Things tagged with thinking:

What “I Have a Dream” means to an Asian Australian living in the Pacific Northwest.

I’m down with the “media” part of social media. But maybe not the “social” part.

Five questions from our favorite lady who is both distracted and spunky.

Why I probably shouldn’t be in charge of an Indie Bloggers clone.

I hit four out of five resolutions for 2008. That’s pretty good, right?

Why does my subconscious always get in the way of my being better?

These are two completely unrelated thoughts. One is a memory. Just before Lachlan and Geraldine left Seattle, I took them to eat hot pot at a Sichuanese restaurant. While we were pulling in to the restaurant, I was trying out my Short Round impression on them. As we were leaving, I was doing some other…

WNYC’s Radiolab is a radio show and podcast that has introduced me to the ideas of godless heathens. Ok, well, Radiolab is a show that covers a different topic every week that relates to science, philosophy or the human experience. It’s complicated to explain but at its core are Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, two…

A few of my friends read my post about wanting an iPhone and they couldn’t understand why I would even think about paying so much for mobile internet. I don’t blame them. I feel exactly the same way about the ability to phone someone whenever you want to. I mean, it made sense back in…

This blog has been empty as of late. It’s your fault. And I don’t mean the collective audience, the entire internet or even the known universe. I mean, specifically you. You there staring at the screen with your drying eyes with the dark circles. You who just shifted a little in your seat because one…

Feeling tired and listless; broody and quiet. Is this a case of the Mondays? I’d like to think I was above such things.

I wanted to wear black. That’s about as much as I can remember. I wanted the immediate space around me to be a thick, black smog. A magnetic cloud that repelled you at a distance and sucked you in if you got too close. In class, I stayed quiet as death and kept my head…

Welfare is, as I understand it, financial aid given to those who we deem require it. Money doesn’t grow on trees so I guess we need to take money from those that have it and give it to those who don’t. There’s a lot to argue inside this space because sometimes the government takes too…

I have a problem with showers. I know, I know. You would say, “Well Jack, you are a pot-bellied, twenty-something computer programmer who buys all his t-shirts off the internet. It is absolutely no surprise that you are not on great terms with the shower; a modern marvel of personal hygiene.” That was uncalled for….

I’m a 23-year-old male. I’m also a Capricorn. Wait! Don’t run away! I don’t usually introduce myself by telling you my star sign. It’s gross, I know. What’s even grosser is to have it on a little business card that you hand out to all the leggy blondes in the room. Anyway, here’s what my…

I call them “creepy white guys” but that term can be misunderstood and mean a lot of things to different people. What I really mean are guys who have seriously lust after Asian girls and whatever insane stereotypes that come along with that. Classic symptoms include a pretentious knowledge of Asian culture, asking for girls…

Heads up, everyone. April Fool’s Day is here again. Here is the breakdown: Beginning of time to the year 2000 – Hilarious to make fake blog posts on April 1st 2000 to 2007 – Hilarious to be cynical and roll eyes at fake blog posts on April 1st Present Day – ??? I, for one,…

I might be reading too many blogs because somehow I’ve taken on the stereotype of the failed twenty-something that moved to the big city to live out the dreams of Sarah Jessica Parker because my friends tell me, I am such a Carrie. Reading so many female authors has changed my coping mechanisms somewhat. I…

On and off for the past six months, I’ve been tossing about the idea of peeling back the layers of abstraction, to really write what I know. I hadn’t come across the “write what you know” dictum until Studds explained it to me one day during the first year of university. I saw it as…

Once upon a time, there were two workers, Anthony and Brendan. They had both joined the company at exactly the same time but after 12 months, Anthony had risen a few ranks while Brendan remained at his original position of a lowly grunt worker. Brendan became angry about this and brought this matter before their…

Well, it’s finally happened; I’m sick. It’s freakish but since university, I’ve hardly gotten sick. Despite no exercise and a horrible diet, I stay un-diseased for long stretches. I don’t know how I manage it, I catch the bus for crying out loud; it’s full of sickies. Now that I’m balled up in a cold…

I’ve actually been a huge Garfield fan all my life. I would read through his books feverishly, his would be the first comic I would read out of the newspaper and I even tuned into the Garfield and Friends tv show. One of the internet links floating around at the moment is Garfield Minus Garfield….

Yesterday was officially a Bad Day for me. Maybe it was one paper cut too many or maybe it was the one-two punch dealt early in the day but I felt terrible. I spent the remaining hours with my head down, working hard and repressing these uncomfortable feelings. I shifted them to the bottom of…

I believe this dream is a continuing one but I’m not sure. It’s some sort of weird spy game. I’m with friends amongst a larger group of strangers and we’re doing touristy things or team-building exercises as part of the group. But the activities are being organized by a sinister power that is toying with…

If people are going to upload a tonne of photos on to Facebook then I’m going to click ‘em because I’m a natural snooper. This goes double if they’re good-looking. I can’t help but laugh when you see a whole page of photos where a girl has the exact same pose and smile in each…

So, every Asian I meet seems to play this little game. Ok, so not so much a game as a conversational ritual. When you meet someone new: you find out about their name, how they know so-and-so, the neighbourhood they live in, job, hobbies, etc. It’s getting-to-know-you stuff. And every Asian I meet brings up…

Boy howdy. Today is January 3rd, 2008. As soon as midnight rang, this was the only song going through my head: Death Cab for Cutie – New Year It’s not like I’m trying to be all cynical about the occasion –perhaps even declaring midnight on New Year’s Eve to be an arbitrary point in the…

I desperately want to write a sad post for the holidays to counteract all this good will and cheer that I’ve adopted in this season of giving. It’s like, I really really want to be happy and “fake it until you make it” has been my approach so far to this but it’s not working…

I woke up this morning to find that a few bloggers have started writing letters to their 18-year-old selves. You can read about 18-year-old Peter, 18-year-old Clink and 18-year-old Molly. I’m telling you this because I’m going to join them. So here goes: Dear Jack of 2002, Honestly, it’s only been 5 or 6 years…

Blah, blah. I shouldn’t be blogging. But I am because I just read this fantastic post by Rands called The Nerd Handbook and it describes me so well that I’m a little happy that other people out there share my personality and a little disappointed that I have to take my God complex down a…

So, I’m short another grandparent. Time marches on and I find that my maternal grandmother no longer marches with us. I’m surprised and I’m not surprised, which I think is an entirely appropriate reaction. I’m not surprised that she’s passed on and I’m not surprised that my mother kept it from me until I finally…

I am lost with what to do about my social life. All I can seem to do recently is blame myself. Cycles of self-destruction. It seems that I like balance. When I have absolutely nothing going on in my social calendar, I am fine with it as long as their is absolutely nothing going on…

Woke up (alone, mind you). Apartment is dusty, needs vacuuming. Brushed teeth and showered. Toilet was cleaned recently because a friend came over but bathroom mat is kinda hairy and gross. Also: need to buy more shampoo as this bottle has run out. Ate breakfast alone. Weather lady on TV says that today will probably…

Do you think I’m running out of time to sound smart for my age? My thinking is that all through childhood and young adulthood, there’s a certain expectation of intelligence but after a certain age, you enter the “anything goes” zone. In this zone, you could be some hyper-elite intellectual or the guy at accidentally…

Last weekend, there was a brief moment where I thought about how tragic it would be if I died. I know that sounds weird and just brain-crushingly morbid but, to me, it was kind of reassuring because I felt really strongly that I had a place in this world. Way back in high school, I…

Quote: The end of the Roman Empire is traditionally, if not strictly accurately, placed at 4 September AD 476, when the last emperor of the Western Roman Empire, Romulus Augustus, was deposed and not replaced. There’s a long-ish Wikipedia page about the fall of the Roman Empire. More accurately, it’s a page listing all the…

This photo makes me all sorts of sad. New York by michael_hughes There’s a long weekend coming up and I have no plans. I thought to myself, “Would it be crazy to fly to New York by myself? Fly to one of the world’s biggest cities and just do nothing for three days?” I don’t…

“I wouldn’t say you’re shy. You’re more… reserved.” I’ve been telling everyone that I’m shy. They’re all sort of incredulous about it, “You? Shy? Nah, you seem pretty friendly to me.” But here I am with the phone that never rings and a pessimistic outlook about forming any sort of meaningful friendships here. I beat…

The Sydney Morning Herald has a piece by Sam de Brito called All Men Are Liars where he discusses responses to an article about visiting a prostitute. I read this and I don’t believe there’s much of a grey area here. The guy is sick of the dating game and he visits a prostitute instead…

So what’s buzzing around my mind at the moment? I will tell you! In sentence fragments! Girls …and the inconceivable lack thereof. That’s not a “oh my god I need to get laid” complaint. I merely prefer the company of women because in the correct settings, I get to make sexist jokes and do all…

So here I am, lying in bed. It’s humid and for the past few months I’ve cringed at the phrase “Sleepless in Seattle” but that is an apt description of me. iTunes was just flipped open and I’m planning to fall asleep to Aqualung’s self-titled album. He’s a melodic British voice mixed into restrained, gloomy…

I think I’ve probably been thinking too much about Forza Motorsport 2. One notable aspect is that all my metaphors are now based around car racing. Whether I’m dealing with the absolute clusterfuck that is human relationships or pontificating the appeal of open source technologies to start-ups, my mind wanders to metaphors about friction, cornering,…

Well blog, here’s what I have to say for today: the guy who writes my horoscope is a smug bastard. Today you might need to practice more patience, Jack. You’ve been working hard to make your social life come together. Things might be improving only very slowly, and you could feel a little frustrated. Try…

Fay cried the night before I left. We sat in the middle of the living room like every other night spent in front of my TV. It is one of the significant moments I remember about leaving Melbourne. She said that once I arrive in Seattle, I would be too busy to miss everyone. So…

Ladies; I saw. After years and years of observing the human race scurry about like cockroaches on a kitchen floor, I finally witnessed a woman sizing up another woman. Maybe I’m slow but I like to think women are extremely subtle about these sorts of things. They simply must look at another woman’s outfit but…

I have a grey t-shirt that says “LAZY” on it. It is ironic when I wear it. No, not because I’m wearing a shirt that says lazy when in actual fact, I’m a decent, hard-working person. It’s ironic because I wear this shirt in full knowledge that it was intended to be ironically worn by…

In case you are wondering. Everyday, at some point, I will look around and think one of the following: Holy shit, I’m working for a mega corporation. Holy shit, I’m living in Seattle. Holy shit, this is the United States of America. So uh, please feel free to pause in your day. Pause and think:…

First thing I was getting two eggs out of the fridge. I put these two eggs on the top of the fridge and then I put the carton back into the fridge. When I looked, I only saw one egg. That is because when I closed the fridge door, I had heard the sound of…

Mother and I toured the temples in Springvale recently. My father’s father I greeted my grandfather and again I was a little surprised by how young he is in his photo. I knew him as a much older man. I met some uncles and an aunt; maybe for the first time since I was too…

During this holiday season, we are given the opportunity to pause and appreciate the people and wealth around us that we take for granted all too often. So tell me, why are you on the Internet right now?

Warning: NSFW Over at kuro5shin (pronounced: corrosion), there’s an article written by a supposed paedophile trying to appeal to the public, to explain his feelings towards young girls and tell his story. Rap sheet From the article, he doesn’t sound like he’s a convicted paedophile nor is he a violent rapist (obviously “informed consent” is…

When you hang around clothing stores, you can sometimes catch a glimpse of a delicate sadness. People that aren’t happy with their appearance and that worry a little each time they check themselves into a mirror; they grow a fraction of a second older. Once they’re outside and away from the mirrors, things aren’t as…

Look, I know what all you full-timers will say. But understand this, the exchange rate on school holidays are… not as lucrative as your holidays. That is to say, university students have too many holidays. We have no idea what to do with them all. There are not enough time constraints placed on us. Let…

I have an idea that involves generating nice smells. Shut up. It’s not some retarculous smell-o-vision idea. That idea is still dead for a reason and it’s not because we haven’t got the technology yet. Dream Cafe My idea is to have a restaurant that deals in smells. We don’t have to generate the smells…

There is a fascinating article in the New York Magazine called The Myth of Porn. It talks about having men exposed to so much pornography isn’t turning them into rapists like some feminists predicted. But rather, it’s made men less interested in real women. Bad porn For the first time in human history, the images’…