A little whisper in the dark

As they say......

A picture tells a thousand words.

posted by Chung Leong @ 3:59 AM 0 comments

An old nemesis from the past

Never having been mistaken for anything other than rough around the edges, I've made surprisingly few enemies through my slightly more than a quarter century of life.

One of the few that did, I met today. I didn't even realize that he was back in town and there he was, on the same bus I was. I wouldn't have noticed him if he didn't stick his leg out into the aisle the way he did. But stick his knee out he did, and I gave him a long look. Still the same face I nearly put my fist into. I am pretty sure he recognized me. I suddenly realized I was tense, holding my breath, and the veins on my arms were showing, so tightly I clenched the handrails.

He looked away.

There's still unresolved animosity between us, and I looked away and concentrated on TVMobile so that I would not move towards creating a scene, since he did not move toward it. The last time it escalated from a quiet talk into a shouting match that nearly became a punchup at a deserted multi-story carpark.

Funny how our paths seem to keep crossing. He popped up in the same hobby I'd picked up somewhere along the way. I shall not even try to deny the satisfaction I felt when he got himself first ostracized, then banned from a local online forum that we are both part of. Despite my biases one thing I did not do was to single him out for destruction; that he took care of by virtue of his own character. I just had to watch the blazing trail he'd left, and the public disdain he'd earned.

He has a tattoo of Felix the cat on his right calf.

He'd gotten off the bus not long after. I looked at him as he disappeared into the crowd, but he didn't look back.

posted by Chung Leong @ 2:38 AM 0 comments

Want and need

Not too long ago, I was browsing through the local cycling classified advertisements, and a roadbike caught my eye. The parts specification looked pretty good for the price, and I clicked on the provided link to have a look at the bike, next thing you know, I was hooked.

Now, I've always been a mountain biker, to the extent of being polarized away from the roadies (or road toads as I was apt to call them). Perhaps the steady diet of Lance Armstrong Tour de France victories and the fact this steed bears the same paintwork had more than just a little to do with it?

Told myself that I didn't really need a road bike, I'm just following up on this one because its cheap and its good, that if I didn't like it I could still sell it without loss. But as they say, if its too good to be true, it probably is.

Long story cut short, the bike was a dud, it had a cracked component that could have unceremoniously dumped me onto my face (that the owner tried not to tell me, but which a little detective work, for which Scorpios are known for, unearthed). That was the end of that.

$1200, and so I started looking at new bikes in that price range, given that that sum was what I was almost prepared to spend. The broken bike was a Trek. Lance Armstrong's brand. Don't believe them when they say product placement doesn't work. It does.

Ah, but you would say, didn't you say you didn't need a road bike, so why are you looking for a new bike now?

Well I'd gone from wanting Lance's ride to wanting to ride like Armstrong. Well not exactly Tour de France glory, but road riding. An ultimately futile attempt to ride with two roadies (one of which was female, both of which were younger than me), with me progressively cramping first the left, then the right leg for more than half the ride, in the process giving myself a muscle ache I haven't felt for a long while already. They had to slow down for me and my mountain bike.

The mind is a powerful tool, and I am talking myself into buying a roadbike, do the research, haunt the bikeshops, stroke the metal.

Retail therapy is a powerful tool, and most of the time I manage to talk myself out of it before I shell out the bucks.

But this time, want has become a need. And I need to convince myself otherwise.

posted by Chung Leong @ 4:28 AM 0 comments

How many times have you cheated death?

It was three times for me.

Not once did "my life flash past my eyes", and not once did anything I could have done pulled myself out from the dire situation I had placed myself in. Variously I would have either been a car bumper ornament, in a few thousand little pieces or roadkill, in that chronological order. No, not in order of gore.

Yet, I am still, not only here, but in one piece, none the worse for my adventures, musing and mulling.

And perhaps at 3am, I wonder why I am still kicking around; sometimes I call it living on borrowed time. In a sense maybe my time isn't up yet, maybe I am meant for other things yet to come. Or maybe......what else, who knows?

It too, would be good, then, to realize that the three chances I have had, are three chances that I seek to justify being gifted with, and to make full use of.

I may not have a religion but I do believe in God, and paradoxically the more I believe in God, the less I believe in religion.

posted by Chung Leong @ 5:04 AM 0 comments

It was only a two page article, but

My writing's been published in a local photography magazine.

Grain. January 2004, Issue #2.

posted by Chung Leong @ 9:12 PM 0 comments

To people who think the Apple iPod is the best thing since sliced bread, I give you this:

iPod's dirty secret

Turn up the volume, and have a broadband connection handy. A Quicktime plug-in in your Internet Explorer is essential.

Enjoy.

posted by Chung Leong @ 10:14 PM 0 comments

Time

Time is something we can do nothing to lengthen or shorten, but to make the most of.

posted by Chung Leong @ 2:17 AM 0 comments