makumaro.net

Committed

Today I found myself being unable to sit still and concentrate at work. I still find myself to be a dreamer at times, and there are days I long to just ditch the desk job and do something where I get to interact with people and really make a contribution to their lives. Heh, this is a strange statement coming from me, because as little as a year ago, I’d happily sit in my little corner and just do the things that are required and expected of me, and no more.

I find that I’m more of a social creature than I give myself credit for. Seems like I want to make up for lost time in doing different things. I just feel like I wake up each day and mindlessly wander through my job at times. It has its challenges, but I’d like to be a bit more creative, to explore other avenues, than just churning out numbers and fixing numbers in reports for people.

I am still very keen on taking photography to another level. The skill set is still being improved sporadically, but what I’d really like is to expose myself to the commercial world of getting clients, taking the pictures, and everything else that’s associated with it? I look back to when I was a student and wonder why we had our minds so set on being engineers, doctors or accountants, when there’s so much more to offer through cooking, designing, writing and other art forms. We were exposed to so little back then. Heh, I just don’t want to hold onto the past.

I guess having the Internet has exposed me to different ways of perceiving life. My view of it has changed quite a bit, having gone through university, working in NYC and being independent, to coming home and having a whole new set of challenges in my current job. As a student, I wanted to be able to work and earn cash to spend on things that I wanted. Heh, the first few years I bought my cameras and computers, and now I’m contented that I have a sizable collection of stuff sitting in my room. It allowed me the opportunity to try different things and form an opinion on all of them. The flip side I realise is that I don’t need so many items, but if I consolidated them, I’d be happy to keep a couple of computers and be more productive with getting things done (at current count, I own 5 computers, although one is permanently used by Vyanne) as I just don’t have as much time as I used to for tinkering with different stuff.

I’m just having so many ideas and thoughts in my mind now and it’s hard to make them coherent when you are thinking at 100 miles per hour. Now, I’m just committing myself to doing things that have been sitting on my to do list for the past year and clearing them out before the end of next month. Just feeling inspired now, and need to keep the motivation up before I lose track of myself again.

We Just Like to Eat

One of those inspired dishes by Vyanne. It was a salmon pasta with creamy tomato sauce, with salmon roe and seaweed flakes sprinkled on top.

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This evening we decided to do some nasi lemak. It’s a relatively simple dish, and we took a shortcut with the sambal, using one from a jar. Stir fry some onions, garlic, add some calamari (it’s not quite sotong/squid, but similar enough) and you have a nice calamari sambal to go with the rice. Deep fried some peanuts and ikan bilis, chopped some cucumber, boiled a few eggs and there you have it nicely served on a plate.

Heh, Vyanne and I just like to try different kinds of food and I have a better appreciation for the various types of dishes that can be served and how different cultures can influence food. Being Chinese, one can devote an entire conversation on what to eat, and it’s a common thread that brings people together when they discuss about things.

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Was at the phone shop today to get a new mobile for Vyanne. Heh, as I sat there while the sales person processed the new phone for Vyanne, I heard a lot of banter going on around me. The salesperson was Indonesian, and the language is similar to Malay, so I picked up the conversation he had with other customers and his colleague easily. Then there was this other couple which I suppose are from China who spoke fluent Mandarin behind me, and again I was picking up the conversations that floated pass me.

It’s quite cool to know so many different languages, although I’m a better listener than I am a communicator as I don’t think my pronunciation of words or usage of grammar is quite accurate. Heh, it’s just an observation, nothing more.

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Had a long weekend, with me taking Friday off and just chilling. Heh, did quite a bit of stuff over the weekend, but it didn’t feel like a very productive one. Sort of stagnant in most areas now. Just need a change of scenery soon, and hopefully I’ll be inspired to step on the gas a little more to get things done.

Shrinking World

Been over at Ken’s place a lot these days, consuming cups of coffee made by CJ. Heh, he got a decent deal on a similar coffee machine which he couldn’t ship over when he moved from Auckland to Melbourne. Heh, would like to get one and start making proper coffee but I need to buy a more important item first, which is a new house! Then there’s all the other furniture and stuff that comes with it, so as much as I’d like to get one, would have to put it on hold first. Just so you know, a machine, grinder and accessories would set you back about AUD$3,200, and that does not include the free flow of beans and milk you need to purchase to make these cups of coffee. It’s just as terrible an indulgence as photography!

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Went back to the gym for the first time in a couple of months I think. Haven’t been going for my usual runs, so feeling a little sore here and there. Heh, it was a quick workout, but any stretching of the muscles brings the energy levels up.

Purchased this amazing cookbook from the US, but shipped from Malaysia. It was a few emails back and forth just trying to get the cheapest way for the book to reach my hands and as the author was travelling to Malaysia at the time, it was an opportunity for them to send it to me from there.

The book is called South East Asian Flavors by Robert Danhi, and is really a gem of a book, with detailed instructions on how to prepare Thai, Vietnamese and Malaysian hawker favourites. The author even took the photographs of the food himself, so there is a wealth of information to absorb. I grew up on a lot of these dishes, and even being able to replicate them would on a plate would make me happy. Heh, would like to prepare some of the recipes from scratch when I have time.

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Also bought a new keyboard for my Eee PC as one of the keys have shorted out and is not functioning. At first I wondered if it was a virus playing up on my netbook, but after booting into Ubuntu and finding the same problem, I knew that the keyboard was defective. I tried to clean the broken key in question but it didn’t work. Since I threw away the box and warranty card with it as I never expected to use it so the only option I had was to look on eBay to find a replacement keyboard. Fortunately they aren’t terribly expensive and I have one on its way from Hong Kong now. Heh, this purchase has got me Googling other stuff for my netbook and I’ve noted solid state drives are available for purchase as well. The Eee PC is great but the built in SSDs are slow, so there is a noticeable lag in launching apps or surfing the web in general. When the prices come down a little, I might purchase a replacement for my netbook to boost performance.

Heh, the world really is global now, when you can shop beyond that local store in the corner on a street near you.