I promise...

Have you ever thought that we make promises and they were meant to be broken sometimes? Sure you do. People often say such and we often hear them. Promises, or rather resolutions, we always make at the start of the new year remind us of what we need to change in order to make ourselves better. But, mind you, many of us tend to go back to our old ways as the year goes by. Many of us do. Serious. Now I am no exception to this. I know I have been making promises to myself, yet old habits just die hard. **SIGH**...

Anyway, here are my 10 promises for the year, albeit coming near to the end of the year. Hopefully, I don't go back to my old habits again.

(1) I promise not to spend like a rich man. More often than not, at month's end, I am often broke.

(2) I promise not to "goyang kaki" and procrastinate at the office.

(3) I promise to save as much money as possible so that I can retire rich.

(4) I promise myself to go to gym as often as possible, which is good because I am practising this now.

(5) I promise to often update my blog, as frequently as possible, and should not back-dating posts anymore. Bad habit, indeed. First, it is a dishonest man's work. Second, you have to put in effort to catch up.

(6) I promise to often clean my rented room as often as possible. Now, take a look at these mess!

Househusbandry, you say?

Oh what a mess!

Mom's gonna kill you! Go clean it up, kid!

(7) I promise I will not keep pestering my fellow bloggers with somewhat irritating comments. Hope you all can forgive me if I do so. Thousands of apologies.

(8) I promise not to lose my temper so easily and not to be too sensitive over weenie little matters.

(9) I promise to get my future lover and my loved ones at home the best I can give. All my life, all my soul and all my heart to the ones I most dearly love.

(10) Last, but not least, I promise not to drive my car fast like it is a racing car. Look at what had happened to me! Serve me right! Now, that's the reason why I can't go to Starbucks those few days ago to blog my stuff on the net. Damn me!

Skidded on a wet road during a rainy weather and "kissed" the "ass" of the car in front.

The other car that I knocked into. Notice the exhaust pipe was out of place.

SURPRISE!!! Now, this is exactly a meme. Got caught on with the meme virus, thanks to my fellow bloggers. Time for tagging... hehehe... *smiles evilly*... OK, these are the people to be tagged (except for myself, of course!)... TADAAA!!!... here is the list...

Having said all that, will I ever learn from these mistakes? Hopefully I will. And, will I break those promises? Hopefully, I won't.

Now, go and do your meme and write down your own 10 promises you have made for yourself!

Nothing...

Errr... Don't know what to write today... I will leave my, oh so many, thoughts for tomorrow. Now running out of time. Got to blog as fast as possible. Nevermind if it is not interesting or if it doesn't attract any attentions or whatever, as long as I take this precious time to blog, blog and blog. That's why it is call NOTHING for today... exactly nothing. Nothing to blog. Not gonna write any "surprises" for now, but will have it written the next few days... most likely tomorrow. I will let all of you know what "surprises" there are in store. For now, just stay tuned.

A small step... little food for thought

"A journey of a thousand miles starts with a small step"
"A big step begins with a small step"
"A small step preludes everything big"

So start with a small step first.
Don't give up if you fail taking a small step.
Get up and try again.

Writing blogs...

**Sigh** So much thoughts yet so little time. Sheesh...

So, what's next?

Oh dear... seems like I have got to back-date my blog, just like what QR did when he missed those precious days of blogging. In fact, he is the one who gave me this idea of back-dating blogs, but I know it's a dishonest man's job. And you would soon know why this blog is back-dated. Updates soon, coming soon, ok? Anyway, got to be dishonest at times, eh?

Now, what blog info shall we be fed with this time? Aha! Remember wonks ago, we were reading the blog on "What would you do..."? Alright, here are some of my experiences in Celebrity Fitness:

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I was doing this cardio exercise on a machine, and in front of me, there was this row of treadmills. Then, one hawt, good-looking guy, with well-built, well-defined toned body (not muscular ar!), was walking in front of me and did some cardio exercises on the treadmill for some 20 minutes or so. Having finished his exercise, he sort of "purposely" turn his head towards my direction and looked at me. Soon after, I sort of "melted". Ah... that was just the beginning, I thought to myself.

Then, I went to the toilet cubicle in the gym restroom to do my business. Having done that, I walked to the basin to wash my hand. In order walk towards the gym locker and then to exit the restroom, I had to walk past a row of 5 urinals that were in front of the three cubicles. That means I had to walk a wide path between the urinals and the cubicles. This same guy was urinating in one of the urinals (the last one, near the gym lockers), and when I was walking past the urinals, he was turning his head to look at me AGAIN! No, he didn't just glance at me momentarily and then focussed on his business. No, not that case. What he did was he started to look at me the moment I finished washing my hands and when I started to leave that area. Even when I was passing the last urinal on which he was urinating, he still looked at me, albeit looking sideways. That was like 10 to 15 seconds long! (errr... do you call that staring, if the look lasted for as long as 10 to 15 seconds?) Oh my gosh! He looked at me AGAIN! My heart was racing faster than that of a train.

Another time, I was eating my favourite CoffeeBean panini chicken sandwich at the rest lounge where drinks are served. This lounge is an open space, where those coming into or leaving the gym can see. This same hawt guy, who was about to leave the gym, looked at my direction where I sat in the lounge. As he was leaving, he kept looking at me (or staring at me, rather), and I, of course, noticed it. I smiled at him and he approvingly smiled back at me. He didn't winked an eye at me, but his smiling back at me is a positive response, and I was glad. Well, you should be able to guess what was my next reactions, eh? It was like, oh... , so Romeo-and-Juliet type of "love at first sight".

What happened next was that I approached him one day and I introduced myself to him and we became friends.

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"Hey, he looks gay!"... was the remark I got from some people around me, who also stared at me like I was some kind of alien, or maybe if I looked "delicious". NO, I am not edible, for goodness sake! Honestly speaking, I am not the kind of hottie everyone is drooling at. I don't look like Zac Efron, or Tom Cruise or Brad Pitt. But that doesn't mean I am ugly, ok? Instead, to make myself more presentable, I groomed myself rather eloquently or flamboyantly, and I went to gym that way. NO AGAIN, mind you, I wasn't wearing a woman's outfit or anything of that sort. In fact, I was wearing a shirt with vertical-lined flowery patterns. So that they thought I was gay. Anyway, I ignored them. Self-pride mah... isn't it?

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So, what's the big deal with being looked at, stared at and remarked as such, anyway? NO big deal... it's just one of my experiences, though, and yes, I admit I really like that hawt guy.

What would you do...

... when someone smiled at you or even winked an eye at you? What would you do when someone looked at you and kept looking (is that staring?) at you as though you looked "delicious". And what would you do when you overheard someone commented "hey, he looks gay" and looked at your direction? The first 2 incidents happened to me in the gym and didn't exactly know what to do. Got stunned, perhaps. And the last incident happened to me when I was blogging at Starbucks, and also at the gym.

So what would you do then?

Yesterday...

... was the day a chat was established between me and William. So, nothing much to do all day, only reading some IC datasheets and measurement instructions, go chatting we do, whilst at work. Well, since I have been transferred to a new section within the same department, I must get myself familiarize with the products designed in that new section I am currently assigned to. OK, so, I shouldn't have done that during office hours, but I had the best times chatting with him. Chatting for almost 90% of my working time. Anyway, we had a good time chatting. Nice chatting with you, William.

Something to share...

... and again, there's where The Owner's Pride gonna be. At the Starbucks Coffee, as usual. Surfing the net away. So, today, instead of contributing one's own story to tell, there's something to share with all fellow bloggers out there. So, welcome to this blog. And, found this rather funny. Here it is:

"At a recent computer expo, Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated: "If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25 cars that got 1000 miles to the gallon."In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press release stating: "If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:

(1) For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash twice a day.

(2) Every time they repainted the lines on the road, you would have to buy a new car.

(3) Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason, and you would just accept this, restart and drive on.

(4) Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down, and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.

(5) Only one person at a time could use the car, unless you bought"Car95" or "CarNT", but then you would have to buy more seats.

(6) Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, reliable, five times as fast, and twice as easy to drive, but would run on only 5% of the roads.

(7) The oil, water temperature and alternator warning light would be replaced by a single "general car fault" warning light.

(8) New seats would force everyone to have the same size butt.

(9) The airbag system would say "Are you sure?" before going off.

(10) Occasionally for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lift the door handle, turn the key, and grab hold of the radio antennae.

(11) GM would require all car buyers to also purchase a deluxe set of Rand McNally road maps (now a GM subsidiary), even though they might never need them or want them. Attempting to delete this option would immediately cause the car's performance to diminish by 50% or more. Moreover, GM would become a target for investigation by the Justice Department.

(12) Every time GM introduced a new model, car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again, because none of the controls would operated in the same manner as the old car.

(13) You'd press the start button to shut off the engine."

Hehehe.. so, this is what happen when the car industry technology goes in the same pace as the computer industry technology. How about buying a Bill Gates car? Any takers out there?

Blogging... blogging... blogging...

... when the resources and time are at hand. Well, these few days have the free time there is... and best of all, 4 days of holidays there are, beginning from Friday till Monday! Yay!!! And the even best thing is that a new notebook is now a pride to call one's own. At first, it was thought that HP Compaq Presario V3000 notebook looked better in terms of its specifications, though no integrated webcam was included, but alas, stock of it SenQ had no more, as of 13th October. Looked through the specifications of the next best offered notebook that was also yearned for quite some time. Well, good as it seemed, with a 1.3 megapixel webcam included, as well as the integrated add-ons, such as WLAN, integrated LAN card, Bluetooth and the like. Cool it seemed, so it is now called The Owner's Pride instead of Acer Aspire. Here is the picture of The Owner's Pride:

Guess what, the moment this beautiful baby is at hand, off to the Starbucks Coffee and connect to the Internet wirelessly and seamlessly. Day in, day out, before or after working out at Celebrity Fitness in Gurney Plaza or at Fitness First in Island Plaza, surely The Owner's Pride is always there at Starbucks Coffee and surf the net. So, with wireless connection and a Wifi-equipped notebook, coupled with lots of spare time, there will be no reason not to connect to the net and blog away or surf the "waves" of the net.

Anyway, good-looking laptop, eh? OK, guys and gals, let's go to Starbucks Coffee now and surf the net away!

Happy moments...

Oh no... I really seriously did not realise 3-seconder actually tagged me on 29th September to write this meme until I realise it today. Oh great... it's really hard to start writing about happy moments when I am actually still mourning my grandma's demise 5 days ago. Anyway, will try my best to write it.

Let's see... how am I to start writing it? Been thinking about this for some moments now. Right... got it. Here we go...

Well, thinking of the past times, some happy some sad moments, a lot of changes have taken place this past year and while I was in Kuala Lumpur before moving to Penang in June 2005, I have been meeting a lot of plu friends who have come and gone, and still get into contact with some of them every now and then, including those I have met in here. Well, I have lovers come and gone too, with relationships some long, some short and a lot of heart breaks in between. Some gone on for quite some months and worse still some just gone on for just a week. That was the shortest relationship I have thus far.

Then, Lady Luck winked an eye at me when I got to know this W, whom I met in November 2006. We became lovers 2 months later.

My HAPPINESS! at last. One day, W proposed to be my lover earlier this year, and if I can still recall it, it was on the 1st or 2nd of January. That was exactly the happiest moment in my life!!!

OH... HOW HAPPY I WAS!!! INDEED! YES!

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Author's note: WE ARE NOW GOING TO THE " WORLD OF PAST TENSE"... (an excerpt of my diary written sometime end of February / early of March 2007)
"We have been spending time with each other since then. Life is really good now. I am praying that we can go on forever. Just recently, on Valentine's day, I bought W a camera phone, a box of Ferrero Roche, and a hamper package of facial and body cleansing gels and creams. Not forgetting the 3 romantic cards I attached with those 3 Valentine gifts. How touched W was! We went to a Korean restaurant to eat and celebrate the special day.

"And 8 days after that, W gave me a nice branded wallet for my birthday gift. We were spending time together again and we ate at a Taiwanese restaurant. On that night, W gave me a kiss on my lips and I was really, really extremely HAPPY with that unforgettable kiss. I was extremely touched. I licked the very spot where the kiss was planted. Those were the two special gifts that I will never forget and that which I will always keep in my heart forever and ever. Since then, we have been going out shopping and watching movies with each other almost everyday."

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But now... it's all over. The sweet dream's now over since 3 and a half months ago. It's actually very depressing trying to come to terms with it, knowing very well that the next morning when you open your eyes from your good sleep, those sweet dreams have faded away, leaving you only a sweet memory to remember by and your lover has left your heart in pain. Yeah, it's just so very hard to let your lover go away from your life just like that and it's even harder to accept this painful separation.

This is how my meme ends, in melancholy, so that there's no more happy moment to spread around (no more tagging, that is!). Anyone cares to spread around sad moments instead, eh?

What world are we living in now?

Taking another cue from Magus Young's blog on Yangon Monks, I would like to now pen down my thoughts and feelings on the issues around the world affecting us here and abroad. We are now living in a dangerous world, full of paedophiles, rapists, murderers, war-mongers, racists, homophobiacs and religious-haters.

Weeks ago, we have seen the horrible, brutal murder of Nurin Jazlin, who was murdered by a sick f**king bastard paedophile-cum-murderer. This horrible news did not end here. Years ago, we had seen the many news and cases of horrible and brutal murder of so many rape and murder victims. And just recently, Star Online reported a girl who was surpised to find that she was sent a nude photo of herself by an unidentified stranger, most likely a rapist or even a paedophile. These events show there are a hell lots of evil people out there; you just do not know if they even live next door to you. So caution is the word. At times, it's best to practise cynicism. Don't trust strangers. They may be dangerous people.

Backtrack to more than 4 years ago, we had seen the utter destruction of Iraq by that war-mongering s.o.t.b. George Bush. Many people perished, not to mention the many thousands who lost their homes to the savaging war and eventually civil wars. Yea, we know it's for the sake of the Iraqi people to remove that evil dictator The "Sad, Damned Who Sinned", but WTF! The s.o.t.b. literally destroyed people's lives, instead of bettering their lives. Look at what happened to Iraq now? We are so sad to see its current tumultuous state. Anyway, just "Make Love, No Wars", ok?

Now, back to us humans. Reflect on ourselves we must! Is this what we humans are capable of? Inflicting pain and sufferings upon others? Discriminate others just because these group of people are different in a way from the other groups of people? Maim and murder people? Annihilate people and their nations? Why?

Well, speaking about various types of discriminations in terms of religions and human races and gays/lesbians, I have always kept thinking about why would such discriminations ever happen. Why should there ever be racism, sentiments of religious-hatred (especially Islamophobia, ever since the tragedy of 9/11), and homophobia? Why would racists of certain race think that their own human race is far more superior than other races? Why would some religious-haters say that a certain religion is a disease of the world when the said religion IS NOT a harmful or NOT even a violent religion, but a very peaceful religion? Why would homophobiacs be so judgmental that they even think they have the same equal right as God to judge certain group of people that these group of people are the evil-doers by quoting verses from religious Holy Books? I think we all should END these sentiments of hatred; hatred towards the races of people, hatred towards particular religions and hatred towards a certain group of people. That's because I think that HATRED OF ALL KINDS IS THE MAIN NUMBER 1 MURDERER OF HUMANITY. Let's reflect for a moment the various tragedies that occur due to these types of hatreds:

A CASE OF RACISM
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(March 9, 2005): Judge Joan Lefkow, 61, was once targeted for death by a white supremacist leader, and her husdand and mother were killed by white supremacists in Chicago on 7th March 2005. White supremacist sites applaud the killings, saying that they are satisfied that 2 black people have been killed. The link to CNN news is here: http://cnn.com/2005/US/03/03/schuster.column/index.html

A CASE OF RELIGIOUS-HATRED
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(October 25, 2001): There have been incidents of Arab-Americans removed from planes because of fears expressed by other passengers. And one man, a Sikh convenience store owner in Mesa, Arizona, was killed September 15 by an angry bar patron upset by the terrorist attacks, thinking that the Sikh was a Muslim, judging by the turban that he wore. The link to CNN news is here: http://archives.cnn.com/2001/US/10/24/rec.arab.americans/index.html

A CASE OF HOMOPHOBIA
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(October 26, 1999): Matthew Shepard was hit at least 20 times by blows so hard they fractured his skull six times, a coroner testified Tuesday at the trial of Aaron McKinney, one of two men accused of killing the gay Wyoming college student last year October. The link to CNN news is here: http://www.cnn.com/US/9910/26/shepard.trial.02/index.html

Hope that the reiteration of these issues wake us up from our "sleepy hollow" and hope that we can reflect on ourselves as humans who are capable to offer compassions, yet also capable of inflicting so much pain upon others too.

Let's do something small (not necessarily big) instead of just sitting here and rant away unpurposefully. As the famous classical verse says, Actions speak louder than words. Let's start small by helping the abandoned children's homes, the old folks' homes and the caretakers of unwanted stray animals by giving donations (not only financially, but also anything such as clothes or books or food) to them. Adopt a child or two if you can afford to do so. Visit the old folks and cheer them up if you have the time to spare. Adopt a stray animal as your pet so they would not be put to sleep. The all-time beloved late Mother Theresa has set an example for all of us. Her love for humanity has us admire her so much and inspired us to do good.

Let us all do these little kindness to help make the world a better place to live in, albeit the many evil "predators" out there. It's always good to do kindness, however little it may be, and at the same time, it is also a good practice to "always look over your shoulders" (be cautious, that is).

Finally, all of us hope we can make this world a better place to live in. So, how would you like to contribute your offer of good deeds to the society?

Dear Grandma...

It's been almost 9 decades you have been living in this world, with joy and sadness, through the thick and thin of times. One early Friday morning, you never woke up from your sleep anymore. Life is now never the same anymore without you. Photos of you and family members are now only etched in photo frames forever, albeit turning yellow with time. All the fond memories with you may have fade away with time but they have never been wiped off from our memories.

Remembering the time when I was a small boy, of about 4 to 5 years old, I was crying when my cries drove you out of your wits. You lighted a match and threatened me that you would burn my lips if I kept crying. I blew it off and cried even louder. You lighted the match again and did the same thing. But I have forgotten how I stopped crying then.

Another time, when you were our caretaker (mum and dad were out working at that time), you threatened to leave me and my sis (2 years younger than I am) when my sis and I quarrelled over some matters and to go to my aunt's house which was a stone's throw away. Not wanting you to leave us alone, my sis and I quickly resolved our quarrels and you came back into the house.

I remember once when I was a naughty little boy, running around the house and switched on all the lights and you frantically ran after me to switch off all the lights. Fortunately, the house was small, only a storey high and about 1,300 sq ft. But what happened after that, I don't quite remember much. Guess you were panting away and mad at me for being so naughty.

Well, there are so many fond memories we had had with you when you were our caretaker. I may have forgotten some of them now but I will never forget you. You will always be in my heart. All of us love you and miss you lots. I tried to control my tears during the funeral ceremony this morning but I couldn't. It just welled up in my eyes and I started sobbing away. You know all of us miss you a lot more. We are glad you did not suffer any pain or illness before your demise.

As the hearse moved along slowly, we followed you from home to your final resting place. After your coffin had been properly placed into the sarcophagus, we offered you our silent prayers and gave you the very last respect. As the sarcophagus was sealed off forever, we left without looking back anymore.

Rest in peace, my dear grandma. Goodbye.

Which category are you in?

Taking a cue from Magus Young, on the topic of Connected, now I proceed to write about my thoughts while I was working out in the gym today.

Today, the whole day, I have been to Fitness First (FF) at Island Plaza and Celebrity Fitness (CF) at Gurney Plaza. While I was doing the RPM (the cycling exercise routine) at FF, suddenly, the thought about "No pain, no gain" struck my mind. Thoughts after thoughts came streaming through my mind after that. So, now I would like to share those thoughts with you all. All right, here we go:

Category 1: No pain, no gain
Read: Hey you couch potato, get up from your comfort zone now and do some workout lah! Don't just stay there doing nothing! You get nothing by doing nothing!

Category 2: No pain, got gain
Read: I think you must have taken the shortcut to get that dream body, you blady cheater! You must have been taking the steroid, eh?

Category 3: Got pain, no gain
Read: Hmmm... I guess you must have done the exercise routine wrongly, man! Get a personal trainer if you can't figure out how to use that machine!

Category 4: Got pain, got gain
Read: Yay... congratulations... you have achieved what you have been dreaming for so long, all through your hard work! You have got that good-looking body!

So, which category are you in?