Why Do I Blog?

December 30, 2022 at 9:19 AM | Posted in Musings | 1 Comment
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I first started this blog in 2007 after much persuasion from two friends who were also budding writers like me. Around that time, blogging was the hottest trend on the internet. What started first as a blog to showcase my published work as a copywriter has evolved into something else.

Over the years, this blog became my outlet for writing my thoughts down about anything I fancy. I shared my experiences, my views and my interests. I let people peek into my personal life and shared my insights which I wouldn’t normally share over casual conversations with friends and colleagues.

Now years later, I think it’s time for all of this to end. In fact, I’ve been thinking about this for weeks now.

My readers have dwindled. My friends don’t even read my blog anymore. My mind is exhausted. The two friends who convinced me to blog in the first place don’t even blog anymore. About three years ago, another friend of mine was surprised to learn that I was still blogging. She had her own blog but she already shut it down years ago. She said blogging was not trendy anymore.

For the past months, I’ve felt that my blogging efforts have been wasted. Why bother to write when only about two people will read it? I’m losing interest in updating this blog every month.

So this is most probably my last update. I don’t know if I will ever continue next year.

No Jedi? No Lightsabers? No Problem!

November 30, 2022 at 11:42 PM | Posted in Fandom, Movies, TV | Leave a comment
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In the Star Wars fandom, there’s an ongoing debate around how Andor is so different from the rest of the Star Wars franchise. In case you didn’t know, Andor is a limited TV series currently airing on Disney+. It is a prequel to the film, Rogue One, which in turn is a prequel to Star Wars: A New Hope.

Since its airing, much of the discussion among Star Wars fans surrounds on the fact that Andor is so unlike Star Wars, which depending on who you ask, is either a good thing or a bad thing. I for one, love Andor because it shows how the Rebel Alliance was formed. It focuses on the characters and why they behave the way they do rather than action. It’s thought-provoking and relevant to the real world.

But some fans hate this different approach to the Star Wars universe. They want to see Jedi, space battles, lightsabers and aliens. They want to see familiar, iconic faces. But there’s none of that in Andor apart from the occasional Stormtroopers, Deathtroopers and TIE fighters. The only familiar face to them is Mon Mothma. But I think the most ridiculous argument I’ve read about Andor is why there are screws and bricks and more humans than aliens in the show. Well that’s the whole point of the show. It’s deliberately more human than the rest of the Star Wars franchise.

Andor’s showrunner, Tony Gilroy, is not a fan of the franchise and for me I think that’s a good thing because he has this fresh, unbiased point of view of how the story would go. And I think that’s the risky part for directors and writers of the franchise. If they’re a fan, there’s a great chance they would lean towards fan service and what they would want to happen in the story. And that’s what actually happened with The Force Awakens and The Rise of the Skywalker. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed both films but they’re mostly a rehash of A New Hope and Return of the Jedi. The Last Jedi was the most original among the three recent trilogy.

I admit Andor’s first few episodes were slow, but once you get to episode 5, it’s where it gets really interesting. It is worth the wait. I love how Andor shows the evils of tyranny and fascism and how people can rise up and fight against an oppressive government. This series is strictly for adults because it’s too political for young fans to understand. And maybe that’s also why some fans hate the show because it’s too political.

Childhood Then and Now

October 29, 2022 at 10:32 PM | Posted in Musings | Leave a comment
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I came across a tweet recently, which was most likely a copied/stolen tweet since it was tweeted by a different person about a year or so ago (a pretty common sight on Twitter, by the way). I remembered the first tweet so well because it got me thinking. It basically said that having a childhood before social media existed was a blessing.

And I just thought that tweet was so right. I grew up in the 80’s and 90’s so my childhood was a lot different from the kids of today. There was no internet when I was a kid so I spent most of my childhood either playing with my siblings and neighborhood kids, climbing trees, chasing fireflies, or watching cartoons on TV. Occasionally I would watch movies on VHS tapes with my cousins and play Atari.

There’s something special about being a kid and not getting exposed to fake news, trolls and a toxic environment early on like what kids are exposed to these days on social media. These days, kids as young as 10 are on social media and consume a lot of content on YouTube. While some parents filter their kids’ online consumption, Í know some people don’t. I personally know a former coworker who just let her very young kids watch videos on YouTube for hours without bothering to filter what her kids watch.

When I was a teen, the internet was just starting. Not a lot of households had internet connection. There were no smartphones, just the regular cellphones. And even then, only the rich could afford cellphones in those days. So I spent my free time reading books back then.

I think kids today face a lot of pressure than what kids like me faced years ago. There’s the pressure to look perfect on Instagram, to be cool and funny on TikTok, to be a smartass on Twitter or just the general and relentless pursuit of ‘likes’, retweets, views and followers.

I’m not dissing today’s generation. I just think and agree to that tweet that not having social media during my childhood was indeed a blessing because I got to enjoy my childhood without the pressures and toxic “noise” of the online world.

Songs that Define Me

June 10, 2022 at 9:12 AM | Posted in Music | Leave a comment
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Someone asked me recently about songs that define me and my life. I had a good think of that question but quickly came up with a short list. But that list wasn’t exactly complete as I have a lot of favorite songs, some of which were certainly definitive of what I am and the experiences I’ve been through.

Growing up, my taste in music varied. In grade school, my favorite singer was Madonna. I was obsessed with her and her music. But when I hit high school, I came to love other artists as well. Aside from pop, the main genre I came to love as a teen was what you’d call “new wave”. I would enjoy listening to various new wave artists – from Pet Shop Boys, Tears for Fears, A-ha, OMD, to The Cure and Depeche Mode.

Then in college, I started listening to alternative rock artists like Alanis Morissette, The Cranberries, and Garbage. Now, I have a wider range of favorite music that includes hip-hop, R&B, rock, and EDM.

So the songs that define me are a mix of various genres. Check them out below. And yes, you could say that any of these songs would definitely save me from Vecna’s curse (If you haven’t seen Stranger Things season 4, volume 1 then you won’t get what I’m talking about, which is this scene.)

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