A happy occupant of the WWW

It all began with a resolution, a decision that this academic year was going to be different. New philosophy, new attitude, new-found excitement for life. New person needs new place to write about being a new person. Hence, new site.

SIGH.

Actually no lah. It really was just an impulsive move. From a need to spend money on such unnecessary things, like domain and web hosting. Geocities was closing down, and I needed somewhere to host my existing pages. Also, I was deluded enough to believe that I have an interesting story to tell, and that the rest of the world (or, the world as far as my social circle reaches) wants to know that story.

And besides, I was getting extremely whiny and annoying in that old blog, plus my posts were more air-headed than intelligent. After five years of writing online in that old thing, I cannot stop. But I can't continue in that sad, pathetic environment. That thing, whose title, more than anything else, sounded more like one of a cookbook website. Now people will no longer mistakenly think I have an odd obsession with one particularly popular cooking ingredient.

Also, I have always wanted my own ".com". XD

Questions you might have, prophesied by me:

Why do I need so many images that make my site load longer? Why cannot just put text links that are easier to read, faster to load?
Because I want this thing to look nice. New-found excitement for life, okay! Must enjoy, plus, longer loading times never killed anyone.

Why do I need a new site when the ONLY thing that's really working is the blog? Like that then why cannot just use a free Blogger or Wordpress blog?
Because I have more in mind than just a blog. This thing is still new so I haven't had time to properly develop it yet (at the time of writing I had this registered only 10 days ago leh!). It would be nice to disassociate myself from terms like "blog" and "blogger". Those things can get very restrictive, very one-dimensional. Write, post. Write, post. I used to have a Geocities site that had a lot of pages about random things, all linked together that you click through like a journey, and an online diary was only but ONE of the many pages in that site. It never dominated the whole thing, it wasn't the most important aspect of the site. I didn't just log on, rant rant rant, post, then log off. I miss having that so much. Plus, Radiohead's old website was amazing, and gave me a lot of ideas. It's not there anymore though, so don't have to go look LOL. I loved the concept of how you don't have to express your creativity on a website merely through words, or photos and drawings. There's potential to do so much more. Hopefully I can show you what I mean when I further develop this thing!

Why must the front page be so useless? Why can't the blog be the front page so that people don't have to click through so much?
Because 1, I don't want my journal to be the dominating page after this whole site gets worked on further, and 2, because I think that "Tell the world" thing very cute what! That is actually a photo of my sister that I took when we were at a very wide padang when we were in Penang. It was under bright sun light and I was in a hurry, so the photo ended up super over-exposed. At first I thought, HAIH too much damage, cannot fix anymore. Mana tau, play around with Photoshop's pen tool, create a few vector layers, VOILA! Horrible photo became decent vector! I was quite happy loh. And yah, I am finally embracing the Twitter/Plurk subculture. See how it goes lah.

What does "chooeee" mean?
This one quite obvious. If it sounds damn weird, sorry la, everything else was taken. Apparently "Chooi" is someone's last name, and that someone already booked a domain under that. So unfortunate.

What are those feet in the header up there supposed to mean? Just any random photo izit?
No weh! Those are my feet in my very well-worn (a.k.a. super dirty, never-washed) Converse shoes. That part about starting the new academic year with a new attitude, wasn't just me crapping loh. I really mean it. And it (the header) was inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien's poem, A Walking Song. A version of it is in The Lord of the Rings, and if you're wondering, yahh, the text flowing along my very pink road that is damn near impossible to read without squinting (sorry la, lost patience there) is from the poem. It goes like this:

The Road goes ever on and on
    Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
    And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
    Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
    And whither then? I cannot say.

Damn beautiful poem. That part that is bolded, I love very much. I find myself very excited every time I read that poem. A dear friend once told me how worried she is that with her degree, she doesn't know where she'll end up. And in a moment of sudden and uncharacteristic intelligence, I said that that's a blessing - an undefined path means it could take you anywhere, and being free to go anywhere means you're just as likely to reach Greatness of Epic Proportions. I don't know who I really said it for - her, or me. I have no idea where my degree will take me, how would a sociology major with a gender studies concentration from a college unknown to most Malaysians survive in Malaysia? But I'm not quite so worried anymore, because as they say, one must pursue the passion, and everything else will follow. So yes, whither the Road takes me, what ought I do but follow it with eager feet? (WAH damn cheesy!)

And the above, is basically all you need to know about the creation of this site. If you bothered reading everything, TQVM!