Wanderings,Musings and Happenings from Ian on Singapore
{ Monthly Archives }
Last Saturday, my gf and I did the flower arrangements for the wedding of a family friend. Well, actually she did all the flower arrangements. I was the manual labor.
The Reception Area (After):
My contribution to the reception area was the cutting of the cloth and the subsequent covering of the table with it.
The Reception Area (Before):
The Seats (After):
The Seats (Before):
The Altar (After):
The Altar (Before):
Length matters. Any lady who tells you otherwise is lying. Of course, the problem is, longer isn’t always better. It is about having the right amount for the job at hand.
Arti Mulchand, formerly a journalist from SPH, shared some pointers on how to write right at the event hosted by the folks from Ogilvy.
Two of the pointers:
Don’t waste words.
Short paragraphs; and short sentences.
Probably the most famous example of how austerity in words does not hinder the telling of a good story is the following six words by Hemingway,
For sale: baby shoes, never worn.
The six words story is a sub-genre of flash fiction.
Googled and found these positively delicious sites:
http://www.sixwordstories.net/
http://www.flashfiction.net/
There is a twitter account for Sixwordstories.
Lots of great ones:
Computer becomes conscious. Immediately commits suicide.
Met at antiwar rally. Still fighting.
God creates Universe. Realizes mistake. Hides.
Bury the hatchet…then the body.
If you have any six words story to share, why not Tweet it and tag it with #sixwords.
Notes:
The complete list of pointers to Write Right:
Wealth is not paper gains. Wealth isn’t even cash. Paper gains can rapidly become paper losses. And cash can lose its value too.
So how do you create wealth in the stock market? By maximizing profit and taking it so that you can stash your gains in assets that (hopefully) safeguard your wealth or provide for a life.
The bottom line is that buy and hold doesn’t work. There’s a time and a place to buy and that means there’s a time and a place to sell. You don’t buy when you don’t have a good reason to and you don’t hold when you’re given a good reason to sell.
Read the whole post here.
If we must label him, the writer is a contrarian, and one worth reading.
Should there be an entertainment show for business?
Finance stuff isn’t a game.
Below: Jon Stewart’s Interview of Jim Cramer on ‘The Daily Show’.
I remember this particular conversation years ago that I had with my best friend. We were talking about what kind of cars we hoped to get on our 21st birthdays. I was joking that I don’t think I will ever get the Ferrari I wanted.
My best friend said,
“Murphy is a sneaky fellow. If you really want it, he won’t give it to you.”
“I don’t want a Ferrari then.”
A few minutes passed.
Looking around, I triumphantly declared, “I don’t see a Ferrari. Your theory is wrong.”
“Obviously, you underestimate the intelligence of Murphy. He knows when you mean it. And when you don’t.”
“Well then, I really don’t want that Ferrari. If I get one, I’m going to crash it.”
After my proclamation, guess who drove up in a Ferrari. Murphy. That sneaky bastard. He got out of the car and tossed the keys to me, giving a knowing wink that said, “Its yours.”
I got into the car and drove it into a tree.
“What did you do that for? “
I already said I didn’t want the Ferrari.
The irony of life.
The change that makes one able to reach out and grab your heart’s desire is the very change which guarantees that that which you hold will, as certainly as the sun sets, slip from your grasp.
Greetings to my fellow brothers and sisters,
As some of you may know, I’ve recently been exiled to the edge of the empire. The decree issued by the Emperor took my family by surprise. In our haste, we have lost much of our possessions. Yet, better to lose things than lose our heads.
The days in my new humble abode have been endless repetitive cycles of physical toil and uncomfortable rest. I am not used to the lack of comfort this godforsaken part of the empire so generously provides.
Although my home, and yes, I’ve grudgingly come to see this place as my home, is still in a disarray, I invite you to join me on Good Friday for a simple meal when my parents are away celebrating their savior’s death. A savior who had all but deserted us in our darkest moment of need. I however do not stand for such foolish revelry for a god I cannot see; my merrymaking is reserved for spirits I can indulge to satiety.
Do let me know if you will be able to grace my home with your presence. As I no longer have any servants, and I do especially miss the pretty chambermaids and their succulent breasts, all food will have to be prepared by my own hands. It is a distinctly torturous experience.
Sincerely,
Ian Timothy
On Friday, after TDM’s Blogout09, TDM-IDA hosted a dinner for a bunch of entrepreneurs at My Secret Garden. Howie and Daniel were kind enough to invite me to join them.
The dinner was a great chance to be acquainted with interesting entrepreneurs and partake in some engaging conversations. One conversation which really struck a chord arose from Yongfook sharing the reasoning process he was going through to consider Singapore as his next place of residence. A point was made that it was particularly interesting that foreigners were choosing Singapore as a place to stay while Singaporeans were desiring to leave the country.
I too have a particular yearning to leave Singapore to stay and work overseas.
The question is why?
I love Singapore and I know that I will always call this place my home. If I leave, I know I will return. My desire to leave the country has nothing to do with ill feelings about the country or the government or even the PAP. So why do I have this yearning that expands each day I remain on this little red dot till a void that is so expanse that even Moses could not cross forms within my soul. Why do some other Singaporeans feel the same thirst to travel, the same hunger to leave.
During the conversation, I offered an explanation – Singapore was too small. You must be thinking, “No shit Sherlock”. The size is only the cause. The effect of that size is that it allows few of us to change, it prevents us from escaping our friends.
Our friends. People who love us. People who have an idea of our identity. An identity that sometimes they hold onto more strongly than we do ourselves.
“I didn’t know you were into cooking.”
“You sure don’t look like the sort who will paint.”
“You sure you can go to the gym consistently. Think you will just stop like before.”
“Dancing? hahahah… You? hahahhaah…”
For inexplicable reasons, our friends trap us in a box. In a prison where they will shoot us down as we make for the fences that constrains us within a given identity. They have a painting of our identity and it isn’t cubist.
Singaporeans need to leave Singapore to grow. Away from the eyes of well-intentioned and kaypoh friends, we have a chance to change.
Like the ugly caterpillar that needs to crawl away and hide inside a cocoon, we need to leave Singapore, so that we can undergo the process of metamorphosis, to change into a butterfly.
Or as Bill would say, or at least I think that’s what he said, we need to go on our own heroic journey, our own personal odyssey. Here is a thought to our worrying government – Odysseus did not begin his journey with the fall of Troy. He began his journey when he left Ithaca – he left home and returned home.
For most of us, a wandering we must.
Is Joe Augustin awesome? Or rather is he a good radio DJ? I mean, how does a good DJ get fired again? Stupid bosses?
Joe was the host for TDM’s Blogout09 and to be honest, he was an amazing host. He was also an absolutely effective moderator for the Q&A sessions.
Joe was plugging his possibly regular podcast show throughout the two days. You can hear a test episode here. Password: morningjamfan
Joe shared an absolute peach of a joke on Day 1:
Singaporeans love lucky draws. It’s because we were founded by Raffles.
If the joke isn’t that funny, it is because of the presentation. Joe’s delivery was perfect and he got the whole room laughing. You got to hear him say it.
The image above shows an ad on the ‘Morning Jam‘ site. Not sure if Joe really actually uses such a tool to trade but if he does, I can’t imagine why he would need to earn money from advertising it or still try to host a podcast. He should already be rolling in the cash.
Where am I going with this?
The truth is, I’ve never been much of a radio listener. My family never had the habit of turning on the radio. I don’t drive to work nor do I carry a portable FM receiver so listening to radio programs while commuting has never been part of my life. I’ve never really been a fan of any DJ. However, over the course of the two days, I can imagine myself listening to the works produced by Joe. After listening to the podcast, I’m more inclined to continue listening if they do get a regular show going. I can only imagine the kind of content that will be available when they start discussing the real good stuff happening in the world instead of using ‘made-up’ situations.
Kevin Kelly shared his concept of ‘1000 True Fans’ as a means of supporting an artist. I loved the concept and have been trying to get my gf to use such a concept to support her art.
Here’s the thing. I’ve never really been a true fan myself. Well, at least not in the sense where I contribute to the finances of an artist directly and regularly.
I think Yongfook is right when he shared about how there seems to be a feeling of entitlement for free content.
Do you know that Lester Chan who developed a bunch of really useful plugins for WordPress has received a paltry sum in donations. He is a guy who has written a bunch of useful tools that have empowered a good number of us (judging from the downloads) and we don’t even have the basic decency to donate.
We have such a disgusting tendency to expect something from nothing.
Came home and immediately donated what little I had left in my PayPal account to Lester.
I won’t pretend to be a true fan but I do appreciate what Joe is trying to do. I love it when the little guy (in Joe’s case, maybe not so little) sticks it to the man and I’ve decided that, although I’m not willing to pay a lot, if Joe wants to setup some sort of monthly basic subscription to get his podcast show going, I’m willing to signup to give the show a chance to live.
If you are a fan, you should to. Speaking for myself, it is time to be on the other side of the ‘1000 True Fans’ equation.
And maybe if Joe and Shareen can get enough, there won’t be (what looks like) dubious ads on the blog that frankly spoils the brand.
All the best Joe and Shareen, and I do hope you guys (or rather you guy and gal) get something successful going.
Today, I met Yongfook. I don’t think there is anything wrong being a fanboi, especially if you are worshiping the awesomeness which is Megan Fox, but it is slightly worrying when the object of fandom is a male web developer.
The problem is there is a lot to like about Yongfook. He is rather handsome, has a great sense of aesthetic as evidenced from his sites, seems like a decent web developer ( who can get people excited about his products ) and after today, an eloquent presenter that can get his ideas across effectively and able to actually teach people something. His presentation’s sample case studies were not just an enlightening lesson in what to do but also how to approach the problem of social media metrics.
Incidentally, his site was down for a while. Or at least impossible to connect. I think lots of women are checking out his site after his presentation today. In case you are doing research, he is single. Join the fan club here.
The truth is, from the information that can be gleamed from his sites alone, the story of Yongfook the web personality is a rather interesting one. Like all things good on the web recently, I learned of Yongfook from litford. Earlier this evening, during a dinner which was hosted by IDA and TDM, I managed to learn a little more of Yongfook the person beyond the web personality while sharing a table with him and a few other folks.
Interesting conversation all round and he shared a side of Singapore I can’t get to see as a local.
Did I mention there is a fan club.
A little more of the awesomeness of Megan Fox.
And yes, I do feel I need to overcompensate in a post on what seems like an awesome dude with an even more awesome babe.
I have a patented process when it comes to determining which movie I should spend my hard-earned dollars on. One component of the process is so accurate that it is almost like seeing the birds fly south and knowing winter is coming or when a groundhog leaves its burrows you know winter is ending.
I call it the ‘Ong Sor Fern’ test.
If it looks like a good movie, if it sounds like a good movie, if everyone kind of thinks it is a good movie but Ong Sor Fern because of some snobbish pretensions about film-making ( it seems, that to her, every film must kind of be Homeresque ) gives the movie a low number of stars ( in this case, Watchmen received 2 stars from her ) then the movie is a confirmed, plus chopped, plus signed, must watch movie.
Oh, and spread the #watchmen_spoiler – the mother is the killer.
