At The Risk Of Sounding Like An Old Fart...

As cliche as it may sound, time really just whooshes by. Swift and without hesitation, whether we be mindlessly strutting around with no care of the world or frantically guzzling in everything we could in the hopes that we'll beat it in its swiftness. But no, there's no contest when it comes to that one. It is scary to think that it waits for no one, pauses for nothing. It never was an issue before... at least not for me. It only became one of concern when events and life experiences gave me the realisation that our existence really can be compared to a stage play. A stage play which can either be a bore or a ball, one that leaves no impression at all or a lasting mark. Regardless of which, however colourful and abundant, dull or empty, the curtains will have to be let down. In time. When these thoughts hit, they do stir up some nerves and panic. Where has time gone? What have we done in the many years that we've lived? And how much time do we have left?

Sometimes I ask myself those questions. Although people will always nonchalantly say "no regrets," I still think that this can not be entirely true for everybody. In all honesty, which one of us can really proclaim that there is no one thing we didn't wish we haven't done or vice versa? Personally, I do like where I stand now and there are a lot of things which I am proud of having accomplished and experienced, but hell I'd be lying if I don't say that similarly there are also stuff which when I think about would make me shake my head and want to kick myself. We all have been fools at one point or another. The good thing about knowing is that there is a possibility for action... and perhaps make better use of our time each day in a way that would eventually make us feel more fulfilment and accomplishment.

I'm on a random stream of writing mode at the moment. The trigger?... oh perhaps just my usual profound and reflective self... not! I do contemplate and have a think of such matters once in a while, on how to better maximise my time and reach a goal using up the shortest possible length of time. But on to a very normal, everyday illustration of how these thoughts came about is my every day stint at work. There are endless milestones to do and one goes in refreshed and ready for battle each morning, only to find that at the end of the day there's still so much more. After gazillions of meetings, tons of discussions, and whathaveyou's, each day is like chasing up that run-away hour. Better than being idle, wouldn't you say? Sometimes I do wish I could successfully fit into the schedule some essential professional development though. In time, it will happen, but I wish the sooner the better. Sometimes I wish that the weekends would go by in slow motion, but the contrary always happens.

I suppose it is the want for a richer, more quality-filled existence that makes one want to hold on tighter. I have also now understood that the reason why a child doesn't realise the significance of time nor worry about how short life is... is because a child has seen only a small portion of what adults have seen and experienced. At the risk of sound like at old fart... when one has spent a third of his life already, then the other two-thirds would seem not too far away.

Pain Is Your Friend & Tagged!

My whole body is aching badly, but with a pain that I welcome. And no I'm not some sort of a masochist who inflict his own bodily injuries. You see, I have quite an embarrassingly low threshold for pain which are the stabbing, jabbing sort, the cramping, gnawing feeling of ulcers or dysmenorrhoea, etc. What I don't particularly mind is the soreness of muscles from an extreme sport or exercise. I guess the feeling gives one a confirmation of hard work and thus a sense of fulfilment and achievement. Anyway, that is what I am having now.

This weekend I went back to the gym, after a week of being preoccupied with other things that my routine work out has to be temporarily disrupted and halted. Normally getting back to that routine should be a piece of cake, no dramas. But that day, call it smugness, a sudden bizaare invasion of sanity, or pure foolishness for the sake of nothing at all, I put myself into a contest with a guy in the gym who was doing the same exercise as I was. He is one whom you'd describe as a "grunter," for every lift he makes there will be a corresponding "aarrrrrgggghhh" matched with a feigned pained expression that is so tempting to put a fist on. Okay okay... heavy-weight lifters do that, I will accept that they need to summon out the strength and thus the sound and twisted facial muscles are valid, natural reactions to the release of their chakra (bwahahaha! yes too much ninja watch). However... man... I tell you this guy is far from a heavy-weight nor would I call him a try-hard wannabe. All he does is grunt for all the world to hear while keeping a check on whether he is getting any attention from the girls or not. I know because he kept on glancing around. And oh sure he got my attention alright, how can't I when he is right beside me and hilariously lifting the same weight as I was! I'm not trying to be a pain in the ass nor a smart-aleck, but phuullleeeze don't make me laugh by putting that big a show for some puny weights when you're bigger than me. So to make a point, for succeeding tracks I decided to put on weights that are a tad bit more than his; and true enough he fumbled a bit when I did. Tsk tsk tsk. A said that it's mean and that I shouldn't be naughty like that. Ok, guilty as charged... but I couldn't help making fun of the situation. I reasoned out that I need to increase my threshold anyway, and seeing the guy's reaction is just, well... secondary *or the other way around.*

My punishment for being bad: weekend soreness. Hayyyayyyayyy. I'm ready to be reprimanded by those who reckon that I've caused emotional trauma to the poor dude. Geez, such exagg! Tee-hee-hee!

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Now, this is long overdue... and I'm glad I am finally able to complete it. From a tag by one of my favourite people, Char:

Three names you go by:
1. Jovs
2. Jovy
3. Joffeeffee

Three screen names you have had:
1. tulipipay
2. andromeda
3. big bad wolf

Three physical things you like about yourself:
1. shoulders
2. back
3. abs

Three physical things you don't like about yourself:
1. imperfect thighs
2. big feet
3. buffy hair when not managed well

Three things that scare you:
1. suspicious looking men in suspicious-looking cars
2. cockroaches
3. to trip and fall flat on my face - and yep that has happened... resulting in a fractured... not nose, but rib.

Three of your everyday essentials:
1. 3-step skin care regimen
2. coffee/tea
3. a hug

Three of your favorite musical artists:
1. Norah Jones
2. ABBA
3. The Corrs

Three of your favorite songs:
1. Come Away With Me
2. Don't Need The Sun To Shine (Gabrielle)
3. Anyone At All (Carole King)

Three things you want in a relationship:
1. commitment
2. honesty and faithfulness
3. laughter

Three truths in no particular order:
1. What goes around comes around
2. You are not invincible
3. Death and taxes

Three lies in no particular order:
1. "Our products are non-comedogenic and you won't react to them" as EVERY cosmetics specialist claims
2. Size XS in many clothing labels
3. Instant coffee that's as good as brewed coffee

Three physical things of the opposite sex that appeals you:
1. broad shoulders
2. lips
3. height

Three of your favorite hobbies:
1. reading
2. baking and cooking (ohmigoodness, how domesticated!)
3. shopping (be it grocery-shopping or the other type of shopping...)

Three things you want to do really badly now:
1. go kick boxing
2. move the christmas holidays earlier and make it last three times longer
3. hire a mid-size plane, make a round to pick up all my friends from around the globe, and hie off somewhere for a week-long party.

Three careers you're considering/you've considered:
1. Medicine
2. Media & Broadcasting
3. Marketing

Three places you want to go on vacation:
1. France
2. Brazil
3. Turkey

Three kids' names you like:
1. Arianne
2. Gabriel
3. Enzo

Three things you want to do before you die, from the top of my head...
1. To have my own horse... and maybe some sheep... =)
2. To design and build our own dream house
3. To have travelled most parts of the world

Three ways that you're stereotypically a boy:
1. Can change a flat tire without any qualms
2. Gets a Pass in Home Economics sewing, gets an Excellent in Circuits.
3. Can be a real sloth and watch animation the whole day

Three ways that you're stereotypically a girl:
1. Likes shoes & can run with stilettos
2. Not afraid of eyelash curlers and hair dryers
3. Epilators and wax are good friends

Three celeb crushes:
1. Richard Gere
2. Brendan Fraser in his younger years
3. Jacky Cheung (hahahahaha, childhoold crush!)

Three people I'm tagging:
1. Arls
2. Bugsy
3. Gigi

Weekend Afternoon Delight

When my siblings and I were younger, we did not ask for toys as much as kids would normally do. My older brother would be happy and content with his little plastic toy soldiers which he would play with by himself, strategically positioning them on the bed setting up a "battle field," with blankets and pillows as his make-shift terrain and mountains. At that time I thought he was extremely silly mimicking sounds of explosion and gun fire, creating his very own war zone simulation. Apart from that sort of play, I hardly remember anything else. And oh, we'd also collect the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from fastfood value meals. As for myself, I've had one Barbie, my clearest recollection of which is its head being accidentally pulled off by my brother (now that I think of it, was it really accidental?). I must also admit that I had quite a number of stuffed toys - but mostly gifts from grandparents, aunts, and other relatives.

There were not many memories of playing with toys or buying toys or wanting any particular toy. And when I reminisce about fond memories of my childhood, image of playtime does not surface. I never consider this as any form of deprivation or missing out, for we had an absolutely enjoyable and fun-filled childhood. My parents made sure that things that we acquire or activities that we dwell in would eventually contribute to our learning and development. Anyway, what I have a lot of clear memories of are evening scrabble and boggle sessions with my mom and my older brother. I was so addicted to these two games; my mom has set these sessions to be interesting and playful instead of presenting them as a mode of study. Another reason that I can think of, now in hindsight, is perhaps because I was competitive with my brother and word games are one of the few things that I mostly always come out as a winner of. Our bookshelves and cupboards were abundant with board games that we love, including cluedo, monopoly, hangman, guess who, pictionary, among others.

That probably explains why up to now I am still a big fan of board games. Some of them can be enjoyed by even just two people, while others are better played when there is a bigger group. My collection have grown since, added onto the list, although non-exhaustive, are guesstures (a game of charades), cranium (combo of charades, art & drawing, fact trivia, and vocabulary & words), risk (a war game heavily based on strategy, attacks and counterattacks), betrayal at house on the hill (adventure game). These days, scrabble is still around the top of my roster of favourite board games. In fact, I'd call it one of my weekend afternoon delights. On lazy weekend afternoons, over steaming latte or capuccino, A and I would challenge each other to a game. The beauty of scrabble is that it's a game that tests not only the players' vocabulary, the knowledge of the existing 2-letter words (yes, this is quite important when having to connect to other letters), but also the level of one's game plan, the ability to formulate a strategy. We'd like to see it as a friendly game, and yes it always is... but no mercy. Ha ha! I must say that it is all the more interesting when playing with people who are genuinely interested and who do their best to come up with a good word, who actually strategise and plan out on how to kick the opponent's arse. Only in this scenario can a player feel the challenge, thus contributing to a good game. I find too that during these games, long-buried words that I haven't used or encountered for eons of years suddenly resurface... and there's a feeling of gladness and delight! Bizaare, isn't it?

In one of our games, I took the liberty of taking a shot of the game's conclusion. And yes, everything you see there are real words, they exist and have meaning, not some random word that we imagined and made up.... hmmmm.... sometimes A wouldn't believe me though, sames goes here... a bunch of sceptics. *wink*

See, mom really knows best. She's introduced something that will forever be ingrained in us. Time for another play!

Hop On Board

The year's changes and milestones aren't few. From the completion of my postgraduate degrees, marking another tick on personal goals achieved (and yes, the culmination of a 2.5 year study that is long enough I would say)... to receiving my residency status, largely determining where I will veer the next stage of my life to and a basis of many major decisions that I have made and yet to make... and now the start of a new career, which in most cases has always an initial mix of excitement and anxiety.

I'd like to think that the choices I have made over the past few years are good ones, and ones that would ultimately lead me to a better position - in my career, relationships, and life in general. The paths that I have chosen to take were not always the easiest ones, but I guess the humps and bumps are part of the adventure in the journey. Sometimes one rejoices, sometimes one laments, but in all times one has to face questions in need of answering. I remember one of the major troughs I've put myself in a couple of months ago was dwelling in agony and indecision over staying here or going back. To others, it seems that it would be a complete waste if I let the opportunity pass... but to me I have gained what I came here to gain already and that's a wealth of experiences, friendships, realisation, broadening of horizons... and if I decided to leave all these behind there would be no loss at all. Where I would be going next (or back), surely would be packed with as much colour. Anyway, I stayed - for more reasons than I care to reveal... ha ha! So far, there are no regrets, only a fervent hope of continuous blessings and happiness, courage to face all that needs facing, and the ability and grace to conquer mountains.

Today I've hopped on board a new group. Things are looking very promising. I would say that fate has been quite good to me. It's up to me now to drive myself to a better and better plane. For the moment, a steady flow would be great although further changes and new milestones are not unwelcome either.