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Society

The nail that sticks out gets hammered back in.

Western societies promote individualism. A person is to venture the world and stretch the boundaries to see how far s/he can go. I am I. I am important. By serving I, I will be actually serving society. If everyone serves I, then in the end everyone will be happy. You does not exist. We do not exist. Only I matters. And only the happiness of I is what counts.

In Asian societies, I does not exist. I had been butchered a long time ago. I was thrown down the well. Kids would run to that well and throw stones into it until I would bleed to death. I dared not to stand out. For standing out was considered taboo. We and Us thrived when I was down. Decisions made were done by We and Us. I got pushed to the corner. Silenced forever.

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The grass is browner on the other side

Need no elaborations here. I love what I have. I am content.

P90x

The P90x is one of the famous workout dvds out there. It's a 90 day workout schedule that promises to deliver results. Take a glimpse at the body transformation of this subject:



There are three body types that you can choose from the workout DVD. I chose the "lean" path instead of the "classic" or "double" alternatives.

Just now I tried the first session workout. And boy that workout knocked me dead. I felt like I was going to faint. So I had to stop the first workout session half way :(

Bummer. Anyways, I wasn't really prepared for the P90x yet. I just wanted to see how hard it was. Now that I know, I'll definitely prepare myself better next time before I work out. Like have water ready.

Ramadhan starts this Saturday. Actuarial exam is at the end of October. Start November, I will take my first day picture without my clothes on but not reveal them online. At day 90 I'll show my own transformation ;)

Reporting

So I ran four miles to the beach before playing volleyball for the "Volley and Thunder" team today. I didn't play that well. Not because I was tired of all the running beforehand, but because I haven't played volley in a while. The team members haven't played volley in quite some time too... and the results? Our team lost all six games today. It really wasn't that bad. Most of the games were close games. Just our execution didn't go as well as planned. I did manage to deliver one heck of a dangerously fast spike to one of our opposing teams. Sadly though, the enthusiasm of one point doesn't really win you games.

I'm back in my apartment now. Feeling not great but not terrible either after the game. Thank goodness the 500 days of summer original soundtrack was there in my mail box ;) As I am writing this entree, the songs are being copied into my iTunes. Now if only I didn't leave my ipod at work...

I received another letter in my mail box today. The letter looked pretty thick. Must be something important? It was. It was an invitation to Doug Duffy's wedding! This is my first time going to an American/Irish/Spanish wedding. I'm pretty psyched about this. Not only is this the first American/Irish/Spanish wedding that I'm going to, but this will be the first time I'll be going to a wedding inside a church. All those years of watching movies to see the bride and groom say "I do" and the Minister asking the audience "If there is anyone out there who believes that these two should not be joined in Holy Matrimony let him speak now forever hold their peace" moments are finally coming true.

By the way, Doug Duffy is one of Milliman's former employees. He studied accounting (big mistake), but he's extremely smart and was able to do all the actuarial stuff plus pass all of his CPA exams on his first try. It even seemed as if he really didn't study that much. But his dad is an FCAS, so I'm not shocked. Today, he's working as an accountant.

Norma, his bride to be is going to be a lawyer soon. She's been with Duffy for seven to eight years now. It makes me so happy to see couples who have been with each other for a long time getting married. Cause that's how it was for me and my wife.

My friend Dezerk told me that who you marry is exactly who you deserve. I totally agree with him. The Quran mentions something like this - "Good guys end up with good girls. And bad guys end up with bad girls." Duffy and Norma are good people. I wish them the very best for their upcoming wedding, and wish them better than the best for their future.

Fantasy football time!

This time I think my fantasy football team will pawn everyone else's team. Not only have I gave it a hard thought on who should be in my line up, I even created an excel spreadsheet to back my predictions. Of course, the excel model that I created isn't perfect yet. I need more data before I can run regressions. For that, I'll need more game weeks to complete the model.

For now though....

(500) days of summer

I just watched this movie an hour ago. Definitely one of the best movies this year. I don't normally recommend movies in my blog, but this one is an exception. Everyone should go see this.

Special

Some days are like every other day. Some days are bad. Some days are better than others. And some days are special. Those special days are remembered, and you wish you could relive them everyday.

I remember my special day. It took place exactly a year ago from today.

The day was special from every angle. Family members were there. Friends were there. Neighbours were there too. Most of the important people in my life were there. And they were there to celebrate me... and Shikin. Cause we were getting married on that day =)

Through the years of being apart. Through the distance. Through the time. All the hardships that we faced. Things can change in that long period. Perspectives can change. Attitudes can change. But one thing remained the same - I had her, and she had me.

Happy anniversary baby.

Your hubby ;)

Dumb people

When I was at my CAS 5 exam seminar, the speaker told us that there were two words that he didn't allow his daughter to say at home. One was "stupid". The other was "fair". The first was disallowed in his household for obvious reasons - insulting another person's lack of intelligence isn't nice. And the second word was disallowed because the speaker didn't want his daughter to have the illusion that things in life are fair. Because they aren't.

I want to elaborate on the first word for a sec.

I convince myself time and time again that there really aren't stupid people out there. "Maybe they are just lazy", I tell myself. "Maybe they don't care", I tell myself again. "Maybe they are underachieving", I tell myself again times two. But this time, MAYBE I should look hard at the reality of life and just accept that there are stupid people out there.

The bus that I take to work has a rear door that you have to push ever so gently on the bar in front of the door before it opens. Obviously if the bus driver hasn't allowed the bar to be pushed, the door will not open. If the bar is pushed without the bus driver's consent (a green light above the bar has to light up), a little alarm will sound off. And boy, that alarm is pretty annoying. Hearing it once worsens my day by a small margin. But hearing it multiple times???? Just! Ticks! Me! Off!!!

I want to destroy these "stupid" people.

How dumb can you get!? The light has to turn green before you press the bar! If you have worked in the city for months does your blood move too slow to your brain that something as simple as an illuminated light become too hard to comprehend? Look at the light. It blinks first. Then you press.

Even the Pavlov dog knows when to salivate. Bell rings. Then it salivates. But these people never learn. NEVER!

Ok, that's my hatred of the day. I'm going to store it away now. *Exhale

Teamwork

Teamwork