It's been awhile - ass buddies

 It's been awhile since I got back from States...

It's been awhile since I got kids...

It's been awhile since I bought a bigger place...a bigger car...to make space for the bigger things in life

It's been awhile since I tried doing some things for myself...like trying to write and pen out my thoughts, so many frequent thoughts as I drive or fly alone in the past few years.

From losing my uncle a few years ago, who was a close father figure to me, he always made it a point to teach me the finer things in life and never be afraid at work if you are right, hold your ground - things my own father was unable to relate or touch on. At his wake, I found out he was a mentor to many who are now high flyers in many big MNCs. Spoke to many and realised he touched many people's hearts and lives and everyone knew him as a generous person. This set a new perspective in my life.

No more chasing after the work goals, higher titles, no more chasing after a pay scale. Family should be above everything else especially in this pandemic...family and friends. The pandemic has definitely helped to define who's the most important to you- which friends and even which family member.

So after so many life events, I still never got out to set some time to reflect and write - reflect ; yes, write ; not so important. To put off as long as I can and hopefully old age will help erase some of these reflections.

Yet today, I felt a sudden sadness,... a sadness I realise that when someone close to you, been there for you, mean a lot to you suddenly feels sad - I can actually feel the pain and sadness too. Yes the joys of celebrating your friends' successes or accomplishments are typically easy, but when I realised brotherhood encompasses even the sad events... I guess this is life. To find our soul mates in life besides our spouses...I am thankful for having great brothers from another mother...I am fortunate to have so many friends whom I can count on, and equally, I hope I can be counted on as well. Like love between two person, it takes time to build the trust and understanding; brotherhood is also built over time gaining trust and understanding - so much so unspoken words are often the default mode and we feel the joys and pain without saying a word. Like how one buddy of mine likes to call our relationship - ass buddies, or butt cheeks separated by a shit crack. All the shit comes through, we still together.

Be thankful when you meet friends you can call ass buddies for life.

Saw this somewhere on Insta recently and thought it made so much sense now. My best buds have been with me since before I turn 18. Easily about 30yrs of crazy adventures together, before army, before adulthood, before realities set in. That way we know it is all true.

I wish my kids will be lucky enough to make such friendships in life - go find your ass buddies and make it last.

Hard Knocks

Been wanting to post for a long time, but never having the time or will to complete my thoughts which has been on my mind for a while now. Some days I just want to update on my current busy schedule, travelling a bit for work and home errands. If you follow my other blog, you probably know which countries I have been popping by; and possibly because of that, the blog is gaining traction and views.

Gift or Curse?

When I was younger, I wished I had super memory etching every formula there is in school. In the University courses I took, where open book is uncommon, the number of formula for one paper might sometimes exceed 30 and they go like this:

A simple one on Doping Concentration: C(z,t) = Q/sqrt(piDt)*exp[-(z/a)^2] where fixed dose Q= a/sqrt(pi)*c0, diffusion length a= 2* sqrt (Dt), where D = diffusivity of element and t = time, z is junction depth = a* sqrt [ln(Q/Nd*sqrt piDt) and Nd = phosphorus junction depth. This constitute to remembering one formula!

Yet some days you wish you do not remember things which agonises with every detail.

These 4 persons have the mental powers to remember every detail in their life like a VCR. A gift or curse? You decide.

Gone too soon

Farewell Michael. Your music and MTVs will always live in my heart, etched into my memories, and your lyrics often linger on my lips - Like A Comet Blazing 'Cross The Evening Sky...Gone Too Soon


Michael's brother Jermaine Jackson performed MJ's favorite song: "Smile."

Find no other MJ song more epitomical than this - Gone too soon

Born To Amuse, To Inspire, To Delight
Here One Day
Gone One Night

Dungeons and Dragons co-creator dies at 69

The co-creator of Dungeons and Dragons, the fantasy role-playing game which I used to play when I was a kid amongst my primary school buddies has died recently on 4th March Tuesday. Gary Gygax co-founded Dungeons & Dragons, a game for nerds of the 80s but millions played it. Gygax and the other co-founder Dave Arneson first developed the game in 1974. The game utilises medieval characters and mythical creatures with oddly shaped dice which I saved my lunch money to buy - eight-sided dices to twenty-sided ones!

What's not known is that the cultural significance of the game is that it is the recognized spiritual founder of every adventure-themed video game – and, by extension, many of the movies – around today. J.R.R. Tolkien imagined much of the fantasy universe, but it was Mr. Gygax who let players move in. The New York Times reports that he sold $1 billion in books and equipment. But despite such numbers, the game and gamers like me were pushed to the fringes of society, tainted by links to being an occult during my childhood even though D&D was roughly as satanic as an episode of Bewitched.

I've read a news article about his death and the kind of gamers which D&D attracted which probably is the reason on why I am in my current profession.

There's no denying Mr. Gygax's game drew a certain kind of person – most of the time, we preferred books to basketballs, and the only time you would see us running on the football field is if we were trying to get away from a linebacker who was trying to give us a wedgie.

We would grow up to be engineers, artists and maybe a journalist or two. But back then, the game gave us a safe harbor during the stormy passage from youth to adulthood. More accurately, the people we played with – on our parents' castoff dining room tables, with bags of chips and liters of soda almost crowding out the gaming materials – became both anchor and shelter.

Indeed the game gave us a safe harbor and a place for imagination.

Farewell Gary and thanks for the childhood of friendships and fantasies I've made.