There is no signal.
I’m sitting in a café and I am trying to send a text message. The screen says “Message was not sent. Try again?” And so I do. Still unsuccessful. I walk outside to the open square, waving my mobile phone around till I get a signal and my text goes out.
It’s annoying, this. Not having a signal, not being connected. I walk back into the café and then I wonder why that is a bad thing. Why do we need to have a signal all the time? Why do we need to be so easily reached? Why do we want to be connected, when there is no guarantee of us connecting? I mean really connect.
I shut down my laptop and open my book instead. I’m alone but for the barista behind the counter. I enjoy the quiet. No signal, just silence.
Kenny Mah believes in the good in people. He has been blogging for over ten years. No, his hands aren't tired. Yet.
hmmmm. but maybe the true moral of this tale is, publika’s management REALLY needs to do something about whatever’s blocking our phone signals all the time :D
@Sean: No argument with that. I wonder what is blocking all the signals… Could it be the high density of cafés in the area? Something to do with coffee fumes? *snickers*
I don’t have a FB account and many people find that strange.
I’m not on Twitter too.
I have MSN & Yahoo Messenger & Skype but I’ve not logged on for years now.
That doesn’t mean I’m unreachable.
That doesn’t mean I’ve no friends.
I still have a LIFE.
@jemima: So true, that. Some days I wonder why we don’t just abandon social media and simply get sociable?
Just my curiosity asking.. how many hand-written letters or Christmas cards or CNY cards did you receive in the past 12 months?
@jemima: Good question. The answer – probably none? Wow, what a drop in number. I used to get at least a few every year before this.
Email me your postal address.. I’ll make sure you get one this year. :D
@jemima: Hurrah! Thanks, dear – so sweet of you.
Social media are for people who want to connect to the outside world but rarely move out from the house. like me. Plus, I’m quite shy one… :)
@Michelle Chin: Leave the house then. Explore. It could surprise you.
I always go crazy at Publika, especially when I desperately need to get in touch with my dining partner about a change of venue or something similarly urgent. Other than that, it’s all good about not having a signal. Hehe.
@Lyrical Lemongrass: Kinda makes it a nice place to hide away from the rest of the world, no?
(By the way, the lap mei fan tonight was FABULOUS.)
we just got to learn to survive without all these connections..remember tom hanks who got stranded in the island in Cast Away? he still managed to find someone to talk to..his Wilson. Now go and find your wilson.
@lena: I don’t think I wanna start a habit of speaking to a volleyball with a face drawn onto it with a marker pen… *snickers*
We do need silence, sometimes~~
@Choi Yen: And may we all have that silence whenever we need it. Omm.
Is this Publika you’re talking about? I always thought it was just the carpark, though I had no idea what was stopping the signal since the carpark I go into is not really “basement”.
Love the title of your post. Reminds me of a graphic novel I read a few years back, Dave McKean and Neil Gaiman’s Signal to Noise. Absolutely loved the artwork. Beautiful book, that one.
@Michelle: That’s one of my favourite graphic novels too – I have it on our bookshelves at home. Beautiful story too, not just the artwork, agree?
disconnect to reconnect ;)
@rokh: I couldn’t have put it better myself! Yes, disconnect to reconnect!