“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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Here’s one unimportant fact that I never really divulged to anyone yet: I do tarot readings.

It’s not one of those skills that I practice daily. I do tarot readings exclusively for my benefit, mainly for one of the two possible reasons: either to seek guidance from the unknown or the subconscious; or as a means of having a lens to reflect upon.

To the skeptics, it may very well be an irrational act - one that appeals to my own primitive instincts to seek out patterns and retrofit whatever I perceive what the cards are showing, so to make sense something that’s totally random to begin with. In my experience, however, it doesn’t feel to me that way. Having done readings for more than eight years, there’s something that really …

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 …