Words

I still can't believe how powerful words can be. And I mean positive ones.

That's Why

Sometimes I feel the urge to ask. But I know I will get nothing, so no point.

几首简单的歌写出复杂的爱情

当痴心绝对带来了背叛，这童话突然变成个独角戏。

你不是真正的快乐，你的笑只是你穿的保护色。

简单爱？有没有人告诉你，香水有毒。

淘汰那爱情转移了的无赖吧。

说来也可笑，这些话其实我不配说，因为我也是...裙下之臣。

Half A Decade

Chinese New Year. Valentine’s Day. My birthday.

These are 3 significant events happening to me in the space of 3 days. Ironically, this wedded man will be spending these days alone as the wife is back with her family for CNY. And because it’s CNY period, there’s probably no way to rent a lover for V-day.

Ok seriously, I have almost left out something else to remember – my work life (or the lack of life)! It’s been 5 years… and 13 days and counting. Of course, working life is nothing worth to remember but it’s not a date that’s easy to forget – 1 Feb, 2005. As to why it was a memorable start for me was because February is a short month coupled with the CNY holidays. About 16 working days or so in that month.

I started as an electrical engineer at a SME doing mobile phones design. It’s a long story on how I managed to get the job.

It started like this. A secondary school classmate who was working as a teacher in a student care centre badly needed caretaker teachers to tide over the shortage of teachers during the year end period of 2004 when many incumbents take leave.

As I was still looking for a job for already 4 months after graduation then, she called me and asked if I was interested to earn some allowances in the meantime. A job that may earn just a measly $6 an hour but it was hard to reject the offer as I could read papers and play football with kids.



Every evening, parents will arrive to fetch their children. One particular parent noticed a new face in me and asked her kid about the new ‘teacher’. I presume it was natural asking as male student care teachers are rather rare. It so happened that this parent was working as a manager in a mobile design company looking for engineers.

Not long after I sent my resume to this manager, I was called up for an interview which was rather forgettable. Being my first ever interview (read; interrogation), I felt nervy and fumbled on many questions. The only redeeming answer was that I could literally spell out the company’s background and functions like a wizard when asked.

About 2 weeks later, I got a surprise call that I was given this job offer. And the rest is history.

I have worked for more than half a decade, neither a long nor a short period of time. I wonder how much longer I need to go. I want to stop working and enjoy life. Like now.

Mary Was Late, Guess It Was Fate

Mary and Max the movie somehow pointed many similarities in my life. For one, I had a penpal and still kept in contact for over 10 years. All this while, we exchanged countless postcards, small gifts and even chocolates like what happened in the movie. One other minor similarity was the fact we kind of lost touch for quite a period of time.

Other than that, the story itself relates very much to my life or maybe to many others too. Sometimes messy. Sometimes heartwarming perhaps? Sometimes heavily depressed. Till feeling like taking our own lives. Or just having plain crazy thoughts.

Messy – it doesn’t matter how well off or happy I can be, but there are things I do feel I did drastically wrong in the past. Well, who doesn’t?. All these that add together feels like one big mess. But I always tell myself - no regrets and carry on with life.

Heartwarming – there are many things to describe this feeling. However, I feel that nothing can be more heartwarming than being appreciated by somebody else whom you equally appreciate. Letter correspondence itself is a very heartwarming thing. Getting a pen pal’s letter at the end of a hard day’s work feels as nice as (if not better than) taking coffee at the start of the day.

Depression – perhaps guys and girls have their fair share of depression bouts sometime in their lifetime. I do, even had suicidal thoughts before, even recently. There are times when life seems no meaning to carry on. So why live on?

Fanatical thinking – this can mean many things to me. Like being lame, having strange or even dirty thoughts etc. I guess everyone goes through this same phase as well. Those weird people out there just stay in this phase forever. A stuck cupid is called stupid. Confuzzled? Ok, I'm still weird.

Nevertheless, the movie was somewhat a fresh breath from conventional movies nowadays which mostly do not have much storyline to relate. What’s more, a claymation with heavy adult themes can be quite rare. I never expected Mary to meet Max, but even less expected, was the ending. Bittersweet?

Almost

There are usually 2 distinctive routes I take whenever I walk back towards home from my neighbourhood shopping centre. Let’s call them Route A and Route B.

80%, or maybe 90% of the time, I would take Route A.

Today, as I was walking back home on Route B, an MPV doing a right turn slammed into another MPV going straight, at one of the traffic junctions on the side of Route A. The MPV, which was supposedly at fault, lost control and ran amok into the pedestrian walkway.

If I had taken the Route A and walked just a minute faster, I would have not been able to live to say this. Do one actually possess premonition in the sub-conscious mind?

I'll Get Over It

Now, sometimes when something is so much coveted, it is hard not to think about it.



I know it will be a heavy price to pay to pursue it.



Candidly, it heavily captured my heart but like all other things, it's not difficult to live without it eventually.



Oh, that’s why I should let time to drain away this fad.



Lead a proper thinking and not be a puppet.



Even then, it was a good try hypnotizing me, iPhone.



Please, don't tempt me again.

This Dog Taught Me A Lesson

This movie brought back much nostalgia when its original Japanese version was aired more than 20 years ago on television. Being only about 7 or 8 years old then, I already clean forgotten its title but its story left such a deep impression that it will never be erased from my memory.

The story goes like this...

[Extracted from Wiki]

In 1924, Hachikō was brought to Tokyo by his owner, Hidesaburō Ueno, a professor in the agriculture department at the University of Tokyo. During his owner's life Hachikō saw him off from the front door and greeted him at the end of the day at the nearby Shibuya Station. The pair continued their daily routine until May 1925, when Professor Ueno did not return on the usual train one evening. The professor had suffered a stroke at the university that day. He died and never returned to the train station where his friend was waiting.

Hachikō was given away after his master's death, but he routinely escaped, showing up again and again at his old home. Eventually, Hachikō apparently realized that Professor Ueno no longer lived at the house. So he went to look for his master at the train station where he had accompanied him so many times before. Each day, Hachikō waited for Professor Ueno to return. And each day he did not see his friend among the commuters at the station.

The permanent fixture at the train station that was Hachikō attracted the attention of other commuters. Many of the people who frequented the Shibuya train station had seen Hachikō and Professor Ueno together each day. They brought Hachikō treats and food to nourish him during his wait.

This continued for 10 years, with Hachikō appearing only in the evening time, precisely when the train was due at the station.

The amazing fact is that it is a true story which became Japan’s national symbol of loyalty and was taught in schools as part of moral education. Which I think is very apt, even if it is a fictional story. I mean, even a dog can be this faithful, why not a human being?

Back to the American remake, there’s a feeling it is not as touching as the original recipe. There’s a reason why this is only a DVD release in US (another remake example I can think of: My Sassy Girl) and we all know the story happened in Tokyo, not Tennessee. Yet, still have a strong urge to watch it. After all, Hachikō the dog taught me to be loyal, which I always try to.

You Are This If It's All Work No Play

人=吃饭+睡觉+上班+玩,
猪=吃饭+ 睡觉,
代入:人=猪+上班+玩,
即:人-玩=猪+上班.
结论:不懂玩的人=会上班的猪

Being Race-ist

With the F1 fever still yet to subside, the world’s 1st night event has never fail to be part of lunchtime chatter. As usual, I came up the lame stuff to spice up a boring afternoon.

(It’s only because the F1 was held in Singapore that I realized the drivers’ controls look like an Xbox controller but only larger and much rectangular-ish-looking – no steering wheel, no gear levers)

Before the race -

(Me pretending to be stupid): So the drivers can press “Up, Down, Left, Right, A, B, A, B, Select, Start” for cheats?

After the race –

Ah, so Alonso did really pressed Up, Down, Left, Right, A, B, A, B, Select, Start”! Safety car, safety car!!

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You know the Shell stations put up these banners saying “Gives the fuel that powers Ferrari”. Now after what happened, the Shell guys should think of adding a banner “We have nothing to do with the accidents”.

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Just imagine this scenario…

Boy (to Dad): Daddy, I want to get this Ferrari F1 car!

Dad: Okay, Daddy buy for you, ok?

Boy (on closer inspection): No, wait! Where is the hose attached to it? Not complete! I dowan!

Team Sorerari

I used to adore Ferrari cars until how it turned all sour after the Singapore Grand Prix. No, it’s not how they lost in the most spectacular (or rather unspectacular) fashion but how they whined about “lack of overtaking opportunities” and deployment of safety cars.

Firstly, didn’t you (Ferrari) guys have the starting advantage (Pole and 3rd)? If it is really difficult to overtake, then you should be able to claim the sitter. Alas, a crash and a fuel hose incident killed off any winning chances and you can only blame your skills and the element of luck. Why put the blame on a street circuit? Sore losers.



They deserved to end up being a dragon dance team for the event.
(Picture courtesy of oneshift.com)