Get Paid Per Post, Literally

I saw on Laura's blog about payperpost and I was like "Wtf, they actually pay you to blog?"... Yes, get paid to blog.

Since I have heard a lot of negative reviews about sites like payperpost, I decided to head on over to the website to see what it is all about. I was instantly taken aback by the quality of the website, and how professionally done the site is as a whole. Hey! I am not going to judge a book by its cover, I say... so I googled. True enough, a lot of people are benefiting from participating!

Bloody hell, I am not going to be left out now, am I? Afterall, I spend so much time on the internet, so why not earn a few bucks along the way? I am just kidding - I intend to not just earn a few bucks hahaha. If I could get paid to blog about the things I love, surely it doesn't feel like work. So basically, it's just free money. Okay, you can stop rubbing your palms together now.

Laura said she put in an application in October 2007, and only recently did she get approval. I was reluctant to wait that long, so I sent an e-mail to the pretty people (I am sure!) at Customer Love yesterday (which was the day I signed up) and I got this reply almost instantly: "Thanks for the ticket!Upon reviewing your blog, I went ahead and approved it. Thanks again, and if you have any questions, please let us know! Happy Blogging! -Jenn".

Fantabulous! Join me at payperpost - you really have nothing to lose. If the most sceptical person (that is me by the way) can be convinced, surely you can be too.

Go Make Memories

Look at us. This picture was taken approximately 7 years ago. A lot of us in the Red Crescent Youth Unit Number 4 have gone on to become tight friends. Everyone is now off pursuing their own desired future paths.

Top (from left): Miss Tay, Puan Lim, Johnny Kiu, Yee Shin, Ying Ning, Wan Yin, Chau Ling
Middle (from left): Lionel Lim, Kenny Chang, Chee Yong, Tze Tung
Bottom (from left): Lawrence Wong, Lenny Kueh, Sze Shyang, Me, Heng Teck, Chang Sa'ar

Those care-free days will never come back.
Such is the beauty of memories. Go make them!

Have you?

Have you ever felt you are in a position where you need to get someone to do you a favour but the other person has been putting it off and it is causing you hardship and stress and loss of money in buying replacement items but you cannot get him/her to hassle because he/she is not obligated to do you that favour and you do not want to put further strain on a friendship that has already loosened considerably over the past couple of years?

I have.

Reality

Been rather stressed lately with all the new things that are either happening or going to happen in my life. Been thinking heaps, about how the future is going to pan out; about whether I should be doing this or that bearing in mind the fact that I would be away for potentially a long, long time; about life, surprisingly; about family; about all the different obligations expected of me by the people around me; and about myself.

I like it when I am thinking.
I feel alive.

Friends around me will know I can get rather philosophical at times. I guess I am one who tries to read beyond what is on the surface... and occasionally that can be to my detriment. Behind every action of others I will seek an explanation. Behind every word I will decipher its underlying meaning.

Most of the time, I can use the "reality" concept to good effect.

I think everyone has their own reality. The world one lives in is one's reality. One's perceptions of the world through one's own lenses is one's reality. If one thinks money is hard to earn and money is evil, that is one's reality, and there is nothing anyone can do to change that reality.

When two humans interact, we see the coming-together of two realities. This is where it gets interesting. I love noticing the clashing of realities. To me, realities are what separate the financially rich from the poor, the elitists from the egalitarians, the powerful from the weak. There are different degrees to realities as well - some people's reality is stronger, and some is weaker. No two realities are the same from my observation. As such, if we put everyone's reality on a scale, we would end up with a hierarchy.

Let's have an example - a rather common one I think.
"A" and "B" have an argument over a fact (that is, something set in stone).
"A" says the movie is at 7.45pm.
"B" says the movie is at 8.45pm.

The conversation goes something like this:
"A": Movie is at 7:45pm.
"B": Nope, it's at 8:45pm, I checked.
"A": It's definitely at 7:45pm, you saw wrongly.
"B": Impossible, this morning I was reading the papers...
"A": You saw wrongly, mate... it's at 7:45pm.
"B": Really?
"A": Yes.
"B": Oh okay.

Bear in mind the fact that "A" and "B" are both convinced of the time. In this case, "A"'s reality is superior to that of "B"'s, even though he did not check the papers nor did he back his claim up with evidence. "B" read the papers, saw the time, but due to his weaker reality, "B" succumbs to "A"'s persuasion and confidence.

I am sure you have experienced this before. You argued with someone, but were convinced that you were wrong... and then after you have checked, you found yourself to be right, and the other party was wrong! Your reality, in that instance, was weaker.

One's "reality" is affected by a lot of things, but the main ones would be self-confidence, persuasion and the ability to express an idea exactly like what you have in mind. I think someone of an extremely high IQ but with a weak reality will do a lot worse than someone of an average IQ but with a strong reality. However, I think more often than not, smart people have strong realities... it makes sense really, because smart people are credited for being smart all their lives, and from that they know they are better than the average person. Having said that, when someone smart meets someone smart, there will be a "power struggle" yet again, with the person with the higher reality taking home the bacon at the end of the day.

I have a lot more to say about my perceptions of everyone's reality, and how I believe one can enhance one's reality, but this post is getting too long.

Next time, maybe.

Qi

回想

听了这首歌,想起了妳.
一首 "you don't know what you've got until it's gone" 的感觉.
"雨天", "你给的伞", 很真, 很有意思.
没想到放弃妳的我也会猛然想起你吧?
Take care.

雨天
站在十字路的交点
该怎么走
我却只剩回头
除了你给的伞我再也没有
别的借口
去拥有你的什么

Chorus
你能体谅我有 雨天
偶尔胆怯你都了解
过去那些大雨落下的瞬间
我突然发现

谁能体谅我的 雨天
所以情愿回你身边
此刻脚步会慢一些
如此坚决
你却越来越远

奇

Tiring Festive Period

Lately there is hardly time to catch a breath!
So many things to attend to, mainly fun of course. :)
Let's see if I can recall what I have been doing...

Ricky, my KL mate from Perth, came down to Kuching, and lived with me for 10 days. So from the 14th of Dec until the 24th of Dec, I brought him around chucking at him all the local delicacies he could handle. You name it, he's tried it (and a little bit more!). On and off, Lionel, Lawrence, Kenny and Jerry joined us... like going up to Ching San Yuen (Lawrence, Kenny), Cultural Village (Kenny) etc. I managed to squeeze in meetings with Ying Ying, Jia Yiing, Eugenie and a couple of others. Met Jing, Cassie and Yee Wei before that.

(Above) @ Ching San Yuen

(Above) @ Cultural Village

I also went to Mulu during that time, from the 18th of Dec until the 20th of Dec. This Mulu trip was by far the most random trip I have ever taken. Ricky was keen on going to Mulu so despite it being the wet season, we decided at 4.00pm on the 17th of Dec to go to Mulu against all advice. We went straight to Sak Soon Travel Agency and got ourselves flights at 7.00am the next day - absolute nutcase. Mulu trip was good.

(Above) Day 2 of Mulu - Do ignore the expression.

(Above) @ Deer Cave, the largest cave passage in the world

Ricky left at 11am of the 24th. Sent him off, caught up with some overdue sleep before I went to Lawrence's house for the afternoon. Went to Bella Italia for Christmas Eve dinner with, let me see, Chien, San, Yee, Rence, Kenny, Wei, Siang, Shyang, Laura, Kshih and Maomao :). I introduced a few of them to Bella before and they all loved it so since we failed to book a table for 12 at Bla Bla Bla, Bella was the next best place.

After that, we went for a few drinks (perhaps a few too many for some lol) at Lounge 2 at BDC. Shu Wei treated us all to a bottle of Jack Daniel's. Thanks man. It was a decent night-out, made better by me rubbing our lucky draw ticket on Kenny's shaved head. It was to prove fruitful as we won the prize 10 seconds after that!

(Above) @ Lounge 2

Went home at around 2am, slept at around 3am, and was picked up by Lawrence at 7am on Christmas Day to go to Lionel's St Faith's Church's Christmas Day Service. Had breakfast with Lionel's Dad, bro and Kenny before that though. After Church we headed to Lawrence's house for a few rounds of FIFA 2008.

Had lunch with Hsiao Siang, headed home for an hour, before we played football. Harry and Jerry joined us. After football, we had Christmas Day dinner (or was it Ivan's Birthday dinner?) at Siang's place. Curry was great, Kachama was intoxicating and prawns were fresh. Oh and I won 1 coin too many...

Next day? Back to work after 6 days off!

Good Ol' Perth

2nd December today. I have been back for 6 days - reached Kuching afternoon of 26th November. I am not missing Perth, even though I spent 5 long years there. Maybe it's because I know I would be back there one day.

What I do miss, is the many people I got to know and love over the years. I was doing a clean-up of my computer, and came across a lot of pictures taken in Perth. Below are some in chronological order.

Warning: Dramatic change in body fat up ahead.

The people from Murdoch College. I started my 5-year stint in Perth doing Year 12 - the Australian version of Malaysia's STPM. As you can see from the picture, I was so bloated. In Lionel's words when he saw me in Kuching at the end of 2003... "a ball".

A group of friends I grew very close to over the years. From left to right, Rick, Kai Lin, Matt, Ru, Jeff, Raine, Myself and Karn. The picture was taken at Analakshmi, an Indian vegetarian restaurant situated near the Perth Bell Tower in 2004. This is memorable because of all the open tables IN the restaurant, I booked a table OUTSIDE the restaurant out on the balcony. It was at night, it was close to winter, and it was by the river... All night I was greeted with "Thanks Charles!". Haha, nuts.

This is my surprise birthday party of 2005. So much effort from everyone to make it a memorable one. As you guys can see I was all dressed up, because "initial" plan was to go the Burswood Casino. So Jeff picked me up, and said he forgot his wallet. Fishy, fishy. Went to his house and voila, walaoeh. Joelle's cake was so good.

This is the Mooncake Festival of 2006 at Su Qin and Ann's place. I lived with a homestay family for 3.5 years, but moved out in the middle of 2006 to live by myself at Johanson Promenade. How lucky was I to get to know Edward? He was like a brother figure, and helped me heaps in adapting to the new environment. With him around, dinner was never a problem!

This was taken April 2007. Went Down South with 3 Kuching friends and a Greek/Aussie. From left to right, Tung, Chuan How, Myself, Sin Joo and Paulie. We covered a lot of places in just 3 days. It was the first time I actually drove in Australia, and it was quite an introduction as well, driving over a thousand kilometres all up. Very sleep-deprived, but very fun.

Shared the best Thai food in Perth @ Saowanee's Place, North Perth, with Ricky, Nicole, Cherie, Jeff, Rick, Kai Lin, Raine and Karn. This was initially meant to be a farewell dinner, but then we decided to have another one at Joy Garden!

These are most certainly people I am going to miss heaps. We played indoor soccer everyweek at UWA's Recreation Centre. Quite a few Kuching lads in there, like Heng Teck, Asrul, Xin Long, Brandon and Wui Hao. Sure, I will have a lot more futsal sessions in Kuching... but it's just, well, different. The compact play in Perth (when playing 1 bay) calls for a different approach when playing, and my understanding with Bryan bears striking resemblance to my understanding with Lionel... maybe even better.

This was taken 3 weeks ago. Nicole was behind the camera (how nice of me huh, dragging her to take picture). I truly love and appreciate Mr and Mrs Leong. They took fantastic care of me for over 3 years when I lived with them, and I will never forget how Mrs Leong cried when I left. I have grown to know them so well, along with their sons and grandchildren.

Tina, Lisa, Melanie, Myself and Ricky. This was taken 2 weeks ago after Aeroboxing class - me and Ricky's final Aeroboxing class before heading home to Malaysia. I am a true veteran, being the only person having attended 4 years of Aeroboxing - beating even our instructor Lisa. Our class usually goes up to 7 or 8 people... with a few regulars like myself.

This was taken last week @ Joy Garden, with just a few of my closest friends. Someone not in previous photos but in this one is Gianni. Gianni came to live with me in Kuching for a week 2 years ago. We then went to Bangkok and Pattaya together, and then spent a few days in Kuala Lumpur. He does Law, like myself.

----------

These are just some of the many pictures. Never got to take one with Diana, who I came to know better near the end of my stay in Perth. The chabo hates taking pictures! Anyhoo, been great fun over 5 years... should have got to know a few people better as well - people like Nicole my housemate who, despite having seen her sleepy eyes and bad hair in the morning, I feel has more sides to her. No one to walk you home from University anymore, bratty! Oh Matt if you are reading this... sorry we never got to catch up during the busy period.

Ricky will be coming down to Kuching in less than 2 weeks. Close buddy from Perth, and I shall unleash upon him all the great food Kuching has to offer... like caterpillars and crickets.

Qi