Kids are ingenious

While eating with Grandpa, Kristine
used her imagination to get to the
proper height at the table. Usually
she needs a second chair for this.
But we did not realise what she did
until Grandpa told her to sit
"properly".

Real men don't emote

I gave my 90 days,
And he sat dazed

You could see his face,
He's broken in every place.

We faced, in the cold silent tomb,
Which no one wants to be there.

And Real Men don't emote. They just sat and stare.

In the fidgeting quiet,
We forced ourselves to chat.

He knows the Good Times are up,
And reveals our broken rice cup.

Shook my hand, he said, "Thanks."
I told him why, he understands.

Real Men don't emote. We carry on with the Route.

T'is a sinking plank but I helped it float.
We can go so far, but its no boat.

We are sad and he's speechless. But not mad.
Shook my hand once more, and says, "Thank You for your time."

"First time I felt your hands." as we still shook,
"Its rough, for we toiled like men.", I choked.

Real Men don't emote, even if he lost Hope.

We sighed and sighed,
Lots to say, but my mouth is dry.

Finally, his tooth aches he wants to go.
So do I but I feel so low.

Leaving the Captain, lost in the Horizon,
I looked back, with pain and emotion.

Because Real Men don't emote, we parted silently.

And let's be hush-hush to confuse the wolves
I was your pillar, now I am your Achilles Heel.

I want to run. I want come back.
But its not April 1. Its my Career or my two Kids.

I want to cry, I can't let go.
I want to apologise, but I must be bold.

Alas, I am not one as Real Men don't emote.

Taylor Swift's Love Story

My Wife was asking for this song a few months back because she heard on the radio and loved it. I listened to it as only noticed the banjo part in the beginning. After getting it for her, I just forgot all about it until last week when my Nokia 5800 randomly played the song. After I listened to it, it was just Ok, most probably another girly song.

But then, because of the nice banjo part, I listened to it again and again, almost everyday. And then, it clicked somewhere in my head. This is a damn good song! The lyrics are simple but very powerful:


We were both young when I first saw you
I close my eyes
And the flashback starts
I'm standing there
On a balcony of summer air


See the lights,
See the party, the ball gowns
I see you make your way through the crowd
You say hello
Little did I know

That you were Romeo you were throwing pebbles
And my daddy said stay away from Juliet
And I was crying on the staircase
Begging you please don't go, and I said:

Romeo take me somewhere we can be alone
I'll be waiting all there's left to do is run
You'll be the prince and I'll be the princess
It's a love story baby just say yes

So I sneak out to the garden to see you
We keep quiet cause we're dead if they know
So close your eyes
Escape this town for a little while

Cause you were Romeo I was a scarlet letter
And my daddy said stay away from Juliet
But you were everything to me
I was begging you please don't go and I said:

Romeo take me somewhere we can be alone
I'll be waiting all there's left to do is run
You'll be the prince and I'll be the princess
It's a love story baby just say yes

Romeo save me, they try to tell me how to feel
This love is difficult, but it's real,
Don't be afraid
We'll make it out of this mess
It's a love story baby just say yes, oh,

I got tired of waiting
Wondering if you were ever coming around
My faith in you was fading
When I met you on the outskirts of town I said:

Romeo save me I've been feeling so alone
I keep waiting for you but you never come
Is this in my head, I don't know what to think
He knelt to the ground and pulled out a ring

And said:

Marry me Juliet you'll never have to be alone
I love you and that's all I really know
I talked to your dad go pick out a white dress
It's a love story baby just say yes

Oh, oh, oh

Oh, oh, oh, oh

Cause we were both young when I first saw you

And I loved the part, "I talked to your dad go pick out a white dress". In just that few words, the meaning were so powerful. The more I listened, the more my Imagination ran wild, creating my own version of the music video and I actually shed some tears when it came to that part.

Wow.

The Mysterious Metal DB Box

After so many years in this line, its not easy to be surprised anymore. But today, at the a customer's place, I was stumped. This was because after laying an Earth cable, my technician could not get a proper reading from the meter. (I asked him to do this otherwise he would not have done it. He would just pack up his stuff and go off). And so, the next day, I dropped by to see that the problem was.

This is very strange. There IS voltage
on the metal DB Boxes.

I am not sure what is on the other side
of the wall bit what I got here was 25
volts DC. And if everything is correct,
there should not be any voltage at all,
AC or DC.

Finally, after taking the boxes out, I discovered that
the voltage came from the screws, just like my Boss
said. Its a very long screw and after replacing it with
a shorter screw, the problem went away but there
is still some trace voltage.

And we might have top shift the two boxes an inch
to the left or right since these plastic wallplugs are
impossible to remove.

Funnily enough, at the same time, one of the customer's line was out and so, we had to lay a new cable for them. And then, we were faced with another mystery. The line has a nice tone when we tested it at the bottom floor. And it was the same at the customer's floor. But once we punch the line in, the quality went out of the window. After much testing, we could not find any problem until the last cable connection to the system via the metal DB Box. Once we nailed the problem, everything was OK. And so was the mysterioys voltage! But I cannot discount this due to coincidence as the voltage did come from the screws. My only though would be that some device was not switched on at this time when we went to measure the voltage.