Thursday, August 24, 2006

refrain

for my reference only:
collation of TV Story.

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Monday, January 23, 2006
2:50:00 AM
TV Story part 1

one day, a boy won some prize money for his good results. he had enough, it seemed, for a portable battery-operated television set. skipping happily to his neighborhood electrical shop, he picked out the set he wanted and paid the ahpek in crisp fifty dollar notes. it was green, and it fitted in the palm of his hand. a bit dusty and scuffed up from sitting on the shelf for so long; but he got a discount, so what the hell anyway!

it took a prime spot in his room, sitting on his table beside his computer. he undid the packing of his newly purchased double A alkaline batteries, popped it into his new gadget, and powered it up.

the pictures were bright and dazzling, he sat there and scanned through the channels; and although the miniature pictures hurt his eyes, before he knew it, the afternoon had turned into night and it was dinnertime.

click.

he switched it off and ran downstairs to eat, leaving the television sitting blankly on his cold wooden desk in his dark bedroom. it was forgotten for the night.

the next day, he brought it along for his lesson. the journey on the mrt was long and boring, so he decided to watch some cartoons. light hearted happy fun. nothing beats mindless entertainment! lesson began and ended, and he watched cartoons again on the mrt ride home. however, when he reached home, he got engrossed in a game and forgot to turn it off.

fzzt.

the batteries died.

for the next couple of days it was left forgotten, sitting darkly on his table behind a pile of books and games. the battery had begin to leak. (he bought those cheap brandless batteries) it wasn't until he was clearing his table and discovered a wet patch of a chemical spill on an old worksheet that he remembered his mini television set.

hurriedly, he cleaned it and dumped the batteries, replacing them with new ones that his mother had gotten for him.

the colors were as bright as ever, the pictures just as vivid.

it kept him entertained. but only for a while.

the television soon travelled everywhere with him, and he used it to pass the time when he was alone and bored. but as soon as his friends came or a game or a book caught his attention, the television would be cast aside once more.

many battery changes and near-alkaline-leaks later, the television set was growing tired of its life. was it merely an entertainment vehicle with no other value? the owner so detached and distant despite the constant attention during boredom?

so that very day, when the boy wanted to pass his time on the mrt before his lessons, the television stood up and chided the boy.

"no more tv for you", it said, coughing out the batteries and casting them out of the window. then, blankly, it wobbled and fell on its side.

it knocked against a stand of pens and pencils, and as the stand toppled over, it knocked the television to the edge of the table where it fell and the screen cracked.

the boy was shocked and taken aback. his television! now what would he do without a source of entertainment!?

the broken tv set lay in the trash, waiting for the refuse truck to take it to jurong. the boy had gone back to life without the tv set, and it seemed nothing had changed. he thought nothing of the tv set. he remembered nothing.

the tv set was forgotten.

it would remain forgotten forever, as it was progressively buried under trash.


Thursday, February 23, 2006
1:03:00 AM
TV Story Part 2

The TV set lay in the heap of trash, and coincidentally enough surrounding it were its brothers and sisters. The TV set felt that at least it could be incinerated / compacted at peace with its family around.

But seems that they had other plans for it.

The TV set re-con man came by, poking at the stack of unwanted TVs. "yes... no... uh huh..." he mumbled to himself, his pot bellied figure making its way towards the green mini tv set. lime green in a stack of drab grey. stood out like a sore thumb. the re-con man's attention immediately turned towards it.

poking at prodding at the mini tv set, he uttered many 'hmms' and 'mmms'. and he stuck the tv set in his trolley with the few others he had chosen. his van lay in wait nearby, its engine rumbling. huffing and puffing, the re-con man unloaded the tv sets he had taken from the heap into his van. the doors closed behind the lime green tv set, and all was darkness.

2 weeks later found the lime green tv set sitting in a shop window, looking better than new. a new tv tuner card, a new usb port and a new coat of paint, it shone. but no one bought it. everyone walked past, oohed and aahed. but nothing more.

the mini tv set was sad. did no one want it?

"20 bucks and its yours."
a familiar voice in the background. a familiar phrase.
something the re-con man said every day to people who asked about the lime green tv but never bought it.
something the lime green tv always heard that ended with "no thanks."
but today seemed different. a long silence followed. and then the rustling of money.

"i'll take it." the voice said. and it was a familiar voice.


Monday, July 17, 2006
11:25:00 AM
TV story part 3

when we last saw the tv, it was finally being bought after a long time sitting at the re-con man's shop window. a familiar voice the buyer had. and indeed, it was the tv's previous owner.

the lime green tv set was put snugly in the pocket with the ever familiar lint lining the edges and the smell of soap. the owner put his hand over his pocket the whole time to make sure the tv was safe and sound and that he wouldn't lose it again.

the lime green tv set spent many such days like that once in the care of its old turned new owner. the tv set was happy. but something nagged at its little tv brain. although much time was spent with its owner, the owner never said anything. didn't paste stickers with his name on it, didn't personalize the tv, and didn't even customize settings. needless to say, the tv's owner didn't even say the tv belonged to him.

the tv had no sense of ownership... it just went back to being a tool. a tool in a happier environment, nonetheless. and the tv constantly worried, with all the spanking new tv shops in the area, that its owner would go into one of them and set eyes on one of those snazzy sleek slim stylish widescreen televisions and forget all about the lime green tv set. maybe even worse. maybe its owner would buy a new television set home and just sell the mini one away or junk it.

now, the tv didn't want that, but it had no way to voice its opinion. it had no way to ask its owner. especially since its owner had applied for a job in one of those tv shops and would start work soon. it would soon be over wouldn't it? the tv set questioned the cloth of the pocket. i would be left alone again won't i? the tv set questioned the stitches. you never really regarded me before didn't you? the tv set questioned the palm of the hand it sat upon as it showed its owner the programs. yes it will soon be over. the tv set was resigned to its fate.

maybe i should just go get lost or just wait for another owner to come along who really treasures me, if there ever will be another... the tv set sat on the boy's desk in darkness, pondering for a long time before sleep could finally take over...


Tuesday, July 18, 2006
12:40:00 PM
TV story part 4

the tv finally figured it out.
it short circuited itself so the boy had to place it upon his shelf as a memory because it couldn't work anymore.

and that is how the story ends.


Saturday, July 22, 2006
4:46:00 PM
Epilogue - TV Story

the empty memory of the lime green tv set haunted the boy even as the last wisps of conscious memory faded from his mind, and the dust hung thick on the tv set, clotting lime green into grey.

he could not shake it off.
something was bothering him but he didn't know. something was eating and eating at him. with invisible jaws and an unknown face. a rank odor that stained his thoughts. haunted.

he never knew until he dusted his shelf.

he never knew until the cobwebs fell from a squarish object,

until the lime green peeked through and glinted at him with the sun from the window.

then he remembered every single thing.
every single memory.
every single detail.
haunted he was no more.

he took the tv set easily.
time had passed,
he had grown taller.
it fit even more snugly into his grown hands.

but then he remembered it was spoilt.

he wore a shirt, too small for him now, but the shirt with the familiar pocket that the tv set always rode in. just like old times. the buttons strained but held.
he had a new 40 inch lcd television in his house but suddenly it didn't matter.

he walked slowly down the familiar path to the old curio shop where he re-bought the lime green tv set.

he walked. slowly.

and the evening sun crept away from him.

he walked. slowly.

and never noticed the lime green was spreading.

spreading from his pocket, around his waist, creeping up his neck, pouring down his legs..

he walked. and he reached the curio shop.

the door was open, but the old man had gone out to buy dinner. maybe he forgot to lock the shop. maybe it had been locked. who knows.

the last bit of green swallowed his head just as he passed by the shelf of the store window. there was a small space there, it had been the space where the lime green tv set had sat, waiting for him.

it was empty.

and then suddenly it was not.

a new lime green tv set sat in the spot, just as the old man came back to unlock the now locked door, and a girl skipped happily away round the corner of the block.

she wore a shirt a bit too big for her, and a lime green sash trailed around the hip of her jeans.

---end---
...and dith babbled on at the insane hour of 2:42:00 AM