Life without technology

Can you imagine life without technology? Ok, maybe not the basic technology (like light bulbs, telephone, radio), but I mean like mobile phone, pda, laptops and the works? One thing for sure, technology is ruling the human life and we, humbly and gladly pledge allegiance.
Imagine, you're at a shopping mall and suppose to meet a friend somewhere(exact location not stated), and so what do you do? You whip out your mobile phone and dial away. But imagine if the mobile phone wasn't created? You would need to look for the nearest payphone (provided there is a payphone near by, and there was such thing as a payphone). And what if, after walking for a long time, finally find a payphone, realize that you don't have coins on you? That would be a disaster won't it? So you walk back to where you were before, and start looking for your friend while she looks for you too.. if she remembered to go meet you, that is.
The thing is, that is ONE instance of life without the technology we have now. What about mail? Emails are sent in seconds these days, with prompt response.. I can't imagine the snail mail kinda life anymore. In fact, I can't even remember the last time I sent an actually letter.
But the one thing I appreciate most is the word processor. If everything were to be handwritten, I'd probably die. Literally. I realized that these days, I can't even stand writing a whole paragraph without getting agitated and whining that my hand hurts. So imagine writing a project paper.. worse still, a thesis! Word by word, paragraph by paragraph, chapter by chapter.. I cringe just thinking about it. I salute scholars in the olden days. Honestly. Wholeheartedly.
I often wondered what I'll do without my computer and without Internet. I'll still get by I guess.. but what can a 24 year old do for leisure? Read? I hate reading. Write? Yeah, I guess.. like what I'm doing now. Listen to music? But of course. But I might be doing what girls my age did back then.. cook, sew.. what else? I don't know. I don't want to know. So I might never know. But who cares! It's the 21st Century.. and so, thank God for technology! :)

How things have changed

I was going through my collection of music cds today and I realized that a lot of cds I have purchased, if I take a listen now, they nauseate me. Like seriously.. my taste in music has changed drastically since my music-cd-buying days.

First off, Bardot.. they were an Australian girl group founded during the tv show Popstars.. so I took and listen. Lousy! I don't even have the slightest idea why I bought their album. Needless to say, having 2 Britney Spears albums made me scratch my head too. Next up, Aaron Carter... I'm too speechless. And that's not because he was impressive to start with.

Sticking out of my rack is this guy called Michael Fredo. I actually totally forgot about him! I don't know where he is and what he is doing now, but I don't think he's anywhere near the spotlight. All Nick Carter-ish singers suffer the same fate.. except Jesse McCartney. That guy has more talent than the rest.

Of course, there are some albums I own which are timeless.. namely Michael Jackson.. no matter what he has become, his songs do stand the test of time. Oh, and the first album I ever bought is Mariah Carey's Music Box, I can't get enough of that too :)

So yeah, a peek into my music collection. I have hundred others, but oh well.. I know that there must be loads of teeny boopers, out-of-tuners, lip-syncing people. But, I'll just leave them where they should be, on the rack and collecting dust.

Random stuff

People love randomness.. and apparently, their idea of random is more or less unoriginal. Correct me if I'm wrong. But anyway, I was wondering how many people in this world have my name. A little ambitious, but I found this site called How Many of Me for people who are as curious as I am. Unfortunately, it's only applicable to those in the U.S... but it was good enough for me.. I just wanted to know.. (fyi, I have not met anyone with the same first and last name as me). After searching, here's what came up:



So I thought.. ok, that's a pretty substantial number of people.. there should be quite a few named Grace Koh.. but.. guess how many there are in the U.S.

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 2 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

TWO?! ONLY?! Oh well.. and that's just my first and last name.. if it was with my Chinese name, I guess there will be no hits. Oh boy do I feel special :)
I wonder if they have that type of service for the country of China? Hehe. Anyway, give it a try.. it's kinda cool! Tata!

What's so great about Miley?

Ah.. Miley Cyrus. Her name is everywhere, her photo's everywhere, her crazy fans are all over the globe. But really, enlighten this old woman here (who is only 24, but is relatively much older than Miley), what is so great about her? I welcome any pointers from fans, whoever and wherever you are.
You wanna know why I don't get why she's so great?Because, first.. like any superficial human being that ever walk this earth, I don't think she's even remotely pretty (I can sense teenage boys hunting me down to kill me right at this very moment). I used to think she was pretty.. until this:

That has got to be the single most ugly/scary photo I have ever seen. I'd rather look at Michael Jackson anytime! Anyway, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.. and right now, the beholder is yours truly.. so you wanna gripe, kill, attack me.. wait till I finish what I have to say.
Ok, so I'm gonna leave her "killer" looks at one corner and go on to the next point. Miley's voice is irritating.. to show how irritating, think Rihanna (but at least she's one drop dead gorgeous girl!) Not only does her speaking voice irritate the heck out of me (but that can be avoided by not watching Disney Channel all together), now she robs the joy of listening to the radio by singing songs too! Needless to say, I can't stand her singing voice either. I was listening to the song "Stand Up" and enjoying it, until... I heard this really annoying voice singing. "Who is that girl?" I wondered.. and when I found out it was Miley.. I was not surprised. (Really, I see an almost dead person.. attacked by a bunch of teenage Miley fans..)
So, there you have it. What I really think of Miss Cyrus. A little shallow, a little superficial, but I just had to get it out of my system. It's my blog and I can post if I want to. So deal with it. Oh, and btw.. however famous her dad was, I do not even know him, since I'm not of his generation (yes, I'm not THAT old).
So, I'm dead meat now that legions of Miley fans are gonna hate me for this post. Would you like a t-bone steak? or perhaps sirloine? With fries on the side? Oh look, I'm still in one piece :) At least for now.

It's a conspiracy!

I don't get it! Why is that, the more I find a song annoying, the more I end up listening to it on the radio (it's played more than the songs I like) and the more it sticks to me?! The more irritating I find the singer, the more his/her voice rings in my ear.. the worst thing is, by the end of it, I find myself singing along to it! Oh gosh! It's a conspiracy to drive me crazy! It's as if these songs are spells used to prey on unsuspecting victims.
I've been listening to the radio a lot recently, and I do enjoy a lot of the songs.. there are some, even though I find them irritating, I just can't pull myself away. It's as if something is keeping me there. Honestly, I'm not a hip hop fan, and I find the new "In the Ayer" song by Flo Rider annoying, but when I heard it.. and tried my very best to pull the headphones off my ears, I just couldn't do it! It was then I realized, I have been hypnotized! LOL!
And another example.. I never really liked Rihanna's voice, but her songs were okay, until "Disturbia" came along. It is probably the most disturbing and sickening song I've ever heard, and to top it all off, is her whiny voice. It can't get any worse than that! However, today, I realized I was singing along to the intro.. you know, the "bum-bum-bee-bum" nonsense... and I even thought of making my ringtone! It was then, I realized.. I was really on the verge of going crazy!

Let me know if you know of a cure, I would really appreciate it! To end this post.. I shall quote the lyrics from Rihanna's "Disturbia" which really describes me right now..

What's wrong with me?
Why do I feel like this?
I'm going crazy now

A boring life

Not that it finally dawned on me that I lead a boring life. I finally decided to come out of my denial and proclaim 'YES!' I have a boring life. So, that's is why, I decided to blog about it. Very interesting huh. All the irony continues...
I guess we all think we lead a boring life, even when it really isn't that boring. Come on, a party girl might still think her life is boring even though she goes drinking everyday. The bottomline is, we all have our own definition of boring.. and it differs from person to person.
But wait. What is my definition of boring?? well, here's the definition of boring in the Grace's Dictionary (note that this is actually in the context of life):

boring (bôrng)

adj.
1. To have nothing exciting going on in your life
2. To repeat the same old dull routines everyday
3. To be a dull person yourself

So there you have it. I've explained why my life is boring.. at the moment, all I ever do is either go to work, run errands, or I'll be at home Facebooking... oh my gosh, I'm so hating myself right now. If I were you, I wouldn't even want to be friends with me. LOL.
Ok, so I was saying? Right.. a boring life. I don't exactly like my life, but I don't hate it. In fact, I think I'm solely responsible for having such a life. So, again.. why am I griping?? Man.. I'm so losing it.
So if you read this expecting something exciting to be written, what were you thinking???! It's a post about a boring person living a boring life.. and right now, having a caffeine overdose. Totally pointless. LOL.

Holding a humbling job

Don't get me wrong, my job does not suck. It just has humbled me.. in a good way. All my years of being an undergraduate, there was never a daunting task for me.. well, there were a few, but not to the point where I went "Whoa". Since I was studying language, and my proficiency was better than average, I had no problems coping with assignments, even when it came to writing my thesis (since I was under the very best advisor).
Why has this job humbled me then? Is it that tough? No, actually it isn't tough. All I have to do is read, summarize, extract info, and search for relevant materials. But come to think of it, when you job requires you to read and it exposes you to the geniuses in the field with ever so bombastic vocabulary and jargon.. sometimes I just go "Huh?" and feel stupid when I have to read the article more than once in order to truly understand. It's the very-vunerable-me against the language giants.. who do you think will win? But then again, I have learnt a lot, not only about plagiarism.. but I have widen my vocabulary as well! I would underline whatever words I have never seen before and go look it up in the dictionary. And I got so used to it that now, I keep a notebook just for the new words I learnt. :) Good habit, in my opinion. Oh yeah, and have you heard? I now officially love idomatic expressions too! LOL.
Another part of my job that is humbling is my boss. In case you're wondering, she's not mean to me.. she does not criticize me.. in fact, she makes me feel appreciated and also expresses it, so I'm not humbled in that way. It is being in her company that has humbled me. Imagine, being in the company of a person who speaks close to perfect English, and who is probably analyzing everything you say (she's a discourse analyst and a linguist..lol). So yeah, when I'm with her, I'll have to think whether what I say make sense to her grammatically, semantically, and pragmatically (after all, she is a linguist). Sounds like a tiresome task (which actually isn't), but it has improved my usage of the language and my pronunciation a lot more. Dr. Ummul, however, is still fun to be with and talk to :)
There you have it, my job as a research assistant. Who would have thought it would change my life for the better! :) I couldn't ask for more. (especially not for a raise, since my boss' grant is limited..hahaha)