"do you have plan for your future?"

recently, i managed to keep in touch with a project manager who has left the company for more than one year.  we used to be pretty close, and both of us pretty much share quite a fair bit of our lives with each other.

catching up with her has set my mind thinking again.  the conversation goes something like this:

pm:	do you have plan for your future?
pm:	halo friend, you have a very valuable cert - NTU graduate.
pm:	won't waste it. it is a waste if you don't fully utilize it, few years later you might find out that you are far behind your friends who graduate together with you
me:	not really much of a plan.i think i am lagging a little behind le.
pm:	you are now only a little behind. just wait another 2 years. you will see more "difference" in it.

the last statement is enough to get my sluggish brain realized that i am lagging far behind my peers in terms of pay and career advancement.  i need to do something about this sticky situation.

everybody is changing

seems like people around me are now changing, be it for good or worse. i had my first counselling session with my cousin earlier on and did some catching up.

apparently my cousin is quite socially-inadequate to deal with the working world, and so in the end i had to do plenty of analysis for her.  i'm amazed by my own profiling capabilities, and accurately pinpointed her on her darn obvious mistakes.

however, she rekindled my hope to generate passive income for the while.  i should stop relying completely on my current pay package, which is insufficient by the way.  however, motivating friends are no longer there in my life. i need to depend on myself!

surprisingly, throughout the whole talk, my cousin didn't once lose her temper.  previously, she will flare up as soon as her ego is attacked and will never acknowledge her shortcomings.  she has changed, for the better.  she is more objective now.

anyway, change is the constant thing in life.  i hope that every one of my friends are changing for the better.

insensitivity.

recently i think i have become rather irritatingly insensitive.  i have been incessantly teasing a few friends of mine.

after re-evaluating the situation, i think it's time to stop all these so as to avoid embarrassment for all parties involved.

the cuff link connection

i had a prearranged rendezvous with 2 friends to do a short shopping spree to hunt for an extra pair of cuff link yesterday afternoon as i had gotten some new french cuff shirts recently.  

it was an interesting meet-up, and after dinner 1 of them left.  we went for a drink and engaged in a "interesting" topic.  we had pretty good laughs about a game we conjured up, where we were tantalizing each other in order to fish out the required information.  i think the 2 of us were pretty boisterous in the cafe.  

later into the night, i suggested chilling out at some drinking pubs. my friend, surprisingly complied, despite the fact that he is used to going to bed early.

over our beer pints, we started candid exchanges of opinions on a variety of matters.  perhaps, due to the  alcohol-induced relaxing mood, we, the 2 introverts, started opening up ourselves to each other and chatted till almost 3am! i think both of us had had a good time, though i'm sorry about the location of the pub as it brought back unpleasant memories for my friend.

i had not done anything crazy like this for a long while.  i'm glad for this meet-up tonight, and from our conversations i believed that we shared more sentiments and perspectives in common, or so it seems. though we knew each other for like over 2 years, we were nothing more than just mere acquaintances until recently.

i wonder if such event will ever happen again.  hopefully our serendipitous friendship can take off from here. 

food for thought

while walking home from the mrt station earlier on, again some thoughts crossed my mind.  i was wondering what should i do over the long weekend to commemorate singapore's 45th independence day.

then, i realized i've changed quite a fair bit. to quickly summarize, i am now leading a much more individualistic lifestyle than before.  i no longer actively seek out the company of my friends, being fearful that i am being overly-intrusive into their personal lives and space.

i have even lesser faith in other people.  past disheartening experiences as recent as the last one to two years are still fresh on my mind.  i have been back-stabbed and shortchanged.  i had been made to feel like i am a persona-non-grata in most social gatherings.  i wondered and still wonder if i had done anything inappropriate.

fearful that history may repeat itself, i contemplated a solution, and began observing and talking to people around me. data from my observations, to my amazement, actually supports my understanding of the ever-complicated horoscope signs.

armed with a new ability to quickly profile a person on-the-fly, i have become extremely fastidious in making friends.  no longer will i relegate myself to the position of being subjected to the whims and fancies of others, i decided to be the chooser, or the player.  i learnt to maintain an appropriate distance for most people and manage them.

at the same time, my interests and priorities in life has changed.  in the process of moving on with my life, the sour grapes started rearing their ugly heads, trying to anchor you so that you cannot move ahead in life, just like them.  you are not supposed to upgrade your fashion sense, cultivate your appreciation on the finer things in life, just like them, but just blow money on food, food and more lousy food, just like a glutton.  to (peasant) friends like these, please go and get yourself a life, you loser!

sometimes i really wonder, would life better for me if i just maintain a distance from everyone else?  the social animal within me complains.

truth about management

sadly, many supervisors think that "management" just means bossing people around. few realized that there an art to management. fewer still work to develop that art.

Source: Click here.

At the end of the day, the management is puzzled on why things turn out the way they are.

pesky insurance agent "friend"

i am extremely irritated with a "friend" of mine recently. he has been ringing me ceaselessly for the past one week or so from many different phone numbers except his hand phone to try to get me to buy some insurance from him at different hours of the day.

honestly, i dislike this kind of people. after not keeping in touch for the longest time, the first thing on their mind is to get you to buy insurance from them.

in the case of my friend, it's even more absurd. i shall neither work around your schedule nor go to you at your preferred (inconvenient) meet-up place. on top of that, just because you switch insurance company doesn't mean that my insurance policies switch with you.

bombarding me with calls and sms-es simply won't work. i shall exercise my right to refuse to answer any calls (especially from unknown numbers) or reply any sms-es from this so-called "friend".

great sunday nite out

i had planned to just stay at home over the weekend. however, i got extremely bored and thus came up with an ad-hoc plan to arrange for a quick meet-up with a friend.

we settled on having a sumptuous japanese buffet at himawari, alexander road, away from the crowds within the city. the buffet was extremely great, mouth-watering sashimi sliced to perfection with a generous serving of sukiyaki.

halfway along the meal, another friend joined us. he came pretty late, and we felt kind of bad for making the staff work overtime to serve us.

after the meal, probably because we had not meet for quite a while, we decided not to head home despite the fact that we had to report for work the next morning. we headed to the prata house at upper thomson.

the service at prata house is still as bad. both of my friends are arguing over the efficiency of how the police force operates as well as the legal system. what an interesting topic in the dead of night!!

we parted ways at 3am. i think i am so gonna take mc the next day.

despite initial resentments against this friend when i first know him, as he never fail to rub me the wrong way then, tonight, i realized that both of us can actually click very well. we do share a couple of similarities, and the funny thing is, we had been backing each other up throughout our conversations for the entire night.

i am glad that within these few weeks, i managed to re-connect with 2 friends whom i thought was lost for good. for now, i am contentedly blessed.

the ignorant teacher

sometimes i really cannot stand my japanese language teacher. for your info, i have been dutifully attending japanese language lessons for the past 8 months at bunka language school at orchard. i'm now at intermediate 3 level.

i have never met such a long-winded and ignorant guy before. although some of his comparisons between singapore and japan were valid, the rest of his arguments or comparisons were weak and reflected his lack of knowledge and inquisition about singapore, or any other general matters.

for instance, he glorified the role of teachers in society and belittled all other professions. so funny! i have never find the teaching profession that respectable, and an ignorant teacher like him spouting nonsense only reinforces my impression that teachers live in seclusion, alienated from mainstream society.

for goodness sake, he cannot even match a tie and shirt properly. all he knows about are burberry ties. how pitiful!

anyway, i still enjoy learning the japanese language despite all these =).

2 addictive songs

recently, 2 addictive songs has been repeatedly playing at the back of my mind. the lyrics are very meaningful and brought back both fond and unpleasant memories from the past.

here goes the 2 songs: