Category: Thoughts

You know today, while singing along to Mayday Parade’s Jersey, I thought again of how poetic names of places can be in songs – when you’re not singing about Malaysia. All the names of our states here don’t really go well with English lyrics. I mean, sure I could put them in, but they would sound pretty forced. At least that’s what I think. Bangsar, Genting, Penang, Malacca – none of them have the same ring as Ocala, New York, Vegas or Austin. Why is that? I think it might be because they aren’t English words to begin with. Then again, those names aren’t really words either. Just names in English. Also, how can you write emo lyrics about a place called Happy Garden or muddy confluence? Maybe you could, I never really tried it. The closest I’ve come is using “long drives up state” in a song. I guess I just need to try harder to find a city/state that can work in a song.

It’s great being from KL during the long holidays. You can drive around like you own the streets because there are no other cars on the road. It feels good not being stuck in traffic jams. I wish regular days were like this. Then again, if they were always jam-free, I wouldn’t appreciate it as much. Just kidding. I dislike the fact that my favorite cafe is closed for the holiday though. Oh well, people need their rest too.

After gambling for about three hours last night, I walked away with RM4 profit. FeelsGoodMan. I’m not much of a gambler, but I do enjoy sitting around with people who rub their cards in hopes of changing their values. I guess it would be boring to gamble with a table of Georges. These guys add a lot of entertainment value to a regular session of Black Jack.

Waking up late really is a waste of your day. But so is sleeping early. Sleep feels so good. But you only have so many hours in a day and so many things to do. I remember when I was younger, I’d hate having to nap in the afternoon. I was even beaten as a kid if I didn’t want to go to sleep. These days, I’d gladly go to bed in the afternoon given the chance. I could also wake up within a second when my alarm clock rang. I guess I just grew lazier as I got older. These old bones aren’t as responsive as they used to be.

The other day my cousin complimented me on my watch. It’s nothing fancy. Some cheap Aldo watch I purchased from Zalora because I had some vouchers to use. Regardless, it felt kinda good. Like I did something right. People rarely compliment me on my fashion choices. Probably because I’m nowhere near fashionable. I just put on stuff that I think looks good on me, and most of the time it’s very plain. Nothing fancy. I guess I’m not a fan of loud clothing. Especially shoes. I don’t understand how people find neon colors on shoes attractive – they look so obnoxious. Different strokes for different folks. Then again, my favorite color is brown so who am I to judge?

Every time I listen to a nice song, I feel compelled to share it online. In hopes that someone would enjoy the song as much as me. It makes me happy whenever that happens. It’s like validation for my taste in music even though in the grand scheme of things, it makes no difference whatsoever to my life. Unless our future turns into the Black Mirror Nosedive episode. I wonder how popular I actually am on the internet. Googling my own name doesn’t tell me much. There are way more popular people with the same name on the internet.

Using the wayback machine to see some snapshots of how my blog used to look is pretty fun. But man, my writing was so cringeworthy back then. I don’t know what I was thinking, hitting publish after typing out so much crap. I can’t recall my original site URL back when geocities was organized into neighborhoods. Those should be a fun read. Haha.

I’m not a fan of horror movies or video games. I could never understand why people would willingly spend money to shit themselves indulging in such media. I don’t remember where the fear started from. But all I know is that every time, without fail, after watching a horror movie, I would have the most irrational fears using the bathroom at night. I would do my best not to close my eyes. Whenever I use the bathroom sink to wash my face, I’ll try to keep one eye open at a time, lest I blink and see another face in the mirror looking at me. Washing my hair at night also becomes a bitch.

The last horror movie I watched in the cinema was the remake of It. I jumped in my seat quite a number of times. Most of my friends said that it wasn’t scary at all. I don’t get it. The drain scene was the stuff of nightmares. And the part where the clown comes out of the wall projection. Who thinks of such things?

I remember there was a time when I could watch horror movies without any consequence. I think I probably scarred myself for life when I watched the original Ju On home alone in the evening. By the time the movie was done, the sky outside was dark and I hadn’t switched any of the lights on. I was pretty creeped out.

I’m just as scared watching movies on a small screen. I remember I had to watch the last few scenes of Dead Silence in a resized window on my PC desktop because I couldn’t handle it full-screen. I even turned the volume down.

I tried playing F.E.A.R. to overcome my fear (heh) of scary video games. I only managed to play it for an hour before I gave up. I’m not a fan of jump scares. The game was full of it. It was even worse because I controlled the character and had to walk into my own jump scares.

I can handle horror that builds up into a climax. I don’t mind gruesome or gory. I don’t mind psychological horror. I’m mostly scared by scary looking ghosts and old ladies. Watching the first Insidious movie was enough for me. I don’t intend on watching any of the other films in the franchise.

You know what I like? Comedy. I’ll willingly pay money to have a good laugh. So much more worth it than scaring myself.

I already have some irrational fears – like walking next to power boxes (for some reason I’m always afraid that they’ll blow up for no reason and kill me) and power line poles in Thailand (why don’t they fix that shit? isn’t anybody else scared by the constant buzzing sounds you hear walking next to them?). I’m also terribly afraid of cockroaches. I don’t need to introduce more things in my life to scare myself.

I used to swim in the evening after work. Sometimes late at night, even though the pool lights were already turned off. Until one day I started imagining ghost ladies appearing and holding my head underwater to drown me. Now I don’t swim in the dark anymore.

I’m glad Dota 2 isn’t scary at all. It’s a fun and great way to end the night. Despite losing more than winning, I still enjoy the game very much.

When white people say “How’s it going?” they don’t really care about your day. It’s just a greeting.

This was a note that I saved on my phone in June last year. I realized that when I was traveling a lot for work and everybody would say that to me. Initially, I’d respond by telling them how it was going. “Oh, I’ve been very busy.” “Oh, life’s alright.” and so on. It took me to realize that it was just a greeting and people didn’t care about how my life was going. I thought that was pretty funny because nobody does that here in Malaysia. In my experience, if people ask you how’s it going, they want to know how things are going with you.

Not many people in the remainder book industry that I met were smokers. The handful who smoked, I got along with pretty well, sharing cigarettes and conversation out in the cold weather after meals. Not sure if that helped with lowering the prices for the books we purchased, but I’d like to think so! Smoking gave me time alone which was good. It was nice to take a break every now and then, especially when you were traveling with the same people for a month straight. I cherished the breaks I had. It allowed me to recharge. Dr. Pepper in one hand, cigarette in another.

Driving a car in the UK was also a fun experience. For the first few days, I was worried about my car stalling whenever I had to stop. Eventually, that fear went away and operating a manual car became second nature. Except when it came to roundabouts. Man, I clenched my butt cheeks every time we arrived at one. Fortunately, we did a lot of night driving so traffic wasn’t a big issue. I used Google maps to navigate, so I never got lost getting anywhere. I was definitely a much slower driver than my boss then, but I guess it was expected – I don’t even speed when I’m in KL.

No idea when I’ll drive again in the UK, but for now I’m content with KL’s roads. Especially for the next week, when all the immigrants go back to their hometowns for Chinese New Year. Kek. I’m probably going to lose money gambling, but sitting around a table with friends is worth the entrance fee.

Isn’t it great living in Malaysia? We get way more public holidays than we deserve – but I’m not complaining about it.