Had a blast attending the Joy of Nib and Ink Fountain Pen (FP) Workshop organised by Pilot Pen Malaysia today. It was a very easygoing, beginner-friendly workshop. Held at Kinokuniya Pavilion Damansara Heights, the presenter was Bee Hong Yeap, she of Pen.Ink Studio.

The workshop covered the basics of different properties of inks, from dye-based to pigment, shimmer and sheen, as well as the different kinds of nibs available in the market and crucially, the difference between Western and Japanese nibs – in numbers. A Japanese F nib is apparently 0.35mm, while a Western is 0.5mm.

Then of course, there was the introduction to the Pilot Custom 742 and the many, many, many wonderful nibs that actually… terrify me haha. My thought process was:

Terrifying because wow, there’s a lot of options! The intense desire to collect all! My wallet is screaming!

Anyway when I had the chance, I also tried the Music nib (which was honestly the only nib of the series I was really curious about) and… I will stick to the cheaper version.

BECAUSE I CANNOT AFFORD A GOLD PLATED NIB; THAT WRITING EXPERIENCE WAS SO SMOOTH.

Ahem, this went a little off the rails, but summary? I had a lot of fun at the Joy of Ink and Nib workshop. Potentially if you are someone who knows how to tune your nib using the kraft paper method, has a specific ink preference (or am getting there), and understands how paper is often the missing link in the writing experience, this kind of workshop may be a bit too basic for you.

But I recommend attending anyway if you have the chance; because the opportunity to compare notes, assess your understanding of ink, nib, and paper, and hanging out with like-minded peeps is always fun. I think something that also heightened my enjoyment was that most of the attendees here were women, and we were all in various stages of our FP journeys. Some were complete beginners, attending their 101 workshop yesterday. Some were advanced (hello Decimo users), and some were just there for the ink and the chance to try the Pilot Custom 742 pens.

The Pilot rep also warned us that if anyone was planning to buy a FP, especially gold-plated ones like the Pilot Custom series, to consider making the purchase sooner rather than later, as the price would be increasing soon. This follows a wider industry trend, with Sailor, often seen as the most premium “affordable” brand (my words, not theirs), already having increased their prices twice I think within the last two years.

So that was a depressing thing to remember in the midst of everything happening in the world /waves hand.

Thanks GenAI, for gobbling up all the metals. /sarcasm

The post Joy of Ink and Nib by Pilot appeared first on Ink to Screen.

Anyway, first things first, SELAMAT HARI RAYA AIDILFITRI! Maaf zahir dan batin.

Writing this on the first day of Raya after visiting my dad’s grave. No, it turned out to be a happy coincidence, coming to this part of town where my dad is buried along his siblings and parents. So we decided to visit him. I try to do this once a year.

What have I been up to in March? Work has both picked up and slowed down – I am officially fully transitioned to a “part-time” role with my team, but letting go of execution work has been hard. It has formed a majority of my working life, after all.

Hobbies-wise, I have not bought any new yarn nor fountain pens (yay!) but have been focused on using what I already have. I bought an undated Kinbor weekly last year, and I have taken to using it to quickly jot down things I need to do. Work has also moved to a stricter time entry platform, so I have been using the weekly, when I remember, to jot down how long I have been working on things.

In-laws got a new car, and I want to write about that too! It’s the e.Mas 5, which you could probably call the MyVi of EVs in Malaysia, at this point in time. It’s cute, small-looking, and very easy to drive. I say small-looking because it is much more spacious than its design suggest.

I started Violet Evergarden and I really should continue watching. There’s something… comforting about it. The setup is very fast, but I have missed watching worldbuilding at speed, with visual cues to help anchor you in the sense of space and time.

And then I made the mistake of looking up a book in an essay I’m reading (What Not Reading Does to Your Brain sorry it’s Substack), and then I got distracted reading the opening to Toni Morrison’s Beloved. And not even the novel itself, but the foreword someone wrote.

I am glad they wrote that foreword though. That… grounds me about what to expect. No, I have never read a Toni Morrison book before. They were not that widely-available nor recommended to me, but that is a thought for a different day.

How was your March?

The post Hello Goodbye March appeared first on Ink to Screen.

When one talks about gambling during CNY, the most popular games are usually Blackjack (also known as Ban-luck, which is a name I’m never going to use as an English speaker) and Mahjong. I’m not going to talk about either of those because there’s been a lot written about them. Instead I’m going to tell you about Ngau (or Gnau, if you’re looking it up on Wiki). 

Ngau’s rules, like a lot of card games played during Chinese New Year, may differ according to household. If you read Wiki, it seems to imply that everything happens in a single dealing of the cards. That’s not how my family plays it. 

Ngau – MY house rules

We play a simplified version of Ngau. No suits (except Ace of Spades, more on that later), payout is up to 5x your initial bet, and we don’t use the Joker cards. Ngau is played against the dealer, not each other, so to gain the “qualification” to win, you need to have a 3 card combination that totals up to or multiples of 10s. 

Other rules, like how the 3 and 6 cards can have interchangeable values, remain the same. 

One round, two stages

Even if the outcome has already been decided, we still play Ngau in two stages. This means that yes, you can win in the first stage, then lose in stage two. Part of the unpredictable fun in gambling, heh. 

In the first stage, it’s a simple 3 card reveal – your aim is just to beat the dealer. Total up the value of your hand – if your total is say 14, your score is simply 4, because we take the last digit. Your 6 and 3 cards are judged according to their face values, no substitution here yet.

If you manage to make any multiples of 10, then you get double the payout. That’s it. There’s no other rule for this stage. That said, getting multiples of 10 (max 30) is considered a pretty good thing because it means you already have a “licence” to win the next round. 

In the second stage, the last two cards are dealt of the traditional 5 card ngau. This is when most of the other rules come into play. Depending on who you’re playing with, this is also the most dramatic part of the round. 

Getting your license to win

In this second stage, you now have all the cards you need to play a traditional round. First, you need to assemble your “license” aka get 10 or a multiple of it. This is where your 6 and 3 cards rule substitution can be both confusing and exhilarating. 

6 and 3 rule in action

Let’s say you have three 7 cards, one 3, and one 8. Taken at face value, there was probably no way you could get a “license” to join in on the action. But actually you have a “5” ngau (or the way my in-laws call it, em tiam). How? 

7+7 = 14 
3 = turn to 6 
Total: 20 

Then for the two cards
7+8 = 15 aka 5.

This is the part that I sometimes struggle with, mainly in trying to figure out the best combination of numbers to use. Once you get used to the mental calculation though, it becomes quite fun to start strategising for best points. 

How to beat the dealer

Actually, it’s the same as stage one, you just need to get better cards than the dealer. 

First you need to actually qualify – if your cards are not cooperating, don’t hand over your bet to the dealer first. 

Wait for him/her to open their cards and see if they also have a “license/lesen” to play. If both of you have no “license”, then it’s considered a tie between the two of you (or as we say in the house, you “lari” or run from the dealer). 

If you have a pair of any kind, it automatically beats the dealer’s single score, unless the dealer has a greater pair than you. Here’s an example: 

• Your hand: Pair of sixes = 12 
• Dealer’s hand: 8+7 = 15
• Winner: You (collect x2 your bet)

Of course, if the dealer has a higher pair than you, then you have to pay the dealer instead. 

What about the Ace of Spades, you ask? 

Glad you did! The Ace of Spades is basically the most powerful partner you’d want in your hand, as long as you have: 

• License to play
• A picture (K-Q-J) or 10 card

Why? This combination is called Ngau Tonkou (pronounced the Cantonese word for mushroom). It’s called that in reference to how the Ace of Spades often reminds people of mushrooms. The payout for this, in our family, is 5x your bet. 

If you don’t have either of those winning conditions, then your mushroom reverts to being a regular Ace card, and your default value is one. Go have some actual mushrooms. 

Why I like this version

A lot of people gamble during CNY to actively make money off other players. That’s why you hear of so many people complaining about losing money during CNY gambling. 

For me though, gambling during CNY is a fun, low-risk activity that improves social bonds. 

The version listed on Wiki is valid, but I feel it’s best played amongst peers who can keep up with each other. Otherwise, it can get very demoralising and isolating if your playing group has people of different ages, such as that older uncle and auntie who just want to have a bit of fun and those younger ones who are curious.

This two-stage version though, allows everyone to keep up. It’s still fast because each round is quite short, but it allows for dramatic pauses by both players and dealers, because opening those last two cards in hopes it can either give you “ngau” or “license” to play can get very tense and entertaining. And yes, it’s not just my family either. 

Plus, because you’re playing against the dealer, other players can step in to help you calculate, and in some cases, even spot better combinations. Most times there’s only one way to get “lesen” and then you’re left with whatever you have in your two cards, but I’ve been lucky enough someone helped me turn my 10 into a pair of Js. 

How do you ngau?

The post Got Ngau License? Making a Family-friendly version appeared first on Ink to Screen.

It is one of the great paradoxes/contradictions of being a writer. When it comes to writing, we will do almost anything but actually sit down and write.

Hang around enough in any writer’s room, thread, or even subreddit, and you’ll eventually come across writers who confess that they’ve gone and cleaned their houses, done unpleasant admin tasks, and in this instance, write something else instead of the project I am supposed to be working on.

I am writing about the benefits of picking up crochet as a new hobby. Originally I was trying out watercolour painting (and doing it by picking up extremely cheap supplies on Temu, more on that in another post) then I picked up a crochet hook and some yarn and that was it.

My watercolour supplies are still within easy reach – they’re in a drawer in the home office under the PC. However, the yarn and crochet hooks (I have multiples now thanks to Shopee) live on my computer desk, within sight.

Why I picked up crochet

Honestly the reason for it was extremely simple and vain. I saw a YouTube short where a young crochet influencer (maybe?) was making a longer video about something, but what stuck to me was how she’d pull out her crochet while waiting for her grandma to finish, and that she was working on a wearable.

And well, I was thinking it would be something cute to make, and try, and that was how I ended up impulse purchasing yarn and a crochet hook from Daiso.

Yes, Daiso. I figured that if I was going to try a hobby, it would be best to try with cheap supplies and see if I even liked the idea.

Very quickly I had to buy another hook because I didn’t realise that the hook I’d bought was too small for the yarn I was using.

After watching this tutorial playlist and trying a few stitches, I started on my first project – a super simple, “easy” one-skein scarf. The idea was to use the rest of the single cake I’d bought, and see if this was something I wanted to continue.

Let’s just say that this ended up far shorter than I thought, whoops. In the end, I turned it into a sort of placemat for my husband’s things.

It turned out to be just nice. And for I think a month and a half, the idea of another project never quite took hold in my head. I didn’t really have anything I felt confident in making.

Then my mom, on learning that I had an interest in crochet, gave me a bunch of yarn supplies she had picked up from a neighbour.

The hook she gave me was absolutely tiny, and it didn’t take long for me to realise that what she gave me was incredibly fine yarn sobs.

After a few months and some projects since, I’ve started making a dent in that stash, but I still find myself gravitating towards larger yarn simply because I haven’t decided on what things to make with the superfine yarn she gave.

With that said, for my second project, I followed this tutorial and made a basket!

Its purpose is supposedly to hold my current WIP along with my hook, but I may need to make another, larger basket cause it’s actually a little too small for the large cake I’m working on now.

Though I’m still thinking about making another basket or even a bag to hold just my working yarn.

My third, semi-finished project was this cute little pouch for my Sony earbuds – I was reverse-engineering the pattern from the many Airpods tutorials online, but as you can see… I kind of gave up halfway. I am still very happy with this attempt though.

It now holds the partner’s Sony XM4s, because I realised it was too slippery for my daily use.

My fourth project, which I ended up frogging, was making a bucket hat.

In crochet and knitting, “frogging” means undoing a lot of your stitches aka when you rip your project apart. Some sources liken the act to “rip it, rip it” which is how the term frogging came about.

So why did I frog the hat? My first completed attempt turned it into a bowler hat.

Following the same guide but with different yarn turned it into a hat too small for any but a baby’s head, so I ended up frogging the first attempt after a few weeks. This let me recover the yarn I used, which I promptly attempted a third time with a different guide.

THAT third attempt turned out much better, though there was quite a bit of trial and error on my side learning the granny stitch.

ISN’T SHE BEAUTIFUL?

The best part is that I just remembered while writing this why I started on the bucket hat in the first place – I promised a colleague to crochet a bucket hat for them hahaha. But this turned out so well I am reluctant to part with it haha. So maybe I’ll buy more yarn and make another.

Or I might make a sanrio inspired one. Nope, scratch that, I am definitely making that Sanrio one for me, and the bucket hat will go to her when I am done with Sanrio one.

The last project I finished in 2025 is making four baskets for my work squad.

This is based off another Bella Coco tutorial, though hers was made with a very chunky yarn and mine is made from Daiso’s yarn.

I made a few adjustments to her tutorial based on her insights – making mine both smaller yet taller, with handles that made it easy to turn the baskets into tiny bags.

This was my every-two-years-I-hand-out-Xmas-pressies tradition hahah.

Man that was productive. In five months I completed about 5 projects hahaha.

Crochet fills up empty time

One of the unexpected benefits of crochet is that it’s a very easy-to-put-down hobby for me. It demands my attention yes, but it doesn’t demand my flow state.

Previously, it used to be that if I had like 10 to 15 minutes of waiting before doing something next, I’d find myself mindlessly scrolling on the phone or playing a game and then getting annoyed because I couldn’t find that “dopamine” hit.

Writing wasn’t an option because if I get into a flow state, I know I’d be super low-key annoyed the rest of the day, and reading was worse, especially if I needed to stop at an exciting part.

Crochet, surprisingly, filled that time well.

With crochet, my hands and attention are engaged, and unless I’m starting a new project or reverse engineering something, I can generally put it down within 30 seconds and then head off to my next task or appointment.

Still haven’t reached the point of carrying it around but if I end up staying someplace for more than a night next time I may find myself finally carrying it about.

Crochet hot takes

I know, I’ve been in this hobby for less than a few months but I already have a few hot takes. Most of it comes from a place of not wanting to spend more than necessary, while the rest comes from watching crochet content.

A magic ring is just a loose slipknot

Thanks to this short, yes, I finally learnt how to make a magic ring.

Slip knots are the most basic knots of crochet – they’re usually the first knot you start with before you do everything else.

It’s foundational for anything not a circle or a sphere etc. A magic ring is usually what you use for anything that’s round, like a plushie or in my case, a round, bucket hat.

Most online tutorials about how to make a magic ring can be confusing, even if you’ve been crocheting a while.

In my case, seeing it as a loose slip knot made it easier for me to get started, and that’s one of the reasons why I’m ok to make more bucket hats – it’s not as intimidating as it sounds.

All you really need is yarn and hook

Some people say to get started in crochet, you don’t just need yarn and hooks, you also need stitch markers and tapestry needles. If you’re like me, making simple, standalone things, you may not need either.

Stitch markers are, as they say, used to mark stitches.

They’re useful if you need to mark areas in your work where you need to make different knots or stitches, but I’ve found that not using them has actually forced me to look at my work and learn to decipher the patterns.

This makes retracing my steps when I’ve messed up much easier, though my next challenge is to do this with single colour yarn – I’m currently using the Daiso Rainbow Chiffon Cake, and so when I change rows, it’s easy to see my stitches.

Tapestry needles or finishing needles as I’ve seen them advertised are meant for weaving in your ends to ensure your stitches never come apart.

I’ve not used them in all my previous projects because they are static and stay in one place, but I did get some for the bucket hat project – it will be interesting to see if it really does keep everything intact.

But beyond that, you should NOT need any additional tools.

Now, I’m not talking about things like amigurumi – you may want to get one of those wool/stuffing pusher needles (sorry I don’t have the tool name right now) to make stuffing easier, especially if you’re a beginner.

Can’t colour block? GET COLOURFUL YARN

As the title implies. I originally picked up multi-coloured and gradient yarns because I didn’t want to stick with plain colours, but I’ve come to appreciate that it’s also a much easier way to add and change colours in my work without actually needing to… think about the knots involved hahahah.

And yes, it makes reading your own pattern much easier.

The next challenge, is as mentioned, to read my stitches in single-coloured yarn hahahacry.

Weaving the end of this post

Would I recommend crochet to everybody?

Only if you already have an idea of what you want to make, and you want to build up your imperfections acceptance muscle.

I feel that crochet, and probably most other fiber arts, are both very unforgiving yet forgiving when it comes to making mistakes. Unforgiving because you will make mistakes and it will be obvious, but also forgiving because it’s relatively easy to fix when you realise it.

This lets you learn to be more patient with yourself, and also trains your “accept that you will make mistakes” belief – I know a lot of creatives have perfectionism issues, and honestly, crochet has taught me to be kinder and not beat myself up when I spot an issue.

Instead, I go into “how do I fix this” mode, though whether that actually results in a good fix is another issue. Still working on that heh.

Fiber arts are incredibly forgiving, but they are also very strict. Make of that what you will.

The post Crochet in 2026: Yes? appeared first on Ink to Screen.

Or that might be my experience of participating in two Hokkien funerals as a family member which happen to have the same kind of beliefs. I know that in Singapore, the differences are quite stark – Buddhist funerals tend to be more serene, “quieter” ceremonies while Taoist ones are “louder” both in action and volume (at least according to online research).

And nowhere is this more exhibited than when you are attending wakes in a funeral parlour. My partner’s aunt had her wake in Nirvana Memorial Centre, deep in the heart of KL, and it’s quite interesting to take a walk between prayers to peek into the different wakes happening at the same time (almost all available halls had been booked when I went).

Oh, and because it’s Nirvana (they are one of, if not the largest funeral services provider in Malaysia) some things remain the same regardless of the ceremony chosen.

Goodbye smoky atmosphere

The usual Chinese tradition when you come to pay respects is that one would be given a lit joss stick with which to “offer” to the deceased when you attend the wake. Nirvana’s memorial centres are all air-conditioned, so you can imagine what happens if the smoke from the joss sticks get into the air circulation system.

Instead, what they have is a bowl of water, next to saucers of white and yellow chrysanthemum flower heads. To “check in,” one takes a saucer of either yellow or white chrysanthemum, hold it up in a similar position to how you’d hold a joss stick, and present it to the deceased. Then you can drop the flower head into the water, letting it float prettily. Less smoke, more beauty.

That said, it was not completely smoke-free within our memorial hall, because we still had two thick joss sticks burning inside the hall. I didn’t see any in the non-Taoist halls.

What was interesting was that the moment you stepped outside the hall, the air was noticeably much clearer and felt like a normal airconditioned space. I think they had two air circulation systems at work. Or maybe just exceptional airflow planning.

Generational uniform are a must

One thing you cannot accuse the Chinese of is lack of bureaucracy. I don’t know how is it in other places, but in KL at least, you can always tell what generation and (depending on which funeral home is making the arrangements) how they are related to the deceased.

While the mourning uniform has been simplified over the years (and nowhere is this more evident in Peninsular Malaysia), there have been a few staples that have not.

Colours demonstrate relations

There’s a very simple colour scheme to follow at most Chinese funerals I have gone to. White means you’re the deceased’s kids or siblings, blue is one generation after (aka the grandkids generation), and green is the great-grandkids. If the deceased was lucky enough to have great-great-grandkids, then they wear yellow. Dark shades often indicated they were related through the male side, while lighter tints indicated female parentage.

Oh, but if the deceased managed to spawn over five generations of descendants, aka deceased (parent) > child > grandchild > great-grandchild > great-great grandchild, then the funeral automatically becomes a “Happy Funeral” and the mourners don’t wear white, they wear red instead. This is to celebrate a long and “fruitful” life. If you think about it, that is kind of a happy and joyful thing to celebrate.

Uniform has simplified greatly over the years

My maternal grandfather passed away when I was a child. Back then, I remembered that I had to wear a “uniform” which was a matching set of light blue shirt and pants throughout his wake and subsequent funeral. This indicated that I was related to the deceased through my mother. My cousins on the other hand, wore matching sets of dark blue. And yes, it was very obvious at a glance.

As the years went by, I noticed the customs moving from wearing the matching shirt sets to generational coloured t-shirts to finally, plain white t-shirts, with whatever pants that are comfortable without being disrespectful. In terms of cost and logistics, this simplified things a lot, both for the grieving families and the funeral services.

However, we still need those colours to indicate relations, so the trend has gone from wearing suits to having an appropriately coloured badge on the sleeve (I remember an elder cousin sisters wearing one) to now… wearing an appropriately-coloured sash around the waist.

So if you were two generations down from the deceased (aka great-grandkids), then you’d get a green sash. And to prevent the issue of needing two shades of green, at Nirvana they simply tied a red ribbon to the sash. This indicated you were related through your maternal line. No red ribbon, paternal line.

You don’t get to take back the sash, but if you bought the white t-shirt through the funeral home, that you get to take home.

The deceased’s sons wear sackcloth over white clothes

Honestly this depends on how “traditional” the family wants to be (which is also a subtle indicator of wealth in Malaysia). The eldest son and his family would traditionally wear a sackcloth vest over white clothes throughout the wake and funeral rites. I rarely see this these days though.

Malaysian Chinese funerary rites are very simplified

It’s not something you realise unless you’ve been to too many funerals as a participant AND you watch a lot of media where they feature more “proper” funerary rites, like the Last Dance](which I should find a way to watch).

In that movie, you can see the uniform isn’t so simplified – at the very least, mourners are still expected to wear collared t-shirts, whereas in Malaysia, we generally don’t. And also I’ve not heard of anyone doing the “Breaking the Hell Gate” ceremony in a while too, but again, it might just be I have not attended the funerals of anyone in Malaysia doing that. Also, we do have female Taoist priests conducting the funerary rites in Malaysia, but in the Last Dance, that’s a taboo thing.

That isn’t to say that the funeral rites were simple either. Just that it’s been simplified.

The post Observing Malaysian Hokkien Funerary Customs appeared first on Ink to Screen.

Was talking with a friend about how much money we had saved simply staying home over the long year-end period. In Malaysia at least, most people clear leave during one of two seasons – Christmas/New Year, before the next year’s allocation begin, and Chinese New Year, because that’s usually when the “carryover” leave from the previous year expires.

The money we saved was quite substantial. How much? Staying at home for two weeks could mean saving the equivalent of how much we’d have to spend going to the office for the entire month. Or more, depending on your lifestyle and diet choices.

This is why remote work, if one needs to work/be a salaried employee, is much preferable for a lot of employees. The pandemic has also shown that it’s not like work doesn’t get done – often it does, and to a greater degree of quality because the employee’s energy level could actually be focused on getting the work done, instead of the inane prep work that is required when one goes to the office.

What does prep work mean in this context? I mean the time and energy spent on preparing to go to the office instead of just doing the work. Stop me if you’ve heard the spiel – readying “appropriate” office wear, planning your commute, actually having to sit in the commute, feeding one’s self at the right times, and then actually sitting down in your office space and setting up (or switching on) your office laptop to work.

Now, I will acknowledge that there are a lot of jobs that do not benefit or cannot be performed remotely. Things like retail, face-to-face sales, medicine, etc, most of those require a space for people to meet. But a lot of jobs, in general, would benefit from remote working. Do I think 100% remote working is the way to go? Not quite. But do I also think 100% days in office needs to go for 90% of the employee roles? Yes.

But there’s a downside to mostly-remote working. Not from the employee point of view, or even the employers, but from a city/local government point of view. See, no matter how much we employees/private citizens contribute, the amount of taxes we can collect and thus give to the local government to improve and maintain infrastructure where we actually live will always be miniscule compared to the amount businesses can give.

That actually makes sense in a weird way in my head, because businesses are technically multipliers. A business can not just employ more people to make themselves money, but they can also contribute to the local economy by:

1. Paying much larger taxes that keeps roads well-maintained, hygiene standards for food businesses (restaurants, cafes, and places that serve food in Malaysia are monitored by local councils to ensure they meet hygiene standards), and ensure community services are running.
2. Bringing the human traffic that drives income and revenue for even smaller businesses; think your makcik/pakcik warung/nasi lemak/sandwiches etc around areas where employees commute, congregate, and pass through.
3. Keeping said humans employed so they can drive factors one and two.

One might say that this is a circular logic, because at the end of the day, what we are keeping alive is the machine of capitalism, and yes, I agree with that. We are keeping capitalism alive. In fact, capitalism says that if one wants to survive, one needs to trade time and energy for money to make time and energy. For now, this is our current mode.

What we can do as humans trapped in late capitalism here is to understand the following:

1. The aid given to our parents, elderly, and friends who qualify to survive (aka Sara allowance from the govt and more) all come from our taxes. SO PAY YOUR TAXES. And make sure you make full use of it too, when you get yours (Malaysians, you get RM100 starting Feb 9, expiry unknown but assume it’s 4 months as of now pending govt updates).
2. If it seems that aid is going to “businesses” more often than us individuals, and you’re angry about it, it’s time to roll up your sleeves. Understand how that aid money flows, and most importantly why it flows the way it does. Then instead of complaining, let your money speak. Ethical spending makes a much bigger dent than you think, as long as you’re spending mindfully. Wherever possible, choose to spend with smaller businesses, not large ones, because if the govt chooses to spend with franchises and big brand names because people are spending their money there due to convenience, we’re just accelerating the death of our smaller kedai runcits and mom-and-pop shops.
3. Work towards Universal Basic Income by STOP JUDGING PEOPLE ON WHAT THEY SPEND. Means-based aid is worse than just simply giving people the money they need. Sure, it may sound nice that the retired uncle gets free healthcare due to his income level, but free medication and doctor’s checkups are useless if he cannot literally feed himself because he doesn’t have the cash for it. Am I suggesting we remove the free healthcare? Absolutely fucking not (my own relatives rely on it). What I am suggesting is that we don’t shame people for their financial decisions, because that’s how you get people who DON’T SEEK HELP BECAUSE THEY ARE GETTING SHAMED FOR NOT KNOWING BETTER*.

All this to say, capitalism sucks, but being human is the only way we will outlive it. Bye.

* Yes, this is very specific and no, I will not be elaborating, just remember all the times *you’ve* (in the general “you”, not a specific “you”) snidely remarked about so-and-so spending money on things you deemed trivial.

The post Sunday Rants: On Remote Working, UBI, and Employment appeared first on Ink to Screen.

Jan started with a bang and a feeling that things were moving too fast – simply because of CNY at the end of January. This meant prepping far ahead of time. It was also the first time I think I went all out for CNY, in the sense of getting my nails done at a nearby saloon (got cute ones!) and home-dyeing the white hairs at my temple. Work-wise, two of my client teams had a joint NPS celebration (same parent company, different regional clients) and we decided to do go-kart racing. Fun times at a place we could access via MRT. Health wise, this was also when the heavy period of doom started appearing.

Feb in contrast, was a quieter month. There was still the leftover celebrations from CNY but at this time I was feeling very fatigued, due toaforementioned lack of blood. There was also a sense of befuddlement, cause my blood pressure was constantly in the high 130s but apparently according to Malaysian guidelines that’s just “elevated BP and thus nothing to worry about” kind of thing, so I was told to just watch my stress levels (in this capitalist hellhole?), eat less oily foods, and exercise. Company dinner was alright though.

March was… a little insane. TRIBBIE CAME HOME I AM STILL NOT OVER HER STORY, OK. If you’re wondering, that was a Honkai: Star Rail scream. But March was also a month of food. Lots of good food. Tried out Beauty in the Pot at last. I also got a new backpack and then attempted to sell my old one off (though that one only happened several months later). March was also the time of the Popular BookFest, aka the day when the Anchovy and me went feral for BGM stickers (among others). Funnily enough, I also met my uncle and his family there on the same day, buying books for the kids.

How should I describe April? This was the month when things became really haywire. I had an uncooked rice craving that was successfully substituted with eating sunflower seeds, which partially contributed to experiencing unusual sleepiness throughout the day. Yes, I think I was probably anemic then, but I did not realise it. This was probably a sign of pica, aka craving and chewing items of no nutritional value, according to Mayo Clinic. Work-wise, I completed a very stressful asset, only to find the place I inteded to treat myself for completion was closed for renovations. Boo.

May was… delightful. Hubs and I went on a mid-week vacation to Cameron Highlands, where which we had some of the best foods ever. Hotpot with cool mountain air is always a delight, but when the soups are so exquisite they can beat KL’s plethora of steamboat places, you know you’ve found yourself in a great place. If you’re wondering, the place is Shan Xian Hotpot and is open for dinner. There’s a lot of hotpot restaurants along the way, but this one hidden inside Antique Cafe is the best (to my tongue heh). Look, I really like them, ok?

In June I said goodbye to my long hair. It was just past my shoulders, but it was also super thick – so thick I could actually braid it into those bridal hairstyles where it wraps around the base of the skull. I ended up getting a much shorter hairstyle than expected, because according to the stylist, the minimum length for donation was much longer compared to before. I also participated in the Mont Blanc Short Story contest, which turned out to be an interesting experience even if I did not end up winning. Yes, I made it a point to use my own fountain pen when submitting my short story to them (I had a rant here but I realise that can be a blog post of its own, so that’s where it will go heh).

July was… wow. A trip, to say the least. WE GOT A NEW CAR! Specifically we took delivery of the Proton e.mas7, in light of increasing fuel prices and the removal of the petrol subsidy. The new car also enabled us to travel a lot further than we had before, and we ended up visiting the Royal Selangor showroom for the first time, which was an amazing experience. I want to go there one day when it’s a weekday, so we can see the artisans at work. I also ended up getting a new smartwatch, because my old smartwatch was dying. The best part? Thanks to accumulated points and trade-in, the new watch was like half off the retail price. Also, I picked up crochet on a whim, mainly because I was inspired by a Youtube short (but that’s a story for another day).

August well… the start of the month was rough because I was hospitalised due to anemia. Honestly you can read all about in the previous link. The most amazing thing about this, writing this in 2026, was just how much more… energetic I was after that. Whereas I felt super passive in the first half of the year due to the literal lack of energy, once I got the blood transfusion, I found myself much less tired. And my sunflower seed craving disappeared overnight. Just like that. Also the first time I attended a Malay wedding in a longggggggggg time!

The most terrifying month of all is finally here. September was also Malaysia International Pen Show, and I was honestly quite terrified for my wallet. I ended up buying one limited edition pen, some postcards and notebooks from overseas sellers I stalked on Instagram, and landed an ink I had been eyeing since forever. Sellers were great but it was a little cramped, and I think I actually got sensory overload from the amount of people and choices available. It was fun though. This was probably also the month I started taking blood pressure meds, because my blood pressure was still a bit too high. I’m on the lowest dose though.

October saw me suddenly being re-invigorated to take up crochet again. I ended up making a little basket to hold my current crochet projects, and well, that began sparking ideas of what else could I make. It was still slow going though, because I did not want to burn out too quickly, which is a thing that happens.

November, which used to be Nanowrimo month for me, turned out to be a much more slower, and gentler paced month for me. Things were still a bit stupid at work, but we had time to breathe. And so among things I did this month was reconnecting with a dear friend who had come down to KL. Hubs and I met her for dinner, where we spoke long across various topics. It was enlightening and relaxing.

December, which has just passed, started off intense, became insane (thanks client /s), and ultimately ended quietly. I spent most of it just playing games and watching drama towards the end, and honestly my creative well has been refilling slowly. Also, being away from work was great – my blood pressure was the lowest it has ever been when I went for a checkup the other day. Which I should blog about.

And that is my 2025 in a nutshell. Thanks for reading, and I wish you a wonderful 2026.

The post 2025: Text only recap appeared first on Ink to Screen.

Image of red string on white pantyliner by Mike Murray from Pexels

The post Blood, Clots, and Fears: The Case of the Missing Period appeared first on Ink to Screen.

Image by Serpstat from Pexels

The post Troubleshooting Microsoft Bookings for Internal Workshops appeared first on Ink to Screen.

A few days ago, I went to the hospital for a scheduled outpatient procedure. Part of the process was to get some labwork done when I came in, so the Day Surgery Unit told me I had to be at the hospital at the ungodly hour of 7am so I’d be ready for the procedure by 830 something (ungodly because where I lived, this meant being awake by 5am to beat the traffic).

As I was lying on the bed waiting to be wheeled in, my doc advised that I should be admitted after the procedure.

The reason? The labwork reported that my red blood cell count was low.

How bad? Well the female average was about 11 or 12. Mine was… 7.5.

My doc recommended a blood transfusion, followed by a night in the ward for precaution’s sake. In fact, he was very surprised that my blood count was that low, because I didn’t seem to have any anemia signs. I agreed with his recommendation, and things moved quite quickly after that.

This was when I learnt some very interesting things about blood transfusion in Malaysia. Warning: There are some very graphic bits, mainly about urine, coming up.

All blood now comes from the Government

I have donated blood through various channels – blood donation drives organised by NGOs, the Blood Donation Suite in Midvalley, and through hospital-led blood donation calls.

It was through the last that I first discovered that hospitals usually had and maintained their own blood banks, relying on donations before tapping on Pusat Darah Negara (PDN) for their supply.

Well, sometime in the last decade or so, the policy has changed and now hospitals get their supply from PDN instead of sourcing themselves first. Part of the policy change meant informing patients of the exact risk percentage when undergoing a blood transfusion.

I remembered this vividly because my doctor took pains to tell me this, directly prefacing that it was a government requirement due to the centralisation of blood distribution. He also mentioned that the hospital itself would do a third screening of the blood before dispensing to patients.

That was both reassuring and amusing to me.

Blood is warmed before transfusion

Due to the transfusion, I think my procedure was delayed a little to allow for the necessary paperwork and retrieval of the blood bags. I also overheard the anaesthetist tell the nurse to warm the blood before the transfusion began.

I later learnt that warming up blood isn’t usually necessary if the transfusion rate is slow (according to the Handbook on Clinical Use of Blood, that’s 1 unit over 2 hours or more), but in my case, as they were doing rapid transfusion, it was necessary to warm the blood first to “minimizes the incidence of hypothermia, cardiac arrest and arrhythmia associated with massive transfusion of cold blood components.”

Basically to prevent a cold shock to the system, is my understanding of that sentence.

Straight veins are preferred

I am unsure whether this is an actual SOP or just a preference by the doctor administering the first transfusion, but I got jabbed several times as they tried to find a suitable vein. Honestly I make it sound pitiful and painful (the latter is true because I really hate needles) but I really struggled not to laugh through it all.

I am one of those people who apparently have very obvious-looking veins… that are apparently surface-level only and not suitable for the current purpose.

In the end they had to jab me near my wrist – not the most ideal (the anaesthetist straight out said it was a lousy place when he first discovered it) but the other two spots had obstructions they were reluctant to pierce.

And I’m glad for that. I’d rather they be cautious than foolhardy (unlike some of the things happening in the world today…).

Post transfusion hilarity

Honestly, I don’t remember much of the actual procedure because I was sedated. By the time I was wheeled into the ward, I was both groggy yet aware. I wanted to go to the toilet, but the nurses were adamant that I stay on the bed. Instead, they helped me use a bedpan.

That was when I realised the biggest issue for me is not the embarrassment that I had to go in a bedpan, but to overcome years of training of going to the toilet upright.

Telling my bladder to relax and let the urine flow was quite a feat. That, and worrying about whether I’d leak over the bed, making changing sheets a hassle (the short answer is no, they usually have a very nice large sheet under you just to prevent that).

Hubs and the doc arrived almost at the same time when I was using the bedpan, and so doc spoke to hubs about the results of the procedure. Overall the procedure itself went well though the doc himself found something a little concerning, so that was going to be sent to the lab for further checks. Otherwise, I just needed to focus on recovery.

Most importantly, no dietary restrictions.

Is this what it’s like after a blood transfusion?

Perhaps the funniest part of the experience is learning that I actually belong to the rosy-cheeked club. I had previously assumed that my cheeks were white and fair as I grew older and lived a sedentary lifestyle, but the blood transfusion revealed otherwise.

My mother-in-law remarked that I finally had colour in my cheeks – she had noticed my paleness but didn’t call it out, especially when I said I was feeling fine when she asked if I was ok.

I didn’t notice this at first, but when I was finally allowed off the bed, my reflection said I didn’t just have rosy cheeks, I had at least then, rosy red cheeks. The kind you put makeup on for.

This went down after a few days, but there remains a bit of colour on my cheeks even till today, along with some colour on my palms. I take this as a visual reminder to monitor myself for signs of anemia.

I’m not quite fully recovered, but I am doing much better as I’m writing this compared to where I was a few days ago before being warded. Symptoms that I didn’t realise now made sense in hindsight – such as feeling out of breath and tired all the time.

Let’s see how things pan out in a few weeks.

The post From Outpatient to Inpatient: An Anemia Story appeared first on Ink to Screen.