Date: 23rd Feb 2008
Venue: Goodwood Park Hotel Singapore
It was the annual D & D for my company, and rumors have it that our people can get pretty “high” and crazy, so it is with much anticipation when I arrived, early as a matter of fact because I was one of the 4 designated emcees, and was greeted by my committee counterparts who were equally excited. We had our practices and I started seeing people from all corners of the Fairytale world appear, gathering at the fringe of the ballroom, taking glamor shots and hi-fiving with their fellow characters from the story next door. Eventually, I changed into my not-so-fairytale outfit of a Spartan warrior (in the same restroom as nice old Captain Hook, his parrot and his apprentice) and joined the ranks of others, who were already casting spells and wielding swords in the tight corridor of the ballroom. The DnD kicked off then, and at the end of the day, I have to say that it was a pretty successful event despite the last-minuteness and some hiccups with the events organizer prior to the event.
Here are some pictures from the event:
Overall, it was a pretty fun event. Let’s have more parties people!
True to its name, The Lunar New Year, the Year of the Rat, or whatever you call it, came by and scurried past most of us in a flash. Of course, the whole occasion will span 15 days I think, but the most significant first few days have passed and most of us had gone visiting relatives whom we meet once in a long while or whom we have never seen before. Battles of mahjong and poker card games ensue, with the victor claiming, quite ironically, the traditional “Ang-Bao” (Red Packet) money of the rest. I played in several of those games as well, but my luck (coupled with lousy skills) made me lost more money than I had hoped to. Anyway, I did learn a lot of other stuff during the last few days, and I appreciate those experiences as well.
This will be a short post because, well, it’s back to work tomorrow.
It’s past mid Jan already, and for those who have not realized it, the first month of 2008 is going and will be gone by the time you noticed it. February’s a short month, and a supposedly exciting one too, with its 29 days and Chinese New Year and Valentine’s Day packed back-to-back. I don’t know about you, but for me, time seems to slip by very fast nowadays, and before you know it, its the end of the month again and there are tonnes of work that you are supposed to do, but are still lying on your table, waiting for your attention. Juggling work, love, family, friends, colleagues and personal interests is not an easy task for anyone, but I do try my best to spare some time every now and then for each of the groups mentioned, but of course, the ratio of time spent with time is variable.
Went to “Teo Heng Karaoke” at Katong Shopping Centre (yeah, it’s the sleazy-looking one with the LAN shops and weird shops selling weird things) yesterday with some of my colleagues and it turned out to be quite nice after all. The fare’s very affordable, comparatively with other posh Karaoke places, and the environment within is pretty conducive and homely. It takes you a while to get used to the song dedication system, but as long as you have the basics in Chinese phonics (han yu pin yin), and no psychomotor problems, you should be able to pick it up and start navigating through the songs.
Besides KTV, I have also been baking with my girlfriend, who seems to find her ultimate pleasure in the savory delight of others. In other words, she likes to cook and bake, and I don’t really, so I will always be in charge of washing up and food preparation (I did make BBQ pork ribs at her place, even though it took 3 hours plus). We are still in the midst of perfecting cupcakes, brownies, peanut cookies, muffins, bread and other types of pastries as depicted in her big book of Baking, but I must say she really takes the “icing off the cake” when it comes to sincerity and culinary professionalism. She can probably open up a cake shop on her own, given the correct amount of training and capital, but when you mix business and personal interests together sometimes, the recipe may not be right.
As for myself, I have been pretty “laid-back” at work this month, and it’s probably due to the spillover effects of being in a month sandwiched between 2 months of festive occasions. Still, that is no excuse, and I have to do better to buck up and stop staring at the computer at times during work.
Anyway, here are the Mandarin songs which I am currently training my vocals on. Take a listen.
Gary Cao’s “Bei Pan” (Betrayal). Sounds like a crazy song to sing, but it’s actually do-able after some tries.
Li Jiu Zhe’s “Xiang Tai Duo” (Direct translated into “Think too much”, gosh). You can also make it sound like too much of me, ’cause my Chinese name is “Xiang Tai” as well. WTH.
It’s the first day of the new year, and putting the fireworks, party-poppers and cheers behind us, what do you plan to achieve in Year 2008? I suppose the whole “NYR” (New Year Resolutions) thing is not new to anyone, but it still bothers some people who prefer to plan and move at the same time. To draw out a NYR list is to make a preliminary judgment on your own performance and how far you are able to sail into the next unknown in the upcoming year. It also determines the direction of travel; a compass’s guide to your final destination. Okay I’m getting too serious over here, so basically in short, your NYR can be a series of goals and objectives in the new year, elaborated and adorned with tangible methods of achieving them respectively. On the other hand, you can also adopt a method a certain good friend of mine used, which physically only requires a white mahjong paper and a black marker. I haven’t seen it myself, but accordingly to him, you could write a heading like this: “Things to do before the age of 30″ (that’s his heading I think). Thereafter, you write down the list in whichever order you desire and this list should include all the realistic goals you can think of that you wish to achieve. By putting them down in black and white, you would actually stare them everyday and subconsciously, you would work harder towards them. That’s what I think anyway, and according to him, he actually had crossed out and fulfilled a number of objectives in the short period of time he stuck that paper up.
What’s your NYR?
P.S. That reminds me though, I have to email my boss my NYR in 2008 tomorrow, shucks.
Looks like blogging turned out to be a once-a-month affair after all, and I sincerely apologized for the utter lack of entries in the later half of year 2007 because of whatever reasons I could probably conjure. It’s Christmas Eve today, and although rain and gloom threatened to drench everything Red and White into darker shades over the past few days, it obviously wasn’t enough to douse the overwhelming enthusiasm of Christmas shoppers and Festive-goers, who jam-packed shopping malls with colorfully-wrapped presents. True enough, the traffic (human and non-human) in town is bad, but being able to work in town (like myself) gives me a whole new perspective about Christmas in Singapore. After you get accustomed to the crowds and caroling, sights and sounds of beautiful people, expensive gifts, frosted street lamps and Christmas trees do indeed play on your senses and bring you into a happier mood. It’s the festive season anyway, and gifts aside, it’s also a time to share and care for the people around you.
Year 2007 had been an eventful, and rather different, year for me. I had to work hard throughout the year, yet for different purposes: studies and work. I can’t say I miss the academic days that much, but perhaps it’s more of the friends in school, who used to hang out after lectures in the canteens or in our hostel rooms, that I miss. On the other hand, I also look forward to a working life, in which I can finally be financially independent and plan the things that I always wanted to. I would say life is a journey up the hills: you started off walking on level ground, with no thick undergrowth and only small stones and pebbles as your obstacles, but as you go on, the path gets steeper, and you have to overcome boulders and fallen trees, slip and fall a couple of times but never losing your grip. Finally, you will have to climb, because the slope is too inclined for you to walk anymore, and that’s when the handy tools which you have lugged along come into perfect use, assisting you in finally overcoming all obstacles and getting the scenery you’d always wanted to see, or the air atop which you long to breathe.
Some updates on what’s going on over the last few days for those who care:
- Finally watched a movie with Dear (god knows when was the last time), “The Warlords“. Pretty decent show with lots of sword slashing, blood spurting, axe-wielding… if you like such stuff, you can give this show a try.
- Pretty consistent at work so far over the last few months, but as the intensity grows, I find myself vividly remembering dreams of work-related issues.
- Overseas trip with colleagues was canceled due to _________. (I don’t know the exact reason).
- Dear is a certified Class 3A licensed driver as of today, 24 Dec 2007. You fared much better than me, congrats!
In retrospect, year 2007 has been pretty smooth-sailing for me. Merry Christmas and may the coming year be filled with invigorating challenges and rejuvenating experience for everybody out there!
This song grows on me. “Apologize” by Timbaland, feat. One Republic.
Sorry, but it’s not me that’s having the dreaded toothache, but my girlfriend. She had to undergo 4 wisdom teeth extraction soon, and I wonder if that will make her lose any of her wisdom (haha, sorry pun intended). Well, no pain no gain, and I am just randomly jotting down (on my blog of course) of 2 things that make me particularly excited over the last 2 hours. It may appear really random, so forgive me if you have no slightest idea of what the hell I am going to type.
Thing that made me happy 1:
After a series of exchanges of SMSes with one of my candidates, he ended by texting me, “Thanks u have been very professional i am glad u are the one on the look out for my opportunities. I will try again thanks to u again” [word for word quote]. I was on the train and his words just makes me feel pretty good about what I am doing over the past few months. It’s definitely not as noble as “Thanks Doc, you fix my leg” or something like that, but it certainly is something nice and warm to hear these days. I thought to myself, “What can make you happy about what you are doing? About your job?” and then it just occurred to me that the answer lies in the text message itself: Appreciation.
You feel good when you earned money for yourself; you may feel even better when recognition is given for your efforts; but you will feel darn good when someone you just knew a couple of minutes pats you on you back, looks you in the eye and says thanks for something which you have done, not in search of money or recognition, but just because it is the way it should be done. Give appreciation to people around you more often; and you will receive lots more in time to come.
Thing that made me happy 2:
I love cars. Fast moving machines, sleek, metallic and smooth turn me on, and I can’t take my eyes off them. I don’t just like them for the way they make others feel; I like them for the way they make me feel. Which was why when the advertisement below showed up unwittingly on Channel 5, I was mesmerized.
And if you think that is cool, please check out the new Audi website, click on Audi R8 and play around using the Microsite. Alternatively, check out the video below for the demo clip of Audi’s new baby. If you think that it looks a little like the Lamborghini Gallardo, you are right on because it is based on the Gallardo platform and Audi has full ownership of subsidiary Lamborghini.
I wonder if this car, which can reach a top speed of over 300km/h, can be found on Mocca.
I hereby attached a few more wallpaper shots of this Audi tyrant on my blog for car-lovers like me, but I guess that’s the closest I can get to laying my hands on them. Well, saying that, I am not going to discount my own future because I may still want to own an Audi R9 or even R10 in the future. For now, enjoy.
Or so I read a few days ago on one of the papers, accordingly to one of the stats websites. The video, as released by the Media Development Authority (MDA), featured most of the senior management (board of directors basically) personnel in a (hmmm) never-before-seen kind of presentation.
Quite obviously, from my title, you would expect something to do with marriage: the coming together of 2 people, one man and one woman, in sacred matrimony, ready to embark on the rest of their lives together not as separate entitles, but as one embodied individual (sorry, I got carried away).
Marriage is a beautiful and touching event. Even if you do not know the couple, as elaborately as they are dressed, who are getting married, you would still smile and send your blessings to them as you pass by. You feel happy, elated for the couple, that they are able to find the significant other of their lives, and hope that their decisions remain correct for the rest of their lives. The coming of the end of year 2007 saw quite a few of such events from some of my friends and colleagues. Perhaps it is a good time, coinciding with the periods of leave which one can take to go on honeymoon sessions, or the fact that year-end bonuses come in handy in December. Regardless of the dates though, marriages are joyous events meant for the celebration of a couple’s love, the reaffirmation of already married couples’ vows, the transition of responsibilities from daughter to wife, or son to husband.
To all my friends who are tying the knot soon or who are just married, may you find eternal bliss in the choice you have made and may love encircle your life everyday. To my own significant other half, may we budget and plan a beautiful one in the near future so that it can leave an everlasting impression in our minds.
My sis introduced this song to me and I thought it was a pretty refreshing hit from F.I.R. Hear it a few times and it kind of grows on you. My recommendation for the week, Yue Ya Wan, from F.I.R.’s new album.
Anyway, it’s a busy and tiring month (not just for me, but for a lot of people as well). Work is the top priority in my life right now, and it is no wonder that I often fell asleep “working” late into the night. I guess your mentality and attitude really counts when you started working, and I’m glad that all my friends are busy and happy with what they are engaged in at this moment in their lives.
No really interesting updates so far, except for the several outings with my colleagues on selected Fridays. It seems crazy, but we actually sang KTV till 5.00am in the morning. I guess everyone had their lullabies playing when we actually left K-Box that night (or morning). Besides this, life was basically a periodic cycle of work and sleep, interspersed with bouts of time spent with my girlfriend, colleagues and friends. No, I am not lamenting or whining but actually pretty okay with the fact that I am doing something everyday in fact.
To all those hard at work, I would say keep up the good work and maintain the pace. Life’s a marathon; we’re just getting started.
Hey fellows, its a Sunday and the weather’s being pretty unpredictable. Well, for one, you get huge overlaying gray clouds in the morning, which bore and threatened menacingly at all who were still under covers, and which finally, amidst rolls of thunder, provided rain for all living things and drove the impetus for further sleep. Then, a few hours later, sunlight filtered through the gray and illuminated the damp, rain-stained floors and windows. In an act of reversal, things dry, and the air finally smells of that of a Sunday afternoon. I could still see the clouds though, considerably thinner after shedding their water weight, hanging ominously in the background, as if saying, “we’ll be back.”
But rain or shine, it’s into the new month, the month of October.
Somehow, this month brings me into retrospection. Seeing my sister and other of my younger friends mugging and hanging their heads over ten-year-series and textbooks reminds me of the times I used to do that myself. That’s right, the months of October and November were greatly dreaded in the past (and are still dreaded by students) because of the mounting pressure from impending examinations. They all looked the same, yet the same stack of papers (be them air-flown from England or locally printed) could be poison to one kid and paradise to another. Preparation for the examinations come in varying ways (which I won’t go into), but I am always more of a “loner” or “self-studier” rather than a “study-group” sort. I think both ways work equally well, but you have to decide on one which works for you personally.
If you think that examinations were things of the past once you graduated and started working, you are dead wrong. In this result-oriented society, we are surrounded by examinations of different sorts everyday that we grew accustomed to them (so much so that we can’t live without them). Alternatively, you hear words like “targets”, “results” which are in fact facets of the same thing. Examinations and tests push us to the limit, but in the process, also segregate the better from the weak, something which I can’t put my finger on being good or bad. Pragmatically, they are necessary because we will never know how good we are until we hit the seemingly unachievable targets set by teachers, peer, superiors and most importantly, us. On the other hand, an overdose of focus and attention on such pragmatic stuff lowers our sensitivity towards the softer side of life. Learn to balance the two, and this should be the key to success.
For all those struggling to cover their syllabus and those who are on the verge of succumbing to the pressure of giving up, here are some songs which I listened to when I was still donning school uniforms back in the 1990s (No not retro, I am not that old yet).
Good luck, everybody!
E-17’s “Each Time”. It might be 9 years ago, but they still sound good.
I think I was in primary school when this group from Sweden start topping charts. Ace of Base’s “The Sign”. Never underestimate blond Swedes.
Finally, the song which you knew how to sing, but always forget it’s name. Inner Circle’s “Sweat (A La La La La Long)”.
