|
GrooveBlender
|
read my profile
sign my guestbook
Name: Juz
Country: Australia
Metro: Melbourne
Gender: Male
Interests: I like string vibrations from a curvy wooden body, white woven tops and black split skirts on green tatami mats, "Tap, Snap or Nap" fighting, "Cuore Sportivo" cars, a barley and hops beverage, vanilla ice cream, food, and stuff that makes me smile, i guess.
I run the race, I fight the good fight. Not by might, not by power, but by the spirit of God.
Occupation: Engineering
Message: message meEmail: email me
Website: visit my website
Member Since:
12/10/2004
|
|
| And YOU thought this blog was dead! Damn right it was! Hahaha!  I’m just surprised Xanga didn’t like thrash it as it was dormant for like forever...but no complaints, cause at least I don’t have to re-register another one now! And why the resurrection?  (apart from the fact that you now stand better odds at winning 4D!!), it is for my friends to know that I am still roaming this 3rd rock somewhere plying my usual trade, and to share bits of my life in the year gone by and some exciting things to come! So let’s get down to it. How much mischief and glory have I been up to in 2006?  Well, they say the only constant is change, and 2006 has been full of them – planning, trials, abundance and blessings! As some of you may already know, I got engaged to Purdee in 2006 and we’re planning to tie the knot in July this year. 
As I write this, we have just moved out from Dorchester back to SS3 in preparation for our move to Melbourne. And how did it come to this you ask? For that my dear friends, we’ll have to rewind to the beginning!  Its been just over a year since Purdee came to KL to work, and for convenience, we had rented a place at the Dorchester, Plaza Damas. Small, cosy and a bit pricey comparatively, but well worth it, considering Purdee worked in Damas and myself in Damansara Heights. With my frequent traveling, the convenience and security of Plaza Damas, with restaurants, supermarket, shopping areas made it a perfect place for our year stay there. Honestly, it could not have been better, and the day we rolled our bags down the lift and out the carpark, you truly felt like you’ve closed a big chapter behind you.  But as always, it’s the start of another chapter waiting to be written! 2006 has also reminded me that material things do not a man make. While they help accentuate the outlook, what bears most once stripped away is by what means the material wealth was obtained, and more importantly once gone, what remains beneath, and will the person be able to reacquire it. Looking back at my career in Malaysia over the past 9 years, I earned a decent ringgit and bought all the stuff that I have always wanted to create ‘me’. Would letting go of some of these items really change who I am?  My favorite guitar was of course my PRS Custom 22. I wrote and recorded many of my songs on this guitar. It was tortoiseshell coloured, with a 10 grade maple top, mahogany back and neck, rosewood fingerboard, topped with mother or pearl bird inlays. Gorgeous to feast your eyes upon, and when mated with my all-tube Mesa Boogie amp, warm and soulful to the ears!  It was my room, studio and stage workhorse for years.  My prized set of wheels was my Bella, my red Italian 156. Owning it over the last 3 years, tuning her with different performance setups, and redlining her on a regular basis on ItaliaAuto.net club runs, made the ownership an absolute thrill! I always wondered why they said the Italian rides had soul. Test driving her 3 years ago, letting her rip and bouncing her off the rev limiter 7300rpm@100km/h in 2nd gear, I soon found out why. Not a whimper of complaint, but instead a proud musical roar from her twin spark engine note, I made the offer to buy her the next day. Her final honour under my ownership was in ribbons and bows for Jit Seng’s wedding! Damn proud man! When the new buyer came to test drive her, he too made the offer in under 24 hours. Damn yes, my bella has a soul!  But due to my move, these are some of the things I’ve had to let go. So buyers came, saw, tried, bargained and took them.  And each time you walk away, you just have to turn to sneak one last look, smile and nod to yourself knowing that they are things that made me who I am, that it was good while it lasted, and that the best is yet to come. You then finally understand that the part no one takes away from you is the knowledge, soul and character that you gained from these material ‘tools’. As you can probably already tell, music and cars are a big part of me. But even more so is martial arts! After 12 years on the Aikido mats, there is still much to learn and I continue to train. The highlight of the year was Takeno Sensei’s seminar. My second time training with him, although displaying more signs of physical aging, his technique is still ‘monstrously powerful’ as someone had once quoted. Hitting a plateau in my training last year, I decided for the first time to venture outside the Aikido mats for something else. Opting to develop my ground fighting game, I took up Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Yes, the same gay shite that put the Gracie’s on the world stage and launched the UFC! Putting on the humbling white belt again was extremely refreshing, and being able to train without pressure and learning new things EVERY week priceless! The academy where I train has got a great bunch of fighters that cross train and are brilliant technicians and teachers. As gay as the wrestling moves may be (hahaha!), the techniques and philosophy opened my eyes and inspired me to train intensively again. The benefits has also rolled across into my Aikido. I am glad that I have persevered on my budo journey all these years as unlike material belongings, my knowledge and skills stay with me wherever I go. To all the friends and teachers who have selflessly been with me thus far, thank you. Naturally I can’t sustain my hobbies without work! And as I always say, work is work. Covering an ASEAN role this year, I have traveled extensively in the region into all the nooks and crannies of industrial areas. The highlight was probably my trip to Freeport, a copper and gold mine located in the Indonesian side of Papua. Takes 2 days of traveling via air and land to reach the mine, located at 13,000ft above sea level at its peak. An unbelievable landscape, much like middle earth with greenery, waterfalls and cliffs everywhere. It is one of the few places on earth where glaciers can form near the equator. Ironically enough, the beauty is tainted (albeit within ‘acceptable’ environmental limits) by some major raping of the earth to attain the lucrative mineral deposits. Work also took me to Orlando, Florida for a global conference! My first foray to the land of the free (although I have transited there before), it was an interesting experience. The flight back via Sweden had difficulties so we also had the benefit to stay a night courtesy of MAS in Vienna, Austria! Short stops but I’ve always loved looking at the country landscapes out the window as the plane lands. You really have an appreciation how different the world is when you leave home. 
Naturally every year, you gotta go for holidays!! This year we kept it simple and headed up to Penang for some sun and food! Lotsa food!! We also headed up to Langkawi with Henry and Hal, and Cyn and Pete dropped by too. And Purdee did her girls tour of Taiwan! And for the first time in years, I stayed away from KL for New Years celebrations and scooted down to PD for a quiet R&R with friends.
2006 was also a year of weddings! Felix an old schoolmate who also knows Henry and whose sister also turns out to be Purdee’s childhood friend (confused yet?! Haha) tied the knot! Tzu Ming and Ee Ling did the Do too, and I am so so sorry that I missed your wedding guys! I unfortunately had to do an emergency work trip to Bangkok. Jit Seng and Lovie too made the plunge! Purdee's good friend Audrey also tied the knot with Aanan to cap off the year. All in all, it was a great year watching old friends enter new chapters in their lives.  Now what else did I get up to? Oh yeah! The embarrassing gig!  Well, once upon a time I used to play in a band. Naturally, work, and starting families came into the picture and the band eventually dissipated away. I then did some solo open mics to flog my material, so I can look back one day and say I shared my music! Nothing much happened with my music until the end of the year when Fahri calls up and signs us up for an emergency gig at lake gardens for human rights day. So the band regroups, Fahri, Zongren, less Colin who is now in Singapore, and was duly replaced by the talented Izral. It was an emergency cause we had 2 days to prepare for it, and in usual fashion, we practiced only a couple of hours!! The gig went ok with a few slip ups, but it was hilarious as I think the orang asli and falun dafa audience had a disconnect with our ‘damn the man’ kinda melodies (hey it was human rights day what!) But I had a blast! To the boys, thanks for the years of fun we had man! Keep your music true and keep writing the tunes! Hey who wants my trusty analog 4-track? Hahaha!! 
So I guess that pretty much sums up the main checkpoints of the year gone by! Purdee heads back to Melbourne on the 27th to start at her new branch on the 29th. She’s been blessed with an opportunity to manage the city STA Travel branch with 8 staff. I know its bigger than the older branch hun, but I have faith you can do it! Some minor changes have affected my plans to go with Purdee at the same time. Once I conclude the transfer of responsibilities to my local replacement, then I can execute my job transfer to the Melbourne office! Fingers crossed asap! I can just foresee 2007 flying by with preparations for our wedding in July and the trips I will make back here for Herman’s wedding, Godpa’s 70th birthday and Yen Loong’s wedding. Also setting up home in Melbourne is a bit scary considering I’m quite a homebody and need a good ‘base’ to feel centered. Which brings us back to life’s truth - that the only constant is change. How did I navigate the many changes this year? Let me leave you with a piece of advice. When you’re about to set sail on a journey, there will be many landlubbers putting in their 2 sen worth of opinions. Listen...but your responsibility to yourself is to make informed decisions of your plans against reliable weather forecasts. Then set sail! Enjoy the journey and have foresight to look into lens of the future often, and should the forecast change, make due course corrections. The rudder is always in your hands. Your journey will then never falter. So if you’ve managed to read through this far, thank for listening! I will be seeing you somewhere somehow on this 3rd rock. Have a great 2007! God Bless. Jus
| | |
| Raising The Bar......a phrase you often hear in the quest for continuous improvement. Many successful people carry this belief and strive to continuously reinvent and better themselves.
The same unfortunately can be said about criminals too. For example, identity theft, credit card cloning, hacking, are crimes that require increasing skill and knowledge, and yet will eventually occur, irrespective of the protective measures in place. In a nutshell, if the crime is worth committing, someone will eventually do it. Call it human nature, call it raising the bar.
Even your basic mugging scenario has evolved. Recently I heard of an incident whereby someone was bludgeoned coming out of his car. We are all more alert these days when walking towards the car, aware of our environment. Once in, doors locked, we subconciously let our guard down. The criminals have now resorted to lifting/breaking your wipers (front or rear) or sticking leaflets at the rear window. Once you notice it, you proceed to get out of the car only to be taken by surprise. Too little too late......
Why am I thinking about this at this hour? Well granted I do analyze this a lot. But I got class tomorrow, so I'm getting my prep done. I like to go to class prepared, and allow each student to take away something from each class that I teach. Be it Basics, Abstract, Interpretations, or Applications.
Here's a piece of truth I'd like to share. Just like many things in life, it's all about perception. In a criminal situation, when someone confronts you, they already perceive they have the advantage, be it size or strength, multiple attackers, weapons, element of surprise, etc. Lets face it, the minute you get tangled in a situation like this, the odds are already stacked against you. And even if you are a trained fighter, there are too many potential "oh tiu lor!!  " outcomes that can occur, that can endanger yourself and your loved ones if they were with you. So how do you stay one step ahead? Prevention is always better than the cure. I won't go into details but in a nutshell, you have to avoid giving the advantage of perception either physically (walk confidently, be alert to avoid getting surprised, etc) or mentally (talk slowly, think quickly, semantics, etc) to the aggressor. It's not foolproof but it puts doubt into the aggressor's mind, affecting his perception that he can commit the crime with minimal fuss. Let's face it, I would rob a house without a dog, rather than the one with the pair of rottweilers drooling at the gate. Get the idea? 
This does not mean you live your life in fear, life's too short for that. That being said, you can't live thinking "It won't happen to me" either.
Be safe always. | | |
| MORE........!!!
Can't seem to get enough........
Quality Time with my other half, Work's never done, Money's never enough, Car could go faster, Guitar amp could be louder, Aikido could be more precise......need MORE hours to the day......need MORE sleep......MORE........!!!
Then I sit back and really look at it all...... ......Quality Time is tough with us being apart but we've done immensely well given our situation, and are continually working to build our future. Work will never be done, and that's good, cause it will give me something to reinvent myself throughout my life. Let's face it, we could always do with more Money, but my jobs have always been paying well. The Car is plenty fast already laaa  ! And there are days when I play acoustic Guitar on a quiet night in my room, and the need for extra decibels are irrelevant. After 10 years on the mats, my Aikido is continually refining it's precision, and the fact that I am still fit to walk on the mats is so much a blessing.
And truly, His blessings on me and my loved ones have been abundant.......
After a week of pondering, I have started to realise that I have to do a little less, to achieve more. Gone are the days where I could do it all, all at once! Don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about being complacent. But I think I've bitten off more than I can chew and more and more of my goals are taking longer to achieve, straying every now and again. And because time is too precious a commodity, priorities have to be set. Yes it's common sense I know, and you can start quoting me Stephen Covey's 7 Habits, yadi-yada.....but the truth is, the minute you allow it, the real world engulfs you......and common sense is quickly left to the wind.
So......first to go will be guitar lessons........I think I will have to wing it myself from now on.....self practice......more noodling with my unfinished material. From the looks of it too, I have to give up teaching Aikido for the moment, but training is still in the plan.
The rest I will have to reasses when Purdee comes to KL and when my new job starts and in Oct .
All in all, things are slowly but surely moving ahead!
God bless friends! Good night..... | | |
| Goddamn VIBRATO ~~~~~~ !!!! I can't do it!! Have been working on my vibrato on my solos to be able to get it to 'talk'.....and I mean REALLY talk....*sigh.....been at it for months......maybe cause I haven't really attacked it as I would most problems. Guess I should really focus on it. My groove is heaps better since getting the digital metronome, though I still have my old analog wind up Yamaha one there for ol' times sakes. But the vibrato isn't getting there..... they say that you can hear a player's voice .....and feel his emotions through the vibrato.......unique and distinct........but right now mine sounds like an infant's uncontrolled bawling......
Practice.....practice.....practice........PRACTICE!!
then there's still my VOICE to work on.....and new MATERIAL......and gathering the BALLS again to play at open mics.......
BALLS.......
After a 6 month sabbatical, should I go back to serve in church? Should I be finding another place to worship? It's hard when you grew up here......but it seems as though I can't grow there anymore......
One thing at a time......one thing at a time....... | | |
| It's hazy, my better half has flown to Fiji, and I'm stuck in my room at 2.30am. Was thinking about going for a late night spin, but couldn't be bothered to get out in this haze. Had enough playing the guitar so I thought I'd do a bit of blogging. If you've dropped by my site every now and then, you'll realize I'm not your typical serial blogger but the exact opposite......the lazy ass blogger!  Usually it's cause nothing of real interest has happened in my life, except recently, a LOT did happen in the past couple of months. So it boils down to pure laziness I guess. Anyway, lets do the usual recap.....you know, you hear that voice at the start of TV serials that goes "last week...on grooveblender"....except its more like last two months!
Aikido! The seminar, dinner, and exams were a success! All the 6 months of toiling and hard work in organizing and training paid off to some memorable events! The exam was tough, and it was inspiring to see the rest of my peers push with sheer tenacity and spirit. I am now officially a registered International Yoshinkan Aikido Federation instructor! Got my nice little flashy cert with Japanese garble.....but more importantly than the certs that line my wall is what I've learnt and am still learning as I train and teach. We recently had a new student who was born with some minor disfigurement in her toes and fingers. We had challenges to get her balance right and posture strong before learning the techniques. But I've seen and heard many with more serious disabilities overcome this in Aikido, and I was sure she could too! So without prejudice but more determination, we kept on working with her to get it right. I heard recently, two months into her training, during a little altercation at Hard Rock Cafe, some arrogant drunk mat salleh was harrasing her friend and she intervened. He grabbed her and she executed a textbook technique bringing the prick to the ground before the bouncers came. It's stories like this that give meaning and inspiration to the time and effort we spend in this art. oh....and of course the eye raising gossips of "waaaa......it really worked ah!!"  HAHAHA!
I heard that story when I was on the ERL heading toward KLIA to rendezvouz with Malcolm, Jen and Lara to go to Australia for 2 weeks. Long awaited vacation to be with Purdee that took me to Melbourne and Sydney. Two weeks of great fun mixed with time to reflect and plan for the future. All in all an absolutely fab time!! Thanks hun for everything!
Reflection time led to my decision to throw in the towel with my company when i got back. I had told myself that I would stay with this company until I was ready to leave to start my own outfit.....but I guess that was not to be. It had reach critical mass and was spiraling out of control. I take risks in my job, and am good at being able to quantify and take aggresive risks, and planning contingencies to mitigate shit from hitting fans......but this time round, I actually had to concede and accept the fact that I was no longer able to gauge the risks, and am unwilling to gamble my career and future here any longer. So in goes the letter and the umpteenth interviews trying to convince me to stay......but no means no, and it's time to move on. Hopefully the new place I begin in Oct will bring the rewards I am looking for.
Music.....same old I guess.....practice practice practice......still not writing anything. It's as though there is a void in my creative cranium that's been there for a while....... maybe I should really sit down and noodle more instead of practicing. But nonetheless, I have long accepted the fact that there is a time and place for everything......and if I have to write, I will. If not, I'll just be content listening to other people share their stories with me.....currently into my blues collection with a dash of pop here and there when I wake up in the morning. Too much blues in the morning's not too good to start of the day. Kinda like corn flakes and beer......it used to be OK.....but at my age.....I dunno.
The Italian is a strong influence......in the last two months, another friend got her Alfa 156 2.5V6. And another who used to own an Alfa but had sold it off for a Fiat Punto, now can't stand the docileness of the Punto and hence has sold it off for a Coupe! Viva Italia!! Got my belts and variator on my bella replaced recently and got the cams balanced. Just in time for another Sunday morning Ulu Yam B-road run with the Italia Auto drivers. Ahhhh......and did she pull all the way up the hill and down again. The sheer roar of a normally aspirated Twin Spark engine without hesitation all the way to the 7300rpm cut off is indescribable!  Missed the opening of the new dealership Sime Auto Italia in Mandarin Oriental recently, but I hear it was a great event! Let's see what the Sime fellas can now do to revive the marque in Malaysia.
It's late.....gotta knock off! Hey, thanks for dropping by! I know it's like striking a lottery whenever you drop by and actually see an update but yeah, maybe it is! 8182.....go buy the number when you read this! Nights! | | |
|
