…as always. Besides from the usual luxuries of not having to cook, do laundry and go to work, being home also puts much senses back to my otherwise critically-idled life. Family and friends laughed at my well-done, already-pushing-the-buttons belly, I laughed at the visible accumulation of white hairs on their head. They asked for US dollars, I said I’m broke. They asked when am I going to get married. I said I am gay. Life’s back home is different, yet not so different. It is good.
And everyone is well and healthy, which is probably the single, most important thing to me. My 4 lil’ princesses are turning into Vogue’s cover-like material, although it’s kinda worrisome that Nicoly, my youngest sister, at the age of just 10, seems to have already memorized the name of all the Taiwanese boy bands that appear on TV faster than she could on the math multiplication table. Come to think of it, it is actually not that hard as most of these retarded names are made up from a randomly selected alphabet and then appended with a series of integers (F4), or no alphabets at all (5566). If not, they will just use any word with three consonants (Fahrenheit, FIR). Someone needs to expose her to some Jimi Hendrix or Beatles’ love. I blame this bad influence on all my other three sisters.
As selfish as it may sounds, home always seem to be the first thing we, or rather I, think of when things aren’t going so well but ends up being the last when there’s a joyful occurrence. We gladly point our finger to the distance-ness and the inconvenience of being apart from each other and well, it’s just part of the growing up process.
Sheesh, I know I can do better than that.
When I started Puppylab studio 2 years ago, it was mainly a big cover-up plan for myself to get away from having to establish a one-man studio on my own. I hated the idea of doing everything by yourself and showing it to the world - it was simply too narcissistic for me. I still hate it. So I pooled together 3 of my close friends and asked them to do this with me. We collected our portfolio and put together a website to show everyone we are the next best thing since Internet Explorer. But in truth, Hui Nee, Ryan and Joyce, being as nice as they have always been to me, were just trying to help me get over my silly self-absorbing phobia.
Puppylab was launched to a relatively huge success. We received quite a number of project inquiries and proposals. But I have to reject most of them due to the combination of various reasons - mainly because all four of us just didn’t have the time to firmly commit ourselves to this whole freelancing gig. The idea of having to work after my 8-5 session certainly didn’t appeal to me either. I was this close to being burnout.
Fast forward two years to 2007, Ryan, Hui nee and I still live in the same building. All four of us are still good friends (as far as I know :P). Life’s good. Ryan has finished his master and is currently working for UNL. Hui Nee will finish her master this fall and will work for _ _ _ (she refuses to let me mention the name of the company) after graduation. Joyce is doing pretty well back in Malaysia too, last I heard. So it’s all good.
It is only appropriate to bring down the curtains if you have a happy ending. I have decided to not seek a domain renewal when puppylab.com expires this coming October. The janitor has retired, leaving the codemaster, artist and ladybird to seek their newfound life somewhere outside of the puppylab’s realm (too much WarCraft here).
Thanks guys.
If you like Harry Porter or Narnia, you are going to love this. By far the best movie in its genre. I found myself giggling and ‘wow-ing’ throughout the entire movie.
It has a very solid and original story, backed by outstanding casts and director. A wonderful, wonderful movie experience. ;-)
