my simple life

It has been almost 3 weeks since I moved into my new home... but the place remains unfurnished (well... minimally furnished). It’s partly due to the mad rush to buy furniture before the Chinese New Year and partly because I was working day and night trying to heed to all the URGENT calls flying in from every direction.

My initial intent was not to complain about the demanding workload or the fact that Singaporeans buy up all the furniture before New Years. I was looking at my “necessities” nicely arranged on the furniture-less floor and I had felt the urge to share it with the world... Observe the bare necessities I require in order to survive:

1. cable modem - cannot make a living without network access to telecommute
2. print, scan, copy (3 in 1) printer - I rarely print, but sometimes I really do need to get things printed when I am not able to carry information in electronic format
3. phone base - I do need a “landline” for extended conference calls
4. transformer - being an American, I have many electronic goods that require 110V output.
5. Airport Express - I LOVE this little thing. I’ve been carrying it everywhere. You can hook up your printer and speakers. Instant wireless network with printer + speaker sharing (via iTunes).
6. Subwoofer - because I need to play my “hack on” playlist while I “hack on”... You would be amazed what a different even a cheap subwoofer makes to the richness of your music.
7. TV - my window to the world when I am confined indoor hacking away for HOURS (sometimes days). It also functions as the hub for audio input/output (all audio output goes into TV and then out to speakers)
8. cable box - because a man cannot live on free channels alone
9. Mac Mini - a tiny package that can be used as stationary base to your mobile computing... without the bulk of desktop computers. The graphics is much to be desired (even with DVI output to a HDTV input on the TV), but it still is a neat little thing.
10. Speaker - need I elaborate?
11. Wireless keyboard by Apple - It’s so pretty I had to get one for my Mac Mini.
12. Adaptor for MacBook pro - I don’t like desktops much.
13. DVD Player - Cheap region free DVD player from Phillips. It even plays all other movie formats that you can play on a PC (not hooked up at the time of the picture because I didn’t have the component cables)

Then I got to thinking.... I thought the technology was supposed make our lives easier... and simpler. Sure... We can now do more in shorter amount of time, but it didn’t really make our lives easier and definitely not simpler.