KL has been getting cooler recently, and I have enjoyed nice breeze as I opened my balcony door and let the air flows through.
I just finished my lunch yesterday when I heard a skittering sound on the ceilings. At first, I thought it was a bug or a dragonfly entered my unit from the balcony (a common occurrence), but I realized the sound was too loud for a bug. I put my attention away from episode 2 “Seoul Busters” and looked for the sound source — and there it was, a small bird perched on my ceiling lamp.
The bird was panicking, which, understandable. Imagine yourself as Jack, and you stumbled into a giant troll’s house after climbing a humongous beanstalk that happened to grow in your backyard overnight.
I tried to call the bird with an attempt that can be said as “whistling”, although it was more like a “blowing air and making squeaking noises.” The bird, might be offended because I might insulted them in bird language, fluttered to the guest room. Then, the chase started.
I closed the door so it was only me and the bird in a standoff. The bird scurried between the air conditioner unit and the curtains. I did open the windows, but the window panes are too low for the bird to realize that they could fly out from there (fun fact: Happens a lot, too, with bugs and anything that breathing and flying.)
At that point, my strategy was to tire the bird out so they will fly lower. I went back and forth, chased the bird, from one side to another. Cue Lil Jon & East Side Boyz’s “Get Low”.
To the windooooowwwww to the wall.
We need to put “bird chasing” as part of cardio because whew.
After an eternity (20 minutes), the bird started to getting tired. I noticed they flew lower, so I grabbed my foldable laundry basket and trapped them. I pulled my son’s shirt from the school event of “Fun Run” (“fun” and “run” should not be in the same sentence) and grabbed the poor terrified little friend.
The bird chirped loudly, emitted a protest. I muttered a mix of apologies (“I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry”) and my mother instinct of scolding (“ha! See?! I told you! I told you it’s dangerous! You still do it! See?? Ah, do it more then! Do it more!”) while I ran back to the balcony and set the bird free. They flew immediately after, to my relief.
Also, I found some mushrooms on my wooden table in the balcony.
I never thought too much about digital graveyard until I revisited my bookmarks on my Chrome browser.
When I was a Happiness Engineer, my Chrome browser was connected to my Automattic profile. For five years, I never used my personal Chrome account. Naturally, the bookmarks went unnoticed.
After I resigned, I reset my Chrome browser and realized that I still have the bookmarks —- and a lot of them are either outdated (last update 7-9 years ago, even) or inactive. Some have the bloggers already passed away.
It was sad and bittersweet. It makes me wonder how vast our digital graveyard is. I remember there was an uptick in the Support queue from users a couple of years ago, mainly Indonesians, requesting for their WordPress.com blogs to be set to Private. It was so prevalent, our team had an internal discussion talking about it. The Indonesians staffs, including me, in the discussion put two and two together, and we told the team that the users who asked for their site to be set to Private are most likely those who provide “Jasa Tutup Akun” (Account Closure) services. We noticed that a lot of these blogs were last updated 9-10 years prior, and with rough calculations, the blogger’s age by the request came would be in their early twenties —- the age where one is looking for a job. Their blogs might be created when they were in their teens, and as teens usually do, a lot of the posts could be considered as “cringe” or unfit for their social media profile. As they might have lost their account and blog access, they resorted to these Jasa Tutup Akun services, and these services contact the Support team and request for their (client’s) account to be closed or to set the blog to Private (yes, it’s possible in WordPress.com). The requests were no longer as many as before, though, and I would gander that it’s because the rise of popularity of social media and blog becomes a really niche element in the vast world of the Internet and the team’s effort in reducing such requests.
Anyway.
It’s funny, isn’t it, that we are all here just a mere speck of a dust in the Internet, that bits and bytes beeping, the zeros and ones that comprised our username and our meticulously crafted Instagram persona, and it’s easy for us to think that nobody would miss us if we go away and disappear. Then, there is — at least — one stranger out there that might have you in their mind and cherish and cheer for you.
— This post is dedicated to all bloggers out there
I’d say, it’s more of a 50-50 situation. I have been staying away from the drama and only reading some news articles to keep me in the loop on what has been going on, but I must admit, I’m starting to get affected, and with all the changes going on, I made my decision. The people involved in the lawsuit got to do what they gotta do. As for me, I found that this chapter in my life is good to close. It has been fun.
It was not an easy one. I forged friendships with some of the kindest, most generous, funniest, smartest, and most amazing people in Automattic. When Tasha Bishop joined Automattic as the lead of Dotcom Happiness Division, and asked some of us who have been in the company for more than 3 years why and how we stay, I immediately answered, “The people.” I learned so much from them — and I still don’t know how they can be so patient with me! These are the people who see me using potato filter during team hangout and simply went with their day — and I will always cherish the memories and miss them dearly.
The changes caused by the WP drama have been really difficult for me to handle, and it seeped into how I work and function — both in my personal and work life. That was when I realized that the situation would be unfair for everyone: For Automattic as my employer, for our end users that I support, for my family, and for myself. As selfish as this sounds, I then decided to resign.
So, what’s next?
I’m saying this with my stinky rotten privileges: I don’t know. I don’t know when and how I will jump back into the workforce. Yes, I understand and am well aware that the job market is really bad and has been that way since 2-3 years ago.
That said, I’m going to refocus on myself and my family. Again, I have the privilege to have the option to choose: To be a full-time career/working mother or to be a housewife. Right now, I’m the latter, and damn it, I will do my best. Again, a privilege that I got during my time in Automattic is the opportunity to receive coaching, learning, and meeting and sharing with awesome kind souls. I have said it and I said it again: I learned a lot from them. I learned about myself and how I see the unknown road ahead. Most importantly, I learned to trust myself. I don’t see this as a “step back”. It never was, and it will never is. Before Automattic, I was a housewife, too! It’s a role switch, hahah. This time, I know what to do.
I also have some plans in line — in Indonesian word: “Banyak maunya“:
Driving school. I can’t drive to save my life. I can’t drive because I’m too terrified/I’m too scared of traffic. I have been thinking of taking a driving lesson, though! Please wish me luck as I come into ongoing traffic while screaming.
Sewing lessons. I can’t sew, I want to be able to sew, and I want to be able to make dresses WITH POCKETS, damnit.
Online courses. There are two topics that I really want to be good at: Project Management and Data Analysis. I honestly don’t know how the Hell I’m going to use the knowledge after I finished the courses, but I want to learn them.
Improving my writing and reading skills. Thanks to Automattic, I found the joy in writing and reading 🙂 I don’t know what I want to write, hahah, but I definitely going to read more and write more (book reviews!). I also plan to restart Impromptu Journal.
Gardening. I want to have an actual garden in my balcony — as in, vegetable garden. I already have one chili plant, and I’m thinking of growing tomatoes and cilantro plants (oooo, the arrogance!)
For those of you who have been following my journey in Automattic, thank you 🙂 Here’s to more adventures ahead. Perhaps not an epic adventure. I would say Hobbit-like adventure (less the “walking to Mordor”-part and more of “second breakfast”-part.)
Also, in case you are curious, I’m not leaving WordPress — although, to be honest, I’m never super involved in the community anyway (fun fact: I never attend any WordCamp, ever.) The reason is that I’m too terrified of meeting new people — this blog is still powered by WordPress, and I owe a good chunk of my young adult life to WordPress.
This is more like a question than a blog post, hahah. But yes, this is something that I have been wondering about. From my limited experience and exposure in trips to different countries, I noticed there are folks that somehow so eloquent in speaking and storytelling. For example, Sergio Barros in Covent Garden Street. Barros is one of the legends in the area, and I had the honor to watch his performance. It was an impromptu moment, even! We were on the Covent Garden with my sister-in-law and her husband, and we saw Sergio Barros’ performance. I remember it was so hilarious and entertaining. This is a video by someone watched his performance 10 years ago (!)
I’m jealous, hahah. I know that it comes from years of experiences and honing one’s skills, and I hope I could learn a thing or two.
I always believe that storytelling is a skill that needed to be mastered. We don’t want to “hear” history. We want to hear stories from history, from everything. Thanks to technology and science, we know why earthquakes happen. But do we know that people in the olden days shared stories that “… Neither do you know, why there is an earthquake. He has told me that you don’t know why it shakes. It shakes because the moon, the sun, and the earth are fighting”? Now we know.
I admit, I was caught off-guard when the dialogue started. Yes, there were some mentions about it on the first several paragraphs, but I thought it was a figure of speech, you know? I didn’t expect of a “They’re scientists, you said.” I was, at that time, thinking, “huh, Lulu is with someone? I thought she’s only with her— OH MY GOSH THE CAT TALKS.”
The main characters are the duo: Lulu, a retired Met detective living in a boathouse named “The Lark”, and her male calico cat: Conrad.
The story genre is a murder mystery, and apparently the book is part of a series, preceded by “The Cat who Caught a Killer”. That said, this novel is closer to cozy murder mystery.
Also, this is my first time taking notes and putting post-its on the novel that I read
Setting-wise, I appreciate the writer’s details on explaining the house. I found it tricky to write down details, and I admire works by Umberto Eco on how, in “The Name of the Rose”, he wrote in great details the Italian abbey where the murders happened. In this case, L T Shearer would be my new favorite. The details were not as extensive and as elaborate as the late Sig. Eco, but I enjoy imagining the wooden doors, the chandeliers, and the broken French windows — that seemingly getting shattered and crashed many many times throughout the story. There was a point during reading that I was expecting the glazier (the person who fixing/installing glasses on windows) to march down the house and huff angrily, “AGAIN? IT BREAKS, AGAIN?”
Another thing that I noticed from this novel is the brand names scattered on the story. I might be wrong, and my knowledge and repertoire in literature and novels are quite limited, too, but I don’t think I ever read novels with such numbers of brand names being mentioned. I think the only time I noticed a brand name mentioned clearly was on “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” by Stieg Larsson when the main character, Lisbeth Salander, purchased IKEA furnitures for her apartment (and why we don’t have that, IKEA? Hmm?) The most prominent one was Marks & Spencer (M&S) food, and I found it amusing because here in Indonesia and Malaysia, M&S has been more known as a fashion store than their food selections (a fact that seemingly M&S Malaysia trying to change.) Now, while I understand that it might be the writer’s preference, I honestly wondered if it was: 1. Out of habit, or trying to make it easier to the readers to imagine and visualize a scene by putting something “familiar” (although I have to be honest: I’m not familiar with M&S Nibbles and I had to Google it), or 2. Brand placements. Nothing wrong with brand placements, though. I mean, Korean dramas and Indonesian sinetrons can be ten times worse than that. It’s just interesting to see from a novel.
Another particular thing that I noticed on this novel is the mention of food. I commented about it to my husband, “… it feels like Enid Blyton wrote a murder mystery.” I wonder if this is a British thing; to see comfort, familiarity, and the world may crash and burn as we speak, but we have a cup of nice hot tea alliswell.jpg-mentality. This also transcends to TV series. I remember I watched this movie, an adaptation of Sherlock Holmes “The Hound of the Baskervilles”, with Richard Roxburgh as Sherlock Holmes, Ian Hart as Dr. John Watson, and Richard E. Grant as Jack Stapleton. Other than Richard E. Grant’s mad talent and ability to play Jack Stapleton that made me wanted to throw a pillow to the TV screen while screaming, “CREEP!”, there was a really simple scene that burned its way into my brain: A character poured a hot tea into a teacup and steam coming up, showing how warm the tea must be in the cold crisp morning. That got stuck with me. I remember I thought, “it must be a really nice warm breakfast.” The novel “The Cat who Solved Three Murders” is not an exception either. Even a simple act of cooking a scrambled egg in a microwave (I know, I know. I was surprised, too. Don’t let my husband heard about it — he takes pride in cooking his scrambled egg just like how Gordon Ramsay taught it on Youtube) was so endearing and calming.
Story-wise, I found it amusing that the writer managed to capture such good grasp of police’s bureaucracy. The story mentioned about “bag holder”, decision log, and many things that I just learned on how policework actually works. One of my teammates used to be a police officer in the UK, and I wonder if I could ask him questions on how he used to work and the administrative tasks. Also, I wonder how investigations work in the UK. When Lulu and a detective named Tracey visited an insurance office and mentioned that they need to look every floor of the office and crosscheck the personnels, the process seemed… Smooth. I spent a good chunk of my young adult life watching “CSI: Las Vegas” series, and a question mark immediately lighten up in my brain when I read the part when the secretary, Gary, allowed Lulu and Tracey to explore the whole building: “Wait. That easy? There is no need to ask for a warrant?” Then again, two countries, two judiciary systems.
For characters, I enjoyed how humane the characters are. Including Conrad. I had this gnawing belief that the writer seemed wanting to put more women characters in the spotlight, which, heck yea. That said, my favorite part is whenever the characters fell at ease when Conrad was around. I feel that would work — and definitely worked — in the real life, you know? Having a familiar animal such as cats helps easing the tensions and stress, and it was quite evident in the novel that Conrad exploited it to the max, hahah.
Now. Let’s just rip the band-aid out. Again, this might be coming from me and my “CSI”-series and how I am used with your regular channel of murder mysteries and thriller. When we finally found out who the murderer is, it felt… anticlimatic. At least for me. Then again, perhaps the unmasking of the murderer is not the most laser-focus point on the story, so please take this with a grain of salt. I’m not going to say the whole thing is predictable, but — again, me and my “CSI”-thingy — considering the circumstances and the knowledge the characters had, the culprit should have been quite obvious since the middle of the story; and I’ve been wondering why they didn’t bring the person for interviews sooner. Then again, it might be due to a different judiciary process. Also, somehow, when the murderer finally confessed and spewed some insults and expletives to the police when they were interrogated, a lot of the dialogue reminded me of angry users on chat or emails. I think that’s part of the charm, no? The whole plot was light, so to have everything stays in the same level is a great task to tackle, and this is kudos to the writer.
The closing itself was quite good — but this, honestly, for me, came after I reread it multiple times to understand Lulu and Tracey’s motivations. That said, I want to give credits to the writer. Closure is hard. Let alone novels, closing a freaking blog post is HARD. You want to sound witty, piquing your readers’ interest, but in the end, you end up with a picture gallery (I’m guilty of that.) In this novel, I sensed the writer’s tendency to close the chapters with Conrad meowed and Lulu mentioned something like, “he (Conrad) is a so-and-so cat.” This is also evident on the last few paragraphs on the novel. Someone remarked something, and someone else replied with a quip. Nothing is wrong with it, but I wondered if we can have some kind of excitement building up for the next series. Something like, turning on the boathouse engine for the next trip — to symbolize Lulu and Conrad’s journey.
To close the review (ha!), if you enjoy hair-raising thriller murder mystery story, this novel might be not for you. This does not mean the novel is bad. Far from it. This novel might not be your cup of tea, but then again, some folks can be really open to try new type of teas, right?
Also, speaking about hair-raising, kudos to L T Shearer for writing the scene where Lulu and Conrad looked out their room after hearing something in the house in a pitch-dark night at 2 AM. It was so vivid, I could imagine I was there.
If you enjoy cozy murder mysteries, though, and usually read it while curling on your bed or your sofa with a nice warm tea or chocolate in a mug, you would find this novel has its charm.
One thing that I despise most after pocket-less dresses is a planned obsolescence.
As we use things around us, it’s expected to have them in a wear-and-tear condition. In the old times, a lot of equipments and belongings are manufactured and produced in such a way that they can withstand prolonged usage and stay in a good shape even after years.
Enter, the age of peace and communication, which brings forth: consumerism. Corporates started to find ways for the public to consume more and more. While consumption itself is, inherently, a good thing to boost economy, overconsumption is not. Unfortunately, overconsumption seems like a road that a lot of corporates are taking into. This birthed the idea of “Planned Obsolescence” — Purposely frail design, or make it “out of fashion/trend” by playing to the customers’ insecurity, so the customers have “no other choices” but to buy.
I started realized it when my Dyson vacuum “broke down.” I was in the middle of cleaning the vacuum’s dust container as people usually do, when I realized the seal no longer on its place. This caused the dust container unable to stay on its place, essentially making the vacuum as “useless.”
Mind you, the vacuum motor is still in a tip-top shape, and it still works well. It was the dust container that no longer work.
I checked Dyson Malaysia website, looking for spare parts, and imagine my confusion seeing none of them. I grew up with Electrolux vacuum cleaner, a behemoth of 5-7 kilograms, witnessed generations growing up, and I remember my parents got spare parts from the store when something broke, so naturally, I thought the same principal applied.
I then Googled it, and I found that the website USED TO sell spare parts, but not anymore. Instead, I got greeted by a promotional banner of the newest Dyson vacuum. Forget about your old, outdated vacuum! Get a new one! A shinier model!
“Pissed” was an understatement. I refused to believe that I need to buy a brand new vacuum just because a dust container breaks. I then entered another realm: Online marketplace. Surely someone sell it, right? Right?
And right yes they did.
They even have variations for different models. Okay, granted, it’s from China and the cost of international shipping might offset the whole spirit of “rejecting planned obsolescence and overconsumption”, but at the same time, HAH, TAKE THAT, YOU CORPORATE GREED.
The price was ~US$14, including shipping fee, and after 2 minutes of following a Youtube instruction, this one:
My Dyson vacuum (V11, BTW) felt like new again.
Another one that just recently happened is my Sony WH-1000XM3 headphones. The headphones still work perfectly, chef’s kiss, won’t trade it for the world. But the ear pads, as you who are using headphones know, displayed signs of wear-and-tear. It was so bad, I found black fallings on my ears area, my neck, and my shoulders.
With such an ugly situation, what we gotta do? Of course replacing the pads only.
I’m so proud of myself.
Looking good and fresh, right?
Also, I found out from a comment on the marketplace that while Sony Malaysia offers the pad replacements service, the headphones need to be left on the service center for a week and we need to pay the repair fee for ~US$50, whereas the pad sold on the marketplace only cost folks half of the price and 5 minutes to install.
At this point, honestly, I don’t care about “BUT THE ORIGINALITY—“ I started to believe that the concept of “original” is created and built by these corporates to keep us in the cage, and they make the replacements/fixing process even harder — and any attempt to fix/replace the spare parts from any place that outside their “official store” will create some kind of a nonexistent witch hunt. Their strategy is to make the fixing/repairing really scarce and difficult (or so, they want us to think) so the “only option” left is to buy a newer model. Yes, original spare parts are important, but only when the company provides it in the first place and make it easier for their customers to purchase.
Look, I’m not against in buying new products. At some points, we should. Newer products with newer technologies are safer and eco-friendlier. Some products might actually no longer have spare parts available in the market! With that in mind, it’s worth to gauge our needs — and differentiate them from our wants.
Also, when it’s time for you to buy new products, do take care of how you dispose of the old ones. They have been helping you, anyway! Check where you can process e-waste or recycle them.
