“You know, those big audacious goals that you have shared years ago. You should consider executing on it,” said Renyi in a friendly and matter-of-fact tone. I let out a nervous chuckle — deep down I know there a small tingle of unease, this comment has hit on a nerve. In a quiet coffee house we’re in where everyone seems to mind their own businesses, we were having our mastermind group session where our pact is committed to check-in on everyone else’s progress in life and making sure that we all achieve our own personal goals and dreams.

Looking back, 2013 may prove to be one of those transitional years that I have experienced so far. I think it’s a year that I’m spending most of my time reaping and enjoying the …

As monsoon season looms around the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia, it’s just the best time to stay indoors and lay comatose in front of a screen and passively consume what’s showing in front of you. … Or does it have to be so?

On November 30, about 30 of us leave our dusty cities and worries behind and drove up to Kin Tick Orchard Village — a resort with several stone house surrounded by a vast canvas of mountains and greens with a shallow creek that goes between the car park where all our cars are to be left behind and the resort itself. Temporary escape from the urban life. Check.

And what’s were we all have in common? We all share our love for board games and we were there to indulge …

My journey in Mindvalley is definitely an interesting one. When I first joined the company, I’ve been working on CustomerHugs — which is a web service for users to collect reviews and testimonials from Facebook users.

Unfortunately it is a service that didn’t caught on and was now being in hibernation mode and isn’t actively being supported at the moment¹. So in October last year, I was being assigned to my second solo project.

The Second Act

The original idea is to come up with a supplementary API service that complements with UrbanAirship‘s in-app purchase service — to be more specific about it, I’m assigned to come up with an API service that would provide just enough tools to create a more flexible in-app purchase store front for mobile apps, while …

Oh wait, it’s been more than six months since the last My Pastel Coloured Rainbow post? Wow… seems like the blogging habit is starting to wear off from me. For one I’m starting to spend time away from the computer, go out and explore new activities. And when I have something to blog about, they are short snippets of thoughts that I ended up posting on Twitter and Facebook instead of writing short posts that I used to label them as “impromptu posts”. We’ll get to the meats and potatoes of what has happened in the year 2012 in a second.

At the same time, I acknowledge the fact that the long hiatus is necessary for me to get out from my usual routine and gain fresh perspective in life. Without interaction …

For context and getting the pink elephant out of the room: I am gay, albeit a closeted one in real life — hence the rainbow reference in the title. And this is about a new pledge for myself to take the necessary steps to come out from the closet and manning up should anything bad comes my way.

My Not-So-Little Lie — “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”

Up till now, I have been adopting the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy about the fact — probably to a point that I actively avoid being spotted on gaydars and completely evading the customary girlfriend question. With all the candour I could muster: I still manifest a very strong fear deep down of the potential negative consequences: biggest of which being me being alienated or disowned by my …

Yes, I finally attended my very first Startup Weekend in Singapore. And they live up to their reputation of being one of the most organized startup events and I dig their heavy emphasis on execution.

Throughout 54 hours of working on startup ideas and observing how others approach the problem, there’s a lot of lessons that I’ve learned throughout the whole process. I know why Startup Weekend is awesome: within three days, you’ll be able to see the real social dynamics and the drama that unfolds as the teams manage themselves: both good and bad. It’s like getting a very condensed experience of what startup life is like.

Going through my tweets and my mental recollections, here are the lessons that I’ve learned and/or observed during the event, in …

Two hours has passed and my iPod was already complaining and nagging me the fact that there’s only 20% of juices is left of it. Strewn across the table in front of me were pairs and pairs of headphones, I sat with my body leaned forward, eyes shut and focusing attentively to the aural stimuli that’s being channelled from the headphones. Every two minutes or so, I’d open my eyes again and flicking through the long list of songs on my playlist, thinking of the next song that I should choose to challenge the sound drivers.

And yes, I was auditioning my next pair of headphones, and I was sitting there like an American Idol judge seeking out the next star performer.

It’s really unfathomable to me that I’d becoming …

In the past, I did mentioned that I do tarot reading, mainly for meditative purpose and to seek guidance. I’ve been doing this practice only for my own benefit for the past eight years and it’s until today that I actually do a reading for a friend.

Doing reading for her meant a big deal with me: there’s always the nervousness that goes when I offer my skills to others for the first time and not knowing what to expect out of it. And the bigger fear that would be not knowing what expectations that I may need to address and the responsibility that comes with giving consultation and advice to others. Despite such doubts, I agreed to it almost instantly and embrace the opportunity.

After all, I’m quite curious of …