Adv: Drink Milo and Win

Today news: A Malaysian maid working in Hong Kong won HKD40 million lottery.

I was once very reluctant to take part in any lucky draw as I never win any, and to satisfy my ego hide my disappointment, I always tell others I would rather work hard and buy it myself.

The small news today stir me up to try taking part in all the lucky draws again. Want a MacBook, iPad or iPod? Just drink Jam-Pack Milo!

The Two Bosom Friends

Ewe Chin - Get to know her since primary school. Started to be close to her when I saw many people boycott her due to the very superficial ridiculous reason. Had her as my "desk-mate" since Form 3 to Form 5. Wanted to enter UTAR together but she decided to go matriculation at the end. She is someone who likes to share (perhaps only to me?). She is the one who is willing to hear my stories and whom I share my stories without any worries. She is now busy with her final year project. And it has been quite sometime we lose contact. Guess I must catch up with her this CNY!

Shane - Get to know him during a prize-giving ceremony rehearsal. He was in Form 3 and I was in Form 4. We get close as both of us were very enthusiastic and desperate in improving our English. Because of our learning together, our English improved by quantum leap, we both gained A1 for O-Level English (1119). We once share the dream to become someone rich but I am bogged down in my working-earning-for-others job. Will our dream converge someday?

Ewe Chin is someone who is lack of confidence while Shane is someone who is exuberant with confidence. I guess I am between, getting the chance to give and take.

These two friends are my very friends, we grew up from the naive childhood teenhood, split to pursue our dream in three different universities specializing in three different courses. The future is of unknown, but I am certain our friendship reigns no matter which land we step on.

p/s: I guess I am now too free, keep thinking the old days. Grateful that both Ewe Chin and Shane are still the important people in my little heart.

Time for New Toy?

Has been thinking to pamper myself by getting a DSLR for the reasons below:

1. My current camera always frustrates me at night.
2. DSLR improves my memories quality.
3. Never pamper myself getting a very decent toy (my phone is lousy, my laptop is lousy).
4. I don't feel I need an iPhone as I am not into games, I don't feel I need a Blackberry as it cannot help me to convert documents for A&J business use.

Sony Alpha 580... Hmm...

2011 Resolutions Updated

1. Read more books (I only read two books in 2010 but so many in 2009). Currently on shelf: Maximize Your Memory, The Power of Body Language, 80/20, Eat Pray Love.

2. Finish all the remaining 6 FAP modules by March.

3. Pass Advanced Finance and Enterprise Risk Management (my final paper if I pass Financial Economics Theory and Engineering in January) in April.

Update: I didn't pass FETE. So AFE will be my second last paper now and hopefully FETE will be my last paper in November!

4. Get associate credential by April and fellow credential end of the year (providing I pass FETE first).

Update: I can only get my fellow credential early next year (Spring). :(

5. Grow more in career.

6. Go traveling with family somewhere in the year.

7. Purchase a house end of the year for investment purpose.

8. Lose weight! I want 50 - 52kg!

Though some of the happenings delay my plan, I hope I will enjoy the process and gain more valuable hindsight in year 2011.

Chilis

Went to Mid Valley for the first time since I move to KL. We always go One-Utama instead because the parking rate there is low, never know Mid Valley's is not high too. Mid Valley is much nearer to KL compared with One-Utama, think we will go Mid Valley quite often instead of One-U now since I used to like Mid Valley.

Alvin passed his last professional exam! I failed, sadly. However, we still think it is fair to give ourselves a treat as we worked hard for it, not only that, we passed a few online modules also these two months. Alvin has double joy while I have single joy (not bad).

We gave Chilis a try since there is always long queue and we perceive the food there must be beyond praise.

Waiting eagerly for the food..

But to our "horror", it was really disappointing.

The salmon was too dry.

Their description is not really appealing/vivid either

Alvin ordered a ten ounce medium done rib-eye. Guess what?! Half of the portion was raw and another half was well done overcooked!

So our conclusion is:

Go Italiannies for spaghetti
Go TGI Friday's for steak
Go Manhattan Fish Market for Salmon, it is cheap!

Galatians 2:20

Was stirred by a post about Galatians 2:20.

It is no longer whom I live, but Christ.

Law of Attraction - Morons

I have to say Law of Attraction really works. While I am sick of morons, I encounter new moron one by one. From workplace to having meal at McD.

From now on, I should think of genius genius genius, samaritan samaritan samaritan, instead!

Morons

I hope my blog is not so popular that unintended readers bump into this post.

I CANNOT STAND WORKING WITH MORONS ANYMORE! IT DRIVES ME MAD!

Family Gathering

Not really a whole family gathering though.

Yesterday was the first day my sis and bro went back to their campus for the new semester. My sis had to move her things out of her hostel every sem break and so she put her things in our car boot. @@ I rarely never met up with my bro though he has been 2 years plus in PJ because I didn't have my own transportation. *sob sob*

So I took the opportunity to meet them yesterday, fetching my bro, picking my sis then had our dinner in Subang Parade, grocery shopping at Carrefour.

I was still not impressed by food in Manhattan Fish Market, we ordered a platter and a grilled salmon to share.

The platter was really greasy.

After dropping my sis at her hostel, we continued our supper at SS2 to quench our thirst.

Shanghai "chee cheong fun" as snack

Mango "Lou"

Kiwi "Lou"

I was really happy that I could meet up with my siblings and get to know more about their recent.

2011 Resolutions

1. Read more books (I only read two books in 2010 but so many in 2009). Currently on shelf: Maximize Your Memory, The Power of Body Language, 80/20, Eat Pray Love.

2. Finish all the remaining 6 FAP modules by March.

3. Pass Advanced Finance and Enterprise Risk Management (my final paper if I pass Financial Economics Theory and Engineering in January) in April.

4. Get associate credential by April and fellow credential end of the year (providing I pass FETE first).

5. Grow more in career.

6. Go traveling with family somewhere in the year.

7. Purchase a house end of the year for investment purpose.

8. Lose weight! I want 50 - 52kg!

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!