As usual, will be back to my hometown from 6 - 12 February, no Internet access from home = probably less/no updates :).

Depending on whether there’s anything interesting going on, I may report my progress when I was back home to meet up with relatives, long lost friends and classmates. But highly likely that a drifting thoughts post or two will become a staple with an idle brain :p.

Anyway, to those who celebrate it, happy Chinese New Year! 😊

Got my hair dyed for CNY again :), I bought a beige colour dye which I fully expect to turn to be like a slightly dark brownish colour later on and ends up pretty close to the colour of my current LJ avatar… at least in the following photo:

Of course, photography is always at the mercy of lousy indoor lighting :p. Under sunlight it looked more like a brownish colour with beige undertones. But probably that just me.

I still had enough left for a second application, probably it’d turn out to be much lighter next time round :).

I think to find songs that would be the current theme song of my life, currently seemed like there were three 😛

• (Pop/Rock?) Marionette / 浜崎あゆみ
• (Rock) talkin’ to myself / 浜崎あゆみ
• (Pop) Keep tryin’ / 宇多田ヒカル (sudden discovery after noted by maryadavies, despite the fact I do had that album for a long time)
• (R&B House) ESCAPE / MISIA

Usually those warrants me to post up lyrics and translations (copied from other sites, although :p), but I think that could be easily google’d (perhaps finding translation for ESCAPE might be a bit difficult), so I didn’t bothered :p.

Damn artists decide to release their albums early 2008 >_<||: MISIA with Eight Wonder and Lena Park with Come to Where I Am. And I had a bunch of holes in my collection (the “Gotta catch ‘em all” syndrome, aka impulsive consumerism)! (Speaking of which, I just clicked away in YesAsia to fill some gaps)

Should I decide to spend on the others like Mylin, Sweetbox (Jade Villalon period), bond, SPEED, Miki Imai, M.O.V.E., Yuki Koyanagi and Aikawa Nanase I’d be broke by now >_<|||.

Luck had it that I can always resort to online shopping and eBay. And time’s by my side should I know how to control my impulsive shopping habit.

Dang it.

… and awaiting for their turn to be read:

• A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton G. Malkiel
• Being In Love by Osho

I was like “ラキー~~♥♥♥” (Lucky!) when I was at Kinokuniya when A Random Walk Down Wall Street (a book that I had been keeping an eye on as my extra “textbook” reading for stock investment) was featured as Gem of the Month (= 25% discount) in paperback version (= cheaper :p) and found out that Osho’s book was on a 20% discount (which I’m fully willing to pay full price for this newly released book). So yay! 😄

But that also means that I have a full six books to read, on top of my current endeavors to research (i.e. read) stuff for work. (TT_TT)|| But I’ll manage! 😄

Actually it’s been a while I have been holding on to the Happy Prepaid SIM pack, which is a new, no-frills venture from Digi. Although it didn’t have the cheapest rate for normal usage anymore, but the 60-days activation with any reload amount and maximum 99 sen calls were enough to nail the deal (despite the fact that I’m aware that I can’t be making a lot of calls more than 99 seconds :p).

But honestly speaking switching numbers aren’t as easy as one might think, it’s like… you have yourself associated with that number and changing that association means that I have to call all those banks and update them about the number change. Which is surprisingly easy to do really, but it was sort of a hassle …

Got this from the bargain bin in Tower Records, KLCC yesterday! Considering it’s was irresistible RM50 (more than 50% off!) to own such DVDs, I just have to swipe at it :p.

I was completely enchanted by her performance in the DVD, her vocal prowess completely shine through and very close to what you listen in her full length album, completely taking control of every tone and note, especially the fact she nailed every single high pitched note throughout the concert… and should you had followed her music, that’s her forte which she’s famous of. The only song that I found to be disappointing is “I miss you ~時を越えて~, which I feel so incomplete without Miwa Yoshida: a song composed by Dreams Come True (DCT) would never be complete without her.

What …

OK, this would be one of the most unexpected purchase that I had made in 2008 - Introducing a new addition to my gadget collection - the Asus Eee PC! 😄 In fact I’m typing from this new (petite) darling that I had now actually :).

Well… not as unexpected in the sense that I did somehow commit to buying it as written in my LJ a month or two ago, but I get a bit impatient myself and end up getting the 4GB version, which in the end turns out to be pretty sufficient as I manage to get all the software that I needed installed and I still have quite a lot of room in there. And with all the USB drives that I had laying around, I’m not that concerned about storage anyway (and …

Here’s a list of books that I bought this month and have yet to read:

• The World is Flat, 3rd Edition by Thomas L. Friedman
• Think, by Michael R. LeGault
• Awaken the Giant Within, by Anthony Robbins
• Your Magic Power to be Rich!, by Napoleon Hill (which is actually a compilation of his books, namely Think and Grow Rich, The Magic Ladder to Success and The Master-Key to Riches)

Likely I won’t be adding new books next month, but from my behavioural pattern, that’s hard to say :p. (but I suppose my wallet will be the judge at that time ;p)

Finally got my last batch of dividend slips for 2007. (Yes! Now that decreases the number of documents that I have to wait for to file my taxes)

And it’s very exciting when I sort out my book receipts (again I overspent on books XDDD, but at least I can give those receipts out) and dividend slips. More exciting to know that the dividends amount to more than a month’s salary (yay for baby steps to financial freedom :D), which gives me a lot of motivation to work towards my next financial goals in the years to come.

Got my phone back but I didn’t really get to test it at the moment but so far no problems :). Looking forward to holding on to it for more than 3 years in great …