regretting fun

i have ORD for about three months now, alongside with few other guys of my batch as well. currently, the general trend for all of us would be looking for jobs and working to earn the cash. at the same time, not forgetting enjoyment and the paper works for further studies. as human beings, we tend to compare, so the only thing we ORD people would compare now is our salary per month. i used to earn a rough $850 per month throughout the second year of NS to ORD. currently, as a private tutor, i earn about half of that per month. many of my peers who ORD same time as me and are currently working will frown at that. they will go on about asking why i wouldn't go and find a proper 5-days work week job which can fetch an average of at least $1200 per month. someone even asked me if me if i would even regret earning less than the others before i enter university in August this year. well the latter remark hit me into a chain of thoughts and i'm here to lay them out.

private tutor. people always ask be why i chose that. well, first and foremost, i have the passion to help and teach others. as some of you might already knew, i tried applying for the MOE teaching internship but got rejected and hence i chose to be a private tutor. on top of that, my working hours are really flexible and i can wear any attire i like. the main purpose of me working now is to have enough money to support my expenditure from now to graduation. saving up for house, marriage, car and what not is secondary and would be primary upon my graduation. i work to support my expenditure so that my parents can worry less.

free time. too much free time they said. yeah some remarked and questioned me if having too much free time would bore be or result to me thinking i'm wasting time. well, i am not wasting time. enjoying my free time through leisure activities isn't wasting time ti me. i can watch shows, read news articles, write posts like this that requires some thinking, exercise, meet-up with old friends, shopping. i can do many things that full-time workers can hardly have the time to.

well, i foresee those full-timers condemning me as giving excuses to make myself feel better. hmm.. you might be a little correct but i would like to add on something that light up in my head the other day when i received the question. i realised throughout my entire life, which was mainly as a student, i never once regret having fun. 

i can poor results and regret not working harder but not for playing too much. i can study really hard and still get poor results. then i would regret not working my ass off but i would regret more for compromising play time to do more work than usual. get the idea?

so yeah, in retrospect, i never regret having fun even if to some of you it might seem too much at times. at the end of the day, when i start spending the next few years studying in university, i know the currently life will not be repeated again. after university will come work and building a family.. not much rest. by then, i would not want myself to regret not having enough fun when i had the chance to.

some always regret playing too much or working too little. for me, i will only regret not having more fun.

idiots yet again

i am very sure i have talk about this movie more than twice here. probably one or all of them were deleted when i clean this blog up a week agao. anyway, i'm going to talk about it once again since i watched i for who knows how many times couple of days back. 

"3 Idiots". it is a tamil movie and the one and only tamil movie i really love. okay, "Slumdog Millionaire" wasn't that bad either but "3 Idiots" is still the better one hands down. basically, the story revolves around the three students, two of which who are not that bright and the other a bright and street smart one. they explore the education system in an engineering college in India, showing and finding harsh truth and facts about the lifestyle and the hunger for good grades. the film is full of funny and warm hearted moments that will sure entertain you for a rough 150 minutes. really worth watching.

if you are not convinced, here is one of the funniest part of the movie to give you a little taste. of course, if you want to watch, be sure to have subtitles.

so yeah, if you yet to watch it, you are missing out a big part in life, trust me. anyway, i think i'm entering the phase again where i re-visit those shows that i won't get sick of no matter how many times i have watched it.

procrastination

i have to do so many things these couple days and i have to settle numerous admin related tasks soon. some of which i have been procrastinating since the start of this month, partly thanks to CNY i guess. nonetheless, at the end of the day one cannot blame procrastinating besides oneself's laziness.

procrastinate now, panic later. that's what they always say and i'm fully aware of it. thankful that i managed to bring myself to start doing stuff that i could start long ago and that have to be done in a month or so time. one good example of me finishing what i procrastinated for a really long time was giving my unwanted working classical guitar. i intended to give away since last year November but waited until a couple of days earlier to really find a friend who wants it. one procrastinated job done.

so yeah, better start doing more fruitful tasks, especially those which have been delayed for quite a while. last but not least, i found a meme to best describe procrastination.

workout song

sometimes when doing workouts or exercises, one requires beat and rhythm from songs or soundtracks. personally, i listen to dance or trance at times when doing so. recently, i found one good one. nice beat, not too loud and the track is long in duration.. though it doesn't really matter since you can activate the replay button. so here it is if you are interested.

love for football

someone once mentioned that if you love something or someone, you give in your all. today it is something. football.. or, as the Americans called it, "soccer".

i have loved the game for at least 9 years now. i am an Arsenal fan for 8 years, a Real Madrid fan for 2 years, a fan of Spain's national football team for 7 years now. there are many crazy things i do for football, be it playing in real life or watching the beautiful game.

for watching, i can list numerous crazy shit i done. staying up all night to watch the Champions League final numerous years and going to school at 6am thereafter. waking up at 3am to catch Spain winning Euro Cup in 2007 and World Cup in 2009. of course, many more.

my point? i would do really anything for the sake of the love for football. tonight will not be an exception. big clash big match between Man City and Barcelona. tomorrow night.. Arsenal and Bayern Munich. both a 3:45am here. that's how i roll.

lastly, let me be super cliché and end off this post with a quote from a legendary footballer.

ice and water

remember those times in primary school where during breaks. guys and girls would play and run about the the field or playground during weekends? you play common games of catching, declaring someone being the catcher and instantly disperse. well those games seem pretty lame now and i have to agree to that. however, of all catching games, i realise that the game "Ice & Water" actually indirectly taught us quite a bit about real life.

okay, before i move on, i have to consider those who did not have as great childhood as me and explain how that catching game is played. well, in "Ice & Water" the catcher will chase the other players and attempt to catch them. upon tapping them, the victim will be frozen and has to stay rooted until other survivors come and tap him/her, enabling the victim to run again. the catcher can choose to guard the frozen one and attempt to freeze those survivors who attempt rescue or go ahead and run off to freeze the others. the catcher wins when all are frozen.

well, so yeah, this game sound simple and indeed it can be fun for young kids in a group to play in the playground or open field. surprisingly, this kid game teaches kids some things they will understand and see in later stages of life.

from a catcher's perspective, "Ice & Water" teaches us to tackler he weaker ones before moving on to the tougher ones. the catcher will definitely go for the slowest runner first and so on. similar to you daily routines, one should always take step by step. start with basics or easy ones before moving up. you can't learn to run before you learn to walk.

from a runner's perspective, "Ice & Water" teaches us that if you don't improve or push yourself you will bound to die. if you are slow or lagging behind in speed, you will get caught first. you always have to seek ways to improve yourself and to push yourself beyond your limits in some time or other. basic survival requirement. somehow, this sounds like the Biology term of survival of the fittest.

from a catcher's perspective, "Ice & Water" also teaches us that whatever we earn can be taken away and thus we have to safeguard those we hold dear. the catcher will at times safeguard the frozen victims to prevent them being risk taken away or rescued. same situation, we have to safeguard whatever we earned especially when you have to run quite a bit to attain them.

ahh.. one of those moments when one reminisce childhood playtime. 

giving tree

ohh wells..

good 100 minutes

well if you are observant, you would know that if i ever share YouTube videos, they would be mostly songs and occasional some random ones that can relate to the current blog post topic. i rarely show someone's awesome piece from YouTube and what not.

however, with that said, today is different and is one of the rare times where i will introduce to you a really good piece of YouTube video production. it is a 100-minutes movie done by the user Corridor Digital titled "Sync". this is a sci-fi story and i would say the storyline is really well crafted and detailed. the ending is great and the build up is pretty decent. only drawback is that character development could have been better. 

trust me, it will be a hundred minute well spent. this user uploads about one to two videos per month and their specialty is mainly special effects. so yeah, enjoy it or you can save the URL and watch it when you have a straight 100 minutes of time.

560 to 99

well if you see here, this is like the 100th post of the blog now. haha but yeah.. it shouldn't be. actually, the blog just went through a great change. from the original 560 posts, i have deleted most of old posts to 99 now. this is the 100th. well, don't be shocked or sad. it is just yet another time where i think ditching the past is good and those were the posts where the titles were the same. all were "_____". lol.. so stupid, come to think of it.

too bad for those who just know me and found this place. you cannot really stalk me through here. this is the second time i do such a major crap on this blog. this blog was created in 2007 i think.. in 2010 i did a revamp that is bigger than this. of course, i deleted posts that time as well. today is the second time, hopefully the last.

chances

mistakes. we have all made them and we will be making numerous more in time to come anyway. nonetheless, the knee-jerk reaction when one realizes he/she has made a mistake would be apologizing. otherwise, after certain prompting, he/she would as well.

well, the main point i would like to highlight today is about giving them the chances. to begin off, personally i find those who apologize for the sake of doing so to get by quickly deserve to be smack in the face. if you do not intend to be sincere, don't bother trying. if you are, show so. for a start, yeah if you are insulted or what not, make sure you feel right about the aggravator's apology before moving on.

so moving on, here is the part where it gets tricky. people are all about second chances and of course i totally agree to that, no matter how big a mistake it is. however, as human beings, we have something called empathy and would at times go beyond second chances. a third, a fourth, a fifth chance.. so on and so forth. so how many chances would we have to give before we say that it is enough and here is where forgiving should stop.

personally, i realise i do so in relation to how close the person is to me and how bad the mistake is. these two factors are taken together no mutually exclusive. not sure about you all but i find that after some time and numerous chances given, the same old apology seemed less meaningful and sincere no matter how the opposing party put it. when one apologizes, i take it as a call to change after knowing he/she was definitely in the wrong. so if it is repetitive, what do the past apologies actually mean?

haha okay this entire issue is just a food for thought.

back in business

hello people, just here to give you a quick update. a certain character is revived and back in playing business again. here he is..

for those who still don't find such an avatar familiar, it is from the online gaming site Viwawa and that is my avatar and character. if you are interesting in playing online mahjong, chess, card games, go try it out and you can find me. as usual the name is "zapproid". used to play rather often then i stopped for quite awhile but now i'm back. relax people, no real money is needed to play here just all online credits.

that voice

this cover is too good to not share. never thought a guy could cover this song this well. your ears will be pleasured.

CR7

might be late in Singapore time but not so in Spanish time.

to the inspirational player and one of the few existing football player that defines this generation of football, HAPPY BIRTHDAY.

birthday deal

it has been only the start of the new year and my Facebook, Instagram, Twitter feeds have been flooded by heaps of pictures showing the January babies celebrating their 21st birthday. yes, i am old, i get reminded by them that i will be turning 21 too in half a year's time.

people love to say 21 is a big thing. it signifies adulthood and independence, the start of the end of rebellious and ignorant youth, the start of real adult life, the beginning of the taste of the real society. responsibilities, pressure, freedom are up couple of folds.

nonetheless, the main thing i want to say today is not talking about the noble number but rather, taking the chance to say i'm not a big birthday person. i chose now to say out in words probably because of two reasons: i am smarter than the last 20 years to put in proper words and i am using the big excitement of my peers turning 21.

so, don't get me wrong, i don't condemn celebrations but rather having being asked many times why i would not like to host a big party when i turn 21, i feel the need to voice my opinions.

the first reason will be the hassle to entertain guests of my birthday party. the last time i had a party, i had different groups of friends and my extended family coming over to celebrate. as you can imagine, i had to really keep talking and moving around now and then. i can't really enjoy much. furthermore, it is my birthday party but it somehow seemed that the guests enjoy more than the birthday boy. older now, there are more groups of friends so more time for guests less time for me. too much a hassle and trouble entertaining.

the second reason will be i prefer hanging out with those i truly love. having big crowds do not mean i love all of them really much. more often than not, it is a social moral obligation to host people whom you clique with throughout the last twenty odd years. however, i prefer having really close friends, family, friends who are like brothers and sisters around me anytime. i don't know.. maybe i am just not that good with a big crowd. you might find me weird that way.

the third reason will be the stress and trouble one faces whenever planning for a party. i've planned for numerous meet-ups and what not and at times they can be tricky. think about planning a party.. the cost, the venue, the people, the accessibility, the date/time. for cost, cannot be too cheap or too expensive. for venue and accessibility, must be easy for those taking public transport. well you can figure the rest on your own. so yeah.. for me they are too much for one me.

the fourth reason will be that birthday is all about the person. so i personally don't really like parties for the obvious reasons as mentioned earlier. i won't be pressured to host big parties or what not and invite all the friends i have for a night of drinks and party. i prefer the less noisy approach and the one where i can spend more time enjoying than to stress about the preparations and spending too much time entertaining others.

so yeah, there you have it, my views on my own birthday. in fact, these reasons apply to me every year. i wrote this year because i agree with what society thinks about one thing.. that is turning 21 is a milestone. so cheers to those who just turned and will be turning 21 in the year 2014.

bitches be crazy

shall introduce one YouTuber that i subscribe to.

DOMICS.

this guy is talented, funny and creative. his videos are mostly vlogs but in drawing forms. he can relate to our daily lives and struggles. more than half of the time, you will be laughing and being entertained as well.

the following video is a lame one from him. do check out his channel.

cheers

it is February and first few days of Chinese New Year has just passed. Happy Lunar New Year once again to all my Chinese friends.

this year's CNY was pretty different. finally the first CNY without the army bug in my head. last year, i was on standby, meaning i could be called back to camp anytime. so it was pretty mundane to keep checking the phone in case camp called. two years ago, i was busy preparing for my enlistment which was the 9th day of the CNY. so this year, i'm back to be a pure civilian once again.

well, too bad for fatbro, this year he is experiencing what i experienced two years ago. he is enlisting tomorrow. while he prepares for his enlistment and celebrating his CNY with a half-happy heart, i'm chanting "where got time" whenever i have the chance. army lingo so don't worry if you don't understand the real meaning behind that phrase.

nonetheless, back to topic, CNY last few days has been good so far. lots of eating and gambling. glad to win back whatever i lost on the first day yesterday. on top of that, i won slightly more. little family politics have been a norm for years and this year wasn't exclusive. however, there is only one sad thing. looking at my grandma, i find that she has been acting pretty odd these few weeks. she is near 90 but hoping she can remain healthy for many years to come. cheers everyone.