Letters from the Equator

He loves me not
Originally uploaded by Nylons and Cake.

There seems to be no end to busy-ness for me. But I should stop saying that. Every week has been different, each with its own surprises.

I really can’t remember anything before Wednesday. All I know is that on Wednesday, we left office straight after work to Lowyat’s Red Box to celebrate our labs’ accomplishments for a particular research grant. On Thursday we had futsal at 7pm (thanks to ES and WL for joining), so we pretty much had to leave at 6pm. And tonight we played bowling with Ivan and his UK colleague and they bought us dinner at La Gourmet, The Curve, as a sort of thank-you for the effort we put into a major showcase event recently.

On some days, there were a lot of meetings and me taking up my lunch hours to run errands and stuff. Otherwise, my mind was constantly on the edge regarding the project I’m currently working on.

My biggest problem is trying to get everything done fast and build an interface that’s intuitive for users. Some companies I know spend a lot of time and money to ensure an ideal user experience, and I recognize that it’s not trivial work.

Still, I feel every team should give it importance. Otherwise, it’s like saying a car is a car is a car. Why build an SUV, when you already have 4x4s?

Anyway, I kind of am getting the hang of bowling. I made 2 strikes that I purposely aimed for. I used to just try my best to do what I felt or thought was right. I never got anything above 100 points, but today I got past that. Woo hoo! 100 points is a lot easier if you make a couple of strikes and spares.

Apart from that, I realized that you could sing to many current indie and mainstream rock hits at RedBox karaoke. I saw stuff from Snow Patrol and even Switchfoot – though there were only sellout hits, and not the obscure ones. If they have The New Pornographers on the list, I might be tempted to do some karaoke by myself for the first time in my life.

Anyway, I mentioned the Vancouver-based The New Pornographers because I’ve been addicted to their new album titled, “Challengers“. I can’t seem to stop listening to the first track – “My Rights Versus Yours“. And there are many other great tracks on the album, like “Myriad Harbour” and “Go Places“. Plus, the fact that Neko Case is part of the band just adds to its brilliance.

I wonder if my Canadian neighbors have heard of them.

Here are some linkies:

• the new pornographers official website
  
• review of the new Challengers album
• “my rights versus yours” mp3