Why Would I Write

Category: Random

  • A Book Affair

    A Book Affair

    As part of my room decluttering exercise, I’ve unearthed a ton of books I don’t read anymore. Before I give them away, I’ve decided that I’m going to try to get some money for them first. So, in a couple of hours, I’ll be attending A Book Affair – a pop up book market which takes place every Wednesday and Sunday in Taman Desa. I’ve never attended any of these events before but it seems like a pretty cool event, and a great way to pass on the gift of reading (and fund future keycaps lul). Hopefully there will be plenty of people attending today’s sale!

    This is only the first batch of books that I’ve found in my room, as I uncover more in the future, I’ll be sure to unload them at the sale.

    So if you’re in the mood to buy secondhand books at cheap prices, feel free to drop by.

    A Book Affair [Facebook]

    Multipurpose hall, Desa Permai Condo, Jalan Morib, Taman Desa, 58100 Kuala Lumpur [Map]
    2pm – 9pm

    And I thought I was done selling books.

  • Word Vomit

    I remember reading a writing tip a while ago – start off your day by vomiting out a page of words. I had forgotten about it until earlier today when I was feeling a bit stuck creatively. Out of the blue, the tip resurfaced and I decided to give it a shot. Because why not? It only takes a few minutes to do, and if it didn’t work, at least I could say I tried. I started Microsoft Word, and just started word vomiting. Initially there was a bit of resistance. It was challenging to find the words to say. So I decided to do what I do best – write about what I was doing.

    So I wrote about writing, and suddenly, one sentence lead to another, and another, and another. I just kept going and going until I had slightly more than a page worth of words. It felt good. I don’t know how to explain it. A lot of it was repetition and nonsense, but at least I was putting words down. I wrote about everything and anything that came to mind. It was kinda therapeutic. It was like the page was my doctor listening to me spew nonsense.

    Anyway, long story short – it helped. After I finished with my page of word vomit, I was unstuck. I could write much more freely and came up with a bunch of ideas for work. Not sure if it’s something I’ll do everyday (I wonder if it will lose effectiveness in the long run?), but it’s something new I have in my bag of tricks to revert to in the future.

    (No, I’m not publishing today’s word vomit, it’s not worth anyone’s time.)

  • Limited Connectivity

    One of the interesting things I experienced growing up is the state of our connectivity. I grew up in an age where internet access was non-existent, available and slow, fast, and now prevalent. These days, if we didn’t have internet access on our phones, we’d feel extremely lost and disconnected. It never used to be the case. Internet connectivity used to be a privilege, a bonus and now it’s a requirement. No, this isn’t going to be a post about how kids these days are constantly glued to their screens at dinner (I’m guilty of such behavior; damn you Six Match, why are you so addictive?) – it’s just something that I thought of while trying to connect to a public wifi hotspot today.

    There’s nothing wrong with using an internet-less computer. In fact, it helps with productivity. I can imagine if I was online now, I’d be watching Liquid vs OG at DAC instead of writing this blog post. So it’s alright to have no connectivity every now and then. I’ll just catch the NoobfromUA highlights tonight. It’s times like these I’m glad to have my music collection stored locally. Although I’ve used Spotify in the past, it hasn’t replaced my need to have music on my hard disk. Just knowing for sure that I can play any song I like without having to worry about my internet connection or if Spotify’s servers are working is a good feeling. Sure, it’s a hassle to collect discographies of obscure artists, and my music collection takes up a lot of disk space – but it’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make.

    Over lunch, there was a short conversation about tour guides and how it’s not something a lot of people enjoy these days. I hypothesized it was due to the availability of information on the internet. If you were to visit a brand new country in the coming week, I’m sure you could do a quick search to find out places you should visit, things you should avoid and so on. Then, from the comfort of your own home you could plan your whole trip without having to rely on a tour guide. Benefits of your own trip? Not having to do things you don’t want to do and being able to set your own schedule (nobody wants to wake up at seven, especially when you’re on holiday).

    The internet is wonderful, and I would dread going back to a life without it. It can help you with your work, yet it can hamper your progress as well. It’s all about self-control and moderation. Don’t let it turn into a vice – it should be a tool.