The last week ...

It’s been a long time since I penned something here …

Well, the past week has been quite momentous, having a lot of things happened … so here they are:

• I've resigned from Asia Business Forum. Surprising to some, but not to several people who know me. So anyway, relieved to have finalized this decision & excited on future opportunities, started applying for jobs & it’s a long time to go considering the 2 month notice that ABF is entitled to. If u wanna know more, drop me a buzz.

• Finished my 7^th semester exam (finally!!!) today. I get 1 month of rest before starting at last weekend of August. Just 1 project paper & 1 elective to go …

• I got a new toy, Canon IXUS800 … enjoying the experience of taking lots of photos again :-) just reminds me of the time when I arrived freshly in Slovakia 4 years ago …

• Starting on my project paper in the coming week … so just wanna get this sorted out ASAP …

• My downloads reached the 30^th DVD today, so it’s been quite a productive time … a lot of stuff to catch up on since I did not indulge in the past weeks due to sickness & exams

Some of my current thoughts …

• Quite happy that my MBA is nearing to its close … and the coming semester is quite a breeze as long as I sort out my project early.

• The PIG will be back soon, so good to have some piggy humour & noise

• Wondering what job I should get?

• Bought a new mp3 player (after using the same one for 2 years) … so looking forward (PIG bought it for good price in JP) … and the colour?? RED!!!! That’s gotta be my colour this year after my RED specs

Well, that's it for now ... there'll be some interesting stuff happening this week, so wait up & see ... Take care & have a nice week ahead!

Review - A Walk to Remember

‘If I help you, you must promise not to fall in love with me’ ~ Jamie Sullivan

If ‘the Notebook’ was touching, ‘A walk to remember’ is a tear-jerker … there were so many touching parts of this movie that if you can watch it without evoking any emotions, you must have a heart of stone …

It is simple, it does not try to be complex … and it rehashes the wonderful tale of how a rebellious & notorious teenager finds the way in his heart to his problems through a girl he met. Yes, they fell in love … she changed him and yada yada yada …

Punk & school cool dude, Landon gets subbed to community service & school play after a dare had went wrong … so he gets ditched into the same zone as school outcast, Jamie Sullivan, a minister’s daughter. She saw something in him, a potential to change & that comes from her strong faith. After a series of turns & heartbreaks, he falls in love with her and as does she.

As Landon breakthroughs himself, so does Jamie, but in another way … and the clue lies in a statement made earlier in the movie. If you have not watched this movie (out in 2002), I shall not divulge too much, but do watch it for a few reasons …

It reminds you the importance of faith … It reminds you to forgive, yourself first, then others …

It reminds you that while life is not eternal, love is & we should cherish every moment of it …

It’s been a long time I watched a movie that made me cry, so here’s a full 5 stars for it … watch it for it’s pure sincerity as it reaches out into your heart

p.s. Mandy Moore played the role of Jamie well ... as the quiet girl who walked her way into Landon's heart with pure faith & belief in him

Failure to launch ... Mr. Teoh

Failure to launch … me?

If you’ve watched this movie about a guy who does not want to move out from his parents’ home, then you must be familiar with the term.

So let’s see … 28 years (soon) … still at home, whereas most of my good buddies have been out by themselves since the day they entered university, or at 14 like Ah Teck, so where does this leave me?

Well, it’s not that I don’t know how to do my laundry, it’s not that I cannot maintain my own room, but I do realize that I cannot stay at home forever (regardless whatever the status of my relationships).

So the other day, my folks talked about this (with friends, not me), so I thought I should set a timeline to leave … and I said 1-2 years … cause I think it’s time to move on. Yes, now I got a good life, a lot of household stuff I can be totally carefree … and that would mean that me have to spend more time to clean the house, upkeep, buy stuff (more money gone) … but I cannot slip my life into complacency. So now, I my plan is like this …

Be a little more secure in my financial aspects … in any case I would take more steps in finding my place once I’m done with my MBA by the end of the year. I’ve some investments, which I might liquefy a few to spare some cash, and then I think I should be ready to take my venture forward.

So it will be me … my own place … my own colours, my own taste of furniture … but somehow I start to think that it will cost a bomb to have everything as I would imagine them to be. And I’ve been hearing from Ah Teck, SF, YL & a couple more friends who are moving into their homes soon … money money money!!!!!

And maintenance, maintenance, maintenance … sigh harder than renting a room … sigh!!!

But it’s a step forward … that I should take.

Is it worth it?

Quite recently my friend DL lectured me about relationships and my fault in view of my relationships; he feels I take things too black & white … where I put too much logic into mine, I try to play things too safe, play things too logically … which ultimately takes the romance out of things. True. Typical me.

Anyway, I’m not here to debate over this never ending topic … rather to share something.

When you marry someone, for sure you marry cause you love your partner right? (Exceptions made to the oops cases) And when you marry, you make sacrifices right? And when you make sacrifices, they are not meant to be counted right, because as they say, love is not calculative, it’s balancing out things, right?

Spoke to someone today. This person left her country to marry someone, left her career to raise her family with her partner. She gave up a lot of things in the name of love.

The thing is, love never promised a contract in eternity.

And after years there, she got divorced … she decided to return to Malaysia and her children; she had to leave them behind with her former. Back, alone, starting all over again.

So the question is quite simple actually, was it all worth it?

Was it all love?

Was it a sacrifice or should there’ve been compromise?

Indeed questions that cannot be answered unless turns are unwounded back in time, so forget it. Even more so, forgive me if I’m too paranoid about the topic of love.

Yes, we need to compromise, but there’s a time for selfishness. After all, compromise was not fully giving in, but fulfilling partial selfishness. If we did give all in the name of love when the other does not, then we should know that we cannot ask for it back.

Is it really worth it? Actually, no answer … and no point regretting. Move on.

Just a little more to go ... I can do it!!!!

30^th July 2006 – now that’s a date I can’t wait to get over with … my 2^nd last semester for my MBA … and I just wanna finish this semester off because it’s the only short semester that I’m taking 2 subjects.

The subjects are not too hard, but they need constant follow-up and that’s what driving me on tiptoes, trying to get everything sorted out properly & timely. Organization policy & strategy … that’s something interesting with strategies & stuff … so I wonder how the exam will be like cause the topic is so organic.

The other subject … business research methods … is (sigh) … a lot theory, but have been applying all of them into my assignment … so hopefully that will all sink it correctly …

So anyway … just a quick run and then … BOOM! It’s August baby … must be a more free semester with my last project paper & 1 subject. So … me gotta keep the candle burning & come December … can be Jason Teoh, MBA … (finally!)

What’s next? DBA? Don’t think man … finish this 1^st … then talk.

Review - Sweet November

‘You can be my November’ ~ Sara Deever


Sweet November is one of the movies I missed back in 2001. So when I got the full movie, I wasn’t sure on what it was, except a love story. The reviews I remembered, washed it off as a below average soppy flick.

Keanu Reeves & Charlize Theron … probably the most interesting combinations … played the roles of an over-workaholic advertising executive & a free spirit. Nelson (Reeves) is the egotistical guy whose work is everything, it’s beyond his life and has this overbearing mentality that with power & money, he can steamroll over everything in his sight & has absolute disregard for social norms and see them as interferences in his life. But not everyone can be bought or steamrolled over.

Theron’s Sara must be one of the most interesting free spirits I’ve come across in fiction … and perhaps the term spiritual missionary who takes up ‘lost souls’ from time to time trying to break their problems. She dedicates a month to each ‘project’ before moving on to her next one.

Naturally, the work & career freak Nelson crashed into her life and she immediately decides that he’s her next project.

Now, there’s no mega breakthroughs in storyline and no crazy chases. It’s mostly about reconstructing the mind of a guy twisted by his chase for corporate success & he has reached the extreme, the point of no return & absolute bartering of everything for his obsession with work. Yes it’s aptly named Sweet November because it’s sweet, it’s November and it’s an indie-style love chapter, but no epic.

I liked this movie for several reasons, partly because I relate to Nelson’s character as the career chasing maniac and while I am in touch with my inner self & past, the drive for career success has pulled me quite hard. And I need a ‘Sara’ to save me.

This movie is good for you young managers who’ve reached a stage where you wonder where your life is leading. Especially when you’ve sold your soul to work. These are times when we should let go when a ‘Sara’ comes into your lives, probably the angel has arrived.

Note: The ending was kind of surreal to me. Not sure how to describe what I think.

Googling names ...

I tried to Google my friends to see how many people came up with their same names, and maybe the small hope of finding out something spicy about them. Sly me ... but come on, I do it with my speakers all the time anyway ...

Failures:

Ch** Y*w L**ng – the only one matching was some Sandric Chee Yew Leong, who’s not our Mr. Polar

L*m K*k F**ng – also failure, but if I used K*nn*th L*m, then got quite a few, and so the conclusion is? Get a freakin' english name ... so it's more google-able .... hohoho

Success:

D*nn*s L** - quite good response, in fact had a direct matching website with his name

*my W*ng – apparently there’s a character on Futurame with her name, so we got a lot of results for her. But the Futurama character is probably the total opposite of SF.

J*st*n L*m – quite good replies too … a lot of unca lim’s distant relatives from all over the world

Got a lot more whom I’ve not tried. Probably from time to time … meanwhile, enjoy this photo of *my W*ng [you've been warned, this does not look like the one I know]

Saturday night: Yewl & Jay go to XXX Cafe

Unca Lim was in town, so we rounded up those we had & headed to Jalan Ipoh for some fried noodles as recommended by Mama Chee, with Yewl, Ah Teck, Unca Lim, Anty Lim and meself.

The journey there was tricky … me & Yewl got sucked into a jam on the way to Mama’s … so by the time we got there was almost 8pm. And we saw some cars doing a crazy reverse against traffic on the main road, which was daring but absolutely nuts. By the time we got to the place, parking as a challenge. This place is called Restaurant Brilliant, somewhere near HSBC & KFC … and it was dinner under the stars. For a measly sum of RM68, we had fish, 2 noodles, fried pork ribs, vege, tofu … which was ok but surely value for money. Unfortunately, me pants got it’s baptism with some of that assam fish sauce (aargh!) … the subject that took most of the dinner were on holding a bachelor (aka stag) party for an impending wedding of Mr. X. The question is, to get a stripper or not to get a stripper? To get a full package or a strip only package? Skin colour of stripper? Sigh, it’s so challenging to be good friends hor? Hehehe.

Then came the MAIN QUESTION … what next? Friendster Café had an all around yes, but for the niggling question of … ‘anymore interesting games to be played there?’ … which we doubted since nothing reigns supreme to Taboo. Ah Teck suggested a XXX Café (not to be named for security reasons) near Atria … and since he said the had more games & the name Settlers gave an impression of some cowboy-ish setting … so I thought to myself … yes why not? And I never thought Atria would have such happening stuff since it’s no longer a ‘happening’ area for yuppies.

Well … we arrived at a sort-of-dead place at Atria … dark lonely street as we rolled nearer to the place … then suddenly, in that street, we got a brightly lit shop. XXX Café, aaah!

Hold it! It looked quite bright … so not quite the hang-out-y place I had in mind. So Yewl, Mama & me got out … and I remarked … err … kind of bright place isn’t it? And it’s bare without cozy sofas, no cozy chairs, but we saw wooden tables like out of kindergarten, no fancy deco, and it’s just simply … bright. This is serious gamer place, not a Saturday night hang-out place. Still, we stepped in …

“Hi!!! Did you call earlier? Is your name David?”

Err. Looked at Yewl, Yewl looked back at me. Didn’t see Mama’s reaction though. No, we said …

“Are you new? Looks like we saw you guys somewhere before? How did you get to know of this place?”

Brilliant! Some over enthusiastic owners jumping in front of us (literally). I just hate it, would prefer to see see look look then decide if we should just hang around. Several conclusions … the games are quite advanced board games, a lot of role plays … something I’ve not seen since secondary school … which is cool, but what scares me is that this is the place to GAME ONLY & not the Saturday night hang-out we wanted.

While Yewl & Mama settled down on a table … meself thought this is too much … so I went out to make a call … ‘Hey Ah Teck! Where are you guys? At KP’s? ok, we are here at XXX and this place is like planet nerd … it’s so brightly lit like chess club … and no atmosphere … place for serious gamers’. Teck said let’s head out to Friendsters … and he’ll get Yewl to get his arse out of there.

Once we got into the car … I just burst out almost screaming … we finally encountered a Harold & Kumar moment … being at a weird place, not within our expectations. We just kept going through our encounter … just totally out of our universe …

No offense to XXX Café, but not what we’re looking for … and perhaps we might consider going there if we were not looking for a Saturday night hangout with good music, happening people, good ‘view’ and ahem, not too serious gaming place like chess club.

Once at Friendster, things became more normal … we continued the bachelor party talk, then played some stacko game and buzzed home. And oh yes, that private party with those kids doing ‘that thing you do’ dances & us stopping KP’s urge from crashing in. That’s how Saturday nights should be.

Over & out.

Places to go before I die ...

I was counting on the number of countries I’ve visited & the year I went to them … all together, 13 countries. As listed, I put in the year of my most recent visit. Come to think of it, a lot and yet, not as many as I would have wanted. Hopefully I can hit a few more in 2007

1999 Thailand – Hat Yai, Phuket, Golok

2001 Germany - Dortmund

2001 Switzerland – Zurich, Berne

2002 Hungary - Budapest

2002 Romania – Arad, Buzias, Timisoara, Brasov

2003 Austria - Vienna

2003 Czech Republic - Prague

2003 France - Paris

2003 Slovakia – Bratislava, Nitra, Banksa Bystrica, Kosice, Poprad, Vysoke Tatry, Zilina, Spisska Nova Ves, Bardejov, Komarno, Liptovsky Mikulas, Prievidza

2003 Tunisia – Tunis, Hamamet

2005 China - Shanghai

2005 India – Mumbai, Bangalore

2006 Singapore

I’ve decided that there will be 15 places I need to go in this lifetime, before I die . As listed below (the first as top & gradual descending with less priority)

1. St. Petersburg, Russia
2. Plitvice, Croatia
3. Santiago, Chile
4. Buenos Aires, Argentina
5. Alaska, USA
6. Bermuda, Caribbean
7. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
8. Trans Siberian Railway, Russia
9. California, USA
10. Sydney & Brisbane, Australia
11. Rome, Italy
12. New York, USA
13. Johannesburg, South Africa
14. Cairo, Egypt
15. Tokyo, Japan

We’ll see if there’s any way to achieve it all … dreams start with clear goals … and hopefully there’s a path somewhere . But I realize also that things change as we meet people and we shall see where my road takes me & where it ends. See you at the finishing line!

A journey in search ...

In life, you have to find 4 people...

The 1st one is to find your true-self

The 2nd one is find the person you love most

The 3rd one is to find the person who love you the most

The last one is to find the person who is going to spend the rest of her life with you

Confessions of a footie freak ...

It’s quite strange for an avid footie fan like me not to write anything about football, especially with the ongoing World Cup in Germany.

A must ritual in my daily life is to read Soccernet each morning when I wake up, as I keep abreast of who’s who, what’s what and why’s why in football.

I am a huge Liverpool fan & I absolutely detest, hate & despise Manchester United to the core. Been following Liverpool since Steve McManaman & Robbie Fowler burst into the scene in the 90s. And like Liverpool faithfuls, we've suffered tauntings from MU fans for a while, but now we can stand proudly with our great team of today.

I’ve been silent about who I support this World Cup, but I support England from the start (despite their dumb tactics by Mr. Eriksson) and after the opening match, I also hope for Germany to reach the final. Since England was out (due to that dastardly idiot, Cristiano Ronaldo … what can I say, he’s a Man United ***hole) I’m just gonna say … GO GERMANY, GO!!! And yes, Portugal can die ... die ... DIE!!! (Melebih, but it's football ... kekeke)

And I think Astro is the evil incarnate for this 2006 WC cause they hogged all the England matches & prime time (11pm), leaving the free TV matches in ungodly hours. So, people like me without Astro have to go to mamak stalls to watch. The head of marketing at Astro is very cunning, but an absolute devil.

I think the movie GOAL was one of the coolest sports movies made for a while, since it’s about English football (despite it’s Newcastle featured & they beat Liverpool in their make believe final match)

I read footie magazines fortnightly, and I can remember a lot of dumb information about footballers despite them not having any impact in my life for doing so.

In school, for around 10 years, I would play footie each evening … and I loved every minute of it despite that I was not good … but I rarely do so now la … (have moved on from friends in school, just different ways of thought I guess)

But strangely, I have only 5 jerseys in my life, one for my class team, one for Liverpool, and the rest are just some imitation stuff from Thailand.

And I think I’m better at short distance biking (5km hill attempts) & rollerblading than football.

So here I am, the self confessed, football couch potato (actually closer to just armchair reader & surfer cause I only watch SOME of the matches) finally showing my true colours & having officially typed this on my blog. Now let me go back to my usual ramblings …