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July 31, 2006
'tayar'ing 'XP'rience
tayar (n.) - (Malay Language) tire lube, made out of rubber.
XP (n.) - (Microsoft language) codename of a (finally) stable OS from MS corp. Incidentally, it is also the reverse initial of this blog's author.
So after moving out successsfully, now i'm staying with a senior doing PhD in E&E engineering. This is the first time i'm bunking in with someone more mature, more knowledgable and enjoys running. The funny thing is he keeps refering me from a 'younger generation' (年轻一代的), and then laments how old he is now, but actually he's only 20++.
Last Friday he went out for 'older generation' gathering, so i called up my previous and future roommate Boon whom i shared an Audi with. He's supposed to pick me up and go to Walmart together. Mana tahu when i looked out of the window, the Audi was in the middle of the car park, with lights off. Boon was on bent back looking at the left front tire. Apparently he heard a 'pop' sound and felt the steering wheel went slightly aligned to the left side when turning into the car park. I took out my handphone and shone some light on the left front tire. It was torn.
I flipped my phone around my hand to get hold of the situation. Common sense told us we need some tools. Unfortunately, the car toolbox was in the storage compartment some 22 miles away. Even more unfortunate was that there's no one around to ask for help. Desperate times call for desperate measures. So I dailed my senior's number using what i now deem the most useful invention in the world. He's actually on his way to Kokomo, some one hour away, but he turned back all the way. Man, i was eternally grateful.
The senior tried his tools on the wheel nuts but alas there is no suitable size. The only way was to get out tools tomorrow and in the meantime park the car temporarily at my senior's place.
The next day, I got a call from Boon. Apparently he was at the storage company already trying to search for out storage unit. I told him the unit number, but to his great surprise the lock wasn't on the latch! He pulled open the metal sliding door, and lo and behold, our stuffs were not there. It was empty! I started flipping my phone around my hand again. Surely our stuffs is not stolen!? In desperation (must be the primary emotion i experienced this week!) he went through all the locks in the neighbouring units, but to no avail.
After one hour of trying, he decided to try the last unit nearby. He didn't give it a shot at first because it was double-locked. Mana tahu one of the locks clicked open. Wth!?! Who dared to pull a prank on us by adding another lock!? But it finally dawned upon us that that unit wasn't ours. This left us one and only explanation.
WE PUT OUR STUFFS IN THE WRONG UNIT IN THE FIRST PLACE!
Damn paiseh man...
Boon explained to the owner about what we had just realized. That must have solved the owner's mystery of a locked unassigned unit in his storage company. Apparently the other lock belonged to the owner, just in case. After clearing up all the stupid misunderstandings, we were re-assigned to that unit.
Got the toolbox, finally. After fixing the tire, we went to Steak & Shake for late lunch and laughed about this most incredibly lame and neurotic incident we had ever caused ourselves.
Footnote: the 'XP' in the title has nothing to do with this entry. Just that I have recently come across Dell Inspiron e1405 laptop owned by another senior. What's so special about this model is that it's Dell's first line of laptop equipped with Intel's newest dual core microprocessor. simply incredible speed it possesses! Makes my Inspiron 6000 look like a tortoise next to it.
Posted by peixin at July 31, 2006 07:10 AM