Life before Facebook

Photo credit: Dangerous Minds

Do you remember your life before Facebook entered your life? As for me, I don’t remember it much in details but I think I had a very simple life.

From Monday to Saturday, I go to work and used the internet to chat, participate in discussion forums, blog and download music and videos during my free times. We didn’t have any internet access near my home so I didn’t use it after I get home from work and on Sundays.

On Sundays, I used to go out to the movies with my sister or my friends or meet with my friends at 12 Lone Tan or Excel Tower. Sometimes, we went shopping. Occasionally, I met with my online friends; most of them were from the Native Myanmar discussion forum.

While chatting was quite popular around that time, I was more into writing stuffs in Bagan Net forum and later in Native Myanmar forum. Besides, I didn’t have many friends to chat with, but I made some friends who I regularly chat and send emails to. Now, I don’t have contact with any of them and we’ve all drifted apart.

I was introduced to blogs in around 2004 but I didn’t start writing until 2005. Back then, I only wrote in English because there weren’t many blogs from Myanmar that were written in English. A year later, my online friends persuaded me to write also in Myanmar so I started a new blog for that, as I’ve already mentioned before in my previous posts.

Unlike in the discussion forum, blogging allowed me to express myself more freely and I didn’t care much about whether people will be annoyed by my craziness for Kpop and Kdramas. Most of my blog posts were focused on entertainment, until I started attending MA classes in 2010. From then, the direction changed to education and books. But now, I don’t really know what to do write anymore. I think Facebook is one of the reasons for this.

I read somewhere online that people who use social media have trouble concentrating while reading. This fact is quite true for me. It used to only take me one or two days to finish a book, but now it takes me more than a week and sometimes even a month or two to finish a book.

The reason I started writing this post is because two weeks ago, I got fed up with some people on Facebook so I decided to quit it again for the third time. After I quit it, I realized that I have many free times when I’m not looking at my Facebook wall all the time. I can focus on my work without the urge to see what my ‘friends’ are up to or to see whether anyone has commented on my status.

Facebook is really ydifficult to cut off when everyone you know is on Facebook. I tried to keep contact via email but most of my ‘friends’ don’t’ even bother to reply back They are too caught up with Facebook. Not many of them use Twitter so I don’t have anyone to interact with on Twitter. Maybe that’s a good thing. I don’t know. I only use Twitter to read news updates and tweet anyway.

Another reason for quitting Facebook is because when I wrote something on FB, it made me happy if someone ‘liked’ it or replied to it and I get a little depressed when I don’t get any feedback. I think in the longer run, it’s going to affect my mental health as well. Before, I didn’t really care that much if people didn’t write comments on my blogs. I only wrote my posts to express myself and I didn’t expect anyone to write it. Of course, it’d be nice if I get many readers, but I wouldn’t do anything to attract more readers even if I know how to do that.

I’m not saying I’m going to quit Facebook entirely. I have decided to limit myself for now by only logging into my work account every three or four days to keep track of what my former classmates and colleagues are up to. I’ll try to limit myself from writing new posts in order not to depress myself when I get no feedback. As for my personal account, I think I’ll stay away from it for now and get away from my over ’400′ friends that I barely know in person.

Meanwhile, I’ll try to read more books during my free time and pay more attention to my work and my studies.

Stranger

Funny, I didn’t see yesterday’s topic about “Stranger” for the daily prompt until now. Even though it was posted yesterday, I feel like writing about my random encounter with a stranger.

About a year ago, I used to tutor two students from the weekend class at ILBC. Their house is located at Shan Road (Baho Road) and my teaching hours were from 5:30 – 7:30 pm. I often take two or three buses to go to their house in the evenings but I can only take the 167 Hilux bus to get home at night. I don’t like taking 167 buses because they drive very fast but I didn’t have any other choices.

One day, I got on the 167 bus and chose to sit one seat away from the back window of the bus because I didn’t want to sit too close to the natural gas tanks placed between the seats and the back window. But, a poor-looking woman decided to sit beside the gas tank on the opposite side of the bus while holding a small baby in her laps.

After a minute, the bus took off and was going fast as usual. Suddenly, the driver hit the brake at the traffic light. I don’t exactly remember what happened to me at that time but I think I had some minor scratches.

I was silently cursing the driver when I noticed the mother and the baby sitting next to me. I found out that the baby hit his/her head on the gas tanks when the driver stepped on the brake. I look at the baby and he/she wasn’t just staring space-less without even crying.  The mother kept rubbing the baby’s chest, probably to lessen his/her shock. She also looked like she was about to cry.

I also felt like crying as well. I really wished that I had sat next to her on the bus to prevent the baby from getting hurt.

I don’t remember their faces anymore but sometimes I think of them when I’m taking Hilux buses.

Global Warming and Climate Change

Reblogged from Speaking Out Loud:

U Khin Maung Cho gave a guest talk at British Council's library about global warming and climate change on July 2 from 5pm to 7pm. Although I already have some basic knowledge about the topic, I still went there to listen. He talked about the causes of the greenhouse effect and what we can do to prevent it. Most of the do and don't shown in the PowerPoint were targeted for European countries, but we can also abide to those suggestions.

Read more… 808 more words

An old post I wrote 3 years ago. I should have posted it yesterday to celebrate Earth Day.

Daily Prompt: Earworm | We Used to be Friends

My sister and I have been re-watching Veronica Mars Season 1 since two days ago and the theme song “We Used to be Friends” by The Dandy Warhols have been quite stuck in my head.

A long time ago, we used to be friends
But I haven’t thought of you lately at all
If ever again, a greeting I send to you,
Short and sweet to the soul is all I intend.

The lyric makes me think about friends I haven’t keep in touch with for quite a while now. I usually associate my friends into three categories, online friends, normal friends and online friends who I consider as real friends. What I mean by ‘real friends’ is friends I met outside, from work, school, etc. While I often meet with ‘online friends who I consider as real friends’ once or twice a month, it’s been quite awhile since I met with any of my normal friends.

Next week, I might be meeting with my former classmates from Diploma in English class for our annual reunion. What’s ironic is that most of the classmates who will come to the reunion are those I wasn’t quite close with in the class, but those I was close to will not come to meeting.

Compared to this diploma class, I’m more close to my classmates from MA class. It’s so difficult to meet with them after our university days are over. Maybe I will organize some kind of reunion for us. I just hope most of them will come. Whenever I organize something with me in the past, most of them rarely come.

Irrawaddy Literary Festival – Day 1

Irrawaddy Literary Festival is the first literary festival in Myanmar and is held from February 1 to 3. It is a great chance to Myanmar authors and fans to interact with international writers. Many of the discussions were happening at the same time so sometimes it was difficult to choose as I wanted to attend both discussions.

On the first day, I arrived at the Inya Lake Hotel before 10 am. The first thing I noticed as I got off from the taxi was a group of people circling around something. I got closer and found that Monument bookstore was selling some English books for 1,000 kyats each. Most of them are used books but are still in pretty good conditions so it was really worth buying. I wanted to pick some books myself but I only brought 10,000 kyats with me and I didn’t know how much I might need to spend for lunch.

Bookworms scrambling to get good books

Monument was also selling other books especially by the authors who are coming to the literary festival. The sales girl explained that the customers can buy these books and ask the authors to sign them. When I saw Sayar Thant Myint U’s “River of Lost Footstep” book, I regretted not bring my own copy. It was being sold for 14,000 kyats, which is not so bad because the last time I asked for the price of that book at Myanmar Book Center, it was around 16,000 kyats. I thought it was too expensive and my online friend gave the book to me as a gift when she visited Myanmar in December.

River of Lost Footsteps being sold at Monument

The opening ceremony was held at the Sunset Terrace and the first session started at 10:30 pm. I wasn’t interested in the first session so I just look around the place. I immediately saw Myanmar Book Center’s stall and went over to check it out. The bookshop was giving another book buffet where customers can buy paper bags worth 10,000 kyats or 20,000 kyats and pick as many books as they want as long as they fit in the paper bags. Again, I regretted not bringing more money to spend.

Book Buffet at Myanmar Book Center

At another stall, I saw some metal figures of General Aung San, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and President U Thein Sein. A woman who was in charge of the shop said those figures are sold for $25 each while other smaller ones are $10. According to her, these metal figures can only be bought at the gift shop at the Inya Lake Hotel. I would love to collect these figures but the prices were a bit expensive for me.

Metal figures of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, General Aung San and President U Thein Sein

The second session started at 11:30 am and I attended the discussion about “Translation and Adaptation”. This discussion was conducted in Myanmar language by Myanmar authors who are from the field of translation. At first, I must admit that I was bored to death listening to the presentations because they were quoting famous translators from the Sar Pay Beik Man book, which contains term papers the author submitted for the translator seminar in 1967. No offense to the presenters, but I have practically memorized most of the words written in some of the term papers while doing a thesis on translation last year. I only became interested in the topic during the questions and answers session because the audience started discussing about the use of ‘thu ma’ (she) in Myanmar writing.

In the Myanmar language, we don’t really use ‘she’, ‘her’, or ‘hers’ as pronouns. We only have non-descriptive pronoun ‘thu’ to describe both male and female. However, there has been frequent use of ‘thu ma’ in the media and translated novels, short stories, etc. So, conservatives of the Myanmar language, particularly the older generation, disliked it a lot. They often quote how famous author Journal Kyaw Ma Ma Lay never mentioned the word ‘thu ma’ in her novel although it was titled “Thu Ma”. It was an interesting topic and I would have liked to hear more, but when I heard sounds of people clapping next door, I suddenly became aware that I was late for the next session.

For the next session, I went to listen to a very interesting topic by Sudha Shah and Sayar Thant Myint U. It was about King Thibaw, the last king of Myanmar who was exiled to Ratnagiri, India. The room was quite packed and I noticed that there were more foreigners in the room than local people. There weren’t any seat left but most of the people were still standing in the room and listening to the presentation. I stood still the whole time and recorded the presentations so I couldn’t take any photos.

Sudha Shah said she spent 7 years researching about King Thibaw and his family after he arrived at the royal residence in Ratnagiri. She said she was inspired by Amitah Gosh’s “The Glass Palace” to do this book and she was surprised that nobody has done a research about the king. She explained about her book using the slideshows and I felt sad that some of the items shown in the photo slideshows were in the possession of foreign museum although they had originally belonged to the royal family.

Sayar Thant Myint U with the only surviving granddaughter of King Thibaw (Photo: Sayar Thant Myint U’s Twitter)

There’s more to write about this subject but I don’t want to bore my readers with long and winding passages. Perhaps I’ll write more about this subject after I get the chance to read this book. I tried to find it at the bookstores at the festival, but it’s not available. Sudha Shah said famous author Sayar Nay Win Myint will translate this book in Myanmar so it’s good news for the Myanmar readers. This author has also translated “The Glass Palace” a few years ago.

Sayar Thant Myint U and Caroline Courtauld from “The Future of Our Heritage Building” discussion

I also attended “The Future of Our Heritage Building”, “Blogging and Literature”, and half of “Writing under Censorship and the Future of Free Speech” in the afternoon. I won’t go into details about them because my post is already long enough. However, I do want to say that the session about blogging made me do some self-reflection about what I’ve been writing on my blogs since 2005/2006. I realize that I’m still nothing after all these years and people won’t ever describe my blog as a blog worth reading. Nowadays, I’m a little ashamed to call myself a blogger because I rarely write often.

I’ll write more about my experiences on the second day and the third day later when I have time.

2012 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This blog had 23,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this blog would power 5 Film Festivals

Click here to see the complete report.

MTV EXIT Live in Myanmar Concert: Part 3

By the time Thai rock band Slot Machine appeared on stage, I was feeling extremely tired. I had been standing since 1:45 pm and I hadn’t got the chance to sit down at all. So, I wasn’t really pleased to wait again for Jason Mraz to appear. But when the band started playing the music, I felt some kind of vibration and the powerful music hit us all. The crowd went crazy for the band although they were singing mostly in Thai. The lead singer surprised me when he started shouting 1,2,3,4 in the Myanmar language. He must have memorized it. Most of the other foreigners only said “Mingalarbar” or “Kyay Zuu Tin Par Tae”, but he introduced his band by saying “We are Slot Machine from Yoedayar”, Yoedayar is an informal name for Thailand in Myanmar language.

I’m not a big fan of rock music so I was not really in a good mood to enjoy the music. I finally sat down for awhile to rest my legs and put myself in a better mood. I noticed that the guys standing near me kept complaining about how tired they are and they kept sitting down in turns. Maybe women can stand long hours more than them because the guys don’t go shopping like us. When we go shopping, we can go from shops to shops for hours without resting

Jason Mraz finally appeared on stage around 9:20pm and he and his band performed non-stop for an hour. Among the songs he sang, I only recognize a couple of the songs from his third album and his latest single. I still haven’t listened to his latest album so I only knew “Make It Mine”, “I’m Yours”, “Lucky”, “Only Human”, and “I Won’t Give Up”.

A couple of hours earlier, PPL said it will be nice if he sing “Lucky” at the concert. I told her that since it’s a duet song, he probably won’t sing it. Or he might have to sing it with PPKT. We all laughed at my joke, but to my horror he really did sing “Couple with PPKT. OMG! It was totally imaginable. Their voices didn’t match each other. PPKT sang half of the lyrics in English and half of them in Myanmar while Jason sang as he usually did. I wish he had sang the song with Chan Chan instead

The only good thing about her appearance was that people started leaving around the time so I can finally see the stage without standing on my tiptoes. It was also easier for me to watch the projector screens.

After each songs, the band still kept playing music while Jason talked to the audience about human trafficking and slavery. The same messages have been repeatedly said over and over again by the presenters, the local artists, and special guests, who asked us to respond to them and make us chant words, but when Jason talked to us, we responded not out of obligation but because we really wanted to. He surely knew how to move people.

When he sang “I’m Yours”, the whole crowd responded to that song. I realized that I have listened to this song for multiple times, but I didn’t really remember all the lyrics. It’s a shame that I could only sing along to 75 percent of the song. Jason asked us to wave hands while we were singing so I tried to wave my hands but it got tiring after a few seconds.

The concert finally ended at 10:30 pm. I was pretty exhausted for standing for nearly 8 hours straight. I was thinking of taking a taxi home with Ma Latt, but we met with Snow, who offered to drive us all home. While we were walking to where her car was parked, I noticed so many trash on the ground. Most of them were the Coca-Cola plastic cups and water cups. It is nice that they offered us free drinks but I wish they also have provided us some trashcans. Even if there were trashcans, I know people would still throw the litters on the ground, but at least some will be motivated to throw the trash directly in the cans.

On the way to the car, I checked my phone and saw a SMS from my sister. She told me that she was going home by bus. It was pretty late and I will be in trouble if both of us don’t arrive at home at the same time. I called her several times because the reception was really bad. We got no reception while we were inside the park so none of us can use the internet while we were inside. Maybe the crew were afraid that someone will upload a live coverage of the concert using the internet. It’s not like the internet connection is going to be that good anyway. We can barely browse Facebook much less view YouTube.

Anyway, I finally got in touch with my sister and we were able to go home together. We arrived at home after 11 pm. My sister had already ate dinner so I had my dinner and took some painkillers before going to bed.

Note: I apologize if you think this is a very long winded post. I really wanted to record everything I remember. Even then, there are some things I didn’t mention because it wasn’t about me but about the crews and photographers.

Photo credit: MTV EXIT