Why Would I Write

Category: Thoughts

  • Nobody likes adverts; Malaysian time

    I dislike adverts. Sure, I know, they’re a necessary evil which lets us have things for free but that doesn’t mean I can’t dislike them. I don’t mind stuff like billboards and posters put up – but when they’re in your face and unavoidable i.e. popping up during a TV show or in between songs on the radio – they’re terrible. I made the conscious decision to not run any ads on this blog (not that I would have the traffic to generate revenue anyway), I don’t put ads on the (very few) YouTube videos I have and I install adblock on all my devices. I don’t watch TV or listen to the radio anymore, so I never have to sit through the rubbish they spew.

    However, there’s one place I can’t avoid advertisements and that place is the cinema. It is also something I don’t get. Mind you, I’m not complaining about the trailers they show (if they show any at all, seriously, one to two trailers per film? what’s wrong with you guys, GSC?) – if anything, we need trailers more than shitty advertisements.
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  • The end (of the year) is here

    How time flies. In a couple of weeks we’ll be in the second last month of the year. And I guess it should be time to look back at what I’ve done and lay down plans for the upcoming year. Then again, why do people need to do these sorts of things at the end/beginning of the year. It’s such an arbitrary date – I feel that anything can be done anytime, it’s just a matter of doing it when you want to/can. People use future dates (I’ll start next week!) because they are procrastinators. I am a shining example of such a person. I won’t go into details, but yeah – I aim to eliminate procrastination from my life. Fingers crossed.
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  • Now go forth, and create!

    If there’s one thing great about this digital age, it’s that it enables pretty much everybody to create content as well as grant everybody access to it. It has significantly changed the way we consume media. These days we’re linking YouTube videos or torrent links to each other – back then, we had to tell our friends to catch something on TV or record it on video tapes to share.

    Back then we had photo albums we had to meet up in person to share. Sometimes we even developed multiple copies of the same roll of film so we could keep them! These days it’s just a click or two to upload your photographs to Facebook or Flickr and another button to share.

    Other examples include – waiting for the radio to play your favorite song vs. on-demand streaming services, buying CDs vs. downloading MP3s, snail mail vs. email and more.

    While all that is great, there’s another side of the internet which greatly benefits certain people – content creators. Artists, actors, singers – everyone with something to share. It’s never been easier than now.

    Have a story to tell? No problem, put it on a blog or publish an e-book. Have a film to show? Upload it to Vimeo and watch the hits roll in. How about a song? There’s Soundcloud, Bandcamp and a million other sites to choose from. Heck, you can even put your stuff up on iTunes or Spotify if you wanted. Want to make your own video game for people to play? You have the tools in your hands. If you’re unsure how, there are plenty of tutorials online! I learnt how to tie a tie through YouTube.

    We’ve never been so connected before – it’s a good time to be alive. For those of you with an idea brewing in your head, I think there’s no better time to put it out. Before artificial intelligence gets too advanced and enslaves us all.