Why Would I Write

  • Around the track they drove/ Gig #92

    You should listen to this song before you read this post:

    Ray Peterson – Tell Laura I Love Her

    In today’s installment of ‘Songs you didn’t know were sad’, we have the famous song from the 60s – Tell Laura I Love Her. If any of you were like me and never paid attention to the song when you first heard it, you probably brushed it off as just another a cheesy love song. I can’t remember when it was when I paid attention to the words Ray Peterson was singing but when I did I realized how sad and depressing it was.
    (more…)

  • Is there a point to owning a home?

    A while ago, this interesting topic came up in a discussion between me and my friends.

    I said that there’s no point in owning a home – unless you want to secure a home for your future generation. And for guys like me who don’t want kids – there’s really no point. You die, your home gets reclaimed if there’s nobody else to take it. Right?

    Sure you may get kicked out of a house if the landlord decides to kick you out – you just find a new one.

    Anyway, back to owning a home – there are advantages to owning one. You get to do whatever you want to it (renovations etc), nobody can kick you out, and the peace of mind you will have knowing that you and your family will always have a place to call home (as long as you pay off the mortgage at the end of the day).

    But if you don’t care about customizing it, if you don’t have a family, and you don’t own tons of possessions, renting a place is the way to go. You can move to a new place as often as you like – that means a change of scenery if you get bored with one place, you won’t have to deal with the hassles of home ownership, you don’t have to spend so much money.

    Then I realized what a hypocrite I was because I am currently paying off a mortgage for my house. Yes that’s right, I have a house in my name. Well, to be fair, if given a choice, I probably wouldn’t be in such a position. But long story short, due to circumstances out of my control, I have a home which I’ll be paying off for the next 14 years (topkek).

    I don’t know, maybe I’m just undervaluing what it means to own a home because I didn’t ask for it. Or I’m not the kind of guy who sees himself staying in one place for long periods of time. Also, I didn’t do any research before writing this post, so feel free to school me if you think I’m ignorant.

  • Adblock is a good idea

    This is gonna be a shitty post, feel free to ignore it. You have been warned.

    I’ve written about adblocking before, so this isn’t a completely new topic. But I came across this thread on Reddit today and after reading it, I noticed there were some interesting points being raised in the comments. Most of the comments were in support for adblockers, with uBlock Origin being the most recommended one (I use it too).

    Anyway, there were arguments about how advertisements shouldn’t be a thing at all, and if sites want money to continue running, they can charge their readers. After all, if a reader thinks something is worth reading, he/she would fork out money for it.

    I thought that was a valid viewpoint – however, it will only work for sites that have content of similar quality unavailable elsewhere. I mean, we all know how cheap human beings usually are – if there’s a free alternative, they’ll usually take it unless its quality is sub-par.

    But I was just thinking to myself – internet access isn’t free. At least not for me. I pay almost RM200 a month for my internet connection. Shouldn’t I deserve access to content online? Of course, I do. I think?

    Then I thought harder, and realized it was a stupid idea.

    Conclusion? Sites can remain the same in terms of displaying adverts. They’ll still make money off the people who don’t use adblock, which is supposedly the majority of people on the internet. People like me can choose to use adblock if I want an ad-free experience. Everybody wins. I think.

    Until using adblock becomes illegal like vaping in some countries because the government needs to make money off cigarette sales. Wait, what am I saying?

    Anyway, while we’ve eliminated a lot of ads via adblock, some ads can’t be blocked (at least for now). These include: sponsored posts on Twitter/Facebook/Instagram – ads which appear as ‘normal’ posts to adblockers, so you can’t really filter them. We still can’t block ads on radio or TV, good thing I don’t bother wasting time with those mediums. kek.