Jimmy BOH - New Beginning New Life

Parental Guidance

Unconditional love is about giving all and holding hands always with no regrets. =)

I have been missing in action for a while. So I posted this to give readers a new direction of my future posts and change of theme. This post is inspired by the million of writing 25 random thoughts in Facebook and I have just written mine after Valentine day.

25 Random Tots – Jimmy Boh

Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you. (Qualifier: Only when you feel bored, alone, feel like typing non-stop aimlessly)

Here it goes…

1. I am now recovering from flu, which leads me to count the number of times I am down with any virus and it led to on average I only fall sick at most 3 times annually. So i guess the next flu would be around May. The reason i guess is maybe due to the natural antibodies I had built up will expire around then. By the way, I don like taking panadol or flu medicine as I believe it will decrease my immune resistance. (Scientists and doctors, help me prove my hypothesis)

2. On a second thought, maybe the reason I don like to take medicine was because I was into too much drugs in my past history. Google "jimmy boh" and you know why.

3. I never did like and have not attended the 7pm classes and the summer modules (Sat morn to noon for 6 hours) when I was in SMU. But now I am going to do them in an advanced dip course next week. Yea, I am going back to SMU to study. Can I consider myself a fifth year senior?

4. I like to network. Or rather I like to help people I know or link them up for any kind of reasons. Looking for jobs, lobangs, looking for good vendors, contractors, teachers, or even matchmake. May I matchmake myself? Oki that a random joke.

5. I am in the alumni exco. Partly because of my desire to be serve my friends I have made while in SMU and hopefully I can still connect to them when I am 50 years old.. I think they would be 40 plus by then. By the way, the new university lounge is cool. Got free coffee, mocha, latte, mocha. Can play pool and futsal. Don forget to play the Wii and watch cable tv. Mon-Fri 9am-10pm, sat sun i think it is opened from 9am till 6pm.

6. I have a blog. Intially, back then in 2006, I set a theme of writing posts with an inspirationally mischevious theme. I am running out of topics and I seemed to be repeating myself in new posts. So I do not know what to do with it. Should I revent with a new theme? Like writing a novel and each post entails a chapter with readers giving suggestions to the next? Woo sounds exciting. Then what kind of novel should I write? I am thinking of a thriller with crime sex and passion. Haha. Oh yea, my blog add is jimmy.boh.spaces.live.com

7. I think I am a romantic person. I written my first love letter on Valentine day to my late mother when I was 10 years old. That was when I first knew about valentine day. I think I got the idea from some TV programmes and the message is to appreciate the ones I love, and not the lovers' kind of message. I remembered cutting the drawing board white paper into half, took out my crayons and drooled a woman holding a boy's hands. I think there are the standard sun, birds and a tree. And the message was "Happy Birthday and Happy Valentine Day, Mummy! I love you forever." I miss her.

8. Oki, 7 does not meaningfully support my premise of "I think I am a romantic person." I have written love letters to gals I am or was attracted to. My first ones were also during primary school years, it was kind of sweet to reminisce now. But I think i was remembered for being a mischevious terror in class rather than a romantic boy. Haha. To meaningfully support my premise, I have also written some (oki I am modest) to .... (due to privacy controls, the content is censored. =)

9. My childhood hobbies ranged from playing marbles, climbing up and jumping down from carpark walls, kicking ball in the void deck when I am in HDB, in primary school, I tried everything from one legged catching, zero point and five stones and I loved the school band, the practise hours keep me occupied because I just don like to study. Most of my sec school years I spent my time playing with my freestyle bike which I spent 650 bucks ( I went to work as a caddie to save up for this bike). Yup I got no cca during secondary school because they do not have a freestyle cycling club. I am in named a Gardening Society member. =P I love nature but indifferent towards gardening.

10. I got my motorbike licence when I was 17. I got my first bike, A Yamaha one seater 200cc bike. Two weeks later, I got into my first accident. I was racing with a scrambler and I refuse to let go thottler nearing the corner when the scrambler let go. And I cannot do the bend with that speed and thus... i threw my bike and rolled rolled . I had injuries on my knees and shin. Worst injury is .... oki, I shall described as I walked like a duck for two weeks. =P

11. I drive an old toyota now. Yup with four wheels. And no more angst about racing.

12. I had my first cigarette when I was 17. It was Marlboro red. My first drink was Martell Cordon Bleu. I don like Gin and most probably tequila ( I don like shots but love long island tea). But I have grown to love voka. All these was done when I worked as a nightclub waiter when I was 16 turning 17.

13. For those who do not know me well, yup, I spent 5 and half years in prison for peddling marijuana. A transformative and enlightening 5 and half years though. I think the most peaceful years I had was in prison.

14. I love poker. The reason why because of all the psychology about it. You may wan to bluff a hand but you got to know whether you would be able to pull it off, by understanding various factors, like opponents still in the game, their likelihood of cards (this need understanding of betting patterns), their historical streak till that hand, their chips left, and their natural inclination to call every hand. Another thing is that you may feel lucky and wan to try your luck against another by gambling and raise or call all in. This you would also have to understand the best chances. Though you would not survive long if yo do this more than too often. Anyone game for a session soon?

15. I like coffee. I usually tapou one from Coffee and Toast on my way to work, another one during lunch. I would take tea in the afternoon, stopping myself from too much coffee because at dinner I would have another one.

16. I like drinking. Yup I got a belly. But since have gone down after less drinking to like once a month and been going to gyms quite recently. And will be going for more gym since I am a fifth year senior now. haha.

17. Since SMU, I learnt to open up more about my past. I think I am oki now, meaning my inferiority complex is gone.

18. I have a premonition that if I don get married by 38, (I am 34 this year), I will be a swinging bachleor for the rest of my life. Actually it sounds good. Oops. But I do yearn to becoming a good father to my children if that really happens. Oki I will also be a loving and responsible husband.

19. I am planning for a good old revamp cum renovation of my 3 room HDB flat where me and my father lives. So I have to start saving now. My friend already agreed to help me design. Woo. (Thanks in adv, if you are reading!!)

20. I getting tired of typing 25 random things. Where got so many random things to rantle about? Oki, my dream holiday is to Japan around Mar and April where all the sakura petals would be floating around. I first saw them when I was in Canada Vancouver on a study exchange. I also wanted to experience the Nippon culture. So I guess the trip will be at least a month stay over there at some guest house or friend place.

21. I tried snowboarding when I was in Vancouver. Been to Whistler, Grouse and I miss snowboarding.

22. I want to travel the whole world. But I guess I will only complete that when I am in crutches. But rest assured I will do it.

23. I have more than a thousand contacts in facebook and msn. I do try to make small talk with them on msn if I can actually remember their nick or email addresses. I also kept my old nick "SMUgging Marathon" hoping people will remember me and talk to me. haha. Maybe I should try harder.

24. I lost my mum when I was 24 years one month and 20 days old. Gonna be 10 years anniversary soon.

25. Woah, I guess the last would be thinking of putting this 25 into my blog. And thanks for staying with me till now. Cheers.

My elder brother added a 26th:

26th - injured your head when young and see doc and got bandaged, told to rest then injured again the 2nd day crawling under the drain and hospitalised with more bandage and "ordered" to stay overnight to prevent 3rd injury...

No regrets

Jimmy

Parental Guidance

Caution: The tides are coming in after reading this. Cast your net.

It is a cloudy Sunday afternoon. I am sitting along the rocky coastline writing this at Marina South as I watched people fishing and casting their nets, patiently waiting for their prize of the day.

It is peaceful, hearing the clashes of the waves coming against the rocks as I pondered over what is the prize of my day. It had been a long while ever since I took out my brother’s bicycle out for a ride. I paddled to Marina South and to a gulp of saliva, it had changed enormously, or rather in a process of a big change. Everywhere on the road were little granite pebbles, probably littered by the lorries and trucks plowing the multitude of construction sites there. Marina South is soon to be transformed into the so called “New Downtown”. I had wanted to go to Marina Park where there is a little exercise corner with pull up bars for me to play with, and I was blocked by high metal planks and a sign “under construction for a new park”. Marina South is changing, places are all changing, and we will also change. The only motivation is that we hope the change is for a better morning sun to come.

I have just started on my career, although at a ripe age of thirty-three, the first day of work was a day of exuberated elation. I am now able to do what I like doing and not shrink and shudder when I wanted to think and dream of a better tomorrow. I truly felt I am living my second chance at life. I am also glad at the bigger picture of things that had changed are the general perceptions on exconvicts had evolved to be more forgiving. The sun looks bigger now.

People constantly grumbled over bread and butter issues like repaying debts, insurance premiums, flat mortgages and eerily, it was like a manifestation of a showering redemption to me to be able to shoulder these responsibilities to come. Or rather I felt I found back my long lost dignity. Now I could make my father happy by giving him some hundreds every month, I would save some to indulge in my own investment plan, and of course to save up for marriage and future kids to come if I do find a dream gal to lavish all my love upon the family.

The waves are still clashing against the rocks and I saw some happy “fishermen” giggling over their prizes of the day. Not big fishes but is still a happy catch. The sun will be brighter tomorrow.

Live for tomorrow

Jimmy BOH

Parental Guidance

Warning: Do not be too Extreme after reading this.

I have just turned thirty-three a few hours earlier. The unbelief that time really zoomed through space leaving nobody noticing any trace unless one take some precious moments to stop whatever mundane businesses of these world to stop and look deeply at those paths that had been walked and many turns that one about to take.

Many say that life is full of ups and downs, well, I would add my past life was full of extreme ups and extreme downs. With both parents working, I have extreme freedom since I was a kid, and I spent a free happy childhood with my two brothers playing “catching and hide and seek”, marbles, climbing bars and walls of carparks, playing soccer with the aim to smash someone’s shopfront, graduating to freestyle cycling with my younger brother. Those were the extreme happy times, only ended with an extreme down time where I experienced a first death of a cycling buddy we had. Till now, I still remembered his eyes.

School was a chore then when I wanted to grow up quickly and earn some money. However, as problematic as I was, like being punished for dirty shoes, “ponteng” to earn some bucks as a golf caddie, and an incident which smeared my heart and indented my mentality then to swerve more towards to extreme, I always managed to handle the subjects well and finished the O levels. Maybe this point would be the turn before the extreme downward drop started.

The spiral started when I worked in a nightclub then while waiting for Os. I had my first drink, a brandy, first cigarette, Marlboro and gamble, though I was not very keen then. I got into Poly, but not for long, the poly or me become a soccer ball that got kicked out for not attending lessons and exams. “What the use of studying anyway?” was the voice that kept banging my head then.

Eventually, this wayward kid went down a path to a looming dungeon. All known, weed was the key that opened a life of careless living that turned into a police and thief game where the police always win. Faced with the opening doors of the dungeon life, I held my sunken heart hoping it would be the end of the extreme down.

Every inmate knew that there were two things that would bring you to the lowest dungeons. One is falling sick and die in there or someone you loved decided to leave this world without a chance to say goodbye. I touched that walls of that dungeon and stayed there for many months before I could actually see a little light forward. I love my mum.

The light guide me to self-study in there and eventually got a dream place in SMUgging Marathon. I wondered what kept me going throughout the marathon, it was a sense of hunger or maybe the survival instinct bred in the dungeons, of me wanting a better tomorrow where I did not even dare to think of during the fugitive years. I was living a dream.

I crossed the finishing line of SMUgging Marathon and now about to start on a career. A good friend said that I had come a full journey home, though a long one climbing away from the deepest dungeons since. I am extremely happy.

Paths taken are your guide to choose the turns before you. Some looks easy like a straight road to heaven, some need to climb over huge mountains, but you never know which one is the right one to happiness. It is easy to turn back for the familiarity of the past but you know you cannot just stop and stand there and let time zoom away. You got to take a turn.

So on this fine day that I am thirty three, I realized that I need to feel hungry again, to be hungry for finding paths and turns that would make me smile when I looked back and say to myself, “ it was all worth it”, unlike those times looking back would meant silent tears. I need to plan and start dreaming again. The light would always be my guide.

Happy Birthday to me.

Jimmy BOH

Parental Guidance

Warning: You would want to say hello to someone today. Say it.

One important aspect of a successful recovery to a reformed life is to have new and healthy circles of friends. However, for an ex-convict to make new friends is not easy. The stigma and stereotypes shadowing one excon would have inhibit him to keep the past to himself and this would not help in blossoming friendship where one cannot open up and strike a stronger bond with people he started to know. It would require a strong belief in oneself that as long as you are sincere towards people and taking a brave step forward in sharing an awful past trustingly hoping for acceptance.

Thus, remembering that one of my goals in SMUgging Marathon is to bump into as many new people as possible and hoping to strike new friendships and acquaintances. Though a bit unsure during the first year on how to elaborate on reasons why a student like me, numerous years older than the others, ended up doing a degree in SMU. I had two approaches, if I do not initially knew the person in class, usually I avoid the question or let them jump to their conclusions, while hoping for a better chance to elaborate when they get to know me better in future. Or if they are my classmates or friends of classmates, they would have known bits and pieces from my earlier sharing with others.

Things got better when I became a public figure in school with Wong’s published column and it became easier to make acquaintances and friends, knowing that I come clean about my past to the world and it is up to them to see and judge on dealing with their perceptions. I am glad that most of them are so accepting and through the 4 years of SMUgging Marathon, I made tons of friendship, if not at least I tried to make small talk whenever I meet people, and tried to recall names that I have noted. Feeling a bit guilty that sometimes I just forgotten names and tried to avoid saying their names while in conversation. For those who know me now, you understood why sometimes, I shouted “hey hey” instead of your name.

The internet was new to me in 2003 when I just got released and instant messaging applications just amazed me as a superb medium to stay connected to people. It was a better way than getting people’s numbers because of reasons that it seemed a bit weird to sms people you just knew with a “hihi” or “hello” but absolutely fine in instant messaging when it would be interpreted as wanting to spend time chatting. As years goes by, I also realized people change numbers more often than they changed their email addresses. Thus, whenever I met new people, I tend to always get their msn addresses rather than phone numbers unless I do find a need to call them for other matters. Unashamedly, I have over a thousand contacts in my MSN list over the years but a tinge of guilt plagued me over my efforts to chat with most of them. To add, I have also a facebook account, a social networking application where one can stay connected to people too. And I believe facebook should be the most suitable application than MSN and it allows more than just instant messaging, and include posting of pics and write notes like my blog.

I get to meet new friends in class, projects, CCAs, being a teacher assistant and school events like camps. I would love to pay tribute to them in this post.

Classmates and projects mates in my years. Learning from you, the younger ones have taught me new flexibility, both in learning and character, and subduing my past into an edge of experience to be imparted in our learning journey. I hoped you have gained as much as I have from you people.

People I encountered in the many camps and events I have participated, numerous to name but wonderful people you are. Fun is something elusive unless we have put down all things in this mundane world and get into an alien mode that shoots bursts of laughter and tears. We all had fun and the world.

Being in the SMU Student’s Association EXCO is the most memorable stint in SMUgging Marathon. I had made lasting friendships not only with the EXCO and council and also with many in other CCAs. I wish I had been of great service to you all during my term and hoped I do not owe you any more unprocessed claims.

I have been a teacher assistant for Prof Tan Teck Meng for 3 years and it involved me providing consultation for his students, my school mates. I have learnt as much as you could have when I tried creative ways of explanation and hope my tips were useful. Financial Acccounting is the language of business and hope you would not hate FA, just remember “What you have plus what you borrowed = what you buy”, “What you sell minus what you pay = your Hongbao money”.

In recognition of all the professors that I had the honour to learn from, be it I was your best or worst student, you all have made a mark on my new life and I seek to remember you by striving for the best always.

To end SMUgging Marathon with a finale, I have joined the Graduation Nite committee as Programme Head and I hope I would make a terrific evening for this new and healthy circle of friends I have.

Loves

Jimmy BOH