Why Would I Write

  • Music & Me

    When I was young, I used to listen to my dad strum the guitar while singing his favorite Lobo songs. He had gigantic chord books filled with all his favorite songs. I never appreciated it when I was younger, but it probably planted the seeds of music in me. These seeds were watered by my buddy Seng Yip back in school when we decided to make some music together. It was a two man show – Fuzzbeaterz. Seng Yip, his guitar and pedal and me, with my tape recorder. He played some riffs over drum beats from his pedal, while I sang and rapped terrible lyrics over it. It was far from good, but it was a start.

    In college, we decided to enter the Battle of the Bands, so we learned some songs that I liked (in hindsight, they were probably the wrong choice for the competition, but whatever – I got to jam songs I enjoyed haha) and auditioned. We didn’t qualify, but it was a fun experience. We continued jamming and went through some lineup changes. We even changed got new band names (from Hostile Takeover to dreamingtosleep). Again, we didn’t get anywhere, but at least we landed a few gigs. After recording a demo, the band split up due to the guitarists leaving the country.

    I wanted to continue making music – I had so many lyrics left lying around that I didn’t have any music for. So what did I do? I picked up the guitar and decided to make music of my own. Since I had no experience making solo music, I started from square one again. But it was a good learning experience. I applied what I knew from learning songs by other people. I churned out a bunch of bedroom demos and was content. Back then I had no idea that the singer/songwriter scene in Malaysia existed so that was pretty much it.

    Until one day, a colleague at my first job told me about open mics. She encouraged me to attend my first open mic and that night changed my life. I played my first show in front of a sizable audience, and they enjoyed my set. Whether it was genuine or out of politeness, it didn’t really matter. It gave me the confidence to go out and play more shows. I was spurred on by the feeling I got being on stage. There’s something about the audience applauding and cheering for you that can’t be replicated anywhere else.

    I continued performing at every opportunity I got and wrote more songs. Eventually, I wrote enough music for an EP and recorded it. That was my first time getting songs recorded properly in a studio (dreamingtosleep’s EP was done live with no click track). I learned a lot during my sessions in the studio. Looking back, there were so many things I could have improved on, but hey – that’s always the case. The main thing is I managed to put the record out. Because I can always play better during live shows or on newer songs. Whatever I had recorded is a moment frozen in time. Something I can look back on and laugh at.

    After that, I formed another band with Jason and had the time of my life. Playing music with a band is so fulfilling. Sure, solo can be fun, but when you’re playing music with a bunch of guys – the combination of drums, bass and guitar takes the activity to a whole new level. I can’t explain. Is this what an orgy feels like? Side note: doing things with friends is almost more fun every time (i.e. gaming, checking out restaurants, drinking).

    These days I still play music, but on a less consistent basis. I haven’t written a new song in ages, but that’s okay. It’s not something I should force. Besides, I should channel my energy into my other hobbies (like working on my game) and catching up on cartoons and movies that I’ve missed over the past couple of years.

    Initially, I wanted to write something about reports of Gibson going bankrupt but then I realized I had no idea how to contribute to the topic and it devolved into a story about my music. Kids, playing guitar is fun. Go pick one up and start learning now if you have any inkling of an interest. It’s not going to be easy, but it’ll be worth it in the end. It’s definitely up there as one of my favorite hobbies of all time. I assure you, it’s as fun as wanking.

  • Snus

    Snus

    Snus. I had no idea what a Snu was until a year or two ago I saw a photograph of a Dota 2 player using them. I was like, what the fuck was Snus? So I decided to look it up. On a side note, what do you call people who use Snus? Snusers (dad joke haha).

    Anyway, Snus fell off my radar for a while until a few weeks ago Seng Yip sent me a picture of Snus being sold at a counter. I was like, whoa! They sell Snus here. So yesterday, I had the opportunity to purchase Snus and got myself a tin. I already smoke and vape, I figured one more vice wouldn’t hurt.

    My first Snu was pretty awkward. I couldn’t hold it under my upper lip properly, it kept slipping out. It was then I realized that I could hold it to the side of my mouth instead. I felt proud of myself. Then I googled it and realized that it was what other people did too – it doesn’t matter where you put it in your mouth, just that the upper part of your mouth has less saliva, so you generate less spit with the sachet lodged in upper part of your mouth.

    I purchased the mint variation of General Snus and the experience honestly reminded me of chewing mint gum, minus the chewing action. I might try the regular version once I’m done with this tin. My throat also felt a little rough when I was swallowing my saliva, turns out – it’s the nicotine in the Snus that causes that.

    As for its effects, I guess it’s kinda effective at reducing your cigarette intake. Like today, I only smoked one cigarette at work – because I wanted to have one after lunch. There’s something about the action of exhaling smoke that isn’t covered by Snus (duh). However, during other times, I just popped one into my mouth and kept it there for about 45 minutes. I had two Snus at work. It seemed to solve my nicotine craving. Not that I’m using Snus to quit smoking, mind you. It just happened to work that way.

    While having Snus at my desk, I understood how convenient it was. I didn’t have to get out of my desk to get my fix of nicotine. My colleagues seated next to me were probably happy I didn’t smell like cigarettes the whole day. I can see them being really useful for long meetings and watching films in the cinema. Hopefully I don’t get too addicted to them because I’ve only seen them on sale at Publika and nowhere else. Would be a bitch if I couldn’t get a fix when I needed one.

    Oh George, you can you know, just stop smoking. I guess I could. Writing this post, I realized that I’ve succumbed to the power of indirect advertising. Funny huh?

  • Macroblogging and Dead Links

    Every now and then, I read through some old posts on my blog and go through the comments section. Commenting on blogs used to be a thing. I remember. That’s how I made some friends on the internet. These days, people just comment on the Facebook post about the link instead. If not comments, you just get likes or some reactions.

    I guess it’s just how things have evolved. Back then there was no such thing as microblogging. The only way you could update people about your life was through MSN nickname statuses or blogs. I remember, almost everybody had a blog back then. It was the normal thing to do. Now I think having a blog is probably out of fashion. But that’s okay, it’s my way of practicing writing and putting out whatever is in my head.

    Anyway, back then when people commented on my blog, they would leave links to their own blog so I could check them out. That was one way of meeting new people online. I could check out their writing and if I found it interesting, I’d leave a comment and link their page if I liked it enough. Friendships would live and grow in the comments sections of posts.

    I guess all the long breaks I took in between blogging kinda killed off the steam and interest people had in visiting this page. Blogging is kinda like the YouTube of the past. If content creators don’t constantly churn out new content, they’d be forgotten. It was even worse for blogs because unless you had an RSS reader or subscribed to email updates, you wouldn’t have any way of telling whether the blog had new posts short of manually checking it out yourself. At least with YouTube you get emails or notifications on the site itself telling you about new videos on channels you subscribed to.

    But then again, who has time to read these days? I’m blogging for an audience of less than ten people daily (haha) but that’s okay. It feels good to write anyway. And I might as well make up for all the times I didn’t blog in the past. I mean, keep throwing shit against the wall until something sticks right?

    I don’t even read many blogs these days. I do read a lot of posts on Facebook though. It’s the modern version of blogging. And I don’t have to exit Facebook to read them. I guess that was the Zuck’s plan all along – keep everybody on the site so they don’t have to leave.

    Anyway I was prompted to write this post when I was clicking on links left by people who used to comment on my blog and realized that they were all dead links. IMO blogging died when everybody started doing advertorials instead of content about their lives. Shout out to Albert for keeping it real!