Why Would I Write

  • Dark Blue

    Dark Blue

    It’s been a while since I’ve listened to a brand new podcast on a topic I’m unfamiliar with and today, I decided to check out a podcast called Dark Blue – by one of my all-time favorite vocalists, Geoff Rickly of Thursday. Coincidentally, I was wearing a Thursday T-shirt (also, today is a Thursday ). It’s a podcast series that covers a topic I don’t come across often – the struggles of being an artist and how to deal with it.

    While I consider myself a part-time artist, in the sense that I write, draw, and make music in my spare time, I’ve never really thought about the lives of musicians who aren’t on the radar. Sure, I may listen to their music but whatever goes on in their personal lives – I don’t really know or even care enough to find out. Turns out, despite us seeing them “living the dream” a lot of them struggle with their personal lives.

    One of the reasons cited in the podcast is that there is no guide-book on how to be an artist. Sure, in school you can learn all the skills you need to be one but what happens when you become one? Nobody teaches you how to deal with the struggles of being an artist – let alone be a successful one. Then again, speaking as an unsuccessful artist – it doesn’t seem like it would be hard to deal with. Just go get a regular job to pay the bills.

    I’m not suddenly an expert on how to deal with the struggles of being an artist, so I won’t be giving out any advice here – I’m probably the last person you want to ask for life advice. However, I am really glad I started listening to Dark Blue as it has opened my eyes (or ears) to a world I’m unfamiliar with. I never thought I would find a podcast about such dark issues so compelling. I guess it helps that I’m a fan of some of the artists on the show, including the host.

    Anyway, if you are interested in learning about how to deal with psychological issues as an artist, or you’re dealing with such issues yourself, I would highly recommend you check out Dark Blue. It should be available on all your favorite podcast apps or you can listen to it online.

  • We Could Live Like Hermits

    “Stop.”

    “The fuck you mean?” I snapped.

    “Just don’t. It’s not going to end well.”

    “And how would you know that?” I retorted. “You from the future?”

    Silence.

    I placed my Glock onto my lap, lifted my ski mask and looked into the welled-up eyes of my best friend seated on the passenger side of my beaten-up ‘93 Camaro. I always found it funny that we both shared the same green eyes when nobody else in town I’ve met had them. “Brother from another mother,” he’d tell me all the time.

    Ever since we met, we got along famously. Through good times and bad times, we’d stick together, coming out on top. Even though today was going to be one of them, I had a feeling that he was going to get cold feet. I strengthened my resolve.

    “You don’t understand, Francis. I just got let go, I’ve got a kid on the way, I’m up to my neck in debt,” I told him. “I need this.”

    “Just trust me,” he replied, in between sobs. “It’s a bad idea, someone’s going to call the cops, there’s going to be a massive shoot out, and you’re going to end up… dead.”

    “The fuck you on about? You gonna call the cops on me? Aren’t we in this together?”

    “I’m not gonna snitch, it’s not that –”

    “What happened to all that talk about leaving this town and starting a new life far away? You and Sam; me, Nancy and the little one; neighbors on a farm in the middle of nowhere. Don’t you want that?”

    “I do, but – “

    “But? But shut the fuck up! You in it or you out. I don’t got time for this shit.”

    I pulled my ski mask back on, readied my gun, and stepped out onto the front steps of the town’s largest bank.

    Writing Prompt from Reddit: [WP] You have realized that your best friend is your son/daughter from the future who wants to hang out and get to know you since you die before he/she was born

  • Goodbye Unifi

    Yesterday I handed in my termination application form and returned my broadband modem to Telekom. I’ve been using Telekom’s Unifi service since I moved in to my current home in 2011 so you could say I was a pretty loyal customer. I never had any problems with the service – my download/upload speeds were good enough for gaming, streaming and torrenting. The network was rarely down – I didn’t have any issues with the service at all.

    So why did I terminate my account? I was happy with my internet service. It was Telekom’s very own marketers that pushed me over the edge. About a month or two ago some dude called me up and told me that because I was a long-time customer, I was eligible for a “cheaper price promo”. I told him that was great, and I was interested in switching to it. But he told me that I couldn’t just switch my account to that new price – I had to cancel my account and sign up for a new account to get this new price point. We got into a debate over how absurd that was and I ended the phone call with him after about 20 minutes without agreeing to take this “promo”. Immediately, I went online to do some research about TM’s current price offerings.

    My plan then was RM179/month for 30Mbps (which was supposed to be upgraded to 100Mbps for free this year but due to my condominium’s network cable limitations, it wasn’t going to happen) – a plan that they don’t offer anymore (you have to Google to get to this page, it’s not even linked from their homepage – why is it still up?). If you check their website, they currently offer: RM129/month for 100Mbps (unlimited) or RM79/month for 30Mbps (limited to 60GB a month). This meant that I was paying an extra RM50/month for my current plan. Now, who in their right mind would want to do that?

    My 2-year contract had already long expired – couldn’t they have just reduced my monthly fee to match the current price? Why did I have to cancel my account and sign up for a new one just to pay the correct price? They aren’t selling my old price plan anymore, it doesn’t make any sense that I have to keep paying for it since I was no longer bound to a contract.

    I wrote them a lengthy email about my situation and they didn’t answer my question. They kept harping on the fact that I had to cancel my account to get the correct price. They marketed this ‘new’ price as a promotion. How the fuck is it a promotion if it is just the correct price for a service I’m overpaying for? If I had to guess, they probably wanted me to commit to another 2-year contract, or they wanted me to contribute to their number of sign ups for the year.

    Since Telekom wanted me to cancel my account anyway I decided it would be a good time to give Time a shot. I signed up for an account over one afternoon at Seng Yip’s house (the sign up process is a stupidly simple and quick process, big props to Time for making the transition so easy) and scheduled a date for them to come over. That day was yesterday and after successfully upgrading to Time, I drove to the Telekom center nearby my house to terminate my account.

    I hope Time lives up to its reputation – based on my friends’ experiences I’ve made the right choice (and for the past 24 hours I’ve been very very pleased with it). When the billing date comes around, I’ll be happy with the lower price and the fact that I won’t be charged for a service I never use (looking at you HyppTV).

    Also, this switch comes one year after I shut down a Time telemarketer almost a year ago. Does this mean his call worked?