A Day in the Life of a Writer

On my way to interview Mr. Vicente Ongsiako of the Kim Hwa Music Ensemble, I reviewed my mental list of things I was supposed to bring.

Notebook… check.

Pen… check.

List of questions… check.

Voice recorder… check.

Digicam… Oops.

Somehow, I forgot to bring the camera.

Earlier in the day, I told myself I needed to bring a camera to document my subject and for posterity purposes. (I never know if one day I’ll need photos to complete my portfolio. And maybe, I’ll compile all my articles into a book? What a lovely thought that is.)

Unfortunately, I did not store that thought as a reminder in my mobile phone. I’ve grown accustomed to storing whatever comes to my mind as a calendar reminder. In fact, a lot of my old phones (Nokias mostly) gave up on me when I (probably) maxed out the phone memory purely on calendar notes. When I say give up, the phone hangs and constantly restarts itself to my consternation.

So while I had forgotten my camera, it was a good thing that I had a mobile phone with a fairly decent camera.

It’s times like these that I’m happy I didn’t buy a “basic phone”. Money saving pundits would always say, just settle for the cheapest phone since it’s just meant for calling and texting. Well, maybe that was true a few years ago.

Ever wonder why even some “basic phones” have a camera? I suppose there’s good reason behind that, yes?

I’m not happy with the quality of the picture but it’s better than nothing. I imagine if this happened to me and it was still the 80s, I’d just have to draw my subject’s face.. heh.

Technology can indeed be a dear friend.

The irony of it all though, was that upon uploading the digital recoder’s file to my computer, the file doesn’t @#%$ play.

And as I stare at my computer, I wish I had with me a tape recorder earlier instead. Or, I should have doubled up my recording earlier and used my mobile phone as a backup. The mobile phone is – at least to me – a techie swiss knife of sorts.

Technology is always one step ahead of itself. Unfortunately, not all users of technology can keep pace.

Now I’ll have to figure this one out.

Splendid.

The Kim Hwa Music Ensemble plays wonderful traditional Chinese music. Their music is quite soothing to the spirit. You’ve got to hear it to know what I’m talking about.