The Boredom Strikes Back

Sunday morning, vegetarian burger for breakfast, home alone. Bored.

Animax... rejected. Discovery Travel and Living... nice! Discovery Channel... nice!

Random surfing. Blog layout update. (This) Blog post.

Visited: LoF Malaysia, Masak-Masak, So much Food...
Purpose: Dinner ideas
Progress: Pathetic :P

Checking out lunch; Dhall, brocolli, sambal, some.. er... stuff (!?)
Water... aiya! Forgot to boil more water... (run to kitchen)
[Back]

Now playing: Barenaked Ladies - Lovers in a Dangerous Time
[Neva actually listened to this song before.
Switching to Vertical Horizon...]

Still pondering over dinner ideas...
Should I wash the car? Nah... it can survive another week :P
[Darn, I'm getting lazier by the moment]

Cameron Highlands... Singapore... Ulu Yam! This Friday? Must ask around...
Hrm... still moot on dinner plans. Time to get reinforcements.

-Transmission ends-

The moment...

Time is an interesting phenomenon to introspect upon. We can't see it, we can't feel it, yet we equate experiences and continuity with the concept of time. It falls rather comfortably in to the age old debate of seeing is believing; how can we believe in the notion of time when there is no tangible proof of its existence. To most of us it just ... is. It is a bit like potential energy; unlike light and heat (energies that are visible and tangible, respectively), I only ever understood potential energy from a theoretical aspect. In reality, I still find it hard to visualize or even justify how someone came up with the notion of potential energy.

Time to branch off from the scientific philosophy of time. Actually was intending to talk about how time really seems to fly by so fast. Sometimes I wonder how many of us actually take a step back and evaluate where we are headed, versus where we intend to go. Do we question the moment? Do we challenge the future? Oh.. side tracking again :P

Actually (need to find a better word for this :P), was just thinking how people around us are changing with the passing times. In specific terms, the issue of marriage and the whole tying-the-knot phenomenon is a rather hot topic. As some of you may be aware, 'tis the season for weddings. I know 3 weddings amongst my immediate circle of friends this month alone, and countless others amongst the broader circle of acquaintances. The first of my childhood friends to get married did so around 2 years ago. Last Saturday marked possibly the 3rd. Both were females... something still rather common in our society for females my age. The astonishing one was the 2nd in line... last year. He was the first guy amongst us to take the leap as some would put it. Interesting union that was, coz it made us wonder who the next guy is gonna be. Haha... weird, but the curiosity did cross the minds of quite a few... I'm sure of it.

Putting that aside (no real point to it), I was thinking about this tonight. Just got home from a casual dinner with 2 friends... partially celebrating one of their's birthday. Nothing extravagant or special in what we actually did, but the process of coming up with plans was rather... exhilirating. (Maybe that was too powerful a word :P). I was in the mood to do anything tonight; going for dinner in KL and coming back to Klang for supper (and potentially going to PJ midway or a pre-supper-snack was momentarily considered.. but time was not on our side). That was what we did... and I suggested them, amongst a few other ideas.

You see, under normal circumstances, I would shoot down such plans on a weekday coz it would be to darn tiring, a waste of fuel, and downright long-winded if you actually plot the trip on a paper. But I suppose the intrigue lied in the fact that I was intent on enjoying the moment. No lengthy plans, no rationalization, no worries, no hesitation. Heck, if one of them suggested to me to randomly walk up to a girl tonight and ask her for a drink and dance tonight, I would have seriously done it! Yes, sad but true, I'm a rather shy guy when it involves members of the opposite sex that I have no prior acquaintence with, but tonight would have been an awesmoe experiment. Too bad, it didn't cross my mind then, haha. If there was bungee jumping available at this time of the night, I probably would have taken it... contrary to my (lack of?) confidence in any M'sian-based bungee options :P Perhaps even test drive that car that I can't possibly own in the foreseeable future... like a BMW. I mean, getting the clearance to get the test drive is one thing, but to actually attempt for a test drive would've been a fun experience.

I could go on with the what-ifs but it is getting kinda late. My point is, it is quite a refreshing experience to drop one's notion of limitations and can't-do's for a moment and just enjoy the moment for what it is. True, do not take this to mean to drop your logic altogether (if at all), coz I'd still love to remain within the bounds of the law and my personal safety. But I was just wondering just how many times do any of us take to do something we can do yet we don't do it under presuppositions of lack of time or money, ridiculousness, fatigue, etc.? I, for one, notice it happens a lot... eevn more so now than before. Maybe that's why it feels good to occasionally indulge the desire to breakaway...

So, do you feel like doing something you've been dying to do for a long time?

Lifecycle... Thoughts of the employed

September...

This is a month of peculiarities, based on my observations and experiences over the past few years. Somehow, a lot of things culminate and seem to happen all at once in this particular moment of the solar journey. I'm just basing this observation around my professional life, though... not much to be said about how it applies to my social and private life.

I'm not accustomed to the idea of blogging about work, and I'm even farther away from spilling minute details about my career activities. Suffice to say, the theme of the month is transition. One project ended, another project started. One role completed, another role to fulfill. One research done, another research to initiate. Sometimes, it really feels like there aren't enough hours in a day.

2 weeks ago was the most hectic moment at work in 3 years. Late nights were late, and fatigue reached new heights. However, the ironic thing was that within these moments of code rush hour, I also seem to feel the thrill of achievement. There I was, sitting all alone in the office at 2:45am... and a 'Eureka' moment occured. Priceless indeed! It feels like being a kid again, having gotten my very own set of Legos(tm) and built my first toy city.

Of course, things have settled down of sorts at the moment, and reflection kicks in... introspection may be the word some opt to use, but that is just a matter of semantics and preference. As much as I love doing what I do right now, it ain't something I'd idealize to retain for the rest of my life. I think most people do what they do for several simple reasons:

• They enjoy doing it
• They are good at it
• They don't have any idea what they really want to do
• The think they can't do what they *really* want to do, and just settled for whatever opportunity came by

I fall in a combination of the first two in that list. However, the motivation and interest only lasts as long as Mr Brain doesn't get burned in the process. I find it extremely taxing to do what we do in our company, and it applies to everyone in the same line of work. There will come a time I must step away from this... branch out, explore, experiment. A few more years is what I think I will give this path...

... in the meantime, it is time to educate one's self to take new steps in the future. The best decisions in life usually require a certain amount of risk; our job is to make sure we opt to take a calculated risk. That requires a certain amount of knowledge :)

Just like any other week...

Merdeka weekend is almost at its end as I write this. Turned out rather uneventful for the most part. Had much work to catch-up on, and even this post is just a break from work. Can't seem to get some pieces of code done... the bane of 'ambition'. Haha, I'm kinda pointing a gun at my feet this time with some new design concept on my current project... but that's work; not something I'd like to talk much about.

Well, as quiet as the weekend was, Friday was rather tiring. A close fren sent out an invite to a family day event organized by his church. The only bad thing about the event was we had to be there by 8am. I don't even get up that early for work!!! Thankfully the morning turned out entertaining enough to lighten up the mood. I was playing the driver for 3 ppl that morning. Whilst heading to the last person's place, one of them made a 'what if' statement; What if she's still asleep? I was betting its not likely considering the friend we were al talking about has been having a rather clean record as of late. I couldn't have been more wrong :P

It was partly entertaining that the what if turned out true; even more so was the fact that she was still asleep! I had to make a call to report 'status'...

Me: Dude, we have a problem. She's still asleep.
Him: It's OK. Just wait a few minutes for her to get ready.
Me: You don't get it... she's STILL asleep.
Him: Oooooooo...

Anyway, after a few attempts at wakeup calls and some assistance from the said person's mom, we were on our way to the event. All the while, keeping ourselves entertained with the proceedings just moments before :P

The family day thingy was quite entertainingg. There was a combination treasure-hunt-ala-amazing-race thingy in the morning. Only bad part about this event was the scorching heat. The sun was seriously being unforgiving for the entirety of that day. Oh, actually there was a second downside but this was more personal than anything. The event was church organized, thus the clues in the treasure hunt were in someway affiliated with the bible. Soooo... I was blur! Haha. The only way I could make myself useful is by carrying the stuff we collected along the way :P

After lunch, there were indoor games. The variety was apparently reduced due to timing and the fatigue levels of all the participants. The heat was quite a drag indeed. Nothing much to report on these, mainly coz my head was half shutdown by then. I was almost dozing off; thus eager for the event to end so that I may head home for a nap... and a good nap it was, hehe.

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That's about it for this weekend. I was supposed to go wall-climbing again this morning, but kidna got bogged with work; so I opted to pass this weeks session. (Un?)Lucky for me, my other friends also decided to call it off... kinda feels good that I ended up not ffk-ing anyone :P Thinking of wall-climbing, I did manage to go last weekend. Camp5 (1Utama) is quite a bit bigger than the indoor facilities in Summit USJ, however it also comes at almost twice the cost in comparison to the latter. It was also quite a bit more crowded than Summit, so I think we'll most likely revert back to Summit for future sessions. Yes, it felt good climbing again... and it also felt painful the next few days. Haha, the lower arms seriously need more regular exposure to this activity to really become accustomed to it.

At least I know my body's reacting positively to it ;) It's not a workout if you don't feel it, they say. Secondary bonus; made a new convert out of a friend that I introduced to the sport that weekend, hehe. The more the merrier.