Coolcat's Jottings

Ok, I'm posting this here because it got too long for Facebook and especially 140-char Twitter.

Imagine your name appearing in Twitter's trending topics.  Based on
your reaction, you would know just what type of personality you are:

A sanguine - Wow!!!! People are talking about me! They love me!!!  And hey, I appeared way above Megan Fox, too!  Wooo hoooo!!!

A phlegmatic - Hmmm. So what?

A melancholy - Why can't people just leave me alone?  They make me sound like such an attention whore.  It's so depressing.

A choleric - I can't believe my office workers are wasting their time in
talking about me.  I really should give them more work to do.

So which one are ya?

A colleague was telling another colleague to respond fast on a client's e-mail.  The reason given was, "Well, because she's a woman.  Women take it hard if no one responds."

I gaped at him.  I mean, really.  

As if guys don't feel bad if no one responds to their queries.  If that was true, why do my male family members, buddies, colleagues and clients hop up and down when I pretend I don't hear their questions?

Skewed question, that's what it is :P 

Got this on my e-mail today sent by a Chinese friend.  It really had me laughing as I can identify myself or some other Chinese person in the statements below.  Read them all, you'll have a blast.  If you are not Chinese but can identify with the list, you are officially yellow on the inside.  Give yourself a pat on the back!

Please check the list to see how Chinese you or your friends
really are:

There are at least 29 ways to know if you're Chinese. You will laugh at
yourself when you read all of them.

1. You unwrap gifts very carefully, so you can save and reuse the wrapping (and especially those ribbons).  Guilty as charged.

2. When there is a sale on toilet paper, you buy
100 rolls and store them in your closet or in the bedroom of an adult
child who has moved out. Yeah, my folks have a room at home that stashes loads of toilet rolls.

3. You keep a Thermos of hot water available at all
times. My folks are guilty of that.

4. You save grocery bags, tin foil, and tin
containers. You use the grocery bags to hold garbage. Just being a Greenie mar...

5. You hate to waste food:

(a) Even if you're totally
full, if someone says they're going to throw away the leftovers on
the table, you'll finish them. (Your mom will give you a lecture about starving
kids in Africa ). I can still that lecture ringing in my ear...

(b) You have Tupperware in
your fridge with three bites of rice or one leftover chicken wing.  Ok, there were some leftovers in the fridge...

6. You don't own
any real Tupperware- only a cupboard full of used but carefully rinsed
margarine tubs, take out containers, and jam jars.  Hahahahaha!  Did these people actually have a spy cam in my home??

7. You have a collection of miniature shampoo bottles
that you take every  time you stay in a hotel.  Oh boy, oh boy...

8. You wipe your plate and utensils or wash them
in a small basin of hot water before you eat every time you go to a restaurant.  Isn't that like hygienic?

9. You own a rice cooker and a slow cooker. I don't own either but I've been contemplating on getting them

10. You wash your rice at least 2-3 times before
cooking it. Again, isn't that hygienic?

11. You fight (literally) over who pays the dinner bill. Eh?

12. You have a teacup with a cover on it. Aiyor, these ppl really got spycam lar

13. If you're under age 20, you own a really
expensive Walkman; if you're over 20, you own a really
expensive camera.  Man, how did they know that??  I had a walkman and portable CD player in college (big thing back then) and a baby dSLR now.

14. You're a wok user.  Nope, but my folks are.

15. You only make long distance calls after 7pm. Bingo.

16. You prefer
your shrimp with the heads and legs still attached - it means they're fresh. But of course.

17. You never call your parents just to say, ' Hi.
' LOL! When I was overseas, my dad will scold me for wasting money if I called home

18. If you don't live at home, when your parents
call, they'll ask if you've eaten, even if it's midnight. Correct, correct, correct!  Then again, it's a common Chinese greeting to all, not just between family members.

19. Your parents tell you to boil herbs and stay
indoors when you get sick. They also tell you not to eat fried foods or baked
foods because such food is ' heaty'  Nope, my parents are not traditional in this area.

20. You e-mail your Chinese friends at work, even
though you only sit 10 feet apart. Errr, doesn't everyone do that these days?

21. You always cook too much. My folks used to do that.

22. You eat every last grain of rice in your bowl, but
don't eat the last piece of food on the table.  Nope, more like the opposite

23. You starve yourself before going to an ' All
You Can Eat ' buffet.  More bang for your buck.

24. You know someone who can get you a good deal on
jewellery, electronics, or computers. Ok, I know someone who knows someone who can give discounts on some gadgets.

25. You own your own meat cleaver and sharpen it
yourself. Ah, hafta say no to that.

26. Your toothpaste tubes are all squeezed
paper-thin.  Wastage is sin!

27. You call a sausage a hotdog. Isn't it though?

28. You wrap with napkins all the knives, spoons
and forks of the airline that you fly on and put in your travel-bag as
souvenirs. It gets burdensome if you travel a lot so you stop doing that after a while

29. You never forget to take with you all the
unused bath and facial tissues when you check out from the hotel because
you believe that you have paid for it all. Ok, that sounds familiar. But Ross ain't a Chinese.

 Now that you have read the lot, are they mostly true?

I'm sure you've met people who are nice, friendly, as interested to get to know about you as you are about them.  They have many friends and seem to know everyone who's anyone from different industries, age, sexuality, creed and background.  They are unassuming and make great conversationalists who can talk about any topic under the sun.  They are not judgmental and no one is too good or too bad to be their friend.  And most importantly, they do not make friends to further their cause or business.  They just like people without any ulterior motives or agenda.

Sounds like the ultimate perfect friendster, eh?

Until you realize that such friends come with certain limitations.  They forget what you have told them and what they have told you.  They still remember important stuff, of course.  What you do, your phone number, important dates, your close friends, your hobbies.  It's probably safely contained in their rolodex - how else can they keep track of so many friends?  But for the life of them, they can't recall that the trivial news that they have shared to you and may share that bit to you over and over again.

Secondly, you can't get closer to them after a certain stage.  The friendship has breath but not much depth.  It becomes frustrating if you want to get to know them better and hang out more but they are perfectly contented to remain just slightly better than acquaintances.  And yet their friendship base keeps growing exponentially.  These people find much pleasure in collecting friends that I call them the friend collectors. 

Reading Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point just confirms my 'findings'.   He also calls them friend collectors but has another name for them - Connectors.  They have a valuable place in society because they can connect the right people together and make things happen.  When you are in a technological field, chances are, you'll never meet people from a niche theatrical arena.  But Connectors who know all sorts of people would.

Now, normally folks would not dispense much effort in increasing the number of acquaintances and prefer to put in more effort in cultivating close friendships.  Connectors, however, get a high from getting to know a new acquaintance to put into their rolodex so that they can cultivate the friendship - at an arm's length, of course.

That is normal when it comes to Connectors.  We know it takes a lot of resources to maintain deep friendships.  Connectors just spread their attention fairly (give or take) to their large brood of friends. 

You may never hope to have a Connector for a best buddy but you can never have a more accepting person to have great conversations with whenever they can spare the time.

1. Aiyor, so smelly wan this durian!


2. Yucks, I hate the taste of belacan!


3. Please keep the change


4. Here's your tip


5. I miss the public transportation back home!


6. Wah, the food here is so much better than Klang/Penang/Ipoh/Melaka...!


7. Their motorcycling skills so terror, man.  Kalah our Mat Rempits!


8. Errr... less curry, please.


9. More salt for my egg, please. What?! You only have soy sauce here? Ewwww...!