the path out of comfort zone..

Last week, i was at a friend's birthday chalet at Aloha Loyang. A friend of her called and was asking for directions to her unit. This person, who was lost, wasnt too far away; she was just minutes away at the Reception office. Not being familiar she did not know the way, and my friend too had a hard time describing the way. In the end her boy ran there to bring her in.

Small incident, but it did made me think about it. Actually, if that girl tried to explore around and walk further from the reception, she would have found that the bungolows ran down in order, and thus definately found that unit without guidance. But she didnt.

Just like our daily life. We are given so many opportunities every day to make decisions, and several are never tried before options. Because they are unknown choices, just like that girl who was not familiar, we didnt venture into it. And who knows? It might not be as hard as we thought and we would have yield some benefits out of it. Or saved money or time. ...Just like going to new places/countries to tour or just take up a job offer.

The fact is because people normally do not go beyond their comfort zone. The reception area was the comfort zone to that girl, by exploring beyond there into the darkness (it was night) she would have hit regions of unknown and might get lost. Likewise, what we always do or what other had always done is the comfort zone -- it had been tried and tested. That new job offer might be hard; that financial investment have risk; that driving trip to malaysia might be dangerous.

But so what if that girl ventured and was still lost? She could have re-tracked and went back to that reception area to seek help again. Or simply called for help at where ever she had reached. At least she had taken the opportunity to try. However, similiarities end here and life is not so simple anymore. The job is bounded by contract, you do shit and be stuck for long period; The risk of that investment burnt a big and painful hole on your savings; the trip ended up on accident, injuries, or even robbed and mugged. That's why you cant say just try it.

So are we all going to play safe forever? No of course...we would try to see the risk level and measure the amount i can lose. And certainly that is based on the level of commitment/responsibility we have now. No wonder when my dad was young he tried everything; as a old married man he fears anything.

Or perhaps that why they say "ignorant is bliss"... the less you are aware of the risk the more you dare to try.. and who knows, some are lucky, and do yield something.

Unlucky ones? Learnt it from the hard way.


.

Is JX's msn dead?

Seen this sight always? Well... my MSN is not dead. Just that i really had not been online for a real long time. Guess i had been missing out alot on interacting with friends and stuff.

Sometimes i do really hope to be there, but whenever i'm online it's either awhile or at more uncommon timing... Or simply really not enough time...The last time i spent the entire night just surfing net and MSN-ing was NS days..

So via the net is this blog became the way to communicate? It's rather passive, in my opinion... Interaction is really welcome'd, do leave a msg on your thoughts on my posts/views if it's debate-able or simply if you like it (i do hope you like it!)

Hence... here's what been in my mind since my last post. Some are sensible, others are sense-less.


1) Handphone = no more headache liao.

My dear O2 PDA phone made me realise this... Buying a phone is like buying a car... Buy something popular like a Honda, its easy to sell it. Buy something infamous or rare, like some budget asian car, it's either it loses her value overnight, or dealer simply dont even want it.

Yup my phone belong to the latter. After almost 4months of usage, i gave up. It drank batteries for breakfast and dinner til the charger is my best companion; it sleeps and never wake up and left phone call coming in without records; and in the last days it rejects all my calls for me and tells me it's a "miss call"...til friends thought i hate them.

With people selling on Online auctions $300SGD, i was optimistic at first... Until i went to handphone/PDA shops, where they offered $150 highest without looking... others say "no". One even said "please dont sell to me?" ....seems like it's a nightmare to sell this second hand phone, which still fetch almost $600 brand new now at Sim Lim...

Singtel's trade-in price of $200 looked very attractive instead, and there it goes... And out came a Nokia N81 at a very "affordable" price after trade-in. Phew...

I'm back to Nokia then. Why do i need to make myself suffer with crappy sound, poor battery life, useless camera quality, bimbotic and unstable software? I might have lost the excellent Windows Mobile ability to add and customise software, but that was for me to customise the Empty OS to have functions, which were already there in a Symbian OS when in factory.

So lesson learnt: Dont jump into purchases next time simply because it is cheap @ IT fair.



And may my new Nokia last me for 3years.
.......no more line to sign contract in the family liao.


2) i'm in car magazine mailbox!

Only an inspiration at that moment, i wrote an e-mail into carma (singapore local car magazine) regarding some issues....and i got my mail published as the "mail of month". The joy of having the recogition is simply marvelous...

Hoping my ability can match my passion, and i can achieve more in future...

My mind ask... So is it realistic or just another "building-castle-in-the air" day dream? Only the future knows.


3) i want a non-basic basic calculator

...before the future reaches, let's handle the current problem now instead. As those local students in the UOL courses know, last year some one in london had banned everyone the use of scientific calculators...No, not those F-maths Graphic calculator, but our beloved scientific calculators that had seen us through O and A-levels ( Poly too for some people) Only basic calculators now.

No big deal you may ask, the basic "provision-shop uncle's" calculator should be ok. It might seem so, but no anymore when you lost the brackets and fraction key. Try one on any o-level maths paper and you get the idea.

Was doing management mathematics recently and me and my friend are going crazy. The sums are so long (data analysis of a 8x8 grid) with '+' & 'X' are everywhere. No brackets means doing them all individually and if one is wrong, there's no reverse key... you got to repeat the damn thing again. Fractions? Convert it yourself. And having happily using the calculator to find tan30 & cos60 for 6 years, it mean re-memorizing the tan cos sin table again. Arghh!

Hence, a new task is born. Weekend shopping now includes task of finding a basic calculator that have Brackets and Fraction keys....if it exist.

If it exist, i'll be getting the world down to buy it. Or even buy in bulk and sell it during Bazaar for a profit. Imagine how many lives will be spared. How many tears and sweat will be saved.

Or even get all the thousand over candidates to write a petition in to Sharp/Casio...for a customised Basic calculator with Brackets and Fractions. And it must have rubberised silent keys so not to annoy others at exam. Must have OFF key and Solar power too so it wont die on us during our once-in-a-lifetime (almost) exam. It must have all that allow us to calculate Basically efficiently and effortlessly...and still be called as a basic calculator.


If all else fails, then may I master the basic Aurora i have on hand now and....stop complaining.

The old but now defunct Sharp EL-546...miss it.

4) i want to drive to cameron

In new Nokia phones, there's Nokia Maps, which is actually Navigator for those phones with GPS. Even without GPS, it's still useful, coz it serve as a street directory with Petrol Kiosk ATMs etc locations stored and can even simulate a navigation of a route.

Having downloaded Malaysia and Singapore maps (FOC ^-^) into it, I was playing with it one lazy morning and realised....i'm fascinated with M'sia routes.
Perhaps it was influenced by thoughts of the possibilities of driving trips up north in future...that's something which i always been wanting to do, but unable right now.

First one should be to Genting. More than 350km, 4hours of driving. And that 22km route up mountain.
The last time i been up there was more than a decade ago. Hopeful the next time i'm there will be in car?

That should be a practise, cos the next one that always linger in my mind is Cameron Highlands.
More than 500km, 7+hours of driving, with 1+ hour just on going up the mountain
(around 50+ km according to nokia maps)

This type of journey is what good cars are engineered for....
....and for drivers to enjoy the journey and the destination... My sist was there (via coach) and is still in love with the perfect weather, sights and trekking.

Last one should be Penang i supposed? 600km away...and is really far. Browsed with button on the phone and found many interesting places within the island, including a Hotel which has the name "singapore hotel"... Worth a try.....when i'm really really seasoned.

But the major problem is, even Genting is not some where "i-say-today-i-go-tomorrow"... You will really either need huge Budget or huge Balls to go in a rental car. So that is reserved til I hold the keys to my very own set of wheels.

And i need a co-driver certainly too. Getting caught in a local jam for 2 hours kills me already, let alone a continuous 7hours one. Who will be that person? Anyone?


Nevertheless, all these shall only remains as part of my fanastication now. And imagination via Nokia maps.

When that day comes you will know....or perhaps, you? or you? or you?? ...might be driving with me?


.