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About

Justin Ng is a software design engineer for Microsoft Corporation, and writes code that pushes forward the agenda of social entertainment services in Zune and Xbox. Beyond having an ego large enough to write his own bio in the third person, Justin is pretty much obsessed with music and technology. When not facing writer's block, he sometimes will get words down in this blog.

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The Weight Of The World

As I walked home, in one of those peculiar moments that MP3 players will give you when on shuffle, it decided to take me from the mellow sounds of Death Cab to a random Dane Cook bit:

"And then you get a tap on your shoulder. And when you turn around, who's behind you? The world. Right on your shoulder going: Hey what's up."

He explained to me in graphic detail through my headphones the steps that we go through when we go through when we need to cry. A deep, soulful, emotional cry. As a person who's had things piling up in my life and giving me probably more excuses than I need to cry, strangely, his description made me laugh.

Objectively, it's probably easy to prove that I'm have been in a tough situation as of late. There is increasing tension as I try to figure out what is going on with my career. I've been without a girlfriend since last summer. Revenue Canada seems to think I owe them more money than I currently have in the bank. I'm trying to save money but somehow the bills are never as small as I need them to be. And the little things, getting a dentist, a doctor and getting my Washington state driver's license, all have been falling through the cracks.

As I walked and happily enjoyed the feeling of the sun on my face, I wondered why I wasn't depressed, or upset, or ready to let the weight of the world get me down. Am I holding it in? Is it repressed? Am I just jaded? What was wrong with me?

That evening, I sat in my living room, by myself, smoking a hookah by the fireplace with a glass of wine in hand. I read a misogynistic yet strangely insightful book called "An Average American Male" while music played to the Decemberists. Colin Meloy declared passionately: "They'll never catch me! No they'll never catch me now! We will escape somehow...somehow."

And I smiled. I would not rather be anyone else.

Life is good.

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