Simplicity.

Sometimes, we humans try to hard. We stress ourselves to come up with long, well thought out articles on time; we spend hours after hours working for money, but what is it all for?

To be happy.

To be content.

But in the hustle and bustle of day to day life, we forget. We forget that happiness does not stem from such pursuits. But it's all in the state of mind.

It's sad that we forget that it doesn't take much to be happy. It doesn't take a new laptop; a shiny red sportscar; or being that tall, dark, and handsome hunk; but it's all about accepting who you are and enjoying the little things in life.

You can get all down and upset that you're not the richest, handsomest, spoilt brat in the world, and the world's being unfair because you're driving a Kelisa instead of a BMW, and your laptop is a 2 year old Acer instead of a Macbook Air, but do those things really matter?

Even when you have all those things, what really counts is having the best friends in the world to share it all with. And I already have that.

Happiness, it's that simple.

***

And the secret to living an amazing life is also amazingly simple - you gotta just step out of your comfort zone and do all those things that you were too frightened to do.

Approaching a cute girl at park, calling up a friend you lost contact with, writing a late letter of appreciation to someone that deserves it, all aren't easy things to do, but if you just challenge yourself to overcome that fear and do it, your life just becomes so much more interesting and colourful.

And that's the kind of life I want to live. I can't accept anything less.

And I'm going to try doing it for a month.

Everytime I post, I'll come up with something that I've always feared of or am apprehensive of doing, and I'm going to challenge myself to do it.

The secret to an amazing life is simple, but it's not easy, but I know I want to push myself through this.

So Here's the task I have for myself for Day 1:

Write a long overdue letter of appreciation and an email to a long lost friend.

I've already pushed myself to do it, and I'm going to write all about it tomorrow. Please comment if you have any new ideas of tasks to challenge myself with. Any suggestions to do things that would push me outside my comfort zone would be a good idea.

Let's see if this can make my life any more amazing.

Hamlet's Hero signing out.

It's Party Time!

One more week of work at SummerHill Realty, and it's PARTY TIME! I've decided that I'm going to party as hard as I can before I got to go off to Singapore for university orientation on 21st July!

Since all the UK people and the Aussie people are coming back for break real soon, it's going to be on hell of a fun time!

But before I start partying like crazy with all my dear friends who are coming back for their break, there's still one group of people that I would so love to hang out with before I got to leave for university.

The Crazy Bunch.

Yup, you guessed right! It's my beloved (ex-) students of DJ!

That's why Tysern, Chongxian and myself are organizing a big party for all our DJ (ex-) students this coming Saturday!

I know that our timing is a little off as the holidays are just over, but we were really busy with things we had to do then.

So here are the details:

Who's invited: All of Mr. Kevin's, Mr. Chuah's and Mr. Tysern's students from DJ!

Date: 14th June 2008, Saturday.

Time: 5.ooPM onwards.

Venue: To be confirmed soon, dependent on the number of respondents.

There will be games, music and a whole lot of fun! Tysern is in charge of games and music, and I know that with Tysern around, it's definitely going to be fun!

Since everybody and anybody from DJ is invited, this will be a potluck party and it would be really great if everyone can bring a little something to share! The three of us will be preparing the drinks and some basic food, but we're really looking forward to tasting what you people are going to bring! Girls, here is where you show off your cooking skills!

Please confirm your attendance by commenting the post on Mr. Chuah's blog about this party as he's in charge of the guestlist! I'll put up the link to that post here soon after he puts it up. Make sure you confirm your attendance soon (by Thursday) so we can get all the necessary arrangements ready.

If you're one of my students from DJ and reading this, do two things:

1. Make your Saturday free for this party and register by commenting on Mr. Chuah's blog post!

and...

2. Tell all your friends in school about it! The more the merrier!

I'll be fun, I tell you, so don't miss it!

***

For my (slightly) older friends, I haven't forgotten you kay? I'm eagerly waiting for all of you to come back so we can party too! My place is always free for a party! We'll have one big one soon when all of you are back!

Feel really hyper tonight and just really want to dance to loud music all night long but it's no fun without you guys! So come back and let the parties begin!

What Women Want #4: A Man Who Doesn't Need Her!

I was thinking of various ideas for this post, and I chanced this on Sophia's blog:

Someone who doesn't make me his LIFE, but someone who makes me the FAVOURITE part of his life.

Yeah, well lesson learnt from my Minnienah here. She told me once. And I pondered on this a lot. You know, when people say stuff like ,"You are my everything, you are my life". It's kinda risky, because most relationships don't end this way and ALSO because it isn't very sincere if we think about it. I don't want to be EVERYTHING to someone. I don't want him to put me in front of everything and not give a damn about everything else. I don't want to be the reason he lives! (eeyer) I also realised that you know, one phone call for an hour a day is way better than smsing for a whole day. We need space ya 'all!:)It makes us yearn for more, and appreciate what we get. This sorta links to interest and spontaneity (oh god, how do I spell this?:P) I guess that most of us get 'bored' easily as we humans are generally people who love learning new things! And when there is nothing to learn from, we feel ler dead. Well, sparks is essential I guess. See, I don't really know HOW a certain guy could keep me feeling all excited because it's never happened :P, but I bet there's someone out there who knows how to, by just being his spontaneous , interesting self.

- Sophie, from radiant-rain.blogspot.com

And I can't help but agree.

Once upon a time, a time where this blogger was still a lot more naive, I once thought that what every girl wanted was a guy that made her his life.

I mean, what more could a girl ever want more than a guy who would think about her every minute of the day, call and SMS her a gazillion times an hour to make her feel loved and cared for, as well as do everything in his power to get her anything that her heart may fancy. A guy whose heart beat only for her and whose existence was justified by that smile on her face.

Yes, I once bought into all that boy band bull****.

"That made perfect sense right?" my naive former self thought. Guess I didn't know my stuff then.

Well, you 'nice guys' may disagree, but I can tell you from personal experience that this whole "she is my reason for existence" thing is a whole recipe for disaster. A whole complete recipe. Let me show you why any self respecting male should not need his girl too much:

1. A guy who makes his woman his world is predictable. Which in other words means BORING!
I guess Soph hit it on the nail here. A guy who goes all out to be nice to his girl ALL the time is incredibly predictable. He'll always be there for her parties, carry her shopping bags and probably even spend tons of time with her and her girlfriends. You ALWAYS know what he'll be up to next because it will be whatever she asks for!

This causes the sexual tension, that spark that women always seem to be talking about, to disappear! Like I discussed earlier in What Women Want #2, women to be kept on their toes wondering if their man really cares for them. It injects excitement into the relationship. It's what makes her tingle with excitement on her bed at night, wondering what that last, slightly aloof SMS you sent to her actually meant. It's what she so enjoys spending hours with her girlfriends discussing.

But it all goes away when it's TOO APPARENT that shes your one and only. Yes, it totally evaporates. So don't overdo the "I'll love you to the ends of the world thing" too much. From time to time, yes. But NOT ALL THE TIME!

2. Making her your all and being around her all the time is not 'nice', it's smothering (unless shes one of those super clingy, needy types).
When you spend all your time around your girl, you risk not giving her enough space. One very important thing to remember is that the girl that you're dating had a life BEFORE you came along!

I strongly believe that whoever that you date should enhance the present quality of your life, and if you don't give your girl the space she needs to be with her friends (without your interruption) and her hobbies, she's not going to be too happy at you for it. She's just gonna hate you more and more for smothering her. So don't do it!

Besides, spending every second of every day with her is also going to make it impossible for her to miss you, and yearn for you. And every girl secretly wants to miss her boyfriend, at least a little. (:

3. Not having a life of your own makes you so much less interesting.
One thing that many guys fail to realize is that when a guy makes his girlfriend's life his own, he stops being that person that his girl fell in love with in the first place. Just ask yourself, which kind of guy is a girl more likely to fall in love with:

A. A confident guy who has his own priorities in life (i.e. a backbone!) and his own social circle that he can rely on.

or

B. The guy that gives up his friends for his girl and is always waiting on his girl?

Girls need a strong guy with a backbone, who acts congruently on his values, not someone who readily gives up his life for someone else, because such a person is so much more respectable (so if you chose guy B, you're sorely lacking in self respect!).

And you're definitely someone respectable and someone deserving of admiration from your girl if you dump your life for her. It also shows that you didn't have an interesting life to begin with, further making you look like a hopeless loser.

***

Would Leonidas be anywhere as cool as he is if he was pussywhipped by his wife the queen to stay and not go to war? Women want a man who stands strong to his own values, lives by his own standards, and has his OWN life, not a needy person who depends on her for his survival.

What's also important to consider is also that if you ditch your life for your girl, it's going to be really difficult to get back on your feet should the unthinkable happen.

Your life's yours for a reason. A girl is not a good reason to throw it all away.

Till then, live your OWN life, not hers!

Hamlet's Hero out.

***

I'm all done with the Project Trafford post, and I'm really excited about it! I can't wait to share it with all of you because it really is a really interesting concept!

The thing is that I can't release it to the world yet until I get the green light from Nuffnang, so please hang in there! You'll see footage of the raid, and MUCH MORE soon!

Keep tuning in!

Project Trafford: 40 Man Raid

If anyone out there wants to join the Hamlet's Hero's 40 man raid on a nearby hypermarket, message me ASAP. Let's hope no one gets arrested tomorrow. (:

Go forth and PILLAGE!

THIS IS SPARTAAAAAAAA!

P.S. Come join me please if you're free tomorrow evening and live in PJ!

***

Edit: Although the rising fuel prices caused the 40 man raid to be downsized to a 4 man raid, it was an OVERWHELMING SUCCESS!

Check out the final Project Trafford post on the raid on Friday!

Don't miss it!

Latest Edit:

Mr.

Potato.

Snack.

Attack.

COMING SOON!

Project Trafford: Unveiled!

Project Trafford? What's that all about?

It all began one day, when I was in a really bitchy mood.

Bitchy. Yes, this is how I look when Shaun tries to argue with me.

Yes, I was REALLY bitchy and tired.

And when I was checking my Nuffnang analytics for the 215,542,124th time of the day, I saw this on the Nuffnang blog:

Nuffnang is currently launching a Top Secret Project codenamed ‘Project Trafford’. We are looking for 40 bloggers who are willing to participate actively in this secret project.

Here are some details that you need to observe if you intend to be one of them;

• Participating bloggers must be available and able to communicate actively via emails starting from the end of May 2008 till end of June 2008.
• Participating bloggers must be able to work together in team and respond promptly to their team leaders.
• Participating bloggers will be paid/rewarded handsomely.

If you think you satisfy the above criteria, please do write in to projecttrafford@nuffnang.com with your details such as name and contact number. Only shortlisted candidates will be notified.

Applications for Project Traffod has been closed. For those shortlisted, kindly reply before 2pm on Thursday 29/5/08 as a test on how promptly will you be able to communicate via email.

Well, I was feeling uber bitchy and just needed to rant, so I typed out this really angsty email. The only edit I made was that I removed my handphone number!

Subject: I'm the one you're looking for. Period.
Dear Nuffnang team,

This is why I should be part of your Project Trafford team:

• Participating bloggers must be available and able to communicate actively via emails starting from the end of May 2008 till end of June 2008.

I'm 19, done with my A levels last December and have nothing better to do than bumming around at home, spending my parents money and check my blog like 200 times a day for comments. Yes, I have THAT much time on my hands.

• Participating bloggers must be able to work together in team and respond promptly to their team leaders.

What do I do with all that free time that I have when my friends around me (who are already IN uni because they didn't do their A levels in Singapore like smartass me) are studying hard in school? Bum around online and check my gmail for interesting spam to read at a frequency of 75 times an hour. Yes, press F5 a lot these days and lay in wait on MSN for possible victims to prey on.

• Participating bloggers will be paid/rewarded handsomely.

Yes, an unemployed boy like me who's living off his parents like a leech needs the cash, really, really badly. So who else better to pay than me? A rich, bratty blogger who has the money to fly anywhere in the world and camwhore in front of historical places of great interest, or this boy with no money to travel and spends his days burying himself in photoshop work affixing Dr. M's head on Leonidas's body cause he's too poor to travel anywhere. You decide (and let your conscience haunt you if you choose wrongly).

And besides, I have a great blog, and actually put great care into what I write. Doesn't that already put me head and shoulders above 99 percent of what you see posted on innit? I'm not exaggerating or anything, just read the damn blog.

So choose me. Period.

Wishing whoever that reads this crappy email lots of love (but maybe slightly less if I don't get shortlisted),

Hamlet's Hero of http://hamletshero.blogspot.com

aka

Kevin Chan

who can be contacted at 01x-xxxxxxx

and who is also a Glitterati member (see, I make myself sound like an absolute homosexual for you people, I better get shortlisted)

Yup, and I sent that to the Nuffnang team. It was highly cathartic and it made me a happy, happy boy. And even though I think (wait, I know) that my blog is awesome, I didn't expect getting selected for Project Trafford.

But I guess Nuffnang decided that they needed someone bitchy on every team, just to spice things up. (:

So here I am, writing for Project Trafford, but I can't tell you everything yet cause Project Trafford is just so TOP SECRET! The people up there in Nuffnang will reset my Nuffnang earnings to where it was 5 months ago if I say too much, too soon! Shhh!

This was 5 months back...

But I'll tell you what I can.

Project Trafford is Nuffnang's Top Secret campaign for Mister Potato (gasp)! And what we really have to do is to promote Mister Potato's contest which is giving out a free trip to Old Trafford, home of the Red Devils!

Yes, I'm made to promote potato chips.

So, what our team has to do is to come up with some plan or another to promote this contest (which is a no brainer hoard the proof of purchase game) to as many people as possible.

(:

And now introducing the team that I'll be working with:

Sultan Muzaffar who's not really royalty from sultanmuzaffar.blogspot.com.

I think that's him on the phone. What he's looking at, I don't know...

Kar Yeong, aka KY (jelly) from kyspeaks.com.

KY's the one on the right.

But he insists on a more 'leng chai' picture. When the leader tells you to do something, you don't have a choice right? What to do?

The more 'leng chai' pic.

They are our two team leaders, as wacky as they look.

And we have my fellow team members:

Debra, who dates and dines all day long at debfong.blogspot.com;

And she just had to be eating in this pic...

Satkuru, from satkuru.com/blog (duh!);

Yup, enjoying the chilly highland air.

Foong, who speaks her mind (can't be someone else's mind right?) at foongsite.com;

She says she doesn't want to scare us with a pic.

YapThomas, the Ultimat3 from yapthomas.com.

Now I found another friend who likes fedoras. (:

Well, that's my Project Trafford team (as poser-ish as we all are), and stay tuned for more updates on Project Trafford! The links of my teammates are all on my sidebar so feel free to view their blogs!

Till I'm back with more Project Trafford updates and saucy details,

Hamlet's Hero signing off.