The Secret

Its been more than a year!

2010-04-26T22:33:00.002+08:00

Wow, just discovered that it has been more than a year since I wrote my blog and I am sure most of my friends have not written on their blogs as well.

In any case, thought I post an entry here to mark the last day of work in the first bank that I work in. I must say it is a good experience to work in the bank as I learn a lot things. Not that a lot of things were taught but more of learning from the experience and observations I have made in the last 2-3 years. I am sure I have benefited from these experience and if I do ever become a boss which I will, I am sure these experience especially treating human resource would benefit a lot.

Why I said this is because I felt that a lot of HR issues are mishandled. Efforts and results are not adequately rewarded because of POLICY (sounds familiar?) and employees are treated like non-family member because news are always announced to the public first rather than employees first.

Appraisals are not done in a fair manner because a group of staff with measurable results are placed side by side with group of staff whose results are non-measurable by numbers.

Some of the business strategies adopted are something that I do not concur as well but I shan't say much because those people seem to be delusional.

Any way that is it for now. No idea when is the next entry but I will write whenever possible to keep some records of my life.

Cheers! :)

Entangled in a Web

2008-08-24T08:57:00.002+08:00

When we are born into this world, you will immediately create a web of relationship, sometimes the relationship might be created from you and sometimes it is other people's web get entangled with you. How strong is the relationship, what kind of relationship and how each party weaved the web adds great complexity and complications to the web of relationship that you have.

The things is the web is so ever changing, because sometimes we may have weaved a web into another party's web, but it may fade away until we found that friend again and willing and started weaving the web into his/hers. As we go through with this life that we have, we have to tread carefully in this web that we weaved, our words, actions and attitude can have a long lasting effect on the web.

For the last 29 years of my life, I have never come across so many complications until recently. Things have gotten really very complicated so much that I am having problems coping with it. But I know I can overcome it, I just need more control and mindfulness, and more time definitely. It is having such problems that makes be strongly believe in Buddhism, providing me with the necessary tools to overcome these problems. Now is really up to me to use these tools to help me.

Cheers! =)

Is sooner really better?

2008-08-20T20:31:00.002+08:00

In life, many would share the same experience with me. You would meet people that you wish you have met earlier. For such friends, it might usually be that you have something in common and wish you had met earlier so that you have a friend to discuss what you and him/her are passionate about.

Sometime it might be this special person whom you met and wish that you two can be together but alas the person is attached or even worse, married! When you met with this situation, you would wish that you have met this person earlier, so that his/her other half will be you instead. Recently I come across such a situation, she is getting married soon. Yes, she was not married when we met but she was attached already. Yes, many would have told me I should have went after her but she is having a good relationship with her bf, there is no reason for me to go in at all.

Many people would share the sentiments that if I have met her earlier, things would have changed. I might be the better half instead, but if you think again, it might not be true. If I met her earlier, yes, I might be with her but then again, who can say that if we are together, we will be together forever? No one can say for sure, and do note that she would have a different impact in your life if you have met her earlier. Positive or negative impact no one knows at all. And anyway, there is no use to contemplate about whether things would be different or better if met earlier. No use because we cannot go back through time or create hypothetical environment to test out. Focus on what needs to be done now so that you can create the future you want. I think that is most important. =)

For her, I wish you a happy and blissful marriage with full blessings from me. All the best!

Cheers. =)

Challenging Period

2008-08-16T07:50:00.003+08:00

These few weeks have been very challenging, in terms of work, business, study and relationships. Really taxing on the body and mind.

In terms of work, my involvement in work has been greater now since I am close to more than a year in the job and there are now more responsibilities. I have certain expertise that is needed in the department and it is an expertise that I wanted to develop so yes, there is a win-win situation here. I hope that the management is more appreciative of my expertise and show in the renumeration side. Haha! But hei, I am still learning a lot from the job so that is good news but definitely very tired because have been going home quite late.

On the business front, there is one side that is showing a little promise but I have to work on it for quite a while first and cross my fingers that the promise turn into reality. On other fronts, I crossing my fingers it is showing more promise as well. But meanwhile, I am glad that at least one can flower in the new future.

Study wise, well, it is a bit challenging physically having to cope with work and study at the same time. And I decided to push myself a bit more and try to finish the course as soon as possible but of course at a rate that I can take it. Because I feel that taking one or two does not make too much of a difference in terms of extra effort and time so here we go!!

Relationship wise, well have to help two colleagues to work through their problems, but because of the many complications involved, it will be very challenging. Have to be mindful and wise to solve it but well what to do, cos they are my best friends at work as well. The most challenging part is that one of them does not even know she is having a problem. It is like seeing someone walking towards a cliff blindfolded. U cannot tell her there is a cliff in front, so the next best thing is to remove the blindfold for her but then again, she might be holding on to the blindfold and thus it is very difficult on my part to remove it.

There is a lady that I am interested in finding out more but alas, she is so busy with work and because of the limited communication channel, we are not able to communicate more and understand each other better. Well... must try to make this work out so that we can understand each other better.

Challenging weeks ahead looking at this but I will focus on the light at the end of the tunnel, tackle one by one the challenges thrown. I will definitely grow 'rich' from these experience and when I look back at this stage in life, I will feel glad that I have these unique challenges to grow from.

Cheers!

Stay at HOME!?!?!?

2008-07-27T09:28:00.002+08:00

Recently, I have heard that there are people out there who does not really fancy traveling. Wow, actually that really bring me out of my own 'box'. I always thought that people love to travel because during traveling, one see a lot of interesting stuff, can relax, and feel the exhilaration of learning that the world can be so different when you travel more than 100 km in any direction .

For me, the last three trips that I made this year was really wonderful. Yes, there are a few hiccups here and there but it also provides me with lessons on what to look out for when I plan to travel or during traveling. Besides these lessons that I have, it also expanded my horizon and start to see and appreciate what I have in Singapore and also what Singapore is truly lacking in. Some of the assumptions that we have, for instance in Singapore, the Ground Floor is labeled as first storey whereas in Vietnam, the Ground Floor is labeled as GROUND FLOOR! (Duh!) =P.

In Vietnam, crossing the roads truly takes a lot of courage for a first timer Singaporean but once you get the hang of it, it becomes 'fun' and exciting. But no worries, I am not addicted to it and put my life to risk because of that. =P

In US, the coins system are in quarters and pennies, 5 cents and 1 cents, which is totally different to Singapore. And their price listed is without a sales tax. It makes counting the change very difficult, again for a Singaporean who is so used to having coins in the tens.

Seeing the world can also help us to understand the world better and as such using the trends and things that we see and feel to our advantage. I remember a comic that I read before. There is this boy who is learning kungfu from this kungfu master. So in one part, the master is trying to give the boy a life lesson. The master took out a small box, and inside the small box, there is a flea. Next, the master pluck out a flea from the boy's pet monkey. The flea that was from the monkey jumped a taller distance compared to the flea from the box. The master ask the boy to find out why one flea jump higher than the other. After much contemplation, and realising that the flea from the box only jump until the height of the small box, the boy realise that it is the box that restricted the movement of the flea initially, sooner or later because the flea keep on bumping its head on the top of the box, it starts to jump only the height and nothing more.

Same thing applies to us, do you want to put yourself in a box, which is your comfort zone and then work within it or do you want to work on expanding your comfort zone and lead a better life? Where possible, do travel out even though it can be a hassle initially. I am sure what you see outside of Singapore would make you a better person, appreciating what is available in Singapore more and also know what are the assumptions that we have about life and Singapore. And even better what you need to do to realise your dreams!

Still sitting down there for what? Makes plans now! No time or no money is not an excuse. Go out and find them. =P

So my nxt trip would be..... Haha!

Cheers!

'Smooth' Day

2008-07-15T22:27:00.002+08:00

Today is really not a very good day for me. Well this morning, I did not rush for work, I manage to go to work 10 mins earlier than usual. But before I reach the bus stop, the bus that I intended to take reach the bus stop earlier than scheduled. Ok things are still not that bad. I waited for 20 mins before the next bus came which I cannot get on because it is damn full! Ok things are still not that bad. The next bus, as expected, that came was the Express bus which I have to take and pay more and without a seat, compare to the normal service.

Then in the bus, there is this guy who is absolutely very mindless. He was talking to his friends but his stance makes him very unstable. So his body keeps on bumping into mine when the bus makes a brake. And he is still talking to his friend. Hello, can pay attention to surrounding? I wish I could move away but there is not much space in the bus.

Then comes to work, which is not very smooth sailing. But do note that at this time, I still maintain a positive disposition, still seeing that the day will start to turn up well. But at work, I discovered that I missed out certain detail. As such, I have to do it all over again which will take at least a day's effort. :S

Oh well, still maintain positive, but works did not think of it that way. Here made a mistake, there made a mistakes. Although minor but it requires a lot of effort to rectify. So yes in the end , spend the whole day, until 9pm then I manage to clear my 'mistakes' for the day. Wow, my patience really wearing thin already.

Then she said that she waiting for her bf to come and fetch her and take dinner at her home. Ok, no problem, the day is not good already, I kind of accepted it, so let it be. Well, Murphy's Law came into the picture. To make a long story short, I went back home together with her and her bf. That's it!!!!!!

Really tired, sad and ..... Well, 'rojak' feeling but definitely all negative. Makes my stomach very queasy now.

At least tomorrow will be a better day than today. Cheers!

'In' our Life

2008-07-10T23:16:00.001+08:00

In our lifetime, many people enter and leave our lives, be it at work, study or even in our own circle of friends. Each of these friends will definitely cause some impact in your life through their words and actions. Cannot be thoughts because you do not know what they are but their thoughts will most likely be translated into their actions and speech.

These words and actions can serve as lessons for most of us, to understand ourselves better and also the other party as well.To learn from these 'materials', again as I mentioned alot of times, we have to keep our eyes open and our ears wide. But do note that when these data comes in, you have to process it with your wisdom and not with your feelings. If you process it with your feelings, it is very likely that you will take a wrong action given these words and actions. How many times have we seen people did not get the full picture of the situations and react badly to stimulus and in the end regretted their actions. I am sure many of us have come across numerous situations.

As I mentioned before, each person that enter our lives will caused ripples in our lives. Will it be big waves or small ripples, we will never know. Only time can tell you. To look at things in another angle, we should be careful with our actions and words because they might have good or even harmful effect in other people's lives. Ajahn Brahm put it in a good way about speech and that is "If you cannot improve on the silent, please keep quiet." Well said indeed. How many times have we seen wise men talk? They don't speak quite often but when they do, their words are worth more than gold.

Sometimes, our actions and speech does not reach the intended effect or even worse, caused some side effects unintentionally. There is no way you can retract them, so the next best step is to rectify it. This reminds me of a story I heard from a trainer.

The durian is best eaten when it is borne by a 10 year old durian tree. As such when is the BEST time to grow a durian tree? The answer is 10 years ago. But there is not much we can do about it, you can't go back 10 years from now. So when is the next Best time to grow a durian tree? Well, the answer is now.

Yes take action NOW. Make it your best effort in everything you do NOW. If we have make some mistakes, take actions NOW to rectify it. When I said take actions now, I also do not mean taking tangible actions now. As I mentioned in my previous blog entry, the timing of our speech and actions can bring about a huge difference in the results. But key is to start planning and contemplate NOW.

*Major*

Cheers!

Be Careful. We are also Doctors.

2008-07-02T21:23:00.003+08:00

Many a times we would experience some good friends, best friends, acquaintances and family members coming to us and tell us their problems or secrets.

Please remember when they do that, there are two implications here.

Firstly, it is very likely that you will give them your opinion or advise on their problems or secrets. Why I said so is people have a natural tendency to want to feel superior over others. As such, giving advice does seem to help project such an image. Since it is our tendency to do it, please know how to give advice to others. See advice as helping others to see a better picture of their problems, provide them many perspectives as you can think of so that their thoughts and information are better thus making a better decision since he/she has consider more viewpoints as compared when he/she is looking at her problem alone. Please note that as long as your advice is heard, it is very likely that it will have implications on the decision that is made and thus you are, to a extent liable for the decision made. So try your best to give good advice. Besides looking at the short term, you should also help the person see the long term implications of his/her decision, if any. Learn how to give good advice. If you give good advice, you can see yourself surrounded with more friends, because they like to hang out with you, because you make them wiser, wiser with the choice they make.

Second implication is, the person must have placed a certain amount of trust on you, that is why he/she tells you his/her problem. Think of it this way, would you trust your secret or problem with someone you do not trust? So yes, although you do not treat that person as a good friend or best friend, it does not mean that he does not treat you as best friend or good friend. As such, do not betray such trust. True friendship is very difficult to get and foster, so take care to nurture the trust that is given to you.

People seem to come to me with their problems or secrets. Like today, a colleague of mine whom I treat as my sister, told me her secret. I never did ask them to tell me, but most of them would just tell me. I find that amazing and thought of it for a while. That is why I came up with what I have written above. Like the readers to know such implications and will take care of the relationships fostered.

No idea why such things happen but I am glad that my friends trusts me. I really feel rich to have many friends who treat me as good friends. Thank you!

Cheers!

Where is Anger?

2008-06-26T23:04:00.002+08:00

Today was a busy day, I have to attend to two requests today, each requiring a lot of my attention. One task is to help my colleague that I mentioned in my previous blog entry. The task at hand to help her was to look through several online documents, do a cut and paste into another file. Sounds quite easy but it is very tedious and repetitive.

To be honest, such tasks in the past would definitely incur my wrath, I would be grumbling and cursing and .... no lah no swearing, I am civilised u know. Haha! But I realise that I was not angry at all, in fact I am very focused on finishing it asap. Well like all tasks, when you try to rush through, you will make some minor mistakes and would require some time to rectify it and with each mistake, most people in such a repetitive job would be very angry and cursing at each minor mistakes made and clinging on to the time that was spent to rectify these small mistakes.

In my mind, I see thoughts of "Thank goodness, I am the one doing it.", "I should try to do more so that she will not be the one doing it." Seems like I am in a protecting mode. Some readers must be wondering why I said that, or might not be wondering but anyway, she is still recovering from flu and being a nice person I do not want her to be burdened not wanting her to work on it.

With all these thoughts, I did not detect any anger emotions at all. Yes, another self sacrificial attempt again. Mindless? Worth it? Can these two qns be answered when feelings are in the equation? I have no idea. All I wanted was not to burden her so that she can recover faster in time for weekend and ....... spend it with her bf.

She did come and see if I need help, but I refuse her.

I see the need to recover from this illusion but it is a struggle with another part of me that is always self sacrifical for the lady that I loved. I also find it strange that I am able to feel what she feels. As I mentioned before, there seems to be a connection between us, the connection is something I can really feel inside my body. Removing such a connection is like removing a significant part of me. How?

Well wish her quick recovery so that she can enjoy her weekend. Wishing me quick recovery from this illusion. Congrats to me on successfully not watering the 'anger' seeds in me.

Have a good weekend readers! Cheers!

Am I stupid?

2008-06-18T22:43:00.002+08:00

Well having an exam on Saturday morning so as any normal human being, one should be studying every night till Friday rite? Well that is my plan, I want to study tonight for the exam especially when I am already behind schedule. But I choose to give my time to help her.

Some background info. She and I, plus another two team mates are involved in a project and there is something that needs to be completed for the meeting tomolo. She being very responsible stayed back to complete the stuff while the other two colleagues have already gone home. Not required on their part to stayed back anyway. Knowing how she work, she might get too frustrated and cannot think properly through if no one helps to guide her thinking and emotions, I made a 'stupid' decision to stayed back and help her since I have some 'control' over her.

In the end, the work was completed well but came back home late. Now I only have 1 hr to spend on reading the textbook now.

Sigh, how come I choose to sacrifice for someone whom I know we are very unlikely to be together. Am I stupid to make such a decision and in the end jeopardize myself?

I really have a strong tendency to sacrifice for the person I like. Maybe I should really force myself to choose who to make a sacrifice for.

Anyway, good luck to you, another good friend of mine, in your exam preparation.

Cheers! =)

Birthday No. 30, Birthday No. 31.....

2008-06-16T23:22:00.004+08:00

In another 37 minutes, it will be my birthday. The good thing about owning a blog is that you can recollect what happen a year ago or even a few years ago, depending on how long is your blog. So I was going through the June 2007 entries and have a look.

Well a year can be short, it can be long, but many things have happened. A year ago, I was head over heels of an illusion that I am not able to grasp, was forced to leave a place that I loved, and is happily writing blog with two entries in a day. A year has past this is what happened, I am head over heels over another illusion that I know I will not be able to grasp for now, but this time the illusion is something that is really better than the previous illusions that I am contend with. Is this fickle minded? Is my love not steadfast? What about this current illusion? Am I not true?

To be honest, this illusion is something I 100% wish with all my heart that it will turn into reality. The feeling for this illusion is much stronger than the previous illusion that I have a year ago, but alas, timing is all wrong. If only...... well here I go again, if "if only" happens, I might not even come across this illusion at all. =) Another birthday where I am lonely, without that special someone to celebrate together with me. Sometimes I wonder, am I getting so used to holding on to illusions, it has become my reality instead, that I will never be able to hold on to reality anymore. At least this birthday is like other birthdays that I have, where good friends and family gather to celebrate for me.

As I write this blog, tears wells up in my eyes. Will the next few birthdays be the same as the last few birthdays that I celebrate? In my heart, there is a great yearning to be with that special someone but Life make such a wish, always seems so near and yet it is truly so far.

Year in year out. My weekends are also the same more or less, but much busier now given the fact that I am studying for my MBA now and also there are new business projects with better potential coming up compared to what happen in my previous birthday.

What kind of life will I be leading in the next few birthdays? A life of all rounded success? A life of regrets? A life of hanging on "If only" and not letting go of it? Whatever the outcome should be, I know I have the power to change it by making it possible for my desired outcome to become reality.

The funny thing in life is we are the script writer of our life but the difference between a life scriptwriter and a drama scriptwriter is whatever the drama scriptwriter writes, it WILL turn out the way he wrotes, whereas a life scriptwriter, it can turn out the way he wrotes.

What will my next birthday be like? =)

Cheers!

Adrenaline Rush

2008-06-11T23:30:00.002+08:00

Yesterday, I gave another first time away. And that is, it was the first time I gamble on soccer. Yes, I place some bets before hand but the results of those bet will not come until the end of Euro 2008. Yesterday the bet that I placed was for matches on that day. Anyway, I did not place a lot on it. Only put in the smallest bet allowed to have some fun in it. It was money I could afford to lose.

But this few dollars bought be great lessons which are quite worth it. First thing is I am quite surprised that betting can cause so much stir and excitement that other people would also like to join in. Because one colleague of mine who never follows soccer saw us (three of us including me) placed bets on soccer, so the excitement rub off on her and she also placed a bet as well.

Lesson no 1: So gambling can really be contagious because of the excitement.

This morning when I wake up, my mind and emotion is eagerly, enthusiastically, 'passionately' wanted to find out what is the result of the match that I betted on. It makes me very excited and want to find out the result as fast as possible. This feeling of excitement wanting to know the results can really be addictive and I believe this is one of the feeling that gambling addicts are looking for.

Lesson no 2: Gambling is addictive because of the excitement when the result is in the process of coming out.

I can go onto lesson no. 3 but it is not something that I experience but it is something that I thought of. If a person actually did won some money out of it, it whets the person appetite to bet bigger and more because there is a direct correlation between the excitement that you get and the amount you betted, and when you actually did win something, the winnings become the cherry that on top of the nice ice cream cone that you have. It makes your experience even better and more addictive. And with that you will be in the trap and difficult to come out of it.

Please please, refrain from betting money that you cannot afford. In fact, as much as possible try not to gamble. We have seen what damages addictive gambling can do to a happy family. And if you do gamble and won some money, please think of the less fortunate and donate some of your earnings to charity. If you did not win anything, congratulations, you are at the moment safe from the trap or not too deep in the trap and still can come out.

Cheers!

The fault is with you lah!

2008-06-04T22:39:00.002+08:00

Went to the World Book Fair today, my second trip for this exhibition, this time round, I make my way around the Children's section. Why is because the colleague I am accompanying is looking for some learning resources for her kids.

I was going through some of the space there and they have some testimonials from customers which are of course, parents. One of the testimonials I look at was, "I started my kids education even before he comes out. I started reading to him stories so that he have a headstart."

Wah, nowadays, the parents so afraid that their kids will lose out, they started educating them even before they are born to this world. If that is the case, and we move down the timeline, to gain an the greatest edge, the baby should be, immediately after conceived, educated. Correct? Let's be cheeky a bit and add in a bit of biology here. We inherit our genes from our parents, and when we teach our kids, we are teaching from our learning experience, which means to really give an edge to our child, we should start LEARNING!!!!

So are you learning? Then let move down the timeline even further, your parents and grandparents would have determine your child's potential because they decide your potential and you decide how much of potential you realise. Which means we are looking at our past, which we cannot touch anymore. So......

You get the point here? Just let go and when your child is born into this world, teach him to seek the truth and how to seek the truth. Only then would he have an edge over other people because he will be able to learn what he wants, be passionate about it, be expert in it and have an enjoyable learning process. Is that not great? Think about it.

Meanwhile to gain an edge based on the logic I said just now, start learning! =P

Cheers!

A world without time

2008-05-31T07:25:00.001+08:00

Would like to share some thoughts on a common experience for most people. Two days ago, I forgot to wear my watch to work. We all know that the function of the watch is to tell us where we are on a timeline in a day. So you will know whether you are late or not. So for that day, when I realize that I forgot to bring my watch, my measurement scale is lost. I suddenly do not have the concept of whether I am late or not.

Since I do not have such a notion anymore, things suddenly look like it has slowed down. I took my time to walk to the bus stop. But I was lucky as well, the bus did not take long to reach my bus stop, but as for how long, I have no idea because I do not have a watch.

But things got back to normal when I reach my workplace, because at the workplace, I have a watch that is found at the bottom of most desktop computer, assuming you are using the Windows OS. So every affair is a mad rush again, working according to schedule.

But once I got off from work, again there is no rush anymore. I took my time to reach my bus stop and waited for my bus to come. There are no thoughts like “It has been five minutes already. How come the bus is still not here?” or “What is taking this bus so long, I have been waiting here for 15 mins already!!”

If the readers notice, the watch actually provide us with a relative truth, as in where we stand on a day’s timeline. It makes us become clearer as to how much we are losing and so on. If this concept of measurement is gone from our life, similar to me not wearing watch for that day, your day changes. You can start to do things at your own pace, be at peace with yourself and start to be mindful of what you do instead of concentrating whether you stand in the timeline.

Try a day without your watch. You might find yourself at peace with what you are doing and you might actually excel in the tasks that you undertake that day.

Cheers!

Sticky sticky!

2008-05-27T20:41:00.003+08:00

I am sure most of us have tried to kick a bad habit. For instance, to get rid of that addiction of cigarettes, watching soccer, reading books, gambling and so on. It can really get very annoying in the first place because suddenly the thing that you want to get rid of gets to pop up very often, more often when you have not decide to kick it, or still indulging in it.

Well it happen to me as well. But mine is not something that is an inanimate thing like a book or a smoke where as long as you maintain a distance for the longest period, you will be able to kick it, not addicted to it.

Haha, this might sound confusing to readers but if you have follow what I have written so far, I am sure you know what I mean. Not to be 'addicted' about it would take greater effort because firstly I cannot stay a distance because that could cause an effect on other areas of my life. That is one challenge, so I have to be continuously 'exposed' to it.

The thing is when I am exposed to it, I keep on finding more things that we agree upon, more similarities in our thinking and preference and how good at pointing out a different perspective of looking at things for me. Of course, this is not something like what Ajahn Brahm said that before marriage, we always see the beautiful side of our partner but once we get married and gets into a quarrel, we start to dwell on their ugly side and forget that it was a few months ago we married "The most beautiful lady/The most handsome man on Earth!"

I also saw the weaknesses that she have and actually have pointed it out to her and help to rectify it. Every time I find out the similarity that we have, the more difficult it is for me to 'tear' myself off, because I am amazed at how much we agree upon. Every time we discuss something, she is able to point out a different but credible perspective for me to contemplate. That is why I like to discuss issues with her, cos it set me thinking and in more interesting point of view. Each discussion or chat that I have her, makes me yearn more that we can be together. And it also makes me treasure whatever time we have together.

Today, something great happen to me, my group assignment actually scored a distinction. The first person I want to share my joy with is her. And sometime when I start trading 'insults' with a colleague, to liven up the situation, she will also tried to help me and put in good words for me so that my colleague will have 'mercy' on me. =)

Why let me know her? Why?!?!

Have to continue to 'forget' about her and move on.

Anyway, would like to share a song with all readers. I am sure one of my best friend would find this song familiar. Yes it is the ending song of Healing Hand III. And I am dedicating this song to her although she will not be able to hear it. =)

To other readers, have fun with the rest of week. Cheers!

To pursue or not to pursue

2008-05-20T22:14:00.003+08:00

We have watch a lot of drama. Be it in real life or in the idiot box that we have at home. I am sure there is this sentence that resonates in many people, especially me and that is "You have to fight for the things you want!"

If only things are that simple. Yes, we can fight for things we want by taking actions that we are confident will achieve the result that we want, in this case getting the things we want. But one must realise we work in an interconnected world. Yes, one action can lead to achieving the results that we want but usually actions we take in our life radiate out, meaning there are other consequences that accompany with the action.

So yes, as much as I would like to fight for the things I want, I think I should need to consider the other consequences that might accompany the action I would like to take. Haha, yes I did promise to myself that if I met the perfect girl, I would fight for it but I have look at things to simplistically. Current situation and my circumstances really does not allow me to fight for what I want.

Only thing I can do is to offer help whenever she needs, offer a listening ear when she needs. Shoulder can be offered only when she requested but that is only when I heard a straight request. Again, playing the behind the scene, supporting role. =). If only......

Every "If only..." statement can be made but must let go because when one make a sentence, we are always looking at the past where we cannot change at all.

Every "I wish...." statement made only goes to show there is suffering because you have not get what you want, an unmet desire.

I think for now, I can only be by her side but not "by her side". Haha, don't know what I mean? Maybe a little contemplation is in order.

Wonder when I can finally become the main character? Cheers! =)

One event, two associations

2008-05-15T22:34:00.002+08:00

Hello readers, I am fine. No worries. Just very sad and frustrating that something that I look fwd to since it was announced was taken from me without much warning. It was something that I tried my best to arrange it, within my means but as a Chinese saying goes "To plan is human, to succeed is Heaven". But anyway, this is not what I want to talk abt, since I have talk abt it yesterday.

Today, one of my colleague share with me something which I feel should share my thoughts with the readers and the 'future' me. One of the family member of my colleague went overseas yesterday. Now because last time when someone in her family went overseas, something very bad happened. This lead her mind to think, that this time round, something could happen. And her mind started to make up many possibilities and these possible situations become from bad to worse as she think more abt it. As usual, I offer her my opinion.

I told her, yesterday, I have a family member that also went overseas. But I did not worry about it. Not because that this family member is not important. It is just because of the interpretation of the situation that is different. Her mind being naughty associated the event that her family member once go overseas, there is a high possibility that something bad have happen. Whereas for me, my association is my family member will have a good time there and will buy something for me when she is back. =)

So I told her, as long as she starts to dis-associate this thinking that her mind has with the event. Then there is no worry to have. As always, the 'wise' one is correct, and she agrees with the wise one. Haha! Glad to be of help to her.

I hope the readers see what I am driving at. If not, just drop me a comment, and I am willing to explain more.

Cheers!

Why?

2008-05-14T23:25:00.003+08:00

Today was a very bad day for me. I did not do anything on what I set out to do today because I have to tend to other urgent matters which does not really value add to the company that I am currently working in.

What is worst is that something that I have looked forward to greatly, was taken away from me. = ( I was looking fwd to it for a very long time since it was announced until the news came in today. I was devastated (no, I did not exaggerate, I am) when I heard about it but I cannot show my displeasure. I have to 'swallow' it down. I am very sad now that it is made known to me, but there is nothing much I can do. Should I say that I should expect it because this pattern of things keep on repeating itself in my Life? But how am I to know that it will turn out this way? I really want the vicious cycle to stop but whenever I am hopeful things will improve, someone out there like to punch it and make a big mess of it.

Sigh! Have to stop here. This is really a bad week.

Cheers! (At least must manage a smile at the end) =)

Give me an Excuse

2008-05-12T20:35:00.003+08:00

Today, I am very angry at myself. Why? Well, I look back at what I have achieved so far in life, after two years of pursuit, what I envision I would be now two years ago, compare to the actual situation now, seems so different. Argh!!!

Business wise, it is moving very slowly. Too slow in my opinion, I am working hard to make things happen faster but then there is a limit to how much I can push myself. Love life? What more can I say, I met the ideal girl but I cannot go after her because I do not want 'trouble' and she is attached. All I can say, we are now very good friends. She shares her secrets with me, shares what problems she met, shares her happy moments in the office with me, even what happens to her bf (not everything, of course). This is how Life plays the joke on me! Let me know the ideal girl, become good friends and colleagues but CANNOT move forward! Shucks! Torturous! Must try to laugh it off. =)

I also feel that there are so many things beyond my control. Best friend wedding at the end of the year, but I cannot attend because of my MBA time-table issue. Money seems to be flowing out faster, cannot find a meal during lunch time that can keep me full till dinner time. Am trying to live within budget because I have to save for the MBA tuition fees, but it has become really challenging. Maybe I should get a smaller belt. The MBA program allowed me to have a more disciplined learning, but it is tiring me out because of the amount of readings, grp meetings and assignments! Want to have a rest also very difficult to find time to rest! I do not regret taking the MBA but I wish I can have a proper rest now.

Ok finish complaining! Now comes something more useful for my readers, since they have sit through my complaints. In life, we always know that we need to fight for what we want or I assume more people does. For instance, you want to ask someone if he or she will help. You know that you need to open your mouth and ask otherwise how would the person know you need his/her help. I wonder if the following is familiar to you. Have you come across a time when you needed something from someone, say for instance you need to borrow $50 from a friend, to buy that particular gift for your spouse? Now even before you start to open your mouth, your mind starts to give you a lesson in "1001 reason why you cannot borrow $$ from good friends" "No lah, properly he does not have enough money for me?", "No lah, he very busy now. I do not want to disturb him." "No lah, he might charge me an interest.".

Before you even attempt to tempt probability, you already eliminated the chance of getting what you want by YOU, yourself, helping that person to find excuses to reject your request. Don't you find it ridiculous? You, yourself, kill your chance of succeeding!! Remember, don't kill yourself, don't give so much excuses. As Nike says, "Just Do It" and then let the fate decide if you will succeed or not.

Ok, before I end this blog entry, would like to leave readers with this song that I come across in Youtube. I am sure most people are familiar with this song. The title is "How Do I Live" Like to dedicate this song to someone but I guess she will never hear of it, but anyway, no excuse given! I am dedicating this song to YOU. =) And for readers, thanks again for listening to my complaints. I hope the lesson above is enough to pay you for your attention.

Cheers!

Pay Me

2008-05-06T20:57:00.002+08:00

Life sometimes crack jokes, and my advice to people when they found that Life has cracked a joke on you, just laugh it off and continue with life lah =)

Yesterday, when I came back, I came across this song. This song resonates in me so I decide to share it with readers. Song title is "I Finally Found Someone" sang by Barbara Streisand & Bryan Adams. This song came at the appropriate time when my good friend decided to break this impt news to me, and that he is getting married. So good friend, would like to dedicate this song to you and your future wife. Really happy for you'll. And yes, appreciate greatly that I am the first few people to know, although I miss the chance to be the first. (Haha, me Singaporean mah! Kiasu! Haha!)

Ok the main task is done. Next comes the topic of the blog. Any idea what is the cheapest way to make someone happy? Well I personally think it is to pay someone a compliment. Of course one must pay a compliment that is true to his/her heart otherwise people will think that he/she is a hypocrite, so yes there is an art of paying compliment. Paying compliment 'correctly' will make one very popular, because people like to be around you, because they are comfortable, in fact happy when they are around you. It also foster relationship as well.

As we all know, if the relationship is stronger, it is easier to get help when you need one. All because you bother to take notice of the goodness of people and make known to his/her that he has done well.

Haha, why I was saying this is because I forgot to pay someone a compliment =P. Very bad of me. It makes me contemplate about paying compliments and its implications. Haha! When I contemplate about it, I finally realise that I "gave up" a chance to make someone happy and in terms the following chain of people whom she is going to spread her happiness to. Well, have a colleague who recently went to do her hair up and when she came back, she really look very beautiful. I guess too beautiful, that is why I forgot to pay her a compliment. Until when I was going back home, then I realise I forgot to pay the compliment but alas she is going for course and will not be around for the next few days. I guess would be quite strange to pay her a compliment about her when she come back next week.

Why not make it a habit to pay someone a compliment? Be quick about it though because the window of opportunity to pay someone a compliment closes fast. Go ahead, make someone day. Don't worries if people give u a strange look, I am sure at least when you have paid a compliment that is true to your heart, you will feel happy. At least don't lose out right? Haha!

Cheers!

Down but not out

2008-05-05T20:35:00.002+08:00

These few days have been getting the blues (since Friday, if my mindfulness did not fail me). Not that the workload has gotten heavier but somehow or rather, I just do not feel that things are great =)

Haha, for most people,most people will feel the blue on Monday because they have to go back to work after a weekend of fun, but for me all days, no matter weekend or weekdays just feel the same for me so what is Monday blues to me? But today, I just cannot lift up my spirits to 'face' the world. In fact, I just feel like wanting to hide somewhere and be alone for a while. That is why today at work I try to be 'alone' sitting quietly at my desk and try as much as possible to interact less with my colleagues. I guess no one detected by 'strangeness' cos no one approach and ask me what happen. Either I can get a nomination at the Oscars or my colleagues are just .... my colleagues =)

Whatever the case maybe, I hope that I can get out of it soon and hope that it does not come back anymore. Cos it is really difficult to work when I am feeling the blues. The worst is I cannot even pinpoint why I am feeling this way. If I can, that would be easy. Anyway, have to force myself and get back to work, otherwise I am behind schedule.

Blue cheers! =)

Raring to Go

2008-04-24T20:57:00.002+08:00

Haha, I know most of you people are going to say I am crazy, but I am raring to go for another trip again! Yes, I want to travel again. The whole situation is very funny. Let me put in more details.

I am sure most people would know that I went for three trips within a span of three months. For most people, that is a crazy and not a lot of people dare to do it but hei, I did it! Hehe!But after I came back from my US trip, I have to admit that I was very tired. I guess going to a temperate country, which is so different from Singapore and also I have to deal with a 12 hr jet lag can really take a toll on my body. So the first two weeks while I am back in Singapore, I was very tired and was telling everyone that I doubt I will be going for another trip so soon. But hei, it has been three weeks since and I have a strong craving to travel again! =P But I doubt I can satisfy this craving lah with the starting of my MBA course.

But with the start of my MBA course, I am also raring to go. Yes, finally I feel 'alive' again because I am into learning mode again. Last week was my first intensive. Although, there are a lot of readings, I kind of enjoy reading them because I get an adrenaline rush from the learning what is inside the reading.

So yes, it ignite my 'extinguished' fire of learning again so I am enthusiastically seeking more journal articles to read and also are more focus on my reading and I seem to be able to absorb what I read better. So cheers to that!

Ok I have to go do my readings and enjoy learning and being busy! Cheers!

Back from USA, NYC

2008-04-09T20:57:00.002+08:00

Hello all, apologies for taking so long to update my blog. Well have been back in Singapore for slightly more than a week, since I am back from New York City. Yes, I went to another country almost immediately after I come back from Vietnam. Haha, my friends and family members said that I am crazy to go for two trips within a short span of time. But hei I made it back although it is really very tiring to do it. At least I can claim that I have done some crazy stuff when I was young. Haha.

Well the NYC tour was quite successful although most people claim that it is not when I told them that I did not go to the Statue of Liberty and to the top of the Empire State Building. But I think it is quite successful but definitely it can be better. Why I said it is successful is because I was able to immerse into the culture of US, understand their culture and I love the architecture there. How modern buildings 'interweave' with old buildings. Their old buildings have great architecture and took many photos of it.

Over there the currency for coins they used are the following (something that is not surprising since I read a lot of Archie Comics which is typically the embodiment of US culture): Quarters (25 Cents), dimes (10 Cents), 5 cents and pennies (1 cent). Can you imagine a Singaporean who is so used to the 50,20, 10,5 cents having to check whether we receive the change correctly, or using their coins to pay them correctly.

They also have a buffet style cafeteria but take note, you do not pay one lump sum and take all you want. The way they charge for food is you take all you want and put them on the weighing machine and you pay accordingly. Yes. That is the way they charge which I think is good for individuals. If you are a big eater you pay more, instead of a buffet style where the small eater ends up subsidising the big eaters. (Something coming from a big eater must be shocking rite? =P)

Well, I would love to go back to New York again but maybe I should throw in other cities as well and most importantly is to make sure I go in a conducive weather. I went at a time when it is winter entering spring but it was quite cold. The temperature does not give the full picture of the weather there. The wind makes everything very cold. The minute I step out of the hotel, my eyes start to water because it dry up very fast. I was wearing so much clothings on myself and was walking most of the time so it was very tedious. So yes, the next time I go there would be either spring or summer. I rather be too hot then too cold =P.

Ok have to end here, starting my MBA course soon, yes, I am going back to studying. I know there would be a lot of reading but I did not expect that much when I got the course materials for ONE module, my starting module =S. I will become more busy so I guess might not update my blog that often. Will try my best to update whenever possible.

Cheers!

Back from Ho Chi Minh

2008-03-19T21:22:00.002+08:00

Haha, did not realise that I have not written my blog for more than 2 weeks! Wow.

Anyway, I just came back from Ho Chi MInh City. A very disorderly place I would say. Things are very haphazard and very disorderly so much so that 'orderliness' is a very rare thing there. But this trip open up my horizon. Some assumptions that we have taken for granted are broken when I was there. For example, in Singapore, the traffic are very orderly and each motorist or pedestrian has its own personal space. But in Ho Chi Minh, those that are riding scooters are the lowest of the hierarchy in terms of users of roads. At the turnaround, you cannot expect that the vehicles are moving in a smooth flow because a scooter, bike (I mean two wheels non-motorised one) and cars can come from any direction at the turnaround and the best part is you can see the local people playing 'capteh' (feathered stuff with a rubber base, it is a kampong game that is played using the legs similar to sepak takraw.)

Food was good but not really that cheap. It is only cheap for those that has a iron stomach because hygiene is found at the back of ALL hawkers mind. The Vietnamese people are very pratical in terms of using their motorbikes or scooters. They can practically use it to transport everything and I am not joking. I saw them transport large piece of mirror, LCD TV and large refrigerator. Yes!!! Haha, and not forgetting food stuff that they want to sell without any cover at all. So can you imagine your food having a layer of exhaust fume on top of it. Hehe!

Over there the people do not say sorry when they bump to each other. You will always be on the losing end if you give way often. You will not get anywhere if you do that. I also got into the act of bargaining for things that I want. Wow, a lot of techniques and skills involve and I am glad I have done it. It is a very enriching and exciting experience.

Ok have to stop here. Will write down more abt my trip when I have the time! Cheers!

Points of View

2008-03-04T22:04:00.002+08:00

Another paragraph from the same book that I want to share with everyone. Hope it increase your understanding of this reality we are in.

"Relatively speaking, there are right views and there are wrong views. But if we look deeply, we see that all view are wrong views. No view can ever be the truth. It is just from one point; that is why it is called a 'point of view'. If we go to another point, we will see things differently and realize our first view was not entirely right."

Another food for thought! Again, do share your comments on this. It would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers!

An idea of Happiness

2008-03-03T22:01:00.002+08:00

Like to share a paragraph from a book which I am reading now. "The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching" by Thich Nat Hanh.

I shan't explain the paragraph, just want to share the meaning of the paragraph. Here goes!

"We have an idea of happiness. We believe that only certain conditions will make us happy. But it is often our very idea of happiness that prevents us from being happy."

Do share with me your thoughts on this paragraph. =)

Cheers!

Have I told you lately that I love you?

2008-02-28T22:11:00.002+08:00

Ok today I went home early and alone today and was watching what was on TVmobile while listening to the radio again. Haha, not being mindful on what I needed to do, but hei my comfort zone and I did some connection with myself again yesterday already although I know I should have done it as often as possible.

Anyway, was watching the drama on the TVmobile and the storyline of the drama has developed to the point where one of the male lead, although he loved another lady but did not dare to tell her because they have a misunderstanding. But he was out there fending for her, taking care of her, preventing her from being cheated. In the end, because of a freak accident and the lady was a paramedic, she was dead before the male lead is able to say that three words. The moment the news of the girl's death was released to the male lead, the male lead cried. Well why he cried I have no idea, because of anguish or regret? The minute I saw the male lead cried, this song came to my mind.

When was the last time you tell someone that you love him/her? To your parents, grandparents, spouse, kids, your boss (not kidding), your colleagues, your friends or the lady/guy that you secretly admire. Ok lah, no need to say that you 'love' him/her but at least have paid a compliment to them?

Pick up that phone or start drafting a short email and write something nice or simply say "I love you." It only takes a while but it makes you feel connected with this world, feel happy that you have created more happiness in this world because all people like to be loved and when they know that someone loved them, they will be very happy. Stop reading it and start doing it!

But I also understand that saying the three words have some implications as well for instance. If that is the case don't rush your decision. But when the opportunity comes, do strike! If there is no opportunity, then wait, because changes is everywhere, you never know when the opportunity comes.

Cheers!

False Happiness

2008-02-27T21:40:00.006+08:00

Heard this song when I went back home today. Today I have to go back home alone, so I have some time to myself, to connect to myself. As I put on my MP3 player to listen to the radio, this song came up, Richard Marx-Right Here Waiting

I know it is an old song but it never fails to tug my heart strings although at the moment now I have no one to sing this song too. =P

Oh before I carry on with this blog entry, I would like to recommend a book to all readers. I have read only a few pages of it but I benefited greatly from it and I am sure most people would love the book as well, because it serves as a reminder to the reason why we are on this earth. Check the book out. It consists of many short stories so should be easy read for readers. The book is titled "Who will cry when you die?" by Robin Sharma.

Anyway, the main point of this blog. Was having a 'nice' dream yesterday. I dreamt that I finally have a gf and it is my dream (no pun intended) girl. (Haha, can see that I am desperate hor? No lah, of cos not. I don't have control what I dreamt)

The minute that I dreamt that I held her hands, I can actually feel the adrenaline rush through my body. But then, I begin to realize that this is all a dream, indulging in it would definitely make me feel good for the day, but I also realise that given my character, it would make me more attach to my dream girl because I know given the current situation, it is difficult to have her as a gf. So given this thought that I have, I woke up immediately. Yes, I am sure a lot of readers would say, why not carry on? There is no harm, since cannot have her as a gf in reality, at least can have her as a gf in my dreams. But like I said, I know myself. It would only make me think of my current situation now and then start 'torturing' myself. Haha, I do admit that I have some regrets for waking up from such a GREAT dreams. But I know I made a right decision by waking up from it instead of indulging. I am not going to trade a few minutes of non-concrete happiness for a few days worth of unhappiness.

Anyway, the dream's detail did stay in my mind vividly. My skin can actually feel her touch even till now, see how the mind can play great tricks on you. We all know that when we dream, it is very difficult to remember the full details of the dreams, like what clothes you wear, what conversation you have and so on, but for me this whole dream has full details as though it really did happen in my life, like what clothes she and I wear, where we went, what we did and so on. So much so like I mentioned just now I can 'feel' her.

Ok why I am writing this is to show the readers, how your mind can play tricks on you, for instance I can 'feel' the touch, remember the full details including feelings and emotions. The best 'defense' against it is to stay mindful about the situation and not be tricked by it.

Cheers! =)

Weekday --> Weekend, Weekend --> Weekday

2008-02-24T18:27:00.002+08:00

Time passes so fast, Sunday is going to end soon and the start of another week is approaching us in less than 6 hrs time.

I think most of the readers would know that to me, the weekdays and the weekends does not matter too much in my life, because weekdays and weekends, I am working day in and day out. Either on work, on my business or on my wisdom.

But actually there is a bit of difference. I am always looking forward to weekends because that is a time where I can do the stuff that I want or read the book that I want to read, pursue the knowledge in the area that interest me at the moment. But at the same time when Friday comes, I kind of miss the weekdays, where I am working. Haha, thoughts sure can play tricks on people. I guess the reason why such thing is happening is because although we do not like work, it is pain that is within our comfort zone, something which is bearable and familiar to us. Now of course that does not mean I want to keep on be in a 'weekday'. The thought of it shudders me. It is always good to take a break from routine work and gather ourselves.

When we do cross over to weekends, we seem to be able to settle in fast because we broke off from shackles of work, the smell of freedom quickly excites our body and we party and enjoy our freedom to the fullest during the weekend. I love my weekend, because that is the time where I learn the most things, not that during weekdays, I would put off my learning. Just that during the weekends, I do most of my reading and pursuit of knowledge and wisdom like going to the temple to listen to something practical that I can use in my current life. Weekends is the time where I usually meet my friends as well, to catch up on what they have done during the week. With the Internet now, even when we do not meet physically, we are able to chat and catch up without making too much of an effort to arrange a meeting. But then I also look forward to work when the weekend is about to end! Hmmm.....

Oh well, I guess it is like the feeling of coming home, when weekend switch to weekdays. It is going back to our comfort zone, to be back in routine, to feel that you are contributing, adding value to society.

Well, no matter weekdays or weekends, I hope readers are not just seeing their life passes by. Weekend might be a good time to decide are you moving towards what you want in your life? The lifestyle you want, the contributions you want to make to this society, the level of wisdom you want to achieve and so on.

Only by considering all these would you not see your life pass by and weekends & weekdays would not be too much of a difference to you. Cheers!

Back in Sg

2008-02-13T21:09:00.003+08:00

Hello all, apologies, took me such a long time to update my blog. First thing first, Happy Lunar New Year Everyone. Secondly, Have a Happy Valentine's Day tomorrow!

Been pretty busy these few days, because I have been planning my trip and just came back from Brisbane! Yeah!!!! Haha, after two long years, I have finally got to travel again. 10 days in Brisbane City. Haha! It feels great! The food and fruit is so good. The burger is tastier than our local fast food chain. After I tasted the burgers there, I think Singapore's burger sucks! =P So small and so few variety inside. Only have tomatoes, vegetables and meat patty. The burgers in Aussies have the following and pineapple rings and beetroot to go with it! Wow!!!! Well it does costs more but I would gladly pay that price again to eat it! Quality and quantity more than compensates for the difference in price. =D

After I tasted the food in Aussie, I think Singapore food really sucks. =P Oh how I miss the food in Singapore. And the lifestyle there is not hectic at all. Not like Singapore where you have to rush through your work, travel, breakfast and practically everything in your life. There is so slow, I see non unhappy faces during the peak hours compared to Singapore where I saw a lot of unhappy and sleepy faces.

Anyway, I think I like the lifestyle there. At least there are really good things in life that are free, like the BBQ pit. They have BBQ pits along Kangaroo Point which overlooks the Brisbane City. Wow, having BBQ meat, red wine with a good of friends and having the night view of the Brisbane City in the background. Wonderful!!!

Haha... do not think I can stop cos there is so much to rave about Brisbane, just like when I just came back from Taiwan. Our govt ask us to step out more so that we can appreciate what we have in Singapore. And they are right. The only thing I appreciate about Singapore is that our plain water is tastier than Brisbane water. Haha! Ok have to stop here otherwise this would become a storybook abt my trip in Brisbane. Haha!

Cheers!

Wind in my Hair

2008-01-25T21:22:00.000+08:00

Well today is a Friday and I did not went back with the company of my colleague because she have appointment. Hahaha, poor me have no appointment. =P

Every time when we went back home from work, we always quicken our pace because we want to reach our comfort zone fast. But have you ever slow down and take a leisure stroll back to your place from your bus stop?

Well I decide to do it, taking a very slow 10 mins walk from my bus stop to my home. Well, it felt good and there is the evening breeze to compliments the scenery around my place. It was nice and things look clearer and brighter although it is the night time. I enjoyed the evening breeze that went through my short hair and it felt really good. Enjoying the each present moment of my walk.

Try taking a slow walk back to your home from the bus stop. You might notice more beautiful things around you. I know I did.

Cheers!

Susah Mengerti

2008-01-16T22:09:00.001+08:00

In life, there are some things that are really very difficult to understand. Why it is so could be because we are ignorant at the moment of some things. Meaning we do not have a big enough information set to make a good judgment of the situation.

There is this person in my life now. With her, I always feel very comfortable and happy. When dealing with other people whom I have not known for long, my guard against the person is usually very high, and I do mean very high, being mindful what I say to a person. But for her, my guard is usually down. I feel that I can chat with her about anything. And she does reciprocate back by telling me more stuff abt herself like her problems.

I want the best for her and always think of how to make her happy. And I always look out for her, make sure for her, things are as smooth as possible, as long as it is within my means. Her smile will at least give me energy and her smile will always add some spice and live to our conversation. It is something that I never felt with other girls that I like at all.

The breakthrough in the motivation level that I have been seeking have now been found because I truly want the best for her, and to do that means I have to work hard on making my other businesses pick up so that I have the means to do it.

So is this 'love' instead of 'like'? Because I have never felt like this for a girl at all. Even for girls that I have identified as 'Like' or those that are already attached. Seriously I have no idea, where this flow is moving to. It is so difficult to foresee the future when I know that she is attached but there are no plans of marriage in her relationship as yet. The 'weather' in the future is a thick mist that no one can see it. I think this is really what Buddhism meant by impermanence because we can only be sure of the present moment and no one can be sure of the next 'present moments' that is to come.

I will only understand such feeling and thoughts if I am not ignorant about it but as human, I am. No one can understand what is the difference between between like and love or is there such a person who do? No idea.

Anyway, I am glad that my two good friends are attached and one of them have marriage plans in their relationship.

Cheers!

It's coming to me now!

2008-01-12T17:49:00.000+08:00

Something happen to me that is worthy of putting it in a blog. Yesterday, two things happened but I will not be mentioned here. These two things happened and brought my mood down to the lowest for the year 2008. I know why it did so and I saw it coming actually or at least one of them but they weren't what I expected, it was 'worst'. So I need to sort them out on my own. So during the bus ride home, I started to sort out my thoughts and focus on these issues.

During the bus ride, the environment did not make it conducive for sorting because the bus was packed and noisy. So I decide to start focus because I was determined to sort out the thoughts and expectations. I begin by detaching myself from the environment, by not 'disturbing' the environment. Slowly but surely, everything suddenly becomes very quiet, and I started to get into this calm and peaceful state.

Ok then I started to straighten my thoughts by first asking myself why I am not in a good mood and list down mentally why this is so. After I have made a mental list of why I am not in a good mood, I started to break these reasons and assumptions down, because they are quite 'unreasonable'. Then later I started inserting new reasons and assumptions that I should be in a good mood. Strange thing is when I started inserting new assumptions and put in a strong faith of 'something', things began to change very dramatically. Suddenly I feel I am on top of the hill again, have a strong self confidence and also I started to have the motivation level that I have never felt before in my life. Yes, I have finally attained a higher level of motivation. So much so I really got onto my work since yesterday till now, very concentrated on my work, of course with the occasional break to keep myself going. Haha, yes, writing this entry is a break for me. I will be going back to working on my dreams soon!

I have this strong faith also that this motivation level going to last long because I have found its source. And this faith is built on top of another faith.

Anyway, just want to share with the readers my thought process so they can use it in their life when they need to sort out some thoughts and contemplations.

Like I mentioned, this is going to be a superb 2008 and I have already embarked on a project that I believe can help me achieve my New Year Resolution, because of this high level of motivation.

Cheers! =)

Death

2008-01-05T21:47:00.000+08:00

Haha, after my last blog entry, I think this title make many readers stand up, because this title is the last subject many readers would have thought about after such an upbeat entry. I think the reason would be because death is such a taboo subject, especially we are an Asian society. In an Asian society, death should not ever be mentioned for the reason that it might just happen the minute you mentioned it.

Well, what is death? Death to me, means that my life in this body has ended and it is time to advance to another realm. But does that mean that I will just be another name in the long list of death certificates to be issued? Not really if we do something about this life. Remember I mentioned something about an ideal funeral?

I would also like to bring the readers' attention to this verse in the Analects of Confucius. Note that although it comes from the Analects, it is not quoted from Confucius but from Zeng Zi.

English: Zeng Zi said "Everyday I examine myself on three counts. In what I have undertaken on other's behalf, did I not I not do my best? In my dealings with friends, have I failed to be trustworthy in what I say? Have I failed to practise repeatedly what I have learned?

Modern: 曾子曰：“我每天常三次反省我自己。我替人谋事，没有尽我的心吗？我和朋友相交，又不信实的吗？我所传授于人的，有不是我自己所日常讲习的吗？

Original: 曾子曰：“吾日三省吾身为人谋而不忠乎？与朋友交而不信乎？传不习乎？”

If you look at the first question, it is has tell us how we should live our lives, we should do our best and live every moment to the fullest. Give it our best in every moment we are alive in this world. Only then can we say that we have tried our best in achieving our dreams.

We all know that in order not to waste the life that we have now, we should live it to the fullest and live like there is no tomorrow. If most of us have this knowledge, how come most of us, 99% out there, are not doing it and when they died and look back into their past and then start to regret it? Because human have a tendency to procrastinate. This is a very bad habit that we humans are born with. Why we procrastinate because we are very sure that we have a "tomorrow", another day. And since living the present to the fullest takes a lot of hard work, we tend to push "living to the fullest" to the next moment and to the next moment.

We have read stories that people who knows when they are dying, they suddenly realise the daily pursuit that they are in seems meaningless and start to think about living their life to the fullest, pursuing their dreams and so on. By that time, it might be too late already and they start having regrets.

Start thinking how you want your life to be, what dreams you want to achieve, work towards it, give it your best shot when you are working on it. Now I did not say you should give up your job altogether, you still need to nourish this body of yours, to keep it going in tip-top position so that you can achieve your dreams, so you still need money. Until you reach a point where your passive income exceeds your expenses, your time needs to be split between reality and achieving your dreams.

Only when you have reach your dreams or touch many people lives positively, can I say you can welcome death in a more peaceful manner because you do not have any regrets when death comes.

Cheers!

Happy New Year 2008!

2008-01-02T20:28:00.000+08:00

Firstly, Happy New Year to all the readers! Thank you very much for supporting this blog by coming up often although it is only a handful of you. And times flies, I have been writing blogs for 2.5 years. Yes, it is that long. Haha, I have so much to tell the world hor? Haha!

Anyway, something very nice happen to me during the first day of this year. The first few waking hours of this year, the moment when I wake up, I was filled with immense optimism and happiness. Yes, I am not kidding, I cannot help but keep on smiling throughout the whole day and today as well. Inside me, there is this great feeling that 2008 is going to be a SUPERB year. I don't know how or why but I can just feel that something major is or are going to happen in my life during this year. This is the reason why I am writing this down and when I look at it one year down the road, it can serve some interesting reading. Haha!

But anyway, I can feel it in my bones that this is the year! Year for what I have no idea, but I am really really feeling great about it. Whatever what major happening or happenings is going to come, I have already benefited from this optimism because I felt happiness and optimism for two straight days! Cheers to that!

Maybe this is the year, my business going to pick up tremendously or I will have tremendous growth or improvement in areas of my life. Haha, to tell you the truth, I cannot be bothered to think what is the possible major happenings. I just want to soak myself in the present moment that is filled with immense happiness, warmth and optimism.

This is going to be an exciting year, given the fact that I can finally do some traveling. Will be going to Brisbane soon, in exactly 30 days!!! Really looking fwd it because I have not been traveling for quite a while since my last trip to Taiwan. And in March I will be going to New York, a place that is packed with capitalism and freedom (maybe a tad too much though. Haha!). Looking fwd to that trip as well. Finally I can see the Statue of Liberty with my own eyes, without a piece of glass in the middle! I can finally see the Trump Tower, instead of through the TV. I can walk through Wall Street and feel capitalism and money at work! WOW!!! =D

And I will be taking my MBA course in the second quarter of this year! Cannot wait to go back to study again although I have no idea how I am going to cope but I will cope all right, because after this grueling process of juggling work, business and study, I will emerge a better person definitely. =D

So yes, I am sure this year is going to be a SUPERB year!

BIG CHEERS TO 2008!!!! CHEERS!!! =D

End of Year 2007

2007-12-27T22:20:00.000+08:00

Well the year is coming to an end soon. 2007 only left 4 days! Looking back at the year there are two significant happenings. One of them is I change my job and another is I have started studying the history of religion. But one major happenings I am waiting for it to happen for many years, have yet to happen. Hopefully 2008 would be the year.

Changing a new job was good, because it was just before my research centre go under revamp in the human resource issue. And things at the research centre is too slow, the only reason why I did not want to leave so soon is because of the nice people I met there. But since I was 'forced' to leave so life moves on and I found this new job.

And the new place I got in have many things to learn, opportunities and it is a place I wanted to work in since I graduated from university but did not get it because of the bad economy then. Now the economy is good, I manage to get to where I want to work in. Let's see what will transpire while I am there. And what is my 'purpose' there and how I value-add when I am there. :)

Another significant happening is me taking up another area of interest and that is studying the history of religion. Religion to me has always been very foreign and only when I start studying and questioning then I realise that this world has many misunderstanding and and misconception about religions. Why I started studying because I believe that religion are created by humans, so I want to see how and why human created religions, how and why misconception come abt. It is an interesting study and I hope to have a deep understanding of all the major religion at least. But that means adding another area of interest in my many area of interest. Oh well, at least I know that I am growing intellectually and spiritually. And such an area does not get the interest of many people. Studying it also makes me more unique than many other people :P And I believe I have reach a level of maturity that allows me study this area in a non-bias way.

Well today is ending soon, just another hour to go. This year has less than 97 hrs left. My next blog entry should be coming out next year. Wishing all readers a happy new year! And may 2008 bring u good tidings, immense happiness and great health!

Cheers!

Where is time?

2007-12-21T11:26:00.000+08:00

Well I am on leave today. Was planning to go to the nearest park to enjoy a leisure morning and so I did. The weather was great this morning, with light breeze and the golden sunshine that brightens the morning. I was having my favourite breakfast at the fast food restaurant, yes the one with the golden arches. Big breakfast with Iced Milo!!! BEST!!!

So I enjoyed a slow breakfast, and read my newspapers. Finally I can take my time to enjoy the newspapers not like any typical working day where I have to rush through the headlines and reading those that I feel are important. I was able to absorb more information from the newspapers compared to other days. I guess that is the benefit of not having the constraints of schedule.

It was a working day so there was not many people at the restaurant anyway, but there are many interesting observations. I shall share them as and when I deem fit :) But I thoroughly enjoyed that leisure morning. After the newspaper, I am able to sit down and read a book proper, enjoying the occasional morning breeze that caress my hair :P, sounds like something from a shampoo commercial. I strongly urge every readers to take the opportunity to really take a leisure morning, not contrained by schedule, worries and life. Just sit there and enjoy each and every moment of that morning. I guarantee it will rejuvenate you to the fullest. At least I know I did and I am glad that I did it!

I think in life, we are so conditioned to working and making money, we forgot to sometime slow down our pace and enjoy the life that we are having. I totally agree that we should learn to earn money and one must not forget that why we want to earn money is because we want to enjoy life. Enjoy the family that we have, the things that this world can offer. But when is money enough anyway. Sometimes we can take the simplest and cheapest pleasure immediately, if we are aware of the opportunity for instance like taking a stroll in the park or be inside the park and read your favourite book. It is very cheap, well the nice breakfast costs me around $7. But considering the amount of leisure time that I thoroughly enjoyed which is around 3 hrs, it is very cheap already. :P Best value for money!

Anyway, just want to remind the readers that we need to earn money but we also must learn to enjoy life as well. And enjoying life does not require much $$$ if you are aware of what you want. So seek within you what you enjoy to do and does not require much $$ and take the opportunity to do it as and when possible! Remember the world can offer you a lot of good things and it is only whether you want to take it or not.

Cheers!

Memorable and Tired Day

2007-12-20T08:21:00.000+08:00

Yesterday, our company have an offsite meeting. During such a meeting, it is usually to update people in our department by the management, what directions the department is heading towards to and so on. Well, it is an eventful day for me. The meeting place is inside a hotel. I asked my colleague which lives near me if she wants to go together and so we went. When we were near the hotel, her shoes broke! So early in the morning, we are going to be late and there is no way she can get a pair of new shoes so early. But I guess she is lucky I am with her. I notice the area have two shops that are opened (surprisingly). One is a pastry shop and the other a florist shop. Without too much thought I went to the florist and ask if they have any joining agent, and it happened that they have a super glue gun. Well don't ask me to describe, this is the first time I come across it also. Anyway, thank goodness, we are able to fix her shoes as a stop gap measure.

So that was an episode for the offsite meeting. For a moment I thought I might have to piggy back her. :S Doubt I have the strength. Haha! Since we were late, we sat together during the meeting for the whole day. Surprisingly, we sat together during lunch and dinner as well. So I got a chance to know more about my neighbor and colleague, which is good because she has been in the department for a while so I can know more about the workings and history of the department.

Oh dinner was a at Japanese Restaurant near Clarke Quay. It is a restaurant that is similar to Seoul Garden but I felt that they keep on piling the food on our table so much so that it was very cluttered and the whole cooking affair is messy. But it was good food, with beef, cow tongue, chicken, vegetables, scallop, squid, lamb, stew, kimchi, corn, prawn and many more. All paid for by our senior supervisor. Haha!

Following dinner was a great movie, National Treasure 2. Great plot and the sight of Mount Rushmore, inspired me to put it as a destination that I must go before I die. Strongly recommended for anyone that likes history.

After the movies, it was very quite late already so my neighbor and I went back together. (Of course lah, live so near to each other.) But I think both of us still felt that the night is still young so we chatted near her void deck about the offsite meeting, the department history and workings and the coming projects we are working together till the wee hours.

An eventful and tiring day, that I will not forget for a long while definitely. I am glad there is a colleague who lives near me, so the neighborly ties add an additional layer of affinity. Such affinity can make my work at a new place easier, since we tend to help those that we are close to.

I guess I am a lucky person because I have two days this year that wrote two beautiful chapters in my 'life' book. Cheers!

Are you happy helping me?

2007-12-18T21:51:00.000+08:00

Well recently, I have been helping someone quite a lot lately. I admit that the reason why I want to help, part of it is because I genuinely want to help someone who wants to help herself. Another part is because I hope that through helping, I am able to achieve good feelings.

Currently that person have a bf, so I did not and would not make any move as yet because I know that I do not have superficial beauty, only inner beauty (Hahaha, I can imagine someone starting to puke already), so start of as friends is better. I have a strange gut feel that she might be the one. And I feel really comfortable and at ease when I am with her. The 'worst' part is that when I talk to her, my 'defence' and cautiousness is thrown out of the window. But then again, instinct can only go so far to convince someone especially when we talk about relationship. Anyway, one of my best friend advice me to 'play' by ethics which I always bear in mind when I am with her.

But looking back at how I help her, there was this occasion that I trouble two of my best friends to help her. Honestly, I felt really bad to trouble my best friends on such thing. Especially at the end, there is a possibilities that I might not get anything back. Apologies to my best friends for the trouble I have caused and greatly appreciate the help you have rendered me.

Yes, in helping her, I have gone out all the way and I really mean ALL the way, as usual. These few days, I have been wondering, is it all worth it? At the end of the day, there might not be anything rewarding at the end of the rainbow. After given much thought to the issue, I realise that as long as I feel happy helping a person, it should not matter at the end of the rainbow whether there is anything rewarding. The happiness that I gather when I have helped someone is rewarding enough. At least I know I am making a big difference in her life. How I know? Well, she takes my advice now and always ask my opinion of things. I also get to learn from her experience as well as I ask her to update me her progress.

So worth it or not? If you look at the happiness I derived, I guess it is. I am practising the buddhist principle of going with the flow (as much as I am mindful of) and see where the flow of things would lead me to. As for the pot of gold, let's just treat it as a bonus, if it comes, otherwise I still benefit from her friendship.

The message I want to bring across here is. Many a times, we are asked or volunteer to help someone and some of us would have this question in our mind, "Is it worth helping?" My answer to the question is, if at the end of the day, you feel happy and comfortable you have help the person, it is all worth it.

Cheers!

Contagious Happiness

2007-12-17T23:17:00.000+08:00

Ever heard ofa young child's laughter before? Somehow or rather, the kids' laughter is able to rub off some happiness to you. At least that is what happen to me on Sunday.

I was on my way to an appointment when I met this young Indian kid around 1-2 years old. She was having a lot of fun and was laughing and laughing. His laughter resonates with me and I feel happy.

Such an incident actually caught my attention. Let’s look at it this way. When we hang out with friends, we do share a bit of laughter and smiles. That is because we are laughing at the same joke or things. But this incident is different. I have no idea why the kid is having so much fun, but I know he is having a lot of fun through his laughter. Even when we are on a bus or walking along a street, when we hear people laugh, usually the next response that we have would be to criticize the person as ‘cuckoo’, ‘gila’ or ‘siao’ to name a few. The person’s laughter does not make us laugh at all. It does not resonate with us.

Why such a big contrast? Both are laughter, comes from human but one resonates and bring joy and happiness and the other only invites criticism, destructive some more. After much thought I finally know the reason, or I think I know the actual reason.

For the kid, who is only 1-2 yrs old, he is not burdened or conditioned by the society as yet. His happiness is genuine and it is a full release of his emotions. This is why one can sense that he is happy through his laughter and we all know genuine laughter and happiness is contagious.

For us adults, we are already conditioned by the society, we have burdens to carry and so on. So much so that we are so stressed, we do not know how to have a genuine good time. Our laughter contains the stress and burden that the society has given us thus it is not able to rub off on people. And we usually do not let our happiness show fully in our laughter because most of us do not want to be labeled as ‘cuckoo’, ‘gila’ or ‘siao’.

Maybe it is time that we really think about it. Does it matter what label that we have as long as we can feel our happiness and joy fully? Does it matter that people who do not have a stake in your happiness should control how happy you are?

Burden and stress are something that we cannot get rid of society, so why not learn to let go and be able to live with it but not let it affect what is good for us and that is having genuine happiness.

Cheers! :D

Some Songs to Share

2007-12-12T21:29:00.000+08:00

可惜不是你 - (梁靜茹) Fish Leong

接受 - (梁靜茹) Fish Leong

暖暖 - (梁靜茹) Fish Leong

普通的人 - 陳偉聯

Sometimes when you listen to a song, part of the lyrics would capture your attention and you realise that the song describe your situation very aptly and immediately you fall in love with the song. Well, I have two of them in the list of four that is reflecting my situation very aptly.

Apologies to any readers that do not understand Chinese. But music is a universal language, hope you like the songs listed here :)

Cheers!

Aiyah, so close yet so far!

2007-12-11T21:26:00.000+08:00

In life, we sometime miss out something by a little bit. For instance, I lost out to a good friend of mine to top a particular subject in secondary school. How much I lost? Well I lost to him by only 0.1 pts. He got 90.0 points and receive the top prize for that particular subject while I only score 89.9. I forgotten what is the prize anyway. So can you remember such a instance where you miss out by a bit?

Another great example would be buying lottery and you miss out by only one digit. For instance, if you bet on 1234 and the top prize turns out to be 1239. I am sure a lot of you would jump up and down, but the best thing is that you would jump even higher if the winning number turn out to be 1233 or 1235. Get the picture?

If you look at it carefully, every time you look at your 'close' encounter and lament that you miss it by just a little bit, you get fustrated, angry, sad and all the negative emotions. The higher the frequency of thought on the 'close' encounter, the more intense these negative emotions are and the more you make yourself feel lousy.

And if you look at the whole picture, you actually feel more lousy than someone who bought the number 1290. Haha, that guy will just say, "Oh well, buy again tomorrow! Someday I will strike." So he still feel good about it and the small ray of hope keeps him hopeful and feel better.

Whereas you who missed out by just a little says, "Why why, like that, why missed out by just a little bit!!!! WHY!!!?!?!?!??!?!" and the more you think about it, the more lousy you get.

So how do we make ourselve feel better if we do have such an encounter? Well first thing first, you must realise that miss by a millimetre is still missing from top spot. Miss by a metre is still missing the top spot. It is the past and cannot be changed anymore. Once you realise that such thing cannot be changed anymore, it is useless to think much about it. Because everytime YOU think about it, you make yourself lousy without having the chance or capability to change the fact that you miss it! Smart people should be able to see that it is a losing proposition and being rational human beings, especially if you are a Singaporean, you sure would not like to make a losing proposition right?

So don't focus your thoughts on the 'close' encounter, learn to let it go. Acknowledge that it is the past and there is no way you can change it and focus your thoughts on what you are doing in the present moment, do the best you can in what you are doing presently so at least when you look back next time (if there is a need) you will not regret because you are mindful that you done your best during that moment.

Cheers!

We are all equal

2007-12-02T19:04:00.000+08:00

I am currently reading a book called "The Art of Happiness" written by a psychiatrist but with contributions from Dalai Lama.

In the book, Dalai Lama mentioned that actually for all human beings, after stripping all the labels and titles, and the material possessions that we have, we are really all equal. We have needs to satisfy, we seek happiness, we want less (or in fact, totally no) suffering.

If you truly sit down and think abt it, it is really true. If you agree that such a fact does exists. It can really serve us well. First thing first, we are able to be more compassionate about others. Be understanding of others, why they took up certain actions and so on. Such compassion and understanding help us to be a better person, to see things in a better perspective and thus we will be able to rid one source of discontentment. No idea why? Well keep this in mind, and when the times come, you will understand what I mean.

Since we are all equal, it also becomes much easier to make friends. Why? Very simple, if we are equal, we have common topic to talk about. We all have needs to satisfy right? A simple question to start a conversation with someone you do not know is, "What is your occupation?" or "What do you do for a living?". And there you can start the ball rolling. Another common question is "What you have for dinner/lunch/breakfast?" Another common topic to talk about again, glorious food!! So yes, since we are all equal, definitely we can find some common ground to talk about and slowly branch off to our differences. Not to argue about our differences, but to understand that there are differences between individuals. Understand the differences, because it can teach you to look at things in more perspectives, be understanding why they look at their perspective and many more advantages. :)

So we are all equal. :)

So what you have for your dinner? :)

Cheers!

Please take care

2007-11-28T20:32:00.000+08:00

Well recently a good friend share with me what happen to her. As I was listening, I used what she told me to reflect on my life and the way that I have conducted my life. But I am glad that she trusted me enough to share with me her problems.

As usual given my helpful nature, I tried to help as much as possible, but I practise a bit of wisdom here. Because she is attached, when I offer my help, I have to be careful not to overstep till I cause misunderstanding. But anyway, that is another challenging issue and it will be a test for me. :)

But on reflection, I would like to remind all my good friends or whoever that are reading this blog entry. Please take care of your health. In order to tackle problems in our life, we really need a healthy body and mindset to help us through the process of solving problems in our life. A healthy body can be easily maintained relatively of course compared to having a healthy mindset. You need to eat healthily and exercise regularly, we have an idea how to improve our health. What about having a healthy mindset? Well, this is more difficult as we grow older. Why? Because as we grow older, our thinking tends to be conditioned by our environment and past experience, the more we are conditioned, the stronger is the conditioning and the challenging it is to change the thinking, since we have 'strengthen' that mental muscle.

If we do not stay healthy mentally and physically, there are two consequences. Firstly, we are not able to help others that are in need, because we do not even know how to take care of ourselves, any 'advice' that you put forward will not be convincing. And worse, we become a burden to our family members and friends. No man is an island. Your good friends will definitely worry about you and wants to help you. But then again, their help to you is limited. Whether you can stop being a burden again greatly depends on you.

And don't take things for granted. Cherish what you have and be grateful about it. You never know when it might be taken away from you because everything is in a flux, impermanence. So please cherish what you have, give it your best effort in everything.

All my good friends, please take care. :) As for the other good friend, don't think of the whole situation but give it your best everyday and soon it will be better. You definitely can count on that. And if you need help, feel free to tell me. :)

Cheers!

Achieving the Result

2007-11-25T21:31:00.000+08:00

Well this is a modification of a Buddhist talk that I heard this morning. Suddenly a thought struck on me that what I have learnt from this talk can be applied in achieving the results that we want in a task or goals in our life.

So what are the things that are needed to achieve the results that we want? There are altogether 6 of them and they are:

1) Faith/Confidence
2) Wisdom
3) Energy/Effort
4) Focus
5) Mindfulness
6) Strategy

Faith/Confidence and Wisdom and Strategy

First thing first, you need to have faith or confidence that you can achieve the results that you want. If you do not have the confidence or strong faith that you can achieve, there is no way you will start the process of working towards your goals or results that you want. But take note that you need wisdom, to balance with faith. Very simple, if you do not have a look at the resources that you have and practise wisdom about what is possible and what is not, it becomes a blind faith and at the end when you did not achieve what you want, you are going to be very disappointed and might destroy the self-confidence that you have.

You also need wisdom to set up the right strategy. For example, if you want to see a beautiful sunset, I doubt going to the East would help you. If you do not have the knowledge to see that looking at the sunset, you should find a place that is not covered and allow you to have direct look at the horizon, there is no way you are going to see a beautiful sunset.

So with wisdom, you can set up the right strategy, have faith that you can achieve and start the process of achieving it.

Energy/Effort and Focus

As you start on the process of achieving your results or success, you have to put in lots of energy or effort into the process. To walk from point A to B, you have to keep on repeating the process of putting your left leg forward followed by the right leg forward until you reach your definition. The same thing applies to putting in effort, the next action or effort that you put in builds on top of what you have done previously so that you can reach your destination. And this have to be balanced with Focus.

Yes, you need to focus your effort on the correct direction/area as depicted by your strategy. If the focus is wrong how could you achieve the results you want? So you might have a lot of energy (which is derived from passion and motivation), but if your focus is wrong, it does not amount to anything.

Mindfulness

With all the above, mentioned, the most important ingredient is mindfulness. Be very mindful about the whole process. Be able to see that the right wisdom has been applied, that there is correct amount of faith, be able to see when to make a change in your strategy so that you are still on course to achieve your success even though external circumstances have changed, be able to see that your right level of effort is applied and right amt of effort is conserved for the next step and be able to see that your effort is applied at the correct area/focus.

Of course this is just a very brief description, it is not meant to help individuals to see what are the basic building blocks of achieving success. Of course, there are other factors as well but I personally think these six are the minimum that one needs to pay attention to so that they can achieve the results that they want.

Hope the information will benefit those that come across this blog. Cheers!

What is pleasure? What is happiness? Are they the same?

2007-11-20T21:09:00.000+08:00

I have been reading this book titled "The Art of Happiness". It is a book that is written to show two perspectives, one is the western approach to seeking happiness, which is more medical and another perspective which comes from Tibetan Buddhism.

I strongly recommend this book to anyone who is seeking happiness in their life. (I assume this is one of the main goal for all beings in this world.) Inside the book, there is one paragraph that ask the questions in the title. What is pleasure? What is happiness? Are they the same?

Here I shall attempt to explain the both of them, their differences and how such wisdom can be applied in our live, to improve our live. Before you attempt to read on, ask yourself the three questions I have asked in my TITLE before you continue reading.

Have you contemplated? Great if you do because like that you would be able to understand how you think and I might provide you with another perspective to think about with my understanding later. Here goes.

What is pleasure? Very simply put, it is a comfort to your BODY. When you body is comfortable, it is having pleasure. For instance, if the environment's temperature is just nice, your body is comfortable, you would feel pleasure. When you are relaxing in a jacuzzi, with the water hitting your BODY at regular pulses, massaging you, releasing your BODY tension, you feel pleasure. And I do not deny that if your body feel pleasure, you would be happy. But there is a connection there, and the connection is between your mind and your body. Your body feels comfortable, not giving you pain, so conditionally, we would feel happy. But think again, what about when you are taking drugs? When you are abusing alcohol? When you are having unrestrained sex? These are destructive pleasure. Pleasures that bring about unhappiness later on.

What is happiness? Happiness is a state of the MIND. You can feel happy even if there are no external factors to trigger it. External factors like your dream car, dream mate, dream body. Don't believe? Very simple, ask your mind to start thinking of happy thing that happen in your past. See how your mind and later your body react to it. You will start to smile and your body will feel an energy rush. It could be small it could be large, but I can tell you, by asking your mind to start thinking of things that will make you happy, you will definitely feel good.

So you can see the happiness comes from intrinsic source whereas pleasure comes from external source. If it is external source, it is not within our control and it cannot last long. If it comes from an intrinsic source, then it can be continuous and you have much control over it. Think about it.

Now that we know about it, the next thing would be how to apply it. Very simply, make your decision based on whether it will make you happy or not and happy for how long? I am sure we want happiness that can last long and is immense.

Hope the insights help! Cheers!

Joy to the my world

2007-11-19T08:23:00.000+08:00

I have a good week. Why? I celebrated one of my best friend birthday, receive two great news that my two friends are attached, esp one of them is my old friend, listen to a good talk on applying buddhism in working place, met up with my favourite cousin. Well, what more can I ask for! Thank you thank you! :D

One of the great things that come from the news that my old friend is attached is because he share the news with me first, which I really appreciate it because I consider an act that says that I am really his good friend. Fact is that even if I am not the first but one of the few that got the news, I would be very happy as well. But maybe not that happy lah. Anyway, I guess some of the psychology test that i have taken is true. Friends means a lot to me, I do not think I can live without friends. And I guess in the 'Friends' dept of my life, I am really rich because all my best friends treat me with sincerity and are willing to share their joyous and sad moments with me. And the best thing is that I have a few friends that are willing to share with me what they have learnt. Because I feel the best thing that a friend can give is wisdom and knowledge. That I regards as the best gift. :)

Anyway, congratulations to my two friends! Thank you to the Universe for the wonderful weekend and the news! And great thanks to my good and best friends out there! Do continue to treat me as your friend. Share with me ur joy and also your problems. Will help whenever possible!

Cheers! Cheers! :D

Definition of Good Friend

2007-11-15T21:31:00.000+08:00

What is a good friend? If there are four billion people in this world, there will be four billion definitions of good friend. But then I am sure there is a common ground of what is a good friend for all the four billion definition of "Good Friend", right?

For instance, would you tell a secret to a friend? Surely you must be good friend before you will tell him/her your secret right? Because it is understood that there must be a certain level of trust before you can entrust a friend with your secret, although this level again varies for each individual. And this level of trust must have been achieved before you can classify a friend, a good friend.

Just a question, would you tell an acquaintance or friend your family problem? Now this is a bit more complicated. For me, there must be a level of trust before I will tell someone what family problem I have. I have portrayed such a perception to all my friends, meaning if one of my friends tell me his/her family problem, that means he/she treated me as a good friend.

But I seem to have run into walls with such perception or so it seems. Because the person other actions seem to speak otherwise. I seem to have been taken for granted. :) I would not take my good friends for granted. In fact, they are another form of wealth for me. Such wealth is priceless, money can never buy such 'wealth'. I rather be rich in this wealth than being rich in material wealth. But then again it does not mean I do not want material wealth hor, it only means I prefer one to another. :D I always respect my good friends and when they need help, I would help them if it is within my means. You can see why I have few good friends, because I do not have much time! Hahaha! Just kidding! :)

I have no idea, maybe I should hang out with this person a bit more before I decide what level of "good friends" I should be when this person is around. Then I reciprocate at that level.

Comments? :)

Cheers!

Another one Bites the Dust

2007-11-12T23:16:00.000+08:00

Hmmmm..... another of my colleague is leaving soon. This is the second colleague that is leaving in the 2.5 mths I am there, at the new place. The thing is that when the news was broken out. I did not feel a thing at all. Not happy, not sad, just..... still? Well the reason could be because I am only just at the new place for a short while only, so the bonds are not that strong at all. Moreover I seldom talk to the colleague that is leaving, because our job scope do not depend too much on each other. :) But there was something that I can see in my thoughts and that is a strong feel that something positive will come out of this. :P

I have no idea what it is but I am sure something good is going to come out of it. So we shall see how it goes.

There is something I want to share with the readers about using the Secret. Remember in the Secret there is a mention about acting on impulse. Now how do you define whether it is the impulse from the Universe or it is a 'mistaken' impulse? Very simple. When you know that when you act on the impulse, you would feel happy about it. Which means you would be motivated to do it because it would make you happy. If acting on the impulse makes you indifferent or feel bad, then it is not an impulse from the Universe.

Another thing about using the Secret is that it request that you go with the flow. To do things that makes you happy. You should not do things on purpose to make things happen. Because by doing that, it requires you to make a change and all bodies and minds does not react positively to changes. So in the process of making things happen, you are not feeling good. And once you do not feel good, you cannot 'attract' the thing you want. :) The only way to make the things work for you is to always feel good. Showing gratitude would be one of them. It makes you appreciate what you have thus putting you in a good mood. In a good mood and thinking of the things that you want (you should feel happy having it.), will make the Secret work for you. I experience such a 'rule' today and when I read the paragraph on the bus, it was like "Eureka!" Haha, the experience makes me appreciate the Secret even more. :)

That is all the insight I have now abt the Secret for now. Hope to share more. Cheers!

'The Secret' Answer

2007-11-06T21:36:00.000+08:00

Recently some events happen in my life, so I am out there seeking an answers. My whole thoughts was very focused, sharply focused, on seeking an answer to a question that I am seeking for. Till yesterday, I paid a visit to the bookshop that is closest to my office.

Like all bookshops in Singapore, usually books that are on discount or on the Bestseller's List would be displayed near the entrance. So when I went in, there is this book that caught my eye, the title is "You've Got to Read this Book!" by Jack Canfield and Gay Hendricks. On this book, there is this sticker. On it says "Include Rhonda Byrne on the book that inspired The Secret". There was a strong impulse to get this book, the minute I set my eyes on the sticker. Recalling whatever knowledge I have left about The Secret, I decided to purchase the book. When I brought the book home, I flipped to the pages that is written by Rhonda Byrne. It was a very good read and apparently I have a strong impulse to pick up "The Secret" to read again. And so reacting to the impulse again, I picked up and read again.

The minute I pick up and start reading it, I am hooked. The images that I used for visualizing the future that I want, the business I want to build, the wife that I want to have and love all came back to me, this time even more vivid and stronger. (I guess it is because of my meditation practise.) I started practising it again, making a command to the universe through thoughts, the visualization and showing gratitude to what I have.

This time the good feelings are more intense now and today when in one of the paragraph that I read, the author Rhonda Byrne recommended meditation. :) When I saw the paragraph, I was like "Woah! The law of attraction did not 'forsake' me. It has set me on the path to attracting greater goodness and immense happiness." When I started meditation, I had more or less practise visualizing on a "not so often" basis but I still maintain a positive attitude. The main thing I like meditation is that it is the cultivation of the mind, giving me inner peace, but I did not see the clear connection of meditation with The Secret, until I read that paragraph. Wow!

Today, I practise the visualization part again, 'revising' the images that I had again. Yes, these are the images I want in my future!! The visualization make me so happy, my mouth actually got tired of smiling. Haha! I am not kidding! Well I have yet to see what the benefits of my visualization will bring but I never doubted its power! And I realise that this is the answer that I am seeking. Just keep on having happy thoughts, go with the flow and when the impulse comes, act with wisdom! Yes, this is what I should do!

Thank you very much for showing me the method, Universe! Forward to the ideal future!

Cheers !! :D:D

Closing a Chapter

2007-11-05T21:42:00.000+08:00

Today, with a heavy heart, I decided to close a chapter in my life. This chapter has taught me many lessons and make me better understand how life works When I started writing it, I sincerely hope that there will be a good ending to this chapter, but the more I write about it, it does not seem to be going that direction. No matter how I write, things seem to go in other direction rather than the direction I want it to go to. So with much thought I decide to close the chapter, leave it in my "Life Book". Looking back, there were many lessons learnt and one important lesson was a lesson about myself. If given a chance, i hope I do not have to go through this at all because I paid quite a high price for it. Not value for price. :P

But who knows I might go back to write the chapter again (based on request only. Think impermanence) So the chapter is closed for now and I will not go back anymore. Thanks to everyone who has in one way or another help me in writing this chapter, in steering it to a nice ending but sometime things are not within our control. Since it is not within our control, it might be right time to close the chapter, sit back, relax and see if there are other opportunity to write another chapter, hopefully this time it has a better ending.

Maybe that is one of the main reasons why the turn of events made me leave the research centre because I am there to learn some lessons and I did learn them. If that is one of the reason, then I must say a big "thank you" to the person, for teaching me so many lessons. Lessons that will allow my next chapter to bear fruits? :)

Ok chapter closed. Thank you once again to all friends who have shown support all this while. Time to move on.

Cheers!

Impermanence Part 2

2007-10-31T21:19:00.000+08:00

Today is mth end. So got a bit of time to do some contemplation. So one of the question I thought about is impermanence. Why does impermanence exist? How it come about? In economics, we often talk about how an economic model reach an equilibrium, so can equilibrium be achieved?

Here are my thoughts on these questions. Impermanence means changes happen everytime. So what are the sources of impermanence? Well I can think of two sources. First is environment changes for instance weather, tectonic movement and so on. The second source is we human ourselves.

The weather is always changing on this earth, that is why we have the four seasons, we have the heat wave, the wind, the flood and so on. We know that the land we live on is actually shifting every nanosecond. Just that the movement of the land is so minute we cannot feel it at all. These movements will cause emotions in us humans and we human will change to accomodate these physical changes in the environment. Which bring me to our next sources which is that caused by human.

We human have wants and needs. We human evolves because we want to better satisfy our needs, for instance standing on two feet so that we can travel faster and see further to get food so that we can survive. We humans are able to be all over the world because we are seeking land and food. We farm the lands, hunt animals causing changes in this Earth because we want to satisfy our needs. When we farm lands, started irrigation and build our own house, our basic needs are met and we move further down the chain of needs and eventually our wants that evolves into the Past to the present world. Airplanes, ships, railway, internet are a result of impermanence or changes that we humans want and create.

With these two sources in mind, you can see the whole world are like dominoes that are going in all direction and criss-crossing each other. One of the dominoes was toppled since don't know when and a domino effect has been carried out since then. You can see from here that our actions due to our wants and needs has caused actions of others as well, and their action will cause other action by other people and this domino effect carries on and on.

So you see, there is no way you can stop changes. It just carry on and on and will not stop at all. What we human can then do is to anticipate what could happen and prepare for it. When when something unexpected happen, see if you can improve the situation, if cannot then do nothing and not let your emotions be swayed too much by the unexpected.

So far these are my thoughts on impermanence. Your comments?

Cheers!

It's been a while

2007-10-27T22:12:00.000+08:00

Just notice that I have made more than 100 post in this blog of mine. Haha, times really flies. This blog is going to be one-year old soon. So many things have happen for this year. Who would have thought that I would have changed job? Who would have thought that I would be working with my former classmate (for three months)? Who would have thought that Singapore is really that small and you have a colleagues that only lives several blocks away from me? Who would have thought that.....

Haha, the influx of a wave of such questions gives you a very clear look into life and that is nothing is predictable except for death and taxes. So why the need for fortune telling then? Many a times we have seen in a drama that the person scolded the fortune teller, "If your predictions always comes true, you do not need to tell people's fortune anymore." Sounds contradictory but it is true. Anyway, its been a while. I wonder if enough medicine has been applied or not? Hahaha!

It has been a while since I practise the Secret. The feeling of happiness and great confidence is back again. Everytime I do visualization, it really brings a lot of happiness to me and motivates me to carry on what I am doing because I know what I am doing is moving me towards what I want to achieve in life. My only wish is to have that special lady join me soon so that we can create more value and use these value to value-add to other people's life through business and charity. Helping people to enjoy the gift of life and not feel sad about it.

Anyway, enjoy the weekend while it lasts! Cheers!

Going with the Flow

2007-10-22T21:31:00.000+08:00

Haha! Finally come out of the hole already. :D So happy, haha, takes a bit of effort but I finally show who is boss. :P

In my previous blog, I have said that I have discovered something about the concept of "Letting go" meaning, letting go of a certain Want. Very simple actually. This wisdom I am sharing can serve as a benchmark of "letting go".

The key to executing this wisdom in your 'letting go' process is to be able to see your thoughts, again going back to being mindful and to be mindful, it can be achieved through meditation. Ok shall not hold the readers too long. Very simple, look at all the decisions that you have made. Does your Want actually influence it? For instance, when you like someone you will try to "coincidentally" bump into her. Your actual actions and movements were influence indirectly by her. This is not letting go, this is actually holding or grabbing it even tighter and in the end, there is no peace of mind, because you keep on thinking how to go about meeting her "accidentally", putting in great effort, swimming against the flow.

If you know that she usually go for lunch at this time and will pass through a certain place. You will do your utmost to make sure you appear at that particular place and time and when the result you received at the end is not up to your expectations, you become disappointed. For instance, she have a meeting but you do not know so you kept on waiting at the particular place and time, but all your effort went down the drain.

This is swimming against the flow. You try to 'force' things to happen. To go with the flow, just do what you need to do. If the opportunities turns up 'naturally' without you making too much of an effort, for instance you happen to be at this particular place and you know she might be passing through in a minute or two, then GRAB the opportunity. And she does not turn up, don't be sad or disappointed. At least you did not make too much of an effort and did not lose out too much. :P Continue to go with the flow and you might end up at the destination that you want to be. Just keep on noticing and grabbing the opportunities that comes along.

So, look at your decisions and see if it is influenced by your wants. If it is, you are not letting go and not going with the flow. Hope this wisdom helps!

Cheers!

Singing Blues

2007-10-19T19:58:00.000+08:00

Feeling blue today. I seem to have slipped into a hole and cannot come out. Tried as much as I could but I cannot move myself out of this hole. Sianz. I know what is going on lah. But I guess I need some time to adjust myself a bit.

There are a lot of signs out there to tell me to just go with the flow. Yes, you saw that right, go with the flow. There are things to be happy about and one of them is I have advance a step in understanding what is going with the flow. Yes. A slither of wisdom I intend to remember for the rest of my life. I believe in impermanence but my love life seem to have stuck there 'permanently' at least in the near future. Sianz.

Anyway, this situation makes me contemplate. What if all our Wants are satisfied, would that make all of us happy? I know I am an economist so such situations will never happen. But I think this is a gd question to ponder abt. If all our Wants are satisfied, what will happen to us?

Well, here are my thoughts on it. It would make all of us lazy, do nothing all day. The human race would not advance since there is nothing to motivate us to improve ourselves. But if we get what we want, would there be peace all round, no more war? Does that mean there will never be any sufferings again? Does that mean that all people can leave peacefully with each other? Because looking at all the violence and sufferings in this world, it is because of our Wants. Your thoughts on this?

The minute you have Wants in life, you are bound to suffer. Why? Very simple. To get what we want, we have to sacrifice something. We have to make an effort to achieve it. And making an effort to achieve it is never simple and it causes 'pains'. And when you did not get your Wants, you then keep on complaining about it. You complain about other people not giving it to you, you complain that you make an effort already how come you still did not get the result you want. You ask Life why it does not give it to you when you are such a nice person and never commit a crime or harm people in this life? Yes, I do complain as well, but hei I am a human being rite? But of course this does not give me an excuse to keep on complaining since I cannot change the fact that I am a human being.

I only have one simple Want that I hope Life can satisfy or at least make it easier for me, the rest of the Wants I am prepared to work hard for it because I know I can achieve them when I put my mind to it. Last time I use to think that finding a job is as difficult as finding someone dear because both are like jigsaw puzzle, you need matching pieces but then because of the recent job hunt, my opinions have changed. With the correct skill set, I can find a job quite easily. And you can expand your skill sets to make yourself more 'demanded'. Finding someone dear is more difficult because you cannot be expanding your characteristics right? If someone is looking for one who is humorous and smart, it is very difficult to 'groom' such a person, right? And there is the emotions side to satisfy as well. It is like a multiple dimension jigsaw puzzle and the right piece needs to make sure ALL dimensions must fit.

Well, I have no idea when my situation would change, but I really hope it will change soon. I am really tired that there is no changes in that particular department. I tried hard but there is still no changes. Life, just satisfy this Want please!

Sharing Joy and Laughter

2007-10-16T23:01:00.000+08:00

Hmmm..... wanted to go back home early today but alas, it was raining heavily and with strong winds somemore. So no choice, I went back to my office to wait for the rain to stop or become lighter. So inside the office, I chatted with one of my colleague who is going to Taiwan soon. Then I remember I brought photos of my Taiwan trip, so I suggested looking through the photos so he has a better idea about the place. As we are looking through, more and more colleagues joined in. Haha, one of them is the 'joker' of the group, a 'joker' where many of us love to hate, haha! Anyway, we have a lot of fun looking through part of the collection.

During the sharing session, I gain back the joy of travelling again. I really miss travelling. Have not gone on a long trip for quite a while already. The excitement of seeing something new, the excitement of learning something new, the excitement of understanding how things works. Yes, I think I really need the excitement again, but alas, have to wait for a few months before I can go on a long trip. There are so many countries that I want to visit but so little time and money. Sure wish I can become a professional speaker, so that I can travel around the world sharing my knowledge and get paid at the same time.

I think my enthusiasm about Taiwan is so great that it makes some of my colleagues excited about going there. Maybe Taiwan should get me to be their tourism ambassador for Singapore. Crossing my fingers and hope that I am able to achieve my goals and travel around the world, to see how wonderful this world is, to soak in every culture that took thousand of years to evolve, to enjoy the nice delicacies that have evolved since the discovery of fire.

But I must say I have mixed well with my current colleagues and it makes me realise that to be able to mix well into any group of people is to be someone who is always happy (or looks happy) and is able to spread laughter and joy around. Be willing to share as well and not be too stingy or particular about details.

Last Sunday's outing seem to have touch a soft spot in my heart. Shifting my focus to my love life, again is if there is anything to talk abt. (I have not been looking at that area of life for the past three months already.) Haha! These few days, I have tried not to focus on it, but the thoughts seem to come in like tsunami. I really hope I can find someone dear to share my life with but again, I may seem desperate but I will still uphold the standard that I want to maintain. :P Although there are people who are entrepreneurs and are single but I feel that I my success is not complete at all if I do not have a happy marriage. No no, it does not mean that I want my success to be complete that is why I want to find someone dear. I just want to find someone to share my success, laughter and joy with. In return, a person who can lend me support when I needed. Friends can do that but I feel that the support that my 'partner' can give will be the next level. The level that can motivate me to achieve more. I just feel that I am at a bottleneck now. There is just that much I can achieve, that much effort I can put in, that much motivated at the moment. Sigh!

For now, must try my best to change my focus.

Cheers.

Lonely and Tired

2007-10-14T19:03:00.000+08:00

Very fast, the weekend has past and tomorrow is Monday. Well to me it really does not matter cos I do not really have a rest day since during weekends I also work on my websites, networking with friends or catch up on my reading.

But these two weeks is really very tiring. Because now I am on my own and the person whose duties I am covering has gone on maternity leave. So basically because I do not have a proper run through of all the duties that need to be done for the start of the month, when I realise that something needs to be done, I am basically a firefighter, have to fight out the 'fire' fast and furious so basically has been very tired. But looking at the bright side, because one of the female colleague live near my place so I have the honor of her company to go back home several times the last two weeks. Haha, all I can say is she knows how to dress, and if she can pay more attention to her diet, she will be very beautiful. But hei not everyone so lucky to have a company of a nice lady when going back right? So I am lucky lah! :) Anyway, coming back to work, thank goodness I am able to manage my emotions well otherwise I am sure anyone would have gave up and scream or curse and swear if they go through what I am going through. For me, I just smile and do it lor, cos I tell myself, if I am able to go through this process without sinking into negative emotions, I am sure my emotional muscle will turn up even stronger and I succeeded! Cheers to that! Yeah! Hopefully next week would be better! Haha! Maybe I will have the company of my colleague again next week, haha!

I should count myself lucky because the working environment is quite good. The physical environment might not be as good as my previous stint at the research centre, but the human environment is still the same. All the colleagues are friendly and helpful, especially my 'neighbour' and my supervisor. My 'neighbour' is the person that is handing the duties before she handed over to the colleague I am covering. So I am glad that there is someone to lend support and help while I am busy fighting fire.

Ok let's tackle the 'lonely' part now. My good indonesian friend's gf came down to visit him so he arranged to meet up another good friend of mine at Causeway point for dinner. He ask me to come along so I oblige since I wanted to eat the delicious Murtabak again. But alas, when I reach there, the stall was closed :( because it was Hari Raya Puasa. Haha, public holiday, weekdays and weekend might not make any difference to me but it does for others. :) So me, my Indonesian friend and his gf, my good friend and his wife were having dinner at Causeway Point anyway. I think those that are smart would realise something. I seem to be the odd one out. Haha! Yah I kind of realise it when I accepted the invitation. So you can see I am 'lonely'.

The situation set me thinking though. Looking back what happen in my love life, if there is any to talk about, life there is really tough. I guess I was picky also lah. I hold on strongly to a belief that if I do not choose one that is good, I might actually regret and ruin my future. So if that is the case, there is no one else to blame for the state I am in. And sometimes when I meet the 'right' one, I will also self-destruct, just like last time. Well what to do, because I care about my ego too much. As much as I wanted to find someone dear to share my life with, I still must be patient, even if I run out of it, to look for the right one. But I also realise what I have done wrong last time, so I must correct my mistakes and make sure it does not repeat itself. And also have to realise that even if I do not let my mistakes repeat itself, it does not guarantee anything. Oh well, that is life. But making the best effort is within my control and I decide to do that. Succeed or not, well cross all my fingers on that!

Cheers!

I want I want

2007-10-11T21:25:00.000+08:00

This is going to be a long blog entry so please bear with me. Today I am going to talk about our WANTS. Take note ah, wants is something we can actually do without and still survive. For instance a 42 inch flat plasma TV, a Nintendo Wii, an iPOD and many others. These are things we can do without and still survive. Let's do an experiment. Take out a piece of paper. Now put down the one thing that you would like, if all resources are available to you.

Have you written? Nope, ok lah, if you do not have a piece of paper and pen or too lazy to take it, think of something you want now. Again take note ah, it is Want, not Need. Done? Assume that your first wish is granted. Now put down the second thing that you would like, if all resources are available to you. Done? Assume that your wish is granted. Now write down the next thing that you want, if all resources are available to you. Done? Great, Assume that your wish is granted. Haha, feel like Santa Claus. Anyway, write down or think of the next thing that you want. Please keep on continuing such a process until you have come to a point where you really cannot think of anything that you Want. Continue to reading the blog only when you have reach the end of your thought process.

Done? Or you feel too tired of thinking about it because there does not seem to be an ending soon? I have the same thought process as well. I want this Book, I want that book, I want to travel here, I want to travel there. I want a beautiful wife. I want a competent wife. I want to eat the best food here and the best food there. I want to go and watch so and so concert. We all have unlimited wants. You will notice that we really cannot satisfy all the wants that we have. It is like filling a bottomless hole with dirt, you cannot see it being filled to the top at all.

Now if you notice, it is a source of unhappiness for us. Now first thing first, I am not advocating that you should not have wants. Our Wants will drive us to new heights and help us reach our potential, there is no way you can deny its effect in your life. Why it is a source of unhappiness is firstly we are always constraint by the resources that we have, as such we cannot get what we want easily and thus we are disappointed if we do not have it.

Now if you are so attached to having your wants satisfied, you might take drastic actions that you regret later. For instance, shoplifting of the things you like, or back-stab your gd friend so that you can satisfy your wants. But such actions will make your Satisfied wants short lived, in the sense that the amt of happiness you derived is very short and small. If we are able to control out Wants and not let it affect our life, we can lead a happier life. If we focus too much on the Wants, we can ruin our life if we do not maintain a balance state of mind towards it.

Ok that is for the first part of this blog. Next part now.

As most of you know I am studying Buddhism (when I have time lah :P) One of the practise of Buddhism is meditation. Why meditation? Well to keep ourself focus and mindful every moment. To learn to stable our mind, understand how our minds works and able to identify thoughts as and when it comes. So recently I took up meditation. Well not a regular practitioner of meditation but I can feel the benefits of it. First benefit, I am able to think faster and better now. My thoughts are more focus on the particular activity I am in now. And most of you'll know my activity is usually reading, so I am able to absorb better now. I am not kidding.

Second benefit is I am able to stand at the side and look at my train of thoughts. What I mean is that I am able to stand at the side and watch my thoughts and have thoughts on my thoughts. Haha! Sounds complicated right? Let me give an example. Supposedly, there is something I like, so "I like XXX" is a thought. And to go deeper into this thought would be answering the question, "Why I like XXX?" You are able to find out more about yourself this way. Beats taking all the psychological test that you find on magazine. :P You are able to look at your thoughts and understand why you have them in the first place. Once you are able to understand their existence, you are able to see yourself clearer and learn to control yourself better by controlling your reactions to thoughts.

Doing meditation let's me become more mindful abt the conversation I have people, be more careful in what I say and able to assess what should be said, at split seconds to other people but a longer process in my mind. :) Sounds unbelievable but it is the truth.

I strongly urge all readers to learn meditation. I really benefited greatly from it. Due to a change of working environment, a circle of events is happening again and I am able to see the whole thing happening clearer and know how to react to it better through being mindful (which is through meditation). Haha. It is just my Wants at fault again. Haha!

There is something else to share but I guess I live it to another time.

Cheers!

Focusing on the Present Moment

2007-10-07T19:43:00.000+08:00

If you guys can refer to my past blog entry on Time. You would have know that we are always in the present moment. Never in the future nor in the past. What we do in the present moment, will build a future that will become our Present.

So what type of future do you want? The type of future that you want would be tied up to your purpose in life. Now if you ask me what is your purpose in life, I cannot answer you. The only purpose of life I know is mine only. Once our purpose in life has been determined, we can set the goals that we need to meet to achieve our purpose in life. If you look from another point of views. Goals are actually accomplishments that you achieve in a certain Present moment that is coming in at a particular date in your lifetime (I hope it is a particular date otherwise there is something wrong in your goal setting :P) Other Present moments that come after the Present moment have the accomplishments that gives you the resources to help you move to the next Present moment where you achieve your next goal. These 'cycle' carry on until you reach your purpose in life.

Now if that is the case, how can we achieve the purpose of our life? Let me give u a very simple advice. Focus your full attention and energy on the Present moment. From the Present moment we are in to the Present moment that we achieve our purpose in life, there are a lot of Present moments in the middle. If you do your best in all of them, focus your attention and energy on all of them, then we can truly said that we tried our best to achieve our purpose in life. And with the right strategy implemented and right goals set, there is no way you would not achieve your purpose in life. And even if you just missed it, you can at least tell yourself truly that you have achieved your best.

How do we know we have done our best? Very simple, each and every moment that you are in, you let ALL your thoughts and effort focus on it. Effort wise we know because we can see our tangible result. As long as there are tangible result, we can say we have put in effort. But to say that we have put in our full effort, it is our thoughts that determine it. Many a times when we are doing a task, our thoughts will lead astray. Let me give u a simple example, when you are writing your report, I am sure most of us are listening to music. Do you dare to say that this sentence "Hmmm.... my favourite song is on." or something of similar nature never cross your mind? Or when you are at your job, suddenly this thought come to your mind "Oh later must go and buy bread for breakfast." If you have such thoughts, I dare say you are not fully focus on the job at hand. Haha, I am not a saint as well, I too have such moments as well. But please use this as an indicator to show how focus you are. Try to reduce such thoughts to the lowest minimum. There is absolutely no way you can reach a level of zero thoughts unless you have controlled your mind well through meditation.

Focus your FULL attention at each and every Present moment and you can touch your conscience and say that you have tried your best. The next stage would be moving towards the goals you have set and achieve your purpose in life.

Cheers!

Please write your anger down.

2007-10-01T20:34:00.000+08:00

"There are three types of people in the world. What three?

One who is like carving on a rock, one who is like scratching on the ground and one who is like writing on the water.

What sort of person is like carving on the rock? Imagine a certain person who is always getting angry and his anger lasts long, jut as carving on a rock is not soon worn off by wind, water or lapse of time.

What sort of person is like scratching on the ground? Imagine a certain person who is always getting angry but his anger does not last long, just as scratching on the ground is soon worn off by wind, water and lapse of time.

And what sort of person is like writing on the water? Imagine a certain person who, even though spoken to harshly, sharply, roughly, is easily reconciled and becomes agreeable and friendly, just as writing on the water soon disappears".

This is written with reference to a discourse in Buddhism.

Cheers

Alamak raining!

2007-09-25T20:22:00.000+08:00

Haha, this blog is supposed to be written yesterday, anyway, better late than never. Yesterday was Monday, a working day and the first working day of the week. The first working day of the week usually is hated by most people. The 'best' thing is that it was raining very heavily in the morning. But yesterday was a bit different.

I am sure most people when met with such situation, when they are preparing to go to work, only going to step out of the house in half to one hour's time, then it suddenly rain. Most people would say, "Oh no!!! Raining! Sianz leh! So troublesome! It would be nice to just snuggle in bed to sleep." After saying something to the same effect, then you start 'torturing' yourself by playing the "going to work in the rain" scenario in the mind. You start to conjure images of all the inconvenience the rain will bring to you when you go to work in your mind and you would frown at each inconvenience (you encounter in your brain), "Aiyah going to get wet!" "Alamak, today need to bring so many documents to the office and now it is raining." Right? Did u ever have such a scenario?? Haha!

Before you even go out into the rain, you already torture yourself several rounds in the brain. :P Then before you know it, when you just step out of the house, the rain stop!! Haha! But you have already tormented yourself before you even step out of the house. Think about it. We unnecessarily potray the trend of raining to our future, to cover the whole journey time (meaning we assume that the rain will just keep on until we reach the office). And because we potray the rain into the future, we unnecessarily created unhappiness for ourselves. Think about it.

I give you another scenario. I am sure we have come across a day where everything does not go right? Let me give you a timeline of how such a day happen. The first bad thing happen to you, you just say it is a one-off thing. The second bad thing happens, you start to have doubt whether the day will go smooth for you.The third bad thing happens and you start to potray out the trend of bad luck to the rest of the day. You start to think of all the bad things that could happen to you. You start to neglect the good things that happen to you on the same day. And you torture yourself by thinking all the bad things that could happen to you in your brain and you frown at each bad things that COULD happen to you. Haha! Sounds familiar?

Trends is good for predicting the near future but does not mean it goes on forever. And why go and torture and worry yourself to death on something that MIGHT happen in the future? You can make rough plans on how to handle it and that is it. And when it happens then implement your rough plans lah.

Anyway, this is for records sake, today is my last day of training for the software company, at least for the near future. A bit sad though cos I kind of enjoy doing training, because I can see that I am making an impact on other people's life. But hei, things are impermanence. I might be back to training again. Haha!

Cheers!

Half Empty/Full

2007-09-23T14:34:00.000+08:00

There is a common question that will most of the time be asked when you read any self-help books or attend any self-help seminar and that is, imagine a glass of water with water fill to half its capacity, do you see the glass half empty or half full. And from the answer that you give, one is able to tell if you are a positive person or a negative person.

Let me give my answer to the question. The glass is always full. So I neither choose half empty or half full. Haha, think about it for a while before you read on, why I said that the glass is always full.

Have you given some thought? Ok here goes, the glass in a natural environment will always be full no matter how much water is inside. Because the glass can be fill with air (air here does not mean water ah. :P) . This is the reason why the glass is always full. Everytime we are asked the question of whether the glass is half empty or half full, the person who ask the question has direct you to make some assumption and that is you see it from the perspective of water in the glass. How he direct you? Very simple, by offering you a multiple choice question. Half empty or half full, two options only. As such you will be thinking from the perspective of water readily without question asked. And if you think properly, the asker just ask "Is the glass half full or half empty?" Many a times there is no mentioned of water in the question at all. Think about it.

I am sure after reading till this paragraph, you have now more interpretations of the glass with water filled to half its capacity. For example, the glass is full of oxygen molecules and pairs of oxygen atom and hydrogen atoms. The glass is full of molecules. The glass is full of neutrons, protons and electrons. How come suddenly, you have a lot of interpretation of the same thing? This is because I have broken the assumption for you. The assumption that you need to look at the perspective of water.

In life, there are many options available to us. Many a times we are limited by the perspective of things that we have, as seen from the glass example. And because of our limited perspective of things, we dismiss or overlook better solutions to our problem. So when we look at a problem, look at the problem from many perspective, looking at it from many perspective can allow us to see the problem as it is, not worse or better than what it is, understand which perspective is the best for solving this problem and then choose the appropriate solution to solve it.

How to see from many perspectives? Well perhaps the first step is to find out what are the assumptions you have made. Check that these assumptions can they be broken or not. And once the assumption is broken, you can view a problem from many more angles, just like the glass example again.

Cheers!

Impermanence Part 1

2007-09-19T23:11:00.001+08:00

Well as most of you'll know, I am studying religion now but with a focus on Buddhism. I find Buddhism fascinating basically because their pratice is to cultivate the mind so that one can be mindful and see things better and clearer. And most of the readers would know that I am a very 'mind' person because I like to contemplate a lot. Which explains why I am so curious, am able to absorb knowledge, have good but misguided memory and good mind qualities overall. :P Hahaha! Pardon me for blowing my own trumpet. Hehe!

Anyway, one of the main principles in Buddhism is Impermanence, means that things are always in a flux. There is nothing that is permanent. Now I know some readers going to argue with me saying, "The only thing that is permanent is impermanence." You can argue this sentence for all you want but I will not go along, because there will not be any benefit derived in arguing abt it. I rather do something more constructive, in my opinion of course. :)

So if one see impermanence in many things surrounding him, there is a lot of benefits for him. First thing is we will not take things for granted. Because we know some day, it will not be with us or we might not be with them, when forced by circumstances. By not taking things for granted, we will not have deep regret when the day comes where we have to leave behind the things we treasure the most because we have done our best to be with them.

Seeing impermanence, we know that the things that we have now will not be with us forever. If that is the case, why not, where possible, let go these things earlier and give to people who can benefit from them more than us? For instance, money. We know money will not be with us forever, or we cannot bring with us to our grave. If that is the case, why not give a part of it to charity (meaningful ones of course), that is after considering your financial needs. And as I mentioned in my previous blog entry, doing charity can create bigger things for you in the end. By the way, if you are at the receiving end, do rejoice about it. This will make the giver happy and it will make you happy as well, since you have someone willing to give you something. Cheers to that! :D

Seeing impermanence, it gives us certain hope, in sensible situations of course. For instance, when we met with failure, always see that this failure or setback can be recovered from. The effects of a setback is not permanent. How long the effects stays with you greatly depends on how your actions later disprove it, again as I mentioned in my previous blog entry.

Seeing impermanence, we can see through time to a certain extent. For example, you can see a mug as a functional mug or a mug that is broken into pieces or just clay. With these in mind, you will again not take things for granted and always be prepared to take appropriate actions.

Seeing impermanence, you know that when you plan, you must allow some room for changes or have contingency plans. With that in mind, you will be better prepared for things that might disrupt your plans, giving you ample time to react to emergencies.

Seeing impermanence, one should not be inside his comfort zone for too long because you never know when you might be kick out of it. The only way not to be kick out of your comfort zone is to always stay at the boundary of your comfort zone and keep on expanding it while you are there.

Seeing impermanence, why go for fortune telling or get someone to tell your future? Because of impermanence, things are always in a flux so who can tell you what WILL happen in your future? The only certain things in your future, is your death and that we do not have any idea when it will happen, again because of impermanence.

Well. these are my thoughts on impermanence at the moment. Readers who have comments do feel free to give it to me. Cheers.

Worry-ism

2007-09-16T14:01:00.000+08:00

Apologies, it has been a long time since I write my last entry. Although it is slightly more than a week since I wrote my last entry, I am sure most readers would think I am slow, in my own standard.

Anyway, just want to share with you guys a story I read in the Sunday's Chinese Newspaper. There are two morals to this story. As for what are the morals of the story, I shall let the readers do a bit of contemplation. Again, this is a translated story so pardon the English Language. :) Here goes:

There once was a monk that ask his teacher a question:"What is spiritual practice?" His teacher replied:"Eat when it is time to eat. Sleep when it is time to sleep." Scratching his head, the monk ask his teacher again, "I eat when I am hungry, I sleep when I am sleepy, but how come I do not feel like I am in spiritual practice?" The teacher replied, "When people are having their meals, they usually do not concentrate on their meals, their thoughts will be all over the place, thinking about many things. When people are sleeping, they would think or even dream of things in their life. Thus when it is time to eat, they are not eating properly. When it is time to sleep, they never sleep well." The sentence "Eat when it is time to eat. Sleep when it is time to sleep." may sound simple enough to follow but it hits the nail at our worrisome nature. A lot of people when they are working, thinks of knocking off. When they have knock off, they things about the work they have left behind in the office. Ain't it true?

This is a story of a female friend of mine.

Her husband and her strike out together, setting up their own business. During work, she is always worrying about the kids that are studying at the kindergarten. So she would repeatedly make phone calls to the kindergarten to make enquiries her kids, to the point that the kindergarten staff knows her and gave her a nickname. She knows about this but she could not help it. But after fetching her kids back from kindergarten, after work, she has no patience in teaching them. She would raise her voice and scold them, to the point that her kids, who are already obedient, cries. And she often lamented about the affairs in the business with her husband, causing the atmosphere in the family to be quite 'heavy'.

This happen until to a point where her husband feel the need to communicate with her, asking her if she is stressed out and does she needed a rest. Coincidentally, her university friends is organizing a tour to the US, so her family encourage her to go for the trip to relax.

But the trip did not help her to relax. She still make repeated phone calls home to check out her family and business, even during the night time as well. (Probably due to time zone difference). Her body was with the tour group but her heart was still with the family. With that, she could not stand it anymore and came back home after two weeks on the road.

When she reached home, she exclaimed, "I miss you guys!" and ran to give her family a hug. The next day, after she came back, she went back to the normal routine of calling the kindergarten up, complaining to her husband when no one at the kindergarten answered her phone call. It was beyond the tolerance level of her husband, he scolded her,"Why worry so much? Does your worry benefit the kids? Do you know that the days when you are not around, we are so happy?"

His roar awaken her. She finally realise that being worried caused a lot of suffering for her family. She also realised that her worrisome nature has caused herself to be a mess, and burdened her family, causing her negative emotions to rub off on her family.

She finally realise she has to let go. The letting go principle is very important in work and relationships.

--The End--

Hope you guys like the story and derive something meaningful in it. I know I did. Cheers!

Reminiscing

2007-09-08T23:08:00.000+08:00

Today, I had an appointment at Causeway Point. The appointment was good because the lady that I met with shared a lot of her training experience with me and due to her former job, her knowledge of NLB and network inside. The information is very useful since I wanted to build a career in training, both for adult and children. The information allow me to create a situation where it will build a win-win situation for all parties which is very important in this society now. I am so grateful that I met this lady. (Just in case some of you readers are wondering, the lady is married hor. :) ) The best thing is that what led me to meet with this lady was because I was willing to give a free talk. I am looking forward to giving more talks especially at NLB where the crowds are there and if I can make my delivery of topics interesting, I am sure I will keep on drawing the crowds in. And slowly be able to fulfill my dream of having my own training company, a company that helps people to create and build more value in their lives.

Well, I leverage on her knowledge and network on training and NLB but I offer my 'expertise' in Internet marketing and websites :) Chinese have a word for this called "舍得". Actual meaning is willing to let go, or willing to give. But if you look at individual character alone. It means "give take". So you can see from here, one has to give first before he can take. So in order to increase what you have, be willing to give, be willing to give to someone worthy. Only after that, then you should take, and rejoice in what you have. Why? Because, this something that you take is something you earn by giving up something. And another thing, people is willing to give you something, is that not wonderful? It says a lot about your character if someone is willing to give you something willingly. So you should rejoice about it. Imagine you have a friend that keeps on taking without giving anything, would that not irk you, make you not willing to give him anything anymore, unless there is a change in his/her attitude. But give first to test the character, then continue to give to those that are worthy. As for those that are not worthy, you decide for yourself if you want to give. :)

So far what I say does not seem to fit in with the title right? Haha, here it is. Like I mentioned, I went back to Causeway Point today. Causeway Point has become a special place in my 'memory box'. Why this is so is because remember my birthday this year? Yes, I spent it at Causeway Point with the special someone. So when I reach Causeway Point, images of what happen on my birthday start to flood my mind, with a lot of details of course. For instance, walking from Causeway Point to my best friend's place, the potluck that we have; the cream puff, peppermint cake, murtabak, fried rice, Filippino cuisine, Burmese salad, duck, Indonesian chilli (Haha!) and so on, the cake cutting (by four birthday people), the 'hot' card game that we had, the long chat with two best friends. It was a very enjoyable day that I had and of course like I mentioned before, being able to spend my birthday with my best friends and good friends and that special someone, of course. :) Those images never fail to put a smile on my face. So yes, Causeway Point does hold a special place in my heart. A place that I will always remember.

Yes, I have found a job already. So now that is one area in life that is settled. Now is to work on my other areas of interest and going about to create a few source of income for myself. Have to push myself harder now since I have been slacking for two years or so, taking my own sweet time in things. Definitely will take some effort moving from a slacking environment to one where I will be busy the moment I open my eyes till the moment I sleep. I still strongly believe that I can achieve my goals in life, to lead the life that I want.

Onwards march, towards my dream of having my own training business (or other business where possible :P) empire. And of course, the one important question I need to settle is "How is she doing?" Haha, let's see how it will be answered. :)

Cheers!

Titles & Labels

2007-09-01T23:03:00.001+08:00

As we proceed in life, we will earn a lot of titles. From our job, with our friends and inside our family we will have titles. In our job we have job titles like XXX Executive, XXX Managing Director and so on. With our friends or family, the titles are what is commonly known as nicknames. Some of us like the nicknames but most of us I am sure do not like it. Even nicknames are split into two groups, one that is given behind your back, that is how your friends refer to you behind your back and another that nicknames that you are commonly known in your group of friends.

Some of these titles reflect a certain labels that people have on you. For instance, Stupid Man, Einstein, Free Man and so on. "Stupid man" I am sure is a label that is given to a supposedly stupid man. "Einstein" is usually given to one that is very smart and nerdy like me. :P and need I say more for "Free Man"? Hahaha!

Most of us sometimes really let these labels affect how we take actions. How? Let me give you two common examples. In a job, sometimes you are faced with a dilemma. Should you take a risk to solve a problem? If the solution works, you will be labeled as 'smart' in the company but if the solution does ont work. you will be labeled as 'stupid' or 'idiot' or worst 'imbecile' in your company and you might have to live with these labels for sometimes. Because of these negative labels, one would seldom want to risk it.

Another common example is, let's say you found out that you like someone, then comes the problem of whether should you let the person know your feelings or not. Because if she reciprocate, you will be labeled as 'brave', 'smart', 'lucky' and all the nice labels that is applicable. But if she does not, then you would be embarrassed, be scarred by this failure, be labeled as 'wishful thinker', 'failure', 'stupid' and all the negative labels that are applicable. So in the end, because of your great fear of failure and negative labels, you decide to hold your tongue and in the end forestall what could have been a good and happy relationship.

Now if you think carefully and read carefully, all these are words and, seriously, all these labels are really temporary. Why I said they are temporary is this. Very simple, if a person that you labeled 'stupid' starts taking action that reflects that he is smart. Are you still going to continually call the person stupid? I think if you do that, other people might start saying that you are stupid instead.

If many bad things are happening to you and you start to label yourself as 'unlucky'. Now if YOU start looking at the positive side of things, I am sure you will start saying that your luck has changed because all the good things are happening to you. The label of 'unlucky' has been broken because you change your focus.

If you like a certain person but in the end was rejected. Other people may label you as 'failure' or 'stupid' but if you start to take actions that show otherwise, do you think people will continue to call you a 'failure' and 'stupid'? And if the other party is someone risking getting a TEMPORARY negative label why not?

And you can see from here, how temporary such negative labels sticks to you truly depends on the actions you are taking. It greatly depends on yourself.

The truly wise one can relate labels to actions or to the person.

Make your actions congruent with the labels that you want as a person. Be able to see that negative labels can be limited to the particular action that you took. Don't let words stop you from chasing what you want. Always remember you can make these labels temporary or permanent (till your death).

Cheers!

One Man's Meat is Another Man's Poison

2007-08-27T09:01:00.000+08:00

Went to hear a talk at a temple. Well the topic of the talk was Heart Sutra, but the thing that I took back the most is the last of the session, during the Q&A. What was mentioned then was truly a great example of practising compassion and helping people with wisdom.

This is what happens. A nun was leading a group of devotees to pilgrimage in India. So they have to travel from villages to villages. As we all know the city and the villages are worlds apart although they are found in the same country. Children at the villages, when they saw visitors, came out in drove to beg for money or to sell things to the visitors. Being compassionate, the devotees donated some money to these children. But the nun notice that some of these kids just repeatedly move along with the group to beg for money. So in the end, the nun forbid the devotees from donating to these kids anymore. Now in most people's eye, many would have called the nun heartless but the moment I heard about the nun forbidding the devotees to donate, I knew what the problem was. By donating to these kids, you are encouraging them to beg. Begging is never a long term solution to these kids. And it only educate these kids that they can gain something great without much effort, since they are milking the 'compassion' of people. So it is wise to stop 'feeding' these kids, rather we should put the money to better use, helping these kids to get out of this poverty cycle, a need for longer term solution.

Another thing that was shared by another person who attended the talk was that, there is a high chance that these kids are being exploited by syndicates. Usually the kids with their naivity and their looks are able to 'milk' compassion easily, so the syndicates would recruit these kids, exploit them to beg for money and at the end of the day, just provide these kids with adequate three meals. If one is to donate to these kids, aren't you encouraging such exploitation? I believe this is a good example of practising compassion with wisdom. You cannot look at the act itself. Yes, the act to you might be compassionate, but you have to look at the effect of your action as well. Are you encouraging a wrong practice that has a nice front? Chinese have a saying "挂羊头卖狗肉", literally means, hanging a goat's head but selling dog's meat. So have the wisdom to know whether your act is good or bad in nature.

I would like to share another thing about helping people. I have a friend who approach me seeking help on which MBA to choose (from someone who does not intend to take MBA all along, maybe until now. Haha!). She mentioned that she like how I help her to choose because I keep on putting her into consideration rather then her other friend which keep on mentioning which MBA is good for himself. Such an example reminds me the title of this blog "One Man's Meat is Another Man's Poison". When we look at people, we usually put in our own measures, standard and expectation. But have you noticed that your act of kindness might not be perceived as an act of kindness to another person. For example, you like to eat glutinous rice but without finding out whether your friend like to eat or not, you treat him with what YOU like. In the end, being friends, he does not reject you and he himself have to be stuck with something he does not like. Get what I mean?

So remember these examples when you start thinking of helping people. Help wisely. For me, this blog serves as a reminder to keep on practising what I mentioned here. I might make mistakes but hei, most importantly is learn from them. Cheers!

Happening Day

2007-08-19T09:18:00.000+08:00

Well yesterday was really a happening day for me and the events that makes it happening happening in a span of 7 hrs.

Firstly, I went to the bookshop at Jurong East MRT station and as I was browsing through it. I chanced upon a Chinese book that contains information, sort of a directory of the Chinese History, culture. This book can define for me what are the books that I need to look at, read, study in order for me to build a, close to full picture, of the whole 3000 years of Chinese history. So I am very happy when I found this book. All along I have been searching for such a book to help me better understand what are the materials that I need to look at in order to get myself well grounded in Chinese history, culture and philosophy and now I have! YES!!! :)

Next I went to a book reading club. This club is held at our National Library and the aim of this club is to share people's thoughts on reading non-fiction books, books that help people to succeed in life and business. The book club just started that is why the numbers are few, but no matter, I will definitely attend each session because I know people who attend these clubs are people who love reading and are looking for success in their lives.

During the book reading club, I met a lady who has been conducting courses for school and she is interested in have Sun Zi Art of War as on of her offers. She said if I could come up with a curriculum that can use Art of War combine with studying strategies, it would sell like hotcakes. Nice idea and would be challenging. Let's see how it goes. But it would be nice to partner with her since she is quite experienced in teaching school kids while I myself has some experience in doing adult training. Again, let us see how it goes from here.

After the Reading club, my next destination is the Esplanade where a good Indonesian friend was giving a birthday treat. And it just happen that there would be fireworks display. As usual lah, when I was with this group of Indonesian friends I can only catch 10% of what they said while the 90%, my CPU is too slow to decode what they are saying. Hahaha! Anyway, I am used to it already and I have myself to blame for pausing my learning in Bahasa Indonesia. :P

We managed to hang around at the restaurant until the fireworks started. Well, the display is nice and I did enjoy myself and amazed at the pyrotechnic science because nowadays, fireworks is not simply just look like flowers and single color but can have different colors together and in different patterns as well. :) But the fireworks did not excite me though. Cos I did not go "WAH" and "WOO". Haha. I just turn my head here and there to capture the lights from the fireworks even though I was blocked by a few palm trees. Haha. But hei, I would not mind going for another fireworks display since my friends enjoy it.

I also realise that it is during this time then your realise that Singapore has a lot of people. Haha. I think this is the biggest crowd I have ever seen so far. Even when I was doing fatigue at the Sheares Bridge Run several years ago, I never did see such a big crowd. Oh another thing, I saw one of my favourite newscaster, Ms Suzanne Jung. Nice! She looks more beautiful in person.

Ok have to start reading my new book. Cheers to that!

Being open

2007-08-17T20:58:00.000+08:00

These few days, I have been absorbing a lot of knowledge and wisdom from many areas especially in religion. Decided not to let my life revolve around my job hunt, I have finally started picking some books up for reading. And now I am interested in the history of major religions and their teachings as well. Haha, the amount and knowledge and wisdom from Chinese History is so immense already and let us not forget about the knowledge and wisdom that is needed for business, finance and statistics (its application in business areas) where my other passion is and now comes another area which is History of Religion which from the looks of it is another immense area.

I think why I want learn this is because actually I have found my knowledge in religion to be quite minimal, like most Singaporeans, until these few years when someone share with me the history of major religions. What fascinates me is how come most religions have evolve into this current state. Whether right or wrong I have no idea at all until I have look at the teachings and everything then it would be better for me to make a more informed judgement call. I strongly believe that most religions at the initial stage advocated the correct values and to help people achieve their spiritual needs, one of the needs that is stated by Maslow.

But learning about religion have let me adopt a new approach to learning and that is to have an open mind. Yes, more open than last time. I seldom dispute at the first instance when I receive new knowledge and wisdom compared to last time where I dispute straightaway if it does not agree with the initial idea or the foundation of knowledge that I have, but I must say I have a lot of initial ideas or good foundation of knowledge. Hahaha!

Anyway, with more knowledge coming in, I also need to spend more time to verify the facts and logic behind these knowledge and wisdom, but hei I like the research and think-through process so I do not mind. But I can see the difference in being open compared to a person that thinks that what he/she learned is good enough and there is no need to explore further. The thinking of enough is really dangerous because it really limits a person horizon and also the chance to receive new knowledge and wisdom, some of which can be very useful. Hopefully there is a chance I can open the person's mind in the future. :)

Well now is to implement this openness and also mindfulness to other areas that I am passionate about and see how high a level I can reach. And use myself as an example to open up more people's mind, esp... :)

Cheers!

"We are responsible for our own happiness." (This is what is coming into my mind when watching the 9pm channel 8 drama.)

Mind Blank & Tongue Tied

2007-08-14T22:04:00.001+08:00

Nowadays was watching the new drama on Channel Eight. Not that I like the army, just that there are pretty actress inside and the job hunt occupies so much of my thinking that I am not able to focus on my other work.

Haha, anyway, inside the drama there is someone whose action is like me last time (and also now? :P No idea.) Yesterday's episode, one of the main character was waiting for the girl that he likes to be on MSN. This reminds me of the time where I push away most appointments on Saturdays, waiting in front of the MSN for her to appear online. And when she appears online, I was happy but then came another problem and that is to start a conversation. I want her to appear online but when I see her online, my mind which is always hyperactive, suddenly went into hibernation mode and I stare blindly at her avatar, trying to type something in. Haha. And when I manage to type something in, the conversation never last long because the subjects seem to lose momentum and in the end only chatted for a few minutes. Waited a few hours just for that few minutes of chat, but hei for most 'experienced' people, I am sure you will, like me, say it is all worth it. Although looking at the current result, most people would say that I am stupid but I never regret pushing away my appointments on Saturday just for that few minutes of memories.

In today's episode, the same character was having lunch with his younger brother and they are talking about what type of women will make them know "She is the one." So for the younger brother, it is a woman that can make him fall in love at first sight, whereas for the elder brother, who is the same character I refer to in the previous paragraph, it is a woman that can make his mind go blank and tongue tied when they meet. I guess for me, like the elder brother, it is the same for me. She did make my mind go blank, as seen above, as for tongue tied, well a lot of my friends can vouch for me on that. Hahaha! Everytime I try to talk to her during lunch time, my mind suddenly went blank, tongue tied in the best knot a scout can tie and to add another point, my feet walk faster than ever before. Haha!

Time pass very fast, it has been more than a month now since I last seen her. Have no idea how she is doing in her new job. I do not want to know at the moment because my focus is to secure a job first and the two job applications results is really taking a long time to come. I just hope that I am successful in one of the two applications so that I can move on in the next phase of life. Only when I have found a job would I have the time to hear how she is doing. Concentration is the key. :)

Oh, by the way, the elder brother in the end married the lady that make his mind go blank and his tongue tied up. Typical of local drama, always good ending. Anyway, cheers to that!

Charistmatic Leadership

2007-08-08T22:01:00.000+08:00

Well this week is a short week, shortened by a Public Holiday, National Day. Been waiting for three days for the results of two job applications but up till now still no news at all. Wonder what happen anyway, as long as I make a successful application to any one of these two applications, all this wait would definitely be worth it.

Anyway, the purpose of this blog is to record a talk that I came across yesterday. The second talk which is regarded as the "best" show was to me just a reminder that network marketing is one way of survival in this society that we are in. The first talk was something of an eye opener to a small extent. Below is a summary of the talk. Title of the talk is "What is charismatic leadership?"

Four characteristic of a charismatic leader.

1) Politician - let his people see his vision, set proper goals and targets, his actions and words are congruent, manage his money well and maintain his sexual relationship well.

2) Military Leader - has the proper strategy, take care of his men, maintain the integrity of the rewards and punishment system and set an example

3) Educationist - make sure his subordinates are well taught, his teachings can be easily spread, and has the capability and knowledge.

4) Philanthropist - believing that giving is definitely better than receiving thus willing to contribute to the well being of his subordinates.

That is all for the recording. Like I mentioned just now, there is a successful network marketer that tells us that network marketing is the only way to succeed in this society that we are in but I actually beg to differ. He did mentioned that the traditional business has huge costs to worry about which in my opinion makes it very challenging and I seldom back down from a challenge. :) I do not dispute that network marketing is a good platform to learn about business but it is doing the actual business that I like because it gives me the adrenaline rush and if in the future I am successful in the traditional business, which I strongly believe I will, I can use the business as a leverage to add greater value to people's life which a network marketing business cannot do. Need an example? Network marketing cannot seek economies of scale that the traditional business can create, which can be use to add greater value to people's life.

The feeling of seeing someone that is successful in network marketing is reassuring to me that I am not wrong in network marketing being a good way to earn another source of income and if the right company is chosen, one can have a proper source of income instead of depending on a job which they hate but cannot be let go.

Hmmmm...... So fast, it has been 27 days already. Time really flies. When is the time going to come? Well only Time will tell. See you soon and all the best!! Make the best with what you have and the rest will just fall into place. :)

Cheers!

National Day

2007-08-03T18:43:00.000+08:00

Two days ago, I saw someone hanging the Singapore National Flag, then I realised that the National Day is near. Haha, can you believe that, National Day being a public holiday but I did not pay attention that it is approaching. I guess that says much about my patriotism. :) Anyway, this was the first time I saw someone in the act of hanging our National Flag and this is also the first time I saw someone hanging the National Flag wrongly. The left side became the right and vice versa. Hahaha! So much for first time, eh? :P Anyway, one question crept to my mind. Why does people in Singapore want to hang the National Flag? Actually if u scan through any neighborhood, you would have noticed that flats that do not hang flags throughout the whole block, will only have a handful of people hanging flats. For instance the flat that I stayed in, only have at the most 10 people hanging flats out of around 120+ households, I think. That is very few leh. Such figure shows something about how we Singaporeans feel about our homeland.

Well, blame who ah? I think there are a lot of factors involve but anyway, I shan't discuss about it here. Recently the news of the transport companies seeking fare hikes again really make me very pissed off with them. This whole week, when taking the public transport, the frequency is so low during peak hours, I have to wait for more than 20 mins before I can get onto a bus and the best thing is I have to pay more than usual for the ride because I am taking the EXPRESS bus. Sometimes I have this feeling that the bus company make the frequency for normal bus services very low so that we commuters are forced to pay more and take the EXPRESS bus so that they can earn more. And the best part is that I read from the news, the bus companies said that they have give it much thought before they sent their request for fare hikes to the Public Transport Council. Crazy you know, after three years, I think the bus fare for me have rose 8 cents already and I do not pay 8 cents a month leh. I have to pay 8 cents more for more than 25 days in a month and please multiply that amount by two. I cannot be taking bus to work and then walk back right?

Anyway, shall not talk abt it. Talk too much also no use. Most likely the fare hike is coming and it will be in Oct 1st. This is Singapore for you. With price increase in most of the essential needs that we have, I wonder anyone still like living in Singapore. I know we have better things in Singapore compare to other countries, but somehow or rather, after listening to many people from other countries, I kind of feel that Singapore has placed too much on economic development but lack severely character development. The whole nation seem to be moving towards a nation of money grubbers. :P

Anyway, I will consider migrating if I have a chance. Seriously, I do not feel anything for this place that I call home or Singapore. I have no qualms about moving. Ideal place for migration is New Zealand. Althought I heard the GST is high, at least it is stable. Stability is always better than change :)

Cheers!

Missing

2007-07-29T16:04:00.000+08:00

Well Sunday is here and almost gone now. :) Have went for 4 job interviews, 1 job test, took on 1 data management project and 1 day training for this week. And also receive 1 news of unsuccessful application. Well, for me the unsuccessful application is a good and a bad thing. Bad thing is because I wanted to secure a job offer fast so that I can feel some stability in my life, temporary for now, of course. Good thing is if I am successful, I doubt I can work with the people there because they give me an uneasy feeling although the interview with the potential colleagues went well. So working with them might not be comfortable for me.

I am hoping to receive at least one job offer from the three companies that I went to for an interview last week, two banks and one financial institution. And I have confident I would receive one at least. :) Looking back at the two weeks, I have not done much reading for the last two weeks because of the data management project and the hectic interview schedule. Well during the interview, I was never nervous at all but usually after an interview, I feel very drained and needed a rest to gain back the energy lost. I seriously hope that this job hunt can end soon with a good ending of course. VISUALIZE!!!! :)

Anyway, the word 'missing' have been appearing in my life the past few days. Because I am working on a data management project, handing missing values is very common. And the thing is that we have to look at the source data, or input data for the layman and see how they treat the missing values in the first place so that when we do coding for the data management, it would be easier to set out the necessary condition to work on this missing values. Even during analysis of data, how we treat the missing values have a great impact on the outcome of our analysis as well. I am sure people who do quantitative research can relate to what I said quite well.

I also missed the food at my former research centre and the colleagues as well although I see them once or twice a week during those weeks when I am not there. Haha, can see I have build a strong relationship with them during the two years there. Well hopefully I find a job soon and I can go back there to meet them for a final round before I start on my new job, a new chapter in my life. And of course, I also miss.... because it has been a long while.

I also miss my reading and working on the website. Because of the draining interviews and their timing, I was not able to get into the proper attention span to work on my websites and absorb my reading thus all these have been put on hold for more than two weeks now. On and off I try to pick up a book to read, but never seems to get into the right attention and concentration on it. I know what is stopping me is the job hunting process. So again I really hope it end soon! STRONG DESIRE for it to end so that I can plan a proper schedule and work towards my dream! Just too much uncertainty for me to accommodate for now.

Oh yes, today I read an article from the Chinese Newspaper. It is a nice article and the gist of the articles is that realising dreams that you hold is one way of making you live longer and add more value in life. I resonate with what the article says and it re-invigorates my desire to realise my dreams which I have lost during these last three weeks. I just have to do what I can for now given the great uncertainties I have in life right now.

Towards a better week and a week that WILL cut down my uncertainties in life! Cheers!

Job Hunt Scorecard

2007-07-24T08:31:00.000+08:00

Well well, yesterday I went for two interviews. One is the second round interview of the company that gave me the first interview of my job hunt. The second interview was a recommendation from a trainee from the course that I conduct. Networking is useful right? Haha! Anyway, I came to know from the HR that for the position I was applying for in the first interview of the day, there are three more people vying for it. No idea does that 'three' include me or not'. But anyway, they said that they will let me know the result at the end of the week. So again, I just sit quietly in my 'Life' boat and flow with the Stream of Time to see which 'Job' pier I would reach lah. :) Well the second interview, the job scope is also more hands on as well, and most of the team members I know since they have come for my training as well. There would be a lot of things to learn as well and I heard that the chances of being offered a job are high. Again don't want to raise any expectations and just quietly flow with time.

When the newspaper says that the job market is very good now, I was quite skeptical until I receive a call for the second round of interview for the interview that I went on last FRIDAY!!! Yes, I receive a call for second round the day after my first round of interview. WOW!

Anyway, the two interviews that I attended was at CBD area, near the Singapore River. It has been a long time since I've been there. During the university days, when there are no lessons and I feel like taking a stroll during weekdays, I would take a break and walk from Shenton Way to Bugis Junction. During the walk, I would go to the Thian Hock Keng Temple where Confucius is and from there walk to the Singapore River, past the Cavenagh Bridge and walk towards Victoria Theatre, where the black Sir Stamford Raffles statue is. Walk past the High Court and the back of St Andrew's Cathedral. And from there walk towards Bugis Junction and then stop by at the Kwang Yin Temple, to pay respect to the Goddess of Mercy. I can tell you, walking this route during the weekday where everyone is rushing around and working while you are leisurely walking, the feeling is fantastic! You take in the sights of vibrant colors and the bustling sounds of the CBD area, you can feel more alive.

Yesterday, I took leisure stroll down the Singapore River again. Taking in the sights of the colorful warehouses-turned restaurants, the bum boats and also the sight of the Asian Civilisation Museum. You can see a lot of tourist there. Tourist from Indian, Korean, Philippines, Japanese, China and many more. It was fun and enjoyable to be doing it again.

Would love to have another opportunity to take the walk again during a weekday, to see what are the changes and the hidden secrets of the CBD area again.

Cheers!

Misconceptions

2007-07-22T11:13:00.000+08:00

Well going into the third week of job hunt. Things seem to be moving fine. With a lot more jobs that has scope that I like, but I think this time round I should try to enter the banking industry. The chances are high since this is an employee's market now. So let's see whether I will be able to enter the industry.

The second interview that I went to, well quite difficult to foresee whether there is a second round of interview because the interviewer does not seem to be impressed nor dislike the answers that I give, but during the interview process I learnt something about the interviewer who could be my potential supervisor. She is someone who sees negative stuff. She points out the problem in my resume and ask me why this or that. For instance, why I 'quit' my job first, then look for a job. How come I asked for a lower expected salary when I am earning more and so on. She seldom questioned about my technical skill. Well, I gave her the answers I thought best, but like I mentioned, throughout the interview, I have no idea whether she is impressed or not. All I know is that she told me I have the relevant skill set, just that I do not have the relevant industry experience. So comparing this with my previous interview and the many articles that said that employees with the relevant skill set is hard to find. My guess is that the probability of a second round might be high. Well, don't want to waste too much time thinking and seeking that extra few percentage of probability for a second round. What is done, is done. Just see whether there will be a second round for this job.

Yesterday, I gave a free talk on applying Sun Zi Art of War in life. Well, it was a great learning experience. Because during the talk, there was group discussion and I manage to walk around and listen to many views and opinions. I also manage to see how people interact in a group. It broadens my horizon on how people think and also the many misconceptions people have about Sun Zi Art of War. Would like to take this chance to clarify something here. Sun Zi never wanted war, he is never a warmonger. He said that war is always a last resort, never a first one to seek. And the context in which Sun Zi Art of War wrote is in a context of win/lose situation. But in life, there is a chance to seek a win/win situation depending on circumstances. So it does not mean then that Sun Zi Art of War should be used COMPLETELY in such circumstances. If a win/win situation could be seek, why seek a win/lose situation then? Seeking a win/lose situation, where a win/win situation could be seek, maybe good for the short term but in the long run you are going to lose a lot because you let other people see a bad side of you and for that you might be paying off in terms of potential friendship.

Well, the talk was good in my opinion. I did feel a bit of nervousness at the start but I settled in quite soon and was able to inject humor into the class wherever possible. Hope to get more chances of doing such stuff, to share with people the wisdom in Ancient Chinese works, make more people, especially Chinese not living in China, to appreciate our own culture and history.

Cheers!

Shelter

2007-07-19T23:07:00.000+08:00

Today I want to share some thoughts on the word Shelter. Now shelter is one of the most basic needs of man. This is where we are more familiar with. The physical shelter. This shelter is the one that shield us from the elements of the weather. But if u look from another point of view, it actually weaken us in the sense that we have become intolerance to the mildly violent elements of weather. But anyway, why we need to shield ourselves away from the elements of weather because we need to protect our body so that we can function well in the role that we have taken in this society.

There is another type of shelter that I consider quite scary and that is emotional shelter. Let me give a good example of such shelter, over-protective parents. Yes. Our parents provide us with physical shelter and emotional shelter. Now that is their duty to do that for us. But sometimes, because parents are so concerned and loved us too much, they over protect us. When what they should do is to remove this shelter bit by bit so that we can grow to become independent and strong.

Let me give a analogy of what I mean. Supposedly you plant a sapling in your garden. Now to make sure the sapling has a chance to grow into a big tree, to protect it from the harshest element of weather, you build a shelter on top of it. Of course it does not make sense to build a big shelter for a small tree. So a small shelter is built first. But sooner or later they have to remove this shelter on top of us, otherwise the tree's growth would be limited by the height of the shelter. So this shelter have to keep on changing the size and the height so that the young tree can be grown into a sturdy tree that can withstand the harshest element of weather. The initial intention of the shelter was to help the young tree to have a chance of surviving in the harsh weather but in the end has become something that limits the growth of the tree.

Relate this to parenting, no idea about you'll but I have seen some friends who live in a well-protected environment. The parents never build a new shelter to aid the growth of the child, and instead have the same old shelter there to impede the growth. So in the end, their thinking is not mature and the consequence they suffer for their immaturity almost make them could not survive in the harsh society that we work in.

Well, I guess the love of the parents is really something commendable, but like all things, wisdom has to be applied in it so that the tool can be leverage upon for good rather than become something that is bad.

Cheers!

Seize the Moment!

2007-07-17T20:04:00.000+08:00

Well today is a very good day for me. I received two phone calls. One is to call me for an interview and the job is one that I seek as well because it test my management skill, both project and people. This is because I need to manage a team of people to generate reports useful for marketing and selling and department direction. So there will be plenty of scope for me to perform.

The second phone call is that I made it to the second round of the first interview that I have. Yes!! Haha! Thank you to all friends who have shown support during this few weeks! Now all I hope for is a job offer to come soon. In fact, it would be nice to have several coming all at once for me to choose. Haha!

Also received news that there might be several more days of training at the end of the month. Well, last chance (or is it not?) to conduct training for the software company. We see how it goes from here on. Anyway, to those people who read and believe in horoscope. My advice is just read for fun and then throw what you have written out of the window. Because it is crap. So many times the horoscope says that I have bad luck but in the end things always turn out well. When it said I have good luck, most of the time, it is the opposite. My advice is just stay happy, focus on the good things that happen in your life and everything will go smooth. Don't let a lousy few lines call horoscope to dictate your mood for the day.

One of my good friend show me an article about his primary school friend who has recently passed away. When I was reading the article, several thoughts came to mind. First, a pity that such a person would meet with such end. We need more of such doctors around, doctors who really stick to their primary duty of providing healthcare and helping patients to be healthy once again. Such doctors are a rare breed especially in developed countries where dollars and cents seems to make more sense to people than common sense. Ugly humans! (I mean the small handful of them.)

Second, there are really a lot of people out there that need help, and I really wish I can help big time as that is my primary goal of being rich, to leverage on business system and money to help more people but with this thought in mind, I begin to think, "To help people does not mean I have to build big business system, to earn money to help. I should seize the moment and just make a difference to many people's live, as many as possible now, meanwhile walking and seeking the path to richness.

My friend showed me the doctor's friendster and you can see that a lot of people have left their condolences on her friendster account. Looking at the number of condolences, you can see that she really have made an impact on many people's live. All of them positive, of course. This reminds me of the blog entry I have written before on the "Perfect Funeral". It goes to show she has achieve success in life. My definition, of course.

Anyway, this blog is to remind me to always seize the moment. To help others where possible now rather than wait for my dream of being rich to be realised. To SEIZE THE MOMENT!

Anyway, to the doctor, rest in peace! Although I do not know you, I admire your spirit, a true doctor spirit! And hope your spirit lives in most of us! And to politicians in that country, get your bloody act together, the people vote u in to help them, not for you guys to whip each other ass! :P

Cheers!

Moon River

2007-07-16T16:29:00.000+08:00

I am currently now catching the HK Drama on Channel U now. Yes, there is a lot of hope for HK drama, but local drama is in a sad state. Haha! Anyway, in the drama, one of the main female character keeps on hearing a song.

It is a song that links her "romantically" to one of the male lead. The song is very nice and catchy so I decide to do a "google" and "youtube" on it and hey presto, I found the video and information about the song. Apparently this song revive the career of a song writer Johnny Mercer and the song is featured in "Breakfast at Tiffany's" that starred the famous Audrey Hepburn. It is a short song but I found it to be nice and somehow, I can identify with the lyrics. Anyway, below is the movie clip where the song was sang and the lyrics that follow. Enjoy! :)

Moon River (Lyrics)

Moon River, wider than a mile,
I'm crossing you in style some day.
Oh, dream maker, you heart breaker,
Wherever you're going I'm going your way.
Two drifters off to see the world;
There's such a lot of world to see.
We're after the same rainbow's end,
Waiting 'round the bend,
My huckleberry friend,
Moon River and me.

Cheers!

Changes

2007-07-15T19:05:00.000+08:00

Hmmmm..... no idea why, but for today, I feel like having some changes in my life. So I decide to throw away my normal routine. I still went for my morning jog today, but not really jog but took a long walk in the park that I jog in everyday. I tried to make the walk as much uphill route as possible so that I am still able to exercise. And as usual, everytime I do something different, the discovery of new things alway excite me. During my walk, I discover a lookout point in the park that has a nice view, but of course not something like those you see in the HDB high rise flat that overlooks the sea and so on. But it is still nice and the scenery on top is so colorful and bright. You may wonder, it is in the morning, of course it should be bright. But I can assure you, this brightness and colors is not like what we usually see. The color I saw is really richer. :)

Since I am on a route of discovery, I decide to take some of the routes and see where it leads to and surprises comes one after the next. Haha! I discover another part of the park that I would not have seen it if I had taken my usual normal jogging route. I think most of you'll know, for me the discovery of anything new always gives me the short adrenaline rush that I need and yes this morning was great! And yes, what a way to start the day right? Cheers and thanks to that!

But then after my jog and the next thing on schedule is to purchase the morning papers which I did. And this morning the headline is..."Mother Tongue gives S'porean an edge: MM" When I was reading it, I felt something not quite right here leh. Look at me, as most of you'll know, my english is half past seven (yes, slightly better than average, pardon my un-humbleness, haha) and my Chinese is definitely better than most average Singaporeans. I am versed in Chinese History and the works that displays Ancient Chinese Wisdom. But I have not been able to have any advantages from such a background. I think I might not have market myself enough :P. Anyway, when I have such a thought, a famous Confucius quote came to my mind and that is the one below.

子曰：“不患人之不己知，患不知人也。”

Confucius said:"Do not be concerned about others not appreciating you. Be concerned about you not appreciating others."

So yes, I should not be concerned with others not appreciating me, but I should lookout for people who have contributed value to my life and show them appreciation. Showing them appreciation is something at least I can control and should be doing. Doing this can help me to further the bonds that I have built with them and reciprocate the sincerity they have shown me in furthering the relationship as well. So for those who have helped me in one way or another, thank you very much. Even the simple thing of bringing a smile to my face, is something I really appreciate. :)

After finishing the paper, it was close to 10am already. Then all of a sudden, I recall an advertisement that a good friend show me, that said there is a talk by a Venerable Monk at Poh Ern Shih Temple. Well since I wanted change in my life, I made a last minute decision to go down and listen to the talk. Title of the talk was "Applying mindfulness in Solving problems." Haha, I think at the end of the talk, most of the people would not be able to relate what he is talking about to the title of the talk. But like I stressed a lot of time, the most important lessons in life needs a bit of effort to excavate out and excavation is needed in this case. My understanding is that we should not be focus on meditating to be mindful but rather we must understand what is the meaning of being mindful and practise it. And base on my understanding, mindfulness is practising the eightfold path in life (for those who are interested in knowing more can do a google on it, but look for it in wikipedia.) By practising them, then we are able to solve problems easily because we are able to see go down very deep and see the root of the problem, and come up with the best solution.

Now of course easier said then done, because after all we are emotional beings, that is why another meaning of mindfulness is to understand and see what you are thinking, is it grounded on rationality and ethics or is it grounded on emotions. I am sure you'll know which is better. :)
Basically, when solving problems, you first have to understand the nature and strip the problem down to the bare minimum and only then you see the true self of the problem. And once you have reached that stage, the solution will usually come quite easily. At least this is what I have experienced so far. Well, I still need to explore a bit deeper. Hopefully I am able to find time to develop my spiritual self.

Oh my good friend, if you have comments on what I have said, do share it on the comments.

Tick tock tick tock, the "Life" boat inches on down the Stream of Time. :)

Cheers!

Be the Miracle

2007-07-14T15:19:00.001+08:00

Usually for a Saturday afternoon, I will be doing some reading but for today, I felt the need to laze around and just go with the flow. Doing those things as and when I think of, which explains why I am writing my blog now. Currently, I am in a transition phase, since I am looking for a job now. My only wish for this transition period is that I hope it can end soon, with a good ending of course, which is to get the dream job that I want, so that I can start planning on what to do with my websites and my job together. Yesterday was also closure of a large paragraph in the life chapter of working in the research center. I have yet written the final paragraph of this life chapter yet, and that will have to wait until I found a job.

As I was channel surfing in YouTube this afternoon, I happen to stumble upon the full version of Bruce Almighty. Yes, if it sounds familiar to you, it is the movie that starred Jim Carrey in it with Jennifer Aniston. It is a nice show and if there is one sentence I should take it with me for the whole show, it is the sentence, "Be the Miracle". Inside the movie, Morgan Freeman said something that touches my heart and let us know that the power to create miracle is really within our hands. Haha, you read that sentence right. Let me give you what he said in the movie.

"A single mom that is working on two jobs but found time to take her kids to soccer pratice, that is a miracle. A teenager that says "no" to drug but "yes" to an education, that's a miracle. People want me to do everything for them, but what they don't realise is, they have the power. You want to see the miracle son, BE THE MIRACLE."

If you notice carefully, it is the definition of miracle here that is important. How often have we wanted something big, define something that we cannot achieve and it happened as a miracle. But we do have the power to make things happen, if we try hard enough and of course with the right strategy.

Understand that you have the power to achieve miracles in your life. Start with the smaller ones and that will build confidence in you. Slowly, try to achieve bigger miracles and touch more lives as well. As you move along, you will gain more skills and build up existing ones to achieve bigger miracles. Start small and move to bigger miracles. So yes, I better start small and slowly move to bigger ones. Somewhere down the Stream of Time, I am sure I will be able to give up the sampan that I am in and instead be in a cruiseliner that carries gifts for all those that I come across. :)

Saturday afternoon......

Cheers! :)

Job Hunting Week 2

2007-07-13T11:55:00.000+08:00

Well, have been out of the centre for 2 weeks now. And also doing my job hunt for the last two weeks. Tally up the resume I have sent, I think I have sent out close to thirty applications, not including those to employment agencies or headhunting firms. I think that is still quite low compared to some of my friends job hunt experience. Well, let's see how it goes.

The last time I attempted to job hunt was three years ago. That time was really bad. I sent out around 50 over applications and three interviews then I managed to find the job at the research centre. The months of waiting for a job was really excruciating, have to wait around 5 mths before I landed the job. It seems like the past experience is catching up on me. With all the news about now being an employee's market and people can expect huge pay rises. I think my worries are unfounded. But I know there is one part of me that stills let the past experience haunts me. Need more calls for interview to verify dismiss that thought. Haha!

I know it is still early in the job hunt to receive phone calls for interview but I sure wish the handphone would bring me news of interview. Everytime the handphone rang, I would be so quick to grab it, my mother thought that a whirlwind just went into the house. Haha! When I see on the screen (I got caller ID) and it is familiar number then I go "Aw Shucks." Haha! This whole job hunting experience is so funny lor.

Let's see what next week bring forth. I have a training for two days next week and have to prepare a workshop. So will be busy for next week.

Cheers!

Blessing in Disguise

2007-07-11T22:29:00.000+08:00

Well well, the aftershock of the incident at the research centre is still ongoing. Haha! But like I said, leaving the centre and with this incident is a blessing in disguise. Why I said so is firstly, leaving at this time allows me to pursue the job scope that I like and that is to expand my business intelligence skill or my business consultancy skill. Currently there are three jobs that allows me to pursue my business intelligence skills that I would like to get my hands on. If I do not leave now, I doubt I will be able to find a job scope like that because most of the companies in Singapore are still not familiar with business intelligence yet. So having three openings at one time is really an opportunity not to be missed.

Through this incident, I also know who are my true friends and who are not. And it also gives me great insight into how they think as well. Such information is always difficult to obtain especially in this modern world where most people are wearing masks once they step out of the house. So through this incident, I am able to see my friends better.

Like I said before, the best thing that this incident gave me was that her attitude towards me is finally better. Such feeling is like the exhilaration one feels when you finally see the sun peeking out of the horizon, during sun rise. Like I mentioned, let's see how this "Life" boat goes in the Stream of Time. I am sure there is a pier down the stream with her name on it. :)

Thank you Universe for the arrangement. I guess this is the only way you can get me out of the centre and pursue my interest. Please let me get my dream job! Be it business intelligence or business consultancy. Start Visualizing! :)

Cheers!

Job Hunting

2007-07-09T20:48:00.000+08:00

Well, the last interview I mentioned in my previous post went well. It was the longest interview I have. It was more than an hour long and I did not even realize that. Anyway, the interview was very disorganized and informal actually, with two interviewer coming in at different time and ask me the same questions.

Well now have to wait for a week, if I get any reply from them, for the next stage of interview. But after the head interviewer told me about the job scope, I think they better give me a high salary before I even consider taking up the job. Because the way he put the job scope, I have to wear my red underwear (if I have one) outside and put a 'S' symbol in front of my chest. Haha, but anyway, I will still follow through the interview process to sharpen my job interview skills and if I am offered a job, I will decide from then. I might not be Superman but I really relish a challenge in my career right now. I guess as long as the new job does not touch my weekends, I am fine with whatever work they throw at me. Anyway, I can learn a lot of stuff from the work, and these skills and knowledge are easily transferable, and that is the most important.

It has been two weeks since I am away from the centre. I do miss the centre, the people and the canteens as well. Haha! I think I need to go back one of these days to try the stewed beef rice that I only tried once! Yummy! Although the beef might be a bit tough, but the overall taste is nice. And I miss my Korean Ramyeon, although it is cooked using instant noodle. And my ice milo!!! Argh!!! Attachments, attachments! Haha!

These few days, I have been able to do what I wanted to do for a long time and that is...... to read up on Business Analytics, starting from Data Mining. And also read my business books as well. Let me tell u one benefit of meditation. I can remember and understand better the materials I am reading now. No kidding. But I did find my reading speed to be slightly slower from last time. I guess it is a result of being mindful of what I am reading, the brain taking more notes on the things I am reading.

Another thing, ever since the bloody GST is up, most of the food prices have gone up. :( by 10-20%. My favourite stewed duck rice have raised their price of food by 50 cents, and bread costs have risen by 20% as well. My mixed vegetable rice have shrunk! Sianz leh, wanted to buy something to chew, to exercise my mouth also cannot because I do not find it value for money at all, after the price increase. If GST is to be raised another 3 times that would be (1.2)^3 and the price of bread will be 1.728 of the original price. Can u imagine that? Three small loaf of bread, cost that much? That is why I decide to call GST, short for Great Slimming Technique. Because don't want to spend the money on food, I can thus slim down. Haha!

Crossing my fingers more interviews will come in the the coming weeks! And I just receive news I have two days of training to conduct for this month! Yeah! At least there will be some income coming in! I just hope the phone calls to invite me for interview comes when the trainees are having lunch or doing exercise. Haha! Oh, also to those who are leaving the centre this month, all the best in your new work place. May everything run smoothly in your new job!

Cheers!

What a surprise!

2007-07-04T21:15:00.001+08:00

Haha, last week has been a turbulent week but I received a nice surprise in the form of email from someone I did not expect. And today I receive another nice surprise. I receive a call for interview on a job. Surprise right? And the best part is that I only applied for the position last Saturday. Although not my dream job but it is a job scope I like as well and it will further my skills in Business Intelligence. For those of you who are not familiar with Business Intelligence, check out Wikipedia to have a look. Click here to find out.

Business Intelligence is a new field of business that is slowly picking up momentum in many developed and developing economies. Having a chance to practise in this business field would greatly improve my business acumen in the form of marketing and because the job scope require me to liaise with people from other department and also outside the organization, it can sharpen my communication and negotiation skills. So crossing my fingers that I am able to get this job. :)

This could be the platform that will sharpen my business skills which can be used later on in my own entrepreneurial pursuit. After securing this job, the next phase would be..... Haha! Time, do tell me as soon as possible!

Cheers!

Dreams

2007-07-03T21:09:00.000+08:00

Hehe, today I am going to talk about dreams. These few days, I have this very uplifting confidence that I will be able to get my dream job, the business consultant job that I really wanted. Why I wanted to get this business consultant job because for the job scope of this job, I am able to exercise my mind and advise companies that are breaking into new markets. So I can get in touch with many SMEs or even listed companies, and not to their frontline people but directly to the middle and top management. So crossing all my fingers that I get this dream job of mine. I have even begin to visualize what would happen when I receive the employment confirmation. Haha! Yes, visualizing it brought a great big smile on my face, so waiting for this day to happen!

Once my job settle down, it is time to seek my dream wife! Haha, well..... no idea who is it yet leh. I hope that she is the one but hei, I decided to let go, so for this, I just gently row my 'Life' boat down the Stream of Time and see who it leads me to.

When the job have settled down, it is time to achieve my dreams of having my own business empire where I can value add to many people in life. After a few days of contemplation, I think what my good friend said was true. Most of my business endeavors are very unstable and can break anytime, for instance I have taken my part time job at the centre for granted, so this time I really need to plan and execute well so that I can move from one stable ship to another easily. But if anyone were to ask me whether I regretted converting to part time so that I can do training, I totally do not have any regrets at all. The training opportunity gave me a chance to see the real world, know that the world is full of possibilities and meet with people from all walks of life. So yes, coming to this stage, I never regret the actions that I have taken. Like I mentioned, there is only one regret in my life and coming back to it, as pointed out by my good friend, it might be the 'right' consequences to have. So whether it constitute as a regret or not, I think it does not matter to think abt it.

After all the talk about dreams, let's come back to reality. I still need to find a job! Haha! Once the job is found, I will need to set aside the weekends to work on my business then. Until the time comes, when we meet again, my business will be my main focus.

Crossing all my fingers that I achieve my dreams:Job, wife and business! Cheers!

Left

2007-06-30T23:40:00.001+08:00

Well, this has been a turbulent week. Yes, I have left the centre but not on a happy note. Anyway, I have some fault in it and should have taken more initiative and leaving the centre unexpectedly, was the result of it. I love the centre a lot especially the people. I feel a bit sad that I am leaving the centre so much so I almost cried thinking about it (ALMOST, I did not actually cried ok). :) But what's done is done, and time to move on. Maybe the Universe wants me to leave now so that I can pursue my dreams and this is the only way it found that can make me leave the centre otherwise I would have been there till the end of the year. :)

When the people heard that I am leaving, they are very surprised and they asked me to come back and see them often. I wonder what would their reaction be when they heard why I was leaving. But I shan't go into that and I do not want to know. :) I did build a lot of strong bonds with people, for example, the admin people there (those that have been there all along since my day one there, oh I will remember to invite you'll to help out in my wedding, as promised :P), some of the researchers in my project and not in my project. So yes there is a lot of emotional attachments there. But like I mentioned just now, it is time to leave. Leaving now might land me in my dream job since we really do not know about the economy six mths later. Now at least the job market is good so hopefully I can find a job soon, and kick off a new chapter in life.

I guess the training at the software company have to stop. Although the money is good but there is too much instability there, I need to look for something more stable so that I can provide security for my close ones (both present and future :P), at least until my websites are doing well. :) So I guess less interaction with people now and the chance to see more of the world. Well, what to do, I might have taken the current lifestyle for granted.

Losing this job hurts only when I think of the people that I am leaving behind in the centre. Funny thing is that when I learnt of the news that the special someone is leaving, I did have the intention to leave the centre as well but I could not give up on the training opportunities and staying at the centre was giving me stability (or so it seems) and I cannot bear to leave the friendship that I have built up there. But in the end, I did leave earlier than her.

Well, maybe the moment when I learnt she is leaving, my business at the centre should have been done, and I SHOULD have left and the Universe made me do it, by hook or by crook (and it chose by CROOK! Hahaha!) Looking back, I guess my 'life' purpose in coming to this centre is to make five best friends in the centre (one of them have left already and one of them does not work in the centre), learnt more about meditation (which I am practising now) and to meet that special someone, her.

Well, I have no idea what relationship are we sharing also but all I can say is that we are friends (by her definition) and I am fine with it. It is part of the process of letting go, all I have is a strong belief that we will be together some day. At least the last few days, when she learnt that I am leaving, she is not that 'cold' compared to those days when news of my departure was not 'broadcast'. To lose my job but see such a positive change, I think it is worth it. :P Some people may say that this is really irrational but hei, when is love rational in the first place?

The fact that both of us are leaving the centre around the same time, seems to me, have a hidden msg and I feel the msg was to reaffirm my, already strong, belief. I just strongly feel that we will be together some day.

Well, there are a lot of lessons learnt this week. My last day in the centre was filled with sadness, because I am leaving so many friends behind, and also happiness, because I finally see a change in attitude towards me, from her (and that matters a lot!). Time to let go the past and move on in life! Next stage, JOB HUNT!

Cheers!

Thinking Business

2007-06-26T08:34:00.000+08:00

Hmmmm....... I seem to be doing a lot of thinking lately. Haha, judging from my blog entries, I have been writing almost everyday, for the month of June. Well, it has been an emotional month for me. Anyway, let's not go into that :) Griping about it is definitely not part of letting go.

What I want to talk about is an incident yesterday. Met up with some friends yesterday and chat a bit about using the Internet for business purposes. Very funny leh, I seem to be 'consulting' people who are already in business while I still do not have anything to show for. Haha! This tells me something, as long as what you say makes sense to them, they will believe you. :P

Now when thinking through business, it is not really like thinking a scientific question where usually there is one path to the answer (correct me if I am wrong pls) because of all the laws and theorems that are formulated or found out. When you are thinking about doing business, you have to think of several areas at the same time. The reason why this is so is because the moves that you take in one area will affect how other areas of business will run and it is never a one way traffic. The effect runs both ways so you can see one decision you take in an area will affect the whole business environment, and to make it more challenging, you have to think in terms of iterations sometimes. For instance, if you make a marketing campaign, then you have to worry about the logistics (like getting the goods to distributors or the free gifts, if any) and hope that the logistics process would not have any problem, and if there are problems, what are your back up-plans and this back-up plan is it suitable for the amount of manpower that you have and many many more. So you can see, the implications can be large for one decision you make in an area.

That is why I like the business arena because it really put your brain to the challenge and because of the large implications, there is no way you can run away from getting knowledge from all areas of business, which means more learning! YES! Anyway, the discussion I mentioned on top is good, it has sharpen my business acumen and thinking as well. Sometimes, I myself am amazed what I said. Haha!

Cheers!

Letting Go Again

2007-06-25T23:52:00.001+08:00

End of the first day now, although I have resolved to let go off the past, but I still have a bit of problem comprehending what it really is. I guess like I said before (or did I?), there is so much we can absorb from books for a certain topic, but when you execute it, it is a totally 'different' thing.

The concept of letting go was brought to my attention by a friend, but I just within the two words, there is so much wisdom there. I can comprehend the part that can be explained by words, for instance letting go means not to be affected by it emotionally, or in other words, not be emotionally attached to it. But I believe it is not that simple. There are more to it. For example, so do we still talk about the past? When we talk about it, are we able to stay a 'distance' away from it so that it will not affect us emotionally and so on. Yes, these are some of the 'truth' I need to seek and they can only be seek through practise or someone who has a higher level of wisdom. (Not that I am saying you are not wise ah, gd fren.) At least for today, I am confident I have successfully 'torn' away from any emotional linking when the person was mentioned.

Actually come to think of it, today when I met the 'passionate' man, I did not experience any anger at all. It is very calming when I saw him, but to answer the question you have right now, I do not have any intention to make up and be friends with him. Nope! :)

The strange thing is that once I have decided to let go, the faith that I have, has gotten stronger than ever before. I can feel that this faith is very different from the one that I have previously. Again just in case you are wondering, I am still sane. :) Just that I began to see things more clearly now. (Maybe wiser? Haha!) This faith is one of happiness compared to the previous faith where I still happy but there is also a tinge of sadness as well.

I guess since I have decided to let go, I will now go back to developing my spiritual self, which I have been neglected since the news broke out to me. Meanwhile let's enjoy flowing down the Stream of Time and see where it would lead me, although I already know two of the destinations.

Cheers!

New Lease of Life

2007-06-25T08:58:00.001+08:00

Well, today is the start of a week and also a start of another chapter in my life. I resolve to let go off the past and stay focus on what I can do, with what I have at the moment and enjoy flowing down the Stream of TIME.

Also want to take the opportunity to thank all the people who have bought me the birthday gift. It is a gift of wisdom in my opinion, a very valuable gift. I hope I am able to comprehend the deep wisdom in it. Haha! Will take some time to figure out but I am sure I would love the whole process of thinking through it. :)

And I just realised that those who have bought me the birthday gift are non-Singaporeans. Where have all my Singaporeans friends gone to? Or have I been hanging with my non-Singaporean friends so often that Singaporean friends have been neglected? Haha! Whatever the case maybe, it is the thoughts that count. Thanks for all the wishes and the birthday gift once again.

Back to work and UANG!! Cheers!

Interesting Sights on Sunday Morning

2007-06-24T09:35:00.000+08:00

Time really flies, it has been a week already since the housewarming at my good friend's place. What a great card game we have. Haha, I was almost eliminated twice but with some luck and skill I manage to avoid it. A pity there was no mahjong session though. Can we have one soon? My hands are really really itching leh. Haha!

Anyway, I was able to go jogging although I spotted some rain clouds but being positive and really want to jog since I only set aside a small amount of time for exercising, I went ahead. Well usually once u get into a schedule, the sights and sounds are always the same. For example, everyday when you go to work, you will meet the same people and the same bus driver and so on.

Today, things are a bit different, I saw something very normal but interesting to me, at least. The scene is that I saw the husband bringing his pregnant wife to the park, where I usually jog. Well, like I said it is normal, right? But come to think of it, I seldom see couples doing that leh. Hmmmmm.... The couple that I saw are from China. The pregnant wife was walking quite slowly with the husband at the side holding her hands and giving her support. Yah come to think of it, I should remember to do that when it is my turn. The morning air is always fresh and would be good for the pregnant wife and the baby. And I heard a healthy mother, during delivery would have less pain as well. So yah, I should remember to do that. Oh when the pregnant wife, got tired of walking, they choose to sit down at the park bench. Now now, the husband, then began to massage the legs of his wife. Can see the wife was a bit embarrassed when her husband did that but she seems to be enjoying it too. Haha! So yes, I learnt something from this couple.

After the jog, I need to get breakfast, now usually I do not take too much notice on what is going on in the market, but this time round I did pay a bit more attention to the surroundings in the wet market. It is the usual scene where a lot of people having their breakfast of porridge, Lor Mee, Kway Chap and many more. The best part is I even saw someone taking Char Siew and Roast Pork Rice for breakfast. *Faint* Early in the morning eat something so heavy and oily, good for health meh? I think Singaporean really need to be educated more in the health aspect leh! Especially on Diet and so on. Stop focusing on preventing certain disease, there are like so many thousands of illness and disease, how to finish educating the public on prevention. Should start focusing on having a healthy body by focusing on having the correct diet and exercise regime. Now that is even deeper, into the root of all problem.

Well, my estate is quite old already and wet markets are not very popular with the younger generation of Singaporeans anymore. That explains why you see a lot of senior citizens having their regular coffee and weekly gathering at the coffeeshops or hawker centres. Well I came across a senior citizen that refuse to be old. How I know? Well, just look at the amount of makeup she put on her face. Not to be disrespectful but if you gently tap on her face, you could catch yourself in a snowstorm. I am not kidding. It is really that thick.

I really do not see the need of focusing on the external appearance. It is suppose to age, there is no way you can fight time. The only appearance that can go against the natural forces of time is your internal appearance. The more wisdom and knowledge you have inside (assuming you will be using them as you grow older), the more 'beautiful' you will be as time passes by. Food for thought? :)

Well that is all the interesting sights that my eye took in for this Sunday, with the first sightings more valuable, in my opinion. Cheers!

Through and Through?

2007-06-23T18:46:00.000+08:00

Well, finally have the whole Saturday to think things through. A few weeks ago, I wanted to let go off a relationship but later on I receive news that made me psychologically unable to let go and in fact I cling on more to it, creating more trouble for myself.

But now I am going to try something really 'crazy'. Armed with only a strong belief, I am going to let go off this relationship for the last time. Letting go this relationship is going to take a lot of effort since I am not going to make a conscious effort to establish any communication channels with the person anymore. Nope. We shall go on our 'separate' ways and if our paths crossed again, which will be again, we shall see what happen.

Now is to make a conscious effort to make peace with the strong attachment that I have with the relationship and slowly reduce it to the minimum. :) Talk is cheap and action is where all the value is. So now is to take action and manifest what I wrote here.

Next stop, career path planning, I seem to have lost focus here. Well, I shall not blame anyone but put the blame squarely on me. So now things are sorted on the one side, now is to plan and maintain focus on what I need to do to realise the dreams that I have.

Oh another thing, I strongly recommend readers to watch "Night at the Museum" By Ben Stiller and "Pursuit of Happyness" by Will Smith. There is a hidden msg for us guys (I mean male hor) inside, especially those that have a family.

Cheers! :)

What do you mean it is different? They are the same thing!

2007-06-22T23:29:00.000+08:00

As we grow older, the definition of words can really change although they are refering to the same thing. For example, when we say happy, the extent of happiness can be different for different people. Well, all along I have understood of such things. That the same word can mean different thing to different people. But alas I still fall into the trap. In the end, I ended up creating an illusion that I have been trying to grab on for such a long period of time.

Well what to do? I think I should just take in the fact that it is an illusion, stop grabbing it, let go and really move on with life now. Move on, Brother! And you get out of my life! Shoo! Thank you Universe for making me realise it and not be trapped by it.

Cheers! :)

What should be the Title?

2007-06-22T09:05:00.000+08:00

Haha, cannot think of a title for this post so I gave the question as a title. Innovative right? Haha! Anyway, I am feeling good now, although with a few occasional relapse, cos I am trying to make peace with the negative emotions inside me so will take time but overall I am feeling good now.

Well, very fast it is going to be a week since the birthday celebration at my friend's place. But memories of what happened and the proceedings are still so vivid in my brain, the details and colors are still so alive, come to think of it, all the times that I have spent with the special someone are still in my brain.

I wonder would there be another chance to taste the cakes that she bake, have a meaningful chat with her, prepare her a drink and ...... Woah! Stop stop. Haha! But hei, as my friend always say, life is impermanent, so there is hope that such things will happen in the future! Start believing strongly it will happen. Haha! :)

Well the weekend is here again. And yes, u might have guess it, not much to look forward to. But I think will not be working on my website. I planning to just laze around and catch up on my readings and watching some videos on my favourite topic, Chinese History and Philosophers! Yeah! Oh yes, this is the last weekend before the dreaded 2% in GST increase. Haha! Spend Spend!

After writing so much, you would think I have not been writing something meaningful right? Well here it is, these few days, there have been talk about that the age limit to draw out the CPF will be raised to 65, so as to be in line with the legal retirement age. Well well, I personally think it is not a gd move. To tell you the truth, I never believe in CPF as my money. As I told my good friend before "Only those that I can control are mine, those that I cannot control is never mine at all." So as you can see I never think that CPF is my money. I cannot even control when I can use it, when I can take out and how much I can use it and so forth, how can you say it is mine? And why should I wait for the legal retirement age to take out my CPF, so that I can have money to retire? Ridiculous, I rather retire ASAP if circumstances allow. So that I can have all the time in the world to spend with my family, travel around the world when my 'machine' is still in tip-top condition, do my own intellectual pursuits, and do some charity work. Why should I depend on CPF? Depending on it means I am ceding some control of my life to it, which I simply refuse to submit to.

My suggestion to people is that, do not treat CPF as your money. Instead see it as a bonus. Do not see it as your wealth, see it as the govt give u money to buy house. Also see it as the govt give you money to see doctors. (Although I prefer they let me use CPF to pay for supplements, prevention is better than cure mah.) By not treating your CPF as your money, it makes your life easier. Don't put CPF in your retirement plans. If the circumstances allow, work hard and smart to get more income sources, retire early and when you reach the age (which I will not know since the govt keeps on increasing the age), the extra money can be used to see more of the world or do some charity work. :) Get what I mean?

That is all for now! Enjoy the weekend! Cheers!

'Damaging' Mood

2007-06-21T17:03:00.001+08:00

Very strange thing happen today. Remember the saying "Getting out from the wrong side of the bed". Usually when someone say that, that means his mood is very foul on that day and he is extremely irritable and nasty. And usually a lot of wrong and bad things will happen to that particular person, for instance, bus came late, boss scold him, girlfriend slap him and so on.

Today, I also feel like I have gotten out from the wrong side of the bed, although I always get off on the same side, haha! But nothing nasty happen to me, or at least till now, haha! Just that my mood is foul and easily irritable and just feel very sarcastic. That is why I tried to stay away from the crowd today. Go to a place and then come back to my office, self-isolation. Haha! Except during lunch time, haha, someone really got it very bad from me. This is really the first time I am experiencing this leh, never before did I have such a foul mood and simply feel very sarcastic.

I guess you can see it, haha, foul mood already how come still can laugh so much in the blog. Well no idea leh. I was able to have a foul mood and maintain a happy disposition. Strange hor! :S

Well, I just want to end the day early today. So looking forward to knocking off. Haha!

Cheers!

Where did that come from? :)

2007-06-19T10:59:00.000+08:00

Remember I mentioned that human are always in a learning process but is at different position of the many learning curves he is in. Haha. The internet has been around for many years now, but human race is still very green to the effects of the internet.

Because of the Internet now, communication and organization can be better but messier as well. At my workplace, with the internet, colleagues are planning birthday celebration right under the nose of the birthday boy or girl. Haha, can you imagine that? You can say there are a lot of 'undercurrents' flowing through in the Internet.

Yesterday, there is also a news on cyber-bullying where last time, before the internet, or during my time, bullying was 'simple', most of the time it was physical abuse and the psychological damage of taunting and teasing was small as well. Now with the younger generations learning how to build websites and also the process of building one is much simplified, compare to the initial stages, bullying now takes a higher level. The taunting is now on the Internet, worse thing is once it is on the Internet, no matter how you remove it, there would be traces of it lying around in some server. So the psychological damage actually multiplied because of that.

How do we tackle such problem of abuse then? I personally believe in education, educating the young on what is good and what is bad, of course, things are never straightforward in this world, otherwise all Singaporeans can score As in their life throughout. But there are still fundamentals that are never violated in determining what is good and bad, for example doing harm to a person is definitely bad and so on. Then a proper judgment system has to be instilled onto the kids so that they can make the right judgment call themselves. Well of course, talking is easy but I really hope that the schools and parents work together on it, rather than wasting energy squabbling whose responsibility it is. Let me put things straight, BOTH have responsibility so SHUT UP and work something out together.

The Internet has brought fast changes to our lifestyle and habits, so if you'll want to spend time squabbling on something like this, I really fear for the future generations of Singaporeans. Think about it!

Cheers.

Starting your day well

2007-06-19T08:41:00.001+08:00

Well, I think most of us would want everyday to be smooth sailing and nice, without trouble, the best would be not working, right? Haha! So how do we actually start our day well since most of us said that a great beginning is half the battle won?

There are several things you can do and it only needs five minutes of your time. How? Very simple, every morning, when you wake up, STOP scolding the alarm clock. :P It has nothing against you. You set the timing to wake up. If you do not scold the alarm clock, good for you. Open you eyes, take a deep breath and say "GOOD MORNING!" and smile. Then feel the positive energy that runs through your body.

Next, do not immediately step our of bed and go through your morning rush. The next thing you should do is visualize how a perfect day would be for you today. For example, the presentation that you are giving run very smoothly and you clinch the million dollar contract for your boss, or the lady that you have a crush on suddenly approach you to............. borrow an eraser, HAHA! Well, up to you lah, only you yourself will know how a perfect day would be like for you. Then think of all the happy memories that you have recently or visualize yourself living in your dreams that you want to achieve, fill yourself up with positive feeling.

Once you are fill 'to the brim' with positive feeling, the next thing is to ALWAYS focus on the positive side of things to come, for the rest of the day. Any lapse can be dangerous as after the lapse, you might find yourself in a downward spiral because of the change in focus. Oh, and remember to step out of the bed and go through your morning rush. :P

Hopefully this will make your day better. At least it did for me. Cheers! :)

Blogging Thoughts

2007-06-18T17:02:00.000+08:00

Haha, suffering the after effects of two day of feasting and unrestricted eating. Now stomach feel a bit queasy. :P Anyway, let's not go into that, I do not think the readers are interested in how I suffer anyway. Right?

Today, my good friend point out something to me. She said my blog bring her laughter and joy which I am glad it did because that is one of the purpose of this blog. :) To put in all my good memories and share it with my friends and as for bad memories, I share it with someone who can handle the effects of it. Haha! After I went through my previous blog entries, I feel that it really was a good idea to start writing a blog. Now of course, loyal readers may say, didn't you use your blog inappropriately quite a few times? Well, all I can say that we are always in a learning process, we are always moving up a learning curve. The initial excitement of using or learning something is that you can feel the adrenaline rush because for most normal learning curve, it is very steep at the start but it slowly plateau off and the rate of increase in knowledge, using a particular kind of drop. So after writing blogs for close to two years, I must say I am still learning the effect of what blog can bring to my life and the life of readers as well. And thanks to a friend for pointing out, the events that occurred because of inappropriate use is actually a blessing in disguise.

To me now, a blog is one that will chronicle my life, the lessons I learnt, the major events that took place in my life and the impermanent environment that I am in. The future like I said is unpredictable but how we create the future greatly depends on how we use the lessons we have learn in the past to help us. So yes, sometimes it would be nice to record the events in your life on a blog to remind you and maybe your future generations, the lessons you have learn. But one thing to take note is that what you are written can be read by anyone with internet access, so practise some caution. :)

You might want to consider writing the journey you and your spouse took, if possible, when and where both of you first met, first date and many more. So when you'll turn old and go through it, I am sure both of you will be smiling for some time, and further cherish the relationship that took so many years to built.

Cheers!

Happy Happy Birthday! :)

2007-06-17T23:59:00.000+08:00

Well I guess a lot of readers are expecting this blog entry (or so I hope :P). Well the weekend is over, and I have a SUPERB time. It has been quite a while since I thoroughly enjoyed a weekend! Catch up with good friends, spend and celebrate birthday with good friends, and there is someone special this time round to make it one of the BEST birthday ever spent :)

Well, even though I have to buy the cake to celebrate my own birthday, but never mind, it is the time spent that matters. Like I mentioned before in my blog, this will definitely be a birthday that I will never forget. Thank goodness for all the coinciding circumstances and me being proactive. :P Haha!

Anyway, just want to take the opportunity here to say thank you to everyone who send their well wishes to me. These wishes make this birthday far better than the other 28 birthdays that I have. Thank you once again! :) And also HAPPY BIRTHDAY to those that are born in June!

Cheers!

52 Weeks +1 Day = 1 Year

2007-06-17T09:22:00.000+08:00

Had a great dinner last night, because I went to Glutton Square (beside Esplanade) for the Hokkien Mee and the Fried Oyster Omelette, and the best thing is that because it is treated by someone, the food taste even better. Haha! I would recommend readers to try the food there. It is very nice, and all the more, when you have gd company and Mother Nature decide not to water the plants that day.

Later going to a good friend's place for housewarming. Will be going out soon and I do not intend to work during this short period of time so decide to blog a little (I think 'a little' is an understatement, haha!). Anyway, we all know that for a particular date, for instance 14 March 2006, falls on a Tuesday, so 14 March 2007 would fall onto Wednesday, except for leap years where the dates after 28 February would move down the weekdays by 2 days and those before 28 February would move down the weekdays by 2 days in the year after the leap year. So today 17 June 2007 falls on a Sunday, so last year it fell on a Saturday instead. Now where was I during that day? Oh, I went to Kino to get a birthday gift, and I did receive a birthday gift, in the form of supplements, haha! Oh well, I give someone one the gift of knowledge and someone gace me a gift of gd health. Haha!

I always like going Kino, and it really makes me feel so at home, although I never did sit down and read a book there though. Haha! Just that I always think it would be nice to have a mini library of my own and being there kinds of give me that. Well, you may ask, what about borders and Times and MPH? Well, it does not give me any cosy feeling when I am at those place. Besides, these three bookshops does not have Chinese books at all. Sucks lor. Unless they are offering deep discounts or have a book that I am desperately looking for (which is seldom the case), then you would not catch me there. How about PageOne then? The one found at Vivocity, it is a bookshop that is for the Arts Scene in Singapore although there are a large variety of book, but somehow or rather, it does not appeals to me as a bookshop, with all its 'artistic' decors. To me, seems like a museum rather than a bookshop. Call me traditional, but I still prefer a traditional looking bookshop, with proper shelves, well stocked with all kinds of books.

Come to think of it, I never did mentioned the bookshop scene in Singapore before, so hei, my first time! I only mentioned the bookshop scene in Taiwan. Haha! Anyway, those are the thoughts.

Cheers!

Looking forward to the weekend

2007-06-15T16:45:00.000+08:00

You know something? This is the first time I am looking forward to the weekend since don't know when. :) Weekend to me is always a time where I need to work harder for my websites and business and also contemplate what I need to do for the coming week.

But this weekend is very different. Not just because my birthday is coming. That is only one of the two main ingredient that makes this weekend something to look forward to. :) And the turn of events make this coming birthday even more important. I hope my coming birthdays would be as special as this year's birthday.

My birthday's are usually dinner with family and a cake (Make it chocolate man! Haha!). Well, I am a simple person so usually I do not ask for much. Because I also do not want to trouble my family too much. Friends? Well, haha, I have no idea leh, maybe I was not active at all during my school days or I am not a handsome man, so not many people remember my birthday. The greetings that I receive are few but I am fine as long as my friends remember to call me for gathering or outing. That is more important. Girlfriend? Eh..... u joking with me is it? :P

Oh now I remember, the last time I look fwd to a weekend was that time when I eagerly waited in front of the computer on Saturdays. Haha, loyal readers of the blog would know what I am refering to. Yes, that was the last time I look fwd to a weekend. Otherwise weekend is just time to catch up my reading and working on the websites that I have. Nothing special lor :)

Well the weekend will be here in 10 mins time. Waiting patiently for it. I am sure the events during this weekend would be unforgettable as the events that happen during the Greatest Week.

Cheers!