How Analog are You?

This post despite being presented in the digital format, is about asking how analog are you?

I am one of those born in 1989, in my formative years in school, I have seen chalk boards become white boards and now you have digital boards. Computer lessons from once a week became heavier than the textbooks. Our phones are way more powerful than the computers Nasa used to send Apollo 11 to the moon.

-Rant-
Kids nowadays are very into nostalgia, vintage, and this word I hate a lot, THROWBACK. What the hell is with circa? Does everyone who puts a Facebook photo captioned circa 2010 deserve a slap to their faces with a vintage ping pong paddle? Circa meant the approximation of a certain year. If the photo is in a digital format, I bet there is a timestamp as well. It is not circa 2010 when it is just 5 years ago and when you know when it is taken.
-End rant-

Back to analog, I realised these stupid throwback lifestyles and nostalgia, come with a cost, reasons cited are like its out of production, it is rare, it is vintage and the list goes on. The one true reason it is expensive is because it is in demand. And when there is demand, people will keep increasing its price till people cannot afford it anymore. (maybe the real rant ends now).

Amidst all these costly things, there is some good and gold to be found by adopting certain aspects of these lifestyles.

Being Analog is about doing things the old way because it is these few things (in bold are the key features of analoging):
- Cheaper in the long run
- Requires a proper skill (not a craftsmen's grade but some practice)
- Is indeed better than it's modern counterparts
- It is used by you on a daily basis
- Items used are extremely durable
- Still in production and within reasonable grasp
- It is cool

Some of these features above can also be easily confused for your hobbies or interest or if overdone, is more of an hobby/interest/addiction than a practical analog solution. Again, hobbyist and purist are of another level, the first feature of being Analog is not to brag about it on Instagram, the most important feature is that it is cheaper and better. 

For instance, film cameras for daily taking of photos would not be Analog as digital is much faster and much much much cheaper. Not to mention an entire film wasted due to light exposure.

Most of these things I have discovered from their own interest groups, although they are beneficial, but these groups also have a constant Gear Acquisition Syndrome or known as G.A.S. which is very easy to be trapped by. I will mention the traps I have encountered so if you are thinking of switching, you would not fall into them. Maybe except when starting out.

Lets look at some of the things I have Analog-ed.

Wet Shaving

photo credit: blacklapel

I am particularly fond of this as it meets all the above features of being Analog. Wet shaving is using a straight razor or double edge razor as opposed to  cartridge razors. A quick google search will tell you, single blades is more than enough to shave and 2 or more will cause nothing but skin irritation, tugging, razor bumps (though I have not had that even when I was using carts).

It is much much cheaper, but the financial benefits comes about after 1 year of usage without constantly procuring new gear, only the bare necessities.

This is the one analog where I would suggest starters do a lot of reading on (as with all analogs), but for this, it is okay to buy a slightly expensive razor handle starting out to get the comfort not found in cheaper razor handles durability so that it will last longer.

Traps: I do not shave more than I have to for the sake of shaving, I do not hoard tons of razor blade or splurge on expensive dead animal's hair. Only buy as much as you need and nothing more. Shaving cream and brush can be expensive but it is not all that important for it to exceed $20 for both. My omega synthetic brush costs SGD 6 and the Nivea shaving cream costs SGD3.50. Not even SGD 10.

Finding the right handle/blade combination is quite a challenge as it is very subjective and no one can definitely say what is right for you, but trial and error should not lead to excessive purchasing. Which is why I cannot understand why people buy blades to last them a life time of 3 times a day shaving but never use them.

Debatable is usage of straight-razors, which is some what time consuming and requires honing of the blade (a super skill), it is hard to straight edge fast and in the dark as it is literally Sweeney Todd at your face. The only benefit to the laymen of straight edge is the extremely close shave finish it gives.

Mechanical Watches

photo credits: moving2nd instagram

Mechanical watches are rendered obsolete but I feel that it is still a very special thing. Other than the wedding ring, I consider this to be the only other men's jewelry. I have a deep love for watches, it is almost an addiction. If you have a manual winding watch, you get to interact with your timepiece in a way no one else does with their G-shocks that is merely a piece of circuit board and a screen. If you have a good watch, you can keep it and pass it on to your children and along with that, your legacy.

Traps: of course buying more than one watch, I am guilty of that. I am so into watches that I start to admire the one-watch-man.

Extremely debatable, you can go out get yourself a cheap SGD 90 Casio G-shock and change every time it spoils in about 3-10 years time and it will still be cheaper than buying a proper automatic watch. But you do not have a beating heart inside it.

Writing in a Notebook

photo credit: Jetpens

This is one of the new things I picked up recently along with fountain pens. I work in shipping, I have to keep writing down stuff. I actually write them on recycled paper from one sided prints, but then felt that I needed something more substantial and writing down notes in the phone may be good with reminders, but it is the motion of writing with the pen and paper that commits stuff to memory.

Out of the many notebooks simply stapled for cheap to the leather bound USD 100 Filofax, I go a Midori Traveler's Notebook, from the Traveler's Company. It is about SGD 65 and it is a system where you can keep putting in inserts and other accessories in a single leather protecting the inserts like a skin. Part of the attraction is the worn look of leather and the marks on it from use. The leather is much shinier now that I have it for about 5-6 months. There are definitely marks every where and it goes out with me everyday even on weekends and I mainly use it to keep track of my work.

The functions or usage out of this notebook system is endless.

Traps: As usual, MTNs have a huge following but I find them to be more geared towards aesthetics than practicality, they lug around huge amounts of colour pens. Spending more time doing stuff to their notebooks to post on social media than actually using it to improve productivity. There are other forms of notebook using similar systems in different leather or fabric. It is interesting but I feel the best is still to bite the bullet and get the MTN and be done with it.

Part of this traps you into getting more into stationary. Using MTN made me wanna get better pens to write with. That is how I started using fountain pens...

Fountain Pen

photo credit: TWSBI.com

I wrote with G2 like most people, but soon, I found that the refills costs SGD 1.20 each and the grip is getting tacky. So I ventured onto the net and found people raving over uni-ball signos, but that was short lived when I chanced upon Pentel's Energel. The ink's quick dry is great for left handed writers like me.

Soon, I decided, hey, since I'm going to be writing, why not try out fountain pens. And that's it. that's all it took. In an impulse, I bought a pilot Kakuno and now I have about 4 fountain pens and one more on the way. I recently acquired a TWSBI Eco in white as pictured above. Which is one of my nicest looking pens that writes really nicely.

I found pelikan 4001 inks to be very cheap, but over time, one might consider the pilot inks for nicer colour.

Traps: Fountain pens are extremely beautiful writing tools. However they come in many shapes and sizes and materials, this is also another area which G.A.S. affects greatly. Some pens go up to a few thousand dollars.

Canvas and Leather Bags

photo credits: Bulang and Sons

What canvas, what leather? Nowadays, there are plenty of new age materials for bags, touted as lightweight, tough, water-proof and durable. They are a good idea, but I feel that a bag is something you carry everyday, it should be sentimental and warm rather than cold and unfeeling.

Some bags indeed better to use and are cheaper, but they do not age well with use. These new age fabric when worn out are costly to replace and more often than not out of warranty or expensive to ship back.

Nothing beats the look of a waxed canvas with leather trimmings that has been used up badly. They only require to be rubbed with beeswax when you feel like it and the fabric is easily found.

If celebrity endorsement is anything, Tom Cruise is frequently seen carrying the classic Filson 256 Briefcase. Other users include Jake Gyllenhaal, Jonah Hill, Daniel Craig, and Will Graham in Hannibal.

Traps: These bags are getting harder to come by, and good brands like Filson is starting to be expensive and suffer some quality issues from what I read. These bags are meant to be used daily, rain or shine for years and years. If you plan to only get it for less than a year, then it defeats the purpose as part of the bag's feature is its durability. And it that is not tested, it is a waste of money.


What is not Analog
Film camera - They maybe cheap on the onset, but it is quite costly to develop the photos unless you do digital scans which involves using a digital camera to take photo of the film over a light box. Plus you risk ruining a whole roll if you accidentally expose the film to light.

Basket woven briefcases - This is a whole level of stupid on its own. Are you going for a picnic and ants are going to carry your twelve cupcake out of your basket on its plate in a conveyor belt fashion?

Half bike Helmets - To be ridden with your cream coloured Vespa with Italian flag stripes. Not to mention how dangerous it is to not have your jaws and chin protected in case of an accident.

How Analog are you? 
The above are mainly the few things I am analog about. What about you? Being Analog is not some Anti-capitalism or Anti-mass produced items. It is about using something that is indeed better and cheaper, doesn't matter when it is made. It also will lead to a simpler life when you know that the way you do things is so meaningful, literally just like the good old days.

Planning 2016

This year definitely will be the next chapter of my life. I am collecting the keys to my flat this year and also getting married towards the end of the year. So mazel tov!

Here's a few changes I have made to myself which you will also see reflected in this blog. 

- I have been maintaining a simple once-a-week calisthenics work out with a few great guys, it's quite fun and I can feel the significant improvement in my strength. 

- My watch addiction is now very limited

- This is due to my recent start of using a fountain pen. Which has so far been proven to be poisonous and acidic to wallets.

- Not losing sight of my end goals, some stricter austerity measures have been put in place to make sure I save money and do not overspend in the stock market. (Managing your own cash flow is as important as the company's cash flow).

All in all, I'll be plotting my HDB + wedding progress from end March to April onwards. 

- Happy 2016 everyone! -

How I Use My Midori Traveler's Notebook

I found out about Midori Traveler’s Notebook through no idea where, it made me start using notebooks. It made me more productive. After a while, I decided it was time to bite the bullet and get a MTN.

But as I dive deeper, I found that most users seem to be using it for aesthetic purposes and blogging on a paper rather than for productivity. It’s a notebook to help you remember things to do, events that take place. Not for you to bring on your travels in $50 leather bag that only fits one MTN + various colour pens/sticky tape/insert quotes that you find meaningful.

Don’t blame me, I’m a guy, I would be pretty pissed if we spent so much money to go abroad and time spent is “notebooking” (fingers inverted commas).

Firstly, notebook is a means to be productive and save time, by spending time “paper-blogging”, it is quite counter-intuitive no?

Secondly...

search image for photo credit please

Anyways, I saw someone on facebook wanted to know how I use my MTN, it’s boring, but it works for me.

I work in a shipping company, I have to take note of the daily operations of slightly less than 20 ships. Unlike most 9-5 jobs, I work in the office from 9-6 daily, but any other time, I am on call and have to check my email constantly on the go. The only time I get to not do that is if I don't work in shipping. FYI, it costs 2-3 times my monthly salary to operate a commercial oil/chemical tanker a day.

I lug my MTN around every where I go, especially on weekends when I do not have my office desktop in front of me.

This is how it looks like from 9-6. Too lazy to loop it properly. 

Pretty, straightforward, the gap is from the pen (uniball 307 with jetstream refill). It lives in the page as a book mark for the last written page. The stringy book mark is used on the vessel schedule page that changes weekly.

I have 3 booklets inside:

- Week in two pages (credit to Ray Blake) for my personal events, usually is nothing much. I do not record birthdays or anniversaries unless I'm doing something that day. Wishing someone happy birthday is not doing something so I do not write down birthdays.

- MTN Ruled notebook - this is where I write all my work stuff. I initially wanted to try bullet journal style, but quickly realise it is pointless. So everything is marked with either a "-" or "•". More important/critical stuffs will be underlined or boxed. when it is done or irrelevant, it gets 3 crosses (one at the front, one in the middle, one at the end). Don't strike it out, so that even if it is over, I can still read it.

As you can see, I printed some chronodex (credit to scription). I only use it when I have a very busy day or if I am sleepy and this helps me not think of what to do next rather than as a daily use thing to show people and blog about it.

- 2015/16 monthly view calendar (credit to Ray Blake again). I'm getting married in 2016 end. I use this monthly view calendar to note down important dates or things coming up. e.g. when we signed for our banquet, when we took our wedding photos, extra points to note. any our-wedding related things.

I cut the edges all at one go using scissors because I don't care how neat the edges are.

As you can see, it is boring, I do use a bit of semi translucent post-it stubs to mark out pages that needs constant referring. Or the current month/week in my two calendar styled booklets. 

I also used an old folder to make the folder thingy, it helps to make writing easy when I have no surface to write on, and it keeps the shape I suppose.

I am not saying that it is stupid to bring out colour pens all the time, it is your hobby/lifestyle to use your MTN as a decorative thing to put on blogs/instagram/facebook/twitter and show people your colourful pages. I see some use it as a wallet on their passport size which I understand, but what I don't understand is keeping paperbags, tickets inside. And also having so much pens that the pens takes up as much space as the MTN. But I do have to say, it is a very beautiful thing and I appreciate beauty...like a vase or whatever.

Broke Kids.

Getaways or Get Away?

This morning, I was pondering in the shower over an article I read a few days ago about a guy who doesn't get why youths these days blow so much of their savings on travel.

For the experience, for the people you meet and the amount of photos post-able in social media.

Seriously, please stop it.

This glam-travel BS has to stop. Spending your savings in a few days. After that only making you come back to the real life and making you want to save more to get away again.

Getaways ... get-away ... escape.

See the underlying meaning? All this, I want to travel, so fun, sunglasses, sand and sea is all a sand-coated veil of escapism at its costliest.

All we see is youth complaining that there is nothing to do in Singapore, but honestly, we are just missing out.

There are plenty of things to do and see in Singapore, if you looked as hard as you did for your air ticket.

This is in Singapore, I kid you not.

Next post, I'll be reflecting on the wiki-abstract of the famous book, The Richest Man in Babylon.

Wedding vs Marriage

Weddings last for a day but a Marriage lasts forever.

We say that all the time together with relationship goals, said as ideals when looking for their "bae", "SO", "HTB", "WTB". Funny yet when together, all of that isn't mentioned at all. Wedding bands that involves both couples, is now replaced with conversations about the shiny engagement ring. Girls tend to be referred as birds because of their tendency to like shiny things. And guys are referred to as blokes probably from sounding like broke. (jk jk lol).

What is the priorities?

What kind of percentage of money do you set aside for things like your house, furniture, wedding, engagement ring, wedding bands.


Just a school of thought, my disclaimer, my fiancee and I pays everything half half unless its things I buy for her or if I don't mind. 

No sound No picture

I tend no to include pictures in my posts unless it is my own, reason being, if the source website for the picture changes or gets taken down, for instance imgur or photobucket, I'll end up with an ugly blog post, sentences with no context.

Plus it is easier to load.

Whatsapp Lagging on iPhone after updating in early October 2015

Just a quick post, in case you have updated your whatsapp recently and finds that it is like shit with all the lags.

I find that these lags only occurs in particular chats with alot of media (whether you downloaded it or not) and long chat history.

Think: group chats of your hobbies, chats with spouses.

I got very pissed off at this update, thinking at this day and age, whatsapp could still get screwed up. But anyways, they did release an update soon after and now the problem is somehow solved.

In the name of change, things always get messed up...I understand the need to change, but some things are really better off as it is, unless it is really ground breaking.

Try: reinventing the wheel.