Blog Hop

I really should have made this post two months back, my deepest apologies for the mega-delay. Anyhow, here it is, my little contribution to this Blog Hop!

First I'm supposed to answer this question: Why are you working on the project you are writing now? Why is it important? (to you, or to the world, or…)

Well technically there are several projects I'm working on, but most of them are just small-piece articles so I'll stick with my first original work: this blog. I started this blog in the hopes of refining my writing skills, create more exposure for my writing, and to share topics and thoughts of interest with the world. So far, I'd say things have been going pretty well. Thanks to a blog share group on LinkedIn, I've been able to share my blog with plenty of my fellow writers and bloggers while enjoying their literary works as well. The comments I've received have been very positive and encouraging, so I hope I'm doing at least something right! As for why I think it's important to me, it's probably because of my strong belief in the power of words. To create something from nothing, to convey meaning from such meaningless characters, I think, is a privilege that should be used to its fullest potential.

Next is the honorable mention of the lovely Robin. Many thanks for introducing me to this blog hop and for jump-starting the whole project! You can find her blog here: http://leave-the-frigging-marshmallows.blogspot.ca/

Finally, I'm going to nominate two delightful bloggers I've had the pleasure to meet to continue the blog hop:

Kelly Boyer Sagert is a freelance writer with a great sense of humor.
Chris Rose is a writer who also works as a translator. Naturally he's fascinated with language.

Go check out their blogs! I promise you won't be disappointed.

Existential Struggles

So recently I've become a contributing writer for the Elite Daily and I'm very excited to share my first article with everyone! Hope you enjoy it!

http://elitedaily.com/life/existential-struggles/795250/

Heart So Jet Lagged

Once again, summer has come and gone much too quickly and I am still struggling to process that fact, except...this time it's a whole different feeling.

From elementary school to high school to post-secondary education, students of all ages are guaranteed a summer holiday (though the length of that may vary depending on factors such as part-time work and summer school). The point is, no matter how short summer vacation always seems to be, these students can count on next year to deliver another one. Alas, my time as a student has finally passed me by. Having graduated from university this June, this summer may very well be the last time that I have a guaranteed, official, no-strings-attached summer holiday. What comes next is anybody's guess.

It's been nearly two weeks since I came back from my two months vacation in Hong Kong, and yet I still feel like I haven't fully come back in some way. The jet lag is gone, but it seems like my heart is still jet lagged to Hong Kong-summer mode. It's not just the freedom and lack of responsibility that I miss (though it did feel pretty great), but it was also all my friends and family over there, the atmosphere, the lifestyle, everything. I stumbled upon this quote some time ago by the writer Azar Nafisi that I find to be quite true:

"You get a strange feeling when you're about to leave a place. Like you'll not only miss the people you love but you'll miss the person you are now at this time and this place, because you'll never be this way ever again."

I guess you can say I'm still recovering from post-summer-stress-disorder, but really, it's more than that. In a sense, this summer had marked the end of my 'childhood', and I don't mean childhood in the conventional sense. By that, I mean it's the end of all my official education (for now at least), the end of having a reason or excuse to hide and protect me from the real world.

What I just said may sound a little familiar, since I did make a similar post about graduating a while back, but it's different in that right now I'm not actually too worried about the future. Instead, I'm feeling a massive wave of nostalgia for my entire life up to this point. Up until now my life has always been more or less structured, with a regular, daily routine to things. Sure, I've had difficulties along the way, but there'd always been a clear, specific goal in overcoming them. Given that most of the problems in my young life has been academic, it was always clear to me what I needed to do in order to solve them. No matter how bad things were back then, there was always an objective, some sort of solution to work towards; an end goal. But the real world doesn't work like that. You're thrown out there after all your learning and somehow, through all the noise and confusion, you have to find your place in it. I knew from the start that it was never going to be easy, but what I didn't know was how woefully ill-equipped I would when the time came. It's a little too late for regrets now, but damn...I sure miss the good old days. I guess that's all the more reason to get my life together, so that I'll have even more good old days to look back on.

Well, I think that's all for tonight. Sorry if my post got a little depressing, but I do feel better for writing it. And to any of my fellow readers/writers out there struggling through life for whatever reason, or maybe just having a bad day, I wish you all good luck, and goodnight.

New Blog!

Just so you know, I have been blogging lots since my last post. It's just taken longer than I thought to publish new posts. Anyhow, here's my little surprise as promised! I hope you like it.

http://keithsguide.blogspot.hk/

Writer's (Lack of) Block

I know it's been a while since I've blogged, again, but I've got reasons...um...well...okay maybe I've been just a little lazy. The truth is I actually was working on this article that I just submitted to the SFU newspaper, but unfortunately I missed the deadline for this semester's submissions, so I'll have to wait until September to try again. I had actually started writing it about 2 weeks ago, not that I worked on it everyday, but every time I did I felt like what I've written so far wasn't quite good enough, and I'd even considered scrapping the whole thing and starting over on several occasions. For some reason I kept revising and editing and couldn't finish the damn thing no matter what I did. And it wasn't only the usual "perfectionists' problem" that was holding me back (I've had plenty of experience dealing with that), but something else as well; something new.

That something, I now realize, was the fact that the article would be my first 'official work' as a fresh-grad, and subconsciously I felt the need to make it different. Different how? I couldn't really say. I just wanted my writing to be more informative, more precise, and more polished in general. I had a strong feeling that this new piece should reflect all the knowledge and experience I've gained during my undergraduate career, and maybe that wasn't a bad thing in itself, but the feeling was so strong that it became paralyzing and hindered my ability to write as well as I could have. Ironically this was not a case where I suffered from lack of inspiration or creativity, but quite the opposite: I had so much I wanted to say and convey to my audience that I couldn't properly translate it onto paper, no matter how many times I reworked it.

Probably due to the factors listed above, my article didn't turn out quite as well as I had hoped. But now that I have another month until resubmission, I'll have plenty of time to resolve all the self-imposed restrictions and expectations that I've placed on myself and just let my writing flow freely. If all goes well, my writing should be able to speak for itself, metaphorically that is.

P.S. Now that I'm feeling back in the game again, I'll be blogging lots for a while, at least for the upcoming month. Plus, I've got a little something special planned for my next entry so stay tuned!

Prolific Readers' Problem

The other day I was walking around a bookstore with my folks and, as usual, I was having a hard time settling on a 'good' book. Like always, the problem was not that I couldn't find anything of interest, but rather it was that there were too many to choose from. Then it occurred to me that this 'problem' was probably universal among serious readers of any genre, so I thought I'd give my two cents on the subject and see how my fellow readers address this challenge.

Primarily dealing with works of fiction, I would usually read the back cover or wherever the synopsis was located and if it piqued my interest, I would maybe skim the forward/author's note before going on to read the prologue or chapter one. If I found myself wanting to read more after that first chapter, then that book would make my list of candidates for purchase. Usually there are at least 3-4 of these, but there were instances where it felt like I wanted to take half the bookstore home with me. As you probably now, a lot of books tend to have its praises displayed on the first page or two, but personally I don't look to them as a major factor for my decision-making since praises are by definition nothing but positive; therefore it doesn't really provide me with any new information. When it was time to make a decision, it usually came down to what I was lacking at the moment. If I was currently reading a physically large book, I would choose a book of a smaller size so that I could take it with me on the road while the big book remains at home; and vice versa if I was already reading a smaller book. Likewise if I was in the middle of a thriller, I would try to choose a book of a different genre to freshen things up a bit. Sometimes, if I was really, really lucky, I would start reading a book and not stop reading it until it was time to leave, and even then I would be reluctant to put it down for long; and that's when I definitely know it's a keeper.

So that's basically my selection process when I'm off hunting for books. Everyone has their own strategies when dealing with book choices, and they're as different and unique as the books themselves; what's yours?

A Little Bit Of Me

So...I'm finally back from my unofficial hiatus, and damn does it feel good to blog again. And this time, I'm blogging from the comfort of my Hong Kong home! But more on that later. The main reason for why I've been away for this long is because I've been experiencing a bit of writer's block (or blogger's block I suppose). I used to draw my inspiration mostly from what I've learned in my classes, but since I've graduated, I guess it was only natural that my ideas dried up after a while. After a review of my blog entries, I realized that I've mostly been talking about intellectual and social topics, which is great and all, but it seems that I haven't actually revealed much about myself other than my opinions on these various topics. So to kick start my blogging comeback, here's a little about myself.

I was born in Hong Kong, but moved to Canada with my family when I was 4, so I'm practically a CBC. I was, however, able to take trips back to my hometown with my family for many of my summers thanks to my mom's job package; which included having our tickets paid for by the company she works in. This incredible deal was in turn made possible by my mom's uncommonly kind (a great understatement) boss; she practically treats us and a bunch of her employees' families like, well, family. Most of my family on my mom's side stayed in Hong Kong, while members of my dad's side lives with us in Vancouver, so it's pretty neat dividing my world between Canadian school years and Hong Kong styled summer vaycays...whatever that means.

All in all, I've been pretty lucky so far in life. I've got parents who love and support me, an older brother who's always got my back, a steady household income, and a small group of close friends I can count on. Don't get me wrong, things weren't always that rosy, especially in my childhood years. Since I was the second born, my parents have always doted on me more than my brother, which has its own pros and cons. The upside was, everything was made easier for me. Whenever there was something new or hard to do, my brother was the one to do it first. I basically didn't have to work much for anything, it was just there for the taking. The downside, as you'll probably expect, is that over time I became too sheltered, and had a harder time adjusting to life than my peers. I wouldn't go so far as to say I was spoiled...but maybe I'm just in denial.

That being said, my parents did do a good job of imprinting in me a set of good moral values, teaching me to show good character etc. The problem was, they might've done too good a job. As an example, when I was in elementary school I was such a sensitive goody-two-shoes that I stopped my friends from stepping on ants; believing that they were actually complex, sentient beings. To add to that, I was born an introvert and naturally short in stature. Because of these traits, I was subjected to my share of verbal teasing from classmates, which obviously reduced my ability to fully enjoy my elementary years.

However, things started to turn around when I entered high school. Maybe it was because I 'toughened up' after elementary or maybe it was due to people being generally nicer in high school (probably a bit of both), but I found it a lot easier to make friends, and to form more solid bonds of friendship. To this day I still have my group of close friends who I met and befriended early on in high school.

And I guess that's all for today, feeling a little jet lagged since I only arrived last night. Good night everybody, and in case I don't see ya, good evening, good afternoon, and good morning!