Why Would I Write

Category: Random

  • Snus

    Snus

    Snus. I had no idea what a Snu was until a year or two ago I saw a photograph of a Dota 2 player using them. I was like, what the fuck was Snus? So I decided to look it up. On a side note, what do you call people who use Snus? Snusers (dad joke haha).

    Anyway, Snus fell off my radar for a while until a few weeks ago Seng Yip sent me a picture of Snus being sold at a counter. I was like, whoa! They sell Snus here. So yesterday, I had the opportunity to purchase Snus and got myself a tin. I already smoke and vape, I figured one more vice wouldn’t hurt.

    My first Snu was pretty awkward. I couldn’t hold it under my upper lip properly, it kept slipping out. It was then I realized that I could hold it to the side of my mouth instead. I felt proud of myself. Then I googled it and realized that it was what other people did too – it doesn’t matter where you put it in your mouth, just that the upper part of your mouth has less saliva, so you generate less spit with the sachet lodged in upper part of your mouth.

    I purchased the mint variation of General Snus and the experience honestly reminded me of chewing mint gum, minus the chewing action. I might try the regular version once I’m done with this tin. My throat also felt a little rough when I was swallowing my saliva, turns out – it’s the nicotine in the Snus that causes that.

    As for its effects, I guess it’s kinda effective at reducing your cigarette intake. Like today, I only smoked one cigarette at work – because I wanted to have one after lunch. There’s something about the action of exhaling smoke that isn’t covered by Snus (duh). However, during other times, I just popped one into my mouth and kept it there for about 45 minutes. I had two Snus at work. It seemed to solve my nicotine craving. Not that I’m using Snus to quit smoking, mind you. It just happened to work that way.

    While having Snus at my desk, I understood how convenient it was. I didn’t have to get out of my desk to get my fix of nicotine. My colleagues seated next to me were probably happy I didn’t smell like cigarettes the whole day. I can see them being really useful for long meetings and watching films in the cinema. Hopefully I don’t get too addicted to them because I’ve only seen them on sale at Publika and nowhere else. Would be a bitch if I couldn’t get a fix when I needed one.

    Oh George, you can you know, just stop smoking. I guess I could. Writing this post, I realized that I’ve succumbed to the power of indirect advertising. Funny huh?

  • Macroblogging and Dead Links

    Every now and then, I read through some old posts on my blog and go through the comments section. Commenting on blogs used to be a thing. I remember. That’s how I made some friends on the internet. These days, people just comment on the Facebook post about the link instead. If not comments, you just get likes or some reactions.

    I guess it’s just how things have evolved. Back then there was no such thing as microblogging. The only way you could update people about your life was through MSN nickname statuses or blogs. I remember, almost everybody had a blog back then. It was the normal thing to do. Now I think having a blog is probably out of fashion. But that’s okay, it’s my way of practicing writing and putting out whatever is in my head.

    Anyway, back then when people commented on my blog, they would leave links to their own blog so I could check them out. That was one way of meeting new people online. I could check out their writing and if I found it interesting, I’d leave a comment and link their page if I liked it enough. Friendships would live and grow in the comments sections of posts.

    I guess all the long breaks I took in between blogging kinda killed off the steam and interest people had in visiting this page. Blogging is kinda like the YouTube of the past. If content creators don’t constantly churn out new content, they’d be forgotten. It was even worse for blogs because unless you had an RSS reader or subscribed to email updates, you wouldn’t have any way of telling whether the blog had new posts short of manually checking it out yourself. At least with YouTube you get emails or notifications on the site itself telling you about new videos on channels you subscribed to.

    But then again, who has time to read these days? I’m blogging for an audience of less than ten people daily (haha) but that’s okay. It feels good to write anyway. And I might as well make up for all the times I didn’t blog in the past. I mean, keep throwing shit against the wall until something sticks right?

    I don’t even read many blogs these days. I do read a lot of posts on Facebook though. It’s the modern version of blogging. And I don’t have to exit Facebook to read them. I guess that was the Zuck’s plan all along – keep everybody on the site so they don’t have to leave.

    Anyway I was prompted to write this post when I was clicking on links left by people who used to comment on my blog and realized that they were all dead links. IMO blogging died when everybody started doing advertorials instead of content about their lives. Shout out to Albert for keeping it real!

  • dreamingtosleep

    I enjoy dreaming. It’s a hobby though it’s not something I can control. If I had my way, I’d dream every night. It’s like combining two of my favorite pastimes into one – watching movies and sleeping. The best part is, I don’t miss anything (unlike falling asleep in the cinema),

    I’ve always been curious about the significance of dreams. Most of the time they don’t mean anything. But there have been times where I have acted on my dreams for no good reason. I mean, they’re just dreams right? No need to kick up a fuss about them. That’s what I did anyway. I remember I had a dream that (after looking it up online) signified I was looking for a change in my life, and I decided to take it to heart – so I quit my job. Granted, I was already thinking about it before the dream, but the dream somehow prompted me to finalize my decision.

    But looking back, it was confirmation bias – I was looking out for some sort of sign to justify the idea. I mean, it wasn’t like I quit my job to start the next Facebook or go on to be a successful entrepreneur. I didn’t have to act on it immediately, but I did it anyway. I did the same thing in my first relationship too. I asked god to give me a sign, and when she asked to end the relationship, I agreed because I thought that was a sign from god. Again, I was young and dumb (now older, still dumb) and it makes no sense to me now. But that’s just how life goes.

    So anyway, I’ve had some pretty vivid dreams over the past few weeks, some outrageous (like meeting a person who turned out to be a ghost), and some realistic (ever dreamed about going to work before? I have). Last night, I dreamed that someone I knew was a mechanical keyboard fan (that person probably has no idea what a mechanical keyboard even is) and showed me their collection of keyboards. It sounds stupid, I know – dreams usually do, but I find it fascinating that your brain can stitch together your thoughts into a somewhat cohesive (at the time of dreaming) story line.

    Sometimes you have no idea if it’s a dream, sometimes you do. Sometimes you’re in control, sometimes you’re not. It’s like going to the movies without knowing the title or genre of the film. You’re in for a treat every time (I’ve probably had some boring dreams before, I just don’t remember them since they were unmemorable). One thing I’ve noticed from all my years dreaming – if you don’t record down what you dreamed about the moment you wake up, details become increasingly harder to recall with each passing second.

    I’m still looking forward to the day where we have the tools to record our dreams. I wonder if they’ll be as interesting as we seem to think they are, or just random nonsense. Which reminds me of those apps that record your speech in your sleep. I’ve always been curious to know if I’m a sleep talker. However, I’m also afraid that I might record some shit I don’t want to hear (i.e. me saying creepy shit, or voices other than mine in the room in the middle of the night).

    “Dreams should just stay fading away” – Jason Chan, 2017.