Remember my story about MacGyver earlier..
Remember the buddy who cracked open my safe to retrieve the defunct passport that contains my active US visa (that time I absentmindedly flew out to SF without it). Maybe I have not told this tale. He proceeded to put my mom on the next flight to meet me in Taipei. It was a good thing I had a long layover in Taiwan so we managed to pull that off.
My mom scored a last minute trip to see her family for 10 days. Drama.
It was during that trip while I was away, that MacGyver met his wife in a forum I had thrown him into just before I got busy with Bald Empathy Movement.
This post is about the continued adventure that I recently had with MacGyver’s wife. Let’s call her Elastigirl.
The Saturday before CNY, Elastigirl came to drop off mini dumbbells. Her hubby had set me up with a physiotherapist who now looks into all my physical challenges. The physiotherapist says I needed 1kg dumbbells. So Elastigirl brought me both 1kg and 1.5kg!
Of course her benign visit turned into an outing, we drove out to a nearby pond to eat steamed fish. After that we amassed some giant bottles of beer and descended at my place. I love days like these when the yarn is colourful and expansive. We went on till mini-MacGyver started looking for his mom.
On Sunday morning as I was getting ready to get out, I could not locate my pink mini bag (that contains my life – car key, bank cards & ID). It was not long before I remembered that it was hiding under the passenger seat of the Elastigirl mobil! Oh yikes. Weren’t they supposed to drive north that morning!?
I called Elastigirl.
“Have you left?”
“Yes. Why?”
“Did you drive the Tesla?”
Thankfully, electric cars are just no good for long distance travel.
Our minds started to troubleshoot without disrupting any plans. The phone call lasted 60 seconds. We are fast like that.
First I found my spare car key that had been faulty, to access the replacement batteries in the car. Then I attempted to unlock my car with the phone app. Success.
Once inside my car, I replaced the battery of the faulty key to trigger the car to start. Success.
I drove myself to church. Elastigirl was super quick to drop a deposit into my TnG balance so I could still operate without my bank cards! My Sunday itinerary ran smoothly as originally planned. Not a minute behind schedule, but in fact still early.
“I’m never on time, always early” my personal motto stayed truthful.
The last task of the day was the problem-solving adventure.
We devised for me to break into their compound. She sent me an electronic pass to enter the estate. I used a photo of my driver’s license for security clearance. Success.
I drove into their garage and went to stand next to the car. We video called. From 350km away north of the peninsula, Elastigirl triggered her Tesla to unlock in her garage, in front of me. Long story short, I managed to retrieve my pink mini bag from inside the autolocked smart car on the 5th attempt.
Otherwise I was prepared to be without my pink mini bag of life for 3 days. Now we know Tesla.
And Elastigirl is a valuable team player.
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The furthest I tried to remotely trigger my own car is from 4 storeys above the basement. I could see my car boot pop open via the CCTV whenever I send help to manage heavy matters.
These days our life is made simpler by technology. A safe can be unlocked as long as you have the correct code numbers, this is low tech.
Internet connectivity has become a basic necessity. In 2025, my office doors can be unlocked through an app if I was physically in another country. I can see/speak to a delivery man at my front door from my bedside in New York, even take a picture of him. My place can be cleaned by robots whenever I wanted. I can call my cats with the surveillance cameras on their smart feeders. I can refresh the cat toilet on my app and study the data of their smelly business in entirety – I’m not calling this an adventure but I’m grateful to be a tech advocate and an early adopter.
As we advance with new technology, people will gradually lose their faculties to understand how to crack open a gear lock safe even with an operating manual, (forget about tasking with verbal instructions). People can’t even get instructions with videos.
Practical skills and instincts will be lost. With that in mind, I went to learn how to weld and solder metal in a carmaker garage the LA summer of 2014.
What will we do without our mobile phones? I would have had to reschedule my US trip, book a brand new flight and my plans would be screwed if mobile phones didn’t exist in 2010.
I had my first mobile phone in 1984, it was a curvy Alcatel that was hard to find. My number was full of 1s and 2s with a speckling of 8s. VIP early adopter at 19yo.
At that age, I had buddies who were serial entrepreneurs before they were coined “startup founders” and they were not just any startup founders, I’m referring to those who builds in garages and exited by selling to Microsoft/Amazon.
My social friends started to use SMS only 2-3 years after it was a daily convenience for me.
I used ICQ to receive critical stock announcements when people got jammed up on Bloomberg during a trade rush. My ICQ had a VIP number.
I wrote a blog in 1999 before the word “blog” existed.
I received crypto when I found banks and PayPal to be a bothersome expense.
I used blockchain to track art authentication before people started to call the application NFTs.
I’m a brainy OKU artist who is an uncompetitive monopoly player next to Elastigirl and mini-MacGyver. That’s why that little 9yo is richer than me.
But give me a problem, I will solve it with some phone calls. Anyone can do that yes? What do I have that others don’t? I have art. Give me a space, I will design it to solve problems.
Moral of the story, you still need your brains to make tech work for you. Design your life to be effective in crises.
Lastly, everyone should learn to comprehend art and challenge their mind once in a while. Wire your mind correctly.