Why Would I Write

Category: Random

  • Austin 2019: Prelude

    So, I have a two hour long wait before my flight to Japan. I thought I’d bang out a post since I haven’t been writing in a while. I brought my Planck to travel with me. I feel like this would be the board i’d miss the least if I ever lose it. Not that I hate it or anytthing, I like it a lot less than my other boards. On the bright side, I might be a better Ortho-user by the end of the trip. Because I’ll have no other keyboards to turn to as backup when I don’t feel like using it anymore.

    Honestly, I think it’s just because of the XDA keycaps on this keyboard. The lack of gaps in between each key really frustrates me sometimes. Like, when I can’t tell if I’m moving from one key to the next before hitting it, I consider it a fail. Maybe if I wasn’t a touch typist. But I am, and I feel like it would be a skill detrimental to lose. After all, it’s only on this keyboard that I’m having issues. I think I would struggle less with a staggered 30% keyboard. I’ll throw on a set of DSA keycaps in the future to see if my typing experience improves.

    Anyway, that’s just a random rant. It doesn’t really matter. I’m typing fine on this. Not the best but it’s passable.

    So what am I doing with my last two hours in KL on a Monday night? I had a smoke earlier, now I’m sitting at Dome, waiting for a drink to arrive. It has been a while and this place isn’t crowded. They might have forgotten. Or it takes a real long time to prepare an iced long black. I’m not sure. Hopefully it won’t be too long since I am feeling a bit thirsty.

    Oh wait, let me back up a bit for those of you not in the know. I’m heading to America tonight to attend my sister’s wedding. Yes, she’s off the market guys, too late. I’ll be there for about a week. I haven’t attended a wedding in the United States before, so that should be an interesting experience. I’ll also be the first official guest to stay over at my sister’s brand new home. Should be fun, since I’m also helping them to move in. Oh, and I have a companion with me but I won’t get to see her for a long time.

    It was a lot of trouble, but I managed to get Snuggles on the first leg of the flight to America. Yes that is right, our little schnoodle is migrating. I’m gonna miss her, but it’s probably for the best. She’s going to have a nice backyard to run around in. And dig holes in. And catch rats in (hopefully there aren’t any rats in the house). I think she’s going to love it there. If anything, at least she’ll get to enjoy better weather. And she’ll be reunited with my sister after so many years.

    Since there are no direct flights from KLto Austin, I had to get a flight that was reasonably priced with the least amount of stops (to bring my pet along – more info in a future post), I’ll be landing at Narita airport in Tokyo Japan tomorrow morning. I’ll have a 10 hour layover so that will give me plenty of time to look for some food to eat. And more time to bang out another blog post. Until then, stay tuned (assuming this isn’t the last post I send out lel).

    I’m actually looking forward to catching some movies on the plane. It’s been a while since I watched a movie on the airplane.

  • A Window Into the Soul

    When you don’t write constantly, you lose the drive to keep writing – at least that’s what I’ve found.

    Which is probably why I play so much Dota 2 – because I keep playing it. I recently finished the space opera Mass Effect, man that was a good game. I finally understand the all the hype surrounding it when it came out. I’m definitely going to play part 2 and 3 eventually. It’s about time I play these classic games while they still run on modern systems. For those of you who haven’t played it yet – it’s like KOTOR but with real-time combat. If you’re a fan, you should check it out. I highly recommend it.

    I didn’t do much this Chinese new year – but that’s okay. I think red packets will be replaced by NFC or some other cashless technology in the future. Saves time putting money into red packets, and then removing them when CNY is over. Plus you can easily adjust the amount of money you give to different people, and you could probably do some chargebacks if you regret giving money to some people. Also, you don’t have to worry about getting mugged when you’re carrying all those bank notes in your bag. Muggers are real.

    Lost some money gambling, again I’m more of a gamble to be social than gamble to make money kind of guy, so that’s alright.

    In terms of personal projects, I’m happy that I’ve managed to record a couple of demos recently, and I’ve been keeping up with my 1 show/month target. Animal Bus has been progressing – not as quick as I’d like, but at least it’s getting somewhere.

    Other than that – I made some mods to one of my keyboards recently – the KBDFans HHKB Tofu. I got some holes cut in its sides and spray painted the case purple. Photos on my Instagram.

    Oh, I survived a hungry escalator the other day with my foot intact. My super comfortable Miniso flip flops now have a chunk near the top removed. Nothing happened to me, I kicked off my flip flops just in time. I can’t say I wasn’t worried at all, but I knew my foot wasn’t going to get caught. I guess you could say fortunately I wasn’t wearing sandals or shoes. Since that day, I’ve been a bit more careful when using escalators.

    Lastly, I set off for Austin, Texas next week. Am really looking forward to it. Barbecue, Dr. Pepper and my sister are waiting for me. Can’t wait.

    I’m going to try to get back into the groove of blogging more often. I think it would help me with my work as well. It feels good releasing a stream of thoughts onto a page. Having a nice keyboard to type them out with also helps. And if I don’t blog, how are people who don’t talk to me often going to know about what’s going on in my life?

    These posts are like a window into my life – or soul, if I’m being melodramatic.

    Thank you very much for reading. <3

  • Handling Fees

    So, the other day I received a letter from the customs department, telling me that I had a package with them and I needed to pay taxes for it before I could get it. Initially I responded to their letter, saying I was okay with Pos Malaysia handling it for me like they had in the past. All I would have to do was head to the local post office, pay them and collect my item. However, days went by and I didn’t get a call or email telling me to collect my package. I figured something was wrong, so I gave the customs department a call.

    At this point it had almost been a week since I had told them to go ahead with Pos Malaysia as my handler, so imagine my surprise when I learned that the package was still at the customs office in KLIA. I decided, fuck it – I’ll go pick up the package myself. I get to save on the RM50 handling fees, and bring it home with me on the same day.

    It’s been a while since my last drive to KLiA, and man that place is far as balls. Driving there was close to an hour, with tolls on the MEX highway. The hot weather didn’t make it any more pleasant. At least when I go there, parking was free and there was plenty of it.

    That made me think there weren’t many people that day. I was wrong. The waiting area was packed. It was going to be a long day.

    There were many steps involved in the whole process, here’s what I did:

    1. You sign in by showing your customs letter and giving your identity card to the guards at the entrance. They hand you a pass and tell you to enter the building and look for counter 1.
    2. At counter 1, you pass them the letter – they head to the back, dig out your package and pass it to you. They then tell you to proceed to counter 2.
    3. At counter 2, one of the staff will ask you to open up the package and you have to tell them how much it costs (show them an official receipt).
    4. They will then fill up some paperwork and ask you to bring it to counter 3, while you leave your parcel at counter 2.
    5. So on you head to counter 3, and pass your documents to the person behind the glass. They tell you to wait, so this part depends on on how many people were there before you.
    6. After a while, they’ll call your name and give you back the documents, which you have to bring to counter 2. At counter 2, you pass the documents to them, and they ask you to wait again. I’m not sure what goes on at this stage, but the end result is them giving you a document which states how much you have to pay for the item.
    7. You then head back to counter 3 and pass the documents to the person behind the glass. You wait again, until your name is called. You then go to the counter to pay the fee. You collect the documents and head back to counter 2.
    8. At counter 2, they verify that you’ve made the purchase, then give you the green light to leave with your parcel.
    9. You head to the guard house to return the pass and to collect your identity card again.
    10. Get in your car and drive home.

    The above process took me about 3 hours at the customs office alone. So if you factor in the traveling time, that was about 5 hours of my day gone. Just like that. A huge fucking waste of time.

    I probably should have paid the RM50 handling fees in the first place, but I guess now I know for sure. Also, they were being lazy and my parcel hadn’t moved in days. So I felt compelled to do something about it.

    TL;DR, is it worth paying handling fees? If you have an afternoon to spare, and you live close by to the customs office, sure. If not, just give Pos Malaysia the handling fees, it’s worth not going through the hassle.