103 - On my big dreaming

I've been thinking about getting a Twitter account, but am not entirely sure if I'm up for it. There's a lot of ideas brewing in my mind at the moment, and I think I want to list them all out just so I can then focus on what I want to do. So here it goes:

My profile
I don't like my profile. I don't know why. I'll have to perhaps wipe it all off and start on a clean canvas just to paint the perfect picture I want.

Do you hate it too?
I need to keep posting daily, and I need to sign on to more blog directories and communities (like Twitter). I might possibly do a slight reformatting as well, but nothing too drastic, just maybe add a few more widgets and fun stuff on the side bars. As for The Book, I will need to start picking out fifty posts, what I reckon would sell to consumers everywhere, put them in a single word document, do a bit of editing and formatting. I need to pitch a concept for the cover to my best friend, who is quite skilled in the world of photography and graphic design. My other close friend might also be interested in writing a foreword for me. [To-do reading: the publishing process, marketing and advertising, how to work together with your mom, how to be even funnier]

"If you're going through Hell, keep going."
I sometimes feel like this blog is a bit of a mixture of loads of different blog themes put together. Sometimes, I talk about my travels, sometimes I talk about my past, sometimes I talk about my feelings, and sometimes I just post up a Youtube video. Despite the versatility, I feel that it's not really encapsulating my whole self - I still don't talk about the TV shows I watch, the anthropology course I study, the books I read, or where I want to go in the future. In the end, I meant for this to be about my daily life, and it's just really difficult to stay focused on that, when everything else also occupies my mind. Which is why my solution is going to be...

Anthropology blog
I've been doing quite a lot of reading since I've been here in university, and it's starting to get on my nerves how long it's taking me to actually announce the commencement of this blog. The problem is that I just haven't sat down yet to get started on posting anything on it, and well, now I'm pissed at myself, to be honest. So, I vow to post something on there this weekend, because it has to start some time. And if I just can't be bothered, I know I'll be guilted into doing on Monday morning, I'm sure of it. [To-do reading: nature of anthropological study, history of mankind, Sicilian women, the Kwaio, the Azande, loads of other societies...]

Youtube blog
I have a good friend who lives in Hong Kong, and whenever I ask her what she's doing, more often than not, she's going on Youtube. I, myself, have found a lot of funny, intriguing, thought-provoking videos there, and I thought it would be a good idea to start a blog with this friend of mine. Together, we find one video to post on it everyday, and whoever found the video will briefly talk about why it's worthy of your attention. I'm quite excited about this, but with our schedules, we said we would officially release this blog in mid-February. But anyway, just something to think about for now. [To-do reading: video-sharing rights, joint ventures]

Television blog
I felt like I wasn't being myself with that television blog I started, and consequentially, shut down a couple months back. I was being forced to write about everything when I didn't want to, I wrote reviews for some reason. What I really wanted to write about instead was about the thoughts that TV shows provoked in me, because writers put forward ideas that sometimes make quite an impact on the way I think after watching them. I'll try and get to reopening that one around the holiday season, 'cause I was quite unhappy that that didn't work out the first time.

Travel blog
When I turn 25, my best friend and I are leaving our lives behind to travel the entire world in all its power and beauty for however long it takes. We mean it when we say we'll do it, and everything we're doing in the next seven years is to make that voyage possible. We're learning languages, we're doing a lot of reading, and we're only in university, and soon to be working, so that we can earn money to give us steady beginnings as we get accustomed to the traveler's life when we first set out. In my reading, I've been finding a lot of interesting things about how to prepare for such a trip, and information on a lot of places we might want to visit on the trip. This journey requires a whole lot of planning (seven years worth of it), so perhaps compiling them in a blog as a pre-world trip logbook might interest some readers? [To-do reading: travelogues, other world trip experiences, travel destinations]

Hm. I feel a bit better now, 'cause all of that was getting difficult to keep in my head. All six blogs, I have passion for, but I'm a tad concerned about whether I can handle it. Somewhere in my heart, I know that the hard work will pay off, and that this is one of those things that I'm meant to do in this stage of my life. I play no musical instruments, and I do no sports - this is my talent, and I have to embrace it. All I can do is hope for personal fulfillment, recognition and happiness, so might as well hope for more... might as well dream big.

92 - On blogging daily

Hello, hello,

I'm going to try and do something I've never done with this blog, and that is to try to blog daily. I have set aside a time every day (11pm-11:30pm) to just insert a little post here for some reflections on the day and a little recount of what's been going on. I feel really nice reading the daily occurrences in the lives of other, more dedicated, bloggers, and I want to try and do that too.

This weekend has been incredibly lazy, and I have done nothing but catch up on my television series and play Pokémon on my NDS. I have a lot of reading I could be doing, but you know how it is - could have, should have, would have. I know that there will be some time soon when I'll be feeling really, really proactive, and will feel like working, but this weekend just wasn't it.

As for the new anthropology blog, I need to come up with a catchy title - any ideas? I still haven't even started laying it out yet. I will get right on it soon, and with any luck, something will be up by next weekend.

Oh, which reminds me, I am going to LONDON next weekend. Which I'm very excited about. Canterbury has honestly made me feel like a hermit, who lives in a small town of hermits, and I'm just so happy to know that I'm going to be going to be hitting Londontown, visit the British Museum and Soho and all that jazz soon.

This is such a filler post, but hopefully, I'll find something to talk about tomorrow. Adios for now, I hope you've enjoyed your weekend as much as I have, be it a lazy one or not.

79 - Uninspired post, but who cares?

Getting back into blogging is actually harder than I thought it would be, after I previously announced that I would take a break from it five weeks ago, when my exams began. My exams ended two weeks ago, and even then, I just felt uninspired to write anything much. I know in my heart that I do this to give others something to read. For me, I have friends to talk to, to express myself and my thoughts. I don't need a diary, but this is sort of like a diary. But writing, to me, is pointless, if it isn't for others to view. And that's precisely how you found these words.

I guess I felt that what I had to say, or what I could say, in the past two weeks, was not worth mentioning, and was not entertaining. But, tonight, I have a desperate, but composed, compulsion to type something in this white space (pale green on my blog) and publish it. Because I believe I've been delaying getting the ball rolling for this summer of blogging. I don't want to quit. I'm not a quitter.

So let me tell you about what's been going on lately.

I've been watching movies, the popular ones that everybody else has seen but I haven't. I've never watched Star Wars, I've never watched Terminator. I haven't even seen any James Bond films, and I'm going to England in the fall. I need to do this before university begins.

I've also been watching TV series. I've already seen all the episodes of my favorites - Lost, 24, Grey's Anatomy, Heroes, Survivor (these are only five titles, mind you)... but it's been a long time since I've started watching something new. And so I started watching Dexter, and I plan on watching Entourage and How I Met Your Mother, because other people love it and I haven't watched them yet. I also think an Alias and a Sex and the City marathon are much needed, as they are favorites that people are missing now, six, seven years later.

I've been reading, at the moment, The Selfish Gene, by Richard Dawkins. It's for my biological anthropology modules in university, and I've learned quite a bit about DNA and evolution so far (I'm on chapter 4). As for fiction, I'm reading Death at Intervals, by José Saramago, a fantastic Nobel Prize-winning Portugese writer if you haven't heard of him already.

On my list of things to read, The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Analects, Through the Looking Glass, The Phantom of the Opera, Les Misérables, Crime and Punishment, Howard's End, The Origin of Species, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Beowulf, Moby Dick, The Awakening, and many more classics, are waiting for me. I need to read the Twilight saga, as well, because I just don't understand what the fuss is all about.

I also have more anthropology books to get through before I fly off to London. There's Barrett's Culture and Conduct, Edward T.Hall's Beyond Culture, The Silent Language, and the Dance of Life, and Steven Pinker's The Stuff of Thought.

There really isn't enough time in the universe. I would not say no to immortality, because if I lived forever, I could learn forever, I could experience new things forever. I love exposing myself to stuff, and I hope this part of my personality doesn't go away. My friends have told me that it can't go away, and even if I wanted to eradicate it because I might get too tired one day, I wouldn't be able to. It's inborn, it's innate, it's in me. For now, I don't have a problem with that - I love it.

Anyway, this has really made me think about how little time I actually have this summer to do all that I want to do. I'm going to have to stop here, but this is sufficiently long, right?

I've got a party to go to anyway. So, talk to you all later. I'll TRYYYY to stop by your blogs soon, really!

Toodle-loo!

(And in case you're wondering, or if you didn't catch it from what's written above, I'm very happy right now, in a calm and serene way. Summer is great.

Life is great.)

75 - So happy to have friends like them.

Yesterday was a long day, but a good one. I had a maths exam, which was very difficult, and there were just some questions I knew I would never figure out how to solve in or for my life. What can I say - I gave it my best shot? Like I always say, I don't worry too much about my academics. I'm fine not being top of the class, so long as I manage to pass and move on to university. Uni's not even my goal, it's just another two or three years of education, around which I don't let my whole world revolve. I see the purpose of it, it's important. But all I'll ever be passionate about in the future is actually working, to help people via my future job. I don't want to take school so seriously, because this is only just the beginning.

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So after the maths exam, I went to McDonald's with some friends for brunch, then went to play football. It was crazy hot and sunny, and even though I felt like shit kicking a ball around in the blazing heat after downing a big McDonald's breakfast, I loved the sun - it just makes me happy looking at my skin and noticing I'm a little darker. :)

We then went up to a friend's place, and we played games on his PS3 and his Wii. We had KFC for dinner, and by my friend's mother's insistence, pizza. We were too full to finish the pizza. All in all, it was a lot of fun to just relax for a day, to do some exercise, to get some sun, to spend time with people, to play some games. It's needed for me during exam period.

Anyway, soon after dinner, it was time to go home.

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I got home, and talked to my best friend for over two hours. His phone ran out of battery, so I started watching my downloaded TV shows.

Ever watched Survivor?

It's a reality show, where sixteen to twenty, normal, everyday people, are sent to an isolated location (e.g., Brazilian highlands, Australian outback, Amazonian rainforest), to work with, and compete against, each other for cash and other prizes, most notably 1 million US dollars for the winner.

I've watched all 18 seasons of the American version, and it's the show I've been most dedicated to, one of my favorites. After thirty or so days of being outcasted, towards the end of every season, they like to reward the remaining four/five/six contestants, by bringing their loved ones into the game for just a day. It boosts their morale, it reminds the final four/fix/six of what they went to compete for, and most important of all, it creates some emotional reality TV.

I was watching this moment, when the outcasts reunited with their loved ones. One had his father emerge from the bushes, one had her husband, one had his brother... And I thought about what if I were there? Who would be there to emerge from behind the bushes to see me?

Hands down, my best friend, without a doubt. He knows every little thing about my life, he can handle all my different levels of character, there is nothing that means more to me than him. I paused Survivor, and as I sat there, I imagined not being able to talk to my best friend after thirty days in harsh conditions with nothing that reminds me home, and I just teared up at how emotional this hypothetical situation would be.

But then I realized that when I leave for university, when I leave Hong Kong, and he stays here, I won't have him to call up any time I want in London, and that this hypothetical situation bears some resemblance to a very real and near future for me. My best friend and I will have to start working out the time differences, while juggling my new life and his, our new schools, our new friends and love interests, everything, if we even still have time to and want to keep in touch with each other. It will never be the same, the same as it has been since I first met him.

I just cried at the idea, of losing the ability to do something that we've been doing for so long, losing the person I know now, the one I've had for so long. It's no tragedy, and I'm not sad. I wasn't feeling sad even as I was crying.

They're sort of like tears of joy, I'm very happy that I have him now, and I feel so fortunate. But leaving him is simply something that's going to be hard to do. Can you imagine having to leave the person that you are closest to... the person you speak with everyday... the person that knows you more than anyone, the person you know so well?

It's merely one of those things that will happen, and would've happened earlier or later anyway, and at least I have three or four months left. I'll just miss what I have now, you know? And he's just the first of things I'll miss when I leave.

69 - Did you know Hong Kong only has four channels on TV?

In Hong Kong, every household has access to just four channels.

Four.

That's not a lot of channels.

And so I download all my shizzle. As far as I know, it's not okay to download stuff because you're not paying the actors, the directors, the studios, etc... for what you're watching, but I mean... it happens a lot all over the world. It's strictly illegal to distribute the downloadable files, though. I don't do any of that. I just take the freebies off the actual thieves. I don't actually know who exactly these entertainment cheaters are, but I really love them.

Anyway, I love television, as the title of my old blog suggested (There is no me without TV.) Even though Hong Kong only has four primary channels, I've found other means to fall in love with Hollywood (and BBC), and enjoy shows like Lost, The Apprentice, Nip/Tuck, Survivor, Heroes, House, Grey's Anatomy, The Office, Skins, Doctor Who, and American Idol. (My full list contains 445 titles of TV series, 23 of them not airing anymore, 97 of them I stopped watching.)

But for a couple of years now, I've been sick of watching things on my computer screen. And there aren't many sources to download sports, documentaries or simply cartoons. I wanted more, and I wanted to actually be able to watch them on an actual TV.

So I got cable. :)

And now I have AXN, FOX, E!, National Geographic, the Disovery Channel, Animal Planet, HBO, Cinemax, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, the Disney Channel, Hallmark, the Golf Channel, and even GodTV.

Oh, I love documentaries.

Oh, but I love E! more. I'm watching something about how the richest people live. Paris Hilton and Jay Leno have a $8 million car. Tom Cruise has one valued at $1.1 million. Serena Williams takes a bath in Evian water. Kate Hudson has diamond massages. Mariah Carey's face cream has specks of gold dust in them. Paris Hilton also gave her dog a collar valued at $3.2 million. Richard Branson lets people stay on his own tropical island resot for $32,000 a night. Bill Gates, Harrison Ford and Mariah Carey have all stayed there, of course.

I'm so happy. And the contract doesn't expire until May 2010. :)

7 - Books and television.

I want to start two more blogs.

One about English literature. One about television. Here's why:

English literature - I'll confess: it's been a long time since I've actually read a book for pleasure (we're looking at around two or three months). I feel that I know how to appreciate the sanctity of the written word and reading is something that I can do for hours and actually enjoy. And as I go around day by day, I come across these quotes that I really like, or I read a poem that I want to share with more people, but I can't find anybody in my real life that actually wants to listen. Posts about English text don't seem to fit in either of the two blogs that I currently have... I want to start a new one because I want literature to be a 'part' of my character here on Blogger, unlike my friends who indulge themselves with other media such as games, sports, film, music and television...

Television - Now, I want to start a new blog about movies and television. I watch a lot of movies, but I watch even more television series. You think you're a television nut? Here's a list of shows that I watch that air in the US and the UK (some of them don't air anymore, but hey, I still know the shows):

Friends. 24. Lost. Nip/Tuck. Survivor. Grey's Anatomy. Big Brother US. Big Brother UK. Skins. The OC. American Idol. Men In Trees. Desperate Housewives. The Big Bang Theory. Dancing With the Stars. Top Chef. Without A Trace. CSI. Ugly Betty. America's Next Top Model. Family Guy. Prison Break. Bones. American Dad! CSI:NY. The Simpsons. Merlin 2008. The Office US. House. South Park. Torchwood. The Apprentice US. Alias. America's Got Talent. 'Til Death. Project Runway. Veronica Mars. Saturday Night Live. The Office UK. Monk. Six Feet Under. The Amazing Race. 30 Rock. The 4400. Chuck. The Bachelor. Ghost Whisperer. Gossip Girl. The Knights of Prosperity. The Ex List. Pushing Daisies. Doctor Who. Scrubs. Medium. The Life and Times of Tim. Worst Week. Sex and the City. Little Britain UK. Phenomenon. Kid Nation. Teachers. Everybody Hates Chris. Studio 60 On the Sunset Strip. Windfall. Tell Me You Love Me. Fonejacker. Two and a Half Men. Dexter. ER. Privileged. Little Britain USA. My Name Is Earl. The Amazing Race: Asia. Robot Chicken. Hidden Palms. Kitchen Nightmares. On the Lot. Beauty and the Geek. Californication. Cashmere Mafia. The Apprentice UK. Curb Your Enthusiasm. Fringe. The Bachelorette. American Gladiators. The Secret Life of an American Teenager. The X-Files.

I'm not kidding around here. My list is dead serious.

I want to write about all the movies and TV I watch, but is there anyone in the blogging world that cares? I know that a large percentage of bloggers are English teachers, established writers, journalists and students who really love English. I know I'll be able to share my thoughts in that regard. But are there people that watch TV as well? Will people read my reviews on movies, on TV?

Or are they all satisfied with the digital media provided to them by the World Wide Web?