Ma Virtual Diary

nope, this blog is not about me participating in recently organized demonstration in the streets of KL..never did understand why ppl would wanna demonstrate..if u wan to make a point but ur listener dont wanna listen, it doesnt matter what you do, they will still not listen…some ppl would argue, " ooooo..atleast we showed the world, what malaysian government is all about where they say one thing and do another thing..so wheres the democracy, etc etc "…so the world knows, so what? can things be changed?..if it can be done so easily, other countries having serious civil wars, domestic politics, etc would easily be resolved through demonstration !!…anyway…lets forget about this…

one thing for sure is that my blog is about a positive demonstration…to show and share capoeira culture to the public as part of brazilian culture awareness..its rather interesting to be part of it considering the fact that its my 1st time joining this public roda ( pronounced as "hoo da" )…it was raining heavily that night and i was contemplating if i should proceed with my plans of joining them…i decided to drive pass the academia to see if anyone is there…the minute i reached there, the academia was dark…so i guess everyone must have gone to bangsar…so i de-toured and drove to bangsar..

and i saw a group of ppl in the same outfit as i am…and i thought, "ahhh..so its on !!"…so i parked by the side of a huge house…changed in the middle of the road, pee-ed in the longkang…and just as i was about to leave…i felt a cold sensation on my right shoulder…when i looked over.."shiittt…kena bird shit, right in the middle of nite !!…dammm…first thought that came across my mind, is this a sign or wat??"…

the whole demonstration went well but i guess there isnt that many ppl who comes and support the event thus making it less "ummphhh"…but nonetheless it gives me the feel and impression of those olden martial art movies i like to watch, where they will go around, selling their "art" while asking for contribution from the public ( we dont ask for contribution btw, its just free marketing activity that we are doing )….

interesting..interesting..seeing rafael moves really motivates me to learn more, perfect my skills, and make it smooth flowing…he always say.." u gotta develop ur game, learn to do something, make ur opponent move somewhere and then get him nicely !! "….he makes sound so easy all the time !!…to the extent that he already got frustrated telling us so one day, he really got mad and say, " everytime i see u guys, i tell u guys the same thing..i think i should just record my voice, play it over the loudspeaker everytime u guys come train..OR better still, i will charge u guys some amount of money everytime u make me repeat the same thing..that way i can get rich..even faster and better than teaching capoeira !! "

well..training life continues !!

i first heard of yoga when there was one year where this exercise suddenly boomed…i heard fantastic stories bout how ppl can elevate themselves, transport themselves from one place to another once they reached the highest level of enlightenment in yoga…well, of course at that point of time, this was like to overwhelming to believe…so over the years, i have many friends around me, who joined but of course, i never really did interview them to find out what are the effects/outcome of taking up yoga…

recently, i was given a 14 days pass to try out Bikram’s Hot Yoga @ True Fitness…well, i was thinking why not give it a try, after all, its been so many years since i first heard of yoga, so if its a phony, then it would have died or there would have been many sensational news about it…but surprisingly, i hav not heard of negative stuffs so far..so its been all positive news..so i thought, lets give it a try…had my 1st lesson on saturday…anddd…whoooaaaa…mind blowing !!

one of the comment the yogi made was, "after ur 1st class, u will rediscover muscles u never knew u had….this is normal !!…yoga is an exercise to stretch every inch of tissues that u hav in ur body regardless of whether the tissues are made up to form ur muscles, internal organs, etc.."…

i think i will love this yoga thingie for some time to come !!..but of course, i guess when the fitness consultant interviewed me on what i hope to achieve in yoga…the 1st thought that came through my mind was "to check out the benefits for myself..and be a my own myth buster !!…will i get all the benefits that has been listed down when u practice yoga with discipline, commitment and discipline !!"

sometimes, i cant help to wonder, there are positions which i believe are rather difficult to achieve, from a guy’s point of view…an example would be the eagle post…

imagine, look at the attached picture, imagine, ultimately, ur leg is supposed to cross over to your calf completely till it appears on the opposite side ( in the picture, noticed the lady’s left leg, the toes are like on the opposite side @ the right leg’s calf?? )…OUCHHH !!..i can feel the pain down under !!…nonetheless, if a yogi is able to achieve that, there must be a reason to it…lets see if i will "survive" to find out the truth to eagle post !!…

i remember reading an article couple months back about how cheap labours have travelled all the way from india, bangladesh, etc to work in our country only to be conned by their agents of their hard earned money, etc…i felt really tragic for those ppl who are trying to make a decent living yet they fall into traps setup up by big time con-man….

today i had the honours of being asked to conduct an interview of candidates to join a team in our department…the interview was conducted by me, my collegue & my manager…the first candidate walked in, sat down, shoke our hands and so our conversation started…my collegue being the more "aggressive" person who always started the interview with "sooo..tell us abit about urself…so how do u rate urself from these aspects..xxx..xxx..xxx, rate urself from 1 - 10 with 1 being the worst and 10 being the best "….the minute he started talking, i started observing his body language..

one thing i learnt many years ago is action speaks louder than words..body language tells everything regardless of what you utter out your mouth…1st thing i noticed bout this candidate was, his palms were grasping against each other…well, initially, i thought the meeting room was just kinda cold, + the nervousness from interview, hes probably just feeling X-tremely cold..fine…i can ignore that…unfortunately, as the interview got a lil bit more intense..he started shivering…i was thinking in my heart, "poor guy, this guy is not goin to make it through !!"

as i was browsing through his interview, i decided to spare his fear by jumping into the interview session and stopping my collegue’s aggressive questioning and asked him in a polite soft voice.." could you elaborate further on this point in ur resume? "…he looked at me with a puzzled look…i was thinking, "nvm…probably its a language barrier, this poor guy is already probably ready to shit in his pants…let me try a different approach"…so i bent over towards him, pushed his hardcopy resume to him, and specifically pointed the item which i wanted clarification….he looked at the point and stared at me point blank..and there was 3minutes of silence…then i finally broke the silence by asking, " can you explain to me? are you able to do that? "..and he said, " i m sorry, i cant "…

ahhhh….i was thinking, "this resume is probably not even his..or its been written by someone for him or he just copied and pasted point blank from somewhere"…so me and my collegue decided to end the interview prematurely…i turned and looked at my collegue and made a comment, " poor guy’s probably been conned to coming to msia…someone must have painted a fake good picture about the job opportunity over here so much so that hes willing to bluff his way through until this stage of the interview !! "…my collegue laughed and made a synical remark, " yeahh..for all u knoe, this guy could be working in a mamak somewhere and hes been drafted in by the conman agent to this interview !! "

i dont know what else to say about this situation….and this is just stories from 1 country…we probably hav more stories from china, vietnam, cambodia, etc that we are not aware off !!!….

linguistically speaking, it means "easy rich"…numerically speaking, it means "28"…not too long ago, junz was saying that my bday msg was the coolest and tops her list of bday wishes..so i guess i will repeat that bday msg to myself with some modifications of course..and..it goes…

" ehemmm..ehemmm..( clearing the phlegm from throat early in the morning )…krackkk krackkkk…( doing some loosening exercises )…arrrghhh…arrrghhhh…aahhhhh…ahhhh…ahhhh…ahhhh ( mouth wide open,facing a green hill with tropical rainforest,warming up the voice cord )…bateria gets into their respective spot,holding their respective instruments….berimbaus start playing…after a few minutes..followed by pandeiros…after a few minutes…followed by conga + atabaque…and finally, agogo & reco-reco…happy bday to u…happy bday to u…happy bday to me…happy bday to meeeeeeeeeeeeeeee !!!! "

this year’s bday was rather unique ( i m already using past tense though its still 11/02 as i m typing this blog ) because i had a handful of "priceless" gifts…usually i only get "priceless" gifts from a single person…this year was somewhat different..;)…well..it started off as early as 09/02/2008 where i was introduced to Robert Mondavi Private Selection Pinot Noir’s red wine..and this is excellent man…i m a hard liquor person, but after tasting this red wine, i might just switch to this "healthier" taste..i specifically kept the cork to remind myself of this brand…of course, this was not just it..i had a heart to heart, fruitful conversation throughout the night as well…absolutely priceless !!

on the 10/02/2008, as soon as i woke up..the 1st sms that came through my phone was, " hey guess what?? my dad said that ur a handsome man !! "..whoaaaa…this one absolutely priceless as well !!..this would have top my list of "priceless" gift IF it was completed with a comment from the mom…during lunch time, the next priceless gift i got was a mini martell XO…whooaaa..wicked !!…it just added to my collection of mini liquors !!…and finally during dinner time, i had a quiet dinner @ Chillis while having a once again heart to heart & fruitful conversation, this time with my buddy, my first time ever celebrating my bday with him…all in, its definitely pricesless lists of gift on the eve of my bday…

on 11/02/2008 ( as soon as the clock struck midnight ), i received yet another priceless gift, HAAGEN DAZS ice cream cake !! ( black & white chocolate toppings with cherries, and Macademia Nuts flavoured ice ream )…i love ice creams, i love chocolate and i love haagen dazs !! ( this is only my 3rd time eating it…despite being my favourite, the price always deter me from buying it !! )….early in the morning, 1 special sms came through " hey chuan, happy bday !! "…i was surprised that this person knows my bday…only to find out later that, she has finally reached the page in her diary where i secretly wrote long long time ago " CHUAN’S BDAY !! "

so to sum it up, i guess the most priceless part is that i felt satisfaction of being able to spend time on 09/02,10/02 & 11/02 with ppl whom are really important in my life..

of course, being a typical chinese, i would need to believe that, what i have received, i have to give something back in return…so i gave joy by showing my ability to eat food IN QUANTITIES..& i impressed others by showing my "blow cow" ( CON-ing skills ) ability and make resume looks "tin har mou tik" ( undestructable )!!….hope that this would be sufficient…:D

since it coincides with chinese new year, 28 is a good number since it means "easy rich"…i hope/pray that it will be the same with my luck this year @ this age !!..

p/s: I can also be officially be "reached" in facebook at the following profile name "Chuan Hooi Leng" starting from today !! ( joined today to commemorate my special day )

exactly 1 week back, we had a 10th year high school class reunion…sheshhhh…bloody 10 years since i left high school…i dont know what else to say…i look myself in the mirror and i see signs of wrinkles forming, i feel less bouncy complexion, i see less energetic look in the eye, etc etc..anything and everything u can think off when age catches up….

but nonetheless, we had 2 honourary guests, 1 from Sg & 1 from JB….the story with the sgporean is ever since leaving the country, he has been working like hell and could never find the time home…the story with the johorian, he got deeply involved religiously…they showed up for this 10th year reunion much to my surprise…BOTH married !!….the bubbly ppl still same o same o..quiet ppl still quiet…noisy/poky ppl are still noisy/poky…some became "posperous"…1 remained "vertically challenged"…:D…and heres a few good pictures to summarize everything…

i was staring point blank @ this friendster screen for about 5mins or so and i realized that i couldnt come up with a decent title to describe the content of this blog so i guess i will just leave it "untitled"…

ever since the "u suck" incident, i havent been able to push / motivate myself to move on…i guess the pain and dissapointment is still around when i thought it was gone..i found this out the "hard" way…was in the middle of an interview and this incident accidentally got blurted out of the blue..and i could feel the anger raging in me….which afterwards, my fren called and said.."hey, chuan..no matter how bad it is, never kutuk ur current project "….

then onli i snapped back to reality…"ooohhhh..wow..what just happened? i just got possessed by my own hatred demon !!"

and ironically, i fell sick..quite bad cough and sore throat to the extend that the doc gav strong medication that occassionally just knocks me off…i took this opportunity to stop working for the past week…so officially speaking, i hav not worked for 5 days….which i can consider as taking a break for myself…

i wonder how issit goin to be like goin back next week to work….challenges, challenges…

thats the aftermath of staying on a boat for 2 days !!…when i was first invited to do a LOB ( Live On Board ), i have always wondered if i will survive it cause i m rather weak when it comes to motion sickness..a simple trip up to cameron highlands is actually a very torturing trip for me !!

well, finally found the guts to do it last weekend..and surprisingly it turned out well..i just popped in 1 motion sickness tablet a day and i survived it…i even slept peacefully at nite !!..whoaaaa…impressed impressed…

some above 18 ONLY pictures to share..;)..

on the way up to the boat…

yvonne trying to challenge my love for posing infront of a camera…

about to start a dive, u can see that one leg is already in the wetsuit..and decided that posing for camera is more important than wearing wetsuit first !!

cant stop posing even underwater..

nonetheless, it was definitely a cool experience to live on board…and the food was excellent !!..the aunty is damm skillful in cooking even with a small kitchen onboard !!

coolness !!

well, atleast that was how i made it sounded like subtly over the email…but the whole content was about "u suck @ managing client’s expectation"…i feel relieve actually..i have never sent such an email to top management before and it feels good to let them know once in a while that employees do have the rights as well..

well, the reaction that i got this morning was that my development has been frozen and passed on to the next "expert" for design review before being passed back to me…so be it…surprisingly, i hav no "feel" about this…usually, when someone touches my design without asking for permission, i will be fuming like mad..but the first FEW things which came across my mind is " HOLIDAY !! ".." QUICKLY SHUT DOWN THE EMAIL AND INTERNAL MESSENGER.." …" LLB ( Look Like Bz ) and ignore any other requests thats coming in ..".."..time to party babe…"…

well, as i m typing this blog, i have done all of the above except for partying..probably sometime tonite i m gonna do that..hehehe

well..some of the feedbacks i hav gotten so far are …"wow..u lost ur cool?? this is so unlike u !!"…"i thought u loved ur job??"…"..i think u gotta be prepared to live with the consequences..making 1 enemy instead of a fren isnt really a good thing.."…

and coincidentally, a headhunter called me up asking me for my latest resume for 2 new opportunities and its really tempting..so i have already forwarded my resume for new job…WOW..this is just so amazing…every year without fail, i will be changing job..and this time, it hasnt even reached 1 year…hmmmm…goin to get a nick of being a job hopper soon !!

when i was a kid with no own car, no extra $$$ to hang out…my usual activity on the eve of a new year is locking myself up in the room, turn my radio on and listening to Rick Dee’s Top 100 for the Year XXXX…as the song goes through, i would try to associate the songs with events happening in my life…sweet bitter memories of the Year XXXX…

i have not done that for quite number of years now since every eve is always packed with clubbing cum getting wasted plans…this year has been a tough year so i thought probably i should sit down and start reflecting on what has happened throughout 2007, what should have happened in 2007 but didnt happen and what should not have happened but happened…since i have not listened to that many songs for the year 2007, i decided to visit my favourite DVD stalls and hunt for CDs instead…

got myself few pretty nice CDs..i managed to get Bon Jovi MTV Unplugged on his latest Lost Highway album…Santana Reunion Concert album & Nirvana’s Last Unplugged Concert…as i replayed the songs over and over again in my car everytime i drive, i realized there are a couple of songs which i can relate to the whole year’s events…i also looked through you tube and found Wubai’s Ai Qing De Jin Tou, Kid Rock’s Only God Knows Why & Marie Digby’s Umbrella which i can relate to the whole year’s events as well….i am pretty sure there are many other songs out there which could do the same..but i guess these lists of songs should be sufficient else i think i will suffocate myself in a mix feeling of happy & sorrow…

i guess the hardest part of doing all this is finding the courage & strength to move on despite knowing the facts…goshh..the list for 2007 of " what didnt, what should have but didnt & what shouldnt have but did " is definitely kinda long now that i have finally finished reviewing them and making some analysis out of it…i m contemplating now whether should i make a wish list for 2008 but common man..how many times have i made those resolutions and end up not keeping them by year end…soooo…To Do or Not To Do??…

ahhhh…well…lets finish the last remaining day of the year and think about it when next year comes !!…

Happy New Year 2008 to my readers !!

most ppl whom i’ve talked to, tells me that i should see satisfaction when i see the following items now lying in my living room…but unfortunately, at the moment i still see RM signs everywhere everytime i look @ them..i was telling my dad the other day to make me a customized hanger made of PVC pipes to hang these stuffs and he looked @ me in amazement and small smirk that says, "wahhh..this fellow is loaded and serious about diving !!"

i think i just gave myself a new definition to "vomit blood, vomit ur guts out, koko-crunch for the next 2 months, etc etc"

aihhhh…1-2 items to purchase and i m pretty done and pretty broke kow kow to the max !!