Why Would I Write

  • The Digital Age

    Are we too reliant on technology? It’s hard to say. After all, it has made life a lot better and far more interesting for me. Sure, it’s something that I could live without but it wouldn’t be a choice I’d willingly make. Like a lot of people, I’ve come to rely on it a great deal. A bit too much, I might add. Like yesterday, I made a stupid typo in my writing where I used the wrong word in a sentence. However, it was picked up by WordPress’ ‘proofread’ feature. Saved my ass.

    Instead of memorizing directions to some place, I could just a navigation app to guide me there. Instead of digging through an encyclopedia for information, I can just Google it. Instead of spending money talking to people on the other side of the world, I can just drop them a message or email. Or tag them on Facebook. For free. It’s great!

    But not all of it has been positive. I no longer take the trouble to memorize phone numbers. I mistype words on my phone because I know autocorrect will suggest the right one. I no longer remember to do things, I just set myself reminders on my phone. And the list goes on. Note – I don’t blame technology for these things, they just became byproducts of my reliance on it.

    Does this make me worse as a person? Probably. If my computer and smartphone were to all suddenly fail for no reason, I’d be pretty screwed. And I wouldn’t be able to ask my friends and family if their devices were broken too because I haven’t memorized their home phone numbers (who even has a wall phone plugged in these days?).

    Don’t know what I’m getting at, but I was just inspired to write this for today’s post after reading this interesting article.

  • Big Big House

    God, does this hallway ever end? I’m getting tired already.

    I never asked for such a big house, but when you’ve been kicked out of your latest flat and up to the ears in debt, sometimes you just suck it up and take it like a man. Great uncle Jimmy passed away six months ago, and while he was a successful businessman, he never seemed to have any of his paperwork in order. It took a month for his will to be found and read, and it seemed that nobody around was left (or wanted) to claim what was his.

    Turns out, I was next in line to receive his property since my oh-so-generous cousins rejected the place. I can see why now! This house was in the middle of nowhere. It had forty rooms too many. A dried up swimming pool. A kitchen filled with enough pots and silverware to serve a small motel.

    But hey, like I said, I was down on luck, so this place had to suffice for now. Plus, the will said that it couldn’t be sold or rented, so I decided to make it my home for the meantime.
    (more…)

  • Old Homes, Old Faces

    It’s been a while since I’ve had a wacky dream, but that changed last night.

    I was in my room in my old house (I seem to have a lot dreams which take place in homes I used to stay in – never in my current home), when I heard a familiar voice outside my door. I opened the door and to my surprise, it was my dad. For some reason he had decided to come back to Malaysia.

    But the dad in my dream was very different. His face was how I remembered it to be, albeit a lot older, and that was the only part of him I recognized. He had grey crew cut hair (never seen him have that hair style in my life), and his was big and beefy. Like he had been spending the past 5 years in Texas lifting cows and drinking nothing but protein shakes. But that didn’t faze me.

    He was holding my mom and she was holding him back like they were never separated. That didn’t faze me.

    Instead, the first thing that came out of my mouth was, “how come you’re back in the country?”
    I remember he was smiling as he replied, but I don’t remember what he said – or anything after that (such is the fleeting nature of dreams, someone NEEDS to come up with a dream recorder dammit).

    Anyway, I woke up feeling really weird. I know dreams don’t mean anything, but I thought it was interesting enough to share.