My name is Kenny Sia.
All studio photos courtesy of Alvin Leong Photography
I was born on the 27th November 1982. That makes me 24 this year, and a Sagittarius. I’m the youngest in my family. Also the most rebellious.
My field of work is in IT management. Apart from my full-time day-to-day job, I spend a good deal of time on this website, which is starting to give me pretty good side income. I also pen a regular column with KLue Magazine titled Blogroll, where I showcase the best of Malaysian blogs.
I am a health-conscious person eventhough I may not look the part. I’m not one of those lucky enough to be blessed with good genetics or a high metabolism rate, which is why I go for a workout almost everyday and watch my diet very carefully.
I like a nice skinny latte and I still drink alcohol socially, but I don’t smoke.
I enjoy travelling immensely and one of my favourite cities to visit is Singapore. My aim is to visit at least two new cities overseas every year.
I live in Kuching, Sarawak. It’s a humble small city located in East Malaysia, about 2 hours by plane from the capital Kuala Lumpur.
Kuching is one of the hidden treasures of Malaysia, a wonderful place that strikes a perfect balance between the fast-paced lifestyle of a big city, and the intimacy of a laid-back rural kampung. Everything you see in travel brochures about Sarawak is true. We really do live on trees and wear red loincloths around town.
Previously I lived Perth, Australia, where I spent a good 8 years of my youth growing up. Perth remains a place very close to my heart. It’s been almost 2 years since I left Perth and I still speak with a distinct Aussie accent, a nagging habit I’m struggling to shake off.
I’m a graduate of Curtin University, where I hold a Bachelors degree in Physics and an Honours degree in Electronic & Communication Engineering. None of my two degrees have any relevance whatsoever to my field of work right now. I haven’t yet found the need to use complex Calculus to solve a really bad business decision.
The moral of the story is: get a commerce degree instead. You’ll live longer.
Before I landed at my current job, I used to work as an EMC test engineer, a software engineer and a home tutor. Out of those three, I enjoyed being a home tutor best.
For several years, I charged an equivalent of RM140 an hour regurgitating high school science and maths to anyone who’s willing to pay. My students included many people from a wide range of backgrounds: from local Australians to overseas students, overachieving 16-year-olds to late 40-plus-year-old moms, filthy rich Indonesians to dirt poor Somalians, and of course plenty of Malaysians rushing to do their last-minute cramp before the exams.
My father was diagnosed with advanced stage kidney cancer in late 2004. That was a very sad and difficult period in my life. In March 2005, I left my many friends in Perth and a handsomely-paid job to move back to Kuching to be by my father’s side. He passed away peacefully in May 2005.
I started this website because I wanted to chronicle the drastic changes over that tumulous period in my life. My blog began from when I was still living in Perth, to when I decided to move back to Kuching, to when my father left for a better place, to me experiencing reverse culture shock settling down here, and finally to me becoming the person that I am today.
This is my website.
And this is me. I am Kenny.
My old “About Me” page written in 2005, right here.
Funny how the circumstances changed so much over that short 18 month period.