2nd Major Blog Entry / 1 Year Anniversary!

I made it! It's been a year (and a day really) since I started this blog! :D
I was on my way home yesterday (Monday, 25 Feb 2008) and arrived at 11pm, and I said I'd reply all my emails before starting this entry, it's 12:40am on Tuesday, 26 Feb 2008! I just spent over an hour replying all the emails that were in my inbox! Yikes! Well a good yikes really.

So it's been a year, a whole year! I still remember when I started my blog, it was more like a "I really should have a blog, it's the right thing for any tech-savvy person to do, not to mention I do have a lot of things I'd like to talk about." I remember it started when I used to read a lot of posts on lifehack.org and people would have blogs that talked day in and day out about personal productivity and how to push yourself to the maximum every single day of your life. As anyone who's been reading my blog can see how I've evolved from the personal productivity maniac to the personal achiever maniac I am today. Like I've said before, it all boils down to what is considered as a sin -- greed. I'm greedy, I'll admit it. Much like a smart business man is greedy for the next business opportunity he can dive in and take advantage of, I'm greedy for the next dream I want to realize. It's not so much a matter of showing off to me, but a matter of self-fulfillment. In some ways you may even say it's a quest to prove something to myself. I'll admit it. It is.

For some, this may be due to their ego, for me, it's not. I may sound arrogant but I don't need anyone's acknowledgment of my achievements for me to be satisfied with what I've accomplished. In fact, it's quite the reverse. The more other people enjoy and benefit from my hard work, the more I'm satisfied with what I'm doing. Take my stand-up comedy for example. The more the audience laughs, the harder I'll work. I do admit I get discouraged when people don't appreciate what I'm doing, but it's not the reason behind why I do what I do. I don't do stand-up because I want someone to tell me I'm a funny guy or for someone to come over and want to shake my hand after the show just to acknowledge that they had a good time. You'll never, ever see me walk up to someone and fish for a complement. In my books, if I need to go and pull it out of someone, it never was for me in the first place. Much like love, to me, if I need to make a person love me, then it's meaningless. Don't get me wrong, it's possible to sell yourself to someone and make them see the light that you're good for them and you're a lovable person, but for me, that's not the road I want to be taking. Once again, am I being arrogant? I think not. I just feel that it should be something someone wants to do so themselves, much like complements. After many shows, people come to me themselves and talk to me. It feels great and I really, really appreciate the encouraging words from these people! Even if people didn't come up to me and say anything, if they had a good time and laughed during my set, that's good enough. After all, that's really the ultimate test if you ask me, for a bunch of strangers who are not obliged to laugh but end up cracking up to something you say.

Obligations, life is full of obligations. When I was younger, I used to hate fake people and till today, I really, really detest a person who isn't genuine. But I've come to realize there are two types of fake people:

• Those who don't know who they are and thus cannot genuinely represent their true self to others because they themselves aren't true to themselves.
• Those that know who they are but realize or feel they aren't good enough and thus put on a different image in hopes of improving themselves.

Anyone who knows me well enough realizes I'm a firm believer of being yourself even if it's not the best person the world could use. Because the last thing the world needs is another wannabe. There are wannabe people everywhere and you know what, a lot of us can see right through that. You know that feeling you get when you meet someone and something at the back of your head says "I don't know, something is not right, this is too good to be true." Well listen to that voice. You're doubting for a reason. Part of that reason is based on something in the passed that resembles the present situation, thus causing you to be cautious, and the other part is your gut feeling. I've come to trust my gut feeling a lot more nowadays because time and time it's proved to be correct. I'm not talking about that gut feeling of what the next lottery numbers are going to be, I'm talking about that sixth sense where you can't explain it, but something just doesn't feel right about a situation or a person.

Very often you'll come to realize that odd feeling you had will make sense in due time. I've met and seen many fake people who talk a very, very big talk. The problem is they've never really had to walk the walk or prove how real their words were so it was hard for me to justify what my sixth sense was telling me. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I have some super power, but it's just something I've come to learn to realize and notice in people I meet. I can usually tell apart a person who's talking crap vs. a person who means what he/she is saying after a few exchanges in a conversation. Finally, a day will come when the big shot with a big mouth has to put his/her money where his/her mouth is and the real person will be revealed. There are people who will make a big show about how brave they are but put them in front of an audience and a mic and they'll crumble under the pressure. Jami Gong, the owner and founder of TakeOut Comedy Club (where I perform a lot of my stand-up comedy) always reminds me day in and day out to "stay humble." Lucky for him, this has been a philosophy of mine for a long, long time :). I believe that if you're good, you don't need to market yourself because what you're good at markets itself. To be honest, this has been the case with my freelance web designing. Till today I've never really marketed myself other than printing and handing out name cards. You'll never see a Google ad with my name on it or a magazine page that introduces my services. Once again, am I too arrogant? No, I don't think so. I've been partially lucky and partially genuine to what I do. I love web design and whenever I do what I know how to do, I put in a genuine effort to get the job done.... well. As many of my readers will know, I'm a very firm believer in synergy. In many cases when I'm working with clients, a lot of issues come up during my web design and development that I could stop and whine about, not to mention also bill my client for. I believe in compensating for a job well done, but I do not believe in being an annoyance because of the issue of money. Sure, you may say "you're saying this because people may read your blog, but when the time comes are you telling me you'll solve an issue without billing me for it?" Yes and no. I've done a lot for clients that technically I can bill them for and technically they'll have to pay me for it because they're kind of in a sticky situation where if they don't, their whole project is screwed. I've found myself in many situations like these where I could push the client for an extra few hundred bucks easily but that also brings me to another topic, where do you draw the line?

I'm not limiting this question to billing clients, I'm talking about life in general. When is enough, enough? Look at my life today, I'm juggling so many things that all require my full attention, all at the same time:

• Freelance web design/development
• Stand-up comedy
• My band, Eve of Sin
• Drumming
  
• Fitness
  
• My finances
• Self-development (ie. learning new technologies and improving my ways)
• My family

That list could go on and on but these are the basics of what I'm really juggling day in and day out. Where do you draw the line. I could tell you a few more things I'd like to add to that list:

• Drawing/Graffiti
• Photography
• Learn to play the piano

Where do you draw the line!? I guess it goes back to listening to your mind, your heart and your gut. My mind tells me to calculate the amount of time I have every day and accordingly divide it amongst all the things I want to or need to do. My heart tells me to prioritize my passions so I can put my fresh focus in things that I love most. My gut tells me to make sure I know who to listen to, my mind or my heart. Sometimes my mind gets too logical and I find myself in a rut where I'm working on projects so much I have to give up all my other things (like going to the gym). My heart then gets frustrated and I find myself sometimes throwing aside my work just to do what I love to do (ie. drumming at 3am when I have a meeting at 9am the next day). My gut has to kick in and take the lead of controlling me where it's 3am, and I think about why I should or shouldn't be drumming at this hour. My gut will acknowledge that since I'll be out the whole day tomorrow, chances are I won't be able to drum and it will act as a great chance for my mind and body to properly assimilate what I practice tonight. So I go and practice at my drum kit (much like what I'm going to do after this post is complete) knowing that I may be tired tomorrow when I wake up but it's for a worthy cause. Had I not practiced at 3am, I wouldn't be simply losing out on one session of practice, I'd lose out on the benefits I'd get of allowing myself to fully absorb the material that takes a day of non-practice.

Much like how you really grow the most from weight training on your off days, the same happens for my drumming, my stand-up comedy, my design skills and pretty much everything I'm involved in. My subconscious mind has to be given time to munch on what my conscious mind feeds it.

So it's my 2nd major blog entry and where have I come to after 6 months? Let me re-read my previous major blog entry *goes off to do that now, time is now 01:14am*. I'm back, it's 01:25am.

Ahh, cool, it's good to look back on what I was thinking half a year ago. You know, half a year ago, I was still dreaming about stand-up comedy, I was still dreaming about my band working out and I was still dreaming about a lot of things. Guess what, a lot of them have happened :)

But before, I go on, I'd like to refer to a few things I talked about in my 1st major blog entry. I talk about my need for finding stability. At that time, I felt like my life was a lot of moving parts and I lacked a good, strong core to hold on to at times when I felt like I needed to pause and re-assess what was going on. In some ways, I've achieved this, at least in the sense I have an idea of what everyday is about to bring me. At least I have the faith that I can control every day of my life better than before. I don't go to sleep stressed about the next day, perhaps because I've grown better to accept that it's just life. My life's still full of many moving parts as you've seen so far, but all these moving parts are like the gears of a watch, it's still being watched over completely by the watchmaker. In some ways, a lot of what I do have become better complements of each other because I've figured out ways to better synergize what I do. For example, on days I go weight training, my drum exercises involve mostly feet exercises. One day I do aerobics, my drumming involves hand exercises.

I talk about what is real and who is real to me. That has not changed as well. I still trust myself the most when compared to anything else, but this doesn't mean I don't believe there are nice people around me, far from it, it just means that when people around me disappoint me, I accept it better because a part of me was ready for disappointment. I know who I am today, much like I said I knew who I was back then. I'm still me, I'm still myself and I'm still I :) One thing I keep telling myself is only I can hurt me. And this helps me at times when I'm struggling under pressure. It's my own mindset that determines whether or not I get stressed out. It's my choice whether or not I let something get to me. Sure at times your emotions may not listen to your mind easily, but at the end, you control it, you hold ultimate power over your feelings.

I discuss the idea of nice guys finish last and yes, I still believe that's true. But I also believe that at the end of the day, it's the genuinely nice guy that gets what he wants not because he fights for it, but because people feel he deserves it. I'm not referring to getting things served on a silver platter, I'm saying earning it in a non-typical way. I believe my niceness plays a heavy role in my freelance business, my stand-up career and my drumming life. People are happy to sit and have a chat with me about web stuff because they know I'm not out there to horde their money. I'm not in it to think of the solution that suits me best. There's no point in that because I could use a technology I'm most familiar with rather than what's best for the project. Heck, it'd save me a lot of stress and earn me the most money. But I don't grow. Like I've said many times before, I have a need to grow and develop myself. I am a fanatic for pushing the human potential to the maximum and only through the toughest times does one achieve excellence. A lot of my comedy sets involve me interacting with the audience. Those are all risks that I take which sometimes work out and sometimes don't. But it's something I have to do now to develop my confidence an experience and in doing so, the benefits I reap from both successes and failures are worth it. People are happy to sit with me and hear me share my knowledge on drumming because they know I say it not to belittle them but to educate them and in turn educate myself. They say, one of the best ways to really learn and understand something is to try and teach it to someone. That requires you to know something so well that you can absorb, digest and regenerate it with your 2 cents while still making sure the recipient understands what you're talking about. Like I said in my post:

"No one made it big by playing a risk-less game in life."

Near the end, I said:

"In conclusion, let's hope that in 6 months I'll be able to learn a lot more about the gray areas of life and better have a grasp of where I need to be so I can get to where I am. I must say, I'm a happy person today. I have a lot of good things going for me but I'll admit, I'm not satisfied right now."

Well, am I satisfied today? Never! But it's a good "not satisfied" feeling not because I feel down about it but now I've created a bigger hunger for where I can and want to be! :D Look at me today, I'm fully packed with life, with energy and with dreams that have come true! I see a big, bright future ahead of me with everything I've planted myself into. Now it's just a matter of me being smart and using everything I've learned along the way to play my cards right so I reap the best benefits out of all my investments. I've met a lot of people, made a lot of new goals and walked a lot of new paths! I've grown a lot since 6 months ago and reaped a lot more than I could imagine! I really, really look forward to what the next 6 months bring and after seeing where I was and where I am now, I can say I'm happy to be unsatisfied! This makes sure I still have the drive to push even further. I hope you feel the same way as well, there's so much to life, why waste time complaining about it when you could turn that energy into fuel for the mind! I must admit, I was feeling a bit down this past weekend and I created a wallpaper for myself to remind me of all the things I love and I thought I'd end this post by sharing it with you all. Thanks for reading all this, I hope in some ways it affects you positively and in turn, you do something great that has a good impact on the world we all share (ahaha ignore the Trojan Pro font I used in the bottom, I was going to change it today, but I wanted to keep it the way it is).

I'm so tired...

...I can't even sleep. Sigh.

Wow, I'm actually burnt out.... again. Luckily tomorrow is Sunday and I'm forbidding myself from leaving the house (good thing the gym closes at 4:30pm for staff party and since it's almost 7am now, chances are I won't make it).

It's hard for me to describe what I'm feeling right now, it's like after a week-long session of doing so much, you're all done but now is when you really pay the price, when you're body is really aching and your mind is really, really sore. I did another back-to-back Chinese/English comedy session tonight, honestly, it takes a lot out of me to do two shows especially when I myself have expectations that just mount on top of all the pressure I'm already under. It's a good pressure really, but it sure wears me down over time. Much like how if you've been following my posts from when I started, I was productivity crazy and don't get me wrong, I still am, but in many ways I'm reaping what I sowed so I'm able to do so much more. The problem is, much like everything in life, too much of anything isn't good. Too much of a good thing can wear you down just as much as too much of a bad thing.... oddly.

I had a great time doing comedy tonight, everyone had a great laugh and in general it went well :). I'm getting more and more comfortable on stage but no matter how many times I've done it, those 12 minutes I'm on for is brutal. I have to make sure for those 12 minutes I'm in tip-top condition.... and entertaining! That's the real pressure! Anyways, I don't want this post being me bitching about pressure, it's really a good pressure after all.

I've come to realize I'm quite a greedy person. When given 24 hours, I want 25. Not because I don't appreciate 24 but because I know I can definitely appreciate all 25! For this past week, every day has been a jump-start day for me in the sense I wake up and it's time for me to be alert and working. I've been putting in a lot of effort trying to keep on top of my work, my social life, my band, my comedy, my facebook friends, my family, my drumming, my fitness routine, my goodness, a lot of my's involved. Like I said, I'm greedy! I want, I want, I want more! But is it so wrong?

In 2 days, I will mark the 1 year anniversary of my blog. 1 Year! Woah! Once again, I can say no more than "so much has changed!" Boy, I could talk a lot about that but I'll leave it to my 1 year entry (ie. my 2nd Major Entry). I don't want to repeat the same stuff I said in my 1st Major Entry, but boy oh boy has stuff changed!

I was walking home tonight after the comedy show and some food and it was peaceful. I was, as you know, exhausted. I realized at that moment, I really just wanted to sit somewhere with someone and relax. Like hear them talk for a change. I could use a massage (but who couldn't) and just pamper myself a bit. It's 7:01am right now, I'm feeling my eyes slowly close but my brain is still clogged up and I know if I go to bed now, I'll still be awake.

There's a lot I want to do and a lot I will do. I was talking to my band's guitarist, Hypno last night and we were talking about our dreams as a musician. Actually all the guys in my band have similar ideas about themselves and the band which works great because that way we complement each other as much as possible and a lot of synergy comes into play. I'm excited about so many things happening in my life and as one of the other comedians said today "Vivek, this is your year." It really is. Like I said when 2008 started, Carpe Diem and Bring It! I really meant it, I may be burnt out right now but I'm not broken. I may be mentally clogged but I'm not shattered. As long as I'm alive and still in one piece, I'll always have at least an inkling of faith that I can do what I want to do.

I may be exhausted now, but at least I know tomorrow when I wake up I'll feel better. And even if I don't, so what? I'm still breathing, I can still get up and walk around! I can still see the world around me and best of all, I can still enjoy life. I know, I know, I may be sounding too optimistic here but honestly, this is how I think now. I've got no time for pessimism. Don't get me wrong, I'm not an eternal optimist! Far, far, far, far, far from it! I'm a realist as much as I along with my values will permit. I'm not the type of guy to say "Oh well, that's life." and try to accept what I'm served. I think that's an excuse to tell yourself you don't have a choice but to take it and move on. I'm the type of guy that says "This is not what I want! So I will change it because I know I can." I'm that type of an optimist.

Anyways, I hope you all have a good, relaxing and refreshing weekend ;). Good night and good morning, I'm greedy, so I want both :).

The list knows me... somehow :)

Yikes, it's 2:30 am and I'm really exhausted. It's going to be an early night for me because I just can't seem to concentrate because I'm mentally burnt completely out right now. Don't know why, just feel like my brain has 684505898504357450 things to think about at the same time.

Just wanted to share a shockingly good news with you all. According to The List (magazine), I'm the #2 web designer in Hong Kong :D I didn't even know myself until someone told me but here you go.


My arms are quite exhausted (Yes I went weight lifting today, that's why) but I'm just tired in general. Don't know why feel like I'm not getting enough rest (again) and I'm slacking off with my breathing exercises now. At night halfway through I'm just so tired I fall asleep halfway :( Yikes.

Anyways, going to get a bowl of cereal and hit the sack, really just so darn tired I don't want to work at all :(. Feeling a bit low today as well for some reason, no idea why. I was doing a few feet exercises on my drums tonight and halfway through I just felt de-motivated. I think it's just being tired in general so hopefully I'll pick myself up tomorrow after a good night's rest. I feel like ice cream now oddly :P

Lai See!

While I'm on a roll with good news, I just wanted to share with you all that I got my first and only packet of Lai See this year thanks to my lovely neighbors! :D Woohoo!

Too much, too good

Technically, the Day 10 entry is tomorrow but I really just wanted to stop my life and share some good great news with you all. First of all, my band, Eve of Sin finally played our debut show at DM Plus this past Saturday (16 Feb 2008). All I can say is, it's been 2 days and I'm still high and shaking from the performance. I'm not trying to toot my own horn but we did a killer job. All of us ended the gig and smiled with extreme delight and agreed, we did it. We finally did it. After so much hard work, late nights, talks, searches, effort and a heck of a lot of heart, we did it. This was truly a dream come true for all of us. Within a month's time the band went from a new vocalist to a new demo, a new website, a new logo, a new set up, a new mindset and a new future.

Enjoy this video before you continue.


So there you have it, on a flip side to my comedy, I'm a metalcore drummer and many people at the band show had seen my stand-up comedy so it was hilarious! People were calling out bits from my set while I was on stage, it was great fun and really a memorable experience. I'm happier that people were laughing and moshing on the same night, really both my passions combined into one. If you saw the video, you'll see how wild the crowd went that night. Almost everyone had never heard of us and the 5 - 10% that were our friends had only heard one of our demos so the rest was all a bunch of strangers letting loose and enjoying our music. The night had a lot of other bands as well but we stood out in our own way. Hey, no matter what it was, to have a crowd reaction like that on our debut performance is like having a road paved for you with a bright future ahead. I see great things for Eve of Sin so watch out for more gigs!

Eve of Sin, to me, is really an inspiring part of my life. It's seen me through a lot of things both good and bad and it's reminded me that when you know your passion and you stick to it, everything will work out the way you want. But it all starts off with a dream. Eve of Sin was a dream of mine. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it wasn't a dream of its other members, but I can't and shouldn't speak for them right now, so I'll talk about what I do know -- myself. I still remember days I used to stare at the big mirror in the bathroom and pretend I was a drummer by playing air-drums. I used to always say "wow, it'd be cool if I was a drummer" but never followed through not because I didn't want to, I just felt I wanted to be where I am today but without the wait of practice. It wasn't that I didn't want to practice, I didn't mind having to do that, but I wanted the results now! Kind of like paying by credit card in a way.

Eventually I did it, I realized my dream, and started playing drums. In the beginning it was overwhelming and tough especially when you're a beginner and you're surrounded by really good musicians, you always feel like you're lacking and it's very discouraging. But in many ways, I kept reminding myself of my place and after all, anyone who's good today, had to have been a beginner at some point as well! It's just a matter of time that I get to where the other skilled players are at. Today, I feel I still have a long road to go, but I can say I've reached a milestone in my drumming life that I once dreamed of. To also perform and be appreciated is another milestone and a dream at the same time! On Saturday night, I just let it flow, one thing I learnt from Effortless Mastery: Liberating the Master Musician Within was that I just had to let it go. I really did because after the show I couldn't remember what was going on on stage, I just let it flow naturally. And it worked out. It's a funny concept because you need to tell yourself to take all that hard practice and throw it all away and just perform. You need to have a certain level of confidence in yourself and your musical skills to be willing to let it flow happily. Like I said, I don't see myself as a top metal drummer (yet hehe) but I trust my skills enough to let it flow by itself. I know at the end of the day, the worst that could happen is I mess up, but I'd probably do the same if I didn't let go, so why not just sit back and enjoy.

In the book, it talks about stepping out of your body and becoming an audience to the music, I did that, all I can remember is enjoying the music and hearing it unfold. I don't remember playing it, but I did according to the videos :). So I just want to say, I talked about the theory behind effortless mastery in my blog entry back then but today I can tell you I experienced effortless mastery :). It's a great feeling but takes a lot of effort on your part before you can expect it to happen but like I've said before, just have the faith. You keep at it, all that effort cannot be wasted. Energy doesn't just disappear, it transforms into another form, the point is to make sure the form it transforms into is the form you want! Go for it and rock on!

This tops it all

I have to say, out of all the great things that have happened to me in 2008, this has topped it all. Check this out this entry on Cantophilia!

I thought my comedy on YouTube with over 100,000 views topped my list of accomplishments but I was proved wrong when I stumbled upon this site and realized that someone took one of my bits, broke it down, transcribed it, added "ping yum" and used it as material to teach people Cantonese. The best thing is that foreign-born Chinese people are learning Cantonese from a HongKong-born foreigner! Talk about a totally twisted reality! :)

I look forward to more weird, hilarious encounters in the future! Thank you Cantophilia, it was a good move, yes I agree with you!

DIY

Do it yourself. So many times, people tell me "You should delegate" but very often it's not a matter of me not wanting to delegate, it's finding a person up to my standards who will do the job at the same level if not better than myself. If I find myself spending half the time trying to explain to a person how the job should be done, I've failed to find the right person for the job. I'm not saying people should read my mind, but there are certain things a person of certain standards should be able to know and thus adjust accordingly. Many a times people will do a half-heart job when it's given to them by someone else not because they lack the skills, but simply because they don't care as much. It's the sad nature of reality. Of course unless you meet someone who's willing to see the bigger picture that if they help you win, they themselves win at the same time. Provided you're not a selfish leader that just hoards all the rewards to yourself.

Things are moving very quickly for me lately, we're already in Saturday. In a week's time it'll be my big band show with a comedy gig before that. Exciting stuff. I've also been moving on swiftly with a lot of my freelance projects in these few days, trying to make the most of the peaceful Chinese New Year holidays. I must say, when the world shuts itself down, I get so much work done! I guess it's because you're not constantly interrupted by people being "on holiday" since everyone else is so busy doing the Chinese New Year thing! Speaking of which, my Lai See record for this year has hit a whopping $0! Ahaha, I'm so used to getting barely anything for Lai See, but it's alright, I don't expect to get anything, just give me the peace of these few days' holidays and I'm a happy camper.

I need to shave. I've been growing this beard for over a week and it's beginning to do what all beards do -- getting itchy. Yikes, I always wondered what it'd be like to have a beard but neither my work nor myself is able to accommodate it so I'll just have to enjoy my lovely goatee. I enjoy having this hair on my chin, makes me feel complete. Not to mention it adds a little Heavy Metal edge ;) I've been keeping this goatee for who knows how long. But speaking of hair, I need a hair cut, I really do, now that I've started to grow my hair long, there are like 8538053840 more complications that I never faced before with short, short hair. But I like it, I enjoy having longer hair now because I've just gotten used to it. It's annoying and fun at the same time. Kind of like most people's friends and relatives ;p

I haven't been keeping up with my comedy schedule in the sense I've been so overtaken by freelance work and my band that I haven't actually sat down and written any new comedic material. It's alright, I have enough material for shows but I really do want to keep working at it and refining my stuff. I guess I just need to stop, and dedicate time to it. Which I've actually been putting into my drumming lately. My guitarist and audiophile buddy Hypno came over yesterday and we were recording drum tracks for quite a while. Felt so freaking cool because it felt like a serious studio recording! We had everything set up and boy oh boy recording is no joke! It's quite tough because you're constantly thinking "Please don't screw up, please don't mess up!" and when you think that way, you end up doing something wrong! As I'm typing this, I'm listening to the track (that currently only has guitars and drums recorded) and I love it! Sure, it's my band's music but it's still good. For all of you interested, we're playing on the 16th Feb 2008 at DM Plus.

I plan on re-arranging some of my drums stuff because I've realized that I'm not 100% stable when I sit on my drum throne and it's definitely affecting the way I play, not to mention isn't good for my back. So it's a Day 10 entry (technically I wrote this one day earlier) and basically sometimes it's better to just DIY and if you can't rely on something you can directly control (eg. software) to do it for you. I'm sure for those of you who have been reading my blog realize I'm a total software freak because I love how it just works and works and works for you rather than say stuff like it's sick. If it's sick, just re-install! Wahoo! Everyday is a journey towards total productivity (which technically is unachievable) because I'm constantly thinking of ways to improve myself, my work and my life. It's encouraging because when people (eg. Hypno) come over to my place and see the way I work, he's impressed. I'm not showing off, in fact, sometimes I get so used to the way I work, I don't get impressed by it until I use someone else's computer or someone else uses mine :) All my mapped shortcuts, etc. comes in handy at that time. Ahaha. People think I'm insane to remember all those 953083053953 short cuts but once you use it enough times it becomes second nature to you. Anyways, speaking of doing it yourself, I'm going to go adjust my drums a bit so I'm more stable on them and comfortable. Being new drums, I'm still trying to get used to everything and the feel of it all. My old drums required almost a year before I found the perfect set-up so here goes! :D

Update: It's Sunday 17:54. The power of DIY, I pretty much finished one of my projects last night using some new stuff for the first time! I love it! Who would have thought in 24 hours, I'd have completed all that work! So yes, DIY people DIY! :D

Eve of Sin - Hong Kong Metalcore Band

That's right! My band's website is finally up! Go check out my band: Eve of Sin!


So I'm totally exhausted right now from everything so I'm going to take a shower, lay in bed and watch a movie followed by just crashing into a good snooze. I'm just really mentally and physically tired today. I need to catch up on rest for a long week ahead.

I've got a slight cough which cannot be a good thing but that's probably due to the late nights, lack of exercise and me just being plain stupid with the amount of clothes I've been wearing (stupid as in not enough clothes).

I've been playing around with some new web technologies and so far I'm in that "frustration" stage where you're experimenting and nothing seems to make sense to you at all. I think I better go back to the way I know I can learn -- books. Probably go hit the library tomorrow and see if I can find a book on the topic and try my best to burn through the pages and understand what I'm trying to do! I'm going to end this post here before I go on rambling about nonsense now that my brain is half shut off.

When you fit in, you don't stand out

Wow, that phrase dawned upon me tonight when I was thinking about the difference between Cantonese stand-up comedy and English stand-up comedy. I realized that Hong Kong people want to fit in and therefore they're too scared to be the first one to stand out at anything. It hit me when people were asked a question and no one raised their hand until the first person did, and once the first person did, everyone else raised their hands accordingly. Then in the English show, people seemed to want to stand out so were fighting to be the first one to be noticed when asked something. I'm not saying either one is better, but this is something that I think makes a lot of sense :)

Tonight's show was awesome! All the comedians were in tip top condition and everyone agreed that the audience was seriously one of the best we've had since the Comedy Festival that was held in October 2007. Wow, I've only been doing comedy for less than 4 months so far :) Time sure has flied but a heck of a lot has happened!

My next big step is the band show on 16th Feb 2008! RAaahh! I don't want to look further even though I know what comes up after that. You have no idea how excited I am about everything that is coming up for me and everyone around me :) It's awesome! So much stuff! Tonight I have a whole line of "work" to tend to but it's good, I still have tomorrow, Sunday, to catch up on everything although even tomorrow I have some appointments lined up :\. Yikes. So much happening!

Anyways, just wanted to share this thought with you all before I get to work. Enjoy! :D

It's on!

Something clicked in me this morning and I'm all powered up to get things done all of a sudden! It's like as if I've just come back from a long vacation and now just want to get down to work! The good news is, as usual, I have a lot of work! The even better news is that I'm doing Stand-up Comedy tonight (Back-to-back, Chinese and English shows) so it'll be fun and then once I get back, I'll work out my stuff.

My room's a mess....again but I think I'm going to clear it up right after I finish writing this post. Sigh, so many things I want to do and so limited time to do them in! :( I finally picked myself up and got back into my breathing exercise routine. I'll probably need to stick to it for half a week before I see any "energy-raising" effects again. I've just been feeling mentally drained these last few days :\. A lot going through my head but all in good fun.

We had a really intense jam session last night and I'm totally looking forward to our gig on the 16th Feb 2008 at DM Plus. Rah! We're finally almost ready for that show now with everything worked out. We'll be playing 4 songs but it comes to around 20 minutes which is perfect. The crowd, those that decide to mosh and go nuts, will definitely be worn out after 20 minutes of our music. I have to say, the show's a bit pricey for a local band show selling tickets at $80! But I suppose that's also because they have a killer line-up! Woooo!

Anyways, I need to go see to my work and get my room cleared up so I can think again. It's freaking freezing cold now and I just took a warm shower (which may be the reason why I'm so pumped to do stuff now) so before I start to get stiff and cold, I better move around! See ya!

Why am I still awake at this hour

It's like 7:50 am and I'm still not asleep.. sigh. I hate late late/early early mornings but I had a killer jam session with my band tonight! So I'm all hyped up so much that I can't seem to fall asleep... need to just calm down!

Anyways, just thought I'd share :) Since it's better than me laying in bed counting sheep.