Q&A - Michael answers questions about ending DYHIT.

For everyone reading this, I'm frankly going to tell you that I am formally ending this blog within the next month. I'm a frank kind of guy, so I speak frankly - or at least, I want to be a frank guy - and that's that. I may be a little optimistic and presumptuous here, but I'm thinking there are some questions that people want to ask about this move. A good friend of mine agreed to create a Q&A session with me addressing these questions, and here I am, hoping that my answers will satisfy.

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Q: So, Michael... are you just ending this blog, or is it all of your blogs?
A: I'm ending all four of them.

Q: Okay... why?
A: I'm going to try and make this as clear and simple as I can. When I first started blogging, I was seventeen years old, going to high school. I'm now nearing nineteen years old, studying at university. I've moved to another country, the company I have around me has changed, and quite frankly, my character has changed to adapt to what life has presented me with.

Q: Are you saying that the pressures of school have given you less free time to write?
A: That is a factor, but it definitely is not the main one in this decision. I have a lot of free time actually, probably a lot more than most of my readers, but what I want to do with that spare time is up to me, and I'd rather use it to treat myself to what makes me happy. I think that the premise of Do you hate it too? was fun, helpful and easy for me in Oct. 2008, but as I've grown up and gone through some major transitions, my personality has changed, and I no longer see the need, or the humor, in complaining.

Q: You don't complain about annoying people anymore in your daily life?
A: Heh, well, let me rephrase that: I no longer see the need, or the humor, in projecting my annoyance on a designated public forum. Blogging is a tricky ordeal - you want to be honest enough so that people feel that sense of connection, but you also don't want to be so opinionated that you upset people. I can still chuckle to myself if I should hear someone using the word 'irregardless' for example, but I'm just not comfortable anymore being the one pointing it out.

Q: Would you be open to letting people continue the fun on DYHIT by offering guest posts to be published here for your readers' entertainment?
A: This blog is fun, and wouldn't be the same without all the feedback I've received from the readers, but in the end, it is all me and I'd like to keep it that way. Quite frankly, I still don't believe I'm actually a writer - what I wrote at the beginning of this was the essence of the 17-year-old me. I'm sure there are many a talented writer who could help carry on this blog, but I would be much happier reading their thoughts on their own blogs where their creativity and professionalism can really shine on its own.

Q: Perhaps a writer could do you...
A: ... yes, like as a character! That would be great... to have a character in a book be based on misanthropic me. Hah!

Q: Speaking of books, what happened to that DYHIT book you were planning on publishing next month?
A: I may still do one at some point, but I guess there is a reason you don't get a lot of successful teenage authors these days. We, as a group, are still figuring ourselves out and have no idea what the heck we want in life. We're so impulsive, and haven't learned yet how to learn what we really want in life. I'll just say that the idea is still looming, and it may still happen - next year, the year after that, five years later? - I don't know. I'll be sure to get the word out there, though, to those of you who would be interested.

Q: How would you let us know?
A: Well... (thinking) here's what's going to happen. I want to create a new blog to replace the old four. If I shall have any thoughts of publishing a book, or doing anything else exciting in the future, I'll let you know there. I plan to launch the new blog some time next month. Beforehand, I will save everything I've done in a trusty hard drive for safekeeping, and give you all about a week's notice or something before I shut these ones down.

Q: Wait a minute, you're going to delete these ones?
A: You see, all the best things that have come to me have come at times where I went through a major transition, from one thing to a totally new, different thing. Wiping the slate clean allows for me to move on more easily. I wish I could just give these blogs a remake or something, but I feel like the fact that I'm not happy with its current state, indicates to me that I didn't do it right the first time. Hopefully, this new blog that I'm currently molding will feel 'right' for at least a longer period of time, will need no changes, and will be more flexible for my usage as I continue to grow up (unfortunately).

Q: I look forward to that one then, as I'm sure your readers are too. Maybe for old time's sake, let's go over where this all began?
A: Well, great idea. I said that in the span of a single post each day, I would consider one thing that was a nuisance to me. I was raving to another friend about how I hated it when people invited you to events at the last-minute, and he suggested - blogging. I got seriously pissed everyday during that time, and I had no idea why, it was just my character. I don't know if I was actually writing to the best of my ability, but all I was trying to convey was a voice, a style of humor, easy reading, and a dash of truth. I always knew it would be funny.

Q: And now it's not funny anymore?
A: It's hard to say. I think it's always funny to point and laugh at things people do, but funny also has to come from the heart, because otherwise, you're just a sadistic person. I'm not sure why exactly, but I'm just not feeling it in my heart anymore. I have my long days, I get sick and tired of some people, but when I get to sit in front of a computer now, I don't feel like typing it all down. It portrays me as a negative person, it makes me feel like a negative person... all of a sudden, it isn't so funny anymore.

Q: You've written over two hundred entries since Oct. 2008... can you select five favorites?
A: Impromptu invitations, throwing things in the bin, vulgar mispronunciations, having to reach into the tissue box for a tissue, and holding grudges.

Q: Any last remarks?
A: To anyone that eagerly follows me, there is a phoenix that will rise from the ashes - a blog that will just be a personal one about me, that may still feature some of the classic annoyed-at-the-world me, I promise. I take with me from these four blogs, four different lessons in how to approach the blogging world to maximize what I get from it. I assure you, all is not forgotten. This has been amazing fun for most of the past eighteen months, and without this one, I wouldn't have met a lot of great people that genuinely want to listen to me. I'm so happy I touched your hearts, made you laugh, and/or turned you on, or whatever else I did for you, but it's time to move on and I hope you can understand. I'll be back in a month or so with the new blog, so I'll catch you then.

I just want to finally thank Stuart, for this all would never have happened without his prompt. Thanks Sarah, Ariel, my mother and all 23 of the FIS-ers for providing me with many an idea for the blog, and also Elizabeth, Cindy, Michelle, Melvin, Jen, Eve, Amanda, Arthur and Graham for your expressed encouragement in the real world.

Thanks to J.J., Douglas, gaf85, Marcy, Jacynta, Gabriel, Ruchi, AV, Liz, and Madame DeFarge for sticking by since the early beginning, it's been a pleasure getting to know you. 

And shout-outs to Louise, Eugene, Larissa, Joebs, Logan, Shimmer, Chris O, Steven, Nilu, Madeline, Evelina, Robyn, Amanda, Pavitra, Chun, Yolanda, Chricel, Ren, Bindu, Eura, Naomi, Stephanie, Mike, Adora, Rachel May, Charis, Randa, Shanne, Ares, Daphne, Vincent, Jill, Vlado, Alan, Kimmy, Fish, Vivienne, Kate, Eura, KMcJoseph, Neen, and the people who follow me on Facebook, on Twitter, via my RSS feeds, the Hong Kong Blogs Review, the Standard, CNNgo, and whoever I forgot but actually contributed to it all in some way! Thank you!

110 - Saying goodbye to someone, then leaving in the same direction

I'm sure you've said goodbye to someone after a party or a dinner with an old friend, only to feel silly soon after when you discover that you're actually going to leave in the same direction as the person you chirpily chirped toodle-oo to. As you walk side-by-side, in the same direction, you're then faced with the agonizing dilemma of whether or not you should bid each other farewell once more when you do, in fact, part ways for real.

While you take one slow step after another, it's painfully awkward walking alongside them. Is it inappropriate for you to exclaim 'bye-bye' again after saying it earlier?

As you stare downwards at your feet and their feet, and notice that their steps are synchronized with yours, the tension of the situation is making your shoulders a little stiff and it's sending chills down your spine. Do you express the second goodbye with the same vehemence as the first time? Or will that just make it sound like you're happy to be leaving them?

Really, though, you just can't bear to walk beside them any longer. It's too painful. This is a station on the Social Line that your train usually doesn't stop at. Is my friend thinking the same thoughts? Oh, my God, what if we say goodbye a second time and then it happens again? Quick, quick! Recall a joke to break the ice! Say something! Grasp at straws!

As long as you interact with people, this very vexatious situation is bound to come up. It just happens, no matter how high our IQ is. I mean, a lot of us have this foolishly preconceived notion, with no substantial premises, that nobody else will exit in the same direction we do. Some of us don't know where people are going after an event because we're too self-involved to ask. Some of us know where people are heading afterward, but lack a directional sense.

Or perhaps what's most likely the case is that we're just too carelessly eager to flee, to escape some grueling group gathering, to break away from a bunch of buffoons that you can no longer stand. It's when an interntionally swift goodbye backfires that makes things most excruciating.

Remember what we're talking about here:
I hate it when I say goodbye to someone, only to be leaving in the same way afterward. Someone shoot me the next time that happens.

97 - Procrastination

That's it, I've spent a whole week of Chinese New Year holiday doing absolutely nothing and tonight, Sunday night, it is going to kick my fattest body part (i.e., my bumbum).

I have spent the last few hours Facebooking, going on CNN News, watching TV series and movies on my laptop and blogging. I initially put my laptop on my desk for once, instead of next to my pillow, so that I wouldn't lie there slothfully like I have for the past few days. It hasn't gone well because there are just so many things to distract myself with on the computer.

Throughout this whole thing, I've been turning my head and glancing at the books, files and paper piled up on the bed next to me, and every time I take a look at the amount of work I have to do, I have a tiny panic attack, then I sigh. I just did it again, oh, my God, it's dreadful.

So, in an attempt to reduce distractions, I've exited my Gmail Notifier, so that I don't get told that I have people on Facebook to talk to, and blogs to comment on. I'm going to rely on myself to stop watching stuff while I'm working, and I'm turning off my phone, and hiding my iPod and my Nintendo DS. I need to concentrate.

I hate going to school and seeing my friends struggle with all the work they have to do. They ask for extensions from the teachers, and calling it by a fancy-pants name like 'extension' doesn't make it sound any more like responsible action, it doesn't make it sound any more mature. I feel sorry for my teachers, who have to deal with this kind of thing for hundreds of students every year. I feel sorry for all the students who are ruining their lives being late, handing in rushed work and all. I have another point to add to this, but it's too much to talk about now, I'll post about it in the next few days.

Which brings me to my end-point: I will not be visiting your blogs in the next few days, you can expect the daily post on Do you hate it too? But that's it. It's nearly the end of the year, and I have a lot to do, but I'll be here on Wednesday or Thursday night to check back with all you lovely people who write so incredibly well.

Procrastination: Don't you just absolutely hate it when it gnaws at your fat butt?!