Lex's Jottings on Life

What angry birds taught me about life

2012-02-11T05:31:00.000-08:00

If at first you miss yr goal, godammit try and try again
True friends back you up when you fail
Insanity is trying the same thing over and over again n expecting different results
Foundation is very important
One action causes a chain reaction

Make every shot count

5 green pigs, 2bird. Yeah life is unfair deal with it

The solution is simple and staring at u in the face. Think simple. Dont complicate things

stupid ad by stupid people

2012-02-11T05:28:00.000-08:00

Air kosong 30 cent. indah water 27 cent. Baik u byr ke iwk?
Jadi u minum air paip lo

What I did today

2012-02-06T04:08:00.000-08:00

Public holiday today.

What I did

reorganized by living room
built a malm
vacuumed the carpet
finished mafia 2
completed motorcycle tyre rim

others left to do:

ultimate magazine
workout
piano
read a book

todo in jan/feb

2012-01-22T18:39:00.000-08:00

capsule hotel - stay overnight in capsule hotel in kl
mpo - listen to an orchestra

a life resolution #1

2012-01-21T01:25:00.000-08:00

Fuck it, let's do it

I'm not calling this a new year resolution because if I accomplish this, I'd be sitting her twiddling my thumbs until 2013.

So here's Life Resolution #1 and #2

#1 : Lose 5 kgs
#2 : Learn a round off

Doing things that you don't want to do

2012-01-20T00:37:00.000-08:00

I will not go into specifics here, but say you are in no position to say no and you gotta do what you gotta do.
It could be attending a meeting, meeting someone, cleaning the house etc.
Assuming you can not escape from it, here's a few tips to make the experience bearable:

acceptance - whether you like it or not, you still have to do it. So accept the situation already.
change your attitude - you can go into the task kicking and screaming making yourself and everybody else miserable in the process or you can plaster a smile and breathe a sigh of relief when it's finally over
do your homework & PLAN ahead - be prepared. if it's a meeting, arm yourself with facts. if it's a presentation, practise practise practise
imagine when it's over - don't think of the minutes/days of the impending task, but of the second it is over and you heave a huge sigh of relief. Would you prefer feeling good having done a good job that you hate, or feeling like crap days after the fact, cause you spent all your energy hating it?

TURN NEGATIVE INTO A POSITIVE

Notes from books

2012-01-13T19:16:00.000-08:00

Why do you go to work?
I t's a strange question because most people think that the answer is as plain as the nose on their face.
You go to work to earn money to pay your bills and to provide all the good things in life for you and your family.
That's the obvious answer, but it's not the real reason. Y ou go to work because that's what is expected of you. I t's as simple as that. I t's what has
been expected of you and me since we were knee high to a grasshopper. Y our family expects you to go to work, your friends expect you to go to
work, the people you work with expect you to go to work, your neighbours expect you to go to work, society in general expects you to go to work. In
today's society, we are conditioned - brainwashed even - into accepting a life of employment without question.
When you grow up you get a job. Everybody knows that.
I call this Plan A.
In theory it sounds great. I f you work hard at school, secure a good job, set your sights on promotion, climb the corporate ladder, you will live
happily ever after.
The reality unfortunately is often somewhat different. For far too many people, Plan A means working longer and longer hours just to make ends
meet, being condemned to a life of wage slavery, drowning in a sea of debt, blighted by poverty of mind and spirit, and existing merely to work.

People
would rather suffer sleepless nights, a nervous breakdown, even a heart attack, than stop working because, according to Plan A, work is what we
do. In fact, as any doctor will tell you, some people would rather die than face the fact that their job is killing them.

Get out of a system that values you less than the share price of any PLC you care to name. Get out of the rat race that sees you working longer
hours and still unable to make ends meet. Get out of the debt that is like a yoke around your neck. Get out of the madness that has become our
daily lives.

What do you think an alien would think of our "civilisation" if it landed on Earth and discovered that we place a higher monetary
someone who can punch a head or who can kick a ball than we do on someone who saves lives or who is prepared to give his or her life?

We don't have anywhere near the money that David Beckham has and so we retreat into our comfort zone and console ourselves by saying that
he is vastly overpaid for what he does, that it's a disgrace that footballers earn so much, no wonder match ticket prices are so high, the man's an
idiot, his wife's a . . . you get the picture.

In exchange for a pay cheque, you sell your time to someone who
is buying it. And probably at a ridiculously low price too.

Just consider the language that we use to describe our lives. We work so that we can earn a living. Earn a living? Is working 40 or more hours a
week really living? And I mean REALLY living because to earn that living we spend our priceless time at work. Most of our waking hours in fact. Y ou
spend your priceless time earning £5, £10, £20, £50 an hour, for the best part of your life and we call that "a living".

Not living live to fullest, just living

I f you lose your job, sure it's disappointing. But you don't cease to
exist just because you've lost your job title.

I f you want to know about the potential of human life, talk to a child under the age of five. They believe anything is possible. When they grow up,
they'll own their own zoo. They'll fly aeroplanes. They'll picnic on the moon. And who's to say they won't do all that and then some?

snippets from books

2012-01-12T19:16:00.000-08:00

Take a look at the people around you—the people you choose to spend your time with. Are the conversations with them positive or negative?

Do you spread gossip and relish in the crumbling lives of others? Or do you support each other and encourage success and positive results? Do your friends constantly engage in activities that drain your pocketbook? Or are your friends truly happy with an afternoon just hanging out at each others’ homes?

It is your coworkers and your peers who have the power to make you successful—or ensure that you don’t succeed, either through negligence or through

“This isn’t life, it’s just stuff. And it’s become more important to you than living.” The typical American lifestyle—buying an expensive home that pushes what you can afford, constantly striving to keep up with the affluence of others, working a job that you can’t even consider leaving because the pay is just too good

Once we get the thing we want, we always find that there is something else to want.
Our self-importance makes us think that we need to receive to justify giving. This is the same part of you that seeks to be right instead of happy. Is it worth it?

When you can give without expecting anything in return, you have mastered the art of living.”

Every single one of us is a warehouse of information and skills, both useful and otherwise. Although we aresometimes tempted to preserve these things for ourselves, it is only when we share these attributes that they have value.

Your solution is self-evident—make it harder to watch television by doing something like getting rid of the remote (or storing it in the opposite end of the house), and you’ll bump against a passive barrier, freeing you to spend your time on other activities. You can still actively choose to turn on the television, but it now requires much more action than before, which is often more than enough to direct you down a different path

gtd
“[G]et a big wall calendar that has a whole year on one page and hang it on a prominent wall. The next step was to get a big red magic marker. [...] [F]or each day that I do my task of writing, I get to put a big red X over that day. After a few days, you’ll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You’ll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job next is to not break the chain.”3

Ebook scams

2012-01-12T03:28:00.000-08:00

So many self improvement sites out there. Teaching you how to :

be a minimalist
save money
make money
be fit
lose weight
retire early
buy property

So many ebooks out there to filter through especially from sites like clickbank. Normally you won't know what you get until you buy it. Then you're either impressed and find the book useful or be dismayed to find it's mostly fillers with 0 content and less than 50 pages or worse it's a thick book but the fonts are so big that a blind man could read them.

How to see through ebook scams ?

be wary of too many testimonials even from reputable bloggers. they probably scratch each others' backs
write the author and ask for a table of content
see if you can download it online
judge the cover. is it cheaply made, is it using royalty free images? most bodybuilding books are guilty of these. I've seen the same abs used on multiple covers by different authors
does the author's blog contain useful content? if not, what makes you think his ebook will be any different?
does the blog contain less than 10 posts or solely to sell the ebook?
is there no author face associated to the book? is he hiding something?

Example of reputable ebook sites:

4hourworkweek
joelrunyon (his ebook is free)
zenhabits

When people piss you off at work

2012-01-10T23:15:00.000-08:00

Things that people do that piss me off

stupid/sarcastic statements
raise voice in office (if you gonna behave like a goon, go work in construction. the office is no place for you)
avoiding confrontations
have aimless discussions with no clear objective in mind

What to do

ignore them
breathe & calm down
if i cant change others, i need to change myself

i got a tattoo today

2012-01-09T23:05:00.000-08:00

Design: Phoenix
Why: I like wings, resurrection, reborn, new life, animal although personally I don't really like birds as they shit a lot
Where I did: Yang Lee Tattoo
How much: RM400
Pain level: Like having a knife dragged across your skin
Duration: 1.5 hour

2012-01-05T18:49:00.000-08:00

u know you're addicted when you wake up 6am to play this

Save money on drinks

2012-01-04T18:44:00.000-08:00

If you are a water only drinker, skip this post.

I have a habit, when I'm in the mood, I'd buy a Coke, or a 100plus or ribena or tea.
It is a bad sugar habit and an expensive one at that.
Think about it. These drinks aren't cheap nowadays. They go for about RM2 onwards. That's RM60 per month, assuming I buy one bottle a day.
RM60 that can be spent on a nice xmas chicken (that's another post, yummmy)

Self discipline doesn't really help curb the habit. As I don't feel the RM2 daily pinch.
So what to do?

Look past the labeling and realize that these drinks are essentially:

ribena - I can make my own at home for virtually the cost of 1 concentrated bottle of ribena that can last me a year

green tea/ice lemon tea - think sachets, buy them by the boxful.

100 plus - water and a pinch of salt for flavor
So from now on, I make a bottle before I leave for work.

Neat Workspaces

2012-01-03T23:13:00.000-08:00

What i will do

Regain control of your inbox. Throw away magazines and newspapers you have no intention of reading. Clean up your email.

ME: resolve to clean 2 pages of gmail per day
throw away unread mags in my office table
Clean up your desk. Throw away stuff you haven’t used in months.
ME:Every cup/food packet must be thrown before i leave for work the next morning
Find a relatively clean space to create.
For me this would be my computer space. I used to have this small IKEA table which just fit my all in 1 pc but no space for anything else so i changed to this white colored one & used a bigger notebook instead of a huge 23" screen.
Limit your distractions. Turn off email, phone, and social media tools. Force yourself to focus on one thing at a time.
I set them to vibrate

A little at a time

2011-12-31T00:22:00.000-08:00

I used to envy people who are talented. Those who are artistically inclined & great fighters. But I failed to realize that I am only looking at a snapshot of the person at that moment in time. I do not see the process and the hardship he/she went through to get to where they are now. Behind every artist, there are thousands of practice paintings, behind every fighter, there is sweat, blood and multiple knockdowns.

From today, I resolve to not wait for the time to be perfect to start something.

Start something today, no matter how shitty, at least you have taken a foot forward.

from joelrunyon

You want to write a novel? Commit to writing a certain amount of words every day [750 perhaps?].

for me, it is publishing a magazine.

so i'm doing one article per day

Want to be an artist? Try creating a painting everyday for 100 days. [If that's too much a commitment, try smaller sizes or doing sketches].

Goals for the new year

2011-12-29T20:00:00.001-08:00

The Impossible List

Life Goals

Be remembered by martial artists
Make a difference for dogs/cats that have no owners
write a book

Fitness Goals

run 5k on a treadmill
workout with kettlebell once a day
get kettlebell certified
3rd dan karate
4th dan tkd

Travel Goals

Visit Egypt
Become Fluent In japanese
obtain NZ PR

Minimalism Goals

Clear my storeroom throw at least 2 boxes worth of trash

Adrenaline Rushes

Pilot a plane

Events To Attend

A play by Alan Rickman

Professional Goals

Put 50k in a year
Buy a mini mart

one step at a time

2011-12-23T02:52:00.001-08:00

from joel

Start a project. Jog a mile. Drive somewhere on a

weekend trip.

“But it’s not possible.”

Yes it is. When you decide that you’re going to do

it…no matter what…you can do it.

When you start a small project and it succeeds, a

business doesn’t seem so far away. When you jog a

mile, jogging a mile and a half doesn’t seem ridiculous. Once you go on a weekend trip once out of

state, going on an extended road trip doesn’t seem

so bad. Who knows? You might even go out of the

country next time.

If you keep doing this, you’ll find out that most of

your limitations are in your head

change adobe language pack after install

2011-12-12T17:31:00.000-08:00

easy peasy. no need download anything

just type:

start->regedit

32 bit

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Adobe\InDesign\6.0\User Interface Locale Setting.

64 bit

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / SOFTWARE / Wow6432node / Adobe / InDesign / 6.0 / User Interface Locale Setting.

and chg the value to 1

paleo diet

2011-11-10T20:08:00.000-08:00

I'm currently on a paleo diet (for health, not losing weight!). My colleagues call it the pariah diet. Basically you follow the dietary habits of paleolithic predecessors, since they were healthier with less funny diseases (cancer, diabetes) compare to today.

Things that I can eat: meat, fish, vege, fruits
Things that I cannot eat: dairy, wheat, grain, lentil (what the heck's that?), rice, carbohydrates, soy

This severely limits my food choices since malaysian foods consists mainly of noodles and rice. And when I order chicken chop, I have to wait a longer time for it to be prepared. Nowadays, when I'm outside, the food that I normally order are:

roast/grill chicken
fried fish (i know! it's not healthy!)
soup
beef something
murtabak (i discard the outer layer)
eggs
popia

on nights that i cook, i cook for 2 meals (1 will be freeze dried)
normally:

stir fry chicken + broccoli + celery + shroom
eggs
bacon
beef stir fry
tomyam soup (beef + veges)

Physically, I've noticed I'm less bloated when i wake up, and my body aches are gone (minus the ones from karate training of course)

I've got this book from Mark's daily apple and it got me started on the diet.
I'm gonna keep on this diet until my aunt arrives.

Money & love

2011-11-08T22:20:00.000-08:00

Source

What would your partner say is the annual income your family would need to be happy?
RM180k. thats breaks down to about 15k a month
Place the following items in order of importance (1=top financial priority, 10=lowest financial priority):
- furniture
- retirement
- car
- clothes
- vacation
- really good/healthy food
- entertainment (dining out, movies, etc.)
- college
- gifts
- home
  
  healthy food, entertainment, furniture, home, retirement, college, vacation, clothes, gifts
Discussions about money are: A) Easy and constructive; B) Occasionally difficult but eventually lead to a resolution; C) Usually combative and lead to arguments; D) Nonexistent.

Fight like hell
How much would your bank account have to sink to before you panicked?
below 15k
How much is too much to spend without consulting your partner?
10k
Would you loan money to friends or family? Would you borrow money from friends or family?
Never
What are the three best purchases you’ve made as a couple? The three worst?
houses, bike, business
worst: none
You get $1,000 back as a tax refund. What would you do with it? What would your partner do with it?
put in bank, he's the same
You view money as: A) A necessary evil; B) The path to happiness; C) Nice to have, but I won’t sweat over it; D) Where’s my wallet?
path to happiness
Which of the two of you is more likely to:
- Know how much is in the checking account (both same)
- Buy an expensive gift (me)
- Look for the best deal (both)
- Know how the stock market fared (him)
- Do the taxes (both)
Do you think that when the creators of The Newlywed Game chose the phrase “make whoopee” as a euphemism for sex, they considered the fact that some people would think of the whoopee cushion (invented in 1930)?
yes
When it comes to investing, your philosophy is: A) The stock market can be beaten by buying the most promising stocks, B) Don’t try to beat the stock market, buy index funds; C) Avoid the stock market, it’s too risky; D) Chicken makes the best stock.
Chicken makes the best stock
If there’s one thing we could improve about the way we manage our finances, what would it be?
envelope finance
Which relative or friend would you consider to be a financial role model?
My partner. Lots to learn from him
How much is reasonable to spend on a vacation?
local: for 2,

reunion and self reflection

2011-02-08T08:36:00.000-08:00

met up with tee and sheila for cny dinner @kissaten, PJ

read sheila's blog and realized what she's going thru in life is same as mine just that i experienced mine in 07.

glad her dog (mary jane) still alive and well.

1. realized that i've really made something of myself career wise. a plateau if you want to call it, where i'm sure of everything that goes on in the office and i'm balancing the politics delicately.

2. r/ship wise i'm ok, but im teaching myself to be more independent (reading why men marry bitches book). enjoy my time with him but be more own person

3. overall as a person, i've learnt to let go of the other guy. generally more optimistic now and not letting small things stress me.

i've got to find the time for my own interests, so i've starting drawing again (inspired by khairul paikee's fantastic manga drawings)

and i've got to watch my diet (eat healthily) the pains have stopped and everyday i thank god.

time to get fit.

btw, had monday and today half day off. spent monday with dear (house hunting) then he went off to gym while i repotted the pineapple i brought back from ktn, then we had dinner @ the new chicken rice shop. also sent 2010 album for printing.

on tues morning, i woke up, organized my ebook collection, started on world tournament proposal.

So what did you do today?

2010-12-31T01:05:00.000-08:00

Thanks to our prime minister's announcement, it's a public holiday today.

How I spent the day

woke up at 10
went to subang parade
had kenny roger's lunch
scoured books @ mph
home to watch the nanny (i needed the laughs)
played some facebook
worked on my new scrapbook
karate @ night
work on myurbanzen
read 1 ebook

2010 in review

2010-12-28T00:25:00.000-08:00

Since everyone in the blogosphere is doing it

Interests

started playing the piano again after 10 year hiatus. once you learn you never forget and with internet now, piano sheets are practically free and now i'm financially adequate to purchase a keyboard

other than piano, don't really have time for anything else

i envy adino's exercise and baking interests :D

Highest and Lowest

Being appointed branch chief for this karate group.
Purchasing my own property albeit the HIGH d/p. argh!
lowest - ehhhh my health is not so good (october was the month of sickness), starting to be a hypochondriac as i'm getting older
but have started to eat healthier now, less carbs, following 4hourbody by tim ferriss religiously to lose weight

Work

Nothing major this year compared to last, everything's monotonous but stable. no increment though but i'm thankful for small blessings

Experiences
i have a habit of printing a photo album (compilation of pics frm my cam, phone and all devices) from photobook each year to document my life so what i did this year was:

organized 1st all asia tournament
coached and managed karate team to perak for tourney (shouted until lost my voice!) you can see my mug in sin chew jit poh
attended sis wedding
went to universal studios
learned business processes of cyber cafes, pet shops and mini markets

Gadgets

fuhh, this was a year of gadgets for me

ps3, winpad (incidentally anyone interested to buy this from me?), galaxy S, lenovo tablet notebook, asus bamboo notebook, sony ereader

Relationships

With the partner, I've learned not to take arguments too seriously, they tend to resolve themselves overnight so why fret

With friends, not so good, out of touch except with the old UKM taekwondo gang

With family, slightly better due to sis wedding

altitude review : go watch this

2010-12-02T07:42:00.001-08:00

This was a release straight to video if i'm not mistaken. Low budget but don't judge a book by its cover. Photography and videography fans will love this, as the movie has beautiful shots and unique angles of what could have been boring plane shots.

Actors and actresses were surprisingly good, the movie was slow to start, dear went like...dear what monster movie is this? talk talk talk only.... action came in the 2nd part and i was actually at the edge of my seat ( a first for me as i was watching this at home)

good ending concept and i didnt feel cheated with the explanation and the ending was actually quite positive.

SPOILERS (highlight to read)

Bruce has a fear of flying due to being in a plane crash (another plane crashed into his parents' plane that was flown by sara's mom) where his parents died and he actually fell into a lake. as an adult, he fell in love with sara but sara knew it was not meant to be due to their parents' history. so them and couple of frens were on this plane going somewhere (dunno where as i was doing the laundry, hehehe), and a loose screw jammed the 'elevator' of the plane causing it to ascend high up into dark clouds. blablablabla.....all the frens got killed, leaving bruce and sara. there's a monster shrieking outside and bruce figured out that whatever he imagines comes to life. as a kid, he was reading on plane crashes and a plane crashed into his plane. as an adult, he had this comic book that showed a squid in the air. anyways, sara kissed him and the squid disappeared and they thought they were scot free until he realized sara didnt love him. dark clouds appeared again and the squid tried to pull sara out of the plane. sara told him to imagine his parents so bruce brought them and the plane back to the past where they nearly missed hitting another plane (young bruce). the past has been changed and we see adult sara and bruce fading into whiteness. young sara and bruce (who never got into a plane crash) met for the first time.

IMDB link

reflections4

2010-11-14T00:33:00.000-08:00

What do you want to achieve in 1 year from now? 3 years? 5 years? 10 years?

work for myself
write a book

How important are these goals to you?

it is vital for my happiness

What if these goals are doubled? Tripled? Magnified by 10? How would you feel? Would you prefer to achieve these or your previous goals?

stupid question

Who are the people who have achieved similar goals? What can you learn from them?

probloggers

Are you putting any parts of your life on hold? Why?

nope

What’s the top priority in your life right now?

be healthy and happy

What are you doing about it?

drinking more water

If you were to die tomorrow, what would be your biggest regret?

unable to make amends with him or see him one last time

For each experience you are in: What are the biggest things you have learned?

too general, another stupid question

If you have 1 million dollars, what would you do with it?

1 million is peanuts nowadays. buy 1 500k house, keep 200k in bank, 300k for biz

Do you love your job?

its a means to an end

What is your ideal career?

passive income

How can you start creating your ideal career starting today?