You’ve Gotta Have Faith

OakMonster - Flore Amore - To Have Faith - Deviant Art

I can’t help paying my respect to the late George Michael. But I am about to talk about faith. So it is appropriate, right? Well, people’s faith awes me. You see, I am not religious. If you ask me, I’d say I’m Buddhist. I can’t really say I’m a non-practicing Buddhist just because I don’t go to the temple. (Long story.) I am practicing Buddhism in my everyday life. I believe in karma. I try to be mindful. I seek balance and moderation. I want to treat others the way I want to be treated. I was raised in a...
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Changed For Good

OakMonster - Doctor Who - We all change

2016 has been ridiculously colorful, eventful, and emotional for all kinds of reasons–personally, professionally, politically. My job changed at the end of 2015, and it’s been an interesting and fun journey since then. I said goodbye to my childhood home in Thailand in March. Brandon and I moved into our first home in August. I enjoyed springtime in Scottsdale, fell in love with Chicago early summer, and grew to despise the convention/tourist side of Orlando in the fall. In June, after a few years of trying to get the ball rolling, I finally took “Be Kind For Khun Noi” from...
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Castle Boren

OakMonster - Buying our first home

Friends, we’ve adulted. We’ve just bought our first home. And we dub it Castle Boren. Well, I’m calling it #CastleBoren. It fits the description. 3 stories with bedroom suite on the top floor. And with just the 2 of us, having 3 bedrooms is a lot of house. Best part? 100 yards down from where we’ve been renting for 10 years. It all happened so fast. We weren’t quite expecting to buy a house this year. At all. But as those who’ve read “The Alchemist” knows, when things are meant to happen, things will happen. It started when I went...
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The Best of Me

Smiley Puppy - Photo from BoredPanda.com

I’m never going to be a billionaire CEO with my picture on the cover of a magazine. I’m never going to make it on any Top 10 list. I’m never going to have millions of followers on social media. I’m never going to sing like Christina Aguilera. Okay, I’m never to sing like any professional singer anywhere. I’m never going to be instantly recognized by the public at large. I’m never going to be rich. Or famous. I don’t have that kind of drive or ambition. I don’t have that need to climb the ladder. But what I do have...
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Goodbye House

OakMonster - Langsuan House - Bangkok - Thailand - 2014

As far as I am concern, there is only one house that I can really call mine. The house in Bangkok that I grew up in. Designed by my dad, this brick town home was way ahead of its time. It’s the house that launched several other brick town homes around the city. The first town home (on the right in this picture) was share between the household kitchen and living quarter for our cook and driver on the ground floor. (Yes, we were very Downton Abbey in that sense). Princess Grandmother’s quarter was on the second floor, and dad’s...
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2016: Question Everything

There have been a lot of changes in my professional life in the past few months. One of the things that came with the change was a mantra: Question everything. Why did we do what we’ve always done? Did it produce result? Why are we keep doing it other than, just keep doing it? That got me thinking about my 10 goals I set every year. It’s like I set them and forget them. And I’ve been progressively worse about them every year too. Take a look at the 2015 recap here. I’m going to do it very brief since...
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