... & oks

Everybody SMSes or texts these days. It's like a whole new other lingo where the English language gets butchered especially by our ignorant youth. I can't even bear to call it a sub-culture where I only see flagrant word homicide. One in particular glares at me every single time; where 'come' becomes 'cum' (do they do it on purpose or are they even aware of the meaning?)

Well the other thing that got me thinking was the use of dots and the permutations of oks.

Do the number of dots used after a word denote a certain tone or emotion? You know, like if you got a reply that said. "It's alright." / "It's alright.." / "It's alright..." Is there something to discern by the number of dots used? With one being most curt and the more dots being more, well, sincere? Or could it be that the more dots used, the more ambiguous the intention? Like there is a hidden subtext. In this instance, as if to say, "It's alright... (...=but...)" I often find myself seeking clarification when I find myself at the end of dots.

"K" / "ok"/ "okay" / "okie" - Right, I understand the need to abbreviate but I can never take it well when I get a "k" reply. For goodness sake...don't bother replying at all. I somehow feel better when I get an "alright" / "sure". Gives me the illusion that the sender made a bit more effort.

But the piece de resistance is when the dots and the oks are used in conjunction. Then "ok.." / "ok..." / "ok...." becomes loaded in increasing degrees.

One should never try to emote with text messages.

As for me, I painstakingly text the words in full most times. Anything less seems sacrilageous.

SPACE TIME CONTINIUM

I've always had a fascination with time travel. The idea of being able to traverse back to different eras and ages just excites me. Maybe it's because I've always had a thing for history and archaeology. I remember poring through my dad's copies of National Geographic magazines and wondering at the vibrant colours of photographs of different places, cultures and people in the world from different millennia and in the then present. Or maybe it was my huge crush on Indiana Jones when I was a kid. (Who could resist the roguish Harrison Ford?)

If you were to ask me which time frame I would pick, it would be hard put to decide. From ancient Egypt to the Mayans, from medieval England to England of the 1700s and 1800s, even to the times of ancient China, India and the Malay Sultanates. I would love to live and breathe the world then (ok minus the viruses and other air-borne or water-borne diseases). Of course this whole time travel thing has to come equipped with like a language chip that can be embedded in my brain to enable me to communicate in the language of the time.

Even watching 'Night at the Museum' the other day gave me a thrill. (No, not because of Ben Stiller in uniform). But being able to see history literally come alive. Wouldn't it be great if history lessons of the near future could be conducted in simulation classrooms (much like the rooms in Star Trek) where you could feel, touch and taste the time of your choice. Maybe I should really be a history teacher...

Beam me up Scotty!!

Grateful

MY LITTLE PLEASURES FOR TODAY

1. My 3-hour telephone chat with Saz
2. The chocolate bread roll
3. Finishing my third reading of Mansfield Park
4. The rain
5. Listening to Eric Satie's "Trois Gymnopedie" on repeat

Game of Life

Couple of days ago, I went over to Lin's and watched “A Lot Like Love” and “Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants” back to back. Went away with these two thoughts stuck in my head.

Perhaps being happy is not about a single moment or time. Maybe its about stringing along little moments and events in your everyday and that amounts to something substantial.
Is being happy then something like a habit or something that I have to remember to do everyday? Maybe I should, at the end of a day, contemplate and give thanks to the little pleasures given ...maybe I should be more aware of the little instances of happy rather than wait to feel a full wave...maybe I need to be more conscious of this journey.

This IS your life...now, here.
For a long time, it feels like I've been waiting for something to happen. For my life, my real life to begin, somehow. It seems like I've been plodding along, playing at being an adult, trying to find the pieces of a jigsaw to make it complete. I will admit that the pieces look pretty much like a man, a few babies, a home to call our own, a job that I enjoy and this higher-order need for self-actualisation (in no particular order of desperation).

Obstacles appear somehow whenever I resolve to start my life the way I want it to be; an emotional thorn here, a financial crisis there. Just when I feel like I've got it figured out. Things topple around me. So I have this sneaking suspicion that this IS it. It's about a constant state of figuring things out...it's about surmounting obstacles, be them big or small...it's about living fully in the present. It's not just about making plans and waiting for the right moment to come. Or perhaps, I'm the only 30 year old fool who is realising this a tad too late.

“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves. Live the questions now.Perhaps you will find them gradually, without noticing it,live along some distant day into the answer.”
- Rainer Maria Rilke

McBealism

I finally know what Ally felt like. Hit the big '3' '0' on December 2nd. I approached it with a certain amount of trepidation but with a whole lot of excitement as well. Felt like it was a new beginning...a pathway for great things to come. I actually oozed with positive energy even when I was neck deep in funky fog. The flip side though was when I was measuring up my years with what I have done, attained, achieved so far. Didn't seem like a whole lot. REALLY looking forward to my 30s. Ready world...here I come!!!

**Spent the day with Saz who gave me a decadent treat in the form of a mani-padi, scrub and massage. Spent the following day in bed in full detox mode, down with fever and body-aches!! But Saz...love you lots for it.

Back at Saz's at night