Of Pokemon and animal lessons

WW learns his animals through Pokemon. For example, when I told him there were lots of World Cup mascots being sold in Sunshine, he said, "It's a Sandshrew, right?"

For comparison, here's the Brazilian mascot (an armadillo, it seems to be)

And here's a Sandshrew.

Similar, right? Though Sandshrew is supposed to be an ant-eater (pangolin, as stated on Bulbapedia), they are both scaly things that can roll up into a ball. :P


Then another day we were talking about something camouflaging itself on a surface. And WW said, like that Pokemon! Kecleon!

But he didn't know the name of the actual animal, that Kecleon is based on. (At least he knew the animal, just not its name...)

A chameleon. You knew that, right? :P

Of chocolate and penguins

We moved into our new office last Wednesday (not on Monday because Monday and Tuesday were holidays). So what can I say about Innoplex after a week?

Firstly, it's great that they are finally catering for chocolate-lovers and not only coffee-lovers. In Cyberplex, the coffee machine had five different types of coffee (maybe I'm exaggerating a bit; I didn't really count) and no chocolate drink. In Innoplex, they have Ricco (a kind of chocolate drink) and even teh tarik! (which is pretty good too, unlike the milk tea that they had in Cyber)

The only problem is that the chocolate powder seems to run out rather quickly. Or maybe they just haven't figured out when to refill the machine yet.

Secondly, I am turning into a penguin. A few days after we moved in, I posted on Facebook:

Did Motorola think that we would turn into polar bears and penguins after moving to Innoplex? Did they think that we would feel at home in the Arctic or Antarctic? *sweat* (cold sweat, I mean... or more appropriately: *shiver*)

And really, it got colder and colder... and finally I decided to bring a thicker jacket. If you don't already know, thick jackets obstruct movement. Now my jacket isn't that thick as to obstruct a lot of movement, but again if we move a bit into hyperbole, if the jacket is really thick, when you walk your arms will not swing back and forth; they will just stay at your sides (friction, ya know?) Then... penguin it is.
(As I said, my jacket is not thick enough to really stop my arms from moving when I walk... but during the coldest days I was tempted to walk like a penguin just because I was freezing!)

Luckily it looks like they reviewed the air-con setting (I know 'cause I sent them an e-mail and they replied saying they were holding a meeting to review it) and it is less cold these last two days. But it is still too cold to be comfortable, with or without a jacket! Today was rather strange because it actually alternated between hot and cold.

But then I heard people saying that the higher floors were colder. Being on the seventh floor (temporarily, since our floor is not ready yet), I guess this explains why it's so cold! When we move to the third floor, maybe it will be better. (Yup, we'll be on the third floor. Remember Pikachu Room?)

The illusion

You know how you sometimes notice a particular shape in an abstract pattern? And after that, every time you see the pattern, that particular shape will immediately jump out at you?

Well, that's what happened to me recently.

These are the tiles in the Mayang Mall bathrooms. Notice anything?

I've looked at this pattern before, actually looked at it. I remarked (to myself) that the tiles were exactly the same, but they were symmetrical and made a continual pattern that would be the same even if the tiles' edges were shifted, so that the current centre on the tiles become their edges instead. (get what I mean? It's kinda hard to explain in words) Anyway, that's not the main thing. The point I want to make is that one day, suddenly, inexplicably, I noticed a shape in the pattern. Something I had never noticed before.

Now, if you didn't notice the particular shape that I'm talking about, here is a close-up. Do you see it now?

If you still don't, it's a face. A woman's face. See it now? (I don't know how easy or how difficult it is to see, because I see it every time now!)

Actually, I probably didn't notice it before because the "face" really depends on the intersection of the tiles. At some intersections, the tiles are slightly closer together, making the woman\s face look more sunken and old. At others, they are either a little too close or a little too far apart to look like a face any more.

And now... I guess I will keep seeing it. Until we move to our new office!