• Ramblings

    Achievement Obtained

    December 21, 2010

    I have been stagnant too long. I have not put in enough effort and time for self growth. I was hardly reading any books, let alone spending time to improve myself.

    I asked myself why that it was possible for me to spend hours a day previously, in front of my PC, farming* while I can’t spend any effort to improve myself? That was when I realised a change in mindset was necessary. I need to think of life as a game. Hours spent farming* basically means hours spent reading a book, going for a self improvement course, or getting some certification in life. The only way to see if this new view of life was going to work for me was to put it to the test.

    I decided to get my driving license.

    Now, most people around my age will have obtained their driving license long before me. The thing was that I didn’t have the money to go for my driving lessons last time, and when I did, I really didn’t have the time. Of course, the fact that it was a chore going for the driving lessons didn’t really motivate me. So putting this new view of life to the test, I went for my driving lessons. It was really no difference between game farming* and going for driving lessons. I went to the driving centre for my driving lesson once a week, during the weekend. It was a 2 hours to and fro journey, for a 100 minutes lesson, for 6 months. Doing the same activity each weekend was really a chore, but by treating it as a real life farming*, I held on.

    After spending 2500+ minutes on driving lessons over a period of around 6 months, I went for the driving test, which only lasted 30 minutes, and I passed. Driving license obtained. Achievement obtained.

    Viewing it like a real life farming* really makes it easier. On those days when I just want to skip the lesson, I just told myself that if I can spend hours in a game doing the same task again and again, then I am sure I can do it in real life. It helped me to stay motivated. I am definitely going to use the apply the same mindset from now on. I will take a little break, before deciding what to go for next. The Project Management Professional certifications looks tempting.

    *farming in games means repeatedly doing a boring mundane task to gain a certain object over and over again.

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  • Words of Wisdom

    Anyway

    December 20, 2010

    People are often unreasonable, illogical and self centered;
    Forgive them anyway.

    If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
    Be kind anyway.

    If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
    Succeed anyway.

    If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
    Be honest and frank anyway.

    What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
    Build anyway.

    If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
    Be happy anyway.

    The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
    Do good anyway.

    Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
    Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.

    You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and your God;
    It was never between you and them anyway.

    – Mother Teresa

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  • Ramblings

    Encountering Obstacle

    December 12, 2010

    What do you do when you encounter an obstacle?

    Do you run away? Do you pretend it does not exist? Do you find another way around it? Do you try to solve the problem and make the obstacle disappear?

    I notice that each time I encounter an obstacle, I do not talk about it. I try to avoid the subject. To others, they think that I am pretending it does not exist. In fact, it is the entire opposite. I run through the obstacle in my mind all the time, probing, finding various ways to overcome the obstacle, and visualising the consequences, outcome of each one. In fact, this can take a long time, and it weighs so heavily on me that I go to sleep thinking about it, and thinks about it the first thing when I wake up. On the outside, I seem to be ignoring the obstacle, but underneath I am examining all the possible ways, workarounds, in overcoming the obstacle. The moment when I arrive at what I think is the best way to overcome an obstacle, I will go ahead and do it.

    Perhaps I need to come to a decision on the way to overcome an obstacle faster, else people will think that I am procrastinating, sitting on it, and pretending the obstacle is not there.

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  • Words of Wisdom

    The Brief Guide to Life

    December 8, 2010

    Found this somewhere:

    the brief guide to life:
    less TV, more reading
    less shopping, more outdoors
    less clutter, more space
    less rush, more slowness
    less consuming, more creating
    less junk, more real food
    less busywork, more impact
    less driving, more walking
    less noise, more solitude
    less focus on the future, more on the present
    less work, more play
    less worry, more smiles
    breathe

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  • Ramblings

    How Modern Life Is Like a Zombie

    December 4, 2010

    Excellent read on how modern life is like a zombie:

    My Zombie, Myself: Why Modern Life Feels Rather Undead

    This is our collective fear projection: that we will be consumed. Zombies are like the Internet and the media and every conversation we don’t want to have. All of it comes at us endlessly (and thoughtlessly), and — if we surrender — we will be overtaken and absorbed. Yet this war is manageable, if not necessarily winnable. As long we keep deleting whatever’s directly in front of us, we survive. We live to eliminate the zombies of tomorrow. We are able to remain human, at least for the time being. Our enemy is relentless and colossal, but also uncreative and stupid.

    Battling zombies is like battling anything … or everything.

    For me, I think life is like a roleplaying game.

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  • Ramblings

    Music

    December 1, 2010

    Music is my painkiller, my Prozac. Music helps to numb the pain. Music helps me to cry.

    Music accompanies me when I am happy. Music is in the background when I am with people that I care about.

    Music brings back memories, otherwise forgotten. Music gives me courage to face the future when everything seems bleak.

    “Music speaks what cannot be expressed, soothes the mind and gives it rest, heals the heart and makes it whole, flows from heaven to the soul.”

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  • Ramblings

    The End

    November 29, 2010

    Pearl Jam – The End

    What were all those dreams we shared
    those many years ago,
    What were all those plans we made,
    now left beside the road.
    Behind us in the road.

    More than friends, I always pledge,
    cause friends, they come and go.
    People change as does everything.
    I wanted to grow old.
    Just want to grow old.

    Slide on next to me,
    I’m just a human being.
    I will take the blame, but just the same,
    this is not me, you see, believe,
    I’m better than this.
    Don’t leave me so cold.
    I’m buried beneath the stones,
    I just want to hold on and know I’m worth your love,
    and I, I don’t think, there’s such a thing.

    It’s my fault now, I’ve been caught,
    a sickness in my bones.
    How it pains to leave you here
    with the kids on your own.
    Just don’t let me go.

    Help me see myself,
    Cause I can no longer tell,
    Looking up from inside of the bottom of a well,
    it’s hell, I yell, but no one hears before, I disappear,
    whisper in my ear.
    Give me something to echo in my unknown future,
    you see, my dear, the end, comes near, I’m here,
    but not much longer.

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  • Ramblings

    As Far As I’ve Come

    November 21, 2010

    “How do you get over it?”
    “You don’t. When one day you’ll wake up you find that you don’t mind carrying around with you, at least that’s as far as I’ve come.”

    – Castle Season 1 Episode 7

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