This year, 2010 was weird in a sense the first half of the year felt rather stale. Imagine doing the same old things continuously like studying during day time, working at night, doing your own stuff after work till late late night. That has been what happened for the first half of the year. Of course little incidents and the little parties that we have brings a spark of life, but it wasn't enough. Something felt missing.
The 2nd half was more amazing, mainly thanks to music, my realization and everyone growing up. It was like a roller coaster ride with both ups and downs.
Disclaimer as usual,
- I won't include people that have already been in the list in past years for the same reason that they have influenced me. (Rurouni, Uni Cliques, Shuqin etc)
- I won't release the person's name if it's deemed as inappropriate or unsuitable to me and that person in case of any slander or effecting my relationship with that person whatsoever.
- If your name is not included here, it doesn't mean that you're not important to me. All my friends/families are precious to me.
- This post is not meant for any form of hurt or ill intent whatsoever to any person, if you're offended in the post, tell me and I'll put it down ASAP. This contents could be intimate and personal.
Therefore, without further ado, I present to you....
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Number 5: Ah Ning (Sister-in-law)
In May this year, a new person was added into my family. No it's not a new baby, it's a new sister of mine. My 30 year old Brother married his Thai girlfriend, Vaisuwan Siwaporn whom the whole family called affectionately as Ah Ning.
But from what I know, it wasn't that straight forward a road actually.
From god knows when, my parents had actually been quite expectant of my brother to get married. He had a few girlfriends and it didn't actually worked out. From don't know when though, Brother started dating Ah Ning. Initially it was a little shaky for the family, especially my parents they felt insecure and rather anxious on what to expect from a daughter in law who can't speak good english. Communication would be a problem.
However the problem cooled down as we talked more. Ah Ning is a very sweet and considerate girl and gained over my parents' trust. For me it didn't really matter though. :x As long as my brother is happy, whoever he marries is fine as long as that person doesn't get on my nerves (he did have 1 that got on my toes when he was in jc).
So they got registered in ROM this year May and Ah Ning was officially part of the family. The actual wedding won't began until when my brother is more financially secure and when they get a house. My Ah ma is quite expectant of a great grandson soon though. :/
One problem we faced at first though was to settle Ah Ning's PR. The IMA initially only gave short term visa. This forced Ah Ning needing to return back to Thailand and can only return after like a month or so. This made my brother very cranky, which is also another reason why they got to ROM first then ceremony few years later. She got her long stay VISA eventually and can stay for a long period of time before going back. However, a long stay VISA is still not a working permit and thus Ah Ning is unable to work for any local companies here.
So what does Ah Ning do nowadays? Housewife. Which is just nice as my mother went from the transition of being a full time housewife to a working admin. So only 1 housewife in the house each time. I won't say she's a full-fledged one yet but she's steadily improving and that's a delight to see. And unlike my mum, she is WILLING to wash my plates for me!!! THAT IS A BIG PLUS!!!! However at times I still can't get used to the food she prepares >.<
So why is it that Ah Ning can be number 5 in the countdown for this year. Reason is simple, she is now an official part of the family. I see her everyday, I eat her food almost everyday, we hang out and drink at times together. In fact in a sense, somehow the relationship between my brother and me improved thanks to her. My brother somehow had a bit of change in attitude and I attribute that to Ah Ning. I can say, my family is a happier family now, with Ah Ning in the picture.
Few years later, my brother and Ah Ning will move out, have a baby and I will officially become an Uncle. Until then the family is as happy as it is now and that makes a happy Takahina. :)
It's kinda a modern miracle too to see that thai girls getting the happiness that they want and out of the messy life that they used to lead. Makes chasing a dream more palatable.
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Number 4: Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook
This guy must have been praying or something, cause of out so many social networking website, facebook must be the one with the luck to achieve international popularity and monopolized it. All other websites like Friendster, Hi-5, Zorpia are all GONE. In fact nowadays it's like if you don't facebook, you SUCK.
So it's of no surprise, Takahina facebooks.... alot. To the extent that 70% of my time on the computer will be on facebook. So Mark Zuckerberg, you have the honour of entering the list of number 4.
To be frank I forgot since when I had my first facebook account but it isn't until this year that I fully use it 24/7. On my comp, on my phone, in lan shops, you don't really see me without it for more than a week. Even if I'm overseas, I'll try ways to gain access to a computer to go online. I didn't expect myself to be so "addicted" to facebook and I think neither would anyone else expect it to be such a big phenomenon in this early 21st Century.
So I go onto facebook, what do I do? Like everyone else, I check status, post shoutouts, see what's going on with people's life. Eventually that entered into looking at people's photo... soon enough it evolved into "sybastalking" as Chin Han likes to mention, that is to understand a person first via their facebook info and pictures. It's quite a skill actually and Takahina is slowly grabbing the nature of it. Due to the nature of facebook it became like a information highway for Takahina to gain access to info about people, from whatever you talk/comment/pics/info, I would know more about you, as long as you have facebook.
Example:
Girl A (not friend yet) -> know her via facebook -> check out her info and pics to know her frequent hangouts -> Info has blog address on it -> Access blog -> Know more personal stuff about her -> Know what to talk about with that girl etc fashion/nightlife/dance etc -> Get friendly with girl -> Real life meet up and friends and more!
All this, just from facebook. It's amazing really.
The other thing about facebook is that it gets you in contact with so many many people around you all of a sudden. It's not an understatement to say that facebook has improved my network and circle of friends greatly. I know much more musician friends from it, I know much more information and places to hang out etc, I got back in contact with a few friends whom I thought I would never see again etc.
Also the next thing about facebook, is that because it's so accessible to know about people's info, certain stuff you learn about could be hurting, regardless whether the person who posted the stuff up knows about it or not. Just the notion of knowing whether you're "friend" or not with a person or whether someone had "unfriend" you or not can mean a lot of things to a person. Just the amount of people commenting and wishing you happy birthday on your facebook can mean the amount of popularity you have. It shows a lot of things if you analyze the details of a person's facebook profile.
That's why Takahina loves facebook so much, because it's so darn straight to your face.
So Mark Zuckerberg, be happy, Takahina enjoys your facebook ALOT. And for that, you're number 4 on my list. Darn you even have a movie for it, must really be your year huh. ;/
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Number 3, 2 and 1 will be up on the next post.
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