August 24, 2022: My name is Dan, I currently reside in Singapore, and Vilesilencer has been my little corner of the web since 2002. On a recent weekend camping trip to Hill End with a couple of geeks (Dave & Brad), I decided to revive the site after a nearly decades-long hiatus.
Whilst the site was an absolute content-rich creamery at its peak, it is but a shell of its former glory. Join with me as I resuscitate the corpse and try to re-establish this as a dominant domain once more – we are starting from scratch here basically so it should be fun, even if we fail! (especially if we fail!)
Hobbies & Interests
Previous fans of Vilesilencer would be well aware of my interest in photography, as the site content was primarily photography focused – aka a photoblog. With travel inter-twining with this passion, a lot of the shots I’ve taken are from abroad – though just as many could be considered from my hometown today.
Travel Photography: With recent forays overseas, with a heavy emphasis on south east asia, expect to see shots taken in Japan (lots), Indonesia, Vietnam (lots), South Korea, Malaysia – as well as the US and Australia — I’ll be putting up select galleries as I get to them.
Gardening: Surprised? me too. I wasn’t aware I had a green thumb until I grew my first avocado plant in Singapore. Following that came pineapple (my favourite), ginger, galangal, lime, lemon and even a mango tree.
Japanese Woodblock Prints: From the sublime to the ridiculous – I’ve always been an avid fan of fine art, but have never owned many pieces. During many trips to Kyoto, Tokyo & Osaka I fell in love with Inari Shrines / Torii Gates, the ancient architecture, the preservation of history and the intricate attention to detail. I stumbled upon the work of Kawase Hasui (considered the modern master of the shin-hanga movement). I didn’t realise it at the time, but two artpieces I was considering purchasing were both by Hasui, and it was only once I had both in my possession that I realised the significance of the artist – coming to own one more of his artworks as well as a contemporary Tsuchiya Koitsu; and famed uikyo-e artist Utagawa Sadahide whose battle triptychs are visually more appealing to me than the style he is known for.
Cycling: I never really saw myself as a cyclist; the idea of being a MAMIL is not exactly in my to-do list; but since being in Singapore it has been my go-to cardio workout – probably because the idea of running in that heat is daunting. I started small with a mid-level Cannondale mountain bike before settling on the semi-pro (or more investment significant) Trek Domane 5.5 which is a mix of speed and endurance. I’m working on doing longer KM workouts before attempting the dreaded Singapore RTI
Muay Thai: Borne out of necessity rather than design, the daily padwork at MT is now a key part of the lifestyle, and allows for strength, cardio and the discipline of a martial art to become ingrained in the psyche.
About Vilesilencer
I’m gonna keep this one at the bottom, because it is probably more interesting to me than anyone else (I’m a data nerd) – though if you’ve read this far maybe it interests you too.
Back in mid 2005-2006 at the sites peak the digital footprint was impressive. Boasting more than 23 million links and over 2 million pages of content indexed, as well as 10s of thousands of interesting keywords captured, the site became a decade-long business, that taught me invaluable digital lessons & skills, which I utilise in my day-to-day career. I *may* look to release this peak data at some stage, but have no plans to do so now, as we are moving forwards, not backwards.
As the site has essentially been offline for the best part of a decade now, a lot of the digital goodwill built up during those early days, has disappeared. This is to be expected, as the content no longer exists on this site (though it does elsewhere; it is not relevant to today), and the proliferation of social platforms has allowed everyone to have a voice without the need for their own website.
Whilst this ease-of-use has its appeal, it can also create a complete lack of creativity and initiative – where the web becomes a mockery of itself, with the latest trends leading us down an endless derivative descent where nothing is unique or creative, and everything is a carbon copy of something else.
Vilesilencer is unique, and as always, designed with the geek in mind…
Dan
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