Sel: It’s stupid, wanting to know a person’s sexual history.
Me: I know. What’s the point.
Sel: It’s all in the past anyway.
Me: Yup.
Sel: Although, I still wonder sometime …
Me: Oh, me too. I wonder about her having sex many many times before she met me. And it’s all goooood.

Hur hur hur.

orangeacid @ flickr

Me: Hey mom, come and look at this photo of me.
Mom: Yeah?
Me: You can see my scalp up top. It looks like my hair is thinning.
Mom: *looks at my head* It’s not that obvious.
Me: But it’s thinning right?
Mom: It’s just the lighting in that photo. Why, are you worried?
Me: Well no. But I thought if it’s starting to thin, I might just shave it all off.
Mom: Don’t.
Me: Why not?
Mom: You don’t have a good looking skull.

I think I look ok in a beanie and that’s a close approximation right? Heheh.

I was having a conversation with a colleague about how I got my second computer at work. I work in the Perth office and HQ is in Melbourne.

Him: So how did you manage to score yourself the new computer?
Me: They wanted me to use Office Communicator more, and that requires a licensed copy of Microsoft Office.
Him: Ok …
Me: My old computer didn’t have the latest copy of Office on it.
Him: Uhuh …
Me: So really, they could have sent me a copy of Office for me to install right?
Him: Yeah …
Me: But they didn’t. They sent me a brand new computer with Office installed on it instead.
Him: So you never needed a new computer, you just needed a copy of Office?
Me: Correct. Maybe they were afraid of me pirating it or something.
Him: WTF.

The beauty of working in a large corporation with the inherent office bureaucracy. Heheh.

And by the way, I just got a third computer – a brand new laptop. Why? Because my manager is thinking ahead of when I would advance further in my role and will be doing some after-hours work. Yes, not now, but in the theoretical future. I’ve hidden the laptop under my desk and I haven’t told my colleague yet. I’m scared that I’d make him spew.

R.B. Boyer @ flickr

A while ago, I’d wrote about the familiar scenario of a guy and a girl out on a date and they bump into one of those flower hawkers. What does he do? Does he buy the over-priced flower which she doesn’t even want anyway, or does he risk making her think that he’s too cheap to spend $20 on her? Oh the dilemma.

Similarly, when you like a girl it’s very hard to say no to her when she asks for a favour. And even if she didn’t ask for the favour, you are compelled to offer anyway because you want to present yourself in the best possible light. No matter how difficult or inconvenient it may be, you consider it a worthy investment full of exciting returns.

And if you don’t offer yourself, some other guy might step up and steal her. There’s no way you’d let that happen right? So what if she asks you to go to the airport with her at 6 in the morning to go pick up her mother? There’s no argument in your head – the choice is obvious. You just do it. It’s a small price to pay.

And girls, this is the reason why the nice guy is being so nice to you. It’s not because he’s just a nice guy who likes to help people. It’s because he likes you! But guys? Don’t be too nice – don’t be a door mat. And remember, just being nice isn’t enough. Everything else must fit together. Metaphoricially speaking.

Whenever my brother and I feel like my mom has been going on about something for too long and we just want her to get to the gist of it, we’d do that “weu weu weu” sound you hear in the clip above from the movie “Kung Pow: Enter The Fist“. And we’d crack each other up because we think it’s hilarious. Our mom? Not so much.

But just so you know, we only annoy those who are closest to us. You’re welcome.

I’m sadden by what I read and what I see on the TV screen. As the number of the dead rises exponentially – 1000 to 2000 to 10000 – as tragic and devastating as it is, one can’t help by feel numbed by it all. That’s when I started seeking out the relative comfort of scientific facts. If you have young children traumatised by it all, teaching them a bit of science can help. Here’s some good articles.

So, there’s no rhyme or reason to these things but there’s a how. The New York Times has a great graphic explaining how the tectonic plates underneath Japan rammed into each other, causing the earthquake and the subsequent tsunami.

How Shifting Plates Caused the Japan Earthquake – Interactive Feature – NYTimes.com.

The troubled nuclear reactors at Fukushima Daiichi survived the big earthquake but they got swamped by the tsunami. The reactors shut down as the quake happened, but the nuclear rods still generated heat and still needed cooling, but the backup generators may have been damaged in the flood and the batteries ran out. That led to the water in the cooling tank boiling and turning into steam faster than it can be replaced.

That exposed the nuclear rods to air, generating gases in the tank which probably led to the explosions. They tried pumping in sea water but it’s a constant race against time before the water starts boiling and evaporating again.

Why doesn’t a nuclear generator power its own cooling system? Good question. This and more is explained in this article on MSNBC, and the comments within.

Cosmic Log – Clearing up nuclear questions.

The New York Times did something similar with a graphic and explains what would happen if the nuclear fuel rods melt down. Indications are that they will be contained but radioactive steam will be vented out for an extended period as they strive to control the heat build up.

The Crippled Japanese Nuclear Reactors – Interactive Feature – NYTimes.com.

And this last article does not have any science in it but it is a great collection of photos, which will surely put your petty problems into perspective.

Japan – Vast Devastation – The Big Picture – Boston.com.

I had this conversation with Sel today …

Me: Hey, you were a tough cookie to crack when I first met you. So stern.
Sel: Hey what about you … you weren’t that friendly either.
Me: What? I smiled at you!
Sel: Where got? Are you sure?
Me: I’m pretty sure. I’m always friendly to people. *ahem*
Sel: Well, I don’t remember. All I know is that you didn’t put much effort into it yourself.
Me: Yeah well maybe because you didn’t smile back, so I stopped being friendly to you. And because you thought that I was not making an effort, you couldn’t be bothered either! Hahah!

Miscommunication all round … yeah it’s pretty amazing how we are such good friends now. Heh.

But I do remember when the ice-queen first cracked after the first few months of me knowing who she was and seeing her around – it was when she came up to me and asked, “So I heard that you blog. Can I read it?”

I said, “Err yeah. Knock yourself out.” And thus, Sel became another gift that blogging has brought me. Hahah!