The 6th hour

A day without play makes Clarence a dull boy. How less fun do I have compared to the student days. For me, I think a better time will come pretty soon. It won't probably be this month though. This is a stage in life where time and financial management is very essential. I believe that how we manage ourselves in the coming 3- 5 years will greatly impact and define who we are in 10-15 years to come.

Time is scarce. The 24 hours given to us by Mr Big is no longer a whole 24 hours for us to keep. Its 12 waking hours to the employer and another balance of 6 hours for yourself if you only sleep 6 hours a day like me. So, to live for 6hours a day for yourself requires great efficiency. Less time on blogging and television. Instead, I reckon that more quality time with your family is indeed a better more worthwhile thing to do. I take evening walks with my mom every time when possible. Another thing I would do is write a journal as a way to de-stress and release up every bottled up thought so I can sleep better at night like what I'm doing right now.

This week's observation was pretty simple. There's a few Gemini's in my workplace. Well, basically everyone is one . One thing is pretty sure that you will never know your 'real' colleagues until you go out with them. That's a good social tip. On company grounds, people always show their best behavior. It wouldn't take long until Mr Hyde appears. Hypocritical of all sorts.

Friday finally comes and I do have another 48 hours for myself again. A good rest and play time.

Oh, I'm less caffeine dependent now. Thanks!

xmas at portuguese settlement

This are 2 month old photos that I've waited to collect from my friend J* ehem ..Sei Chien. It was a small Xmas gathering that I had with my old secondary classmates .On the other hand, it may be the only few occasions that we are able to meet every year. It's a tradition for us to visit Darian every year at the Portuguese settlement. The only time in the year I get a taste of curry debil and nasi rendang . Hot and spicy! This post probably some moments that I'm able to share with others 20 to 30 years from now. Provided that I'm still breathing or blogger does not shut down at that time. :) Holiday time rewind.

Clockwise: From left is Li Tian, Mei Yen, Clarence ,Sei Chien and Darian.

Merry xmas!!! Two months ago lar.

John Gray.

Well, who is John Gray? Why do we sometimes feel that we've heard this name somewhere before. Haha..if you hadn't heard of him before, than you must not be a fan of books or at least had read some newspapers or magazines during tea breaks. Basically, John Gray is a well acclaimed author of the best selling book Man Are From Mars and Women Are From Venus. It's a very good book that gives a unique insights on the relationship between man and women, their difference in emotions, thinking and language..(not physically obviously! :) )

Anyway, what I'll review today is one of his books which is called "How To Get What You Want and Want You Have." I honestly don't know why on earth did I actually strolled into a book store on one fine weekend and grabbed this book after glancing at the title for just 1 minute. Fate I guess. After reading it, well I'm still reading it, and after reading several chapters and applying it immediately, I've noticed several improvements in my life. It may not be huge notable improvements, but at least you are much happy deep inside and have more confidence to face life challenges.

Basically, what John Gray wants to highlight here is that as normal person, we often come across times where we actually feel very uneasy, dissatisfied and hoping to get something more that we presently have. What we presently have is subjective to different people as different people have different priorities such as health, personal wealth, family, friends, career, personal development, and intimate relationships. For example, if we are feeling very lonely we sometimes tend to find someone else to love to make us feel happy. Am I right? Another good example is sometimes we thought that more money can give us more happiness. Its an undeniable fact that having more money is definitely better than being poor because it basically solves man's basic needs of having enough food , shelter ,clothing, education, etc. But, many people this days finally realized after years reaching their epitome of success, they are still unable to feel the true happiness within them. As if a part of them was missing. They are still not happy with what they already have.

In his book, John illustrated that to achieve true success , it must come from within. This is what he calls personal success. It is about how well you are connected to your inner soul, to actually understand what you really want, to know how to get what you want and finally to want what you already have. After achieving personal success, than only external success will come automatically even without us knowing it. In general, people need 10 different love vitamins just as our body needs vitamin C, B complex and etc to function properly. The 10 love vitamins are

vitamin g1 : love and support from God ( applies to all religions Christianity, Muslim, Buddhist etc)
vitamin P1 : love and support from parents
vitamin F : love and support family, friends and fun
vitamin P2 : love and support from peers of similar goals
vitamin S :love and support from ourselves
vitamin R :love and support from intimate relationship ..bf gf thingy
vitamin D :loving and support to some else who is dependent on us
vitamin C : giving back to our community
vitamin W :giving back to our world
vitamin G2 : serving God ( applies to all religions Christianity, Muslim, Buddhist etc)

Back to where I left out, John illustrates that everybody have 10 different love tanks. Imagine a love tank as a glass tank where when its empty, you will feel so down, unloved and bad. But,when it slowly fills up with liquid which is the love vitamins that I mentioned earlier, we will feel more happy, energized, loved and more positive. For example when a love tank R dries up, we look for our partners who we have a relationship with for love. This will gradually fill up the love tanks and we will feel better again. At the same time other love tanks will also slowly dries up. But what what happens when love tank R is full?? You get tired of receiving the love from your partner and feel bad or uneasy again. Well, that what happens sometimes when couples get tired from relationships after several intense months together.This is also the results of other love tanks being dried up as well. So , this is where John actually suggests us to shift our attentions to other areas such as family, peers and others to compensate what has been missing to avoid further problems. Finally,the journey that John takes us through is indeed very enlightening and so entertaining that it will keep us glued to the pages for hours.

As a conclusion, its a good book for us to do a little soul searching and to further understand ourselves so that we will be able to achieve more personal success and satisfaction in today's busy and challenging. There's also strategies that are really easy to apply in our daily lives that will improve our relationship with the people around us. So, take some time off and kick start the journey of self exploration. It certainly helps.

Learning curve

Young people welcome challenges. Without challenges, life seems to lost its worth, its thrill and learning opportunities. As time passed by, my restlessness has finally settle down. When challenges are not present, people start to question their worth and their purpose of being here? Questions like "Is this really right for me?" or " The company can run well without me ..so what's the point of me being here?" are norm among people.

If you don't like the job then just quit. Don't just simply trade your time simply on the salary basis. It certainly not worth your time if you think that your time is only worth RM3000 a month ,or RM150 a day or RM 18.75 /hour for normal 5 day office hour jobs. I sincerely think your time is certainly worth more than that. But on the other hand, if you can't quit your job because of some company bond, well you got no choice but to use that bonded time the best that you could. For instance, learning to enjoy the job, learning the trick of the trade as well as you could or perhaps just take it as a learning experience on what it feels like to be working on something you are not passionate about and not to repeat the same mistake again in the future.

The bottom line is once you why and what's the purpose you are doing something, whether you like it or not, things will progress much better in a more positive and enjoyable matter. Enjoy being a working adult! Not!

Why is it so dark here?

Blog-lar and site upgrade

The Shin Sekai blog has just been upgraded. New banners. A little oriental look with the colorful lanterns lighting up the dark night. I'm planning to get a once -a- while break out from Melaka to find some inspiration. Perhaps meeting up with old business partners, getting to know new people and as well as soaking up new ideas on new possible ventures.

Finding fresh ideas sometimes requires people to go out from their niche and focus to go to the unknown. After the CNY holidays, I'm currently going for the 30 day trial as recommended by Steve Pavlina to develop a few good habits and to throw away a few bad ones. Yes, I heard that 30 days may be a little long. And we are working adults. Where do we find the time? I hope I can find the time to invest in myself. To invest the time I need to do things that will really matters 10 years down the road. To invest on developing myself to be a person rather than an empty passionless shell.

Anyway, Blog-lar project is just a spontaneous project that I thought of. Instead of blabbering about my life, perhaps I can write something more useful and informative. Articles and essays about insights, opinions, travel, lifestyle and culture. It's more towards freelance writing and blogging project.

chinese new year episode 3

It's nearly three days past the new Lunar Rat year. I hardly smell any rats so far. New year was better than I expected. Even though sometimes we missed up some wonderful things such as not being able to see someone you that deeply love or important, other events that we never thought of may pop up out of the blue moon which turned out to be much better.

The great thing about this New Year is to celebrate with a new family member. I've learned how to cook seafood spaghetti from my sister Caroline and Mr Conrad Rozario. Though a bit expensive because it requires a splash of wine , but it tasted really good. Bon appetite!

The CNY Secret Recipe cake and a family picture of a err ...baba family



The CNY Secret Recipe cake and a family picture of a err ...baba family part 2

Besides, I did my first ever house visiting spree on the first day of new year. It was great to be able to visit most of your old friends once a year. To remind you of the good old times. To remind you of what kind of nostalgic life that you have been through. And the best is to meet new faces. I went to Mei Yen's house to see her baby. Just two words ..co-mel!

My eldest sister Florence and her daughter Kristin

More upcoming posts, so stay tuned.

Simplicity and New Year.

新年快乐！

The first day of the lunar year of the Golden Rat has just arrived. The Chua Chinese New Year Celebration was kept to the minimum. I'm experiencing simplicity as well where most of the yearly family traditions such as annual barbecue and cookie baking were excluded due to its labor intensive nature as my Dad is not feeling at his 100%.

Simplicity is something that I really like to experience lately. It somehow makes life more clear-cut. I am a simple person. But, the when simplicity coupled with the tendency to make things complicated spells a strings of disasters. I wouldn't ended up in tough and difficult situations if I had kept things clear cut while handling daily problems.

Happy Chinese New Year.

The Year of the Golden Rat

looking at the right place?

A good read: Working for free