梦想的声音 The Sound of Your Dream

Hi dear readers! 

Surprised to see me here? 

Well something spurred me to restart my writing. So I shall start small. 

A lovely colleague of my mine was telling me about a new singing show that had JJ Lin and Hebe and I was curious considering their history. So I started watching 梦想的声音 or the “sound of your dream” and I thought it was pretty good. 

The talents that appear on the show are pretty awesome as they tend to have musical backgrounds. The artist line up is JJ Lin, Hebe, Amei, Jam Hsiao & Yu Quan and every week they get challenged by the talents by being asked to sing quite random songs. Like the one about eating fried chicken in people’s park. 

If you have time.  Check it out 🙂 

2015 status check

It gets so depressing every time I get this blog’s annual report from WordPress. To sum it all, in the year 2015, I only managed 4 blog posts! On the brighter side, I have hit the 400th post milestone! Yes!

Anyway, since this post is meant to talk about my 2015 status check lets jump straight into it!

I vaguely remember creating resolutions for 2015, so I scrolled back 4 blog posts and identified my fairly short resolution list. Here it is…

2015 resolution list

1. Continue going to the gym. Maybe do more cardio?
2. Volunteer more
3. Less procrastination and lazing around
4. Live in the moment
5. Let what happened in 2014 stay in 2014, 2015 is a brand new year!

Looking through that list, I think I failed on all fronts. Gasp!

1. That monthly gym membership is like giving away free money. Yipes!
2. Volunteer? HAH!
3. Same old lazy butt here wouldn’t want to lift a finger
4. Live in the moment. Hmmm…. I… can’t measure or justify
5. Well I resolved to do something about it and I kept at it. But whether its the right thing to do? I have no idea. I think I shouldn’t try to forget but accept it for what it is.

Well, since I seem to have failed to complete my resolutions, which isn’t surprising since I forgot about it, let me just reflect on my 2015. I’ll reflect by asking myself questions and of course answer them myself too. Here goes!

2015 Honest Q&A

1. What do you think of 2015?
   2015 just flew by! Overall, I think it has been a pretty bad year for Malaysia as a whole. Since it’s bad for Malaysia, ultimately it’s citizens are suffering. Raising cost, slow economy, salaries that aren’t rising as fast as inflation. I believe 2015 is a difficult time for everyone.
2. Personally, how was your 2015?
   In terms of?
3. Well, what do you think you did well in 2015? Or rather what were your achievements in 2015?
   Hmm… I think travelling solo was an achievement. I would like to do that again some day. Other than that, I’m now a house owner. Now I hope I can transition to a landlord too. Owning a house is rather expensive.
4. Those are pretty fascinating achievements. What do you think you could have done more in 2015?
   Other than exercise more? If I could have done it all over again. I would have tried an meet more people, make more friends. I would also try and give my 100% at work. Ok fine.. 80%. Personally, I felt that I’ve been coasting/free riding at work. That’s pretty bad. Other than that, at the back of my mind, where I’ve conveniently stored it, is that nagging feeling to make amends with a “friend”.
5. What about your life in 2015? How have you been? What were you up to? Did you start any new projects?
   Wow, calm down now… That’s a lot of questions. Ok, I think I’ve been doing pretty good in 2015. My wrist seems pretty normal now. Although I realised I’ve been getting flus in 2015 more often than in 2014.
   In terms of activities, I don’t believe I tried out anything exceptionally new. Most of my weekends have been dedicated to the house. All that time and money. 
   Ah yes! I’ve started to learn to invest again. Hopefully I’ll do alright. Risky but well, we need our money to grow!
   Actually in 2015, a lot of closer friends got married. Lots of facebook friends too. I think it’s that age where you’ll start losing friends cause they’ll be busy with their families too. In the last wedding too, as I was leaving I felt a sudden overwhelming feeling of sadness. I’m definitely happy for the couple. But I suppose I’m wondering will my turn arrive? Hmmm….
6. How do you feel now that 2015 is ending?
   I honestly feel my memory is fading hahaha… Well a bit mixed, after all the questions you put me through, I think I did alright on certain fronts but I could have done better in other areas. Will I try and improve in 2016? Well, I haven’t quite figured out what I want my 2016 to be like. All I know is that I’m starting it with a dilemma and that money is involved. Definitely difficult choices to make.

Well, that’s it! No pictures to recap any fun exciting activities I did in 2015! Ah well, I’ll give you a little freebie.

The finale of the Rainforest World Music Festival 2015!

I won’t be writing about 2016 just yet. I need more time to think about what I want to achieve.

Hope everyone had happy holidays and a Happy New Year!

A game I cannot play

As always,

I thought of you again.

A fleeting memory that’s slowly fading.

I try to remember your face sometimes,

but the image of you is getting harder to piece as time goes by.

I suppose I fell too easily.

For what, I wonder.

I can’t seem to pinpoint the qualities anymore.

Perhaps you were just a perfect idea.

One, which I had not thought of.

Nor had I the courage to dream of myself.

Looking back, my behaviours were perhaps seen as childish.

From my lack of experience. Maybe.

If I could replay my actions,

I would have stayed away.

For alas, you are in a game that I cannot play.

Space filler

I believe I used to like to write. With my introvert personality, where else can I share my thoughts? Does this mean I haven’t had marvelous thoughts in awhile now?

These days I’ve been too caught up procrastinating on things. There are so many things I want to do in that limited resource we have called time. Finite time is of course extremely valuable, but I waste it on non-productive activities. I gotta get my act together!

There are just so many distractions! Distractions, begone!

Feels like I’m in a rut sometimes. Don’t know what I want to achieve in my life, don’t know where I’m heading, don’t know the purpose of my existence, heck what IS the purpose of mankind’s existence? All these difficult questions will of course be unanswered. All I can do now is stare at the flashing line on my computer beckoning me to type the next sentence.

Oh! Did you’ll know Death Cab for Cutie is coming to KL! Haven’t been to a concert for awhile. Felt that I was getting a bit old for hanging around at free standing parties. But hey! How often will you get Death Cab for Cutie eh?

In the meantime, I shall think of something more exciting to type next time. Which may actually be much sooner than you think. Till then, hope my dears readers find their reason of existence. 😮

Traffic jam wisdom: Grass is greener on the other side. Or is it?

Driving to and from work is a rather time wasting exercise. An hour just stuck in traffic can accomplish so much! So, a sudden gush of wisdom was bestowed upon me as I sat behind the wheel of my 20+ year old car. I shall share it with you, my dear readers which are slowly diminishing day by day.

Grass is greener on the other side

It’s a four lane highway, you’re queuing up on the slow lane inching your way to the front. You glance to your right and see cars on the fast lane moving much quicker. “Hey! That lane is moving faster.” Do you switch lanes?

Scenario 1: You switch lanes and once you switch, the cars begin to slow down on the fast lane and the cars on the slower lane are moving faster now. “Ah! What the heck!”. You end up worst off than if you just persevered.

Scenario 2: You change lanes and zoom ahead. You notice that the cars on the fast lane are slowing down and the speed on the slow lane seem to be picking up speed. You switch lanes again. You end up reaching your destination much faster than if you did not switch lanes.

Scenario 3: You don’t make the switch and patiently inch your way to your destination. The cars on your right continue to pass you by. This is a scenario of sticking to your choices but they are not always the right ones.

Moral of the story: Scenario 1 & 2: Timing is key! Observation is necessary. This sorta applies to real life. If you caught the start of the movement, you’re fine. If you caught the tail end, unfortunately you’ve missed the boat and left to eat dust. Better luck next time. This basically translates to “don’t be a follower and strive to be the leader” as well.

What about Scenario 3 where the driver didn’t switch lanes? Well, he/she basically missed the boat, but since he/she has nothing to compare with. He/she is in their ignorant bliss, until someone makes a comparison. The lesson here is that basically you gauge your own achievements. If you felt that you reached your destination in a reasonable time, that’s good. If you felt you should have been faster, well there is always tomorrow to try out a different route maybe?

Hope you’ll have interesting thoughts while driving!

Adieu 2014. Welcome 2015!

Hope everyone had a Jolly good Christmas! I know I did, or at least I think I did. Although I must admit the turkey we had was well… quite a disappointment. But of course, the company was exceptional!

After Christmas, everyone’s gonna look forward to the fireworks on New Year’s eve and around this time every year, I’ll end up doing a yearly recap. It’s like a ritual or maybe I chore. I can’t figure it out yet (ala my life).

For me, 2014 flew by with the speed of light. I still remember my first day at my current job, where someone said I looked like a teacher (ish), and in a blink of an eye New Year’s eve is around the corner!

Alas, lets cut the monologue and get straight to the point shall we? Based on what I blogged this year, doesn’t look like I have much to recap on. Hahaha but I’ll try nonetheless (warning: the post will be filled with rather mundane events, which sort of equates my life. Somewhat.).

January

A new job! Boy was I excited back then, I always dreamt of doing this and then I got thrown into the deep end albeit with a life preserver. Thankfully I didn’t drown and am still alive and kicking. Although I’m thinking “is this the career path for me?”

February

I scratched my poor car in a shopping mall’s parking lot! Part of the metal came off too! My worst “accident” to date. A few days before this happened, I hit my neighbours tiny tree too. Sigh…. This was the beginning of a string of bad luck that would befall my poor car and it’s nearly penniless owner 😮

March

• My car was innocently involved in a hit and run at the car park near my office. 😦
• Bright side of March was I got my Chartered Accountancy certificate! But I’ll lose it soon in the next “event” cause my house caught fire 😮 Smog engulfed the interior of my home! Waking up to thick black smoke in the middle of the night has got to be the most traumatic experience of all 27+ years of my life thus far. 😮

April

I obtained a basic wall course certificate from camp5! Now I can belay people! If I still can remember how.

May

Met someone but nothing happened. Doubt anything would have happened either. Hmmm…

June

• Had a wonderful short “makan” trip to Ipoh and actually had a photo with Ernest Zacharevic! I like his murals.
• Visited the “Great Singapore Garden” (Gardens by the Bay) over the weekend. I must say it’s rather impressive.

Marina Bay Sands from the Marina Barrage

• My car got hit in the rear at an almost stand still while I was happily heading to work. Sigh… The weirdest thing was the other driver had the same birthday as me (but a different year)! How odd is that?
• June was also the only time I tossed a frisbee in 2014, which is plain sad.

I miss this. I wonder if I still can throw though. Hmm…

July

• The coffeeholic got married! Oh gosh! Now I feel so old!
• Had my first beginner korean class. How exciting! Say “aye!” to lifelong learning!
• Finally climbed Broga Hill. It was a relatively easily climb and had lots of people. U probably can’t get a nice spot to view the sun rise if you reached late. However, we didn’t get a good view of the sunrise anyway.

This was one of the later shots of the sunrise as we were heading down. Looks like a sunset though.

• Went to Langkawi to enjoy sunsets everyday. How romantic…. but I went with a female friend. 😮

Sunset view at Pantai Tengah

August

C.N. Blue “Can’t Stop” tour! Had to sit on cement which was a pain in the butt. The band looked good 🙂 But they would have looked better if they combed their hair a bit more. :p But who cares? It’s Yonghwa and Jonghyun. 😀 Jungshin was the star of the night though.

All 4 of them, with a weird zoomed up angle of Yonghwa.

and of course… Color Run (the most syok sendiri run ever)!

Can just see the color of our hands to imagine what we looked like after the run. Mine is the one with the “tattoo”.

Lets just say removing the color was kind of difficult.

September

De Quarvain is officially back. 😦

October

Ran 10km in my first night run in Putrajaya. For me, running in Putrajaya is rather dull; highways all the way. I shall swap back to Standard Chartered in 2015. My time became worst but it’s a miracle I even finished considering I kept thinking “this is gonna be my last 10km ever”. Lots of willpower involved here. Funny thing in this run, there was actually a lion (from lion dances) decked out in neon lights encouraging the runners. Rather peculiar sight.

10km Finisher’s Medal for BSN Putrajaya Night Run 2014

Another thing in October, I actually went for coffee with someone from tinder 😮 Upon hindsight it was kinda dangerous. Yipes.

November

• Re-visited Penang and Cameron Highlands with my family. Camerons was surprisingly cold. Must have been all that rain.
• Re-visited Bangkok purely for shopping this time but we did take half a day to visit Chocolate Ville, which surprisingly does not sell chocolates. Spent 3 days mostly on shopping. Shopping day 1, Terminal 21. Shopping day 2, Platinum Mall. Shopping day 3, Chatuchak Market. Still, there wasn’t enough time in Platinum and Chatuchak. Didn’t quite fit some of my purchases either. May return to BKK sooner than I think.

December

Got a new laptop which I’m using to type this up now. So far, I need to get used to Windows 8.1. It definitely would work better with a touch screen device, alas I’m too poor to afford that.

And… that’s the end of my recap! Looks like the year didn’t start very well and it became better and more hectic towards the middle and ended with a nice wind down. Ahhh…. Toast to a fairly good year. *cling**cling*

Differences in 2014 vs 2013

• Read more books this year (think I read 10 books this year compared to 2/3 in the year before that)
• I actually accomplished one of my targets to learn a new language (I guess being able to read is considered learning a new language)
• Had more free time on my hands but it doesn’t look like I know what to do with it
• Almost went to the gym every week which I suppose is pretty good but it doesn’t look like I’m improving. ooops
• Volunteered at a soup kitchen! But I forgot which month that was.

Time to create some resolutions for 2015. I realised I didn’t make any in 2014, it’s alright I normally don’t keep track anyway.

2015 resolutions

• Continue going to the gym. Maybe do more cardio?
• Volunteer more
• Less procrastination and lazing around
• Live in the moment
• Let what happened in 2014 stay in 2014, 2015 is a brand new year!

My resolutions don’t quite work though cause it’s so vague. How am I supposed to measure “live in the moment”? I’ve a slightly more long term target of things that I want to do before I turn 30 though, which actually makes more sense. It’s a short list.

1. Travel alone

2. Volunteer (frequently)

3. Figure out what I want to do in life

#1 & #2 seem rather straight forward but #3 mmm….

Hopefully I get to meet my targets and hope all of you would be able to meet your resolutions too! 🙂

Thank you very much 2014, you have been good but I’m going to look forward to 2015 now and hopefully it’ll be a much better year. 🙂

Quick changing updates

Wanted to write about my Bangkok shoppping trip but ended up doing some housekeeping of the blog tags and categories. Don’t think it was even necessary.

I’ll write about Bangkok some other time. If I ever get to it that is. In the mean time, I’ll just give some random updates.

Think I’m on a slight streak of not so great luck. I was in Ipoh recently and I was blessed with the droppings of a pigeon, my slipper strap dislodged from its bottom in Bangkok and my laptop was plagued with the black screen of death when I returned from Bangkok. On the brightside, I didn’t get sick in Bangkok but 2 of my friends had food poisoning. Hopefully the remaining days of November will go smoothly and then its December and its the season to be Jolly!

On a very separate note, I’m liking Clazziquai Project a lot these days.

On an extremely separate note, I’ll be catching Shear Madness this Wednesday! Should be fun!

LRT pros and cons?

Well hello there readers! I see you managed to have some time to wander here although the last entry was a good 2 months ago. Since you’ve already arrived, I shall bore you with useless knowledge which you probably would have known by now because I’m gonna talk about the pros and cons of the LRT!

“OH! JOY! What a wonderful topic!” *Now, now, don’t have to be sarcastic*

I’m gonna write ’bout it cause yours truly am considering ditching a drive to work for a fuss free LRT ride to work.

The LRTs chasing each other?

So let’s get to the good old pros and cons shall we?

Pros
1. 2014 for me, hasn’t been a good year for driving
– Mid January , I hit a branch and dented the back of my car
– A week later, I scratched the side of the car with a shopping mall parking lot pillar *le sigh…..*
– 2 weeks ago, my car overheated
– Today, my car got hit at the parking lot by a lousy driver, who probably was trying to reverse park but failed miserably and hit my car and left it there like that without leaving a number. Just wonderful.

As you would have guessed, my car seems to be in a pretty bad shape with an average of slightly more than 1 incident a month. Odds aren’t very good.

2. The accountant in me says I’ll save money.
Cost of taking the car to work:
– Parking = RM120/month (RM6/day x 20 working days)
– Petrol = RM210/month (RM70/refuel x 3 avg refuels/month)
– Total = RM320/month

Cost of taking LRT to work:
– RM84/month and a lot of parents good faith (RM4.20/day x 20 working days)

Savings = RM236/month = RM2,832/year!

My oh my, I could buy a telescope with that money (which I said I wanted since I was in High School)! AND I haven’t taken into account car maintenance cost!

A telescope like Do Min Joon (from You Who Came From the Stars)?

3. I get regular exercise by walking from the station to my office

4. I can avoid those dreaded jams! Especially the horrid Friday ones

Of course I’m not going through that crazy traffic jam on the right. But it’s extremely similar.

5. It reduces my carbon foot print!

Cons
1. A major lack of freedom to move about

2. The reliance on my lovely parents to drop & pick me up from the station. At my age, it’s kinda sad. 😮

3. I may get pick pocketed on the LRT if I was caught off guard (stoning or napping)

4. Carrying a heavy laptop in the LRT isn’t the coolest thing ever. It’s heavy!

5. I’ll constantly be facing a moral dilemma of whether to sit at that empty row of priority seating dedicated to the needy when there are no needy people around. “No one’s around, should I sit? Should I not? What if someone needy comes in then barrages me for sitting there? Why is that uncle/auntie standing right in front of it instead of sitting? He/she looks needy, he/she should sit. Gah!! Look away, look away.” Think you get my drift.

And…. that’s a round up!

Conclusion: There seems to be some serious pros to it and well the cons are easily solved apart from #1 & #2. My own conclusion? I’ll just take the LRT if I’m working from office and don’t have heavy stuff to carry. For other days, I’ll just drive. I already knew the answer before I did this pros and cons thingy. I just wanted to rant about the lousy driver who can’t reverse park. Tsk.

1 month in a foreign land

Always wanted to join a Contiki tour to Europe before I turned 30. Although I’m still a few years away, I think my perception has changed somewhat. Oh! I still would want to travel around Europe, but I was curious what it would be like to spend a month in a country like Japan or Korea where there’s just so much to see, do & absorb. Maybe I should do that before I turn 30, but financially, doubt it would work.

I also thought it would be interesting to travel alone. But perhaps, I do not have the courage to move around alone in a foreign land where the language used I cannot comprehend. Or rather, I may be overwhelmed by the loneliness.

Thank you 2013. Happy 2014!

Thank you 2013 for all the memories, good and bad, and may 2014 be a happy and peaceful year for all. Personally, a new beginning for me.

I normally recap on what happened during the year. Wasn’t much great things that happened in 2013 but I shall try to highlight the good times!

February – Chinese New Year and had an awesome buffet at Renoma Cafe. Really tasty stuff. May consider going again.

Foie Gras. Never tasted it before this. Pretty tasty stuff.

May – White Water Rafting & Canyoning at Sungai Kampar

Finally crossing things off my “To Do List” while I save money to head on over to Greece.

July – US Tour (Vegas, San Fran, NYC)

T’was an awesome trip. Such a beautiful country. Will very likely re-visit.

Vegas Baby! Where I really absolutely behaved.

“The Crookedest Street” at Lombard Street.

Times Square! Forever bustling with people.

August – Dining in the Dark KL

No pics cause well, it’s dark. Eating in the dark was surprisingly easier than expected cause the restaurant actually compartmentalised the food for the diners to eat it easily. Nevertheless, it was an interesting experience. Helps in eating in cinemas in the future.

September – The Killers Battleborn tour

Finally was able to see one of my favourite bands perform. Dream come true. Brandon Flowers is still good looking in my books ❤

If only Mr ipad at the front would take his ipad down for a moment throughout the concert.

October – Standard Chartered KL Marathon

2nd time running the 10km and I recorded a slower time. Bummer. Must practice harder for 2014’s!

Prefer last year’s medal to this one. But, it’s still a nice medal to keep. 😀

November – OneRepublic Native tour

No pics of this one cause I was standing a little far too take a good clear shot.

I must say that Ryan Tedder’s voice is Amazing! If only the sound system was better I would say the concert would have been awesome! Couldn’t hear his voice in quite a fair bit of the songs. Sound was good during quieter moments though.

31 December – Official last day at my workplace. Bittersweet feeling but leaving was inevitable, it was just a matter of when? Time to move on to a new beginning.

That was a pretty quick recap. Now time to get to more serious things. Well, wordpress has this annual report on wordpress blogs and well I only blogged 4 times in 2013! And entries before 2013 had the most hits during the year. Those aren’t very good stats. Seeing as I don’t have much to blog about these days, I’m considering pulling the plug on the blog. If I continue writing/blogging, 2014 would be my 10th year blogging. I don’t blog much but 10 years is a long time! Until when I really wanna take this offline, I shall just blog like usual. 😀

That’s a little sad news to start the year. Well, to have a new beginning, something somehow somewhere has to end. To New Beginnings in 2014!