Heh. I didn't write for most of the year, and suddenly as the year draws to a close, you see me have entries in here.
Naturally, life is getting more exciting. Not necessarily good of course---I'm pretty sure that I had mentioned more than once in this blog that when things go smooth, there is almost no reason to be writing blog entries.
So clearly, things aren't going smooth. But how badly are they going then?
------
It's funny how often the phrase ``be careful what you wish for'' gets thrown about. To those who never really understood what this truly meant, better to learn it soon. To those who know what this truly meant, you will know what I mean. In my previous organisation, the management issues were to the point where us engineers were basically sitting around waiting for things to be assigned so that we can do them---the projects were drying up because of management issues, and that our time was fast being co-opted towards fulfilling more and more useless management ``memos'' and ``reports'' for unknown reasons. I was essentially paid to sit around and do things that had little to do with what my skills were, and I was getting antsy.
Obviously the thing I wanted the most was to get my hands dirty to actually like make something.
And I got my wish. More than my wish, actually. So I'm now working around 72 hours a week on a 45-hour week pay, losing sleep, hair, and my sanity. I don't think my brain is getting enough down time to regenerate, and it is not a fun thought, because it means that over time, I would get sloppier, and productivity would take a hit. To be fair, it is exercising the ``making'' part of me, but more of the ``run till you fall, then continue to crawl'' sort than the ``think about things and come up with something innovative and impactful'' sort.
But as they say, it is in times of trials and tribulations that one builds character and learns of who one's friends are. So I'm taking it all in stride. It's not a complaint, just an observation and a note here that when I look back from the future, I would be able to decide if I should be laughing at my naivity, or to nod at the sagacity of past me.
My friends around me aren't having that great a time too---they have their own trials to grit through. 2019 hasn't exactly been a great year for many of us, but that's just how things go I suppose.
Whelp. Enough of belly-aching. Time to grit on.
Till the next update.
Saturday, December 07, 2019
Saturday, November 23, 2019
NaNoWriMo 2019 & Concert Aftermath
This year's NaNoWriMo is finally done, and even then, it feels like a bust.
I originally had the idea of having several (haha) storylines of characters interacting with each other, but ended up with what I wrote because of two big reasons:
I am not really super pleased with the result, but a win is a win, and I will take it. This is probably the slowest and most boring NaNoWriMo that I have done in all my eleven years for the following reasons:
But enough of NaNoWriMo for now -- let's hope next year is better.
------
The concert last Saturday was a smashing success, given all the weirdness that we had found ourselves in from an administrative and logistics perspective. Ding, GY + father, and YT came down to support, and from the various feedback from both they and other friends of friends, the overall sound effect from the Chinese Orchestra was well received. It was the first time we were bringing in some heavy bass line support from brasswind friends with trombone, bass trombone, and saxophone, boosting our usually bass-poor section.
No need to talk about bringing in the alto and bass flutes because that was something that I had been doing forever anyway; but that said, it was a good thing that Chara and her friends came by to help. It made the sound all that much richer, and when coupled with the rearrangements of slightly more modern folk/pop music, gave a very lovely mixture that would be hard to beat with a more traditional line up.
Next year is an exciting year for the Chinese Orchestra -- we would be preparing for our 30th anniversary concert. Planning should begin now, and the brasswind folks have said that they were happy to come back and play with us for this one, provided we gave them enough time to work on the scores. That part was a little messy this time round, because I could not directly support due to all the other things I have been working on, both for and not for the concert -- much of the transposition work was undertaken by Chara, who was also undergoing lots of stress at work herself. I am appreciative of her help, and acknowledge that if she had not helped take care of this aspect, I think the concert would not go as well as it did, and the brasswind friends would probably have a less fun experience than they had this time round.
Okay, enough of writing. I am so sick of writing now, especially having just completed this year's 'orrific installment NaNoWriMo. Till the next update then!
I originally had the idea of having several (haha) storylines of characters interacting with each other, but ended up with what I wrote because of two big reasons:
- That required sufficient planning and time;
- I didn't have enough planning and time due to project from work and preparing for the concert.
I am not really super pleased with the result, but a win is a win, and I will take it. This is probably the slowest and most boring NaNoWriMo that I have done in all my eleven years for the following reasons:
- The new web site is atrociously designed -- it was appealing to the ``modern'' aesthetic of quirky in the moment conversations as compared to the thread-based forums of old;
- Write-ins were minimal because of scheduling issues, and even if they were held, I'd have to miss most of them due to my Saturdays being burnt from all the other different things I have going this month;
- All my writing buddies from the old days are basically non-existent due to incomplete data migration from the web site, removing one source of inspiration to write more and write harder;
- There is no official word count validator this year due to oversight in the redesign process of the web site(!)
But enough of NaNoWriMo for now -- let's hope next year is better.
------
The concert last Saturday was a smashing success, given all the weirdness that we had found ourselves in from an administrative and logistics perspective. Ding, GY + father, and YT came down to support, and from the various feedback from both they and other friends of friends, the overall sound effect from the Chinese Orchestra was well received. It was the first time we were bringing in some heavy bass line support from brasswind friends with trombone, bass trombone, and saxophone, boosting our usually bass-poor section.
No need to talk about bringing in the alto and bass flutes because that was something that I had been doing forever anyway; but that said, it was a good thing that Chara and her friends came by to help. It made the sound all that much richer, and when coupled with the rearrangements of slightly more modern folk/pop music, gave a very lovely mixture that would be hard to beat with a more traditional line up.
Next year is an exciting year for the Chinese Orchestra -- we would be preparing for our 30th anniversary concert. Planning should begin now, and the brasswind folks have said that they were happy to come back and play with us for this one, provided we gave them enough time to work on the scores. That part was a little messy this time round, because I could not directly support due to all the other things I have been working on, both for and not for the concert -- much of the transposition work was undertaken by Chara, who was also undergoing lots of stress at work herself. I am appreciative of her help, and acknowledge that if she had not helped take care of this aspect, I think the concert would not go as well as it did, and the brasswind friends would probably have a less fun experience than they had this time round.
Okay, enough of writing. I am so sick of writing now, especially having just completed this year's 'orrific installment NaNoWriMo. Till the next update then!
Monday, October 28, 2019
TGCO Performance 2019!
This year's NaNoWriMo promises to be a drama-fest, and that's not because of what I am intending to write.
The web site itself, the lifeblood for the whole NaNoWriMo movement, underwent a series of rather drastic changes for whatever reason that I cannot immediately comprehend. The interface is much slower than before, and is very clunky, with an extremely steep learning curve. It tries to be more social media-esque, but did not migrate the associated ``writing buddies'' data from the old system, leaving one's profile completely devoid of any connection with anyone whatsoever.
I honestly don't know what they were thinking.
Web site weirdness aside, this period of this year, I am stuck in the middle of two other major events that will suck out the life of me. One's work related, and the other is related to my hobby. That which is work related, we will not talk about it. That which is hobby related, I will mention it.
For those old friends who are still reading my blogs, it's that time again where I am performing with my Chinese Orchestra from Teck Ghee Community Club. We are performing on Nov 16 this year, from 1930hrs to 2100hrs, at the newly reopened and renovated Teck Ghee Community Club hall.
The OnePA web site has an entry for our performance, including ticket price.
It's a different type of concert for various reasons, but the most obvious one is that it features some low brass and low woodwinds of the western concert band tradition for some our pieces, thanks to a few of our friends who were interested in playing something different. While we aren't really fielding super massive pieces that night, we hope that the selection we have provides a more cosy and community feel, a sort of ``welcome home'' vibe as we inaugurate our return to the community club's building after those two years of renovations.
------
Colds have a way of knocking me off my feet that defies common explanation. While the nasal blockage/discharge cycle is something that I can get used to, the feverish and somewhat delirious state is something that I can never work with, almost literally. It makes the mind foggy and very lethargic, limiting the storage capacity to the point that after reading through one part of a system, I would find myself forgetting it almost immediately. Then there's that dull throbbing headache that permeates through---unshakeable except perhaps with a few extra hours of solid sleep that is not drug-induced.
Nasty nasty stuff.
I know it's a cold and not the flu mostly because I did not go completely delirious with an unstoppable fever. Nevertheless, it sucked a good deal out of me, and during this rather trying period, it becomes even more important that I keep my health in a good state.
Too many people are relying critically on me. I cannot afford to fall right now.
But already I think I've said too much. Till the next update then.
The web site itself, the lifeblood for the whole NaNoWriMo movement, underwent a series of rather drastic changes for whatever reason that I cannot immediately comprehend. The interface is much slower than before, and is very clunky, with an extremely steep learning curve. It tries to be more social media-esque, but did not migrate the associated ``writing buddies'' data from the old system, leaving one's profile completely devoid of any connection with anyone whatsoever.
I honestly don't know what they were thinking.
Web site weirdness aside, this period of this year, I am stuck in the middle of two other major events that will suck out the life of me. One's work related, and the other is related to my hobby. That which is work related, we will not talk about it. That which is hobby related, I will mention it.
For those old friends who are still reading my blogs, it's that time again where I am performing with my Chinese Orchestra from Teck Ghee Community Club. We are performing on Nov 16 this year, from 1930hrs to 2100hrs, at the newly reopened and renovated Teck Ghee Community Club hall.
The OnePA web site has an entry for our performance, including ticket price.
It's a different type of concert for various reasons, but the most obvious one is that it features some low brass and low woodwinds of the western concert band tradition for some our pieces, thanks to a few of our friends who were interested in playing something different. While we aren't really fielding super massive pieces that night, we hope that the selection we have provides a more cosy and community feel, a sort of ``welcome home'' vibe as we inaugurate our return to the community club's building after those two years of renovations.
------
Colds have a way of knocking me off my feet that defies common explanation. While the nasal blockage/discharge cycle is something that I can get used to, the feverish and somewhat delirious state is something that I can never work with, almost literally. It makes the mind foggy and very lethargic, limiting the storage capacity to the point that after reading through one part of a system, I would find myself forgetting it almost immediately. Then there's that dull throbbing headache that permeates through---unshakeable except perhaps with a few extra hours of solid sleep that is not drug-induced.
Nasty nasty stuff.
I know it's a cold and not the flu mostly because I did not go completely delirious with an unstoppable fever. Nevertheless, it sucked a good deal out of me, and during this rather trying period, it becomes even more important that I keep my health in a good state.
Too many people are relying critically on me. I cannot afford to fall right now.
But already I think I've said too much. Till the next update then.
Wednesday, September 25, 2019
Fun Employed
I'm working elsewhere now.
After two or so months of being funemployed, I am finally fun employed, though I am technically still within the period of my probation. Unless something utterly catastrophic happens, I am likely to pass my probation and be a permanent addition to the company.
I look back upon the path that got me to where I am, and I am amazed at the number of happy coincidences that have occurred just so that I am here where I am. Happy coincidences---that's the phrase I have chosen to describe what I had observed. I am sure that had things turned out differently, I would say the same about the path that had taken me there---after all, when one's expectations are generalised to maximise an overall mean metric, the number of states that fall in the ``good'' outcome category is significantly larger than having a very specific expectation.
I could have gone elsewhere should I choose to pursue it, but I have chosen not to. Many might think me mad for not choosing the ``obviously'' better route that guarantees a larger compensation package. But a fat pay cheque is not my primary objective after all. Inasmuch as I had said many times in the past that I was basically a loner, the reality of it all is that I still crave company among my people. Going elsewhere would make me a transplant, a leaf in the wind with no roots, a culture mendicant who is forced to re-enculturate oneself with the new place, losing a substantial amount of one's cultural character all in the name of assimilation.
I don't think I can do that. I have inadvertently sunk my roots deep without my realising. That which I derive the most pleasure and happiness from are the things that I cannot find elsewhere.
Maybe this closes some doors. That's fine---I'm past the age where I expect a boundless future. I'm old enough that next year the government has to acknowledge that I am an old geezer who ought to qualify on his own merits a subsidy and a chance at bidding for his own tiny apartment without necessarily having to find a spouse. But even with an infinite number of doors, the length of my personal path and choices have always been finite; so with the closing of some doors, maybe it isn't that bad after all.
------
In different news, I'm finally fed up enough with having to lug 90kg of ass around to want to do something about it. Considering that my physical ``training'' is basically nil at this point, it seems the right time to use a strong caloric deficit to drag that 90kg down to something more in tune with an ``acceptable'' mass of sub-65kg (using a value of <23 kg/m² as the guide), with a waist measurement of sub-35in (<90cm). The manner I am pulling this off is to run off only one meal a day, currently chosen to be dinner, and chug water at a rate of no more than 1 litre/hr. The last time I tried this was a failure because the calorie deficit was too steep for my body to keep up---I was doing aikijujutsu twice a week, which burnt a lot more energy than my sedentary lifestyle now. It ended me blacking out in the middle of training.
To prevent death through steady loss of essential micronutrients through such a poor diet schema, I am also taking a multivitamin daily.
So far, so good. But we'll really see the effects of such change in a few months' time. After all, it took me thirty over years to become a 90kg lardass.
Till the next update then.
After two or so months of being funemployed, I am finally fun employed, though I am technically still within the period of my probation. Unless something utterly catastrophic happens, I am likely to pass my probation and be a permanent addition to the company.
I look back upon the path that got me to where I am, and I am amazed at the number of happy coincidences that have occurred just so that I am here where I am. Happy coincidences---that's the phrase I have chosen to describe what I had observed. I am sure that had things turned out differently, I would say the same about the path that had taken me there---after all, when one's expectations are generalised to maximise an overall mean metric, the number of states that fall in the ``good'' outcome category is significantly larger than having a very specific expectation.
I could have gone elsewhere should I choose to pursue it, but I have chosen not to. Many might think me mad for not choosing the ``obviously'' better route that guarantees a larger compensation package. But a fat pay cheque is not my primary objective after all. Inasmuch as I had said many times in the past that I was basically a loner, the reality of it all is that I still crave company among my people. Going elsewhere would make me a transplant, a leaf in the wind with no roots, a culture mendicant who is forced to re-enculturate oneself with the new place, losing a substantial amount of one's cultural character all in the name of assimilation.
I don't think I can do that. I have inadvertently sunk my roots deep without my realising. That which I derive the most pleasure and happiness from are the things that I cannot find elsewhere.
Maybe this closes some doors. That's fine---I'm past the age where I expect a boundless future. I'm old enough that next year the government has to acknowledge that I am an old geezer who ought to qualify on his own merits a subsidy and a chance at bidding for his own tiny apartment without necessarily having to find a spouse. But even with an infinite number of doors, the length of my personal path and choices have always been finite; so with the closing of some doors, maybe it isn't that bad after all.
------
In different news, I'm finally fed up enough with having to lug 90kg of ass around to want to do something about it. Considering that my physical ``training'' is basically nil at this point, it seems the right time to use a strong caloric deficit to drag that 90kg down to something more in tune with an ``acceptable'' mass of sub-65kg (using a value of <23 kg/m² as the guide), with a waist measurement of sub-35in (<90cm). The manner I am pulling this off is to run off only one meal a day, currently chosen to be dinner, and chug water at a rate of no more than 1 litre/hr. The last time I tried this was a failure because the calorie deficit was too steep for my body to keep up---I was doing aikijujutsu twice a week, which burnt a lot more energy than my sedentary lifestyle now. It ended me blacking out in the middle of training.
To prevent death through steady loss of essential micronutrients through such a poor diet schema, I am also taking a multivitamin daily.
So far, so good. But we'll really see the effects of such change in a few months' time. After all, it took me thirty over years to become a 90kg lardass.
Till the next update then.
Sunday, May 19, 2019
I Quit My Job
It has been quite a while since I last wrote anything here. But this refrain has been rather clichéd of late.
After nearly 14 years of association with I2R, I have finally resigned, and am serving out my month of notice of termination with them till the beginning of June.
It is a bittersweet moment. Much of my early adult working life was spent with the Institute, and the people I met there were smart and very technology oriented, the kind of things that I was very interested in (I still am). But things have progressed to the point where it was no longer tenable to be working there. My bond being done at least eighteen months ago meant that if there was ever a good time to leave, it was now.
I leave behind whatever is left of a team that I had spent a productive six or so years with. I made new friends among peers who were much closer to my age group than the last few times I was at the Institute. We bonded over an increasingly difficult environment that did not seem like it was going to get better any time soon.
I am not intending to write all that I want to say about the whole situation here---if you can meet me in meat space and want to talk about it, I would be happy to discuss it with you. Probably. HR already had a stab at it with me, and I gave the poor HR representative a whole bag of stories that will likely to be filed away under the ``delinquent employee---do not bother'' pile.
The main purpose of this post is to mark another milestone in my life.
Some of the people who know about this have asked the same question: ``Where are you headed next?'' My answer to them is a single ``nowhere''. I think I need a little break from it all so as to rethink and recalibrate my perspectives, especially since I am no longer contract bound to continue working or pay a hefty penalty. Part of the time off is to seriously think about where I am heading, ``career''-wise. In this time and age of pervasive slicing and dicing as practised by HR management, the ``career'' as a coherent track of work skill/ability development is no longer in vogue; the coherence is deconstructed to work with what is effectively a so-called gig-based economy where individuals whore out their individual abilities for paltry pay as companies claim yet another successful way of saving training costs while still maintaining their base line.
I have a few side projects that need completing. Despite talking about it potentially being done more than a year and a half ago, this time I am actually much closer to completion, prose-wise with respect to content. What is left is the sourcing and creating of necessary diagrams, illustrations, and photographs to fill in the existing placeholders. I have a concert coming up with my Chinese orchestra in November, and will need to practise a little more on refining my solo. I also have new impetus to improve upon my concert flute playing skills, and have a couple of pieces that I need to finally complete the writing of.
Oh, and I need to finally sort out my belongings in preparation for the inevitable move to a new place once we have figured out where and what exactly we are going to live in.
And I think that is roughly it for this update. Till the next time I suppose.
After nearly 14 years of association with I2R, I have finally resigned, and am serving out my month of notice of termination with them till the beginning of June.
It is a bittersweet moment. Much of my early adult working life was spent with the Institute, and the people I met there were smart and very technology oriented, the kind of things that I was very interested in (I still am). But things have progressed to the point where it was no longer tenable to be working there. My bond being done at least eighteen months ago meant that if there was ever a good time to leave, it was now.
I leave behind whatever is left of a team that I had spent a productive six or so years with. I made new friends among peers who were much closer to my age group than the last few times I was at the Institute. We bonded over an increasingly difficult environment that did not seem like it was going to get better any time soon.
I am not intending to write all that I want to say about the whole situation here---if you can meet me in meat space and want to talk about it, I would be happy to discuss it with you. Probably. HR already had a stab at it with me, and I gave the poor HR representative a whole bag of stories that will likely to be filed away under the ``delinquent employee---do not bother'' pile.
The main purpose of this post is to mark another milestone in my life.
Some of the people who know about this have asked the same question: ``Where are you headed next?'' My answer to them is a single ``nowhere''. I think I need a little break from it all so as to rethink and recalibrate my perspectives, especially since I am no longer contract bound to continue working or pay a hefty penalty. Part of the time off is to seriously think about where I am heading, ``career''-wise. In this time and age of pervasive slicing and dicing as practised by HR management, the ``career'' as a coherent track of work skill/ability development is no longer in vogue; the coherence is deconstructed to work with what is effectively a so-called gig-based economy where individuals whore out their individual abilities for paltry pay as companies claim yet another successful way of saving training costs while still maintaining their base line.
I have a few side projects that need completing. Despite talking about it potentially being done more than a year and a half ago, this time I am actually much closer to completion, prose-wise with respect to content. What is left is the sourcing and creating of necessary diagrams, illustrations, and photographs to fill in the existing placeholders. I have a concert coming up with my Chinese orchestra in November, and will need to practise a little more on refining my solo. I also have new impetus to improve upon my concert flute playing skills, and have a couple of pieces that I need to finally complete the writing of.
Oh, and I need to finally sort out my belongings in preparation for the inevitable move to a new place once we have figured out where and what exactly we are going to live in.
And I think that is roughly it for this update. Till the next time I suppose.
Monday, January 14, 2019
Quick Summary
So, a quick summary of what I had written in 2018:
That's an average of 0.033 pieces of writing a day, compared to 0.044 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.
2018 was more of an amplified version of 2017 in many ways. But among it came a few bright rays of sunshine that made the year a bearable one. I think that I have levelled up on my concert flute playing at a much greater rate than before, and that my general 笛子 playing skills have also improved quite a bit from the cross-training that came about from playing on the concert flute. I spent less time working on writing new music, mostly because the situation at my Chinese Orchestra isn't as dire as before due to having a ``full-time'' conductor being present, but used that time that was released to understand more on musical acoustics of instruments, particularly of the flute/笛子 family.
This post is likely to be the latest quick summary type post that I have put up, and I feel a little bad. The truth here really is that it is no longer as fun to write on Blogger than before, with the mostly unalterable width of the text area of the post body itself, and the massive number of hoops to leap through just to write something on it. My meat-space diary has seen more action than here, and I have little doubts that it will continue to be the case in time to come.
2019 is a year that is likely to see big changes in my life, so here's to dealing with it all and emerging at the end of it a more improved version of myself.
This blog is by no means an abandoned one!
Edit: True to form, when I hit ``publish'', Blogger fucked up the paragraphing of this post, thus necessitating an edit to unfuck it. Good grief!
- 1 poem posted here
- 6 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 0.033 pieces of writing a day, compared to 0.044 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.
2018 was more of an amplified version of 2017 in many ways. But among it came a few bright rays of sunshine that made the year a bearable one. I think that I have levelled up on my concert flute playing at a much greater rate than before, and that my general 笛子 playing skills have also improved quite a bit from the cross-training that came about from playing on the concert flute. I spent less time working on writing new music, mostly because the situation at my Chinese Orchestra isn't as dire as before due to having a ``full-time'' conductor being present, but used that time that was released to understand more on musical acoustics of instruments, particularly of the flute/笛子 family.
This post is likely to be the latest quick summary type post that I have put up, and I feel a little bad. The truth here really is that it is no longer as fun to write on Blogger than before, with the mostly unalterable width of the text area of the post body itself, and the massive number of hoops to leap through just to write something on it. My meat-space diary has seen more action than here, and I have little doubts that it will continue to be the case in time to come.
2019 is a year that is likely to see big changes in my life, so here's to dealing with it all and emerging at the end of it a more improved version of myself.
This blog is by no means an abandoned one!
Edit: True to form, when I hit ``publish'', Blogger fucked up the paragraphing of this post, thus necessitating an edit to unfuck it. Good grief!
Saturday, December 01, 2018
My Anger
I've been quietly festering over the past couple of years over how the world has been changing, and at this point, I can no longer stay silent.
First though, a caveat: I design and build computer systems to achieve specific data management/business processes to inject intelligence into the data and actuation that can be controlled by such systems. That particular perspective is the source of my inherent bias in what I am going to say next.
The chief problem with the world today is that everyone seems to be too damn focused with the outcome that they do not stop to think carefully about how they are achieving the outcome. It is a problem because human institutions and systems are largely evolved through trial and error (i.e. mostly reactive) instead of being ``well designed'' on the get-go, mostly because of nearly a century of devolving power to more democratic (or in some cases, socialistic) processes.
This means that precedent plays an outsized role in governing how the systems evolved. Each time something happens, and is successful, it becomes a new precedent that the vox populi use as evidence of its legitimacy. This means that if some ethically/morally sketchy steps are taken just to reach a desired outcome, those ethically/morally sketchy steps are now part of the herd memory as precedents to be trotted out in the eventual uprising demanding a change of the system, no matter who next is in power.
That last emphasis is of utmost importance. The means in which an outcome is achieved is the demonstration of a tool, and while who is in power can change at the whim of an election or revolution, tools tend to outlast everyone. This means that if one is happy with a law that bans discussion of topics that the Other Side loves, that same law, should the Other Side come to power, can also be used against the original side who become the minority.
Thus, in trying to right a wrong, one ends up with a future where the same manner in which the wrong was righted can be used against one.
This is why I get angry at how the world has changed. We are supposedly more knowledgeable than the past, we are supposedly more developed than the past, and we are supposedly more integrated as a whole than the past, ergo we ought to be cognisant of the ramifications should we choose one particular course of action over another. Instead, we are seeing all the tribal loyalties playing themselves out the way feudal systems had been doing for the few hundred years before capitalism and globalisation swept those antiquated systems away, and more importantly, we are seeing each tribe yelling out ethically indefensible actions to be taken against the Other Side. And this is not even a case of the well-educated versus the less educated---such problems cut across the entire education strata, which makes it all the more likely that the primary cause is the type of underlying primal tribal instinct that we would have thought that we had out-evolved by now.
Apparently, we were wrong. All the ``enlightenment'' we had thus far seems to be part of a passing fad, of a glorious golden age that has since passed. I really fear for the future.
First though, a caveat: I design and build computer systems to achieve specific data management/business processes to inject intelligence into the data and actuation that can be controlled by such systems. That particular perspective is the source of my inherent bias in what I am going to say next.
The chief problem with the world today is that everyone seems to be too damn focused with the outcome that they do not stop to think carefully about how they are achieving the outcome. It is a problem because human institutions and systems are largely evolved through trial and error (i.e. mostly reactive) instead of being ``well designed'' on the get-go, mostly because of nearly a century of devolving power to more democratic (or in some cases, socialistic) processes.
This means that precedent plays an outsized role in governing how the systems evolved. Each time something happens, and is successful, it becomes a new precedent that the vox populi use as evidence of its legitimacy. This means that if some ethically/morally sketchy steps are taken just to reach a desired outcome, those ethically/morally sketchy steps are now part of the herd memory as precedents to be trotted out in the eventual uprising demanding a change of the system, no matter who next is in power.
That last emphasis is of utmost importance. The means in which an outcome is achieved is the demonstration of a tool, and while who is in power can change at the whim of an election or revolution, tools tend to outlast everyone. This means that if one is happy with a law that bans discussion of topics that the Other Side loves, that same law, should the Other Side come to power, can also be used against the original side who become the minority.
Thus, in trying to right a wrong, one ends up with a future where the same manner in which the wrong was righted can be used against one.
This is why I get angry at how the world has changed. We are supposedly more knowledgeable than the past, we are supposedly more developed than the past, and we are supposedly more integrated as a whole than the past, ergo we ought to be cognisant of the ramifications should we choose one particular course of action over another. Instead, we are seeing all the tribal loyalties playing themselves out the way feudal systems had been doing for the few hundred years before capitalism and globalisation swept those antiquated systems away, and more importantly, we are seeing each tribe yelling out ethically indefensible actions to be taken against the Other Side. And this is not even a case of the well-educated versus the less educated---such problems cut across the entire education strata, which makes it all the more likely that the primary cause is the type of underlying primal tribal instinct that we would have thought that we had out-evolved by now.
Apparently, we were wrong. All the ``enlightenment'' we had thus far seems to be part of a passing fad, of a glorious golden age that has since passed. I really fear for the future.
Thursday, November 01, 2018
NaNoWriMo 2018
Yes, it's time for NaNoWriMo once again. I'm sorry that I didn't say anything earlier---just too many things to think about and work on to the point that it was not easy to just bring myself around to writing anything about writing anything.
This is year 10 for me, and may this novel be a fun one! As always, my progress can be tracked in the widget on the side.
This is year 10 for me, and may this novel be a fun one! As always, my progress can be tracked in the widget on the side.
Monday, June 04, 2018
June?
It is June once again. There is usually nothing fantastic about June other than the increased amount of ``summer rain'' and perhaps the start of the natural hotter season in SIN city.
The keyword here is of course, ``usually''.
It's hardly usual around here these days. More changes are afoot, and I cannot tell if they are for the better or for the worse. The metaphorical ground I'm standing on is anything but firm---though it is definitely a little more firm than just a couple of months ago when the rules of the game changed and I, in my somewhat desperate bid to not get thrown out of it, decided that enough was enough, and planted my foot down and declared that it was my new anchor point. That has been working relatively well, I might add, and it has become yet another useful life principle that I am adding to my list.
But back to changes. The team at work has shrunk---two folks have left for greener pastures, their reasons being their own since I did not want to pry. From the larger perspective, the general dynamics of the entire working environment has changed quite drastically compared to two years ago, and it is increasingly hard to see how the changes are aiding in increasing productivity; mind you, I am referring to the overall work culture and not anything that is highly localised. That is as much as I would want to talk about for work.
I'd like to write more music, but am currently in a type of funk, partly because work has been sapping much of my energy, leaving me with little left to do anything else that is creative in nature. Or it could be me trying to do something different---instead of developing my own melody, I am trying to adapt an existing one, giving it just enough changes that it is obviously not just a rearrangement.
The books I have been reading have been too technical in nature for too long---reading up on Ada 2012, the Quran, and an in-depth musicology look at traditional Chinese music all at once is just too much, especially since work got into a higher drive for the past couple of months. That's why I ended up with many other diversive reading, the latest of which is the Cult Trilogy (more commonly known as the ``Metro'' trilogy) by Dmitry Glukhovsky, a post-nuclear war story of survival within the metro system in Moscow.
And strangely enough, that series has a lot in common with Adventure Time, being that it is also about a post-nuclear war story of survival of a world so mutated and evolved that almost nothing of the old life is left. I would say that was when Adventure Time turn from a fun romp into a somewhat deeper and darker story that reminds me of Happy Tree Friends, though the darkness isn't as crass.
I think that's all I intend to talk about for now. Till the next update then.
The keyword here is of course, ``usually''.
It's hardly usual around here these days. More changes are afoot, and I cannot tell if they are for the better or for the worse. The metaphorical ground I'm standing on is anything but firm---though it is definitely a little more firm than just a couple of months ago when the rules of the game changed and I, in my somewhat desperate bid to not get thrown out of it, decided that enough was enough, and planted my foot down and declared that it was my new anchor point. That has been working relatively well, I might add, and it has become yet another useful life principle that I am adding to my list.
But back to changes. The team at work has shrunk---two folks have left for greener pastures, their reasons being their own since I did not want to pry. From the larger perspective, the general dynamics of the entire working environment has changed quite drastically compared to two years ago, and it is increasingly hard to see how the changes are aiding in increasing productivity; mind you, I am referring to the overall work culture and not anything that is highly localised. That is as much as I would want to talk about for work.
I'd like to write more music, but am currently in a type of funk, partly because work has been sapping much of my energy, leaving me with little left to do anything else that is creative in nature. Or it could be me trying to do something different---instead of developing my own melody, I am trying to adapt an existing one, giving it just enough changes that it is obviously not just a rearrangement.
The books I have been reading have been too technical in nature for too long---reading up on Ada 2012, the Quran, and an in-depth musicology look at traditional Chinese music all at once is just too much, especially since work got into a higher drive for the past couple of months. That's why I ended up with many other diversive reading, the latest of which is the Cult Trilogy (more commonly known as the ``Metro'' trilogy) by Dmitry Glukhovsky, a post-nuclear war story of survival within the metro system in Moscow.
And strangely enough, that series has a lot in common with Adventure Time, being that it is also about a post-nuclear war story of survival of a world so mutated and evolved that almost nothing of the old life is left. I would say that was when Adventure Time turn from a fun romp into a somewhat deeper and darker story that reminds me of Happy Tree Friends, though the darkness isn't as crass.
I think that's all I intend to talk about for now. Till the next update then.
Tuesday, May 08, 2018
La Loca, 傻女, and 傻女的爱
Remember La Loca and 《傻女》? I've finally found the Chinese version of 《傻女》 (it is called 《傻女的爱》).
But wait, there's more!
Someone actually took the time to splice them all together to make it more obvious that they are related:
There's another song that I am currently obsessing, but I will leave it for another post for another time. Back to work I go!
《傻女的爱》——陈慧娴Lyrics courtesy baidu.com
今夜再度想起那被遗忘的故事
去年此时的相遇 为何依然清晰
仿佛一种神秘的气息 带我走回那过去
你我曾共舞的那一夜 已消失在爱的边缘
把脸颊轻轻贴在你温暖的心上
让长发像夜温柔 覆盖你的胸堂
炬火在眼中荡漾 泪水无意中滑落
爱上你是痴狂 爱过像梦一场
啊 阳光不要叫我起床 冰凉的枕上
我不断回想你曾经怎么讲
缠绵一生只是荒谬的幻想
独自一人才是人生的真相
何不把爱当作是游戏一场
我不断回想那段爱的时光
笑里掩住多少心碎和感伤
美丽的故事已是褪色模样
我踩着孤独的脚步直到天亮
But wait, there's more!
Someone actually took the time to splice them all together to make it more obvious that they are related:
There's another song that I am currently obsessing, but I will leave it for another post for another time. Back to work I go!
Sunday, April 15, 2018
Meandering Start
Let me be honest---I'd be lying if I said that I felt a compelling need to write an entry here today. But that said, I looked at the pathetic state of this blog and have decided that today is the day that I write something in it, mostly as a way of keeping whoever is still reading this up to date on the goings on in my life.
We're basically in the middle of April now. Normally, this would be the time for my annual long vacation away from work so that I can get away from everything and just reset, having spent most of the year giving the best that I can. I like my work, but even then there is that need to just take a break from it all, mostly to avoid burn out.
That is not happening this year because of a few reasons, but is likely to be happening in September/October this year instead. Among other more pragmatic reasons that I will not elaborate here, I think that it is time to change things up a little by visiting my friends in the US over Autumn instead of Late Winter/Early Spring (Late Winter mostly because of the generally abnormal climate issues). More on that when the time is coming soon I suppose.
But back to the topic: I don't really feel a compelling need to write an entry in this blog. It's not that I don't have much to say, but more of the things that I'd like to say are no longer things that can be put on this public platform. The recent trends of governance over the use of words in public does not bode well for anyone who doesn't toe the official party line, no matter where they are or where they are from. It is actually very chilling if one thinks about it beyond a cursory one. The steady rise of populism and increased regulation/control over words on the 'net means that even if one were utterly capable of providing the necessary evidence and argument to explain and prove a point, it doesn't matter. Because reason is thrown aside in favour of either pandering to the majority, or that of pandering to whoever is enforcing the current set of rules and regulations that are at play.
Self-censorship is singularly the most terrible thing to be inflicted with. When self-censorship becomes the norm, it seems to suggest that the environment is no longer conducive to the [relatively] free exchange of ideas, where ideas can stand on their own arguments/evidence in competition with other ideas. While ``freedom of speech'' never truly meant ``freedom from consequences'', self-censorship just makes it that much harder to talk about controversial topics that can affect people's lives in a profound way.
I find that over time, I am starting to veer away from hard-core computer science and moving towards this ``new-media'' centric evaluation of how technology and life works with/against each other. To me, it almost seems like the increasing proliferation of technology is acting more as a reflection on the behaviour of society than it is as an enabler for [say] the weakest members of the same society.
And sadly, the image in the reflection is plain terrible.
Maybe one day we'll be sufficiently enlightened: governments will strive to build a civic society capable of honestly debating policy regardless of political affiliation; citizens being more proactive at attempting to learn as many sides of the problems/policies that they face instead of latching on to the official/loudest mouthpiece; those who have benefitted from the system being more aware of their privileged situation and actually coming up with better policies that help people break the poverty/ignorance cycle if they are hardworking enough in the right areas; corporations and other wealthy interests will not have a superlatively greater influence on public policy compared to that of the citizens; politicians finally representing the interests of their constituents who voted them into power, and not be completely based on party loyalty.
But of that wish list, there is no way to know if we are anywhere near the goals, or are we actually extremely far from them.
Till the next time, I suppose.
We're basically in the middle of April now. Normally, this would be the time for my annual long vacation away from work so that I can get away from everything and just reset, having spent most of the year giving the best that I can. I like my work, but even then there is that need to just take a break from it all, mostly to avoid burn out.
That is not happening this year because of a few reasons, but is likely to be happening in September/October this year instead. Among other more pragmatic reasons that I will not elaborate here, I think that it is time to change things up a little by visiting my friends in the US over Autumn instead of Late Winter/Early Spring (Late Winter mostly because of the generally abnormal climate issues). More on that when the time is coming soon I suppose.
But back to the topic: I don't really feel a compelling need to write an entry in this blog. It's not that I don't have much to say, but more of the things that I'd like to say are no longer things that can be put on this public platform. The recent trends of governance over the use of words in public does not bode well for anyone who doesn't toe the official party line, no matter where they are or where they are from. It is actually very chilling if one thinks about it beyond a cursory one. The steady rise of populism and increased regulation/control over words on the 'net means that even if one were utterly capable of providing the necessary evidence and argument to explain and prove a point, it doesn't matter. Because reason is thrown aside in favour of either pandering to the majority, or that of pandering to whoever is enforcing the current set of rules and regulations that are at play.
Self-censorship is singularly the most terrible thing to be inflicted with. When self-censorship becomes the norm, it seems to suggest that the environment is no longer conducive to the [relatively] free exchange of ideas, where ideas can stand on their own arguments/evidence in competition with other ideas. While ``freedom of speech'' never truly meant ``freedom from consequences'', self-censorship just makes it that much harder to talk about controversial topics that can affect people's lives in a profound way.
I find that over time, I am starting to veer away from hard-core computer science and moving towards this ``new-media'' centric evaluation of how technology and life works with/against each other. To me, it almost seems like the increasing proliferation of technology is acting more as a reflection on the behaviour of society than it is as an enabler for [say] the weakest members of the same society.
And sadly, the image in the reflection is plain terrible.
Maybe one day we'll be sufficiently enlightened: governments will strive to build a civic society capable of honestly debating policy regardless of political affiliation; citizens being more proactive at attempting to learn as many sides of the problems/policies that they face instead of latching on to the official/loudest mouthpiece; those who have benefitted from the system being more aware of their privileged situation and actually coming up with better policies that help people break the poverty/ignorance cycle if they are hardworking enough in the right areas; corporations and other wealthy interests will not have a superlatively greater influence on public policy compared to that of the citizens; politicians finally representing the interests of their constituents who voted them into power, and not be completely based on party loyalty.
But of that wish list, there is no way to know if we are anywhere near the goals, or are we actually extremely far from them.
Till the next time, I suppose.
Friday, January 05, 2018
Quick Summary
So, a quick summary of what I had written in 2017:
Other than that, nothing much to report really. It's just another year at this point.
Onward to the next one...
- 1 poem posted here
- 8 essays/rants posted here
- 0 prose/story posted here
- 1 NaNoWriMo winning entry available here
- 6 pieces of compositions/rearrangements posted here
- There is a large chunk of writing that I am working on that isn't ready for release yet---it is a rewrite of the existing 笛箫 Materials (if link is dead use this one when it is live).
- There's a substantial chunk of phone-written literature put together when I was in Seattle that I had not gotten around to putting it onto my prose/story blog.
Other than that, nothing much to report really. It's just another year at this point.
Onward to the next one...
Saturday, December 09, 2017
A NaNoWriMo-esque Update
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.
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.
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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