Dial-up Internet

 

Whenever I meet with my friends (I only have a few, and it is dwindling), we always reminisce about good old times, well, of course, on top of health talk and how annoying it is to grow older. Another topic is about technology and the internet as we put on our best grumpy behaviors while squinting on the phone and cursing that everything needs to be an app nowadays. 

I am a younger Gen-X (Gen-Xer?). I was a bit late, but the first time I accessed internet was in the year 2000 when I just graduated from University and was looking for work. It's hard for users nowadays to pick email addresses they like without numbers and weird combinations of unusual words, but back then, we could! My email was exactly what I wanted, and my password was a six-letter word, no uppercase, no punctuations, no numbers, and it didn't look like a cursed word. 

I had to take at least a thirty-minute public transport ride to access a facility called Internet café. It had a bunch of PCs with fat screens, and I paid hourly to access the internet. With internet, I meant email, because that was the only thing I knew, and it took me almost a full hour to check and reply. How many inboxes did I have? One! Yeah, it was the combination of a slow connection, my navigation skills, and drafting an email in English, a language I barely knew or used back then. It was also my very first inbox and reply (of course, on top of the usual automated welcome from the provider), and I created the email for this purpose not too long ago before my interview.

Thankfully, it was good news. I got my first job, and it was my top choice. I would be back in a few days, wandering around the neighborhood, catching public transport, clearing the café's administration, waiting for the green field and blue sky background to appear, waiting for the connection with the soundtrack of EEEEE OOOO EEEEE OOOO TEEEEEEEEEEEE, logging into my email with my very easy to remember password, and check whether they replied me. Woohoo! Easy peasy. Hopefully, they would have replied to me by then because it cost me a lot to get there. Otherwise, I'd be back in a few more days. I might have to break my piggy bank, but woohoooo!

So, that was my first experience with internet. I still remember the layout of the café and the relief I had. I was considered lucky because we didn't have Google Maps back then. I had no idea where I could find one but to explore around. The content of the internet back then? It was pretty much the same as what we have now regarding the concept. There were creeps in ICQ (a chat room), kind Nigerian princes (so many of them) who tried to give me money, hoaxes, advertisements about enlarging stuff, and unsolicited access to uncensored beheading videos.

How was your first internet experience? Was it fun, traumatizing, or something you fondly remember like mine? Nowadays, on top of all the negativities and stupidities I always have a hard time processing, I am still grateful because I get opportunities like this to connect with all of you without having to meet in person. I am an uber introvert, but I love exchanging minds and learning about worlds outside my own. 

The Magnificent Swimming Pool

 

I had a chance to visit a traditional Asian village last week and spent hours in a place that brought me to the past.

With chickens and ducks freely roaming around, one always side-eyed me with judgmental eyes (maybe he thought I was supposed to feed him). I had pleasant afternoons watching goat MBEEE on their way home. Kids were out playing bicycles and soccer and got muddy on one rainy afternoon with laughter as the soundtrack. 

Dirt, animals, soaking in the rain, and playing outside were the good times of my childhood. Nothing could kill us; tumbling from the tree, falling to the drain, running from a snake, and stepping on a colony of fire ants was just another Thursday. Even the ghost in our attic and the monstrous neighbor didn’t kill us. Well, I made one up, but the monstrous neighbor was real; she threatened to chop off my hand because I touched her flower, but that is the story for another day. It traumatized me for a while, and I have been planning on an elaborate revenge by making her a despicable character in my future book! Just wait, you mean neighbor!

My primary (elementary) school back then was considered the biggest in town. To me, it was huge, with giant outdoor courts and a gigantic park with trees that reached the sky with my favorite bench under one of the trees (when I had the chance to go back as an adult, it was a small school with two rundown courts and a small patch of green with a few medium-sized trees, but everything looked big and grand when I was a child). 

One day, I arrived at school, and the whole park and court were filled with water. They were situated lower than the main street outside, and after raining the entire night and, of course, a horrible drainage problem, the whole yard was flooded up to my knee. We could still access the classrooms through the corridors, but during the class, everyone was looking out of the window longingly at the most magnificent swimming pool. Most of us didn’t have many chances to swim in a proper swimming pool, so it was very tempting. Our class had a sports subject that day, and we begged our teacher to let us play in the water. They did!

We giggled, laughed, and splashed each other while wading through the knee-high brownish-clogged rainwater; we couldn’t even see our toes or identify what we were stepping on. Other classes that didn’t have sports subjects that day were allowed to play in the water during the break as long as they didn’t get their uniforms wet. You would see rows and rows of shoes on the corridor with children walking around holding hands in the ‘pool.’ We were the luckiest ones as we got to play longer and had change of clothes, so it was up to us whether we wanted to go all in, as in real swimming!

Germs? Pathogens? Possible dangerous animals? Possible skin problems? Oh yeah, the risk remained the same with our modern day, but the attitude was different. Maybe some studies say we have better immune systems; maybe some parents would categorize that as horror. I don’t know. I am not a parent, and I am not an expert. But I can tell you that it was one of the best days of my childhood, and it’s nice to recount the memory.

Locky seems to agree with the theory 'What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.' Below are his pictures lounging on the river discharge to the ocean. It looks clear, clean, and pretty, but trust me, it doesn't smell as lovely as it seems. 

A Tale of the Young Witch

 

A tale of a young witch is a very ambitious fantasy. However, I am not sure why it’s divided into three parts because all three happen continuously and in the same timeline, involving the same characters.

The book has a simple but interesting beginning. We follow the story of Amelia as some origin story because she is the titular character who starts as someone ordinary enough with ordinary life, but it doesn’t stay that way for long. From there, the journey goes to common fantasy routes with a twist ending. More on these later.

This goes throughout the book, but it’s more jarring in the beginning; it is the way the story is told as ‘Amelia this,’ ‘Amelia that’ even though the scenes only involve one character or the other character is a male. It becomes very distracting because of the number of times the name is thrown instead of using she or her. I believe it would average at least three times per page. I am also distracted by the description of Jack earlier as lanky and when he is mentioned later in the book as lean. It would be fine as the two definitions are close enough if it’s not mentioned too often. Other terms that bother me are between ‘puppet’ and ‘clone.’ I love Sci-Fi, and the way these terms are used as if they are the same confuses me. In the earlier scenes with Scarlet, I’m sorry, but I have to repeat the word ‘distracting’ to read things like ‘angelic’ voice and ‘gorgeous’ eyes while they are in dire situations and not some observations of someone about the character. But these are nitpicking, and they most likely don’t distract others as much.

I prefer realistic fantasy, if that’s a thing. I wish there were a genre for it. It’s like fantasy, but the plot, the problems that the characters face, and the characters themselves are very much in line with reality. I devour The Song of Ice and Fire with great interest and have no problem with big-sized books, but this book makes me recall my experience watching the first Transformer movie. I’d categorize it as pure fantasy, so maybe I am biased in my reading experience because, as mentioned, I prefer the other kind of fantasy, nevermind they both have a similar magical creature. It starts well, and everything is intriguing enough. Still, unfortunately, I can’t wait for it to end after the final fights that stretch over one hundred pages, more or less, with repetitive dialogues. The fights are great and well-written, but it takes one-fifth of the book, and I have to admit I don’t care anymore since the outcome is obvious to me anyway. And there is a plethora of action scenes before these final fights that already exhaust me.

Having said all that, pure fantasy readers might enjoy this book. The author put a lot of effort into this, and there are a lot of unique and great scenes for the theme that is probably quite saturated. The characters are done well; we are introduced to plenty of them, and although some have fewer scenes than they deserve, they are distinguishable enough. The fight scenes are creative and well-written, and although I am not really taken by the ending, it has the potential for more stories.

3.5 rounded up.

 

Fools' Day

 

Locky is not a fool and knows how to enjoy a beach day and make that bath worth it!

 

ONE: The hitmanS

 

You get what you pay for.

 

This was what a Chinese Developer thought when he hired a hitman to kill his competitor because he was sued over a project dispute. At the price of 2 million Yuan (around $282,800), that should be enough to get a good quality hitman, or so he thought, and got Hitman 1.

 

Hitman 1 happily took the job, and with his impeccable business instinct, he hired Hitman 2. Why should he do the job if he could hire others for half the price and get the work done without getting his hands dirty? He was a genius! However, the idea was not exclusive. Gone were the days when we saw the John-Wick-alike kind of hitman; they all turned into entrepreneurs! So, Hitman 2 hired Hitman 3 with even less price, Hitman 3 hired Hitman 4, and Hitman 4 hired Hitman 5. That was a synchronization of teamwork we had never seen before. However, once it got to Hitman 5, the amount of money was not lucrative anymore; it was also quite insufficient to hire another tier of hitman. With that in mind, Hitman 5 let the murder target know about the plan. They staged a murder, and all the hitman wannabes and the mastermind were caught.

 

 

TWO: The elusive escapee

 

Speaking about cool movie characters (Yes, I like John Wick. I believe anyone who loves dogs like John Wick), there was a time when police in the Irish Republic faced the challenge of a serial traffic offender. This guy was so skillful he evaded tons of traffic violations by giving the authorities a different address every time, continued to break the traffic law, and always escaped the consequences. We are talking about fifty of them. Fifty! And I can't even win one game of hide and seek with my dog.

 

The police scratched their heads and were convinced they were dealing with a mastermind, 'The Fine Evader,' 'The Road Flash,' and 'The Asphalt Avenger' were the allocated supervillain names—by me. So, who was this traffic offender that had reached the legendary and cult level among the Irish traffic police?

 

Spoiler alert: his name was Prawo Jazdy. And who is this Prawo Jazdy? Prawo Jadzy is actually not a person but a Polish term for a driving license. Polish people were, and I believe still are, one of Ireland's most significant immigrant populations. So, there were over fifty times when the police wrote down the first line they saw on these offenders' driving licenses instead of their actual names, which led to the hunt for this mythical escapee.

 

For those who like to watch and read weird random things on the internet, you might have heard those stories before. For those who haven't, both are legit, they really happened and are out there in the news. Both stories amused me and made me laugh out loud in the middle of the night.

 

Happy April Fools' Day.

 

I don't do pranks, and I am not a recipient of pranks from random acquaintances. I have that kind of face that my schoolmates and colleagues think twice before they pull one on me. I hope! There are times I make exceptions for people I am close with, but we don't do those annoying elaborate pranks, just harmless, endearing ones, and they are not confined to April Fools. One of the most memorable pranks I got was the incident I called 'ball-less mouse,' No, we didn't catch the mouse and castrate it. Gen X-ers would understand that computer mouse/mice (?) used to have balls. The balls were removable for cleaning because they could get sticky over time, but no ball or cursor! I realize it's impossible to talk about balls without them sounding like innuendos. One morning, I almost pulled my hair out because I couldn't find the cursor. I am not a patient person when things break. Growing frustrated, I moved the mouse frantically with a little bit of slamming, but it still didn't work. It went on repeatedly until I heard an eruption of laughter. Someone had stolen my mouse's ball.

 

Light My Pyre (Kat Kinney)

 

The good thing about fantasy is that the imagination can be limitless. I believe I had watched some old Asian movie about dragon shapeshifters, but I certainly had never read a book about it.

The book follows the journey of Asher (a firefighter; this is not as close as Bookman as a librarian in Seinfeld, and definitely not better than a real-life firefighter, Lieutenant Les McBurney, but good enough) facing the challenge of a serial arsonist who seems to have something against him. He moves to a new place to escape from a traumatic event and meets a girl, a dragon shapeshifter, on the run of her own problems.

There are a lot of creativities in this book, but there are many times when I was distracted by 'witty comments' uttered by the characters. Some of them feel inappropriate to the situations and take me out of the moments, especially serious and sad scenes. They also blur the characters' distinctiveness. I have met many different people in my life, and trust me, not many are quote machines; some even laughed at my jokes on Monday after I told them the previous Wednesday. They are creative and funny but can become too excessive and tiresome for the above reasons.

I like the twists that make the book not very predictable and the greyness of the characters with their backstories. The ending is a bit draggy, but overall, this is a good read for those who enjoy fantasy. It's not my genre. I like GRRM books, but I categorize them more as realistic 'fantasy' (I know, it has dragons and zombies, but they lean heavily on stories, characters, social politics and the parallels to reality) than mythical ones. Over time, I have come to appreciate the fantasy genre and the amazing world of imagination that comes with it.

4.5 rounded up.

The Silent Day

 

Do you remember the time when you tried to eat chips in the office but didn't want to share? Or when you wanted to fart and dropped a book to conceal the sound, but because of poor timing, you dropped the book, the whole class went silent, looked at you, and then you farted? Neither do I. It didn't happen to me. I swear.

But today, I try to be as quiet as possible. If you have watched a movie titled The Quiet Place that tells a story about monsters that attack sound (and everything attached to it), yeah, I wouldn't make it a day. I'm only talkative to certain people. I am not social, but I am clumsy and do everything with passion. Cling, clang, cling, clang.

Why today? I write this on March 11, the day Bali observes Silent Day (Nyepi). It occurs once a year and is the biggest day in Balinese culture.

Today is a reflection day when you are supposed to introspect yourself in silence. No sound, fire, lights, not going out but staying at home. This applies to everything and everyone; even the airport is closed. I can't think of a day when an airport is closed anywhere else except for emergencies.

We tried to experience Nyepi some years ago by staying in a hotel. At that time, it was our first year spending Nyepi in Bali, and we were worried it would be hard for us to be at home. Rumor has it that they shut down electricity. So, we looked for an affordable hotel that had a special Nyepi package, which provided meals and lodging at a reasonable price. As for now, I have experienced Nyepi many times and never encountered an electricity shutdown, so that could be a baseless rumor. However, I went through an internet shutdown a few years ago. They haven't done that for three years; I guess the internet has become such a necessity in life, important for emergencies, and great to have for those who go along with Nyepi without related culture and religion.

For everything else, the rule is strict for everyone, and there are traditional Balinese civilian officers (We call them Pencalang; I have no idea what the term is in English, but they exist in the neighborhood to ensure peace and safety). Not sure about other clusters, but in mine, I have only great experience with them; they are always ready to help and do their jobs well. These Pencalang all over the island go around to ensure that no one is out there or making unnecessary noises. If you have special needs, emergency, and noisy babies, you can inform them, and there will be exceptions given.

We were lucky to stay in a hotel with a rooftop a few years ago and experienced the night sky with dark surroundings. My favorite time when I climbed the mountains was at night or dawn during the scale to the summit, especially those non-commercialized mountains with hardly any other climbers. I loved that serenity and peace when surrounded by total darkness that my eyes would adjust to or showered in the silvery glitter of the moon. It was the best time to look at the stars, far away from light pollution. It always gave me feelings I couldn't explain, making me return for more, regardless of how agonizing the journey to the peak was. Looking at the stars during Nyepi was a very good substitute, as everyone tried to be respectful and quiet, with no one fiddling with their phones, and were just there, enjoying the night sky and the peace.

While it's not for everyone, it is certainly one of the unique experiences and traditions the Balinese preserve, and I hope they continue to do so. Although there are some 'outlaws,' most visitors or non-natives respect this unusual tradition; as the saying goes, 'when you visit a place, you respect its culture.' I don't remember the exact words, but it's something along that line. It's on a bigger scale than what most are taught since childhood: 'When you visit a house, respect its host.' I think it's basic, common sense, although it seems like common sense is not that common anymore when you read the news nowadays.

Find more story like this in My Newsletter, I promise there are gibberish there, and for more gibberish you can check My Website

Thank you!

Redemption (Dave Saari)

 

For the mystery, this book has a decent case. It starts strong and intriguing with a kidnapping and ransom case of a wealthy man's wife. He then fades into the background as we learn that the said wife had been murdered, allegedly wrongfully convicted and has been sitting in prison for five years until a good friend of his hires a private investigator to relook into the case.

The private investigators called FYI are the main characters: husband and wife, Trey and Sybil, and Trey's mother, Madeleine. They are rich people who take up cases for fun as they don't need the money if they believe their clients are innocent.

I want to like this book. I really do. I like murder mysteries and detective stories, but these characters, their interactions and relationships are too unrealistic to me. In my opinion, they are very objectified, and if we take out everything sexually related, there is almost nothing left. They are unrelatable, and I don't root for them at all. Here are the examples. As an ex-FBI officer, Sybil approaches, and borderline harasses their suspect carelessly. Both of them got away with it the first time, but when she acts alone, with her husband waiting and watching, she is assaulted, slapped, groped, and harassed, complete with torn clothes with buttons flying off and everything in the daylight. That should be serious, shouldn't it? But nothing comes out of it. There are no reactions from them other than some casual remarks, and they move on to discuss a dress now that her clothes are torn as if that is Tuesday.

And the dress, sigh, so these two buy a flirty dress from a consignment shop because it reminds the husband, Trey, about their hotel receptionist, whom he flirts with openly and apparently lusts for him based on a few interactions. So, Sybil, the wife, agrees to wear it to fulfil his fantasy even though she is uncomfortable and protesting multiple times. Fortunately, it seems like she finally feels okay, and they both enjoy fooling around in it, but then she decides she doesn't like it, and then they gift it to the receptionist, Nicole, the one the husband lusts for, because she helps them with the investigation. This girl apparently expects a threesome invitation when they invite her to their room. They didn't, but still, she was delighted to get this third or whatever hand slutty dress. (I have nothing against reduce, reuse, recycle (because that is the justification), but I really don't think it's a norm to give people a used slutty dress and loudly state you give it away because you hate it, as a thank you). To top it all, she gets so excited and flustered that Nicole leaves with the new dress and forgets her bra. I don't know, but normal people don't forget undergarments, especially when they arrive wearing them. That is not all. Sybil then confiscates the bra and wears it like her own. What is happening here?

Another example is Madeleine, Trey's mother, who, in order to get the information she needs for the case, opts for performing for a man. Having a sexual encounter with her female partner while the man watches. Of course, he promises not to take pictures or videos and to leave the information if he is happy with the show. Of course. Please remember these are professional, super-wealthy investigators with money, qualifications, and reputations. Madeleine is a tech wizard; that's what I know because it is mentioned more than I see her in action.

I don't have triggers, and I'm really not against mature scenes. One or two are useful to the plot and characters, but others are very distracting and absurd.

The villain is supposed to be the charming genius and psychotic, and there is a potential redeeming ending, but the book doesn't have enough of it or more scenes about why and how this person is a chameleon and mastermind because there is almost no actual interaction that conveys his charm, a missed opportunity because I would certainly root for the villain instead.

This is my personal opinion, and books are very subjective. What doesn't work for me might work for others. I think the author writes a good murder mystery and I like the style of flashbacks as we reveal the case.

3 used flirty dress out of 5 consignment shops