raining and not pouring

i honestly have no idea why i buy an umbrella. 2 years ago, i bought it because in my first 3 weeks here, it went from uber hot, to pouring buckets right on the very first introductory lecture for international students.

that was pretty much the heaviest rain i ever encountered.

subsequently, the umbrella that i bought that day for the rainy season never got used as much, and eventually went missing after an attempt to use it one rainy night.

for the record, that particular rainy night that i encountered, left my umbrella pretty dry. i am sure, i don’t have to tell you how that happened.

earlier this year, due to a couple of drizzling, i presumed that it would rain as much as it did the first few weeks of my presence here. therefore, i ventured out to get an umbrella that would protect me from all that watering that i obviously do not need. people might think, gosh, this little bitch came from a damn tropical country!

PRECISELY!

after more than 20 years of being drowned by the tropical monsoon rains, why would i actually enjoy being rained on so much? oh at times, i would happily get drench, but such times are rare nowadays and at this age. back when i was 13-15, i would happily stop 2 bus stops before school and run there in the rain, drenching myself, my bag and my books in the process.

but after a few uncomfortable feet issues, and after a few fungus infection issues, i decided that i don’t like having a disgusting feet to put into shoes with, and run around the house with.

so with all that in mind, i bought this nice little feminine, light blue, lightweight umbrella.

fabulous isn’t it?

not really.

in the last few days, it has been alternating between dry cold and rainy cold. ordinarily, i carry my umbrella with me. but i also a crapload of stuff with me as well, such as my ibook, my ipod and a few other stuff. and then the brilliant thought came into my head.

“i am not going to let a damn wet piece of shit umbrella touch my dear apple products.”

cool. not that bad idea either, since it’s drizzling only.

but then, i look around me. people without umbrellas run thru the rain; and then you see those with umbrellas perpetually using them.

and my umbrella stays dry, that it may not taint any items in my bag, while poor me gets drown in the light drizzle.

sometimes i wonder if i was dropped on my head when i was born, that i come up with such brilliant thoughts. then again, i love how this sets me apart from normal people. i am different, and i think out of the line, perhaps not quite out of the box though. when i eventually do think out of the box, i will perhaps carry disposable ponchos with me instead, thereby protecting everything from the damn drizzle, and yet not having to put a single wet item into my bag.

damn.

i am good.

aside from that, i have started buying books for the next semester, which generally would be the first year courses that i apparently should have taken ages ago.

i fear, i might be in the presence of another egotistical professor. i have heard good things about him though, so i shall desist from forming any hard images of him before i actually have experience his classes.

thing is, like my previous lecturer, he has also taken to making us buy texts that’s written by him.

that said, it’s not a bad thing that he has chose that option, since he knows at least what he has written there’s less chances of him fumbling through the lectures like some i have experienced, and others who sounds like they have never entered university.

i am not being an obnoxious brat here. i just fear such lecturers because the last few i had that had chosen such a path to teach us were either so self absorbed, they didn’t sound like they had listen to any other opinions, or they look like if we point out any errors or oppositions to their written works, they might crumble and sob.

at some stage while attending my lectures in my first year here, i came to a scary thought: what if, just what if, i choose to do my post graduate studies eventually that will lead me to their present status, and i end up like them?

sure, it’s great to be known as Dr Panda, PhD of Politics (warfare and biting) and blah blah blah on this little plate outside my room and all the books that i have ever written. however, would i like to er.. sound like a cocky twat, a crumbly shaky person or someone more affable?

other than all that, have anyone notice how most of the Arts Faculty lecturers, at least those that i have encountered, seem unable to handle technology well? remember how the mics will fail, how the lightings will suddenly crash, how most of them would end up running to classes therefore the previous ALL RIGHT settings are still there so that they don’t have to fumble with the switches?

or how they ended up all resorting to pure talking as loudly as they could so that all the technology they would ever have to learn was to turn off the lights at the end of every class?

i am terrified one day i might be like that. i love my technology no matter how inept i am. the idea that i might one day forget how to switch on this laptop just to blog scares the shit out of me.

they are genuinely great people, just a little inept sometimes at social skills (surprise, surprise, these are “social science” graduates too) or technological skills.

ah enough of dissing the lecturers, like i said, i shouldn’t form judgement before meeting them.

the book i am reading though, discusses about the power of wealth and positions within an organisation, and some other stuff that’s related to power in politics. one of the first issues i can see being discussed, was how people presume that rich people are where they are because they are 1) smarter, 2)hardoworking and 3) have great families (though not always but to a majority consensus).

ah. statistics of such.

in agreement with the book though, it is not always that way. rich people are not often smarter (case in point, paris hilton.), not often hardworking (9-5 jobs don’t count… people under them do overtimes…) and alot of rich people are also divorcees and what not.

the only advantages that rich people have over the poor, is that they could afford to educate their next generation in any way they want, so that the next generation could learn to stay as successful as the previous generation. Parents could easily fork out 36,000 a year tuition fees to keep their children in harvard till they graduate without so much as blink, because there is more money where it comes from.

the poor on the other hand, might not be able to complete schooling, because there are insufficient funds to do so. and the vicious cycle goes on and on, because with the world as meritocratic as it is now, there are few jobs that uneducated people can do. and poor people cannot afford to travel too far to try and get better paying jobs.

so for twice the amount of work that they do compared to the so-called rich people, they get a small portion of the earnings that the rich earns.

how’s that fair? no idea.

how’s that well spread wealth? no idea again.

does that make the rich any smarter, more hardworking or have better lives? not really. it’s just because they have the capability to reach for the stars while the others don’t.

what shame.

by the way, the fact that you have read this far, i applaud you. sometimes, and i mean really, every single day, i have something to ramble on and on about. topics on feminism and rich vs poor are my pet topics so… yer, you read good!

i noticed my site hits, inclusive of the old site, has reached beyond 4000++. first off, i must admit, more than 1.5k of the hits are mainly just jake and i, while tweaking the sites and so on. that counter does not show unique ips and what not.

that leaves a staggering 2.5k readers, of which at least every single new reader might hit the archives button at least 3 times, which boils down to about 1k hits or less (i am bad at math, shush.)

to the unique 800 or so readers (trying to narrow down) with i know at least 5 faithful ones, thanks for bearing with my daily rantings.

^_^