MY KANGAROO. MY KOALA.














So, as I was telling Xiao Wei on Tuesday night - in the middle of our MSN chat - not to forget to kidnap a kangaroo or koala bear for me when she goes for her honeymoon in Australia. A live one and not a soft toy, mind you - one which is able to hop around like a bunny rabbit or conquer trees like a monkey. Xiao Wei, in her usual light-hearted style, replied jokingly, "I'm not free to chase after them, hoh".

Haha... I think I can be quite a pest at times. Either I'm unabashedly bugging her to make me the flowergirl for her upcoming wedding, or I'm pestering her to kidnap an animal home back to Singapore.

2006 is drawing to a close. And I wonder, for the past year, have I brought her laughter; or have I caused her much worry. Gosh, admittedly, I think it's more of the latter.

Anyway, I am in the middle of reading this book, Reading People - Secret Tips That Reveal the Truth Behind Body Language, by leading jury expert Jo-Ellan Dimitrius and Mark Mazarrella. A passage mentions that the first basic to learning to read people is, of course, to mingle with people. And it goes on to grip about how the advancement of technology has made personal and physical contact unnecessary and uncalled for.

Why bother to call when an SMS is able to get a message across? Why write letters when a simple email is suffice? Why bother with Christmas or New Year or birthday cards when an E-card is easily available? Why bother to talk to a person face-to-face when a call is totally capable of conveying the same message?

Even on rare occasions when we're having a direct conversation with someone, do we maintain strong eye contact throughout? Or are we fiddling with our fingers? Punching on our mobile number pad? Combing our hair with our fingers? Looking elsewhere? Toying with our wallet? Straightening our shirt or blouse or tie or belt? Munching away? Stirring our drinks?


It seems that with such rapid advancement of technology, the quality and quantity of person-to-person interaction has been affected adversely and dramatically. It seems that we can be at more than one place at a single time. A man can be in a room physically. But he can be - simultaneously at the same time - having an overseas call to Germany, SMS-ing to a colleague in Australia, sending an email to yet another colleague in New Zealand, and watching CNN - while his wife and kids are waiting for him to bring them out for dinner.


You see the big picture? Technology has made people so available and accessible - anywhere and anytime - that we're practically inaccessible. We're everywhere all over the face of the earth; except where we physically are.


Not only has people-to-people direct interaction decreased, we are being totally and hopelessly dependent on technology too. Gone are the good old days when we jot down our friends' and acquaintants' addresses and contact numbers.

Come to think of it, gone too, are the days when we die-die had to memorize our friends' residence number or mobile number - thanks to something known as the Contact List in our mobile phone. Admittedly, I can only remember my Dad's, Mum's, Bro's mobile number, and our residence number. For friends, I can only recite Xiao Wei's, Kelvin's, Kelvin Lim's, Jun Ming's, and Joanne Tan's mobile numbers.
Gosh, that's not a lot really. Man, I think along with the advancement of technology, our brain is, undeniably, getting increasingly rusty.

And both memory and brain, in my opinion, are just like muscles. Use it often, and it'll be stronger. Let it rust, and it'll atrophy.


So, I'm going to memorize 2 mobile numbers per day from today onwards. I want to have a super-human memory, just like Scott Hagwood. Watch out, Mr. Hagwood, here I come!!! Hohoho!

And I wanna bag home the prize for next year's Word Power too.

I'm smart. I've learnt my entire ABCs and I can, in a blink of an eye - and without the aid of calculators - figure out that 1 + 1 = 3.
Ain't I a prodigy or what?


Like real. Haha!