Marsha Maung: Write. Cook. Read. Watch. Try. Innovate.

Blogger, honestly, have fallen off the charts in terms of relevance, importance, and ranking. While I am trying to figure out the right way to get around that, I will be updating my wordpress site instead.  Honestly, I feel quite sad because I've kept this blog for a long time and it is kind of sentimental to me (yeah, I know I shouldn't) but things change, you know, especially with the internet these days. One day, we're finding friends through blogging, making connections all across the world with search engine and social media, and then now there's AI, a dying SEO and SMM scene, a thriving ad scene, YouTube importance, and AI, AI, and....AI.  I still feel that the world, especially on the internet, still needs the human touch. It's still here and we'll find the right balance.  For now, I will update my Wordpress site, like I said and pointed to up there. See ya!

We've always kind of known that our devices, or more specifically, some parties, are always listening to what we're saying. That's why we will never turn our home into one of those 'smart homes'. Never . My boys would move out the moment the home is 'smart'. LOL. So would I, actually....  Anyway, my devices are pretty open to everything, though, because it's my job to listen. And in order to do that, I have to be open to be listened to as well.  Because, unlike others who can navigate their way around town without their GPS on, I will die. I have this rare spatial perception disease where I don't know where I am after I make a left turn. Any  turn.  During one of our usual dinner conversations, I've mentioned that I don't really know (in-depth) how the moon affects the tides on earth . I sometimes get curious how it visually look like.  And this is what appeared on my feed today on IG. It's not something I usually see on IG, TT, or FB, or...

c Happy birthday to me,  Happy birthday to me,  Happy birthday to meeeeee..., Happy birthday to me! Technically, it’s past 12am and it’s my birthday now and I’ve crossed a major milestone in my life, age-wise. Le sigh....there’s no stopping time. The more birthdays you celebrate, the more depressing and desperate you get . Did not do anything much. We ate lunch at the nearby restaurant, a simple meal; then splurged like mad at Daorae , a Korean BBQ restaurant. Spent an insane amount of money on the good food but it was crazy good and we almost exploded.   Been watching past Running Man episodes like a mad person these few days but only the ones with Gary in it. For some reason, I have a strange liking for his honest but weird behavior. Nothing to do with the Monday Couple gimmick. Anyway, as far as birthdays go, I’ve said before that today, my XXth birthday, might turn out to be my turning point . No, I want it to be so . Honestly, I have been on sabbatical because I felt...

I've been on Twitter since June 2008, making it 14 year old. Since I am not an influencer neither am I famous, my number of followers on Twitter have stagnated for quite a couple of years now. I think my engagement rate sucks pretty bad too.  But still, I stayed on because I liked listening to what people had to say about the happenings all around the world.  It gets mad-crazy sometimes but mostly, it's easy to ignore the stuff you don't want to see on Twitter. Just scroll away. It makes life easier. I loved the initial idea of Twitter giving everyone a voice and a platform to voice their concerns, share their ideas, connect with other people, speak their minds, promote their works or business freely and fairly.  That was the original idea.  Then let's talk about the whole Musk takeover. It really did not bother me that much when Elon Musk announced a potential takeover. So what? As long as it remains the way it is for the rest of us without the blue checkmarks, ther...

I was walking past a store selling a large range of smartphones, laptops and whatchamacallit laptop-tabs. I was piqued. I approached the storefront with a careful intake of breath, praying fervently for an affordable price tag. There wasn't one. Look, I have a laptop. My kids have their computers, and we each have our phones. Is there a reason to invest in yet another gadget in this house? The damn laptop Surface Pro keeps whispering to me, though . I swear. lol via GIPHY Window shopping can be life-sucking because it reinforces the idea into you that you can't afford everything you'd like. I find myself arguing with myself: I could save the money for a family travel Mother Earth is staring at me with the searing accusations of ' Reallyyyy? More trash. You're stepping one foot into the core of the dying planet' I don't need it. Really, I don't. In fact, I already have a spare laptop that I use for an alternate account. Because? I watch Netflix...

I know everyone still uses Google Chrome as their main browser (so do I, most of the time) but I've been exploring other browsers just because I want to see what they can do and also, I use them differently for work and personal reasons.  In year 2020 alone, it was reported by the University of Maryland that there is one cyber threat every 39 seconds. That's 2,244 attacks per day. 😲 The stat didn't sit too well with me because we are now more dependent on our phones and the internet than ever before. I don't even have much cash on me anymore these days because I use eWallets, debit card, and online transactions for nearly everything.  I mean, a bunch of colleagues went out for lunch and one person pays for the meal. The rest of us split up the bill and started transferring our share of the meal via TouchnGo and Grab. I paid my sister for buying reusable customized face mask she got from her friend with TouchNGo. A work superior borrowed cash from me (even though he is ...

Pandemic Problems: My body has absorbed so much soap and disinfectant lately, that when I pee, it cleans the toilet In a blink of an eye and it's almost the end of the year. Christmas is approaching. Mall decorations and the songs they're playing over the radio airwaves are telling us so but it doesn't quite feel like it, does it?  We entered the year almost in a panic, lumbering our way around a potentially deadly virus while holding onto the hope that it's just another one of those scares that never quite made it to our shores. We kept our ear to the ground and religiously hung onto the words of our Ministers, Health Officials, Government workers, and reporters. We tried to keep calm and most of us did what we had to do to keep ourselves, our family, and our friends safe.  But here it is....this virus. Hitting not just home but the world over the head. Despite how many movies we've seen about viruses and pandemics, reality is so much harder and real.  We've be...

Source: Pablo Gentile on Unsplash Here's an Update on my part! What I found profound As we grow up, we start to detach from the very core, the real self that we were born as, that forms an intrinsic part of our personalities. We start adapting to the various social norms, often uprooting not just our lives and families, but also our belief system. I guess this is where mid-life crisis comes at us a the the speed of the Shanghai Maglev.  I found building a brand new relationship with myself, alone, settled by discontent. Finding our purpose require us to sit down and reflect. If this is what you're going through, this article on Being Alone might be of interest to you.  Mulan Live-Action Disney Remake I've been waiting for Mulan to hit the big screens since they announced the casting of an all-Asian cast! I also heard that they would be pivoting from the conventional Disney or Pixar remakes and it will be kind of kick-ass in a very Asian way.  The movie in itself is ...

No matter what the phase is that I am going through in my life, I try my best to be as grateful and happy as I can be. Yeah, sure, I get bamboozled by bad news and stuff (who isn’t, anyway, these days) but there’s always a silver lining in every dark cloud.  So cliche but I can’t help it. It’s the secret sauce to surviving.  On top of that, both my boys are now enrolled (albeit in a funny kind of Coronavirus way) into college and the spending is mind-blowing.  I am not alone in this, of course.  The rest of the world is with me  on this one but it doesn’t make it any easier. At some point, if you’re like me, we might find ourselves wondering if it was better for our kids to actually take a what-you-call a short hiatus while waiting for that darn vaccine.  What rubs me the wrong way is that we are paying full fees for college but are presented fed at the trough with a buffet of Masterclass-style and Udemy kind of services. I can’t help bu...

Source: Bella The Brave on Unsplash In living the life of a Covid-19 Lockdown, it seems that the Internet is now not just a luxury. It's almost a necessity. 53% of Americans Say the Internet Has Been Essential During the COVID-19 Outbreak and a large number of people from the lower-income group are worried about the digital divide and digital homework gap. Whatever 'homework gap' means. We're now talking, working, doing homework, learning, watching, looking for references, read the news, shop, compare prices (...) all completely online. Honestly, I can't imagine life without it right now. I'll admit this much. Before this, I tune out of the internet. There are deep, dark moments when I feel like slamming my head onto my keyboard really hard and just chucking my smartphone out of the window, Instead, I settle for merely silencing it or just putting it out of sight. For some peace of mind, you know. This has earned me the ire of my family members ...