At the beginning of 2013, I made a wish:
I’m going to write a blog!!!Come on, folks, can I get a round of applause? What a truly “grate” ambition!
Anyone who has ever written a blog knows that it sounds easy enough, but doing it is unbelievably hard. It takes extraordinary perseverance and formidable writing chops. After all, creating a great post with both engaging writing and beautiful images means spending loads of time editing photos and figuring out how to write the article. Even getting the material requires a special request for Mr. Tang to journey to Tibet and bring back a vase, while your prose and logic can only be honed by accumulating experience and enduring countless trials before everything finally becomes…a piece of cak—a piece of cake.
After all that talk about the qualities possessed by people who seriously write blogs—commonly known as bloggers—I happen to possess none of them. So what am I supposed to do? Fine… I quit. (Hey!)
Writing a blog doesn’t mean I have to be a blogger. If I can’t become a blogger, I’ll just be a not-too-shabby-ger.
Actually, 2012 was a very special year for me. I kicked it off by leaping from a dumbphone straight into the ranks of smart people. (But my glory days didn’t last long—pride always comes before a fall. Less than a year later, I was already being outclassed by all the smug guys and gals carrying iPhone 5s.) After spending two years on working holidays in Australia in 2010 and 2011, I charged back there again in 2012 for three months to finish the pure traveling I hadn’t completed. Riding that momentum, I then spent another three months traveling through 16 countries in Europe. Finally, the moment I returned to Taiwan, I jumped into the digital marketing and advertising industry I’d long wanted to try. So I spent half the year traveling and having the time of my life, then wrapped up my wildly exciting 2012 with a brand-new and equally exciting job. Wouldn’t it be a shame not to write all this down?
[ And we survived the end of the world, too~!! ]
Especially since these stories happened to someone commonly described as having the memory of a goldfish. If I don’t write them down soon, a year from now I’ll only be able to make up stories from the pictures. The journeys, everyday moments, and thoughts will all gradually vanish without a trace. So I’ve decided to return to the embrace of blogging and use words and pictures to record the things I want to tell you—even if I have no idea whether you want to read them.
Taiwanese BackpackerBlue-and-White Flip-Flopsonce said, “Everyday life is a kind of journey.” That’s exactly what I came to understand after two years and six months of traveling. Besides, “If we don’t go crazy now, we’ll grow old.” Give each day a little variety and freshness, and life becomes much more exciting.
Travel is living somewhere else; life is traveling in one place.
So even though I’ve abandoned my blog more than once, at the start of 2013 I still want to spend the coming months sorting through and absorbing—or digesting—all the craziness of those days, while continuing to record the highlights of everyday life. And so, with absolutely no sense of my own limitations, I made this one-in-ten-million impossible wish. But whatever happens, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill once said, “Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.” It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense in my situation, but I believe my current enthusiasm will ultimately lead me to success, and that my new resolution to blog will still accomplish its mission.
Fortunately, the fact that you’re reading this means I’ve already fulfilled my wish for the year. So… see you next year…. (Totally kidding~) (Apparently pointless nonsense really is easier to write.)
[ Never underestimate Blue-and-White Flip-Flops—one day, they’ll be red-hot. ]
I started out on Wretch, where I was buried beneath an army of pretty girls and hemmed in by endless restrictions. Then I moved to PIXNET, a place as open as Liberty Square, and lived there for four years. But I gradually grew tired of the ever-increasing ads I never saw a cent from, and apparently using my adorable creya.net address would cost me an annual fee of more than NT$10,000. What on earth were they thinking? So I decided to step outside the circles where everyone else congregated and start this solitary little blog. I’m not chasing the bustle of the big city; I only long for a peaceful countryside where I can grow happily. All I want is a simple, uncluttered space where my word-bros and picture-buddies can settle down comfortably! The trouble is, every move means redesigning the theme, planning the blog, and configuring this, that, and everything else. This move took me nearly three months from start to finish. It almost killed me.
Three moves and I’m nearly dead!
I’ve already said far too many irrelevant things in my very first post. Anyway…
Just do it!
[ Translate someone else’s slogan into Chinese and you get to be on TV—damn, that’s easy money. ]
Finally, I’d like to give special thanks toSmug Guy No. 1, Will,for all his help solving the thousands of problems I had with WordPress. Please stay right there in your spot as my neighbor!
