Sunday, January 17, 2021
Well, 2020's been one hell of a year. As if I need to mention anymore about the coronavirus which has been on everyone's minds for the entirety of the year. And all the needless deaths due to government incompetence, especially in the US, where the elections caused even more drama.
I've observed a lot of what the response has been among the individuals I know, to the pandemic, lockdowns and all. Some relaxed, rested and learned new skills. Some took a breather unlike any in years. Some struggled to pay rent and got bitter. One begged for money on Facebook, for his family of 6. Me? I rested. During the initial lockdown, I took a very long break, allowing myself time to game, to read and just to chill in general. The waifu, Onion, told me to increase my knowledge skills while I could make use of the time, and I got through about halfway through the After Effects class from Domestika before I went back to work, and what do you know, I've not found the time since. Or at least, haven't made the time. And yes, I must admit I'm extremely privileged to maintain my savings, pay rent for nearly the entire year, support the waifu and still had a few months to just chill without needing to worry. CERB was a good help, and my savings were healthy. Many struggled, and I didn't experience that. I truly am blessed, unlike a good portion of the world. Never take it for granted. Among the things that I got to do over the lockdown was having an origami session with some of Onion's secondary school friends, who set up a random gathering of artsy fartsy activities over Zoom. They painted Easter eggs, journaling, and eventually I taught a session of origami, teaching them Ricardo Foshi's koi fish. I didn't want something too difficult or too simple, so I thought this was a decent balance, and they enjoyed it tremendously. Whew! The last time I taught origami was back in the Royal Ontario Museum in the late 90s, with the Japan Foundation. Also, being able to game with BPS every weekend was a great way to chill, spend time together and catch up regularly while having fun.
Reconnecting and catching up with people was a common trope too, in 2020. I lost track of how many people were more active and chatty on social media (myself included), with well wishes of staying safe and well. I noticed I commented on a lot more posts than usual, just to interact and see how they were, and likewise. People I hadn't chatted with in some time, and others who I talked to regularly. There was this sense of... I dunno, hard to put it into words. Almost like, let's talk more, since we don't know what might happen. That kinda thing. Oh, speaking of reconnecting, I joined Pip's (former vocalist of Ataraxique) Twitch stream to support him on one of my morning commutes. He played some nice, chill tunes and got to chat with him on Twitch chat, catching up on our respective lives while knowing some of his other subscribers too. Plus Ashwyn joined in.
I suppose among other things that I had time to do was just observe. Funny things like the cute samoyed that walks with its owner every morning at 8am while I wait for the bus to go to work. Or snowfall, and recording the beauty of it. Part of the privilege to just relax allowed me to just watch things. I guess the closest was people-watch. But since there was a lack of people due to responsible citizens staying at home, I guess just -watch? Lol.
This was originally going to be a random, borderline reminiscing post, but the waifu took a look at the drafts and commented on some stuff, so there might be a few amendments, heh. Speaking of which, Onion and I have been spending much more time together at home, due to the lack of available activities outside. I mean, don't get me wrong, I like spending time with her at home. Chilling and lazing at home is awesome. But it's nice to go out and do things too. With all the time at home, conflicts arise of course, and we've gotten into a few major arguments this year, several towards the last few weeks of 2020. But of course, it doesn't discount all the great chats and time spent. It's been lovely to have her sleep on me and just slack around, or to discuss philosophy and politics over a cup of coffee.
All that discussion and stuff has increased. Whether it's about the response of the various governments, or racism, or the US, the easy target for jokes, I've had plenty of conversation with a lot of people. And in some cases, I've gotten into some big arguments online with acquaintances or strangers. For over a decade, I've been told I have an acid tongue and to tone it down a bit. I thought I did, but when I argue, I guess I still do it. I suppose I've gotten more snarky and sarcastic in responses, insulting without the need to refer to more... colourful words. Which, to brag, is cool, but also shows that my tone still needs work (sometimes). Often in these arguments, it made me lose a lot of respect for people. Their responses to the masks, vaccines and just the general lunacy of Trump and other conspiracies just... pissed me off. God knows how many times I saw stupid shit in relation to one of the aforementioned topics with complete ignorance. Several were prominent church leaders I had followed. I know, I know, never make an idol of of your heroes. You'll only be disappointed. I don't idolize them, but I do (or did) respect them and their views. Much less so now. Some like Pat Mesiti are borderline nutcases now. I've got a former lecturer from The One Academy, who I respected a lot back then, and he joined the Christian Fellowship there a few times. Now he's gone full QAnon. Like, geez. How? WHY?!
One of the biggest things that happened to the waifu and I was getting Toshi. Getting a pet is a big responsibility, and Toshi is no exception, especially when you're enslaved to the feline instead of owning it, lol. She's been a lovely addition to the house, and her seeking attention from Onion and I is always very sweet and something we always look forward to. She loves to cuddle with us every night and sleep on our laps or our chest. We even bought a giant cat tree for her (more like a cat castle). Pfft. The spoiled girl. We bought a cat water fountain and automated feeder to handle her, so we could take some tasks off our hands. Refilling water every few hours in a water bowl is fine, until you forget, or she goes on a drinking spree when you're out for several hours. She was waking me up around 6:30am every day for breakfast, but now the Wopet automatic feeder (who we named Morgana from Persona 5) does the morning feeding (or when we're out for longer periods), while we handle lunch and dinner. So the little bugger now doesn't wake me up for breakfast anymore. Buuuuut, now she jumps on the bed every morning for attention. Zzz. Previously she learned not to jump on the bed, and for several months, didn't. Now as she's getting on to her teenage years, she's getting more mischievous and jumps straight onto the bed every morning, several times. The waifu wants to set boundaries, so she doesn't let Toshi sleep on the bed, so I need to get Toshi off the bed every morning by picking her up and putting her on the floor. It works for maybe 2 minutes until she jumps again. But recently I found a solution! Sort of. I just let her cuddle with me on my chest for a while, letting her sap away my body heat, and after a short while I put her on the floor, and it seems to be enough that she won't jump on the bed again after that. This has only been done the last few days. Let's see if it works.
We're also planning to leave our rental place. It's been a nice place, honestly, and the location is great. Our landlord has also been very gracious. But Pik Lin has found a job in Mississauga, and once the lockdown ends and work goes back to the office, Yonge and Finch will be way too far for her. Also, we really can't stand the other housemates anymore. More like, it's mostly Abir, the guy who lives directly above us. The rest of the housemates have been way more considerate, being much quieter now even during their midnight dinners, and on the occasions that they do make a lot of noise, it generally doesn't last too long. However, Abir still stomps as though he's going fee fi fo fum, and he blasts music loudly for most of the day, only quieting down around 11:30pm. Like, okay, you took our words quite literally to shut up by then, but you're still inconsiderate for the vast majority of the day. Pfft. Also, they smoke inside the house. They deny it, but we smell cigarette smoke inside the house occasionally. Unless they're smoking near a vent that leads to our home. Either way, we want some peace and quiet, and we don't get any living with them.
For tech stuff, I bought a new laptop (in late December 2019, which I think falls close enough to 2020, lol). My old Asus (A555L) had served me very well, but it was getting on in years, being almost 5 years old. Back then it was already a medium-spec laptop, so it's not like I had top of the line specs that would last a long time. So I decided to get a more powerful gaming laptop so it'd last longer. I was already pretty happy with the Asus brand, so I looked through their selection. Within my budget and decently powerful, I bought the Asus TUF FX505. RTX 2060, Ryzen 7-3750, and with a 1.5TB SSD. What a life-changer, the SSD. The lightning fast speeds on my computer. Damn! I should've switched sooner! But to be fair, prices have dropped considerably in recent years and it would've been way more expensive to get an SSD back in 2014. One year later, still very happy with the laptop. RGB keyboard too, so that's pretty sweet! In other tech news, I bought a Samsung Galaxy S20 as well. I received an SMS from Freedom Mobile about getting the S20 by topping up a bit to the monthly bill for 2 years. Onion and I happened to be at Hillcrest, where there was a Freedom outlet, so I went in to enquire. Within 20 minutes I walked out with a brand new S20. It's probably the first time in my life I've bought a still-current flagship phone. My previous OnePlus 5 is still working great and fantastic, but the camera is pretty poor, and the memory is severely lacking at 64GB. I can barely store any significant amount of media on it. I thought I might as well switch phones, since I had owned it for almost 5 years, and needed more storage anyway, plus an upgrade would be nice. The last Samsung I owned, a Galaxy Grand, made me swear off the Samsung brand for quite some time (seriously, screw TouchWiz). But I thought a flagship phone in 2020 would be okay, and so far it's been great, apart from all the bloatware and ads. A good camera was a good bonus, and it's been used to take way too many pictures of Toshi, lol. I'd take more of the waifu, but she doesn't like it -.-.
I'm constantly reminded of how many books I have left unread, and how many games I have to play. I've bought a few physical books that haven't been touched since I bought them, and I've got plenty of games all piling up. Like, not the kind of games I'm buying on a whim because they're cheap, or Humble Bundle gave them for free, but actual triple A games that I thought about carefully. But I'm taking it easy. I'm not trying to rush them or anything, 'cause that would take the fun out of it. Just slowly enjoying it, playing when I'm available, and when I'm not, spending time with the waifu and Toshi.
Oh, and I really don't mean to end it on a note like this every bloody post, but another significant death has occurred to someone I know again. This time, it's auntie Mey Lan. She's been a family friend since before I was born, being one of the office employees at Eng Chong back in Johor Bahru, working for my maternal grandparents. I was told she was always tight with my Uncle Vincent, and she joined us for many dinners and outings too. Apparently, almost no one was aware she had cancer, and she died last week. I only saw it on Facebook because one of her relatives posted on her account, and everyone said RIP. Aye.
This was supposed to be somewhat of a recap of 2020 and a mix of the latest going ons, but I don't know. I just sort of rambled, and I feel like this is a good way to end the post. There's plenty that happened in 2020 I already blogged about since I'm miraculously posting regularly again. Once a month is better than a 5 year absence, lol. But also, I just don't have as much free time to blog every few days or weeks like I did last time. And I suppose that giving me time to digest, think through and type also cuts down a lot of clutter. Sometimes I do miss blogging in the moment because it captures my thoughts, ideas and emotions of that time, and reading about it later reminds me of what I may have forgotten over time, which surprises me when I revisit an occasion later, the current thoughts at the time sometimes clashing with what I thought about in hindsight. But eh, we'll see. Things change. Deal with things as they are, not how you wished they were.
Happy new year.
Chronicled
11:07 PM