It's Been A While!

It's been a while since i've posted something on my blog here. So much has happened since then. One of the highlights is that i've been working at my current company (Qinetics Solutions Berhad) for a little over a year already. Besides that, me and my girlfriend's 2nd anniversary is coming this August and our relationship is stable and still going strong. I love her very much and I think that she's the one for me.

The other big highlight is that I've sold off my 5 year old Kancil 850 EX and bought a new MyVI 1.0 (Gold). This new car of mine is awesome and I really like it more and more every day (feels as though its growing on me). Life's been quite good to me even though I have my fair share of ups and downs, good times and bad times. Wonder when i'll update this blog again. Anyway, here's a picture of my new car (with a recently installed TRD replica spoiler):

MyVI - My Vehicle, My Vision, My Passion

Went To Genting Again Last Week!

Yep. I went to Genting again last week for the Michael Learns To Rock concert (my father managed to get the tickets from a friend of his). The trip was great as I went there with my girlfriend :)

There wasn't much activities going on at Genting last week compared to last year when I went there, but it was still a great trip overall, mainly the concert was a blast!

The journey to Genting wasn't a nice one for me as we took the bus and I seem to get sick when i'm travelling for a long distance and especially on buses. But the journey from the Cable Car (SkyWay) to Genting was awesome. The scenery around the forests below the Cable Car was magnificent. I really enjoyed the Cable Car ride even though there were times when I kept wondering if the Cable Car was safe or not.

I can't really remember how long the Cable Car ride was, but before I knew it - we were in Genting. When we arrived at Genting, we decided to get a hotel (last minute decision) as we had planned to be leaving the next morning. So we checked into the First World hotel somewhere around 12:30 p.m to 1:00 p.m. The room was smaller than the one I got last year, but I'm not complaining since we'll only be there to rest and not staying for too long.

So after we checked into the hotel, we went out to walk around and took some photos of the place since it was nearing Chinese New Year, the whole place was very nicely decorated according to the Chinese New Year theme.

Later on we went for walks around here and there and took more photos before we head back to the hotel to rest since our feet was really tired from all the walking. There, we stayed in the hotel for about an hour or so while having lunch (we brought along some food) before we decided to go out again.

We then went to take a look around the Casino since my girlfriend hasn't been to the Casino in Genting before. Nothing much to see there really unless you're into gambling...

After the casino trip, we walked some more until it was Dinner time and we went to KFC to have our dinner and then...it was time for the main event - the MLTR concert!

We arrived at the Arena Of Stars where the concert was held around 8 p.m. The place was still quite empty at the time, but it quickly filled up within the next half hour or so. The band came in around 8:30 p.m and everyone was cheering for them as they start off with the song from their first album titled - I Still Carry On (if i'm not mistaken).

They played a lot of their hit ballads and some from their new album which was quite nice while others were just so-so. The crowd really loved the band and sang along for most of the songs that they recognised, particularly The Actor, That's Why You Go Away, Paint My Love and a few others I can't remember.

Besides the usual ballads, they also played some other songs from their new album namely Salvation, Final Destination, Frostbite and Strange Foreign Beauty. They also sang a song that was originally written in Chinese by Jacky Cheung with the Melody being the same with different lyrics entitled "Take Me To Your Heart" (the Chinese version is called "Wen Bie"). That song is really nice since the first time I heard it a few months ago on the radio and the melody is exactly the same as the Chinese version, just that it comes with different lyrics and meanings.

The crowd sang along, clapped and even danced for most of the time! It shows how much the crowd really loved Michael Learns To Rock. Not only that, there was even an elderly lady dancing to the beat! There was at one time when the lead singer, Jascha Richter took he stage alone by himself for about 2-3 songs. I could only remember one of the songs that he played solo on the stage and that was entitled "Naked Like The Moon". It was really refreshing to see them mix the type of songs around instead of playing one single type which can be boring to some.

At one point during the concert, they decided to say goodbye, but the crowd knew that it was just a bluff (much like last year's David Gates concert). They then came back (after a very short break) and sang the remaining songs such as Paint My Love, The Actor, That's Why You Go Away and a few others I can't remember.

It was then time to say goodbye and so, the concert ended at around 10:10 p.m. The crowd then headed out of the Arena Of Stars. My girlfriend really loved the concert and she said that this was the best concert that she had ever been to so far. I couldn't agree more with her. The songs were great, the lighting was great - the whole concert was perfect! Wish they would have played more songs, but perhaps we'll have to wait for another performance from them.

Not much happened after that, we went to the Safari Disco to take a look around since it was FREE for those who had the MLTR tickets. Nothing much to see there, just some band singing and dancing with drinks around. Then we head back to our hotel to retire for the day.

The next morning, we took our complimentary breakfast at the First World Cafe (the food there was ok for me, but my girlfriend didn't seem to like it) before checking out of the hotel and head back home.

Once again, we took the Cable Car from Genting to the Bus Station and then head back to KL Sentral from the Genting Express Bus. All in all, the whole trip together with the Michael Learns To Rock concert was worth the travel time and money spent last week. Hopefully there'll be another great concert like this one next year :)

Got the offer letter from Qinetics!

I finally got the offer letter from Qinetics Solutions Berhad. All looks good so far and I'll be getting the detailed offer letter (which I'll be signing) few days after I join the company on my first day after Chinese New Year.

I'd like to thank my lovely girlfriend who has been very supportive and been there for me when I need her. She is one of the most important people in my life and I'm thankful and grateful that I met her while working at FigmentSoft.

Here's a picture of my girlfriend for those who are just "curious"
(she's the one on the right side by the way):


My Girlfriend (the one on the right side)

Love is a noble act of self-giving, offering trust, faith, and loyalty. The more you love, the more you lose a part of yourself, yet you don't become less of who you are; you end up being complete with your loved ones

More to come as the days unfold.

It's been a while...

Whoa! It's been a year since I last updated my blog. Over the past year many things has happened. Firstly, I got a job at a company called FigmentSoft in Puchong. I worked there as a PHP programmer using MySQL, Unix and Apache as the webserver. This company was based in Canada and they decided to open a development branch here in Malaysia.

Sadly, I only worked there for about 8-9 months till the company was forced to shutdown due to lack of projects to survive. Even though i've worked there for a short period of time, I managed to gain a lot of working experience at FigmentSoft.

At this point, i'm jobless but I just got an offer from a company called Qinetics in Technology Park Malaysia (TPM) as a Software Engineer and I will be doing Java programming there. I went for the interview but have not gotten the offer letter yet, hopefully I will be able to work there as it looks like a great place to be working at. More to come in the later days.

Most enjoyable time of my life!

I had an enjoyable 2 days at Genting Highlands (Pahang, Malaysia) on the 17th and 18th of January 2004. Here's how it all started:

On the week of 5th January 2004, the local radio station (Light & Easy) was giving away 4 passes to watch David Gates live in concert at the Arena of Stars, Genting which also includes a 2 Days / 1 Night stay at the Resort hotel and a copy of David Gates` latest SongBook CD.

When I heard about this contest, I told myself - "I'm going to try my best and win this contest no matter what". So it began from that Monday onwards as i kept on calling into the radio station whenever i heard the "cue to call" for the contest to try my luck. I kept trying until Thursday morning around 10 a.m (can't remember the exact time but it was definitely morning), the cue to call was mentioned and I quickly dialled the radio station's number.

When I first called, the phone was engaged. So I immediately call again, waiting in anticipation for the phone to ring this time. To my surprise, it did ring and moments later, the radio DJ picked up the phone and said "hello, you're the lucky caller number 9". I was shocked at first and said "Oh my god, really?" and the DJ said "Yes" and he took my particulars down and told me to hang on the line (he was preparing to record my voice and play it on air later).

Note: To win the contest you have to be the 9th caller with a password and in this case, it was simply - "David Gates".

He started by mentioning the promotional line for the contest which is normal (but it was sooo long as I wanted to say something LOL). Then, he asked "how are you feeling today?" and I said "I feel great, but it's going to be better." and he replied "Well i'm sure you would". Next he asked me "what's the password?" and I said "is it David Gates?" and he said "Yes! Congratulations and I hope you enjoy the concert" and that was it.

My heart was still pounding as I ran downstairs and told my mom about it and she was ecstatic. My mom asked "but I didn't hear your voice over the radio?" and I said, "they'll play it soon after this song". True enough, my recorded voice was played after the current song was over. This was the first time that i've ever won anything from a radio station. Well actually the second time, but the first time was last year when I was supposed to win 2 movie tickets to watch "John Q" starring Denzel Washington. However, I did not receive the movie tickets and this time, I was more worried and so I decided to call the radio station up and the DJ said that I should contact the promotions department which I did and the lady said that they will call me on Monday for further details.

Come monday, I received a phone call in the morning and the lady from the promotions department asked me to collect the prize tomorrow (13th Jan 2004) between 10:30 a.m to 12:00 noon. So the next day, I went to ASTRO (to collect my prize) and true enough, I got the 4 concert tickets and a letter stating that the package includes a 2 Days / 1 Night stay at the resort hotel. As for the David Gates` CD, it was delivered to my house by courier a few days later.

I invited 3 friends to go to Genting - Kevin, Carmen and Navin (Kevin and Carmen are a couple). Kevin said he would drive us all the way to Genting and it was fantastic. As it was my first time going to Genting (no kidding!), I didn't feel that well while Kevin was driving (as the roads were winding and couple with the fact that I don't travel often). The journey to and from Genting was the most difficult one that I had to endure. But it was worth it :)

Here's a picture of me on the stage for the freebies at First World Plaza:


Yours truly on stage!
Let's see what happened in Genting (just a rough explanation as I can't really remember everything):

Saturday 17th January 2004:

Approximately 11 a.m, we checked into the Resort Hotel. Kevin and I called our parents to let them know that we've reached there safely. Then we went into our hotel rooms, look around, put down our bags and stuff and went off. Soon after, we went to First World Plaza and the 3 of them played Q-Bowling (a miniaturized bowling game). After that, we went on to play the real bowling game.

Once the bowling game was over, we went on to walk around First World Plaza until 1:20 p.m to stop for lunch. While we were eating, Carmen said she is going to the First World stage area as they're giving away some freebies. Shortly after Kevin finished eating, he went to the First World stage area to find Carmen and returned a few minutes later with some good news - they've won some prizes which includes vouchers and freebies worth RM200!

Our first stop was Snow World and we had a fun time there messing around and playing with the snow (and it sure was freezing inside there). After that, we went to watch a Chinese comedy movie for about 2 hours. Once the movie was over, we went for Bowling (again!) but this time, it was for FREE, thanks to the free bowling tickets we got from the vouchers earlier. But before that, we met Martin, a guy who works at the Thai embassy while we were queuing up to get our cinema tickets earlier. He gave us some bowling tickets as well that he didn't really need (as he won some freebies too) and we invited him to play bowling with us.

After the bowling game, we walked around until 7:20 p.m and went for dinner at KFC. Once dinner was over, we returned to our hotel rooms to take a shower before going to the David Gates concert. We then proceeded to the Arena Of Stars to watch David Gates live in concert. The concert was simply amazing and his songs sounded almost like the ones on the SongBook album. After almost every song, he cracked some jokes and I suppose he did this mainly to take a quick break from singing.

The last two songs were the best - Everything I Own and If. At the end of Everything I Own, he played the chorus one more time and invited the whole crowd to sing together. Shortly, he said goodbye and went off...at that time, I was thinking "this can't be the end, there's still one more hit song that he hasn't played". True enough, he returned and finished the concert with "IF" which is a beautiful love song that i keep hearing over and over again for the past couple of years. Then the concert was over. The crowd wanted more but sadly, that was the end of his first and last concert here in Malaysia.

The four of us went to the Monte Carlo casino after the concert for a game or two. Me and Navin went to upgrade our WorldCard there while Carmen was busy playing a card game. The three of us (Kevin, Navin and myself) played the Slot Machines but did not win anything (in fact we lost all of our money). Carmen was the lucky one as she won some money while playing the card game.

We then went to Coffee Bean for a drink and talked about the day. As it was getting a little late, we decided to go back to our hotel rooms and call it a day.

Cool Stuff that we won today:
- 3 Tickets to "Sky Venture" (yep!)
- 4 Cinema Tickets
- A couple of bowling tickets
- Some Tickets for Snow World
- 4 Tickets to watch Fantastica (A New Age Circus)

Sunday 18th January 2004:
This is the most "action-packed" day of them all. It started off with Navin repeatedly ringing Kevin and Carmen's hotel room bell. As they were still sleeping (around 8:30 a.m), Kevin got up with a blurry face and asked us to wait for them. After almost an hour, we went to redeem the Fantastica tickets that Carmen won yesterday (Fantastica is essentially a new age circus).

We had to wait until 10 a.m for the counter to open before we could redeem the tickets. Shortly after, we went for breakfast and after that, we tried our luck at the First World stage again (but this time all four of us went together). Guess what? We won prizes again (all four of us)! Since the prizes were more or less the same ones that Kevin and Carmen won yesterday, we decided to sell them at half price for each voucher. In the end, we managed to sell almost every single voucher and made quite a lot of money and divided the "loot" among the four of us.

Then Navin felt like bowling again and we went to watch him bowl (alone). Then we went to "Sky Venture" to book our place with the 3 Tickets and paid some money for the last ticket (which was on discount thanks to the WorldCard) so that all four of us could go. We then waited until the time came and went into the Sky Venture room and met a guy called John Davenport who was here on holiday (and took some pictures of him with Kevin & Carmen too).

We had to suit up for Sky Venture and then proceeded to the briefing room where we were given a short briefing on what to do in the Wind Tunnel. As we are not supposed to speak in the Wind Tunnel (due to the loud noise), we had to use sign languages to communicate with the trainer and he taught us how to bend and straighten our legs and also how to position ourselves in the wind tunnel to control the movement.

After the briefing, we were all raring to go and I was the first one to out into the Wind Tunnel with the instructor (oh my god!). Inside the Wind Tunnel, I felt scared, excited, and a bit dizzy and all kinds of different emotions went through my mind. It was rather difficult to balance at first because after all, this is the first time we went for Sky Venture. We were given two rounds for this - the first round can be considered as an experimental round so that we can familiarize ourselves with the environment inside the tunnel. Everyone took turns to go into the Wind Tunnel with the instructor. Should we fail to balance ourselves, the instructor would grab us and tell us what to do by showing signs (as we have been briefed on this earlier).

The funniest moment was when Carmen went into the tunnel - she was screaming all the way inside the tunnel (LOL). The second round was when the instructor "flew" with us and took us all the way up, down and spun us around the wind tunnel. I felt dizzy at that point and showed "two thumbs down" to indicate that I wanted out. The instructor somehow continued and shortly after, I was out of the wind tunnel and back into the waiting line, seating next to the rest of my friends.

That was definitely the most exciting moment of my life - to be able to "fly" like a bird inside that wind tunnel. It goes without doubt that if I had the chance again, I would definitely want to experience Sky Venture again!

As the Fantastica Circus show was about to start, we quickly packed and got out of there (but not before collecting our Certificates to certify that we have flown in the winds of 195km/hour or greater at the Genting Sky Venture). It was the perfect time for us to rest after Sky Venture as we sat down and enjoyed the awesome performance of the Fantastica circus team. The performance was awesome although it was a little dragging towards the end (the show lasted around 2 hours).

We then went back to our hotel rooms and packed our stuff before proceeding to the check-out counter and left for "lunch/dinner" at Gohtong Jaya and went straight home right after our meal.

That was the best two days of my life and hope someday to return to Genting for a second outing (and for Sky Venture again!). Almost everything was given away for FREE except for our food, transportation and other miscellaneous costs. And that concludes one of the "dream come true" moments of my life.


Here are the pictures that two of my friends took while we were at Genting Highlands:

Genting 2004 Pictures

Genting 2004 Pictures (Kevin's Camera)

Happy New Year 2004!

Happy New Year! Let's hope that this year will bring smiles and happiness to everyone from all walks of life especially the sick and needy.

Speaking of which, here's a story that will surely touch your heart. It shows the true meaning of kindness and such selfless acts should be encouraged. Scroll down that page and read the story on "A Kid's Battle Against Cancer".

If only there were more like him and his support crew, the world would certainly be a better place for everyone. It's not about reward, it's not about gratitude - it's about what you can do to help others that really matters. Forget about not wanting to go into all that trouble - sometimes people just don't try hard enough when it comes to helping others out. That story is a classic example of how people can help others - even a total stranger.

As Helen Keller once quoted:
I am only one; but still i am one. I cannot do everything, but still i can do something. I will not refuse to do the something I can do

This quote tells us that no matter how small your contribution is, whether it is just a mere word of encouragement - it does count. No one can do everything, but at least try and do something to help others, ones who are in need of help.

I hope the Year 2004 will see more people like him (and his support crew) who are willing to go the extra mile just to help others in need.

Edit (January 7th 2004):
We've lost our little fighter, fruit_loops on 5th January 2004. My condolences goes out to fruit_loops` family and may his soul rest in peace. His presence and fighting spirit has touched many hearts in this world and I hope that many people would emulate what Pdx.Sierra did. Just remember - every little bit counts, even if it is a simple word of encouragement.

Random acts of kindness

It feels as though a year has passed since i last updated this blog of mine. But as i've been busy with my new semester at college, i decided to stop blogging for a while. In the recent days (and weeks), i've become (or am trying to become) a different person entirely. It is difficult to describe how this feeling just came, but i think it could not have come in a better time. I'm only 22, but i feel that there is still a lot of things for me to learn of this world, of humans in general, that of health, love, kindness and peace.

Some may say i'm overreaching here but i feel that the world as it stands now is becoming more materialistic and that even with all the advances in technology, most people tend to forget that we are humans. As humans, we can get carried away at times, tend to forget what life's true meaning really is. One cannot truly measure the success of a person by his/her wealth (in terms of money) but instead, we should measure a person by their "inner wealth" (ex: behavioural wise - acts of kindness, love, giving, etc).

This simply means that money or rather, working to become rich (and richer) isn't everything in this life. It is true that in this world (or generation), money dictates almost everything from friends and to the extent - even love (i know i might get a lot of flak for saying this but it is true). Call it greed, call it whatever you want but humans can only be humans - when they get a taste of something that they like, they usually want more. This is the same with almost anything from food to money. It is not unusual to see people getting cheated by scams and such, but the truth is that it is in our very nature as humans - in every one of us, greed appears to be part of us whether we like it or not.

While some may be able to resist "greed", others tend to fall to "greed" easier/faster than others. But let's keep this in mind that it can be controlled, we can change and make a difference. I could go on forever talking about greed but my main point is not to talk about greed but rather to talk about giving and the acts of kindness.

The kind of quality that really lacks in a person is the act of kindness (and it appears to be getting lesser and lesser as the generation goes by). Most people care nothing but themselves (and their own families and relatives). How often do you see people helping others without hesitation, with no thought of reward or even gratitude? Yes, these kind of people still exists in this world but it is growing thinner and thinner. Why are people so reluctant to help others? Are these people really that selfish or mean? These are the questions that are begging to be answered.

The answer lies in the individual themselves on whether they want to choose to perform these random acts of kindness or not. One of the reasons may be that the person doesn't see anything beneficial about helping others in need and that it may make little or no difference by helping. This is not true - if one doesn't try to help, how would they know whether it'll make a difference or not? It may be even risky to help others for the fear of getting hit back from the person whom one is trying to help and in the end feeling unappreciated. This is often the case and it is usually the reason why people just simply can't be bothered to help others.

Before i move on further - it is NOT wrong to help others and it isn't wrong NOT to help others as well. However, it is of course better to help others who are in need as long as you are capable of helping them and you just have to try your best. It is only through these random acts of kindness and selflessness (and not selfishness) within ourselves that really gives us inner peace and makes life more meaningful to us and to others as well.

In my opinion (through observation), i think that love can be considered as some form of an act of kindness. It is only through love that we can see more than just caring for ourselves and own well being - but the well being of others around us. When we love someone - especially one that you want to spend the rest of your lives with, everything that we do tend to focus on giving and it is this act of kindness that makes us truly human. However, more often than not, it is only a temporary feeling. For most of the time, once two people get married, this feeling of love tends to get "lost".

Once again, in my opinion, i think that this happens because these two people already have each other (and also their children) and that this sense of security is what makes us think that we no longer need to "work" to gain their trust or sense of security. It is quite difficult for me to describe it (or maybe i'm just not that good with words) but i'll try to give you an example: You've worked hard everyday to buy a car. After many months/years of hard work, you've finally managed to get enough money to buy the car that you want. After that, you stopped working as hard as you did before because you no longer have a goal to reach and therefore, there is no reason to work that hard anymore.

I believe that it is this kind of feeling or state of mind is what causes marriages to get broken because love and acts of kindness are things that needs to be continuously "fed". Usually, wives feel neglected and that their husbands have to work day and night to get money to support the family. While there is a need to fulfill this (the need to support your family), you need to strike a balance between work, play and so on. People can get very lonely and emotionally depressed by staying at home a lot, even though there are children to be taken care of, the sense of completeness is often missing from the minds of women who are mothers (or mothers-to-be).

Why is that so? Well I can only say that as humans, we need TLC - Tender, Love and Care and it is mostly the case that women who are not working needs the most TLC because they're often at home, with the kids, watching tv, doing chores, etc. The husband on the other hand is at work, in his own world, busy as usual. By not spending time with your family, it can somehow create an effect where your children may end up doing the same thing to their own children.

This is also why it is important to get-together with your family for outdoor activities, holidays and so on - doing so develops the bond between you and your family. So take some time out and spend more time with your family because they are your responsibility. Just remember that money isn't everything.

It is a difficult feeling to explain with mere words but until you have actually felt it (or "seen" it) by yourself, you will not know how it really feels and how it can change a person with just that feeling (the feeling that your life is nothing more than just a chore with endless amount of work to do and the feeling that life has NO meaning).

This goes to say that you should not stop performing good deeds just because you have already helped X amount of people (say 100 people). It should be a continuous process and we should help others while we can and are able to. There's no limit to how many people you can help so don't stop anywhere! Keep helping others when you can and your life will certainly be more meaningful.

I could go on and on on this subject, but if you can, please sit down for a moment and ponder what i have said. Take it openly and try to understand it as much as you can. The site where i got some of the words from is at the end of this post. Read it as it contains some points that i did not include or touch on the acts of kindness. Most of the words that you've read above were written by me through my understanding while some were taken from the website that i've mentioned earlier.

I may have missed a number of important points here and there but i hope that what i've said can bring a better understanding within yourself - the true self that lies deep within you and that life becomes more meaningful through random acts of kindness.

One other thing to remember - it is not how long you live in this world that counts but rather, how you live it that really matters.

References:
Random Acts Of Kindness