25 January 2009

The pre-CNY edition

Time really flies and even a month can zoom by when you really want it to crawl across the road that is your life. Here I am, one day away from Chinese New Year, only to realize these last few weeks has been ridiculously busy for me. I wish I got a dollar for every time I started a post like this.

So the last 10, well 12 days, seeing as I'm late for my entry sure have been wild! I had one of the best crowds at the comedy club and managed to squeeze in a bi-lingual show (always refreshingly fun) and boy did the laughter sound like lions roaring! They were such a fun crowd to perform for because you could see people were genuinely enjoying themselves, no golf claps at any point!

I've also managed to realize that setting goals are great, achieving goals are even greater, but accepting that you could not attain a goal because it was out of your realistic reach (for now) bring a real level of inner peace. The funny thing is, I've had so many occasions when my plans for the day have failed that it no longer bothers me as much (it still does) as before. Kind of like how even if I know I have a big stressful thing to deal with tomorrow, I can still properly let go of everything today and enjoy it. Even though tomorrow's Chinese New Year, I have to film with RTHK for the show I'm hosting called Hong Kong Stories. It does suck, I must admit, because every year, Chinese New Year is the one time I can honestly rest. I mean this is when I can tell myself it's really me time. But this year, after filming, I'll be catching up on all my emails and projects I still have to go through. It's horrible that I'm so behind on my own personal projects as well as web projects I have on hand. I really don't like to keep people on hold let alone myself.

On a brighter note, like I said, at least I've learnt to deal with failure much better than before so it doesn't bring me down as much as it used to. I accept it, move on and plan my next day better so I can achieve a little bit more than the day before.

So we're nearing the end of the month and a few things I had set out as monthly goals. One of them is my drumming. A key goal I had was to improve my double-bass speed and so far so good, I'm hitting 170+ bpm and even managed to squeeze in 190 on a good day! :P Going to the gym and working out those legs like a madman really does help! Not to mention I've adjusted my diet a lot to help promote a healthier lifestyle for me. Although I'm saying this 5 minutes away from eating Cheesecake. Why cheesecake? Well it's my grandmother's 83rd birthday today and she absolutely loves cheesecake so that's why. Oh and this is me after I had a sudden insane craving for chocolate chip cookies last night just before bed. Yes, a healthier lifestyle in italics. No but seriously, I'm eating better which in turn helps me out everywhere because boy do I need the energy to keep up with everything that's going on!

I should have a small, tiny cameo role in the new movie All's Well End's Well 2009 so hopefully I'll get to check it out some time soon this week. Ahah, really don't know what to expect seeing as the filming they did of me was really, really, really short but who knows :P People have told me they saw my name in the credits so I should be somewhere in the movie. But nonetheless, it was an eye opening experience, especially since that was my first proper "filming" I had ever done. Boy was I nervous.

Speaking of being nervous, do you ever get worried when you try a new hair dresser? I do. I hate cutting my hair because I always feel awkward when I do because it's like you're literally tied down to a chair and forced to create small talk. And if you don't, it's like you're worried the barber will not do a good job because you're just any other guy. Well such was my case yesterday. I just wanted to cut my hair a bit because it was getting too wild for me (curley hair does that after a while) and figured to save time, I'd just go to a close by salon and well, it sure was awesome price-wise, everything else though, was dreadful. From the moment the guy was shampooing my hair, you could kind of sense he was only doing it for the pay. I mean, I don't blame him for feeling that way, but it kind of sucks because I mean, had they dont a better job, chances are they could charge a slightly higher price and still keep their customers. If you ask me, a good shampoo at a hair salon makes a big difference, it's like getting a good massage. The room could look like shit, but a good massage makes a biiiiiiiiig difference. So there I was, all wet in the hair, and I waited for the random barber and he came over, started snipping away. I thought to myself "hold on, don't you want to ask me what I want?!" at that point I realized it was too late. I was getting a hair cut not a hair style. Before I knew it, he was done. I told him "Could you cut the top a bit please?" after all, it was the top that was going wild the most, and so he did, he washed my hair, blew dry (...or it is blow dryed?) and well I sat there thinking "really? You're honestly happy with this cut?" not to myself, but to the barber. I mean, it felt a bit lopsided to me but by that point I just wanted to get out and get on with my life.

So check this out, I have to pay, thinking I have just enough money for the cut, and bam! I was slapped with a "oh we charge $30 more for today because it's just before Chinese New Year". Ouch. A bad hair cut, $30 more and I didn't have enough cash with me. And they only accepted cash. So now I had to run across the street and get some money from an ATM. The best thing though, no ATM. So the next best thing is the supermarket, so there I was, lining up, just to get money. Boy did that feeling suck. So here I am, typing this with a head of hair I'm not very happy with. I've learnt my lesson. You get what you pay for. Sure the hair stylist I normally go to is pretty damn pricey, it's like 5 times more expensive! But to be honest, it's worth it. Kind of makes me think of my web design skills. I do admit I charge a tad bit more, but the heart I put into my work, I'd say it's worth it.

I mean, I get why people would go back to this hair salon, because they're used to these hair cuts, but for me, I think of it this way, while I still have head on my hair, it's a worthy investment to hold it proudly. Yes, I'm a dude. I haven't forgotten that, but it doesn't mean I'm not allowed to be proud of one part of the hair that covers my body. Right?

So the big Day 10 words of widsom are: You get what you pay for. Unless you're an idiot and get ripped off. And on that note, Happy Chinese New Year!! Let the lai see floooooowwww!!

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12 January 2009

2009 for the win!

Hello and happy new year! How is everyone doing so far? I hope these last few days have been an awesome start for you! It sure has been a hectic bun worthy beginning to 2009 for me. I had an awesome (2nd) one man show on the 9th, the crowd was just perfect, people wanted to be part of the show and thank Goodness I didn't end up being a jerk to anyone :)

But boy this weekend just zoomed by me! I mean omfg it's almost Monday morning. Woah what?! I have some filming tomorrow in the morning at like 10am so this won't be a long post simply because, well if I type now, I'll regret it later. But to keep with my goal of staying up with my GTD list, I must finish my lovely Day 10 entry before I hit the sack.

Ahh, doesn't sleep sound so good when you know you don't have much of it, but at the same time, on days you sleep in, don't you sometimes wake up regretting it because you burnt up half your day? Recently, my sleeping pattern has gotten screwed over and I'm back to my like 5/6am sleeping and it sucks! However, hopefully this week of crazy filming will force me to fix that and so by the next Day 10 entry, I should be back on track and rising before the sun goes down :P Actually, how many people enjoy staying up late nights? I must say, there was a time I really loved them, because I could focus, it forced me to do my work and nothing else since nothing else was open, however, it also meant that I'd wake up and rush to get everything done before everyone else called it a day.. and should I find myself out at night with my friends, I'd feel guilty because I really should be working at that time.

But ah things have been off to a really good start so far and I'm looking forward to a really kick-ass rest of the year. Last year, on New Year's night I went up hiking on my own in the super duper cold weather and well, I was talking to myself during the journey. Call me crazy or whatever, I love it :) I bet everyone talks to themselves all the time :P I say it's actually healthy. But yea, going back to that, I talked to myself and kind of tried to envision what 2008 would be like and to be honest, a lot of things I wanted to achieve I didnt, but there were a load of things I never dreamed about and they happened so in many ways, my 2008 was better than I hoped for, so for 2009, I'm excited and so far things are working out. Don't get me wrong, it;s only been like 2 weeks and I've already had a day of frustration where I felt like I didn't have time for myself and my own stuff. I mean, this is a common situation for me it seems since I'm always whipped up with all the things I'm involved in, but it's good to stop and go "RAH!" every now and then make the best of the situation. I guess if there's one thing I've learnt so far it's that it's not about how many plans you follow and how many goals you achieve, it's about maximizing the moment more than anything else. I mean, as long as I know I tried my best, even if none of the things I planned to do today were realized, I know it wasn't due to my laziness, it was a choice I made and well, I still have tomorrow to achieve them :) And you know what, this way of thinking sure as hell is un-stressing me out a lot more... anyhoo, it's bed time so have a good night and see you in 10 days! :D

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01 January 2009

2009 - Let's get this party started!

Alright! We're 1 day into the new year and so far so good. I just stayed home and enjoyed an "early" night to pass 2008 into 2009 because I had a packed schedule for 1 Jan 2009 and now it's 10:28pm and all I can say is, one day into this year and so far so good :).

So how has it been treating you so far? I have to admit, there were a heck of a lot of "things to get done before 2009" I had written out in the middle of December 2008 that I never managed to get done so now I've moved this "things to get done before 2009 Chinese New Year" so that leaves me approximately 3 weeks to sort it all out.

In my last entry, I talked about my plan to achieve all my drumming goals and you know what? It's working!! I'm so excited. I was practicing some drums tonight and since it's beats day (ie. play cover song), I was working on Chimaira's Power Trip and the last time I played it, I managed to clock the song properly at 152bpm, today I hit 165 bpm! And even just barely managed 170bpm! That is playing everything correctly, not cheating anywhere! The song's actually approximately 183bpm, so I still got a bit to go but hey, my goal of improving my feet by 4 bpm a month has already been achieved! So as long as in Feb 2009, I'm clocking 169bpm or more on my double pedals, I'm right on track. I better be able to perfect this song by the end of this month.
As for my blast beating, I've got it stabilized at 135bpm and working on 140bpm.

Yes, I shall stop talking about drums from here on :)

I've been sitting at my computer all evening catching up on work and going through all my files and basically been doing a lot of digital house-keeping. I must say, everything is good, though there's a lot more I still need to do, like changing the way I partition my hard drives. I'm a memory freak so I have like 4 hard drives plugged into my system and so far, none of them have gone bad (they better not!) but I have to re-organize everything which is going to be a real pain!

Also, for all of you who are wondering "why is Vivek always whining about being busy? What the heck is he always doing anyway?" Well let me tell you my friend, I was at RTHK this morning, on New Year's Day, doing a live radio show at 10:30am and I will be recording another show tomorrow in the afternoon, then comes Saturday and I have some late night filming for a friend of mine, followed by Sunday which sees me at a Press Conference for a big comedy show we're doing in Feb 2009, and on Sunday night, at 7:30pm, the documentary I'm hosting, Hong Kong Stories is airing and the 1st episode has me, an Indian, as a case study :) So remember to tune in to ATV World (Hong Kong viewers only, sorry), at 7:30pm and enjoy! :D My 2nd one-man show is on the 9th of Jan 2009 so there's that awaiting me, alongside some corporate gigs I got lined up, so voila, here's just a glimpse of the craziness that is my daily life.

But on a brighter note, I have to say, no complaints so far regarding 2009 and that means I'm off to a good start. It's almost 11pm, and let me just say, I'm looking forward to an early night tonight and finally get down to clearing out all the things I have on my to do list. I wish everyone the best things in 2009 and hope you achieve everything you set out to achieve! If not, just enjoy the ride and be happy :)

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