Highlights of 2015!

It's when you reflect that you glean new insights. I like to look back at the year to see what has happened. And this year was pretty damn eventful.

1. I played WoW again

To understand the context of why this is a significant event, you must see this post I wrote in 2011:

http://crazerk.blogspot.sg/2011/09/dear-future-me.html

I basically told myself not to play WoW ever again. But somehow, due to the circumstances of my life, I was so free and bored and had someone at work who triggered the spark in me again... that I started playing.

Some scrub PuG at imperator

2. I was gymming regularly

This started about some time in 2014, but I really hit the groove and was super regular in 2015.

This is the buffest I will ever be, because.... I recently decided to stop gymming due to injury :( Already lost a lot of muscle tone. Oh well.

3. I proposed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njZ90zSth9c

After a long period of preparation in 2014, all that was left was to wait for the right moment. And that right moment was on Valentine's Day of 2015. I lured the gf to NUS under the pretense of an experiment by Eri, and then sprung the video I made last year on her. I was pretty nervous throughout, though the gf was bouncing and laughing and was obviously going to say yes. I'm engaged!

4. I went to Hong Kong!

The trip was interesting for a variety of reasons... but it was overall quite fun (for me at least)

Winsome dimsum. Haha. HK is an interesting place, very similar to Singapore. Food is not bad too.

5. I switched jobs

Probably one of the biggest life transitions for me, I moved out from my cushy gahmen job into the brand new corporate world of a tech company.

I recall doing a lot of soul searching, a lot of consulting friends for advice, a lot of helpless laments. But hey, I got somewhere. And I tried something I always wanted to try. It's a pity it had to end.

6. Made a viral blog post

In a most unexpected way, I went viral on social media. The gist of it is, I had a bad experience at a gym, wrote about it here, people shared it, it got picked up by All Singapore Stuff, it went even more viral, and eventually I think over 50,000 people read my blog post.

A summary of events can be found in my follow-up blog post here.

7. I had a sick office

Ok, related to my point 5, my office is pretty sick.

This article talks more about it:
https://vulcanpost.com/310102/garena-new-office-penthouse/

8. Went for a cosplay festival

Never in my life would I imagine that I would go for a cosplay festival, but because of work, I did! I got to meet many cool and interesting (and weird) people. Definitely one of the most interesting experiences of my life.

9. Went to Tioman!

An unexpected island trip with these fine folk. We ran out of things to do after a while, so ended up doing things like swimming and playing ball in the pool and playing pingpong and pool in the games room. That's fine though.

Also went snorkeling for the first second time in my life! Well the first time was around this lame enclosure at Adventure Cove @ Sentosa so it's not counted. This was real sea snorkeling. Quite fun, despite several coral cuts.


10. Played paintball for the first time!

With some church peeps. I can't find the picture we took, so no pictures here. It was fun! But very very tiring. Very quickly breathless. And it's so easy to get shot ouch. I wish paintballs were more accurate though, with a scope and all. Then I'll really go full sniper and leopard crawl and hide my body and camouflage all.

11. Got an iPhone

The iPhone 6S 64GB to be precise. I was on Android for the longest time, from S4 to the iNO2 (because of work), then back to S4, then finally decided to jump back to Apple. Wrote a blog post about the phone, and still loving it!


12. Made new friends and lost them fast

No, we didn't have a falling out or anything. Just that my team formed up really fast, grew to a size that I was questioning every day, and eventually the bubble burst, with people moving out to other places and shrinking to 3 and eventually dissolving to nothing.

Such a strange experience, but I really do like some of these people and hope we can meet up occasionally.

13. Got a wicked sick box for my birthday!

https://www.facebook.com/alan.teo.986/videos/10153037760896356/?theater

My girlfriend fiancee has invested crazy hard work and effort to some of my past gifts, but this one took the cake (maybe because it had a cake in it). This was so creative and amazing and cool. It still blows my mind how someone can care enough for someone else (and that someone else to be me) to put in so much effort to doing something like that. I'm a lucky guy.

14. Went for USS Halloween Nights 2015

We only went for two haunted houses, but I think I'm somewhat outgrowing these things. Don't derive as much pleasure from them as I did, say, 2-3 years ago. Damn. I used to LOVE these so much, and would go at every opportunity.

15. Planned a mass escape game for SEED camp

When Yvonne approached me last year to come up with some escape room game for SEED camp, I immediately knew I would do it. 

When timo approached me this year to do something similar again, I immediately knew I would do it again.

I just love designing these puzzles and thinking how best to frame them. It was a tough journey, but I managed to put together something fairly challenging and enjoyable (I think), hope the youths liked it. 

16. Participated in a cool musical

Well, I wasn't part of the cast, but I played drums for my church's Christmas musical. Was a fun experience, going for rehearsals and watching everyone stumble over their lines and being armchair critics with the band.

I thought that most jokes would be lost, and I'm not sure how many jokes were actually appreciated, but most feedback about it seemed good, so glad it went well! Gotta love the camels, 3 girls acting all bimbotic hehe.

And... that's a wrap! 2015 has been a blast, and I wonder what 2016 has in store for me. Hopefully, I will _ _ _ _   _   _ _ _   _ _ _.