Shocker

"A friend of mine the other day commented about how emo my blog felt. Got meh? Anyway, today I shall be blogging about something a lil more exciting."

Just a few weeks ago, I was chatting on the line with one of my buddies and I received an incoming call..


Private..

So I just finished up with my friend, and took the incoming call..

*tuut tuut..tuut..*

So I went along doing my own thing and I got a call.

*121* (Voice Message calling me.. I find this rather cool actually, having 'Maxis' call you)
"You have one new message.. First message.."

I listened.. and listened.. My heart slowed down only to start beating faster and harder, "I hate it when this happens.." What the.."

Thoughts of times where I raced past a red light, argued with a cop, settled with a cop, rioted, vandalised soemthing..
Or perhaps more recently..God forbid, the I.S.A. is after my ass for discussing recent sensitive issues? Thoughts of me possibly ending up like the fate of our dear local warrior, Namewee with his trendy anthem passed. Could I be heading to a high-profile government intervention into my private life?

I wanted to swear off Malaysian politics there and then.

My colleague Nic was sitting beside me merrily talking when he suddenly realized that I had a pale look on my face.

"You ok ah, bro?", he asked.

"Yeah.... gotta make a call. Be right back..", said I before I got out of the car to contact the High Court. Here's how it went.

Me: Hello, nama saya Justin Wong dan saya baru dipanggil oleh Makhamah Tinggi kerana saya tidak hadir dalam satu perbicaraan.
HCstaff: Ya ke? Kamu ada menerima apa-apa surat berkenaan hal ini, tak?
Me: Takde. Tapi saya baru dapat 'miss call' daripada mereka dan mereka tinggalkan voicemail saja.
HCstaff: Oh, ini penipuan la, En. Wong.
Me: ...
HCstaff: Ya, memang beberapa orang sudah komplain tengang ini.
Me: *phew* -_______-"
HCstaff: Eh, kamu jangan bagi nombor IC tau!
Me: Ya ya. nasib baik voicemail aje.

I figured the modus operandi of this sly bs3rds is:

1. To let you hear this pre-recorded message.
2. You will (Well, I would've) then press 9 for 'further information'.
3. Like other services, the 'obvious' thing to do next is validate your identification so that they can 'check' their database for your 'case'.
4. Thinking that the High Court is so advanced, unsuspecting civilians would surrender their private information and then *SLAM*.. they put down the phone on you leaving you with no option to retrace the information or sue the heck out of 'High Court'.

So my advice, be VERY careful with where your IC number or any other sensitive information goes, whether it be on the phone, telemarketers, online pop-ups, credit card agents, etc.

I'd like to thank whoever it was who was talking to me, the High Court lady staff and God for bestowing me good luck against this Sohigh court.

*phew*

Take it to the max

It's 2008!
Most of us went through either:
Multitudes of new year SMSes - some thoughtful, some inspiring and some recycled and corny,
Extreme partying i.e. reducing the blood in our alcohol stream,
Bonding with our loved ones via house parties and such,
and of course trying to make our resolutions for the rest of the year - trying being the keyword.

In relation to making resolutions, I scouted the web for some inspiring quotes to do my part in spreading the SMS joy and found this.

We will open the book. It's pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. This book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day.

I thought I'd spend a few hours contemplating on my resolution for the coming year. But some would disagree on the concept of a new year's resolution like others would disagree about Valentine's Day; Why spend one day 'celebrating love'? Does this mean that you can't do it on any other day? In fact, you should.

I however think that if one tries to make big decisions everyday, he would end up becoming a very tension-fied wreck and perhaps constantly disappointed - at himself.

But I was proven wrong.

So wrong it even felt like I was getting scolded by the book Awaken the Giant Within, written by Anthony Robbins (my favorite life coach). I bought the book instantly. Tony says that in order to stretch yourself to your maximum potential, you have to make conscious decisions to direct your life everyday. It's akin to wishing upon a genie but instead, you demand this decision out of yourself.

Deep stuff. The book is slightly long winded (his style) but highly reccomended if you'd like to awaken yer giant. No, pun not intended.

Yes, I got carried away. But back to point - How would I like my year to be?

Well, a brief recap of 2007 has told me that:

i) I'm fond of doing involuntary charity to whom I will never know

I think my pants have holes that I'm not aware of..

ii) I just can't/don't take serious things seriously.
iii) Despite having my watch 36 minutes early, I'm constantly 22 minutes late (in actual time) therefore qualifying me for time zones of Bangkok, Hanoi or Jakarta.
iv) Food is good and I'm getting prosperous.

There's definitely more where that came from but this year I'm taking a different approach I learnt from BAT called Continuous Improvement. Reason being new year resolutions should not be a one-off thing. It's like asking you to lift a forest worth of logs in a day. Rather, one should pick a stick a day in order to reach the destination without dying.. in spirit.

So the first one, would be to get in shape.

Nice.

And my mantra (something that you'd repeat day in and day out to motivate yourself) for the year to keep me going is, "I'm something else".
Do share if you have or can think of any good ones.