Is there such a thing as privacy these days? The answer, in my opinion - NO. Even my own space at home is invaded by my mother. The only house phone is in my room. Yay! Yippeee!! I can yak till the cows jump over the moon and pigs fly - but given the type of hours I keep - it's not exactly a joy. Not over the weekend. I am not thrilled to bits hearing the phone ring at an insane hour with the voice of my aunty, "Ohh...sorry, sorry, did I wake you? Where's your mother?" Really - are you sorry? I don't think soooooo....
I step out onto the streets and what do I get? Young punks blasting music from their handphones. It's fine to appreciate music but to play it out loud is not on, fuckers. I used to have a (relatively) peaceful bus ride home. Forget that now. As soon as I step on the bus, not only am I assaulted by the chatter and laughter of people, which is alright, I guess, but also by the "mobile TV". A particular bus company for some reason, decided that it is a fantastic idea to install a TV unit on each bus. Yes, it keeps us entertained for that long bus ride 'round wee Singapore, but sometimes, it's just nice to sit in the silence of the chatter of the public and at times, if you are REALLY lucky, your own company.
A train ride on the MRT is not a pleasure at all. On normal work days, it's crammed to the hilt with bodies. Yes, I do wish they were all dead at least I can't complain much but no, they are all stinking alive - literally. I did write about this some blogs ago - so, not only are you invaded in terms of noise, but also I wish at times my sense of smell wasn't so keen. On the streets, advertisements are yelling their heads off at you, discounts, new products, buy 1-get-1-free - just about everywhere. Even the shade of my sunglasses do not offer me respite. It's just bloody rude. I am not allowed the process of decision making anymore. I am stunted in my growth into adulthood!
But I do have to confess that I'm not so innocent myself. I do have a tracker here on this blog. It's not hidden - it's on the right hand side of the blog if you would just scroll down.....yeah, that's it. No, I'm not trying to be big brother but I'm curious to see who reads the stuff I have on here. Of course, it doesn't tell me names but from the IP addresses, one can deduce that Person A from Malaysia comes by pretty often. Those who do visit on a regular basis whom I know personally are not likely going to tell me that they check every now and then. It also communicates to me that these regulars do think of me enough to see what Petal is up to or what she's going to say next.
I also want to see how far my blog "travels". It's harmless, really, I don't do anything with the information the tracker provides me. It's just for my own knowledge. I mean, this blog is not that popular as to attract sponsors with advertisement banners.
The blog is just a little peek into my world, how I think and what goes on. It is just a tool I use to express myself, a memory recorder, if you can call it that. I do read past entries and there are moments when I think "Oh my God! Did I write THAT?!" but I'm not going to delete it to save face. I was a pretty private person and of course, there are things that stay private but there are things that I choose to disclose because it helps me to offload. I choose the stuff I write here. There are many edited versions before these nuggets get posted up. To top it off, I enjoy writing, to me, it doesn't matter if I suck at it or get into trouble because of it. I enjoy it.
See it as you will as an invasion of privacy or space - but just remember that there are worst ways that the information one gets from tracking are being used. So knowing this, some may not come back and read my posts and I respect that decision but I do hope that you will keep reading - you are more than welcome to send me comments via email or here too.
So, personal space and privacy are gone. Up next, dignity?
"...And it felt so good, I want to do it again..."
Petal P. Rose
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