Viper Challenge 2015!! (Part 2/2) - The Journey to the Viperc Den

The early missteps

My original plan was to reach Damansara via bus early in the morning and proceed to stay at my friend's house to catch a somewhat important pre-event sleep the day before the Challenge. However what turn out was that the bus driver decided to stop at middle of Kuala Lumpur at 5am morning and didn't give it a dam about the destination I bought my ticket for. Stranded without access to the railway this early in the morning, a good singaporean family kindly let me 'tumpang' their cab to reach KL central station, a better place for us to rest before other public transport starts operating. After a bit of hustle and minor travelling, I managed to meet up with my friend and reach his house around noon, I even get to meet one of my close friend of PwC before I leave KL central! =  )

The beating before the game

..however, all this early travelling with lack of sleep (been travelling since midnight 1am from Sg) started to give my immune system a naughty idea for an early morning treat in the form of sore throat D: When I reach my friend's place at noon, he have to go out to run an errand for his family so I decided to get a healthy chinese tea to calm my worrying throat. And for those who met me during the past weekend, they'd know better how that ends up: the kind lady at the chinese tea shop there served me with a supposedly healthy chinese bitter tea which ends up with a terrible adverse effect. With my body not accepting the the content of the bitter tea even after my tearful effort to drank it all, it decided to give me a nice warning of sleeping time and made me wanna instantly... faint? Or more like to fall asleep completely. I managed to found a nearby couch and quickly have a unproductive on-and-off nap for around two hours. With all the cold sweats and the body resetting its immune system the internal workout activity of my body seems busy enough to keep me barely alive for another day.

Preparation of war:

As the sub-title suggest, war. The war must go on! I took a 2 hours nap before heading out at night for a light meal with friends and meetup with Kelvin who motivated me to take up ViperChallenge. He is a nice guy who looks overly mature for someone around my age. He had been kind enough throughout my entire Viperc 2015 experience especially during pre and post-event for fetching me around etc.
We were part of the mass 'manual labour' who volunteered for last year ViperC with overly under-recognised sweat and sweats. With a point to prove and alot of fellow friend's sake to win for we marched into Viperc early morning with much nostalgic feeling: The never-see-before clear sky where I can see the entire constellation of Orion with roughly only level 1 light pollution! (Far city light pollution is at minimal value of 3) It totally reminds me of last year when I spent the night in the middle of jungle with my Station 2.5 teammate under the very same sky.

With only 4-5 hours of sleep and some random pills from Kelvin we start the course with a readied heart!

Viper-Challenge!

https://fatsoslim.wordpress.com/2015/03/16/my-viper-challenge-2015/

Due to the lack of pictures and/or go-pro equipment there is isn't anything more than verbal description so show you what it was all about~ Therefore I enclosed a link here to someone's blog I found online with some interesting write-up and nice pictures of ViperChallenge2015! (Y)

The ever recognisable Viper Challenge obstacle is always the first and the last one. With increased number of obstacle this year, ViperChallenge greeted us with a reminder that IceBucketChallenge is not only Not forgotten, It Is Overrated. ViperC wakes up ur muscle with a new and improved obstacle from last year's ice water dipping into this year's major ice diving!! It looks fun and simple enough but the coolness and the chill that comes right after u went through the obstacle is a happy drug to your muscles... woke up? Good! It's time to move on!!

Dirtier Dirt and Muddier Mud:

With some dirt and muddy obstacles here and there, I got my first injury on my right knee when someone accidentally pushed me when I was trying to speed-climbing the slippery mud slide. With that minor injury on me, the crawling and the water obstacles doesnt make it feel any better, but at least it does make my knee clean! xD Along the way it totally feel like endless mud and water obstacles, with some of them being modified from last year ViperC: Like the jump over fire obstacle without a pool this year to end it cool, no more basic monster size tire workout for us, and so on. We keep looking forward for more fun ahead, and it wasn't long until you realise you are almost halfway there...

Choose your difficulty level:

With the Spiderman Shuffle being the only major stamina-killer in early course, the quick-mud take a change of game at around 8km - 10km route. Its a approximately 1km jungle trekking with quick muds everywhere~ Everyone have to go in pairs or groups so someone would be helping you up when you fall into the quick mud. The tough part of this course is Not the slow drain of your stamina, but rather... the mud vs your shoe!
With many participants end up with their war gear being sacrificed in this nasty obstacle... this is where the different types of Viperc participant started to differentiate themselves. Me and Kelvin helped alot of ppl along the way, I even try to break a semi-big tree branch to help some people who got stuck in the nasty mud. 

The next obstacles right after that was one of my favourite: the mini walls! The other fun climbing obstacles up to this point for me was the 'stairway to heaven': very simple series of climbing and descending and viola~

you'd do good as long as you warmed up enough and knows how to do a few basic climb :) [Google the pic pls coz it was awesome! :D ..and kinda easy xD]

Speaking about that... this year's obstacle was considered fairy do-able especially for the new-comers/amateurs. With the course kinda designed with alot of near-cross-path, the lack of volunteers on many obstacles gave many participant extra motivation to be skipping track if you are not up to the task. Especially when we reach this giant fun slides after about 14km through the course, I found out at the end of the day that alot of ppl skipped the track by following the nearby crowd going into the other direction and to their surprised it'd takes them to the end obstacle with around 7km skipped and 7 obstacles missed! Well, medal certs and tshirts aside, u choose your own goal! ;D

The fight takes shape!

Why alot of people wanted to skip courses and obstacles? If you are one of them asking the question, you probably didn't realised the fact that this course became lesser about 'leaving no one behind' and more about 'just get this done with' especially after the quick-mud.... when ViperC started to bare its fang on the participants!

With a series of climbing that requires upper body strength it even make it harder for us to keep helping ppl as we need to reserve strength for what lies ahead. Kelvin being the one tirelessly to talk to the volunteers and the participants accidentally lost his spec into the pool when he was going through the monkey bar challenge. It demotivates him alot especially when one of the on-site crew turned an eye away from his problem and didn't even bother to console him.

I tried that challenge twice and end up holding one arm on the bar(again!) while the other arm couldn't reach the extremely high 3rd ring, which is exactly the reason why this obstacle was given the name 'epic journey'. Right after that Kelvin seems even more demotivated as many ppl realises that the more time you spent not moving, the harder it will become! It doesnt matter whether you waits for friends, or tries to help other people, the longer it gets, the more the scorching sun will take its toll on you. With friends started to split up and we decided that we doesnt have any spare energy tank left to be the kind samaritan around, we quickly proceed to the remaining obstacles. At this point of time, my voice still haven't fully recovered so I couldn't talk much nor shout, and with Kelvin recently lost spec, it's a team with the poor voice and vision display. With just two of us left to take care of each other, the 'leave no one behind' motto takes the form of the 2 ppl left in group.

For the warrior

Along the way undoubtly there are more obstacles, physical challenges and body constrains that came into the picture. Kelvin being the smart guy around carries various cream and products that ease muscle pain. He started to have major issue of recurring muscle pain when he tries one of the obstacles and fall down on the crumbling sand which made him rolled the ground. To my surprise he still endlessly try to beat all the obstacle coming in our way of beating the ViperChallenge!

The 2nd obstacle that I failed is one that I am not happy about... the 'nerve of steel'!! The challenging part was that the metal rope was so slim that u either have to be fast and strong enough to hang and move along before your body weight wins in a fight of weight vs stamina.. or you have to be tactical enough to lock ur arms and legs around the metal steel to make it slightly easier, with a price of painful drag of skin when you to move while hanging on the metal rope. My muscle began to feel tired when I was more than halfway over the pool underneath, as I look ahead I saw only two choice: brace myself towards the remaining distance to beat this obstacle with the expense of possible stamina overhaul, or give up at this point to save the energy on what's to come.

My choice? I end up slowly drop down to the water... And on my mind? I really wanted to beat the final obstacle no matter what it takes, and I would hate not being able to finish more obstacle before That final one!

ClimbMax

This is already the part when ViperC challenge this year shows you that the toughest of obstacles are always the last to come. With the last few obstacles being the toughest among all the obstacles, you don't even have time to be excited; conserve stamina, save energy, be as tactical as possible to beat it fast so you don't have to waste too much of strength.

What comes next is the 3Meter wall called 'Rapelling Wall', infamous for the amount of victims that it 'consumed', I became extra careful and tries to move quick but not too fast climbing the wall with the rope attached... however like most ppl do, my arm strength just couldn't pull my whole body up quick enough to climb the whole 3 meter, I stepped down, stopped, rested for a while and rethink my strategy: I would really hate not to conquer another obstacle, and having failed the previous obstacle, I owed to beat this one!
After some rethinking and watching how some other ppl do it, I found the right method of doing it and with another strength rush on me I give it another shot and starting to pull myself up via the rope with my body flat sticking to the wall and leg spread forming a M shape and stand on the tiny piece of wood nailed there: pull the rope, push the legs, stick the body to the wall, repeat, conquer! It takes energy to reach on top but it takes much more to come down via very unfashioned way of me using the last bit of my energy to ensure a safe landing (alot of ppl hurted themselves because they lost their strength/grip on holding the rope when descending)... with almost a cramp on my thigh I rolled and land on my butt.. ouch!!

Shortly after that, as I regain my strength to move on ahead, I saw Kelvin climbing back down from the very same obstacle without much trouble. With that little bit of strength left and all that muscle pain, I guess he still can nail it especially when its something that requires more skill than strength.. impressive guy!!
And with just some more challenges left in the game, one of the last strength-killer was the 'Define Gravity' obstacle! The giant slanted plank that required you to move upwards by speeding ur way up if you are an super-athelete, or u can be tactical about it by having ppl forming human pyramid ladder to help you up.
Being one of the final few obstacles left around for you to conquer, it doesn't stops here. Once u reach the top, you will only realised that unlike last year, the back of the slanted wall is not flat land for you to just land on it, but rather a big distance for you to slide down along the sand to reach the ground level. There was two random guy around who helped me up my letting me climbing via their shoulder, with a small burst from the wall I reach my arm to the guy waiting on top to pull me up to finish this obstacle. Right after I felt that sense of accomplishment, I looked at and realised the cool guys moved on ahead without giving me a chance to say thank you; and as for Kelvin, he tried to conquer the obstacle solo way, but as he was sliding down due to lack of momentum to reach the top, his foot began to give up and he rolled on the ground again... yiks! He pull himself up as we march towards the remaining short distance before the victory... the ramp of Triumph!!



The height of triumphant
It was around 1am noon with the hot sun still burning on our skin and stamina... when I finally reach the back the Stadium, here it is, waiting for me... the 'ramp of Triumph'! The obstacle so iconic as ViperChallenge finisher that was inspired by American Ninja Warrior's Warped Wall obstacle. The one that I set my eye on to beat it since last year... climb, jump, rope, humans, whatever it takes me to beat that, I will. With all the remaining energy saved for this very game-finisher, I waited patiently for my turn as I saw more and more ppl failing the obstacle and.... sliding down!? O_O With the location of bomba(fireman support)'s water spray changed, I felt like this is kind of a let-down for someone with expectation :(  Last year right after you conquered the Ramp of Triumph, you will gather behind this very finisher with water spraying all over you via the nearby fire truck until it reaches around 20-40 ViperC finisher gathered around, the cameras will fly around you and the host will begin the countdown for your last spurt of victory to the finishing line with much joy and excitement.

As for this year's one, the fire truck was placed right before the ramp, so the longer u wait, the more ppl who tried the obstacle with their newly drenched shirt etc will make a nice sliding ground on the ramp, which make it even harder! D: I used all my strength for a sprint towards the ramp and before I was even ready for a jump to reach the top or whoever waiting there to help me, I slide down hopelessly like all others while my heart rant painfully for how powerless I am.

I asked Kelvin to move on ahead while I wanted to conquer this Very Badly. Very. However my throat and my body decided that it's time to end the deal of our peace agreement and I cough relentlessly as my body grasps for air that my throat does not happily allow for. With the last spurt I gave to the ramp a failed attempt to beat the obstacle, I tried to replace my anger with energy; being desperate, I took off my shoe, readied my whole body strength, calm my mind, and stepped out in front of the group of girls who are hesitant to tried to grab the rope to climb the ramp. With not much time to spare for everyone, one of the guy in the group saw me ready to go for the rope and decided to run ahead first to attempt on the rope climb to the ramp, despite all the kiasu-ness or the macho-ness the guys wanted to show it's simply to exhausting and time-consuming to try to comquer it solo style... with only 50/20,000 participant who did that single-handedly last year, I knew that I wasn't even going to try for the 2nd time to sprint and jump on the ramp all by myself. I saw the guy sliding down on the ramp right in front of me as his lose his grip and his armstrength trying to hold on the rope for too long without successfully climb to the top of the ramp.

Without a second thought nor another moment of hesitation I rushed to the ramp, holding the rope trying to climb upwards to the top; as I keep pulling with all my strength with my feet walking almost vertically, it reaches the point when gravity and the slippery takes in and I began to fell with my feet dropping down.. however I was still holding on the rope and ready for the last jump to reach the top; I shouted as my feet sliding down with only my arm holding on the rope. "Pull me up!" A rather failed attempt to reach out to the random helpers on top as my voice was still worst than a duck quackling and with the helpers on top not realising I was there, I pulled my whole body up and my feet back touching the ramp with my knee bended ready to make the short jump.
But instead, when I jumped a bit I was reluctant to risk it all by letting go of the rope, so I pushed all my strength into placing one feet on the top of the ramp, and I made it! ..with a far-king pain-rush on my left knee left thigh left leg I gave it a final pull-rush on my arm to pull my body ahead and pushed my right leg and the whole body to a flip-of-faith with my left leg as the pivot foot to flip on top of the ramp! The volunteers and other people on top of the ramp saw me and quickly hold my whole body down preventing me from falling and ask me if I am okay. I replied with 'leg cramped man but at least I did it!' I couldnt say more with that super sore throat and that pain-rush :') But I did it... and... the happiness was short OTL (this is emoticon for being sad)

All it takes was me trying to help pulling up another participants, and right as I was stepping off the back of the ramp... the back part of the ramp with the stairs was made of steel. And it felt like my feet being burned at every mili-second I was standing there, I rushed down the stair while I saw a guy in front of me doing the same burn-hurt running with his bare feet shouting 'fug! fug! fug!' all the way until both of us hide at the shade behind the ramp and scream painfully hoping the pain would go away sooner...


quick ending journey
Let's not waste more time on how pathetic we became... we took another 1 hour hanging out around there greeting friends under the hot sun while Kelvin tries to make a hopeful attempt at the lost and counter to recover his spec and hopefully by now as I am writing this he would have recovered his new but recently-lost spec. We didnt spend much time taking photos around nor did we stay long enough to chit chat with other ppl. sorree~

And thus my ViperC ends with a happy declaration to my station2.5 crew and all ViperC friends that I did it and I can now gladly say that "being part of the crew last year was 2.5 times harder than running through this year viper twice!! If you can survive as crew last year: 3 full days of  sunburn, rain, sleepless day and night, endless work, underappreciate effort and all that ranting from superior... you'd already won ViperC challenge!" To the friends made throughout that experience, you are the best!! (Y)

..and thus my weekend ends up with me not planning to meet up with most of my friends as even now I m still mid-way recovering my ready-to-get sick anytime body... geez. I wish I can just have a quiet 15 hours sleep and everything would be alright I m sure! XD

..till next time people! ciaoz  ;)

Footprints over the 5 years.

在离开了‘鸟笼’的这五年里。。。素来我行我素的自己也没经过什么大风大浪；没有大鱼大肉的日子里也不算让自己粗茶淡饭，但是遇到的人和事也能算是充满色彩的吧。。。

这些颜色，都是我在许许多多人生抉择中走出的道路上，遇到的人：

近来不少人问我：“过去真的重要吗？”
对我来说：重要。　
我没资格选择一个没有错误与失败的人生，可是对我来说，过去的选择，造就了今天的我。我当然不满意现况的自己，但如果再给我选择，我的决定会一样；如果没有那样的选择，就没有今天的我，更没有我这路上遇到的这些我非常珍惜的人与事。。。　包袱越重，就让我越来越强大地走下去！

这里分享一些不少好友留下的立志言语吧～　= )

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旅程的开始是在沙登的一所大学与一群好友乱来～ K5是这里故事的开始！

后来我决定申请奖学金去读别的大学念别的科系后，一帮可爱的‘老友’与‘老婆’们就送了我一张大大的纪念卡。过后我叫这大学的朋友们在一本纪念册上留言，当中出现一些了还蛮不错的回忆笔迹～

“我只知道你时常弹钢琴，所以对你印象蛮深刻の。。哈哈。。”

“不要轻言放弃，否则对不起自己！！”

其实如果你察觉到，我的钢琴level是 -1的！ xD 

这也许听起来好像很孤独，可是我就是没事自动找事做的那种小子。喜欢就爽爽地去乱按宿舍大厅那架烂琴。。。结果反而跟不少朋友有更多的交流，而且我还‘逼’她们教我弹钢琴呢！ xD

后来怎么了？　后来嘛。。。渐渐地大伙们也越来越少联络了。。可是我却看到了很多很好的情节：朋友们之间突然拍拖的，失恋的，粘家的，天天去pou的，无书不出门的。。让我深深觉得，如果当初我没转校：这就会是我的生活了。

后来在念专业会计的路程中，我常常都是班上那个少数群族的一分子；虽然是班上出了名常常睡着的小子 :X 可是在这么多不同的班上，却认识了很多很可爱很爽快很友善的朋友们。

我觉得我最享受的的过程就是在一个这么要求认真的环境下认识这些人。。。这些人，这些不同的认真，却有一个共同点：就是他们知道自己想要打造的未来是怎样的。

无论是5年，3年，或甚至是1年的计划而已，他们都有自己的人生战略。

。。怎样去赢的人生战略，而不是接下来去哪里玩的游戏玩略。

(佛光山东禅寺所得静思语) 

看着每个人毕业了，我的好学姐好姐姐好死党们等等等一个个地离开大学了。

慢慢地也看着一班好胜的帅气小伙子们一个一个地毕业，想当初我是自己贪玩在草场玩飞碟frisbee时认识的一班学弟学妹们，过后无端端却变成我是教他们运动与一些考试解压技巧的‘师父’了。虽然这只是短短的一两个学期而已，看着这班伙子不停的长大，不停地变，感触也不少的说～ （上图那张卡就是他们给的 xD 不知道为啥他们也这么多感触）XP

再转一个方向看，以前的大学伙伴们也都毕业了。大家踏入了工作的世界后，我从一间很不错的会计服务公司‘走了’一趟后，从一间大公司跑去了另一间。。。做了几个月的查帐员。。

 到了今天，似乎转了一大圈又～～回到了原点。
让我想起了我housemate那漂亮认真的护士小姐问过我的问题。。。
至于我的答案嘛。。。其实念旧，是好事来的。至少对我来说是的 : )

因为‘念旧’，所以我会不时看回头走过的路，错过的人，错过的人生。如果我没下定决心辞掉那份工，就不会知道原来对我的housemate来说我是一个做完工三更半夜回到家就锁自己在房间的人；就不会知道从你们的角度来说我是一个怎样的人；就不会知道从你的角度看世界是怎样的。从别人角度看世界，这才是这整年里我最珍惜的回忆。
看回去，才能前进：因为对认真的人来说，我们有时走了走，走远了，走久了，却忘了我们要寻找的答案是什么。。看回去，寻找我们一开始前进的理由，你会知道你现在比以前活到更好，你会得到更多前进的力量：就像是一道很复杂的数学题，看回去问题，才知道现在的答案变得很简单了。

对于朋友，对于对的人在我们的人生里，所谓的缘分只是限定于惜缘的人。
不惜缘的人，在你的未来里跟你没有缘分。
这里引用一句非常有意思的言句：
Friends are made throughout your life but true friends will always be in touch wherever you are.

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Allow me to end this with another quote I found on a random school in Klang. A small motivation for us to realised how powerless we are, yet how resilient we need to be to learn more and to be better to move forward. To all my friends, Hwaiting! = )

Re:connection

Blog revival with random stories: part 2

Dear readers keep urself entertained by scrolling towards those part that you wanted to read.

Here are some guides if anyone fancy for a little reading.
Prologue(1st part) - Roughly on what happened before year end.
Prologue(2nd part) - The year ends with life changing experiences
Monthly updates - Time vs me In outliving each other!
Kids and Peoples - Appreciation for friends and ppl I've met

Gotta continue from where I left off.. xD
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July Gladiolz

What comes from July onwards are a series of random project, side quest, and busy schedules.

Shinkaizen, who was also in the midst of his job-changing transition period was nice enough to guide me to Semenyih(Selangor) for a hiking trip to Broga hill~~ It was a journey away from city area and after some stamina-killing hiking we managed to conquer ALL three hills(peaks) of Broga! >=D
..its a good physical achievement after months of office sitting work xD

The Japanese festival of Bon Odori is what comes next~ Honestly the food sold isn't as good as what they provide previous year, but what made up for it was the totally awesome fireworks!! Its round its big its right above our very own eyes with colourful display of light! xD Ofcoz what makes it better was the time spent with precious friends Shinkaizen SinYi MayYong ZhengYaw Frost Xeno etc etc.

The streaks of activities doesn't end with single satisfaction. I took a trip to Kuching, Sarawak to visit my homy and finallyyyyy for the very first time stepping my feet on East Malaysia!!! Totally doing what I wanted to do before I turned 20 or like 25 years old? D:

Another one day trip ensures right after I came back from Kuching... whrs next? Johor Legoland!! Thx to Captain I had a chance to learn and spend time there~ Ofcoz like usual for what I have shared on my social network site I usually won't disclose much on my blog, unnecessary to remind myself of the same thing twice right?

July ends with a totally ordinary day of my life during my birthday.. one of my junior Sammie happens to be around and treat me a nice scoop of BR icecream without knowing its my bday? xD Haha that was cute of her-- oh ya n MuiYing made a surprise appearance to entertain me too haha.. even after months later she bought me a very yummy pandan cake for like erm... belated celebration? Thx alot!! TwT (Ini gamdong de emoticon kay!)

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Outside of the bokx(books/box)

What comes next is quicker than lightning. An international audit firm Pwc gave me a call and so I went for it. Days after that I went Puchong to find Frost for small Raya gathering and hang out session with friends before the most hectic part of the game comes in.

I took on freelance job to help YihWen with some accounting work, but at the time as Animangaki(an anime convention that I was involved in) was drawing near my team-mate are stressed out and experience semi nervous-breakdown kind of thing? The kids politic issue in the team is what I ignored most so I usually don't claim credit for what I do while picking the best seat to see how they busy complaining to each other rather than pushing themselves to work harder... but ironically I think god also enjoys watching how I play my cards... I got my hands full with OBU graduation coming at the very same time. So I have to prepare for my graduation(payment robe rental email confirmation meansof transportation document preparation etc) while finishing up my freelance work AND my Animangaki task....wait. Pwc last interview falls on the same time so I kinda went for it without preparing much and to my surprise they decided to recruit me! o_o

Audit is totally not something I am prepared for so after due discussion they allowed me to join in the December batch... anyway it wasnt too bad for the 50 hours madrush multitasking experience... what I do hope is that I wun get to feel that EVER again! >< Geezzz.... and I m getting myself into audit life with high probability of this happening OTL

 As August ends with the last page of my hectic schedules.... I felt like I could do something more, but at the same time I really wanted to take a proper break too. So I took some time for a very last minute planning of a trip to... England, UK!

Not going to update too much about my trip here so if I have time I will write a bit about it ;)

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The Reluctant Battle

My 10 days journey of solo trip in UK blown the minds of many who knows me... My first time travelling outside this very country Msia was a year ago where I went Singapore with my coursemates. This--the very next time I go overseas became a trip to leave asia and alllll the way to UK!

The journey was like one's life: there are always ups and downs, like the sea waves of TC and Whitby! xD I was welcomed not only by the autumn of England, but also at the very same time the message of new house owner going to increase my rental payment with the assumption of thinking that I was trying to avoid him by not calling him =.= ..whatadouchebag  This ended when I came back on October with numerous trips to go KL(from my hometown Ktn) in search of alternatives. I end up renting other room to temporary solve my problem.. sigh =S

Some minor projects here and there with one of it being making personal postcards to send to my dearest friends. I don't think it went well but well... I dono wat else I can do :P I don't have much to spend in UK to bring back souvenirs anyway xD

Here comes November... long story short. I spent one of my weekend going to Shah Alam for Karnival My3L to help out Cap'n Allen. It became such an unique experience being able to meet new friends rather than just acquaintances of face memorising. On the next week I had another trip there (again ==) for a sponsored exams which I decided to take to equip myself with extra... license? Its more like for the purpose of more knowledge and exposure with the expenses of having to reactivate my rusty brain to some overnight studying blahbuhwahh8nvohourelvi-9mv3t40p ANYway I was at the very same time on a rush schedule to learn cooking and swimming while handling my hydrophobia and viola! ..no I havent really know how to survive in the sea but wat I am trying to say is that... here. I. am. now~~

..lets welcome what comes next and hopefully I can survive better in whatever waiting ahead.

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Friends and Nakama-tachi

Let's start off with mentioning alot... and I mean alot, of kiddos. Juniors from my ACG world (Anime,Games,Comics/Manga) which I occasionally joins in. We had lots of anime convention whr we met each other: AnimaxCarnival on March, KuantanCoswalk on April, C2Age on July, Animangaki on August, CPFCompetition on September, and there is always more coming...
Must say... its good having to know all these amazing friend and the surprises is always when I met really cool friend in this field who eventually became my close friends ;)

Oh ya... I also met back my little kai mui(sister) that I lost contact for like 2 years... guess how much we changed? = ) ..darn she is so tall now!! xD That really surprises everyone around ahahahaha!!

Coursemates are never important ppl in my life...not until I treat them as friends! I never like the idea of treating ur friend as coursemantes. The priority is wrong, fullstop. I spent time rebuilding lost connection with my UPM friends after I stopped my work... u should know how much I treasure friendship (look at the blog post title! xD) trying to meet friends who are going to graduate. And what I didn't mention above also was that I eventually made it to their convo at end of October... Really happy to be part of them seeing them marking their last footprint in this university.

ACCA coursemates and highschool-mates are people I don't lost contact with... u know it if u r one of them = )

Sometimes I really wonder having complicated life helps. I wishes if I can just sit down and chill out enjoying every single moment but.... meh I dont think I will be able to stand the guilty pleasure.
But for other ppl of my life... no matter how we were connected, university, anime, games, schools, photography, work, event, exhibition, travelling, sports, etc etc etc I am going to have another 12 months of sort-of like disappearing into audit life BUT DO Know that I am writing this to emphasize that... whatever happens in life. I always appreciate the bonds of our friendship/relationship!!

..I thought I would have time to write a post about wat went thru during my 100 days working in Sunway Tower. It consists of precious moments and experience there, so despite of not having sufficient time to motivate myself to slam my fingers more on the keyboard to bullshit about how much I treasure them who wun really get to read this :P (I wonder how is everyone doing now :) )

Allow me to end this with a fav quote I learnt from my mentor~
"Friends are made throughout your life but true friends will always be in touch wherever you are." - Catherine.

-Racing against the clock-

Revival of this blog with random stories~~

Dear readers keep urself entertained by scrolling towards those part that you wanted to read.

The prologues and for those who wanna know why I sorta distance myself from a lot of things and ppl, not gotta reveal much about my life but I am breaking my own habit of being a little bit too conservative so this time around I am starting to share photos about things going around.

Here are some guides if anyone fancy for a little reading.
Prologue(1st part) - Roughly on what happened before year end.
Prologue(2nd part) - The year ends with life changing experiences
Monthly updates - Time vs me In outliving each other!
Kids and Peoples - Appreciation for friends and ppl I've met
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Prologue - Backstory

Exactly 12 months ago I wasn't exactly having the best, nor the worst time of my life... coz I know only more will be coming and growing up under this kind of environment alot of problems is inevitable and the worst part of it? ..when there is no solution.

Well time to add in some substance here and there~~ I was working part time to partially support myself before I get financially suffocated, I ended up quitting the job in order to focus on my exam. My feelings at that time? Finger crossed, it's now or never!

Not being able to take advantage of the shortcut I made to complete my ACCA (professional accounting exam equivalent to a Master cert) my parents wasnt exactly satisfy with their investment. That aside with some minor stories of usual family-politics I found myself a straightforward solution, albeit a temporary one: To financially sustain urself and pass the exam -- Something that seems perfectly simple but with a minor twist of having totally totally insufficient time to prepare for my test nor to have enough time to earn myself a good loaf of bread.

Luckily~ I have a few friends who are willing to emotionally support me... just like an author's undying spirit to satisfy its reader, I kept going and make sure that I will be able to pick myself up very soon.

What's in line with the direction of luck is ofcoz some distraction here and there... with some close friend thinking that I hate them and yada yada yada bla bla long stories short, I really think that the difference in maturity is the fast-paced catalyst that causes the breakdown of the whole friendship. Even until now... survival is often the thing I associate myself with. Therefore, to fantasized about me being a good guy to realise ur dream or even just to be a good listener of your daily whining about how cruel this world is not to fulfil ur fairy tale day-dream bla bla bla...

..Yes, I AM cruel. When I am busy thinking about how to fully utilise 5 weeks of mine to earn enough money while having enough time to study AND pass my exam with the additional pressure of needed to sell off some of my assets coz I am as usual constantly moving to other place of rent to lower my financial burden (ok main point here) I dont really have time to discuss with you about how I can be ur bff/love-matcher that would save u from the first world problem of rich kid getting not enough love from ur friends and partners.

..and NOPE, this might not be who you think it is. If my memories still serves me good then I can safely say there was like 3, or is it 5 ex-close friends who taught I m borned to be their savior? Nou way.

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Prologue - Aftermath

Well, what's next? I don't really remember all the detail~ But I do know that it was followed by a series of awesome events that ends the year. A free ticket to SCANDAL Rock Concert, my fav J-rock band which rocks the night with their energetic songs. An absolutely worthwhile experience to be there with my two closest buddy Shinkaizen and Ducky while having my final exam in like... 3 days? xD It was a totally daring move to take on the bet to make this decision and yeap... for those of you who doesn't know that I graduated eventually... yea I passed my final exam xD

Right after that was my penang trip that I planned earlier to meet my very good friends -- the acca penang gang is often what ppl used to call them. The 3-4 days of the trip was totally totally packed with activities and greaaaatttt foods! I climbed to the temple and we spend every single day getting exhausted from all the travelling, from cultural site to food stall then shopping mall before chilling out around nice walkways facing the sea talking to random backpackers. What was really heartwarming too was that Fanzy let me stayed at his house for free during these days and Mr.Spiderman treated me a lot of good food!! I didnt really pay much but still really appreciate what they did.

Right after the trip was a short window period of 4 days before Malaysia largest anime convention Comic Fiesta... I dun usually get obsessed with all these cartoon thingy but THUUUU... I mean TWOOOO of my close friend are going to cosplay for the first time in their life... they are getting really really nervous back then so I thought if would be nice if I actually do something for them... but erm... I m seriously dumb so wat can I do eh? With Yadea and nekokami's help we spent hoursss assembling a human sized Danbo suits with all the cheapest material we can find.

A normal costume for a cosplayer(or coser in short) would easily cost u over MYR50 or 100 already but how can I 'troll' them with something that doesnt even exceed the total cost of MYR10? Well... I kinda did that anyway =S It was dam fun!!! The rest of hyped in CF was with frens who together we wonder around trolling, kudos to Ducky TheWindz Shannie Albert Heliosgon ahahahaha xD

..unlike everyone thou the hyped was short-lived as I rushed to the modern art gallery in University of Malaya that exhibits some great artwork which includes great photographs of my friend PlayStesen =P ..that sight-widening experience ended up with me rushing straight back to my hometown exactly the same time when the news of flash flood came to me. (I think there was problem with the dam so the heavy rain causes the whole city to experience its first major flood damage in 50 years, well... my cousin managed to saved his ps3 xD And luckily my house is slightly on the higher grown so only the parking space kena a bit)

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Embrace the new - January

It wasn't easy to keep up the pace of all the things going on, as usual... so Imma make this short~
It started off with some hang out with friends around Selangor/KL, with preparation to find full time work the rest of my free time brought me to Monash University whr I slacked around with Shannalberto couple : 3
..will totally feature minor writing for them but lets just continue~

I really really had a lot of short trip (most of it being one-day trip) around different places whr I started to explore new place with friends and trying to widen the exposure of this kampung boy, personally!
I bought an early ticket to Muar by a bus with a irresponsible drive who drove thru Muar without telling me =.= ..luckily the guy beside me kinda ask me if 'this place is Muar?' so we kinda stopped the driver from 'kidnapping' us to melacca x) Thx to Ducky he picked me up n show me nice place around the Mahogany Town - Muar (seriously sounds like a pokemon town aye?) Seriously a good place for the retired to stay on. We spend quality time around laughing in the book store chowing random local delicacies swinging butt oopss I mean just playing around before I buy my evening tix to go back. Thx Duck n ur really nice fren too! xDD

Well I will just skip the interviews I had with different job which kinda occupies my time away but the next trip brought me to Ipoh~ Thx to Satthia a very good form 6 friend of mine we went to Kampar-Ipoh for a nice one day trip to visit around... A true 'chinesey' place indeed! xD
Met a new friend wen I was strolling around UTAR Kampar campus too~~

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The month of beginners - February

With Chinese new year around everyone is getting ready for fireworks and celebration~ During this time Elmo and MissTan took my offer to visit my hometown for a small break in their workaholic life... I used to really thought that Elmo would be a good mentor-sister-friend to missTan and well, as always I am more than correct muahahahahahaha NotGottaRevealANYbackstoryATall :P
..but nope they r not lesbian, and I aint bringing 2 gf back home =m=~

Anyway That followed by CNY celebrations ended with my first trip to Klang. I jio(invited) Satthia for some masa untuk explorasi di Klang for Chap Goh Meh celebration whr we found 'no.8 bridge' the famous site for Klang ppl to date n relax to help our friend to throw random chinese oranges for wonderful love blessings xD
It was great with all the celebrations going around and we felt like we totally blended in with the local communities too~

Not forget to mention also my lovely ACCA mates spent some time with me 2 days earlier for mini wish-making chap goh meh celebration!! =D Ahahaha pics are to be found in fb if u ever interested. And all thx to MuiYing and Jun for helping me out to shop for my formal cloths too! ><

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Time to get serious - March ing to April

With my first ever pure accountant path began in the very place I studied for it, I started to work and met alot of really really good colleagues xD

But aside from all the works, work-life-balance is not impossible. I went to International Hot Air Balloon Festival with MissTan after 3 long years of absence, althou it was more of a field-festival than an air-festival it was still kinda fun~~ Oh and we end up freezing ourself in cinema with Elmo who doesnt feel a thing o_o ..scary.

I also (finally) made it to Batu Caves the week after that for a personal trip/goal to climb all the way in for this holy-adventure with AhKiong... who I eventually 'forced' him to bring me around to SetiaAlam too!! xP
All in all the times spend with friend is truly the great times of life... but I cant stop to wonder, am I going to the right direction of life? Anyway lets not talk about it for now and show u some candid/shot.

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May Jun bless the changes of time and people

A lot of things keep pouring in during the periods of this two months which really strains my mind into going a transformational period of wanted to restructure my life.
The graduation, where I rushed madly from the start till the end and until all the way back to my hometown for election period. It takes up time while I was working on a little side quest with Kin & Eddy to sparks the fire that will eventually lead every photographer-wannabe into the burning sensation of kap lui *cough cough* I mean it started of with good intention but u ought to know whats coming and that exactly what we expected xD
Hehe I was actually surprised when Kim n some others praised me a bit for the effort to organise n take pics for the cosers. That was a good one xD ..althou I dun tink I did fairly enough.

Talking about photography... One of the greatest breakthrough of my life started when PlayStesen gave me a map... a virtual one. A guide to explore and to see more, feel more. Both of us like photography in a special way... we dun take photo first and make it good later; we only take photo when we see the good in things we found. Anyway~ We joined a local picnic event whr Malaysian of young hearts gather for a good cause... *cough* its too awesome to put everything in words so u r gonna explore this urself if u are interested. That being said I truly saw the beauty of ppl in the simplest form in this event... a motivation equals to an oasis for nomads!

Our journey of the week didnt stop with just ONE great adventures, we spend quite some time getting lost in Cheras before finding our way to support a local art event of postcards... one whr u find adventures and art blends harmonically~~ = ) ..made me wanna travel more seriously xD

On the other weekend I had a really really rushed journey(what again!? yeap... I am always rushing... hate this man.. ) to Genting Highlands to meet my parents for a short while~ Lots of stories to tell but since I cant compensate it with pictures.... ... ...still not gonna tell :D

..gotcha!

Out of random ideas to be taken I decided to stop working after a long dilemmas of whattodo inmylife. Its a really tough decision for me coz I love my colleagues alot xD Not sure whether I will find colleagues THIS good elsewhr but anyway... life goes on! I spend the rest of the month travelling around selangor area finding cousins and friends who I (almost) totally ignored for quite some time, when everyone is busy someone oughtta make the move to connect the links right? I totally felt like the theme of the month was... Re:Connection. (Again u r free to interpret it the way u want)

Jowena and I went for a two-full-day art conference at KL Performing Art Centre where we (yes we have free food in restaurant with nice scenery too xD) gained total exposure of the local art culture and how corporate leaders supports them under the banner of good CSR investment. A mind challenging lessons indeed when technicality and passions clashes... but the final product of the conference was a decent one I must say: Great lessons that everyone learned from each other.

And so you see... My holiday doesn't start right after I stopped my work.... In fact a halt to my income can be a damage to my financial (or rather lfie-)stability anytime soon~
That said, I am putting this blog post to a halt for now~ =D

..tobecontinue

-Ripples on your world-

Life is fun in many different way. We tends to follow what ppl do most, n sometimes forgot what matters more to us.

I've seen ppl with great passion in sport or academics, but they end up getting wanted to win more than they wanted to enjoy the process... the value of their passion that they behold slowly but surely, change.

Sometimes we just forget that the meaning of learning is to know what is right and wrong.
Its about our life, not the part whr we try to get to the top of the world by earning money earlier or faster. Because a true man's wealth lies in his heart, not his pocket.

So peeps... why not try different thing every time u got the chance.. I have nothing much to share but here I got something fun to look around~
Life... it's a challenge. Know your goal! :D

I have a terrible shaky hand, one that does not allow me to excel in miniature blocks/cards building(or such game as it is). However... hehe... I still do crazy things once a while~ I <3 it!

Uno card stacking. Try this! ;D Especially the bottom part :P

Some ppl thinks that game is unnecessary in life. It's always better to acquire some skill than to just plainly do something that doesn't give tangible benefits. (But A LOT of things comes unexpected, trust me, it does.) For me? Don't EVER let go of any possibilities. Having 1% at many times is as good as having 50%. For a noob like me... I do try out new things. (ok now this is one that a Orang Kasar like me can hardly do :x)

Origami~! Hehe... I learnt how to make the pentagon box n the Clover Leaf separately... I hope its not as bad as I tink it is? (Yea I know my skill sux :X still, credit for trying? :D)

Exploring new place!! Aaaa.... u'll loves this man. Oh I don't even know that there are ppl who actually not aware that this place exist! Talk about life. U can't be insensitive! Ignorance no bliss. Gossip more! :P (didn't ask u to blackmail ppl thou xP)

Ampang Point(also known for many other names), Selangor. With KLTower+PetronasTwinTower superb night view =)

Lets move the topic to academic area... You certainly doesn't think that I'll snap a photo of my textbook/random story book n put it here... no?
Hehe... I attended this particular talk about The Path to bla bla Future. The interesting part is that the speech was presented by Jim Bolger, ex-Prime Minister of New Zealand!
Conclusion: talk about being picky in getting academic knowledge... I wanted to be impress/inspire not by his name/rank, but the way he talk. However.... ... ... frankly I learnt nothing much from this. I love my friend more. They inspire/impress me all the time :3

Jim Bolger(New Zealand Prime Minister 90-97) @ Malaysia
(didn't take his photo later his bodyguard come n shoo me away O.O)

Do thing's differently, trust yourself, give chance to others, give space to possibilities. You'll see life in a whole new(and different... fun too!) way~

This is Mario's point-of-view in his life! xD

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Lifes tough?

Its difficult, but not impossible. - Prince Dastan(Prince of Persia)

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For someone who read this far, try this song.. XD Its about "It's okay to be Baka(yes, baka as in - stupid)" =D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwssBrYyweM

Credits:

-UnoCardStacking(me, n my naughty bro who used to be as rebellious as me XD)

-Origami(TKerXin, ChuiMei :P)

-AmpangPoint(Awesome KL view hehe, thx Lilian & co~)

-NewZealand exPM talk(YewLing, haha lets attend more random n nice talk! :P)

-Mario(Samlim, if u r reading this den the photo is from ur blog xD)

Diary - 2

A closer touch to the worlds I've been.Picture paints a thousand words.

(Yea this is more or less a short ver of diary-1)
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6/5
3am - As I walk back to my room, I realised how pretty the sky is. =)
9am - You know what ppl say, play hard, study hard, sleep hard.. there must be at least ONE that you cannot balance. (Just in case you don't know, sleep hard affects health, play hard affects emotion, how to balance? XD I dono)

7pm - Success is not how high a person can climb!! its how high he can bounce when he hit bottom!!! - Exactly my kind of optimism, I call this 'life'. :)

SunwayPyramid - Oh oh oh! Oh ya I saw KungFuPanda here! Haha.... note that I don't know this family, I simply snap a photo of fatty panda n ciao~

7/5

10am - Ignorant is no bliss. When you hate your world, u gonna start changing it now.

8pm - Victory comes when you believe it most, and believe it the longest. =)

TasikChini - I saw this cute squirrel trying to bite his food by hanging upside down. So cute~ :3 Something that u don't see everyday..

8/5

9am - When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.

万佛殿 - Sometimes other than the beach(TelukChempedak-TC) here, this is my fav spot to halt the time n breath in the view of tranquility.

9/9

3am - WHATEVER YOU DO, IS IT OKAY FOR YOU ONLY TO BE HAPPY? When there is a winner, the rest are all losers. Is it really okay just for you only to be happy? I always question myself this n whatever I do, often based on my conscious answer of this question. This is just me, fullstop.