Why Would I Write

Category: Random

  • Turning Eleven

    Today, I paid my web host the money to keep my blog running for another two years. I don’t even know why. I have like 10 readers a day (honestly, thank you for reading) and I don’t even write content that I think is appealing to anyone who isn’t me.

    Anyway, for those of you wondering – I have no ads on my blog. No, it’s not because you have adblock on, it’s because I chose not to monetize it. I’ve been campaigning against ads and advertorials on personal blogs since forever, and shall continue to do so. I paid for a domain and hosting so that visitors don’t have to look at ads on my blog. Also, adverts just make sites look ugly.

    “Oh George, you’re so stupid. You’re stuck in your old ways! You’re being stupid by spending money and not making any.”

    You know what, maybe they’re right (though I highly doubt it because the number of hits on my blog isn’t going to give me revenue anyway) but I write more for myself than anyone else. It’s just something I enjoy doing, and for me to monetize it would be turning it into some sort of job, which I wouldn’t want to happen. I like recording my thoughts down because I enjoy trips down memory lane for a few reasons:

  • I like seeing how much I’ve grown over the years in terms of writing style, vocabulary and choice of subjects.
  • I enjoy reminiscing – reading through my old posts allows me to travel back in time, to see what kind of state of mind I had then.
  • It’s fun to read about good (and bad) memories. See whether you’ve learned anything since or you’ve been making the same mistakes over and over again. I guess it’s kinda like looking through old photo albums except that I’m not much of a photographer, and I think I do a better job conveying my thoughts with words than photographs.

    • Hence, I see no reason to run ads on my blog and I wouldn’t want it any other way.

    Earlier this year, I made some slight modifications to my blog’s appearance, and you might have noticed I have a lot fewer constraints when it comes to what I write about. The only thing I’ve maintained is Technology Tuesdays and Writing Prompt Wednesdays. I did a Music Monday this week just because of Moose Blood, it’s not a regular thing anymore. Who knows what I’ll write in the coming months. Even I don’t know what I’m going to be up to. I’m insane!

    I’ll continue to write until I decide to stop writing one day, but for now I’m here to stay. Feel free to give me any feedback if there’s something you’d like to see more or less of and I’ll try to accommodate it.

    So once again, thanks for reading this trash blog for the past 11 years (longer if you’ve been following my shenanigans on Geocities and Blogspot). Here’s to another 11 years (or my death, whichever comes first).

  • Doors for Days

    Doors are wonderful inventions. I can’t imagine this planet without doors. If there were no such things as doors, life would be extremely different. Since that’s not true, I can only imagine what it’d be like.

    We would have no privacy, or total privacy. Imagine – if rooms had no doors, homes would probably be designed to have entrances that didn’t face common pathways. Everybody can see you taking a shit in the toilet (then again, I’ve heard that happens in China). If rooms didn’t have entrances, we’d probably be using ladders to climb into them, so nobody could peek inside easily. That would make it a bitch to move anything heavy inside.

    Homes would probably be designed vertically instead of horizontally – since we’d have to climb up or down into different rooms. Seems impractical to me, but I guess that’s why we have doors for a reason. Did you know the earliest record of doors can be traced back to the Egyptians? They were believed to be doorways to the afterlife. Today you learned something new! I know I did.

    On the plus side, not having doors means we wouldn’t have broken doors. It would also mean people can’t run into doors (they can still run into walls) and doors can’t fall on people. I guess the lack of doors would mean fewer jobs in the world (we wouldn’t have locksmiths or door makers). Would the absence of doors mean no doors on vehicles as well? Hmm.

    No doors would mean we wouldn’t have to deal with not knowing whether a door is supposed to swing towards or away from you or if it slides open. I’ve seen way too many people not following instructions on doors (pushing instead of pulling and vice versa). This problem has been eliminated in some places (by removing the handles from the side you’re supposed to push) but it isn’t a standard implemented worldwide – something I’ve wondered about for some time. I mean it makes so much sense – why would you want handles on the side where you’re supposed to push?

    Having handles on the pushing side will prevent people from falling on their faces while opening doors, since they’ll have something to hold on to. But in my opinion, if you’re incapable of pushing a door open without wiping out, you’ve got bigger issues to deal with.

    I’m looking forward to the day where we have some sort of membrane you can just walk through if you’re allowed to pass through it. It would also have the option to be transparent or opaque, depending on what you need it to be. This way you still get privacy when you want it. It will also have options to block out noise and retain/lose heat. I’m sure it’ll come soon. In my lifetime.

  • Hot Long Black

    It wasn’t too long ago I learned about the difference between a long black and an Americano. Initially I was oblivious to the differences, but I knew that I preferred the former for some reason. Turns out, it was the crema present in long black which tickled my fancy. In terms of preparation, it’s water at the bottom and espresso on top vs espresso at the bottom and water on top – that’s it!

    However, I seem to have problems ordering it in Malaysia. Here’s an example of what usually happens when I try to order a long black:

    “I’ll have a long black.”
    “Oh, Americano?”

    I’ll say yes because I’m not picky enough to make a fuss about it (I’ll just bitch about it on my blog), and also because they are essentially the same after a few minutes anyway, when the espresso has mixed with the water. Sometimes they have long black on the menu but serve me an Americano anyway.

    Since I don’t make my own coffee, I don’t know if it’s much more difficult pouring espresso into a cup of water as opposed to pouring water into a cup of espresso – but something tells me that it isn’t. If it really isn’t that difficult, I don’t see why these baristas aren’t trained to serve long blacks? Is there something I’m missing?

    Hot long blacks are the default drink I’ll order when I’m in a cafe. However, under certain conditions I’ll change my order. If it’s extremely hot outside, I’ll get a cold one instead. If I’ve already had enough coffees for the day, I’ll switch to tea. If it’s very late at night, I’ll get an uncaffeinated tea. I judge a cafe based on the quality of the long black they serve. They could have the crappiest food ever, but if they make a good cup of long black, I’ll be back. Also, if you’re a hitman trying to get me, you know what to do.

    I discovered long black by chance – I usually ordered Americanos when I first started drinking black coffee because that was what Starbucks served me. It was when I was at a cafe that didn’t have Americano on the menu and only long black was how I found out about the better coffee.

    I started drinking coffee thanks to my stint at Ubergizmo. I had to stay up for an event that was happening early in the morning (due to time zones), so I kept myself awake with some instant Nescafe that my mom stocked at home. This was quite late in my life – about five or six years ago? Previously, the only coffee I consumed were ice-blended drinks from Starbucks/Coffee Bean. It was a life changer.

    I’ve had coffee from Melbourne, supposedly the best coffee in the world, and I disagree with that title. Also, I don’t understand how something as diverse as coffee can be given a best in the world title when taste is so subjective? And if I disagree with that opinion, I’m wrong. Fuck that shit. If anybody asks me about my favorite coffee, I can answer that in a heartbeat – the Caribbean beans long black from Doiffee. Hands down, best coffee I’ve ever had. Which is why I had it almost every day during my three-month break. That shit is the bomb.

    Never expected to write over 500 words on such a trivial subject. What’s your coffee story?