Wednesday, January 31, 2007

A Boring Post about Slacking And a Wife Who Finally Reads

I thought I must write something. Even though nothing extraordinary happened lately and I frankly have got nothing interesting to write about.

But my wife finally read my blog!! After all the pestering and teasing, she finally gave in even posted a comment! So I decided to write something. Maybe I can post a topic on my wife reading my blog?! Sure sounds exciting right? But there's really nothing much to write except the expected remarks she made this evening at Cedele Cafe Wheelock Place:

"Now that you have read my blog, dont you find it interesting? Don't you feel like you want to go back and find out about my new blog posts?" I said. beaming with enthusiasm.

She goes, "What??! I already give you face by reading your blog liao. I don't even read story books. You think I really am your Fans ar? Now move your butt and bring me some bread from the bread corner."

A few days ago she said my blogs are not bad, that it is quite expressive, that it is quite interesting, that it...

Nevermind :(

So I decided to write something else.

Last week there was hardly time to breathe due to the unsurprisingly huge work load. Then the week started off with a bumpy ride with Monday working till 2am for Tuesday morning's meeting, which followed by another meeting in town that leaves us little time for lunch. Then we decided to SLACK.

Husband and wife, together in the same companies, running 2 businesses decided that it is more promising to hold grande size hot mochas in our hands at Wisma Atrium's Starbuck's cafe then sipping "Milo Dinosaur" at Woodlands Industrial Estate Canteen.

So it was set.

We shopped. We spent. We ate. We drank. We laughed ourselves silly. We really slacked.

We embark on our slacking expedition starting at 2pm in the afternoon. Starbucks was our 1st stop. One cafe latte, one ice cafe mocha, a piece of the chocolate eclair and a chocolaty Danish to set the mood. The more I sipped my grande mocha, the more I was convinced slacking was the best decision we made for the day.

And there was more. We bought aplenty. Retail theraphy at its best. Little crowd, many shops. The fact that people are slogging at work while we are slacking during office hours is really quite a turn on.

Dinner was settled at Billy Bombers Cathay Building at Handy Road. Ribs & Buffalo Wings, Root beer & Soda.

It was a great Tuesday. It was spontaneous, it was simple, just roaming around without aim, but it was great.

And the price I paid for slacking? Having to work on my notebook while I was getting my hair colored in the hair salon this evening. There is still a timeline to meet nevertheless. But I say it was worth it. It was all worth it.

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Just a thought I pondered

The carpark looked familiar.

13 years ago I was doing warm-down exercises together with my camp mates at the same car park. Looking back the years, Salarang Camp have not changed much. It still look.. like an army camp. I half suspected there is a time stall in this part of Singapore. (I think it is more of the feeling and stereotyping, camps being camps and the dreaded ICTs every year.)

Better and bigger malls have sprung up everywhere over the island throughout the years (Think Vivo City). Trendy American cafe joints that offer high class 'kopi peng' have already invaded the country faster than SARS can spread. Yet, the army camp looked similar to me from the day I left the place more than a decade ago. I must add again, it is just my biased perception. As a matter of fact, everything is now electronic even in the SAF, and better.

I guess my point is : The world has changed. At an increasing speed.

And stepping back into Salarang camp have caused me to ponder. Those days (my NS days) where pagers cost hundreds of dollars to own, army boys used to queue up at the pathetic lone coin phone below their bunk waiting for their turn to make smooching calls to their girlfriends.

Earlier this afternoon as I drove in with my shining blue sports car, I was told to wind down my window and reminded not to bring in any camera phones.

I started to look back at how fast the society had advanced. We now lived in the digital age, where earthquakes in Taiwan crippled internet connections, resulting in billions of dollars lost in the commercial world. Less than a decade ago, we would have relied heavily on only fax machines. Now we cannot live in a world without emails, msn, and youtube. Camera phones are are now banned in army camps. In my army days, I used to walk around with my pager sticking of the front pocket of my levi's 501 button jeans, and I used to think I looked cool. Fuck.

Kids now carry cellphones wherever they go. Lately, one Singapore kid even broke the guiness record for the world's fastest sms typer!

Just 5 mins drive from my office, there is a polytechnic that runs a paperles system. The students generally bring their laptops everywhere they go. The exams are even conducted paperless, with students keying anwers into the laptops. I wonder how the new generation will end up, and the generation after that. How would it be?

Back in Salarang camp, I looked at the documents I carried in my hand. Without the essential army online portal, I wouldn't have been able to print out my 'SAF100'. I did not even receive a letter notice for my call up service, I was simply requested to return to camp via a system which sends message to my cell phone.

Paperless.

Friday, January 19, 2007

A Blog Post Dedicated to a Dog

Many meetings were held, many decisions made, many designs created, many proposals typed, one friend left for China yesterday.

Ah Tan was a 15 year old nerd head when I met him some 17 years ago. While he did not exactly score well with the 'Hip' department back then, he look different now. Slightly better lah.

At 32, he claims he is still a virgin. I should add that he made several claims, none would have pass through the lie detector successfully. He may be a liar, he may be 'Beng', he may be crude, he may even be a dog mother low life scumbag, but he is the best dog mother friend I have known.

True, his unique charm may attract 'Ah lians' like bees to honey, or rather.. flies to ..er.. (i better not go too far, after all he is the only true supporter of this blog), but he does have a sense of HIS OWN humour. He is also a great inventor and a linguist. To quote examples, some of his inventions go as far as "toisert","forg", "guud di", and "sqeed", with the latter being the human male & female's private functioning mechanism - Clue, lower portion & upper region respectively.

They asked him to go China shoot some films for nine months, but he is allow to come back for the Chinese New Year Break in one month's time. Singapore will once again be deprive of another great man, for one month at least. But the streets will once again be safer, the air clearer, and the lians lonelier.

But hey, don't we welcome some nonsense now and then. His nonsense will be missed, he will be missed, by his friends, family and lians. I say we welcome him soon for the CNY.

Few things to add before I end this post.

1) A lot of us had a sumptous meal yesterday. (And a little bit of champagne)
2) "toisert" is Ah Tan's version of washroom.
3) "forg" is interpretated as smoking.
4) The rest of Ah Tan's inventions are deemed to be inappropriate for publication and may invite lawsuits if ever disclosed to public.
5) Steve is Ah Tan's real name.

Take care my bro.

Thursday, January 18, 2007

I Am Trying to Get My Wife To Read My Blog

"You call your blog 'Design Guy' ah? Nobody will read your blog."

"Huh.. why?"

"All design people xiao xiao wan, nobody will read yr blog."

" :( "

Those were the passing remarks she made just 60 seconds earlier.

She is just right behind me as I am typing this post, engrossing in her Taiwanese 'Ou Xiang Ju' vcd, her eyes stuck to the 28inch TV screen. She is totally uninterested in what I am writing, simply 'bo chap'. I always wonder, isn't she curious at all? What if I am writing about her? She must be curious right? After all what sparked her IT illiterate husband to start blogging?

Apparently not. I have asked her to read my posts several times, but she will always laugh it off, insisting she will not read. This in turn usually spark my urge to get her to read my blog. Its really funny, I think this is one of the many ways we communicate with each other. She knows I will keep concocting ways to get her to read my blog, and when she insist not to read with her smiley face, I always feel like I actually "tekan" myself by doing the same thing over n over again knowing the outcome.

She just walk passed behind me as I type.

"I thought you said you got nothing to write", she goes.

I took 5 mins after keying the above line to pester her to read this post.

NOT SUCCESSFUL :(

This will go on forever... I am itching all over now..

Sunday, January 14, 2007

Before I knew it I was hooked

"The following takes place between 7am and 8am"

By the time it goes : "The following takes place between 6am and 7am", which is day 2, Jack Bauer would have already save the world under 24 hours yet again. Inevitably.

Its the same regime, expected outcome where the good prevails and the villians eliminated. The golden globe award winning TV series "24" stars Kiefer Sutherland, in reel life a CTU (Counter Terrorist Unit) agent dedicating his whole life for his country. Its not hard to imagine how successful the show is. Sutherland, who grabbed the emmy awards for his role in "24" signed a 3 year US$40million contract for his role as Jack Bauer again.

Just six months ago, when "24" season one landed on the sofa in my room (compliments of my younger brother who got everyone in the office discussing "24" during every god damn lunch), I left it sitting there for another 2 months.

Last night, I finished Season five.

For someone who does not worship TV and who would rather past his time hitting golf balls at the range, "24" has definitely twisted some of my leisure habits, drastically. I am now victimised. Great god of media have me hooked on high budget TV serials such as "Prison Break" and "24".

It is not surprising for me to get hook on serial dvds. But 4 years ago, something astonishing happened.

My good old dad is an extreme workaholic. He wakes up at 6.30am every morning, works 7 days a week, comes home late from work, and when the Asian Financial Crisis hits, he works 10 tens harder to fight back his construction empire. He went to China, set up his new plant, worked his ass out, and took his poor old lad (Myself) along to carry out his sadistic mission of torturing oneself at work.

One fine day, he cut short his work hours and dissappear from his office before lunch. I later learned that he has dedicated the rest of his days watching TV serials while his son is working his ass out in the sick China factory in Qing Pu, a southern back dated town away from Shanghai towards Suzhou. And it went on for a couple of weeks.

Of course this was for a very short period of time, before long he felt an itch in his backside and he's off to Totureville again. This is my good old man, whom I respect as father, a true businessman and a not to mention a devoted sadist at work.

Such is the lure of good TV serials. Don't get me wrong, I am not all ready to jump into the bandwagon of screaming housewives and aunties oogling at Korean men starring in Korean soap operas. But TV shows with budget matching that of Hollywood's movies does turn me on, very.

"24" season 6 have already premiered in the US. And the counter terrorist bug has already hit me. It will not be too long before my brother hand me the first 4 episodes.

"Hands UP! CTU!! Put your hands over your head and slowly lower you weapon..." I can now hear it in my head already....

Friday, January 12, 2007

Work must stop on Weekends.

This is my 6th post in 2 weeks.

I suddenly feel like a no-life shit. Darn. I am.

Its Friday eve. I should be out drowning glasses of vodka down my throat. Instead here I am, back in my office straight after a meeting in town, writing a blog post. For someone who never quite believed in blogging until10 days ago, this is quite an accomplishment.

I actually described it as an accomplishment. Imagine that.

By typing this sentence, one and a half hour have already passed. I was interupted to attend some office matters. Looking back at what I have written above, I still cannot face the fact that I should be getting a life!

Work is a big deterrence, especially when your work is running your own business. It has its down side but it has its rewards. Words cannot express my excitement when we learned that we have secured a big government job. Suddenly, all the sleepless nights and stressful presentations does not matter already. But letting it get into your leisure life is a big problem.

May and I celebrated our 3rd anniversay over a dinner with wines and cakes spread over the table. That was 2 days ago at PS Cafe. The moment we hit home I started hitting my laptop keys. I dont have to spell out what happens next.

This weekend, we'll get some rest. Go for the movies and perhaps some karaoke.

I know, I should start tonight. TGIF. I already have plans actually. I am taking my MUM out for dinner. How exciting is that. But hey, someone's gotta be a good son once in a while right.

Happy Weekend.

Tuesday, January 9, 2007

Running

I like to run. As in "jogging".

Problem is, I have developed a knee condition 4 years ago (which I left it untaken care of). Recently, it has gotten so bad that I decided to seek treatment. The doctor diagnosed it with some weird term which I didn't bother to remember. (why do all doctors like to display their bombastic medical knowledge by throwing uncatchy terms at patients anyway?) All I know is that pain in my right knee stings like hell. For all I care, its call "Knee pain". Heck.

Alright, the doc did explained my knee pain is due to the wearing off of the "cutileage". I don't even think I spelled "cutileage" correctly... (See my point?) Anyway, the "cutileage" is the gel that holds the joints together. Whatever. Its Knee Pain for god's sake.

So.

I was given 5 bottles of "Glucosamin" (See my point again?), 10 sessions of Physio Therapy, and a hefty medical bill.

True enough, after happily burning more than enough dollar notes, I feel much better already. So I picked up my Addidas running shoe, dust off the dirt and off I went to the running track at Woodlands Stadium. That was last Thursday.
I did the same today with a colleague and a good friend of mine. I can't tell you how "Shiok" I am. I have put off running for more than half a year due to my knee pain, and it feels extremely, extremely good to be running 19, 20 laps around the stadium again.

To most, it is nothing to be rejoiced about. After all, a lot of people would be rather sleeping than panting at the tracks. But to me it is a big deal. I started running almost daily when I was 23. It does me good, helps me release stress and keep myself fit. Initially I started running to lose weight, before I knew it I was already in love with the sport. To have the simple sport taking away from me would be disastrous!

I can only hoped my knee would not give way too soon. The pain has returned substantially after only 2 bloody sessions, urging me to return to my doctor for more of his boring medical lessons. Damn.

I should be firing paragraphs of text for my proposal due this Thursday instead of writing this post. But excitement overwhelmed me. I decided I could take half hour off to write about my run today. And I am glad that I did just that.

To those of you who do not believe in the benefits of running. I suggest you try it out, it is a very simple sport and only require a good pair of running shoe. And it is cheap.

So don't wait! Be a health Freak! Go run for your life, before your life run away!

Sunday, January 7, 2007

Dinner with Lawyer & His Girlfriend

My impression of lawyers in the past were:

1) They are despicable people (Except for our Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, the man I respected deeply. The man whose memoirs inspired me over and over again)

2) Some of them behave like crooks (Yes, except MM Lee)

That was before I met my patent lawyer, Gregory. When I met him more than 2 years ago, I was not prepared to be talking to a very nice guy. More than 2 years have passed, he is still the nicest lawyer I have met.

It was a fantastic dinner. They were nice sociable people. Faye and Gregory can talk about almost everything. We were at this very nice restaurant at Six Avenue that serves fantastic Brazilian food. My wife, May did the reservation triggered by the recommendation from my brother. Indeed, it was a great place. It was either the co. or the food. I figured it was both. We talked about how Ubud in Bali feels like jungle training in Brunei back in my NS days. How May & I enjoyed the little trip despite the frogs and lizards in our hotel room in Bali. We talked about Gregory and Faye, how Gregory's demand letters were drafted to help Faye fend off weirdos in her field of work. We talked plenty. Even though Faye was clearly down with a bad sore throat, she remained chatty, exluding her pleasant personality.

May & I sincerly wishes Gregory and Faye the best of happiness in their life. Tomorrow is Faye's Birthday, we'll like to wish her "Happy Birthday!" and that she recover speedily from her flu.

Saturday, January 6, 2007

Work

I am not an intellect. Nor do I excel in sports. I am what you will call a very average guy.

An average guy should be holding an average job with an average pay. I am not.

I am holding an extraordinary job with a fucking miserable pay. You see, I am what the bitchy media and government people call me, an "Entrepreneur". I hate that word. Usually when you are slapped with that word, you belong to the below categories:

A) You are poor
B) You are a poor start up
C) You are a poor start up that can be bullied so that your business will fail like all other start ups do

Well, I have heard sneers and jeers when I tell people what I do. I say FUCK YOU all. Well, at least I am a survivor, I dont need a fucking boss to give me a fucking pay, I am able to pay myself a salary. I dont wait in my sick office cubicle for pay day to come every god damn fuckin' month. This, I can be proud of, at least I am not a corporate dog who needs to wash my bosses's puny balls and lick them like Haagen Daaz even though they taste like shit.

You see, I have run a computer gaming keyboard business for more than 2 years. We are the only Singaporean company doing this. Recently, I also started my own design studio because of my true burning passion in design. Now, I say true burning passion and I mean it. I mean every fucking word. I was trained in design locally and thereafter in an University in Sydney. I worked hard as a multimedia design in the following years.

With 2 businesses to manage, I hardly can find breathing space. You do everyfuckshit by yourself. Sales, admin, accts, projects, cleaning the toilet, security, you name it. Its a stressful life. It affects my personal life and I dont spend time with my family at all. Every god damn time I am thinking of work, every god damn bloody time I am thinking to myself, "no matter how tough it is you bite the bullet and get through every day."

I had a roll with my wife lately. The work is affecting us. She helps in the business. It is tough for her. However, it is my good fortune to have a kind and understanding wife, and I appreciate her more than ever every day. I realised I have let her down in many ways and promised to spend more time with her.

So, this is my current lifestyle. A far cry from my well paid previous jobs, stressless and carefree younger days working out at the gym and boozing now and then. I am sure there are many people similar in my shoes. There is nothing to complain about. At least for me, because my wife May, is the most supporting person and friend in my life that I have ever come across.

I will keep on going and going, no matter how tough it may be.

And I will keep on fucking and despising those to have anything against what I am doing. Corporate dogs, you know who you are.

And I am a "Businessman". Not a stupid entrepreneur, you dickheads. People like us do real business. Forget about sexy terms like "technopreneur" or whatever. We deserve some respect, not to be exploited for your stupid columns and stories.

Lastly, to those believe in what you do and have succeeded, you have my upmost respect.

Thursday, January 4, 2007

What is it with Korean Serials

888.

Eight bloody hundred & eighty eight dollars. This is how much it cost to catch "Rain" on his concert. The best seats cost this much, and the second tier seats pricing is not too far away.

For those of you who are not aware, Rain is a very very very popular Korean actor/ singer. Never has a concert in Singapore history cost this much. Needless to say, the seats were all grabbed up.

I am not surprised at all if teenage girls are all screaming over hunks like Rain. But my 60 year old mum? Guess what. I am burning a korean music cd for her as I am writing this post. She has reminded me twice to do it for her.

I have my fair share of Korea Culture too. On most night these days, my wife plays her Korean vcds in our room.

Well, so much for my "24" season five.

Sigh.

Tuesday, January 2, 2007

I have nothing particular to write really


I hate IT. Information technology. But in today's wired world we cannot go on with our lives without learning about IT. I have not read a blog until today. I think it is a complete waste of time. I dont even know what does a blog mean.

You see, I am technophobia. In my opinion, I dont think there is anything wrong. But to many people I sound like some Kampong guy who has never taken an escalator in his miserable life. The fact that I am still using my Nokia phone of 3 years old does not help either.

I hear this all the time.

"You should trade in your Nokia. Still got value leh. At least worth $150 man."

"Well, ya.. but its still good and it has a camera resolution of 1 mega pixel.."

"Ya, but Sony and Ericcson just came out with a camera phone that captures 20 mega pixel resolution, with 3G functions that will send you to space and back to Sembawang Ave 3 in an hour, and you still got time to "ta bao" Nasi Lemak on the way back."

"Ya, can I slap your mouth hard becos I think it looks too big. I assure you it is the best trade-in of your life time because it will save you the heavy expenses of comestic surgery."

Don't get me wrong. I am not against folks carrying the lastest gadgets designed by NASA. Just do not assume all folks have to be the same, and forcing them to upgrade whatever damn gadget we have. It is depressing to hear your peers pushing you to get hold of the lastest IPOD in town. Is there no other thing we can do except talk about tech and gear wherever we go? I dont know about you, but it bores me.

Come on, my mobile phone is only 3 years old, and it is in a fantastic condition. Why replace it endlessly without substantial reason.

I think it has become a desease. Such obsession is widely seen in recent times. Embracing technology is essential, and in many cases it is the key to survival in today's working environment. Which is why I am writing my first blog. Which is why I am willing to learn and keep up with these IT stuff to stay connected.

But don't bore me to get hold of the lastest handphone in the market, and discuss about gadgets all day long. Lets all have a beer and rock n roll in the coming New Year.