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On January 14 2013 13:30 WarSame wrote:
Ah, come on dude! You've got to post pictures of that, even if just a few. Literally, when you see a cool sight, take in the moment and enjoy it, and then think of poor WarSame stuck in dreary southern Ontario. Have pity!
The idea of exploring on a motorbike is awesome. Like in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenace, it allows you to interact with the environment, rather than look at a display through a car window.
How did you originally get to work in Cambodia? What sort of job was it, and how did you get it? What are the people you know there/how do you know them? Are they English speaking, or have you learned some of the SEA languages?
I'll post them eventually, don't worry, just give me some time!
Yeah exactly. Most of the travel I did would be on a bus, and I'd just have to watch things go by, but I always really wanted to just be able to say or think "Hey, let's find a way up to that temple on the top of that hill" or "I wonder what's down that path, let's check it out" or "That restaurant is really busy, it must be good, let's go there!".
At an internship I did the previous summer at an investment bank, I came across the website of this private equity firm in Cambodia and thought it looked really interesting, and I noticed in their newsletter that they had accepted some interns, so I took note of the name of the firm and then a couple months later contacted them about a summer internship. After several follow-ups I finally pestered them into a Skype interview, and then got invited to come out and work with one of their portfolio companies, a brewery (nice!) where I did an assortment of different tasks, the highlights being overseeing construction of a party bus and contacting beer importers/distributors worldwide to expand the breweries' export business.
The people I know are a fair mix of expats and locals that I met through work, swing dancing, a running/drinking club I joined, or just out and about doing things in Phnom Penh; live music, art galleries, Nerd Night presentations (where I did one on StarCraft), and just hanging out. They're all English speaking, I haven't learned any SEA languages (yet!), but some time in the next 10-15 years I'd really like to spend some more time in HCMC or Hanoi and learn Vietnamese.
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-1080p
- Learn some basic programming languages
- Learn Tai Chi (already well underway)
- Practise more cello
- Learn the Goldberg Variations (this one's been bugging me for a while now)
- Start a Warhammer painting blog and actually keep it up to date
- Train my parrot to do cool tricks
- 4.0 GPA equivalent (been around the edges for the past 4 years now by just cruising; time to pick it up and actually do some work, since it's my last year and I'm doing all my favourite subjects)
- Learn how to cook
- Work out a way to wear my monocle (Asian, so don't really have eye sockets)
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On January 14 2013 13:51 KingDime wrote:
-Getting back into shape, have a schedule that includes going 4 times a week to the gym and lane swimming.
-To constantly progress with my school marks. Got a 3.14 last semester but I still want to one up that this term.
-Get into gm atleast once playing with my new race terran (Swapped from toss to terran)
Nice! Good goals! Do you have a concrete GPA goal set? How close to GM are you?
On January 14 2013 20:59 Diader wrote:Show nested quote +On January 14 2013 13:30 WarSame wrote:
Ah, come on dude! You've got to post pictures of that, even if just a few. Literally, when you see a cool sight, take in the moment and enjoy it, and then think of poor WarSame stuck in dreary southern Ontario. Have pity!
The idea of exploring on a motorbike is awesome. Like in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenace, it allows you to interact with the environment, rather than look at a display through a car window.
How did you originally get to work in Cambodia? What sort of job was it, and how did you get it? What are the people you know there/how do you know them? Are they English speaking, or have you learned some of the SEA languages? I'll post them eventually, don't worry, just give me some time! Yeah exactly. Most of the travel I did would be on a bus, and I'd just have to watch things go by, but I always really wanted to just be able to say or think "Hey, let's find a way up to that temple on the top of that hill" or "I wonder what's down that path, let's check it out" or "That restaurant is really busy, it must be good, let's go there!". At an internship I did the previous summer at an investment bank, I came across the website of this private equity firm in Cambodia and thought it looked really interesting, and I noticed in their newsletter that they had accepted some interns, so I took note of the name of the firm and then a couple months later contacted them about a summer internship. After several follow-ups I finally pestered them into a Skype interview, and then got invited to come out and work with one of their portfolio companies, a brewery (nice!) where I did an assortment of different tasks, the highlights being overseeing construction of a party bus and contacting beer importers/distributors worldwide to expand the breweries' export business. The people I know are a fair mix of expats and locals that I met through work, swing dancing, a running/drinking club I joined, or just out and about doing things in Phnom Penh; live music, art galleries, Nerd Night presentations (where I did one on StarCraft), and just hanging out. They're all English speaking, I haven't learned any SEA languages (yet!), but some time in the next 10-15 years I'd really like to spend some more time in HCMC or Hanoi and learn Vietnamese.
Ok, ok, glad I got you to promise it at least. :D
You paint a cool picture of motorcycle exploring.
Nice. That sounds like a very sweet job. Working at a brewery, constructing a party bus is a college dream job. I'm mad jealous haha. The moral here would be that persistence definitely pays off, I feel.
That brings up another question - how did you end up getting into those things? Did you get introduced to them through work, or did you find them by yourself? Currently, I'm trying to find some activities that aren't gaming with not a whole ton of success, but you did that despite the language problems. Do you have any advice?
On January 14 2013 22:12 Ianuus wrote:
-1080p
- Learn some basic programming languages
- Learn Tai Chi (already well underway)
- Practise more cello
- Learn the Goldberg Variations (this one's been bugging me for a while now)
- Start a Warhammer painting blog and actually keep it up to date
- Train my parrot to do cool tricks
- 4.0 GPA equivalent (been around the edges for the past 4 years now by just cruising; time to pick it up and actually do some work, since it's my last year and I'm doing all my favourite subjects)
- Learn how to cook
- Work out a way to wear my monocle (Asian, so don't really have eye sockets)
What languages are you thinking of learning? I'd suggest Python and Java as 2 useful and pretty easy languages if you're just getting started.
I'll keep an eye open for the WH painting blog. That stuff is always fun to watch the progress of.
Good idea learning how to cook. Are you leaning more towards the "get it done and eat it" or the "people will actually be impressed a lot by this" type of cooking?
Why do you have a monocle? 0.o Didn't know those things were still used nowadays.
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Ok, ok, glad I got you to promise it at least. :D
You paint a cool picture of motorcycle exploring.
Nice. That sounds like a very sweet job. Working at a brewery, constructing a party bus is a college dream job. I'm mad jealous haha. The moral here would be that persistence definitely pays off, I feel.
That brings up another question - how did you end up getting into those things? Did you get introduced to them through work, or did you find them by yourself? Currently, I'm trying to find some activities that aren't gaming with not a whole ton of success, but you did that despite the language problems. Do you have any advice?
Most of them I found by myself. I've been swing dancing for a couple years now, and just googled "swing dancing phnom penh" before I even e-mailed that pe firm to make sure there was a group there. No matter what city you live in, there will probably be several places to learn salsa or tango, and then possibly a place or a couple places for swing. It's really fun, and don't worry if you can't dance; that's the point of learning 
The running club I found from the Phnom Penh wikitravel, but it's an international club with "kennels" worldwide called Hash House Harriers, so you can check that out as well.
Everything else...I really don't quite remember how I found them. Just from meeting people around, I guess; Phnom Penh has a small but very active and friendly expat community, and it was just easy to meet people who accepted me into their circle and filled me in on stuff that was going on.
My advice for you is to just brainstorm anything you've ever thought was cool and see if you can learn how to do it in your city. I really recommend some kind of social dance, or you can try, I don't know, glass blowing, rock climbing, going to various open-mic nights for comedy, music, poetry, whatever (and building up courage to participate someday), volunteering for some cause or local group, trying as many restaurants as you can and reviewing them on yelp...anything, man. GLHF!
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On January 16 2013 17:01 Diader wrote:Show nested quote +Ok, ok, glad I got you to promise it at least. :D
You paint a cool picture of motorcycle exploring.
Nice. That sounds like a very sweet job. Working at a brewery, constructing a party bus is a college dream job. I'm mad jealous haha. The moral here would be that persistence definitely pays off, I feel.
That brings up another question - how did you end up getting into those things? Did you get introduced to them through work, or did you find them by yourself? Currently, I'm trying to find some activities that aren't gaming with not a whole ton of success, but you did that despite the language problems. Do you have any advice? Most of them I found by myself. I've been swing dancing for a couple years now, and just googled "swing dancing phnom penh" before I even e-mailed that pe firm to make sure there was a group there. No matter what city you live in, there will probably be several places to learn salsa or tango, and then possibly a place or a couple places for swing. It's really fun, and don't worry if you can't dance; that's the point of learning The running club I found from the Phnom Penh wikitravel, but it's an international club with "kennels" worldwide called Hash House Harriers, so you can check that out as well. Everything else...I really don't quite remember how I found them. Just from meeting people around, I guess; Phnom Penh has a small but very active and friendly expat community, and it was just easy to meet people who accepted me into their circle and filled me in on stuff that was going on. My advice for you is to just brainstorm anything you've ever thought was cool and see if you can learn how to do it in your city. I really recommend some kind of social dance, or you can try, I don't know, glass blowing, rock climbing, going to various open-mic nights for comedy, music, poetry, whatever (and building up courage to participate someday), volunteering for some cause or local group, trying as many restaurants as you can and reviewing them on yelp...anything, man. GLHF!
There is salsa dancing offered at my university which I'll definitely be checking out based on your recommendation. I was thinking about it before because my dancing skills are poor, and now it's even more enticing.
I'll give running clubs in my area a look over but it's difficult to talk while running. In the past my friend would run with me but we'd only chat every ~km or so.
Good ideas. My university does offer some interesting activities, so that should probably be the first thing to check out. Believe it or not, I started rock climbing the day before you posted. It's been really amazing so far! It's a lot of fun, challenging, scary as hell, and everyone is really nice. Your list is a great jumping point.
Thanks for all of the advice and stories man! Hopefully one day I can have as awesome experiences as you. 
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On January 14 2013 13:30 WarSame wrote:
Those are admirable resolutions. We share 3/5 of them. Could you please tell me how you plan to work on being more kind? Being healthier is pretty self-explanatory, but being more kind is something that seems to be very difficult to work towards for me. I've been trying to hold a more positive view point and remove all negative thoughts as soon as I recognize them, but that's taking a while and isn't working 100%. If you have a better method, I'd love to hear it! The same question applies to being more spontaneous. That one is even less apparent to me.
Good luck on making it to the Rarotonga reunion. I checked it out on Wikipedia and that place looks amazing! Did you grow up there? Is it as awesome as it looks?
Hi WarSame. Sorry for the years later reply. I got hacked way back then because I picked a dumb email password and I kind of rq'd over it. Was feeling nostalgic this morning so I thought I'd try login and after about 20 tries it let me in. I thought it would be cool to give you an update so hopefully you see this.
I didn't end up going to the Rarotonga reunion. The person it was in honour of (my nan) died around 6 months after my op. The next reunion for that side isn't until 2019, which I'm looking forward to. No, I didn't grow up there. My mother was born in Aitutaki and emigrated to New Zealand as a child. Aitutaki is a small and expensive island to get to for most though so Raro was chosen as the easier option.
When I wrote 'being kind' I really needed it. At that point in my life I was the kind of person to get upset/angry over anything that offended my sense of what was good or 'right'. I still care about the right thing, but I forced myself to let go and learn to chill out more. I'm not responsible for what others do, but it's 100% on me how I choose to handle and react to people/situations/things in general.
Other stuff in brief: Got fit and healthy. Went self-employed and bought my first home. Off to Korea and Japan to play tourist next year. Life is good. Still working on kindness and gratitude every day. Hope you are well.
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