the lazy streets so undemanding...

Wednesday, March 16, 2005

expectations and returns

Just wanna write a short entry before plunging back to programming. The old chinese saying about high hope leads to big disappointment proved to be very true, first in the NUS mug incident. As part of its Centennial celebration, the school has decided to give each student a mug. It says in the e-mail that the mug is specially designed for the occasion with "a personalized message" from the NUS president. Also, you are supposed to queue and collect the mug strictly according to your matriculation number.

I always like to collect such kind of souvenirs - be it a trophy, a key chain, an emblem, a yearbook, or even a school towel, as it makes me remember. and i thought, "wow, what a nice gesture! My mug probably has both the president's message and my name inscribed on it!" I was really looking forward to my turn to collect of the mug.

Then today I saw my friends got the mug. It was NOTHING like what I have imagined. Apart from the bad design and color combination, the "personalized message from president" is just a tiny piece of paper inside the mug, with two lines of prints and a signature. (My friend threw it right away.) and of course, there isn't any inscription of the student's name on it. It is so impersonal. The paint is already falling off, which makes it worse than a regular mug from the supermarket... My friend said he rather prefer the school to just give out a t-shirt, knowing the mug would be such a disaster.

See? never get your hope up too high, or you will be very disappointed.

The reverse is also true.

Remember the bird-making-nest problem I had? It turns out that those damn birds are more determined than what the handyman and I have expected. For more than one week, we invented and implemented various solutions to drive the birds off the wall. But instead, the birds drive us up the wall by coming back again and again and building their nest with ever-increasing work rate. So I almost gave up hope --maybe it's just the way to be.

But then yesterday when I came back from school, I saw the entire walls and corners above my door are sealed nicely with cardboards, secured with Scotch tape, and there are three balloons hanging from the top. Why balloons? Well, they serve mainly as moving objects to scare those retarded birds off... and also to bring a party ambiance to my room. All kudos should be given to Simon the Handyman who is not only helpful, but also kindda artistic.^^

See? When you don't get your hope up too high, something great comes along.

GXL got high at 11:13 PM

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