Its been a very mixed year… simplicity, complexity…

The year’s coming to an end, and I just feel like writing stuff down about the things that happened this year be it good, bad, ugly, beautiful… etc. Starting with a quiet but nice Christmas. I’ve known E since I was in TMC doing my higher diploma in Mass Communications, I recall that we met in 2002. We met up a few times for breakfast and supper if time permitted, but after a year or so we lost contact with each other, despite pinging her many many times but no reply. But having learnt my lessson with W, at times people just need to be with the people they’re with. Its just fate… but it never means that you’ve lost a friend. I guess real friends stay friends for life… really… and I’m glad that W still remains as one of the best of friends, even though we don’t meet as often as the rest of our good friends.

Till recently, E started to initiate hi’s and hello’s. We’ve not had a real, proper conversation for a few years, and only a few months ago we start to know about what’s going on in each other’s lives. It’d been about 5 years since our last meeting, and we finally decided to meet at the last minute on Christmas Eve. I was watching “Hero” which is a very old jap serial about this public attorney… got an sms from E and went online to see if she was there, since we’re both so pathetically alone on a Christmas eve, we decided to meet up nearby at a multistorey carpark to have beer and ciggies on the top floor. The moon was full and the air was fresh, and the conversation… quite amazing… there was chemistry and it was intellectually stimulating. A fine example of doing the right thing at the right time, at the right place. It’s been a really long time since I’ve had such a good conversation. Feel quite lucky to have met up with E during Christmas… perhaps the best company I’ve had in the past 5 years.

Looking back at the year, feels like its gone by in a flash. I have to think really hard about the stuff that’s happened in 2007, basically because I tend to take things too easily. In terms of work, quite a few colleagues have left for other companies, and quite a few new faces in the office at the moment. It does feel like a year of transition with my GM having left the company and replaced by another one… new procedures and rules put into place… basically quite a bit of new things came up in 2007. Not just colleagues but also spending time with new people like LP, M, Princess, KM, and just recently E… and I have to say life has become a lot more colorful being around such mixed personalities. I also decided to stop thinking too much about life… and just live the life that I want to live, to the fullest and just appreciate the good and get around the bad.

On the other hand, I’ve also stopped going to church. For various reasons that seem hard to comprehend… in my personal opinion, I don’t see much difference in me being christian as compared to other non-christians. In fact we are all the same people, with the same sinful nature who can never escape from the so called “devil’s grasp” till the day we re-unite with the heavenly Father. The bible seems too paradoxical and profound at times… in fact too profound for any human being to comprehend, not even sparing the religious leaders, pastors and priests. My belief in a higher power still stands… but I have doubts that anything of this world can comprehend that power… yet in the bible it says that we are made in God’s image, and its because of that we can comprehend… its only because of sin that we can’t comprehend… That I do agree. But yet, God has allowed evil to take place, not because He approves of evil, but He hopes that by His word we can learn. And if knowing that isn’t enough, living out the word in the flesh… Its plain impossible to be like Jesus, to be like that of a saint… at least for me that’s the case. I’ve since looked at churches as social institutions instead of God’s temple, and I just can’t help it. But I do believe in due time, I might finally understand what this is all about.

Its been a great year for friendships, I feel much more alive than before. I’ve done just about most of the things that I wanted to do other than travelling… and I’m just really glad that I didn’t continue the relationship with S. I would have missed out too much on the new friends and the new discourses…

In terms of money, I definitely have a mountain to climb… with less than a thousand dollars saved in the entire year, it’s not a good sign for the future. On the bright side, I now know how impt it is to prioritize and get your life right… and I’ve got the things I’ve always wanted and saved for. Lasik surgery has made life feel completely different, its given me a boost of confidence and assurance… and aside from visual clarity, I felt a lot more clear about life’s principles and who I am and where I belong. Anyway… I still gotta save more dosh for… ehem… marrying my soulmate if I do find her eventually.

Of course its not been a year of flowery optimism… 2 of my ex-colleagues have filed for divorce, and one my sec sch mates, Clauson, just passed away due to a very rare condition that has hounded him since childhood. The condition he had prevented him from growing normally… he looked like he was still in primary sch when in fact he was already in his late teens. People with his condition would live to a max of 28 years old… I believe he was 26 when he passed on.

As for my divorced ex-colleagues, both ladies, it makes one ponder how fragile a marriage can be… and the divorce wasn’t due to something like having an extra-marital affair, or whatever that seems understandable… but it was the realization that they cannot continue living together anymore, and that living together would stunt their growth and aspirations for the future. Of course at this time and age its really common to get a divorce… but as a romanticist, I’ve always believed that marriage is more than just 2 people getting together. Its about finding your soul mate, your partner for the rest of your life… someone not just there for emotional punching or excess baggage to throw onto… but someone to grow with you and live life with. No offence I’m sure that everyone thinks about this before getting married… don’t they? I realize probably not after listening to S’s account on why she got a divorce… which is of cos too private to reveal. Though perhaps a determining factor was getting married at a rather young age.

There’s just a lot of things to write but I just can’t seem to regurgitate anymore highlights of the year… but I’m thankful that friends like G, W, RN, E, I, WQ, M, L, are still around, asking how I’m doing, asking me to hang out and have fun. I’m really lucky to have great friends.

I’ve not much luck with love… but I do believe that the appropriate person and time will come by… besides being single is just so awesome. I get to meet anyone just about any time and place… I get to do whatever I wanna do whenever I want, I get to buy things without having to think too much about the future. I get to play pool, play games, basketball, watch football… the stuff that many women just can’t understand why we men love to do.

Well, I guess all there is now is to look back once in awhile, and move forward towards what I’m destined for… which I’m still in the process of finding out…

What’s life without music?

RN got me this new CD by Shin (lead singer from Xin Yue Tuan).

Ok… I know I jiak kan tang, but when something is good, it certainly gets my stamp of approval including chinese songs. This dude ROCKS! And I’m quite sure that this album’s gonna be one of those “look back in time and reminded of one of life’s stages”. Just like Luna Sea sends me back to my poly days, Chage and Aska back to sec sch days. At times, the tracks I listen to regularly just can’t seem to represent that mood or feeling… doesn’t really perk up the mood… and I keep surfing for a song to fill that void… this album has filled that void. I’m damn glad to find the right music at the right time. Thanks RN!

Xmas wish list

This is in no way asking you to buy me a present. I really mean it. Just listing only for fun.

1) Barracuda Juggernaut Mousepad
2) Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars
3) Call of duty 4
4) Supreme Commander Forged Alliance
5) Creative Live! Cam Optia webcam
6) Creative Aurvana X-Fi Headphones
7) Xin Yue Tuan CD
Erdinger Pack Thanks RN!
9) Transformers movie Dvd
10) The full Matrix Dvd collection
11) A friggin drawer… need to buy that.
12) A new chair
13) Mahjong Table + foldable chairs… gonna get it soon
14) Lost in Translation poster

How materialistic can one possibly get?

Beware: Extreme Poison below

Finally managed to install Bluetooth and post pics of my new PC

Asus P5K-Pro Motherboard
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 (2.4Ghz)
4GB Kingston DDR2 667Mhz RAM
Western Digital 320 GB HD SATAII
MSI nVidia GeForce 8800GT 512MB OC Edition
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty Xtremegamer (64mb X-RAM)
Creative Gigaworks T40 (2.0 Speakers)
Coolermaster Centurion 5 casing
Antec 650W Power Supply Unit
LG 20x DVD RW
Viewsonic VX2235wm 22″ LCD monitor
Logitech G15 gaming keyboard
Microsoft Sidewinder gaming mouse

Yup did a couple more upgrades compared to the previous post. Speakers are just insane. In fact the whole setup looks insane… proof that I’m a typical Taurus single male. Now I seriously love my room.

Creative Gigaworks T40 speakers at an angle.

The 2nd gen Logitech G15.

Microsoft Sidewinder. Sleek and poised for action.

The heart of the tiger, where all the stuff happens. Quad core processor, Geforce 8800GT, X-Fi sound card… etc. Gets pretty hot with just stock cooling.

Crysis. The game of all games… currently. Beats the crap out of my PC specs.

Damn shiok. I wanna play all day… all week… grrrr…

New poison… muahaha

It has since made me extremely broke. But this really tops off the feeling of getting a new custom cue by miles.

Asus P5K-Pro Motherboard
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 (2.4Ghz)
3GB Kingston DDR2 667Mhz RAM
Western Digital 320 GB HD SATAII
MSI nVidia GeForce 8800GT 512MB OC Edition
Coolermaster Centurion 5 casing
Antec 650W Power Supply Unit
Viewsonic VX2235wm 22″ LCD monitor w inbuilt speakers
LG 20x DVD RW
Microsoft Wireless Laser Desktop 4000
Microsoft Sidewinder Gaming Mouse

And its true. Windows Vista is pretty sucky, but luckily not sucky to the point that I cannot run anything. Internet Explorer 7 on the other hand, is incredibly and undeniably horrendous. It kept hanging and lagging which makes the simplicity of web surfing terribly irritating. I’ve since switch to the FireFox web browser, thank God for non-monopolization.

In the past week, Vista hasn’t really hung up on me yet, but today I couldn’t get one of the latest updates from Microsoft (using the auto update). Had to troubleshoot a little bit in order to get the update downloaded and properly installed. I freaked out a little bit when I ran Hellgate and the game just wouldn’t start up before that.

I’ve got 3 new games. Hellgate London, Crysis and Gears of War for the PC. I’ve not tried GOW yet… cos Hellgate and Crysis are such great games to occupy my time. Crysis is a really gorgeous game. Realistic terrain and enemy AI… seriously tests the limits of the latest graphics cards out there in the market. The weapons in Crysis are astoundingly detailed, and Halo 3 really can’t be compared to this game (Halo fans included). Just think about how cool it is to actually be wearing a nanosuit that can give you the ability to cloak, possess super strength, possess super speed, and provide armor against incoming fire.

I was very apprehensive to get the Sidewinder mouse. There’d been a lot of mixed reviews about it’s huge size, and the reviews for the Logitech G9 mouse seem to be more consistent throughout hardware sites. I decided to go for the Sidewinder in the end cos the G9 was ridiculously expensive. Got this at Sitex as it came as a bundle with Gears of War. The award winning Xbox 360 game has since been beefed up for the PC and has a better overall gameplay as compared to the Xbox 360 version. Looking forward to this one.

Also, I’ve been wanting to play Company of Heroes for the longest time since it’s release. Also looking forward to get Command and Conquer 3… the game that swooned me over once video previews were released.

So many games to play and so little time… I’m living the typical male single life here. Life is good…

Also, the first person to read this entry will be 1500th hit on my blog. Thank you for reading guys!