Interesting Way to Look at The Past

http://waybackmachine.org/

"The Internet Archive's Wayback Machine puts the history of the World Wide Web at your fingertips. The archive contains 56 billion captures of over 10 billion web pages from as far back as 1996"

How true?

"ask most people what they want out of life and the answer is simple, to be happy, maybe its this expectation, though, the wanting to be happy, that just keeps us from ever getting there" Grey's Anatomy

I'll Try Anything Once

"Ten decisions shape your life, you'll be aware of 5 about..."

"There is a time when we all fail,
some people take it pretty well,
some take it all out on themselves,
some they just take it out on friends"

"oh everybody plays the game,
and if you don't you're called insane" I'll Try Anything Once, The Strokes

Simple Pleasures

"I am sitting in a hard-seat carriage with a hundred strangers, swaying from side to side as the train clatters along. It feels nice. My nerves begin to calm. I don't want to read, or speak, or move, or think... live your own life... sky beyond the sky... empty, everything is empty..." Red Dust, Ma jian.

Following Footsteps

Red Dust by Ma Jian - a Chinese painter cum photographer, is a journal of his experience traveling around china, during it's trying time under Mr Deng Xiao Ping, who was clamping down on "Spiritual Pollution". From Bei Jing, to Mongolia, to Xi'an, Shang Hai, to Tibet, Guang Zhou...

Then came Matt Gross, the Frugal Traveler of Nytimes, who followed the lead of Patrick Leigh Fermor, departing on a "frugal europe, on foot" journey, from Vienna to Budapest, a 180-mile route, tracking part of Patricks trail 70 over years ago.

While reading Ma's 3 years of exceptional experience has been keeping me off my chair, a whole world of reality has been gravitating me back on to it. difference? Matt writes about his travel experience for a living, while I sit in a office cubicle.

Who would pay me for my experience? I promise I'd tell a hell of a story (ies).

Thalassaemia

I recently went for a full body check up, surprised that I have high cholesterol, even more surprised to find that I have Thalassemia, a inherited autosomal recessive blood disease, from dad no doubt.

Thalassemia will not affect my life or my life span in anyway, however, if my spouse is also suffering from the same disease, my child might not live pass 10 years old. if she does not have it, my child will have a 50% chance of inheriting it, like me my dad.

it was shocking when the doc told me "your child might not live pass 10 years old", but in some ways its soothing, too, to find that I inherited something from dad, good or bad, I retained a certain part of dad, and I feel closer to him, even though he is no longer around.

Transition into a photo blog?

Was out on a random Sunday afternoon with my brother's camera...went to this park call Fort Canning, attempting to convince myself its worth it to buy a DSLR (which I did eventually, and lovin' it!)

More will come (the next time photos from my own camera)!

The Birthday Getaway

It was one year ago, exactly one year ago since I last traveled, to Bangkok. 

I went back again, on the second week of April this year, to the place where the people love their king and nation so much they'd come to a complete halt and stand still as the national anthem played on the loud speaker, in a crowded weekend market, without supervision. It was an amazing scene, where all bargaining, chattering, eating, water fights would cease, like hitting a pause button on a recorded video, and as the anthem finishes, everything came back to live. 

 

Going back this time didn't bring back memories from my previous trip. I didn't go alone this time, though with the same backpack, I had together with me, 2 colleagues, with their humongous appetite to shop and eat, mainly shop. Thus, gave me a completely different perspective of the city. Suddenly Bangkok wasn't this alien place with thick cultural background, its this city with loads of malls packed in it, and we were gonna roam it all. 

Of course that didn't happen. It almost always does not go my way.

If you've been reading the news, 13th April of 09, the newscaster on Al Jazeera read the latest on the riot happening in Bangkok, quote "The most dangerous city in the world now", while we were getting ready to leave our hotel for a huge water fight party at one of the biggest club in town, in which 13th of April happens to be my birthday. Me being me, we went out anyway, and happy to report that we had an amazing time at the club, so amazing we went back again the next night, to the club as huge beside it, cept this time, we had a VIP seating (dance space), coz 1 of my friend in Bangkok actually owns the place. Pretty sweet.

A riot lead by Thaksin supportors broke out on the Sunday before, while we were happily shopping in Chatuchak, trying to bargain for a pair of pants which already cost next to nothing. it went so bad the PM annouced state of emergency in Bangkok. What a time to be there huh?

To sum it all up, riot sucks, but Bangkok rocks!

Hip Flask

The coolest gift yet.