Posted by 珺 on Jan 5, 2009 in
Bits & Pieces Was it a dream? Or part of a lost memory?
It was in an apartment, probably the one in Hong Kong, and I was with a few friends when a China national delivery man came knocking on the door. He was sweating and carried two huge and heavy looking plastic bags. These, he said were for my brother and hurriedly left after leaving them at the door. I took the two bags in and discovered them to be carved jade bottles and some liquid was sealed in each bottle. No labeling, nothing.
Placed a call to my brother and he was speaking incoherently, presumably he was high on something which was very unlike him.
Posted by 珺 on Jan 2, 2009 in
Musings Facebook is successful because of the varied applications on it. Prior to that, I had named it the Obscure Network because when I first signed up for it, it was only opened to the alumni and existing students at colleges. And, there was nothing…nothing like now. Haha!
It is also very addictive and for folks who are bad at time management, like myself, once you are logged in, it will be hours before you log out. And usually you log out because of some compelling reasons. Privacy is one of the main issues of Facebook but as with the Internet, there really isn’t any much privacy anymore. Even if you are someone who does not go online at all, what is to stop others from posting your information or photos/videos online? The grey area seems even more greyer as Internet privacy and copyright laws are still in the infancy.
I managed to had a short discussion with one of my mentors, a prominent intellectual property lawyer, when I called him for some advice the other day. It seems that in Asia and even Singapore, there is few protection for individuals in terms of privacy issues. The Asian mentality is such that if you do not want people to steal, then you should not show because there really are not many laws to protect your ideas. And this is precisely the reason why we are not progressing as fast as we ought to be. When you do not share, you do not progress. Simple as that.
Back to the issue of privacy, particularly on Facebook, while sharing is good, how about friends or even strangers who post up photos of you without your permission and refuses to take them down after your request? You do not own the copyright to the photos because the photos were taken by someone else. It may also be a group photo in a very ordinary setting. But you are seriously uncomfortable about it being online.
Think about it. I have already gotten the answer from my mentor.
Posted by 珺 on Jan 1, 2009 in
News What a way to start the New Year! 
Bangkok’s Santika Club caught fire and more than 59 people died…
Posted by 珺 on Dec 31, 2008 in
Musings We have had films and movies with titles such as The Day of the Jackal, The Day of the Locust, The Day of the Triffids, The Day of the Dolphin, (the previous few titles were from the 1970s and back…notice any similarities?) The Day It Came to Earth, The Day After Trinity, The Day Time Ended, The Day I Will Never Forget, The Day After Tomorrow, The Day the Earth Stood Still and many more others. So why not a title The Day Before New Year for this post? *sniggers*
I want to write and post something but in reality I have no idea what to write about. I’ve just read through Tom Peters pre new year postings and while it inspired me to think and write, my mind is a huge piece of blank. Prior to that, I was working on my dissertation problem statement which is proving itself to be a big problem. It has to be as concise and as simple as possible which is very difficult to achieve. A dissertation problem statement is the light and focus. Write it wrongly and you waste the rest of your time and efforts. I’ve came up with several versions, all which I found to be very unsatisfactory.
Perhaps it is time to get myself out of the house and prepare for The Day Before New Year party tonight. 
Happy New Year!
Posted by 珺 on Dec 30, 2008 in
Reflections 2008 was a most eventful year for me. The year held major challenges and changes, both professional and personal wise.
To sum up, I am quite sure that the ME now is a much better ME twelve months back. However bad things were, I’ve managed to get through it and survived sans one more day to the New Year. Haha! And yes, I am looking forward to 2009.
Professional
The biggest regret in 2008 is my failure to get my first book published. It is a weak excuse to say that a job half done isn’t a job done at all. But whatever it is, it was my own laziness and lack of discipline that caused the book to be stuck.
My event was not executed well at all. No excuses. But something ridiculous happened (as it always did with me). One unruly exhibitor actually accused me of being a gangster. Let me recount the incident.
We were doing the usual due dilligence checks on the booths in the event hall when we realised that one of the exhibitors had set up their own tent (in replacement of standard booth) without installing a sprinkle and/or having a fire extinguisher. My official contractor went to remind them, rightly, that they have to either install a sprinkle or get a fire extinguisher and to this, they promptly flared up and started shouting. Two of the shrieking hyenas were from China and they were shouting at the top of their voices in rapid fire mandarin. The third was an elderly Singaporean man. Me being me, refused to speak in mandarin. Obviously I wouldn’t use a language that would be to my disadvantage and make myself a laughing stock in the process. (On retrospect, it would seem like chicken and duck talking…) Well, the elderly Singaporean man assumed his i-think-i-know-everything-because-i-am-educated-and-i-am-ever-so-old-than-anyone-else-here attitude. He started throwing his weight around (and yes, he does weight some excessive) and pointed fingers at us, especially towards my contractor (a sweet young lady). Anyone with a decent upbringing would remind him not to point fingers so rudely and so my contractor did. He then started this entire spectacle of, “Who saw it? Who saw it? WHO saw IT?”
That was when…I lost my cool. Literally flared up.
I said, notice that I said and not shout, “I saw it.”
He then got started on some crap that he had witnesses to prove that he did not point fingers but his so-called witnesses all kept quiet. (For those who didn’t know, there were many security cameras around…) And then he started on his tirade on how young people (he assumed that we were young just because we look young…-_-”) do not know to do business and respect the elderly, blah blah blah.
Just then, my security officer at the main door signaled me to go over because of some people making a ruckus over at his side. So I walked away, settled the other commotion and then went back to the unruly exhibitor’s booth who was already threatening my staff and my contractor by saying, “Call the police, call the police lah!” To which I heard and replied, “Please do so. Thank you!”
That was when, the silly old man called me a Gangster. The absurdness of it all had made me wanted to laugh out. He started on how he has been through so much and seen so much and he knew exactly how gangsters behaved and he is very sure, ME is gangster.
Interesting, isn’t it.
2008 also saw me racking my brains and doing up tons of business proposals for the company…all of which had gone down the drain when I tendered my resignation. It was a pity and I had a really good time working with all my colleagues and a great boss as well.
At the same time, I kinda messed up the clubs that were entrusted in my care because for one, I have no interest in the entertainment business and secondly, I have zero experience in this field (a few months marketing stint in Zouk almost a decade back doesn’t really count, right?). When I tried applying my corporate management principles, everything backfired. It was a terrible experience but I learnt and the clubs still survived (phew!~). So given another chance, I am sure I will do better. And I realised that managing clubs in different countries (Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore) requires a totally different mentality.
Personal
I had made a promise to myself that I would get my Masters degree and after much hardship (I went through a gruelling interview), I got into the course I wanted at NTU. And the other promise that I am about to fulfill is to get my PhD within the next 5 years. 
In doing so, I had made a number of sacrifices which I still feel is worth it.
This year had also made me realised who meant more and who meant lesser to me as I sorted out all my priorities in life.