“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 …

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 …

It’s the fourth day of Chinese New Year: while the working classes are reporting back into their offices and started work, I’m still back with my parents. My laptop flipped open with the backlit display shining at me, my stationeries and notebook spread across the dining table among the containers of Chinese New Year snacks. I’ve made the dining table back home my remote office.

After a series of hackathons, I’m starting to experiment with how to work in remote locations — outside the comforts of office cubicles where everything is within reach and I never need to worry out running out of office supplies. It’s always about learning to deal with small desk spaces, less than optimal furniture in terms of ergonomics and tuning out ambient noises and distractions from …

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 …

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 …

Reflecting back of all the unrequited relationships that I had in the past, this dawned upon me:

In some relationships, I made the mistake of offering you the past: my charming persona, my credentials, why I am worthy for you. The problem is that the past also have its baggage: the wounds, the scars, the burdens. Not everyone likes to carry the weight of someone else’s issues while they have their plates full. Hence I can only appeal to their logical side, and the risk/reward ratio is not high enough for them to qualify me.

In some relationships, I made the mistake of offering you the future: the vows, the promises, the bright road ahead together. I can write great poems and sing great songs from such a space. It’s certainly way …

Am now making two small but radical changes in my daily routine:

1. Swapping my gym days from Saturdays to Friday evenings
2. Sleep early, rise early (like really early, more details later)

Due to my maximizing nature, any changes to my routine usually indicates some form of shift in my priorities.

My gym days used to be on Saturdays mainly for two reasons: one being that it forces me to go outdoors and be around people; and two being that it forces me to disconnect myself from the online world and give myself some room to rest, draw inspiration and enjoy life. So Saturdays tend to be my indulgent day where I’d spend some money to make myself happy in whatever ways that material stuff can give.

Switching my gym days to Fridays is more …

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 …