change..

change is what was asked for.. and change is what I got.

another new year soon, I'm betting it'll be a full steam ride ahead..

that's great.. starting the new year with a positive outlook always is.

I'll be back, when I'm ready to, for a reflection of the year '13 perhaps...

for now, Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!! 

pastimes..

When reading..,

engrossed after some few pages after each interval,

we automatically try to picture what we read..

illustrate the words.

and very often that is how we get transported away...

lovely indeed.

a new chair..

this is random, .. but i've bought a new chair. 

the rattan type, in armchair style.. 

i had it placed in my own room, in front of my study. purely because it had caused quite a stir earlier in the living room, when i'd brought it back intended as a new member to the rest of the pieces in that room. 

clearly, it had no room for it. either the single-seater sofa had to be disposed of, or the red plastic one would have to go. 

i had wanted neither to go. i had wanted no disruption to that room. i had wanted flatly, no argument from either of my folks on which would be the best to go. i simply had not anticipated the commotion this new chair would bring. 

so now i'm on it, as i sit facing my spacious working table. 

this is what's bringing on this post.. the root of this sorta-revelation. 

you see, spacious might not be the best word to use to describe my table. size wise, it is more than enough really. but the number of stuffs i cram onto it, i'm barely left with a rectangle of a space slightly wider than my laptop to work with. spacious, it is not. 

so as i sit here and take in the number of stuffs on my table, arms on the armrest and head against the headrest, that thing about this new chair comes back into mind. 

there is a globe on my table, it comes with a light switch but is unplugged. 

there is a calendar on my table, a hello kitty mcdonald's doll, an old charity run rubber duckie, one large stationery and pens holder, a few storage tins and cans in various shapes and sizes, two old 'plate-portraits' bought from previous Thailand trips, a handful of Coke cans and bottles courtesy of friends and colleagues who'd traveled abroad, old rolls of gift wraps, stacks of old bills and statements, an old ipod, decks of unused playing cards, about two dozens of old CDs, and books.. some read, some not. yes, it feels kinda exposed revealing this mess on my table here.. 

i'd frequently watched some reality-type programs on tv, of some freaky people who had their houses filled with stuffs, leaving only a trail from their door to their rooms. 

i'd also now and then, reminded myself to not be a hogger of stuffs. 

looking at what's in front of me now, am i a hogger myself? or was it plain inaction that i had find it so okay then, to keep all these stuffs lying on my table, thinking that bill is too recent to dump, that roll of gift wrap could be handy in times of last minute gift giving, that those few cans of Coke look too cute with all their fancy designs, and those storage tins.. beats me what's inside each of them now... 

so enough about what's on my table. though it's for sure there'll be about 80% of stuffs to be gone soon. 

in retrospect, the new chair, the stuffs on my table, it's all just a metaphor i guess, to this thing called life. 

a new chair in would mean an old chair out. 

accumulated stuffs on a table would mean reducing of working space to the size of a laptop. 

without something new, everything would remain something old. 

accumulated stuffs, whatever they may be in our case, if left unchecked, could bog us down. 

i know somewhat, that inaction breeds inaction. 

but how would you deduce it? it's your life after all. 

another itch scratched...

O-what-a-chore..

it's always quite a chore going to bed on Sunday nights...

I guess this will never change.. or will it?

all the good ones..

one of life's many simple pleasures:

the revelation after discovering by chance the original version of a song,

when all the while you've only been listening to the acoustic one, thinking that's the only one. 

(p/s: it gets better when both versions are just as good) =D

lip-biting..

refusing to go to bed..

In fact I'm right here on the bed already .. 

So I guess it's more apt to say refusing to sleep..

But truth is there's nothin so bad about sleep, no, no problem with that at all..

Then I guess the right word should be refusing to retire for the night ..

Or is it day? It happens to be also, another new day now .. hmm..

so rationally, what's stopping me from just going to sleep? What's with all these refusals?

a. The cords are stuck to the ears, playlist on repeat?

b. The denial of another Monday at work? or

c. As with all Sundays, the brain capacity is dramatically increased with all manner of thoughts & possibilities ... 

d. the World Wide Web is full of splendor .. and I feel I have this, time & the curiosity, to simply click & explore, and click & explore...

or rather, at this hour, I am just not being rational.

had just needed to rant, better get going now, to sleep.

Thursday ..

What makes an otherwise normal daily routine early morning drive to work seems longer than usual?

(strictly no traffic congestion involved, as it is after all, the school holidays..)

a) your mind's messed up due to lack of sleep.. Or

b) your mind's messed up due to the myriad of 'stuffs' floating in your head..

c) your mind's messed up, or otherwise quickened, a result from the recent turn of events...

or simply, your mind's just messed up.. first thing in the morning...

:}

of relationships...

I've read today.. of the many different views there is on relations in these times..

a short clip of the story worthy of note, of after the falling out... :

"Divorce is worse, I think, than bereavement. If he had died, I would have a memory and honor it. But he was only dead to me: he was absolutely alive to someone else."

:]

jazz on the beach..

This is great.

How many can actually argue that lying on a beach, a secluded beach, with deck chairs covered in blue beach towels and maximum privacy, almost akin to having your own private lil' bay.. is not something to look forward to?

no noisy kids

no pestering peddlers

not even meddling beach boys .. oh, they did however, came by to help with the towels.. and with a bucket of ice cold bottled water in tow

perhaps it's due to the rates, I don't know

or perhaps it's due to it being a non-peak weekday .. 

it being relatively quiet and crowd-free here is really something much appreciated & enjoyed

i guess in short, there really is nothing not to love here.

well, while i am being cut out of any Internet connection here, 

guess it's perfect time to just connect with the ocean then.

oh, with some lazy jazz tunes in the cords of course ... ❤

@Emerald Bay, Pangkor Laut Resort.

5.5.13

waking up to a new fed govt.
I wonder what it'll be like.

It has never happened before at least not in my lifetime here..
I seriously cannot fathom how things will be from here on.

Perhaps we won't notice it much at all..
Likewise how I'd never found much difference in the opposition-ruling state of my workplace for the past 5 years.

Change is inevitable I guess.
Change is never comfortable.
The unknown especially, always makes things that little bit harder to gauge.

Perhaps i can agree that it is never really that healthy that change is absent for so long (some say too long)
But then again, I still feel it is not too apt to label what we are having currently, as a "brutal regime" ...(something I saw off the pages of some FB friends of friends').
It is in fact kinda shocking to myself that, in a short span of mere weeks .. People have turned to be so opinionated and vocal in their views of our country's politics ... they begin to claim what they are doing today are for the future of the next generations.

Not really trying to belittle their efforts, claims, and aspirations
Just that I can't help but think that the fierce and furious rounds on social networks contributed no less to ignite these sudden purposeful agendas.

so the wave of change is here, and there is no stopping it.
a wave built up from a distance, fueled along the way by so many different elements.

and the aftermath?
it could go either way,
we will all get to see it..

just sayin...

I do realize that it's not so appropriate to 'see' a person as who they 'are' based merely on what they post slash share on social networks...

basically, we should never judge a book by its cover right? uhm, right??

a friend who shared about the nation's current upcoming election campaigns... no, not judging which side of the fence they're on.. (although it seemed pretty obvious to even need to guess)

a friend who shared about the 'best' version of the current 'gwiyomi' craze.. to even think that this friend had browsed through all versions available on the www. well of course, most features cute doll like pyts... no wonder

a friend who shared about latest news of nations threatening (again) to launch their nuke missiles.. hmm, having their say on world issues perhaps? ..

anyhow... I once read somewhere that most social network sites users don't realize that what they choose to post slash share online somehow manages to expose themselves to trackers that find it somewhat useful to help them label slash categorize us, the users.

perhaps there's some truth to it somewhere ..
that we are what we eat,
and we are what we post slash share?

I'd better lay low these coming few days.
I mean, I wouldn't be able to stand any longer than that myself... =P

and this post? just sayin. . .

baffling...

time flies when you least expect it to..
time tortures when you most count on it not to.

either way, or maybe neither to you,
time still takes its path faithfully, .. and eventually, time comes and goes, time still passes, regardless of what you think, did, or did not do.

stop in your track. stop and keep track.

for granted. no, not me.

simply lurrrve the Internet .. and Google, even more ;)
what's that? ahh yes, Seek .. and you will Find.

how do we ever live without again???
atrocious ... ! !

meteorific!!

well darn it, as if quakes and tsunamis aren't enough for us earthlings to ponder upon, we'll be hearing more of other dastardly natural disasters like meteor crashes from now on!

seriously?? like seriously? amidst our own merry making here in these past few days of the chinese lunar new year, we've actually had (speaking 'we' in terms of us as a universal race of humans) an asteroid crashing into our atmosphere!! shot through the layers above us and across somewhere Russia, letting of some debris all over part of Russia, crashing windows with its SONIC WAVE (gulp!) and a tiny bit reportedly even landing in one of its frozen lakes there. like wow. these are stuffs of hollywood endeavours and flicks like transformers and armageddon even come to mind!!! =.="

but seriously. now we're talking sonic waves even. what happened to plain old nuclear radiation?
this is some important bit of history worthy of being taken noted of, so here goes, quoting reports from the CNN app:
* "4,000 buildings, mostly apartment blocks, were damaged and 200,000 square kilometers of glass were broken"
* witnesses reported of "a blinding flash lasting several seconds, which made him want to shut his eyes. the light shone "like 10 suns" .. "no exaggeration""
* "the meteor was a once-in-a-century event, NASA officials said, describing it as a "tiny asteroid" (O.o)
* "estimated amount of energy released in the meteor's explosion at nearly 500 kilotons. by comparison, the nuclear bomb the US dropped on Hiroshima in 1945 released an estimated 15 kilotons of energy" (O.o)
* "the whole event, from the meteor's atmospheric entry to its disintegration in the air above central Russia, took 32.5 seconds".


overwhelmed, that's what i am. this is crazy stuff.
and if that was not enough to make me sit up, stare and blink my eyes a few times, here's another bit of news also on meteors:

* "in what astronomers said was an unrelated coincidence, a larger asteroid, called 2012 DA14, passes relatively close to Earth around 2:24 p.m. ET Friday."
* quoting from an article by 'The Voice of Russia': "Asteroid 2012 DA14 safely passes over Earth, 17,500 miles (27,700km) above Indonesia."

Indonesia? O.o
this 'larger' asteroid was quoted as "as large as an Olympic swimming pool" - and "at a distance of just 27,700km - the closest ever predicted for an object of that size."


oh my ... it could've been easily, Just.Like.That.
in not more than even a mere minute . . .
O.o

better have a great year ahead, folks!



another itch scratched...

"hoi kung lorrr!!!"

the CNY mood is soon coming to an end..
or rather, an adjournment .. until the next year, again.
:)

Denial...

Refusal to let the night go...
As always, the post-CNY holiday blues... ><

Will there be more soon?
(I'll see to that the best I can!!)


Gong xi gong xi!!!

The cny ...

Nothing beats this really ...
Let me count the ways that make this period so this period
Of cny being so cny...

Mad rush for hometowns, as do mad rush weeks prior to acquiring new clothes, new household items, new everything...
The ritualistic need of shopping for drinks.. Packets and cans, beers, at volumes deemed unnecessary bordering on ridiculous on any other days of the year..
Hot afternoons ... Where the living room ceiling fans would be turned off to facilitate prayer sessions and the fuming joss sticks as they burn the room choky and eyes quivering ...
The tv ... How all programs would be automatically attuned with Hong Kong styled award shows, annual celebration shows (from years past) .. How each show would be peppered before, after and in between with the local team of artistes belting out this year's themed cny songs.. Of a bunch of nearly there and barely there artistes rocking and swaying to cheesy choreographs ...
The season is amply pumped up too with the must-do rituals of small time gambling among friends and colleagues. and as the majority of us go into slacking mode and just enjoy the feasts and serenity of the new year, we get bombarded by enterprising fengshui masters that go the extra length at this period, promoting themselves as with their videos, all complete 12 of it offering good advice to people from all walks of the Chinese zodiacs on their brand new year's do's and dont's.
As the actual day draws near, it is almost ritualistic that we cross our fingers for an early day-off, and go around asking our acquaintances when do they "start work", as in, returning to work after the holidays end. Well, specifically, to the Chinese celebrating the spring festival, this is the lunar new year, a new beginning not unlike that which we just had on the first day of the Gregorian calendar ... So what? A second chance at redeeming ourselves with a late start to our "new year resolutions"???...
Ahem.... Perhaps but then again, this is more apt a period of rejoicing for our abundance and achievements from the past one year....
And more practically for this rooster tapping out this post, the annually longed for "break of the year". It does make me wondrous how the cny brings about effects in me that had me feeling more like a grown up more and more so as the cny looms and passes ...

Gong Heii Fatt Choi..!! ;)

eclectic ... not

ec·lec·tic  

/iˈklektik/

 Adjective:

Deriving ideas, style, or taste from a broad and diverse range of sources.

and so it goes like this:
after another busy day at work..
i'm finding time to actually fire up the laptop at home and scroll conventionally down my facebook news feed.

after skimming through the day's posts and shares ..
after liking and congratulating on friends' vacation shots, newborn shots, and birthday shots ..
i come to notice, always, slowly but most definitely, as the pieces fall into place, an obvious trend on what the hottest piece of news-of-the-day is.

i'd most rather just stop at some silly and sometimes entertaining news and vids.
perhaps some pretty shots of celebrities to ogle at..
perhaps some groundbreaking discovery of new talents and breakout performances.
this is after all, a weary weekday night.

somehow, unfortunate (to me) as it may seem ..
the news feed page is turning into some haven for rumor mongering.
the perfect grapevine .. fast and convenient .. to get right to the scoop of the day.
snippets of articles, links to videos, and sometimes, links to rampantly self-made videos that dont tell the whole story.

facebook should, at best, be kept as a place where we go for light entertainment values.
see the happy faces of your friends, (yes we will take it that happy faces truly mean happy innards).
see the promotional efforts of your favorited artistes, (see how enterprising they are, see how they open and share their private lives with scores of idol-mad fans).
see the hungry playmaker make 'news' of the days ... yes, see.
trends are easy enough to spot.
interpretations, meanwhile, are really up to ourselves to make.

well, to give credit to facebook still, ..
see also, sponsored posts of zero-fares and 25%-offs by the equally hungry conglomerates ..
life: you win some, you lose some.





another itch scratched...