Life & Me

About being a fanboy

If you’re closed to me like my sis and my Steph, you would have known that I have been very vocal of my support of the Android platform since purchasing the HTC Desire. That, of course, made me a few enemies in the Apple camp.

If you’re a tech enthusiast, you might have known that there is an ongoing war/debate/flame throwing between the two camps of Android and iPhone about who is the best and who sucks.. you get the idea.
The iPhone fans, being a little more “passionate” in their support, have been given a label of Apple fanboy. I’ve been thinking about this and realize that this is not a unique situation. In fact, there are many other examples of “fanboyism” in our life. Among the few that I have witnessed are

a) Manchester United against the rest
Well, all fans of other clubs would vehemently disagree, but Man Utd has been THE club for the past two decades. So naturally, two camps were formed in the process – the Man Utd fans and the Anti Man Utd fans. Every weekend, fans of both sides would cheer for their team and curse the other teams. They (I/We) would proclaim the merits of the team and why the others just downright suck. In the mid 90’s, the main opponent was Liverpool, then Arsenal slowly camp into limelight. After that, Chelsea came with their millions. So the fight rages on.

b) Microsoft Word and LaTeX
This is quite an obscure one if you’re not in the academic world. Let me explain. LaTeX is a word processing language (not a program) that many claim to be superior to Word. I first came into contact with it while working as an intern in Bosch. In my department, Word documents were not accepted. So I have to learn to use it from scratch. There are many merits of it, but not without its share of flaws. In the academic world/universities, LaTeX is also accepted as the de facto standard of word processing. Perhaps someone has brought it into the industries as well.

So, what’s the war? Surprisingly, users of LaTeX hate Word to its bone. They would proudly declare themselves as LaTeX users and truly believe in their superiority. As someone who loves a good argument, I quickly learnt how to start a good fight during lunch hours, simply by proclaiming that inferiority of LaTeX against Word. But as I said, it’s obscure, you won’t know unless you’ve used it.

c) Android against the iOS/iPhone – more generally, Apple against the rest of the World
Finally, the war that I’m currently fighting (albeit imaginary) is the OS for mobile phones. For the past 3 years, iPhone is acknowledged as THE smartphone in the market. Many flocked towards it and have since then transformed into true fanboys. Of course, they made some enemies in the process with their closed ways of development. Along came Google with their Android platform and the war began. For many of those who dislikes Apple but couldn’t find anyone else to root for, Google’s entry into the market provided them a solid platform to support.

But can this war be won by any party? In this post, I say, very hard indeed, for two reasons.

a) Fans are irrational
It is very common for both sides to convince one another to jump camps. But that could only work if the assumption that fans are logical about their decision, but they are not.

But being rational is one of the deep rooted needs of human. We want to know that we are rational and logical. How often have you heard football arguments that circle around the style of play? “I support them because they play attacking football…” and so on. But if that fan is shown a team with better attacking football, would he switch? No, probably not. He would most probably find other reasons for supporting the team.

Many of us like to believe, we have reasons therefore we support. Truth is, we support, therefore we find reasons.

In my quest of being the Android preacher =P, I like to ask iPhone owners why they like it. When I show them that Android can do that particular thing better and faster, I’m often met with disbelieve, i.e. “no lah, where got?”. This is also common from the online discussions and debates that I read (ok, ok, I have no life). If pushed harder, the irrationality will slowly surfaced with statements like “It’s just better, it looks nicer”. Well, if pushed even harder, I’d probably get punched, so I stopped.

b) Fans are close-minded
We are vain humans, all of us are. We have selective hearings, only allowing in things that we like. My dad is very good at that =)

Same as fans. When we align ourselves towards a product, team or cause, we feel integrity is linked with it. When the thing is criticized, we feel hurt and insulted as well. So, consciously or not, we don’t allow the “foreign object” to come into our minds.

When I was arguing (again) about the merits of Word, I am always surprised by the closed mindedness of hardcore LaTeX users. The last version of Word used by them stretched back to the days of Word 2000 or even 97. So many arguments against Word were towards that era. Never mind the improvements of 2003, 07 or 10, Word sucks, period. Once an opinion is formed, it’s hard to change them. Marketing lesson 101.

Surprise, surprise, the same is valid for iPhone users. Since I like a good fight, and since I have been fighting with my bro since I have any memories, I might as well bring him as an example. =)

When I first showed him my phone a month back. He took it, turn on the display and try to unlock it. Well iPhone slide is horizontal so he tried a horizontal slide. It didn’t work so he asked, I told him it’s a vertical slide. He did it, looked at it, probably flip left and right once. He then gave the phone back to me and said “iPhone is still better”.
I was a little angry, of course, but more mind boggled. How could a judgment made so swiftly? Thinking about it now, it made sense. The mind was closed.
******

Before this turn into a ranting post, the question remains, what about me? Am I not just another fan? Well, I agree. I am. So I can be irrational and close-minded as well. The biggest danger of being a fan is when you don’t acknowledge it.

When you’re in love, you’re a fan of your partner. If you don’t acknowledge that, you might be in trouble. Your mind would try to rationalize your decision, but it won’t work. I like you because you’re humorous/smart/pretty. “So you won’t like another girl if she’s more humorous/smarter/prettier?”, comes the reply.

So if you’re a fan of something, just admit it, and save all the time creating invalid reasons for it. If you really think you’ve made a purchase decision out of logic, then make sure you remain rational and open-minded. We often don’t realize it.

And next time you’re asked, “Why do you love me?”, just answer, “I’m a fan”. Period.

Spiderweb

A few days back, I suddenly popped a question to Steph. No, not that question, but simply,

“Do you know how spider makes the web between two tree trunks/poles?”

Well, isn’t it amazing how they manage that? Anyway, after few guesses, such as Spiderman style of shooting the web across the tree (Did Stan Lee believe that?), or climbing down and up the tree, she gave up. Well, me being nasty, I simply refused to reveal the answer. That kinda pissed her off.

So I guess I might as well blog it down, as one of those meaningless but fun post. Spiders actually allow their webs to be blown across the trees. While producing the web, they’d let the wind stream carry the web along, all the while testing (like flying a kite) whether the web is taut. If it is, it means the web has reached a trunk/wall/pole. It would then tie the other end to the current trunk, and start to walk across the web, while counting the steps. After it reaches the end, it would start walking back towards its half way point. Then it would release another web downwards, so that it would form a 3-edges star. That would be the basic formation, from which the web can be built.

Amazing isn’t it? Spider can do arithmetic!

Another lesson I learnt – don’t piss your girlfriend off.

I’ll be free soon

While in my previous school, exam was a pretty swift event.8 papers in 2 to 3 weeks and I am done. Now, as I’ve complained last semester, it is a marathon. It gets a little worse this time around, it is stretched throughout 3 months.

And it started last Wednesday, and I wonder how I would fare this time.

After this semester, I would have completed all the required modules, 6 months faster than planned. Perhaps I grew a little impatient after all these studying. So I would be free, as I claimed at the end of every semester.

I don’t find that sort of thinking bad. It’s called optimism. And I have much of it. It’s irrational alright, but an useful and productive one at that.

Anyway, anticipating that I will be free next semester, I managed to got myself another job, to conduct a small research at the university, a pretty good job actually.

So well, I’d be free after all, so its okay. And after that, I’ll go on to write my thesis.

I’m almost free. So call me out for coffee anytime, seriously. Optimism is good.

Surnames

While Chinese surnames are generally without meaning (though with long history), many German surnames are linked to occupation – painter, farmer, log tender and so on… once in a while, you come across a funny surname – for example “f***er’. I’m serious, one of them was even a famous physicist and gave us the Fick’s law…

In the English word, its not obvious that but many surnames are still occupations or characteristic, albeit in another language, like Kaufmann, which means business man.

However, hilariously, I just came across a superb surname. So absurd that I think it might be made up. Well, there’s a Chris Moneymaker, who won the world series of poker in 2003.

No joke.

Just some updates

Just a few days ago, Steph has come from being hired by the smallest chemical company in the world, to being hired by the largest chemical company in the world! It’s amazing how God sometimes works. But maybe we don’t have to know how. It’s sufficient to know that he is in control.

Some quotes

I was listening to a Spanish podcast today,

Woman: Who’s that?
Man: The new guy.
Woman: He’s hot! (buenisimo!)
Man: But you have a boyfriend.
Woman: I have eyes too.

It’s interesting that this is pretty common in the Spanish/Latin America culture, perhaps conforming the stereotype that they are like “expressing their feelings”.

“I’m married, but not blind.” and “I’m going through a diet, but doesn’t mean I can’t look at the menu.” are two more examples.

On a side note, I heard another quote today about happiness.

“Happiness is not having what you want, but wanting what you have.”

Food for thoughts.

Third world

I remembered the publication of Lee Kuan Yew’s book ‘from the third world to the first’ that described Singapore’s rise to richness. It caused an argument in my family, which is really not uncommon. But I always remember argument where the other party doesn’t agree with my stand but can’t give a reasonable reason for it. For this, sometimes I’m labelled as ‘always wanting to win’.

Throughout the years, I’ve learnt to tone myself down, learning when to stop when it becomes obvious when the other person/party refuse to listen or accept. But then again, I still want to be right, everytime .

In this case, it was my father and brother. I said a country cannot move from the first world to the third. It has already been defined. They retorted that how can the president of Singapore be wrong, which is really not am argument at all. But as many arguments, sometimes you don’t need to be right to win in my family. You just need to shout the loudest or hold the racket in your hand.

Anyway, I never accepted it. Singapore can be a rich world, but not the first world. And finally, last week in economist, the definition was stated. First world was the capitalist west while the second world was the communist east. The rest was the third world. There you have it! I was right! ( laughing to myself… hahaha…)

Of course the third world was seen as poor and undeveloped and Singapore was no longer so. And since the fall of soviet, the second world was no longer relevant. That’s the why you no longer see the phrase ‘third world’ being used, its now ‘developing nation’ or ‘less developed countries’ and Singapore does not belonged to that category.

Was Mr. Lee wrong then? Of course not. Who would want to buy a book titled ‘how Singapore became rich’?

But the point is – I was right! And the fact that I need a blog post to clarify this after 7-8 years probably also means I need some treatment and counseling.

*woohoo! Celebrating….

Quiet airport

You need air conditioning in airport. That much is clear and obvious. You need that everywhere in Malaysia.

But do you know, that even in cold winters, airports still need air conditioning? That’s due to the large amount of people, and everyone of them is equivalent to a 100W heater. To imagine the heat, imagine touching a 100W light bulb. You don’t burn yourself touching a human is due to the large surface area.

Alright, science and fact aside, I’m sitting in a very quiet airport now, as my flight is one of the. only 3 flights tonight.

The atmosphere is surprisingly peaceful. No busy footsteps, no baby cry, no sound is chatter. I could even hear the steady hum of the air conditioning.

And I kinda enjoy this.

Goodbye to Malaysia, see you in hopefully 6 months.

I smile

It was a rushed week. Had to go through what I usually take 4 weeks to do. But it was a good week. A good cup of coffee is still good (maybe better) even if it?s compressed into an espresso.

While I was travelling back in a train from KL to Ipoh, I saw the daily lives of different types of people. Mothers taking care of their children, students travelling back to the universities, some sleeping and snoring while the train rocks from side to side. None of these is out of the ordinary, but the combination and the familiarity of it just somehow blends together. Like a good piece of chocolate in a coffee to make it mocha. Just before I reached Ipoh, I looked out towards a newly developed housing area, and a cow was walking in the middle of the street.

I smiled.

That night, I went to a dinner with my dad, with some pretty well-off people. When they came in, I found myself wondering what I should do. Should I stand up? Should I shake their hands or just say ?Uncle?? What was once natural didn?t seem so natural anymore. Throughout the dinner, I was bombarded with questions about Germany, even though I?ve told the exact same people the same thing about 8 months ago. But as usual, I just switched to ?answering questions? mode and I did fine. Then everyone moved on to boast about the different experiences they have and so on, ??. The loudness of it, the commotion of it, the familiarity of it, it?s like the white coffee that I miss.

I smiled.

Before I had the chance to get to know Ipoh again, we rushed to Singapore. We had a nice bungalow to stay in. But even though we had lots of room, the bed of our parents remains our (me and my sis) preferred hang out place. We talked with a volume that rivals the whale-cry, the speed that rivals the Boeings and all the usual scolding and sarcasm. It?s like that bean that I return to after trying out all the different beans in the world. The first bean has a special place in my heart.

I smiled.

The next few days were a rush. We hosted the parents of my (now) sister-in-law (Side note: it?s hard to imagine that I have another sister now, considering that I?ve met her only four days ago. Sweet and nice, my brother is lucky.) I never really thought about much, didn?t have time to.

Until Saturday morning, many things happen almost simultaneously. My brother was getting married. Though never really close, I?m really happy for him. I?ll be leaving my family for another 6 months, at the least. We had a great time, like the espresso I mentioned earlier. We chatted daily till 1 to 2am, and our eyes are the testaments. I?ll be going back and have to adapt straight back into the life I left behind, it?s the middle of my semester. And finally, I?d be seeing my sweetheart again. One week is a long long time, and I have loads to tell her.

In the midst of it all, I could not identified or differentiate my feelings. It?s like if you poke two needles a few centimeters apart on your body parts. On some parts, like the tongue, you can feel both needles. In other parts, like the feet, you can?t. My emotions are like my feet, I can?t differentiate them.

So I chose to park them aside and deal with them later. You can, perhaps through the needles mark, sort them out later. In the dinner just an hour ago, I didn?t say much and did maths by calculating the bill with my head instead. As I couldn?t concentrate, I probably did not do well, and the fact that the 7% Government tax includes the 10% service charge of the total meal didn’t help. I did not say my goodbyes well, because any longer and tears would flow.

But Steph taught me (and Grey?s Anatomy as well) that you don?t have to always feel good. You can feel sad as well. It?s the whole package, like you don?t have to drink black coffee always. The varieties make it good.

And looking back in the week, I had a great great time. Lots of catching up, like asking my friends about their meaning of life (I hope they did not get irritated), lots of food, (and my sis had a great time making fun of my tummy), lots of love, lots of reflection, lots of experiences and lots of blessings. Blessings from God, who surely have a plan, and is in control. Jer 29:11 was the verse for the wedding today. I believe in that, it is my favorite verse.

So I know I?m blessed. I know He is in control.

So I smile.