Don’t ever make any decisions when you have social media burnout, or you’ll end up like me. Namely, you end up with a cat foster to look after when your brain is screaming for rest.

But I mean, look at her. Just look at her. Isn’t she the cutest cinnamon roll?

She’s an energetic, super playful lap cat who wants attention all the time. But this cinnamon roll has fangs and sharp claws, and I’ve been “blessed” by them the last 2 months since I looked after her. Especially when I don’t give her enough attention or she decides to play rough.

So, it’s been an, er, interesting transition the last few weeks. Both of us figuring out what’s good or not. You know the Western-style parenting advice of saying “No!” and walking away, ignoring said cat when she does something naughty? Yeah, well, doesn’t work with this cat. An Asian method is employed with this one, namely done with a water squirt bottle. There were times when I got so frustrated, especially after a random, unexpected swipe from Apri that I end up in tears. Why in the world did I decide to take in a cat at a time when I’m mentally taxed?

Anyway, I’ve named her Apri. Short for Apricat. And I’m here to tell you that ChatGPT named her — I just thought that “Amber” was such a plain vanilla name to give such a crazy cat, so asked ChatGpt to come up with a funny name, so it suggested Apricat. I thought it was brilliant. Especially because it elicits confused looks from people.

I consider her a foster, not an adoptee, but I’m veering close to foster fail on some days. But on more rational days I realise a cat as energetic, playful and loveable as her would not do well in a single-person household confined to a tiny apartment alone all day. And I’m in no position to adopt another cat. So, the best thing for Apri is to be in a household with a loving and patient family and with a cat sibling.

And yes, well, I did mention social media burnout.

It’s really due to my sudden interest in geopolitics, namely the evil empire, China.

Now, some of you may nod your head in agreement that China is indeed an evil empire. But if you’ve been reading my latest posts, namely this and this, you’ll probably backpedal hard – either from me, or from that smile you were wearing.

But, anyway. There was this period of time when I just got sucked into the rabbithole and went way too deep. My posts, alas, invited racist remarks. Because let’s face it, comments about Chinese people being evil or do not have two brain cells to rub together or even the courage to determine their own futures is racist. I was just hugely disappointed that some people I followed and respected had these opinions, it does make me wonder what they think of me, even though I’m part of the Chinese diaspora and am probably only 80-90% Chinese.

I also just couldn’t with the hypocrisy and condescension from these comments.

But I also want to quickly say that I met a lot of super great people (who are Westerners), who are open-minded and realise that geopolitics is far more complicated than the typical mainstream Western narrative of West = force for good, China = bad.

Besides, the comments, I was also consuming way too much rage-inducing content.

I really appreciate what these channels are trying to do, but I realise that I do not see how their content can be healthy for me (or anyone) as they cause me to be angry at the West, angry at Americans, angry at general, with anyone with a different skin colour or nationality than me. It was more than a little concerning that I found myself thinking these thoughts!!

Not great! We need far more … peaceful content that doesn’t provoke anger and frustration but peace and inspiration.

Is it possible with Geopolitics?

Probably not. To quote Kishore Mahbubani: “Geopolitics is a cruel business.”