Will's Fountain of Useless Info: Reloaded

Time flies so fast that it's kinda scary actually. Suddenly without much notice it's end of December 2009 already.

Between my last blog update till now, there has been quite a number of things going on in my life:
1) Managed to squeeze another dive before season close. My first ever Liveaboard.
2) Celebrated a couple of birthdays.
3) Attended 1 of 2 funerals (one is colleague's husband, one is friend's father).
4) Went to 2 weddings.
5) Reunion with uni mates, some which I've not seen for 10 years.
6) Went to Cameron Highlands.
7) etc...

Too many questions in my mind now... gotta sort it out real soon

"We crucify ourselves between two thieves; regret for yesterday and fear of tomorrow." Charles Fulton Oursler ( 1893 - 1952), American journalist and writer.

Quite true, don't you think? At least for myself, I spent quite a bit of time reminiscing the past and regretting about things I've done and things I should have done. Then I spent time pondering about the risks and variables of decisions I'm about to make. If fear overpowers reason, then I would do nothing, and then I'll spend time regretting for not making a decision later on. Sounds like a vicious cycle huh?

Yup... am back from Malapascua already. Here's a summary:

- Dive resort was pretty good, clean and have nice food. Their thin crust pizza is really nice. People are generally very friendly. But one drawback is that they will charge you for anything... water refill, ice cubes, etc etc...

-Dive sites are superb. Managed to see the Thresher Shark... absolutely graceful with it's waving long tail. Lots of macro stuffs too, especially during night dives, where all kinds of crabs will be active... pretty nudibranches, but size wise is pretty small, averaging about 1.5 to 2 inches

- Travelling is a bitch if you don't do direct flight (MAS has, but very expensive). Our Cebu Air flight flies from LCCT to Manila (3 hr+), then transit flight to Cebu (about 1 hr). After that we have to ride a van for 3 hr+ to the jetty. After that a boat ride of 45 mins to reach the dive resort.

- Locals eat very salty food. We stopped by a local food store for lunch (like our mixed rice stall setup), and most of the stuffs are pretty salty (especially the vege). They eat a lot of pork... they have something like our siew yuk (very nice!), char siew (all fats), and other flavors like sweet and sour etc. Another really big thing there is grilled chicken (lechon manok). You can see it everywhere on the street. Didn't managed to try them except for the ones at the dive resort. Flavor is quite good.

Overall, a dive site worth visiting, IF you can endure the long travelling time, OR alternatively you can spend more and fly direct with MAS. ;)

Yeah, some of you might only hear of this place for the very first time. Actually me too when my friends say "let's go Malapascua for diving!".

Malapascua is an island to the north of Cebu island. It is supposed to be the only all-year-round thresher shark cleaning station.

Quoting Thresher Shark Divers site:

The thresher shark, or Alopias pelagicus is a type of mackerel shark or Lamniformes. In German it is known as Der Gemeine Fuchshai, or fox shark. The threshers grow up to a length of 5-6 meters, about half of which is the huge scythe-like tail for which it is named.

And not to worry, thresher sharks feed on squids and schooling fishes like mackerel and herring. :)

Looking forward to a good dive and great fun with my dive gang.

I've always been very afraid that people have high expectations of me. It's not that I can't deliver, or that I'm not capable, but it puts a lot of pressure on me because of the "what if I fail" factor. I hate the feeling of having to disappoint someone. It sucks big time. I guess that's probably the reason why I always try to stay very low profile.

Lately I feel like I've disappointed a few people. One of whom was expecting me to be able to help out on some web related stuffs. But I couldn't find time to actually do research on the matter because I've never worked on these things before. And I don't have the heart to actually openly refuse to help. This made me feel really bad. And then there are other stuffs. All these made me feel very down.

I guess somehow the above made me somewhat commitment-phobic. Because when I am committed to something, I always deliver. So sometimes I dare not commit myself because I'm not sure if I'm able to deliver, and in turn disappoint others.

*************

Wait... I actually started this post wanting to talk about me feeling sad that most of my blogging friends are now in a half-retirement (some fully retired) mode, mainly due to Facebook. Well some of them said that Facebook can be updated much faster, and friends can get notified through the feed page. But content wise it's so much different from blogging. I would compare Facebook/Twitter status vs Blog is like comparing fast food vs gourmet food. In FB most updates you get is like one-liners, where as in blogs you get to see your friends compose a nice story.

Anyways I'm off to Malapascua, Philippines this Saturday. Yay! Diving again. Hope can see some rare sea creatures over there. Sometimes I wonder how long can I hold on to this passion. With my desire to try out new things, I might give this up and try other things. Of course I haven't figured out what at this moment. Having said that, aikido is here to stay. No way I'm giving that up (I hope).

A very close friend of mine is having some relationship issues lately... and these are some viewpoints that I shared:

********************

For any relationship to work, both party have to make some sacrifices. And you can't say that it should be fair that each party contributes 50%. In actual fact for any relationships, one party is bound to sacrifice more or contribute more.

In a relationship most of the time a couple will also be complementing each other. One party usually will compensate another party's shortcomings. Nobody's perfect, sometimes both party should overlook some flaws in each other

And of course sometimes you want each other to change for the better... but being human, it's definitely not easy to change, especially if it's a habit that has been stuck with him/her for many years. It is going to take a lot of time and effort, and it is not always successful.

********************

Very deep huh... like speaking from experience... ;)

They are a very sweet couple. I really hope things work out fine for them...

After all these years... I seem to have lost any form of motivation. I realize I'm becoming more and more indifferent.

How am I gonna get back some motivation?

What about you? What drives you?

*Sigh*

Tomorrow's 1 hour presentation is gonna be one heck of a long 1 hour... well I don't know, might just breeze through it too...

Let's see how it goes *fingers crossed*

about the meaning of it all - Life, as we call it. It's like we come to this world, and everyone, well, almost everyone would have some kind of a purpose. And after some time (days? months? years?), we kick the bucket and that's it. Well, I don't know if there would be an afterlife... I hope there is, otherwise it'd be a really scary thought, trying to imagine the nothingness or void. I always try to remind myself, do it or die regretting for not trying at all. Many times this is what motivates me to do extraordinary things.

from the Klang GH. Dad was admitted due to hypertension. BP shot up quite high. Waited like 3 hours plus to get everything sorted out. Some more they don't have enough bed space, have to squeeze the beds here and there. Wished that I have gone to a private hospital instead. The nurse was telling us that the floor has 69 patients but only 2 doctors (plus some trainees running around). Some more can see drama, this trainee doctor asking a lot of questions and get scolded by the doctor - "go ask the patient la for god's sake".

PS: Dad's ok after taking some pills. BP started dropping.

Happy(?) Birthday to me! :P

*sigh*

Another year has passed for me... still no achievements worth noting. Well, at least managed to do a few things (as mentioned in my new year post if I remember correctly) that I've been wanting to do:
1) diving - yeah... finally, like after 8 years or so
2) Aikido - well actually the objective was to pick up some physical class. Was thinking along the line of yoga, taichi... and ended up with Aikido (really fun, no regrets picking it up)
3) change job - yeah, again. So far new job has been good, in fact much better than the previous one
4) change car - well, didn't really change car, just upgraded the engine because the original one is giving me lots of problem already

Upcoming:
- rekindled some plans for side income, hope things work out
- get a gf? I don't know...
- been slacking on Thursday tutoring for the homes, need to find some time to visit them
- kick some ass at work
- dive more... feel like it's been quite a while since my last dive
- socialize more... haven't been meeting them clubbing dudes for quite some time already

Am having training for the whole week, and next Monday will be taking a certification test. Hope all is well. *fingers crossed* Will be bonded by the company for a year because of this.

Ok, first one is not so random. My colleague who joined the company on the same day as I do, has left the company (today is last day). Poor thing, have some hard time working with another colleague (which seems to bring a lot of emotion to work). Oh well... I hope it's for the better.

Now this one is really random. Don't know why suddenly the idea of telnet talkers came into my mind. Man, these are like the ancient chat rooms I used to get very much involved in. Enterprise, Tardis, Jaguar's Lair... I spent (wasted :P) hours and hours there interacting with people from around the world. Well, I did gain something from it I guess... my typing skills. Hahaha... :P

我以为，没什么大不了的。可是，不知怎么的，心却在隐隐作痛。

或许我真的不该触碰感情。

是时候要学习如何把我的心冰封起来了。

... and we're almost half way through 2009 already. Man, time sure does fly, innit? Today's post is gonna be very random... just random thoughts off my head.

Have you guys ever thought about this: the color that I saw might not be the color that you see. Yeah, some time back I was reading about friends doing color blindness test on Facebook, and this just suddenly hit me. What if not everyone's eyeballs are created equal? Maybe the color which I see and recognize as red, your eyes might see it as blue (in my interpretation), yet that is what you would label as red. You get the drift? Or are you confused now? :P

So if it really is as above, then that would probably explain why some color matches look nice, while some others might disagree.

Ah, screw it. I'm off to bed. Nite!

Seems like I've neglected my blog for a while (almost a month and a half since my last post). Many things have happened since then:
- fallen in love
- went camping with some friends to Jerangkang waterfalls in Pahang
- played paintball for the first time @ Mudtrekkers
- car got rear-ended, though quite minor accident
- quit my job (finally) and started my new job yesterday

Basically I've fallen into a procrastination mode lately. Just don't feel like doing anything and wanted to put everything on hold. Could've been because of the quitting of my old job I guess. In conjunction with the starting of my new job, I guess it's time to hit the "reset" button and get myself back on track.

Earlier, in the shower, I suddenly ponder about the meaning of our existence. Sometimes when you think about it, it's not that complicated afterall. Most of the time it is us who makes things so complicated. Like I always say, life is very short. Some day when we lie on our deathbed, we would probably think back and everything happened would just be like a dream. So I am reminding myself not to always hesitate on things I want to do or buy. Of course, looking back now, I have improved quite a bit, accomplishing things that I wanted to do but never thought I'd do, like diving, learning to dance, taking up aikido lessons, playing paintball, tutoring underpriviledged kids... all the little things that makes life much more fun to live. I guess to me, life is about how you keep yourself happy and how you make others happy. Period.

I guess I'll give myself a little pat on the shoulder for my progress so far. Hoping to see myself do something more in the future. :)

After hearing all sorts of things (mostly horror stories) about Tenggol (with regards to diving), I finally made a trip there last weekend, and survived. :P

Tenggol is an island East off Dungun, Terengganu. So you can consider it being North of Tioman and South of Redang. Not many people know about the island except for divers. That's because there's nothing much on the island except jungles and 3 dive resorts. But this island boasts to have some of the best dive locations on East coast Malaysia. To get there, you need to take a boat ride from Dungun for about 35-50mins (depending on sea condition).

Because the island is not as commercialized as the likes of Redang and Tioman, the reefs and sea life is better preserved (though it is deteriorating quickly due to irresponsible fishing activities). The resorts here are pretty run down, so don't expect too much. (But lately they made some renovations and patched the place up, so it is better already). Fresh water comes from underground source, while power is only available from 6:30pm to 8:00am through a diesel generator. Food used to be crappy, but they've just changed to a new cook, so it has improved tremendously (according to my friends who have been there before).

... (More on the dive next post)

Yesterday me and a few friends planned to visit the hot air balloon fiesta in Putrajaya. So we met up in the morning for breakfast, then left for Putrajaya. By the time we reached there it was around noon, and the hot air balloons are nowhere to be seen. Then the announcer mentioned that the balloons would only be flying at about 5:30pm, so seeing that we have a lot of time, we decided to go for karaoke lunch in Puchong.

Come to think of it, this is the first time in 2009 that I've stepped foot into a karaoke. So after some singing and lunch, time is up and we left the premise. Seeing that we still have some time, we drop by Alamanda to hangout for a while before going back to the fiesta location.

By the time we reached the fiesta grounds once again, it's just past 5:30pm. Traffic was quite bad as many are also rushing in to see the balloons take off. As we reach the fenced up compound, we're just in time to see the balloons getting prepared for take off. It was quite a sight to see indeed. There are some funky shaped balloons like a peacock, an elephant head etc, apart from the regular shaped ones. Because the weather was still quite hot, I suspect that the balloon couldn't get enough heat differences in and out to really lift it really high up, so after lifting off for a while, I could see some of the balloons are hovering while trying to maintain altitude. The pink elephant head balloon couldn't get enough altitude and ended up taking an emergency landing in a small park not far away.

All these balloons reminded me of an event near my house in Klang many years back. At that time, a cigarette brand sponsored an event that sees about 8 balloons or so flying across Klang sky. In fact I still keep the foldable binoculars of the event. Really brings back some memories.

It's just another day for me, but there are people who thinks it is a very unlucky day. Well, to all you Paraskavedekatriaphobia people, eat your heart out... there's 3 Friday the 13th in 2009. February, March, and November. :P

According to some online source, this Friday the 13th comes from the combination that some believes that Friday is unlucky, and to some the number 13 is unlucky.

But then again, some civilizations like the Egyptians and Chinese believe 13 to be an auspicious number.

Anyways if you're interested to read more about it, check out the links below:

http://urbanlegends.about.com/cs/historical/a/friday_the_13th.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_the_13th
http://www.paranormalknowledge.com/articles/friday-the-13th-history.html

Overall my experience has been great, once we landed on the Sam Ratulangi airport. The people are friendly (except when they drive), and dive sites are nice. It's a pity we didn't get to see much of the big fishes (as my sifu says, the Manado fishermen are too good, they've caught most of the edible fishes).

We stayed at this hotel called Quality Hotel which deserves a mention. It is strategically located in the town center. There are many food stalls within walking distance, and the Mega Mall is not far away. The staffs are friendly and service is good, not to mention the rooms are very very clean and tidy. One funny thing is when sifu told my friend about our accommodation, it goes like this:

Sifu: We'll be staying in Quality Hotel
B: So which hotel is it going to be?
Sifu: Quality Hotel la
B: I know it's gonna be a quality hotel, but what's the name?
Sifu: Quality Hotel loh. The name of the hotel is Quality Hotel
B: Oh...

We dived at a few locations, mainly around Bunaken Island and Lembeh Strait. According to the web, it would've been better to dive between May and October, the so-called "dry" season, as visibility can reach up to 35m. Overall here there's an abundance of lionfish, porcupine fish, puffer fish, razor fish, and nudi branches. I managed to spot a white tip shark, though my friends saw 3. There's also something special there, called the electric clam. It's a red clam with electical charges but I didn't manage to take note of the electric charge.

There are many makan places. Wisata Bahari, seated on the waterfront, offers a variety of fresh seafood, from mantis prawn reared inside 1.5l mineral water bottles, to coconut crabs and lobsters. Another worthy mention is Raja Sate, just a little further on the opposite of the Mega Mall, which specializes in grilled meat (satay). Somewhat off the main street is Green Garden, a Chinese restaurant that has satay babi and a lot of Chinese dishes. Over here they maintain a couple of display aquarium with a variety of sea creatures. One of them even has a Mandarin Fish!

There are also a lot of stalls at the waterfront selling banana fritters and grilled fish. Didn't really try them out but they all looked quite good. We've even seen a whole team of police stopped by a banana fritter stall to have their afternoon tea.

One word of caution, their chili are REALLY hot. You have been warned. :P

Apparently the massages here are pretty good and cheap too. My friends went for it on the second day. I wanted to save it till the last day of diving, but missed it because we didn't have enough time in the end.

There are 2 famous alcoholic drinks here, the Cap Tikus and the Saguer. I heard that the saguer is a lot like our toddy. Cap Tikus on the other hand is a clear distilled (also palm based) liquor with alcohol content of about 50% (my estimate). Here they like to use coconut for a lot of their cooking and baking. Coconut syrup (like our gula melaka) is also often used, especially when you order a coconut drink. They'll add it for you or give you a small cup to add as you see fit.

As I went there mainly for diving, didn't really have much time to visit other attractions. Apparently there's a city called Tomohon which is surrounded by 3 volcanoes, about 25min (according to some online source, locals told me about 40mins) away from Manado town. There's supposed to be a hot spring around there too. Then there's the Tangkoko National Park which has the world smallest monkeys - the big-eyed Tarsius. These are some of the attractions that non-divers can go have a look.

If you've read or watched about The Secret, then you'd know about Laws of Attraction. Basically it says that you get what you wish for, something like the genie in Aladdin's magic lantern.

Apparently many people tried out the theory, with various outcomes. I've even read about groups of people who got together, bought lottery tickets, and wished that the ticket is the winning ticket. And they claimed that they have a good success rate.

For me, I've decided to do my own experiments after watching the DVD. And frankly, I don't know if it's coincidence or what, but I had some degree of success... although I don't really get what I wished for, but close.

Case 1:
I wished for a million dollars. Yeah, don't laugh, I prefer to aim high. :P
Outcome:
Out of nowhere someone sent me an MP3, a Hokkien song with the title "If I had a million dollar"

Case 2:
I entered a contest and wished of winning the first prize.
Outcome:
I won the second prize instead.

Case 3:
Lately I relived the idea while chatting with my friend. This time I aim for 3 million (hoping that I might strike the Pan Malaysian Pool lottery).
Outcome:
I changed 3 million Rupiah with RM936 for my Manado dive trip.

So, what do you think? Coincidence? or Laws of Attraction?

I don't know, maybe I should be more specific next time. :P

十五天的农历新年一转眼就过去了。在这十五天里，还真的参与了不少活动。先是回了外婆家一趟，在那儿住了三天。然后就到处去拜年，聚餐，捞生，拿红包。

最后，在今年的元宵节，我终于亲身到现场见识了人们抛柑，捞柑以及放天灯（孔明灯）的活动。因为我的一个朋友要带他的女友去看看，所以我成了导游兼电灯泡。去到现场，那场面可真热闹呢！只见人山人海，大都是年轻的男女。一些商家也乘机大捞一笔。就快熟透的柑一颗一零吉，一个天灯四十五零吉。我没打算要捞柑，所以没带工具（害羞嘛）。

:P

Happy Chinese New Year to all. Looking forward to a Healthy, Prosperous and Joyous year ahead.

just go here ...

Hahahahahahahaha...

or Last and First...

Drove down to Seremban on Saturday morning (3rd Jan) to attend my last wedding dinner invitation of the year of the rat, which also marks the first wedding invite of 2009 - Zybisko's wedding. Initially the plan was to drive down together with Mr Engineer and Loctor Mayat, but due to some logistic issues, the plan fell apart and we decided to just meet there.

Arrived after about 45 mins of driving, the 4 of us met up for breakfast. Then me and LM went to become "heng tai" cum cameraman for Z. MrE wanted to join but unfortunately he's got work commitments, so he can only join us at the dinner. It was quite funny that Z had a lot of last minute arrangements, living up to what uncle Zybisko senior calls him - "the last-minute man". Because Z is a photography junkie, he's got like at least 5-6 cameramans (all his friends) on the ground capturing every single moments of his wedding. You should see them when they were chatting, all the terminologies starts flying here and there... D300, 400D, D90, 105mm, 50mm... etc. Despite all the last minute arrangements, the "jip san leong" event went through smoothly. Then everyone went off to take some rest.

As evening approaches, off we went to pick up Z and send him to the restaurant where the dinner is held. Again, the last-minute man is at work again... compiling the slideshow DVD the very last minute. :P But no problem there, everything got sorted and off we went.

At the restaurant a small hiccup occured. The projector was showing crappy images. There was a brief moment of panic, and the 3 tenors engineers (MrE, LM, myself) came to the rescue and managed to sort out the issue. From thereon, everything went pretty smoothly.

There, another one rings the wedding bells... and, stop asking me when is my turn! :P