Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Dumping Google Analytics and FeedBurner

Since I began writing on this weblog, I've been quite obsessed with various site statistics:
  • How many visits I get today?
  • Which posts are the most popular ones?
  • How do people reach my weblog?
  • Where are the visitors from?
  • Etc...
Checking Google Analytics and FeedBurner was a daily routine for me.

Since I decided to write less frequently, I assumed that fewer and fewer people will come to my weblog, so why check the statistics anymore? So, I've removed the bookmarks of Google Analytics and FeedBurner from Firefox.

Wow! I didn't realize that it'd be such a big relief! The fact that I no longer have to worry about the traffic on this site anymore makes me feel what freedom is. To write about whatever I want to write is one of my dreams and I didn't realize that I can be one huge step closer to it when I don't care about what/how many people visit my weblog.

You ready for some taste of freedom? :P

Saturday, October 27, 2007

祝福 (Blessing) - Jacky Cheung



Went to a friend's farewell party today, the second friend who's going back to Hong Kong for good in these few months. I wrote the lyrics of the song 祝福 for her since they're really meaningful and I like them so much



Hope that she'll have a happy life in Hong Kong (^___^ )

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Happy Birthday Alex's Weblog!

So today is the first birthday of Alex's Weblog. (If you're curious, this is my first post exactly one year ago).

What did this weblog accomplish in this past year? Hmmm actually I'm not so sure. The main reason for me to start this weblog is to share my thoughts with others. If someone feels that s/he gains something (whether it's a new idea, perspective, knowledge, etc), I consider that I've met my goal.

I guess one little accomplishment of this weblog is that I've some regular readers now (Thanks to 冬冬, Yun, HanaMaru, Eileen, Tina, Fung. Sorry if I miss you since I only know the names of the people who left comments here...).

Another little accomplishment is that I've basically owned the keyword "alex weblog" on Google; my weblog is either number one or two when you search with those two words now:



And of course, my domain name alexweblog.com has given me unfair advantage over the weblogs of other Alex's. If you search for "alex blog", my weblog is nowhere to be found :P

Shall I continue blogging? Yes, I really want to. I really like blogging and sharing my thoughts with the world. It's especially rewarding when I realize that some people would agree with my weird thoughts so that I know I'm not that weird after all.

That said, I probably won't post as frequently as before. Life's filled with too many responsibilities and priorities and you just have to take care of those before you can enjoy yourself. I really hope that one day I can blog whatever I want, play some more piano, read more interesting books/blogs, travel to more places, and, help some people who're in need and deserve them.

Anyways, thanks for all your support this year! (^___^ )

Monday, October 15, 2007

Why predict the future?

Many people (especially women/girls) are fascinated by some form of fortune-telling: astrology, palmistry, horoscope, Tarot cards, you name it. I'm never really interested in any of them for some simple arguments:
  • If fortune-telling is inaccurate all the times, why bother to listen to it in the first place?
  • If fortune-telling is accurate sometimes, how do you know when it is accurate?
  • If fortune-telling is accurate all the times, your life is destined to happen in a certain way and by listening to a fortune-teller you'll know exactly what's going to happen in the future. How fun is a life like that?
Forrest Gump once said that
"Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get."
It's the possibilities in life that makes it exciting. Even if there's fate, isn't it better to discover it ourselves than having someone told you about it beforehand?

Think about it
  • If what the fortune-teller tells you is something good, it takes away the excitement you'll have when it happens since you're already expecting it. (Come on, why do we hold surprise party?)
  • If what the fortune-teller tells you is something bad, you'll be suffering the days before the bad thing comes. (How fun is it if you know that you're going to die on a specific date?)
It just doesn't make sense to me. I really want to know how the people who like fortune-telling will respond to my arguments :P

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

First Love - Utada Hikaru


I was going to post the original MTV of First Love but I think that this one with the Final Fantasy animation is more entertaining. Enjoy :)

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Beatmania IIDX V Another - DJ Lisu


Man this is the most stunning play I've ever seen on Beatmania IIDX! Back in the days when I still played DDR and Beatmania a lot, even the best player I've ever seen in Los Angeles (who was a Japanese guy) couldn't pass this song with both hands, and DJ Lisu was doing most of the song with one hand. It's just amazing!

Note that this song is actually the first movement (Allegro non molto) of violin concerto no.4 of Four Seasons (Winter) composed by Vivaldi. This is a video of the song played with violin :)

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

想你想得好孤寂 (My Loneliness when Thinking of You) - Samuel Tai


An old song with meaningful lyrics: if you like someone, let him/her know before it's too late :)