another year

Look back and take a grand glorious view of the year bygone. Step back and pinpoint the nooks and crannies of the things that have happened and things that should have happened. Savour the nostalgia dipped in salty spheres, sugared highs, and cascading sour-tapes; flickering on a reel of a VHS technicoloured re-run. It's been strange. It's been rather sublime. Full of farcical instances.  

Cut-off places. Lost sunshines. Rediscovered links. Reanimated intentions.

Not too shabby.
Not too lurid.
A pretty good year after all.

smile for a better world!

Find something in your life daily that makes you smile.

Could be that kitten that walked across your flower pots, or that oddly shaped cloud in the sky. Whatever it may be, smiling helps anyone and will give you plus,+, plus, +, plus points that would brighten up any day.

Disconnect! Rejoin the REAL WORLD

"Facebook is a fantasy land of goofy pictures and meaningless banter, and too many people are getting lost in that make-believe world. Too many people are under the illusion that on Facebook they actually are engaged in a community, when the truth is they are alone in a room and staring at a screen."
- Marc McAfee

Marc's views are true to every though and fact that people should realise about this ginornimous online phenomenon. Replying to a two-word post on your wall in Facebook does not qualify as a conversation. Soon enough we will be all losing touch with our inherent conversational skills and dissolve to sms-like yelps in reality. Stop stalking your so called 'friends' online and give them a phone call instead. Or even better, call them and ask them out for a drink. If you can't suck up the courage to do so you would have already been infected by the fear of facing people.  

You will be surprised at how much more it means to others meeting up in real life rather than hiding behind a screen

egnisrh

"Acocdrnig to an elgnsih unviesitry sutdy the oredr of letetrs in a wrod dosen’t mttaer, the olny thnig thta’s iopmrantt is that the frsit and lsat ltteer of eevry word is in the crcreot ptoision. The rset can be jmbueld and one is stlil able to raed the txet wiohtut dclftfuiiy." 

- uokwnon weirtr



If you can't read this, it's time for English lessons. 

running up that hill

...if only I could,
make a deal with God,
and get him to swap our places,
be running up that road,
be running up that hill,
be running up that building...


Whether its different, its still the same. tough.

Hellaflush III

Hella Flush III from iPhilms on Vimeo.


Wish they had more stuff like this in our fair country

We are Robot

It's here. Though it may not resemble what the media feeds us in shades of 'The Matrix' and shapes of 'Minority Report', or even the dystopian future where 100% 'meatbags' (unaltered humans) are a rarity in 'Ghost in the Shell' - we have already reached the age of technological symbiosis.

Look around you. Eyes glued to laptops. Minds focused on their smartphones. These devices are gateways to the Internet. Ask most users of these mobile devices whether they can live without their nifty gadgets. 9 out of 10 will tell you that they can't and the last singular one can only remain 'disconnected' for about 3 days - max.

Unlike the anime Ghost in the Shell where human brains can be uploaded and downloaded due to alterations of the cerebral cortex with artificial enhancements (or in some cases the entire brain is replaced with an artifical one where memory and mind are digitised), the laptop and smartphone act just like that except that it is a remote device outside of our meatbag selfs which is regarded as an extension of one's brain; allowing one to connect wirelessly to the Internet wherever and whenever.  

This is not necessarily bad in any way but it is not long before we start truly 'plugging' ourselves into the world wide web; which in turn will spell the end of that age-old line which divides what is real, and what is not.

Goodbye Saturday night meets at a friend's house for a game of cards, darts and beer
Hello virtual meets in cybespace over a game of kill me, kill you with digital swords and mana potions

Death of the child we once knew

Innocence murdered. Creativity bogged. The wonder of life, ceases to spiral like rainbows in child's minds.

Back date 40 years ago where the world was a much more simpler place; children grow up with a sense of wonder and question the world around them with as much cerebral and physical movement as possible. They question why nature works as it works, why the animals hibernate, why people behave the way they behave, how stick forts can repel monsters from the land Zerprok, and whether the boogie man under their beds may have a liking towards candy floss. They play with toys they make themselves; spearheading creative thought while they create and make a world of their own without a care of reality. This was only a few decades ago.

In actual fact, children of my era (the 80's and all of its big haired, electronica, multi-coloured lycra glory) were the last generation of children to experience life without much meddling of the adult world. We were born in the bridge of technology joining the new and old school ways of living - changed by a leap in telecommunicative technology. We saw the birth of the Internet and the death of snail mail. We witnessed the birth of one-touch communication and the death of the firm handshake.

Though one may argue that the world is increasingly becoming a more dangerous place to live in where greed, power, hunger, intolerance and ignorance constantly shifts the paradigms of human interaction; we must understand that over-protection is not protecting anything for future purposes. Adults cage their children like hamsters, teaching them that the world out there is a bad, bad, wicked place full of boogiemen that roam the streets not only under beds. They teach adult practices to ensure that their children are able to make cognitive actions for their own safety. They shadow their children with a cloak that is much less translucent, blinding imaginations and instilling fear under the guise of 'nurturing'.

The era of growing up, falling down, dusting one's self and running again is over. In fact, children now learn life's lessons through a LCD screen displaying pixelised characters toting guns bigger than refrigerators. They live out adventures and events of escapism through pre-made storylines made by adults. Never again will children make a world they can call their own.

These thoughts have been spurred by this song. This song speaks of the death of child-like imagination.

Cocking

Question: Do any of you out there cock your head to one side whilst trying to understand a certain statement, or while you are watching a show intently? I do not know why I do it but I do it.

Weird.

Facial expressions while reading

Do you sometimes find yourself making facial expressions when you read?
Like say when you read a book and you read a line "...smiled a warm smile across the room...", do you find yourself smirking or our lips breaking out into a small smile? Say you read a scenario in the book stating that something was amiss or a plot twist, do you find yourself making the 'squinting eyes' or 'raised eyebrows'?

peculiar

but funny nonetheless.


So do you do make facial expressions while reading?

our daily papers = same shit, different day

Ever get the feeling that our daily papers just report local news which ONLY cover smiling overzealous politicians, gang raped girls, car accidents, angry politicians, sobbing cheated citizens, murderers and the murdered, motorcycle accidents, some mofo winning a prize, angry politicians getting angry at other angry politicians, husband kills wife kills son kills daughter kills husband, bus accidents, someone doing something insignificant which will be forgotten by the weekend, sobbing cheated citizens getting someone in their family murdered by other angry citizens which ride motorcycles or drive cars to accidents...

you see the trend here?

The news 'reports' are either negative, insignificant, or well......just plain negative. Yes, negative news does create more 'sensational' news due to the fact that "its always far more entertaining to laugh at the misery of others"

But then again, don't our reporters have anything else to report on in this country? Or could the reality be that our society is way closer to the aspects of these reports than we could ever imagine? If it is, we live in a sad sad world...

If it isn't, then i guess we just need to laugh harder.

SONG: HIM - The Sacrament

One of my favourite songs from one of my favourite bands of all time

NAP = Nothing Actually Policy

On the recent NAP review that has been receiving much media buzz, I feel that its just another nonsense phase that will ultimately be just 'coffeeshop talk' and nothing more.

here is the document for your reading pleasure.

Nap Review


This, in my opinion, just can not happen as the people in our fair country has not enough buying power to purchase newer cars after their old and reliable set of wheel is deemed 'unfit for the road'. And the fact that cars above 15 years are subjected to inspections opens up a new can where corruption and more money to be raked from the people's already dry pockets. 

The stupidest part is the 'Import of used parts to stop in 2011'. Ridiculous.
Where the hell are we going to find parts for our cars then? Where are our mechanics and workshops going to source for parts? How much would we have to pay for a European car's gearbox? An arm? A leg? A newborn baby? The used parts industry is a massive industry and I don't see this move actually working at all.


Yea....so my 'unreliable car' that sees more road than our fair country's favourite tin-can on wheels and sees less workshop time would have to be scrapped, forcing me to buy a 40,000+ ringgit piece of metal built with absolutely zero passion. The rich won't feel it. The people in the rural areas and smaller towns just got their asses handed to them.


again.
 

SONG: Nujabes - Luv Sic part 2 & part 3

Hope you have listened to the previous song that was posted awhile ago. That was the remix version which the lyrics basically talks about a relationship between two people. You can listen to it back here.

These two other songs are also by Nujabes which are 2 other mixes of the underlying tune of the 'luv sic' series. Part 2 is a narration about one and God, Part 3 is about life's ups and downs (this one is really very nice).

Just sit back and give it a listen. Make sure u have a drink in hand and a window to look out to the sky.

Luv Sic Part 2


Luv Sic Part 3


Add a soundtrack to your life and perfect it.

Some like it hot, some like it cold

People who defend themselves too much are actually more insecure than those who just don't give a damn.

Every human has ideals and it is good to champions those ideals if so you think its right. But going out on a whim and imposing a 'personal ideal' on every corner is a sign that the ideal is not so ideal after all. If it were ideal most people would be on the same page.


Unfortunately, it seems by far the society I live in today is champions mediocrity and superfluous ideals over the greater good, and the big picture. While the rest of the world moves over to answer questions on greenhouse effects and the amount of grains that can feed hungry mouths, we are still puzzled over the fact that some people like chillies and some don't. We still wonder why some people have one, two, three, or no  Gods to pray to. We still harbour over the premise that children are as dumb as bars of soap and can't grasp meticulous ideas.


It will be long till our fair lands finally grow up. But till then, we all just need to exercise a little understanding and compromising.

Known for the wrong things

Within this 2 years alone our fair country had an amazing streak of negative attention. Awesome isn't it?

From weirded-out political party pooping thats better than any drama on telly, superb hypocritical statements that puzzle the minds of society, murders at most high degree, ailing reforms which would probably never see the light of day, and superb lying of the tongue which makes our countrymen look like the worst bunch of people on this side of the planet.  

How are we going to dance on the world stage? How are we going to be a country of progress? The only thing we achieved in these years is being the laughing stock of people at coffeeshops and dinner tables.


Sad is our country. Sad sad sad.

VIDEO: Japan parking lots

Now if only our parking lots could be like this..........

Just because

If one can explain why they did something with general, factual, and logical reasons; it is not based on true emotions.  Emotions are never based on logic, sense, and practicality. Emotions are withdrawn, intangible, whimsical, raw.

"I don't know why I did it, I did it 'just because'...."

Somethings are better left unexplained, unthoughtout, unpondered.

SONG: Smoke and Mirrors

Love this line from this song.

"Who knows what tomorrow will bring
Maybe sunshine or maybe the rain"

SONG: Nujabes feat Shing02 - Luv sic (Modal Soul Remix)

By far to me.

One of the best tunes ever.

"cause the beat plus the melody makes me speak of L.O.V.E eloquently so evidently"

Nothing

Sometimes we have to ask ourselves: How much are you willing to sacrifice for nothing.

What do you mean by 'nothing'?

Fun is nothing. It lasts a short span of time but evaporates into thin air soon after, leaving only memories. Memories are nothing too. Intangible.




But. Nothing can mean - everything - to someone.

The disappearance of delectables

Ever wondered what it would be like living 30 years down the road from now?

Dilapidation of cultures. The full stop of tradition. Discontinuity of teaching and skills. The younger do not take up after the older, leaving a whole new way of life in the wake of this conglomerated, media filled, cyber run society where people do not stop and engage in small chat over the weather, bees, and cardboard fixtures.

When the old die off, they take with them the wisdom, knowledge and skills to the grave. It has become very apparent that the younger generation seem more likely to not take up the footsteps of their forefathers. Mostly its because the two cultures that they live in are so different. One can't understand how it is that people can make friends and relationships with faceless people over this intangible space called the Internet; the other can't make it out how they can live sticking to Jurassic boulder by boulder habits. With this disparity, cultures of now and then will quickly disappear in time; bringing with it all the little nostalgic memories and lifestyles.

A great example would be to think of the one thing that binds us all together - food. If you go out often to eat, and are the adventurous type, you will notice that the foods of now have become less delectable, less wholesome, less munch. More old timers are throwing in the rag calling it quits to the culinary arts, passing it on to their children or some other human to continue their recipes. With this, many famous dishes have become smaller, less savoury and much less memorable. By the time 30 years rolls around from now, almost 50% of traditional recipes would be lost in time.

Never again would we see some old guy on a bicycle selling munchies, never again will we see small shops by the roadside offering morsels that make stomachs happy, never again will there be little little nourishments that possess two things that makes them notable - soul & passion.

It's a sad thing thinking of what our next generation would be missing out on.

......in the mean time, Bon Appetit!

SONG: I Don't Want to Set the World On Fire

A real awesome remake of the classic song from the Ink Spots - I don't want to set the world on fire



Enjoy!

Meow?

Meows have it so easy. Eat, sleep, drink, catch strings, fight bugs, and annoy their owners.

Sometimes I wish I was a meow....

SONG: Incubus cover of Lionel Richie's 'Hello'

This is an awesome cover of Lionel Richie's 80's hit song 'Hello'

Naming your children

Names. They stick with you for the rest of your frickin life. Please choose them wisely. Whether it be a given name to yourself, or particularly to your children. Please, PLEASE spare your children the agony and dispair. Imagine the resident big bully in school teasing your child to no end because his name is 'Ferrari Ng' or 'Goh Wee Wee'.

I stumbled upon this blogpost AreshaOnline on names that people have plucked out of the Singaporean Residential Yellow Pages.

Link --> http://blog.areshaonline.com/?p=509

Give it a glance, and contemplate your thoughts of your future kids....or that stupid name you wanted to give yourself.

Followers we shall always be

Social networking is a rapidly growing, attention-seeking trend that screams “look at me; see what I have to say about myself and the world as I see it”. As narcissistic as it may seem, but people warm up to the idea very quickly. As humans, no matter what kind of human you are – are highly likely to be interested with what other people do in their lives. It is because everyone wants a reference; a benchmark; an example to follow. No matter how we may like to disdain the idea, the very bulk of us are always followers rather than leaders.

Blogs that shout "Hey look! My life is much better than yours!"

Twits that tweet "My brand of toothpaste tastes much nicer than yours!"

Facebook accounts that show "My social life's more happening than yours!"

In the end, we stomach it, look up and evaluate ourselves, and try our best to follow what other people portray of themselves.

Lemmings. Sheep. We are all just that.

Change: don't we all want it?

I came across this interesting piece of art whilst traversing the interwebs.

This website is about designers ripping off other people's ideas and designs to monetise it for themselves. Its a sad thing that we live in a society full of copy cats.

http://youthoughtwewouldntnotice.com/blog3

Well...sometimes imitation is the best form of flattery; but really - is it morally right?

Neglect

Yes I know this blog has been neglected for quite sometime.

Lets just say certain things have disallowed me the quality time I can extend to fill this blog up with words and pixelated photos

Updates will soon come!

Video: Bali!

Here is a video I made with a collection of random videos & photos I took on my trip to Bali.

Vid is strung to the song by Tokyo Police Club - Be Good (RAC Remix)

Watch out for the smoking monkey! 

*This video is also dedicated to JQKC, our good friend who will be going back to the Phillipines for like 2 years. Have a good one mate!*

hmmm...WTF?

I was recently in Bali and this is one of the most random things that I came across in the little town of Kuta. 

"Can I change my brown one for a black one? This one poops a lot."

SONG: David Choi - Won't Even Start

A lovely song. Could do well with the broken hearted that are on the brink of recovery.

Earth Hour post-mortem

Earth hour. The supposedly 'green' movement that was conjured up to promote the awareness of global warming by uniting people all around the world to shut off their lights for one hour on March 28th. 

Earth hour successfully united the earth's population all over 88 countries to participate in this global event, kicking it off with massive gatherings that glued people together to soak up the pre-lights-out entertainment. Concerts were held with grandeur and extravagance. 

 

Soon after about 3 hours of partying through song and laughter; the time has come to experience the great worldwide phenomenon of darkness. Lights out. One hour. Hello world we are back again. 

Seriously. 

Don't you think this movement kinda defeats itself in the first place? Look at all the entertainment sloshed on the hours before lights-out. How much electricity, food and water would have been wasted there? And do you even think one frickin hour of being in darkness is going to help our planet? Get real.

In my honest and most humble opinion, I think that Earth Hour is just a massive marketing tool for companies to cash in on the 'environmentalist mentality' and 'green movement'; taking advantage of our goodwill and basic human empathy and camaraderie, making us 'think' that we are doing something good collectively, but in fact our cash is just being sucked up by all the merchandising, memorabilia, and ticketing that's being sold. 

If you were to really want to support earth hour. Turn off all your frickin lights AT HOME - AND STAY AT HOME. If you don't want to be home, you could just take a walk out instead of DRIVING. 

Events are well known to create wastage, thrash, and overblown electric consumption. If you really want to save the earth. Do so by doing your part and not contribute to all the waste. 

Think about it. 

Down with all this money sucking crap disguised as 'good intentions'

Have a break, have a Kit Kat

Creativity and passion is like juice. It can and will run out sooner or later. When it is running low and you can’t seem to fathom and recoup the ideas that are swimming in your head, it’s time to take a break. You can start by realising that you do not need to be at your work 24-7. Incorporate sessions to get you recharged, and then take note on how you feel afterwards; both physically and mentally. It is like your favourite foods: 

You may love to eat chicken but if you eat it day and night, week in week out, you will at some point not want to eat it anymore.

When you take the stress away and not remind ourselves of work for awhile, you will be able to get back to it with more excitement; compared to not ever leaving it alone in the first place. Detaching yourself away from everything work related will remind you why you enjoyed the work so much in the first place. You will come back stronger and faster with ideas brimming at the rim. Giving yourself good positive tones will help with the way you feel about work.

Reward ourselves for all the hard work that we have done. Go on a vacation, see your friends, spend time with your family, or go do whatever it is that makes you happy. A change of scenery is something very important. It helps us develop different perspectives, induces creative ideas, and the jumpstarts our willpower to go out there and fight on again.

Video: Carousel

This video is way too good. A must watch!



a short film from Adam Berg and Stink Digital Red carpet roll-out for Cinema 21:9 interactive website Amsterdam

Video: Soul of Drifting, Ebisu

Taken from - Speedhunters.com

This video is mesmerizing for all you drift fans out there. Wish there were more places like that where I live....

Small Wins = Big Business

In business we should always think big. There is small saying which we should take note of – “Aim high. If you get lower, it’s still good. Aim low. If you get lower, it’s really bad”. Don’t belittle yourself or your business. “I’m a small player, I should know my place”, “I can’t possibly beat the big guys out there”, “With the capacity I have, my business will never get a portion of the lion’s share”.

We should always dangle a piece of cheese in front of ourselves to keep us running. It is a psychological means to make us strive forward towards a goal. So we start thinking – “Today I will run my products through my entire contact list, push forward our advertising budget so that people know more about us, make tie-ups to all possible networks, and do all of this within the week! I should be able to see at least a 20% growth in profit by end month!”

Not quite so.

Of course the example given was over-the-top. But in some cases we do make the mistake of setting too large goals in such short periods of time. It is not necessarily a bad thing but it is a form of ‘over-promising’ ourselves. The most ideal scenario that most entrepreneurs would dream about is the “build it up, hit it once, and hit it big”. It is like a one-touch-go thing, similar to a bank robbery. But we all know that it is a far-fetched idea. 

Overnight success is a rare thing. There have not been many business successes that pocketed the world in one night and lived to see the light of the next day. These businesses usually run out of steam – very, very fast. The more ‘realistic’ way of looking at it would be to seek out undersized, but well-delivered profits. Consistency is the key word here. Now these, though small and probably insignificant, will lead you to a more fulfilling win.

Remember that sweep-stakes only last for a short duration. Resilient businesses take a good amount of years to hammer in a strong foothold. Bill Gates did not create his world renowned computer operating system monopoly of Windows in one year. Microsoft only managed to make it big 10 years after they first started. 10 years is a long time. Some businesses can fold up and resurrect themselves 3 times over in that kind of time period.   

Media Consumers anonymous

It has quite occured to me that almost 90% of my waking hours are spent consuming media, then churning it round and round in my head to make some sense out of the barrage. Most of which I derive from my laptop and computer at home, googling (omg it's a verb!) the near and far ends of the Interwebs, surfing through things from the latest political melodrama, entertainment & satire and to the utter randomity. 

At the end of the day i produce my own anecdotes based on all the social and cultural stimuli that I stand at the brink of a mentally conjured cliff ready to spaz out. It doesn't help that almost 70% of my waking hours in a week are devoted to work and the neverending quest to find more money. 

I have realised that this is not unique to myself. There are countless of other people around the world who suffer from the same disease. We suffer from this media-consumer mentality that we need and crave for media stimuli to keep us running. We were brought up in this kind of environment that promotes the usage of subliminal and direct messages, aiming to shape the way we think and how we feel the world. Tell me how many times have you made a reference to something that you first saw in the media? "Hey that tulip looks just like the one in that I saw on a billboard yesterday"

It is like Coca-cola's mission to replace water in conjunction with the word 'thirst'.  It is not plain understanding of media that enriches our lives - it is more so that it propagates the very way we process information, leaving us nothing more than shells filled with jarble.  

Bottomline is we should try to make sense of the world with our own eyes and fingers. Get dirty once in awhile. Leave your sedentary lifestyle and go out there and hug some trees. We should try our best to once in a while stop by and smell the flowers at the side of the road. Not think how a flower smells by what you have read on wikipedia.  

Video: This drift vid + song kills it!

Drift vid of the All Star Bash V by Will Roegge

Song: Passion Pit - Sleepyhead (Wallpaper Dio Remix)

Video: Social networks.....bah

Referring back to my last post, take a look at this video. 

The human disconnect

If you frequent Starbucks alot, the first thing you will notice is that people don't actually go to Starbucks to 'meet up for coffee' anymore. They are there as singular individuals totally devoid of their companions in favour of their snazzy shiny glossy laptops, plugged in and wired to the Internet via wi-fi. Their eyes are glued intensely at their screen, giving the notion of an intent work-in-progress. But in fact - they are just on Facebook. And this is not just a few people, its almost everyone. 

In less than a decade, online social networks have become very much part of our daily habits. To some it is habitual to spend each leisurely moment on the internet checking their Facebook accounts for updates on their networks. I remember very clearly a few years back when the 'Friendster' craze was hot and new. Now it has been taken over by Facebook, which is a much more powerful platform that allows users to interact far more than its predecessors. Besides Facebook, there are many other online social networks like Myspace, Bebo, Hi5, Tagged....the list goes on. All of which make the world a much smaller place. We can connect to anyone across the globe in a matter of seconds, liquidising borders and distance means nothing anymore. But has this really helped people in a way? 

We are becoming less and less connected in a 'human' way. Because of the convenience offered, keeping up with your network would 95% of the time be done looking at a liquid crystal display and frantically pressing plastic keys. What ever happened to the "let's go out and hang out?" What ever happened to "Hi, I'm just calling to check if you are still alive or not." "Of course I am! It's good to hear your voice anyway". 

We have grown to interact on such a faceless and disembodied manner that nothing is 'personal' anymore.  We converse not with real humans anymore, just virtual entities of what we perceive to be human (eventhough they really are actual humans, behind the interwined digital web of anonymity). Our social skills lack, we can only react by sending pixels that form a 'smiley face'. How many people have you met in the last year which can't seem to comprehend an absolutely normal human conversation without giving web references and splutter? 

So we 'think' we are connected. But think further into it. Besides the usual people that we see (collegues because we are stuck at work for the most of our waking hours, immediate family because they are the closest to you and you prbably live with them anyway, and also your very close friends because those are the ones that your have the most in common with), how often do you take the first step to meet up in REALITY?

Yes the world has become a much smaller place,  but it has made us humans very much further away from each other. 

So yea, enough of this ramble. 

Time to collect my coffee now. 

De-evolution?

What's happening now is worst than any C-grade soap on television. 

Video: Mankind Is No Island

Modernity. We live in a arid, emotionally disconnected world where everyone cares less about everyone else. 

'Mankind is no island' by Jason van Genderen

Music Clip: TISM - Everyone else has had more sex than me

Everyone Else Has Had More Sex Than Me from 金宏 on Vimeo.

Funny arse song with a funny video clip. Song is done by TISM, an Australian based band.

Random thought of the day

"Smokers kill each other willingly everyday...with a smile on the face." 

Think of it. 

If you are a smoker, it is quite often that you would offer a cigarette to someone else as a gesture of 'good will', and vice-versa. 

There are also times when someone asks for a lighter, you will notice that all other smokers, including yourself (if you are one too), would be more than happy to pass a lighter to the person.  

Also, there are moments when a hapless fellow smoker runs out of cigarettes, and asks whether anyone can spare a stick; most other smokers within the vicinity would be glad to offer one.

It is a funny culture it is. I guess its some form of camaraderie amongst people who share a common interest.  

Oh well, since we are going to die anyway might as well take a few more with us. 

ho ho ho.

Relationships = Meat market

Relationships. 

It is sometimes equivalent to that of buying meat at a market.

No seriously. Don't take it in a bad light. I actually mean different, here is the explanation:

Choosing a partner is just like choosing a piece of meat at the morning market. Think of it as a metaphorical way of looking at the entire process. Markets are like avenues, places where people gather so you can make your selections. Sort of like looking at different types of meats from different butchers. 

Soon we finally stop at a promising looking 'market', and start sifting through the abundance of meats available at the place. Some are brimming red of freshness, some look good but are not cut well enough or may have imperfections, and some have may have already turned stale and rancid. When posed with such a vast array of options, it is a good idea to pick and choose, not grab the first thing we see (unless of course you are that type of person which just grabs whatever comes). Research my friend. Do research on all these types of meats before making the final decision. What type of meat is this? What kind of dishes can you make with it? What kind of textures does it have? How do you think it would taste in the end? 

After the lengthy selection process, we settle with the type of meat we want.  We bring it home and chill it a little to preserve its 'freshness' while we conduct further research to understand what works best with this type of meat. We research and test what spices work, what makes the meat more tender, what enhances its taste. Just like finding out what your partner likes.

Remember that the 'freshness' can disappear after awhile, turning the meat stale and ready for the bin. Act fast. act quick, but not too quick my friend. Haste makes waste. Do your research first. 

So after the extensive research its time to 'marinate' it. We work the extras into the meat, smelling and tasting to see if all the different enhancements make it better. We also need to test how long do you need to marinate the meat. Sometimes if you over-marinate, the meat gets soft and looses its original taste. If you under-marinate it may not be as tasty. This is the same as testing out what makes your partner tick, what buttons you need to push to start their clockwork. You know what they like and sometimes guess what they like through observations. 

Now cooking time is a challenge in itself too. You need to know how long to you need to cook it. You also need to know how much heat you need to use. Too hot, you scorch and send the meat up in flames. Too little heat, the meat goes undercooked. Sometimes we tend to be too over-enthusiastic in relationships, scaring your potential partner away. Sometimes we are too complacent, resulting in boredom and the eventual abandonment. 

Finally, after all the hardwork and time spent, we get to 'eat' the meat. This I leave it up to your imagination. 

Bon Appetit. 

Brain drain

Knowledge is garnered through experience and the proactive collection of informative material. In the days before computers and the Internet, we sought for knowledge through dusty books in libraries, journals, 4-inch thick encyclopedias, 9 o'clock telly sessions of Discovery and National Geographic, newspapers, magazines, and the grapevine (word of mouth) - to further enhance brain capacities. Information sharing was far slower as we need to be more physical, and manual with our reception of messages. I remember obtaining an Internet line way back in early 1996, running on a 'superbly-quick' 14.4 kbps dial-up modem that made funky beeping noises when it was connecting the lines. This was when everything in the world started to change significantly. 

The way we consume information is entirely different now compared to that of 20 years ago. Now we can look up and learn about something faster than making a cup of instant noodles in a microwave. All it takes is a little curiosity and flicks on plastic keys to know something new. Stroke of keys. Zap. I know more about alien dolphins, and that Aristotle died in 322 BC. 

Kids nowadays however, through my somewhat unbiased observations and non-prejudicial predispositions; have concluded that they are getting dumber (in the sense of general knowledge) than the average kid of the same age, 20 years ago. Tech has been so interwined with our lives that we take for granted its capabilities. For most of them as what I have observed, do not take this new age channels of intellectual material. A lot of things can be learned at much greater speeds compared to what we used to have in the past, but alot of it is wasted on hours and hours of wasted kilobytes of redundant games which bring one nowhere except impaired social skills, less vitamin D, and probably a level 73-sword of 'superbly-awesome-killa-of-digital-monsters'. 

I am not saying that it is essentially bad to use the Internet for gaming use, but excessive durations till one holes themselves in dingy, semi-lit rooms which hundred of other like-minded zombie-ish, bloodshot-eyed individuals is not exactly aligned to the meaning of the word healthy. Use this new method of communication and information to good use. Find out more about the world. Learn things about the past, present and non-existant. Increase your general knowledge. The web is a vast and endless continuity; use it to your advantage. 

Learn something new today, and everyday.   

Reality

"Hey look, the sides are browning already"

Video: Sushi

Ever wondered what its like from the perspective of a sushi on the conveyor belt? This video shows us the delightfully eerie view of what its like to be a sushi; waiting for the moment to be picked up by a customer, and eaten.


lost in a moment from dennis wheatley on Vimeo.

Are your clients helping / killing you?

Obtaining a good network of clients is hard work. Most entrepreneurs whom have just started their businesses would like to get their hands on as many clients as they can. We will search high and low, ask for referrals and extend the word out to our most obvious contacts, which is our peers and family to help recommend their products or services. After a while, we manage to obtain a healthy amount of clientele which constantly give us projects to follow up each month, however we still find ourselves working long and tiring hours, only to be paid a measly amount for our sweat, tears and caffeinated blood. We won’t want to be doing this for the rest of our lives right? 

Why is it so that some other entrepreneurs work so much less, get to spend time with their friends and family, and actually have a life, while earning so much more than you? So what seems to be the problem here? 

TYPES OF CLIENTS 

In order to address this problem, we as entrepreneurs must realise that there are two totally different types of clients in this world. Not all clients you meet would actually boost your business. Some may even take down a spiralling staircase to the pits of failure if you allow them to hang around you long enough. The two types of clients you would definitely encounter in your business endeavours: 

- Clients that will pay you accordingly for the great work you have done 

- Clients that will work you to death and pay you peanuts 

This is what happens most of the time: In the quest to keep our start-ups alive, we tend to grab anyone who wants to do business with us first, even though they low-ball our prices. These types of clients pull our prices low because they know that we are new, inexperienced and client starved. They work us and squeeze everything out of us after that. This is what you definitely not want but it is a true fact of business. 

It is a dog eat dog world where only the strong and decisive will survive. Small clients who do not possess the means to reward you handsomely for your efforts is a good learning experience and it should just remain as that. These clients should not become your staple diet or else you will eventually gain nothing but pain and suffering (unless of course you have a penchant for torture). They would not just exhaust your capacity to perform but also put your business in the line of fire. 

This does not mean you should think about being ‘exclusive’.  It actually means that you should and must maintain a certain standard for your business. If you know that you are delivering quality work, only offer it at quality prices. The price clients pay must equal the amount of service that you provide to them (although giving a little bit extra to your clients is always a good idea). 

The good clients are more rewarding than you think. They don’t just give you that little extra in your bank account that you have been hoping for, but they also provide you an enriching experience which helps boost your confidence and drive to perform even better. These clients may also help connect you with their own contacts, which spell more opportunities of business for you.     

So here is a brief rundown of traits that distinguish a bad or good client: 

The Bad Ones 

- Those who have absolutely no idea what they are looking for and what they want to see as a result
- Those who only compare products or services by price point and do not understand the term ‘value’
- Those who have pitch you absurdly low budgets but still want something extra
- Those who have such tight deadlines that you will not have any room for adjustments

- Those who would not disclose everything about a job to you at once 

The Good Ones
- Those who are willing to fork out money for quality work
- Those who regard you as a partner in the project, not just another contractor 

- Those who will share with you tips and techniques on how to improve on the project
- Those who regard your services or products to be a prime factor in their long term plan

Support la! Good ma!

There has been something that has been bugging me for a really long time:

Football supporters or 'so-called' supporters.

supporting some other country's football (understandable because our own country's football is not up to the standard yet, and its glory days of yesteryear has dissolved to nothingness)

Why would someone give so much support to people playing a game, which one does not even play themselves? It doesn't make sense to me how can you love something so much when you don't play it at all? How does the undying devotion to a club or player make u 'in' or 'happening'?

I deduce this to a simple case of - Attention seeking and a method that people employ to have a sense of belonging. Yes we humans need a sense of camaraderie, friendship and a base, but this should not reduce you to 'become' someone else or force yourself to make yourself 'think' that you 'like' or 'love' that particular game - just to fit in.

Damn those glory hunters.