I remember that it was a balmy Friday night. I walked out of my room and headed for the letterbox located down the hallway. Stepping into the dark corridors with flickering lights, I probed the letterbox with my skinny hand sticking right though the hole. I felt something – ah, it’s the monthly bank and credit card statements. And then something felt foreign. I’ve never had it in my letterbox before, sans the loads of spam I get all the time (ranging from ferrying services to lorry rentals, out-of-campus room rentals to laptop repair services).
Overflowing with excitement, my heart started to pound. Slowly crawling up my throat, I thought it was going to fall out anytime soon. I fumbled for the keys in my pocket, frustrated by the repeated attempts to differentiate the cold hard metal of the letterbox key and the coins that I forgot to keep.
The letterbox squeaked open. I grabbed the stash of letters and ran back to my room. I didn’t want to see what’s in it until I get back. I struggled to open the card access door – I hate the new, techy feature because we can no longer make duplicates) – dashed for the bed and started sorting the letter immediately. Bank statements after one and another. It has been a long time since I last sorted by mail.
Oh, and here it is. Surprise!
Postcard from Trina, 9000 miles away.
It arrived! The postcard Trina mentioned some time ago about mailing to a special person finally arrived – and yea, I didn’t know I was the recepient until Trina asked me to check my mailbox to check of anything special had arrived :) I was jumping up and down on the bed with the postcard in hand. Thanks for the awesome surprise, Trina! This is the very first time in my life receiving sometimes from somebody overseas. How sweet of you to draw the doodle. I just love it.
I can’t believe it wasn’t smeared or folded in any way even after it travelled for 9000 air miles and was passed between so many hands. Except for the smoothened out corners, it feels as good as new. And here’s a photo showing the front and the back of the postcard:
Front and back view of Trina's postcard. Thank you again!
I hereby dedicate this song by KT Tunstall to Trina – The Other Side of the World.
Title: The Other Side of the World (from the album Eye to the Telescope)
Artist: KT Tunstall
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Life is getting busier by the moment – my exams are due in less than 5 weeks, and I still have got reports to submit. Gah. But I’m taking it well. In fact, I realize I’ve became slightly healthier recently, as I went for swimming the first time out of so many months (and I returned with a body ache which lasted over the weekend, so much for not exercising!), starting eating better and healthier food and etc. It has been a long time since I last had instant noodles – I never liked the taste and the hassle of cleaning up. I’m now sticking to cookies and less candy bars.
Oh, and one final rant. It came to my attention that in the past few years several presentations on the architecture and design of Changi Airport Terminal 3 had been shamelessly plagiarising my photos (seen in this post). A few days ago, in my GN02 elective (where we had to pick a development and evaluate their design and environmental friendliness) presentation session, yet another group used my photos. When I asked one of the team members where they got their photos from, he told me that they took all of them themselves, and even had the guts to point out who took all of the photos.
I was very infuriated and disappointed that people actually disregard copyright, so much so that I had to put up a notice on that particular post. I license my photos under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License, in case you’re wondering. Feel free to use it but don’t modify my works (like remove the watermarks, the group just did that) and remember to give due credit to the original author/creator. It isn’t a very hard thing to do, is it?
And to that group of losers who shamelessly took my photos, you know who you are.
Such a lovely postcard you received!
Oh well talking about getting healthier, you should first get your hands on your bedtime. Always a srewed-up biological clock you have there. haha
For the frigging losers, claiming that the product was their genuine effort is really shameful. But looking from the other side, your photos two years back were already that good to induce others to plagiarize. Impressive!
It’s lovely, isn’t it :)
Bedtime is something that I’m yet to have a total control over – sometimes I get so bugged down with work that I had to spent a certain amount of time on YouTube and Facebook to make me happy again, hah. Okays, I will try fixing it before it’s too late.
Oh, that one. That’s the not the first time already and numerous people have used my work without attribution. The problem is that those who took my work are university undergraduates who are probably educated enough to understand and respect an artist’s right over his/her creative work. Well, plagiarism is the greatest form of flattery, teehee.
I love how KT Tunstall made her mark on this entry yet again! Haha! I remember our common love for her voice!
That’s awesome that you got some mail from someone far away. I miss the days of snail mail and when letter writing had some personal-ness to it. Makes me want to send out postcards myself! =)
Yay, KT Tunstall for the win! I recently completed my collection of her discography and I have to say that there are so many songs of hers of which I have never heard before. I’m still busy going through the entire discography of hers to pick my favourites. Oh, and Suddenly I See has all the aniontment from me.
Same here. The days of snail mail were long gone, it’s sad that so many people are using electronic means of communication but what to do, for them being so efficient and blazing fast. I love postcards because there’s this essence of human participation in it.
hang in there coussie…before you know it…its all done and x’mas is here ;)
all the best with the reports and exam!!!
Aww, yay! I am so glad you liked the postcard — I had so much fun making it! I was eager (and anxious) the entire time between dropping it off at the post office until the day I heard you got it. I was so worried it wouldn’t make it there. Wow! 9,000 miles, really? So so far away, yet so close.. thanks to both the web & snail mail!
I absolutely love snail mail. Email could never compete with snail mail. There’s a much better feeling when reaching into the mail box and pulling out a card.. a letter.. a small gift, whatever. It’s much more personal. I am definitely going to send out more postcards now. :) You can expect more as well! I hope to find a really good America-themed one.. or else I’ll have to make one, lol.
And I agree with Chongyen. You must get your sleeping back on track! :P I started to feel so much healthier when I started sleeping right. I remember when I’d stay up until 4am or so.. and then sleeping in all day. Ugh, I felt horrid. :| Now I get a good 8-hours a night, and waking up at 8am! I love it. :) Although I do love the days where I can sleep in.. hehe
OH! And thank you so much for dedicating that song to me, I love it! You’re just too cool. I really outta listen to more of her stuff.. she has such a beautiful voice. <3
I'm actually on my sister's laptop.. mine messed up again. :| And just a few hours before mine gave out, Chris's crashed! Technology is not our friend lately. We just mailed them out BACK to Dell, the both of them, and hopefully they'll fix them this time.. we'll see! If not, they said they will give us new ones.
…I never realized how much I depended on the internet until now. I miss my favorite blogs.. and my video games.. and blogging! Hmph. But I've been finding other things to keep me occupied. Reading a lot more! Drawing.. babysitting.. oh, and playing with our new puppy! :D We got her today! I'm not going to say much more, because I want to blog about it. She was totally unexpected! I can't wait to share photos, teehee. She is absolutely adorable…Now it's going to nag at you thinking what type of dog she is, and what she is like.. all in due time! :P
Oh, and you're so welcome. You're such a cool guy. You deserved the postcard! I am glad you liked it. :D Picturing you jumping up and down on your bed in excitement is so funny.. you dork!
By the way, you're such a wonderful writer, Teddy! I really enjoy how you can turn your blog entries into small stories.. You are quite good with words.
Hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Woah, that’s one long comment, Trina! I can totally empathize with your feeling – when my elementary school teacher made us participate in a tiny experiment where we mailed our classmates letter, I was so nervous when I dropped the letter into the letterbox. I immediately ran the checklist across my mind: did I check the address? Did I remember sticking the stamp onto the envelope? Did I put enough glue? Did I seal the envelope? Did I even remember putting the letter in the first place? It must hilarious to see me with that dazed face after dumping my very first letter at the post office, haha.
Yeap! I can’t believe we’re 9000 air miles apart (and that’s almost the shortest distance between us) and yet we can still meet each other on this vast net. It’s just amazing!
One thing I love about snail mails is that they have this human participation it in. It’s made, written, sealed, transported, filtered, sorted manually, with so many people from different places checking it. Sometimes I wonder if they read our postcards, haha! I think they do, when they feel like it they’d take a peek at what’s written on postcards, haha.
Oh, actually I like the hand-drawn one by you. It probably worth a lot more than just the normal postcards because you drew it :) with so much effort and time. Thank you!
I think I’ll have to fix my sleeping habits by this weekend! My exams are really close and I can’t afford to fall sick now :P no worries, I will take good care of myself. You have, too! I’m glad to hear that although you’re busy with work, you’re getting enough sleep and as fit as a fiddle, teehee. I’m very envious that you’re getting the 8-hours of sleep every night! Sometimes I survive on half of that, but now I’ll try to sleep at least 6 hours every night.
KT Tunstall has a really unique voice that I adore. She’s so different from other generic female artists out there :) her coarse and yet lively voice got this extram charm in it, don’t you think? And her voice goes very well with the guitar she’s playing.
Owww, sorry to hear that both Chris and your laptop crashed. I wonder what’s wrong with Dell – and I suspect it’s the NVidia card that’s giving you the problem. I hope you can get your laptop back as soon as possible. I know how painful it feels to be away from the Internet, even if that’s just for a week or two.
Oh woah you’ve got a new puppy?! I think we could expect a post about your new puppy when you get your laptop back :D I can’t wait to see how she looks like, haha! What’s her name?
Ahhha I literally jumped on the bed, teehee. I’m not ashamed to admit that I’m a dork hahaha. But believe me, nothing feels better than receiving a mail from a great blog friend across the Pacific.
Happy belated Halloween and have a great week ahead!