Intangible

A LONG LONG TIME AGO, on the 27th of November, jiaxiang and I went to SITEX to shop. I remember the date clearly for 2 reasons. One - I did tell someone I'm going there. Two - I needed my hard drive back from jiaxiang desperately to watch the movies I stored on it. Three - because I did get to tell someone I'm going there, something bad happened between us. No link.

I wasn't there to *shop*, honestly. I had clearly in mind what I wanted - a 1 TB HARD DRIVE that is PORTABLE and CHEAP. BUT UNFORTUNATELY, they're pretty much mutually exclusive. I could sense the evil plot in those manufacturer's minds : not one brand could accomplish all 3. According to jiaxiang, it is due to "technological limitations". I could choose to buy a Maxtor drive that looks like an elephant but costs $180 only, or buy one from Western Digital that looks sleek but costs up to $230. Even though the specifications are the same (3.5 inch), the size varies like what the peanuts. YES, IT'S JUST LIKE SOMEONE'S WIVE WHO SAID $600K IS PEANUTS.

After walking around for 2+ hours around a damn crowded Expo, I decided to just grab a $209 Seagate freeagent drive. Ok I know that didn't make sense to any of you. It's just something that looks better than an elephant, but that's pretty purpose defeating since I won't be looking at it all the time - it's not THAT portable.

Just so that you've been wondering WTF IS THE POINT OF YOUR ENTRY, I'm going to get to it soon. Jiaxiang wanted his Western Digital Black Caviar 1 TB hard drive really badly. The only reason why I could remember those 4 words so clearly was because he mentioned it to every booth at SITEX. Just to illustrate how fussy he can get, a booth sold Western Digital GREEN something something. Same size LOWER price. I went "EH LOOK TAKE THAT ONE LA" because my legs were wobbling already. Jiaxiang was firm like fuck - "cannot la. this one cannot anyhow de lor. green is for saving power leh. black got different performance de lor"

._.

After walking around for another hour, it became clear that his hard drive wasn't sold at SITEX - because he was looking for an internal one. Apparently IT shows decided to sell those that can be customized easily only, and if we were to get his internal hard drive, we had to get to one of the outlets at.... sim lim square. And so jiaxiang asked me "eh now still early hor. you don't mind come with me to city hall right?" It was 6.30 already, and I could easily just take a train up to pasir ris and take a straight bus home. BUT SOMEHOW, my mouth gaped here and there and said "anything lor lets go".

If you were observant enough, you'll notice that sim lim square isn't at city hall. BUT THAT'S WHERE WE WENT! Imagine me lugging my semi-elephant box while catching up with a hyper jiaxiang. I don't quite get how many cans of red bull he drank that day, but apparently he ran all over funan IT mall (next to city hall mrt) and called someone else, only to realise that sim lim was at bugis. In the end I was so cui that I was 1 level below him at sim lim square - he told me to wait for him while he go get his drive. It was an epic race against time - we reached a shop which closes at 9 at around 8.48. And jiaxiang still behaved as though he was still full of red bull.
We ate dinner somewhere, but didn't say anything through out. He was clutching on to his hard drive, checking it incessantly, making sure he really did get the right one.

On my way home I contemplated sitting on the box containing my drive - it's slightly less unglam than sitting on the MRT floor. I wondered why performance was that important as compared to power saving - saving the earth ftw. I wondered why he couldn't do without that Western Digital Caviar Black, and not simply take an elephantine one like I wanted to. I wondered why I needed a 1 TB drive just because my 250 GB one was left with 6 GB too, not that any of it was used for porn. I wondered why I never thought of pangseh-ing him once since back at Expo.




It's because he didn't pangseh me once throughout the A level year (this very year) when I asked him a BILLION (literally) questions like a nub. Thanks.