From OS to OS to OS to ……

Before I begin, let’s just say that I’m a Windows person, period. And I don’t intend to rehash the Windows vs Mac thing in this blog. So there.

My first experience with Windows was circa 1995. The missus wanted to get a computer so that she could do her Excel stuff. We bought this rather bulky 486DX2 computer with a 540MB (that’s right, Megabytes!) hard disk and a paltry 8MB of RAM for something like RM5,000! And it came pre-installed with Windows 3.11– argh! The crashes and hang-ups would be so regular that we’d sometimes be expecting it to happen, and it did, without fail.

Windows 95 was next. Now, this was a revelation at the time. Completely different GUI (graphical user interface) and promises of smoother computing. Heh, I upgraded the computer to an 840MB hard disk and 16MB of RAM. Unfortunately Windows 95 wasn’t crash-proof, either.

Piano lessons: redux, Part 1

Ah yes, I remember my first piano lesson vividly. Dragged kicking and screaming (at the age of 6) while playing in the garden. After arriving at the music teacher’s house, I was dragged again into her studio. And the teacher was none other than one of my aunts!

Huh, I suppose it was similar to waiting for your turn at the dentist’s. The wait is actually more nerve-wrecking than being in the chair itself. But try telling that to the people in the waiting room.

Anyway, to cut a long story short I persisted (and my parents insisted) with the piano lessons, going all the way from Grade 1 and actually achieving Grade 8 status by the time I turned 13 (yay!). Or so I thought. My parents said I wasn’t finished yet, until I took a shot at the diploma exams . So I went ahead and obtained my LTCL (Licentiate of Trinity College London) and finally my FTCL (Fellow of Trinity College London) in 1984.

Finished at last!?