:D!!!
YESSSSSSSS YES YES YES YES YES 
DDD
Mencurah air ke daun keladi
..ibarat menasihati aku.
A Dictionary of the Near Future
Great article on the NY Times. Great observations, and does a good job of capturing many of the thoughts and ideas I’ve been entertaining lately. My comments are in bold.
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By DOUGLAS COUPLAND
Published: September 12, 2010
// The thing about the future is that it never feels the way we thought it would. New sensations require new terms; below are a few such terms to encapsulate our present moment.
AIRPORT-INDUCED IDENTITY DYSPHORIA Describes the extent to which modern travel strips the traveler of just enough sense of identity so as to create a need to purchase stickers and gift knick-knacks that bolster their sense of slightly eroded personhood: flags of the world, family crests, school and university merchandise. This applies doubly for me – a foreigner in my own culture flying around to foreign states in a foreign country to perform still-somewhat foreign tasks – although I don’t experience the urge to splurge on location-based merchandise that strongly.. yet.
ANTIFLUKE A situation in the universe in which rigid rules of action exist to prevent coincidences from happening. Given the infinite number of coincidences that could happen, very few ever actually do. The universe exists in a coincidence-hating state of antifluke. Better known as “the other side of the coin”. For everything else, there’s God.
BELL’S LAW OF TELEPHONY No matter what technology is used, your monthly phone bill magically remains about the same size. LOL.
BLANK-COLLAR WORKERS Formerly middle-class workers who will never be middle class again and who will never come to terms with that. Sad.. hope I never belong in this category.
CHRISTMAS-MORNING FEELING A sensation created by stimulus to the anterior amygdala that leaves one with a strong sense of expectation. (See also Godseeking) I don’t yet know any examples of the stimuli, but I do experience a heightened sense of expectation when it comes to certain things over others..
CLOUD BLINDNESS The inability of some people to see faces or shapes in clouds. I wonder if it works the other way around – “hey, you look like that cloud I just saw!”
COMPLEX SEPARATION The theory that, in music, a song gets only one chance to make a first impression. After that the brain starts breaking it down, subdividing the musical experience into its various components — lyrical, melodic and so forth. I experience this alot.. especially with repetitive verses/choruses. Maybe that’s why I need intermittent fixes of instrumental music – not as easily broken down, plus there’s more opportunity to attach subjective meanings to it.
COVER BUZZ The sensation felt when hearing a cover version of a song one already knows. Yes and it’s tingly!
CRYSTALLOGRAPHIC MONEY THEORY The hypothesis that money is a crystallization or condensation of time and free will, the two characteristics that separate humans from other species. Don’t really get the time part.. but I think of (the idea of) money as a layer that civilized nations have allowed to be pulled over them. I’m not sure if that means I agree or disagree with the theory lol.
DENARRATION The process whereby one’s life stops feeling like a story. Haven’t experienced this yet. I’ve never found it difficult to look at my life in third person view, which is conducive to the storytelling thing.
DESELFING Willingly diluting one’s sense of self and ego by plastering the Internet with as much information as possible. (See also Omniscience Fatigue; Undeselfing) Yes, this is starting to happen on a larger scale with me. As evidenced by my commenting on this article.
DIMANCHOPHOBIA Fear of Sundays, a condition that reflects fear of unstructured time. Also known as acalendrical anxiety. Not to be confused with didominicaphobia or kyriakephobia, fear of the Lord’s Day. I am particularly particular about what I do / don’t do with my time.. if I have unstructured time, it’s because I want it to be.
FICTIVE REST The inability of many people to fall asleep until after reading even the tiniest amount of fiction. Might apply to me.. replace reading with watching though.
FRANKENTIME What time feels like when you realize that most of your life is spent working with and around a computer and the Internet. Lol. When I first read the term the first thing that came to mind was “Vegas”.
GODSEEKING An extreme version of Christmas Morning Feeling. Mm.
GRIM TRUTH You’re smarter than TV. So what? ..or are you?
IKEASIS The desire in daily life and consumer life to cling to “generically” designed objects. This need for clear, unconfusing forms is a means of simplifying life amid an onslaught of information. Hahahaha.. Subtle yet entirely plausible. Nice observation. I think this applies to me to a greater degree – I want to get rid of my objects to simplify my life.
INSTANT REINCARNATION The fact that most adults, no matter how great their life is, wish for radical change in their life. The urge to reincarnate while still alive is near universal. D’accord.
INTRAVINCULAR FAMILIAL SILENCE We need to be around our families not because we have so many shared experiences to talk about, but because they know precisely which subjects to avoid. Hahaha so true. Then again, the definition of family changes from person to person, and conversely, they also know precisely which subjects not to avoid. The S&M in me thrives on bringing up uncomfortable topics - I have a strong need for catharsis.
HUMANALIA Things made by humans that exist only on earth and nowhere else in the universe. Examples include Teflon, NutraSweet, Paxil and meaningfully sized chunks of element No. 43, technetium. Interesting.
INTERNAL VOICE BLINDNESS The near universal inability of people to articulate the tone and personality of the voice that forms their interior monologue. Doesn’t apply to me. It sounds like me, and almost always speaks in a British accent, though it’s been becoming more American lately.
INTERRUPTION-DRIVEN MEMORY We remember only red traffic lights, never the green ones. The green ones keep us in the flow, the red ones interrupt and annoy us. True. There’s logic in only paying attention to things that need fixing, but it subtly trains us to always focus on the bad and thus makes us worse at recognizing the good, let alone appreciating it.
INTRAFFINITAL MELANCHOLY VS. EXTRAFFINITAL MELANCHOLY Which is lonelier: to be single and lonely, or to be lonely within a dead relationship? Wow. So, so true. I really can’t tell.
KARAOKEAL AMNESIA Most people don’t know the complete lyrics to almost any song, particularly the ones they hold most dear. (See also Lyrical Putty) Karaokeal lol.
LIMITED POOL ROMANTIC THEORY The belief that there is a finite number of times in which one can fall in love, most commonly six. Hrm.. I wonder…
LYRICAL PUTTY The lyrics one creates in one’s head in the absence of knowing a song’s real lyrics. Lol.. I usually just have wordless gaps in the music.
MALFACTORY AVERSION The ability to figure out what it is in life you don’t do well, and then to stop doing it. Yes.. I need to significantly improve on my malfactory aversion.
ME GOGGLES The inability to accurately perceive oneself as others do. Haha. Again, I wonder..
MEMESPHERE The realm of culturally tangible ideas. This realm is getting bigger and the world is becoming smaller, thanks to the social networking boom.
OMNISCIENCE FATIGUE The burnout that comes with being able to know the answer to almost anything online. Finally, a proper term for it. Also leads to more aggressive and excessive open-ended questioning.
POST-HUMAN Whatever it is that we become next. What indeed.
PROCELERATION The acceleration of acceleration. How many layers can you go before it ceases to make sense/matter?
PSEUDOALIENATION The inability of humans to create genuinely alienating situations. Anything made by humans is a de facto expression of humanity. Technology cannot be alienating because humans created it. Genuinely alien technologies can be created only by aliens. Technically, a situation one might describe as alienating is, in fact, “humanating.” Hrm. Reminds me of vegetarian is to eating only vegetables as humanitarian is to eating only…?
ROSENWALD’S THEOREM The belief that all the wrong people have self-esteem. LOL. It’d be fun to have a drink with this Rosenwald dude.
SITUATIONAL DISINHIBITION Social contrivances within which one is allowed to become disinhibited, that is, moments of culturally approved disinhibition: when speaking with fortunetellers, to dogs and other pets, to strangers and bartenders in bars, or with Ouija boards. Ahahaha. The scope of this is greatly enhanced by the strategic consumption of alcoholic beverages.
STANDARD DEVIATION Feeling unique is no indication of uniqueness, and yet it is the feeling of uniqueness that convinces us we have souls. Does it? Maybe the next step would be that feeling unique indicates soulless-ness.
STAR SHOCK The disproportionate way that meeting celebrities feels slightly like being told a piece of life-changing news. Though true, I can’t help but note that awe is a result of our own thoughts and feelings, ie. generated internally, as opposed to being showered with it from some external awe source like it feels.
STOVULAX A micro-targeted drug of the future designed to stop fantastically specific O.C.D. cases, in this case a compulsion involving the inability of some people to convince themselves after leaving the house that the stove is turned off. Lolx.
UNDESELFING The attempt, usually frantic and futile, to reverse the deselfing process. Ahakz.
ZOOSOMNIAL BLURRING The notion that animals probably don’t see much difference between dreaming and being awake. Them animals need to stop doing inception on each other..
Douglas Coupland is the author of the forthcoming novel “Player One.”
Dust & air
After all’s said and done, we are alive and breathing.
Humans are difficult.. fight through the harshest physical obstacles but defeated by emotions.
Stay on course. If it were easy, everybody would be doing it. Do you truly add value to whatever you do?
If not, find out how you can and will, or do something else.
More mirrors
You don’t know what you don’t know.
Peer pressure is greatest when it isn’t directly applied.
Fear of being alone makes us make big compromises.
Compromises are rarely the road less taken. What if..?
I left home thinking I could escape from everyone’s expectations; live a true free life – by my own rules.
Without realizing, everything I did/am doing is to meet everyone’s expectations.
Is an unwitting hypocrite a hypocrite? Ignorance is bliss, but it’s no excuse. The answer is yes, and the worst/most pitiful kind too.
The life I built is mine and at the same time isn’t mine.
I know – grow the f* up, yes?
Yea I wish could tell some people that. There’s only so much passive-aggressive bs I can deal with. Grrrgh.
…uh oh.
I think I am quickly becoming that which I’m complaining about.
Passive-Aggressive Disorder.
Need to research more and find a cure. Help!
TIANG?
Whodat??
Dark
Dark theme is back.
This whole going it alone thing is new. I’ve always had someone.
How long can I last?
Will my experience prove that no man is an island?
Or will I prove that anything is possible, as long as you put your mind to it?
As always, too many questions and too few answers.
Only one way to find out.
Bittersweet
Congratulations to those graduating this semester, as well as those who are not for coming one step closer to yours.
Sorry I can’t be there.
Wish I could.
Happy for everyone.
Take lots of pictures!
Ciao for now
Lots of things to write about, but none suitable for public consumption.. yet.
Excuse me for a few moments while I take a new direction in life.
Jan 24 2010
People always ask me “Where would you rather be?”
It doesn’t matter, I think. With proper effort, anyone can succeed anywhere.
That said, I am gonna make the best of this opportunity.
This holiday was everything I hoped for and more.
Time with friends.
More time with family.
A few more important people to see, and I wrap up this chapter of my life.
Damn.
Emo sia.
Jan 12 2010
..ok haven’t been so productive. Eat, drink, sleep, drive. Friends, family. But what more can one ask for, in Malaysia? Racial/religious harmony? Hehe justkiddinglol.
Hard to blog; too much thoughts, too little organization.
Be back soon.
Happy 2010!
New year, new decade.
New life, new challenges.
So good to meet up with all old kakis in Malaysia.
Time to be productive again!
Before
I seemed to be happier before.
Is it a side-effect of growing up?
Becoming incapable of being as happy as you used to be?
Dude.
This sucks.
“Nothing really matters..”
Nothing really matters… to me.
Mmm.
Mmmmmmmmm.
At this rate..
..I’m gonna forget how to smile.
I Don’t Know How..
To be patient.
To be kind.
To love.
It’s 2004 all over again.
Either there’s something wrong with the world, or there’s something wrong with me.
I blame the world :}
The Plaintiffs
Our electrical superintendent is a genius when it comes to electrical stuff.
But he’s had 2 divorces so far, and is with his 3rd wife.
He doesn’t call them “wives” anymore.
He calls them Plaintiff #1, Plaintiff #2, Plaintiff #3.
AHAhahahahhahahahahahh :D:D:D:D:D
