2013, The Tough Questions And The Calling

'lost' by anjan58, Flickr

Seh Hui Leong

Annual Review

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 …

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2012, When The Dots Starts To Connect

'Saturate' by owenbushell, Flickr

Seh Hui Leong

Annual Review

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 …

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2011, The Year of Love

'Secret Waterfalls Heavenly Sunbeam' by Forest Wander, Flickr

Seh Hui Leong

Annual Review

Continuing the tradition of reviewing the year that had past and setting resolutions and a new tone for the new year, this year would probably be my busiest, most exciting and yet the least documented year. And yes, my blog is almost totally neglected last year. For this post, I dug through my memory bank and recount the details of the past – well, it’s alway better having that than not writing about some of the issues at all.

The TL;DR (Too Long; Didn’t Read) Highlights of 2011 As I Experienced It

Just to set up the context of the whole blog post, here’s the list of things that I believe to be my defining moments of the year 2011 (grouped by similarity and not in chronological order):

  • Becoming one of the …
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I Quit

'Trapeze' by Kevin Jones, Flickr

Seh Hui Leong

Life

Quitting – even after my fourth job, I still feel the nervous and uncomfortable twitching sensation within myself. Every time as the thought darts its way through my brain, the calculating part of the brain keeps on churning the numbers: the risk and rewards, the financial projections and whether will there be a serious impact towards my bank and retirement accounts, is the discomforts, frustrations and agony justifies the departure… what if things turn for the better after that?

Most of the time, I always decided to do nothing about it: delaying the decision. After all, I’m still getting paid well and I don’t really have any immediate plans and safety nets that would make the departure a no-brainer.

And so I procrastinate for a while… or so I thought a few days back …

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The Loop of Life

'Looking up?' by Brett Lider, Flickr

Seh Hui Leong

Reflections

I’m a believer of the law of attraction: not the “ask and you shall receive” kind but more like the whatever you are now experiencing in life is of your own creation kind.

I stumbled upon the thought when I contemplated the present situation of mine and noticed my perceptions towards my co-workers: to me, it seems that I conveniently match their personality profiles with those of my ex-colleagues whom I’ve worked with. And in a way, I probably have interacted with them in a similar fashion based on the stereotypes or personality buckets that I’ve assigned them to.

The way I’ve described it over a Twitter conversation goes like I’m wearing a rose-tinted glass that I had fixated and interpreted my present with a past environment that I’m …

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Major Shifts – The Adventures Continues

'Facing Infinity, Gazing' by Seh Hui

Seh Hui Leong

Life

A lot has happened in my two months of blogging absence: I just changed my job, gave a public presentation (and yes, it’s still sends shivers and trembles down my spine) and travelled to Australia.

What I have achieved is the past two months still feels surreal after everything has transcended. Not all of them ended well, well… the public presentation in particular, still I’m feeling the exhilaration that passed through every fibre in my body with these new experiences I’ve acquired.

To others, these seemed to be insignificant baby steps – yet through these actions and experience I gained a strong sense of empowerment that I’m taking control over my life.

As for what I’m currently doing, I’m now pushing my limits actively – one tiny bit at a time …

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Fifth Graders Make Paper Houses and The Future of Education

Seh Hui Leong

Life

Enough whining about how our education system is not preparing kids into the real world, the following short video from The Seattle Times shows a glimpse of the future of education:

[Source: Fifth Graders Make Paper Houses from The Seattle Times]

In this video, Joe Bailey-Fogarty, a fifth-grade teacher at Frantz H. Coe Elementary school, talks about a week-long project to build houses out of newspaper and masking tape. This video really strikes me with absolute brilliance when he explains how the project works: students need to take out loans to buy building materials, draw architectural plans, work together to build the house and keep the accounting paperwork in order.

It get even more interesting when at the end of the project, students are able to sell the house for more “money” (points) for having …

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