New Blog

Hi guys. I have started a new blog and will discontinue using this one.
Please follow me on my journey at my new blog! Thank you.

https://journeyofjubilation.blogspot.com/

I'm Back

Almost anyway. These recent few days, I have felt more positive and cheerful than ever. At first, I thought that it was because of the diarrhoea meds I was taking. But even after discontinuing it, I remain mostly positive. I think it is just a maturing of thought that had occurred, and I finally learnt to let go. I've made it a new priority to be kind a courteous, and to trust people again. I want to be nice again.

And I am ready to start again. I'm getting new found motivation, much like the sort I had when I was still schooling. The drive and desire to do well, to put in my best effort and deliver shining works of perfection. But alas, due to my folly and past wrongdoings, all that will have to wait for the outcome that I will receive tomorrow.

Truth is, I haven't been completely transparent and had not confronted my darker side. With my new found positive energy, it is all but gone. However what is done, is done. I had done some terribly wrong things, and I am now paying the price for it in full. I have nowhere else to vent these confused feelings, so here will have to do.

I really wish to have a fresh start, and I have understood my mistakes, and really want to move on from it. I really do not want to affect what now seems to be a bright future ahead for me. Now more than ever, I am feeling confident again, and I know exactly what I want to do in life. If only I could just go ahead and forge my dream. We will have to see the judgement that will be passed, but the pessimists will say that I am a goner.

Maybe I do deserve it. All of it. Maybe I must atone for all of my sins. But deep down inside, I am just praying and begging for a glimmer of hope. To be given a second chance. But then again, I really don't expect anyone to know how I feel, the pain I suffered and the ordeals I went through. Maybe you reading this can, but I wouldn't expect it...


I have so many things planned and coming up you know?! It's like my life is at a very positive turning spot right now. After months of wallowing in depression having left my unfulfilling job and wandering aimlessly looking for a purpose, you can safely say I found it! I recently started the makings of a small IT company with a childhood friend of mine. I intend to use this as not only an opportunity to gain experience in this space, but to also contribute back to the creative community, as well as to give my good friend a job and purpose in life as well.

You see, I had the idea of creating small compact apps for the cosplayer community to help them increase their exposure and go professional. The idea is pretty well baked and developed already. In fact I've had a working prototype for months now, and recently just finished doing the sales slides. It's all good to go, and we will be tapping on my friend's network to solicit our initial few customers. I really hope to get this company off the ground, and turn it into a success.

But then again, it all comes down to what will happen to me in the coming months ahead. It's like this unknown impending doom that threatens to put everything to a halt and send all I have built crumbling to ashes. What should I do?! God why me why now? I am feeling really powerless and scared. I am not a religious man, but honestly the only thing I can do now is to pray.

I will update here again if I ever get the chance. But if you don't see me anymore, all I can say is thank you for reading my blog, I wish you all the best, and goodbye.

~Signing off.

2017: New Year, New Me

I meant to do this post sometime back, but got distracted by some stuff. Also, there was that 2 week high key ICT that just ended recently. 4 day outfield exercise is no joke man. Especially when one is starting to age. So yes, about the plan I have for 2017. It's about time I get into it early into the year, ASAP. Better not drag because I know my procrastination tendencies all too well.

As I had laid out in the past, life planning for a single solo man with no family (but hopeful), only revolves around a few areas of concern. My previous attempts at this (Project: Young, Rich, Active) didn't yield too much results. Perhaps, I was just trying to do too many things at the same time. Circa early 2017, progress report: my finances are in a mess and I have no income, I am somewhat active in the community but nobody knows me, I still try to go to the gym but have no membership because California shut down.

Now that we have some understanding of my present position, ground zero, or maybe negative one, I can better plan out what I want to do for the rest of the year. What I can say about the theme for this year, is that it will involve more urgency and less experimentation. Fact of the matter is I am quickly approaching a soft deadline in terms of age, and just don't have as much room to fool around anymore. Things need to be done dammit!

That being said, I am not one who chases after milestones for the sake of getting them. Not anymore at least. What are the standard milestones in Singapore? Graduate from local university, get an office job, get married, lease (not buy!) a HDB, have kids, retire, grow old and die. I don't know about you, but that's the most boring story I've ever heard. Pretty sure it wouldn't get published. Agreed, there aren't many radically different paths you could take. But I would like my path to at least align with my interests. And that's what I've been doing lately, spending long hard time thinking about what truly interests me. At the end of it all, I always come back to the same result. I love Japan! Singapore is just too small and monotonous to even pique my interest. It's stifling. I want to work, live and grow in Japan. And here is my plan on how I intend to work to that.


Skills 
First and foremost, I will be going through skills upgrading and retraining. I know that sounds like something an old guy would do in his mid-career switch. But it's similar. 3 years without touching any programming at all has left me rusty and complacent. I mean, I still understand basic HTML/JS, but sometimes I don't even know where to get started to publish my apps. Currently, I have purchased resources online to jumpstart my learning in Ionic 2 and Angular 2 so that I can eventually be a pretty competent app developer and designer.

Once that competency is built up, I will of course turn to monetizing that skill set. I probably have some contacts in the cosplay realm that I can tap on to market my product. For now, I have nothing more to say except that it will be something like a résumé and portfolio app. This is the first milestone I will be working towards early this year, and hope to market and propagate it throughout the year. It's not going to be a lot of money lah (I charge cheap), but is good exposure and experience I can add to MY portfolio. Win-win.

I have other additional ideas in my head that I can flesh out too as the year progresses.


Health 
I guess health and fitness is not quite the main goal here. I've always consistently worked out purely for the sake of aesthetics. The health and fitness benefits are secondary. Speaking of which, progress thus far has been pretty good already. I have dropped 10 kgs in about slightly under a year? Decent but not drastic progress? Sustainable at least. Good enough that my NS mates noticed and complimented me on it though. #recognition

But I'm not done yet. I'm still another 10 kgs out from what I consider as my ideal weight. And despite my efforts of late, the weight just wouldn't budge. So much so that I think I've failed my IPT targets and need to do RT for the first time this year. FML. As mentioned, this year I do have a slight bit more sense of urgency in me. And I am hence willing to take slightly more drastic measures.

So far, I haven't been doing many supplements besides the protein shakes and occasional omega 3 pills. This year after my birthday, I intend to start on trying some bodybuilding level supplements. Yes, I have done ample research over the past year, and some of these may err on the slightly shady side. But rest assured I wouldn't take anything harmful unless I knew what I was doing. Nothing replaces the hard work though, so more cardio sessions will have to come in too. I expect to shed the remaining 10 kgs and lean up by the end of this year.


Education
Learning and growing has always been the name of the game. It's what I believe is the number 1 most important thing in life. The only time we should stop adapting and changing is when we die. Being so out of touch of everything, I know I have to put myself through studying again. That's why I started learning Ionic and get my hands wet with coding again. I want to rekindle my love for programming and developing!

But I know that that's not enough. There's only so much I can do by my lonesome. Knowledge is really cultivated through the interactions and conversations with intelligent people. And if I want to springboard myself back into the game, I will need to surround myself in such an environment. Which is why, this year I have decided to apply to study my Masters degree. To so called restart my intelligence again, and to sharpen my thinking skills.

Working for a bit may have blunted my once super sharp intellect, but it has gained me quite some experience in the human interactions and social department. I just feel more seasoned now, no longer afraid and hesitant to do anything. Now I want to hone my intellect back to the same old levels to get the best of both worlds!

Another side benefit, is that employers generally pay a bit higher for Masters graduates. That could prove to be a boon for my finances down the road. The Japanese firms that I was looking at in the past, and hope to join soon, do pay quite a bit more for Masters, so there's that. If my eventual goal is to work for these firms in Japan, then I had better position myself correctly for those roles. And having the correct experience and education goes to serve just that.


So that's my plan for 2017. Not too much to ask for right? I tried to keep things simple with just 3 clear areas that I need to work on. No doubt, my finances will continue to take a hit with all my school fees and such. But I consider that a pretty good investment into my future and my continuing search for happiness. Honestly, Singapore may not have what I want. Then it'd be wise to leave early to start my journey overseas before I grow too old to do so.

What are your new years resolutions? How do you intend to improve your life this year? Let me know in the comments below, or do hit me up in person. I'd love to have these sorts of conversations.


Peace out!

The Reset Button

Yes folks, I am once again back to this almost dead blog. I really have nobody and no place to turn to anyway. This is the only place I have to organize my thoughts and reflect.

Right off the bat, I have to say that it's been a rough couple of months for me. My life went from being on track, perfect even (see 3 blog posts ago), to spiralling into nothingness (now). It's as if I am back to square one again. Some things I need to unlearn, some things I need to relearn. Start afresh.

I know it's quite abstract for me to put it like that, so allow me to elaborate what happened in the past 3 to 4 months of my life.

Well firstly it all started when I quit my job. Yeah that's right, I left I didn't get fired. I left a decent paying job in a somewhat prestigious government agency without concrete plans and any other job offers. Now that I think of it, it may seem like a rather rash move, but I regret nothing. The fact of the matter is, that I could no longer bring myself to continue what I was doing. To drone on day after day doing clearly meaningless work in a 9 to 5 cycle. And the people I had to work with/work for. I had enough.

Now that would be all fine and good, I think. Because I had plans to take 1 solid month break to clear my mind, and then embark on braver things. To do side projects, to launch restaurant franchise, to do things different than the standard mold you know?

But than shit happened. As if fate would have it, less than a month after I left my job, my mom fell ill. And I'm not just talking about your standard flu or fever type of ill. And it's not like she just fell down or stuff. All of a sudden, she got hit with a stroke. I mean, by the time we saw her at the hospital, her whole fucking right side of her body could not move! It's that serious! What followed was a painful few months. She was warded at TTSH for a couple of weeks before moving to AMK Community Hospital for the first phase of rehab. They did discharge her after 2 months, but she's still nowhere close to standing and walking by herself. We still have to bring her for various therapy sessions. She still sits in a wheelchair most of the time.

In between all of this, I did manage to sneak in a 1 week holiday to Japan though I couldn't say I enjoyed that to the fullest. Tickets and stuff were bought, so I had to go. Went with my old bunch of NS buddies that, honestly haven't met in awhile but suddenly came in contact with again. At first, I had some preliminary talks with one of them to start a joint venture on the restaurant franchise. He seemed quite keen, and I didn't have enough funds on my own. But perhaps due to several disagreements along the trip, we left with mixed opinions about one another. We spoke very briefly about it again when we returned to SG, but when I tried to arrange for further meet ups, it was met with radio silence. So.... I guess that side of things fell through as well eh? I mean, I probed you several times already, at least give me a solid answer yes or no lah. WTF.

Regarding the side projects, I also did some proactive work and arranged with a university friend of mine for a meet up. It's a rather interesting idea of mine, to develop apps and IT enable small shops and businesses that know nothing of IT. We had a long a fruitful discussion about the approach, but his stand was that he didn't want to commit to anything unless we had solid understanding of their needs. Stuff that you know, takes a long time to study and survey. But that was all before my mom fell ill. It has been in limbo ever since, and I haven't followed up with him on this.

So where does all this put me? I have no idea really. It's as if a hard reset button has been hit. I left my job hoping to embark on a new adventure, to try to break the mold. But as soon a I left the door, an atomic bomb was dropped on me, rendering the wheels that I had set in motion halted. It's almost discouraging, disappointing even. My mind has been in a mess lately. Between therapy sessions for my mom, I also help her out on a daily basis, and do training with her at home. Hoping that she can one day walk again. Between that and a couple of games here and there, it doesn't leave me with much willpower to do anything productive anymore. :(

So that's been a short summary of what has been going on with me lately. Nothing has been working out and it seemed hopeless for pretty long. But I know, I know. It's no excuse right? If I'm not going to get myself together, who will? If you know anything about the real me, I'm a pretty tenacious fella. I just can't slump into despair forever. There must be a turning point somewhere. A comeback. And yes, I do intend to do just that. A recent chat with an old secondary school friend that I haven't met in quite literally a decade, got me inspired and fired up again. But this post is getting too long, and I'm not sure if anyone is even interested in reading. So I save that for a part 2 blog post for tomorrow.


Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays ~

Happy New Year: Real Talk

Hi everyone! Happy New Year 2016!

I know I'm kind of 1 whole day late for this. Apologies, I was way too busy processing holiday photos. Given that I have not updated my blog for what seems to be forever (1 month?), I think it's best that I start off with a quick recap of what has happened in the recent few weeks. Basically, I had attended AFA, SITEX, bought a new camera, and set up my BoC account, just like I said I would. Additionally, I went on a 1 week short trip to Japan again for holidays, which is why I disappeared for so long. And now I'm back! Terribly disappointed that I am no longer in Japan though, and I have thousands of photos to go through. Ouch.

Sorry I didn't post earlier, by AFA photos available here. I don't think I'll have a reflections post this time round. Just don't have the time for that. I will continue going for and reflecting on the events for at least the first half of the year. Then we'll see from there.

What I DO want to talk about here, is the whole new year's resolution thingy type of post. Except, I'm not going to do it in the same very cliche way everyone does. This time, I honestly feel very passionate and compelled to talk about this. And if you would have guessed it, this is somehow fuelled by my recent visit to Japan. More so than ever in my life, I feel dissatisfied, disappointed, angry even, that I can continue to sit here and do nothing! Am I going to rot here forever, until my parents age and fade away? Until I eventually do the same, but alone? Am I going to die in this country that can't fathom me, with no accompaniment? Very mortal thoughts just hit me along the way. Reality just got very real.

Here's the thing. I love Japan. And when I say love I mean LOVE. Everything about it. The culture, the people, the language, the technology, the landscape, their mindsets, their products. All of it. So I don't know why I haven't given serious thought about it earlier. I want to LIVE in Japan! Work there, stay there, settle down there, have a family there. Going by my reflections on my previous trip, this round has not changed, only reinforced those observations. They are literally like a more advanced lifeform that is at least years ahead of us. I would hence be doing my descendants a disservice if I know this for a fact, and not choose to reproduce there. It's the very least I can do for my kids, if I even have any. Judging by my current state in this country, it ain't happening. Going over won't guarantee it, by it's worth the chance.

Yes this is a very real and RAW post. Everything I say is from my heart, my deepest desires and wishes. I am finally putting it all out here. I'm done with being careful and boring. My sister is right, I often take too neutral and reserved a stance. I MUST express and fight for what I want. I must MOVE, I must ACT, I must FIGHT, I must DO. I am not young anymore, despite how I want to preserve it. This is the most critical period that I can use to change my life. I HAVE to do it.

That's all nice and good, but then here comes the problem right? How do I get it done?

Well, I don't have the full game plan out yet. I know I need one. But the pan hasn't changed much from what I had envisioned for "Philson 2020". I still need to stay young and healthy, and amass my wealth. And then when I am sufficiently successful, I shall find a job and go to work in Japan, eventually working my way to a citizenship. That's the only way I can see it. And I need to be serious and active about it. It is a life goal.

I don't know about you, but for once in my life, I have something that I know I want to work towards. All my life, I have been a wandering floating twig in the river. I go where the currents take me. Granted, I have done sufficiently well enough at whatever I happened to do, but I honestly never truly loved what I was doing, or strived towards something with unwavering determination. That's just not how you would describe me. I was someone who was never truly into it, results regardless. I was ALWAYS too passive. It's time I awakened that aggressive side of me. The side that I have sealed away for so many years. The daring yet mischievous me that I had left in primary school. I have to.


In all seriousness though. I really need to work towards what I want. What I envision for myself in the future. No more drifting in the river and expecting things to work out for me. I has to be actively chased. And I need no approval from anyone. Not my parents, not my friends. This is some thing I myself want. I need to just do it.

And THAT is my new year's resolution. To work hard towards my goal. From all dimensions of the Philson 2020 plan. I have to. I need to. And now more importantly than ever, I WANT to.

First Things First: Sleep

First initiative for Project: Young. I have decided that I will start by getting enough sleep first. Because without having enough sleep, I won't even have the energy and concentration needed for me to perform any other tasks. But I also can't just magically create extra hours needed for me to sleep enough. Sacrifices will have to be made, some things will have to go. What's more, a high amount of stoic discipline will have to be in order, so that I can actually do it.

The most obvious tradeoff, would be my gaming habits. And trust me, this is a pretty huge habit I will need to adjust. Considering the fact that I have recently received my ultra big screen iMac. AND the fact that I recently made a group of NEW friends through playing Dota. Yeah, I only met 2 of them IRL before, but I chat with the rest of them over Skype, so we are sort of friends? But that's a separate thing, I will update on this when there is more progress.

So as you can see, sleeping early is not a simple matter for me. Considering that most of my weekday hours is taken by the company I work for, there is honestly very little ME time. Weekends fly by like nothing. All this time, I have created extra time, but taking it out of my sleeping hours. But if I think about it, that's not right. Most people would agree that a minimum of 7 hours of sleep every night is needed to keep our bodies functioning right.

But more than just the body, I think it also affects my face, skin, and most importantly my mental state. If I really continue to deprive myself of sleep like that, I will have to spam coffee more often. Otherwise, I just won't be able to even do anything at work and in life. So it's a tough tradeoff for me, but one that I will have to make. And I think that with a little bit of good time management, I should be able to do it.

So here is what I am going to do. Besides having action plan items, I shall hereby allocate a timeslot for my daily activities. I know that the original idea was to keep it flexible for the action plans, and that has worked out fine so far. However, what has been constantly suffering is my sleep time, and that should not continue. Without further ado, here's what my usual weekday should look like:

• 7 AM - Wake up, go to work 
• 6 PM - End work, come home
• 7 PM - Reach home, eat dinner
• 8 PM to 10 PM - ACTION ITEM
• 10 PM - Shower
• 10:15 PM to 11:30 PM - Dota
• 12 PM - Sleep

On some levels, it feels a bit to me like too much micromanagement. I mean, I would feel overly stifled if I only had so much time to do what it is I wanted to do... The way I see it, I only have 5 solid hours to myself each day. Then 7 hours sleep. The other whopping 12 hours is given to my work and commute! Wow, it's shocking when I put it into perspective like this. But what can I do right? I need to work for cash, gotta think about Project: Rich and my future. So yes, probably only 1 or 2 games of Dota per night.

With that being said however, I think there is still a little bit of flexibility in this plan. I mean, if I reach home earlier and dinner is not done, I can shower first. And if my action item does not in fact take up the full 2 hours, I can perhaps shower earlier, play more Dota, or do other stuff. It seems rather sad that I will have to live my life by these 5 hours a day, but I guess it's not a unique problem. All of us workers are constrained to that. Just need to find some ways to squeeze in some extra me time during lunch or something.

So there we have it. This shall be my resolution to sleep for a full 7 hours per night. Here's to hoping I will have a better mental state and health! I still have many many plans to execute!

Philson 2020: Young, Rich, Active

It's finally here! The launch of my Philson 2020 plan! Though it's not exactly the same as I had originally imagined. It has undergone several transformations and iterations even internally in my head as I conceptualize it. As it seems, I am a being that constantly strives and seek changes and improvements. Not all the time, but when I am in the mood for it I am really serious about it. Never settle, never stay still. Warning! This is going to be a long read! But I sure as hell guarantee it will be worth it. You may find some meaning in changing your life after reading it. Your choice.

So as you recall some time back, I talked about launching 3 initiatives (namely: Young, Rich, Active) to shape the direction of how I want to lead my life in the coming years? Then even longer ago, probably last year, I talked about the need to chart out a 5 year plan to transform my adult life, and called it the Philson 2020 plan. So I was thinking to myself, why not put 2 and 2 together, and combine the 2 ideas into a holistic vision for my future.

Now, how I am going to do about doing this is way different than I had initially imagined when I decided on doing Philson 2020. Initially, I had imagined that I would have all the intricate details, down to the last line item, on what exactly I wanted to achieve for myself by 2020. Then the gargantuan scale and thought of having to pen down that plan, scared even myself away. Procrastination set in, and 1 year later I still had nothing.

And now we have this, what you are about to read. What I am doing now, is not to pen down all the goals right away, but to just put forth a general mission and vision, and chart the path using 3 distinct but complementary initiatives. This is totally counter-intuitive to me, because I have always been told to set specific and measurable goals. However, it never really seemed to work for me. Maybe, just maybe this method will work better. I can't explain how crazy this mindset change is for me, or how it came about. But I think it's to do with age, getting wiser and garnering more experience, seeing things in the real world. It changes us you know?

Ok so more on the specifics on what I will be doing. Basically, this will be the LAST post that I will be making under the category tag of Next Stage. That tag was created as a temporary place-holder when I graduated from university, and had officially closed off Chapter Eight. Honestly, I didn't know what to do with this blog back then. There were moments of joy, regrets, and sorrow. It just didn't feel right opening a Chapter Nine to continue it. But yet the nostalgic and sentimental me wouldn't want to kill it off for something else. So it HAD to change somehow, I just didn't know how yet. Busy work life set in afterwards, and that was that.

Moving forward, I will be splitting my posts into 3 main tags/categories. Project: Active, Project: Rich and Project: Young. Naturally, Action Plans and Events and the other smaller miscellaneous posts will still carry on. Believe me, I take this tagging thing pretty seriously, because I know how difficult it can be to navigate a poorly managed blog. So if you noticed, most of my post are appropriately tagged, and you can access the list of all tags on the sidebar of this blog.

So, how I will be doing this is, instead of doing an unrealistic one big bang post on what my life will be like in 5 years from now, I will let the planning happen more naturally and organically. I will constantly work on the 3 areas by updating and planning under the different blog tags, and as long as I am consistently targeting the 3 areas, I will know that I am on track. It doesn't even need to be all 3 exactly balanced! I just need some improvements now and then in each area. That's the beauty of it! Simplicity.

So without further ado, let's get right into the 3 initiatives shall we?


Project: Young
Project: Young is literally, about staying young. Looking young. Feeling young. Remaining physically energetic and able to carry out the rest of the other initiatives effectively. How to achieve this? I am mainly coming from the physical aspect here. Basically, it involves getting more exercise in, and possibly cutting back on excessive binging. Some of the things I am looking at, is to increase the frequency of my gym sessions to 2 or even 3 times a week if time permits. I also intend to try to cut down on food portions, and reduce snacking. It's way harder than it sounds man.

That's mostly the physique part. Project: Young also involves actually looking young. Inspired by my colleagues, I do intend to look very similar when I am in year 2020 as I did when I was in year 2014. I don't want to grow old and look very haggard so fast. I do intend to age gracefully too you know. This part is not as straightforward as exercise and diet. I intend to work in some skincare routine to preserve my face and youthful appearance. Also, probably the toughest part of them all, is to get enough rest and sleep! This is the painful part. Ever since I met that girl and changed my habits for the worse during university days, the nocturnal habit of sleeping late had stuck so permanently. I need to stop it!

Overall, that's the general idea of this initiative. Certainly this brief introduction does not even cover everything. But the whole idea is to remain young. To preserve both my physical state, energy levels, and my appearance. I think if executed perfectly, people should not be able to tell my age right away. In fact if the weight loss thing succeeds, I should look EVEN BETTER than I did 3 years ago. THAT is how important Project: Young is going to be. Certainly an integral part in enabling Project: Active and Project: Rich. LET'S DO THIS.

Project: Rich 
Project: Rich is a little harder for me to put down right at this moment. Much of it is still in a fuzzy state of planning. After all, markets and economies are unpredictable and I am not currently following as closely as I would like to. The gist of it, is to amass wealth in smart and unconventional ways that result in a good amount of income for me to lead any sort of lifestyle I choose. By unconventional, I don't mean robbing the bank. But rather, making decisions that people don't usually do, certainly not in this point in their life. Just doing crazy things smartly! :)

Ok fine! I shall let in on a bit of the more sensitive details. After all I had shared this briefly with Thomas when I talked to him. The idea, is to first wait for the market to crash. Like seriously in the shitty depths of recession. Then smartly purchase a selection of shares and hold onto them. And then when the economy heads to a high point, sell them all off to make a big profit. I will then pump that money into opening up some businesses, probably through franchising first. These business will help me generate multiple streams of passive income. Eventually, to the point that I can stop working and retire.

So that's what Project: Rich is. A lot of the finer details have not been ironed out yet. Right now I am just amassing capital for the stock purchases in future. The whole idea of this plan, is to unbind me from my day job. To free me so that I can do what I enjoy and not have to worry about money anymore. With this new-found freedom, I can then execute Project: Active fully, and maybe even take it even further. I can chase the dreams and desires that I will otherwise have no time for if I work a day job. Getting rich is not just about splurging and living a luxurious lifestyle you know? For me at least, it is all about being free to do whatever the heck you want, whenever you want! I WILL BE FREE!

Project: Active
Project: Active is a little trickier for me. Partly because I have never been particularly active even in my youth. So you could say that I DON'T KNOW how to actually be active. I have never went out with friends much. Never gone clubbing and drinking. Never dated, never spent after school hours outside. Honest to god, I was a damn boring person that had not many friends. Such was my sad life until now. But I want to change it! I am willing to try out different things in order to remain active and appear more energetic and outgoing. I say this is the toughest part because it's about really doing and venturing into the unknown for me. Alone, if I have noone to do this with.

I do not have concrete plans for this right now. At the moment, it basically involves attending as many events as I can. Trying to go out every weekend to do stuff. Being active. If you have noticed, I had been attending all of the anime and cosplay events in the recent months. This is part of the impetus of Project: Active. Go about and attend events, and eventually talk to some people, get introduced around, make more friends. Once I have built a few more friendships, hopefully the rest should come naturally. Going out with friends, eating and drinking at new places, catching movies together, and just having fun! It's a slow and painful process, and honestly seems quite tryhard, but it has to happen eventually.

And that's Project: Active. I may not have been able to articulate it as clearly as I wanted. But it's really quite an unknown are for me. The important thing I feel is to have the courage to be brave and just do things. Go places. Don't let any circumstances stop me. Go alone if I have to. JUST DO IT. And all of this, will be enabled by Project: Rich. With the wealth and freedom, I can have more flexibility to experiment. And honestly I will have greater confidence and ego to do bolder things. But back to the point, Project: Active is complementary to Project: Young. It doesn't matter if you just look young, but behave like an old uncle. The whole idea is to have the full package. Look Young, be rich, and behave active. The triad of desirable awesomeness.


With these 3 initiatives, I hope that by the year 2020, I can safely say that I am Young, Rich and Active. Focusing on 1 alone without the other 2 would be pointless. I trust that with such a framework and vision in place, I can slowly but surely make it towards that goal. It is not easy, but with incremental steps IN the right direction, I believe that I can do it. And by then, I will savour the fruits of all my hard labour. I will be able to relish in the successful and accomplished me that I have always strived to be. Only then will I be satisfied with myself. Or perhaps I wouldn't! I will continue to chart out the next things I should improve on! NEVER SETTLE!

An inspirational video.