Farewell , and a New Beginning :)

In a blink of an eye , the seemingly endless 2 months passed by . I still remembered the start of my 2 months semester break just like it was yesterday. The post-exam relief , the excitement to go back home , the anticipation of all those wonderful things that I am going to do , and the thought of fun and happiness of meeting up with old friends . I am happy to say that in these 2 months , I accomplished a few of those goals I set beforehand . Not to say that I didn't waste any of my precious time , but at least I did something , an improvement from my previous break I guess . Somewhere in between , time seems to stand still , there are times where I have no mood to do anything at all , and at that moment , time really does seems to pass by so slowly that it seems stationary . Yet , there are times where when we were really enjoying life , time  passed by so fast that we could barely feel it.

And now, it's the time for departure , to say farewell to this beloved home again , leaving behind these all those comfort and convenience and trading them with suffering and self-dependence all over again :) . It's amazing how when we are in comfortable environment , we don't seem to appreciate them at all . Only when those comfort and stuff we took for granted are taken away , do we started realized how much we are depending on them . And when it's time to say bye bye , no matter how much we wanted the time to stay still , it still relentlessly marched on , leaving you with a cruel reality of a few precious days left to spend it or waste it.

It is these few precious days that always got me into self-reflection mode. I tend to get a little bit nostalgic when it comes to time for leaving . I like reflecting on the past . Some may say it's a sign of weakness , an indication that I have yet to let go of my past , still being chained by the burdens and errors of the past , but I disagree . I feel the only way we can get hints about our future , and to better ready ourselves for it , is only by learning from the past.

In retrospect , I think I used to appreciate less , and took too much things for granted , kept on blaming fate and asking questions which have no real answer like why me ? . In summary , too much cravings and too little gratitude . I am still guilty for that offence , though in recent years , I have learnt the importance of giving thanks for all those little things that we are blessed with , things that other people may be craving for , even something trivial and common like being able to choose your food for breakfast . I only realized how important it is when I was deprived of an ability to choose , simply because there's no other choices at all .

Now , I am becoming more aware of the power of gratitude and therefore , I give thanks , for having a roof over me when I sleep , for able to drive out and choose from a variety of food , for being in the company of my precious families and friends , and the most important of all , for still being alive ;) . For most young adults , I believe the thought of death is the furthest thought away from their to-think-list in their brain , primarily because at this age , most of us still thinks we are invincible , backed by the power of youth , thinking that we will stay young forever having the immunity over diseases and etc . However , the truth is far from that . The fact is , death is inevitable and it may happen anytime , anywhere . Already there are myriads of problems and troubles surrounding teenagers , and the news of younger people dying now seems to be increasingly common , which is rather scary . 

Therefore , I give thanks , simply for being alive . Also , another aspect of my life that I am very grateful of is the fact that I have a bunch of good friends . A band of mutual friends that consists of a big , fat, self-proclaimed vegetarian that always had an excuse to skip our gathering , a chikopek ( pervert in local slang ) play girl that will go nuts at a mere sighting of  a woman , a guy with lion-ish hair and personality having an anger management issue , a troubled kid with perplexing mindset  and a few other game addicts each with their own sets of imperfections . I myself , am not spared from these imperfection , I am that short guy with little to no sense of direction at all, coupled with myriads of troubles.  Yet , despite these imperfections , or rather should I said , due to these imperfections , we managed to stay together as a band of friends that have consistent gatherings and meet ups for more than 8 years already I guess . And I am proud of that fact . None of us are perfect , yet because of that , we became perfect as a whole . Each and everyone of us is an oddball , but yet again , aren't we all the same ?

Tonight , we had our so called " last farewell gathering " as everyone sets to go their separate ways , each into their own routes again . I must say , it was unexpectedly fabulous . Nevertheless , I am confident we shall meet up again soon and enlighten each other with their own life stories , and that time , I am sure each and everyone of them are gonna turn out to be spectacular .  I used to think gathering , meet ups and talking for too long are nothing but troublesome and unproductive stuff to do . I still think it is , but well nothing beats the great feeling of catching up with old friends and exchanging stories on our life journeys , even if I am considered wasting my time doing it . As the great John Lenon once said , " Time you enjoyed wasting , was not wasted " . Cheers for an awesome group of friends .

In a few more days , I will be leaving to KL , turning a new chapter for my life again , returning as a 2nd year student , and hence abandoning the junior title . It is the time for us , the ones being guided by our seniors last time to replace our seniors role and give guidance this time , to new batch of juniors . It's gonna be a new beginning . New semester , new lecturers , and new plans for the future !

Plans for the future always seems to give us hope , no matter how dark and depressing our life is now . Hope , somehow has its own way of cheering us up even in our darkest hours , giving us excitement and anticipation of something wonderful that could happen . Call it false hope , or even a lie to ourselves , but I am always excited whenever there's an activity in a not too distant future being planned out and organized in such an ideal fashion where we assume nothing could ever goes wrong .

With that being said , here's to all my friends that are leaving to start their 2nd year undergraduates life , all the best and take care . May life be good to each and everyone of us and may we be blessed with peace , happiness and love . As cliches as this may sound , although Here's to an awesome new beginning ! YEE HAAA !!!! Life's awesome ! :)

Of Politics

 I don’t usually talk about politics. In fact , in my entire blogging life so far, never have I ever touch about politics. To me ,the political world is far too mysterious , or more aptly put , dangerous to be meddled with. However , the recent Bersih 3.0 which have sparked controversies yet again and caused a lot of mindless people ranting and posting nonsensical statuses just following the crowd had irritates me too far.

You see , at this age and time , we can no longer afford to believe whatever we see or hear from another source , be it the internet , or even so called “ reliable “ sources like major newspaper / broadcaster ( e.g star/ astro ) As demonstrated by the recent squabbling over censorship of BBC distributed by our local broadcaster Astro.

People always blame the top management for most of the thing , if not everything. i.e they blame our prime minister for the outrages in bersih 3.0 , mismanagement in country’s financial acc , corruptions in the country.. bla bla bla . Obviously , being the one at the top , one is obviously liable to such blames and should shoulder some of the blames . but to demonize him and push all the blames to him ? to be the target of all the hatreds and accusations ? This is wrong . It’s immature to put the blame and point fingers only at our PM for all the bad happenings and  political ploy /shenanigans in the country . The thing is , yes, perhaps he may be the mastermind that pulls the string and is responsible for many of the bad political plots being put into action , but there are also chances that he might be the innocent guy that simply want nothing more than peace for the country . Now, before you bash and flame me about this, take a second to think about it  How many of us knows him personally ? How many of us have tried managing or leading a big organization as big as the country  ? I am sure that many of us are just average people that have done neither one of that .

And yes, while I do realize that we as the rakyat , the citizens of this country have the right to judge our leaders , but when you judge, at the very least ,have the courtesy to do research and prepare your case well instead of just hearing from a second handed sources before criticizing ,condemning and berating others. That is just plain immature and childish. People must bear in mind, there are always more than one side to anything.

 Take for example , the case of the policemen crashing into an innocent bystander . Many people blamed the men in blue for his carelessness and clumsy actions , but hey , what about the other side? Have you ever considered the fact that ,  the Bersih supporters nearby were rampaging his car and subsequently blocking his view. Now, if you were in that situation what will u do ? Obviously if you have the time and intelligence to think , you would have opted perhaps to brake and then go out of the car . Nevertheless , what the policemen decided to do was to step on the accelerator to shake off the people and consequently , crashing into the bystander. Is it wholly his fault? I doubt so.

Don’t get me wrong . I am not bashing Bersih or supporting the ruling party.I am not defending any of the political parties either as I practice a non-partisan view for politics. It’s just that , I believe we should take perspectives from two or more sides under account first before making a conclusive statement.The politickings in Malaysia has gone too far and thus unreliable , untrustable and unaccountable for.

Perhaps the ruling party has indeed adopted an authoritarian , dictatorship leadership , suppressing all the bad sides of the country , pulling all the strings to allow mass censorship and just displaying all the good sides , trying to portray themselves as the friendly , good guys while demonizing the opposition , but in the end , they still produce results . And what good would it be if the opposition governs the country ? Only god knows what will happen . What if the oppositions are the one pulling the strings, doing what I have just mentioned afore instead of the ruling party ?

The point is , I am afraid the political tension in Malaysia has reached a dangerous boiling point , and this is serious, as neither the opposition or the ruling party can be trusted anymore due to the excessive politickings displayed by both party. However , given these two limited choices, the more rational and logical side of me would definitely opted for the ruling party now as they have displayed progressive track records while the opposition have next to nothing to show , often just emphasizing on empty promises .  Don’t get me wrong , I trust DAP , as it has a good track record to show and is indeed making a big progress for my hometown . Though, the one that I fear for is its ally.

Oh well, here’s to hoping for a better suitable candidate for our nation’s leaders , or the hope in which our grassroots leaders can have a paradigm shift to rise above the political squabble and instead focus truly more on the nation’s development . Seriously , I wonder how much progress would we made already had they invest the time and money used in politickings in our nation development.

Fitness

I could no longer bear to resist the temptation. I could no longer hide my feelings deep inside me. These emotions has been inside me for far too long...Enough is enough . It's finally time for the truth , the revelation ! Let it begin.

I hereby declare my unequivocal , irrevocable ,endearing love towards... BODY BUILDING! XD. Body building , gymming , pumping iron , whatever you call it , no one can deny that it's a tough sport that requires a lot of determination , tenacity and discipline to participate in. More so , when it's a sport where you will never actually see the end of it. In fact,many people would often go further to imply that it's no mere sport , it's a lifestyle !

To which I totally agree. It has been an amazing adventure so far.. Bodybuilding has taken me far and did wondrous things to me . In fact, I kinda regret starting it at a rather late age. Whether for staying fit and healthy , to grow bigger and develop muscles , or just because you are simply obsessed with it, everyone that goes to the gym have their own reason to do it.For me, it was because I got nothing better to do and just happen to stumble over the local gym near my area. Oh boy am I grateful for it.

I can still vividly recall the first day I went to the gym. It was with my another friend who at that point, already had the motivation to keep him going. Frankly , I was terrified and shocked.Upon entering it, I was flabbergasted to see the intensity and discipline those body builders are adopting in training their body. It was almost like it's a " do or die" thing for them. And looking at my own body at the mirror, I felt like digging a big hole and burying myself in it. I was practically a walking skeleton , and gosh how could I possibly be walking around parading my skeleton-like body before that, I have no idea.

It struck me then . It came to me that if I don't do something about it , nothing will change, and since I got time anyway, why not? It wouldn't take up too much time and effort right? And there i was wrong again. Dead wrong .Body Building , may I say , is one of the harshest sport in the world . It takes forever to grow, especially for a hard gainer like me.

Thus, with that in mind, along with other motivations, I started going to gym ... Slowly but surely , it has become almost like a lifestyle to me. Although I can't say I grew much , but there is definitely some changes with my body and I am proud to say that I did body build.Body building has shed a new light to me , putting a new lens for me to see a whole new world. Now, I am finally beginning to understand how tough it is , how much dedication , determination and discipline needed to stick to this lifestyle.

The end result though , is extremely rewarding and endearing. Provided that you go past the pain , you would be reborn a new man , much tougher and stronger , as the quote goes, what doesn't kill, simply makes you stronger ;).Oh, and there are other benefits to body building too, such as making new friends who have similar passion . Knowing that there are other people that are pumping iron as hard as you , putting in similar efforts , it's reassuring . In fact, I felt like there's a special bond between all the body builders. The fact that we did the extraordinary effort of sticking to the work out plan and exercising instead of slacking and rotting at home like the majority of the population does , is the proof that we are all connected and share the same special passion , the IRON.

I guess, being guys , going to gym and building body is the most intuitive and rational thing to do , aint' it ? Much like how girls would like to slim down and make sure their waist line does not grow, we guys are driven to feel the pain , go through it , and quench the insatiable thirst to acquire the perfect body .

So yeah.. a major shout out and salute to my fellow body builders out there ! Great job ! Keep on doing it :)