Hey people,
Sorry for being away for few days. 🙂 I was busy with my new blog. Do check it out http://blog.alvinlzg.com
I’m still trying to add the proper plugins and rectify few issues…so…do give me some time. 😀
So, why do guys luv football (or any sports for that matter)?
Well, because it’s our nature? LOL. Actually there are quite a number of female friends of mine who luv to watch football. Some of them even support the club that i’ve been supporting since 1990 – Manchester United. Erm….some of them started watching football (or Manchester United) because of …..David Beckham.
Mmm, i m not sure about other people but for myself, i started watcing football since 1989, influenced by my dad. He’s a MU fan and at that time, i was in primary 1. He always asked me to sit down with him to watch the game. At that time, i was thinking “what is so nice bout football? one ball, chase here and there like idiots” and i fell asleep within 5-10 minutes.
1 year later, i started to enjoy the “idiotic” game more. And in 2000, i became a die-hard MU fan. 2004, i started to watch every single MU game including those at 3am on weekdays. 😉
It’s nice to see the team you support win things…and see the youngsters becoming successful, the newcomers blending well and showing you a bag of tricks….. and most importantly, is to watch and enjoy the game with my family and friends. 🙂
Believe me, when you watch skillful players dribbling and doing crossover…it’s entertaining. Of course, it’s never fun to watch a bunch of idiots (all 10 of them, excluding the goalkeeper of course) chasing after every single ball from 1 end to the other end (i donno why…but the word Malaysia suddenly springs to my mind). If a team doesn’t play entertaining football, even a football fan like me will fall asleep.
So, there you are – excitement (esp when the team you support is losing…but too much of this is bad for your heart..so..it’s better to have the team winning 😛) entertainment (skills), family (my dad’s influence) and friends/colleagues (can talk more esp wif fellow MU fans). Some of you might say $$$….but it doesn’t apply for me because i don’t bet. 😛 Not when the thing you’re trying to bet on is a round thing. Hahahah.
So fellow football fans, be it guys or gals…do share with us why do you luv football? 😛
This phrase is a very common phrase, used widely by the authors of motivational books, by leaders, counselors, etc. We hear this line almost every week. But most of us don’t really realize it.
For myself, i’ve known this ‘theory’ since many years ago but till today, i must admit i cannot really control my emotions properly.
Just yesterday, i did something which i shouldn’t have done.
I reached home quite late (10.30 pm…. so stewpid, 10pm went back from KL City and got stuck in a ‘mini’ traffic jam). I was very tired then my friend (ex-classmate) messaged me in MSN and said “HAHA, Rooney KAKI PATAH !!” I was like ….er… ok. So? Then he repeated the same thing…and i must admit, i got pissed and said “Aren’t you bored? You know I am die-hard Manchester United fan and you have been cursing my team for few years now. I’m bit tired with all your curses”
Somehow, my friend got offended and the conversation ended there.
To be honest, i am really a die hard MU fan. But the thing is, i don’t see a point of making a joke over someone’s broken leg, be it my favourite player or someone i hardly know. Guess i’m not really a person who can take certain ‘jokes’ lightly. I guess i really need to change on this.
Few minutes later, I’ve realized how stupid I was to behave that way when the line “you control your own emotions” came to me. Yeap, i CAN control my emotions and i really shouldn’t make such a big fuss over someone i don’t know, no matter what my friend did or said. It’s no big deal actually. A few wrong words basically ruined my friend’s mood and worsen my day.
In the end, i promised myself not to repeat that. Nothing is big enough to worth damaging my friendship with my friends (ok, pardon me for the weird English). After all….i’m quite sure MU can still win without Rooney. hahahaha.
So here, mst apologize to my friend Rob. 😉
p/s… i seriously doubt he actually checks my blog…and oh yea, he’s a Liverpool fan. 😛 That should explain why he likes to curse MU 😀
p/s… this is just an example of me and my friend. Sometimes, i lost control of my own emotions against my family members as well. That hurts the most. Maybe that’s why i feel i must really learn to control my own emotions…
I have this idea of integrating work and games together. I’ve told some people about it. 1/10 said it’s interesting. Another 1/10 told me to go for whatever i believe in. 2/10 said i’m crazy and 6/10 just said that it’s impossible.
They actually made me believe that it’s impossible until i found this article in Entrepreneur.com. Apparently, there’s someone in the US who is researching on the same thing.
So my dear readers, do you think this is a good idea? I know it’s not going to be easy especially to some people who are anti-games.
Here’s the link.
Are You Game?
When we were kids (ah….those were the days….), school used to be our 2nd home. We eat there, study there, sleep there (yea, i used to sleep a lot in classes). But as we grow older (suddenly sound so sad), our 2nd home is no longer our school but our office. We eat (sandwiches? biscuits?), sleep (nap?), work and study there. We spend 8 hours a day in our office and sometimes more than the amount of time we spend at home.
That’s why it is quite important to choose the right company…it is just like choosing your life companion. Unless, of course, you are someone who job hops a lot. 🙂 If that’s the case, you don’t need to find the right company. Any company which pays well, will suit you. OK OK, i am not encouraging anyone to do that. Job hopping is a very bad thing especially if your objective is to gain quick money. If you job hop because you want to try many different industries, then it’s not entirely a bad thing.
Anyway, there are 2 major factors that you might want to look into when you start to hunt for the right company:
- Core values – what are the core values of the company? Do they believe in the things you believe in as well? This is perhaps the most important thing that one should look at. If the company believes in slave driving and you prioritize work life balance….then it’ll only shorten you time working for the company. Also, it depends on whether the company provides the opportunity to learn. Does the company offer trainings or you are on your own? If it is on your own, does it actually fit what you want?
- Industry – some companies are involved in different industries…especially the big companies. In these companies, you get to learn about different industries/fields and maybe find the right one for you. However, most companies focus on 1 or 2 industries. If you want to learn about IT, no point to work for a company which only does publishing.
Other factors will be things like benefits, salary, location, opportunity to learn, etc etc. But i believe the 2 major factors are as stated above. Do take some time to read Cirnelle‘s post “The kindess of a boss” which in my opinion, is a good post. She talked about the 2 different systems for a company – the Nanny or the Organized Chaos. 😀
Hope it helps. 🙂
Hey people, need a little bit of help here. I’ve tried to get a proper domain name for my own blog…but i couldn’t find any suitable one.
http://www.alvinlim.com has been taken
http://www.alvinlim.net belongs to one property guy in Singapore
http://www.alvinlim.name ? http://www.alvinlim.biz ? http://www.alvinlim.net.my (needs to send in my photocopied identity card =_=) …and it sounds like http://www.tm.net.my.
.com/.net/.org/.us/.info/ .biz/.name
I didn’t know they actually have .info, .us, .biz and .name before this. All of those do sound weird.
Gosh, i’m clueless.
Ok, i’m pretty sure that 90% of you will say it is bad. 😀 To me, it’s good AND bad, depends on how you see it (gosh, i do sound like someone working in a consulting firm).
If you haven’t read my previous post on Family vs Work, do take few minutes to read. I find the post very meaningful (ok…now i’m back to the old Alvin Lim).
I just came back from dinner with few senior colleagues and they talked about our ex-colleague being workacholic. This ex-colleague (let’s name the person ABC – not air batu campur…or…er..in English is mixed ice?) of ours was quite an extreme person who has nothing in his mind but work, work and work. He is the type of person who will go back to office and work after dinner or during weekends. The type of person who always get his ideas at weird hours….3am. The bad thing is, well, he’ll call you up excitedly and let you know about his ideas!
Gosh, i’m fortunate that my boss is a family man.
To be honest, I myself can be quite a workacholic. I can work very long hours but my style is not the typical 9-5. I like to take short breaks in between….maybe to play games or watch animation or read comic or sleep. After that, i’ll continue to work. That’s my style and if i am working on something i am passionate about ….i can really work for long long hours.
But that’s just me and my own world. I am sane enough to know that i shouldn’t call up someone at 3am just to shout out my ideas to him. Work life balance…this is important.
I believe if you do have some “life” ….be it in between your working time (like my preferred style) or after your work, it is good enough. Don’t be overly absorbed in your work.
Some companies (especially chinaman styled companies) actually like to hire workacholics. They hire you to do more work for the same (or lesser) pay as the rest of the applicants. Isn’t that better? 🙂
But these companies should also realize that a workacholic might cause other problems such as poor work performance (long hours will make you tired, regardless of whether you are batman, spiderman or superman), unhappy subordinates (don’t think you want your boss to call you at 2am right? or a boss who penalizes you for working lesser amount of time than he does), etc.
For me, work is important but your life is more important. After you retired, what is left? Your spouse and maybe your family…but it is definitely not your work, and not the company who you’ve worked so hard for. When you are sick, who will be there for you (besides the doctors)? Not your ex-bosses but your family and friends.
Life is more than just work, work and work. 🙂
Ok folks, the online voting is up. 12 finalists…and i’m one of them of course. My story is “Guardian:Invader” …*dohhh*…ok ok, I know, the title sounds lame. 😛
The online voting result will not affect the result in the Grand Final (to be held end of August in Tokyo). BUT…i have a feeling that the judges will actually look at the online voting result. Why? Well, surely they want to make an animation which a lot of people like. Right? 😀
By the way, voters get a chance to win USD 50…. For the finalists, the one who got the most votes will also get USD 50. Nothing more.
Just for fun ya. 🙂
Thanks in advance!
Oh ya, and if you find the other stories are better than mine, feel free to vote for them 😀
Here’s the link http://animaxawards.spti.com/sg/poll.asp
I’m currently reading a book called “The Secret“. It’s a good book actually. Not because it teaches us how to ‘cheat‘ our way by using the “Genie of the universe“….by wishing what we want and imagine we have it, we’ll eventually get it.
To me, things like this do happen because our human brain is so wonderful and powerful that we can actually do many many things which only a mad scientist will think it’s possible. Human beings can heal themselves (ok…i speak as if i’m not part of human race) by just focusing on happy things etc. There are miracles happening around us…people who got their cancer cured within months. It’s not impossible.
I even came out with my own Vision Board or so-called Mission Statements board…where i post up all my “wants” and “dreams” so that i will look at them and visualize everytime i wake up. And i’m feeling grateful for the things i have now and will visualize the things I want (remember the power of daydreaming? yea..just don’t get too much of it, you’ll get addicted).
However, i believe the book or the Secret didn’t say one thing – efforts. You dream, you visualize and you hope…you feel grateful and you feel happy……but you need to make an effort to fulfill your dreams. Your dreams won’t come to you. You hope and hope and hope for a good company to come and hire you….but you will need to improve yourself, to learn more things, to excel in your field of expertise so that this company will notice you. When it does, it might come to you and offer you a job (oh ya, and you need to make an effort in the interview n stuff…u get what i mean). BUT, at this moment….you hold the key…you decide whether to accept or reject. True, you’ve visualized all you want before this…but if you say NO…in the end, whatever you have visualized will go down the drain. No?
The key is yourself…not the universe. I do believe there’s a greater force in the universe doing all these nice n wonderful things, but there are more things that YOU control.
Anyway, I personally love this book because it really made me feel better….feeling grateful, being happy with my life, and thinking about the positive things, focusing on the things i want to achieve, etc.
Not sure whether you’ve read it. Haha. And the author even came out with a DVD and some free video clips in Youtube.
Here are the links.
Been quite busy the past few days and din realize my last post was…er.. 4 days back?
Anyway, if any of you noticed, i’ve mentioned in my previous post that i’ve won the Animax story writing award for South East Asia…and i won like USD 2k. Animax (channel 25 on Astro) has been showing off my “photogenic” look during prime time (7-10pm) for more than a week now…and i’ve been receiving calls to congratulate me and…to ask me to give away free meals (since every one of them knows i’ve won USD 2k). 😐
To be honest, i don’t really mind treating my good friends or those who have helped me, to a nice meal. But…those who called me up for a free meal…..and never give up even after i pretend to forget about it…. *sighs*, what do you actually do with those people?
Some of my friends (somehow) know about my little windfall….bonus, headhunting allowances, prize money, etc… and they kept on insisting i’m so rich bla bla bla… but that’s one thing that they do not know (or do not wish to admit). I’ve worked hard for all these things. I’ve spent longer hour than them in office, i’ve took the trouble to look around for the suitable people for my team (headhunting allowances) and i spent hours n hours n hours on the Animax story. They on the other hand, did not do anything to deserve those.
To me, there are many ways in this world to earn money. It’s just a question of whether you are willing to make some efforts in such things. So please, if you are this so-called “freeloader friend” who tries to leech away people’s money…or just being jealous of them, do everyone a favor and stop it. Don’t being jealous because you can do the same thing if you want to. 🙂
As for me…….i think i will pretend i donno anything again. Hahahaha. I will, of course, thank the people who helped me with the story – Angie, Jason, Julie, Boo, Yu Xiang, Benny, Wei Cher and K Wai Ling. 🙂
p/s…i might offend some of my friends, but well…i cannot please everyone right? 😀 To the few close friends of mine, i’ll still treat you all to a nice meal even if your name is not listed above. 😉
Alvin Lim - The Thinker 
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