18 December 1975... I stepped outside for some fresh air. They never let me back in again. |
The kindergarten I attended was run by Catholic Nuns. Its a bit disappointing when you see how I've turned out, considering I was exposed to good habits from a young age. |
My first 3 years of primary education were at a pretty rough school called Road 10. I know most of you are thinking, "what kind of f**ed up school name is that?" |
My parents fished my hide out of Road 10 and tossed me into a new fish bowl, Bukit Bintang Primary School. Things were a lot more orderly there but I was severely behind academically. I got to know the principal there quite well. |
At 10 I took up chess and trained professionally for a few years. While other kids were out playing ball and pulling legs off grasshoppers, I spent my days dissecting games played by grandmasters a century back. At the ripe old age of 15, I retired from competition. |
When I was very young, I remember being told that I would some day like girls. "NNooo!! Never!!!" And then I turned 11 years old. |
My first year at Sultan Abdul Samad Secondary School was a tad nightmarish. My classmates were a motley crew of hoodlums who came to school with long pieces of wood hidden in their pant legs. I felt inadequate at first because I thought they so much more endowed than I was. Then I learnt the bulges were merely weaponry. Phew!! |
I took up tennis somewhat seriously when I was 13 and since then it has been my favorite sport. There were 20 in my class and I got to hit 5 balls every half hour. |
During metal shop, a friend was hammering away at sheet metal using a huge vulcanized rubber hammer. The hammer head filed for divorce from its stem and chose to marry itself to my head. I was a really quiet kid for the first 15 years of my life but have since been a non-stop potty-mouthed jabberer. |
I summoned all my energy for that one final push. The veins in my neck pilgrimmed to the surface to witness the desperate final effort. A final verdict was reached. I was going to be 5ft 5" for the rest of my life. |
I contracted soccer fever in Form 4. I used to play barefoot until the other kids got soccer boots. It was a bit hard to play with bandages on, so I finally got a pair of my own. |
I had my first cigarette at 17, a Marlboro Red. My college friends were a bunch of party mammals so smokey nightclubs, branded clothing and maintaining exclusive cliques published its way into my lifestyle. |
At Taylor's, my friends, lecturers and even the principal used to call me the Young Marx for my deep appreciation of his ideaology, and my ability to defend almost any topic from a Marxist position. There's a quote that goes, "If you are not captivated by Marxism by 18, you are a fool. If you still are captivated by Marxism after 30, you're a damn fool" |
I intended to take up law as a career. Along the way, a prolific lecturer, Charlene Rajendran, was able to draw out creativity in me. I started cart wheeling towards advertising. America was the place for it, so after completing my Cambridge A Levels, I enrolled for the American Transfer Program at Inti College. |
I had my first non-blow up doll girlfriend in Inti. Unfortunately, things didn't end well and I found my heart in a blender that had no lid. Things got messy. |
My time had come to leave the nest. I was off to the Unversity of Missouri-Columbia in the midwest. |
In the process of helping a friend move her cupboard downstairs, I broke my foot in 2 places. Not knowing it was broken, I helped her move that same cupboard up two flights at her new apartment, and my foot ballooned into the size of a melon. I was in Missouri for exactly 1 week. |
I failed my grammar test twice and it was a 3 strikes you're out rule. I studied my gonads off and clocked in a 94% on my third exam. I was now in the J-School of arguably the world's best journalism school. |
Same girl. Same blender. But this time the lid was on. |
After graduating, I moved out west to San Diego with my college buddy Thom.We packed our vehicles to the roof and drove out via Route 66. |
Thom and I rented an apartment at Casa La Mesa. It was there that we met the guys from the band Red Channel Revue. They are some of my bestest friends till today. |
Got my first job as a graphic designer at the Barali Group. The Art Director, Cindy, was an absolute looker and is probably the reason why there is a shortage of priests in the Catholic Church. Under her tutelage I picked up all the fundamentals of print design that came in real handy later in my career.. |
I needed the money so I took on a second job as a yellemarketer. Also taught old people how to use their computers for chump change and frozen bagels. Eventually, these 3 gigs didn't really cut it for me so I looked to LA for a real job. I landed a position as an e-commerce web designer at Promotions Distributor Services (now known as Newroads) |
My friend Bob followed me up to LA for my interview. That trip marked the end of his two year CH3-OH abstinence. In our circle, I started to be labelled Chin the Corrupter. Eventually, Chin was dropped from my designation and I was merely known as 'The Corrupter'. |
Hui Chin had moved out to Los Angeles for an internship with Sony. We really hit it off that summer and I had little doubt I had found the one. We did a lot of crazy things that summer - got our hair coloured, got kissed by strangers at a Goth Club, and I got a tattoo. |
I developed upwards of 40 websites in my first 2 years at Newroads. And then the bubble burst. It was then that I morphed myself into a programmer. It wasn't easy making the transition, but I actually finished 2nd in my UNIX class full of Neo-type Matrix geeks. |
My eyesight took a beating as a result of all the programming books I had to read for school. I got my first pair of glasses. |
Hui Chin's friend Ai Vee was in town and they were planning to skydive off a plane. I saw that as the perfect opportunity to propose via a giant 10m x 10m sign which read, "Hui Chin, I wanna grow old with you" |
Hui Chin and I tied the knot at the Inn of the Seventh Ray in Malibu on a gorgeous summer afternoon. Brian from Red Channel was my Best Man, Thom my emcee and Bob my videographer. |
It had always been a life long dream of mind to live, work and travel in Europe. This became a reality in 2004 when we moved to Stratford, London. |
I posted my CV on a Wednesday, got a call on Thursday, and had a PHP programming job on Friday. eSpares was located on the edge of the Thames river in Chelsea and had the most stunning view. |
I only spent a few months with eSpares before I joined Miller Bainbridge, a boutique ad agency in Clerkenwell, London. It was a really well run place and I had a very formative experience working there. |
Sophie and I had a bucket list of things we wanted to do while we were in Europe, and I think we checked most of it off. We capped off our 2 year European honeymoon with a trip to Jordan and Egypt. It was in Cairo that Oliver first came about. |
We moved back to Malaysia in 2007. I joined my cousin Gary at Digital Commerce as their Creative Director. |
Oliver Chin Yu Shen came kicking and screaming into the world. Fatherhood was the most lifechanging event that has occured in my life. I've never seen a single person bring so much joy to so many people around before. |
We purchased our first house in Gasing Indah. |
Stay tuned for more |
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