Life's A Sine Wave Part 1

Life frequently throws you curve balls which you cannot avoid. In those times, one might find it hard to even stay optimistic, but I've learned that it is an important thing to do. Today is an important day for me as I realized this wisdom firsthand. The day started early at 7.30am as I had to finish animating a presentation for the temple abbot. Basically my plan for today was:

1. Drop by the school to pass over a CD


2. Go over to the temple and demonstrate the Powerpoint slides


3. Pick up YC for lunch


4. Visit PC Fair to buy notebook RAM


5. Pick up dinner


6. Send the laundry for washing

However, things started getting progressively worse from the moment I got ready to leave. It was raining heavily at the time and the balcony of my father's room was beginning to flood. Apparently the exit hole is blocked by leaves. If it spills over into the bedroom, it will be extremely messy. In fact, it has happened once and I suspect it is a major contributor to our termite problem.

It was time to go, and if I waited any longer I would be delayed. But I decided to do the right thing. I took off my jeans, grabbed a toilet bowl cleaner (it was the closest usable item), and pushed away the obstructing leaves in the rain. It was only a quick 3 second sweep but it still made me wet. I began to wonder how this will affect the minor cold I'm having.

With that out of the way, I proceeded with my plan. I had a lot of things to load up so I prepared the dirty clothes, CDs, and water. Before I bagged my laptop, however, I decided to loosen the screws of the RAM cover plate. When I opened it up I got a rude shock - there's only one RAM slot! Specifically, half of it is embedded and the other 128MB is slotted. That means whatever I buy will have to replace that 128MB chip. This was a bummer because I wouldn't be able to achieve the 256 + 512MB target. I decided to make the best of it and moved the 128MB chip over to Dad's laptop. Thankfully his Toshiba laptop has an extra slot so it was put to good use. And if I am not mistaken, all that RAM jamming took up 20 minutes.

By now my schedule began to go haywire and I messaged my friend YC that I'll be late picking him up. I began to rush a little and packed everything up in the boot. I was done and was walking towards my car in the rain when I slipped on the ceramic tile and fell butt-first onto the wet floor. I let out a yelp of pain and a billion thoughts ran through my mind...

"Damnit! You should have known better!"

"All those times that Dad warned you.... gone to waste!"

"You know very well that your shoe has close to zero traction.... why walk so fast?"

Those, among other thoughts, went through my mind as I lay there in the rain, simply immobilized. In that 1 minute I decided I will have to cancel the whole day's plans - no question about it. Too many bad things happening, and it wasn't even afternoon. 2 December is just screaming out "bad omen" everywhere I go.

I picked myself up after feeling much better and began to look for the keys I dropped while I was in midair. My back was completely soaked and I decided to go in and do something about my butt cheeks first. I was a little giddy but somehow I managed to make my way to my room and took off my clothes. I then used some massaging oil (minyak urut) especially for preventing bruises on my butt and neck, which was starting to hurt as well.

As i sat there waiting for the cool methol feeling to seep in, my mind began to clear. It didn't hurt as much now so I could actually go on with my plans to visit PC Fair. By the time I was ready to go again, I had changed into new clothes and told myself to stay optimistic. There is no such thing as 'bad omens', just bad thinking. I kept psyching myself up so I would keep myself away from more unfortunate circumstances.

[To find out how the rest of my day progressed, tune in tomorrow! I'm too tired now from the cold medicine I took - more details next post]