A man and his girlfriend were married.
A few months later, the wife comes to the husband with a proposal: "I read in a magazine, a while ago, about how we can strengthen our
marriage." she offered.
"Each of us will write a list of the things that we find a bit annoying with the other person. Then, we can talk about how we can fix them together and make our lives happier together."
The husband agreed. So each of them went to a separate room in the house and thought of the things that annoyed them about the other.
They thought about this question for the rest of the day and wrote down what they came up with.
The next morning, at the breakfast table, they decided that they would go over their lists.
"I'll start," offered the wife. She took out her list. It had many items on it. Enough to fill 3 pages, in fact. As she started reading the list of the little annoyances, she noticed that tears were starting to appear in her husbands eyes.
"What's wrong?" she asked. "Nothing" the husband replied, "keep reading your list."
The wife continued to read until she had read all three pages to her husband. She neatly placed her list on the table and folded her hands over top of it.
"Now, you read your list and then we'll talk about the things on both of our lists." She said happily.
Quietly the husband stated, "I don't have anything on my list. I think that you are perfect the way that you are. I don't want you to change anything for me. You are lovely and wonderful and I wouldn't want to try and change anything about you."
The wife, touched by his honesty and the depth of his love for her and his acceptance of her, turned her head and wept.
"If you judge people, you have no time to love them. Never take someone for granted. Hold every person Close to your Heart because you might wake up one day and realise that you have lost a diamond while you were too busy collecting stones." -- Mother Teresa
Monday, January 28, 2008
Saturday, January 19, 2008
wine expert doesnt drink wine?
The Wine Antisnob
Maverick entrepreneur Tim Hanni is trying to reinvent the American wine business. Part of his secret -- he doesn't drink.
By KATY MCLAUGHLIN
January 19, 2008
Tim Hanni is one of the wine industry's top-tier experts. He is also a recovering alcoholic who hasn't had a drink in 14 years, rarely even "sipping and spitting" wine to taste it. He says that's part of the secret of his success.
A wine adviser to hotels and restaurants from Ruth's Chris to P.F. Chang's, Mr. Hanni, 55, is on a mission to combat snobbery in the wine industry -- and get more Americans to drink wine. Unlike many wine experts, he doesn't rely on the sophistication and sensitivity of his own palate, although he was one of the first two Americans to hold the highest credential in the field, Master of Wine. He argues that no one has a palate superior to anyone else's, and that there's nothing wrong with liking wines many experts consider tacky, like White Zinfandel. He also thinks traditional tasting notes comparing wine to berries or chocolate are useless in helping most consumers find wines they enjoy.
Instead, he has developed new systems that help customers choose wines based on factors like how they take their coffee and cocktails -- and how many taste buds they have.
His maverick approach is transforming the way that many Americans drink wine. Mr. Hanni's most widely used innovation is the "progressive wine list," a menu format that organizes wine from lightest to heaviest, rather than grouping Loire Bordeaux and Tuscan Brunellos together. WineQuest, a company Mr. Hanni founded in 1999, has categorized more than 80,000 wines by flavor characteristics, allowing them to be sorted into progressive wine lists. According to an estimate by Winemetrics, a Connecticut-based wine-market researcher, 30% of casual and upscale chains, including Olive Garden and Ruth's Chris Steak House, use some version of the progressive wine list. So do about 4% of fine dining restaurants, including Nobu in New York.
Some of Mr. Hanni's latest projects -- from the "budometer," a questionnaire for predicting what wines a person will like, to a condiment meant to make any dish pair well with any wine -- may seem more far-fetched. But they are aimed at solving the biggest challenge facing the $27.8 billion U.S. wine business: getting more Americans to drink wine regularly.
Only 17.8% of American adults drink wine once a week or more, according to the Wine Market Council, a wine trade group. While last year, 35% of U.S. adults drank at least some wine, up from 25% in 2000, according to WMC, beer is still more common, consumed by 45% of adults, according to Mintel, a market-research firm.
WSJ.COM PODCAST
One of the wine industry's top experts is changing the way that consumers and restaurant's purchase their wine. The Journal's Katy McLaughlin talks about this wine expert and his battle against wine snobbery.Mr. Hanni, who lives in Napa, Calif., believes the solution lies in discarding cherished wine conventions and drilling down the physiological, biological and psychological reasons people like the wines they do. It's an approach that reflects his fascination with wine, an abiding obsession that has been the source of joy and despair throughout his life.
He was introduced to gourmet food and drink by his father, John Hanni, who cooked meals such as Chinese red-clay-pot chicken and braised goose at their home in Miami. Though the younger Mr. Hanni was a C-student with a "class clown" personality, he says, he easily absorbed details about cuisine and wine from Julia Child's television shows and Larousse Gastronomique, a culinary encyclopedia. As a teenager, when his friends struck out trying to buy beer, Mr. Hanni could convince clerks at the local wine store that he was of age by rattling off requests for Corton or Volnay.
At the University of South Florida in Tampa, where he majored in "partying" and took business classes, Mr. Hanni made grilled duck and escargot at beach barbecues and once fattened a pheasant on Fritos in a dormitory closet. (A friend slaughtered it, and Mr. Hanni wrapped the breast in bacon and roasted it in a toaster oven.) At age 20, he dropped out of college to work as a kitchen gofer at Bern's Steak House, the start of five years of apprentice-style chef training in restaurants around south Florida.
Wine Class: Mr. Hanni at the Culinary Institue of America in St. Helena, Calif.
Two constants anchored Mr. Hanni's youth: relentless focus on learning about food and wine, and abundant drinking. "I never thought I wasn't an alcoholic," he says. He could down two or three bottles of wine without appearing drunk -- many of his closest colleagues say they never realized he had a problem until he told them. His father, however, says he was "concerned" from the time Tim was a teenager, particularly because he and his own father were alcoholics. In 1977, the younger Mr. Hanni entered a tumultuous marriage marked by fights, drinking and poor finances.
After seven years in restaurants, Mr. Hanni changed tracks and managed wine programs at Atlanta's Happy Herman's gourmet store and then worked as an independent wine broker for three years. In 1988, he was hired by Wine World Estates, now known as Beringer Vineyards, in the Napa Valley, to promote the company's wines to restaurants and hotels.
In 1990 came the experience that would turn Mr. Hanni into a star in the wine world: the Masters of Wine exam. The four-day exam and dissertation are notoriously difficult, with challenges such as identifying the region, production method and alcohol levels for wines from a blind tasting. Out of about 80 people selected to take the exam annually, typically five to seven people become Masters of Wine each year, according to the British organization; currently 265 people world-wide hold the title. When Mr. Hanni and fellow American Joel Butler passed the exam, they became the first two American Masters of Wine.
Mr. Hanni was immediately "a god in the wine world," he says. The title gave him the credibility to start promoting two radical new ideas to the wine trade. The first he called the progressive wine list, a menu that arranges wines in order from lightest to heaviest. At P.F. Chang's China Bistro, a 170-unit chain that uses the system today, for instance, white wines are divided into three categories: "sweet white/blush," which includes a Riesling; "light-to-medium intensity" with some Sauvignon Blanc choices; and "medium to full intensity," which offers several Chardonnays.
But his personal life was in disarray: He had declared bankruptcy, finalized a divorce and noticed a change in his alcohol tolerance -- now, two or three bottles of wine made him much drunker than they had before. "If conditions were right, I could drink to a blackout," he says. His drinking didn't hurt his professional reputation -- he was disciplined about sipping and spitting at events, and then hit the bar after hours, he says. But a new marriage in 1993 was off to a rocky start.
While there is little data on alcohol abuse in the wine industry, national surveys indicate that people who work around alcohol have higher-than-average rates of abuse. A report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, using statistics from 2002 to 2004, found that 12% of hotel and food service workers reported drinking heavily in the past month compared to 8.8% of the general working population.
In late 1993, Mr. Hanni decided his drinking was a serious problem. He says he took his last drink -- a glass of Meridian Chardonnay -- on Dec. 16 and checked himself in for a month of rehabilitation at Crutcher's Serenity House in St. Helena, Calif.
Emerging from treatment, "I had to accept that I might never work in the industry again," he says. But Mr. Hanni opted to stay in the business. With an ability to control himself around alcohol that addiction researchers say is highly unusual, he can occasionally sip and spit at professional tastings without being tempted to imbibe, he says.
Not drinking forced Mr. Hanni to rethink his approach to wine. He decided that he had long propped up his ego with wine pretensions. "I was an arrogant ass. I completely looked down on people" who drank wine he considered inferior, he says.
In search of a better explanation for why different people prefer different wines, he consulted with sensory scientists at the University of California, Davis and the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, among others. He became convinced that some people prefer light, sweet wines to high-alcohol, high-intensity ones because of factors such as the number of taste buds they have -- and not because White Zinfandel drinkers are unsophisticated.
In 1999, Mr. Hanni left Beringer and founded WineQuest, a company based in El Cerrito, Calif. With more than $1 million in annual sales, WineQuest has created progressive wine lists for about 60 hotel and restaurant clients and trained more than 100,000 hospitality workers, says CEO David Bash.
Based on his sensory-science research, Mr. Hanni developed the "budometer," which consists of a series of questions about a drinker's preferences in coffee, beer, cocktails and soft drinks. The answers, Mr. Hanni says, predict what kind of wine the person will like.
In 2005, Mr. Hanni stepped down from the day-to-day management of WineQuest, retaining roughly a quarter of the company's ownership. Today, he works in an office a few minutes from his home, where he lives with his wife and their 12-year-old son, Landen. He has roughly 50 speaking engagements a year.
One concept he promotes to chefs and wineries is an approach he calls "flavor balancing." Rejecting the idea that wine pairing is a complex art, Mr. Hanni says that by adjusting the salt, acidity and sweetness in a dish, one can pair it with any wine. The Culinary Institute of America in St. Helena, Calif., now teaches this approach in a class for wine-industry professionals, where Mr. Hanni guest lectures. As part of a consulting deal with China Grill Management, Mr. Hanni will teach his theories to the company's 27 fine-dining staffs, says director of operations Claude Roussel.
In late 2006, Mr. Hanni launched Napa Seasoning Co. and a new product: Vignon, a condiment designed to balance flavor in food so that it pairs well with any wine. The product is a mixture including salt, lemon juice, soy sauce, shiitake-mushroom powder and Parmesan cheese. Developed by Mr. Hanni with a food scientist, chef and former seasoning executives, it is sold in some gourmet stores and Web sites for $6 for a 2.75-ounce bottle.
On a recent sales call at Kendall-Jackson Wine Center in Fulton, Calif., Mr. Hanni demonstrated Vignon to nine winery chefs and executives. They took a sample of plain boiled asparagus, notorious for making wine taste bad, then a sip of the winery's Cabernet Sauvignon. Most tasters grimaced. Then Mr. Hanni asked them to try a piece of asparagus sprinkled with Vignon. This time the wine had no off-taste, the group agreed, though some quibbled with Vignon's flavor, which is salty and slightly lemony.
Back in his car, Mr. Hanni took both praise and criticism in stride. "I'm having a blast," he said, as he drove down roads flanked by hillside vineyards.
Maverick entrepreneur Tim Hanni is trying to reinvent the American wine business. Part of his secret -- he doesn't drink.
By KATY MCLAUGHLIN
January 19, 2008
Tim Hanni is one of the wine industry's top-tier experts. He is also a recovering alcoholic who hasn't had a drink in 14 years, rarely even "sipping and spitting" wine to taste it. He says that's part of the secret of his success.
A wine adviser to hotels and restaurants from Ruth's Chris to P.F. Chang's, Mr. Hanni, 55, is on a mission to combat snobbery in the wine industry -- and get more Americans to drink wine. Unlike many wine experts, he doesn't rely on the sophistication and sensitivity of his own palate, although he was one of the first two Americans to hold the highest credential in the field, Master of Wine. He argues that no one has a palate superior to anyone else's, and that there's nothing wrong with liking wines many experts consider tacky, like White Zinfandel. He also thinks traditional tasting notes comparing wine to berries or chocolate are useless in helping most consumers find wines they enjoy.
Instead, he has developed new systems that help customers choose wines based on factors like how they take their coffee and cocktails -- and how many taste buds they have.
His maverick approach is transforming the way that many Americans drink wine. Mr. Hanni's most widely used innovation is the "progressive wine list," a menu format that organizes wine from lightest to heaviest, rather than grouping Loire Bordeaux and Tuscan Brunellos together. WineQuest, a company Mr. Hanni founded in 1999, has categorized more than 80,000 wines by flavor characteristics, allowing them to be sorted into progressive wine lists. According to an estimate by Winemetrics, a Connecticut-based wine-market researcher, 30% of casual and upscale chains, including Olive Garden and Ruth's Chris Steak House, use some version of the progressive wine list. So do about 4% of fine dining restaurants, including Nobu in New York.
Some of Mr. Hanni's latest projects -- from the "budometer," a questionnaire for predicting what wines a person will like, to a condiment meant to make any dish pair well with any wine -- may seem more far-fetched. But they are aimed at solving the biggest challenge facing the $27.8 billion U.S. wine business: getting more Americans to drink wine regularly.
Only 17.8% of American adults drink wine once a week or more, according to the Wine Market Council, a wine trade group. While last year, 35% of U.S. adults drank at least some wine, up from 25% in 2000, according to WMC, beer is still more common, consumed by 45% of adults, according to Mintel, a market-research firm.
WSJ.COM PODCAST
One of the wine industry's top experts is changing the way that consumers and restaurant's purchase their wine. The Journal's Katy McLaughlin talks about this wine expert and his battle against wine snobbery.Mr. Hanni, who lives in Napa, Calif., believes the solution lies in discarding cherished wine conventions and drilling down the physiological, biological and psychological reasons people like the wines they do. It's an approach that reflects his fascination with wine, an abiding obsession that has been the source of joy and despair throughout his life.
He was introduced to gourmet food and drink by his father, John Hanni, who cooked meals such as Chinese red-clay-pot chicken and braised goose at their home in Miami. Though the younger Mr. Hanni was a C-student with a "class clown" personality, he says, he easily absorbed details about cuisine and wine from Julia Child's television shows and Larousse Gastronomique, a culinary encyclopedia. As a teenager, when his friends struck out trying to buy beer, Mr. Hanni could convince clerks at the local wine store that he was of age by rattling off requests for Corton or Volnay.
At the University of South Florida in Tampa, where he majored in "partying" and took business classes, Mr. Hanni made grilled duck and escargot at beach barbecues and once fattened a pheasant on Fritos in a dormitory closet. (A friend slaughtered it, and Mr. Hanni wrapped the breast in bacon and roasted it in a toaster oven.) At age 20, he dropped out of college to work as a kitchen gofer at Bern's Steak House, the start of five years of apprentice-style chef training in restaurants around south Florida.
Wine Class: Mr. Hanni at the Culinary Institue of America in St. Helena, Calif.
Two constants anchored Mr. Hanni's youth: relentless focus on learning about food and wine, and abundant drinking. "I never thought I wasn't an alcoholic," he says. He could down two or three bottles of wine without appearing drunk -- many of his closest colleagues say they never realized he had a problem until he told them. His father, however, says he was "concerned" from the time Tim was a teenager, particularly because he and his own father were alcoholics. In 1977, the younger Mr. Hanni entered a tumultuous marriage marked by fights, drinking and poor finances.
After seven years in restaurants, Mr. Hanni changed tracks and managed wine programs at Atlanta's Happy Herman's gourmet store and then worked as an independent wine broker for three years. In 1988, he was hired by Wine World Estates, now known as Beringer Vineyards, in the Napa Valley, to promote the company's wines to restaurants and hotels.
In 1990 came the experience that would turn Mr. Hanni into a star in the wine world: the Masters of Wine exam. The four-day exam and dissertation are notoriously difficult, with challenges such as identifying the region, production method and alcohol levels for wines from a blind tasting. Out of about 80 people selected to take the exam annually, typically five to seven people become Masters of Wine each year, according to the British organization; currently 265 people world-wide hold the title. When Mr. Hanni and fellow American Joel Butler passed the exam, they became the first two American Masters of Wine.
Mr. Hanni was immediately "a god in the wine world," he says. The title gave him the credibility to start promoting two radical new ideas to the wine trade. The first he called the progressive wine list, a menu that arranges wines in order from lightest to heaviest. At P.F. Chang's China Bistro, a 170-unit chain that uses the system today, for instance, white wines are divided into three categories: "sweet white/blush," which includes a Riesling; "light-to-medium intensity" with some Sauvignon Blanc choices; and "medium to full intensity," which offers several Chardonnays.
But his personal life was in disarray: He had declared bankruptcy, finalized a divorce and noticed a change in his alcohol tolerance -- now, two or three bottles of wine made him much drunker than they had before. "If conditions were right, I could drink to a blackout," he says. His drinking didn't hurt his professional reputation -- he was disciplined about sipping and spitting at events, and then hit the bar after hours, he says. But a new marriage in 1993 was off to a rocky start.
While there is little data on alcohol abuse in the wine industry, national surveys indicate that people who work around alcohol have higher-than-average rates of abuse. A report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, using statistics from 2002 to 2004, found that 12% of hotel and food service workers reported drinking heavily in the past month compared to 8.8% of the general working population.
In late 1993, Mr. Hanni decided his drinking was a serious problem. He says he took his last drink -- a glass of Meridian Chardonnay -- on Dec. 16 and checked himself in for a month of rehabilitation at Crutcher's Serenity House in St. Helena, Calif.
Emerging from treatment, "I had to accept that I might never work in the industry again," he says. But Mr. Hanni opted to stay in the business. With an ability to control himself around alcohol that addiction researchers say is highly unusual, he can occasionally sip and spit at professional tastings without being tempted to imbibe, he says.
Not drinking forced Mr. Hanni to rethink his approach to wine. He decided that he had long propped up his ego with wine pretensions. "I was an arrogant ass. I completely looked down on people" who drank wine he considered inferior, he says.
In search of a better explanation for why different people prefer different wines, he consulted with sensory scientists at the University of California, Davis and the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, among others. He became convinced that some people prefer light, sweet wines to high-alcohol, high-intensity ones because of factors such as the number of taste buds they have -- and not because White Zinfandel drinkers are unsophisticated.
In 1999, Mr. Hanni left Beringer and founded WineQuest, a company based in El Cerrito, Calif. With more than $1 million in annual sales, WineQuest has created progressive wine lists for about 60 hotel and restaurant clients and trained more than 100,000 hospitality workers, says CEO David Bash.
Based on his sensory-science research, Mr. Hanni developed the "budometer," which consists of a series of questions about a drinker's preferences in coffee, beer, cocktails and soft drinks. The answers, Mr. Hanni says, predict what kind of wine the person will like.
In 2005, Mr. Hanni stepped down from the day-to-day management of WineQuest, retaining roughly a quarter of the company's ownership. Today, he works in an office a few minutes from his home, where he lives with his wife and their 12-year-old son, Landen. He has roughly 50 speaking engagements a year.
One concept he promotes to chefs and wineries is an approach he calls "flavor balancing." Rejecting the idea that wine pairing is a complex art, Mr. Hanni says that by adjusting the salt, acidity and sweetness in a dish, one can pair it with any wine. The Culinary Institute of America in St. Helena, Calif., now teaches this approach in a class for wine-industry professionals, where Mr. Hanni guest lectures. As part of a consulting deal with China Grill Management, Mr. Hanni will teach his theories to the company's 27 fine-dining staffs, says director of operations Claude Roussel.
In late 2006, Mr. Hanni launched Napa Seasoning Co. and a new product: Vignon, a condiment designed to balance flavor in food so that it pairs well with any wine. The product is a mixture including salt, lemon juice, soy sauce, shiitake-mushroom powder and Parmesan cheese. Developed by Mr. Hanni with a food scientist, chef and former seasoning executives, it is sold in some gourmet stores and Web sites for $6 for a 2.75-ounce bottle.
On a recent sales call at Kendall-Jackson Wine Center in Fulton, Calif., Mr. Hanni demonstrated Vignon to nine winery chefs and executives. They took a sample of plain boiled asparagus, notorious for making wine taste bad, then a sip of the winery's Cabernet Sauvignon. Most tasters grimaced. Then Mr. Hanni asked them to try a piece of asparagus sprinkled with Vignon. This time the wine had no off-taste, the group agreed, though some quibbled with Vignon's flavor, which is salty and slightly lemony.
Back in his car, Mr. Hanni took both praise and criticism in stride. "I'm having a blast," he said, as he drove down roads flanked by hillside vineyards.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
work work work
I can't seem to get where I wanna be. Perhaps maybe at certain times I'm not even clear or sure where I wanna be. It used to be so clear, so pristine. There was once I thought I was close, but it was not to be.
I can hardly concentrate on anything these days. Not at work or out of work. Well, I'm doing 3 persons job in the office and nobody seems to care, so that makes it hard to concentrate on any one task. I used to be concerned about producing the best quality work but now my day to day tasks are ensuring that things just get sufficiently completed and submitted. And of course trying to make sure I dont end up staying too late in the office because there clearly isn't any incentive for working yourself to death.
Well outside the office I've been distracting myself with heroes 2, 24 season 7 and DOTA. Which is way too much stuff which I shouldn't be playing with if I'm to keep my new year's resolution. I need more exercise (okay bad weather is the excuse I'm giving myself). I need to spend more time on the WSJ (cos I paid for it?). And I need to figure out the market.
I put some into a bond fund some 2 wks ago and that has shot up tremendously. Knowing that bonds take time to mature, I'm quite sure there'll be a sufficient lag for me to pull out before it drops in the future, so I think i snagged a good investment there!
Take a look at the public transportation in this country. All of a sudden taxi fares have shot up like 50% or something! It cost me $32 to get to NTU in the morning, and $10 was for surcharges! No wonder the train and the bus stop appears to be much more crowded than usual. Well, good time to buy train and bus shares! Okay maybe it's already priced in, but I don't care, cos I already got my hands onto some ;P
Well, its time to sleep now. That's my other new years resolution, to sleep early. Though I really don't know how that's gonna happen with all that's going on.
My strategy now: dont think about work once u step outside the office, and dont think about anything else once you step into the office. which really means I should spend less time in the office to feel more satisfied...... :P
I can hardly concentrate on anything these days. Not at work or out of work. Well, I'm doing 3 persons job in the office and nobody seems to care, so that makes it hard to concentrate on any one task. I used to be concerned about producing the best quality work but now my day to day tasks are ensuring that things just get sufficiently completed and submitted. And of course trying to make sure I dont end up staying too late in the office because there clearly isn't any incentive for working yourself to death.
Well outside the office I've been distracting myself with heroes 2, 24 season 7 and DOTA. Which is way too much stuff which I shouldn't be playing with if I'm to keep my new year's resolution. I need more exercise (okay bad weather is the excuse I'm giving myself). I need to spend more time on the WSJ (cos I paid for it?). And I need to figure out the market.
I put some into a bond fund some 2 wks ago and that has shot up tremendously. Knowing that bonds take time to mature, I'm quite sure there'll be a sufficient lag for me to pull out before it drops in the future, so I think i snagged a good investment there!
Take a look at the public transportation in this country. All of a sudden taxi fares have shot up like 50% or something! It cost me $32 to get to NTU in the morning, and $10 was for surcharges! No wonder the train and the bus stop appears to be much more crowded than usual. Well, good time to buy train and bus shares! Okay maybe it's already priced in, but I don't care, cos I already got my hands onto some ;P
Well, its time to sleep now. That's my other new years resolution, to sleep early. Though I really don't know how that's gonna happen with all that's going on.
My strategy now: dont think about work once u step outside the office, and dont think about anything else once you step into the office. which really means I should spend less time in the office to feel more satisfied...... :P
Monday, January 07, 2008
downloads
I downloaded some really good stuff today. Mininova really rocks man! So I'm finally back to the bit torrent world haha! Really good stuff which I didn't think I could get anywhere.
Oh, and if u wanna watch tv shows from anywhere in the world, go to www.xiaoli.cc. There's streaming video of everything. You might wanna download the VLC player (from some website) to download the streaming videos if it takes too long to load. I just watched a whole season of 24 in 3 days hahahaha.
And for movies there is www.haru.tv, but you can only access the first page unless u subscribe to spam and ad popups (not good). Well, the first page has I am legend and some new movies, so its all good :P.
So, that's what I've been doing lately, apart from going to ppl's house all wk last week (let's see, WT, F, YK, yeah a lot of house visits), learning how to play mahjong (and losing), and cramming over meaningless questions.
Check out the putting / chipping / sand wedge area at the marina bay golf course! It's fantastic man, the grass is new, the sand feels good, totally awesome! Okay, u gotta pay 10 bucks to use it lah. Gonna find another sunny day to go down.
Oops, its midnight already. I resolve to sleep early this year, no more late nights (unless its at Paulaner's)! Night night.....
Oh, and if u wanna watch tv shows from anywhere in the world, go to www.xiaoli.cc. There's streaming video of everything. You might wanna download the VLC player (from some website) to download the streaming videos if it takes too long to load. I just watched a whole season of 24 in 3 days hahahaha.
And for movies there is www.haru.tv, but you can only access the first page unless u subscribe to spam and ad popups (not good). Well, the first page has I am legend and some new movies, so its all good :P.
So, that's what I've been doing lately, apart from going to ppl's house all wk last week (let's see, WT, F, YK, yeah a lot of house visits), learning how to play mahjong (and losing), and cramming over meaningless questions.
Check out the putting / chipping / sand wedge area at the marina bay golf course! It's fantastic man, the grass is new, the sand feels good, totally awesome! Okay, u gotta pay 10 bucks to use it lah. Gonna find another sunny day to go down.
Oops, its midnight already. I resolve to sleep early this year, no more late nights (unless its at Paulaner's)! Night night.....
Saturday, December 29, 2007
I'm back
So, its been a while. A new year is dawning, and new things are coming. 2008 is gonna be a hectic year, at work and outside work. You probably won't be hearing much from me cos I'll be busy busy busy!
December is a month of weddings. Wait, correction, 3 weddings in one week! Ya I'm 2/3 of the way there and I'm like gonna explode from all that food already. So far its been pretty good food and unique dishes that I don't see everyday, so its not like I'm eating the same 'ol chinese dishes everytime. Even for shark's fin they manage to cook it in so many different ways, interesting huh?
Well, at Raymen and Kat's wedding just now there was this lady singing jazz. Her voice was absolutely fantastic OMG! You can find out more about her on this website: www.joannadong.com. She's quite young and she dances too, full time! And she performs at a local pub. It's not easy finding a good lounge/pub with great live music that you can sit there and enjoy all day. I used to hang out at Paulaner's but they changed singers and its not as good now. Then there is Wala Wala on thursday nights with Shirlyn, but it often gets too crowded to sit haha. And she's kinda punk rock, so once in a while is good, but not so often. Of course one of the best places I've been is Divine Wine at Parkview Square. That place is always the best lounge for a date, though its quite pricey and atas, must dress up to go in one!
I'm gonna have to pick up the pace of my workouts to stay fit during the wining and dining of this festive season. I also find that staying fit helps me handle lotsa stress and multi-tasking. I'm pretty much learning few different things at work and outside work at the same time, its kinda driving me crazy. Someone told me that I'm not as quick and smart as in Uni days anymore, so probably its tougher. I'm not so sure about that, I think I'm quicker and smarter than I can ever be, and definitely better than a fresh grad! Maybe a little rusty sometimes though.... haha
It's 2am and I should be sleeping and not thinking so much haha. I've not been sleeping so well lately and I think I know why, too much chinese tea! been drinking tea all night at weddings and even regular dinner outings too. It's probably too much caffeine than I am supposed to take argh. Well, I'll probably read the news or something then.
Its a pity how Bhutto got assassinated. Yesterday morning I saw her in the news rallying exposed on top of her car and I actually was wondering how she manages to stay safe, and if she's gonna get another attempt on her life. And by evening she's dead. Sigh, violence is everywhere these days. Yet people seem more worried about the sub-prime crisis.....
December is a month of weddings. Wait, correction, 3 weddings in one week! Ya I'm 2/3 of the way there and I'm like gonna explode from all that food already. So far its been pretty good food and unique dishes that I don't see everyday, so its not like I'm eating the same 'ol chinese dishes everytime. Even for shark's fin they manage to cook it in so many different ways, interesting huh?
Well, at Raymen and Kat's wedding just now there was this lady singing jazz. Her voice was absolutely fantastic OMG! You can find out more about her on this website: www.joannadong.com. She's quite young and she dances too, full time! And she performs at a local pub. It's not easy finding a good lounge/pub with great live music that you can sit there and enjoy all day. I used to hang out at Paulaner's but they changed singers and its not as good now. Then there is Wala Wala on thursday nights with Shirlyn, but it often gets too crowded to sit haha. And she's kinda punk rock, so once in a while is good, but not so often. Of course one of the best places I've been is Divine Wine at Parkview Square. That place is always the best lounge for a date, though its quite pricey and atas, must dress up to go in one!
I'm gonna have to pick up the pace of my workouts to stay fit during the wining and dining of this festive season. I also find that staying fit helps me handle lotsa stress and multi-tasking. I'm pretty much learning few different things at work and outside work at the same time, its kinda driving me crazy. Someone told me that I'm not as quick and smart as in Uni days anymore, so probably its tougher. I'm not so sure about that, I think I'm quicker and smarter than I can ever be, and definitely better than a fresh grad! Maybe a little rusty sometimes though.... haha
It's 2am and I should be sleeping and not thinking so much haha. I've not been sleeping so well lately and I think I know why, too much chinese tea! been drinking tea all night at weddings and even regular dinner outings too. It's probably too much caffeine than I am supposed to take argh. Well, I'll probably read the news or something then.
Its a pity how Bhutto got assassinated. Yesterday morning I saw her in the news rallying exposed on top of her car and I actually was wondering how she manages to stay safe, and if she's gonna get another attempt on her life. And by evening she's dead. Sigh, violence is everywhere these days. Yet people seem more worried about the sub-prime crisis.....
Friday, November 30, 2007
Hell runneth over
"Bravo Platoon 4, charge!!!!"
Out of the jungle we ran, adrenaline rushing, all ready to fight. Once out in the open we found ourselves knee deep in mud, directly facing a heavy machine gun. tat-tat-tat-tat-tat, one by one my platoon mates fell all around me, stuck in the mud!
"Platoon 4 pull back, retreat!" Damn, we started to turn around. "Never mind, Platoon 4 press on, move ahead, charge!!!" Shucks, turn around again and run!
By the time we made it across, whole platoon down, only 3 persons alive, including myself of course because I was at the back. But we're not done yet. Have to cross another stretch of road. "Okay, on my count, 1, 2, 3, go go go!"
We run across the road to the other side. Just as we step foot "arty arty take cover!!!!!" And there went the rest of the platoon.....
4 days of living hell are finally over. You have no idea what it was like, and probably never want to know haha. I'm so glad to have survived and booked out early so I can go home and surf the net peacefully on a friday night! ;)
Out of the jungle we ran, adrenaline rushing, all ready to fight. Once out in the open we found ourselves knee deep in mud, directly facing a heavy machine gun. tat-tat-tat-tat-tat, one by one my platoon mates fell all around me, stuck in the mud!
"Platoon 4 pull back, retreat!" Damn, we started to turn around. "Never mind, Platoon 4 press on, move ahead, charge!!!" Shucks, turn around again and run!
By the time we made it across, whole platoon down, only 3 persons alive, including myself of course because I was at the back. But we're not done yet. Have to cross another stretch of road. "Okay, on my count, 1, 2, 3, go go go!"
We run across the road to the other side. Just as we step foot "arty arty take cover!!!!!" And there went the rest of the platoon.....
4 days of living hell are finally over. You have no idea what it was like, and probably never want to know haha. I'm so glad to have survived and booked out early so I can go home and surf the net peacefully on a friday night! ;)
Sunday, November 25, 2007
ATEC
Tomorrow morning is ATEC Stage 2 -- the final battle. In 4 days it will be over, only the toughest will survive...
Hooah!
Hooah!
Saturday, November 24, 2007
reservist
I'm out for the weekend. This week's reservist training wasn't that bad, but next week is going to be a living hell!
I hope I make it out alive, stay tuned....
I hope I make it out alive, stay tuned....
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Amazing grace
Amazing grace how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost but now am found
Was blind but now I see.
Twas grace that taught my heart to fear
And grace my fears relieved
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed.
These words have always brought me comfort since I was a kid. I used to hum the tune when I was swimming alone long distance in the pool in the evening. I remember when it was cold and it was dark and I felt something might happen at the deep end when nobody was looking. But these words brought me comfort and everything was fine.
It has been difficult to find happiness in the little things. Well I guess there are no big things to start with, so I'll settle for the little ones. Often it just feels so easy to slide into the shadow of darkness that I'd never seen before. Oftentimes I can't imagine that I'd ever see the light. And frankly, I can't believe what has become of me.
But I'm happy for the support that I've received. Happy for the people who read this blog during the 6 months or so that it was not active (ok lah, I know you all got RSS feed, but thanks anyway!). Happy for the friends that love me not just for who I am but because they care about me.
People say life is tough. But think of the carnage in Sudan. Think of the 250 people who died in Pakistan when Benazir Bhutto arrived. Think about Chechnya. Think about Baghdad. Congo. Aung San Suu Kyi. Life is not tough, we are more privileged that anyone can ever be! Life is good, and it is worth living to the fullest!
Dance like no one's watching. Sing like nobody's listening. Blog like nobody's reading. Love until it hurts and don't expect anything in return. Cry those tears out till the rivers overflow and they turn to tears of joy. Live like there is no tomorrow. And when tomorrow comes there's a new happiness awaiting.
Fiat Lux, let there be light.
Amazing grace how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me.....
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost but now am found
Was blind but now I see.
Twas grace that taught my heart to fear
And grace my fears relieved
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed.
These words have always brought me comfort since I was a kid. I used to hum the tune when I was swimming alone long distance in the pool in the evening. I remember when it was cold and it was dark and I felt something might happen at the deep end when nobody was looking. But these words brought me comfort and everything was fine.
It has been difficult to find happiness in the little things. Well I guess there are no big things to start with, so I'll settle for the little ones. Often it just feels so easy to slide into the shadow of darkness that I'd never seen before. Oftentimes I can't imagine that I'd ever see the light. And frankly, I can't believe what has become of me.
But I'm happy for the support that I've received. Happy for the people who read this blog during the 6 months or so that it was not active (ok lah, I know you all got RSS feed, but thanks anyway!). Happy for the friends that love me not just for who I am but because they care about me.
People say life is tough. But think of the carnage in Sudan. Think of the 250 people who died in Pakistan when Benazir Bhutto arrived. Think about Chechnya. Think about Baghdad. Congo. Aung San Suu Kyi. Life is not tough, we are more privileged that anyone can ever be! Life is good, and it is worth living to the fullest!
Dance like no one's watching. Sing like nobody's listening. Blog like nobody's reading. Love until it hurts and don't expect anything in return. Cry those tears out till the rivers overflow and they turn to tears of joy. Live like there is no tomorrow. And when tomorrow comes there's a new happiness awaiting.
Fiat Lux, let there be light.
Amazing grace how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me.....
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
clothes
I've just bought a lot of clothes lately, and it has cost me. Well, nice new clothes are always good to look pretty in I guess. :P
Now I'm just wondering if I should get that new pair of leather shoes....
I went jogging just now. Clocked 32mins and 41 seconds. I think the last time was 32 mins and 10 seconds or something. So it looks like I'm not really improving. Funny thing is, I was really energetic today! Well, except for that last round... But I really thought I'd make better time.
So, counting down, just a few more days.... (to the weekend, or?)
;)
Now I'm just wondering if I should get that new pair of leather shoes....
I went jogging just now. Clocked 32mins and 41 seconds. I think the last time was 32 mins and 10 seconds or something. So it looks like I'm not really improving. Funny thing is, I was really energetic today! Well, except for that last round... But I really thought I'd make better time.
So, counting down, just a few more days.... (to the weekend, or?)
;)
Monday, September 17, 2007
Initiative
Just read this somewhere, pretty inspirational:
It’s a cliché to say that every journey begins with the first step, yet it is still true. Talent-plus people don’t wait for everything to be perfect to move forward. They don’t wait for all the problems or obstacles to disappear. They don’t wait until their fear subsides. They take initiative. They know a secret that good leaders understand: momentum is their friend. As soon as they take that first step and start moving forward, things become a little easier. If the momentum gets strong enough, many of the problems take care of themselves and talent can take over. But it starts only after you’ve taken those first steps.
It’s a cliché to say that every journey begins with the first step, yet it is still true. Talent-plus people don’t wait for everything to be perfect to move forward. They don’t wait for all the problems or obstacles to disappear. They don’t wait until their fear subsides. They take initiative. They know a secret that good leaders understand: momentum is their friend. As soon as they take that first step and start moving forward, things become a little easier. If the momentum gets strong enough, many of the problems take care of themselves and talent can take over. But it starts only after you’ve taken those first steps.
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Every cloud has a silver lining
Today's sermon:
Lord, Give me the serenity to accept what I cannot change,
Give me the courage to change what I can,
And give me the wisdom to tell the difference.
The past month or so has probably been the most turbulent time of my life. Things were tough, and it was difficult to be happy, or to move on.
Well, it turns out there really is a silver lining. Good things come so fast that you don't even have time to reflect and think about it. And when you see the golden moment, life after all is not so bad, not so bad....
Lord, Give me the serenity to accept what I cannot change,
Give me the courage to change what I can,
And give me the wisdom to tell the difference.
The past month or so has probably been the most turbulent time of my life. Things were tough, and it was difficult to be happy, or to move on.
Well, it turns out there really is a silver lining. Good things come so fast that you don't even have time to reflect and think about it. And when you see the golden moment, life after all is not so bad, not so bad....
Sunday, September 09, 2007
Its 4am
It's 4am right now. I've just spent the entire night playing "call of duty" when i should've been doing some work or at least something else more constructive.
Playing games was supposed to take away the emptiness, lighten up my feelings and take away the stress. But it didn't help much. It's 4am and I can barely sleep.
I thought going out all day everyday would help, but it didn't either. Nor did eating cheesecakes 2 days in a row...
How can one be happy? Is there any shortcut? Happiness seems like a distant feeling now. Perhaps I am not capable of it.
A good friend told me it feels like dragging a huge rock along with you. but you gotta keep dragging and somehow someday the rock will be lifted and you'll see the light.
Would I do it all over again even if I knew it would be like that? Probably I would.
I guess life has its bottoms sometimes, and it can only move upwards from here right?
I hope....
Playing games was supposed to take away the emptiness, lighten up my feelings and take away the stress. But it didn't help much. It's 4am and I can barely sleep.
I thought going out all day everyday would help, but it didn't either. Nor did eating cheesecakes 2 days in a row...
How can one be happy? Is there any shortcut? Happiness seems like a distant feeling now. Perhaps I am not capable of it.
A good friend told me it feels like dragging a huge rock along with you. but you gotta keep dragging and somehow someday the rock will be lifted and you'll see the light.
Would I do it all over again even if I knew it would be like that? Probably I would.
I guess life has its bottoms sometimes, and it can only move upwards from here right?
I hope....
Friday, September 07, 2007
Boulevard of broken dreams
I walk a lonely road
The only one that I have ever known
Don't know where it goes
But it's home to me and I walk alone
I walk this empty street
On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams
Where the city sleeps
and I'm the only one and I walk alone
I walk alone
I walk alone
I walk alone
I walk a...
My shadow's the only one that walks beside me
My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me
'Til then I walk alone
Ah-ah, Ah-ah, Ah-ah, Aaah-ah,
Ah-ah, Ah-ah, Ah-ah
I'm walking down the line
That divides me somewhere in my mind
On the border line
Of the edge and where I walk alone
Read between the lines
What's fucked up and everything's alright
Check my vital signs
To know I'm still alive and I walk alone
I walk alone
I walk alone
I walk alone
I walk a...
My shadow's the only one that walks beside me
My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me
'Til then I walk alone
Ah-ah, Ah-ah, Ah-ah, Aaah-ah
Ah-ah, Ah-ah
I walk alone
I walk a...
I walk this empty street
On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams
Where the city sleeps
And I'm the only one and I walk a...
My shadow's the only one that walks beside me
My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me
'Til then I walk alone...
The only one that I have ever known
Don't know where it goes
But it's home to me and I walk alone
I walk this empty street
On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams
Where the city sleeps
and I'm the only one and I walk alone
I walk alone
I walk alone
I walk alone
I walk a...
My shadow's the only one that walks beside me
My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me
'Til then I walk alone
Ah-ah, Ah-ah, Ah-ah, Aaah-ah,
Ah-ah, Ah-ah, Ah-ah
I'm walking down the line
That divides me somewhere in my mind
On the border line
Of the edge and where I walk alone
Read between the lines
What's fucked up and everything's alright
Check my vital signs
To know I'm still alive and I walk alone
I walk alone
I walk alone
I walk alone
I walk a...
My shadow's the only one that walks beside me
My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me
'Til then I walk alone
Ah-ah, Ah-ah, Ah-ah, Aaah-ah
Ah-ah, Ah-ah
I walk alone
I walk a...
I walk this empty street
On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams
Where the city sleeps
And I'm the only one and I walk a...
My shadow's the only one that walks beside me
My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me
'Til then I walk alone...
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