Why Would I Write

  • The Wait

    If there’s one thing I’ve learned after joining the mechanical keyboard community, it’s that you need a lot of patience for this hobby. If you think spending about an hour changing keycaps on your full-sized keyboard takes up a lot of time, think again. Even the amount of time you have to spend desoldering (not that I do it) a full-sized keyboard feels like a few seconds compared to the amount of time you spend waiting for parts to arrive.

    If you’re not ordering ready-made parts or a pre-made build online, expect waiting for months (and sometimes even years) for them to arrive. While I’m not an advocate for preordering (especially when it comes to video games), you don’t really have a choice in this hobby if you want to delve deeper into the custom scene. Sure, things take time to be manufactured and shipped – I understand it completely. That doesn’t make it any better though!

    It’s been a few months since I’ve put down some monies for my upcoming build and only one part of my build is on its way to my house (switches). I still have to wait for the board and keycaps. Once they’re in my possession, it’ll probably take less than half the day for me to assemble it. I can’t think of any other hobby that involves this much waiting. Maybe growing plants would be something similar. Even then, it doesn’t take as long as waiting for a group buy to deliver. But in the end, you’ll have something pretty to show off to other people.

    Fortunately, I already have some nice pre-built boards that I can enjoy in the meantime. I can’t imagine what my daily life would be like if I didn’t already have them to keep me satisfied. I probably wouldn’t enjoy writing as much as I do now.

    Sometimes I don’t use copy and paste when working just so I can spend more time typing.

    Also, I recently discovered Windows + M minimizes the window that is currently open. How cool is that? I’ve been using Alt + Space, N to minimize windows for years. And I learned this on accident.

    Anyway, I think patience is something I have. Sometimes I do wonder – if there was a fee for an accelerated option, would I take it?

    One of the best solutions to the problem I’ve heard is that you should keep buying stuff all year-long. Then you forget about what you’ve purchased and every time you receive a package in the mail, it’s a nice surprise. Unfortunately, I don’t have the funds to do that, yet.

  • Back and Forth

    The other day I was told off by my mom for shaking my legs. While it’s not something I do all the time, I realize I do it a lot when I’m listening to music with a good drum beat. My legs automatically bounce as though I’m the drummer of the song (even though I have no idea what I’m doing). It’s strange. Anyway, I wanted to figure out why it’s something that my mom has been against since I was a young boy. Turns out there’s a lot of history behind why leg shaking is considered a bad habit (I’m shaking my legs as I write this out, Dance Gavin Dance is playing through my earphones).

    In Asia, shaking your legs means you’re being idle and have nothing to do in India, while in Japan it’s something the poor people do (they call it the poorman’s leg). In Chinese culture, if you believe it, you’re shaking your wealth and prosperity away. I didn’t find any scientific reasons that were twisted into grandmother stories. But, for people who shake their leg constantly, it turns out that there’s something called Restless Leg Syndrome. Apparently people who suffer from it have difficulty sleeping (not me, of course). That reminded me of the time when I learned about attention deficit disorder (back in the day, we’d just get punished for not paying attention in class – not prescribed Adderall).

    Long story short, I haven’t stopped shaking my legs, but I’ve been more mindful about doing it around my mom since it bothers her. I mean, how do you stop yourself from moving your legs when you’re listening to this jam?

    If I could, I’d jump around all the time.

    I knew someone who used to shake their legs constantly. But it was an audible sound because it would make the chair squeak. Now that was annoying. Also, it made some other appendages bounce, which was distracting, to put it mildly. I stop shaking my legs if I notice that it’s distracting other people because I can be considerate at times.

    Anyway, Dance Gavin Dance’s Artificial Selection drops next week and I can’t wait.

  • Return of the Rambles

    While i’ve been taking breaks from writing daily, I haven’t been extra productive with the extra time I have. Instead, I’ve been using it to game, watch shows and so on. Not the best use of my time, but hey – it’s my time and I can do whatever I want with it. I finally started watching season 2 of Attack on Titan, finished watching Look Who’s Back, and caught up on Riverdale.

    Which reminds me, I think it’s time I finish writing new music and start gigging again. It’s been awhile since my last show, I think my guitars are collecting dust at home. Time to go out and damage my vocal chords again. I miss it. However, I don’t want to play the same old songs over and over again, which is my excuse for not performing. But I haven’t been using my free time to write new songs, so I’m stuck in a loop where I’m not making any progress towards my goals. It’s time to change things up a bit.

    Other projects I’ve said I wanted to do this year but haven’t done anything about: make my first game, turn my story into a graphic novel. Did I want to do those things because at my previous job I didn’t have the ability to be creative and now that I do, I don’t feel like I want to spend my free time creating again? Am I just making excuses for myself? Probably. I should get around to doing it. At least I haven’t let up on some of the other things I wanted to do this year. I’ve been slowly cleaning my room. I’ve sold off some keyboards that I don’t use anymore. I’ve sold off a bunch of old books, though I have a whole lot more than I plan on giving away. Gonna do the same with my old clothes I don’t wear anymore.

    Solo was an alright movie. Deadpool 2 was better (I enjoyed it more than infinity War). Looking forward to Antman, Venom and the Spiderman animation later this year.

    Post Malone’s latest album is great, so is CHVRCHES’. Stoked for Dance Gavin Dance dropping next week.

    Not sticking to a writing schedule feels strange. It’s like I have no direction about what I want to write anymore. But writing is better than not writing, so you’ll just have to put up with my incoherent ramblings until I’m back on track.