Sometimes I wish I never came to learn of The Wonderful World of Apple, not the fruit kind but the ‘things-you-never-knew-you-wanted-until-Steve-Jobs-unveils-his-latest-must-have-techie-toy’ kind. It seems like iWorld changes its latest must-haves faster than you can say…well..’i’. Everything gets smaller, thinner, lighter, and keeps redefining the meaning of multitasking and instant gratification each time. It seems that anything and everything is possible these days, except I haven’t seen an Apple product that could brush your teeth for you. Something the toilets in Japan could proudly boast of having the upper hand.
So upon the unveiling of the latest iProduct, all hell seems to break loose. Or at least that’s what my purse feels like.
One night, as I tried to drown my sorrows with lime juice at a mamak (after having learnt of the release of iPad 2 and its cost that is slightly more than Bangladesh GDP per capita), I got nostalgic and tried to remember my first ever encounter with technology. For the life of me, I couldn’t simply remember when was the first time I ever surfed on the internet. It took some jogging (of memory,not of legs) to come up with the following list.
*Note : The list, entitled ‘First Encounter with the Tech Kind’ started off in line with the techie theme but ended with just about any ‘firsts’ since the author had the attention span of a 2-year old. Credits to R, who sat very patiently with me at the mamak store, rather willingly racking her brains of ‘firsts’ as well (her inputs are indicated with ‘R’). This exercise has made us both realize that we are in dire need of gingko biloba (a herbal aid in memory boosting).
‘FIRST ENCOUNTER WITH THE TECH KIND’
Our first….
1.Computer Game : Pong & Frogger; Solitaire (R)
2.Gameboy (or Gameboy-like apparatus) : Pacman; Tetris (R)
3.Purpose requiring the need of a computer : Geography project for school (aged 14 maybe) (both)
4.Internet : Don’t know!!!! Aargh….(this is the one that really got us both stumped!)
5.(Unknown category) : Linux black screen white black font with keyboard controls (R)
6.Cinema visit : Jurassic Park (aged 15, gosh…is this pathethic or what?!); Superman 1-4 at the Cathay Rex cinema next to Hock Kee Seng, Kuala Terengganu (R).
7.Handphone : Nokia something-something aka The Yellow Brick (aged 19….!); Ericsson something-something aka The Dark Blue Brick (1999) (R)
8.First Car : Ford Laser Dark Grey TK5355; Toyota Corolla Silver Blue NN9339 (R)
9.First Plane Ride : Mid90s’(1hr ride or so to Sarawak); Late 90s’ (many hours ride to Australia) (R)
10.Overseas trip : Singapore (does this even count??); Golok, Thailand (by rather dodgy transport means, which I am not allowed to divulge here, paid for by even dodgier means – let’s just say someone’s piggy bank no longer resembles a piggy bank). This ‘first’ had me in hysterics for a good half hour at least.
11.First Major Thing Ever Bought with Own Money : My Swift 2010; Utopia by Thomas More (this is a book, by the way) 1998 (R)
12.First Ebook : Harry Potter Book No.4 or 5; The Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe (R)
13.Hollywood Crush: Edward Furlong (from Terminator…I plead temporary insanity at time of crush development), Hugh Grant (yay to British accent, brown puppy dog eyes and super dry wit!); Ethan Hawke (R)
14.Music Idol : Kurt Cobain (once signed off in school books as Courtney Love); John Lennon
Thus, many lime juice cups later, in my overspent brain cells condition, I came to a conclusion – Change really is the only constant in life. Exhale, embrace and enjoy your ‘firsts’. Many more will come. And hopefully, at the very least, these firsts will one day serve you a whimsical evening of reminiscent laughter.
And yes, gingko biloba anyone?
Write more, don’t stop at just this one.