Why Would I Write

Category: Random

  • 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.

  • Talking Without Saying Anything: BTC edition

    Talking Without Saying Anything: BTC edition

    In case you haven’t already noticed, my posts do have regular themes: Music Monday, Technology Tuesday, Writing Wednesday, Thursday Thoughts, and Freewriting Friday. I thought I’d start with some direction for my Friday posts – Facebook Feed Friday, the day where I write about the ridiculous posts being shared on my Facebook feed.

    However, after scrolling through my feed for half an hour, it turns out that I don’t have any ridiculous news to write about today. It’s either the Facebook filters are doing a great job (I have spent a lot of time hiding posts I don’t want to see) or people on my friends list are getting less gullible.

    However, while scrolling through my feed today I’ve noticed plenty of posts about bitcoin. I think more would have shown up if I continued scrolling. To be honest, I don’t really have much interest in bitcoin. I mean, I’ve looked it up in the past because I had no idea what it was, and that was it. I wonder if me writing about it will cause Facebook/Google to think I care about bitcoin and show me more bitcoin ads in the future. (Please don’t.)

    For those who aren’t in the know, bitcoin is basically another currency you can use to buy things. What sets it apart from regular currencies is that it is decentralized and unregulated, and as there are only a fixed number of bitcoins in existence, its value won’t depreciate like regular fiat money. Why is it suddenly in the spotlight? Turns out that people have started to recognize it and are investing in it before it gets even higher. Media coverage on it has sky rocketed, which has increased its popularity and more people are hopping on to the bitcoin train, continuing the cycle.

    My only experience with bitcoin has been in the past when my PC slowed to a crawl when it was infected with mining malware. If only I had started mining coins for myself back then. Maybe I’d be rich now. Oh well.

    Turns out, I really don’t have anything to contribute to the topic but for those of you interested in finding out more about bitcoin, you can read this helpful FAQ.