Saturday, May 7, 2011

The artist in geek's clothing
















Some of the headlines that the Star folks come up with are truly ingenious. For example, I'd never have come up with "Naughty children make good teachers" or "The Wongs watch Sivaji" in a million years. Never!

This time, however, I was really happy that they used my suggestion, The Artist in Geek's Clothing, because I felt it truly captured the essence of the message. Yes, writers usually supply the headlines but the editor/editorial team reserve the right to change it as deemed suitable. Which is a blessing, as headline writing was never my forte and I'm glad they didn't go with some of my lame attempts!

I wrote this while aboard the ETS back to Ipoh. I was replying to my editors when it suddenly struck me, hey, this is not something which is common years ago, yet that day, there were at least one or two other 20- and 30-somethings fiddling with their laptops in the same coach.

Times have changed - and to thrive, we must adapt to these changes, or risk left behind.

Many thanks to Peter Wang, a reader turned good friend who contributed the cute caricature which perfectly captured the zeitgeist of the article :)

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

With a fine print like "Now that her third Windows-based laptop has gone kaput, Alexandra Wong (bunnysprints.blogspot.com) is wondering if she should finally defect to the Steve Jobs camp": it would be unacceptable for MS not to rush you a complimentary Windows-based laptop. :-D

Alexandra Wong said...

Haha, I doubt if MS is that media savvy or subtle. I've got my eye on the Macbook Air though. So sexy!!!

The Duke Of Skudai said...

Hai, saya suka dengan artikel awak kali ini. Secara jujur ini adalah kali pertama saya baca artikel yang awak tulis. Seperti awak, saya juga dari aliran sains kemudian ambil biomath sebelum lari kepada aliran kewangan dan ekonomi. Nampaknya, saya lebih mesra dengan 'duit'. Sastera lebih mudah tapi lebih menyeronokkan bila saya ada masa yang lebih berteater dan bermain muzik, membaca fiksyen dan paling saya minat menonton 'movie'. Saya boleh 'relate' dengan artikel awak.

Alexandra Wong said...

Eh eh, pertama kali saya mendapat komen dalam bahasa kebangsaan. Seronoknya! Saya pun cuba menjawab dalam BM walaupun kefasihan saya telah merosot/berkarat. Lisan lebih senang daripada menulis! Walau bagaimanapun, terima kasih sebab meninggalkan komen ya.

Anonymous said...

Oh, thanks a milion ! You gave me the BEST lead that is SKYDRIVE.... cloud computing for storing info

save me shelling out RM 50 bucks for a pen drive

Alexandra Wong said...

No problem. This is the age of user-driven innovation, so the more we share, the better it is for ourselves :)

pelf said...

About a decade ago, when I left home to study Marine Biology in a god-forsaken place, I was met with tonnes of scepticism too. Everywhere people around me asked whether I would be able to find a job upon graduation, whether I would be able to make a living (read: become rich).

People never asked whether that was what I wanted to do (which wasn't, initially, but I grew to love it, so why not?).

Ten years later, I still get that kind of responses from people I am not very close with. I hear one-liners like "Why are you saving turtles, save people lah!" and "The turtles can't thank you for what you have done anyway" and "Why don;t you go teach in a university? Government job, good prospects."

You say lah, geram or not?!

Angela Gripesalot said...

pelf: I thought I would be happy being in the lab and giving the occasional lecture when the department head warranted one; now I'm a (web-based) writer+copy editor. I say, forget being geram, ask them if they're happy doing what they do :D

Alexandra: look into Linux la, it's fiddly at first but terms like "defrag", "virus/trojan/worm infection", and "it takes 10 minutes to boot up" become a thing of the past! hehe.

Alexandra Wong said...

Pelf: I feel you girl! To me everyone is entitled to their opinion; just wish they won't shove it down my throat!Maybe when we finally do that coffee/lunch thing we can put our heads together and think of a way to deflect all these well-meaning but probably not too diplomatic naysayers :)

Angela: Since I can't afford (or rather, refuse to splurge on) a MacBook Air, I got the closest thing to one - a WHITE Asus Eeepc, which looks great by the way. I use my notebook primarily for typing and surfing, so a MacBook Air would be overkill. Will learn Linux when I have the time. BTW, you're one funny chick! I went to your blog and was guffawing nonstop :)

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