Lights Off!

I was at KLIA at the time of that thingy everyone calls the Earth Hour, so I was blissfully unaware whether that campaign was successful or not. But then again, how do we measure the success, if it indeed was? Do we measure it by the number of people who actually sat in the dark for an hour with the air-con at full blast? Or by the number of people burning their car fuel to go out partying in the dark?

The commercialization of the campaign is much to the chagrin of the people who are genuinely concerned about global warming. The latter would tell the campaigners/participants that their 1 hour of lights off is a mere gimmick and would not make a difference at all, while the campaigners/participants would tell the latter to lighten up (pun intended) about the whole thing.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the campaign, and just because I didn’t participate in it doesn’t mean that I don’t care about the environment. A lot of us do care, and we do what we can to conserve energy in our own ways. It’s just so funny that a lot of people actually used more energy in conjunction with that campaign, than they would have used in that one hour if they did not participate at all. Ah well, life is funny that way.

Speaking of lights off, my lights are indeed off. I have 2 broken light fixtures at home and I need to get it replaced. So, I browsed through some online lights shop, just to see what my options are, eventhough I know I would prefer to buy these things at the nearest Seng Hup, (or is it Seng Heng?) or similar shops than buying online.

Anyway, the options available at one particular site are fairly good. It has lots of cool light fixtures for the indoors and outdoors, and in various shapes and styles.

I looked at the selections for home lighting and the choices are all really nice. I only need something practical, nothing fancy schmancy for my home. It has all the choices I need. Then I looked at the bathroom light fixtures, and again, I’m looking at practical and they have lots of those there. Cool.

Then, I looked at chandeliers. Oh man,.. these are gorgeous! I wanna rip up my still functioning living room light fixtures and put one of these babies up there… until I remembered that my cats shed their hair all the way up to the ceiling! There’s no way I’m gonna collect cat hairs with a hard-to-clean chandelier, man!

One day, when I own a mansion and hires 20 housekeepers to keep the whole place spick-and-span, I’ll get one of these beauties. For now, I’ll just hop on to Seng Heng, or Seng Hup, (whatever!) and buy something cheap. So long as my dining room and bathroom are lighted up, I’ll be happy with what I have.

Happy Birthday To Me!

It’s my birthday today and for the first time in many many years, I missed the exact time of my birth as I woke up late. It has been a kind of a ritual for me, singing happy birthday to myself at precisely 7.15 am on 20^th March every year. I missed the exact time this year, but I did it anyway, at 7.45 am on my bed, half an hour late.

It’s no big deal really, but I can’t help but feel bad about it. It’s a ritual which I made up years ago. There is neither a cultural element nor any superstition attached to it. Yet, I feel like I have missed an opportunity of a lifetime. I have no idea why but I hope it’s not a bad sign of things to come.

Too many things are changing around me. I am in a bit of a whirlwind and I can’t get out of it. It’s dizzying and it’s getting out of control.

I have been ignoring things that are important to me and I get too wrapped up in the nitty-gritty that has no significant impact in my life rather than focusing on what’s important and life-changing. Prioritisation is not my strong suit, I tell ya that! I have projects lined out but I am unable to concentrate. Perhaps I need to abandon everything, take a year off and go travel the world. I dunno.

Ah well, life is hard, we all know that. But I’ll worry about it tomorrow. Today, I’ll just chill out a bit. I’m having lunch with a friend today, and thereafter, I’ll go on a shopping spree—that’s another ritual I do every year on my birthday and I sure as hell am not gonna miss this one!!

Happy birthday to me.

Where's My Mail, Mr. Postman?

I was shopping at a certain hypermarket the other day when I saw this quaint old red mailbox on the shelf. I couldn’t help but smile when I realized that despite all the developments going on in the city, with apartments and condos reaching up to the skies and houses with fences higher than their mempelam trees, there are still houses using that age old simple red contraption which purpose is simply to receive mails.

These days, most houses in Malaysia come with a brick wall by the gate which houses a built in mailbox with a tiny slot out in front for mails to be slotted in. It’s simple and it’s so very boring. Every house has one of those, and they all look alike. It’s so lame.

The old red mailboxes add a certain character to the house, even if every house in its vicinity has the same one. Well, for one thing, it’s red. So, that’s character. It may not be a designer’s choice, but it is sure ain’t boring like the tiny almost invincible slot we have on our walls these days. So lifeless, so lacking in character, so.. eergh!

I came across a collection of mailboxes which are so beautiful, I feel like ripping up my fences and installing one of these in my front yard. Check out the pics:-

Pics stolen from here

Beautiful eh?

This site has all sorts of mailboxes which are beautiful and practical. Personally, I have no use for anything other than the residential mailboxes above, but if I own a building, I might want to consider one of these Commercial Mailboxes. They are very nicely designed, you might want to go check your mails every hour.

Shop Till You Drop

Have you ever purchased anything online? Many people I know have a certain fear of online shopping, particularly in light of the rising number of credit card fraud and internet scams these days. Their fear is not totally irrational or unfounded. There have been many cases of such fraud and scams happening online. It’s scary what a click on the mouse can do to your entire life.

When I first started shopping online a few years ago, I was very worried that someone might steal my credit card information and go shopping till they drop. Then I remembered that, hey… I don’t have that much available credit to begin with, so I suppose there’s not much they can steal from me anyway. So I continued shopping, and from that very first purchase- a book from Amazon.com- I was hooked.

I don’t shop online all the time. Many of the things I need can be purchased at the various stores in the city. I am one of those people who would rather hold, touch and read the label from A-Z before I buy anything, so online shopping is always a last resort for me. Besides, being in KL, if ever I buy anything from US or UK, the delivery charges are sometimes more expensive that the items I want to buy. So, that’s a bit of a put-off.

Sometimes, I visit shopping sites just to do some window shopping and then I find some items I have been eyeing to buy at the stores near me, at a fraction of the cost (yes, even with the delivery charges!). So, if you can get it for less, why not?

I found this new site, www.shopwiki.com. Well, I don’t know if it’s actually new or not –I just found it, so it’s new to me- *shrugs*.

This website fascinates me. It’s cute and very pleasing to my eyes. They have listings of just about anything you can buy online. What I like most about it is that is gives you tips, guides and recommendations about the things you want to purchase, so that you can buy something that really suits your purpose. So, I think that’s cool.

I checked out the Pets section (obviously, since I am a mother of 3 cats!), and was really amazed at the options available for cats accessories. My cats already have several very fancy collars and I am still shopping for more! What a way to waste money in these hard times, eh?

There’s a section for everyone I think, young and old. Games lovers would be pleased to see to many items available there. I am not much of a games enthusiast myself, but I do know what an Xbox is – it is a box of games….haha.

Anyway, I like the explanation at http://www.shopwiki.com/wiki/Xbox+360 about the Xbox 360. It’s ‘All You (Read:I) Ever Wanted to Know About the 360 But Were Afraid to Ask’ because it would make me look stupid and my nephews would roll their eyes at me. Now, I feel slightly more knowledgeable about games and can’t wait to show it off. So, I checked the options available for games at this link and the accessories at this link, and I am like, I gotta get me one of these….

At this rate, I’ll go broke in about an hour. *Sigh*