March in a blink

In a blink, it'll be March. It'll be a good month. Hehe ... of course, since I was born during this month. Of course, it'll bring me closer to the long-desired holiday in Japan, which regretfully, I haven't really planned anything for! Argh!

Haha ... but nevertheless, March is coming, we are Marching on well into 2009. After March, the first quarter of this year will cross the finishing line ... the highly anticipatory quarter for the world economy ... what would the report card be? Good, I hope, as I anticipate very positive changes on the work front - and finances will be involved - to take on the world! Woo hoo!

Marching on, the world changes, the economy changes, people change, things change ... yet a lot will remain the same on the personal front. They are always the things I seek change for but somehow, there's this great stubborn inertia that stays them, that roots them so deeply they might just stay like that till forever and ever ... and I recall the sign I had on the holy mountain ... if choose to retreat, I would miss the turn that reveals just how close I am to the goal.

Maybe it's really just around the bend when the storm has cleared. I must learn to be patient.

What makes me happy

Found this on Jan Chipchase's blog. It wasn't so closely-cropped, but this part of the picture immediately caught my eye.

Do you see what I see? Reminds me of WALL-E and his Plant-In-Boot.

Ahh ... the little joys in life (^___^*)

What if LittleBigPlanet's a movie ...

I know I'm not much of a gamer when I seem to enjoy the clips on YouTube more than playing the game itself (though I must say, the game's very, very interesting and definitely addictive until a certain level, which is the level that I still cannot get past!)

That leads me to wonder, is there's anybody else out there like me? Who'd rather see LittleBigPlanet: The Movie? Ooh ... imagine the potential of interactive cinema *drool*



They've already got some ideas ...

I'mPerfection

Watching the trailer
of
"The Perfect Cut"
a mimic of "Nip/Tuck"

I said,
"I don't want to be perfect."

Perfection is boring.
Imperfection
has soul.

Look at nature's
wondrous folds
of sand dunes, and mountains
snow-capped peaks
and waterfalls
off rugged edges, and terrains
roaring rivers
and ocean floors

Imperfection
it holds
life's great stories,
a lifetime of meaning,
great means of living,
a sense of owning.

Sun-kissed, golden or molten
"I don't want to be perfect."
I'mPerfection
it's me.

If it's true ...

Horoscope for today:

*It's a good time to focus on your most important needs and desires and what you really need to make your life more complete. Just try to sweep aside any past difficulties and get ready to make a fresh start. Now's the time to take the initiative in all matters and to go after whatever you need to make your dreams come true. Read more

This could mark the beginning of a new cycle for you, and you could really be feeling recharged by all the fresh new energy that should be coming your way. Just don’t be surprised if you find yourself starting to feel a little more self-centered than usual right now.*

Have felt a little of what's described above. If it's true ... hmm ... I hope.

(^___^*)

棉花糖 MV

Okay ... sometimes I can't stand myself. I'm impossible. Lol ...

Thought I've outgrown boybands, a Chinese boyband at that, but after listening to this over and over again, I realise I don't dislike it but in fact, wanna hear more of it. And now, I wanna share it! Lol.

Impossible is nothing.

棉花糖 by 至上励合
词曲：马雪阳 (that's my friend's cousin ... hehe ...)

What moved me

Woke up to MTV this morning, saw this video and was once again captivated by how the simplest story was also the most gripping, and wondered how I could do the same myself - tell stories simply and effectively. And of course, to have personal accounts of some of those moving tales would be the icing on the cake (^___^*)

妈妈, 生日快乐!

今天是我妈妈的生日.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MA.

突然想起婆婆

看了马雪阳的日记,心里有许多感触. 他和我一样无发见到他姥姥的最后一面, 不能够陪她走完她在这世上最后的行程.

我的婆婆去世将近6年了. 到今天, 我还是很遗憾03年国庆日的周末没有回去看她. 她在8月12日的中午就走了 ... 当时我在公司, 也是忍不注,眼泪一直的掉. 到了晚上, 还在掉. 搞到我的老板都焦急.

哎 ... 和雪阳一样, 我重小是在婆婆的生边成长, 也算是她最疼爱的孙子/女之一. 她也是我唯一认识的祖父/母. 虽然她离开这世界的那一刻我不在场, 我还算是有陪她走完最后的路程 - 把她的遗体安全的送到火葬场, 再把骨灰安置在佛堂.

希望婆婆现在是开心的. 我会永远都怀念这您.

My, have they grown!

When my friend told me he'd be visiting the pandas the next day (which was the third day of the Chinese New Year), I asked him to help me say hello to those "brothers" and "sisters" of mine. He said they'd grown up. I had no idea just how grown up "grown up" was. Until I saw the pictures today, taken on 21 Jan 09.

When I saw them last Aug, they looked like this -

A few were born just days before I visited, some were probably not born yet. This was my lucky shot. Visitors are not allowed to take photos in the nursery; I think it's for fear that stubborn photographers would use the flash that will fighten the babies. The nurse was massaging the lil un's tummy so that the excrement would pass out of her system as these week-old babies were still incapable of passing motion on their own. But in January, five months later, they looked like these! What cute, cuddly furry balls they are! (^___^*)

A panda cub gazes at the camera before taking a group photo with other twelve cubs born in 2008 at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan province, January 21 2009. All of them will be greeting the public during the Spring Festival after months of close care in nurseries.

What makes me happy! (^___^*)

Love birds are seen at a pet shop on Valentine's Day in Riyadh February 14, 2009

Company dinner 09

So we finally had the dinner tonite. Yes, Friday the 13th. Haha ... we joked that we're gonna be scared stiff but still, we never ceased to have fun. Throughout the entire dinner ... seriously. And for a number of us - Cindy, Lionel, Alec, Luke and myself - Friday the 13th turned out to be a pretty lucky one.

Lionel's the biggest winner to walk away with an EeePC901 while Alec got a Nokia MusicXpress phone. Both Cindy and I got $100 NTUC voucher each while Luke got an iPod sound system. Everyone in attendance also had $50 NTUC vouchers as door gifts.

And MID, like usual, always trailing by a wide margin in the beginning and still somehow, somewhat manage to win in the nick of time, walked away with the hamper. Not too exciting though, since most of the stuff are CNY dried goods. And more wine ... sigh, we haven't even started on the 2 bottles from the Xmas win yet.

Well, the prizes were not the best part yet. We totally had tonnes of fun right from the start. Even before the dinner began, we were fooling around taking funny videos of ourselves. During the yu sheng session, most of everything flew out of the plate due to our overzealous 'fishing' to huat-ah! When it came to games, we did the craziest things. Haha ... and true to the MID spirit, right through the end, even when we were having a photo op with the Chairman (yes, one of the founders!), we were still fooling around and had megatonnes of fun v(^___^*)v

The games were typical. There were several rounds, points from which would count towards the final tally for the hamper win. One of them was more interesting than the rest, and also the toughest and which we almost won!

Each table was given a string. The host would name 8 items which we should use the string to tie with. The 50-cent coin kinda got to us until the nice Chinese waitress pointed out a knot to secure it. Wow, leave it to the Chinese to solve knotty problems! We were first to the finish line when the other teams were still fumbling for the final item, a red rubberband, which I had conveniently strapped around my adapter - a makeshift cable management system :)

However, Lionel's belt didn't qualify as a "men's belt", bumping us out of this round. By the finale round, we were trailing something like 1,000+ points to the other team's 6,000 + points. But the finale round would grant the winning team 6,000 points. And we neatly nailed it. Almost as though it's been designed for us to win.

That's not the end yet. The team consisted of 3 tables (MID's one of them) so we had to do a namecard draw. Luke threw in his and it got picked as the winning card. And we got the hamper ... which we will need to figure out how to dispose of.

I wish I had photos but didn't use my camera cuz there're enough going around. Will have to see if I could share some up here when I look at them Mon in the office :) They're super fun shots, guaranteed!

Why I like Chengdu

The city is on my list of cities worthy of annual pilgrimages (Hong Kong's #1 on the list and Tokyo/Japan). I might return again this year cuz thanks to SQ's Krisflyer Anniversary promotion, I suddenly have a free ticket to my favouritest place of the moment! Hehe ...

HH asked me why the hell I keep returning to the same old place - 是不是我的老家. Oh well, in a way, yes, it's one of the few places that I feel at home in. Besides, the city flower, the hibiscus, is the national flower of Malaysia. How more homey can it get? Hehe ...


Other reasons (and plenty of them), in no particular order, are:

1) 麻辣火锅 (Sichuan hotpot) - beware of the numbing 花椒 (pepper)!

2) 麻婆豆腐 (mapo tofu - numbing and spicy beancurd) - and lots of other delicious food!

3) 茶室 (teahouse) - I can spend hours here just watching people.

4) 熊猫 (giant pandas) - Just cannot resist these cuddly furballs! Not that I ever got the chance to hold one ... it costs something like RMB2000 for that once-in-a-lifetime experience ... or is it more?

5) Gateway to Tibet - my ultimate destination! Even in Chengdu itself, I can get hints of Tibetan culture especially in the city's Tibetan neighbourhood. Short drives westward of Chengdu, the number of Tibetans grows, like in Kangding which I visited last Aug.

6) Gateway to great natural wonders - the snow-capped mountains and the lakes and the bamboo forests and ... let me catch my breath ... and the waterfalls and the fertile plains and the gushing rivers ... I suggest a visit to the National Geographic store for some awesome pictures of Sichuan in any of the incredible books on China (^___^*)

7) Gateway to spirituality - I'm not as religious as I'd like to be but the countless temples especially those on Mt. Emei gave me a sense of serenity, the very purpose I headed out to Chengdu last Aug ... 寻找平静 - in search of peace of mind.

8) To try out new discoveries, notably 伤心凉粉 (heartbreak cold noodles) - discovered these during the last trip but didn't try it ... the name's so poetic I couldn't bring myself to try it :( And so many more undiscovered gems of this mysterious and yet amazingly welcoming place.

Wordle

Check out this fun tool - Wordle - that visually sorts out the most frequently used words using word clouds. I made a few for this blog (^___^*)

Farewell

Said farewell to Ryota who's going back to Tokyo tomorrow (oh actually it's later today) ... the bunch of us met up at Crystal Jade in TP for yummy dinner (and I realised they do serve dim sum after 5 pm ... perhaps it's only the airport branch that does not!) and then adjourned to Old Town Coffee for a cuppa and a mini celebration of Ryota's birthday which is 8 Feb.

Happy to also know that ASUS Taiwan has offered him a position but it seems he's still looking forward to a return to Sony in Tokyo. Whatever it is, I'm happy for him. Hehe ... if he takes up the ASUS position, then we'll be colleagues again! (though long distance) and if he's offered by Sony, I'll probably have an English-speaking guide for at least a few days during my April trip v(^__^*)v

Sigh ... how time flies. It's been half a year since I left my previous company and for the umpteenth time, I feel so blessed.

It's very sad to hear that so much has changed in the workings of the office and worse, its people. My dear ex-colleagues are now under tremendous stress and despair and there's nothing very much I can do to fish them out of the murky waters :( It's also very sad to learn that another ex-colleague whom I used to believe was just a tad bit too aggressive and unforgiving in his office relationships has taken a turn for the worse.

But despite that, it was great to still have the girls so strongly bonded against all odds ... hope things will be fine for them and sunny days may soon descend upon the gloomy office, or better still, they may soon find their way out onto greener meadows!

祝 Elledragon 生日快乐!

It's her birthday today - my alter-ego ELLEDRAGON (^___^*)

同事: 你肖龙啊?
我: 对啊
同事: 那你是小龙女! 哈哈 ... 杨过呢?
我: 他太小了, 还没有出现

唉 ... 小龙女的命运就是如此吗?
但是如果能够永远青春美丽, 聪明能干, 那也是很不错的!
呵呵 ...