narrativeautumn

他看戲 也一個人看
他放假 也一個人放
他叫我 有時間記得對妳好一些
– 陳奕迅〈他一個人〉

You wake up in the morning and the sun is shining into your room, making you smile and let you feel happy. It seems like life couldn’t be better and you step forward to conquer life and your aims. You want to have the life you dreamed of, you want to be successful to satisfy your own expectations. In the evening you come back home after reading dozens of books, after studied dozens of books, after finishing your work, after meeting a few people who bore you anyway.

But still, you come back home alone, no-one waiting for you, no-one hugging you, no-one kissing you, loving you. You are all on your own. It feels like there’s a big hole in your heart, letting you cry in the nighttime – leaving you dreaming in the daytime. You see all those happy couples on the streets and you ask yourself why it is you, who is alone.

You want somebody being at your side, loving you, caring about you, pampering you, but no matter how hard you wish, no-one will come. You feel hopeless, sad and hurt – you wish it would be different, but you know that there won’t be somebody falling from heaven.

Love is something you can’t buy, love is something you can’t gain with a smile. Love comes suddenly and unexpected, you can’t run away or hide –you have to face it. Love can be the cruelest thing that happens to you, but life without love, would that be better ??

Somehow we all dream of the perfect match, the perfect person, but there’s nothing left than pain and suffering. Being alone can be even worse than be in love with the wrong person. We all need to find our better half to get rid of our loneliness and sadness. Sometimes we are sitting in the dark and cry, try to cut out all the pain and suffering that is hidden in our hearts, but it is of no use.

Still, we are falling asleep alone, trying to understand the emptiness that is around us…Nevertheless there’s no way to escape from it, to fill the emptiness in our hearts, to wash away the disappointment that is getting bigger day per day…

picture: taken by Kiat around late July, 2006, in his room.
article: written by Jasmine Yi-Hua, after Kiat’s invitation to be his guest writer.

I’ve never thought of publishing one of these notes. But right now I am in the middle of completing my Sciences and Services Assignment (702-219) and I’ve received an idea analogous to that of a light bulb flash. One of the questions requires us to design a kitchen scheme based on our house floor plans. To do this we need to determine the power ratings of different light sources. i.e. Halogen Par Lights: 120W,1900 lumens

We can then work out the cost of operating this device by applying simple physics formulas.

I remember back in junior high days, whilst at a friends place, my friend mentioned that his uncle told him “if you switch off your monitor when you’re not using it, you can save 41cents (Australian Dollar, equivalent to RM1.23) per year”. Thinking back, it was quite funny at that time.

Sitting here in front of my notebook, trying to calculate the cost of operating a light bulb is boring me death. Wouldn’t it be good if I could apply the formulas to something interesting? I’m wondering what the cost of operating this notebook is? In the past, many of you would probably consider the costs of operating a computer. Likewise, you may also have considered the incentives of putting the computer in hibernation mode when you go to lunch. So now I will attempt to estimate the costs of operating this notebook.

(V) Output Voltage = 19V
(I) Current= 3.2A
P = ?

Power = Voltage x Current
P = V x I
= 19 x 3.2
= 60.8W
=0.0608kW

What are the annual costs of operating this computer?

Let’s assume that the computer runs for three hours per day, seven days per week.
The current electricity tariff rate is: A$0.133/ kW

Electricity consumption cost = Kilowatts x Hours per day x Days x Tariff rate
= 0.0608 x 3 x 365 x 0.133
= A$8.85

Although this amount may seem minimal or negligible for some, the true cost of operating a computer may not simply be the amount of money outstanding on the electricity bill. Nevertheless, environmental carbon emissions have not been factored in. If we incorporate the latent costs of global warming, the true cost of operating a computer will be more than it seems.