The cool slide guitar melody from “Staring at the Sun” by U2 echoes through the warm humid room… “It’s been a long hot summer. Let’s go undercover. Don’t try too hard to think, don’t think at all. I’m not the only one staring at the sun…”
It must be clipboard mayhem season because I’m seeing a lot of those market researchers out in the street, with clipboards in hands. I thought working in customers services and retail required a constant smile on the face, but these clipboard people probably have it harder than anyone else. They have to keep smiling, because as tests show, no one would allow a moody unfriendly stranger to survey them. And that’s not the worst part. The worst part is that despite being cheery and friendly, they’ll still get refused by the majority of people in the street. I wondered how many times they normally get refused in a day and got thinking about how great a form of conditioning this is for people with little confidence around the opposite sex (or the same sex if you’re gay). I think within a few days of working as a street researcher and having been denied the time of day by men, women and their mothers, you’ll no longer be afraid of rejection. One step at a time. First the streets, then the bars, then the world.
It’s been a mixture of about 4 parts “good week” and 1 part “shoddy week.” The heat is almost blistering and there used to be a time when I could just lie spead out on my bed to cool down. Now it’s just too hot to even do that and lying down on the bed is like a mild form of sleeping on burning coals. It’s all been good though, just relaxing and keeping up with the Joneses. Heard from G for the first time in what seemed like years. It’s amazing how I keep in touch with some people on and off, but with G it’s quite amazing because I’ve known him since I was around 7 or 8. Casting my mind back, I can recall the exact details of his first day and the years to follow as we shared classes here and there all the way up till University. At the gathering I also met another old friend, Hil who I hadn’t seen for just as long. It was good catching up on things and I found out that quite a lot of old high school colleagues had gone through marriage, some had even gone through separation. I occasionally see people I saw in high school walking down the street, usually pushing a pram. These were people in the years below me too, and they’re already mummies and daddies. It does kind of make me feel younger knowing that I’m free, single and with the best yet to come.
I also occasionally see people I used to share classes with too. To be honest, I wouldn’t make the effort to be the first to speak to them even if they passed me in the street. I’d only really make any sort of effort for those I spoke to or liked or was friends with back in the day but lost contact with or didn’t really get to know better. I haven’t seen about a handful of old friends for years, all of whom I’d meet up for lunch without second thought, even if it’s just to see if we still share the same rapport we did all those years ago. As Hils pointed out, it’s always the same with him and I. No matter how long we’ve left it to meet up again, upon meeting up it will be like we only spoke last week. I see this as being the difference between friends and good friends. With good friends, the rapport will always be there no matter how long you’ve spent time away from each other. They’d still be more or less the same person you knew back then and even if that wasn’t true, you’d still feel completely comfortable around them.
G was off to Germany to train, with hopes of competing in the Olympics. He is currently amongst the best swimmers in Ireland and he’s hoping that his training overseas will cut down his lap times and improve his general fitness. I had to remind him that Germans love beer and that they have McDonalds over there. He sounded pleased.
There was a news report that 1 in 3 CDs in the world are pirated, with China, Brazil and Mexico being the worst offenders. This statistic is quite shocking because it will only be a matter of time before it’s 1 in 2. It would’t help that the price of disc-writing technology is getting cheaper and that they’re going to be practically giving away CD-burners as a free toy inside your favourite breakfast cereal soon. I’m almost ashamed to say that the thing I found most interesting in the TV report was the reporter pronouncing it “counterfeeted” and “parated.” Ah, his unique blend of annunciation had me chuckling to myself everytime a mispronounced word escaped from his lips.
1 in 3 CDs. If you think about it, that’s really really high and you can bet software houses and record studios are getting the shakes. They’ll be looking to improve anti-copy technologies, or failing that, possibly just hire bounty hunters to administer payback. I’m sure most of these piracy crime bosses are just geeky teenagers operating from their bedrooms, so an even more efficient method of deterrence would be to hire a whole load of hot cheerleaders to hang with them and convince them that “Computers are for geeks, and I wouldn’t be caught dead dating one.” That’ll make them change their crime boss ways.
The 1 in 3 statistic fluctuates rather heavily depending on where in the world you go. In parts of Asia, I’m sure it’s more like 1 in 2 being a pirated disc, and in some places I don’t believe originals even exist. With music, you can easily tell it’s a pirated CD because most will have additional bonus tracks. I’ve seen Coldplay’s latest album, A Rush of Blood to the Head with bonus tracks being the best songs from their previous album, Parachutes. The best (value) one I’ve seen so far is the latest Linkin Park album Meteora that has bonus tracks of every single song from their previous album Hybrid Theory. How’s that for a bargain?
The CD situation in Kuala Lumpur is way more controlled than in Thailand and China, but they have a curious practice there of selling bootlegs and originals side by side. You could buy an original piece of software worth 200 RM (~$50) for about 100 RM (~$25 USD), which is relatively cheap, or you could shift your hand a few centimetres to the right and buy a copy of an original piece of software for about 6 RM (about $1.50 USD), which is ultraaaaaa cheap. Obviously the vendor will prefer sales of the bootleg because they will make a bigger slice of profit from that.
Shopper: Do you have the 2 Linkin Park albums?
Shop vendor: Yes {Points to pirated version}.
S: No, I’m looking for the original versions.
SV: {Looks bewildered} This CD has their new album and their first album on it.
S: Oh. I’ll take 2, my good man.
Whilst I was in Bangkok with Yogi and Sanje, we had to stop by the infamous Pantip Plaza to marvel at the several floors of stalls and shops filled with possibly every known piece of software on God’s green Earth. They also had washing room facilities and food courts, so if you ever found yourself wanting to leave the plaza, you could easily convince yourself otherwise. They had mainly local autonomous food stalls in the food court, but next door they had a bustling KFC. I previously never fully understood why Colonel Sanders was smiling as he does on the logo. Now I know, because whilst software and music houses are turning in their gravy, the Colonel is selling his. “Come for the CDs, stay for the chicken.”
Of course, pretty much all the CDs there were pirated, but Sanje still wept with joy like after all these years he had finally come home. I don’t believe either of us had ever seen so much pornography on sale either, but it wasn’t a big shock since piracy and pornography have always been closely linked. 1 in 3 being a pirated CD suddenly became 1 in 3 being a pirated seedy. We couldn’t walk so much as 5 feet without being asked if we’d like to buy “Nice girls.” Dude, if we wanted nice girls, we’d hang out with the Colonel. “Come for the chicken, stay for the chicks.”
1st random fact of the day: Some Chinese typewriters allow you to type ~5700 characters. The keyboard is almost 3 feet wide and the fastest you could type on them is about 11 words per minute.
2nd random fact of the day: The best kind of rice to use in fried rice dishes is day old rice. Fact.
