Tribolum.com Making Light of Things

The whole “Save Karyn” endeavour taught us one thing: There’re always be the thick-skinned amongst us.

There have been numerous forums and debates over Karyn’s actions. For those of you not in the know, Karyn found herself in over $20,000 of debt and decided to use her website to well, save her. She managed to get out of debt through charitable donations and has now written a book.

Maybe it’s a personal prejudice, but I hate beggars. I don’t despise the ones in third-world countries who have no choice but to resort to it, but when the beggar in question is probably using a computer that he or she owns, the need factor that justifies begging does not exist.

In the papers today, Daniel Lim, a Singaporean has decided to do a Karyn on the rest of us so he can buy his own 17” Powerbook. Sorry if I sound P.O.ed, but I’ll be darned if he actually sounds proud of it. He claims to have a well-paying job and all too.

“Mr Lim said he did it as a ‘little quirky’ experiment: ‘A test of the Internet’s powers, an exercise of my creativity, a challenge, an event which is meaningful for me.’”

It’d be meaningful for me if you gave me a washing machine and dryer combo for my coming wedding too.

The Ghyslain (Star Wars kid) donation fund was a grey area. It has been thoroughly debated and both sides have credible reasons. Fact of the matter is that he made us laugh. I might even have donated to Karyn just for the sake of her orignality.

I’ll probably see Daniel Lim sometime in Mac meetups or blogmeets or something. I’m hoping he calls the whole thing off now. There are so many more pressing issues that require our charity. The doctors and nurses that lovingly tend to SARS patients. The Iraqis who lost their homes. AIDS research. Heck, even SETI. By the way, if you’ve links to where Tribolum readers can donate to those causes, put them up in the comments.

They’re charging me by the minute for Internet access here at the library. Maybe you could send me a little money and put my pictures in the papers. I’ve one up on Daniel: I don’t have a job.