What is Christmas to you?

.....a time for giving
.....spending time with your family and loved ones

......time for partying

......time to reaquaint oneself with God

......time to reflect back on the year that has just gone by

To me, Christmas was never a very significant time of the year as I grew up a Buddhist. Also, growing up in Malaysia, where Chinese New Year and Hari Raya celebration are more felt than Christmas, well at least to me! However, this past few years since coming to the US and after knowing Chris, the meaning of Christmas has changed for me. For one, we have been putting up Christmas tree at our home the past 3 years and on Christmas day, out of nowhere, there would be presents under the Christmas tree for each one of us. Would it be any different this year? (Hint! Hint!) Haha.....another ritual that we do is to go to church on Christmas morning to attend masses. It's nice to see everyone in a Christmas mood, all dressed up in their best suits. Best of all is the Christmas carols that is sung. They sound a lot more familiar to me than the usual hymns.

This year Christmas will be different for me as I have the whole family here with me. When I said whole family, I meant the whole family.

We have dad, mum, sis, sis' friend, ah boy, Chris, me and Zoey. Normally, it's just the three of us. But this year, my parents have decided to forgo the warm and humid weather of Malaysia to be with us in this cold and windy winter.

I must admit that December is never the best time for me. I always feel the most depressed during this month because it's so cold that you feel like being in bed under the covers most of the time. Moreover, it gets dark early outside.

This year, I'm not going to complain about the cold weather or having to work during Christmas week. I'll just rejoice in the fact that my family is here with me and appreciate the time we have together. Family reunions like this are difficult to come by especially when we have all grown up and move away from home.

Merry Christmas everyone and may you all rejoice in everything you have and appreciate the people in your lives. Now, off to open my presents!

National Christmas Tree

What is the National Christmas Tree, one might ask. In the United States, a large tree near the White House is decorated as the National Christmas Tree. The grand illumination of the Christmas lights on the tree by the President of the United States early in the Christmas season is an annual televised event and a month-long festivities known as the Pageant of Peace. Nearby smaller trees and other decorations leading up to the National Christmas Tree are referred to as the Pathway to Peace. (source: Wikipedia)

The lighting of the National Christmas Tree is just one part of what has become a major event at the White House -- the Christmas Pageant of Peace first established in 1954). Activities include featured guest performers, strolling costumed entertainers, and more than 50 volunteer choirs, gospel groups, bell ringers, and cloggers providing live musical performances.

What once was a single Christmas tree, now includes a main tree with 56 smaller trees - one for each state, territory, and the District of Columbia -- lining the Pathway of Peace. (source: about.com)

On Dec 6th, President Bush and the First Lady led a countdown to the lighting of the National Christmas Tree to mark the beginning of this sharing season.
Hmmm....it's time to put up my own Christmas Tree too.

My own Thanksgiving Turkey!

I made my first own thanksgiving turkey this year. A friend of ours came from Ventura on thanksgiving evening planning to buy an already cooked turkey. Unfortunately, all the cooked turkeys have been sold out at Vons. What's up with that? I would think that they would have made more for last minute people like us.
Anyways....he bought a frozen 10 pound turkey instead. Initially, he had no idea that it took 3 to 4 days to thaw a turkey.
Well, I took the turkey and soak it in the sink to thaw it. It's suppose to take about 8 hours that way. We didn't get to cook the turkey until Saturday morning though. First, we brined the turkey overnight. Brining adds moisture and flavor to poultry and helps to keep it from drying out. Add 1 cup of salt and 1 cup of honey to 1 gallon of water. The honey is to counteract the flavor of the salt and to maintain the flavor of the turkey. I also added 5 pieces of bay leaves and a handful of black peppercorn. Boil the ingredients with the water and wait till it cool before soaking the turkey in. You do not want a half cook turkey. You need to find a huge enough pot or bucket to fit the entire turkey. We didn't have a huge enough bucket so we had to use one of the waste paper bin instead. Haha...of course, we cleaned it out first!
The next day, remove the turkey from the bucket and pat dry to remove the salt from the surface of the turkey. We put 5 to 6 stalk of rosemary and sage in the cavity. That was probably not enough as we did not taste much of the herbs in the turkey. Before you bake the turkey, put some oil on the surface of the turkey and wrap it with foil to maintain the juice. It also takes a shorter time to bake that way. Turn up the oven to 450F and bake for 2 hours or until the thickest part of the turkey registers 175F. If you did not cover the turkey with foil, set the oven to 325F and cook for 2 1/2 hours. And voila.....you have yourself a deliciously cooked turkey!
Now, for the gravy. Take the giblet, neck, heart and liver and chop them into small pieces. Stir-fry with onions, celery and carrots and a pinch of salt. Not too much salt coz' you will be taking the dripping from the turkey later and add it into the gravy. Next, pour water into the pan until it covers all of the ingredients. You can add chicken stock to add flavor. Let it simmer for about 45 minutes. Lastly, take the drippings from the turkey and add it to 2 tablespoons of flour. Mix thoroughly and pour into gravy to thicken it.
To summarise the whole process:

Brining

1 cup salt
1 cup honey
1 handful black peppercorn
1 TBS bay leaves

Turkey cavity

2 TBS rosemary
2 TBS sage

Turkey Gravy

1 medium onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
1 celery, chopped
1/4 tsp of salt
2 TBS flour

I think the turkey was quite successful on this first attempt. It was a little too salty for me but Chris said it was just right. Well....if he says it's good, it must be good coz' he doesn't always say so. Haha....Anyways...I hope you all had a great thanksgiving and a good turkey meal!
Oh, last but not least, I forgot to give credit to my friend, Carolyn for this great recipe. It was also her first attempt at making the turkey and it was also a success.

Zoey's World

Zoey Yong Zhiyi came into this world on August 23rd 2005. Her arrival was witnessed by papa, Chris and popo. The moment I set eyes on Zoey, I had tears in my eyes. Everyone commented that she had a lot of hair and the color is black as charcoal. Zoey is a very good baby that never cried much. From the moment she was born, she was very observant. When you carry her in your arms, she would look intensely at you, as if trying to memorise every line and curve on your face. She has this look of alertness in her. They say that all babies are the same but somehow, looking at your own is very different. You see the little details on her face and on her limbs. Zoey has my eyes, in my opinion (although most people say her eyes looks like her papas'). She has papas' nose, no doubt about that and her mouth, hmmm....looks kinda like my brother's. Haha....her chin looks like her paternal popo and her hair, I guess the blackness resembles mine although the texture is definetely much softer than mine. Her left fourth toe is kinda crooked. Hmmm...wonder what happened there during the formation. Anyhow...that's her trademark! OK....I'll not go into more details coz' she wouldn't like that next time when she grows up and everyone reads about her. Haha....yeah right, not like my blog has 10000 visitors or anyting close to that.
Anyways.....she has grown to be a very good girl, who likes to help mama and papa a lot doing household chores. Her favorite cartoon is Barney and she likes to sing and dance a lot.
To my little girl, thank you for making my life fulfilled.

Thanksgiving Turkey Recipe

Thanksgiving Day is a traditional North American holiday to give thanks after the harvesting season. It is celebrated on the fourth Thrusday of November in the United States and on the second Monday of October in Canada. It is a very significant holiday where families get together for a meal with turkeys and stuffing, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pies. Because of the large size of the US, families hardly meet up with each other but Thanksgiving is the time where everyone will make the effort to travel and meet up with the entire family.

For me, who grew up in Malaysia and never knew about Thanksgiving until I arrived here in the US, we would normally buy an already cooked turkey from Vons with some mashed potato and soup. And that's our thanksgiving dinner. However, for those who like the challenge of making your own turkey, this is a recipe that I found on the net. Good luck on the turkey!

Here's a little tip on thawing your turkey. The best way to thaw your turkey is in the refrigerator. Mind you, it takes about 3 days to thaw an average 16 lbs turkey in the refrigerator, so maybe you want to start thawing your turkey today!

If you forgot to put your turkey in the refrigerator to thaw, you can put the turkey in a sink filled with cold water. This will take 8 hours to thaw your turkey.

Roast Turkey with Herbal Rub

1 13-Pound WHOLE TURKEY fresh or thawed

1 Medium onion quartered

1 lemon quartered

1/4 Cup vegetable oil

1 Teaspoon dried thyme

1 Teaspoon dried tarragon

1 Tablespoon dried rosemary

1 Teaspoon salt

1/2 Teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 325.

Remove giblets and neck from turkey and reserve for broth.

Rinse turkey with cold running water and pat dry with paper towels. Place onion and lemon quarters in neck and body cavities.

In a small bowl, mix oil with herbs, salt and pepper. With your finger tips, gently loosen skin from the breast without pulling off the skin.

Place 1 tablespoon of herb mixture under skin; replace skin. Rub cavities and outside of turkey with remaining herb mixture.

Secure the neck skin to the back with skewers. Fold wings under back of turkey. Place legs in tucked position. May be prepared to this point, covered and refrigerated for several hours.

Place turkey, breast side up, on a rack in a large shallow (no more than 2-1/2 inches) deep roasting pan. Insert an oven-safe thermometer into the thickest part of the thigh, being careful it does not touch the bone.

Cover bird with a loose tent of foil. Roast turkey in a preheated 325 degree F. oven for about 2-1/2 hours. Remove foil and baste bird with pan juices. Continue to roast for about another hour until meat thermometer registers 180 degrees F. in the thigh.

Remove turkey from oven and allow to rest for 15-20 minutes before carving. Transfer to a large platter and serve with gravy.

Note: Yields 18 servings at 6 ounces per portion

Deadline due!

I've got a deadline due in two weeks for an assignment that I've been working for over a month. And guess what?? At today's meeting, my boss tells me that they are changing the specs. What does this mean for me? My one month worth of work goes down the drain and I have to redo the design again with two weeks left. Hmmm.....have you ever found yourself in this kind of situation before? What do you do?
First, I need to b**ch about it first. Once that's out of my system, then I can think clearly and start evaluating if the change in specs makes sense or if it's impossible to meet. Sometimes, as designers, you can't just take whatever management throws at you. If it's not possible to meet that specs based on the limitation of the technology or for whatever reasons, we must sound it to them.
Then, I would assess the amount of work involved and the required time to make those changes. If I find that I do need more time to implement the changes, then I'll need to talk to my boss to extend my deadline.
However, management should be pro-active in defining the specs early on and not just push designers to jump start on the design asap so we can rush for the deadline. Decisions on the specs and what kind of devices are we using for the design should all be defined early on in the project before we start designing. It is more efficient this way. Of course, along the way, there is always specs changes but at least they are not major ones. However, most of the time, we are always designing without the specs well-defined. It's all part of the process.
Anyways.....after all this b**ching about it, I realised that it's not much work after all, changing my design. Haha....the specs have been relaxed, which makes it easier for me and there are no major disruption. I'm still able to meet my 2 weeks deadline. Woohoo!

Make money fast and lose it fast too!

OK....workstation's down. Can't run my simulation. Yay....this gives me some time to blog. Hehe....the stock market these 2 weeks has been crazy. Can almost "tiu keng" (hang myself). Really, the stock market is not for the weak hearts. You must be able to take it when you see your "money" reduced by 10, then 20 over percent. And then close your eyes and pray that it will go back up again!
I have actually made quite a handsome profit the last month only to lose it all again last week. Still not very good at protecting my profits. Hmm....so what is the best way to battle out this low period?

DJIA for the month of Oct 2007

The most important thing in investing in stock market is you must have reserves. It's similar to having savings so that on rainy days, you can use this savings until the storm is over. It's a common mistake for most inexperience investors (like yours truly) to not have reserves. In stock market terms, reserves means you must have cash at hand. Do not put all your cash into stocks, so that at bad times like this, you can use those cash to buy in at much lower prices. However, if you have used up all your reserves (meaning lock them all into stocks), then when the stock market goes down, the value of your stock will definitely go down with it but you do not have money to buy back the stocks at cheaper price. Make sense? That is assuming that you are holding on to your stocks and waiting for it to go up in value again. I think a 20% reserve of your total investment is a good practice. The only problem is small investors like us who don't even have much capital to start with, you want to fully maximise your profits by dumping all of your investments into stock. That's a very dangerous thing to do and I strongly urge those starting out to have good investing habits from the beginning and also the discipline if you want to play the stock market. If not, you would end up losing money only. Just assume you have 20% less cash to invest in the stock market. It's like putting 20% of your pay every month into 401k. You just have 20% less to spend.
Now, another method is you could sell a portion of your stocks first, say one third or half of the stocks that you are holding and then buy them back at a lower price. This is call stop loss. I think stop loss is another good practice to have. I am not very disciplined in this, I must say. Let's say you bought 10 stocks of ABC at $20 and if the stock price goes down by 10%, you want to sell half of it. Therefore, you put a "sell - stop limit" of 5 ABC shares at $18. That way, once the stock falls below $18, half of your stock would be sold ($18 x 5 = $90) and you can pick it up again at a lower price, say $15 ($90/$15 = 6 stocks). So, now I'm sure you can do the math. Initially, you had $200 worth of stock and 10 shares of ABC. At the end of it, you have $165 in stock and 11 shares. Compare this to if you just hold and did nothing. You would have ended up with $150 (10 shares x $15) and 10 shares of ABC. So, you can see the difference, you not only saved $15 ($165-$150) but you also purchased another extra share. Stop loss, if put to use can be very beneficial. Unfortunately, the difficult part is, you don't know when the market is going up or going down. There are signs and indicators that you can use to predict the trend, which I will elaborate more next time.
Now, you must be thinking, why should I take advise from a someone who's not even good at the game, who's losing money? Well, let me tell you this, you must lose first in order to win. When you know the pits and falls of the game, you will know not to thread on it again and then that's when you start winning! In everything we do, it's the same principle. You have to fail in order to succeed. It's part of the stepping stone to success. Of course, when you lose, don't lose all of your money la. Start out small, take it as if you are paying tuition fee to learn the tricks of the game. Good luck to you all! Back to my deflated portfolio. Boohoo... :-(

~~~~Look at market fluctuations as your friend rather than your enemy; profit from folly rather than participate in it. - Warren Buffet ~~~~

Peer Pressure - An Illusion?

How many people succumb to peer pressure? The peer pressure that I am referring to here is work peer pressure. I used to succumb to peer pressure and then I've learnt how to deal with it. I used to work in a start-up company where most of my co-workers would work until wee hours in the morning. Yes, that's like over 12 hours a day. That's crazy. Well, I didn't thought so at that time. It was my first job and I thought that's how working life is. So, I did the same. However, after about 6 months of doing that, I got really tired of it coz' I realised that these people are just staying back just because everyone else is doing so. If you were to leave early, you would look bad. I really didn't like that idea and wanted to break away from it. However, it's difficult because of this thing called peer pressure. If you were to leave at 7pm when everyone else is just starting to have dinner and are going to slog on for another few hours after that, you would be deemed lazy, not putting in the hours like everyone else and worst of all, when your boss goes around and find everyone else still working and your chair is empty.
I've come to realise that the technical world is slightly different from the service world, by which, in the service world, once you have closed for the day, there are no more customers to serve and your work for the day is done. However, if you are involved in design work, the work is endless. You can go on optimising until the cow comes home and still find there's still other things to improve on or to work on. Bearing this in mind, we must know when to call it quit for the day. If not, you can just go on and on and on....forever. That was my first realisation and I've learnt to "know when to quit" (for the day, that is).
Next, I've learnt that when my boss pressure me, I would evaluate the urgency of the task he's pressurising me for. I do that by finding out who is the one actually asking for this result and the reason for requesting the results. When you know the real situation what is going on, you yourself can evaluate how urgent is the task and if it can wait till tomorrow. Normally, when bosses are under pressure, be it from their own boss or from customer, they tend to push the pressure on to their subordinate and make it sound as if it's the end of the world if you do not produce those results right NOW! And we as subordinate do feel the pressure and the stress when it's passed on. I've learnt to deal with this pressure and normally I do not succumb to them. For instance, if we had a meeting at 4pm that day and he's pushing me for the results. I would evaluate how urgent it is and would not stay past 5pm to get those results if I think it can wait. Hey....I have to drive through an one hour of traffic to get home and pick up my daughter by 6pm and make dinner. So, sometimes, in life, you just have to prioritise and to me nothing is more important than family.
So, peer pressure or pressure from bosses, are actually not an external factor. It is an internal factor. It's not really peer pressure but you yourself pressurising yourself. Nobody can make you do something that you do not want to. Think about it. And the next time when you have to leave while your co-workers are still laboring away, don't feel bad. As long as you meet your deadlines, the peer pressure thing is just your own illusion.

Tong Hua

Tong Hua (Wang Guang Liang)
Wang le you duo jiu

Zai mei ting dao ni

Dui wo shuo ni zui ai de gu shi

Wo xiang le hen jiu

Wo kai shi huang le

Shi bu shi wo you zuo cuo le shen me

Ni ku zhe dui wo shuo

Tong hua li dou shi pian ren de

Wo bu ke neng shi ni de wang zi

Ye xu ni bu hui dong

Cong ni shuo ai wo yi hou

Wo de tian kong xing xing dou liang le

Wo yuan (yao) (hui) bian cheng tong hua li

Ni ai de na ge tian shi

Zhang kai shuang shou

Bian cheng chi bang shou hu ni

Ni yao xiang xin

Xiang xin wo men hui xiang tong hua gu shi li

Xing fu he kuai le shi jie ju

Yi qi xie wo men de jie ju

童話 (王光良)
忘了有多久 再沒聽到你

對我說你最愛的故事

我想了很久 我開始慌了

是不是我又做錯了甚麼

你哭著對我說 童話裡都是騙人的

我不可能是你的王子 也許你不會懂

從你說愛我以後 我的天空星星都亮了

我願 (要) (會) 變成童話裡

你愛的那個天使 張開雙手 變成翅膀守護你

你要相信 相信我們會像童話故事裡

幸福和快樂是結局

一起寫我們的結局

Fairytale (Michael Wong)
I've forgotton how long

I haven't heard you

Tell your favorite story to me

I've thought so long,

I'm starting to be confused

Is it because I did something wrong again?

Crying, you tell me-- fairytales are all lies

I couldn't possibly be your prince

Maybe you don't understand: ever since you said you loved me

The stars in my sky all lit up

I'm willing to (want to) (will) become

The angel you love in that fairytale

Open my two hands, they'll become wings to protect you

You must believe, believe we are like that fairytale story

We'll live happily ever after

* We'll write our "ever after" together*

Halloween Witch Creek Fire

The just concluded Bruin Open last weekend was my last tournament, at least for a while. I didn't win any medal in the women doubles category. However, thanks to my superman mix doubles partner, Dennis, we managed to get a 2nd place in C mixed doubles. I practically just had to serve and net and he did the rest of the running around. And that was a lot of running around! Haha....
Anyways....Chris had an interesting outing this time partnering Saroja. He was slow to start but picked up his form the second day. Although they almost won the consolation final, they can pat themself on the back for the good fight. Most of their games went to rubber sets.
All in all, it was an interesting week last week. It started off with a big bang! Fire storm raging across San Diego on Monday morning when most people were still in their slumber. I woke up at 5 in the morning and because we did not have a television set, I checked the internet and listen to the radio for the latest news on the fire. The night before, my gut feeling told me that we had to evacuate in the morning, judging from the wind direction and also the speed at which it was blowing at over 50mph. It already started burning up in Ramona which is northeast from our area. I was looking outside to see if any of my neighbours are evacuating. I saw some packing up their stuff and loading into the car but I was still not convinced that we had to evacuate until at 6am, the mayor of San Diego, Jerry Sanders came on the radio and ordered an evacuation for area north of I56 and west of I15. I told Chris to start packing and he was still kind of blur.
As we were leaving in our car, we noticed that most of our neighbors have already left as there were very few cars left in the parking lot. It seems that earlier, a police car announced over the loudspeaker to evacuate. Those living alongside the main road could hear the announcement but for us, who are living in the center of the compound did not hear it. Moreover, we did not have a house phone and therefore, did not receive a reverse-911 call. For those who do not have a land line, you can register your cell phone for "Reverse-911" notification system here http://www.sdcounty.ca.gov/oes/ready/.
Before we drove off, we dropped by our neighbor, Kwan che's house to see if she needed a ride. Her husband was there and they had a car. However, they were not leaving yet. They said that the fire is still quite a ways and they didn't find the urge to leave yet. Well.....we left them our cell number to call us if anything and we left, wondering if this will be the last time we see our apartment. I must admit that I did not pack with the mentality that I will not be able to see my house again but sometimes, life is very unpredictable and we never know what can happen. The fire did braze through our neighborhood, barely missing our house. Thanks to the change in wind direction heading west that the fire missed our place.
I had a one week off from work due to the fire and it was nice to be able to spend it with my family. We stayed at our friend's place for a few nights before returning to our home. The support from volunteers and fire relief center was tremendous and overwhelming. It is nice to see that in times of tragedy, people live up to the occasion and put others above themselves.

Positive Thoughts

The mind is a very important thing. What it thinketh, it will do. Thoughts equal actions. But what is the driving force behind out thoughts? It’s emotions. Thoughts are equivalent to a car. You need a physical car to drive. However, emotions are the driver. The driver decides the course in which the car goes. In other words, emotions drive our thoughts in a certain direction. There exist two forms of emotions, negative and positive. Needless to say, positive emotions drive us positively and negative emotions drive us negatively. Therefore, it is very important for us to maintain our emotions positively by always saying positive things, by doing positive things and having positive emotions like love and faith in oneself.
Positive emotions drive you to great heights. However, unfortunately, negative emotions drive you deep into the gutter. So deep, that it is very difficult to come out of it and so deep that it blinds you from reality. You cannot tell what is real and what is not because you are only clouded by negative emotions and therefore, you only see negative things. For eg, in a relationship, “He doesn’t love me anymore.”
It is natural for us to be driven by our negative emotions rather than our positive emotions because take a look around us….negativity is emphasized rather than positivity. For eg, in the news, which we read everyday (and this is a very strong influence on our mind and emotions). The news only report negative news and rarely good news. It is already driven into our mind all these negativity. When we were growing up, parents always tell their kids, “Don’t do this. Don’t do that.” “You cannot stay up late. You cannot go out with your friends.” “Don’t” and “cannot” are all negative words. It has been instill in us as we were growing up and all around us. In order to break out of this negativity, we have to retrain our emotions and mind to think positively, to feel positively. Yup…you wouldn’t believe it but you have to train your mind to be positive. Some ppl who grew up in a positive environment needs less training while others who are brought up in the negative environment need to work at it even more.But the most important thing, first of all, is to realize it and be aware of it. The biggest stepping stone is to realize and to accept it and then only can you work towards changing your mind from negative to positive.

~~~~If you think you can or cannot accomplish a task, you will be correct in either case - Henry Ford~~~~

Bruin Open

Bruin Open is a badminton tournament organised by UCLA. It is held every year in the last week of October. So, what is Bruin Open to me? I am an avid badminton player....maybe avid is not the right word. I am actually a competitive badminton player (only at club level) who participates in quite a number of tournaments around the state of CA in a year.

Bruin Open marks the beginning of a great partnership that was formed 2 years ago with my badminton women doubles partner, Saroja. It was just 2 months after I gave birth to Zoey and Saroja approached me for the first time to see if I was interested in taking part in this tournament. This is not my first tournament as I have already taken part in a few with Chris, playing mixed doubles but it is my first women doubles tournament. I have always preferred to play womens' doubles as I felt that in mixed doubles, usually, the guy will dictate the game and I preferred to play a more active role in contributing to the game. Therefore, without thinking too much of my fitness or rather lack of fitness and preparation for this tournament, I said "yes" to Saroja. The rest, like we say....is history.

We never expected our first tournament to be such a success. We actually came back with a medal, 2nd place in the D category. Okla....although it's the lowest category but hey, you have to start somewhere right? Hehe.....moreover, I have not lifted the racket for 9 months and am much overweight and not able to move very well around the court. Despite all that, thankfully, my partner made up for all of my "temporary" disability with her lightning fast movement and good defense. I remembered in between the matches, I had to pump milk as I was still breastfeeding Zoey! Haha.....thinking back on this makes me smile! That's because when friends ask me what is that I'm carrying, I'll sheepily say, "It's a pump!" Well, you know la, Asians are still quite embarassed talking about these things.

Anyways......this is the list of tournaments that we won up to date!

Year 2005

Bruin Open - 2nd place in DWD

Year 2006

SunGod - 1st place in DWD and semi-finals in CWD

We missed out on the Dave Freeman tournament as I had to go back to Malaysia.

CalState Games - semifinals for CWD. We had a walkover as I twisted my ankle in the quarter final match but hey, we still won the match with us playing the mixed formation.

Bruin Open - didn't win any medal here. Didn't play too well in this tournament.

Bay Area Open Fall - 1st place DWD and Semifinals for CWD. Yeah, we actually flew up to San Jose to play this tournament.

Year 2007

Bay Area Open Spring - 1st place CWD and Consolation BWD. This was a pretty successfult outing as in the BWD, we beat some of the players that we thought were better than us! Quite a confident booster!

UC Davis Open - 2nd place CWD and quarter final in BWD. This was a good outing too coz' we had really tough matches and we won it mostly in 3 sets. And the highlight was in the semifinal match where we lost the first set and we were down 10-17 and we made a comback and win the 2nd and 3rd set. Another confident booster! Oh, did I mentioned that we had to play against each other in the singles cateogry at the semifinal stage? Yup....it was so weird!

CalState - 2nd place BWD and 1st/2nd CWD. NO twisted ankle this time!

SGVBC Open - 1st place DWD. This was the first tournament that we won prize money. $50 and an Armotec 250 racket each! Wow....we're on our way to being a professional player.

Bruin Open - which will be held in 3 weeks time. Probably our last tourney for quite some time. I'll let you know about the outcome next time.

That summarizes our 2 years of partnership. I must say, we are one of the few successful partnership, as far as our club is concern. We learn from each other and keep improving and the best part is we have the same philosophy, that is to "Have fun" while competing but at the same time, strong determination to win every match! We adopt the "never say die attitude" and another strong point of our partnership, is we both are very strong mentally and that is very important in competitive sports!

So, here's to 2 years of great partnership and more medals to come!

~~~~It's not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog. -Archie Griffen~~~~

Off day or is it Day off?

I took a half day off today and spent time at home with my family. It was a much well-spent time compared to sitting in front of the computer at work running simulation. So, what was my day like? Days like this doesn't come very often and you really have to take the time and appreciate it. First, we went to Jack in the Box to have something to eat. Zoey was getting frantic as she was hungry and so was I. It was nice to just be able to sit down and chat a little while spending time with the family. Sometimes, people are so busy in their working life that they do not realise that time just pass them by in a wink. Lately, I had more time to sit back and appreciate the events happening around me and also the people around me.

We came back home after that and I started doing some of my profit lance thingy. I find it so overwhelming because there were just too much information and I don't know where to start. Yup.....we're trying to get into internet marketing and I've committed myself to writing this blog every other day as a start. I think this is a good way to start and from there, I will start to improve and promote my blog.

And what am I doing now? I'm sitting by the computer table and Zoey is sitting next to me, watching Barney. This is a mental picture that I must take note and remind myself often because this is what I am working towards. Being able to work at home and spend time with Zoey and not missed out on her growing up. Boy....they do grow up really fast. She's already 2 and this is the time she needs a lot of interaction and learning how to speak. For people who wants the freedom to work from home and spend time at home, I think this is the way to go.

Internet marketing is just about selling information. Most people, and I was one of them had the misconception that you need to have a product to do internet marketing. Not true! All you need is a computer and the ability to write or type. That is all you need to start of with. Of course, once you have written quite a few posts, you can then promote your site so that others would come to your site. So you must be asking, how do you earn money from this? You need to add in advertistment using Adsense and when visitors to your site clicks on these ads, you get paid. It's as simple as that.

So, today all of you bear witness to my pledge that I will work on my blog and my ultimate goal is to be able to work from home, eventually. Wish me luck!

~~~~Whatsoever the mind can conceive and believe ... it can achieve. -- Napoleon Hill~~~~

The First One....

Welcome to my first blog. I know...it took me a long time to start one. The most difficult part was to come up with a name for my blog. Where did I come up with this name? Well....I uesd to chit chat a lot on icq and I really enjoyed those sessions. However, these days, I hardly have time to chat anymore, although as most of my friends would know, I am quite a chitty chatty person.
I am one who likes to hear the sound of people chatting and laughing or giggling away. It brings a smile to my face. You don't get to hear much of these sounds anymore these days.....people are so serious, esp at my work place where it's really quiet, so dead.
Anyways.....I would like to introduce you to someone....one of the love of my life....and she's never short of laughing and giggling!



Little Zoey