Why Would I Write

Category: Thoughts

  • Hi, my name is

    When I was growing up, I didn’t like my name very much. I always thought ‘George’ was so uncool and wondered why my parents would give me such a name. All the kids making fun of it didn’t help either.

    Georgie Porgie, pudding and pie, kissed the girls and made them cry.
    When the boys came out to play, Georgie Porgie ran away.

    I guess I can be glad I didn’t grow up in the 2000s – I didn’t have to suffer from any George W. Bush flak. However, George H. W. Bush was president that time and fortunately he didn’t get that much hate (or I was too young to be aware of it).

    Later on in life, it was all about George of the Jungle, which I guess wasn’t so bad either since people enjoyed the Brendan Fraser movie…right?

    I remember wanting to be named Gus. Since I couldn’t change my name, I drew comics about a character named Gus who was supposed to be me. My first online handle was Gus091 (Gus was taken). I got excited watching the cartoon Recess because there was a character named Gus. My mom and sister made fun of me for wanting that name – they said it was disgusting (haha).

    I don’t remember at what point in my life it was when I started embracing my name. But it was probably when I realized that having an English name, especially one that was in my official identification, was quite special in this country.

    People always asked me, ‘is George your real name?’ My answers began with ‘yes, why would I call myself George?’ and eventually to just ‘yes’ and when I started embracing my name, ‘yes, it’s even on my birth cert’.

    When I looked up the meaning of my name – farmer, I thought it was pretty cool. I mean sure, it’s no destroyer of worlds but hey – at least it wasn’t something lame like Baby Boi.

    Who knows, maybe I’ll become a farmer one day and finally live up to my name. It will become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

    And as for my Chinese name – that’s a story for another day. Kek.

  • Simpler times/time allocation, (time)

    I had an idea to write a post about how there isn’t enough time to do what I want to do these days and then realized that it was just because of my shitty time management skills. I did a simple calculation and realized that I should have about 6-8 hours a day of free time to do whatever I like. But it never works out that way. I always seem to never have enough time. Turns out, I spend way too much time playing computer games. End of story.

    I do miss my high school days sometimes. Like, all I did was read story books, play computer games, and study occasionally for exams. Life was worry-free. Sure, I didn’t do very well in my exams. But when I graduated and entered college, I discovered that what I learnt in high school didn’t really mean shit. The cycle repeated itself in college, and when I started working, I realized that what I learnt in college also didn’t mean shit. Once you start working, you learn so much in such a short amount of time. You realize that the week/month-long deadlines you got in college were a luxury, no matter how short they seemed back then. I guess that’s just life. Each stage gets comparatively harder. Until you’re on your deathbed.

    I finally replaced the battery on my G-Shock. It had been dead for a few years before that and I never remembered to bring it to a watch shop. I managed to take it out from my room one day and left it in my car. There it stayed for a few months until a few weeks ago, where I brought it to a watch shop in Pavilion and got a new battery for it. You may ask, why did I take so long to replace the battery? If I left it un-powered for so long, surely I must not care about it very much. Then why did I bother replacing its battery at all? I have no idea. But it’s one of the very first gadgets I bought for myself (well, it was money from my parents). I bought it off my best friend, Seng Yip, when he first joined my school. I don’t know why he sold it, or why I wanted it. But I’m happy I still have it – and that it still works. Just like our friendship <3

    I remember during one of my school camps, there was a kid who had an alarm clock set to ring every morning. There was one morning where the guy didn’t hear his alarm clock ring, and it woke the whole dorm. This triggered another dude (who was known to be a bully) to get up, grab the clock from the sleeping guy’s bed and throw it onto the floor. He went back to bed and everybody else secretly cheered because there was no more ringing. Sleeping guy finally woke up, found out that his clock had been smashed and cried (for real), saying that his clock had sentimental value. Fun times.

    A friend told me about his experiences living on a farm in the middle of nowhere. He mentioned that nobody used their phones or clocks there. They had roosters crowing in the morning to wake them up. When he woke up, he would make himself a cup of coffee, head out to the front porch, smoke a cigarette and watch all the other animals slowly get up. He’d also get a nice view of the sunrise. That sounded fantastic. I definitely want to spend some time living on a farm someday. However, he told me that he had to learn to kill snakes. So it’s gotta be a farm where I don’t have to deal with such creatures. Maybe just a resort of some sort.

    People don’t really need watches in this day and age – we all have the time on our phones. But not having to power on the phone every time you want to check the time helps you save your phone battery for more important shit like playing Pixel Dungeon. However, watches are also fashion statements for a lot of people. It also signifies wealth and status. Sometimes maturity as well. Then again, can we and should we judge people by their watches? It’s not something I’ve done due to my limited knowledge of watches but I’m sure people out there do it.

  • Traffic

    I believe that traffic lights are good enough for the work they do – controlling traffic. There has never been a point in my life where I felt that the job of traffic lights could be better handled by policemen. However, every time I’m caught in traffic on a road when there’s usually no traffic – there’s always a traffic cop controlling the traffic flow. Every time it happens, I make sure to ask myself why? Or grumble to whoever is in the passenger seat that traffic cops make things worse.

    Why don’t they just leave the job to traffic lights, which, if configured properly, are supposed to do the job properly? And if the lights aren’t configured properly, why not fix them? Instead of putting some poor dude in the middle of speeding cars and motorbikes? Under the hot sun. In their long sleeves, helmets and gloves? It’s stupid. No wonder they don’t make the best decisions.

    Maybe traffic cops are only there because they’re being punished. And if they’re being punished, of course they’re not going to do a good job. They’ll want to fuck with everyone else on the road, since they have nothing to lose anyway. And they can gain some pleasure out of all the motorists’ frustrations. A least I know that’s what I’d do if I was being punished.

    If they’re not being punished, then why do they do such a bad job of controlling traffic? Maybe it’s just me generalizing my experiences with traffic cops and I’m being unfair to the good ones who are actually making things better.

    What about cops or ambulance drivers who use their sirens to skip traffic jams? Are they considered assholes too? Because every time there’s a shitty jam, there’s bound to be these guys around. And if they’re skipping traffic, why do I always read about them showing up late at emergencies? I can’t recall the last time I heard a siren when traffic was good. Everyone should just ride bicycles instead. Then we’d have no jams, we’d save the environment, and everybody would be fitter.