The Long View

"Many people get caught up in day-to-day living and put their dreams on hold."


-John King, Media Planner, Fallon Worldwide

Extracted from Fast Company newsletter.

How true to so many of us, especially in our materialistic, 5Cs chasing society.

I alive also never have such nice sofa

But black color, a bit like those prop sofa in Ah Chen shows.

I'm growing... again..

I just had a full packet of bee hoon with fish cake and cabbage at 9 plus. And I'm hungry AGAIN!!! Jia lat lah. Maybe my body know I'm going to sign up Gym membership soon and want to enjoy first?

This considered healthy food?

I think my niece can be IKEA photographer

This is my niece, Wen Wen. She took my camera phone unknowingly and snapped all these pictures which I just realised. Wen, I am going to tell your marder that you touched my phone....

Cheaper diamonds?

Now I may finally be able to afford these useless rocks lovely diamonds for my wife.

Aspial takes over rival Goldheart for S$19m

SINGAPORE : Singapore's only listed jewellery company Aspial has acquired rival Goldheart Jewellery for S$19.5 million.

The deal makes Aspial the market leader in jewellery retail in Singapore with 60 stores islandwide.

Its brand portfolio now consists of Aspial, Lee Hwa, Goldheart and CITIGEMS.

Aspial says the acquisition will also help the company expand across the Causeway.

"Part of the acquisition also involves an option to purchase Goldheart Malaysia's three jewellery stores. This will allow us to gain a foothold in Malaysia," said Aspial's president and CEO Koh Wee Seng.

With better economies of scale in operations and purchasing, Aspial expects the cost of diamonds and gemstones to come down.

How to tell if your co-worker is on PMS?

Obviously by the reaction

I is Kolearn

This is my wife eyo... She want to Kolea after watching Winter Sonata eyo. So she is starting to pretend by wearing a winter coat eyo. And I am also starting to pretend by speaking like a Kolearn eyo...

I want that shirt!!!

Taken outside U2 Tampines Mall outlet. Is floral shirt such a hot commodity now?

Random shots

(Lau Pa Sat)
Hawkers setting up the tables and chairs when the road closed at 7pm.


(Singapore General Hospital)



(Modern Trend Photo Studio)
I am pretty fascinated by these kind of shops with a lot of history. It even state that the place is air-conditioned, a privilege during the old times I believe.



(Orchard Road)
People...people.. people...

My dream is to be a steward

At least that was one of my dream.

I still remember bringing this up when I was in NS. That would be in mid 1998. We were training to be plant operators and were waiting for lunch at the training shed.

Dixon was talking about his similiar dream, to become a steward. Clad in our smelly number 4, I turn to him and told him about harbouring the same ambition.

This ambition should had ignited in mid 1997. I was working for a printing company in Loyang and the company secretary was an ex stewardess. His husband then was still a steward. Inundated by their captivating stories, I was further propelled by their motivation to give this trade some consideration once I finished my NS.

Stories of travelling around the world...Free!, going to dozens of places and countries that otherwise would never even thought of was floating nicely in my head.

I came out of army and started looking for a normal job, ignorant of the channels to note of about steward recruitment drive. Dixon joined SIA not long after.

I believed he is still there enjoying his dream and living the life he foreseen. Me? I went through 5 jobs, 2 retrenchments, some ups, some downs. I did go for one of their recruitment in late 2003 but one sissy's answer during the group questioning round made me grimace, trying to refrain from breaking into laughter.

Too bad it still attracted the attention of the judge. I did not make it passed that round. I never did try again. Well, at least I did give it a try. The same for trying to make it in becoming an actor and a singer.

Still, flunking at all these(which all happens to be my dream) doesn't really help in elevating a person's morale.

Being the person I am, I still brood over this every now and then.

In one of my retrenchment, my HR manager told me that what had happened may be a blessing in disguise. There are certain truth in his pacification.

Hopefully this "blessing" will appear soon.

P.S. I am referring to a job, ambition hor. Not a person or my life. So don't mistake hor. You know who you are. ;)

A Doc's Life: I Love You Too

So thought and emotion provoking (minus the last paragraph lah)

Link

Excerpts:

"His words made me wonder when it was that I last expressed some form of gratitude towards my own parents. Being ever so busy with work I had always put off plans to bring them out. You cannot forget that important anniversary with the wife or girlfriend without grave consequences but you always knew that all your parents would say is "Its ok, the next time" if you had to cancel."

So many of us have been guilty of this. Must we really wait until there is no more chance to start regretting?

My personality unravelled unknowingly

I was making an application to be a trialist for Starhub upcoming i-mode services. i-mode is very hot in Japan, something like a successful version of WAP.

Now the procedure is that I have to answer quite a number of questions, most of which I can't see the relevance during the application.

Thus it surprises me that some of the questions are actually meant to decipher more about me in terms of my personality.

Now I love to participate in all these to know more about myself. But I normally do it voluntarily. Knowing that a profit oriented business just did one(unknowingly) on me with the possible mentality to market more specific to me doesn't gel well.

"Thank you for your application to join the programme. If you are selected for the trial, we will let you know by email. In the meantime, based on your answers, we think you are a ...

Life discerning dominant ideal seeker

You understand that new does not always mean better and you see no reason to skip from one fad to the next. You value things that have stood the test of time, things that have proved themselves. You can give a 120% when you need to, but know that you don't need to 100% of the time. You know that life is for living, and you're smart enough to make sure that you have time to relax, chill and just be yourself.

You tend to identify more strongly with your own thoughts than any other personality. To others you are the one with the sharp intellect, strong need for independence and privacy, and intensity of your cerebral interests. You love explaining the world and predicting what it will do next. This derives partly from natural curiosity, and partly because you sense much of the world to be unreliable, requiring that you use your intellect to bring order to your own corner of it.

You have a strong desire to investigate, observe, and understand an issue deeply and provocatively. You are often independent and self-motivated, with a strong need for privacy. For example, others will often have no idea what you have been working on until it is finished and unveiled. Some of the greatest minds in history had similar traits, people whose ideas challenged the conventional wisdom, forcing those around them to think differently.

Famous people who share these traits include:
William Rhenquist, Stephen Hawking, Helen Keller, Arthur C. Clarke,Sigmund Freud, Nikola Tesla, Isaac Newton."

The next in thing - mp3 phone

I read an article about this sometime ago, touting that mp3 phones will be the next in thing. Before I could even start pondering about the content, wham!, mp3 phones started(and still are) flooding the market.

I just went through all of them and shortlisted 3 potential ones that should be the main contenders:

1) Motorola ROKR



This is Motorola's collaberation with Apple to create the first iPod phone.

2) Sony Ericsson W800i


One color, orange. Nice camera features and pleasant aesthetics. I reckon this target the female segment but I kinda like it. This is the only one out in the market now.

3) Nokia N91




My fave amongst all. The bulkest too but maybe it's due to the *gasp* 4Gb internal memory! That is like so many songs.

Why am I writing this? Because I am d...y...i...n...g to get a new phone. My current O2 Giant XDA II seems to be growing bigger as the day goes by. Or maybe my hand is shrinking? In any case, my age is catching on and I seldom drop by the gym. It is a torture for me to hold the dumb-bell
phone next to my ear for a long period of time. My arms will just give way.

Anway I'm still young mah. This kind of executive phone can used when I'm 30s or what.

So for now, I just want a phone that looks and feels like a phone. Plus point would be that it comes with a decent camera(all 3 has it), FM radio(I think only Sony has, Nokia can get add-on), simple OS(I luv Nokia's), and of course Mp3

My question is.. which one to get?? *hand pulling hair out*

All 3 are like so matching my requirement. I can only choose one and I must do it fast before my birthday

Functionally, I would choose Sony's. Simply because it has built-in FM receiver. For a public transport enthusiat like me, this is excellent! My past 2 nokia has that so I really missed it since I changed. It only comes with 512 mb but how many songs can 1 really listen right? Anyway I will delete most old songs. Can't take repetition too much.

Physically, Nokia one is really a beauty right? Albeit I always feel too expensive a phone is a bit over the top but it's a good time to reward myself bah.. haha *excuse*

S'cuse me, you trying to be a model?

The essential steps to look like a model

1) Wear gigantic aviator sunglasses


2) Or do the next more logical thing, put the sunglasses on your head! To prevent UV mah


:p

My take on Singapore - Bugis

Sorry that I took more than 1 month to post another entry about Singapore. As I mentioned in my first post about my neighbourhood Tampines, I would hope these pictures would give non-locals reading my blog a local impression of Singapore. These are the stuff you can't get in those glossy brochures. :)

And to create a continuity identity, I will title all such posts as "My take on Singapore"

BUGIS



Red, red housing.



Street markets



Hawker centre. Selling food.



That is the gantry that scan the vehicles that passes through, deducting toll charges electronically.



An indoor street market. This is a new place, selling all sorts of stuffs. Mainly clothes. Interesting place, I got lost in the maze. You really can't tell the size of the place from outside. It reminds me of Chatuchak at Bangkok minus the heat and the bargaining.



Crowded isn't it?




The convenience of our efficient public transport.

The Art of Moderation

The theory of moderation always occur to me. You could say it comes up in almost every stifling situation I encountered. What is this moderation theory? It simply means that everything should be done in moderation. Not too much, not too little.

To simplify it, just think of it this way. If you were asked(or forced, maybe) to eat the same chicken rice everyday for breakfast, lunch and dinner, you will just puke it all out sooner or later.

The same thing can be apply to why the high accident rate for taxi driver. They spent so much time on the road, it's an overkill. The rule of probability will validate it.

Irregardless what kind of situation, I believe moderation is the key. Not too much, but also not too little.

So how to achieve it? It all comes down to discipline and seeing the larger picture. Is chicken rice going extinct? Are you the only taxi-driver on the road(I know you gotta do it for a living but that is beside my point)

One has to understand that there are many aspects of life, not just that few you are currently doing). There are many things out there to be appreciated within your short duration of life.

It's quality, never quantity. The only situation that is vice versa is if the thing we are talking about is money.

You sure you still need a car in the future?

I'm back! (w/o forwarded emails)

Back to writing something at least. Realized I have not been writing much since close to 2 weeks ago. Since then, those postings are more or less extracted from forwarded mails(as if I need to point it out, duh.)

Maybe age has caught up with me(excuse). Just can't think of any material to write about.

But something strikes me. Am I writing a book?! I'm not, so why the fuck should I care. Blogging should be about expressing something publicly that you don't give a hoot to what other people feels(ironic, isn't it)

In anycase, here's something to share. Do you agree that a person's salary is actually paid for two aspects? 1 is for you to do the job itself. The other part is to accept the kind of (possible)rubbish, politics, scoldings thrown in your direction.

Maybe I have been on the other side of the table, I could concur with how employer feels. And what I went through, I believe, will make me a better employee.

A job is still a job. Yes, it may be boring, it may be dumb. Procedures shouldn't be done this way, they should use a computer for god's sakes. Still, it's human nature to be complainsive. Who have you ever hear praising their company or boss because they allow him/her to take half day urgent off even though they are short-handed?

Nope, you will only hear people complaining about the same boss who did not let you go off early by 30 mins because you need to meet your partner for a 6.30pm movie.

I guess I don't really have a point here. But if you apply this to a relational perspective, an employee should always remember when you are choosey over others, others are also choosey over you. Do you logically think you have the market value to be choosey? Or you feel so because your everything-also-follow-your-thinking spouse say you should be Singtel CEO instead?

Face under makeup

Japan Puppies Expo (first one my fave)

Vintage Car + vintage dress sense

Plus vintage buildings as backdrop. Very 1950s hor.

You gotta see this bridge (between Sweden and Denmark)

The bridge (or should it be called tunnel) goes under water to allow movement of ships. In order for ships to pass, this bridge is half under the water. You drive down in the water and then come out on the other side.

Truly a marvelous piece of engineering! This bridge is between Sweden and Denmark.
Picture taken from the side of Sweden.

My maiden trip to NATAS

Checking out the good deals!

Wau. Singaporean so kiasu, can't even wait to board the coach at golden mile.
Lost amongst the crowd
Spongepants!!!

Spongepants only play with children one.

My dream phone is out!

Check out the review. But damn, $1088 (Starhub) for a phone? A Dell PC cost less than that.