A boat docked in a tiny Mexican fishing village.
A tourist complimented the local fishermen on the quality of their
fish and asked
how long it took him to catch them.

"Not very long." they answered in unison.
"Why didn't you stay out longer and catch more?"
The fishermen explained that their small catches were sufficient to
meet their needs and those of their families.

"But what do you do with the rest of your time?"

"We sleep late, fish a little, play with our children,
and take siestas with our wives.
In the evenings, we go into the village to see our friends,
have a few drinks, play the guitar, and sing a few songs.
We have a full life."

The tourist interrupted,
"I have an MBA from Harvard and I can help you!
You should start by fishing longer every day.
You can then sell the extra fish you catch.
With the extra revenue, you can buy a bigger boat."

"And after that?"

asked the fisherman.

"With the extra money the larger boat will bring,
you can buy a second one and a third one
and so on until you have an entire fleet of trawlers..
Instead of selling your fish to a middle man,
you can then negotiate directly with the processing plants
and maybe even open your own plant.

You can then leave this little village and move to Mexico City,
Los Angeles, or even New York City!

From there you can direct your huge new enterprise."


"How long would that take?" asked the fisherman.


"Twenty, perhaps twenty-five years." replied the tourist.


"And after that?" asked the fisherman.



The tourist answered
" Afterward? Well my friend, that's when it gets really interesting, "
answered the tourist, laughing. "When your business gets really BIG,
you can start buying and selling stocks and make Millions of DOLLARS!"


"Millions? Really? And after that?"

asked the fisherman.


"After that you'll be able to retire,
live in a tiny village near the coast,
sleep late, play with your children,
catch a few fish, take a siesta with your wife
and spend your evenings drinking and enjoying with your friends."


"That’s what I am doing now!!”

Replied the fisherman


The moral of this story is:
Know where you're going in life....
you may already be there!!

Merry Christmas everybody!

Santa decided to come by and grant me a sleepless night.

So I came on and looked back into the past entries of my on/off blog. Always a journey of mixed emotions -- nostalgia, joy, hate, sadness, regret, appreciation.

Been another dramatic year, especially with the start of my first job and all the experiences that came along with it. I must say I have learned a lot but I still have a long way to go.

While I am so glad to be back from my overseas adventures, I do miss the friends from abroad. I do wish to see them again and have a nice chat over coffee in the cafes of Graz, or over shisha in the cafes of Bursa, or over Asahi on the streets of Tokyo.

If I had a chance, I'd also like to eat the fisch burgers in Hamburg, drink Guinness in Dublin, listen to bagpipes in Edinburgh and bask in the sun in Palma Mallorca, but for a different reason with different company.

Looking ahead, there are still trips to be made: Trieste, Italy; Vienna, Austria; Berlin, Germany; San Paolo, Brazil; Shanghai, China; Tokyo, Japan.

But the trip I'd like to make most is really here in Singapore. I am reacquainting myself with the country I'm born with. Or perhaps with the new year coming up, it's just another way of saying, I'm starting my life all over again anew, and renewed.

I have never considered myself a "writer," who to me, is a craftsman expert in the art of expressing thought and argument in an cogent and persuasive arrangement of words.

I just hope, its not too late to start trying to be one.

Adam Lambert's If I Had You.

Like this remix.

Work is getting me down a little. the work just keeps coming on and I can't seem to clear them as quickly as I should. partly because I feel somewhat thrown into the deep end and struggling some what.

Despite all the mistakes I have been making and will make in the future, im sure i will learn from it. And convince myself and prove to myself, that the taunts and laughter that echo at the back of my head from a distant past are wrong.

Fatih motivated me to change my template. And so I did.

And whoever designed this template, thanks too. Its beautiful.

Hopefully, it will signal more beautiful times to come. Not that the time i'm living now, isn't already beautiful. =)

Hey Peepz,

as part of a bid to regain some semblance of my writing skills which i have care-free-ly tossed out the airplan window en route to tokyo a long time back, i am going to start blabbering verbose nonsense on my rather dilapidated blog.

life's been good to me, as long as I am still breathing. currently looking for a job after being turned down by two consulting companies. Though bummed out by the rejection, I am pretty glad I got the opportunities to go through the interview processes thanks to my dear friend Ms. Wen. My regret in this case is to have wasted her efforts thus far. Sorry Ms. Wen.

Other than that, am actively pursuing public service. Am looking at a few ministries and agencies. I would love to take a little bit more time as I still have some other life goals to attain. However, I keep feeling the pressure of society, in the form of genuinely-concerned friends who inquire about my work life. It seems that NEET-ing (Not in Employment, Education or Training) is the activity engaged by the scum that grows underneath of toilet seats left uncleaned for years in shopping centre relics left from the 1970s. The pressure to make money. The pressure to be engaged in productive activity. The pressure to stop sucking out the life of my parents retirement savings. The pressure when invited to high class restaurants by employed friends, only to be embarrassed by the background differences in social status as the scum that is... you get the picture. =)

Not that its a bad thing. Frankly, I feel that it is a rather interesting sensation, coming close to those considered as "in-transition workers." I am just imagining the out of job workers, the other job-seekers, or those who are hungry for work but are denied opportunities for whatever reasons. Is this me placing myself in the bottom of the social hierarchy of our modern society? Is this universal across the world? Is there any significance that can be understood from this? If there is one thing I do feel, is the sort of societal expectation of its people to be making money. And the things I see, one being the raised eyebrows when I tell others that I'm "unemployed."

Well, perhaps again, I am just imagining things. What I should do now, is to take good care of my health and head out for a swim.

More opining of a restless, stress-out brain of a NEETing scum to come soon. Hopefully with good news about my job hunting.

I will see you when I see you.

Stay happy always.