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Incepted.

I watched Inception, had to drag sis along cos others simply wasn’t able to watch it, didn’t wanna watch it with me or watched it already.

It wasn’t an easy show but here’s a quick review because I’m just darn sleepy and drowsy at the moment.

It’s solidly good, tight and very well paced, not much loopholes (there are holes, just not much) and has to be the best show of 2010 so far in terms of it’s score, action, visual effects, plot, characters, cinematography, continuity & editing and if I were to summarise it all in 5 words they’d be:

Multi-tasking. Dreamy. Captivating. Purposeful. Sad.

Sad, because the way I interpreted the movie, the dream never ended for Cobb, and that thought struck me midway in the movie, where I realised that the reality wasn’t really reality.

BUT, I shan’t spoil the movie for the uninitiated, and while I torture myself to come up with a decent review for another day, I’ll prod you to go watch it.

AND if you’ve already watched it, go watch it again, and this time try to catch the movie and perceive it to end differently than when you first saw it.

One down.

Interestingly, they didn’t tow away the bike even when I failed to pay up the installments after 3 months.

All they did was to call me up and ask me when I can settle the payment, and each time I’d tell them the next day. Funny enough they bought it each time too.

It wasn’t that I wanted to hold their money but rather it was mine — I wanted to hold mine and bike installments is one of those arrears where it’s still not so bad even if you don’t pay up after a month, or three in this case.

So yesterday I coughed up enough to settle the payments for 4 months instead, which includes the next’s, where at the same time, I’m finally debt free of that bike shop.

You know it does feel good to have that debt free feeling, and though I always recommend people to learn to leverage or stretch their dollar, there’s this satisfacton and no-strings attached sentiments when you’re paying off your final installments.

It’s that good.

So one commitment down, but everytime you settle one, more crops up, and that just seem to be the way of the world we live in eh?

It’s as if noone in their right mind would want to see you relaxed and free and everytime you’re sitting there, shaking the legs, someone will inevitably walk up to you and start asking for something from you, or worse, starts telling you the mistakes that you’ve done and expects you to rectify it.

Just typical eh, that nobody wants to see you doing nothing and still enjoying yourselves at it.

Pffft.

Oh btw, the iPhone 4 will be on sale 30th of the month. Hmmmmm…

I Need..

I can’t sleep. I can’t sleep. I could turn myself in but I can’t sleep.

5.55am.

The mind wanders, thoughts dissipate and I find myself calculating stuffs that shouldn’t be calculated at 5-6am in the morning, like would it be a good thing if I started an online service where you pay for an item to be sent your way (or another place) and you don’t know what it’s gonna be? These guys beat me to it and I’ve been admiring them since 2 years ago and perhaps this shows that there is a wacky market audience for it?

Well I enjoy drawing, doodling and coloring stuffs and maybe I could do that and plaster them onto EZ-Link stickers for the mass like what I’m currently doing with Stick Anything Lah? (Ahaa, blatant promo here! =P )

Strangely there’s 24hours per day but I just don’t seem to have the luxury of a 2-3 hours stretch that I can spend on exhausting myself creatively, unless I stay awake like today, and that sucks, and I really need to exhaust myself creatively — otherwise all these pent up thoughts and stuffs stays pent up, slowly building itself, gradually turning cancerous. Well, rhetorically speaking of course.

6.15am.

I wanna sleep, but gee, what can you do to sleep huh? I need rest. I don’t know which one’s worse — that I’m neither wide awake or the fact that I’m half drowsy and half suffering the joyous torture of playing soccer with the boys at 1am in the morning.

And they even had the cheek to extend the session till 3am, where naturally I obliged and played along, as if I could knock myself out and sleep till late afternoon. Well I could but that means I’ll be ‘shooting paper aeroplanes’, or ‘bubble bubble’, or ‘NATO-ing’ because…

6.25am.

.. I’ve soccer again in exactly 2 and a half hours later, over at Clementi with the ramshackled bunch of white-and-blue-collared football enthusiasts.

Hmmm.. I’ve no idea what collar I am, cos my work clothes hasn’t a proper collar, but rather a turtle-neck like, zip-collar. Ahh, zip-collared, that’s what I am!

Whatever that means right?

6.30am

I. Need. Sleep Ipad Zip-Collars Love.

Where do I begin?

I don’t know, but where oh where do I begin?

Will someone tell me that it’s only natural that the brother gets the preferential treatment while I’m being given the ‘please-wait’ treatment?

The printing company has spawned off another printing company (this time non GST registered for all those budget conscious customers) in recent weeks and it just bugs me that I am not in the loop in the planning phase of all these stuffs.

Won’t it bug you too when you’re one of the ‘senior fellas’ in the company and you only knew that your company expanded the moment they knocked on your door to tell you that they need your help in shifting a few boxes because the company has expanded?

My new recruit, actually the new designer who’s supposed to take charge of design related stuffs at the new place, asked me this while we were having lunch, a few days back.

“Why are you still here?”

And you know what my first thoughts were?

“Goddammit why am I still here?” and this, ladies and gentlemen, this was my very first thought which was followed by this, “I guess I can’t leave this baby (the company) on its own, until it’s found its feet to stand on its own.”

It sucks that I bear such a responsibility, that the gap I leave behind is too much for them to cover, so it’s really hard for me to avoid sabotaging the business, which I think I would be doing if I choose to leave now.

BUT it sucks more that I’m overstaying myself, when there are opportunities and industries that I’m anxious to dive into.

Talk about diving, did I mention that Farah and Dal wants me to go diving in Tioman this October?

That’s right, the one place that I dread going but dream of being on — the food, the locals, the tranquility.. the everything!

Wait, did you spot the difference of ‘dread going’ and ‘dream of being on’, cos I get seasick easily and the busride+boatride to Tioman is uber nauseating (is this the correct use of the word?) — BUT one that I’ll gladly face and suffer just to feel the white, soft, glowing sands of Salang, Tioman.

So will I be going? Hmmmm.. I’m still undecided.

Gee, where do I begin?

Think, talk.

Time has passed by freakishly too fast this year.

It’s not bothered to wait for me, you nor anyone else who’s contemplated and bothered to wallow in self-pittance. It’s that cruel.

I realised that in barely 2 weeks, a year ago I was limbering towards my one month reservist in-camp training, and faced plenty of stumbling blocks back then.

Fortunately there’s no reservist yet, but looking back, oh how quickly time fades as I recall on a few ‘supposedly major’ decisions made back then.

I decided to quit within 3 months then.

Of course fortunately I didn’t heed my stupid and rash thoughts so I didn’t and life goes on, but 1 year later, that eeriely similar decision comes back to haunt me.

I’ve been thinking a lot and not really been talking a lot and it’s such a shame that these are two very different things that bring about very different outcome.

If you think a lot, that’s good, but that makes you a dreamer as well, because thinking don’t get things done.

If you talk a lot, that’s good, you get the message across, but you run in danger of being viewed as a NATO person.

Oh, NATO as in, No Action Talk Only.

How much do you weigh in on this?

Me? I don’t know, biasedly biased, I think I’ll judge myself as a 80/20 person, with the 20 represennting the talking — I don’t talk much, and when I do, I guess I talk before I think?

Ahh, don’t we all?

Thankfully there’s blogging, which isn’t quite talking, but you get the drift yah?

When you blog, you get to think before you talk, and it’s sort of a 50/50 thing here, and it’s think then talk.

And when you talk too much, there’s always that delete post/draft button lying somewhere along the page.

I wonder if I’ll live my life wishing for that ‘delete button’ when it’s time for that talk?

WANTED: You and your business.

“I leave dis industry n nvr look back.. but I cnt help but to feel afraid of wats e future lies ahead..”

Exact words from one of the strongest and bravest lady I’ve ever met, which I received this morning and one which prompted me that I simply had to come up with this post today.

It’s true, and I’m just glad that I’ve been able to hold her hands and point her towards little nuggets of opportunities along the way.

She’s very courageous even though if’s she’s in a situation likened to a fish out of water.

In a way though, she’s never really out of the water, but rather just in a different environment, like ALF, the Angry Little Fish (remember him anyone?) and in itself, she’s got so much courage just to step up and rise to the occasion.

There’s uncertainty, hardship, uncharted waters and yet you’ll see no sign of fear in her.

She’s got more balls than most guys will ever have.

Um, I hope you didn’t read that at face value, and no, she’s not she-male or whatever it is that you may have fantasized, because I only meant that she’s a strong, tough little girl.

So what does all this have to do with you?

Simple, MKNTFN (slur the words slowly and it’ll sound meh-keen-neet-tfan, or makin’it-fun), will now have a fledgling prodigy (that’s her) who is extremely hungry with design-related requirements that you and your company are in need of.

Logo designs and rebranding of your company image, and Print supplies, such as vinyl for your wall murals and stickers and labels for your common advertising campaigns, will make up the core of this new service of ours.

In summary, MKNTFN aims to provide:

  1. Prompt & Functional Company Rebranding Opportunities,
  2. Proven Quality Vinyl Stickers For Everyday Applications &,
  3. Fun, Friendly & Communicable New Media Packagings.

Now, if you would like to find out how we can help you and your company, then let’s start a conversation today.

Oh yah, MKNTFN, Acra: 53133860J, is all registered and legal and have been so for a good 1.5 years now, and where previously I’ve had limited time to dabble and scrabble in this, she’s allowed me the opportunity to ‘go full steam ahead’ with the company.

We go full steam ahead so that you, and your company, can go further full steam ahead.

So humble Spain won, now what?

Quick Trivia: Where and when will the next edition of the FIFA World Cup take place at?

But first, football really is a game about luck ain’t that so?

Might as well get the two coaches to come together, toss a coin and whoever gets it right wins.

Think of all the troubles that hundreds of thousands of fans, who’ve spent a fortune travelling to a faraway land and getting their ears blared with Vuvuzuelas, would have saved.

But when you come down to it all, it’s really about the satisfaction and pride that one achieves to encapsulate through sheer grit, incessant effort and that insatiable hunger for a win.

Oh, and that never give up attitude sure helps.

Some get it by raising their children through thick and thin, steering them towards a well-to-do life.

Some feel it through their philanthropic personality, via means of teaching and charity.

And some earn it over 650 minutes of gruelling football, like the Spanish team this morning, winning their inaugural World Cup trophy.

Congratulations to Spain and Iniesta especially for clinching the championship, and in exreme style too.

But what-if Robben had scored during one of his driving runs through the Spanish backline?

What if Germany had chose to play offensively instead of defensively?

What if Cardozo had scored Paraguay’s Penalty during the quarterfinals?

As I dissect the world cup’s success stories bit by bit, it’s clear to me that all the what-ifs combined, really, mean nothing at all.

You don’t want to live the next chapter of your lifestory and begin it with a ‘What-if’.

Try asking the Dutch players about it.

Spain taught us a humbling lesson in football last night, that reputation and status can only get you so far.

Right England?

That one of, if not the greatest form of defence is offense.

Right Brazil/Germany?

That to achieve success, you sometimes need to face failures, or lose to an unlikely opponent, eg. Switzerland, early on in your journey.

With their feet firmly planted and humbly grounded, the likes of Xavi, Iniesta, Villa, Alonso, Puyol, Pique, Ramos, Torres and Cassilas lifted the much coveted trophy with a sense of satisfaction and pride, that only a select few will probably ever feel throughout modern history, but they will celebrate for now.

A young fan humbly captured the essence as he mentions “This will probably not happen again for another 40 years.”

Kudos Spain, but we all know this is just the beginning… and…

.. back to the trivia, so where and when will the next edition of FIFA World Cup be held at?

Brazil, 2018.

ADV: The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (trailer) & why I’d apply if I could.

I came up with a top 5 list of reasons why I, or anyone for that subject matter, would even think about becoming a sorcerer’s apprentice:

1) Because I get to conjure magical light orbs around my mesmerising fingers.

2) Because I get to change cars faster than my current job can ever pay for (Not that I even have a driving license to start with!).

3) Because I eventually get to meet Dragons! (And hopefully survive after the encounter.)

4) Because I can use my powers to make the world a better place and not just do card tricks.

5) Because it’s fun!

Don’t see that it’s fun? Check this out:

AND here’s the top 5 list of reasons why you should catch it in theaters!

1) You’re tired of Vampires & Werewolves.

2) You want something different from Harry Potter.

3) You’re a fan of Jay Baruchel, lead actor in She’s Out Of My League.

4) You’re a fan of Nicholas Cage, fresh off his sombre Kick-ass role!

5) It’s fun!

So “Catch The Sorcerer’s Apprentice Movie starting from 22nd July 2010 and join the Walt Disney Studios Singapore official Facebook and Twitter page!”

To feel anxiety and worry is to practice failure in advance.

This is it.

This is the opportunity that I’ve never been waiting for and now that it’s staring me in the face, somehow it feels hard to come to terms with it.

All my dabbles and scrabbles with starting something and trying anything have resulted in the good, the bad and the ugly.

Though I do know one thing, that failure is a certainty.

Wait, let me tweak that sentence.

I do know one thing, that failure is a certainty IF one does not focus, devote, and assert tenable effort into any opportunity that one undertakes.

Failure parlays right?

I get butterflies and even out-of-tune singing crickets in my stomaches whenever I take on something new or push myself over the edge of uncertainty, and it’s harrowing and stifling, this anticipation of impending failure.

Yes, I fear failure, just like you, but that won’t stop me from doing what I set out to do.

Yes failure makes me contemplate my options, just like you, but that won’t make me risk any less.

I’ve failed, terribly, and countless times, and came off flat and bruised, but I guess I’m fortunate enough to know how that feels where it’s like, as Sarah Maclachlan puts it in the song “Fallen”: It’s the bitter taste of losing everything that I’ve held so dear.

But thank goodness suffering is only temporary.

I know well enough because I’ve fallen more than I’d like to, and I know how sweet revival tastes, how enlightening endeavors come off and how redeeming it is to excel from setbacks.

So don’t worry too much, cos if it’s going to get bad it’ll get bad anyway.

It’s not that I’ve stopped worryingly entirely, I do worry, but I dwell just long enough to allow a second to turn back and reconsider my risks before moving on.

Most of us sub-consciously dwell too much in our worries till it evolves into anxiety.

Anxiety sucks.

Let’s try that again.

Anxiety sucks.

Good~.

As Seth Godin puts it, Anxiety is practising failure in advance.

Would you practise failure? Or success?

This is it. (What is it? It is… to be continued~)

This is the opportunity that I’ve been never been waiting for and, hey hey, bring it on!