My new laptop - Acer Aspire 4741G

After enduring countless of screen blackouts and system restarts with my hp laptop of 4 years old, I finally bought a new laptop yesterday. I got an Acer Aspire 4741G for RM2239. I was planning to buy a Dell Inspiron or Toshiba Satellite, did plenty of research on those two models. But when I got to the store, the salesman (with chicken voice) was strongly promoting the Acer to me. Comparing specs-to-specs, it is a very good deal indeed. For RM2299, the Acer comes with Intel Core i5 processor, 2GB RAM, 500GB HDD and 3 years warranty; Dell or Toshiba at similar price range only offers Intel Core i3, 2GB RAM, 320GB HDD and 1 year warranty. I was actually quite suspicious of the deal. I asked the salesman why is Acer so cheap? It's a marketing strategy, he said.

I could have stick with my original decision of getting a Dell or Toshiba, but being the kiasu person I am, the deal was too good to give up. Too bad I didn't have internet access to check out the reviews (word of mouth marketing definitely works for people like me). My concerns were: 1) is Acer an inferior brand compared to Dell/Toshiba? 2) does the brand have anything to do with the machine's performance? 3) does the laptop heat up easily? (overheating was the main problem with my hp and compaq - I ask this same question to a few salesman, off course everyone says their products don't have overheating problem)

I probably walk around the mall a few times before finally coming to a decision. Actually, this is my 3rd visit to the mall already in search of a laptop. I decided to take a leap of faith with Acer this time based on a few reasons: 1) my brother had an Acer which lasted about 3-4 years 2) the free 3 year warranty is too good to give up (if I bought a crappy laptop, at least I am still covered for its crappiness within the next 3 years, right?) 3) it is definitely not time efficient for me to come back for the 4th time.

So here I am writing this blog with my brand new laptop. There is nothing to complain about the hardware so far, but the machine doesn't come with any MS Office software. The original software costs RM299, and comes with 3 licences; probably sensing the cheapskate in me, the chicken-voice salesman recommended using openoffice which is a freeware that you can download online (http://www.openoffice.org/). I am trying out openoffice now, the interface is quite similar to MS Office, but you still need some time to get used to it; it's quite amazing so far, you can actually read MS office documents, and save documents in MS office version, it's free and you don't have to go against your conscience by using ciplak software. Hopefully this new laptop will serve me well for another 3-4 years.

Inception

我甘拜于Christopher Nolan的天才。他是这部片的导演兼编剧 。故事的构思很好。新颖的题材利用简单、有结构的表达方式让观众可以明白；观众因为可以明白如此有深度的概念所以有一种自我提升的好感，也所以对电影有所好评。故事要探讨的是“虚幻和现实只是一念之差”这个概念。而导演就是那个要把这个概念植入观众思想里面的关键人物。非常佩服导演想到用“梦中梦 （a dream within a dream）”的构思来诠释虚幻和真实的区别。相信每一个人都有进入过梦中梦的境界，那种在梦里梦醒的感觉真的奇异，有时候的确难以辨别自己到底回到了现实还是在梦中。也非常佩服他懂得利用不同阶层的梦去创造不同的时空，然后用巧妙的剪接手法把去连贯在不同时空同一时间发生的事情；确实，那种在梦中过了很久，醒来时才发觉不过睡了十多分钟的感觉是大家都很熟悉的。最绝的要属结尾所留下的“问号” --那个陀螺究竟有没有停止旋转，主角最后真的回到现实了吗，抑或依然困在自己创造的梦境当中？

这部戏让我联想到曾经读过的一篇诗, Edgar Allan Poe 的《A Dream within A Dream》:

Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow-
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand-
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep- while I weep!
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?

或许当人走到绝望之时，总会创造一些“梦/假象”去帮助自己以逃避的方式去面对接受不到的事实；或许，“梦”是人与生俱来的求生本能，在现实世界无法活下去的时候，就编造另一个世界来延续自己的生命，所以才会有精神错乱的人、靠毒品成日沉迷于兴奋状态的人等等；比起寻死的人，我们是否应该赞赏这些仍有一丝求生意志的人呢？

献给阿明和黎小姐

第一次知道关于阿明的事情，是从很想红小姐和Charlene那里听来的。是属于男对女一见钟情的故事，虽然有点质疑现实中是否有一见钟情这回事，但故事当然也没有停止在一见钟情而已。第一次看见阿明是在Subang某商场，当时他正式以男友身份出现，接受好朋友们的“面试”，除了表现得有点腼腆之外，也算漂亮过关。第一次体验阿明的为人是大学时候和一伙朋友到意大利旅行的时候。那趟旅行有两对恋人 – 黎小姐和阿明，Soha和Sara – 还有郭小姐和我。整个行程中阿明表现很得体，照顾女友有方，领导大队有方，让大伙玩得很放心。当时就觉得黎小姐实在很有眼光，选了一支低风险、高回报的蓝筹股，简单来说就是一个值得依靠的好男生。郭小姐和我一路上都是落在队伍后面，我们自嘲没有爱情的力量，所以走得比较慢，其实是不想打扰情人们的卿卿我我。

其实，对于黎小姐和阿明这段感情，我也只能以一个站在很远的旁观者身份去观察和诠释。但我相信两人言行之间的感情流露是真实的。这两人形成一对很有趣的搭配：一个曾经是华文学会主席，一个是华语不通的香蕉人；一个是非基督教徒，一个是基督教徒。这不是一段简单的爱情故事，语言和信仰上都要做出不少让步和妥协。两人能够从谈恋爱发展到结婚的阶段，看似简单，应该也不容易，相信他们也经历过不为人知的矛盾和挣扎，最重要的是在面对各种挑战之下，他们终究选择彼此、选择守住这段感情，才有我今天有感而发写这篇东西。往后还有更长的路要走，至少现在有两个人一起面对和承担，希望两人可以发挥 1+1>2的效力，越战越勇，用爱情和亲情的甜蜜融掉身边的每一个人。请别担心我们，我想我们应该受得起的，也会替你们感到非常非常地开心。祝福你们。

执子之手…

与子偕老。