Category: 2003

It all started with a cage containing five monkeys. Inside the cage, a banana was hung on a string and a set of stairs was placed under it. Before long, a monkey went to the stairs and started to climb towards the banana. As soon as he touched the stairs, all of the other monkeys were sprayed with cold water. After a while, another monkey made an attempt with the same result – all the other monkeys were sprayed with cold water. Pretty soon, anytime another monkey tried to climb the stairs, the other monkeys tried to prevent it.

After a couple of days, the cold water was removed. One monkey was removed from the cage and replaced with a new one. The new monkey saw the banana and wanted to climb the stairs. To his surprise and horror , all of the other monkeys attacked him. After another attempt and attack, he knew that if he tried to climb the stairs, he would be assaulted.

Next, another of the original five monkeys was removed and replaced it with a new one. The newcomer went to the stairs and was attacked. The previous newcomer took part in the punishment with enthusiasm! Likewise, a third original monkey was replaced with a new one, then a fourth, then the fifth.

Every time the newest monkey took to the stairs, he was attacked. Most of the monkeys that were beating him had no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs or why they were participating in the beating of the newest monkey.

After replacing all the original monkeys, none of the remaining monkeys had ever been sprayed with cold water. Nevertheless, no monkey ever again approached the stairs to try for the banana.

Why not?

Because as far as they know, that’s the way it’s always been done around here. And that, is how most of our rituals and customs began.

a few days ago i borrowed a PlexWriter from a friend. my AOpen 20X CDRW has stopped working on my computer. at first i would get Fixation Errors in Nero. I switched to CDRWin and was able to burn 4 or 5 cds before it started bailing out as well. Further investigation with VCDEasy told me the new error was a Power Calibration Error. AOpen’s website, in taiwan, was of no help. however, google provided me with quite a number of angry AOpen customer posts on various forums complaining about how the burners stop working after about a year. mine lasted more than a year. not bad i guess.

the PlexWriter is eXcellent. it is 24X and burns a cd in 4 minutes and 30 something seconds. all hail Plextor.

i biked to Carleton earlier today. couldn’t find any spare air conditioner that i could borrow for the summer. afterwards, it took 34 minutes to bike back home.. but those 34 minutes in the sun were enough to do this :

34 degrees celsius | 93.2 fahrenheit

tomorrow 2 pm i shall be free!! mythist, on the other hand, is still busy trying to make up her mind about the movie plan. i shudder to think about how chaotic the inner workings of her brain might be. synapses firing all over the place.. intermingling with one another, creating false positive and non negative charges which randomly discharge themselves.. leaving unfinished thoughts floating in the dark caverns within the seemingly endless cranial cavity .. eeeek

“We don’t expect any precipitation from Monday overnight to Tuesday overnight.” +unfortunately

it is blazing hot today. there is a yellow disc in the sky and it is dehydrating every living thing in its view. walking to Baseline station alone requires one full bottle of Dasani Remineralized, Reverse-Osmosisized, and Non-Carbonated Water. my kidney for an air conditioner!!

shekhar got a co-op job at Nortel… excellent. he treated me to free ice-cream treat at DQ … but it makes me wonder why am i not in Co-op :|