Training for running herper derp stuff

Hi there readers! It's been a while (as usual) since I've updated. The recent weeks I've been training for a fitness test where I have to run 2.4km or 1.5 miles or 6 laps in at least 12 minutes. And I have to say, it's a massive difference between running on the treadmill and on the track itself. Long story short, running on the track for the first time last week totally destroyed whatever stamina I thought I've built up by training on the treadmill in the gym. Fortunately I soon got used to it and though performance-wise it wasn't as good, there have been improvements.

Yesterday I trained at a track and field next to le gf's house with le gf. It was a beautiful day and I am still wondering how I woke up at 6am to run. The track and field was quite new I reckon, really well maintained! Praise to the school if it isn't new haha.

Somehow the track felt small though, which made me wonder if it's really 400m per lap. But regardless, I was only doing stamina training so it was fine. I'm quite proud of my time:

However I'm not happy by the fact that I took one break after 30mins though I stopped the timer (kinda felt like I was cheating) as well as I kinda felt the fatigue get to me towards the end and had to walk for about 1 minute on the timer. When it comes to stamina training, for me, as I start to tire time seems to go slower and slower.

In this case as I ran for what seems like 10 minutes, in my mind it was like this:

And only about 1-2 minutes have passed. Okay.jpg

Oh! Though I find that running with headphones/earphones on with music playing is a good motivation and distraction from the pain.Which brings me to when I was on cooldown and just walking the track, this song came up:



I don't know why, but when it came to the chorus, it made me smile like some I don't know...

That's all peeps! Train hard play hard!

~Fox

It's a beautiful morning!

Wake up, readers!

Beautiful Sunday today, nothing much other than showering Pancake (my dog). Just listened to that song which was shuffled in my playlist haha and I thought "What a fitting song for today!"

Have a happy happy Sunday everyone! Regardless of you sleeping in or being an busy bee, always spend time with your family ;D

And here's a picture of Pancake, isn't he precious? lol

Until next time!


~Fox

2 Days of LiveWire Brunei - Bright Ideas

Hey all!

Just got back from a full day of activities and learning from an event by Brunei's LiveWire called Bright Ideas (BI). It's basically a little two day seminar aimed at teaching people the basics on how to start a business. I actually participated in another event a few weeks back called BSOM.

The turnout for the BI was alright, just 11 people including myself. I actually wanted to join 2 weeks ago however, it clashed with training at AIA. But I can finally join yay! And guess what, it's only $30! I believe that this event was a pretty good cool down and eye-opener for myself personally as well as professionally. We were thrown questions and when answered, the answer was questioned too until it concentrates down to a point. It's a pretty good two-way learning experience where trying is encouraged and there is no 100% right answer.

Most of the people who joined are the youths either in upper six form or in university or going to university. It felt fresh but many of them were quite shy; something they'll soon weed out when in University I'd reckon hahaha.

When I joined the first event, BSOM, I always felt a but awkward during introductions to the speakers... It was always name then "I'm a fresh graduate from so-and-so and I'm currently waiting for work". It didn't feel bad but it didn't feel good either; guess it was the feeling of not contributing? This time I can proudly say I'm employed as an insurance agent from AIA.

-RANT-
I don't really know how I feel about people's perception of me. A part of me am proud of who I am and what I do. The other part of me gets REALLY pissed off at so-called "friends" who not only bash what I do, but worst still, don't pick up my calls or reply my texts and so on.

OK, I'm getting derailed from the topic. Guess I just want to let off some steam hahaha.
-END OF RANT-

Anyways about LiveWire, I first saw an ad by LiveWire when I was in "Sims mode" looking at the newspaper everyday to see if there are any job vacancies available. The ad I saw was for BSOM, thinking I got nothing to do than waste away at home anyway, I went for it; it costed only $65 for 4 full days. Instantly, 4 days of my week was filled for once. BSOM was thoroughly satisfying in both what I learned as well as the people I met.

There's nothing much I can say here that will do them justice so if you really have an interest to start a business I do urge you to join it. You will not regret it I assure you.

If you wish to learn more, here's their website: http://www.livewire-brunei.com/index.php

All the best!


~Fox

Explaining traffic light to my siblings

Hey all.

A loooooooong time ago I somehow (in my random outburst of words while driving) explained traffic lights to my siblings.

"Green means "go la" obviously. Yellow means "uh oh you better hurry!" and Red means "Aiyah you see la, told you to go faster" lol" I said.

My sister reminded me recently and I lol'd. I usually don't remember the random outbursts and when someone repeats it to me ages later, I usually find it brilliant and ask who said that in the first place. When they say it was me my reaction is just "derp".

All the best, readers! :)

~Fox

Loving Music, Loving Life

Hey everyone!

Lazy Sunday here in Brunei. After bringing my mum out for breakfast and then coming home, I came across a nice little titbit of music posted on Facebook (rare these days as most of the stuff I see are random propagandas and crap). It was an instrumental cover by these two talented individuals calling themselves "The Piano Guys" on Youtube.



The cover was on David Guetta's "Without You". Seriously, the tune blew me away. I was truly captivated by their rendition I ended up replaying it a few times. I've heard their take on the Star Wars themes before, and I loved it too, but this piece sent me over the edge and subscribed to them aha.

I have always been an avid lover of music, classical music was what I loved from the tender age of 10 or so. While everyone was taking a liking to the latest and greatest bands on those times, I went for Mozart and Beethoven. Come to think of it, I was a hipster before there were hipsters, huh. My closest friends didn't judge, much; only occasionally mentioning the music is putting them to sleep when they come over to stay for the night and as we should know, there's not "sleep" in sleepovers.

Like many others, I have musical aspirations, ever since I was young I wanted to be good in Guitar and Piano. However, my conflicting trait is that of sloth, I never got around to do it. The most I've done was learn "Tong Hua" by a singer called Guang Liang on the piano and started doing "To Zanarkand" from Final Fantasy X but never finished. I even took it so far as buying a pricey guitar during my second year of university a few years back. I remember doing price research online for more than a week, looking at reviews, prices, and even looked for sound clips and videos so I can get a feel on how that model sounds. All was brilliant; then came the moment when I actually have to buy one. You know, I realise I'm awesome and grasping concepts and theories; it all plays out well in my mind, but when it comes to application, that's when only two words become dominant: "What do?" hahaha

On a certain capitalism day on the 14th of February 2009, a back-then-forever-alone me went to the music store in Canterbury, Kent, UK. I tried a few instruments, then who knows, through destiny or maybe even educated selection. I chose my guitar. Until today, strumming it sends a wave of euphoria, the sound of my guitar shakes my soul (lol dramatic much). But it's true, I never regretted getting this guitar, only regret not being hardworking enough to maximise it's use. However, regret is a wasted emotion, I should seriously pick it up again!

As I mentioned, I love music; it's a part of how I live everyday. If one of the days I go out without a song in my mind and heart, I know something's amiss. Sometimes I have a song stuck in my head, and I sing to it in my head; head-banging even. To everyone else, I'm some weirdo who's content with bobbing my head haha.

Well that was a long story to tell, hope it wasn't a bore :P

So, dear readers, how does music impact YOUR life?


~Fox

Awkward moment when...

... there's a spike in pageviews but you have no idea where it's from.

Hey all!

Nothing much nowadays. Just trying to secure appointments as well as playing too much of LoL. Neighbours pissing me off with their damn blasting from their cars and random karaokes. Just normal stuff in my world lol.
I've been catching lots of nice tunes with Soundhound and basically just looking for them.

Been getting tired early at night nowadays. Not sure if it's because I don't go into night owl mode recently or I'm just getting tired at random lol.

Half an hour ago my shuffled playlist went into a song called Parade by a group called CHABA.


It's Japanese and one of the theme music for the anime, Naruto. Though I don't watch the series, I have this song for some reason. The beauty I find in this song is the Shimasen (the Japanese lute) and the simplicity. To me, if you have an awesome carefree moment, this song will play.

 And for some reason, unlike the last hundred times which this song played, I had a flashback of my first year in the UK as a university freshman (we call them freshers). The path I took to and from classes on campus, bus rides, Nandos with my buddies, the cool-cold air of autumn-winter. All those memories; time does fly freaking fast. It's already been 5 years since then; I miss those times. Reminiscing is good, but it's best not to dwell! Reality is harsher hahaha, what can I say other than screw it just do it?

As for the first sentence, I logged on this afternoon to see there was a massive spike in views but I can't make out what it was from. I don't know why I like to look at the blog stats; it's probably just my habit of going from Comments to Stats.

All the best, dear readers! Love life!

~Fox

Welcome to the real world~

Hey all!

Meh. I started writing about stuff back in the early week of May. And then nothing- I really thought there would be some more growth in Tales this month to be honest. During the past few weeks was quite busy on most days. On days which weren't busy, it felt like a waste being indoors.

Well I'm getting ahead of myself, aren't I? A little over a week ago, I was drafted into an insurance company. By drafted I mean I took and passed all the exams LOL so I should use the term "contracted". To be honest I was really sceptical about the industry as a career because, well, it's stereotyping right? Everyone who thinks  of an insurance agent thinks of a persistent and annoying person who keeps chasing you. I didn't want to be drafted because I for one (ironically) hate being called by strangers as I am VERY suspicious.

Well anyway, generally I've been attending classes and seminars on the how to and what do's. I've made appointments with friends and many were supportive and were OK with listening to my little presentation. Some even gave positive feedback which, to me, was priceless. Everything is fine until you reach the end of your contact lists; no one to call, no business, that's the rule of this trade. This is where it gets bumpy, who do you call? I do realise I should call my closest to share the benefits; so I'll see where that goes.

The company has been brilliant on calling people who are successful in this field to motivate and teach us. I often wonder if I can handle this in the long term. I guess I'm taking a bigger bite on the cake of life than I should at the moment. I should just nibble haha.

All in all, if you're in Brunei and would be interested in this little 20 minute presentation I have to give on Financial Health Check, do drop me a line ;)

As for the cover photo... I typed "real world" into google image search and got nothing useful. And off the top of my head I just searched the first thing that was on my mind. And strangely came to the Sword in the Stone. For those who don't know the story, it's a nice little tale about King Arthur on how he was chosen by the blade set in stone. The Sword may only be pulled out by the Chosen One which turns out to be Arthur who became the king of England.

I don't know what compelled me to do think of this photo. Might be some internal strife I'd reckon; a mental wall I have to challenge myself to scale in order to reap the rewards on the other side. I must not give up!


~Fox

Instagram?

Hey all!

Man, I've been posting more in these few days than I've done in the past few months huh? Not that I'm proud of being inactive, mind you. Recently I've just gotten more of the feeling of when I started Tales. That brilliant feeling of wanting to share my thoughts with you readers, anonymous on the internet as an entity I don't know.

As always, thank you very much if you're a regular reader. It REALLY does mean a lot to me that you guys keep coming back for more random posts. As you might have seen, Fox's Tales isn't a specialist blog for food or hobbies. It's just my... pensive I guess. Just feeding thoughts into it and leave it as that.

On to what I want to say.

Many bloggers I've seen  have at least once or twice complained about microblogging sites such as Twitter. It's true that having a quick one liner that you agree with saves you time. But I do feel like doing so robs people of their writing aptitude. You don't need to think much and just say a sentence. That is, of course, only my personal views.

Hand in hand with these sites are apps like Instagram. Ironically, I don't mind using this app. Though it serves the same purpose of microblogging. Only using pictures. But as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. I do feel like a hypocrite bashing Twitter but using Instagram, but meh, I use it out of satisfaction haha.

On the note of Instagram, if you want to follow me, find me at foxeh88. You'll see random pictures I don't post here. You won't be too disappointed with the picture feeds I assure you. ;D

I guess this post is totally a shameless plug to my probably near-zero reader base. But hey! At least you get a random post from me today too! Hahaha!

See you on Hipstergram!


~Fox

SoundHound!

Hey guys!

So literally a half hour ago, I was bored so I whipped out my SoundHound app to check out what songs that I found nice so I can look for and listen to it on the internet.

Wait, I'm getting ahead of myself. What is SoundHound you say? Basically it's an app which listens to music, and then tells you what song it is, including information like whether it's a remix, lyrics, music videos and so on.

It is one of my most favourite apps on my iPhone (yes, hipster much). Especially when driving, you hear a nice song on the radio and the DJ tells you the name of the track. But if you're like me, you'd likely forget about it by the time the next few songs play. Or maybe I'd just forget about it completely when I get home even with knowing name and artist. So to me it's wonderful really, an app that tells you what the song is, if you tell me something like this will happen during my teen years, I'd probably cream my pants in anticipation.

As you can see from the post it's not a review but just me wanting to share this really great app for music lovers.

It's available on the both the Apple and Android appstore. At least I think it is lol.

Hope you guys like it as much as I do. ;D

~Fox

May the 4th Be With You!

Hey all!

Apparently, today is the annual Star Wars day. You may or may not know, I'm an avid Star Wars fan (to the point I'm willing to spend on a pricey lightsaber under the brand Force FX).

Anyway, I just want to shout out to any of my readers who like Star Wars too.

May the 4th be with you!

~Fox

Happy National Day Brunei!!!

HAPPY NATIONAL DAY TO ALL BRUNEIANS! (Those who are following my not-even-half-assed blog anyway)

I really can't believe it's already been a year since I did that National day post back when I was in the UK.

As for updates, I haven't been up to much back home... Looking for work and might to look for something part time for the time being..

On a different topic, I adopted a doggie a few years back :D Right  before Chinese New Year at the end of January.

Man I really should update more eh? I guess I started the blog because I wanted to post randomities and yet I've not been doing it enough justice lol. Just lazing and letting the blog wilt away while most of my pageviews are not even from people visiting; just people looking at my Ninjago dragon pictures trololol.

Anyway, take care everyone! I'll update if there's anything worth saying aha.


~Fox

Back in Brunei!

Hello readers!

This is a quick update to just say that I'm back in home sweet home, Brunei! I reached yesterday and am still getting used to it abit (not to mention passing out this afternoon as my bed was too comfy >.>) I also passed out in the first half of the flight as I was playing LoL all night long in my little hotel room in Heathrow airport :>

Then after a 15 hour flight with a 1 hour transit in Dubai, I'm here and man I don't know but Brunei is hotttttttttttttttttttt :< I'm missing the free airconditioning in the UK already! Also missing my Shin D:... Hopefully I can Skype with her tomorrow morning as I have to wake up real early to bring my siblings to school!

All in all nothing much is up yet other than I got my driver's license renewed and am glad the rumours about if you don't renew it within 6 months of expiry, you'd have to retake the driving exam is false. They actually give you a really lenient time of 3 years of expiration before you'd have to do that!

Haven't had much of the food from here yet! Looking forward to that.

Anyways sorry for the lack of updates :< I still need to get the Madiera stuff online D:

Keep coming!

~Fox

Return from Madeira!

Hey ya readers!

I'm back on British soil after a whole week on the island of Madeira. I have to say, it went by really fast and it feels like just yesterday I was on this train to London to catch my flight there, Well they say time flies when you have fun right? So that's probably why it went by quite fast.

I might recount my time there from days 1 - 7 since I wasn't able to do that day by day update as it was outrageously expensive to use the internet at the hotel I stayed at (basically it was 5 euros for 75min of internet and it went from there :/ ) The summary of it all was it was a great time but somehow I felt it degraded over the last 2-3 days there; I don't know why but the friends I went with seemed/felt different. Madeira is a beautiful place and by that I mean the natural landscape. Though one thing I absolutely despise about it was they allowed people to smoke indoors :/ And 2 of the friends that were there smoked like a train on overdrive. I reckon them being more distant could be me complaining about the second hand smoke flying to my face every time.

Regardless, the main reason I went all the way to Madeira wasn't solely for fun; I was there to attend a conference and I must say it was the best decision I've made this year xD. I experienced many things which a normal tourist that goes there would not have. Met many nice people and made contacts makes it all the more enjoyable. Also the food there was really cheap, surprisingly! Though I came home with only 5 cents in my pocket, I have to say I didn't spend much during my time there.

That's all I can think of right now :S Really tired from the travels but look forward to more in depth stories and some pictures from this tropical island!


~Fox

Journey begins! Madeira!

Hey readers!

I'm currently on the train from Nottingham to London. I can't seem to sleep even though I'm knackered from sleeping late near to 2am and waking up at 6am 1.5 hours ago :/ Really excited going to a place called Madeira for the next week! Mainly for attending a conference which I was looking forward to since months ago and partly for a bit of a holiday. Sadly Shin is busy with work and can't accompany me :< But if it's as nice as I've heard, I'll defo bring her there one day :>

I borrowed Shin's liiiiiiiittle laptop so I can check emails and everything more conveniently. Didn't want to bring mine because it's heavier and I would probably get distracted by LoL!

Unfortunately I didn't bring my camera connector wire.. Or did I, accidentally. But it is likely you guys won't see any pictures until I get back and I plan to take loads!

All in all I shall try to update day by day as for one it'll keep my posts coming and for another this would be my first virtual diary/memoir thingie lolol.

Here's to a good journey!
Cheers!

~Fox

Hell week was hell :/

Hey guys,

Yesterday I just submitted my dissertation :/ It was reeeeeeeally under the word limit so I hope everything will be fine. I didn't sleep for the whole night, wrote as much as I can and by morning I was on autopilot. When I read back at some stuff I wrote I was like wtfffff was I writing.

Anyways due date was at 5pm, got on the train at 3 thinking I'd have enough time to get my printing done and get the stuff bound. Fell asleep on the train and woke up just as I arrived at my stop, lucky :> Then I headed to the library to get the stuff printed. Little did I know I didn't have cash for printing credits and in the end got lost looking for an ATM :/ Printing done got it bound with one of my mates then submitted it at 5.15. Fortunately they were nice enough haha.

All in all work's done, ample of free time get! Games and no work weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.


~Fox

Enter, the week of hell!

Hey guys!

Lack of posts still I know! God I'm finding it hard to write systematically. The reason for my inactivity?

D

I

S

S

E

R

T

A

T

I

O

N

(and LoL)

It is truly killing me, that when I discuss it with some one, I wig out. Really wig out and then I space out. :/ The reason I'm getting stressed over this is because... well I've put it off till the last week to get it done! And yet look at me, blogging for the sake of procrastination! omg, 5th of September is looming fast....

I can tell it's not going to be as laid back as usual this week as there are so many things I have to take care of. For one, tonight I have to pack up every junk that I don't need to be with for the next 3 months to ship them back home to Brunei which the people are coming to collect tomorrow morning :/ The good thing is I don't have much stuff as I did after 3 years of staying in Kent for my undergrad. Back then I had LOOOOOOOADS of stuff including but not limited to: a 32" HDTV, XBox 360, a guitar, lots of posters, random junk and so on. Still, I went and bought some overpriced boxes that costed me 40 pounds :/ damn them taking advantage of people who wants to pack!

That's one thing, another is I'm gonna get kicked out of my hall of residence this 31st and I need to pack the remaining junk on the 30th and then move to Shin's bro's place where I can hopefully concentrate and rape the last bits of my dissertation. :/ Hand in is on the 5th and on then I'm moving in with Shin for a while :> Looking forward to that!

The good thing is, I feel that everything is actually possible in the short time which I have :/ Like just an hour or so ago I had an epiphany on writing the paper which I am VERY happy to get before it was too late! Speaking of which, I should REALLY get back to writing and figuring out wtf I'm on about.

Will update sooner or later! :S


~Fox

Le Quick Update

Hey guys!

Still lacking posts :/ BUT I've already seen Captain America and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 last Wednesday. So expect a quick review or two :>

Nothing much is going on these days other than me picking up pace for my dissertation but not enough steam in my opinion. Been playing fewer and fewer LoL games as it just pulls me in xD one game will end up being 3 meaning a maximum of 3 hours spent on gaming. Not that I complain but it kills my productive time haha.

Thanks for checking in (b ^.') Will update soon.

~Fox

Commenting comments that a commenter comment on a commentable... thing.

Hey guys!

Still lacking posts day by day but hey, at least I'm writing stuff from time to time so that you know Tales is not dead :>

Something just came to mind literally a few minutes ago. I enjoy reading comments. Why did I realise it now while I have been doing it for aaaaaaages escapes me. You see, it doesn't matter if I'm reading a blog, or watching a Youtube video or ever just looking at a Facebook photo, I will almost definitely scroll down to have a look at what people are saying.

There are so many things you can realise from taking people's opinion into account. Like something funny which you wouldn't have thought otherwise. Others make good arguments. But for the most part I enjoy the lol factor from reading comments. A video on Youtube will at least be twice as funny from the comments.

The negative side of things is just that there are lots of anonymous comments which involve racism, hate and so forth. That makes me sadface :<

So how about you, dear readers? Do you just watch the video and that's it? Or do you lurk and read like me? Or are you one of those avid commenters :P


~Fox

Updates gonna update

Hey guys!

Sorry for the massive lack of updates for the past.... AGES! I've been busy with gym and LoL amongst other things. And those things just make me tired. Oh and I'm bloody lazy to start on my dissertation :< Damn schoolworks...

Last week (or was it 2 weeks ago) I watched The Hangover 2 with my sis and haven't pulled myself to write a review on it :X

This is just a random update to say hi to you guys and thanks for coming back and check Tales once in a while :P

All the best.


~Fox

Shin's Birthday Update!

Hi guys!

I went to Nottingham last week on the 26th of April 2011 to celebrate Shin's birthday with her and a few other friends. Basically we went for dimsum for lunch, sort of surprising her with a cake, went for steamboat at night and finished it all with karaoke. :P

I don't have much pictures from the day sadly =X Not as trigger happy haha.

This is the mixed fruit cake we (friends and I) shared for her! Thanks to Shin Yi for sorting the cake out :P The cake was really good to be honest. The cream was soft and the fruits tasted really fresh. Though I got picked to cut cake for the others after they were bloated from dimsum and yet I cut a massive piece lolol.

I went out the day before to get her a card, this one caught my eye, it gave off a very nice 3D effect that doesn't hurt the eyes. There were other cards but this one seems most appealing :P The inside was dark purple and I had to go buy a silver pen to write on it lolol.

Finally, I actually gave Shin her present a few weeks in advanced because I ordered it, and it arrived while she was visiting me :S

What was it?

Tadaa! This fancy schmancy ring :P It was actually quite tough to find a present which has a use as well as relevant to a girl's interest lol. And it was too big strangely enough (damn inaccurate ring size chart thingies from buying online)

She said she liked it and had a good time on the day (other than the fact I played LoL til past midnight and she got pissed off :S Sorry wor!) It was fun times though :P

All the best~!!

~Fox