que pasa - this_is_me

Checking in

noreply@blogspirit.com (mashie) — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 09:47:37 +0800

Wow, I thought it's been a much longer time since I wrote, but actually it has only been 2 months. So here's a progress update on how I've been.

Physical health. Cough cough. I'm sick again, but already on the recovery. Half of shanghai was sick for the past month or so, so I was bound to go down, me with my not so fantastic constitution. But on the upside, this bug didn't take me out that badly like previous illnesses have so maybe I'm getting a little tougher. Maybe, haha.

Have signed up for a gym and trying to build…

Incremental changes

noreply@blogspirit.com (mashie) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 13:22:45 +0800

My ayi kinda reprimanded a bit today. "Your place needs to be cleaned every week! Too dirty!" This was after not having her come by for a month because I was home for 3 weekends. So she had to work extra hard today. Anyway I agree with her, the apartment is rather dusty despite my efforts to sweep mid-week. But moving forward, so long as I can schedule her to come in every week to clean, my apartment should really be much more manageable for her - cleaning is afterall based on handling incremental changes. I don’t know where all this…

Got plans?

noreply@blogspirit.com (mashie) — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 12:52:29 +0800

Was talking to Jukebox the other day and we were planing our Fall 2012 Europe tour to 10 countries. Pretty excited about it because i've never toured Europe before, except for popping in and out of the UK, Holland and Finland for work a bit. So we were budgetting and talking about saving up and stuff, and how we were going to prepare (like making a friend from every country we wanted to visit), and couchsurfing and stuff.

Fall 2012 is a long time more though. But it's the furthest i've planned ever. I realize that i don't have a mid-term…

Good conversations

noreply@blogspirit.com (mashie) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 09:41:00 +0800

Had dinner last night with a friend who's leaving in a month's time. We've only hung out a couple of times but she lives near me and we have somewhat simliar profiles so maybe that helps us click better.

Normally we just chat about work, weekend trips, what we've been up to, random stuff. But yesterday was different. We went deeper into topics and shared about our perspectives on work, faith, and future direction. In telling her about why Shanghai has been a good place for me to be in, I also realized certain changes in how I see things.

Sometimes…

Onion in a box

noreply@blogspirit.com (mashie) — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 18:09:12 +0800

Hi, I've not been updating of late because in the past month I've had to do a fair bit of writing at work and I didn't feel up to writing anymore. But I guess azzamac's comment prompted me out of action. It's not so much that I'm sick of blogging, just tired.

So anyway, I turned 30 last month. Around that time, I realized that I'm actually a very private person, despite my willingness to share and talk about most things. I mean, I may be willing to enter into discussion, but I don't state my personal position often.

What happened…

TLC

noreply@blogspirit.com (mashie) — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 23:54:19 +0800

So as I mentioned yesterday, my mom came over to visit last weekend. It was really good to have her around, even better than I expected.

She was really understanding about the fact that I put in long hours to get work done, and even have to work on weekends at home. To make things more comfortable, she even rearranged my furniture so that I would have a proper place to do my work. She encouraged me to finish whatever work I had to do over the weekend so that I wouldn't have that sinking feeling come Monday morning.

We also…

Hi there

noreply@blogspirit.com (mashie) — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 21:29:00 +0800

I realize that I'm not likely to blog as frequently anymore. My new job doesn't seem to allow much time or left over energy to blog. I could ramble but I would prefer to write properly. Then I also realize that you folks who are still reading this blog (I think I'm back down to 4 readers lol) probably aren't expecting essays anyway.

Remember I mentioned I had a friend in prison before? I just found out that the last 3 letters I wrote never reached my friend. Apparently the letters were rejected. Reasons were not given. Had my friend's dad…

Quick note

noreply@blogspirit.com (mashie) — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 23:14:03 +0800

Sorry I've been away for so long. I'm insanely busy these days and I have no energy to blog. It's not that I've been journalling much either, sigh.

Attended a training in chinese today for basics in corporate profitability. I never want to take another training class in chinese ever again. My chinese just isn't good enough. For some parts I was ok, but for the harder stuff I had to mentally translate everything the instructor was saying into english and that was just too tiring.

Anyway, I will write the moment I have found a new home in Shanghai. What…

Journaling

noreply@blogspirit.com (mashie) — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 21:56:34 +0800

Today I went out and bought a book to journal in. I haven't kept a journal for almost 4 years I think, so there is no record of what I've really been thinking. There is no real record of my life. I have nothing to use to reflect on the past three and a half years. And I certainly don't remember everything, or even most things. While it means that there is no stirred up guilt from bad things done or things done badly, there is no remembering of joy or thanksgiving from good things that have happened and lessons learnt.…

The mood for piano playing

noreply@blogspirit.com (mashie) — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 16:45:48 +0800

Today the younger son of my host family really struggled to practice his piano. He clearly didn't want to and his mom had to practically threaten him (but I knew with no intention to execute) in order to get him to sit down. And even when he did, boy was it painful to observe and hear.

The little boy reminded me of myself – how torturous I felt when I had to practice. I hated piano when I was learning it and finally I had a fight with my mom in 5th grade about it and insisted that I want to…