30 August 2014


我喜欢桌上游戏,图版游戏也好,卡片游戏也好。

但有点反社会和非常宅男的我只是要和相熟,合得来,能开玩笑的朋友玩。

大约是今年四月间开始,我用拖拉、诱骗、贿赂、水汪汪猫眼恳求等下流和不要脸的方式硬硬把一群朋友聚在一起来玩桌上游戏。 邪恶指数+1

就这样,我们玩了四个月。

虽然不是每个星期都会玩,但至少每个月也会玩一两回。

喜欢桌上游戏那些面对面的互动,那些吹牛自夸,不用本钱的挑战,短暂的联盟,不息的挑拨离间…

喜欢大伙聚在一起就会发生的玩笑。

超喜欢那些欢乐的笑声,想想都很开心。 ^_^

希望可以保持这样!



随兴随想 |系列|


28 August 2014

I is no stoopid


The running app I am using to help me track my training is alive!

Alive in an evil coach kind of way. 0_o

You see, there is this standard route I run when I do not feel particularly lazy or fancy of any route change.

Last year the app said the distance of that route is around 6.3km. Early this month it said it's only 5.9km. Last Sunday it became 5.8km, and today it's 5.4km.

Where did the 900m go?!?!

The app is trying to trick me into running more distance, evil coach! >_<

But I is cleber, you no fool fool me*.

* kids, the title and this sentence are incorrect English, reproduce at your own risk


26 August 2014

Tiny, but a lot of 'heart'


I was stuck in the office unable to get to my car to come home because it was pouring cats and dogs and dinosaurs.

Didn't have an umbrella with me, and would probably have gotten soaked even with an umbrella anyway. Dinosaurs level rain is no joke. =P

It has been a long day so I didn't feel like working anymore. Getting bored sitting in the cafe to wait the rain out, I took out the tiny birthday cards I brought along to gather signatures and birthday wishes and took a photo of them.

for the September and October babies ^_^

Realised I haven't been doing this consistently, I should have taken a photo of all the birthday cards I made to serve as a memento.

Wouldn't that be something? ^_^


23 August 2014

My natural talents


Okay, to date, I didn't get a single response for the previous entry. While it's not totally unexpected, I am still disappointed.

Oh well.

This is a long entry, it will give you insights into the kind of person I am. As I am posting the results of Strengths Finder: my top five talents, of which the personalised strengths insights are rather revealing.

As an aside, you will need to purchase the Strengths Finder book for a code to go through the online assessment, which will give you your top five talents. The book costs around RM80 at the time of writing this entry.

Alrighty, here are my self-perceived talents/strengths:
- attention to details
- analytical
- discipline
- responsible
- perseverance

I am mightily curious on what the others perceived me as, do you see my talents somewhat similar to how I perceived myself? Or do you see me as what the Strengths Finder assessment says?

Anyway, here we go... (it's a direct copy and paste so I apologise for the missing 'u' and spelling with 'z' instead of 's')

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Responsibility

Shared Theme Description:

People who are especially talented in the Responsibility theme take psychological ownership of what they say they will do. They are committed to stable values such as honesty and loyalty.

Your Personalized Strengths Insights:

It’s very likely that you draw on your reserve of personal accountability when pressed to complete tasks. Fulfilling your commitments spurs you to do whatever it takes to complete projects. You realize others depend on you. This explains why you seldom rest until your work is done. By nature, you are quite comfortable being honest about yourself with others. You harbor very few illusions about who you really are. Furthermore, you can openly acknowledge your mistakes and shortcomings. This is apt to distinguish you from most people. Driven by your talents, you willingly assume moral, legal, and mental accountability for people, processes, or assignments. Your outward behavior demonstrates your reliability. Others view you as a person who can be trusted to follow through on commitments. Because of your strengths, you are impelled to deliver on all of your commitments. You are determined to meet all of your obligations. Doing so is your badge of honor. It is one reason why people describe you as trustworthy and dependable. Instinctively, you may be disappointed with yourself if you fail to make someone feel welcome. Perhaps you want to give your approval to all kinds of individuals regardless of their age, nationality, income, job, education, religion, handicaps, or appearance.

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Empathy

Shared Theme Description:

People who are especially talented in the Empathy theme can sense the feelings of other people by imagining themselves in others’ lives or others’ situations.

Your Personalized Strengths Insights:

Instinctively, you sometimes have quick and ready insights into what individuals are sensing. Perhaps your instincts allow you to ask questions in the right way. In your dealings with people, you might know the best time to speak, listen, advise, or praise. Driven by your talents, you might be prone to taking a common-sense approach in certain situations. Possibly you “name” the emotions you believe people are exhibiting. This practice might help you understand what to say or do in situations that demand diplomacy or understanding. It’s very likely that you feel honored when someone entrusts his/her innermost thoughts and feelings to you. Nonetheless, the person needs to initiate the conversation. Otherwise, it is unlikely to happen. You are reluctant to bring up sensitive topics and delicate questions. You tend to worry about leaving the impression that you are prying or being nosy — that is, unduly interested in the private affairs of the person. Because of your strengths, you cause others to pay attention to their innermost thoughts and feelings. People are confident of your ability to exercise good judgement and common sense. Many people trust you to keep to yourself whatever they choose to share. Your capacity to imagine their situations and be sensitive to their needs allows individuals to unburden themselves. You listen. You customarily acknowledge their unique circumstances. By nature, you may help people understand that life is funny. Perhaps you hope people see the humor in messes, mix-ups, or problems and help them do so. Laughter might be one way you reduce your own and others’ stress. Sometimes it is also an antidote — that is, a remedy — for people who become upset when things go wrong.

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Developer

Shared Theme Description:

People who are especially talented in the Developer theme recognize and cultivate the potential in others. They spot the signs of each small improvement and derive satisfaction from these improvements.

Your Personalized Strengths Insights:

By nature, you may enjoy acknowledging people’s good traits or applauding their fine accomplishments. Perhaps you make new friends when you notice things they do well. Maybe you maintain current relationships when you express an interest in whatever intrigues each person. To some extent, you are motivated to say and do things that might cause others to befriend you. It’s very likely that you occasionally tell people what you know, what you have experienced, or what you can do. You might benefit when they provide you with information about their talents, knowledge, and skills. Because of your strengths, you now and then make a point of acknowledging and applauding the unique contributions of your teammates. You occasionally call attention to some of their talents, knowledge, or skills. Driven by your talents, you occasionally include newcomers or outsiders in your activities. Maybe you boost their confidence by appreciating their talents or unique perspectives. Perhaps you delight in the fact that they are different from everyone else you know. Instinctively, you like to lift the spirits of the people around you. You know what to do and say so individuals feel useful, valued, appreciated, and important.

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Consistency

Shared Theme Description:

People who are especially talented in the Consistency theme are keenly aware of the need to treat people the same. They try to treat everyone in the world with consistency by setting up clear rules and adhering to them.

Your Personalized Strengths Insights:

Instinctively, you may stay abreast of newsworthy events. Perhaps you have a process in place to monitor issues of personal or professional interest. Periodically you might collect updates from print or broadcast media or through one-on-one conversations with informed individuals. By balancing what you hear, read, or see, you might be able to sort fact from fiction. It’s very likely that you occasionally emphasize facts or point others in the direction of truth. You may wake up those who are deluded — that is, easily misled, deceived, or tricked. Perhaps your honest, direct, and plainspoken approach cuts through individuals’ delusions so they can begin seeing specific things clearly. Maybe your matter-of-fact style helps a few people identify common ground. Now and then, consensus — that is, complete agreement — might occur. Because of your strengths, you might be the team member who streamlines processes, rules, or procedures. Periodically you outline steps so all group members perform the same task the same way every time they do it. By nature, you periodically institute procedures and establish rules that help certain groups of people manage the daily, weekly, monthly, or annual chores that are part of any project. Perhaps you outline a detailed plan. You may work to make sure specific individuals understand it. Possibly these are two ways you maintain healthy relationships with friends who also are your coworkers, teammates, supervisors, peers, direct reports, or study partners. Driven by your talents, you might deal with people in the same way, regardless of their differences. When everyone is supposed to follow certain rules or procedures, perhaps you emphasize these requirements in what you say and do.

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Harmony

Shared Theme Description:

People who are especially talented in the Harmony theme look for consensus. They don’t enjoy conflict; rather, they seek areas of agreement.

Your Personalized Strengths Insights:

Driven by your talents, you may have a reputation with some people for being good-natured and congenial. To a certain degree, you are comfortable welcoming diverse types of individuals into your life. Perhaps you invite some of them to join certain groups or participate in specific activities with you. Because of your strengths, you might gravitate to situations where you can team with people on certain types of projects. Because you are a practical and objective person, you occasionally present ideas that have produced good results in the past. Perhaps you appreciate teammates who give the same consideration to your suggestions as they give to everyone else’s. Chances are good that you may realize that conflicts or disagreements can arise when you give one person opportunities, resources, or attention that no one else receives. Perhaps you have a knack for keeping everyone’s emotions in balance by avoiding saying words or doing deeds that might indicate you favor one or two individuals over the rest. Instinctively, you may be practical or realistic as you process ideas. Perhaps you think sequentially. You might appreciate projects that have simple steps or defined starting and stopping points. Sometimes you test your ideas with specialists who might be able to confirm their accuracy or usefulness. It’s very likely that you occasionally collect bits and pieces of information. At the time, the value of this material may not be apparent. In specific cases, you have found it useful to turn to some specialists for help. Perhaps these individuals can provide you with enough direction so you can ask some questions, render a few decisions, or try to map courses of action without upsetting anyone in the process. You avoid angering certain people by consulting with them before doing anything.

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So...

- Responsibility
- Empathy
- Developer
- Consistency
- Harmony

At least I got one right, my self-perception is 20% accurate... -_-

Besides Responsibility, what the heck do the rest of the talents got to do with being an engineer??!?!! >_<

After I got over the denial period and accepted the fact that I should go be a monk, I went through the detail assessment many times, coming to terms and vowing to take the assessment again in a year's time. I want to see if the talents change, especially the last three.

Responsibility and Empathy resonate strongly, on hindsight I should have listed empathy in my self-perceived talent list. I know precisely when I shut myself up and actively stopped my empathy side from reaching out. But if I am ever to share that, it will most likely be in a story form. Suffice it to say that I got burned and to a certain degree lost faith in humanity, I cocooned myself in after that. Guess I did a pretty good job there actively denying my talent until I no longer associate myself with empathy.

Oh well, anyway...

Being someone who is honest, loyal, self-critical, trustworthy, dependable, and keeps his promise; someone to talk to and keeps your secret; someone who listens; who recognises and acknowledges your contributions, who lifts the spirits or people around him; someone who is direct and plainspoken, who treats people the same, who is law-abiding, good-natured, congenial, practical and realistic...

...I am a pretty decent person to be around with, but nothing directly useful at being an engineer!

I... I... I am in a wrong job. I am not utilising my talents. =(


20 August 2014

Questions


If I sighed and felt frustrated when the next job role was revealed to be the same as the current, then it's time to change job, right?

Where did we go wrong with the elder son?

Why is there no one willing to share their perception of me?

Third child, to have or not to have?

Should I re-embrace my natural empathy talent and start helping others again?

Let it go?


17 August 2014

Fit of fat?


Little monsters, having no respect whatsoever for weekend, i.e. do not show respect by sleeping in till late morning/noon, woke me up seven early eight early (real early) in the morning.

So there I was, sitting in the bed, thinking whether I should go run since I missed my still-not-very-regular evening run yesterday, when wifey said to go out for breakfast.

Hmm... fit or fat?

Hands down fat of course! =P

Honestly, I am worried about the November run, I am just not in the shape as it is, and I am running out of time.

But those roti canai were good. =P


14 August 2014

Level up


Since I am a self-critical person, I have to measure up to my own standard. That's why I don't praise myself much, but often joke about my weakness or silliness.

Okay, maybe that's just me being crazy... =P

Anyway, today, I am giving myself a +1 to my optimisation skill. Yes, a real useful skill instead of those 'slacker point', 'dungeon master', et cetera.

It was a long stretch of experiment doing one case after another with some real time analysis, I got home late but very pleased and satisfied with what I achieved today.

I met the target specification and exceeded it with a good healthy margin. Truth is I was really surprised how well it turned out I thought it was too good to be true.

So I reran the same configuration to double check, and as my usual paranoid self, I also ran some boundary configurations for sanity check, and to cover all bases.

Will of course do my due diligence of performing a further complete validation before I present my findings, but I am mightily excited. This is going to set new standard. ^_^

I am giving myself a pat on the back. =)


10 August 2014

心的频道:蓝旗队(续)


初稿于二零一四年六月十日。

请先看前篇



唉,那些狼叫声… -_-

人的个性,有时就是这么决定了


不明白为何他们要那样?
因为我觉得那样的行为很贱
所以我就那么决定了
我绝不要那样!

所以我就刻意不去看,不去睬
哼,不是全部男生都是没有自律、荷尔蒙过盛的猪头
去!有点尊严好不好?
要看就是女生看我!

那时的我还真是有点臭屁
有点自以为是
和不认为自己丑的
呵呵~ 

呃… 
年轻就是不知天高地厚
脸皮特别厚的嘛…
(羞)


也许开始只是扮酷
但习惯成自然
我就那样毁了自己的雷达
现在可以很坦然的说
把自己搞到有点不正常,嘿嘿 =P

是认识了前任女朋友(现任老婆仔)后才慢慢被她调回正常的
也是认识了她才开始认为自己丑的
她是这样告诉我的嘞
她讲,我就信了

反正认为我丑仍和我在一起就应该是我的内在美的原因了吧?
那才重要嘛,呵呵!
是的,那时开始
我自认我是丑的

因为已成了个性
所以我是没什么去注意周围的女人的
前任女朋友(现任老婆仔)觉得我不正常
所以一同外出拍拖时她是雷达
发现美女她会叫我看的嘞!

恋爱时的情趣吧?
也好啦,让她先过滤,免得伤我眼睛
哈哈!
(自己都觉得这样讲很过分,人家也是妈妈生的啊…)



心的频道 |系列|

  

07 August 2014

生活点滴:无发多亮


今天午餐后回程时谈起本能强项的话题。

有关本能强项话题的来源,请看昨天写的文章(英文的)。

话说到我测验出来的本能强项,几乎都是与工程师无关,便带点笑的说我应该转行了。

应该找份可以发挥我的强项的工作嘛…

我说辅导员或和平主义代言人哪样的呱?

他们说:“和尚!”

不用讲都知道然后我们就开始搞笑了咯… =P

我说是齁,我光头是有原因的!

突然又有人杀出要有法号,开始给提议。

我说有的叫「无念」,我叫「无发」。

然后想想「很光」好像也不错,有人接说「很亮」。

最后有人说有位歌手叫「多亮」。不错嘛。

我问法号可以四个字的吗?他们说可以,所以嘞…

当当当当!

「无发多亮」,呵呵! =P

晚间和老婆仔分享这趣事时,她说我做不到。

“你能够戒色咩?”

“…”

你这样讲就赢了咯… =P

自认朋友的,若有看昨天的文章,有劳您费少许时间分享你对我的强项的见解。助人为快乐之本,功德无量,善哉善哉。 ^_^



生活点滴 |系列|

06 August 2014

What's your strength?


Do you know your strength?

My usual answer to that is "I can lift 20kg!" =P

Jokes aside, I know my weaknesses a lot better than I know my strengths. And I suppose this has just been proven right yesterday after I got my results from Strengths Finder 2.0.

Did that because manager is coming to town and he wants us to go through our strengths (natural talents really, see below) together so he can utilise us better.

Before I proceed, if you know me well enough, I am mightily curious what you perceived as my top five strengths? If it's not too much trouble, kindly inform me through your preferred communication mean: comment, private message, verbal face to face, et cetera. All welcome and much much MUCH appreciated.

Please do that before you continue, at least write them down first so you don't get influenced by the following content.



Okay, I think this is a good time to clarify some terms based on Strengths Finder (which really helps us find our talents, to be develop into strengths). =)

Talent = core personality trait, a natural way of thinking, feeling, or behaving

Investment = time spent practicing, developing your skills, and building your knowledge base

Strength = Talent x Investment. The ability to consistently provide near-perfect performance

Example, on a scale of 1 to 5:

Person 1 - born with gene to have large biceps (talent = 5), but does not exercise those muscles regularly (investment = 1), the biceps size (strength) would be 5 x 1 = 5

Person 2 - born with gene to have medium biceps (talent = 2), exercises and workout regularly (investment = 5), the biceps size (strength) would be 2 x 5 = 10

Person 3 - born with gene to have large biceps (talent = 5), exercises and workout regularly (investment = 5), the biceps size (strength) would be 5 x 5 = 25, huge indeed!

That's the idea behind Strengths Finder, to identify our talents and develop them into strengths. Literally playing to our strength, for that's where we can truly shine.


Alrighty...

If I had to come up with my top five talents/strengths based on self-perception, these are what I think they are:
- attention to details
- analytical
- discipline
- responsible
- perseverance

Since this entry is long enough as it is, think I will stop here and share the Strengths Finder results in another entry. This will give me some time to digest the results and get over my shock and denial. =P

Please do tell me what you perceived as my top five strengths, thank you!



03 August 2014

Run Log (June & July 2014)


21 June 2014, Saturday.

Slightly more than a month later than I initially planned, but I finally got my lazy arse out and started my training again for this year's Penang Bridge International Marathon. slacker point +1

Given the last run in December, I went out thinking I would kaput after 2km, and was pleasantly surprised I managed 4.03km nonstop in 32 minutes.

Did a variation of the Straits Quay route, basically I skipped the main road part and only ran from Island Plaza onwards, towards Straits Quay, turned back at Tesco, and stopped at Island Plaza.

Have to rebuild my endurance first, then maybe I will think about improving my speed. =)

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29 June 2014, Sunday.

Initially planned to run at least once in the weekday, but the haze situation was horrible so that didn't happen.

Had to drop my running plan yesterday as wifey suddenly decided to eat out, oh well.

So I went running today instead, it has been gloomy the whole day with occasional rain, and of course it had to rain rather heavily while I was running. Bummer.

At least it didn't last long so I wasn't too wet.

Did the Straits Quay route, not sure if Nike+ went bonkers last week or this week, there seemed to be a variation of about 500m between last run and this.

Meh, it says I ran 4.52km in 33 minutes. Ended not as strong as I like, but not too bad either.

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15 July 2014, Tuesday.

Didn't run for two weeks since the last run, like to blame the haze but it's probably because of laziness. =P

Did the Straits Quay route today, stopped after 3.58km, took me 26 minutes to run that distance.

Didn't really have a distance planned but thought I could at least do 4km. Ended weak today, really need to be more disciplined about this.

On a somewhat related note, it's worrying that I no longer have a waist but the beginning of a spare tyre, the abdominal muscles have decided to show their unity. All for one and one for all!

>_<

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26 July 2014, Saturday.

Haze situation has been really bad. The heavy downpour yesterday night cleared it off somewhat, while still not the clean and clear air, it's a lot better comparing to the last two weeks.

So I when running, the Straits Quay's route.

Went out with the intention to disregard speed today and to only focus on distance. In fact, instead of my usual counting steps mantra, I repeated "get the distance" over and over today.

But I only did 4.29km, and that took me 29 minutes according to Nike+. I am not sure if Nike+ app was working correctly, or perhaps it was the GPS, I seriously don't think I ran that fast.

Ended okay, but lost the determination to run more after one lap. Oh well.

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