I suffered from a myopia of –6.00 on both eyes. It all started back when I was in Primary 5. Even though I had awesome vision back then, I thought wearing glasses was damn cool.

Because a couple of my classmates wore glasses, I actually felt left out due to the fact that they had four eyes, and I only had two. What the heck, right?

It’s because of this jealousy I had that I did something very stupid thing. For days afterwards, against my mom’s advice, I deliberately did all I could to destroy my perfect vision.

Sat in front of the TV as close as possible.

Read books while laying on bed in a dark room.

Wear my dad’s funny glasses that make me look like Harry Potter.

Eventually, my vision deteriorated to the point that my mom had no choice but to send me to the optometrist.

I had to start glasses. My mom was disappointed. I was overjoyed. Until puberty hits and I began taking interest in girls.

It was then that I realise wearing glasses does not make me look cool. Glasses make me look like a nerd. Unless your last name is “Gates” or “Jobs”, no girls would be impressed going out with a nerd.

So I started wearing contact lenses. But even that brought about its own set of problems.

The problems with wearing contact lens is the same with wearing bras: I can’t swim with them on, I kept having to remember bringing them along for travel, and I gotta buy a new pair every few months.

This is what I did when I forgot to pack my contact lens case on my trip to Bali.

I used bottle caps.

Anyway, now that I am running around a fitness centre, I find it even more inconvenient to wear either contacts or glasses. I hated wearing glasses so much that it motivated me enough to seek that One Solution To End All Problems.

Laser Eye Surgery.

To be honest, I’ve been thinking about doing laser eye surgery for a long time. The only reasons I hadn’t gone ahead earlier were the same as everyone else.

1) I thought it might be expensive.
2) I thought it’s dangerous.
3) I thought if the doctor isn’t careful, I might end up with eyes like The Terminator.

With the advancement of technology, all these are of course, exaggerated concerns.

These days, it’s possible to get laser eye surgery done in many parts of Malaysia, including Kuching. One of the country’s best-known eye specialist centre, Optimax, has a branch here and it is located near the Simpang Tiga flyover.

This is where I had my pre-surgery consultation done.

Optimax contacted me to fill the role as their ambassador. I gladly agreed after ensuring their reputation is solid.

They have experts doing the check-up and consultation in Kuching. Their doctors fly in here from KL on a scheduled basis to perform the actual surgery.

In KL, some patients even had their eye examination and treatment done on the same day. In a way its save up more time and patients do not have to lay off lenses for so long.

This is my lovely consultant, Ding. According to Ding (“AccorDing?”), there are different types of laser eye surgery.

The cheapest and most common one is LASIK surgery, which cost around RM1,500 per eye. Next step up is EpiLASIK, which does not use sharp blades to cut open the cornea. The most advanced form of is Custom All-Laser LASIK, which cost around RM3,000 to RM3,500 per eye, but utilizes the safest and most precise equipment ever brought into Malaysia.

Before I went for my eye check-up, Ding told me not to wear contact lenses for 3 weeks. So for 3 weeks, I was the nerdiest-looking gym owner in the history of Kuching.

She went ahead and did some weird eye tests on me: flashing alphabets on the wall and asking me to speak “ABC” as if I was back in kindergarten.

Next, she asked me to put my head into this bizarre-looking machine.

That machine looks like it’s gonna hypnotize me and make me do the Jai Ho dance. Naked.

Funny thing is, I complied.

Kinda disappointed that all it does is showing scan my eyeball.

Ding proceeded to perform more tests on my eyes.

“Gimme all your cash. NOW!”

“Here, let me take a look at the cleanliness your eye... OH MY GOD!”

At one point, she dripped some anaesthetic into my eyes, which felt funny. Then she dripped something to dilate my pupil.

My eyeball dilated so big until it became like this.

Kidding.

But the effect did last for so long that I wasn’t able to read small printed words till the next day. The good news was that my eyes were all good for laser eye surgery. I was about to get a new pair of eyes!

My laser eye surgery was scheduled to be on the following week. As you perhaps may have noticed, the surgery was a success and Kenny Sia lived to tell the tale.

I’m gonna talk about my experience inside the operating theatre on my next blog entry. Suffice to say, it wasn’t really THAT bad.

All I ended up was looking like this.

X_X

It resulted in a White Screen of Death and a trip to Maxis service centre where my iPhone was diagnosed with Permanent Head Damage, and I was charged with first degree murder.

The iPhone is now in the ICU. I'm not sure how fast Maxis works, but I probably won't get it back until a few months later.

The iPhone to me was the king of phones. It is capable of doing so many things that other phones are not able to. I find myself so dependent on it that I don't even know how I'm gonna function without an iPhone.

I was half-tempted to find an excuse to get myself the latest Apple iPhone 3GS. But I know I'm gonna get my original phone back eventually and it wouldn't make sense to hang around with two Apples.

As the saying goes, an apple a day keeps the doctor away. Too many apples suck your wallet dry.

I figured it may be healthier to have some variety in my fruits.

There's a lot of hype over the Blackberry and a lot of my friends have been egging me to go towards The Black Side. Even until now, I never understood what's so god damn fantastic about the Blackberry - the iPhone can pretty much do everything a Blackberry can do. I don't think I'll ever switch to using the Blackberry.

But ladies and gentlemen, this is called "peer pressure".

It's too difficult to explain why I did it, but I got myself the Blackberry Bold 2. The biggest advantage Blackberry phones have over others is something called the "Blackberry Messenger", or BBM. To put it simply, it's like Windows Live Messenger on mobile.

If you have a Blackberry and you have another friend on Blackberry ANYWHERE in the world, you can give him your "Blackberry PIN" and send messages to each other free of charge.

I've got about 20 of my friends on Blackberry Messenger. Then one day, a total stranger by the nickname of "Rock Star" suddenly added me on BBM.

I had no idea who she was, but I accepted her request anyhow and we started having a conversation.

Kenny: Yo, who's this?
Rock Star: Hi, is this Reuben?
Kenny: No, it's Kenny here.
Rock Star: Really? What is your last name?
Kenny: Sia.
Rock Star: You mean I've got the wrong person?
Kenny: Yes I think so. I'm in Malaysia.
Rock Star: Oh sorry. I'll delete you straight away.
Kenny: It's okay. :)

And that was that.

If this were a fairy tale, "Rock Star" and I would continue chatting, we would fall in love, she would fly all the way to Kuching to meet up. Then we would kiss, marry and have three beautiful little kids together.

Unfortunately, reality is not as kind.

This is how she looks like.

FML.

The college told me that I had to speak to a couple of Form 5 students about what to expect after high school.

I had no idea what to talk about. So I asked my Twitter followers what is the biggest thing that happened to them after high school.

One person said “losing his virginity”.

Well, I can’t possibly say THAT in front of parents and students!

Instead, I told them how instead of choosing something traditionally “safe” like medicine or engineering, it is more important to do something they like. When choosing a college course, it is vital to think of it as something they don’t mind doing for the rest of their lives.

Nowadays people can become “celebrities” in not just entertainment, but also in cooking, interior design and *cough* blogging. As long as they have the passion for it, success and money shall naturally follow.

“The moral of the story is. Choose something YOU want to do. Not something your parents want you to do.”

A couple of parents in the audience were giving me evil eyes after I said that.

But it’s true what! How many of us regretted engineering because our parents never told us how incredibly boring it is!

Obviously, if you get a kick out of problem-solving and looking at electrical wires, then this career option is for you.

But if you’re clumsy as a clown like me...

Then you might wanna go for something safer.

Anyway, it was nice to enter an engineering lab again after studying it for 5 years at university. It’s been so long, I’ve forgotten how to use a multimeter already.

This one doesn’t work. I think spoil already.

If engineering is not for you, you might wanna do other fun stuff.

Like mass communications.

Or even law.

At KDU College, the law lecture theatre is designed like a courtroom. The lecturer who showed us around is a hot chick lawyer who carries around an LV handbag.

Personally, I can never do law.

Some people are born to do law. Some people, like me, can only do this.

I dunno what I was doing but I’m pretty sure it’s against the law.

KDU College’s biggest strength is still in its School of Hospitality, Tourism and Culinary Arts.

Previously, I only had the chance to discover a bit about what they have to offer. This time round I got to learn so much more.

The culinary arts course at KDU is still very popular and it’s not difficult to see why.

The college employs very experienced ex-chefs as lecturers.

Their culinary arts course is unique in the sense that it’s a marriage between cooking and science.

That’s why not just prospective students enrolled into the course, but also housewives who wanting to brush up on their cooking skills.

Of course, some of the stuff they did goes beyond what a normal household kitchen is capable of.

The KDU lecturer introduced me to this thing called “vacuum cooking”.

Normally, with stuff like meat, a lot of its juices and flavour are lost if you pan fry it. So what they do is vacuum pack the marinated meat first, then throw the whole thing into boiling water to cook it.

True enough, when these prawns are finally served, they are as juicy, tasty and succulent as... umm... Edward Cullen.

Not that I know what Edward Cullen taste like.

And I’m sure those prawns taste better than a vampire from the movie Twilight.

Anyway, there’s also this thing called “molecular cooking”.

This is actually an ice-cream dessert the chef at KDU college prepared for me. In some expensive fine-dining restaurants, they would offer this as part of their dessert menu.

Once you order it, they will ask the chef to come in front of you.

Yes, the chef will literally take out a spoon and squirt out a bit of cream.

Whipped cream.

Next, he takes out a liquid nitrogen and freezes his cream right in front of you.

You take the frozen cream into your mouth.

It’s cold. You bite into it.

Next thing you know, your mouth explodes with ecstasy. You are high in delight and wonder, “Damn! How on earth can something like this feels so good. So pleasurable!”

You are satisfied. The chef is satisfied. Then he’d charge you RM50 for the experience.

This blog entry is sponsored by KDU College. If you’re a student fresh out of high school looking to further your studies, a working professional hoping to brush up on your skills, or even a simple guy who just wanna learn how to cook to impress your girlfriend this Valentine’s, head on to www.kdu.edu.my and check out their range of long and short courses on offer.

Hannah Tan did.

Hannah Tan graduated from KDU College, with a degree in Beauty and Brains.

This store has no concept.

One weekend, I brought the entire BodyCombat class out to our local shopping mall, and I think we did a pretty good job rocking the entire place upside down.

We attracted a lot of attention, including some unexpected participants like this little Bodycombat-er like here.

Don’t play play, eventhough the movements are fast, this girl still has the stamina to follow the entire class from start to finish.

The participants loved it because its a change of environment. The crowd loved it because they’ve never seen anything like this before. The instructors loved it because it they felt like rock stars standing in front of a jam-packed audience.

The only person unhappy is the shopping centre’s security guard. The fella came by several times to ask us to tone down the volume.

Sorry lah bro. Doing BodyCombat without volume is like singing karaoke without music.

Knowing how passionate the BodyCombat gang at Level Up Fitness is, even *I* am afraid to mess with them.

The biggest headache I have now is that my fitness centre is starting to get a little packed by the time the clock hits 6.

We’re still the largest fitness centre in the city area and we’re still doing heaps better than others in Kuching in managing traffic. But hey, nobody likes waiting on treadmills.

So just 3 months in, already I’m looking at having to spend more money buying new hamster machines treadmills for my members.

Meanwhile I gotta pacify my members with freebies. Like giving them sample packs of Milo Fuze 3 in 1 that Nestle Milo® has so generously donated to me.

If anyone thinks running a fitness centre is as simple as buying a bunch of equipment and throwing them in a room, they’re wrong.

I’m having such a difficult time juggling between my roles as Kenny Sia The Blogger, Kenny Sia The Business Owner and Kenny Sia The Human Being that I felt there’s simply not enough time to finish all I wanna do in a day.

Sometimes, just sometimes, I wish there were three of me.

That’ll make me a 3-in-1 Kenny.

Sadly it’s not possible to have a 3-in-1 Kenny.

But it is possible to have 3-in-1 Milo. And it is even possible to win a new Apple iPhone 3GS and RM1,000 cash prizes if you submit a photo of how you “jam pack” your day with Milo Fuze. That’s pretty awesome incentive just for camwhoring yourself with a pack of 3-in-1 Milo.

Quite a number has already submitted their entry on the Milo Fuze site. The question is, how far are you willing to go?

Will you fly for Milo?

Suffocate self for Milo?

Stuff Milo down the blouse for Milo?

Whatever you do, just don’t try too hard like these bunch of sumo wrestlers ok!

Dun wanna know what’ll happen if someone farts inside.

That’s pretty awesome gift just for half an hour of sharing what we think future computing trends are gonna be like. :)

This marks the second HP computer I own. The first one I had was a netbook - the tiny HP Mini which still serves me faithfully till today.

I got the HP Mini when netbooks were all the rage a while back. The problem with netbooks is that they cannot do what big bulky laptops can.

Yea basic surfing works just fine, but open up more than 3 windows and immediately the performance starts to suffer. Then it becomes as slow as #yorais.

There’s an obvious size-performance gap between lightweight netbooks and heavyweight laptops. That’s where the HP Pavilion DM3 comes in.

I always like the slim sleek designs HP come up with for their laptops. Although slightly more expensive than others in its class, their laptops usually more than make up for it in fashion and looks.

Case in point: their eye-catching brushed aluminium exterior.

It’s sturdy, less than an inch thick and slips easily into a backpack.

The widescreen high-definition LED (not LCD) screen is a joy to look at, and the comfy keyboards reminded me of the ones they have MacBook Pros that cost 3 times as much.

The HP Pavilion DM3 belongs to a category of laptops called the “Thin and Light”: thin like a netbook, powerful like a heavyweight laptop.

At 1.9kg, it ain’t exactly feather light. But if you’re used to carrying one of those big arse behemoths from 3 years ago, the weight loss is definitely noticeable.

Underneath the hood, the HP Pavilion DM3 is powered by DDR3 RAM and Intel Core 2 Duo – none of the discounted stuff like Atom or Celeron.

The unit I got came pre-installed with Windows 7. It’s my first experience using Bill Gates’ latest money-making tool. Although I’m still getting the hang of the new OS, I quite enjoy its zippy performance. It’s possible to browse the web, burn CDs and watch Youtube all at the same time without having your computer slow to a crawl.

One feature the DM3 has that stood up from the rest is its ridiculously long battery life. Most other laptop’s battery only last 2 hours without charging. The battery in the DM3 is rated to last up to TEN HOURS.

For most other laptops to last that long, you’d need to friggin feed it with viagra!

Of course, the laptop is not without flaws. There is no built-in DVD drive, although it did come with an external one beautifully crafted to match the design of the laptop.

However, my biggest complaint about the HP Pavilion DM3 is the trackpad.

For something so frequently used, HP mysteriously decided to plonk a glossy mirror surface as its trackpad. I don’t know why. It’s difficult to slide the finger around and I always manage to leave my smudges and finger prints.

The only good thing is if you’re a girl, and you wanna put on your lipstick, you can actually use the trackpad as a makeshift mirror.

Other than that, with a thin-and-light design and an extra-long battery life, it’s a great laptop for people like me who’s always hopping on-and-off airplanes.

If only HP could make me thin-and-light and bless me with extra-long life too. :(

But this one cheat one. I check already.

Her hair don’t have the USB port thing one.

"Do you even have a LIFE?"

Now that I started my own business, people are scolding me saying "Fuck you Kenny, all you ever blog about is your gym! Entertain us now DAMMIT!"

I don't understand what people want from me sometimes.

Those of you in Kuching, please come to my event at The Spring this weekend k?

On the 31st December 2009, I was invited to the New Year’s Eve party at Fullerton Hotel hosted by the gracious Miss Singapore (the Universe one, not the Boomz one).

There I was, sitting at the balcony with a bunch of new friends, thinking to myself how fortunate I was to have crawled out from that shit hole I was in and to enjoy doing what I’m doing today.

I don’t think I’ve ever been this optimistic on the eve of a new year.

In 2005, I lost my dad. In 2006, I had no cash. In ‘07, I made wrong decisions in. And ‘08 was just sucky all-year round that I was so glad it was over.

This time last year, I was so upset at the state I was in that I listed down 5 things I wanted to do in 2009:

1. Run a marathon in less than 6 hours. 
2. Get less addicted to e-mails and Facebook.
3. Double my investment portfolio.
4. Start a new business.
5. Be happier.

Well, I tried doing a marathon but I did not managed to finish it because I didn’t train. Certainly did not get any less addicted to e-mails and Facebook. (In fact, I ended up with a new addiction – Twitter.

Apart from that, I’m happy my other 3 resolutions were somewhat accomplished.

I realised I have grown up a lot in 2009.

My style of blogging has changed compared to how it was when I first started. I am 27 years old now. A lot of those stupid idiotic stuff I used to do for my blog, I stopped.

Ok lah, not completely.

As I grow up, I started thinking what’s important, and started doing things that actually gives back to society. Things like adopting a cause for charity, spending more time with loved ones and running a business that promotes healthy living.

I realised that despite me being single for the first time in 8 years, I am actually A LOT happier now.

Starting my own business was easily one of the best decisions I have ever made in 2009. Sure, it sucked out a lot of my time and energy, but I love my job and I wake up every morning looking forward to going to this fitness centre that I’m so proud to call my own.

In hindsight, I think it’s a good thing I don’t have a girl in my life. A friend of mine had a girlfriend the same time he started his business. He told me that at one point he was so busy that he “wanted to get it up also cannot.”

Eventually, perhaps when my business stabilises, I’m gonna get back into  relationships. For now, I still think girls are fussy creatures that required way too much time and attention than I can afford.

In 2010, I want to:

1. Complete a marathon in less than 6 hours (real one lah this time).
2. Achieve my sales and membership targets for Level Up Fitness.
3. Help people around me realise their true potential and talent.
4. Be more optimistic about relationships, less shy about approaching the opposite sex.
5. Stabilise my business, so I can put more time back into blogging.

2009 was a good year.

2010 will be better!

Strong and powerful.

Can hang keys off it somemore.

When I was first exposed to the Internet at the virginal age of 12, my modem was from a brand called US Robotics. It was 33.6KBps fast, made clunky noises when connecting to the Internet and cost us a hefty RM700.

I remember the price so clearly because back then, my dad gave me a choice between an internet modem and a Sony Playstation (One).

As much as I’d love to see Chun Li fight in pixelated 3D, I instinctively knew I’d have more fun with the Internet.

The day those JARING technicians came to my house to install the modem was the day my life changed forever.

As soon as my modem was installed, I booted up my Pentium II PC, started Windows 95, dialled up 1511, fired up Netscape Navigator, then logged onto Yahoo! and entered into the search engine the magical word every young boy typed when the first got their hands on the Internet.

Come on, you know EVERYONE has done it.

But that was 15 years ago.

Back then, if I wanted to see a picture of Pamela Anderson in her red bikini, I gotta wait AGES for it to load.

The most embarrassing thing is -  just when the picture is about to load up her most interesting bits - SUDDENLY mom walked in!

I panicked as I frantically try to close the window. But then my computer FROZE!

Quickly, I unplugged the computer’s power cord before my mom stared at the screen enough to realise what I was doing.

It’s ridiculous. Come to think of it, we have it so much easier these days.

No longer do we have to limit ourselves watching Pam Anderson in JPEG photos. Thanks to the advancement of broadband, we can in fact now watch Pamela Anderson AND Tommy Lee in full video glory.

That was one of the points I raised at the “Future Is...”  panel discussion co-organized by HP and Microsoft.

I was one of the panel speakers alongside Joyce The Fairy, Cynthia Ong, Red Mummy and Jojo Struys.

Yeah, noticed something?

Thorn among roses.

Although the event was kicked off by HP and Microsoft, our discussion have absolutely nothing to do with the organizer’s products all.

The “Future Is...” campaign is basically huge online discussion about what we think future trends are. It’s a discussion that spans 4 countries. Apart from us in Malaysia, the online community from China, Korea and Singapore are ALL taking part on this discussion of trends that will shape our future.

I’d like to invite you to take part in this discussion.

In Malaysia, what we did was just to kickstart the process and get the ball rolling.

For you guys, HP has thrown in some awesome prizes (like a 5,000 buck touchscreen PC), just for pitching in ideas about what you think is gonna be the next big thing.

You must be wondering – why is HP doing this?

Simple. Because sometimes, even the simplest of ideas can spark a trend and transform the world we live in.

One example: text messaging. The inventors of SMS originally only intended it to be used for emergency when voice calls break down. Never had they imagined it to be used as such a commonly-used tool of communication these days.

But look at what it has turned into. Instead of having to tell your mom you’re coming home late because you are out partying hard in a noisy nightclub out studying hard in a quiet library, nowadays you can just send her a text without her suspecting anything.

Ridiculous.

But such are how trends are created, and future trends will be created. What future trends do you foresee? That’s something for us to ponder upon and blog about.

Anyway, just because HP and Microsoft organized this does not mean our discussion was just limited to technology. It could be future of fashion, entertainment, education, music, social media, the environment – basically anything and everything.

Anyway, we have done our part. The rest, is up to you guys.

Here is your homework for the day.

What is ONE trend you predict that’s gonna take off in a big way in the future? Could this be the future of handphones?

Discuss!

This is my cardio workout area today.

I was very much involved in the entire design process of my fitness centre. Everything, from what fitness equipment to buy, to which toilet bowls to use, to what colours were to be painted on the walls were all decided by myself.

The members love the look and feel of my fitness centre, but I kinda regretted not giving the walls more colour and design.

I wasn't thinking too much back then. It would be a different story if my fitness centre were called "Sistine Chapel Fitness". Or if my name were Michaelangelo Sia.

Unfortunately my name is only Kenny Sia. So I left the walls blank because I seriously had no idea what kinda drawings to put on them. I was way too busy choosing toilet bowls that I neglected to give my walls more forethought.

But Cindy, Cheesie and KY went to the Nippon Paint workshop and they're like experts in home renovations now.

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This is what Cindy did after she transformed a section of her house into a work of art.

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Cheesie's Pacman wall. 

She cheat one 'cos she got someone else to paint the wall. She only drew the Pacman herself.

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KY's before and after.

KY and Haze took 3 days to create that mural on his empty piece of wall. Don't play play, got guitar some more.

There are a couple of other creative peeps who did a kickass job giving their rooms/table/shoe cabinet an extreme makeover.

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From the top to bottom are works by Nara, Sixthseal,  Redmummy, Kampungboycitygal, c33ram00n, Pinkstilettos, Nicolekiss, FoxyFarah and PlusSizeKitten.

All they used were masking tapes or paper cutouts and Nippon paint..

I must say, they made it look easy.

Which brings me to this blank wall I have in my cardio area.

I want something less dull, but easy enough to do it myself. Perhaps some random straight lines like this would brighten up the place a bit.

Now, I just need the time to do it.

If not, I'll just hire my 1-year-old nephew Ethan to decorate those walls for me...

I mean, what's the worst that could happen, right?

I guess must be what Tiger Woods is going through if he was a cat.