enlightened hedonism
Life should be pleasurable. It really should. It’s an incredibly brief period of time, so we really ought to make the mo
The First Thirty Weeks.
The following is a summary of the first 30 weeks of my 90 Week Project. Week 1: Philosophical introspection during gym workout
The Hero Hypothesis
The world needs more Heroes. What do I mean by that? What constitutes a Hero? Everybody has different ideas, but most of them
The (rather strange) Armchair Critic Story
In 2006, three starry-eyed teenagers with almost no musical background or any sort of relevant experience whatsoever created,
How I started tracking my life, Part 2
Continuing where we left off from How I started tracking my life, Part 1: You can see that I started with a monthly perspectiv
Hacking The 7 Deadly Sins: Sloth
(image courtesy of blackeri) Sloth is…Â laziness, inactivity, idleness, restlessness, ennui, boredom, indifference. Ever
How I started tracking my life, Part 1
I made several random attempts to start tracking my life over the years. I used to have a blog on the now-defunct Diary-X.com
vivid dream- alternate-earth bass player road trip, oct 08
Part two of this post is about a ridiculously vivid dream I had, and I still remember very well hours later. It involved me an
Knowing But Not Knowing.
I had an art teacher in secondary school who never taught me anything about art, but he did leave me with a cryptic saying he
armchair critic history
I’ve definitely missed out a couple of shows here and there, but here’s a list of what we’ve played! Apart f
random ramblings
I feel like I’ve had a lot on my mind lately, and I feel a need to pen them down, to summarize them, to synthesize them
To live well, we must prepare for Death.
“We all die. The goal isn’t to live forever, the goal is to create something that will.” – Chuck Palahniuk A c
7 Lessons Smokers Can Teach Us About Getting Shit Done
Smokers do something that’s quite remarkable that nobody really talks about: they smoke a lot of cigarettes. A heavy smo
hospitality vs. media, + self-expression
It was my first time working a morning at Shangri-La, and I didn’t know what to expect. Cause I’d been up all day
questions, 2010
Are you physically fit? Healthy? Are your eyes, teeth, heart, back, knees, ears in good shape? How would it feel if you lost t
the art of disagreement
People disagree. Most genuine disagreement stems, I believe, from different people valuing different things, or valuing the sa
Hacking The 7 Deadly Sins: Vanity
(image courtesy of blackeri) Vanity is a naive obsession with a non-existent Self. Vanity is the excessive belief in one’
mindfulness in the morning (30/05/11)
Sometimes it happens without any planning- although you may or may not realize that you’ve actually spent all your life
Hacking The 7 Deadly Sins: Lust
(image courtesy of blackeri) Lust is an untempered drive to conquest. Nobody lusts after what they already have. Not just abo
Hacking and Leveraging the 7 Deadly Sins To Your Benefit
I don’t like the idea of Sin as something inherently, absolutely wrong- something so intrinsically vile that even thinki
mass effect 2 loyalty missions
In the multi-award winning game and beautiful narrative that is Mass Effect, you play as Commander Shepard- an all-around bada
“Visa, we need to talk.” 2010
The following is something that I wrote to myself in my notebook while I was at work sometime last year, I think around July o
Interests and goals [Jan 2012]
A friend mentioned to me the other day that she finds my blog a bit difficult to follow because I write about so many random t
I don’t want to sell ebooks about writing ebooks.
I think what I’ve missed the most about blogging is my rambling nonsense. Seriously, that was my favourite part about bl
On Self-Help books.
I have a lot of self-help books. It used to be a bit of an obsession. I’m pretty sure I have at least 10-20 of them lyin
Johari / Nohari Windows
These are my negative traits, as my friends perceive me: Arena (known to self and others) aloof, irresponsible, lethargic, ins
Conversation on communication, hive minds, morality, God and the Universe
There’s a concept that Tor Norretranders (a Dutch physicist) brings up in his book The User Illusion. It’s called
Emotions: How you can manage them, and why you should
I often like to pretend that I’m a logical thinker, so for the longest time I (illogically!) convinced myself that emoti
7 things that help me clear my head
After being plagued by lethargy and a general sense of powerlessness for a couple of weeks, I fell asleep on the bus today on
Paradigm shift: Inwards to outwards
The edge-of-seat, I’m on fire and I got to do something right now feelings is one of the best feelings in the world. Wel
Demolish boredom.
I used to be very bored as a teenager. I was bored almost all the time. I was not bored very much as a child. I found everythi
I smoked a cigarette today.
I smoked a cigarette today. Here’s what I’m not going to do: I’m not going to deceive anybody, especially my
conversations on systems
on a unrelated note i really am pretty damn exhilarated about my systems thingy lol i kinda get your general gist, but it̵
Managing complex change: 5 things that stop you from accomplishing greatness
If you want to get anything serious done that involves complex change, whether it’s starting a blog, quitting smoking, m
Personal Development and Symbolism of the Hero
“Since finding out what something is, is largely a matter of discovering what it is like, the most impressive contribution t
Self-mastery and the journey of the hero.
“The unexamined life is not worth living.” -Socrates (socratic method used to teach) “You can have no dominion great
conversation- doubt
so ever since like a few weeks after i enlisted i’ve been keeping track of my life, which i never bothered doing properl
conversation: phase-cycling
increased sleep as in i’m not sleeping right now, obviously but experimenting with it feel physically a bit tired but me
conversation about the future
I meant to write a long blog post but got distracted by a fun conversation on MSN, so I thought I’d share! Enjoy. Aye
The University Dilemma
2014 Update: I didn’t go to University in the end. All my applications were turned down. I ended up working for Referral
Week 24.
Wow, 6 more weeks and I’ll be done with a third of this movement! I want to keep this clear and succinct, and focus on w
Figuring out the most important question.
What’s the most important question you can think of? Let me go through a few ideas: “Where do we come from? Why ar
is there anything at all about yourself that pisses you off? {:
That’s actually a very complex question, so I hope you don’t mind a slightly complex answer- I’ll try to kee
The Challenges
I’ve never worked at anything in my life as hard as I do when I play video games. Your first thought might be “Wow
There are no bad experiences.
There are no bad experiences. Getting your leg blown off would suck. Getting raped is a terrible, traumatic thing. There are f
The Lumberjack, The Major and The Conductor
A familiar parable: The wise lumberjack knows that the most important thing he needs to do before he fells a tree is to sharpe
Things I’d Like To Work On
A blog is an interesting place, an interesting thing to be responsible for, an interesting medium, a vehicle for thought and e
New Year Resolutions 2011
TLDR: Save money, reading schedule, blog, smoke less, drink water, journal, build habits, meditate, declutter, play music. ===
What I’ve learnt this year.
This year I’ve developed a better understanding of how my mind works, how society works, how ideas and social epidemics
Self-Assessment: goals, routines, habits and hesitation
Time for a bit of introspective reflection and philosophical spring cleaning! Online Productivity: I’ve gotten a Grooves
snippets of memoirs
I’m an ordinary guy. I found school to be generally boring and uninspiring, so I almost never did any homework, often cu
finding non-directed purpose – from mediocrity to excellence
Okay let’s have some stream-of-consciousness style thinking and writing going on here. Our conventional ideas about idea
How to deal with an existential crisis.
Imagine that you’re having a walk that’s generally unremarkable, in an unremarkable locale, surrounded by unremark
Marginal differences make a difference
Updated 2014. It’s interesting how we categorize people into smokers and non-smokers. You’re in or you’re
I have some questions for you.
Are you physically fit? Healthy? Are your eyes, teeth, heart, back, knees, ears in good shape? How would it feel if you lost t
illness as opportunity
I am sick as I write this- literally physically ill, with a throat infection. I often seem to fall sick more than the average
On Efficiency
Efficiency gives me pleasure, and inefficiency bothers me, often making me irritable and frustrated. This might sound like a s
How My Mind Works: Mind Explosion
Every once in a while- and these moments are exceptional, rare and intense- I have what I might describe as a mind explosion.
Questions 16 and 26
As requested by Bianca! q16. How come the things that make you happy don’t make everyone happy? That’s an interesting
Question & Answer Time!
A friend posted these questions on her blog without expecting any answers, and I liked them so much I couldn’t help but
Diminishing the nicotine dependence.
I have to confess that I haven’t completely quit smoking. I do still often go several days without smoking, and I no lon
On fearlessness, and enemies
If victory is the notion of no enemy, then the whole world is a friend. The true warrior is not like a person carrying a sword
On binging, and moderation.
I want to talk about binging. We all know that too much of anything isn’t very good. Excessive beer, cigarettes, food, e
Daily tracking.
Any video gamer knows that your status bar is one of the most important things that you need to pay attention to. The informat
Perfectionism as an excuse.
I understand that the previous post may not completely make sense. It is also not as efficient, effective and straightforward
“50 Questions That Will Free Your Mind.”
Because sometimes asking the right questions is the answer. How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are? Which i
Why I am becoming an increasingly irritable person, and how I’m dealing with it.
Recently, I get really frustrated whenever I perceive people behaving in ways that I deem unbecoming. Why is this? One possibl
dealing with that familiar empty feeling
 “It’s lackadaisical days like today that make me realise how empty my life is. Something is missing; Ambition? D
Why I stopped reading.
This is going to sound a little unusual coming from me, but lately I’ve felt that my vocabulary is rather limited. I cam
Left 4 Dead: Enlightened Self-Interest In A Zombie Apocalypse
Left 4 Dead (or L4D) is a first-person shooter with a simple premise- four people are stranded somewhere overrun with hordes o