My Asinine Thoughts

I just realized after reading some of my recent posts that I’ve been using “though” a lot. Blech!

I tried cleaning up my posts but I was only able to do two… I’m so lazy.

I’ve been blogging for a while now. I don’t write anything important, thoughtful or informative, but still, I write. Sometimes I only write once a month, sometimes I write a lot, it all depends on my mood I guess. Blogging is my equivalent of talking to a friend or family member and not having to listen back. Purely self-serving, blogging is!

The first time I created a blog was during my second month in Taiwan a few years ago. During breaks, I would walk from work to the market area in ShuLin to visit the internet cafe by the side of the Sanxia bridge. I remember feeling depressed because I was dissatisfied with work and had trouble communicating. My Chinese was, and still is, the pits. I talked to Chian Hong a bit, a co-worker, and he would teach me common Chinese phrases and I would translate it back to English, but that was it! I badly needed another outlet, and happily, I discovered blogging.

I regret deleting that first blog. I just woke up one day and decided to make a new one, without retaining the old one. Then a few days later, I go “what the f***?” Maybe this is what happens to people who claim to be abducted by aliens. One minute they’re sleeping on their beds, and then the next minute, they’re in Kansas. Oh wait... Anyway, I think I’ll repost some of the stuff I wrote in that old blog, for memories.

Another reason why I started blogging was so I could disseminate information. This would have worked if most of my friends were technologically inclined, or at least have an internet connection at home, but a lot of them don’t use the internet much. I’ve been encouraging them to start a blog so I can read what’s going on in their lives, but They.Don’t.Write!

They can text though.

Lastly, I blog because it’s fun. It’s nice to see words you’ve written and pictures you’ve posted online. The second I click ‘Publish Post,’ I send whatever I’ve written out into the world, for anyone to see. That’s simply awesome.

I realized that most of the expressions I use are those that I’ve been using for the past 5 years or so. Does anyone say hassle anymore? Or gimik? Or wheels? Eep! I’m really a lot older because we used to say gimik and wheels even way back in high school. Ok, ok so maybe my expressions are a bit older than 5 years. It’s more like 12 years? Ai! Ai! Ai!

I promised myself when I was younger that I was going to try and keep up with the times, the trends, the music and all that but it’s so difficult! How the eff would I know what kids are saying these days? My brother is still in school but we don’t communicate that way. My friends and I communicate a lot but I suppose all of us are also dated since I haven’t learned any new expressions from them. I think.

I just thought of something, maybe the way kids communicate these days is also the way they text? Nyecheche (another old expression… dammit!)

There was this Californication episode where David Duchovny’s character ranted about the use of LOL and other internet slangs in a radio interview. He’s a writer and I suppose he took offense that people young and old, educated or not would do that to the English language. I’m not a professional writer but I think there’s a time and place for using internet slangs and shortcuts as well. They really ruin the flow of a sentence.

Man, I suck when it comes to text messages. I believe I text more than I should because I just can’t fit all the damned words in one message. Sometimes when I’m feeling thrifty I would go back to the start of my message and start hacking my words to pieces. It’s a little revolting but what can you do? One must exercise frugality from time to time and no great work of art is going to come out of text messages anyway.