Life of Ice-Guy

Forest Adventure Grand Course

2009-05-18T09:12:00.003+08:00

Good morning to you blog,

I attended Forest Adventure Grand Course in Bedok Reservoir with my Young NTUC friends yesterday. Made new friends and was surprised that more ladies than guys attended the course. Look like the ladies are not afraid of trying out new things and guys are getting wimpy by the minute. Total of 4 guys attended the course compared to 12 ladies.

There was safety briefing conducted by the instructor before we set off for the course. The instructor briefed us that there were four sites to be completed. Each site will end off with a zipline which is actually flying fox. I looked around and realised that there are a lot of Caucasians bringing their kids for the course and having a mini picnic over there.

Site one is mostly like swinging to the net ala Tarzan and move to the platform for the first zipline. It ends off with the zipline to go to site two

Site two is where we need to make crucial decision. It is either we take the easier but longer route or harder but shorter route. Needless to say that I choose the latter as I wanted to take the harder route to challenge myself. The challenge is that you need to jump on the balancing logs with two supporting branches. It is energy consuming as you need to balance yourself before you jump to another log. After 20 minutes of balancing and jumping to logs, it ends off with the 220 m of zipline to go to site three.

Site three is the one where you need to complete a series of obstacles courses. It is easier than site two and we just need to complete one obstacle after the other. One of the obstacles is commando crawl where you need to crawl inside the obstacle and it ends off with a zipline to site four.

I was surprised to find an instructor for site four as the other three sites had no instructor at all. So I started on the site four and got confused on whether I should continue or just stand on the platform. The instructor guided me to say that I need to stand on the platform and will climb on a wooden pole. Practically, I needed to dig my toe in to climb higher. Then, I went for swinging to the net ala Tarzan but this time it is more frightening and I screamed as I never expected the difficulty level. By this time, I felt really tired but very energetic when I saw the final zipline to zip through the finishing line.

I felt happy that I completed the whole course as I love experiential learning rather than textbook learning.

We shall meet again blog :)

First entry in the year 2009

2009-05-05T15:41:00.004+08:00

Dearest Blog,

This entry will be my first in the year 2009 so happy new year to you. Year 2009 had been an eventful year for me. Well, I did survive the retrenchment exercise in my company as Singapore or rather Asian Countries escaped from retrenchment. This made me very appreciative of my job so far as I am not a desk-bound person.

I am a very out-going person so to me desk bound job is very mundane as you will be doing the same thing everyday without fail. Sooner or later, everything will be at your fingertip. But hey, it is still a job which lets you have income every month and I am deeply appreciative of it.

Here is the flashback of what happened in the year 2009 so far:

The CEO of the company touched down in Singapore on January 2009 and visited our office. I had to keep my table clean and neat. When he introduced himself to all of us and came to our table individually, I just shook his hand and sat down and did my work quietly.

On the third day of his visit, he held a meeting with all of us in the conference room. It was a fruitful meeting with one important question raised. Besides that, we laughed and joked a bit to relieve the tension of the meeting.

During dinner time in Keppel Club, I took a lot of food to eat as usual. My manager joked with me to share with others as I took a lot of food. Enjoyed the whole ambience in the first place as music played in the background. My colleague who is an excellent singer kept singing the songs whereas I went to the 'stage' just to take a look at the lyrics of the song. Nevertheless, someone was aiming me and in the end, I was 'forced' to sing which I did it reluctantly. I sang the song 'When You Say Nothing At All' by Ronan Keating and audiences applauded my singing. I even earned praise from CEO's wife that I sang the song well but inside my heart, I was pretty nervous.

I had a question for the CEO and he answered my question brilliantly and truthfully. Although he is a busy executive but he made an effort to know each and everyone of us in the company to make all of us feel very important to the company.

Two months after his visit, the CEO sent his regards to me through Vice President of Sales for Asia and Europe. Naturally, I felt touched as he remembered this little employee in Singapore all the way from US so I sent him an email to thank him for his well wishes and to my surprise, he replied to my email immediately.

This alone can made me work very hard for the company. We should not take things for granted.

I will continue to write more entries for the year 2009.

Take care blog and till we meet again

Neo Jia Yan (Part 2)

2008-10-09T17:19:00.002+08:00

Dear Blog,

From the previous post, I shared that Jia Yan is my first ever love. She deserved a place in my heart. The things that she did in the relationship were so significant enough to be remembered for life.

During the Christmas Season in the year 2000, she asked me to name five to ten friends of mine. I gave her the names without suspecting what is she going to do with the names. To my surprise, she handmade the gifts and cards to be sent to each of my friends.

She met me nearby my place and we went to deliver her handmade gifts and cards to each of my friends. We had a lot of fun delivering the gifts and she even wrote a card to thank my mother for raising me up. Such a sweet person she is. It is something which she did from the bottom of my heart and I really appreciated what she did and it will always remain in my heart.

At the end of the day, we broke up due to differences in race and religion and personal issues with each other and both of us moved on with our lives after that.

Jia Yan - If you happen to read this, thank you for being a part of my life once and you will always be remembered for the rest of my life. All the best in your studies and your future endeavours :)

Till we meet again blog.

Neo Jia Yan (Part 1)

2008-10-07T16:31:00.006+08:00

Dear Blog,

This entry is dedicated to Neo Jia Yan. I did not expect that I will type an entry dedicated just for her. I dreamt of her yesterday night. It was a very short dream of me and her buying some stuffs from bookshop and had a short conversation with her and then I woke up from my dream. Feeling glad that she appeared in my dreams, I just smiled and memories from the past kept flooding in. For starters, she is my first ever love.

Back in 1999, when Internet Relay Chat or rather IRC was rather popular, I met Jia Yan online in badminton channel. That time I was 18 whereas she was 13. We chatted online almost everyday and I started to fall for her as she was bubbly and cheerful. Soon, I created my own channel in IRC and called it 'crazyworld' and made her the co-owner of the channel and gave her the highest access. I expressed my feelings for her online but she told me that she has no feelings for me. But I told her that I will persevere and determine to win her heart.

In late 1999, Singapore Chinese Girls' School was having a openhouse and I thought that it is my chance to pay her a surprise visit at her school. Luckily for me, I knew some of the girls in Singapore Chinese Girls' School as I went to watch badminton tournament to support my friend. I walked around the school hoping to bump into someone I knew who can eventually lead me to Jia Yan. So I waited outside Sciences Laboratory. She came outside for a while and chatted with me. In the end, she needed to go inside. Although it was a brief five minutes meetup, I was happy with the outcome.

She disappeared from IRC for a while and both of us got on with our lives. I found out that she found herself a boyfriend back then and I was happy for her.

In March 2000, she came back to my channel and confided in me that she was not happy with her current relationship and she did not know what to do about it. I told her to salvage the relationship as I did not want her to be unhappy. But what I did not know is she is slowly falling for me. She would use her ICQ to send SMS to my handphone and I would reply back to her ICQ. Till now, I did not know how did that work but it did not matter at that time.

During May-June 2000, I was involved in Engineering Freshmen Orientation Camp so much till I did not have the time to go online to chat with her. Naturally, she missed me but she understood that I was involved in my school's activities. On the other side, her relationship with that guy was ending and there is no use of salvaging of the relationship anymore.

So when I got back home after the orientation camp, she messaged me this 'Buddy... You know how much I missed you? Welcome back home'. I felt touched when I read the message in ICQ. Then I replied her to come to my channel to chat and catch up on lost time. The feeling was great and I felt extremely happy.

She told me that her relationship with that guy had ended due to some reasons which I forgot. I asked her not to be sad as she is still young and can find another guy easily. She said that it is okie and she felt happy just by talking to me. Naturally, I cannot take any hints as I am pretty dumb with it. I need the person to tell me straightaway what is she trying to say but she refused to tell me the reason so I am pretty fine with it.

She asked me whether I still like her and then I said yes. Since she asked me that question, I better take the chance of asking her again whether our feelings are mutual. She said yes. I was surprised then but nevertheless I am happy back then.

In late July 2000, she agreed to be my girlfriend. I was damn estatic and was jumping for joy. After one year of wooing and chasing after her, I finally succeeded.

We arranged for a meet-up. It was our first arranged meet-up after meeting her in Singapore Chinese Girls' School. We met in Popular at Orchard MRT Station as she needed to get some stuffs from the bookshop (come to think of it.. sound like my dream). Hope that it was just a mere coincidence at all.

After that, we went out and I sent her back home.

Will continue next time. Till then blog.

Teenagers Nowadays

2008-10-06T17:44:00.002+08:00

Dear Blog,

Teenagers nowadays are getting from bad to worse. Is it because they watch too much movies or they have liberal thinkings nowadays?

Once I saw a couple showing their affections in public. In fact, way too affectionate for my likings. Imagine caressing each other in the bus and they are in the world of their own without observing that other people are actually watching them. Even saw some of their buttons been unbuttoned in the first place. It is like watching a free show in Singapore.

I feel that liberalisation got its limits. You can call me traditional kind of guy but I believe that anything that you do must have a limit. I can be considered liberal as my thinking is not old-fashioned. I do accept that society do change but I feel that moral values should not change at all.

Personally, I feel that society will turn for the worse for our next generation. Even this generation that teenagers are having sex freely and have multiple sex partners so I fear the worse for our next generation. It used to be guys who are seeking for sex partners but now girls are actively seeking sex partners. Been wondering what had happened to the society nowadays.

That's all for today. Till we meet again blog :)

Life

2008-10-06T15:14:00.002+08:00

Dear Blog,

How do you define life? Are we really enjoying life or are we suffering in this world? There are different perspective on the meaning of life in the first place.

My friend used to tell me that we are born into this world to suffer. I thought to myself 'Maybe yes.. maybe no'. We live a very short life on earth so why bother to think on the negative side since we live a short life. We must be happy and be positive thinking to move ahead in life. There is no use of being pessismistic at all in the first place if you get what I mean.

Personally, I feel that we should be grateful that we are given one life to live in this world to experience what is life really about. Some people abused their life by committing suicide just because they met with some mishaps and they thought that committing suicide is the only escape route for them. They do not appreciate the true essence of life at all.

What is the moral of the story? Life is short, play hard.

Till we meet again Blog.

Long Far International

2008-09-22T12:25:00.003+08:00

Dear Blog,

Yesterday, my secondary school classmate asked me about Long Far International. He saw my MSN nick a few weeks ago and he asked me because I will give him my honest opinion about Long Far International. So far, I did not have a very good impression of the company and the way they do things. Personally, I found nothing special about Long Far International eg. products, business plan (this one cannot make it) and others.

The way they presented their business is atrocious. They will not tell you that your commission will be based in Malaysian Ringgit in the first place. For starters, there is a big difference Malaysian Ringgit and Singapore Dollars.

The way they criticised Sunshine Empire is not a good technique of saying other company. Different CEO does business in a different manner. Long Far International do not need to keep on harping on how Sunshine Empire does business. At least in term of monetary terms, Sunshine Empire does it better than them.

At least they got their just deserts when Mentalk Candy was banned by Health Sciences Authority and it created a lot of media coverage like news on television and newspaper. Hope that more of their products will be banned.

That's all about Long Far International. Till then blog :)

My thoughts on friendship

2008-09-19T02:27:00.001+08:00

Dear Blog,

Personally, I feel that friendship is ought to take seriously as no man is an island. No one can survive on their own in the first place. All of us do need friends to support and encourage us in whatever we do in life.

I am thankful and feel blessed that I got a lot of good friends around me. Good people who are called friends instead of acquintances. Friends who can rely on with your life and they will never fail you in any instances. Those friends you can count on them. Friendship cannot described in words because it is way beyond explanation. You can feel it if someone is sincere about friendship.

Not all friends are good in the first place. Some of them just pretended to be your friend just to take advantage of you or make use of you and discard you when they fully make use of you and you are of no use to them. But I just heck care about those people because their motives can be seen as you get to know them better.

That's all about it. See you next week blog :)

My thoughts on relationship

2008-09-17T17:17:00.001+08:00

Dear Blog,

Relationships should be of mutual trust and understandings between a couple. There should not be a mistrust between a couple. If not, the couple will break-up eventually. Sadly, this happened to my last relationship.

I put in all my efforts in my last relationship with Serene. I even gave in to her demands and lowered my pride for her. Everything I did is for our relationship as I regarded her as my future wife. My weekends are reserved just for her and I even went to church together with her.

I found out that she had been doing a lot of things behind my back eg. like asking other guys to be her boyfriends so that she can lure them to her multi-level marketing business.

At first, I thought nothing had happened but when I saw her SMS from other guys, they addressed her as 'Dear' or 'Baobei'. I was pretty open with those words but whenever they asked her to meet her, she instantly agreed to them although she was with me at that time. I found it strange and demanded the truth from her. She said that she is doing this for purely business sense. But I told her never to play with someone's feelings over business. She did not heed my advice.

She is willing to do anything for money and I do not want my girlfriend or even my wife in the future to do anything for money. Money is something in life. We all need money to survive but there is no way that I can tolerate if my wife is willing to do anything for money. That will make her a cheapskate at the end of the day.

Lesson learnt - Know someone first before you really commit into a relationship.

That is all for this entry. Till we meet again blog :P

My thoughts on Multi-Level Marketing

2008-09-17T16:38:00.000+08:00

Dear Blog,

Multi-Level Marketing or rather MLM for short is a great phenomenom. They make full use of leveraging to earn money and it is a great business to be inside in the first place. However, the downside is it is a human business and you need humans to be inside in order for your business to grow. They will show you their business plan and will never tell you on how it is going to work or never even paint a bigger picture to their prospects.

However, on the downside, it will make you more aggressive to get your friends or relatives into the business. Thus, it will destroy the relationships with friends or even relatives. Your friends and relatives will start avoiding you and spreading bad words about you doing multi-level marketing.

You will need to buy the products at distributor price and sell it off the retail price. Best part is, they claim that it is cheaper than outside market products. After doing market research, I found out that their products are way inferior than outside market products and can be more expensive in contrast to what they claimed.

That is the main reason why I never did multi-level marketing in the end after weighing the pros and cons about the business.

That's all about the entry. See you next time blog :)

First entry on this blog

2008-09-17T12:33:00.001+08:00

Dear Blog,

Nowadays, I kept reading my friends' blogs and felt that I should re-start a blog again.

I got on with life after the break-up with Serene. The relationship was wrong in the first place. She used me as a pawn to get my friends into her multi-level marketing business. It is human business in the first place and I do not pretty like the idea in the first place although it is a lucrative business. Money is not everything in life yeah?

I went to visit my aunt last Sunday. It was a fruitful meet-up as I had not visited my aunt for the past three months. Felt guilty about it though. Told her about the break-up and she said that nowadays girls are very materialistic. They kept asking for the sky. Somehow, I totally agreed as Serene demanded that I should get a car just to send her back home after her late night appointment.

My aunt also advised me to see the world if I got the money. I should heed her advice.

I feel very blessed that I got a lot of friends supporting and encouraging me at the end of the day. Without them, I will not survive mentally and emotionally. Thank you for all my friends who has been with me through thick and thin like Karen, Theresa and Xinchun. Those who I called true friends. Friends forever.

My priorities now is to do well in my career and restart my studies part-time again. I made a mistake by stopping my education so that I will have enough money to marry Serene in 2010. That was stupid and naive thinking of mine.

Will write more in my next entry. Till we meet again :)