Sunday, September 28, 2003

Golf Golf Golf

I understand now why golf is such a passion... I'm going to play for the 3rd week in a row! Tomorrow will be my 4th 18 Hole attempt
1) Palm Garden, IOI Mall
2) Clearwater Sanctuary
3) Kundang Lakes
4) Bukit Beruntung

How can I describe the feeling - it is addictive!!!
More about blogging

I've added a comments button!!! Welcome to interaction in the connected world! Next - Pictures...!

Sunday, September 14, 2003

Learning about blogging

After some interesting notes, its time to get creative. Two things to learn tonight : links and image loading.

This is a link to my other blog which I've just opened access to the great Fuzz.

This is an attempt to include a cute little picture. Ok, I've just discovered that this is not possible unless I subscribe to BlogSpot Plus.

It will be text for the time being...

Monday, September 08, 2003

Prostitutes and Formula 1 racing

*Note : the Firm here is where I work, for sake of anonymity, I'd avoid mentioning names, but I'm sure if you have been asked to read my personal blog, you would know which firm I work for....

When I was younger in the Firm we had an analogy between prostitution and working in the Firm. It was told to me by a Pun Tian Pouw, an ageless supervisor who was doing QA related stuff then and we improved upon it and retold it, till now it stuck in my mind how funnily close the analogy is...

Working in the Firm is like prostitution...
... you are being paid by the hour
... the older you are, the more experienced you are and the more your client pays for your services
... you deliver service to your client
... how good you are depends on your client's satisfaction
... our greatest asset in the firm is its people
... if you don't know how to do it, you will be trained, and guided hands-on by your supervisors or your client members
... client confidentiality is a must
... the methods and approaches used must stay within the client's environment, but we can improvise based on requirements of other clients
... we need to understand the requirements of our clients in order to please them
... we love repeat clients
... clients love our younger analysts because they work so hard, and long hours
... our performance is measured by our contribution
... we work the same hours as our clients, and usually at their place

It is never-ending...!!!

Now, recently we have had another good one, the analogy was career to car racing
First we have daytona, contributed by Dr John...

Working in the Firm is like
Driving a car on a daytona race...
... you get a time extension at every checkpoint, if you don't make the checkpoint, your race is over (promotions to next level)
... you can extend your time extensions, by putting in more coins (maybe buy a few drinks, find a few friends...)
... there is ALWAYS time extensions (even when you're partner)

I improvised it to Formula 1 level
Working in the Firm is like driving formula 1 ...
... its a marathon, not a sprint - you got to pace yourself to the 72 laps, you need to get to the end to finish
... you need a good car, be a good driver (talent and skill), have the right team (engineers, pit stops, manager, etc), have the right strategy to win
... you need to pace yourself, skill and car itself is not sufficient to win - ie. Rubens Barrichello - it is all in oneself
... if you get to the end and everyone has passed by (aka Alex Yoong), you are nobody, many have passed you by, sooner or later you get eliminated because you are just not good enough
... there's always a better new rookie around who has got tons of talent - ie. look around you
... sometimes you need to change cars to win (change jobs?)
... always look around for drivers vacancy in better teams
... as much as it is a marathon, you need to overtake people, you cannot be in the cruising speed and win
... even the defending champion can be sidelined in a bad season
... whilst not racing, you need to spend time on research to develop a better car. every year.
... the good guys are highly paid :-D

A little more serious, but valid as well. Enjoy!

Friday, September 05, 2003

Life Goals


"I am in cruising mode, but sometimes I am not sure where I am cruising to"
"Where's the destination? Or you need to have many stops along the way"
"Where are you going?"
"May Ching, you're a smart girl, be active, stay focussed on your goals and go get it"

I need goals.
Life goals are what you want to achieve and when you look back its good to know you have reached.

Tuesday, September 02, 2003

Education and money are not important

I surprised myself how well I articulated this last night to a friend. This was at the tip of my mind after a long day yesterday. I started the day off at Bukit Kiara (again!), and ended it very tired from a long philosophical discussion with a friend.

Education and money are not important- it is how you use it. Having the education, but not knowing how to use it to have a better life, to create more opportunities for oneself, is equivalent to not having any at all. Having the money but not knowing how to make it a continuous source sufficient for one's sustenance is equivalent to not having any at all. It is not as if the two elements are not important for us, it is how relatively important the elements are to each person is almost a factor dependent on how one uses it, and when used appropriately, you realise it is just one possible element out of a whole equation of possibilities.

I met my most oldest cousin after a long long time today. He was pleasantly happy to see me, because we have not seen each other for the longest time. After a few short conversations, it dawns on me that it is quite apparent he is in a different league - him being more street smart and underground businesses, whilst my entire family being straight and proper. He clearly stated that he wanted just a simple and content life, and that we should keep in touch with each other simply because we were family. This struck me quite deeply and enabled me to have a better understanding that how we were brought up were so different, yet I could understand how he saw things and actually felt he was no lesser than we all were in the family equation. In other words, I respected him and how he came to be. Perhaps sometime a few years ago I would not have felt so.

I met up with Prenny and Adrian later for dinner - they were ex-tour mates of mine in Europe. Adrian was adamant about trying to guess my age, and why was I reluctant to give him the number? I guess I did not like people to pre-judge each other because of age, and reason for such concerns was that I had pre-judged him and Raymond on day one. I told him truthfully how I saw him and Raymond as 'the two young men' to my parents and even stories to my friends. As for Prenny, I was uncomfortable about how disinterested she was with the entire meeting, from reading a magazine even when we were there, to not respecting that we have not have dinner and even minor things such as twiddling with the salt shakers and showing visibly how bored she was with us. However, I did not feel any negativity towards her, in fact I actually appreciated she was different, but was only uncomfy from how different she was compared to my normal friends. In fact, I had to adjust myself to her, which I felt was betraying my ownself. Again, a case of, I don't really dislike her, just felt she was different. She did no malice to me, and similarly I treated her with as much respect as anyone else. Again, both cases were a result of my increased perception of diversity around me.

Which is why education and money are not important. It is how we have evolved with these elements that interest me most and I think I've gone to a newer level of physchological development with these new insights.