Monthly Archive for September, 2008

What is Life?

Published on September 29, 2008 in life, me and thoughts. 0 Comments

I have just completed one of the most interesting classes in the whole of my MBA course so far. Entrepreneurship & Innovation. What makes the course really interesting is not the text book per say, but more of the person who was teaching the course itself.

I’ve been a very philosophical person. So some may say. I must admit that I have adopted quite a lot of thoughts and philosophies about life and how a person should lead his or her life over time. It is usually in the context of what I believe and it is very much related to the values I perceive to be important in life. It is for me. Hence, the philosophies I have may not be applicable to others. Some believed that I was being too hard on myself, living my life with all these philosophies. I don’t think I am being too hard on myself (maybe I am, sometimes…) but I somehow believed that these philosophies are the little motivational words that kept me going in life and pushing me further to achieve what I want.

Anyway, this smart and wise guy who has taught our class was yet another person who is really philosophical. I thought I was crazy, until I met him. That’s when I think to myself, “Looks like I’m not just the only crazy person in this world”. He has generally emphasized most of the philosophies that I have kept close to my heart all these while.

Of the many things he said, there is one that might be beneficial to share. I’ve illustrated his words into a form of several diagrams, hoping that it would make it easier to understand.

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I’m sure everyone has a goal in life (or maybe goals); to be your own boss, or to have a family of your own, or to buy a specific something for yourself, etc. Referring to the diagram above, moving towards the positive (+ve) end simply means that you are inching closer to realizing your goal(s).

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Hence, for instance during the first year, you have done something that would have inched you closer to your goal. You have then moved forward.

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However, during your 2nd year, you have done something, but that something has got nothing to do with helping you to achieve your goal. By doing so, you have bumped yourself to the negative (-ve) end, not becoz what you did was wrong, but it simply means that you have just lost a year (for instance) from realizing your goal.

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With the lack of focus, you could have pretty much just wasted 5 years of your time which could have got you further in realizing your life goal, should you have utilized that amount of time.

Time is of the essence. Everyone is aware of that. However, I don’t think everyone is aware by how little time you have left to achieve the goal you wish to achieve in life. So much so that we assume that time will always be there. So much so that we leave things as it is and tell ourselves that there will always be tomorrow. I am sometimes part of this clan of humans.

We are only humans. That however is not the reason to give ourselves for us to make a delay in making the best out of our life when we still can. Life is like a positive & negative flow. We make some good progress only to have done some other things that would delay the whole process of achieving our goals.

Of coz this rolls down to what you want in life; be it to drive a fancy car, to own an expensive watch, to start your own business, or even to raise a family of your own. Whatever the goal is, it would only make sense if you start working towards it, wanting to inch towards realizing the goal.

I am at a point of wanting to move on, in both my job and my life. The critical one as of now would probably be my job. I hate it, absolutely hate it. Hate is such a strong word and hence, that just pretty much showed you how much I have come to dislike my job. Taking the first step to do something is really scary. I think I have come to a point where feeling scared is no longer an option. I just don’t want to be unhappy with certain things anymore. Not worth my time.

Anton Jordaan has reemphasized a lot of things these 4 days. I truly thank him for that. He’s just one of those ppl you meet once in your life to give you that extra boost to move forward. As cheesy as it may sound, all this happened somehow at the right time. Should I have listened to his lecture 2 years ago, I wouldn’t have been grateful. Thanks.

P/S: Mamma Mia is soooo nice! :P

Project 10 to the 100th

Published on September 25, 2008 in life, people and stuff. 1 Comment

In conjunction with Google’s 10th year anniversary celebration, Google has decided to offer 10 million dollars to back world changing ideas from anyone living on the face of the earth. The world changing idea would relate to a task of helping as many people as possible.

Google users will get to vote to determine 20 semi-finalists from which the Google advisory board will select 5 winners. What do the winners get? Good karma and the satisfaction of knowing that your idea might truly help a lot of ppl. SWEEEETTT! :P

Check out the official web for this Project 10^100. I think it’s such a cool idea. And to think that your idea that can truly help others will be funded by Google… that’s like OH-SO-COOL. Check out the video below as well. Really cool video.

Are you up for it? Well I am! :D There’s really nothing for you to lose if you try now is there? *teehee*

MAY THOSE WHO HELP THE MOST WIN!

Thanks for the memories

Published on September 23, 2008 in books, me and travel. 0 Comments

It’s back to work for me. I’ve been dreading every moment of it, not wanting the weekend to end at all. I just know for a fact that when that ends, it’s back to reality and the reality isn’t all that nice. Well… it’s not like I can do much about it, hence it’s just a matter of sucking up and living with it for now. *grin*

I had a great time in Hong Kong, working, shopping and eating with my aunt and uncle. I was back in Penang on Saturday and had a greater time during the remaining of my weekends. *double grin* (thank u ;) ). It’s good to be back. Way good.

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great sun, lovely sea breeze and good company

Over the weekend, I’ve also finish reading the new book from Cecelia Ahern, Thanks for the Memories. It’s again a lovely light type of reading. Not much of a drama, but enough to make me shed a tear or two.

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My next read would be the Last Lecture. I presume it would be a good read as well.

I think I hate my job. It’s 10.53am and I’ve done absolutely nothing despite having piles and piles of stuff awaiting me to do. Bad sign. I need to be all passionate about my job again. Or maybe I should quit my job and go on more holidays. :)

Did I say I had a wonderfully lovely and absolutely enjoyable weekend?

I think I did. Yay.

Aren’t these food lovely?

Published on September 20, 2008 in food and travel. 2 Comments

I don’t usually write posts about food but I think with these food in Hong Kong looking and tasting so very very lovely, I think it’s only wise to share. I’m no food critic though. I don’t know exact terms to use. In addition to that, I don’t have very specific comments about a specific dish really. To me, a dish can be categorized as merely lovely, okie, so-so or bad.

Nevertheless, what you’re about to see here are just… absolutely lovely food. Lovely lovely lovely. :P Enjoy.

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simply life

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chicken burger, green salad, seafood linguine with lobster sauce, cream mushroom soup

simplylife restaurant is a western like restaurant. Food is lovely. Love the breads too. I went to the one which is located in the mall opposite my aunt’s place at Tai Koo Sing. I’ll go back and try again if given the chance.

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cheong fun for breakfast!

Love the sauces for this cheong fun. The cheong fun itself is rather similar to those back home in Malaysia, but the sauce… heaven. I had this for breakfast for 2 days in a row. In addition to this is the yu yuk siu mai a.k.a fish meat siu mai (okie, not so much of a translation). That’s like wow. I forget to take some pics of it though. :)

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Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.

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shrimps everywhere!

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onion rings, desert and a thirst quencher

Bubba Gump is a restaurant that serves shrimps, shrimps, and more shrimps. They have tons of ways of cooking those shrimps – boil, fried with coconut, fried with some batter, etc. (I don’t remeber how they do it. All I know is that I was soooo full walking out of the restaurant). 

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rice paper

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spring rolls, grilled pork, and Vietnamese vermicille

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make your own roll using rice paper

I love Vietnamese food. I don’t get very good Vietnamese food back home and that’s sorta sad. I’ve been to this Vietnamese restaurant in Causeway Bay and that’s like amazingly lovely. Rice paper is yet another restaurant serving Vietnamese cuisine and must I say, it was a lovely meal, even though we had to wait for an extra 30mins despite making a booking for 8.30pm.

We even get to make our own roll! I fail as usual. The paper just… tore. Dang. Anyway, who cares. I just stuffed everything back into my mouth, bit by bit of coz.

A trip to Hong Kong without dimsum would never be complete of coz. I went to hong xing for dimsum. I don’t have the pics to that though. It was lovely as well. No other dimsum in any part of the world beats dimsum in Hong Kong. No where else. :P

Well, the meals I had cost me in the range of RM70 to RM100 per person per meal(except for the cheong fun of coz. That’s only HKD7 if I’m not mistaken). All the food was wayyyy lovely.

P/S: Yes, I’m the world’s worst food critic.

Hong Kong share market

Published on September 19, 2008 in life, people and travel. 2 Comments

For the past 2 days in Hong Kong, the only topic that is being discussed among the ppl in Hong Kong is the share market. Just yesterday, the share dropped like crazy despite the massive drop the day before. Mad. It’s very much due to the influence from the US market. The US is another crazy market – look at Lehman Brothers, AIG and even Morgan Stanley. Crazy mad share market.

Nevertheless, despite the craziness in the market these days, Hong Kong is still one good place to earn money. To begin with, it’s a free market. Money flows in and out very much freely. Although this makes the market more volatile, but when the market is good, the amount you gain out from the share market is amazingly huge. :)

In addition to that, Hong Kong is a good place to work. In Asia (and perhaps the world), Hong Kong has the lowest income tax rate, standing at only 16%. That’s low. Looking at how much an average working person earn a year, 16% is really low. In Malaysia, our income tax rate is standing at 27%, and that’s pretty high comparing relatively how much we earn annually.

Of coz it’s undeniable that the cost of living in Hong Kong is very high. If you are just a normal executive working in Hong Kong with an average salary for the rest of your life, there’s no way you can even afford an apartment even until the day you die. A say, close to 1000sq ft apartment in Hong Kong island would perhaps amount up to HKD5million. That’s like RM2.5million. Crazy huh.

Car is not so much of a problem coz their public transportation is amazingly good. That’s one of the many things I love about Hong Kong. It’s as convenient as hooping on to a bus or taking the MTR or taking the ferry. If all fails, you always have the red taxi waiting for you. :)

I was discussing some of these stuff with my aunt and her boss over lunch yesterday and her boss did say that Hong Kong may not be the best place to live, but it’s definitely one of the best place to work with such low income tax. You’ll be amazed by how much some of these ppl are being paid in Hong Kong. Man it’s a lot. And not forgetting investment being one of their main activity – a friend of my aunt who works as the person behind all the share market analysis in one of the banks said that your eyes just popped looking at the amount of money ppl have, the amount of ZEROS. Haha… (okie, by now, you readers might think I’m some money craze woman but it’s very much true). :)

I’ve always fancy Hong Kong in some way. Have I thought of working here? Yup I have. Not just for the money, but for the exposure and experience that to a certain extend, you might never get just staying and working in Malaysia.

I guess one of the best part of my current job is the exposure I get just going out to China and Hong Kong. If I were to given a choice of working overseas aside from Malaysia, I will not go for countries such as Australia or US. Somehow I believe in working or being in a place of my own roots – being a Chinese. I won’t pick China of coz, but Hong Kong would be a good pick. :) hehehe…

A crazy crazy day

Published on September 16, 2008 in me, people and travel. 2 Comments

I had the craziest day yesterday. So crazy that I had to laugh about it. Had to. I was pissed, I was annoyed but at the same time, I had to laugh. It’s the only way to keep me sane really.

Here’s what happened. Let me begin by saying this; I once hated the China domestic flights, I still hate the China domestic flights and I dare say that I will continue hating the China domestic flights.

I was supposed to fly to Shenzhen from Shanghai yesterday evening. My flight was at 4.05pm taking off from Shanghai Pudong International Airport to Shenzhen International Airport. I was planning on having lunch with me at any of the restaurants in the mall next to my hotel but little did I know, it was the public holiday and the amount of ppl there are just a little too many. I got myself some decent food (yes, McDonald’s are decent at this point of time), hopped into a cab and got to the airport slightly after 2pm.

There were no queue whatsoever at the check-in counter and I was glad. Little did I know, my flight was canceled. That’s the first thing to be pissed at. I was then referred to another counter to solve this problem. The guy at the counter asked me what’s my problem (well, must I say, the Chinese can be pretty rude at times). I told him that my flight got canceled. For a minute, he just stood there. I was like… hellooooo, you have to give me a solution! So I asked him, what now? He said he’ll get me on another flight. I wasn’t the only one impacted. There’s a group of us impacted.

Anyway, the flight that he was supposed to get us on is full. There was only one seat left, and he gave to the English dude in front of me. Tough luck. That’s like major pissed off moment there. It was 2.30pm then. He then told us that there’s a flight flying off from Shanghai Hongqiao Airport at 4.55pm and he’ll get us on that plane. *shocked*. So, we got on a bus, which came at 3.15pm, all pissed and annoyed and got to the Hongqiao Airport at 4.15pm. It was pouring heavily and there were no place for the bus to stop. So we had to stand in the rain to get our luggage out – soaked wet. WAYYYYY pissed (but I appear to be pretty calm still. I could have started yelling at them. Argh!).

We manage to get ourself checked in. When I got my boarding pass, I was very very happy. Very! 4.55pm flight, boarding at gate B10. YAY! As soon as I passed security, there’s that big familiar but hated word, flicking itself on the LCD screen. DELAYED. Argh. The pissed off part is they don’t know when the flight would be delayed till. No one knew when the flight will take off. Reason for delay – Bad Weather. Some taufun of some sort. Did I say I was pissed?

So I waited. And waited. And waited. And waited. 7.05pm. The flight time has been confirmed – 7.30pm. Hurray! I was excited! After I packed all my stuff I turn to see if it’s 7.30pm and I panic when I couldn’t find my flight anymore. It’s not on the LCD screen anymore. It has been bumped out! Errrr…does that mean my flight’s canceled…AGAIN? The announcement came out, saying that the gate has been changed to A10, and they only announced it in Chinese. Weird. So, it was 7.10pm by then, and I had to walk to the other end of the airport. ARGH. I was pissed at being pissed.

I got on the 2nd bus that transported us to the plane. I was yet again contented that I was on the plane. At last! Well… the flight got delayed for another hour, so it took off only at 8.30pm. Darn. By the time I got into Shenzhen, it was 10.30pm. I was kinda worried that there will be no cab around. Thank God there were plenty.

After coming out from the airport, there was a slight traffic congestion for God knows what reason. I mean it’s close to 11pm. What’s the bloody problem!?! Argh. By the time I reached my hotel, it’s already 12am. Crazy. And guess what? I couldn’t get up this morning. My pickup was at 8am and I got up at 8.10am. Gosh.

It was definitely one crazy crazy day. The worst I’ve gotten from this domestic flights before this incident was a delay of 2 hours just sitting in the plane. I think this has just broken that record. Amazingly crazy. *sigh*. As I was going through this day, I was thinking if flying in to HK and taking the train over would be faster. Maybe I should consider doing that the next time if I still need to fly from Shanghai to Shenzhen. Hmmm…but visa might be a problem. Oh well.

I wonder if today would be a crazy day for Malaysia. :) It is… September16. Following the politic news these days makes me a little annoyed by our current government, especially with the whole ISA thing. Somehow rather annoyed. Whatever changes the government make, I hope they realize that the biggest group impacted  by all this political craze is the ppl. The ‘rakyat’ so to speak gets all the crap, good and bad. Oh well.

Yes, it’s an ‘oh well’ day. I’m worn out. But… I’ll be going to HK tomorrow!!!!! YAY! ;)

Happy B’day Baby Sis

Published on September 15, 2008 in family. 8 Comments

Today, my youngest sis is officially 21. Gosh, how time flies. :) I hope you have a good birthday k. Ermm…your birthday present, I’ll give them to you some other time k.

And pls… start acting like an adult. OKIE?

Love ya lots! See ya soon. Hugs.

This Never Happened Before

Published on September 14, 2008 in emotions, love and music. 0 Comments

(Sometimes, certain things would only happen once. That’s when you have to go for it, coz there are certain things that never happened before… enjoy the song)

I’m very sure, this never happened to me before
I met you and now I’m sure
This never happened before

Now I see, this is the way it’s supposed to be
I met you and now I see
This is the way it should be

This is the way it should be, for lovers
They shouldn’t go it alone
It’s not so good when your on your own

So come to me, now we can be what we want to be
I love you and now I see
This is the way it should be
This is the way it should be

This is the way it should be, for lovers
They shouldn’t go it alone
It’s not so good when your on your own

I’m very sure, this never happened to me before
I met you and now I’m sure
This never happened before (This never happened before)
This never happened before (This never happened before)
This never happened before (This never happened before)
This never happened before

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