The almighty Toilet Paper

Greetings and welcome once again to another post by me :) Before I start, I'd like to welcome 2 new bloggers. Nelly Govinda and her strayinthoughts and Frida Yasmin's wedding preparation. This post is inspired by Jason Teen's question on twitter (@jasonteen) regarding toilet paper. It got me thinking about what is the one true and correct way of putting toilet paper roll. I always thought that one way is correct and the other is wrong UNTIL ONE DAY. I found out that one of the toilets in my house uses the other way.

Problem
What is a toilet paper? Toilet paper has many functions. as can be seen in the photo, the uses ranges from picking nose, covering head from the harsh summer sun, covering sunglasses to provide an extra darkness, and also acting as a table cloth for the head, so that other things such as biscuit can be placed on the head. However the primary use of toilet paper is to clean up after doing that thing we all do in toilets (for the guys... not that!!! the other 2 things we do in toilet). This leads to the problem currently being investigated.

There are 2 ways of putting toilet paper in the holder. The first way is to have the leaf on the outside as shown by the picture below.The second one is to have the leaf in the inside as shown belowBoth picture is taken from my toilets.

Discussion
For one month I pondered and pondered. I look at how other people put their toilet paper rolls. It occurred to me that the way toilet paper is put highly reflects on the individual. I myself prefer the the leaf on the outside. I can just pull the leaf whenever I need it and the roll just roll itself. One day something happens... When you have air-con and cat in the house, be sure to note this. Since the leaf is further from the wall, the air-con makes the leaf move. Cats are naturally attracted to moving things, be they string, balls or even toes under a blanket. Now with this arrangement my cat have decided to play around with the toilet paper and created a mess. This wont happen had I put the leaf on the inside since there are less space for the leaf to move around. With limitation in the toilet paper problem, all those people who said "I can just roll it back when that happens." well guess what... I tried to do that and the result? Not as tidy as when the paper just got out of the factory.

Now, this does bother me, since there are no standard on putting toilet paper. I like standardized things. I believe that there should be a standard for everything, including how to put toilet paper rolls. So in my research I found the earliest sample of toilet paper. This is a sample of toilet paper ad from 1893. Its not the earliest, since the Chinese in 6th Century AD was the first one to use toilet paper. (according to wikipedia) However the modern shape only started in 1873. Look what I found. It seems the creator of toilet paper intended the leaf to be on the inside. and it has the explanation to why this is so. However I'm still not sure whether this is valid with the round toilet paper.

Conclusion
After a long and arduous research on how Toilet paper should be placed. I came to my own conclusion. The correct way depends on you... If you have a kid or cat, I think the leaf should be on the inside to discourage them from unrolling them. If you are a responsible adult then put the leaf on the outside. This will make it easier for you to just roll it and grab the leaf.

Appendix - Toilet paper sample and their location
Please post on flicker or picasa if you have other samples of toilet paper. I was actually waiting for one more picture but SOMEONE says that there are too many previews... so I decided to publish it now.

Hani Chahal's house, Interesting concept, I have never seen something like this before... it is a breakthrough in the toilet paper world. Well done Hani Chahal.







Evan Pratama's house, One empty and the other has something... What do people do in the toilet without toilet paper? Your guess is as good as mine...

1 Month without a mobile phone

It all started 2 months ago. I read an article on The Age Melbourne Magazine about a guy who survives a week without a single penny. So there my journey begins, trying to find some social experiment to try. So I followed that guy, trying to spend $0 for a week, but failed miserably. So after a month of finding something to try, on the eve of 10th of August 2007, right after Mika warned me not to go to the loft, I lost my phone.

I treat this misfortune as an opportunity to do my social experiment – 1 month without a mobile phone. Now the hardest thing is that this incident took place right before kafe art. This compounds my problem, due to the necessity nature of a cell phone in event planning. First week without a phone, combined with kafe art makes my life an absolute hell. Luckily I’ve backed up most of my contacts online (Thank you google) so I was still able to make contact to a lot of people.

Now, the second week is OK, nothing is going on. I’m starting to get used to not having a mobile phone. After all, I did go through an era where not everyone have mobile phone and still managed to survive. In this second week I learn to communicate via email and responding them as soon as I read them. There were time where there is multiple email messages, but once again thanks to google, it organizes them into conversation that is so simple to read. The third week… I’m 100% used to it. I realized that a mobile phone is not a necessity; it’s just another luxury item. One of my workmate got his first mobile phone 2 months ago after 27 years without one. So it’s not really a necessity. The world around us makes us think it’s a necessity, but it’s nothing more than an overrated luxury.

Fourth week, the final week, another observation is that people can’t take other people’s word. People always try to call to confirm appointment, and if they can’t contact you, they leave you. I must say my only bad experience was with watching Ratatouile, I promised that I’d come and watch movie, but I was running late due to serving nature’s call, but I did my best and came 5 minute late, but I was ditched. I remember back in SMP, we would wait for the other party to show up before watching a movie because we have confidence in the other party’s word. Has the world now become such dependent on mobile phone, that even if the other party already said that they are coming, the words have no values unless they can contact you?

Now my analysis for the matter is that we don’t really need a mobile phone if only we can trust someone’s words. When you said you’ll be there, please be there. Don’t change plans in the last minute if the reason for changing it is not satisfactory. I realized that it is hard for some of you to contact me and I do apologize, but it’s all for the sake of experiment. I also apologize for coming in late when I already promise to be there on time. Just to inform you I now have a mobile phone and keeping the same number.