Confidence Makes Awesomeness

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.
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Though I guess it is also Awesomeness that makes Confidence.

I don't claim to be a fan, neither am I an avid follower of the Chinese music scene.

Heck, I don't even though half the songs he's singing *hides* but they're definitely super memorable hits since I vaguely remember most of the chorus and melodies. 'Most' being the keyword here. Hehe. But everything I see and hear him sing, my head just go "Awesome. Awesome. Awesome." until the performance ends. I mean, look at those faces of other celebrities watching him. They read "Awesome. Awesome. Awesome." too! Hahaha.

*in a small voice*

Though I did kinda cringed at his 'corny' antics at the end of the performance. 

Hahaha. I guess he's totally 'feeling' it. =P Who cares? It's still awesome!

Early Morning Realisation

I was getting dressed this morning when it just hit me like Bang!

Nah.

It was actually more like sneaky 'realisation' came sneaking right behind my conscious.

That the one hour of frowning I had earlier this week while picking my clothes for our little 

I-hope-we-don't-look-like-some-idiots mini project, well... turns out it also saved me from an entire week's worth of my daily morning frowning routine. Hah!

I woke up this morning, switched on my computer (Terrible right? I know. I know.),

went to the toilet, took my bath, came back and got dressed. WHAT? No staring at the cupboard or digging through my pile of clothes? Eh? No panicky moments as time runs out 

and I just put on whatever that wasn't all that bad?

Nope.

I just got dressed with what was already a pre-determined set of clothes and sat 

in front of the computer with lots of time to spare. Hmm...

Nice.

But if you're thinking I'm all out with this new plan, then you're wrong. Nope. 

I don't want to frown an hour over a week's worth of dressing on a weekend night. 

Not gonna happen. In fact I can't wait for next week to come and all that little 

panicky moments along with it. Yay.

What Do You Call Pandan in English?

Or is Pandan English?

*googles*

Oh. They are indeed called Pandan Leaves.

Sometimes I hate the convenience of googling for answers. And the fact that the word 'google' has turned into a verb. It makes life too easy, knowledge less appreciated. *sigh* Which reminds me of an exchange I read in one of the livejournal communities I've joined. If you were the ones who utter these words, understand that I mean well and in no way being disrespectful. It is truly something that worth our two cents to think about.

"What did we do before the internet.

Before google and wikipedia and imdb and YT etc etc.

Just sit around confused and feeling stupid?"

-Unknown

I guess she's right in that sense. Knowledge is now out there for everyone. If anything else, we should be pretty empowered by the Internet these days. But let us not make it less meaningful just because it's easy.

* * * * * * * *

On a different note. This post started out with me wanting to tell you guys I made
'Pandan Chicken' today. Except I kind of wondered off topic as I typed my post.
That's the beauty of it, isn't it?

Eleven pieces of Pandan Chicken with a tinge too much curry powder.

Nonetheless, pretty good for a first try.

.

.

.

What a weird post this turned out to be.

The Simple Truth

"Good, fast, cheap. Pick Two."

And it's not just for the advertising industry, I believe it's sort of the universal mantra of how things work. Try it yourself. Pick two and I'm sure the third one will not fit the equation.

Hmm... if only we let clients pick their 'two' before we actually start work.

Now that's a wishful thought. :P

No Wonder Lah!

I click 'Publish Post'. I check my post. Edit, edit and edit until that stupid line spacing is perfect or until I give up, whichever comes first. I give one final read to my post and then I realised... No matter what I cooked, be it Japanese, Italian, Chinese, English, American, they all end up on that same flowerly cina-pek plate.
So tak cocok lah.

No wonder lah, they call those chinaware.

-___-

Summing up December in 500 words

Warning: This would be one of the few posts that were written in one straight go, without the usual think-write-read-edit process. It’s a total pour of words without proper structure, proper sentencing, proper formatting, etc.

Here goes!

December was the down month of the year. Seriously, not the best way to end the year. Grandpa got admitted to hospital because of fever, which was suspected to be dengue, which later was proven not. “Chikungunya”, that’s what the doctor said. Anyhow he was weak all over. If that wasn’t bad enough, dad got a sudden lapse of heart pain while he was visiting grandpa. Thus, dad got admitted to hospital.

Talk about irony.

Then talk about being lucky it actually happened in a hospital where immediate attention was given.

Sigh.

So it turned out dad got a serious blood clot in one of his blood vessels and a minor operation, or like how the doctor put it “a procedure” was called for, to open, unclog and keep the blood vessel clear and good. Dad’s insurance did not provide coverage for this and 20k plus of money was spent. Of course, it wasn’t so much about the money. It’s dad’s well-being that we were worried most.

And dad is now on long-term meds which even though it’s not about the money, still very much takes up an extra sum every month from now on.

Again, like I said, what matters most is dad and everyone’s peace of mind.

No no. It did not end there however. Two days after dad got discharged from the hospital, our house was burglarized. By a totally silly burglar nonetheless who took away RM50 and a speaker. Still damage was done and again money was spent on fixing up the doors. We finally resolved to install an alarm system as well. Again money. Hah!

Really. It’s not about the money. It’s just a sad sad series of unfortunate incidents.

After barely a week out of the hospital, grandpa was not feeling well again. This time much worse than the last and everyone was fearful of his life. He couldn’t walk, couldn’t eat and I know it hurt dad most that he couldn’t do much or physically be there for grandpa because of his “house-arrest” after his own “procedure”.

Obviously 500 words are not enough to sum up the month because after all that pour of negativity, I got a call of good news.

I won my dad a Christmas gift from MPH. RM100 worth of vouchers, a really awesome mug plus a set of won’t-be-used postcards. I think I’m actually getting a kick out of writing slogans for contest. ;-) I guess it pays to write for a living, in more ways than one.

And that hopefully marks the end of the family’s dark period.

As we enter the new year, I really do hope we have more good things to look forward to. In all honestly, health is really and truly one’s greatest asset. No amount of money can make up for the health of a loved one or that of your own. So a great reminder to everyone out there, take good care of yourself, be conscious of your diet, live healthy, live happy because it’s not just about living your life as an individual but as a unit, as a family and even as a friend. Because even if it doesn’t matter to you, it matters a lot to others. Because if it hurts you, it also hurts others. And as corny as it may sound, you are not alone in this world and YOU MATTER in every way.

It’s an hour away to 2011.

May the new year brings forth awareness of the importance of good health to everyone.

The Chopstick Theory

So here's the thing. I rarely leave a comment on Facebook, I hardly update my status and I almost never upload a photo. Out of the 185 photos I have on Facebook only 3 were uploaded by me. THREE!

And out of those three, two were uploaded this year. That's quite a progress I must say. Imagine I had a cake as my Profile Picture for over 2 and a half years. My colleagues kept commenting "Your cake sudah rotten lah. Change lah!"

Wait! All that being said and done, my point was...

"I rarely leave a comment on Facebook."
but when I do, I like to think I leave an impression. *shameless*

You see just the other day a friend posted a status that reads "the chopsticks theory..." which led to a bunch of comments trying to 'decipher' the theory as shown in the screencap below. Yada yada... it's not hard to figure out that the idea was 'needing a pair to function' right?

RIGHT!

Except it wasn't me who answered that all wise and correct.

Instead, I had to be all Ms Smart Pants
and replied that comment with this:

"but but... I only need one to eat 'yu dan' during dim sum.. :P"

Yamah! Tak salah pun. Even Mr-Have-Been-Blurred-Out agreed with me as shown above. Plus I got a '1 person Like this' vote. *grins* So I think I might have successfully shot down "the chopstick theory".

At least that's what I thought a few days ago before I was here writing this post.

You see. As much as I love eating 'yu dan' aka Cantonese for fish balls, I don't want to go through life eating just 'yu dan'. I mean there's so much more to enjoy. Sui Mai, Har Kao and a whole bunch of stuff. And I can't enjoy all that with just a single chopstick...

if you know what I mean.

So to whoever's out there holding the other single chopstick, could you please show yourself soon? I believe life's best dim sum feast is waiting for us. :)

A Bad Sign Turned Good

Woke up at 6.15am this morning feeling a little warm as the AC had auto shut-off at 5am. I usually sleep through the remaining hour and a half with whatever coolness left in the room. It was hot though this morning so I got up with my eyes closed and went to switch on the fan. Went back to bed for my precious 15 more minutes of sleep.

Sure enough the alarm went off at 6.30am.

Woke up and my first thought was
[Why am I still feeling that hot?]

The fan wasn't on! Second thought
[Wait! Did I not got up to switch the fan on?]

Hey at 6.30am in the morning, you gotta doubt yourself whether you actually dreamt the whole thing up. So I stood up and went back to the switch. Sure enough it was on!

WAIT! Third thought of the morning.
Gosh, too much going on in such an hour!

[WHAT?! No electricity!!!]

Yes that thought came with three exclaimation marks because that means bathing in the dark and OMG! Bathing with cold cold water! *shivers* So I groaned and crashed back onto the bed. Not the way to start a Monday, man! 6.35am and my alarm rang again. This time I lay awake on my bed, mourning over the bad start to the week. *sigh*

Fourth thought of the morning:

[THIS IS NOT A GOOD SIGN!]

A minute passed. My 6.40am deadline ticks.
And then the AC made a noise. The fan answers it.

O__O

Fifth thought:
[It's BACK!]

6.40am and the alarm goes off one last time. Finally I got up feeling all smugged.

The first thought of the week as I stepped out of my room?

[IT'S GONNA BE A GOOD WEEK AFTER ALL]

Oh Happy Pill

Happy Pill, where are you?
I've been missing you lately.
Did you left for a holiday without me?
Or did evil Debbie Downer get to you?

Happy Pill, get yourself together.
We are depending on you.
Remember Muse?
She's been lonely without you.
Poor thing.

Happy Pill, you're not gone
and we're not sad.
It's just the sky had been a little grey lately.
No, no. Rain did not fall.
No, no. Lightning did not strike.
But I ain't seeing no rainbow either.

Happy Pill, come home soon will ya?
Before Sad Soda really do come knocking on the door.

Oh Happy Pill.

All Hail Technology!

It was just the other day where Easter Bunny was doing her assignment on "computer and the internet" and she asked:

"What is Information Age to you?"

Got my own answer that same night.

This!

The Before, The It and The After

One week later, Hiyashi reminisces the happenings over the few weeks of the event.

Pre-election
Election is coming! Well it was coming at that time! *grumbles on confusing tenses when blogging late* First time voter ME! I admit I was a tad too excited about it. I try my best to hold back my excitement but you can easily see that little sparkle in my eyes that so easily gave me away.

One night, around this pre-election period. At home, in front of my notebook... the following conversation took place.

Hiyashi : *click click type type*
Dad : Try coming home earlier these two weeks.
Hiyashi : *looks up* Eh?
Dad : Election period.
Hiyashi : Oh.

Ah. See how short and punchy my dad is. My mom probably would have gone on and on about how dangerous it is and if possible get someone to drop me off at the jetty instead. But my dad, well my dad likes to keep it short and simple. And it works way better that way I tell you. Because when a man with few words speaks, it means it’s important. It matters! And us young ones listen. *grins* But a mom's gotta do what a mom's gotta do and I don't blame her.

Anyway, I never managed to leave office early for those two weeks after all. *sigh*

Election Day
Half-working-day day. Meaning I got to leave office before 2.30pm to give myself enough time allowance to vote. At 2.00pm, my cell phone beeped. Message reads: “Be back by 3.30pm or we’ll go first.”

There you have it. My dad. So I quicken my pace and left the office around 2.30pm with a complimentary ride from the Easter Bunny. Zoooom! As I sat at the waiting area, a storm headed our way. It rained and the wind was strong, even under the shades, us anxious passengers were getting wet by the minute. Finally the ferry arrived. I thought it was pouring over at Butterworth side, too but it was not. Instead I brought the rain over, trailing behind me right from behind. The newspaper the next day reads that many have said that the rain was an omen of the political tsunami set to hit Penang. *shrugs* I must say it’s a nice metaphor though.

The voting process itself was surprisingly easy. *blink blink* and I was done. I thought I might have missed something because it was just too fast. All that excitement for the last two weeks for something that lasted two minutes. -.-;;

Post-election
As the results were slowly finalised on Sunday, the oh so familiar conversation took place again.

Hiyashi: *click click type type*
Dad: Come home earlier tomorrow and Tuesday.
Hiyashi: *this time without looking up* Alright.

And this time, I did manage to leave office slightly earlier than usual. It was not that bad on Monday or Tuesday. Instead, it was Friday that turned out a wee bit frightening. Rumours of riot taking place, bus service on halt, people from the mainland side urging to return home. Wooot?? Should I leave like now??!!

Apparently my dad was dubious about it being such a biggy deal but to be on a safe side. *cough cough* Remember the old saying of "better be safe than sorry"? Well, I was urged to come home early today and no play play. Early means early, and so I left at 6.00pm.

For the first time I felt a tinge of fear and wariness as I walked alone amidst the crowd, up to the ferry terminal. This isn’t good I say, I hope things will eventually settle down and come to a close for this political crisis because I don’t want to go to work feeling that little thud at the heart now and then. Because this sure wasn’t what I was voting for. >__<

Note: Gah. Finally I got this done. Now I can blog all my randomness again. *phew*

The Uncle Ben Quote

You know the famous quote from Uncle Ben?

The "WITH GREAT POWER COMES GREAT RESPONSIBILITY" quote.

Well. Scratch that.

WITH GREAT POWER COMES GREAT RESPONSIBILITY

I say responsibility has nothing to do with power. It's more of a conscience thing. Blah. A trishaw rider carries "responsibility" as much as a bus driver, or even a pilot. Sure the bus carries more passengers, the plane is a costlier way to travel. Does that mean it's alright for the trishaw rider to make a bad turn and tumble over with his/her passenger? Oh dear. NO! That's just as bad. Not in the sense of the seriousness of damage but IT IS STILL DAMAGE!

I say don't look down upon what you do or what others do. YOU MATTER. Don't be fooled by the word responsibility. People tend to associate it with bad bad things. But responsibility is just as big in the play of success. Take pride in being responsible. Good or Bad. You should be glad you play a part in this world.

Hiyashi says:
"With every bit comes responsibility, however big, however small."

What say you, Uncle Ben?

Got myself a lovely toothy moment...

Aww...such a comforting sight.

Toothy Blue is the man.

Brushy Red is the woman.
Shining Yellow is lady.

And that's the thing about staying home with family. Sure mom is annoying with her constant nagging, sis is irritating for keep hogging the internet line, and dad... well he is the king of the house. ^^;; But at the end of the day, at least you'll not coming back to four walls, a computer and well, you.

I may live by my computer and the internet but I survive with family love. Okay okay. And I share my life with friends. No one gets left behind.

So there you go.

There's always someone there for you. Someone to care for you. Someone to nag you. Someone to annoy the hell out of you. But hey, it's the whole package.

One day. I might move out one day. Hmm... I probably will move out one day. But till that day comes, right now, at this moment, thank you for the everyday wonderful toothy moments like this.

ps: There's another member of the family, Sparkling Green but she was not available at the moment of the photoshoot. *snickers* But you are much loved.

Hiyashi's first fon-blogi

"Today I started my day good. One word. Caffeine. I must confess I'm not a coffee addict. Really. Am not. But I love coffee. To be more exact I love the bitter sweet taste of it. And mmm.. the aroma.

Sometimes I make coffee just to smell coffee. Too bad that rarely happens nowadays since my mornings are always hectic. An extra wink of sleep. An extra minute in deciding what to wear for the day. With that I'm grateful enough just to get some bread crumbs into my stomach before I have to go go go.

Too bad I now sleep one floor above the kitchen so the aroma never sips in anymore like it used to. Oh yes. I use to sleep next to the kitchen. In the old oliver twist days that probably sounded like torture. But it was a room with a window overlooking the kitchen and nothing more. So yes. Whenever I was in my little room, I was in my own little world away from the rest.

I don't sleep in the dark. And it's not that I can't. But a little night light is comforting when you close your eyes and get ready to venture into dreamland. With that little light you know it's here to welcome you back as you return after your wonderful trip and back to reality. Metaphorically it lights your ways back. Cheeesy. Right."
- 11 October 2007


I wrote this while I was on the ferry. With my phone. Yup. It's my way of "phone-blogging" or what I now shall term as fon-blogi.

On the ferry is the best time for me to lay my thoughts properly. A lot of times, thoughts like this overwhelms me while I'm on my way to work. I wish I can quickly put them down on paper, or in this modern era, directly into the notebook. And when all these are not with you, there is this trusty little gadget that is there for you. So fon-blogi!

Oh ya, these four sentimental paragraphs would have cost me 8 sms-es if I were to sent them. =)


Note: time of post has been edited for smooth reading and continuity between the two entries.

ヒヤシビープ第二の念際 おめでとう。

万歳! It's Hiyashibeeps 2nd anniversary! *claps*

This is Hiyashibeeps 90th post. It's a small amount to compare.

An average of one post per week. *blushes*

Wanted to aim for ONE HUNDRED posts but couldn't make it.

Anyway, get ready as Hiyashibeeps takes you down memory lane.

Here's when you should start playing some sentimental music before continuing. *snickers*

Hiyashibeeps is in fact not Hiyashi's first bloggie. In fact, blogging for Hiyashi was not something that happened only 2 years ago. It started back in high school. *nods* Almost five years back. Back then blogging was only known within the online community. "Blogosphere" was non-existant, neither was blogspot a hype.

I got into it because of my online friends, because of SLAM DUNK by Inoue Takehiko. To think a basketball manga was what got me tech-savvy back then compared to others. LOL. It was called Vinice's Realm and believed it or not, it is still alive in the world wide web. Hmmm... more like in a coma instead since it's barely functioning. Not gonna share the url with you guys now. Hahaha... you can try google it but I've tried just to make sure you don't get it that easily. =P

Back to Hiyashibeeps shall we.

Within 2 years, Hiyashibeeps have gone through numerous make-overs. From the first blogspot template -> customised templates -> personal templates -> free templates by others -> back to this current blogspot template again

Hiyashi's Beeping Hub version 1.0
Simple, plan and a typical blogspot template. Ah... and also the very first post. It was raining ice back then, remember?

Hiyashi's Beeping Hub version 2.0
Black with a personal touch. This and the current clean-cut layout are my favourites among all others. The only set back for this layout was it went bonkers with firefox. My sucky html skills gave me the limited privileged of editing it according to what I see in I.E. only. And for a memorable post, I shall introduce you something you have always known but probably just don't realised... "All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten"



Hiyashi's Beeping Hub version 3.0
aka Gong Xi Fa Cai version.
Most make-overs happened this year. Mainly cause I never found one layout I like as much as version 2.0. This seasonal layout obviously last for less a month and therefore the highlight during this short period was when my favourite celebrity cook made my day.

Hiyashi's Beeping Hub version 4.0
aka Isnaini wonderful free template.
Short, sweet and simply silly. It has to be this.

Hiyashi's Beeping Hub version 5.0
aka the emergency layout!
This probably lasted as long as Gong Xi Fa Cai's version. Version 4.0 went into E.R. when the hosted picture fell ill and showed a little plaster with a cross instead. It's a relief though when you have such nice post to brighten up simple website. ^_^

And that my dear friends are bits and pieces that made the Hiyashibeeps you see today. My little achievement in life that I can proudly share with others.

Thank you for making blogging so wonderful! *bows*

Quote of the Day

Why do americans when they wanna eat chinese food they say.. who's up for chinese? like they're gonna eat us. -Cubbie -

Hmm... why?

The day I met "The King" pt01

.

Two weekends ago (27 - 30 July 2007) I made my first trip to Kuala Lumpur since last year's convocation. The feeling was soooo strange. After a hurried lunch, my parents drop me at the bus "shop". ^^;;

Dad: It's like we're sending you back to MMU.
Me: I look like I'm going back to MMU.

And when I got on the bus and waved goodbye, I felt so sad. Not because of the departure. Come on, it's just a weekend. But I suddenly miss that feeling of coming back home after weeks and months away and then catching the bus back again to Uni. I couldn't believed how sentimental I got on the bus. *blushes*

But all that was just the beginning of a wonderful weekend...

Sleep over!
Hahaha... so cute! Never had we ever held a sleep over when we were students together in Uni but alas now, as working adults! *grins*
A peaceful night with glasses of red wine, packets of nachos and cheezels and of course a good "Chocolat" movie.
Thus, it was no surprise when we went out and bought bars and bars of chocolate the very next day. ^^;;

Sushi with friends is sooooo missed!
A movie was of course necessary.
Harry Potter does the trick in more ways than one.
And it was good food all the way. Yummy!

Then came Sunday.

The day I met "The King"......

tbc

.

When it comes to job...

I have a friend working in Singapore and if I'm not mistaken, I heard it's her third job. Not sure if it's true but I'm glad she finally found the right one. =)

I have a friend working in Singapore and he complains about the competitiveness, his incompetency and how the job is slowly eating him inside out, making him loose the confidence he had carried throughout university life. I felt the change in him and it was not a good change but as far as I know... he's still there. *swt*

I have a friend who finally decided to take that leap of faith and went down Singapore last week to try to get herself a job, a good job, the dream job. =)

But that's enough of Singapore.

I have a friend who finally call it quits last week after officially working for one year. Moved back to her hometown and now helps out in her family's business.

I have a friend who almost got herself a court case over contract issues regarding her job. Not too sure about the details but am just glad it's all fine now.

I have a friend who when first started working asked me this question, "how long do you plan to stay in the first company before moving to the next?". It has always been her intention to seek greener grass in Singapore. *urgh.. -.-;; what's with Singapore!" Ironically, after 7 months, she decided to give her fullest to her current job and now after settling down, the thought of venturing to our neighbouring country actually scares her a little.

I have a friend who works in a bank. I make fun of him by calling him a "loan shark" becomes its his job to get people to pay their debts to the bank. He's been depressed for awhile and sms me that he is thinking of resigning. What's his plan I asked. "Maybe I'll go back into animation." =)

I have a friend who currently stays at home, indulging in her own creation and passion. Better still, she's doing it with a grant in hand as well. Good for her! However, she shocked me a few days ago by being so sensible. "I think I rather save the money, buy myself a car and get myself a stable job."

Who else is there?

Oh ya and then there's me!

It's officially one year for me. Call me simple, call me easily content but don't call me not determined. I might not have any complains but it was a big bold move for me to go this path I now journey. To have a job offer waiting upon graduation yet I seek for something many would have thought was out of my league. I didn't exactly graduated with it as my forte. It was more of a passion. But that's the wonders of learning right? It's not fixed with a paper. And who would have thought... My first interview. My first job. And if you still insist on my feelings after a year of work? Hey it's a job with the usual ups and downs. Now tell me which job doesn't and I'll tell you... umm.... just how naive you are.

Hah... so says a more matured Hiyashi.
.

Life's a gamble...

... so I guess the same rules apply.

"You got to
know when to hold 'em,
know when to fold 'em,
know when to walk away
and know when to run.

You never count your money
when you're sitting at the table.
There'll be time enough for counting
when the dealing's done."

-Quoted from Kenny Roger's The Gambler song-

The Random Series pt02

It always amuses me when I see a shoe on the road.
While driving. While walking.
I’m puzzled.
Why is there a shoe on the road?
Then again, it could be an unfortunate motorist who had lost his or her shoe while on the road.
It could have drop out of the rubbish truck. *shrugs*
And after given much thought, I thought it was reasonable after all.
Then it happened!
I saw not one but two shoes on the road.
Yes! A pair of shoes on the road.
Can someone please enlighten me on this matter?
Did someone got kidnap?
Did they *ahem* got distracted in the middle of the night.
But that would make sense if there were two pairs of shoes.
I don’t understand.

Maybe someone decided to leave their mark in life…
… in their own weird and funny kind of way.