Was channel surfing and got stuck on Metro TV for a while, mainly because I was trying to figure out where the reporter was and what was happening onscreen (the guy was at the Muara Angke fish market, interviewing the merchants). Then my attention was drawn to the newsticker at the bottom of the screen, and I learnt this little morsel of info: Mico Morawa, a German citizen, has just broken the world record for cellphone throwing. He achieved a distance of 67.5 metres, beating the previous record of 65.8 set by his fellow German, Heiko Scholl, four years ago.
At this moment, I'm trying to figure out what's more astounding:
a. They actually thought this was newsworthy;
b. They actually have cellphone throwing contests;
c. They actually have people keeping track of record distance;
d. I actually spent time pontificating all this, going so far as to look it up on the 'Net so you could read for yourself but didn't find any articles, but did find this
website about the annual Mobile Phone World Throwing Championship held in August. Interesting tidbits: the champion was Ville Pippo of Finland, whose throw reached 82.55 m for the world record (take that, puny Germans!), and Austria's Michael "Big Mike" Klemsch has the dubious distinction of achieving "the first below zero throw", reaching -1.00 m. I'm still trying to figure out what that means. He ended up throwing it backwards? And even then Big Mike could only hurl it one metre?
I'm no Olympic athlete, but even I could throw my phone much further than that. That is, if I wanted to. My phone may be ancient and beat-up with its casing cracked and all, but since I can't afford a new one at the moment, then there will be no throwing in the foreseeable future, be it for competition purposes or otherwise. Though the competition organisers are supposed to supply the phones; however, I suppose running off with a phone meant for throwing is out of the question...unless they'd be willing to trade?
But no, I think I wouldn't be up to throwing my phone. Too much sentimental value. It's like the phone that never gets lost: originally bought as a replacement for my phone that did get lost at a Corrs concert in October 2001, the following year I gave it to Halief after Hanief gave me his old phone, after he in turn got his dibs on the phone that Dad bought in Singapore. Then a few months later (December 29th, 2002), my phone (the one Hanief gave me) mysteriously vanished from home. By that time, Halief had already bought a new one when he was in Malaysia, but he brought my old one with him when he came back for the semester break. So my old phone returned to me, and it's been here ever since. After all that...well, you get the idea of why it deserves a proper retirement when I eventually get a new one.
