Valorous Halcyon

The first time I heard of this word was from junk food. I loved eating junk food when I was growing up. Mamee Noodles snack, Twisties, Mi-mi, Doritos, Cheezels, Double Decker, Walkers, Lays and so on, you name it! I have probably tried them all, if not most. Over time though, my concern for health started to develop although that was just back in college not very long ago (about 4 years ago). I came to a realisation that I was overweight, and being overweight is probably the last place I will put myself at these days. The story of how I managed to turn over my entire lifestyle from being overweight into where I am today shall be left for another day. Although being overweight was not entirely due to junk food and (junk) soft drink, but also coupled by lack of exercising and messed up lifestyle, junk food and junk drink (soft drink in this case) definitely contributed a huge portion of the factors. That was when I chose temporary short term gratification over long term benefits and ...

This is the first part of a book I am currently reading (Seven Things That Steal Your Joy by Joyce Meyer) thanks to the recommendation given by my dear friend. As an author and one of the most recognised pastors, she did not grow up in a Christian family but rather like Oprah Winfrey, grew up in an abusive family. Expectantly she has gone through many sufferings and challenges, things that easily took away joy from her life. But over the years of experience, she has came out victoriously and can be joyful anywhere she goes, in whatever circumstances. How did she do that? Today I am going to review the first chapter of the book, on the first Joy Stealer. How often do you find yourself trying multiple attempts yet fail again and again? I did! Fortunately for me, it did not normally take me long to get the result I desired after second or third attempts. In the book, J. Meyer said that so often people rely on their own strengths, trying to change things around them and not relying on Go...

Hooorayyy!!! My exam is over, and let me tell you how I felt immediately after the exam. I felt happy ostensibly like many other friends, but honestly I felt really empty inside, for all in sudden I didn't know what to do after one whole month of nerding, burying myself with notes and past year papers. I actually felt so emo on the day after, thinking hard of what should I do. All in sudden, I thought of playing Texas Hold'Em Poker in Facebook. I bumped into playing poker a week before (just a day after my Economics Paper 4 exam), and I started to learn how to play. But the hard thing comes after learning. Learning how to play poker can be done in less than 10 minutes, but to master it takes a whole life! Just in case you don't know what is poker, poker is a card game that involves betting based on the two cards that you are holding distributed by dealer. You are required to put a blind (minimum stake) into a pot (if you decided to play that hand), and to call/raise/fold ...

Many people I know choose to work for a few months upon graduation from high school, whilst still waiting for SPM result to be released. Both my elder and younger sisters did, at least. Nevertheless I chose to stay at home for the next 5 months after SPM, remained oblivious towards what was going on around the society. According to my younger sister and cousin during the conversation yesterday after movie at 11.15pm while waiting for KTM train, they chose to come out and work after SPM, with little knowledge, just to gain experiences and to know how the society works! I wasn't feeling comfortable about this statement as I endorse the significance of knowledge so much more than purely experience with little knowledge. According to them, the society is NOT that simplistic as every working place is inevitably full with internal politics and stuffs. An undergraduate degree holder would be of disadvantage should he/she came out without any working experience. For no apparent reason, s...

Wooohooo A2 trial is OVER!!! I was so excited when the invigilator said 'Time's up!' yesterday upon finishing my Maths P4 (Mechanics)! Praise the Lord! I didn't have much time to update these 2 weeks cause I was too busy preparing for trial exams! Last week was the worst, with Economics Paper 4, Further Maths 1, and Further Maths 2 on consecutive days. So after 3 ridiculously stressful days of studying, time to camwhore myself! HAHAHA! Well quite unexpected from me, but it's my first time enjoying camwhoring so much! =p I think if you were my friend in my FB, you will be able to see... uh... suffer muahahaha! =p Despite having busy schedule, I still had time (especially when I was hopping on the bus from college to Casa or vice versa) to pick up a book. I've been reading 'The Quant' by Scott Patterson borrowed from the library 2 weeks back before trial started, temporarily stopped reading 'Fooled by Randomness' by Nassim Taleb for a while. ...

I didn't go to gym this week, nope not even once! =( Attributes to the public holidays on Monday and Tuesday, I was staying at home all the while. I couldn't go to gym as it is located in Summit Subang Jaya and I wasn't in Casa. But on Monday I went to Times Square to meet up with a friend  and unexpectedly met some other friends too! Aina just came back from Melbourne and is doing internship now with Security Commission (she's a Sime Darby scholar, though). Knew her back in June 2010 when I entered college and she already half way through her SAM programme. With Aina! =D  Pavillion's awesome CNY decoration of Dragon! Peace! =D  Again, nice decoration! =D  With Aina, Han Shen (center) and his friends! =) So the outing was really awesome! After one year of studying degree in Accounting and Finance in the University of Melbourne, Aina shared with me some of the thoughts she have on her study and this includes a fair bit of stock market. So far s...

Wooohooo I've recently picked up a new hobby - books collection. That's a bit crazy but it was sort of unintended one. Remember I've bought two new books a few days back at Kinokuniya, KLCC? My dad suddenly told me that Bank Negara book sales (40% off) at MPH bookstore is on now but is going to end soon at January 8. Since I've a list of trading or self-help books to be collected and read, I decided to give it a visit! As you might have predicted, I was strolling around the Finance/Investment section to find for some interesting books (to be collected =p). I've found 7 books that interest me, so I bought it! =p I realised that I might not be able to understand all these book if the contents get too technical, but I know that as time passes, I would be able to understand eventually upon consolidating my fundamentals in topics regarding investing and trading. Here is the list: 1) A Guide to Investing During Bull and Bear Markets (by Dr Othman Yong) 2) Essential ...

Hello people what's up! It's been a few days of chilling at the beach, enjoying the sea breeze like nobody else's business, in Kuala Terengganu! After 9 hours of travelling on the road, wooohooo finally I'm back at home! =p The infamous year 2012 is coming tomorrow! Yes it's tomorrow! Are you ready for it, to face the year full with devastating myths that the world is coming to an end, pushing human to the brick of extinction? The upcoming of the year 2012 tomorrow also literally means that today is the last day of 2011! What will you be doing on the last day of 2011, so that it could end the year perfectly, memorably? For me, I will probably just stay at home although I wish to go out somewhere and join the mass to count down, welcoming new year! =) Who says you can't stay at home and count down at home, with your dearest family? =)  New year resolutions, something seems to be outcast to me, suddenly struck me recently. I thought I should make a list of...

I've been having holidays for the past... 2 months? And I'm going back to school pretty soon, cause most of the A-Levels students have finished their A2 or AS, and that juniors are starting their classes again, on 25th November, just to resume their A2 syllabus. Thank God that I've finished the whole A2 syllabus, but yet I almost forget everything since my brain has been shutting down for the past few months. The only subjects that remain slightly fresh in my mind are Maths and Further Maths, due to the preparation for Cambridge interview and test. But that was more than a month ago! I hope I still know how to prove all the Calculus formulae (chain rule, product rule etc), for fun! =p What? Stop staring at me like I'm crazy or something for learning how to prove those! O.O I had to, cause I couldn't prove anti-derivative of 1/x is ln x, during my mock interview. I've learnt most of the proving's since then, but none of them was being asked during the ...