2010 Reflections

January

Visited Langkawi Island with my sis, Shane (my best best friend) and Alvin despite Alvin and I failed in our professional exams.

Started my final semester for bachelor's degree.

Visited Shuzhen in Setapak (yes, Setapak seemed to be far for me from PJ), and we decided to go Genting Highlands on the spur moment, in the following weekend.

Went in casino for the first time and lost RM50, will never gamble anymore.

February
Celebrated Chinese New Year with family! I really afraid I need to work during CNY in the future in overseas (though I hope I can develop my career in overseas) :( I love CNY! Didn't save pictures in my hard-drive. All are with my sister.

Finished reading The 8th Habit From Effectiveness to Greatness, was greatly motivated.

March
Got bored by the lame UTAR studies.

April
Went for interview in Singapore in an international general reinsurance company, failed it at the third interview. Singapore is clean! The journey was quite rush, so we didn't go around the small island.

after the interview, somewhere near the big fountain

Visited Hui Boon in Malacca with Alvin and Shuzhen. She is a tough girl, encountered all the hardship strongly.

May
My sister got JPA scholarship, will be doing medicine in Ireland! We are proud of her!

Sat for school exams and professional exams.

June
Hunting for job but to no avail. Very down.

July

Passed two professional exams! I cleared preliminary exams! Failed my attempt in general insurance professional exam though.

Got a job offer from one general insurer and one life insurer. Decided to put aside my passion in general insurance temporarily due to the limited opportunity in Malasysia.

August
Started my first job in AmLife Insurance Berhad as an actuarial executive. Exploring and learning.

Read Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude.

Graduation united my whole family in KL.

Each of us has different character but we love this family!

I don't really treasure this graduation, but it seems my parents were happy about it, and so I was happy too.


September
Busy working, preparing exams and sampling food!

October
Visited Hong Kong with Alvin. He was attending workshop at the day time, while I was studying and doing gym. Exploring Hong Kong at night.

November
Got our first car. Was hit by a motorcycle in a month. The tree at where Alvin parked the car during working time gave us the present in the second month.


Sat for professional exam. This was Alvin's final paper, and my second last paper. Crossed fingers!

December
Started to grow at work, asked for rotation from experience studies to reporting. Hopefully there will be more sparks with the new team!

Went to Berjaya Hill, a fantastic and fancy place!

Submitted three (3/3) FSA modules and two (2/8) FAP (Fundamental of Actuarial Practice) modules.

Had gatherings with friends and colleagues in this festive season.

All in all, 2010 is a fulfilling year! Challenges of up and down make me appreciate my family and my love one more.

Inspiring Movies

Watched two inspiring movies recently - The Social Network and Three Idiots. I was at first very reluctant to watch Three Idiots as it is a Bollywood movie, I would not want to waste my 2 hours on silly movie. But as the plot developed, it caught my attention more and more. As for The Social Network, I didn't know anything about it beforehand, it was strongly recommended by Alvin's colleague, and so I just nodded to watch it last night. Not watching trailer and synopsis always brings surprises. *smile*

I am inspired by one of the "idiots" in the Bollywood movie. He is someone who thinks out of the box, who is not restricted to some stupid and silly regulations, who chases after excellence and who cares about and inspires friends to pursue their dreams instead of the society or parents' wants. In the movie, the very whole idea is to pursue our dream, chase after excellence and then success will chase after us!

As for The Social Network, it is a bibliography of the well-known and youngest billionaire in the world, Mark Zuckerberg (the founder of Facebook in case you don't know). Mark founded Facebook in a "night". When recruiting interns, he held hackathon to choose participants who were able to complete a task in a night. In reality and at current, he still practices this in hiring. "The idea is that you can build something really good in a night", said Mark during an interview.

Many times we are bolted down by what we are doing until we lose our direction in the midst. We chase after what we are not clear of, we just follow. We are scared, we start to fear this and that, and be "superstitious" to the extent that we don't have our stand, we don't know what are we doing, we are just running blindly.

Good movies!