Why Would I Write

  • Thoughts on the 25th

    My favorite cafe, Doiffee, is closed today. Strange, because it used to be open all the time, even on public holidays. Which was what I liked about the place. I had somewhere to go for good coffee and quiet environment to do my writing. No biggie, I relocated to Encore today. A pretty good cafe as well, known for its desserts. The coffee here is good, the tables are a bit small if you plan to use a laptop with an external keyboard, which seems to be the only way I write these days. Typing on your laptop’s built-in keyboard is for plebs. Just kidding, it’s just much nicer to type on a proper keyboard.

    A few years ago, I wasn’t really into mechanical keyboards. I felt that regular keyboards could do the job as long as you could type on them. Now, I own four of them and I’ve been investing in keycaps to replace the stock ones I have. I’m browsing a lot of /r/mechanicalkeyboards in my free time as well. It’s become quite a hobby, dressing up these pieces of plastic. I guess the next step would be ordering a kit and building a keyboard of my own. I’m not enthusiastic enough to do that just yet. Because it would mean I’d have to pick up soldering skills. Hah! But I’ve learned to never say never. Thanks Justin Bieber! Thanks Seng Yip!

    Yesterday I flipped through the newspapers – the first time in a long time. There was nothing that really interested me, and I didn’t feel like I’ve been missing out all that much. I mean, whenever there’s big or important news, I’ll see it on my Facebook feed or on the Reddit front page anyway. That means anything unimportant has been filtered out, and I don’t have to waste time reading about it.

    Obituaries are still a thing. I’ve always wondered why people announced the death of somebody. Doesn’t it just draw attention for money-grabbing relatives to crawl out of the woodwork, looking for a slice of the pie? Does anyone have so many relatives that it would be impossible to inform all of them via text or phone call? I guess people use obituaries as a way of celebrating someone’s life, however necessary that may be. Then again, I believe that money can be better spent instead of being used on afterlife amenities. Dead people really don’t give a shit what happens after they’re gone (they can’t).

    Last night, I drove by a couple of churches that were counting down to Christmas. I wasn’t interested in joining the festivities. I haven’t been to church to worship for about ten years. The same amount of time I’ve been working. Coincidence? Not really. During my first job, I stopped going to church because I was working six-day weeks and wanted to rest on the seventh day. I started going less, and after a few months I realized that it made no difference to my life. Eventually, I stopped praying and even thinking about God. Then I discovered how funny religious jokes were and how liberating it was to not live my life by some arbitrary rules found in a really old book. I mean, we already have enough rules to live by in this country and at our workplaces – why bother adding another set to the mix?

    The best part about this time of the year is the music that gets played in public places. I think we should have Christmas songs playing all year-long. It always makes shopping a pleasant experience. Also, Christmas songs are fun to sing along to.

    The world stops running for a day today, at least for most of the world. And in a week’s time, it’ll be another break for the start of the new year.

  • Another sunny day in Kuala Lumpur

    This morning, I woke up at 6ish and thought to myself, this must be what it feels like to wake up on time for work again. Washed up, thought of having an early start to my day, and promptly fell back onto my bed. Woke up at a more reasonable 1pm. Ahh. The life!

    What do you do in your spare time, George? I hear that question a lot. It’s always the same answer though. I game, write, watch shows, play the guitar, and sleep. Basically I keep myself occupied with things I enjoy doing. It’s the best way to make use of your time. I don’t have to go anywhere (maybe except Doiffee, since I can’t make myself coffee that good at home) to enjoy myself.

    However, for the past 2 days, I did make a trip to two malls and I’m reminded of why I hate going to crowded places. Traffic jams and hunting for parking. Definitely not up there in my list of things to do with my time. Today, I was smart and Ubered to Mid Valley instead of driving there. As expected, the place was packed. Having someone to drive me around is so convenient. Promo codes are also great.

    But it does make you wonder – why are shopping malls so crowded even on weekdays? Don’t people have work to do? Is everyone a student or a tourist? Is everyone jobless like me? Speaking of job, I’ve got a job lined up in January, so for those of you worried that I’d be a jobless bum – worry no more!

    I’ve been watching a lot of movies by Martin and John McDonagh. All their movies are great. I have yet to be disappointed by any of them. Each movie I watch from them is turning out to be my new favorite one. They’re definitely going into my movies to watch every year list. I’m also looking forward to Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (which is never going to arrive in our cinemas, sadly).

    I finished the first season of Attack On Titan, which is pretty good. However, I’m not a fan of the main character (Eren). He seems so whiny to me. I’m sure it’s because he’s a young teenage boy, but man, he’s probably the most annoying anime character I’ve come across. I should also catch up on Rick & Morty, Adventure Time, Regular Show, Gravity Falls, Archer, and Bob’s Burger.

    I watched The Last Jedi in the cinema, and I thought it was an okay movie. I preferred the previous two Star Wars films that came out recently. It wasn’t terrible but I thought it could have been shorter. Also, I’m not a big fan of the Star Wars universe so I don’t really have much to say about it. I did enjoy some Star Wars games a long time ago though: Jedi Knight 2 and Jedi Academy. Those were pretty good games with solid lightsaber sequences. The Knights Of The Old Republic RPGs were also good (though I only got through half of the second one before I formatted my PC a long time ago, will definitely revisit it in the future).

    Speaking of games, I’ve been playing Watch_Dogs (didn’t deserve the flack it got IMO, the gameplay is solid, with my only gripe being the driving sequences because I suck at driving in video games) and Battle Chasers (probably the best JRPG I’ve ever played so far – the game is also gorgeous). Dota 2 is still a staple, I’m also thinking of attending ESL One Genting if Na’Vi qualify. I tried a PUBG clone on my phone the other day, uninstalled it after one round (lol).

    I’ve been getting visits to this blog from countries like Sweden and South Korea. I’ve no idea who’s living there and cares enough to read this blog, but hello!

  • The Night Out

    The rules are simple: approach within three seconds, be funny, respond appropriately and try to lead the conversation.

    “That’s it?” I said.

    “That’s it,” Theodore replied.

    “There’s no way in hell this is going to work out!”

    “Trust me, I’m better at this than you.”

    That’s it. Typical Theodore. The guy who had it all – brains, looks, and charm. The art of seduction was something he was good at and something I was trying to learn from him. The words that came out of his mouth made so much sense and no sense at the same time. Tell me how a backhanded compliment is supposed to make a girl attracted to me?

    There’s no way what he told me was going to get me laid but then again, I’ve had no success with women – might as well do something unorthodox right? There was nothing to lose and everything to gain.

    The bar was packed with women. There was definitely no shortage to choose from – the only question was if they’d choose me. Theodore was already making his move on a couple of cute girls sipping their cocktails – he didn’t waste any time.

    “Three seconds – one, two, three,” I counted in my head and took a step forward to a pretty girl sitting by herself. Then I stopped. The shoes on my feet felt like they were filled with lead.

    Theodore previously said that I had to let loose, relax and go with the flow. To me that translated into – fill yourself with drinks for that boost of liquid courage.

    There was no line for ordering drinks, so pretty soon I had a drink in my hand. The girl I wanted to approach had already left the bar – probably dancing with someone else who had more balls than me.

    Theodore was still working the ‘two set’, getting them out of their seats to twirl them around, making them laugh with his ridiculous stories (which were supposed to demonstrate his value) and making plans to ‘bounce’ to another location later.

    Time passed.

    Tonight the beer must have been watered down, because I wasn’t feeling it at all. The fact that I had seven beers and still feeling like a coward said it all – Theodore only had two drinks and already had five new numbers in his phone. There were none in mine.

    “Thanks for bringing me out but I’m going to call it a night,” I told Theodore when he took a short break from chasing tail to order a new drink.

    “The night is still young!” he replied. “There’s so many women here who want to get to know you, you won’t know unless you try!” Then he went back to approaching other women, as though somebody had unpaused a movie.

    Typical Theodore, always full of encouragement and always right. There was no way I would get to know anybody by keeping to myself. There was nobody to blame but me. Taking the final sip from the bottle of beer in my hand I told myself, “fuck it.”

    Then I lit up a cigarette, ordered an Uber and walked out of the bar.

    Writing Prompt from Reddit: Write a story but have the words in every sentence start with the same letter.