by | May 10, 2010 | Uncategorized
I’m still in the middle of this excellent read, which Belle said made her tears flow.
Disclaimer: She’s a really strong lady, and I’m blown away by the seemingly unquantifiable courage and fight within, such that if there’s anything that can make her tears flow, I’m pretty sure it’s gotta be one helluva book.
And Khaled Hosseini, the author of The Kiterunner, did wrote one helluva book.
It’s so brutally honest, heart-wrenchingly warm, and emotionally gripping – totally a tangent away from the previous fiction book I read, and amusingly enjoyed, Liar’s Poker by Michael Lewis.
I swear that I would run out of words to review The Kiterunner, however, if there’s a phrase, thus far, that I’ve learned that best describes the book, and one which she paraphrased to me as well, this is it:
For you, a thousand times.
It’s touching, and I wish I had more time.
Really there should be more than 24 hours to qualify a day’s worth, cos I’m having to do all this blogging thingy in the wee hours, when everyone is sleeping and my thoughts aren’t distracted, or else I’d be able to finish reading it sooner and come up with a complete review.
But reality sinks in and if there’s a phrase I’d like to paraphrase about this book and it’s author, and to you as well (you know who you are), and taken off Avatar’s intimate tagline, this is it:
I See You.
But it’s still unfinished.
There’s a big lake. Everyone says a monster is in it. What would you do?
by | May 10, 2010 | Uncategorized
It’s been long overdue, Gmail’s latest feature which allows drag and drop functionality, but sadly, for IE and Opera users, this feature is only available for Chrome and Firefox.
If you’re not on Gmail yet, shame on you, you’re missing out on a lot of really fun stuffs, like the old snakey game for one.
And earlier I stumbled upon MaleCopywriter, who actually won the webbies for best homepage award! Check out his ‘Contact me’ page. Hilarious, just like his works.
And where if anyone’s short of cash, and is in need of short term loan, go ahead call your nearest loanshark and give Wango a tryout, it’s got a rather high interest rate and really short term loans.
Anyway, who knows in case you needed some liquidity a little bit earlier than payday, and if that’s so, then this is the answer for your prayers.
Talking about money, got a better way to manage your finances other than MoneyStrands? Best of all, it free and has plenty to offer for the money concious minds.
So, got a useful site to share?
by | May 8, 2010 | Uncategorized
It felt all sucky, sticky, and shitty when I woke this morning–no, I still don’t blame you Belle–, after a 2 hour slumber, and if not for the incessant licking of one of my cats, Jack, in asking to be fed breakfast, I’m pretty sure I’d probably missed work and slept till afternoon.
But it really began on Wednesday, even though I had enough rest that night.
On Thursday morning, a blitzkrieg salvo of smses meant that the night’s planned project unfortunately had to be stretched, culmnating in whatever little I had to recharge ‘my batteries’ between Friday and Thursday.
What did we do? A poster. A movie poster.
An Avatar movie poster, that never was.
It was completed on Friday night, and it quickly became one of the most captivating ad-hoc project I’ve ever did.
From brainstorming, to conception, to execution, everything moved quickly and it helped that both parties weren’t fans of dilly-dallying on work.
It began with me not agreeing as to how the actual movie poster of Avatar looks like, and so my take that the Blue Alien movie is an essential love story takes centerstage.
It went through a few revisions, a few painted backgrounds before we decided that purple fits best.
Purple is an intelligent, intimate as well as technological, so it was a wise choice on her part.
We couldnt’ borrow James Cameron’s 3D video camera, so we opted for the 3D effect or depth of illusion via paper cut-out and pasting them on top of each other.
It’s not the greatest movie poster ever made, or remotely close to that thought, but I think that it’s a beautiful creation nonetheless, and this from me, a person who sees beauty in the unlikeliest of places.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder right?
Work hogged all of my daytime and early nighttime, and thus I could only afford late nights and wee hours to contribute to this project, and despite the numbness while working at the office, I’m just glad that it manifested well.
It’s been a long, arduous and scintillating journey. One that brought it’s share of scares, concerns and cups of coffee.
But that’s a story for another day, and as of now, it’s time for my overdue beauty sleep.
by | May 6, 2010 | Uncategorized
Okay lah, there really wasn’t any ketchup spilled or harmed in the derivation of this post, but I just said ketchup as it sounds way cooler alike to catch-up.
Just because.
Anyway, I’m quite surprised as to why there’s just a mountain of workpile to climb and a horrific mash of effing shit (Pardon the lang, I know, but since this blog is NC181.. oh well) that comes from people who are just too devoid of proactiveness to work efficiently.
But I’m not surprised that I’ve been neglecting my various teeny, tiny non-profit making (yet!!!) businesses, that I’ve been leaving dirt gathering on some of my other blogs/sites but most agonisingly of course is that I’ve not been spending much time with family.
Go ahead, at this point, and call me a workaholic, unconcerned, elusive, brother or son whichever way you look at it.
It just doesn’t feel good to be missing out on my family and friends, and instead devoting my time at the workplace, and as of this moment, and so I put myself up for accountability as I say loud and clear these words:
I wish to retire in 13 years time.
Excuse me, but that doesn’t me I wish to stop working, but rather the drone mindset of the majority of the world’s population, where work done = personal time spent = money earned.
It’s a nobel thought, to take time out of the equation, but it’s a necessary thought, to free up time, which can better be spent helping others rebuild lives and stuffs — but till today, it remains just a thought, as I’m merely laying down the foundation bricks of things to come.
It’s crazy, suicidal and just plain wishful thinking, but that’s all okay.
Everyone needs a dream to chase and a goal to hold onto right?
It’s definitely not pretty or frilly, and ingloriously, painstakingly taxing, this one of my ‘superhero fantasies2‘ that is to go out there into the streets and start making the world a better place for others, because when that happens, the world becomes a better place for you too.
And then comes the question of: why 13 years?
Because 13 is my lucky number, and.. I.. feel.. lucky.
1. NC18: I’m pretty sure that among the hundreds of monthly pageviews to this place, that there’s actually a dearth of anyone below 18, because let’s face it, they’ve better things to do, like wasting time watching TV, or contemplating whether the person sitting next to them in class ether likes them or is too timid to admit that they do, than reading a bloke on a blog confessing about the implosion of the internet, his own implosion and the implosion of idiots that he knows of.
2. Superhero Fantasies: The other one is to dress up as Edwards Scissorhands and scare the shitload out of bad people3.
3. Bad People: Creatures that couldn’t care less about what others feel and have to go through, and most notably, highly concerned with what they can benefit for themselves, out of everything they do.
by | May 3, 2010 | Uncategorized
I’m a planner kind of guy, and I like planning stuffs and executing them to perfection — but I know that things don’t go as planned sometimes.
And tonight it didn’t went as planned — where we were originally supposed to go for an ice-cream evening — where I began craving for ice-cream early in the week, but as it turned out, ice-cream wasn’t really on my mind the whole time.
And I certainly least expected for an Ironman 2 possibility, but the fact that in that morning, as I went out to get cat litter for my feline friends, there were 2 vacant seats in the middle of Lot 1’s theatre #1, and I just couldn’t resist it.
Chilling out with Dils and watching Machines battling explosively, means killing 2 birds with 1 stone, and with the measly amount of free time that I have these days, like why not?
But no animals were harmed today, other than the prawns that made up my Red Curry Prawn dish, and the chickens and cow that made up the rest of our dishes.
Hmmm, now that I think of food this way, it does feel a little kind of gross to be eating meat! What a thought!
Thankfully, the thought of eating only vegetables somehow puts that gross thought to rest, and lo and behold, I’m omnivorous once again.
Anyway, so I often plan and then there are times when I don’t and just let things pan out, because the unexpected brings with itself more than you could imagine, you’ll soon learn that Murphy’s Law is at work all the time.
Good things, bad things, it’s all subjective and as far as I’m concerned, I gotta admit that it was a little bit awkward, but nothing uncomfortable.
If anything that the event industry has thought me all these years, is that, everything is unexpected, and so the ‘get it done and over with’ mentality kicks in, and the ‘clean up the mess and everybody forgets what happened and becomes friends once again’ execution of thoughts follows up.
I’m still quite shocked, with myself, as to why I even brought up the subject tonight, much to her claims of ‘This is awkward’ for multiple moments, amidst a mixture of ‘lol’ moments and skimpy silences, but nothing that I regretted.
I’d go through all the awkward moments and trip all over again than to go on without knowing what could have been.
I’ll face it, that if it’s meant to be, it will be, and if it happens, it happens, and that still doesn’t malfunction the equation that we’re still really good friends after all these years, because I still want my ice-cream outing!
Ahaha.. nothing beats an ice-cream binge after countless continuous work days, where other than this Sunday, I can’t even remember when was the last Sunday that I spent waking up dazed from my bed at 1 O’clock in the lazy, humid afternoon, and all this without having to worry about receiving a client’s call to rush back to the office.
At this point of time, if it’s Shrek-like fairy tale with an ending: they gazed into each other, they kissed, they hugged and they lived on happily ever after, well then that’s only for the silver screens.
But I think there’s a far more suitable line and with enough credits too, and so here goes:
Keep rocking my world.
And from a good friend to a good friend, I still want my ice-cream. \m/
Oh, and Ironman2 rocks!
by | May 2, 2010 | Uncategorized
Working in the printing/events line definitely has its perks and benefits, but to wake up on a Sunday morning with total detachment from your job is definitely not one of it.
And it feels damn good, this feeling of near zero work burden and it’s going to be a simple Sunday that will be spent quietly with the family.
Dils and I are gonna go chase after an ice-cream evening later today, and at this point of time I must specifically point out that I am not an ice-cream person — but an ice-cream evening does seems like the best avenue to chill, pun intended, and relax this time round.
Plus, on the bright side, I get to spend a little bit more time with her, and I don’t ever get to spend much time with people I’d like to, ever since me and my colleagues launched the company back in July 2007.
Btw I’m still not the big balls boss: to my close friends who seem to think that just because I was one of the founding partners. But there’s never been a more comfortable working level than ever, and this much I’ll confess a little.
There’s never been more sacrifice than ever as well, mostly of time spent with family and friends.
I’ve often been asked why do I have to work on days and ends, and it’s not even like I’m trying to make ends meet, so why?
Well, building bridges, pipelines, opportunites and such, and these, takes plenty of time.
I’m a preacher of that family is more important than work, but of late however, I’m in irony of that as I have been spending more time in the office than, say with my brother, who’s preparing frantically for his wedding in a few weeks time, which means he’ll be moving out already.
No more Winning Eleven nights, or what other games that might tickle our fancies, for a long time now — but all’s good, because games have to take a backseat while we mend to other priorities of our adulthood.
I’ve also been neglecting, a little bit, with my sister’s job hunt, but thankfully, a few of my friends, well customers actually, have vacancies in their company where I’ve managed to convince them that my Sister’s a scintillating prospect for their office.
Is this right? This getting a job through contacts? Like is this fair? I’m pretty sure that thousands of jobseekers who’ve gone to countless career fairs will be crying foul of this move.
She’s just graduated a month back and she’s probably going to be confirmed with a job, without much hunting to do — all thanks to her brother’s, well that’s me really, contacts.
In fact, in this real world, there’s a saying that to be successful in life, it’s not about how much or what you know, but rather it is who you know.
Now I’m not asking anyone to put down their textbooks right now and start going around and shaking strangers’ hands — actually it could turn out to be good, but mostly you’ll be seen as siao (which means crazy in Mandarin) — because that won’t work but do go out there, absorb as much knowledge as you can, continuously upgrade yourself and build as many wokrable bridges as you can, and opportunities will present itself in manners that you’d probably had least planned for.
Also, neither am I recommending on being a suck-up, just to get into the right books, because everybody hates suck-ups, and where a boss finds the time to give attention to suck-ups, it’s 99% true that they’re using them for their own benefits only.
The other 1%, they’re just ignorant, and when your boss is ignorant, find yourself a new boss.
Oh, and if by some inexplicable manner, you find that all bosses that you’ve worked for are jerks in one way or another, then there’s really only one thing left to do — be your own boss.
How about starting your own ice-cream parlour?
Whatever it is, work hard, work smart, and go have an ice-cream evening with someone you desire on a Sunday evening once in a while.
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