This post should have gone out earlier, but well, things happen, so what's to be expected?
I did not write anything about last year's NaNoWriMo entry. It's been a year since then, and the situation that inspired its genesis has become the new norm. So I think there's no point trying to avoid the topic any more.
Gur fvghngvba ng jbex unq qrgrevbengrq bire gur cnfg gjb lrnef (bar lrne ng gur cbvag bs gur AnAbJevZb ragel). Guvatf jrer punatrq engure noehcgyl, naq znal crbcyr jrer fhssvpvragyl zvssrq gung gurl jnyxrq njnl. Vg fgnegrq uvtu ng gur gbc, jvgu zbfg bs gur yvrhgranagf yrnivat. Vg gura fybjyl znqr vgf jnl qbja gur uvrenepul gvyy vg ernpurq fbzrjurer arne gur crba yriry, jurer V nz ng. Nybat gur jnl, znal orpnzr qvfvyyhfvbarq, be sryg gung gurve cebsrffvbanyvfz jnf abg orvat erfcrpgrq, be sryg gung va gur ovq gb ``qb zber jvgu yrff'', gurl jrer orvat fhowrpgrq gb qenfgvp nygrengvbaf bs gurve wbo fpbcr gung gurl jbhyq engure jnyx njnl sebz vg qrfcvgr abg univat nalguvat ryfr yvarq hc. Vg jnf, va fubeg, qrcerffvat, naq vf fgvyy fbzrjung fb.
As for this year' NaNoWriMo entry, it was largely influenced by a cross between Das Kapital and the story arcs in The Venture Brothers, with influences from the rather sorry state in which the world is in now. It's probably more of a precursor to a new world in which other stories can be written about than any specific social commentary-type writing.
I think that's all I care to write about now. I had planned for a longer piece earlier, but thanks to various interruptions, I've lost track of what I wanted to say.
Till the next update.
Saturday, December 09, 2017
Monday, October 02, 2017
Belly-aching Against Ah Q
Recently, I read 鲁迅's 《阿Q正传》 (``The True Stories of Ah Q'' by Lu Xun). It put me in yet another miasma of doubt over the weekend. Allow me to explain why.
I hate Ah Q's guts. His way of thinking, the so-called ``Ah Q 精神'' is so escapist and Pyrrhic in nature that makes me want to just reach in, grab him, attempt to shake some sense into him, only to realise that not only will he not get any sense shaken into him, he'd even turn around and realise some twisted sense of Pyrrhic victory which requires the sort of contortionist thinking that would make any one else cringe in pain. He does not seek to improve, preferring to compare himself only to the downtrodden---those who are his superiors, he grovels and willingly accepts all the bullshit they toss in his direction. He lives life day to day, without any form of real aim, only following things at a very superficial level, never really mastering any sort of skill.
Does that sound familiar?
I may be projecting a little, but the main reason for the miasma of doubt over the weekend is the realisation that ``Ah Q'' might as well be me at times. I've long been a proponent of ``high quality amateurism'' on things that matter but are unrelated to that of one's livelihood---there's a sense of interestingness in mastery of something at one's own leisure as opposed to the need for the ever-strife of improvement necessary just to remain relevant in the professional circle. But what hit me was that ``high quality'' was itself a fast changing goal, and when compared to the professionals, I start seeing the vast discrepancy in effort put in. In more specifics, I was thinking about my music making and dizi playing.
A professional, when not performing, often spends the better part of the 8-hour day practising. He/she spends about an hour or two on technical exercises (e.g. long notes, scales in various interval progressions, ``random'' sight-reading pieces), then maybe up to three hours on deeply practising a piece or two, and whatever time is left is reserved for theory and other reading.
If I'm lucky, I get like one hour per week day to actually practise, with maybe eight hours per weekend if I really push myself, but it's more likely to be four hours on average over the weekend.
Thus, by the time the professional is done with five years of training, he/she has 10k+ hours of time-effort under his/her belt, at a higher intensity too.
What do I have for my 25 years (till now)?
Around 6.5k+ hours of time-effort, as it turns out, or around three years of professional training over a 5-day week with 8-hour days. Bear in mind also that I'm being generous by assuming that I do get my 1 hour per week day; usually I don't train like that.
Yeah, I'm never catching up with them. And in a way, I've gone a little ``Ah Q'' on that, and this realisation just hit me in sort of the wrong way over the wrong period of time.
On most days, not catching up to the professionals does not bug me that much. But on some days, when things in general don't seem to be going right for some reason, the thought hits me rather hard. I think it's the nature of the field and my latent ego. In my regular professional field, individual glories are rare---you try to build a whole system on your own within the time-frame and budget. Naturally, when we succeed, the ego gets a feed, but sometimes the ego is a beast and demands a different form of satiation. In the music field, ego is fed directly through the ``worship'' of individual personalities, since in many cases, it is individual skill that shines above all. Even in the orchestra setting, the individuals contained there-in also have sideline work that allows them to shine on their own---it is just the nature of the field itself.
Perhaps when things aren't going too swimmingly in my regular work (group glories), my ego turns naturally towards the individual sort of glory of music, and then realising that I cannot catch up with the professionals to get the level of glory my ego seeks, falls into the abyss of doubt.
*shrugs*
Yeah, I think that's enough belly-aching for now.
I hate Ah Q's guts. His way of thinking, the so-called ``Ah Q 精神'' is so escapist and Pyrrhic in nature that makes me want to just reach in, grab him, attempt to shake some sense into him, only to realise that not only will he not get any sense shaken into him, he'd even turn around and realise some twisted sense of Pyrrhic victory which requires the sort of contortionist thinking that would make any one else cringe in pain. He does not seek to improve, preferring to compare himself only to the downtrodden---those who are his superiors, he grovels and willingly accepts all the bullshit they toss in his direction. He lives life day to day, without any form of real aim, only following things at a very superficial level, never really mastering any sort of skill.
Does that sound familiar?
I may be projecting a little, but the main reason for the miasma of doubt over the weekend is the realisation that ``Ah Q'' might as well be me at times. I've long been a proponent of ``high quality amateurism'' on things that matter but are unrelated to that of one's livelihood---there's a sense of interestingness in mastery of something at one's own leisure as opposed to the need for the ever-strife of improvement necessary just to remain relevant in the professional circle. But what hit me was that ``high quality'' was itself a fast changing goal, and when compared to the professionals, I start seeing the vast discrepancy in effort put in. In more specifics, I was thinking about my music making and dizi playing.
A professional, when not performing, often spends the better part of the 8-hour day practising. He/she spends about an hour or two on technical exercises (e.g. long notes, scales in various interval progressions, ``random'' sight-reading pieces), then maybe up to three hours on deeply practising a piece or two, and whatever time is left is reserved for theory and other reading.
If I'm lucky, I get like one hour per week day to actually practise, with maybe eight hours per weekend if I really push myself, but it's more likely to be four hours on average over the weekend.
Thus, by the time the professional is done with five years of training, he/she has 10k+ hours of time-effort under his/her belt, at a higher intensity too.
What do I have for my 25 years (till now)?
Around 6.5k+ hours of time-effort, as it turns out, or around three years of professional training over a 5-day week with 8-hour days. Bear in mind also that I'm being generous by assuming that I do get my 1 hour per week day; usually I don't train like that.
Yeah, I'm never catching up with them. And in a way, I've gone a little ``Ah Q'' on that, and this realisation just hit me in sort of the wrong way over the wrong period of time.
On most days, not catching up to the professionals does not bug me that much. But on some days, when things in general don't seem to be going right for some reason, the thought hits me rather hard. I think it's the nature of the field and my latent ego. In my regular professional field, individual glories are rare---you try to build a whole system on your own within the time-frame and budget. Naturally, when we succeed, the ego gets a feed, but sometimes the ego is a beast and demands a different form of satiation. In the music field, ego is fed directly through the ``worship'' of individual personalities, since in many cases, it is individual skill that shines above all. Even in the orchestra setting, the individuals contained there-in also have sideline work that allows them to shine on their own---it is just the nature of the field itself.
Perhaps when things aren't going too swimmingly in my regular work (group glories), my ego turns naturally towards the individual sort of glory of music, and then realising that I cannot catch up with the professionals to get the level of glory my ego seeks, falls into the abyss of doubt.
*shrugs*
Yeah, I think that's enough belly-aching for now.
Thursday, August 31, 2017
Goodbye Edythe-II
The inevitable has happened. Edythe-II decided to give up the ghost about a fortnight ago, and I was stuck in a strange position of not having a portable machine to get [some] things done.
I was, by no means, completely machine-less, since there's always Elysie-II to fall back on. But it is different---Elysie-II was built to be a gaming machine, and as a result, had much of the set up favouring that of playing games than actual working. Explained simply, it meant that the set up was more amenable to having wonderful visuals and large-ish text over the tiny text that I would use for ``work''-related manipulations.
The failure of Edythe-II came very suddenly. The night before, I suspended her and went to sleep, and by the next morning, it was no longer possible to wake her up. I tried various combinations of power/power button manipulations, but none of them were working. In the end, I had to go back to technical support because it is fast becoming apparent that there was a hardware issue that I had no chance of resolving on my own.
Later tests confirmed that it was a motherboard issue, and the price in replacing it was high enough that it didn't make any sense for me to do so when I can triple the amount and get a brand-new replacement with three more years of warranty (Edythe-II's warranty was just expired by 2 months, which led to the really crazy high price for the replacement).
So, what is Edythe-III?
She's a Fujitsu S937, Intel Core i7-7500U, 8GiB RAM (8GiB soldered, going to get a 16GiB RAM stick to max it up to 24GiB) with Intel HD Graphics 620. Her form factor is almost identical as that of Edythe-II, but with ``worse'' display (instead of 2560×1440, we're looking at 1920×1080), and ``better'' storage (Crucial 525GB SSD as primary storage as opposed to the original 1TB HDD---it was an upgrade that I decided to get because I realise that many things that I was doing had a lot of disk I/O, and so having an SSD is likely to improve the performance). Writing and compiling are the primary tasks that I do on the Edythes, so an SSD would make everything run much better. The original HDD is not tossed into the bin---it is going to live its life in the modular bay HDD kit to act as secondary storage for when I intend to sit down somewhere and stay plugged in (i.e. less need for the modular bay battery).
Thus, after three years of glorious Unifont use for the console, I'm back to using the Proggy series or even the Tom Thumb-esque font. I haven't actually managed to successfully convert that into a form that Windows can use, so I'm likely to be using Proggy (8×8) or some 5×7 font instead.
My biggest pet peeve is that I am literally stuck with Windows 10 with no reprieve. I did my best to reduce the amount of suck it could generate, but I have no idea just how much of it I managed to avoid through careful reading and adjusting of the underlying configuration settings. Classic Shell is a definite must, but even then it seems to act a little buggy with regard to the start menu.
Only time will tell.
And that's all I have to write about for now. It's really says something when the only times I have a ``proper'' blog entry is when something bad happens.
I was, by no means, completely machine-less, since there's always Elysie-II to fall back on. But it is different---Elysie-II was built to be a gaming machine, and as a result, had much of the set up favouring that of playing games than actual working. Explained simply, it meant that the set up was more amenable to having wonderful visuals and large-ish text over the tiny text that I would use for ``work''-related manipulations.
The failure of Edythe-II came very suddenly. The night before, I suspended her and went to sleep, and by the next morning, it was no longer possible to wake her up. I tried various combinations of power/power button manipulations, but none of them were working. In the end, I had to go back to technical support because it is fast becoming apparent that there was a hardware issue that I had no chance of resolving on my own.
Later tests confirmed that it was a motherboard issue, and the price in replacing it was high enough that it didn't make any sense for me to do so when I can triple the amount and get a brand-new replacement with three more years of warranty (Edythe-II's warranty was just expired by 2 months, which led to the really crazy high price for the replacement).
So, what is Edythe-III?
She's a Fujitsu S937, Intel Core i7-7500U, 8GiB RAM (8GiB soldered, going to get a 16GiB RAM stick to max it up to 24GiB) with Intel HD Graphics 620. Her form factor is almost identical as that of Edythe-II, but with ``worse'' display (instead of 2560×1440, we're looking at 1920×1080), and ``better'' storage (Crucial 525GB SSD as primary storage as opposed to the original 1TB HDD---it was an upgrade that I decided to get because I realise that many things that I was doing had a lot of disk I/O, and so having an SSD is likely to improve the performance). Writing and compiling are the primary tasks that I do on the Edythes, so an SSD would make everything run much better. The original HDD is not tossed into the bin---it is going to live its life in the modular bay HDD kit to act as secondary storage for when I intend to sit down somewhere and stay plugged in (i.e. less need for the modular bay battery).
Thus, after three years of glorious Unifont use for the console, I'm back to using the Proggy series or even the Tom Thumb-esque font. I haven't actually managed to successfully convert that into a form that Windows can use, so I'm likely to be using Proggy (8×8) or some 5×7 font instead.
My biggest pet peeve is that I am literally stuck with Windows 10 with no reprieve. I did my best to reduce the amount of suck it could generate, but I have no idea just how much of it I managed to avoid through careful reading and adjusting of the underlying configuration settings. Classic Shell is a definite must, but even then it seems to act a little buggy with regard to the start menu.
Only time will tell.
And that's all I have to write about for now. It's really says something when the only times I have a ``proper'' blog entry is when something bad happens.
Monday, May 22, 2017
A Theory of Time Use
Time is a very interesting resource to think about.
There are, as at this point of writing, 86.4k seconds in a day, give or take a second or two due to how the ``second'' is no longer related to the rotational period of the Earth.
One third of that, on average, is not consciously usable because one needs to sleep, leaving behind 57.6k seconds.
One third of which (half of the remainder) is meant for work/employment as defined by society, leaving behind 28.8k seconds.
That's 28.8k seconds of ``your own time'', around 8 hours per day, on average.
In reality, that number can be a little higher, since most people do not work all seven days of the week. Assuming a 44-hour work week, we get something like (168−44−(8×7))/7≈9.7 hours or around 35.0k seconds on average of ``your own time'' in a day.
That's time for yourself to spend that the companies are legally disallowed from using without suitable compensation, and even then, only up to certain limits.
I'll use 28.8k seconds as the average since it rounds nicely to 8 hours and can be scaled up accordingly for the off days that do not involve work.
These 28.8k seconds per day are a very precious and interesting resource. They are non-renewable---once those 28.8k seconds are gone, they are gone. One will only get another 28.8k seconds the next day, and it will be a brand-new one. Nothing that was unused ever gets banked for future use; it's either one uses it now or loses it forever.
And the 28.8k seconds are relentless. They have an upkeep of 1 second per second, so if one doesn't use it, it still goes away steadily, whether one is cognizant or not.
How best ought the 28.8k seconds be used then?
Personally, the actual numbers allocated are less important compared to the general categories of things that will be assigned to. I mean, it's ``your own time''---there is really no need for the kind of hard and highly optimised assignment, because at that point, the whole meaning behind living is lost and one might as well be an automaton.
The three main categories I see that are important are (in no order of merit): short-term happiness stuff, middle-term happiness stuff, long-term happiness stuff.
``Short-term happiness stuff'' means things that lead to nearly instant gratification. For example, playing a computer game, or having a good meal. These things help improve one's mood and morale for the short-term and are quick reflections on why life is worth living.
``Middle-term happiness stuff'' means things that have at least a few months of horizon ahead. For instance, hanging out with friends, spending time with some not-so-close relatives and the like. They are middle term because there's that instant gratification aspect, but there's also a long-ish relationship building part that makes this kind of happiness recurring. They are also middle term because at some point, people's life trajectories change, and what was once a great friend may just end up as a lukewarm one in the future.
``Long-term happiness stuff'' means things that are for the ever-elusive ``in future''. These things don't necessarily generate any form of gratification now, but can be seen as an investment towards future happiness. Some examples include hanging out with close family, learning a skill/language, having a hobby and the like.
Most people can easily understand the ``short-term happiness stuff'' and the ``middle-term happiness stuff'', mostly because of the instant gratification that comes naturally from such interactions. But when it comes to ``long-term happiness stuff'', one starts hearing all sorts of excuses about how there's never enough time to read, or to learn, or to hang out with close family. It's an easy mistake to make. Remember, there are 28.8k seconds of ``your own time'' to spend---even if we allocate the time equally among the three categories, we're still talking about 9.6k seconds per day per category.
That translates to around 160 minutes, or around 2.67 hours. Just 2.67 hours to spend on things that can only show a return ``in future''---is that really too much to ask for?
Many these days like to think that they are some kind of warrior of sorts, a warmonger always fighting for whatever cause they have, be it for ``social justice'', poverty, or rights and privileges. But I'm starting to come to the conclusion that much of our daily lives these days are more farmer than warrior, mostly because much of the good things in life need to start from a small, inconsequential thing (plant some seeds), followed by daily minute ministrations (watering the plants, clearing some weeds), and waiting for the time to kick in (wait for the plants to grow according to the season) before finally reaping the benefits (harvest time).
As urbanites, we sort of lose that focus that our farmer-ancestors had. Everything needs to be awesome and happen now, or else it is not useful and/or value-less.
Such behaviour can even be seen in the way some of us manage our finances, whether it be by living from pay cheque to pay cheque, or by speculating in the stock market, or even by gambling.
No wonder the proverb ``patience is a virtue'' comes to play.
------
So after so much [unnecessary] exposition, what is it I'm trying to get at?
It's simple, really. To understand that while there are needs that need to be handled now, it is always prudent to take a little time to prepare and take actions that help our future. Our future selves will be pleased at our foresight if we had taken that time to do things that would only benefit us in the future.
After all, no farmer ever had crops he/she did not sow before, and no one got wealthy just from spending money without saving and/or investing. Why would it be any different for the development of the self?
There are, as at this point of writing, 86.4k seconds in a day, give or take a second or two due to how the ``second'' is no longer related to the rotational period of the Earth.
One third of that, on average, is not consciously usable because one needs to sleep, leaving behind 57.6k seconds.
One third of which (half of the remainder) is meant for work/employment as defined by society, leaving behind 28.8k seconds.
That's 28.8k seconds of ``your own time'', around 8 hours per day, on average.
In reality, that number can be a little higher, since most people do not work all seven days of the week. Assuming a 44-hour work week, we get something like (168−44−(8×7))/7≈9.7 hours or around 35.0k seconds on average of ``your own time'' in a day.
That's time for yourself to spend that the companies are legally disallowed from using without suitable compensation, and even then, only up to certain limits.
I'll use 28.8k seconds as the average since it rounds nicely to 8 hours and can be scaled up accordingly for the off days that do not involve work.
These 28.8k seconds per day are a very precious and interesting resource. They are non-renewable---once those 28.8k seconds are gone, they are gone. One will only get another 28.8k seconds the next day, and it will be a brand-new one. Nothing that was unused ever gets banked for future use; it's either one uses it now or loses it forever.
And the 28.8k seconds are relentless. They have an upkeep of 1 second per second, so if one doesn't use it, it still goes away steadily, whether one is cognizant or not.
How best ought the 28.8k seconds be used then?
Personally, the actual numbers allocated are less important compared to the general categories of things that will be assigned to. I mean, it's ``your own time''---there is really no need for the kind of hard and highly optimised assignment, because at that point, the whole meaning behind living is lost and one might as well be an automaton.
The three main categories I see that are important are (in no order of merit): short-term happiness stuff, middle-term happiness stuff, long-term happiness stuff.
``Short-term happiness stuff'' means things that lead to nearly instant gratification. For example, playing a computer game, or having a good meal. These things help improve one's mood and morale for the short-term and are quick reflections on why life is worth living.
``Middle-term happiness stuff'' means things that have at least a few months of horizon ahead. For instance, hanging out with friends, spending time with some not-so-close relatives and the like. They are middle term because there's that instant gratification aspect, but there's also a long-ish relationship building part that makes this kind of happiness recurring. They are also middle term because at some point, people's life trajectories change, and what was once a great friend may just end up as a lukewarm one in the future.
``Long-term happiness stuff'' means things that are for the ever-elusive ``in future''. These things don't necessarily generate any form of gratification now, but can be seen as an investment towards future happiness. Some examples include hanging out with close family, learning a skill/language, having a hobby and the like.
Most people can easily understand the ``short-term happiness stuff'' and the ``middle-term happiness stuff'', mostly because of the instant gratification that comes naturally from such interactions. But when it comes to ``long-term happiness stuff'', one starts hearing all sorts of excuses about how there's never enough time to read, or to learn, or to hang out with close family. It's an easy mistake to make. Remember, there are 28.8k seconds of ``your own time'' to spend---even if we allocate the time equally among the three categories, we're still talking about 9.6k seconds per day per category.
That translates to around 160 minutes, or around 2.67 hours. Just 2.67 hours to spend on things that can only show a return ``in future''---is that really too much to ask for?
Many these days like to think that they are some kind of warrior of sorts, a warmonger always fighting for whatever cause they have, be it for ``social justice'', poverty, or rights and privileges. But I'm starting to come to the conclusion that much of our daily lives these days are more farmer than warrior, mostly because much of the good things in life need to start from a small, inconsequential thing (plant some seeds), followed by daily minute ministrations (watering the plants, clearing some weeds), and waiting for the time to kick in (wait for the plants to grow according to the season) before finally reaping the benefits (harvest time).
As urbanites, we sort of lose that focus that our farmer-ancestors had. Everything needs to be awesome and happen now, or else it is not useful and/or value-less.
Such behaviour can even be seen in the way some of us manage our finances, whether it be by living from pay cheque to pay cheque, or by speculating in the stock market, or even by gambling.
No wonder the proverb ``patience is a virtue'' comes to play.
------
So after so much [unnecessary] exposition, what is it I'm trying to get at?
It's simple, really. To understand that while there are needs that need to be handled now, it is always prudent to take a little time to prepare and take actions that help our future. Our future selves will be pleased at our foresight if we had taken that time to do things that would only benefit us in the future.
After all, no farmer ever had crops he/she did not sow before, and no one got wealthy just from spending money without saving and/or investing. Why would it be any different for the development of the self?
Monday, April 10, 2017
Information and the Line
Information (and by extension knowledge) is a funny thing. The more one tries to suppress information, the more it tries to fight back and bounce out into the open. This has been true ever since humans came together to form collectives and eventually the societies that become the cosmopolitan world that is today.
But as information grew in its self-propagation, there has been a parallel track of growth on its nemesis---censorship.
To call the nemesis of information ``censorship'' feels a little too blunt. In an ideal world, all information should be made freely available, with the merits of the reality uncovered by each bit of information debated in public by educated citizens to come to some common form of understanding of what is in the best interests of everyone. In an ideal world, everyone makes their own decisions based on their rational understanding of the information presented before them.
However, we do not live in an ideal world. People are, through ignorance, laziness or sheer lack of time, unable to process all the information that is necessary to make an informed decision. Much of their knowledge is by proxy through synthesis by other people who have chosen to narrow their specialisation to generate the most value out of a small partition of the information present. These proxies have an innate sense of authority that is vested by the people.
Many of these proxies take their role in society seriously, maintaining excellence without compromising on ethics. But there are enough of these proxies who seek to confound, confuddle and conspire for their own benefit given the same information.
We do not easily know at times which category each particular proxy belongs to.
It is always a struggle between being completely open, and being conscientious. Favour openness over conscientiousness, and one runs the risk of erroneous conclusions drawn by the lay public who do not understand the sometimes intricate logical and statistical arguments needed to make sense of the information. Favour contrarily, and the lay public raises suspicions on some form of grand conspiracy by those-who-are-not-them against them.
Where do we draw the line then?
But as information grew in its self-propagation, there has been a parallel track of growth on its nemesis---censorship.
To call the nemesis of information ``censorship'' feels a little too blunt. In an ideal world, all information should be made freely available, with the merits of the reality uncovered by each bit of information debated in public by educated citizens to come to some common form of understanding of what is in the best interests of everyone. In an ideal world, everyone makes their own decisions based on their rational understanding of the information presented before them.
However, we do not live in an ideal world. People are, through ignorance, laziness or sheer lack of time, unable to process all the information that is necessary to make an informed decision. Much of their knowledge is by proxy through synthesis by other people who have chosen to narrow their specialisation to generate the most value out of a small partition of the information present. These proxies have an innate sense of authority that is vested by the people.
Many of these proxies take their role in society seriously, maintaining excellence without compromising on ethics. But there are enough of these proxies who seek to confound, confuddle and conspire for their own benefit given the same information.
We do not easily know at times which category each particular proxy belongs to.
It is always a struggle between being completely open, and being conscientious. Favour openness over conscientiousness, and one runs the risk of erroneous conclusions drawn by the lay public who do not understand the sometimes intricate logical and statistical arguments needed to make sense of the information. Favour contrarily, and the lay public raises suspicions on some form of grand conspiracy by those-who-are-not-them against them.
Where do we draw the line then?
Saturday, March 11, 2017
Marching On
It is, for better or worse, almost the half-way mark for the month of March. I felt this compulsion to write something in this lightly neglected blog, maybe from a sense of nostalgia, or a sense of defiance, depending on how one wants to look at things.
There really isn't much to write out here these days.
Actually, that is a blatant lie.
Actually, that last sentence was the blatant lie.
The fact of the matter is, there are lots to write about---life is starting to get interesting in ways that I don't claim to be completely happiness-inducing. But much of those things cannot be written out here.
Such is the caveat that comes with a semi-public blog such as this one.
2017 had began in a most farcical way, and it's systematically getting worse. I don't write all that I want to write here because it's starting to get dangerous enough in the world to write things that are dissenting of the public opinion, evidence-backed or not.
Populism is on the rise, and with it, the general sense of privilege that comes from the tyranny of the majority. Couple this with the concept of an echo chamber, and one would basically come to the same conclusion that I have made.
It's no longer safe to say anything online.
Not that it was safe to begin with---it just got less safe over time.
Because this time, words can and will be taken out of context against one, and in places where such out-of-context word-taking can lead to real-world ramifications.
If you cannot read between the lines of what I'm saying here, congratulations. You're either very safe, or very stupid---I cannot tell which it is, nor do I want to venture a guess.
I just want to add that, in general, I have a sense of frustration that isn't really abating. Part of me wants to scream out in the middle of an empty field just to release all the pent up annoyance, while another part of me just wants to silently suppress it all and pretend to the obedient automaton that everyone is looking for.
As I'm wending my way through my fourth decade of existence, the costs of open-minded thinking have gone past my threshold of comfort. I don't believe that I'm an opinionated person, but the level of silliness (unintentional or otherwise) exhibited by some people have made me seriously want to stamp my foot and scream at them that they are horrifically wrong about the situation, their assumptions, and worst still, the assumptions that they believe that other people have.
Urgh. So angsty.
Anyway, back to less annoying things in life. Lots of things are afoot for this year, and I am still looking forward to them despite all the other negativity that I'm seeing. As the old adage goes, ``would it really matter five years from now?'' Indeed, no point letting bad things get under my skin---in the long run, we'd all be dead anyway.
At least I've made peace with the Universe---very few regrets are left in me, and I intend fully to keep things that way.
I've been working on some new music recently, and have been revamping my online notes for the dizi. The current form (not linking because the URL will be rendered obsolete anyway) is one overly long HTML page that takes forever to load, takes even longer to read, and is almost impossible to comprehend unless the reader is me. I am breaking it up into more readable chunks of articles, and are in the process of adding more diagrams to illustrate the points. The writing is also being revised to make it easier to comprehend.
The system I'm using is a bespoke one that facilitates it being hosted on a static HTTP server (i.e. the one that I'm currently using for my domain). It's more akin to a blog mechanism, except with statically generated pages instead of the dynamic ones that are prevalent now.
I'm still thinking whether it is time to actually migrate all my current blogs on Blogger to my own self-hosted system, and have not really come to any conclusion yet. Blogger is undergoing small but increasingly annoying amount of changes over time, and it is starting to bug the heck out of me.
Well, what else is there to add before I sign off for this post?
There really isn't much to write out here these days.
Actually, that is a blatant lie.
Actually, that last sentence was the blatant lie.
The fact of the matter is, there are lots to write about---life is starting to get interesting in ways that I don't claim to be completely happiness-inducing. But much of those things cannot be written out here.
Such is the caveat that comes with a semi-public blog such as this one.
2017 had began in a most farcical way, and it's systematically getting worse. I don't write all that I want to write here because it's starting to get dangerous enough in the world to write things that are dissenting of the public opinion, evidence-backed or not.
Populism is on the rise, and with it, the general sense of privilege that comes from the tyranny of the majority. Couple this with the concept of an echo chamber, and one would basically come to the same conclusion that I have made.
It's no longer safe to say anything online.
Not that it was safe to begin with---it just got less safe over time.
Because this time, words can and will be taken out of context against one, and in places where such out-of-context word-taking can lead to real-world ramifications.
If you cannot read between the lines of what I'm saying here, congratulations. You're either very safe, or very stupid---I cannot tell which it is, nor do I want to venture a guess.
I just want to add that, in general, I have a sense of frustration that isn't really abating. Part of me wants to scream out in the middle of an empty field just to release all the pent up annoyance, while another part of me just wants to silently suppress it all and pretend to the obedient automaton that everyone is looking for.
As I'm wending my way through my fourth decade of existence, the costs of open-minded thinking have gone past my threshold of comfort. I don't believe that I'm an opinionated person, but the level of silliness (unintentional or otherwise) exhibited by some people have made me seriously want to stamp my foot and scream at them that they are horrifically wrong about the situation, their assumptions, and worst still, the assumptions that they believe that other people have.
Urgh. So angsty.
Anyway, back to less annoying things in life. Lots of things are afoot for this year, and I am still looking forward to them despite all the other negativity that I'm seeing. As the old adage goes, ``would it really matter five years from now?'' Indeed, no point letting bad things get under my skin---in the long run, we'd all be dead anyway.
At least I've made peace with the Universe---very few regrets are left in me, and I intend fully to keep things that way.
I've been working on some new music recently, and have been revamping my online notes for the dizi. The current form (not linking because the URL will be rendered obsolete anyway) is one overly long HTML page that takes forever to load, takes even longer to read, and is almost impossible to comprehend unless the reader is me. I am breaking it up into more readable chunks of articles, and are in the process of adding more diagrams to illustrate the points. The writing is also being revised to make it easier to comprehend.
The system I'm using is a bespoke one that facilitates it being hosted on a static HTTP server (i.e. the one that I'm currently using for my domain). It's more akin to a blog mechanism, except with statically generated pages instead of the dynamic ones that are prevalent now.
I'm still thinking whether it is time to actually migrate all my current blogs on Blogger to my own self-hosted system, and have not really come to any conclusion yet. Blogger is undergoing small but increasingly annoying amount of changes over time, and it is starting to bug the heck out of me.
Well, what else is there to add before I sign off for this post?
Thursday, February 02, 2017
Goodbye Eirian-III
I've had Eirian-III for quite a while now, and it is with great sadness that I'll have to retire this tablet.
I've had Eirian-III since January 2013, and she had always been my go-to for any of the coloured stuff and comics. Each time I travelled, it was Eirian-III that I lugged along instead of Edythe, Elyse or Eileen. Much good times were had.
But today, it was deemed the day where Eirian-III has to be retired. Her battery wouldn't charge, and upon closer examination, was already swelling up, a sign that things weren't going well.
And so, retired she shall be.
I'll always remember the times that Eirian-III had provided me with much needed entertainment that cannot be gleaned from the ``pure'' e-ink readers that her sisters were (Eirian, Eirian-II and Eirian-IV). Much fun was had watching Twitch streams on her as well. And geocaching with tools running on her, including oversized maps that make it easy to look ahead.
It will all be consigned to the past now.
Will I get a replacement for Eirian-III? I don't know, and I don't really think so. While great, Eirian-III has never been my standard workhorse---she ran stock Google Android with all its... flaws. Her coloured LCD was great for comics, but I'm no rabid comic devourer. She did follow me through great works like Neil Gaiman's Sandman, One Thousand Nights and A Night, Watchmen and V for Vendetta, not to mention my own compendium of web comics for easy reading. But are those enough reasons to consider getting a replacement? I don't think so.
So to my faithful device, thank you for your service, and thank you for your patience with a fool like me. Your absence will be felt in time to come.
I've had Eirian-III since January 2013, and she had always been my go-to for any of the coloured stuff and comics. Each time I travelled, it was Eirian-III that I lugged along instead of Edythe, Elyse or Eileen. Much good times were had.
But today, it was deemed the day where Eirian-III has to be retired. Her battery wouldn't charge, and upon closer examination, was already swelling up, a sign that things weren't going well.
And so, retired she shall be.
I'll always remember the times that Eirian-III had provided me with much needed entertainment that cannot be gleaned from the ``pure'' e-ink readers that her sisters were (Eirian, Eirian-II and Eirian-IV). Much fun was had watching Twitch streams on her as well. And geocaching with tools running on her, including oversized maps that make it easy to look ahead.
It will all be consigned to the past now.
Will I get a replacement for Eirian-III? I don't know, and I don't really think so. While great, Eirian-III has never been my standard workhorse---she ran stock Google Android with all its... flaws. Her coloured LCD was great for comics, but I'm no rabid comic devourer. She did follow me through great works like Neil Gaiman's Sandman, One Thousand Nights and A Night, Watchmen and V for Vendetta, not to mention my own compendium of web comics for easy reading. But are those enough reasons to consider getting a replacement? I don't think so.
So to my faithful device, thank you for your service, and thank you for your patience with a fool like me. Your absence will be felt in time to come.
Monday, January 09, 2017
Quick Summary
So, a quick summary of what I had written in 2016:
That's an average of 0.079 pieces of writing a day, compared to 0.18 last year. It's horrifically low, but it is, as I mentioned before, a natural progression as life starts to fall into a discernible pattern.
2016 is, in some sense, the year that I start my pivot towards emphasising more on my musical development. Music writing is no different from regular writing, in many ways it can be seen as a more intense version of a regular piece of writing. It takes time---lots of it at times---and so that's why I've started tracking it from now on.
On other aspects of life, let's just say that personally, things are really looking up, and I am eager to see what 2017 brings to me personally.
On a more public note, 2016 was a crapshoot. The very worst of what ignorance has to offer has basically thrown the existing world order back to the era of World Wars, where strongmen ruled and people were too afraid to think for themselves and stand up against the injustices until it is too late. Lots of well-loved celebrities have seemed to choose the same general period to pass away, and there were just so much random upheavals that there are other folks who took the time to sit down and write them all out .
But it's over now.
2017 is already here, and change, more than ever, is afoot. Uncertainty is always present, but I am confident and eager to see what's coming.
To the future!
- 6 poems posted here
- 18 essays/rants posted here
- 0 prose/stories posted here
- 1 NaNoWriMo winning entry available here
- 4 pieces of compositions/rearrangements posted here
That's an average of 0.079 pieces of writing a day, compared to 0.18 last year. It's horrifically low, but it is, as I mentioned before, a natural progression as life starts to fall into a discernible pattern.
2016 is, in some sense, the year that I start my pivot towards emphasising more on my musical development. Music writing is no different from regular writing, in many ways it can be seen as a more intense version of a regular piece of writing. It takes time---lots of it at times---and so that's why I've started tracking it from now on.
On other aspects of life, let's just say that personally, things are really looking up, and I am eager to see what 2017 brings to me personally.
On a more public note, 2016 was a crapshoot. The very worst of what ignorance has to offer has basically thrown the existing world order back to the era of World Wars, where strongmen ruled and people were too afraid to think for themselves and stand up against the injustices until it is too late. Lots of well-loved celebrities have seemed to choose the same general period to pass away, and there were just so much random upheavals that there are other folks who took the time to sit down and write them all out .
But it's over now.
2017 is already here, and change, more than ever, is afoot. Uncertainty is always present, but I am confident and eager to see what's coming.
To the future!
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