Elizabeth Tai

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  • Elantris and Hope of Elantris

    So thrilled to finish this 590-page book, something I struggled with after the pandemic hit. (I couldn’t seem to focus long enough to finish a novella, let alone a chonker of a novel.) Admittedly, I used a combination of physical book + audiobook which really sped things along.

    Why a physical book? Well, I found reading on an iPad nigh impossible because I’m always tempted to explore other things such as my Feedly or social media. I could’ve bought a Kindle version, I suppose, but I wanted the feel of a physical book. And I’m glad I did buy a paper book even if it cost me an eye-watering RM54.90.

    Initially, I just told myself to finish two chapters a day. But I was caught up by the story quickly enough. Sometimes, I would go shopping while having the audiobook play in the background. Thanks to Scribd I could access a dramatised audiobook version and while some of the voice acting left something to be desired (Sarene sounded far too peppy), I really enjoyed the dramatisation.

    This was Brandon Sanderson’s debut novel, and I felt that the story could’ve gone on for another book as there were many unanswered questions. Some of which Raoden, the main character, pondered about in the last few chapters!

    That seems to tease a potential second book, which to my understanding, never materialised. I mean, I dislike 12-volume fantasy epics and was grateful for a self-contained story for once, but after reading the end, I just wanted more.

    I also enjoyed the book’s appendices, which in the tradition of Tolkien, Sanderson discussed the magic system, listed a bunch of “aons” and wrote about how he felt after the book was released.

    Hope of Elantris

    To slake my thirst, I listened to the dramatised audiobook version of the short story, The Hope of Elantris.

    It’s a small story that takes place somewhere at the end of Elantris. It featured a character that was not in the book, but it was sweet and added to the satisfaction we got from the really nice ending of the novel.

    We also got hints about what happened to our favourite couple after the events of Elantris. (Thank you for the fanservice, Brandon Sanderson.)

    But, again, I wanted a lot more!
    Anyway, I loved the magic system in this world, though I wonder how secure Elantris can be thanks to the way the magic is set up. (I can’t say anything else without spoiling anything.)

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  • Pluralistic: Tiktok’s enshittification

    Here is how platforms die: first, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die.
    Cory Doctorow in https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/

  • Chinese New Year eve

    The food mum cooked for prayers. Before we eat, the ancestors must eat first.

    Chinese New Year is a thing for my family. Since we are descended from Chinese Peranakans, our food preparation is like a military operation which can take days – without the order or strategy.

    And for some reason, Chinese New Year eve lunch feels like a bigger deal for my family.

    It usually takes Mum a day cutting and chopping and half a day just cooking the meals for prayers.

    Each year I tell my Mum to just order said meals, each year she reacts in outrage. Though after each cookout she swears next year we will definitely order. And then next year I will remind her to order the food and she will again react with outrage.

    It has been 20 years of this and I wonder why I keep trying 😆

    After food is served and prayers are made, Dad will throw two coins to the floor and ask the ancestors if they have eaten.

    If it is two heads they are laughing.

    If two tails – no response.

    If it’s one head and one tail, they have finished the meal.

    Hey, I don’t make the rules. That’s what dad says.

    Once the ancestors have eaten, dad will take a little tin container to burn paper money for my ancestors to enjoy.

    Then only will the humans eat.

    For the traditional Chinese New Year eve dinner, this year Mum wants to do something different.

    We will be eating at Chilli’s 😆

  • The enshittification of social media

    Cory Doctorow, in his article, Social Quitting, highlights how social media have life cycles.

    One day, they were sparsely populated fringe services, the next day, every­one you knew was using them and you had to sign up to stay in touch. Then, just as quickly, they imploded, turning into ghost towns, then punchlines, then forgotten ruins.

    He also explains why social media monoliths can be impossible to switch out of due to network effects:

    This enshittification was made possible by high switch­ing costs. The vast communities who’d been brought in by network effects were so valuable that users couldn’t afford to quit, because that would mean giving up on important personal, professional, commercial, and romantic ties. And just to make sure that users didn’t sneak away, Facebook aggressively litigated against upstarts that made it possible to stay in touch with your friends without using its services. Twitter consistently whittled away at its API support, neuter­ing it in ways that made it harder and harder to leave Twitter without giving up the value it gave you.

    When switching costs are high, services can be changed in ways that you dislike without losing your business. The higher the switching costs, the more a company can abuse you, because it knows that as bad as they’ve made things for you, you’d have to endure worse if you left.

    Because they had so many of the people that mattered to us trapped inside them, and because they made it so hard to leave, they could really treat us like garbage without risking our departure. They cut the surplus to the bone.

    Well, we are now at “to the bone” stage. I hope we users have learned our lesson and never hang our network too much on these outlets in the future.

  • From self-hosted WordPress to WordPress.com

    Thanks to the dominance of SEO optimised posts about WordPress from all manner of companies, any blog posts about wordpress.com is very, very difficult to find. Especially those about moving from self-hosted WordPress to WordPress.com. Here are some I discovered and kept for posterity:

    “…was surprised that they offer WordPress.org hosting. I always thought that WordPress.com offered only Multisite (i.e. no FTP and restrictions on themes and plugins). The best part is that the Business plan (which I signed up for) is about 40% of the price that I was paying for my previous hosting).”

    https://organicweb.com.au/wordpress/moving-wordpress/

    “… there’s software out there that just kind of bridges the gaps between hosted and self-hosted. Most prominently, that’s WordPress.com. It’s the company founded by the creator of the actual blogging software WordPress, which can still be downloaded and then installed on your own space, but instead of doing this, WordPress.com hosts your blog on their space.”

    From https://stormgrass.com/a-rebuilt-wordpress-com/

    Back in June, I decided to migrate this blog from a self-managed installation of WordPress to WordPress.com. I’d done the self-manage thing for more than ten years, and I decided that I would rather spend my time writing instead of managing my site.

    From https://jamierubin.net/2021/12/19/a-shoutout-for-wordpress/

    Depending on your personal/organization goals and requirements, moving your self-hosted WordPress site to hosted WordPress.com can remove the headache of constant maintaining and updating your WordPress site.

    Which reduces your cost and investment in your website.

    So you can focus on your organization/business as well as writing new content for your site.

    From https://www.lireo.com/do-you-really-need-a-self-hosted-wordpress-site/

  • For the love of economy rice

    Nothing is more typically Malaysian than the “economy rice” store. These places sell “chap fun” (a Cantonese word for “mixed rice”), vegetable & meat dishes which you eat with your rice.

    Chap fun stalls are usually found in restaurant corner, often run by an uncle or aunty who calculates the price of your meal in mysterious ways. All you hope for is a fair deal.

    These days, chap fun shops are very modern & sophisticated, serving up to 20+ dishes!

  • Twitter misleads

    How Twitter misleads us about how many people have left — and what to do about it

    Social feeds are engines for distorting social understanding. Here’s how to push back against the algorithm.

    https://natematias.medium.com/how-twitter-misleads-us-about-how-many-people-have-left-and-what-to-do-about-it-bba484b6fed6

  • Algorithms and creativity

    “In the absence of an algorithm there is only your own creative compass.”

    In the #Fediverse I discovered people like @ewen who understood the impacts algorithms had on creativity. I felt the same sense of suffocation as a writer.

    In other spaces besides #Mastodon such as #Twitter nobody really understood my angst against it and thought I was strange. “It doesn’t matter what you think. Suck it up,” said an SEO guru to me once.

    Great article 😍 I felt seen.

    https://ewenbell.com/blog/Life_Without_The_Algorithm

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  • Solarpunk fiction

    Learned about a new science fiction genre today – Solar Punk

    “Solarpunk stories take place in futures where humanity, technology, and nature live in harmony rather than in conflict.”

    TBH, it sounds a lot like Star Trek which makes me think I will love this genre!

    Who are the authors in this genre?

    The Solarpunk Future: Five Essential Works of Climate-Forward Fiction

  • ChatGPT and tech writers

    Are tech writers going to lose their jobs? How can they adapt?

    https://passo.uno/openai-tech-writing-howto/

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