Essays Archives

The Art of Being Alone

Essays, Life and Philosophy | 01 November 2025

My life choices that I don’t fully regret are: 1) I didn’t rush into relationships, 2) I don’t have many luxuries, and 3) I’m comfortable with being on my own. Many may see this 39-year-old man as a sad case of loserdom, and I don’t fully deny that. I’m fortunate these days for having few problems to stress about, remaining physically healthy, and steadily improving my mental health. While it’s not a life most would want or care for, it affords me the focus on what I value, which is all the reward I need. Very few loners are as lucky. (more…)

Regurgitating the Black Pill

by: Sonny Go

Essays, Life and Philosophy | 01 October 2025

Since I added a philosophy category to this blog, I always wanted to tackle this topic. I’ve always been immersed in the connection between pessimism and nihilism and how it leads to ideas like antinatalism and extinctionism. Thankfully, I like learning new things too much to want to exit Planet Earth prematurely. With this piece, I actively purged myself of that desire to no longer be by looking at my nihilism dead in the eye and making it blink first. (more…)

Empathy is Not Toxic

by: Sonny Go

Current Events, Essays, Life and Philosophy, News, Politics, USA | 12 September 2025

As a lot of people like to say these days, ‘free speech’ does not mean ‘free from consequences’. However, I don’t think getting killed should be one of those consequences. While I’m of the opinion that these people who like to challenge their detractors to debates are doing it more as a performance and less as serious discourse, there’s no just reason for Charlie Kirk and his family to have suffered the fate that he did. (more…)

Waiting For Them to Die Off

by: Sonny Go

Current Events, Essays, History, Philippines, Politics | 11 September 2025

This is not something I usually write about, but I’ve been reading a particular set of books that had me thinking about what may happen in the future. Being able to project what may happen in 5 to 10 years can be useful in planning ahead for one’s life. Whether you care about politics or not, it’s worth looking into models that can help make that process more comprehensible and perhaps even more precise. After all, it’s still worth a few brain cells to have some awareness of current events — thinking you’re not affected by them is foolish at best. (more…)

Pro Wrestling: An Oasis in the Desert of the Real

by: Sonny Go

Essays, Life and Philosophy, Pro Wrestling | 02 September 2025

Pro Wrestling: An Oasis in the Desert of the Real

Pro wrestling is a niche like no other, and it has been carved out with not a rusty spoon, but a colorful one, yet a spoon nonetheless. Like most other things on this earth, some like it and some don’t. Some take to it right away and some find it an acquired taste, while doubters and detractors line its outer perimeter like a lumberjack match. Every medium has critics, but those who criticize pro wrestling are seemingly more verbose and animated than most other things under the sun. Even pornography doesn’t invite this level of controversy, I feel. (more…)

One Time, Never Again

by: Sonny Go

Essays, Life and Philosophy | 26 June 2025

Ichi-go Ichi-e: One Time, One Meeting, Never Again

If there’s one thing I should be doing more, which is to write a lot more on this blog. There are times when I find myself thinking that by not cranking out more material, I’m wasting my days on this earth. Perhaps that’s not a healthy thing to think about, but it does make me feel bad sometimes. This post is a musing on the unpredictability of the future and how we must all make the most of our time on this earth. However, writing for me is a lone endeavor — no one tells me to write other than myself. Perhaps I should spend more time with other people. (more…)

Death is Thy Savior, Ego is the Devil

by: Sonny Go

Essays, Religion | 18 June 2025

It was one of those late nights when I, who usually would fall asleep in a snap, was overcome with a rare insomnia. I would pace around the house restlessly, not knowing for sure what I wanted to do at the moment. I settled down and tried to focus on watching some YouTube videos. None of the usual stuff grabbed my attention, so I drifted to videos about psychology and philosophy. As I went through them, a lightbulb in my head started to flicker. This is the result of that uneasy night — a short treatise on religion and spirituality from my perspective. (more…)

How to Fight Mass Manipulation

by: Sonny Go

Books, Essays, Lists, Politics | 29 May 2025

With everything happening around the world as of 2025 — especially in society, politics, and economics — we may ask ourselves every so often how all of this ended up this way. Whether you now doubt the power of democracy or knew all along what it entailed in a society with lowering education quality, increasing cost of living, and worsening partisanship, you must be wary of the mass manipulation that sways our judgment through mass media and the Internet. Whether it’s traditional media or social media, all of them try to tell you what to think and believe — on who to believe in and who to hate. Perhaps the way is not to look for what to believe, but think for oneself and come to that conclusion on your own. However, they don’t want that. (more…)

I Strongly Dislike StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm

by: Sonny Go

Essays, Video Games | 25 July 2024

Kerrigan from StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm

StarCraft II still makes me nostalgic for what were the last few worry-free years of my life. I quite like the Wings of Liberty campaign, from following the struggles of Jim Raynor and the crew of the Hyperion, the antics of Tychus Findlay, and the gameplay progression with the unlockable units and upgrades. You get the sense of the revolution against Arcturus Mengsk being bootstrapped with scraps and held together by a thread. I replayed its campaign so much that I completed all the achievements. On the other hand, Heart of the Swarm gives me a really bad fuzzy feeling that it almost makes me physically nauseous. (more…)

Avoid Everyday Carry Show-off Syndrome

by: Sonny Go

Essays, Everyday Carry | 23 July 2024

Sonny Go's Everyday Carry as of July 2024

Since 2010, I have been into the survival niche, both the wilderness stuff and the urban stuff — even the tacticool stuff. I’m not as into military larping as a lot of other nerds out there, but I’ve always been an aficionado of the everyday carry concept. I have an Altoids tin I got back in early 2011 from a candy stall in Trinoma that I still use for carrying my super glue and micro screwdriver. But there’s a lot about the scene that turns me off, and I’d like to offload my more negative feelings about it here. (more…)

Kickboxing: The Linux of Combat Sports

by: Sonny Go

Essays, Kickboxing | 27 June 2024

People are weird. There are those who eschew violence altogether, so they steer clear of combat sports, which is understandable. Then there are those who are connoisseurs of violence like myself, so they consume every combat sport under the sun and even participate and compete in them. Finally, there are those who are somewhat into that violence and are casually receptive to combat sports, but there’s a gaping hole in the shape of kickboxing. (more…)