What's The Worst That Could Happen?

Phew. Been a very..interesting morning, folks..a little bad with some good. I was supposed to substitute for a fellow colleague since he said he'd be late, therefore I took extra care to reach campus by 7.30. 7.45 I was at the lecture hall, with my notes (and even jokes) ready. As I plugged in my diskette (yeah, I can't even afford a thumb drive), I noticed that the drive's light was acting very strangely. As the dreaded "your diskette is not formatted. Would you like to format it now?" dialog box flashed evilly on the screen, my worst fears were confirmed. Nevertheless, I'd already made several backup copies and they were all on my desk. So, I asked the students for 5 minutes, explaining the delay, and rushed back to my room to retrieve said disks. Imagine my surprise when, as I huffed and puffed my way back into the lecture hall, I found my colleague already there, lecturing away. Being my cheery, helpful self, I quickly took my leave, pausing long enough to notice the reason HE hadn't had any problems with the disks: He was using his notebook, with a thumb drive attached.

Urgh. Anyway, I went back to my car, a little dejected (since I was looking forward to teach) and zoomed back to the office when I realised my Palm and the disks were missing. When I stopped the car, my mouth made a little 'O' and I swore. Really loud. One of the diskettes was still on my car roof. I hot-footed it back to the lecture hall area where I spent several minutes peering, crawling and unturning every rock..until another little Kancil drove up and rolled down his window. Oh God, bless his soul. The driver and his wife noticed that the PDA was on the roof, and it flew off as I was driving. They then spent several minutes trying to follow my car. Having gotten my precious PDA back and thanking them profusely, I took my leave, made my way to the office where I slumped, as the adrenaline rush slowly faded away. For those of you interested, the Palm was none the worse for wear, except for the shell, which had ONE dent in it. Otherwise, it was A-OK. Kudos to Palm for making such a tough product. I remember saving up for months just to get that (now so obsolete) model..and it was worth it!

So now I pull up my personal wishlist on the PDA and make sure I move "notebook pc" and "thumb drive" up. Oh, hell..I might as well buy a thumb drive this weekend, as they're already so cheap. Spend some to make some, eh? As for the notebook..that MAY take longer, seeing as my temporary status prevents me from buying anything worth more than a hundred bucks at a time. Sometimes it hits me that being a lecturer in a public uni is a mostly thankless job. The pay is meagre, you get roped into becoming a coolie..and there's always so much bureaucracy. I remember being offered jobs in private colleges with double pay. In public unis, the status of lecturer is a much coveted one. With that, you can teach part time in public colleges, perform consultancy work and also apply for research grants. Lowly tutors like me on the other hand, may not do any of the above. Therefore I'm stuck with cheapo mamak food, and drooling at other people's gadgets.

Oh well. Someone once told me if I think money's everything..I'll never end up making any. I guess it makes sense..but for a pureblood Taurean like me, it's an important gauge of where I am in life. I wrote a while back that I tend to be insecure around successful types, especially the latest mobile phone toting, gadget using, car driving group. The temptation to try and keep up is sometimes..too much. But then again, after a while, I realise that I'll probably break my own back trying to fit in with these high flyers, and instead, I try as much as possible to celebrate being myself.

Although some may label my blog and others like it as not a blog in the "true sense" as pointed out by Sleeksexycat(read Wednesday's post), I take comfort in the fact that so called visionaries and giants have been wrong before..I remember a time when Bill Gates said "640Kb of RAM will be enough for everyone.." Therefore, regardless of what people may think of my very link-deficient blog, it's mine..and I'll keep on writing. I hope so will others.

Cheers!