Category: From the Attic

> connect WWWIS

Connecting to wwwis@jakarta …

/* Welcome to World Wide Wilf Interactive System at Jakarta */

General broadcast :

Hi there. Long time no interact. First of all, welcome to all the newcomers for I have made some amendment to my address list. To those of you just joined in, this system has been running for going to be one year and is where we all voice out our opinions and interact with each other with no geographical boundary.

> list topics

1. Thinking about Y2K
2. Talk about Diana and Mother Teresa
3. Solar car from Honda
4. Fork
5. Of Human and Animals

> go topic 1

** Thinking about Y2K **

This is going to be another interactive question of the week.

Many people may have already planned for the 1999 New Year Eve and 2000 New Year Day. Have you?

Hence the questions are :-

On the 1999 New Year Eve

1. Where would you like to spend?
2. Whom would you like to spend with?
3. And how?

Also, on the first day of Year 2000, the same set of questions apply.

Just send in your remarks and I will compose a single newsletter kind of stuff. If you wish your name to be omitted, just tell me so.

In 1836 a New York preacher named William Miller predicted that life on earth would end in 1843, but it never came true. The same person announced later on that Christ will come sometime in 1844 but the trumpet never sounded.

Jehovah’s Witnesses’ founder, Charles T. Russell thought the world would end in 1874 and subsequently predicted the battle of Armageddon in 30 years’ time. WW1 broke out on cue.

On and on, people predict when the end of the world should be and we are about to reach the next millennium. Now, is it for better or for worse?

Wonder what the first song and movie will be on the first day of Y2K.

> send reply to topic 1

Please type : Sleep through the millennium on my own, in my own bed.
^Z

Reply sent. Thank you for participating.

> go topic 2

** Talk about Diana and Mother Teresa **

A tribute to the loss of two important ladies of our time.

[computer will be silence for a few minutes]
^Z^X^D^Cfskafjlsafsafljfla

[please be patience, this is suppose to be serious!]

Maybe due to my lost in touch with the reality, I never know that Diana actually walked the mine field and had close contact with the AIDS victims. (Or that’s what it seems.) Just like a piece of artwork which will never get famous until the painter dies.

And the last words of Mother Teresa? “I can’t breath anymore”. Thought she would say something like : May God bless you all.

Anyway, do you think that the moaning has been overdone? You will know what I mean if you tuned into CNN during that period.

> go topic 3

** Solar car from Honda **

This really shocked me. I have seen an ad regarding on the solar car from Honda. Man, it is finally gone commercial. And if you do have a chance to look at the ad, the shape of this commercial solar car is pretty much like an UFO.

Powered by nothing more than sunlight, the Honda “Dream” drove through more than 3,000 km of Australian desert having an average speed of just under 90 km/h.

Just been wondering how this kind of vehicle can be manufactured if we do run out of petrol one day. And imagine what the world would be if we have to rely on solar power.

Back to basic, perhaps.

> go topic 4

** Fork **

Sometimes, conversation can become quite misleading and this is a true situation. Hope this topic is not getting too technical though.

One day, I was grabbed by one client and she complaint that the application did not work.

True enough, it did not. After some simple diagnose, I have found out the problem.

Me : Ah, you’ve got a forking problem.
Client : Forking problem?
Me : Indeed, it is.

And I brought up the terminal and showed her the actual error message.

Client : What is the forking error?
Me : It says – you cannot fork anymore.
Client : How about your computer? Do you have the same problem?

Being very reluctant to walk all the way back to my working place (which I did), I tuned into my own terminal. After showing her that I have got the same problem, I turned to my fellow colleague.

Me : Yo brother, I can’t fork no more, can you fork?
Col : It’s your problem man, let me try.

After a while …

Col : S**t, it says – the system cannot fork any processor.
Me : Yea, me too.
Col : What is forking? What the fork does that mean?
Me : Hmmm, does the error message say very clearly?
Col : Forking hell, can we solving this forking problem?
Me : Hey …
Col : Can someone look into my forking problem
Me : Relax man …
Col : Fork you. CAN SOMEBODY SOLVE MY FORKING PROBLEM!!!
Me : Shit

> go topic 5

** Of Human and Animals **

There is one Safari in Jakarta. Pretty huge and impressive. You can actually drive in and feed the animals in the car with bananas and carrots.

After feeding the animals for a few hours, we were very used to throwing food out of the window or to attract the animals to our car. The sheep like creatures are quite proactive and they usually came and approached us. The tigers on the other hands just kept on sleeping (even after got hit by my banana missile).

And imagine you have been doing this for over a few hours. We have actually forgotten the existence of human species. At the end of the journey, we finally did see some native locals lying on the grass taking a nap. Having forgotten the difference between human and animal, I actually had the tendency to throw the bananas to them. How bizzare!

And I stopped myself at the last minute.

> disconnect

Thank you for using WWWIS. Please send in your response and it will be fun.

World Wide Wilf Interactive System (WWWIS)

To those of you who may need some soul nourishing stuff, here is one gem I have picked up lately.

“… One has only to accept a simple fact: Love … shows us the way. Our defects, our dangerous depths, our suppressed hatreds, our moments of weakness and desperation – all are unimportant. If what we want to do is heal ourselves first, so that then we can go in search of our dreams, we will never reach paradise. If, on the other hand, we accept all that is wrong about us – and despite it, believe that we are deserving of a happy life – then we will have thrown open an immense window that will allow Love to enter. Little by little, our defects will disappear, because one who is happy can look at the world only with love – the force that regenerates everything that exists in the Universe.”

– an extract from The Valkyries by Paulo Coelho.

Little things in life you just keep doing, without realising that it is the result of modern society. Maybe, that is why we are all so stressed today.

Tick … tick … tick …

What’s that? That is the modern invention that you keep looking at countless times a day. 2 pm appointment at Body Shop – you finish your meal at Bugis first and it says one-fifteen – so you go to the book store on the third floor, browse a few new novels, 1:32 already – queue up to buy a movie ticket but it takes longer than you expect, 1:41 you are still waiting wondering why the couple in front takes so long – your turn has finally arrived but it is full house for movie A – take another 15 seconds to decide to watch movie B instead – what? No decent seat? – 1:46 you rush down the escalator and the train arrives at 1:54.

You don’t expect you will be on time, do you?

So you consult your personal timer and keep hoping.

1:56 – 1:59 – 2:02 – 2:03 – 2:04 – 2:05

And you give up looking at the digits and try to relax. The stress level, of course, depends on who you are seeing.

Two-thirteen you arrive at Body Shop and …

You realised that he or she is late.

And you are probably stressed for nothing. Look at your time again and instead, you may feel a bit frustrated. Another ten minutes has gone and you start to wonder if your meeting point is correct.

Occasion like this makes you think that if knowing time in such a detail is such a necessity.

Think about this. Sometimes, time appears in a different form.

Jake the milkman will deliver my bottle of milk at my door at around seven in the morning. I can hear my newspaper hits my doorway at around seven-thirty. My neighbour, Auntie Mary, will go to market at around nine (banging of the door). I know Pete the postman will come before lunch time. Sitting by the window, a blue jeep will leave the place at two and come back around nine (the headlight is so bright!). The kids return from school at five to six and start playing football just outside of where I live. I can even tell Friday night from the loud music playing downstairs. The pub gets really noisy between nine to eleven. Silence only come after midnight.

Ah … isn’t that wonderful?

So next time, try this.

Me : Where and when shall we meet tomorrow?
You : Body Shop after lunch.

Life can be so much relaxing. Don’t you think so?

Talk about asking question, I am sure at one point in time, one must have faced this question.

– I’ve got one good news and one bad news, which one would you like to hear first?

This really could have been another “Interactive Question of the Week”. The result I beg is half half.

But only recently do I realised that one should always listen to the good news first. By listening to the good news first, the chances that you may feel less depress over the bad one is pretty high. Listening to the bad one first may make the good news less wonderful. What do you think?

And of course, the assumption is that : given a chance to be happy or not to be, the majority should choose to be, consciously.

Excuse me. Suddenly my bio-clock has told me that it is about time to rest. So till the next time we interact, take care.

Wilf.numb@Jakarta