly without people realising it. An example would be when you're stuck in a traffic jam and cars start forming 3 lanes into of follow the two lanes drawn on the road. What I usually do is manouver my car to the middle of two of the three lanes to make the other cars behind me form back 2 lanes. It makes traffic flow smoother and faster eventually.

Anyway, back to producing a woman's show. It gives me the opportunity to make subtly changes in society. So far its been challenging managing the guests, hosts, production crew and making sure everything is go on the live show. If you ever watched Star Trek: The Next Generation, it feels like Captain Picard sitting in the commander's chair. When the show starts you run through all sorts of hurdles in the control room. The engineer screams that one equipment doesn't work. Broadcast journalists who I send on away missions meets all sorts of people (aliens). Occasionally, I go on away missions to meet people myself... No, I don't get laid with strange women like the Captain. Though I must admit, I meet some pretty interesting characters.

Okay, beam me up Scotty.

Saturday, January 14, 2006

The Proposal

If I haven't told you, here it is... I'm engaged. A friend called me to ask if I knew anything about buying rings for his visiting friends who wanted to buy wedding bands. I said "sure, I bought an engagement ring just the other day" and I realized I didn't get around to tell everyone about it yet.

It happened over Christmas day. It was something that I have been planning for a few months. I sort of new it was going to be either her birthday (which is just after Valentine's Day) or on Christmas. There's another reason why I chose Christmas. If you know me, you would know I hate Christmas because of a personal experience. Anyway, that's another story. I thought I'll change all that and make Christmas a special day to remember instead.

I spend a few weeks looking for the right ring. Finally found it at Poh Kong, in SS2. I had it wrapped as a Christmas present and I told her to hold on to it before we opened it. The reason for that was because I'm forgetful and I didn't want to kick myself just in case I forgot to bring the ring, plus I thought it would be fun for her to guess what was in it. I usually give her jewelry but I bet she didn't expect a ring.

It was extra special because we were planning to go to my girlfriend's hometown in Kota Bahru to visit her grandfather. Was a little worried as it was the flooding season but it turned out okay. Was raining a lot but my biggest worry was picking the right place in her house to propose. My plan was to actually record it on my video camera. I was sleeping in the guest room and I had the camera and the microphone set up to point to the bed the night before Christmas.

On Christmas morning I dragged her to my room and she wasn't too happy we were going to exchange presents in the guest room. When she entered the room and saw the camera she insisted on turning the camera of. I tried telling her it was important to leave it on but I couldn't let the cat out of the bag!

Anyway, I have a few humorous minutes of me trying to convince her to sit in front of the camera and she forbids me from showing it to anyone. So we exchanged presents and she gave me a handphone and she opened hers and as she expected it was a jewelry box. I helped her opened the box and took the ring out and then put it on her finger, took a deep breath and asked her the big question.

I was expecting one of three answers, "yes", "no", or "I'll think about it". Was a little suprised when she answered "when?". Didn't really accured to me to plan when either. Anyway, I don't mind waiting till everything's ready.

The ring was a little loose so we're going to get it fixed at the jeweller. Anyway, so I'm engaged now!

Monday, January 02, 2006

Samsung SGH-D500C

Okay, I finally got me a new phone, a Samsung SGH-D500C. It's not a new model but I guess I was desperate after my previous experience with the other handphone I wanted to get. In the warranty card that I had to send back, they asked the reasons for buying this phone.

Thinking it back, I guess it was because my girlfriend's grandfather had the same phone and it looked kinda cute. Plus, on the day I really got pissed of with the previous Nokia, I saw a billboard for the D600C which is the latest model. So, billboards do work!

Anyway, I have two working handphones with me now. Normally I don't buy a handphone till the old one dies, but considering this was a gift and my old Nokia still works fine, I think I'm gonna get a pre-paid Celcom line for it. My office has no Maxis line so that sucks. I can't cancel it as I signed up a 2 year contract. Probably end up carrying 2 handphones.

New phone has camera and MMS so that's going to be for work phone. The old phone's going to be for work I think... plus I can always 'loose' the pre-paid number hehe.