Sorry! My beloved Clefs.
Sorry to leave you in the dirty, ugly and uncomfortable taxi in JB. Sorry that we would not be able to see each other again FOREVER!
Lost my favorite coin pouch today on the way to my hair salon in JB. I was trying to dig out the small notes and coins for the taxi fair and I left it on the back seat I guess. I only realized it 10 seconds after the taxi left. I always have a habit to check out the seats before I left the taxi. Unfortunately, I made a mistake today. The first thing I realized is I lost my beloved coin pouch and the second is my credit card. It took me 5 minutes standing alone the road and realized that I would not be able to get them back at all. So I called the bank to cancel the card.
However, what surprised me is I overcame the whole sad feeling of losing my favorite pouch in 20 minutes right after I started my hair treatment. Everything is back to normal around 7pm today as I got the replacement of my coin pouch, credit card, and ezlink card.
I would say I am lucky that I lost something money can buy back. There are too many things in the world that money can not get at all. Lucky me that I have not yet lost things that I can not get back but I would not be so lucky forever. This makes me start to treasure people and things around me more.
Sunday, July 17, 2005
Thursday, July 14, 2005
Good Job!
Today we finally finished the first 2 parts of the project with SingNet. They are doing promotion with one of our hottest products, RANGER ZP Pocket Harddisk, which is also the product category that I started with RANGER. So I am actually very proud of my team. We have a great colleague to secure this project and a whole team of aunties and mommies to finish the production in such a short period of time.For those who are interested in signing up broadband service or to renew your contract with SingNet, you may want to visit their promotion for 1500kbps Unlimited and 512kbps Unlimited. Then you can also get one RANGER ZP Pocket Harddisk 40GB, the hottest item in town. ; )
Saturday, July 09, 2005
Ballet under STARS
After the KTV session with Jess and Vega this afternoon, we continued with the "Ballet under Stars" and the show today is Little Mermaid. It is an outdoor ballet performance at Fort Canning Park. Quite a interesting one as I haven't seen this kind of performance for quite some time. Besides, it is also great to enjoy the sun and the open air in city like this. The interesting part is it is also the rehearsal for the national day parade today. So before the ballet started, we have all the fighters around. There is even one helicopter staying in the sky and the ballet performance got delayed because of the noise. Anyway, it was a good relaxing place then. Great to see 2 performances at the same time.
Breast Feeding
I am a supporter of Breast Feeding as I believe that is the best for both the baby and the mother. However, I was quite shocked today in the train to Orchard. There is a mother breast feeding the baby in the train. She actually has a special cloth for this activity. So her son was trying to dig out that cloth from her bag and signaled her that he was hungry. Then the mother just put up the cloth and got ready for the baby. I think I'm not the only one who got shocked as almost everyone were looking at her. It was actually very normal in some part of Europe or Africa. However, I just found it a bit strange in Singapore especially in a train. Guess I won't let my baby have the habit to "eat" everywhere he or she wants if I'm going to have one.
Friday, July 08, 2005
The Youngest Member of my Family!
The precious pictures of my 2nd nephew. Can't really tell his weight was 3.9kg when he was born. Still look very small to me. He should be quite different when I'm back in Aug. Can't wait to meet this cute guy. haha... : )
You've got to find what you love
Thanks for Ying Ying's sharing. You have been very inspiring to me lately. After reading this article, I am more firm with what I'm doing now. : )
Speech by Steve Jobs - Founder Apple Computer and Pixar Animation Studios
'You've got to find what you love,' Jobs says
This is the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005.
I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of thefinest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.
The first story is about connecting the dots.
I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?
It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwedcollege graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and hiswife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.
And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents'savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.
It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floorin friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5?deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:
Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instructionin the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on everydrawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphyclass to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san seriftypefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.
None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.
Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
My second story is about love and loss.
I was lucky - I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation- the Macintosh - a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out.
When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.
I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and Ieven thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me - I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.
I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.
During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I retuned toApple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.
I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what Idid. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keeplooking until you find it. Don't settle.
My third story is about death.
When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were thel ast day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything - all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.
I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and intomy intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.
This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own innervoice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by afellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made withtypewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.
Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitch hiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.
"Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish."
Thank you all very much.
Speech by Steve Jobs - Founder Apple Computer and Pixar Animation Studios
'You've got to find what you love,' Jobs says
This is the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005.
I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of thefinest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.
The first story is about connecting the dots.
I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?
It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwedcollege graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and hiswife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.
And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents'savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.
It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floorin friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5?deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:
Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instructionin the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on everydrawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphyclass to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san seriftypefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.
None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.
Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
My second story is about love and loss.
I was lucky - I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation- the Macintosh - a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out.
When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.
I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and Ieven thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me - I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.
I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.
During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I retuned toApple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.
I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what Idid. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keeplooking until you find it. Don't settle.
My third story is about death.
When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were thel ast day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything - all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.
I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and intomy intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.
This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own innervoice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by afellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made withtypewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.
Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitch hiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.
"Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish."
Thank you all very much.
Thursday, July 07, 2005
New Phone Wanted!
Got my first handphone in early 1999. So I have been using handphone for 6 years. I have changed 4 phones from the very beginning. Three of them are Nokia and the last one is Sony Ericsson.
Just found out some interesting things when I send in my Sony Ericsson T610 for repairing yesterday. The microphone of the phone is not functioning. So the other side can't really hear clearly.
First, I thought those contacts in the phone book are very important to me, but not really. I thought that might be the only way for me to reach out the world. I have about 450 phone numbers in the phone book but the Sim Card can only save up to 250 contacts. So I was trying to go through the phone book and picked out those important numbers that I may need to use during the repairing. After going through 100 plus numbers, I gave up. I realized that there are only a few numbers that I might need to use very frequently and I either can remember them or I can reach those people via other methods such as e-mail or MSN. So the conclusion is the Sim Card Back-up product that I am looking at might not be so popular.
Second, I was considering if I should send in the phone for repair as the officer informed me that it might cost up to S$70 if they need to change a few components inside. If not, I also need to pay S$15 for the diagnose. I was thinking if I really need to pay S$70, I might as well buy a new phone. However, the problem is I can't find any phone that I really want. I might end up buying the same phone. Then I must as well repair this one. In the end, they informed this evening that it costs S$42.5 to change the microphone and the labor cost. I think it's still more cost effective to repair this phone.
Handphone has become a very personal thing and consumers start to become very picky on this. I want a good design with all the features I want. However, I haven't seen the design that satisfy me yet. Hopefully, the new 3G phone would be really interesting with the sleek design and all the features built in. Guess I am quite a techy person and would like to have a really "good" phone which suits my need.
Just found out some interesting things when I send in my Sony Ericsson T610 for repairing yesterday. The microphone of the phone is not functioning. So the other side can't really hear clearly.
First, I thought those contacts in the phone book are very important to me, but not really. I thought that might be the only way for me to reach out the world. I have about 450 phone numbers in the phone book but the Sim Card can only save up to 250 contacts. So I was trying to go through the phone book and picked out those important numbers that I may need to use during the repairing. After going through 100 plus numbers, I gave up. I realized that there are only a few numbers that I might need to use very frequently and I either can remember them or I can reach those people via other methods such as e-mail or MSN. So the conclusion is the Sim Card Back-up product that I am looking at might not be so popular.
Second, I was considering if I should send in the phone for repair as the officer informed me that it might cost up to S$70 if they need to change a few components inside. If not, I also need to pay S$15 for the diagnose. I was thinking if I really need to pay S$70, I might as well buy a new phone. However, the problem is I can't find any phone that I really want. I might end up buying the same phone. Then I must as well repair this one. In the end, they informed this evening that it costs S$42.5 to change the microphone and the labor cost. I think it's still more cost effective to repair this phone.
Handphone has become a very personal thing and consumers start to become very picky on this. I want a good design with all the features I want. However, I haven't seen the design that satisfy me yet. Hopefully, the new 3G phone would be really interesting with the sleek design and all the features built in. Guess I am quite a techy person and would like to have a really "good" phone which suits my need.
Saturday, July 02, 2005
The Alchemist
Thanks for Ying Ying's gift, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, on Nov 12th 2003. That was the farewell party for both of us. I was going back to Taiwan for my three months study and preparation for my master degree application and she was going to Sweden for her traineeship. Both of us were starting our journeys to look for our destinies and this book is actually talking about how this shepherd found his destiny also.I always believe everyone got his or her own destiny. Their existence must make some difference to the world. The difference could be big or small depending on how his or her existence would affect your life but everyone must have a value in this world. So here I am to find out my destiny and my value.
I believe everyone has his or her own dream or the goal to achieve. I guess I just started another journey to look for a different life, but this is a painful decision as it affects and hurts people around me. However, just like the shepherd in this book, I need to be persistent in searching my destiny. Though it would be a tough way to go, I must not give up until I found my destiny. The result could be very ironic that I just give up the best I can find, but I need to prove it.
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Beauty of Taiwan
Was reading the latest Business Weekly (No. 918) yesterday. They launched a special Life section called "aLive" for the past few issues. I found this section quite interesting and it is actually discussing about the various aspects of lives, which is quite different from the normal contents they used to have.
This issue is talking about the beauty of Taiwan especially the east coast of Taiwan. Taiwan is a special island next to Pacific Ocean. The cliff at the east coast of Taiwan is one of the most significant sceneries in the world and you can see the pictures here.
I always felt that I am disconnected from my land and my people after the few years in Singapore. I do not have chances to visit the various parts of Taiwan and contribute my time and effort for it. Guess that is the reason why I want to go back and establish my connection with my home. Taiwan is such a wonderful place and I believe I won't get bored at all when traveling around. The more important part is the feeling of belonging to a piece of land.
Planning to have a short trip back in early Aug and thinking to take a few days to travel around to learn more about my land with my more matured and sensitive heart. I think that would be a totally different experience for me.
Monday, June 27, 2005
Mr. & Mrs. Smith
Went to watch Mr. & Mrs. Smith last Sun afternoon. I was quite excited about this movie as a few of my friends who watched said it's quite nice and I really like Angelina Jolie. I was very impressed by her in Tomb Raider. To me, she is the perfect role model for the modern ladies. She is so beautiful, elegant, independent and capable. She can compete with any man in the world and even win them over and I guess that is also how I want myself to be.
However, I think I may hurt some people around me because of this belief. I believe I am independent enough to take care of myself. I think that's because of my family and education background. I was taught to be very independent as I am the only child in my family. I have responsibility to take care of my family and I have no one to rely on as I do not have any siblings. Besides, when I studied in high school, that is a girl school. We are taught to be independent and even tough in a way as there is no "man" to rely on in our world. We do everything by ourselves.
Sorry that I still believe in what I have been educated until one day I'm proved to be wrong. Sorry if I hurt anyone because of this, but this is what I believe in.
Warm Welcome to my 2nd nephew!
My eldest cousin just delivered her first baby boy today 5 pm. So now I have one more nephew. According to the doc, the schedule should be last week. So everyone of us is actually a bit worried as it' kind of late. However, my cousin finally went to the hospital yesterday midnight because of the pain. After 17 hours of struggling, the baby finally came out and he is a SUPER HUGE baby. The weight is 3900g. I can't even imagine how my cousin pushed this guy out of her body, but I guess that's what a mother can do.
So got to welcome the new member of my family and would post his cute cute pictures once I got it.
So got to welcome the new member of my family and would post his cute cute pictures once I got it.
Saturday, June 25, 2005
Over!
My 5th semester is just over!
I finished this semester this afternoon by sitting in 2 papers. These two papers are really challenging to me as I was supposed to study at home yesterday. However, I ended up working in office for the big project. Surprisingly, I am proved to have good luck with exams since I was young. One of them is a closed book paper. Luckily, that the 2 questions I chose are more or less related to my work. So I can finish them easier without much preparation. The other paper is a open book paper. Luckily again the questions coming out are similar to the past year questions and review activities which are the only material I have gone through.
I can only say I am really lucky. Finally, I got only 2 more semesters and 1 thesis to finish. Soon I would finish this course and start another stage of my life.
I finished this semester this afternoon by sitting in 2 papers. These two papers are really challenging to me as I was supposed to study at home yesterday. However, I ended up working in office for the big project. Surprisingly, I am proved to have good luck with exams since I was young. One of them is a closed book paper. Luckily, that the 2 questions I chose are more or less related to my work. So I can finish them easier without much preparation. The other paper is a open book paper. Luckily again the questions coming out are similar to the past year questions and review activities which are the only material I have gone through.
I can only say I am really lucky. Finally, I got only 2 more semesters and 1 thesis to finish. Soon I would finish this course and start another stage of my life.
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
Surprise with excitement and tear!
Thanks for my great colleague, Vega. We stroke a project this afternoon for one of our popular products. When she informed me the good and also bad news this afternoon, I was really shock. However, I am really happy and excited that we finally work out something. Though there might be a lot of problems with this project, this is still the biggest achievement our marketing department has been done and it's all becuase of Vega.
Good Job, Vega!! Congradulations to you also!! I would do all my best to support you on this project. ; )
Good Job, Vega!! Congradulations to you also!! I would do all my best to support you on this project. ; )
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
BenQ-Siemens
BenQ just announced their acquisition of Siemens' handphone department last week and this was a big news. There are both positive and negative comments on this but I am quite impressed by their aggressiveness in expanding the business though that might be a difficult move. The handphone market is a very big game to play and it also involves huge investment. However, BenQ might be the very few Taiwanese companies that are willing to invest in the brand and trying their best to expand the business especially for the overseas markets. I think they are quite successful at the first stage. At least the majority of the consumers heard about them. Their task now is to conquer the various market places and to capture a bigger market share. Therefore, they deserve some encouragement for this decision as well as their ambition and courage to try.
Good Luck! BenQ-Siemens! Hope you can make it and I as a Taiwanese would be really proud of you.
Good Luck! BenQ-Siemens! Hope you can make it and I as a Taiwanese would be really proud of you.
Salsa Bar
It's my salsa class day today. The steps have become very complicated and quite difficult now as this is at the 2nd stage of beginner class. It's also my first time to sweat during class today so that you know it's not only the basic steps now. There was a lot of turnings and turning now. After that class, one of my classmates dragged Eric and I to visit the famous Salsa Bar at Union Square. We reached there around 9pm as we finish our class at half past 8. However, there is not so many people at that time. When we were trying to find some seats there, more and more people came in and started dancing. It was really fascinating as they dance so naturally. It's like they spend no efforts to make those turns and steps. I guess that's achieved by a lot of classes and practices. We also met Chris, the salsa crazier, over there. Surprisingly, he dances quite well. Those people get me more determined to get through the learning process and I would dance like that one day also. My salsa gangs, let's work hard together. ; )
Saturday, June 04, 2005
Gathering at North East Coast of Taiwan
I went back to Taiwan last week for the 2nd biggest Computer IT Trade Show, Computex and I was back 2 days earlier for the weekend. I spent that nice weekend with my families and my AIESEC MC team on Sat. Our team used to have a gathering during Chinese New Year and enjoyed the great food prepared by my parents. We didn't do that for a few years as it is not easy to get everyone at one place. So finally, we did a small scale one this time as I am free over the weekend. I invited my team mate to visit my grandma's place at North East Coast of Taiwan and we went to a nice restaurant nearby to have some great seafood. My uncle is acutely breeding the small abalone and that's the famous dish our family has. However, that restaurant didn't have good supply of small abalone on that day. So I made an emergency call back to get some supply from home and with the fresh supply, we finally can enjoy the precious sashimi. I myself missed this a lot, too.
After the meal, we went to walk around the hills behind my grandma's place. This place is famous for the great view of Pacific Ocean. I felt really refreshed when the see the ocean right in front of me. Besides, this is also the famous rock climbing site in Taiwan. Those people who are interested in rock climbing may want to try on there but as I know that's mostly training ground for those professionals as the site is actually quite difficult. Even if you are not keen on rock climbing, the scenery there is more than enough to impress anyone.
After the meal, we went to walk around the hills behind my grandma's place. This place is famous for the great view of Pacific Ocean. I felt really refreshed when the see the ocean right in front of me. Besides, this is also the famous rock climbing site in Taiwan. Those people who are interested in rock climbing may want to try on there but as I know that's mostly training ground for those professionals as the site is actually quite difficult. Even if you are not keen on rock climbing, the scenery there is more than enough to impress anyone.
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
Diving in Perhentian
Finally, I did my first dive of the year at Palau Perhehtian, which is located outside of East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia. This is a very special place to me as that is where I started diving. I was there in July 2003 to get my PADI open water diver certificate.
I was quite busy and not feeling well last week actually. My dizzy problem came back again but this time there were no particular reasons. The first day, I decided to just rest at home as I thought was the same problem. However, I still had the same problem at the 2nd morning. So I decided to go to see my doctor. She suggested that my inner ears might have some problem and try to draw out how the inner part looks like as well as explain what causes the problem. It seems that I went to another biology class again. However, everything seems to be better on last Fri and lucky that the problem seems to be gone by Sat afternoon.
So I decided to join them in the afternoon. I did 5 dives this trip and my favorite dive site is Takong Laut (Temple of Sea). The marine life there is really beautiful that I saw plenty of Nemos around and we saw at least 7 babe sharks in that dive. I really hoped I can be down there for a longer time and get the chance to see more things around. I believe I would be back very soon and I won't get bored with that dive site ever. Here are just some pictures that our group took during the dives:
I also spent some time on the nice and beautiful beach. The view and the sea in front of me was really amazing. There were a lot of kids playing on the beach. I really enjoyed their smiles and laughs. There are only "joys" over there. I felt that I was washed by the mother nature again and again with the sound of waves. It was really refreshing. Besides, that was also full moon last week. The beach at night with the moon light is another spectacular scene that I felt the world is so big. I shouldn't 't be bothered with small things around at all. It would be really great if I can find someone to share the fun and enjoyment of both diving and salsa together.
I was quite busy and not feeling well last week actually. My dizzy problem came back again but this time there were no particular reasons. The first day, I decided to just rest at home as I thought was the same problem. However, I still had the same problem at the 2nd morning. So I decided to go to see my doctor. She suggested that my inner ears might have some problem and try to draw out how the inner part looks like as well as explain what causes the problem. It seems that I went to another biology class again. However, everything seems to be better on last Fri and lucky that the problem seems to be gone by Sat afternoon.
So I decided to join them in the afternoon. I did 5 dives this trip and my favorite dive site is Takong Laut (Temple of Sea). The marine life there is really beautiful that I saw plenty of Nemos around and we saw at least 7 babe sharks in that dive. I really hoped I can be down there for a longer time and get the chance to see more things around. I believe I would be back very soon and I won't get bored with that dive site ever. Here are just some pictures that our group took during the dives:
I also spent some time on the nice and beautiful beach. The view and the sea in front of me was really amazing. There were a lot of kids playing on the beach. I really enjoyed their smiles and laughs. There are only "joys" over there. I felt that I was washed by the mother nature again and again with the sound of waves. It was really refreshing. Besides, that was also full moon last week. The beach at night with the moon light is another spectacular scene that I felt the world is so big. I shouldn't 't be bothered with small things around at all. It would be really great if I can find someone to share the fun and enjoyment of both diving and salsa together.
Sunday, May 08, 2005
Why Taiwan Matters?
The International Cover Story of the latest Business Week is "Why Taiwan Matters?". It strikes me immediately as this is the question I am thinking all the time. Basically, this article is discussing about Taiwan's important role in the global economy and the obstacles it's facing, mainly the cross-strait issues. However, the part that strikes me the most is "China may threaten Taiwan as No. 1 IT supplier. But for now it's Taiwanese engineers who provide ever-more-ingenious solutions to manufacturing and design conundrums. "In Taiwan, people say the U.S. understanding of outsourcing is backward," says Victor Zue, co-director of the Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at MIT. "It feels more like the Taiwanese are outsourcing marketing and branding to the rest of the world.". It brought me to my questions I got after back from CeBIT.
What's Taiwan's role in this global marketplace? How to maintain its leading position and even create more competencies to sustain this leadership? How can I contribute to my country, Taiwan, on this? Seems it all points to the answers, marketing and branding, which we are lacking of. According to the article, there are only 2 major brands from Taiwan, BenQ and Acer, concentrating its efforts on building up the brands. All of us know this route is very tough as it costs a lot of money and efforts but we all agree that this is the way out for Taiwan. It makes me start wondering if I should go back to join my follow people in this war and bring Taiwan to the next level.
However, I haven't accomplish my mission here. I have spend the past three years working on my babe, RANGER. This is even a tougher fight as its objectives is the same as BenQ and Acer that we want to build up the brand name but we are at a much smaller scale and with very little resources. However, I just can't let go and leave all my previous efforts into waste. I give myself maximum another one and half a year on RANGER and I would need to make it self-sustainable before I need to go back home. It's like mothers who would not just give up their babes easily and want to raise them until they can live by themselves. What a big dream to me at this moment!!
Saturday, May 07, 2005
Gathering
It was a big gathering yesterday. One of my old friends, Chau, from Finland comes back to work in Singapore. I was planning to meet up with the whole gang after my class, but I only left office around 8:30 because of uploading the new product packaging design. So I just go straight to meet up with them. Sorry! Teacher.
First, we went to "Tea Joy", the monthly AIESEC in Singapore alumni gathering. I haven't been there for at least one and half a year. I have been kind of busy with classes on Friday night but I finally make it because of Chou and Ying this time. The best rewards I got is to see these two young girls, Ying and Cheryl, wearing "SKIRTS" at the same time. I can only say "Skirts" are not the common clothes for them previously, but you know, people would change over time. Ying & Cheryl, Welcome to the Skirt Team and hope to see your MINI Skirts soon. : )
After that, we went to meet up with the other "mature" gang at the high-end bar. It's a very nice place at the top of the Swissotel Hotel, the tallest building in Singapore. The atmosphere there is a very good as you have a wonderful view of Singapore or might even be able to see part of Malaysia or Indonesia. They have live Jazz music and piano performance. The waitresses are very beautiful and well trained as this is quite a high end bar. This is much better and suitable for us as we are no longer young people jumping around discos and dancing throughout the night. It is a good place for chatting and enjoying the beautiful part of the city.
Chau, great to have you here again and thanks for grabbing me out of the work and study life to enjoy a nice Friday night.
First, we went to "Tea Joy", the monthly AIESEC in Singapore alumni gathering. I haven't been there for at least one and half a year. I have been kind of busy with classes on Friday night but I finally make it because of Chou and Ying this time. The best rewards I got is to see these two young girls, Ying and Cheryl, wearing "SKIRTS" at the same time. I can only say "Skirts" are not the common clothes for them previously, but you know, people would change over time. Ying & Cheryl, Welcome to the Skirt Team and hope to see your MINI Skirts soon. : )
After that, we went to meet up with the other "mature" gang at the high-end bar. It's a very nice place at the top of the Swissotel Hotel, the tallest building in Singapore. The atmosphere there is a very good as you have a wonderful view of Singapore or might even be able to see part of Malaysia or Indonesia. They have live Jazz music and piano performance. The waitresses are very beautiful and well trained as this is quite a high end bar. This is much better and suitable for us as we are no longer young people jumping around discos and dancing throughout the night. It is a good place for chatting and enjoying the beautiful part of the city.
Chau, great to have you here again and thanks for grabbing me out of the work and study life to enjoy a nice Friday night.
Monday, May 02, 2005
Mayday Long Weekend
I should be at Palau Perhentian this long weekend for my first dive trip of this year, but something cracked up last minute. And it was too late to arrange any other trip out of Singapore. So I just decided to stay back. Luckily, Jess' parents were here over weekend. So we brought them to their favorite Durian Place in Singapore. To be frank, I still can't take anything related to Durian after being here for almost 4 years. My mom always wants me to try because Durian is supposed to be very helpful and good for ladies as our bodies tends to be cold. Unfortunately, I still overcome the wired feeling whenever I smell it, but I guess I got to try it once before I leave Tropical Zone, the place with the best Duriens around.
On Sunday, I decided to visit my dear polar bears as I didn't see them for almost one year. It was very very hot yesterday, especially when we were waiting for the polar beer feeding show around 1pm. We were waiting almost half a hour before that and the bears were sleeping until the few minutes right before the show. They are still so cute as usual. All the audiences around were really amazed by any single movement they got. I guess I would still be touched by the cute actions they have even hundred years later. They are just so cute. I also found another cute bear at the shop. Seems that is a "bear bear" day. : )
On Sunday, I decided to visit my dear polar bears as I didn't see them for almost one year. It was very very hot yesterday, especially when we were waiting for the polar beer feeding show around 1pm. We were waiting almost half a hour before that and the bears were sleeping until the few minutes right before the show. They are still so cute as usual. All the audiences around were really amazed by any single movement they got. I guess I would still be touched by the cute actions they have even hundred years later. They are just so cute. I also found another cute bear at the shop. Seems that is a "bear bear" day. : )
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