the recce ride in bintan was pretty great, minus the countless hills and the feeling of being lost for a period of time. the review of the yet-to-be-revealed item that i got my hands on is waiting - and worked pretty as much as claimed! i'd never imagine going back to stopping the bike to lube the chain ever again!...

a bout of food poisoning via mee goreng at a food centre in bintan made me re-realize that i'm only human. and i'm thankful for that experience... though i forgot to snap a photo of my puke after throwing up from the second level of my lodge i was staying in! urgh!..... literally, i made quite an "impression"....

like what serena wrote in her blog, i too had many thoughts that stemmed from watching the pursuit of happyness. and with my recent completion of my first complete reading of napoleon hill's think and grow rich (well noting that i bought the book in 2000, and got stuck at chapter 2 and never moved along thereafter), i've too come across several principles that has greatly helped me to let go of the disappointments in the past and look forward to the future. in fact, i felt so charged up and getting an incredible inner drive that i never felt before. coupled with the thoughts from the movie aforementioned, i do feel like i'm capable of what i'm thinking and dreaming of.

my experience in insurance has led me across freeloaders who would like to squeeze blood out of us - for a free meal etc; just because we are prospecting them as clients. and best of all, some of them just don't see the point of getting some cover for themselves in any form. indeed, it's their choice and not mine, so be it. i'm glad i finally am able to learn to let go of timewasters - who will stop at nothing to suck energy from me; and continually procrastinating even though there are solutions to fit any budget. garry kinder was in town recently and he shared that we shouldn't even walk away from such people... in fact we should run away from them! by parting ways with those problematic people, it's like a spring cleaning of the old rusty metalware you have, and you're left looking at the shiny and problemless assembly you have.

and to add a little to the book think and grow rich and some of the principles taught in the book - i'm able to afford for myself the fujitsu lifebook t4215p (it's a slightly lower-specced t4215, albeit with an intel t5600 processor with 2mb cache instead of t7200 with 4mb cache) as well as my thinktank airport check-in. lesson i've learnt from the book that applies is - usually successful people decide fast and change their decisions slowly; while typically unsuccessful people take a long time to decide but will change decisions quickly. i'm pushing myself over this edge from the latter group to the former group - not easy, but it sure isn't gonna help to build muscles by lifting feathers.

my power question to those who want to hold out a decision: do you know of anyone who gets older and healthier as they age?