Last Friday was the end of the Week 7 of my Industrial attachment which is going to last me 24 weeks. I guess I am reaching the 1/3 mark of my attachment soon.

Life on attachment makes you feel lazy I think. It’s like you feel you are working, and some days you just go home feeling drained out because you had a long day. When you do, you just feel like unwinding by watching videos or doing things you like to do. That does not help when you have to do project research for school.

But attachment isn’t really working because you don’t get to do the actual work you do when you’re an employee. You don’t experience the full spectrum of events. At least that is what it is for me, which is why I am a little bored when I realize that I’m back in office tomorrow, and usually there’s huge gaps of time in between the work given to me, so much so that I have to spend the time away.

Thankfully I leave early tomorrow due to my lesson back at NUS at 6pm. So I probably leave at 4.30pm. But the rest of the days would be till 6pm. I hope there’s plenty of paper work to do. Else I’ll probably try to do my project research in school.

The last time I had a full week in office was in my second week. I really hope that I can go and attend the course the other intern is attending. It starts on 4th, so if I am allowed to go, then I would be able to spend some time learning new stuff. It’ll be more exciting.

Anyway recently the weather has been unbearable. It is too warm and humid in my opinion. I sweat all the time. When I get back to office tomorrow, its going to be cold all the time because the air con is free there. Haha. I guess I would prefer cold since I got my jacket.

And I’m still surviving for my projects, just feeling quite unmotivated. Good luck to those taking mid terms!

I wrote a post on “My ideal girlfriend” last year in April and it was funny how it looked. Over the year, some things changed, so here’s a new list to brighten your day, whoever you are reading this. It’s just for fun:

一：华人，日本人，或不暴力的韩国人
二：可以比我高。我不在乎那些无聊人的看法。谁说男人一定要高？但是，也别差太远吧。
三：要有自己的生活圈子
四：不要太粘。但适当的时候粘一点也挺可爱的。
五：要有自己的工作。薪水不重要。工作的目的是有东西做。
六：喜欢看戏，电视剧。英语，华语，日语都可以。有时候不需要说太多话。就在沙发上抱住，也是一种乐趣。
七：会尊重别人。
八：偶尔要主动。
九：不可以太胖。但比我胖一点的话，我是不在意的。
十：一个很爱我的人，而我也很爱她。
十一：喜欢吃完饭，在外面走走。
十二：喜欢出国旅行。
十三：喜欢日本。
十四：一个有理想，有梦想的人。
十五：读书不需要很好，会处处体谅更重要。
十六：我要看的顺眼。哈哈。
十七：可以比我老，不要差太多就可以了。

Ok. Can’t think of any. But I removed some criterias, which were a little stupid to begin with. Anyway its all for fun. Most of the time never follow criterias one. But maybe that’s why not successful. Haha.

This book is written by Brian Tracy, a man whom I only know after watching numerous videos about him in the Advisors Alliance Internship Program that I attended in 2008. He’s a great motivational speaker, and makes much sense. He is also good at the art of selling, be it in insurance or real estate or anything that requires one to sell to another.

In this small little book that anyone can finish in about an hour or a little above the hour, he highlights 21 attributes or things for one person to start achieving the success he desires. Although this book is titled as though it is to become rich, but it actually teaches you principles of success, which would eventually lead to you being successful and perhaps being rich.

I just want to share and summarize the 21 success secrets, as well as give some input.

1) Dream big dreams
It’s something like begin with a vision in mind. With dreams, you explore every possibility and you can visualize the goal and the ending you want in mind. The question Brian Tracy asks us is “What is the one thing would you dare to dream if you knew you could not fail?” One must think that once can achieve his dreams before he will achieve it.

2) Develop a clear sense of direction
One thing mentioned was that successful people think about their goals most of the time. They think about it when they are on the mrt; they think about it whilst bathing and so on. They form concepts and ideas. The few steps involved in developing a clear sense of direction are:
-Deciding what we want exactly
-Writing down the goals
-Setting deadlines
-Making a list of everything you can think of to achieve your goal
-Organizing lists into plan of action
-Take action immediately

3) See yourself as self-employed
By doing this, you take responsibility of your life. You do not blame anyone else for your circumstance but yourself. You recognize that you are the one responsible for your own life and you can do anything to change it. Instead of waiting for things to happen, the self-employed person in you will make things happen.

4) Do what you love to do
This is about having a continuous stream of energy and excitement when you do what you love to do, and it also helps in allowing you to keep thinking of your goals and thinking about how to achieve it. What you love to do is usually where your natural strengths and abilities are to do the job and achieve the results desired.

5) Commit to excellence
Aim to be the best in whatever you do. Become extremely competent in your field. Everyone at the top 10% started being in the bottom 10%.

6) Work longer and harder
Well I guess this doesn’t seem appealing, but I guess before you eventually succeed and take some rest, one has to put in more effort than his peers to be one step ahead of them?

7) Dedicate yourself to lifelong learning
This is about developing your mind like how you’ll train for muscles. Working on it mentally instead of physically. One of the steps is to read more. Don’t read fiction I guess, read the non fiction books that teach you things that can help you in your goal. For me I’m reading investment books to get more knowledge of stocks. The alternative is to listen to the audio on the way to work, be in on the mrt or bus or in your car. But I guess you have to have the audio book in the first place. A good place to see is the library, and rip the files into mp3 if you want to use your mp3 player.

Pay yourself first
This is more about money. This theory has been talked about for a very long time, and it is about spending based on a budget you set, since the money you pay yourself is already untouchable. Then you’ll save more and become richer.

10) Learn every detail of your business
This is about becoming an expert in your chosen field so you can do your work better.

10) Dedicate yourself to serving others
If you have a business, ask how can you serve customers what they need? What do they really want?

11) Be absolutely honest with yourself and others
This is a lesson on integrity. Never compromise your integrity because all businesses are based on trust.

12) Determine your highest priorities and concentrate on them single-mindedly
Do I need to say more? It is the path to success when you put in effort and not have anything else distracting you.

13) Develop a reputation for speed and dependability

14) Be prepared to climb from peak to peak
Develop a long time perspective and plan many years into the future. Ignore the daily fluctuations of life. Have an uptrend over the many years. (Sounds like the stock market)

15) Practice self-discipline in all things
I guess I need not explain

16) Unlock your inborn creativity
Come up with something newer, better, faster, cheaper or easier to accomplish a result.

17) Get around the right people
The people you hang out with influences you. Someone will help you or hinder you, and that someone will be near you to influence you. If people around you are highly energetic people who take positive action, chances are you’ll be a little like that too.

18) Take excellent care of your physical health
Nothing much to say, but you can definitely have both health and success.

19) Be decisive and action oriented
Keep trying and eventually you will find the right way.

20) Never allow failure to be an option
Keep going forward and even if you fail, you continue until you get the success that you want.

21) Pass the “Persistence Test”
I guess this is to keep going on even if its tough and continue. Never give up.

These are the 21 success secrets that are not so secret after all. It is easy to say, but hard to follow.

It’s a very busy weekend for me. I had less “personal” time for myself, even though it was a great busy weekend. It was worth being busy for, but I would have liked a little more rest. But there was no room to postpone because yesterday it was a gathering, and today, well, there are reasons to be explained.

I met Joanne today in the afternoon. I wanted to have dinner with her before she flew to Taiwan last year, but she flew before I had the time to, so I asked her to go out for a meal when she came back. I was too busy with work and it dragged on. She’s flying back to Taiwan on Wednesday, so I had to meet her today, else I wouldn’t see her for another semester’s worth of time.

We went to “TGIF – Thank Goodness Its Friday”. Or is it Thank GOD? Not sure. It’s at Heeren, the “ghost town” now that 313 and OC popped into the picture. Frankly speaking I don’t think the food is that good. I tried the Jack Daniel’s steak, and I was hesitant at first because of the price. $39.90 before any service charge or taxes. But the photo looks amazing and I ordered it.

But in reality it was just a normal piece of beef. Nothing fantastic. A little too dry and hard for my liking even at medium. Nothing like the photo. It was disappointing. Just adding some more money would have allowed me to eat Kobe beef if I was in Japan. And boy is that beef fantastic.

Other than the food review, the main point was to catch up like old friends since I haven’t seen her since 22/2/2009 on her birthday, I think. iirc. Which means today is the 355th day I haven’t seen her. Ah well. Anyway I met her and it was a nice time talking. Taiwan university is really different? They have classes from 8am to 7pm and their timetable is like scheduled like how our secondary schools are. And they have PE!

And ya you pay 20 bucks in Taiwan for unlimited data plan. We pay 10 dollars more on top of our normal plans to get 12GB worth of data? And you do not incur extra charges when you are overseas, so she was happily “online” in Singapore. So Singapore has a long way to go!

After lunch I went home and then to my aunty’s house for yu sheng and dinner with my relatives. My cousin brought her boyfriend along. It was the first time I saw him and he’s really nice. Kind of like a role model since nobody brought their other halves over for me to gain any experience by looking at them. Haha.

So its a busy day but it is quite important to attend these gatherings. I just wish I had more time to do other things.

I just came back from my Primary School class CNY gathering @ Mdm Foo’s. It’s a night of some firsts. First time I drive to Mdm Foo’s, so I have a car to drive back. First time I got a parking fine. Haha.

I haven’t seen all of them for quite some time. The last time when Yu Hui was supposed to be going to Canada and there was lunch, I couldn’t go due to me having something on, and the irony is that at the time when they meet, the thing got “cancelled”. Long story, but I didn’t make it to see them. And that time Yu Hui brought his girlfriend along. This time he didn’t.

I went there earlier with Qingbin as he was due to leave at 5pm for his piano lesson. He’s the one teaching, not learning. The girls were supposed to come at 4pm, and the guys at 5pm, but at 5pm, only Wan Jing came. Min Wei was already there when we arrived. Li Wei and Jie Min came at about 6pm, and the rest followed shortly after.

We had yu sheng. The older class that always came to Mdm Foo’s house made it themselves. Their wishes when they “laoed” the yu sheng was things like getting married, having kids and all those kind of things. It’s quite funny how a few years ago, they just graduated, and I’m going to graduate next year too. We’re all old already. But laoshi calls them “lao de”, meaning old ones, and called us “xiao de” meaning young ones, due to them being our seniors in primary school. At our age, they are already “lao de”, whilst we’re forever “xiao de”. Haha.

Then dinner. After dinner, the 5 of us guys, Li Wei, Teck, Pak Lun, Yu Hui and I went to the 2nd storey and sat inside one of the rooms to chat. We saw our old group photos, one of them was during our JC time and we still had the annual chalet. The conversation in the past has evolved and grown as we grow older in age. The topic was about getting married. We’re all going to be 24 this year. In reality, we’re all at the age that we can start thinking about these things, especially those with girlfriends.

It’s funny how I feel that I got nothing to plan for, and I actually feel that I’m slightly sick of being in a relationship, although I have been single since 08. Actually, sick of dating in general. It just doesn’t seem satisfying. Li Wei was right when he said that there’s no point if you’re not yourself in a relationship. I agree. All along I’ve been being this person to the girls in my life, who is very different from how I am with my friends. I don’t know if that is who I am, or that you become another person when you are with a girl you consider to be important. Maybe it’s normal, maybe it is not. I don’t know myself.

But what I know is I tend to compromise a lot on what I want when I start to like someone. And perhaps that is not who I truly am? I can’t relax and be myself sometimes because there are things you are expected to do as a guy. Blah blah blah. It’s quite irritating. I can’t be the witty me. I can’t show my confident side. I can’t feel my power. It’s just in built for me to try to conform to the girl, and even though I have some of my own beliefs, I keep them to myself because they are different, and differences may lead to quarrels.

But that is rather unhealthy isn’t it? I should be able to be who I am in real life with friends. Because the person you are going to spend the rest of your life should probably be your best friend. Someone that understands you for who you are.

Anyway, after the chat, we went down and had tea. Then we left, and some of them wanted to go Kbox at Safra Jurong. Teck’s girlfriend also came and it was the first time I saw her. Seeing how nice they are, I feel very happy for them. I think I shouldn’t rush things, and things will work out for me fine eventually.

Teck and his girlfriend, as well as Jing Han, took my car. Wan Jing, Min Wei and Pak Lun took Yu Hui’s car. Along the way we tailed each other and stopped side by side at traffic lights to talk, all whilst maintaining safety. So we reached Safra Jurong, and they alighted. Yu Hui drove off, and I drove Jing Han back to her home, which was between Boon Lay and Lakeside, and on my way home.

It was nice talking to her inside the car.

It was nice talking to all my friends and catching up. We should all meet up more often.

I enjoyed myself today.

I’ve watched the movie called “Valentine’s Day” yesterday, a day after the real Valentine’s Day. The movie theatre was packed, which I presume was due to the nature that it is the second day of new year, and those who have finished their visiting due to smaller family size would have some spare time to go watch a movie, since there is nothing much to do when most shops are not open. Wow. What a long statement.

“Valentine’s Day” is quite “Love Actually” in the sense that it is many different love stories happening at the same time. I forgot if “Love Actually” has any link between the various couples, but in “Valentine’s Day”, all the couples are linked one way or another. Plus “Valentine’s Day” seemed to have more of a darker feel compared to “Love Actually”. Why do I say that? Allow me to comment, but there would be spoilers.

Spoiler’s Alert

There are several characters in the show that have quite sad elements in them. Let me quote them one by one. Ashton Kutcher’s character proposed to Jessica Alba’s character, and she said yes. Being a newly engaged man, he is naturally excited and goes about telling everyone that she said yes. Most of the people didn’t believe it at first, because they thought she would never have agreed. When he went back during mid day to place a surprise in their room, he found her with all her luggages packed and an empty wardrobe. She just couldn’t marry him. I felt that it is a little sad because she shouldn’t have agreed if she wasn’t ready. And what’s more, to break up on Valentine’s Day, after a proposal. You can just feel how disappointed he would have been, from an all high climax to a all new low.

The second set of characters involve Patrick Dempsey and Jennifer Garner’s characters. Patrick’s character is a married man, having a mistress, who is the character of Jennifer’s. When he goes to Ashton’s florist shop to send flowers to both his wife and his mistress, Ashton realized that his friend Jennifer is the mistress, and struggled with himself to tell her. I hate infidelity. I don’t know how to express my plain disgust for such type of acts.

The third set of characters involved older actors. Hector Elizondo and Shirley MacLaine. They are a set of husband and wife, and on Valentine’s Day, Emma Robert’s character, who is the babysitter of their grandson, spoke to them about how she was going to have sex with her boyfriend for the first time. Emma said “Who only sleeps with one person in their life?”, to which Hector said that they did that, even though they had to endure long periods of time apart from each other. Shirley cried and went to the living room, and Hector followed. Guess what. Shirley confessed about an affair from some time ago. Gosh I could just feel the sense of disappointment that Hector has. And he said “The truth makes everything else seemed like a lie”. Can you understand how troubled he would have felt, and on Valentine’s Day itself? Knowing about your wife’s infidelity? I hated it. I didn’t understand why they got back together. Just because it was on Valentine’s Day? What does it mean by “You have to love a whole person, not just the good parts, but the bad parts as well”? What bad parts? In my opinion, infidelity is a rotten part. It’s an act of betrayal that is very hard to forgive.

I can understand if people had sex with other people before they got married, but I would expect that after marriage, it is of paramount importance to be faithful because you love that person. It is not about how having sex makes you feel happy, so you go around finding other people; it is about the love and the bond between two people that makes it special isn’t it?

Spoilers End

Well, those are the darker kinds of thing they bring out in the show, but in the end it was about love all right, and finding them. And being happy. I guess it is an alright movie, but some parts were just slow to me. But maybe romantic stories are like that and guys will always find it slow. But I enjoyed it though.

Happy Valentines to those who celebrated on the 14th. We should all celebrate White Day as well.

Watashi no yume wa nan desu ka?

Actually there are quite a few. Dreams about career, dreams about going overseas for work, dreams of travelling, dreams of life, dreams of the future, etc. But that is not what I want to talk about today. Rather, it is dreams of a family.

I was celebrating Chinese New Year today at my grandma’s house, and you just realize that you’re just old when you start thinking back to the times when you were younger. Plus all the other cousins are mostly younger since I’m the second eldest cousin in the family. The youngest cousin is only 7 this year, and I’m going to be 24. A big age gap of 17 years! I was in JC1 when she was born. And another cousin is JC1 this year. Last time, they are just so small. Now, they are in my shoes a long time ago, and I have since progressed on to university, about to graduate.

My eldest cousin is going to be 26 this year, and has already been working outside for a few years since graduation. Come to think of it, it is not surprising if in a few years time, my youngest cousin will become an aunty. We’re all in that age already anyway. If going by the national average, guys will get married at about 28-29, hence it’s just like 4-5 more years to go for me. It’s frighteningly near. Makes you just think, “hey, i’m a young adult already”, whilst most of the cousins are still in their teenage years.

So a thought struck me, and it was something heart warming to me. The idea that one day I’ll bring my wife over for Chinese New Year, and we’ll all sit down and talk about the old days, it just seemed rightly appropriate. And in my mind, the scenario of a car came into existence. Imagine yourself in your early thirties, driving a car, whether it is small or not, it doesn’t matter. You’re driving and on your left is your pretty wife and she’s carrying the little baby that belongs to the both of you.

I know babies should be in the baby seat or something, but hey it’s my imagination and it doesn’t need to follow laws.

Then you just drive on to your relatives for Chinese New Year, you bring your little baby to meet everyone. Everyone smiles and plays with your child. He or she becomes the centre of attraction. Your wife sits beside you, holding on to your arm, smiling.

A picture of marital bliss. Who wouldn’t want that? I think it is kind of sweet to have that in your life. Even though a child may be tiring to take care of, but it’s just so amazing to have one in the future. To have a loving and happy family that you build yourself.

I think, that is one of the greatest feeling in the world. And it is something worth working hard for, something that is truly worth it. That’s what I think.

P.S. My blog moved host. I’m on a new host now.

Akismet has protected your site from 9,900 spam comments already, but there’s nothing in your spam queue at the moment.

Says Akismet who has been catching spam comments for me since the blog started. Thought it was a nice number. There’s two 9s inside, representing 长长久久. Nice for the new year huh?

It’s the New Year’s Eve today for Chinese people. I don’t feel any excitement for the day. Maybe I’m not that Chinese inside. Haha. To me it’s just a good 4 days break from the monotony of work. And time to do my own things. Don’t have much relatives to visit anyway.

The year 2010 till now has been a rough ride. From trying to get over a failed (possible) relationship to distracting myself successfully and outgrowing myself again and realizing what I want more than ever, from being a student to an intern, bored in office but enjoyable on site, from having no direction to having an aim that I don’t know if I can hit but I am going to try my best and hope I can get it. And other stuff. And oh the attraction of working overseas in a place like Japan. It sounds so good.

Life’s a really great journey actually. Even for singles who don’t have valentines to celebrate with tomorrow. Haha. My wish for valentines day is not to have any valentines for next year unless that person is also interested in working overseas. It’s a nice dream to work for.

Kthxbye.