My Desktop Screams '2005'

I'm still using my Satellite laptop given by my sister on my 18th birthday. Yes, that's four and a half years ago! It's still functioning properly. I only reformatted it (for the first time) last Wednesday.

I dropped the adapter last Tuesday, which I thought was no big deal. Then when I turned it on, the computer automatically shut down after five seconds. Turned it on again , a blue screen popped out with notes saying there's something wrong with the latest software/hardware installed. I turned it on again after five minutes, it started up normally. I hurriedly saved some files that night, bought a new flash drive with higher memory the next day. I was afraid of losing all my files in case there's a problem with start up again, so I reformatted it just to be safe. Good thing I brought my recovery disk here.

I had a good laugh when I saw the desktop: it has a shortcut to 30-day trial of *drumroll* Napster! The Adobe installed is Version 5, the IE has no tab features. My Windows Media Player 10 and iTunes are gone. The anti-virus software is Norton 2004. Haha. Talk about going back in time.

I have no idea how long this laptop will last, but it's as fast as a new one now. Yes, I need to update all the software installed and save all my files again. I'm still saving up for a new one, so I will still use my Satellite for the time being. I just need to update everything, rename the folders, put my photos back, change the wallpaper and screensaver, and my desktop would make me feel it's already 2010 again.

I didn't go to KL

As an update to the previous post, no, I did not go to KL. Couldn't find a bus schedule that would fit my own sched. Two of my Malaysian officemates also discouraged me to go alone. Too dangerous.

Next time, I'll definitely go. If I'm already brave enough to travel on my own.

Wanderlust, this time with a purpose

If it weren't for my fear of riding a cross-country bus and/or train alone, I would have probably visited lots of cities in Malaysia by now. I don't know why, but I feel safer in a plane. One time, I even read a book containing Ethnic Theory of Plane Crashes during a flight, much to the annoyance of my seatmate who gave me an are-you-insane look.

I haven't mustered enough courage to take a bus ride to Melaka yet, even though I have been dying to go there since last year. Come to think of it, I came all the way to Singapore to work. Rode the plane alone. Looked for a flat alone. Went to a totally foreign land alone. And I could not take a bus ride to Malaysia alone! It's ridiculous, really. Maybe it's the fear of sitting beside a stranger in a bus for six hours, or sitting beside a sleeping stranger in a train for nine hours. Or it was a fear induced by watching Liam Neeson's Taken.

When I went to Kuala Lumpur and Genting Highlands in August '09, I took an Air Asia flight, and being a cheapo traveler, I grabbed a seat sale offer months in advance. Now, KL beckons once more and I have only until Friday - yes tomorrow - to decide.

I saw an ad about a Copywriting seminar in Kuala Lumpur and it's happening this Sunday. I sent an email to the organizer and she told me to RSVP on or before Friday. My mind is in Battle of Pros and Cons mode since M0nday.

The Pros:

• It's my first two-day weekend off (after a month and a half) and it's nice to spend it somewhere outside Spottiswoode Park
  
• I will attend a copywriting seminar,will learn something new :)
  
• Nando's peri peri chicken!
• Hello Petronas Towers and Petaling St.!
• Oh, the most important of all: the thrill of traveling alone.
  

The Cons:

• $ Alert: the trip would cost 100 sing or so, including the seminar fee
• Riding the bus from SG to KL. Alone. Will arrive at around 4.30am. Scary.
• I could not drag Melai, my roommate, to accompany me because she just arrived from her HK/Macau trip and she does not fancy KL that much.
  

I have until tomorrow to decide. Help me.

Ola Twitter

After months of being deviant to Twitter, I finally gave in.

I'm seriously following the 140-character limit, it's really a good exercise on brevity. What I hate about it is the bit.ly version of websites, they sucked the soul out of an URL. In the Twitter cyberworld, we can't help but use it for brevity's sake. My blog is called strawberryicecreamandmallows, conjuring thoughts of freezing pink ice cream topped with rainbow mallows, and then bit.ly reduced it to http://bit.ly/cY2ybf, some alphanumeric combination that follows the KISS mantra. Yes, perhaps, I just need to get used to it.

I did not have any intention of making a Twitter account until Modern Copywriter blog mentioned leeclowsbeard's account. I got curious, so I finally registered after months of ignoring that follow me on Twitter sign flashed in all the blogs I religiously read everyday. Well, given the cringe-worthy fluff I had churned out in the last 13 months, I need access to the advice of industry experts (my fave right now is Junior: Celebrating Life at the Bottom), 140-character updates on what's happening in the ad world and some bit.lys redirecting me to advertising resources online. I need the right inspiration from the right people to salvage me from this cliche quicksand, and it feels good to be connected, albeit virtually, to those great names in the advertising world I would just normally come across in magazines, books and ad sites.

I got lots of good advice so far, but for some strange reason, this line from Sally Hogshead, advertising demigod responsible for all those awesome BMW ads, got permanently engraved in my brain cells:

' being in a crap job isn't your fault, staying in a crap job is'.

Ouch.

because I love ads with long copy

by Saatchi & Saatchi Manila, The Philippines
from http://adsoftheworld.com/media/print/vespa_behind

Epic Fail.

Last night, I had an epiphany.

Here's the backstory first: Ten days ago, I saw a job ad at Jobsdb that Y! is looking for a Producer. Without much thinking, I sent an email with my resume and sample works. Just testing the waters. I cannot leave my current job yet (well I can, but there's a bond, so you know). I sent it during lunch time, forgot about it days later. No, this was not the one I was talking about in my previous post.

Then last night it hit me. I know why they haven't responded yet. How could I be so stupid.
Major OMG.

I'm applying for a job at Y! And you know what I did? I sent my resume, sample works with the cover letter using my ---drumroll naman oh ---Gmail account!

Fail.

It's like applying for a job at GMA 7 and when asked what program you would like to work for, you'd say Matanglawin, Kim Atienza's show at ABS-CBN (this is a true story, by the way. A fellow applicant told me that this was her answer to the HR officer who interviewed us last year).


Or applying for a job at Microsoft and telling them how cool Apple is.

Or applying for a magazine job and when asked how would you describe the cover of a certain youth magazine, you critised it by saying 'It looks okay, but I don't think it works. You put two cover personalities, I understand both of them are famous, but when you put two people on the cover, with the same treatment, you would confuse the readers, two people vying for their attention, one has to be more prominent on the cover...'only to realise that the person interviewing you is the editor of that youth magazine (this a true story, too. My story. But that editor hired me anyway because according to him I have an 'interesting' perspective).


So yes, I'm resending my application tomorrow, using a Y! account.