The past two weeks passed by like a hurricane, we just kept rolling with the punches as if it was our favourite sport. At work, things were picking up after the summer lull, mostly because people were coming back from vacation. That being said, neither of us took any real time-off during the summer as we were doing double duties when our bosses/co-workers were not around. On top of the normal day-to-day trials and tribulations at work (which we fully embraced without any apprehension or dissatisfaction), our basement renovation project recently hit a speed bump. No, there was no structural disaster that would cost us an arm or a leg like you saw on Holmes on Homes. We bought a vanity and a sink from IKEA; the vanity was exactly 120 cm wide but the sink was approx. 2 cm wider than what was stated on the specs. We were working within such a tight margin of space in the bathroom, the extra 2 cm rendered the sink unfit for our use. The vanity needed adjustment to fit our plumbing as well. We decided to haul both items back to IKEA for a refund and must now look for an alternative (which may cost us more, oh well). Also, we have some tiling issues that must be fixed, translating into the sad reality that we have to buy more honed marble tiles than we already did. The craftsmanship of our contractors just fell short of our expectations. In the grandest scheme of things, the sum of all these little imperfections was not fatal; it simply means we need more time to complete the basement renovation. So be it. So we drove T's father back to his sister's yesterday. T's father asked us to convert four VHS tapes into DVD format, video clips containing old family videos. We managed to get the tapes converted by a little store in downtown and were watching one of them with T's father on Thursday evening. The segment we saw was recorded in October 1992, including T's father and mother, T's sister and brother-in-law, and T's niece, who was approx. one year old at most at the time. I thought T's father would have balled his eyes out while viewing the video segment (i.e., seeing a walking and talking image of his deceased spouse). Contrary to my naive assumptions, the viewing was thoroughly fun and entertaining. It was a normal family outing in a park with a little kid who barely knew how to walk. The memories captured were very charming and sweet. Of course, there were sentiments expressed about how 20 years of time flew by in a blink. For what's worth, I think the home videos are therapeutic and comforting in a powerful yet subtle way, something that may be inspiring for T's father. T and I have yet to plan for our trip to HK. Four more days and we will catch a flight across the Pacific re-visiting a place where I was born and raised. Who knows if the flight attendants of Air Canada will ever decide to go on strike after September 20th? We are content to live our lives one day at a time, and we'll see what's in store for us in due course.
Sometimes before you can catch a breath of air, you've got to swim to the ocean floor.
上次《字由式》的題目是社交網﹐除了更新近況﹑張貼照片﹑轉載消息等等不務正業的勾當外﹐五花八門的網上遊戲也真令人愛不釋手。有時候慶幸十多年前求學時沒有這麼多的誘惑﹐現在的學生真可需要無比的定力和自制。不是每一個遊戲都適合我這名反應緩慢的書獃子﹐除了在社交網上玩玩大富翁外﹐新寵兒是「模擬人生—社交篇 (The Sims Social)」。
「模擬人生 (The Sims)」可算是「古董」的電腦遊戲﹐從2000年面世至今﹐倏忽已十一載。「模擬人生」的前身是「模擬城市」前者是微觀的個人生活﹐後者是宏觀的都市發展。在「模擬人生」﹐遊戲者控制著模擬人物的日常舉動﹐運用有限的資源來滿足模擬人物的飲食﹑休息﹑娛樂﹑衛生等等生理及社交需求﹐每天不斷地致力改善居住環境和經濟基礎﹐務求達到人生盡善盡美的目標。
