The eight things meme

I first saw this meme on Jeremiah’s blog, and then on Connie’s blog. It’s amazing how fast information spreads in social media. Well to keep the meme going, here are eight things you didn’t know about me:

1. I’m a natural right-hander but I text/sms with my left. If I try to text with my right hand, I end up as slow as a retard.

2. I started out playing the percussion in the school band. It was so boring until I insisted and got started playing the trumpet. Then I got seduced by the french horn and ended up as a section leader. It has been 8 years since I last touched any of those instruments.

3. In secondary school, the teacher who marked my composition script for the GCE ‘O’ levels preliminaries came and told me in front of the entire class ”I read your composition and I nearly fell off my chair. Keep up the good work and you will go far.”

4. I have seven hamsters (!) at home. It was just two originally and one day we noticed the male one humping the female one, and a few months later, out popped five babies.

5. For my first job, I worked in the Government service in a statutory board doing web communications stuff and loved it. I still have fond memories of the place and my ex-colleagues.

6. My favourite country at the moment has gotta be Japan. I was there a few months ago and how can one not be amazed at the culture, the politeness, the scenic beauty and… the food! Oeshii ne.

7. I have fairly high myopia (over 800 degrees each eye). I’m afraid to go for LASIK because I’m convinced that when the laser is zapping my eyes, my eyeballs will move and I’ll go blind.

8. I’m a tech freak and have an insatiable urge to change my mobilephone every six months. Next up, the iPhone.

iDrool… iLike… iWant… the iPhone

Finally I managed to get my hands on an iPhone. Before anyone get all excited, no it’s not mine. And since it’s not an authorised handset, I shan’t reveal the source.

The first thing that hit me was how incredibly slim the iPhone is. Anorexic even. It feels very solid and not at all plasticky like how I’d imagine it to be. It just makes you wanna caress it, damnit.

The SMS function is simpler and easier than I thought. Even though the keyboard looked rather small, I managed to punch the correct keys most of the time. Maybe it’s because I have slim figure fingers. Still, I much prefer a tactile feedback especially since I SMS alot. The keyboard and spelling dictionary (not T9) takes some getting use to though.

The pinching actions when viewing photos or surfing the web is quite a novelty, IMO. Most of the other functions are a breeze and most users shouldn’t have a problem.

Having touched one, it just makes you wanna go out and buy one immediately. Should I get the iPod Touch as originally intended or just hold out for the iPhone’s Asia release? Decisions, decisions!

Updated 1 Nov 07:
P/S On hindsight, it will be better to wait. The second generation iPhone to be released in Asia will probably be 3G-enabled (and will hopefully contain none of the alleged hazardous chemicals).

Blog action day: iPhone an environment killer?

Ok ok, so I forgot I was suppose to blog about environment related issues on the 15th October… but it’s still 15th over at the US… so technically it still counts.

I just read an article at TechCrunch where “According to Greenpeace, the iPhone contains toxic brominated compounds (indicating the prescence of brominated flame retardants (BFRs)) and hazardous PVCs.”

Does this spell the death of the iPhone? I doubt so. Most electronic products are made up of non-biodegradable materials so they just sit in landfills when chucked away. But at least it’s creating awareness about electronic waste that most people aren’t aware about.

Another environment-related entry I posted earlier can be found here.

I’ll also be waiting to see how Apple will respond to this. Will Jobs be ready with another PR spiel?