Why Would I Write

Category: Random

  • 1Partridge4Me

    Promo codes are great. Especially when they help you save money on something you were going to buy in the first place. But sometimes, they compel you to spend money on something you weren’t even thinking about. Case and point – today I took an Uber to lunch in Kuchai Lama. Normally, I’d drive there but there were a few factors that pushed me into riding an Uber today:

    1) Parking there sucks – if you can find a spot (a difficult task, especially during lunch hour)
    2) My car was low on fuel, which meant I had to pump petrol before I headed out for lunch
    3) I had entered the Uber Christmas promo code which gave me 4 free rides worth RM4 each (1Partidge)

    Because I had the promo code, I decided to make use of it. It’s not a bad thing. I mean, the ride cost me RM3 after the promo code, which was cheaper than driving there and paying for parking. Also, I saved myself the trouble of looking for parking (I also did the same thing last weekend when I couldn’t find parking in Mid Valley, I drove my car home, parked and took an Uber instead).

    If I didn’t Uber to lunch, I would have been very late. Also, I would have been stressed out in the car looking for a place to park. Fun fact: my Uber driver had over 1,500 trips which I found very impressive. He also didn’t try to start small talk with me. He just drove me to my destination with no questions asked. I gave him five stars, of course.

    Speaking of five stars, do people even bother rating anything other than one or five stars? Very rarely have I encountered a driver who was just average at his job and didn’t warrant a five-star rating. I’ve met more bad drivers than average ones. Maybe Uber’s rating system should change to – would I ride in this car again? Yes/No. It’s not IMDB or Metacritic. There’s no subjectivity to this. It’s either the driver did a good job or he/she didn’t.

    Have you ever bought something from a store just because you received a voucher for it before? I have. A few months ago, Google rewarded me for my contributions to Google Maps (I tend to leave reviews and answer questions on the app when I’m bored). I received a RM40 discount voucher (minimum order of RM160) for Zalora, so I went on the store, signed up an account and did some shopping.

    Because I had the voucher, I felt like I would have wasted it if I didn’t use it. Even though I didn’t have to, and I could have saved RM120 by not spending on anything in the first place. But I guess that’s how vouchers work right? I did the same thing previously on 11street (but my order turned out to be the wrong product in the end and I was refunded after a long and troubling process – never shopping there again).

    Steam sales and Humble Bundles do that to me too. When I see a game I’m remotely interested in playing that’s on a deep discount, I pick it up. Now I have hundreds of games that I’ll probably never play in my lifetime (I’m slowly making my way through them but Dota 2 has consumed me).

    On a side note: I’ve torrented a lot of music, movies, books and porn for free – I’ll never finish them in my lifetime either. There’s just so much content available online, and even if you were strict in what you want to enjoy, you’ll never get to finish everything you want to. Maybe if you didn’t need to work for the rest of your life and you started at a young age. Maybe. If the internet died today, I would have enough content stored locally on my computer to last me for the rest of my life.

    Also, if you don’t have an Uber account yet and are thinking of signing up, you can use the promo code: georgew3261ue ?

  • Another Year Gone By

    Last year I wrote a couple of reflection posts, and this year while thinking of what to write I reread them and realized that I haven’t done what I said I would do. My first game still remains in development hell (LUL – more like I haven’t made much effort to start it) and I’m still terrible at keyboards.

    A lot of things have changed for me this year. Not sure if it’s for better or worse, but such is life and changes are inevitable. It is the only constant. This year, I experienced snow for the first time. While it wasn’t a lot of snow, it was more than enough for me and I realized that it’s not the best thing ever despite how romanticized it has been portrayed in film. Snow means the weather is really cold. I’m not a big fan of the cold. Cool weather is great, freezing temperatures not so much. Also, having to get rid of the frost on your windows every morning before you drive your car seems like a troublesome.

    I left my job at Big Bad Wolf and took a long break before getting another job. During the break, I went on a solo retreat in Cameron Highlands. It wasn’t everything I thought it would be, but it was still an enlightening experience. Ideas don’t just come to you (or me at least). I wouldn’t say it was a waste of time, petrol and money – but I clearly didn’t accomplish what I had set out to do. It wasn’t a complete waste since I managed to come up with a couple of songs and did some preparation for my Nanowrimo novel, but it wasn’t my Morning View.

    Speaking of Morning View, Incubus is coming to Malaysia again. I’m not going to see them since I’m not a big fan anymore, but it’s nice to know that this country is still on the map for artists overseas. The XX is coming as well.

    I spent the whole of November working on my Nanowrimo novel. This year, I went in with a plan which worked great for the start, but I finished my novel before the 50k mark, so I had to expand and make up a whole bunch of other stuff to hit the target. The last time I wrote my novel, there was not much of a plan and it felt easier to hit the target since I just wrote whatever came to mind. Maybe the next time (if I ever do it again), I’ll go in with a looser plan.

    I recorded a couple of songs this year. I didn’t manage to record an EP in a studio. I think I’ll focus on doing some home recordings for now. I’ll put some money into recording them when I feel like I really need to. Plus, it’s been a lot of fun doing recordings at home anyway. GarageBand and Audacity are pretty fun.

    I’ll probably do more reflecting over the next few days but for now this will do.

  • Mere Coincidences

    Mere Coincidences

    Yesterday, as I was walking to my car I went past two policemen who were standing by the side of the road. While I’m normally not bothered by policemen, I noticed that one of them had a sub-machine gun hanging by his side and it bothered me. For some strange reason, I had an irrational fear of the policeman aiming the gun at my back and shooting me after I walked past him. I have no idea why the thought popped into my mind but less than half an hour ago, I had just posted my writing prompt which was about firing a gun.

    The day before that, I watched Seven Psychopaths (a great movie by the way) and there was a scene about a self-immolating monk. This morning when I took my routine dump, I was browsing reddit and came across this article about a mummified monk found inside a statue. Now they aren’t exactly related, but they did both involved a monk sitting cross-legged and dying. Another coincidence in the span of two days.

    It’s like putting an item on my Steam wishlist and seeing it go on sale the following day or appearing in a Humble Bundle. However Instagram and Facebook ads – those aren’t coincidences. You see them based on your browsing history (and phone usage).

    Coincidences happen only because we recognize them. Humans are good at recognizing patterns. Like how I remember the feeling of losing too clearly – not winning 15 games of Dota in a row kinda does that to you.

    There was a time where every time I watched Na’Vi play, they lost and when I missed their matches, they won. Unfortunately I couldn’t stay away from watching them during their tournament playoffs ?.

    Seng Yip asked me about jumper cables the other day. I told him that he could buy them from a petrol station because I experienced it a few weeks ago on my road trip to Penang. Ian’s car couldn’t start so we had to purchase some jumper cables to bring the car to life. Turns out the battery was dead and the cables were useless. But I had information on where to get jumper cables and how much they cost.

    You only stop learning when you’re dead. Everything you’ve done and learned in the past is to prepare you for something in the future. Whether or not you live long enough to apply the knowledge is another thing.

    Like working at my first job in Inspidea, I learned to tell stories through animation. Next month, I start my new job, telling stories through animation. Seven years later. Seven Years is a great song. Seven. Seven Psychopaths.

    Seng Yip’s lucky number is Seven. On my trip to Penang with The Propositions, we briefly spoke about the movie Lucky Number Slevin.