MIA

My apologies for not updating in a while. Along with my lost hand phone and my university barring MSN I disappeared from the virtual world for about a week. I liked it actually. Coupled with the fact that I had two Swiss CSers over, it was like travelling, in the sense that you're cut off from connections and you're hanging out with other travellers. Also, since I finished my paper earlier in the week I wasn't worrying about work that much which made the week relaxing. Therefore Monday blues struck hard today.

Things that I have learnt over the past week:

• that Suspicious Looking Men really exist (we saw one on the MRT - black baseball cap, big dark glasses, huge droopy fake-looking moustache, black bag)
• a brief history of ska and skinheads (not the neo-nazi kind)
• how to flip a crepe in a pan
• that you can eat a crepe twice fallen on the floor with no medical implications
• that Singapore's National Museum has an impressive collection of audio stories but not much artefacts
• how to say "monkey" in German - "affe"
  
• that I should refrain from asking people if they're gay or if they'd like to be. I mean sometimes I just get gay vibes from people and I just want to check if my gaydar is working, it's nothing personal or insulting. Also you never know if you might unwittingly help someone sort their sexuality out and change the course of their life. But I shall refrain in the future because it pisses people off.
  
• Qwerty keyboards on cell phones are just a pain in the ass. Why use a gazillion keys when you can use only 12?
  

I am also contemplating about the meaning of life. Not getting much success out of there. Sometimes I feel that my life is so full and I'm perfectly content, but sometimes it is so empty that it gives me a panicked, slightly burning feeling at the bottom of my heart. I guess it's the intensity of my experiences. CS is pretty intense because you get propelled into knowing people a lot faster than usual. And after the excitement wears off you feel kind of dazed, a little hungover maybe.

I think I'm tired and I need a break, and I'm really looking forward to going home next weekend. But before that I'll need to finish all the interview transcriptions - I have three now, about five hours of data to transcribe. Another two guys will be coming this week and I will have five interviews in total before I call it a day. With five interviews I will have enough of data in my hands to look at for the time being I guess.

I think I like ska. The happy beat is the only thing keeping me from going into a full-blown monday blues depression. Over the weekend I went to the city and caught two live swing bands with Yves, and yesterday after coming home he sat me down and ran me through some nice ska bands that he liked, and the philosophy of the working class behind the music, and the picture of the big black guy who played the bass with his teeth. I was intrigued, but we couldn't find any video of him doing it, Yves saw him do it live.

Well I should get to my first transcription - Tope from Nigeria. Also means that I need to turn off the happy ska music. Will leave you with "I lost my phone" from Open Season, a Swiss ska/rock steady/reggae band.



I lost my phone, lalalalalalalalala.