[Personal] A career in Malaysia

If I stay, I would have countless opportunities to amass funds great enough to buy a national bank. If I leave, I would have a life.
---- 3point8 ----

Ever had the feeling that when something happens, it is always the closest ones that would receive the news last. When I had a crack in the cranium when I got my head bumped to the bedrock after being swept away by the strong sea current, it was always my direct family that would get the news well after all my friends knew about it. That is why I do not blog about my personal life because I know there are people reading this blog (including my Alaskan distant aunt).

But this post is an exception. This post is about my life biggest decision. Now in this present time, at this very moment, I have to choose between staying and making a living here in Australia, or return to my home country to Malaysia. [For those who had been following my blog and was wondering if I'm an aussie, I'm not. I'm a Malaysian.]

I've been contemplating this for a long time. Based on my observation and the things people say, there are only a few reasons to why I should make a living here in Australia:
1) Nice weather coupled with fresh air and clean water.
2) Better work rights. (No overtime, no Saturday and Sunday work life)
3) Salary here is reasonably well.
4) Socio-economy is well balanced. There isn't much of a gap between the rich and poor.
Indeed, Australia is the perfect place to be living in.

So, why choose to go back to Malaysia you might ask. I can only think of two reasons:
1) My family is there
2) I'm accustom to the Asian culture.
Even if I combine this two reasons, its not even good enough to outweigh of the first benefit to why I should stay in Australia (nice weather). Then again, I have a difficult time fitting in Austalia. I just want to be go to a place where I belong.

The real reason to why I want to go back to Malaysia is because I want to build my career in a place where I can fit in culturally - either in Malaysia, or Singapore. Though my background is in engineering but it would be ideal if I can get into management consulting or IT consulting because those are the fields that deemed interesting, challenging and its not as repetitive as other profession.

It was difficult for me to get into this job market in Australia because I do not have any relevant experience and Aussies value experience more than they value gold. If I go back to my home country, I just thought that I'd have an advantage considering I graduated from Australia's best engineering university, and that I have close to a year worth of oversea working experience.

Sometimes I still wonder if going back Malaysia is the right decision for me. This thought has been haunting me for a month considering I've already made a lot of bad decisions. I pissed away all my money and I chased off all my friends. I just hope that this decision is not another mistake that I'll regret 38 years down the road. I hope this is my U-turn, my chance to atone for the mistakes I've done.

As of now, I am a job seeker and my priority is to look for a career in Malaysia and Singapore. If you are a headhunter, here is my professional webpage [link] (a copy of my resume is included in that link). Or if you know a headhunter who is seeking for fresh talent, do forward my details to them. Mucho gracias.

Question: How would you advice a fresh graduate who is out in the real world looking to start a career?

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Unrelated Stuff: I know I'm self-advertising. But this is a good thing considering I mustered the courage to blog about my personal life (which is rare for me). Plus I want to leverage my existing power of social network and blogs.

Also, I believed in the concept of a 'mysterious blogger' and I stood to my conviction of not revealing my personal information for years. But today, I think I have revealed more of myself in this single post as compared to all my previous 380post combined.

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[Top Comment by SK]
here's a couple of more reason to come back to malaysia:
3) ur buddies are here (me! me! me!)
4) u can catch up with bloggers and attend blogger events
5) u have more freedom in terms of moving around since u most likely have a car (ok so traffic jam sucks, so wat? ur used to it having born and raised there)
6) u can still find food to eat and things during wee hours, and again u have a car to move around
7) i couldnt agree more with point 1,2,3 by Relax. the here are among the cheapest in the world, and luxury is way below wat it shld cost in other developed countries, and it's just started to pick up!

Most of all, if getting a lot of money and have career progression, u can do tat everywhere else, but wats the point of doing so if u werent enjoying life at the 1st place, right?

Half Cup v2

"Who is 3point8 and why does he want to know about my cup?"
---- 3point8 ----

Do you see the cup as half full or half empty? I once wrote an article about this [link]. A year later, I'm gonna revisit this subject today.

Often times, when this question is being asked, people can expect a reply that revolves around two personalities - either a pessimist or an optimist. As I grow wiser, I realised that there are more than that.

As of now, I came to realise that there are four types of people:
The blind who sees neither the cup nor the water.
The pessimist who sees the cup as half empty.
The optimist who sees the cup as half full.
The smart who sees the cup both half empty and half full.

Think about it, the blind has no idea what the hell is going on. We brand these people ignorant and ill-informed. When things happen to them, i doubt they'll even notice it.

The pessimist knew something was going on. As usual, only bad things happen them and when it does, they break down and ask: "Why me??? Why me??" "Curse you! Why'd you give me a billion dollars and then tax me a million?"

The optimist however rides the wind. Out of 100 events that happened in their life, each of them are a blessing. Cancer is the cure to all their disease, Bankruptcy is the answer to all their financial needs.

The smarts ones.... these are the slicky bastards. The take advantage of the pessimist, optimist and particularly the blind. They see more than just the cup and water. They see the blind, the optimist, the pessimist and other smart ones who are all staring at the cup.

All my life, there are times when I'm blind, there are times when I'm a pessimist and occasionally I'm fortunate to be an optimist. Among the four types of people, I want to be the smart one.

I haven't had the chance to be one yet, so I can't tell you how it feels to be one. But please do share your experience if you ever had the luck to meet such person. If they blogs, do intro their blog to me.

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[Top Comment by Jordan]
I used to be like you too, I see where you're coming from. Skipping in cliche introduction, straight to the point: The cup may be half full, half empty, fake, an illusion, made of glass, the prime attention or every other shit in the world, but the real matter being questioned here is our mind. Our mind is telling us the cup is there, and something needs to be heard by us from within. Our mind controls everything, just shut it off for a moment and suddenly the grass seems greener, the sky larger and the time slower. That's when we start living. It's not about the cup, it's about our mind controlling us.

Leaders with Suicidal Thoughts

"Why kill yourself? Life would do it for you"
---- Anonymous ----

Ever had a feeling that you are one lonely person? Though you have friends, you have families, but for some reason, you couldn't feel any connection with any of them.
It is a fact that every lonely soul out there have difficulties opening up their thoughts. They do seldom talk about their problems because there are 4 internal obstacles that needs to be dealt with:

[1st obstacle] I have so much problem that I need to talk to someone. [2nd obstacle] Problem is I have no one to talk to. I don't think anyone would be interested in talking to person with problems. [3rd obstacle] Besides, even if I have friend to talk to, I don't even what to say. Complaining about my life only makes me seem weak. [4th obstacle] There were times when I found someone who understands me, someone who I can share my problems with. Thing is, whenever I think of my problems, its nothing compared to poverty. it makes all my problems sound so trivial and I feel as they are not worthy enough to be shared.

Therefore, If these lonely people are sharing their woes with you, it means that:
1) They treat you as a friend, a friend who understands.
2) You make them feel at ease cause they feel comfortable sharing their thoughts with you.
3) Their problems are huge that has the potential to cause a significant amount of damage. [If its a minor problem, they wouldn't even share with you in the first place.]

I have a feeling that this type of thinking is a very dangerous one. It encourage self-destruction leading to suicidal thoughts mainly because of 2 reasons:
1) They lack attention
2) They bottle up problems until they burst.

On the other extreme end of looking at this way of thinking, it somehow strikes to me that these people are problem solvers. These people do not whine and complain, instead they do something about it. The only way to eliminate these problems are to solve them. And we all agree that all great leaders are problem solvers, yes?
Which brings me to this state of thinking based upon the reasoning above:
1) Great Leaders have more suicidal thoughts than normal people.
2) Leaders who has no problem winning the heart of people, have less friends than normal people.
3) People who resorted to suicides, are more likely to be a leader had they not pass away.

One more thing about leader, they fear nothing, not even death. So I suppose having multiple suicidal thoughts is an acceptable way of thinking to them.

Which bring us all to this question I've been itching to ask:
Would you allow someone who has a constant stream of multiple suicidal thoughts to lead your country?

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[Top Comment by SK]
Just my 2 cents...I think ppl harbour suicidal thoughts most likely due to the fact that they couldnt solve problems at hand and have to resort to suicide in the hope of ending all problems once and for all. On another note, if they were great problem solvers, they would have over the years gathered enormous amount of confidence of solving any problem that comes along. Therefore i think being a suicide-prone person and an excellent problem solver are 2 mutually exclusive events.

Statistical New Year Resolution

“Making resolutions is a cleansing ritual of self-assessment and repentance that demands personal honesty and, ultimately, reinforces humility. Breaking them is part of the cycle.”
---- Eric Zom ----

A New Year's resolution is something that goes in one Year and out the other. Many people look forward to the New Year for a new start on old habits.

In a way, new year resolutions are for fat people trying to get thin, for blonds trying to be smart. But if you are a believer of fate, we all know it ain't gonna happen. No matter how much you try, you won't achieve it. No matter how many resolution you set, you ain't gonna any of it unless Fate allows it. [So, here is one reason to why you shouldn't believe in fate]

Anyway, this is my blog, and its all about me. Reflecting back on my past year's resolution, I am starting to detect a pattern here:
2001: I will make connections with at least 10 world leaders.
2002: I will socialise with at least 8 local celebrity.
2003: I will befriend 5 popular kid in my area.
2004: I will make small talk to my next door neighbour.
2005: I will say hi to a cashier.
2006: I will make at least one random friend on facebook.
2007: I will talk to a stray cat.
2008: I will try and talk to myself.
2009: I will try and mumble a word.

I admit that I'm not very good at keeping resolutions. In fact, each of my resolution are easier to achieve than the previous year. I've lowered the bar for 8 continuous year and I couldn't even come close to achieving this year's resolution. Then again, do not be quick to judge as I have another 11 more months to go.
I've heard most people contemplate just on their last year's resolution and make a judgment on how well they did based on how many resolutions they achieved. I have yet to see anyone compiling their 10year resolution and talk about it. Think about it, if you compile your 10 year resolution, you might be able to see a pattern. With that pattern, you could roughly tell what are your inner most desire.

Have you ever compiled 10years worth of resolutions? If you see a repeating resolution, it means you know something isn't right.

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[Top Comment by AlphaWhale]
Every summer I resolve to make a new years resolution to cut down the tree outside my window so those crappy birds might not wake me up so abruptly every spring to fall morning. Sure I could cut it down in the summer, but it isn't on my property; and everyone knows that it's easiest to cut down a tree inconspicuously in winter when the neighbors are down south. Usually by New Years I forget: and now it's already too late this time around (they've returned). Past that, I've tried to gain weight. That hasn't worked either. Curse metabolic rates.

SunBurn

"My face burns. It burns so much that I can fry an egg in 38secs."

---- 3point8 ----

This morning when I woke up, my face hurts like hell. It is as if gasoline was burning on my face, the type of burn that gets worse when you pour water on it. There are red black spots all over my face. It was so bad that my roommate thought I was a zombie. He didn't say that out loud, but i know he had that thought judging from his initial reaction to swing a baseball bat towards my face.

That was how my new year went. You see, I stood directly under the hot sun from 11am till 6pm on new year's eve. Anyone would get burned if they were doing the same without sunscreen. Like a slithering snake, I am now shedding skin.

I would gladly post up a picture showing how badly burned I am, then again I wouldn't want to be accountable to the death of my readers. With just a glance, I'm sure anyone would suffer appetite loss for at least 38days. That is assuming all of them survived the initial continuous vomiting.

Speaking of sun burn, I was wondering: could you can get moon burn if you expose yourself to the moon for a long period of time? Ok, maybe moon burn sounds far fetched. But what about cancer? Can you get cancer by exposing yourself to the moon?

Think about about. Most skin cancer are due to overexposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun. Rays from the moon are a reflection from the sun, so I'm certain that there is a certain degree of UV from the moon. So, if you expose yourself under the moon long enough, can you get cancer?

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[Top Comment by Tekkaus]
Nah~People won't get cancer by exposing them to moon burn. Its intensity is not that strong enough right? But maybe they'll turn into a werewolf! That's why they are coming out with The Rise of Lycans: Underworld 3. Maybe these people were exposed to too much moon!

2 Reasons to Recap

At this time of the year, everyone has been doing their recap. I came across some interesting recap by bloggers.
Nicolekiss mentioned about her travels.
Curryegg talked about her introvert-self and her blogging fame
popjammerz stressed on the events she had been in.
Akiraceo made a list of bloggers he met.
minibites have her 12recaps each with different themes including relationship, career and food.

It seems like people reflect upon their life mostly at the end of the year (or the beginning of the year). I got curious, hence I'll attempt to reason why recaps are necessary.

[1] The way i see it, recaps are indications for people to judge themselves how well they did in their life, similiar to the concept of a performance review. This indication is particularly important to plan for future goals with the most notable example being new year resolution. It's like statistic, to plan ones future by using past data. [For instance, I've been conquering countries in 2008, I should consider conquering planets instead in 2009.] In short: Depending on how well one did, recaps are essential guidelines to plan for the future.

[2] Recaps serves as a compilation of notable experiences. The memories of a human are flawed. We can possibly remember every single event that happened in our life, thus recaps are useful to filter out unimportant events. The human is like a bookshelf capable only of storing a limited amount of books. Hence recaps are times when we organise our 'bookshelves', and decide which of these memories are worthy to be safeguarded.
I only managed to speculate 2 strong reason to why recaps are essential in a human's life: performance review and to safeguard important memories. Minor reasons include peer pressure and instinct.

If you are living in the year 2009 now, chances are that you have been through a period when you start to recap the things that you've done and the the things that have happened in 2008. Ever wonder why you did a recap?

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[Top Comment By i.r.v.i.n.e]
recap is good. People that think about their previous mistakes and dissatisfaction when New Year approaches. Time to be a better person! There is always a starting point.