Death as philosophy of Life

AWARE - Will this happen to Singapore?

2009-04-26T20:50:00.002+08:00

I am just imagining:

What will happen if such sudden takeover of power happen in political arena?

Certainly I do not wish for it. I agree totally with Kanwaljit Soin's view on this affair, but I wouldn't be following Mr Wang's call, because I don't even have a DBS account in the first place.

My favorite

2009-04-07T23:20:00.003+08:00

A SLICE OF LIFE – Changing Your Perception

Albert Einstein famously remarked "There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is."

Einstein was referring to perception and how every often, how well or how badly you feel about something is due entirely to the way you see it. You can instantly change your emotional state by changing the way you perceive the situation.

We live in an age of unprecedented equality – many of us have access to the same opportunities to improve our lives. Yet we find there is a whole spectrum of people stuck between Depressed and Joyful, between Yearning for More and Contented. Two persons can have the same experience and respond very differently.

Scientists used to believe that we respond to information flowing into the brain, but we now know, scientifically, that it is actually our interpretation of the information that determines our response. Our past experiences create an expectancy that is primarily based on what we "know" and what we "know" is that which has happened before.

Our belief system is one of the main ways in which our minds make sense of the world. A belief is a sense of certainty about what something means and they’re mostly formed and hardened by past experiences. In essence, we make expectations about something based on what’s happened before. For example, you might believe that you never get second dates because no one’s agreed to it in the past. As a result, you go for that first date with a gloomy forecast of what’s to come and don’t make any effort to encourage a second date. After the date, you don’t follow-up or call to arrange another meeting. Needless to say, a second date doesn’t happen. You believe it’s because you’re undesirable, but the real reason is simply that your limiting belief had caused you to sabotage your own chances!

Perception is a way of grasping and making sense of the “realities” around us. Perception links a meaning to what you take in with your senses that allows you to have the experience in your nervous system. Because perception is based on interpretation we can change it.

A change in perception is what turns the half empty glass into a half full glass. Perception explains how two people can have exactly the same experience and one commits suicide while the other becomes an inspiration for generations to come. Whatever you perceive is going to be true for you, regardless of what you see. Change your beliefs, change your perceptions, and you can change your life.

WRITTEN BY EUGENE LOH

credit: Eugene Loh, 938LIVE, MediaCorp Radio Singapore (www.938LIVE.sg).

Pricing an Opportunity (Part 2)

2009-04-02T23:36:00.005+08:00

Assuming that from all the questioning, I have ascertained that I am going to make such investment decisions over and over again in the future, and that in each case, I can always reinvestment all my money in such opportunity.

Why shouldn't I pay $95.24 for it? $95.24 is computed using the average expected return of the opportunity, which would be $100 (150*0.5 + 100*0.5), and discounting it with 5%, which would be $95.24 (100/1.05).

It turns out that if I pay $95.24 every time I see such opportunity, my expected return would be about -9%! I will explain why:

Upside of 150 with investment of 95.24 means that I will get back 1.575 times of my capital. Downside of 50 means 0.525 times.

Now, assume that I made a string of 100 such investments consecutively, meaning I reinvest my capital into another similar opportunity again and again and again, for 100 times
it is likely that out of these 100 investments, 50 of them will return me 1.575 times of my capital, and 50 of them will return me 0.525 times
so at the end of these 100 investments, most likely i will get back only 0.0000744... of my initial capital, a very pathetic return.
The working is 1.575^50 * 0.525^50
To find the effective return for one period, we work it out as 0.0000744..^(1/100), and it turns out to be 0.909 time of the initial capital
To convert that into return percentage, we take 1 - 0.909, which would be about -9%

Now i know i should not be paying $95.24 for it, how much lower should i bid for this opportunity? How much lower can i go so that this investment makes sense? In another words, what is the maximum amount I am willing to pay, such that any amount higher than that would make the risk-free asset more favorable.

I think it would make sense if I can expect a return comparable to risk-free return, and not -9%. To obtain the price that would allow me to get the expected return to be the risk-free rate, I need to use Geometric Mean. The working is as such:

Take (Outcome1)^(Probability1)*(Outcome2)^(Probability2)*...
Then discount it by the risk free rate
In this case, we first get 150^0.5*50^0.5 = 86.60
Then we get 86.60/(1+5%) = $82.48

The price which will allow us to obtain the risk-free rate of return for a string of such investment is $82.48.

If you pay anything more, you are paying too much, and you will be better off putting your money in risk-free assets.

In fact, there is a problem about risk preference. If you invest in risk-free asset, your return over the long run is CERTAINLY going to be 5%. But if you invest in this opportunity at price of $82.48 over the long run, your return is MOST LIKELY to be 5%, it could be more, or it could be less. Risk-neutral person will be indifferent between this two investment, but a risk-averse one will definitely choose risk-free asset. And a risk-averse person would demand a risk premium. How much is the risk premium? It depends on how risk-averse that person is.

In conclusion, the MAXIMUM a risk-neutral person should pay for such opportunity should be $82.48. A risk-seeking person may be willing to pay more, a risk-averse person will want to pay less as they demand a risk premium.

In part 3, I will try to expand the scope of this example and discuss the implications.

Learning is the path to all Good

2009-04-01T18:46:00.003+08:00

Enlightenment in seven days

Buddha told his disciples: whoever makes an effort can attain enlightenment in seven days. If he can’t manage it, certainly he will attain it in seven months, or in seven years. The young man decided that he would attain it in one week, and he wanted to know what he should do: “concentration” was the reply.
The young man began to practice, but in ten minutes he was already distracted. Little by little, he began paying attention to everything that distracted him, and thought that he was not wasting time, but was getting used to himself.

One fine day he decided it was not necessary to arrive at his goal so fast, because the path was teaching him many things.

It was at that moment that he became an Enlightened one.

From Paulo Coelho

Future Water Crisis

2009-04-01T17:59:00.002+08:00

Nestle Chairman says water will run out before oil.

http://www.ft.com/cms/8a38c684-2a26-11dc-9208-000b5df10621.html?_i_referralObject=1078592162&fromSearch=n

Will it?

In Singapore, water supply doesn't come free. We buy from Malaysia, because we don't have enough land for reservoirs. However on a global scale, I find it quite difficult to imagine the depletion of fresh water supply. If we do face water crisis, perhaps technologies offered by water company like Hyflux might be of great importance.

Maybe I will look into investing in Hyflux.

Pricing an Opportunity (Part 1)

2009-04-01T00:06:00.005+08:00

I have been thinking about this problem for quite a while. I started thinking about this when i was reading "The Handbook of Portfolio Mathematics". It is a really good book, but i haven't finish reading. In fact, I don't think I have fully digest the parts that i have read. It gets a little technical in the middle, but it intrigues me because the approach of analysis is not exactly academical.

Anyway here goes the question that I think about:

If I am given an opportunity, which will likely return $150 or $50 with equal probability each, how much am i willing to pay for this opportunity, given that I always have an option of getting 5% risk-free return by investing in Treasury bills for the same period of time?

The first thing that came to my mind is to compute the average expected return of the opportunity, which would be $100 (150*0.5 + 100*0.5). Then, i discount it with 5%, which would be $95.24 (100/1.05).

Then again, it doesn't make much sense to discount it with 5%. Why would I expect only 5% return for the risky opportunity when i can always obtain 5% return for the risk-free Treasury bill?

Putting it aside for now, let's go back to the question again. Is this opportunity an one-off thing? Do I have a fund that I used for investment? Or am i treating this opportunity as a one-off gamble? Will i have more of such opportunities in the future?

All these questions I have asked will form a picture, if this opportunity should be viewed on its own, or as part of a larger investment scheme. If it is viewed as its own, how much i am willing to pay for it depends on how much of a gambler am I.

If I do have an investment scheme, then the next question I would ask is whether I can buy units of the opportunity instead of its entirety. Meaning to say, can I just buy 0.5 unit of the opportunity, which gives me $75 return or $25, or can I buy 2 units of it?

This question is important as it determines whether reinvestment is possible.

In Part 2, I will examine how my return from buying this opportunity at $95.24 would look like in various cases. And also, I will introduce an alternative method of valuing such opportunity.

Analysis Paralysis

2009-03-19T11:19:00.004+08:00

I have the tendency to analyze things. Things that are problematic, things that are not problematic, things that i would like to possess, things i find intriguing, things that are beautiful etc. What i do when i analyze is to strip it off its coat, pierce the veil, follow processes within it, understand how each of the constituent component works, formulate a certain theory to explain how things become what it is, test my theory repeatedly and refine the theory, try to use the theory to look into the future etc. I would find it useful to use all sorts of thinking techniques - vertical and lateral thinking, positive and negative testing, systems thinking etc.

I tend to analyze things all the time. Do i really have to analyze things all the time? Do i have alternatives? Is Analysis the way to go for all situations? If not, when is Analysis appropriate and when is it not? What side effects can it have? What types of answers can we expect from Analysis and what can we not expect?

Analysis-Paralysis. There are times when Analysis helps me a great deal - studying theory-based subjects like Physics, Math, Finance etc. There are also times when Analysis put me in awkward positions - studying why a person react in a way he or she reacts, "helping" others as much as i can from my so-called analysis etc. There are times when Analysis does not provide any clue on what i am looking for, these are the paralysis moments.

My opinion is that Analysis is not always the right thing to do. If so, what other approach can we adopt? I think the process of deciding the most appropriate approach is Framing. How do i perceive the issue in front of me in the context of everything else that i know of? How do i perceive how others are perceiving the issue? How can i best frame the issue to my advantage?

Perhaps after proper framing, Analysis may not be needed, or it may deteriorate the issues at times.

What will I miss if I were to die soon..

2009-03-16T22:59:00.003+08:00

I was standing at the rooftop of S4, and I asked myself what will I miss most if I were to jump down and die.. I am not depressed, but.. these few days I find it hard to find joy in living.. I want to live happily with everyone else, but I also want to be myself at times, anyway.. life is never perfect..

Here's the list of things that I would miss:

Swimming
Playing Badminton
Reading books on certain ideas
Working on a problem or theory
Traveling and exploring new places
Opening my mind to new way of doing things, new perspectives
Talking to a friend with no restriction, no hard feeling, or no sensitive feeling at all
Eating a really good meal
Watching a really nice movie
Being with someone whom i care for, and who cares for me
Following a great leader toward a meaningful vision
Listening to great leader giving a speech

There are so many things that I will miss if I were to die..

Movie: Watchmen

2009-03-16T00:26:00.002+08:00

Watched Watchmen last night at 11.20pm. Not exactly the kind of movie you want to watch when together with your friends, after a heavy meal, feeling sleepy or want to stop working your brain. In essence, this movie is one of those that makes you think. If you watch this show for the plot or action, then you are missing the point. This show makes you think of things. It makes me think of a few things, among them are these 5:

Concept of Enemy
In the show, all of the common people or human beings have enemies - the Americans' Russian, and Russians' Americans. The enmity escalated until the Doom's Day seems inevitable. It is only prevented when the smart guy turns everyone's enemy into one person. It makes me wonder if everyone has an enemy, consciously or subconsciously. if so, it is best we bring it to conscious level so that we can manage it, instead of leaving it to the will of our instinct. Very often we see people forming groups, cliques, teams, clan, gang etc for a sense of identity. It seems that the concept of enemy can be a tool to strengthen a group's identity. While it may be good for individual group when its team spirit grows stronger, it may be bad as a whole to all groups if enmity escalates to an extreme level.
Polarity
This is may not be so much related to the movie itself.. but its something i thought about when i watch the movie, and its something i believe in, Tao. The way of things often can be explained by two different and opposing concepts. Perhaps, things either adjust itself naturally through turbulence as the two forces compete, or it can be properly managed to achieve harmony. Very often, it requires a good balance of two opposing concepts in order to achieve a certain desired result. To do this, we need good mind-juggling - meaning your mind juggles two opposing concepts as you act. Perhaps we are under-rating this skill in school.
Systems
Human nature is usually ugly. I don't mean disgusting-ugly, but undesirable-ugly, although people tends to get disgusted. It is what it meant, human natures are something that all human beings have in them. Human natures are like little mechanisms working within each one of us. As a result of all these mechanisms, we behave the way we behave. It is often difficult to judge if any mechanism is good or bad, right or wrong. Who knows what would i turn out to be like if i change a little mechanism inside me. Anyway this systems concept is rather big.. Something to think about :
- What forms mechanisms (born with it? society? upbringing?)
- What options do we have in changing the system's behavior?
Life is a miracle
The blue guy said that life is a miracle. Is it really a miracle? Life is only miraculous if it means something to someone.
Self
What is self? Or who am I? Or am i the person as I perceive myself? Or am i the person as perceived by others? Or am i the person whom i think others perceive me as? How about the person whom i want to be? Why is it that we can sometimes become different person during different circumstances? In the show, the watchmen behave differently when they wear their masks. Is it because the mask changes the person's view of how others perceive him? This concept of self is rather confusing to me, but it seems to be a powerful tool to live a life. I guess as human being, we are always limited by our inability to have multiple perspectives at any one time. When we look high level, we miss the details, when we look micro, we might miss the whole point. we can look from all perspectives over time, but we still need judgment in making out what is going on exactly.

Back!

2009-03-13T00:52:00.003+08:00

Well, have not blogged for pretty long. Decided to make a comeback! chey..

Don't know exactly what to blog about too.. I know i will start talking about things that i am passionate about - business, management, systems, finance, valuation etc. But now.. maybe just some random stuff?

Watch Departures! its a good movie
need to start reading CFA text regularly, exams on first week of June, and i couldn't hug buddha's leg for that week because thats my first week of work
need to start exercising regularly, going back for reservist in last week of June. and its good to sweat and tan!
getting back my interest in badminton. hopefully i can join a team when i start work
iPhone begins to appear in my mind more often per day...
Where is my first issue of HBR!!
See some progress on my finance problem about geometric returns, will ask a prof soon

Ok, end off with this really good video on Flow. You tap into your potential by getting yourself into flow state. Do what you love, love what you do.

Carpe Diem

Baby Guinea Pigs!!

2007-12-03T01:55:00.000+08:00

Curry has given birth yesterday and the two cute guinea pigs are really cute!

Inspiring Young Musician

2007-12-03T01:50:00.000+08:00

She played very well. Like what is said on TED.com, she " gives a dazzling performance, both technically brilliant and emotionally nuanced".

Get ready to be mesmerized by her plays :)

Canada Road Trip (21st to 25th Nov 2007)

2007-11-27T08:10:00.000+08:00

Back from the trip!

We stayed at Marta's Uncle's home in Toronto for 3 nights and in a nice and affordable hotel in Montreal for 1 night. I enjoyed the trip a lot - the people (Marta, Huiyi, Cindy, Maurice, Martin) are wonderful, the cold snowy weather, the different people we see in Canada compared to US etc.

Five of us went to Toronto in Cindy's new BMW 328:

and Martin has to take the greyhound bus alone to Toronto and we met up there.

We went to Marta's uncle's home and Marta was so excited when we arrived at his doorstep.

We took turn to drive, and i started the trip by driving from Bentley onwards for a few hours. It was scary when i moved onto the highway, and i need to drive faster, between 60 to 80 mph. First, i need to constantly tell myself to keep to the left of the lane, because i am now driving on the left side of the car. Second, i need to constantly remind myself that i am now on the right side of the road, US and Singapore system are different. It was not easy at first but i got the hang of it pretty fast. BMW is a really good car, it can go up to 140km/h but you still feel as if it is going at 70km/h. it is really stable and comfortable to drive.

We were supposed to go to Buffalo in New York and cross the custom over there, but somehow Mandy (the GPS navigator gadget) took another route. We were on the road for hours and we followed Mandy's instruction all along. Then we turned into a road facing the lake, and Mandy said "Take the ferry to..."... We are driving and Mandy asked us to take the ferry... I wonder who designed it.. But anyway, we managed to find another way to cross the lake and custom to Canada at 1000 islands. Crossing the custom is easy, and Singaporeans don't need a visa to get into Canada. We stayed in the car while the custom officer checked our passport and it only took a few minutes.

Anyway, we reached Marta's Uncle (Marian) home and we had dinner there. The dinner was very good. In fact, i love the meals i had at Marian's home throughout my stay there. The breakfast is sumptuous (Polish bread, butter, different hams, cheese, tomato, salad, raw seasoned salmon, coffee) and the dinner is good too, followed by a drink-and-chat session. I had whiskey with ginger ale cola on the first and last night, and rum with coke on the second night. We had fun chatting, looking at photos we have taken etc.

Martin, Maurice and i left their house for the first night (Wednesday night) to our hostel, because we thought that there may not be enough space for all of us to stay at Marian's home. We booked a hotel (Dundassquare hotel) that is quite near to downtown at a very attractive price (about $7.50 per bed per night). There is no way we can find such a competitive price elsewhere, the usual price is more than $20.

It is a hotel but we are not staying in the hotel room, we are staying in the dorm room, similar to hostel bed. We met a Japanese who was traveling around before he goes to study in one of the universities in Idaho, and a Israeli who has traveled Guatemala, El Salvador and Mexico before coming to Canada.

It was snowing when we arrived at Toronto. Even on the way driving from Boston to Toronto, there are some roads where the visibility is really low because of the fog, and there are some place with thick snow on the road and i have to be extra careful.

Thursday 22nd Nov
On Thursday morning, we took the Metro back to Uncle's place just like how we took it to our hotel on Wednesday night. It was snowing and it makes a good start for the day!

We had a really good breakfast and then we moved off to walk around downtown Toronto. We went to CN tower, where we bought the ticket (about $20-$25) and went up to see the city from above.

We couldn't get the best view as it is winter time, and it was snowing on that day as well. Anyway the most interesting part of CN tower is the glass floor.

I was scared initially, but eventually i have enough courage to put both of my feet on the glass floor.

After that we walked around the place, and we walked to the Old City Hall and the Chinatown before heading back for dinner.

Friday 23rd Nov
We went to Niagara Fall in Marta's Uncle's van. The waterfalls are so beautiful!

And on the way back, the sun was setting.

and on the way back, We stopped by a supermarket. Marta's uncle get off the car and went in to buy some stuff. Initially we were thinking of going out to town to buy a birthday cake for Marta after the dinner, because her birthday is on 25th November (Sunday), and we will not be together as she wants to stay at her uncle's place while we go to Montreal. But the opportunity presented itself, and we acted immediately. They got out of the car and went into the supermarket also. Marta thought we were just buying stuff secretly for Uncle and Aunt, but in fact Martin bought a cheesecake without her knowing.

his uncle is a very interesting guy, Marta is so lucky to have such an interesting uncle :)

Saturday 24th Nov
We moved off at 7am in the morning and drove to Montreal. We parked our car at the hotel (Saint Malo Hotel) and went to Biodome and Olympic Tower via the metro.

Outside Biodome

On the way to the top of the Olympic Tower

The Biodome from above

We spent about half an hour at the tower and we move to Biodome. Huiyi was irritated by the staff while we waited for the ride up the tower. Basically the people in Montreal is not as friendly as the people we saw in United States and even in Toronto. Toronto and Montreal is very different even though they are both part of Canada. Toronto is english speaking, and is more similar to american cities, while Montreal is french speaking, and is more similar to european cities.

Biodome is just an indoor zoo. and the favorite animal i saw in Biodome is...

There are many other interesting animals in Biodome and you can find it in my photo gallery.

We then took a walk downtown in the night, and we almost froze!
We walked down to the old port.

and then to Basilique Notre-Dame, but its at night so we didn't get to explore inside. It was very beautiful.

Sunday 25th Nov
We were suppose to wake up early in the morning to explore the city, but apparently we couldn't wake up as we slept late the previous night.

we were in good mood :)

the famous cathedral, too famous that i forgot the name.

look at my poor hand, are these frostbites??

The Observatoire at Mont Royal

The moon concludes our trip in Canada..

Canada, i will visit you again with my love one :)

my first snow experience!!

2007-11-21T12:24:00.000+08:00

It snowed today!! My first snow experience!! hahah. 20th November 2007 9.45am in Waltham, Bentley College North Campus Building C, room 207B. hahah!! It was wonderful, seeing the snow falling slowly to the grass patch, covering it with a layer of white coat. but it didn't last long though, because the temperature increased in the afternoon and snow turns to rain, and the ice melted. I went out to walk in the open, letting the snow fall on my jacket. although it is nothing much to be excited about, i felt great feeling the snow and seeing the white snow sticking on my jacket, and the grass patch turning white.

And, i will be leaving for Canada in about.. 5hours time ( it is now 11.30pm 20th November Tuesday). we are leaving early morning tomorrow to Toronto! it will be about 8-10 hours drive, depending on the traffic on the road. It is Thanksgiving holiday! we will have holiday from wednesday all the way to end of the week. we plan to go Toronto initially because of Marta, and it is really kind of her to let us tag along to his uncle's place. and also Cindy, who is kind enough to let us use her car to travel to Toronto. Cool! she just bought her car not long after i came back from New York, a BMW 328 i think. i drove it for a short distance the first night and it was fantastic.

Anyway, we are planning to go to Toronto, meet with Marta's uncle, and he will probably bring us around Toronto and visit the nice place, hopefully we will go to Niagara Fall. and we will leave for Montreal maybe in the Saturday morning. it will be about 5 hours of driving. They were saying that Montreal has european style while Toronto is more of american style. Really look forward to visiting the two cities.

We have done our preparation, hopefully it is enough. we booked hostels in Toronto as well as in Montreal. Martin volunteered to take greyhound bus (as there are 6 of us, and only 5 can sit in the car) which will take about 17hours, and 4 transits... he is the best! we printed out alot of maps, hopefully Mandy (Mandy is Cindy's GPS navigator, who has great responsibility to guide us on the road to Toronto then to Montreal then back to Waltham) will behave and give us correct direction. we bought food and drinks to eat in the car. we got our DS2019 (it is an important document to prove that we are on student exchange) signed. changed some canadian dollars.

What have i been doing for the last few weeks:
Those who know me well enough know i will not be able to remember every thing that i have done..

Basically i have not gone anywhere far for the weekends. Some of the things I have done:

eat hotpot. we used ricecookers as steamboat :)
went to pub in Boston for Bernd's and Daniel's birthday
sing KTV with Jessica, Huiyi, Michael, Maurice, Gao, Martin at DoReMi
went out to Chinatown and have dinner
played games at my place till late (we played Mafia, and another one that has police, murderer and judge)

Basically i have been spending quite some time with myself.. allowing myself to roam around, think about things that intrigue me, ask questions that bothers me, read up on things that is interesting to me. I feel so lucky and fortunate to have met my room-mate Maurice. he is a very intelligent guy who has thought deeply on issues that matter. We talked about Socialism, Communism, Capitalism, and how they are means to achieve ideal scenarios which are somehow similar. We talked about happiness in life, tried to define happiness, discussed about whether it is an object or a state, and what is the sustainable way achieve happiness. He thinks that the key to sustainable happiness is Growth, which will lead to the feeling of existence (it might not be exactly what he said). He introduced to me to the thinking of Existentialism. I really like our conversations, they really make me a better man. And it is so hard to find someone who has interest to think about such stuff, think about things that is so important to life itself but probably not so in the reality we are living in right now. It is so hard to find someone who is able to think rationally in all circumstances. He lead me to believe that it is possible to improve ourselves (growing) by thinking deeply on why we feel how we feel, and strengthening our "emotional discipline", which allows us to feel better handle ourselves when negative emotions try to take control. We also watched Matrix together and discussed at length the plot as well as the ideas in the show like Choices v.s. Causality. we have watched the first two film together, and we will watch the last one, Matrix Revolution once we are back from Canada.

I have bought 5 books from Amazon so far. and i am thinking of buying more!! i am in love with books! hahah there are so many books that i want to read. I have finished reading Guy Kawasaki's The Art of the Start, and am halfway through The Future of Management. Buying books with Amazon is so easy. Simply order the book online and wait anxiously for the book. The best part is when the books finally arrive, you feel so excited and can't wait to lay your hands and eyes on them.

Well.. that is what i have done for the last few weeks. nothing material, except occasional drinking and singing, but the whole experience of discussing and thinking about life is so much more fruitful than anything else. The place here is somewhat peaceful, and i have ample space and time for myself.

How i wish i can bring this space and time back to Singapore..

New York Trip (3rd Day - Sunday 28th Oct)

2007-11-02T02:18:00.000+08:00

We walked down to Central Park and had a morning walk there.

Some art thingy along the pathway

The American Museum of Natural History. The museum in the movie "Night at the Museum" where the dinosaur came alive haha. Eventually we decided not to enter, leaving it for the next trip, as we might need a few hours to explore the whole museum.

Food! at one of the cafe. They serve customized salads, pizzas and others. How i wish there is one in Singapore!

hee hee hee..

Isn't this interesting? haha

Desire + Obstacle = Excitement
you cannot be excited if there is no obstacle haha
The tour in the museum is fantastic, it kept my blood boiling haha. Natural reaction la..

We took a bus back to Boston after that. New York is definitely worth visiting :)

New York Trip (2nd Day - Saturday 27th Oct)

2007-11-02T01:49:00.000+08:00

We went to visit Statue of Liberty early in the morning. It was raining.. and the mood is not that great.. but we went ahead anyway, not wanting to waste our time in New York just because of the rain. We bought the passage ticket for $12. FYI, Statue of Liberty is on an island, called Liberty Island, and we need to take a cruise to go to Statue of Liberty.

See.. it is so far away..

Getting closer.. :)

Even closer..

Here we come..

Da da!

We did not know that we need to reserve Time Pass in order to get into the monument.. so we are not able to go into the monument.. Probably i will go there again in November (we are planning a second trip to New York) and hopefully we can get the Time Pass :)

And so we explored the area, the area below 1st street.

The Bull!!! hee hee hee.. the bull's face will turn red if he sees this photo hahah

Huat ah! haha then we ate lunch at Subway. the Subway is just as good as that in Singapore :) yum yum.. with more choices i think, we can choose what cheese we want (american, cheddar, and others i forgot). and there is a flavor called cheese steak i think, and the sub is basically full of beef hahaha

AMEX

We are at Wall Street :)

Cool huh :)

NYSE

The Trump Building

Ground Zero

i like the signboard, it looks so impressive hee hee

Some government building

A protest just outside, a very peaceful one. but there are lots of policeman around. Read what is written on the board :)

Well.. Basically i stopped taking photos after that hee hee.. will get the photos from Nina and Maurice.. Anyway we spent the whole day walking around.. Nothing much to do anyway. Well, we had a really sumptuous dinner at one of the chinese restaurant at Chinatown. We ordered quite a lot, thinking that the portion might be small, but it turn out to be alot! I was so contented at tasting authentic chinese food after months :) and it was cheap! $35 including tips for three of us. you guys may not feel that it is cheap but given the quantity and quality and the fact that we are in USA, $12 per person for such meal is rare. haha anyway.. i love that dinner..

After dinner we rushed to the cinema (Angelika) to watch a movie called "Before the Devil knows you are dead". It is a very nice film, nicely crafted to keep the audience hooked for the entire show. It is R rated, only for 17 and above. The first scene is the guy having sex with his wife (explicit content), and the second scene is robbery and gunshots where the robber and victim shot each other and died. I was like.. "what the hell...", and then i saw Maurice being amused by the absurdity of the show and controlling his laughter haha.

We went to Empire State Building after the show, but we did not pay to get up the skyscraper at 86th floor. It cost too much, at about $15 if i never remember wrongly. Next time i will go up with Chi :) That's about all for the night.. and ya, Maurice and i played Reversi in the hostel :)

New York Trip (1st night)

2007-11-02T01:25:00.000+08:00

Went to New York City last weekend, and it was a wonderful trip! We took greyhound bus from Boston to New York on Friday afternoon and back on Sunday evening. I was a little surprised to see a bus terminal that looks that an airport. There is a screen that shows the bus schedule (the bus number, which company, what time does it departs and where is it going to etc) similar to that in airport where you see your flight schedule.

If you can see that screen on the upper floor. i wanted to take the photo of it close up but i was stopped by the security guard hee hee.. Anyway that is Maurice in the photo.

The bus journey took two hours longer than expected. we arrived at about 8pm instead of 6pm. We took the bus on 1.30pm, meaning the bus ride from Boston to New York is about 6.5hrs!!

It was raining when we arrived at NYC. In fact we knew that it was going to rain for our stay in NYC by checking the weather forecast. what a timing.. anyway it was not heavy rain like that in singapore, it's just drizzling and gusty wind.

Some photos:

Toys R us!!

the big digital billboard :)

King Kong in Toys R us!

Morgan Stanley!!

The huge M&M shop! it is really huge, that whole building below the billboard is M&M shop :)

Well.. Maurice shouldn't have smiled when i take this picture.. but.. ya :)

Just beside the M&M shop is this rival shop. Hershey, Reese's and many others. Reese's is this peanut butter chocolate goodies that is so delicious. i bought three packets (not in NYC) and i usually have a few dosage of it everyday hahaha i am growing fat!!

Not a good idea to have the date and time imprinted.. haha it imprinted on me.. Anyway the place we explored on the first night is Times Square.

That is all for the first night. We actually took the Metro to 106 or 110 street to check into our hostel (Wanderer's Inn West) at 113 street. Actually it is so easy to walk around in NYC Manhattan region. the horizontal roads are streets and vertical roads are avenues, with some exceptions like Broadway in the middle, and other street name below 1st Street, including Wall Street. Anyway the Hostel is $24 a night, in a 12 mixed bed dorm. the facilities are good and breakfast is provided! The staff is friendly and the lockers provided is safe to use. We just got a little upset by other inconsiderate sleeper in our dorm. We placed our stuff on the bed but someone just sleep on it when we returned from town. Anyway.. it is not a big deal :) Another bad thing is the location of the hostel.. we felt unsafe to walk back late in the night.. though we did walk back safely anyway.. haha.

beyond you

2007-10-19T11:42:00.000+08:00

I don't have much to blog about myself.. or maybe i am totally shut off.. anyway, think beyond yourself, and there are so much to think about, that are probably more beneficial.

Tony Robbins: Why we do what we do

2007-10-13T01:25:00.000+08:00

Tony Robbins (or Anthony Robbins) is a captivating speaker, full of zest and he energizes me as he speaks. its is really fast paced though, and could not catch the whole idea in the fullest sense.

Philadelphia

2007-10-06T21:15:00.000+08:00

Its now in the morning, and i have just stayed one night at Loftstel, one of the youth hostel in Philadelphia. It's a really nice place, mainly because it has just opened for business on 1st October. So the furnitures and stuff are really new. And they have this iMac in the living room for stayers to use.

It took us 8 hours car ride to reach Philadelphia, because of the bad traffic in New York City. We arer not sure how we could reroute to avoid the traffic in NYC too.. Its really bad, and we need to plan for Monday, when we have to drive from Washington to Boston, and mostly the GPS will direct us to NYC again.

Anyway we will spend the day in Philadelphia, walking down from this 47th street to 2nd street, or take bus down to 2nd street and walk back. whichever way. it's really simple to get around here, just walk down spruce street or walnut street.

Laugh it out!!

2007-10-05T13:26:00.001+08:00

Laughing is the best remedy for all undesired feelings! :)

天将降大任于斯人也

2007-10-04T11:15:00.000+08:00

《孟子·告子下》
舜发于畎亩之中，傅说举于版筑之中，胶鬲举于鱼盐之中，管夷吾举于士，孙叔敖举于海，百里奚举于市。
故天将降大任于斯人也，必先苦其心志，劳其筋骨，饿其体肤，空乏其身，行拂乱其所为，所以动心忍性，曾益其所不能。
人恒过，然后能改；困于心，衡于虑，而后作；征于色，发于声，而后喻。入则无法家拂士，出则无敌国外患者，国恒亡。
然后知生于忧患，而死于安乐也。

This is my favorite poem. It is written by Meng Zi.

The essence of the poem is that -
before God confer an important responsibility to us, we have to go through difficulties in all aspects - we have to overcome obstacles in matters of heart and soul, endure physical hardship, survive starvation and poverty, pass the stage of helplessness, confusion and not-knowing-what-to-do. These trials will make us stronger within ourselves, and equip us with capabilities that we didn't have before.

We have to make mistakes before they can change for the better. We have to go through obstacles in our hearts and minds before we can accomplish great things. Once we have reach this stage, others will be able to notice from our look and gesture and from our conversations.

If there are no great leaders in a country (internal affair) and if the country has no enemy (external affair), most likely the country will weaken. We have to understand that we grow stronger in times of crisis, and we weaken in times of comfort.

Just for laughter:
i tried translating the text and the explanation from a blog post (www.wuyanlin.com) using google WordTranslator. This is what it turns out:

The big day will be down to someone also

《孟子·告子下》
"Divisions of Mencius"
舜发于畎亩之中，傅说举于版筑之中，胶鬲举于鱼盐之中，管夷吾举于士，孙叔敖举于海，百里奚举于市。
Shun Anniversary of the acres are projected to cite version of the building, plastic Ge give the salt fish, give the people of Yiwu, Sunshuao cite the sea, Bolixi give the city.
故天将降大任于是人也，必先苦其心志，劳其筋骨，饿其体肤，空乏其身，行拂乱其所为，所以动心忍性，曾益其所不能。
It will be days of the big drop was also, from its first Zhi, Dr their physique, their body skin hunger, hunger its body, it is OK fu chaos, Movable Renxing, their benefits have not.
人恒过，然后能改；困于心，衡于虑，而后作；征于色，发于声，而后喻。
People have constant, and then to change; Beneath the heart of value to consider, for the latter; Levy in color, in the sound, then Yu.
入则无法家拂士，出则无敌国外患者，国恒亡。
The home is not fu disabilities, the foreign patients are invincible, the constant death.
然后知生于忧患，而死于安乐也。
Then known in adversity, but also from happiness.

[译文]
[Yes]
舜从田野之中被任用，傅说从筑墙工作中被举用，胶鬲从贩卖鱼盐的工作中被举用，管夷吾从狱官手里释放后被举用为相，孙叔敖从海边被举用进了朝廷，百里奚从市井中被举用登上了相位。 Shun from the field in the appointment, projected from the construction of the wall work was cited by, plastic Ge salt fish from the sale of the work was cited in the use of Yiwu release from the hands of prison officers was cited by the phase, from the seaside Sunshuao been cited by the court into, from the Town Bolixi been cited by the board phase.
所以上天将要降落重大责任在这样的人身上，一定要道先使他的内心痛苦，使他的筋骨劳累，使他经受饥饿，以致肌肤消瘦，使他受贫困之苦，使他做的事颠倒错乱，总不如意，通过那些来使他的内心警觉，使他的性格坚定，增加他不具备的才能。
So God will be landed major responsibility in such a person must thoroughfare first in the hearts of his suffering and his physique exertion, he withstood hunger, the skin so thin that he by the plight of poverty, he has done something to reverse confusion, the undesirable situations, through which to make his mind alert, his strong character, he does not have to increase the order.
人经常犯错误，然后才能改正；内心困苦，思虑阻塞，然后才能有所作为；这一切表现到脸色上，抒发到言语中，然后才被人了解。
People often make mistakes, before we can make corrections. Heart hardship and ill obstruction before they do something; All this performance to the face, to express in words, before being understood.
在一个国内如果没有坚持法度的世臣和辅佐君主的贤士，在国外如果没有敌对国家和外患，便经常导致灭亡。
If not in a domestic uphold the Law statecraft and supporting the Greek monarchy, if not hostile foreign countries and external troubles, it often leads to doom.
这就可以说明，忧愁患害可以使人生存，而安逸享乐使人萎靡死亡。
This indicates that worries people from harm can survive, and carefree pleasure to languish people died.

Raytheon Lecture in Business Ethics: James H. Quigley (CEO of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu)

2007-10-03T12:59:00.000+08:00

(Did this write up for my Strategic Management class, thought it might be useful to share this)

“Trust is glue of life”, Mr. Quigley has said this early in his speech. I think this sentence summarizes the main idea that Mr. Quigley wants to convey. Without trust, everything else will fall apart.

Mr. Quigley proposed that sustained success in life and career is impossible if one is unethical. He went on to cite three proof points to support his argument. The idea of impossibility does not come intuitively to my mind, as I can occasionally see or hear of someone who is able to escape punishment with unethical acts. But the three proof points are strong evidences, and they are:

Correlation of FDI and Corruption Index
Near collapse of Banking in England
Value destruction of Enron

Mr. Quigley advised individuals to exhibit trustworthiness. To do so, one needs to start with integrity and character. Only then will people want to work with me, and important projects assigned to me. This in turn increases my value. I totally agree that trust is the most important consideration when we pass on responsibilities and expectation. A candidate will not even be considered if the candidate is not trustworthy. The speaker mentioned a quote from Warren Buffett, “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”

As technology advances, computer power has become so strong that long lasting memory can be collected and stored in most aspects of our lives. This makes life more transparent and so the chance for making mistakes in building trust is reduced. This reminded me of the article I have read online, “Google + Facebook + alcohol = trouble”. In the past, a professional career starts only when one steps out of school and into the workplace. But now, employers can assess applicants with the use of technology.

Another interesting point brought up is the suggestion that one who has good work life balance will more likely be an ethical person. I guess there is no direct relationship between the two of them, just that a person who has good work life balance will tend to have fewer tendencies to commit unethical acts. In any case, this observation will bring us to look more carefully at firms who have less emphasis on employees’ work life balance.

Last but not least, I am really impressed by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu’s Client Acceptance process. It is rather counter-intuitive for a firm to reject a big contract based merely on an assessment of trust and ethic. A firm’s ultimate goal is to make money and earn a profit, and this is the fundamental principle that drives an economy. If we think in the long run, instead of the short term loss of revenue, that the trustworthiness and integrity built up through such act of commitment will actually bring more value to its clients, the goal of earning a profit still holds after all.

Books that i want to read

2007-10-02T01:19:00.000+08:00

I am sitting in Bentley Library right now with Martin. Met him here as i came to do my research and prepare for the strategic management project meeting later on at 3pm. He is always in library as he has super a lot of assignments.

Saw two books beside his laptop - "Get Out of Your Own Way" and "The Other 90%" by Robert K. Cooper.

I read the front part of the first book and i am amused by one of the sentence:

As the comedian Emo Philips said, "I used to think my brain was the most wonderful organ in my body, until i realized who was telling me that."

It's odd to think of my brain as a separate entity from me, but i can see where is this going. I think it might be interesting to read what Robert Cooper has to say about this.

This cost USD$25 if i buy both of them online at Amazon.. hmm.. Maybe i can just borrow from Martin once i free up my time :)

NS Song

2007-10-01T11:16:00.001+08:00

My Hong Kong friends asked me about NS in Singapore. I feel tempted to show them this video. but looking at NS from a third person point of view, NS is indeed beneficial to me in some ways. At least it makes me special :)

Life Without limbs -Nick Vujicic

2007-10-01T02:41:00.001+08:00

Watch this and think about your life

lost...

2007-09-28T14:11:00.000+08:00

i skipped a class today because i am lazy.. don't want to be late for class.. because i laze on bed.. because i slept late every night.. later than the night before..

i talk less.. because i am unable to hold conversation.. because i am lost.. because i don't know what's going on.. because i don't want others to know what's going.. because i want to be alone.. because i shrinking into the voidness in my heart.. because i need to heal myself.. if it is possible..

i want to go harvard square alone.. so that i can buy something.. something that could possibly make me feel better.. like how it helped me in the past.. it is a trade off.. i have to.. because i cannot find the strength to get myself up..

i forgot to do an assignment.. i feel bad..

why am i posting this negative stuff? am i not able to keep this blog clean with positive stuff and memories for the future? sometimes people needs to know that life is never always good.. it is how we perceive it.. if there is a need to show the other side of my life here.. the darkness inside me.. the struggle to cover up or isolate the bad me.. then this post serves the purpose..

if there is a choice, i would rather relax and follow other's.. i am lazy by nature.. but i will have to take the lead sometimes so that i can reach my preferred destination.. to travel alone or with others? pros and cons.. relationship issue.. goodwill.. choice of destination or 'being there'.. why am i in this situation.. can i get out of this?? or am i in illusion?

Regrets.. wrong decisions.. different perception.. no discipline.. self deprecating.. procrastination.. giving up.. failure.. lost.. messed up..

Trip to Martha's Vineyard

2007-09-24T00:16:00.000+08:00

View Larger Map

Went to Martha's Vineyard yesterday, Saturday, 22nd September. The trip cost $15 and it was an enjoyable trip. It is a huge group that i am in, see this:

starting on the left: Zita, Jessica, Marta, Cindy, Alix, Me, Huiyi, Andrew, Nina, Maurice, Minna, Da Liang, Vi, Michael

We took a bus that took an hour plus to reach a port near Cape Cod, and then we take a boat (similar to the Penguin boat we have at Pulau Tekong, the one that can ferry vehicles as well). We reach there at about 12.30pm and have to be back by 4.30pm. So we had 5 hours of free and easy time.

We decided to go to eat! and i must say we were quite lucky to have chosen a restaurant that serves decent food. It's called Mediterranean Restaurant and the owner is a French i think. I have the fish of the day - blue fish (if i spelled it correctly; it is a local fish) with mussels and tomatos. It cost USD$18. but plus tax and gratuities, it's about $23.

Before:

After:

And there is another dish which is very good.

The Restaurant:

with a private beach behind

OMG... i am drooling now and i haven't had my lunch now... Argh..

Anyway this is the best part of the island i guess.. There is nothing much on the island. We should have rented the scooter or bike so at least we tried some other stuff on the island. We walked around and covered the 6 points of interest on the island. They are:

Captain Richard Luce House

"was built in 1833 by the whaling master who never lost a man or a shit during his 30-year career. His Greek Revival house was the first and one of the finest on William Street, now a historic district."

The Vineyard Playhouse

"was built in 1833 as a Methodist meeting house, and today is home to the Island's only year-round professional theater company"

Well.. i am not blogging the rest.. some i am not even sure if its the one stated on the brochure..

We then went to Owen Park (one of the 6 attractions), and had some fun with the swing and the pier.

Then after that we walked back and saw Mad Martha Home-made Ice Cream. It's so expensive! i didn't buy hee.. but tried it, its not as good as i think it is..

and i mischievously took this photo:

hee hee.. guess who is he.. haha he is my room-mate :)

Marta's riding the Harley Davidson!! I wish i could try riding one too hee..

Took this photo and it looks so much like a painting haha

The sunset on the boat

Stupid faces!!

Anyway we saw this movie on the island, called Death at a Funeral:

I want to catch it! haha

I made fried rice!

2007-09-22T00:44:00.000+08:00

i cooked this:

it taste ok for me hee hee.. not too salty for me.. but i guess its too plain for others :)

I cook it with overnight rice, hotdog, carrot, garlic, egg, soya sauce and pepper.

And i saw very beautiful sunset yesterday:

Isn't this marvelous? i wish i could watch it with chi some day..

Anyway, i went to play basketball last night. Almost got my glasses broken by someone. luckily my Police spec is strong enough to withstand his roughness.. lesson learnt, no specs in basketball games.

Its been such a long time since i play sports and exercise.. i was so tired after the short game.. not really tired but my heart cannot take rigorous activities due to a 'long break' haha. So unhealthy.. grh.. need to put in some system for myself to start exercising when i am back in singapore.

then i played volleyball with huiyi and marta's friend. volleyball is a fun game, but i need time to improve.. and it seems to take away a lot of 'funness' away from them when we play.. so.. no next time :)

Spreadsheet Woman..

2007-09-19T12:32:00.001+08:00

Look at her!

Why don't we have courses on using calculator at light speed in accountancy major?

Studies and new blog

2007-09-18T11:21:00.000+08:00

Haven't really blogged about my studies here..

Culture of speaking up in class
I had two weeks of classes, and i quite like the education environment here. the students here speaks up during classes, and there is a conducive environment that is present due to the different culture for students to speak up and voice out suggestions, questions and opinions. I haven't really gotten use to it but i spoke in some of the classes and it feels ok to speak. Whereas in Singapore, speaking up may not be the best thing to do - some tutors/professors might not like it, you have to speak the right thing if not others will either laugh at you or curse you for slowing the classes, people might talk behind your back etc. The general observation is that there is more interaction between the teacher and the student. The professors here are more of a facilitator than merely a knowledge provider.

Courses i'm taking
and i like the classes that i am attending as well.

Strategic Management - i like this class, though i think the tutor is not really an experienced one. she lacks the ability to move the class along the topic of interest based on the discussions. She seems to get stuck whenever a student says something that she did not anticipate or that is not how she wants to the discussion to go. But anyway, its a interesting topic and i have interest in strategy - viewing matters holistically, analyzing strategies, looking leaders, vision and mission statements etc.

Cost Mangement - It is not a topic that most would enjoy i guess.. but the professor is a very funny guy. His name is Freed and he always make funny noises in the class. he walked around during class a lot and he joked that he walked miles everyday. He likes amusing himself with small little actions and in turn amuses us as well. Anyway he made the otherwise boring class a more enjoyable one.

Mathematics in Financial Engineering - The maths is difficult.. and it has been three to four years since i last touched calculus. But i enjoyed it though :) Math has always been my best subject and my favorite one. i used to be able to do math for the whole day. I used to have daily dosage of math every morning in the canteen at NJC. I miss math so.. so much so that i am now thinking if i could switch course from accountancy to business specializing in Actuarial Science.. Hmm...

Managerial Communication - Somehow the class managed to trigger some interest in the topic of communication and language. I suppose the professor, Linda Senne, has done a very good job at communicating to me the importance of communication in business settings and how a person's personality is reflected in his/her communication with others.

Business Information System and Design - This class is quite boring actually.. the professor is aware of the need to be interesting though, and we played games for one class - tinker toys. not sure if we have it in Singapore, but it seems like a childhood games that most people would have played before. basically he is trying to re-enact the process of developing an information system focusing on the three key roles - programmer, the client company and the system analyst. He is very passionate in this field of studies so much so that he tries to pack as much knowledge and information in each class. Anyway.. it is a useful course.

Observation

Individualism - the professor in my communication class talks about communication on an individual basis. Communication is about talking to individuals. We have to treat others (customers, employees etc) as individuals when we communicate instead of the bureaucratic and stuffy way of communication. To a certain extent, i feel that the people here are more individualistic. Perhaps this could explain to a certain degree why they have no problem speaking up in class, that they sees themselves as individuals with own unique thinkings and views instead of students, where anyone is like everyone else in the classroom.

Teamwork - my observation is that the people here are very good at building ideas and discussions as a group. they are able to think critically and respond immediately. The fact that they speak up whenever they have things to say means that discussion can go on rapidly and as the people makes valuable contribution, be it good or bad. But when it comes to individual assignment, i think they do not put in as much hard work..

Random Summaries

2007-09-18T09:26:00.000+08:00

Basically i haven't been updating this blog as often i wanted to. Will just give a brief summary of what happened from last tuesday onwards. its is going to be a super long post.

have been here for three weeks, and have enjoyed the stay here so far. there are things that i complained about, but there are more enjoyable things that i have talked about.

Salsa Dancing
There is classes on Salsa Dancing but i decided not go. Huiyi and Marta went and they were dancing in the room for us.

Poor Andrew is constantly bullied by us, mostly Nina and Huiyi though.. He has intention to complain to the international services about the exchange students this semester being so violent. I think he will decide not to be International Peer Advisor next semester haha.

Cooking alone...
My room-mate has taken the unlimited meal plan.. meaning i have to cook myself for the rest of my stay.. Not that i mind cooking myself, but sometimes it's boring and you don't get to share the joy of cooking a nice meal. Anyway i am doing fine with the cooking, and i love what i cook :)

Google Picasa Web Album to Flickr
I am afraid i might use up the space given by Google (2GB), if i used them up i will probably switch to using Flickr.

10cents chicken wing @ John Brewer's Tavern
Have i blogged about this? anyway.. we went to the Bar with Kevin So, an international student in his senior year (meaning the fourth and last year of his undergraduate studies, 1st year is freshmen, 2nd is Sophomore, and 3rd is Junior). It's our first meeting with him and it's on 10th Sept. His father is a Hongkonger and his mother is Singaporean. He studied in Hong Kong and Singapore in his earlier years, and then came to USA for his college studies during the SARS outbreak i think. He is a very friendly and helpful guy, and he drives a white BMW X3 here. Cool car..

Anyway back to the bar.. some photos of it:

its own fresh root beer. taste not bad!

Thats Gao Da Liang on the left, an exchange student from University of Budapest, Hungary. He is an international student there, and he is from Haerbin. the way he speaks reminds me of Yizhuo! the haerbin accent :) the one on the right is Julie, friend of Kevin.

the one on the left is Vi, Da Liang's college-mate. she is vietnamese she is from the north vietnam.

look at the number of chicken wings!!! so sinful.. i wonder how many chickens are killed in this tavern..

There are two flavours - Buffalo (spicy) and Honey Buffalo (non-spicy). i ate more spicy one, but they are so sour. they are not so spicy but the rest are complaining that they are spicy. anyway it will be better if we can eat half sweet and half spicy in the 10s serving. one plate like this is 1 buck :)

YES! 10 cents each!! of course there's condition attached, you have to buy a drink. and it comes in 10s or 20s. Usually a normal person will eat 10, as they usually serve more than 10. Da Liang thinks that he can finish 20 as he said he was hungry. so the large plate you see in the middle is his. In the end he wasted most of it.. haha. It is just too much and you will get sick of it after 10 pieces.

Gym
Last thursday night i was bored, because the class on friday was cancelled, maybe my professor is a jew as i think there's a jewish event last week. So i went over to huiyi's place to pass time. they wanted to go to gym and i followed along, and ended up waiting outside for them drinking smoothie and watching a college football match on the big screen TV for about an hour.. Grh..

I bought Jimmy Carter, which is peanut smoothie i think. Forgot the content already. I didn't like it..

The big screen TV

nice carpet :)

Wrentham
Kevin drove us to Wrentham Village Premium Outlet, which is about 40mins drive away from Bentley College. We lost our way there.. because we didn't know the full name of the Wrentham shopping outlet..

On the car..

Marta's head is scary.. so horizontal..

It is a huge place! and there are so many outlets there - Banana Republic, Puma, Adidas, Nike, Timberland, Polo Ralph Lauren etc. its huge enough to shop for the whole day and night..

that's kevin on the right. had fun in the toys store.

Marta is so mad that day haha. she just took the picture with a stranger haha!

Drinking night after Wrentham
After the shopping we went to Jessica's place to drink! Jessica and Zita are from Hong Kong University but they are Shanghainese. Michael (an international student and he is a Singaporean! but he lives mostly in Shanghai) bought 3 bottles of Vodka and we enjoyed ourselves that night playing games, dancing to the music and having fun :)

that's michael.

Showing off what they learnt from Salsa

Marta getting high and leading us in the dance! its so fun to have her around :)

Shaws @ Waverly
Yesterday we went to Waverly, where the Harvard Shuttle that brings bentley students to harvard square in Boston will stop in the middle of the route. There is a supermarket there called Shaws. I was thinking of buying stuff there and preparing a good dinner for everyone. But after a night of partying, everyone seems a bit off their mind. Andrew behaves quite differently from usual. He was complaining the whole day about how we are going to waste our saturday without proper plan. i was saying didn't we have fun last night? but he said saturday is different and we should have fun plans for it. hmm.. we shall plan well this week then.

Anyway the trip to Shaws was disastrous.. it was a cold day, and to make it worse, the shuttle bus that is suppose to come by Waverly didn't come at all!!! we waited for an hour plus in the cold weather! Bentley shuttle service really suck big time.. the internal shuttle bus loop which is suppose to end service at 12am in the midnight always end earlier than that.. i waited for the last bus twice and ended up walking back to north campus (20mins walk) instead..

Anyway.. some photos:

its hard to get Nina's photo because she always shun away from cameras.. don't know why.. haha

you can see these newspaper boxes everywhere in boston. most are free. there's a newspaper that has a classified section for sex services.. haha

we waiting till the sky turn dark....

Luckily Kevin came to save us after his dinner, if not i don't know how much longer did we have to stay there.. Everyone's so cold.. that Andrew and i walked across the road and bought coffee from Dunkin Donut. The coffee sucks.. but its great in this circumstance..

Dinner @ my place and games night!
everyone came over to my room and have dinner. Forgot to take photos! argh.. see if i can get it from others. Anyway we cooked rice and eat with clam chowder soup, martin cooked the chicken seasoned with soya sauce and sugar, there's fried noodle as well, kevin brought some lasagna and chicken.

We kind of hang around a bit before starting to play games. It's quite difficult to get into the fun state without alcohol.. but we eventually did with some exciting card games :)

some photos:

i don't know what's huiyi doing...

Marta took all these shots.. she was quite crazy and i think she has a serious hangover.. haha

Upcoming events
This weekend we are going to College Fest, where we supposedly are able to get lots of freebies. it cost 7 bucks.

Then we will be going on a trip to Cape Cod this saturday and it cost 15 bucks. we have wanted to go there and i think the opportunity just popped up and they signed up for me.

We are also going to watch a Red Sox game on 27th Sept i think. Red Sox is the baseball team of Boston. Its a very popular sport in Boston and everyone's most likely a Red Sox fan here.

Yup.. that's about it.. more updates at the end of the week :)

"Slow Dance" Hoax

2007-09-18T08:26:00.001+08:00

There is this hoax "slow dance" email spreading around. Though it's not real, the story of this poem written by a dying cancer patient who has only 6 months to live is believable and meaningful.

Slow Dance

Have you ever watched kids

On a merry-go-round?

Or listened to the rain
Slapping on the ground?

Ever followed a butterfly's erratic flight?
Or gazed at the sun into the fading night?

You better slow down.

Don't dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won't last.

Do you run through each day
On the fly?

When you ask How are you?
Do you hear the reply?

When the day is done
Do you lie in your bed
With the next hundred chores
Running through your head?

You'd better slow down
Don't dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won't last.

Ever told your child,
We'll do it tomorrow?
And in your haste,
Not see his sorrow?

Ever lost touch,
Let a good friendship die
Cause you never had time
To call and say,"Hi"

You'd better slow down.
Don't dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won't last.

When you run so fast to get somewhere
You miss half the fun of getting there.
When you worry and hurry through your day,
It is like an unopened gift....
Thrown away.

Life is not a race.
Do take it slower
Hear the music
Before the song is over.

The pace of life is so fast that most of us are losing the fun element of living. Maybe we should slow down a little at times.

Model burgers

2007-09-12T01:36:00.000+08:00

this is the type of burgers that fast food restaurant should sell!
There is luncheon meat inside (i don't have meat patty) and tuna as well.

one of it is my lunch, which i have eaten already. the other is my dinner haha!

then i drink tea for the day

Longjin Tea, bought from Hang Zhou i think :) the leaves can be eaten because they are organic.

That's my diet for today, maybe a little more at night if i am hungry.

First Friday of School

2007-09-09T00:15:00.000+08:00

Andrew managed to find a Target which is accessible without a car. but it turns out to be a very long trip! we have to take shuttle bus to harvard square (about 20mins) , and take the T to Wellington (about 20mins), and we have to walk quite a distance (about 15mins) to get to the place. they were complaining that its a wasted trip but i felt that its ok as i have explored new areas.

There is a weird and fierce-looking old man walking behind us, and maurice was really freaked out by him, and we began to walk faster haha!

This is the signboard for all the shops in this area. We went to Target of course, and we also visited PetsMart and shopped at Old Navy where the clothings are quite cheap.

its a really huge place, and the shops are like the warehouse Giant or IKEA at Tampines, just that there are a lot of the shops here, surrounding the carpark.

American Guinea Pig!! haha so cute and she is the only guinea pig i can see in PetsMart. The goldfish in america is really expensive! haha.

Panda Hamster!! haha she is so so fat haha. too bad she's sleeping and couldn't take her portrait shot haha.

We are just trying to be funny here.. haha. the kids wear is really cute.

Then we have dinner at Martin's place. He cooked! Huiyi and i helped out a bit as well. cooked fried noodle with chicken, rice with campbell soup (first time i eat the soup as gravy) and caesar salad (made by Martin's apartment-mate).

I hang this garlic on the door so that i can remember to bring it back to my room after the dinner. Martin's apartment-mate saw it and started joking about it with his friends. they are half-drunk after taking shots of wine which i couldn't figure out what they are (42% alcohol). They are interesting guys though. Martin is very lucky to have them in his house, they brought lots of ingredient for cooking, and Xbox 360, TV, guitar etc.

Played with Martin Xbox 360 after everyone left. He's quite lousy with games.. haha. we played Ghost Recon and Gear of War (not sure if i got the name right) and that's it for the night!~

6th September

2007-09-08T01:07:00.000+08:00

6th September
We got to see a very beautiful sunset scene just from our room's window:

and the orange rays shining into our room:

we enjoyed it for awhile before we get down to work in the kitchen for our dinner. we cooked so much that we have to throw the leftover away!!

The sink is a very special sink. There is a grinder attached to it.

so that when we have any big particles like vegetables stalk, garlic peels, potato skins etc, we can just throw it down the sink and on the switch to activate the grinder. The grinder will grind the stuff into small enough bits to flush down the pipe. cool huh!! and we saw this beautiful phenomenon on the bowl of water when we switched on the grinder and the whole sink vibrate:

When we went over to Judy's place for dinner, she asked if we have a dishwasher in our apartment. unfortunately we don't.. haha. anyway its so cool right, i mean my house will definitely have this sink grinder and dishwasher, that is if we cook.. :)

After dinner, Maurice stayed at home to study while i went over to the gym and meet up with Andrew, Huiyi, Nina, Martin, Gal Da Liang and Vi. Andrew said that the smoothie at the gym is very delicious, but didn't try it yet. maybe after i have top up my falcon fund. Gal and Vi are from Corvinus University of Budapest (Hungary). They are in the international school over there, Gal is from Ha'er Bin (Same as Yizhuo and Sichong, and i can recognize the accent! the Ha'er Bin accent) and Vi is from Vietnam.

the one on the left is Vi

the one behind Nina and Vi is Gal.

On our walk back to campus, we started to get gayish! and we attacked Andrew! haha!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Its now 1pm here in the friday, just finished my last class of the week in the morning.

Autumn is arriving i guess, the weather starts to get colder and the leaves are turning color.

Here are some food photos as requested by my younger brother. he wants to take a look at the type of food i eat here. basically its just western food we have in singapore, nothing very special about it, at least not in the school canteen. the dinner we had at Judy's place is fantastic, and i think its a good experience of how americans have their meals.

this is the wrap i bought today. i have just finished half of them. this is just the remaining half.

this is basically what we can get from the buffet cafe called seasons. it provides meals for all student. and basically only those with meal plan can have their meals there. i had my meals for the first week there, after that i couldn't, coz i did not pay for the meal plan hee.. anyway the food is almost the same every meal so it will get so sickening..

this is one of the american's favorite food. i only see it during fairs. its called fried dough, it looks like enlarged hum chee peng. and they put icing sugar on top of it and it taste not bad, just too sinful to eat the whole thing by yourself..

this is the subway card in boston, called charlie card. it works the same way as EZlink, just tap and go. but the fare is different, it cost about 1.70 with the card for every trip, no matter where you go. so basically you only tap the card once when you enter, and don't have to tap when you exit.

4th and 5th September 2007

2007-09-07T13:52:00.000+08:00

4th September (Tuesday)
It's my first day of school! had lessons on Managerial Communication and Business Information System Analysis and Design. The Comms is a very small class (now that i know its because its quite unpopular in Bentley - either hard to score, sucky content or professor), basically its almost the same as the comms fundamental i had in the first semester.

Oh, we cooked pasta for lunch :)

Maurice is a very disciplined individual who wants to score well in every subjects he takes. he will wake up 6.30am in the morning to go for a jog. AND he reads ADVANCED CALCULUS for INTEREST!!! Well.. he brought the textbook for Advanced Calculus to read for interest.. note that he's not taking advanced calculus as a module. This explains alot of things.. anyway his score back in HKU is about 3.7+ on a 4-point system. That is considered very high as 4 is an ideal (almost impossible) score according to him.

5th September (Wednesday)
Had school as usual, and got intimidated by the lesson on Mathematics in Financial Engineering. Still not sure what i have gotten myself into by taking up this course...

Anyway, the fun part is that judy and bill came over to north campus to pick us up at 5pm and we went over to Bill's office in MIT to tour!! its a very creative, interesting and amusing place!

The cow with a graduate hat

the weird looking building with no 90 degree angles.

The weird and edgy classroom. you will feel dizzy in the classroom.. haha

Their workplace can be seen from the top.

They are holding hands.. so lovely..

interesting idea to decorate the wall with pretty posters.

After touring MIT, they brought us to a free concert that is at a Dome beside Charles River.

its in the open area, so you have got to bring your own chairs and mat, food and drinks etc. They brought enough for all of us!

Maurice and Maurice. haha!!

Very nice scenery:

3 September 2007 (Monday)

2007-09-07T13:34:00.000+08:00

Its Labor Day in US! A Holiday! it sort of marks the end of Summer for everyone and everyone's getting back to work, to studies and other serious stuff.

Maurice and i cooked our first nice meal! we are so proud of it and we are satisfied with our cooking :)

The chicken has curry seasonings and it taste really good! even though we left the chicken in the seasonings for only 45mins. yum yum!!

Maurice eats lots of vegetables! so we boiled lots of bai cai. and lucky chi knows how to cook rice with microwave, if not we have to buy a ricecooker. the rice cooked from microwave taste just as nice! microwave is really fast and efficient.

We had dinner at a American's home. its a long story how we got invited. One of the Hong Kong University guy called Martin was walking on the street one day, and a american lady stopped her car beside him and started chatting with him. she even offered to bring him to a nearby supermarket to shop for his groceries. And she invited him over to her place for dinner and she welcomed his friends as well. and so he brought us along. I am so glad he did, because the dinner is superb!! we had steamed corn which are really sweet, grilled sausage and salmon which taste really good, vegetables and beans, spinach salad which taste really good, and tea to end off the dinner. Before we decided to attended the dinner invitation, of course we would discuss if its safe to go to her place for dinner, she is a stranger who just got to know Martin on the street. We named (or rather i named it) Project O.L.D. Figure it out yourself :) But it turns out well!

his name is bill and her name is judy. Bill is a research scientist at MIT, who oversees students in their research projects.

Judy said that this doll is given by her sister to remind her of her mother, who likes to sit on the rocking chair. This doll looks so cute that i asked if i can take a picture of it :)

Lots of stuff happening

2007-09-07T12:45:00.000+08:00

haven't really got time to blog and email people. but i guess its time i sit down and start writing stuff to post regularly, if not i will end up with lots of backlog hee..

2nd September (Sunday)

My room-mate (Maurice) and i cooked our first lunch together, a very simple meal of noodles and sardines.

Then we went shopping with Andrew, Nina and Marta. H&M is quite a popular brand in USA, and is also popular in Hong Kong, but its still not in Singapore hmm.. maybe i can bring it to Singapore haha! The clothes are quite nice, not bad, at least i can find shirts i like in it quite easily.

Just nearby is another departmental store selling clothes at reasonable price, Marshalls. It sells Ralph Lauren at really cheap price, but i just couldn't find polo ralph, just some sweater and long sleeve t-shirts, which are all oversized.. bought a track pants for myself, so that i could use it during the winter. and Andrew said that Adidas used to be popular, but Puma is getting more popular now. Maybe the trend will come to Singapore in the near future. Start stocking up Puma's stuff!!

And this CVS store you see above? its a very common shop in Boston, just like 7-11 in Singapore, basically its a convenience store i guess, though i think it is called pharmacy, not sure about this..

This is Nina, Maurice's school-mate from Hong Kong University. Boston is a beautiful city with many nice buildings.

Nina and Marta has something on so they left early to go back to campus. Andrew, Nina and i walked around to look for package store to buy beer. i wanted to try Samuel Adams. Andrew said that budsweiser beer i bought is one of the cheap beer, which the americans like to drink solely for the alcohol. They usually buy the ones with "light", like Buds Light or Bursh Light (which i bought for someone else), as these beers have low carbohydrate and will not make them fat after drinking. He recommended Samuel Adams beer, and i want to try them! "package store" is a store that sells alcohol. Law regulating alcoholic drinks in Massachusetts is very strict. You have to be 21 to buy alcohol, to drink alcohol. you cannot even have alcohol in your car while you are drinking if you are under 21! and the store have to check your ID if you look younger than 40. But i bought the beers later on without being checked!

Anyway back to the story.. We walked around searching for package store, and on the way we explored a few attraction spots.

this is a open area, where the performers perform for money.

This is Samuel Adams, one of the founder of United States of America.

This is Quincy Market, a stretch of passageway lined up with hundred over food stalls. They are so attractive and tempting! and there are so many people that i couldn't find a chance to take a snapshot. This is close (or in it) to the italian town (like chinatown) so there are many italian food in this market.

I'm not sure what this building is, but i am sure the flag they hang is really really big!

this is a weird building right? old architecture and combine with the modern glass building.

A beautiful small church among the commercial buildings.

Shoah. A memorial for the Holocaust. A must-visit spot in Boston. In fact, it's quite easy to explore Boston's historical site. There is this Freedom Trail in Boston, and you can follow the trail by following a marking on the floor like this:

That's Nina and Andrew by the way. Another friend from RMIT, Singapore, called Cindy walked the Freedom Trail with her New York friends and she said she took 3 hours to finish it.

Well we finally got our beer and we had a fun night playing games and drinking beers! I learnt how to play Texas Hold'em, which is a popular card game in US, just like Big 2 is popular in Singapore.

The one of the right is Cindy, from Shanghai, China. She's here on the Master's program. And the beer they are holding to is Samuel Adams! Bought two flavor (and there are more than 10 flavors in total), OctoberFest and Boston Lager. OctoberFest is a seasonal brew, so its only available at a certain time in a year i guess.

Preparing for Start of School

2007-09-02T22:23:00.000+08:00

Nothing much on these few days, just hanging out with friends all the time.

Every night there is activities at the student activities centre, either in back bay or bar. there was a night performance by Late Night Players. The trio was quite funny. One of them moves funnily, one of them speaks funnily, and the third one is the one controlling the show. they made fun about chinese zodiac, the 12 animals, though..

Then the following night there is a outdoor movie screening of Little Rascal at the Green Space. and there are good food! they have this fried dough thingy (i didn't take photo of it, but will post it here once i get from others) which really looks like enlarged Hum Chee Peng. they are doughs that are deep fried and then we will put icing sugar on top of it. it taste really good but its sinful.. There is this Dippin Dots as well. its a small cup of many small little balls of frozen cream. first time trying it and its not bad :)

Last night there is this performance called the Night of a Thousand Laughs. it was at the pub but we were playing futsball and pool instead, which is just beside the pub. We had lots of fun playing! Me, Huiyi, Andrew, Marta, Maurice, Martin, Nina, Kristin.

After playing, we walked out and saw mini golf games, and we played haha! they serve pancakes beside it and we ate some to fill our stomach, yet again :) Andrew thought the butter is cream and he took a big chunk of it and started eating... haha

And yesterday we went to downtown.

and tried to shop at Filene departmental store, because it is closing down and have heavy discounts for everything. but it seems like most of the stuff are gone :) Then we saw a performance outside on the street.

The police came and tried to stop them but i guess they gave them more time to finish up their show.

We walked to chinatown and bought quite a lot of stuff to prepare for cooking. Vegetables, meat, eggs etc.

Basically thats about all this week. We went to Target a second time to grab stuff for ourselves. i bought a comforter for myself and a pair of jeans and a pair of running shoe. i actually forgot to bring my running shoe.. haha.

Andrew said that usually pple start wearing winter wear (long sleeve, jackets, wind breaker etc) in September. Gosh.. i forgot to bringing any... argh.. i need to improve my packing skill, i should have prepared more for winter! anyway.. waiting for a chance to go shopping at GAP. its quite cheap here i guess.

First Post from Bentley College

2007-08-30T17:31:00.000+08:00

Even since my super nice buddy, Christina, from International Buddy Network (IBN, a club in Bentley College) picked me and Huiyi up from Boston Airport, i have been busy with stuff, running around in campus, settling in, ironing things, exploring around etc. Took some photos on the way while taking the three flights, which took about 27 hours (ouch!). yeah, the longest flight is from Tokyo to Detroit which took about 12 hours. i still cannot believe that i have actually survived it haha!

Some photos in Detroit Airport:

Some random stuff:

Living in North Campus C, which is 20 to 25mins walk to centre of Bentley. Though the distance is far, the apartment is really nice!

My room-mate is from Hong Kong, exchange student from Hong Kong University (HKU). his name is Maurice. A very nice and polite guy, glad to have a friendly room-mate :)

Huiyi is not as lucky as me. Though i didn't get what i wanted, the housing provided to me is still enough to make me happy. Huiyi got a terrible room! a triple room that is at the roof, that feels very eerie..

The voltage in USA is different (120V). had difficulties charging phone. luckily i brought along converters. but this is what we have got in order to charge the phone.

An Adaptor, then converter, then adaptor, then charger.

Tried to waive off the insurance plan from the school, as we have purchased one in Singapore that cost us S$270. the one provided by the school is USD$995. Wow! i better get that waived.. but they demanded a US telephone number and address for contact. Didn't they realize that AIG is a american company? haha. whatever.. gotta source it to satisfy them. Waiting for AIG to reply me on this.
Got ourselves a Bank of America account. yet to get the card and bank in our bank cheque. need to do it soon so as to pay the school fee.
having five day week! argh.. hope to change it if i can next week.. but seems like the lessons are quite fixed.. have add/drop period here though, but gotta pay school fee before i can add/drop.. grh..
Handed in our health form and they said that we need to take a second jab for measles.. i thought i have taken all necessary jabs in Singapore!?! grh.. have to spend USD$65 to get this MMR jab.. oh, they provide condoms for free in the health services centre.

the mascot for Bentley is a Falcon. this falcon is not the original one. Andrew told me that this is a new one, the original one was stolen. probably stolen by the people from another school who has lost to Bentley in the basketball competition.

Walk to School.. my place is so far away from school that i have to walk.. sian.. and also miss out the happening things in campus..

Its turning autumn! and winter will be very very cold.. most probably i would be able to see snow! but the bad news is i am not prepared for it.. i thought the lowest temperature is about -2 degree celsius.. but they said it could go below -10 degree.. i brought the thinner jacket! not sure if its ok.. gotta buy one if not.

28th August is the day for the freshmen to move into Bentley. it was a busy and happening days when the freshmen are moving in, lots of cars coming in, nice food outdoor, freshman convocation ceremony etc.

Andrew is kind enough to show us around in campus

Andrew brought us out of bentley to cambridge and boston. we took a shuttle bus to Harvard Square, which is near Harvard University. Then we took the subway to the Copley stop, some where near the centre of Boston. Walked around that area and walked to Chinatown. Had our dinner there and went back home.

That's about all :)

China, Jiangnan Trip 15 to 22 August 2007 (Day 1 @ Hangzhou)

2007-08-24T00:49:00.000+08:00

the flight is 0055hrs. Reach Terminal 1 @ Changi Airport quite early. Actually i was feeling a little nervous and anxious. my first trip overseas with me in charge. went for tour overseas a few times but those are with my family. its kinda different. When i travel with my family, my parents and my elder sis and bro will take care of me, whereas now, chi and i have to take care of ourselves.

the seat on China Eastern Airline is not bad, but its still kinda cramp according to my standard haha. but its worth it for the price. the air stewardess has a black face, but still put in some effort when she interacts with the customers. guess she got tired of her mundane job?

reached Pudong Airport in Shanghai, and the bus traveled straight to Hangzhou. I asked for a bottle of mineral water once we got on the bus and the bus driver agreed. later on then i realized that they are charging us for the mineral water. kaoz.. first time in my life i need to pay for the mineral water on tour bus.

the bus stopped at a resting point and chi and i had a rice dumpling. tour guide said its not bad but it sucks... haha. saw a shop selling porno magazines! the explicit photos are at the cover page. should have bought one to take a look... hee.. no la i didn't.. or chi will kill me..

took 4 hours to reach hangzhou and then we checked in the hotel and rested for 1.5hrs before leaving for lunch. The tour guide asked if we wanted to use porter service, to help us carry the luggages up to our hotel rooms and down to the bus next morning (coz we are changing 5 hotels in the 8 days). I thought it was manageable for us to carry the luggage ourselves, but the majority of the group (there are 11 of us) did not respond, and the tour guide succeeded in making us pay for the porter service.. in this case they wouldn't have to worry about helping out with carrying the luggages in and out of the bus..

lunched at a very beautiful restaurant near Hefang street, and we shopped Hefang street after that. quite a nice place with many things on sale. and the sun is burning hot!

There are no motorbikes on the road, except for the police bikes, because the government banned motorbikes and allowed only electric bikes in an effort to cut down air pollution. Hangzhou is still using the electric bus - the bus that runs on electricity, that has a cable on top of the bus, connecting to the hanging wire on top of the road.

Went to West Lake after shopping. it is very near the city, but as we enter into the region, there is a total change in the environment. there are no offices, no industrial and commercial buildings around, no high rise buildings. suddenly the environment changed to a very serene atmosphere. the lake has a perimeter of about 15km and it is quite big. can see that there are many lotus on the lake. we took a cruise.

we shared a boat with a vietnamese tour group. the two tour guides bickered haha! its quite fun looking at them finding fault with each other. Chi definitely enjoyed this part of the tour more as she finally can listen to a tour guide without my translation.

the cruise is not bad. though the sun is scorching hot, the wind blowing on the lake made the sunshine more bearable. Saw Lei Feng Ta (Pagoda) where the white snake (from Bai She Zhuan 白蛇传) is trapped below.

Got down the boat and walked to Huagang Park near the lake. it used to be a private property of an official, but slowly the government built on it and made it a public facility). the place is very very nice! you can get to see nice views everywhere you go. but unfortunately it rained and i got my shoes and socks entirely wet. we took shelter for a while at the entrance of the toilet area. the foul urine smell keeps getting blown out into our faces.. Yee..

We went to Ji Gong Temple after that. heard the story of Ji Gong and the Abbot of the temple on the red lady. Ji Gong stopped the red lady when she was about to enter the temple. The abbot told Ji Gong that he should allow the red lady in if she wants to pray. Ji Gong then asked the abbot if he wants the 'Si' (Temple). abbot heard Ji Gong asking if he wants 'Shi' (trouble), and he replied no. and so Ji Gong allowed her to enter and he left the temple. it turns out that the red lady is the god of fire, and she will always find a place to burn down on her birthday every year. The abbot is very sad and quickly went to seek Ji Gong for help to rebuild the temple. Ji Gong agreed and he went to Emei mountain and took a bet with the abbot at Emei that if he can use his robe to cover up the whole place in Emei, he will be given the wood materials from Emei, if not, he would have to work at Emei for 3 years. Ji Gong then used his magic and won the bet. Ji Gong the transported the wood logs using the river. the logs would go into the river and shoot out from the well at the new temple. it keeps going until one day the abbot happily exclaimed that the temple has been successfully built. and the last log which was suppose to shoot out from the well stayed where it was, and until now the log is still in the well.

Went to Song Cheng (宋城) and watched a fantastic show called Song Cheng Qian Gu Qing (宋城千古情). it is really breath-taking and captivating throughout the 1 hour show.

Went to have our dinner and we get to try Dong Po Rou. it is just San Chen Rou, very fatty pork meat. totally fat!

Went back to hotel after the dinner. the day is quite tiring and we were quite sleepy when we reach the hotel.

China, Jiangnan Trip 15 to 22 August 2007

2007-08-23T23:32:00.000+08:00

I'm back! back last night from Shanghai. its a wonderful trip with nice views, good stuff to buy, things to learn, history to know about, different people and culture etc.

Took super a lot of photos and videos, about 2.8Gb worth of them haha! but seriously the areas in Jiangnan (Hangzhou, Suzhou, Shanghai, Wuxi, Nanjing) are very beautiful, such that nice views will pop up in front of you every step you walk.

The tour guide said that the attractions are:

woods(木头) in Hangzhou (coz there are many trees, 30 trees to 1 person)
girls (丫头) in Suzhou (coz many pretty ladies are from Suzhou)
bones (骨头) in Wuxi (coz the pork rib is very famous in Wuxi, and its really yummy!!)
heads (人头) in Shanghai (coz its really crowded in Shanghai with about 22million ppl)
stones (石头) in Nanjing (coz the world's longest city wall is in nanjing, about 33km, but only 27km survived till today)

One attraction exist in every area in Jiangnan, that is water. you see lakes, rivers, bridges, beach, boat quay etc everywhere. it is a characteristic of the southern part of china.

Specialties:

Hangzhou - Longjin tea or other green tea. its quite interesting, as the tea leaves can be eaten! it taste quite good actually :)
Suzhou - Silk (known for the twin silkworm in a single cocoon)
Wuxi - plain-water pearl (known for the purple color pearl) , peach, Zi Sha teapot
Nanjing - salted water duck and Jade (not that it is very special, but Feng Shui is quite popular here)
Shanghai - nothing special, but its the most important city in China economy, contributing about a quarter of the tax revenue. there are many high rise buildings, and the interesting part is the feng shui element in some of them. oh ya, there is a Maglev train from the city to Pudong airport, which is about 30km. that is super short right. the train can bring us there in 8 mins.

The one day of free and easy is the most exciting part of the whole tour. Chi and i walked one round the inner city of Shanghai for the day. from The Old City region to Xin Tian Di, to French Concession, to Jing An region, to Ren Min Square, to The Bund, then back to The Old City again. Basically we walked around Yanan Donglu and Cheng Du Beilu. Though we walked a lot, the day after that we didn't feel the usual leg aches. guess we really enjoyed the day that's why the body never complain after that :)

I will post each day's detail in a single post. So i guess that would be about 7 to 8 posts in total.

met up with 02s01 peeps

2007-08-13T00:42:00.000+08:00

met up with the 02s01 guys.

jun kwang got a new phone, a very cool and slick sony ericsson phone with 3.2 megapix camera, symbian touch screen phone. the poor guy who got the wrong seat during steamboat and got pretty moody haha.
jeremy's going to fly soon, 17th which is next friday, i cant see him off.. wonder when can we meet up again:) had fun at arcade sniping and shooting.
junjie's got better at pool!
liping didn't join us at the steamboat! went to seletar camp for dinner instead. never change, still that mysterious. haha
xiaoyun seems more matured :)
yizhuo is working hard for money, and his girlfriend's coming back from germany soon. left with few more days of freedom haha
weekiat is still searching for his legend, but is doing pretty well at tdm
deshuo couldn't make it as he is busy finding flat to rent. gotta move out by end of august. heard from him he is working at great eastern. all the best!

some pics

will be going to shanghai soon, lots of things to take care of. don't want to have something that bothers me at shanghai or usa.

looking forward to tuesday when i can see my dear again hee..

new template

2007-08-10T23:35:00.000+08:00

change!

haha spent so much time on it. its quite fun playing around with stuff on the net. manage to find a way to post my photo from picasa straight to facebook, also the app on facebook to view all my photos, which i use picasa to manage.

enough!! time to get things done! so many things i have done and to be done.

met up with huiyi and her friend to discuss on insurance for US exchange program
visited the medical centre at ntu several times to get blood test and urine test done, three vaccination jabs, medical form filled up
catch up with thinkbox and attended a lecture with them
called a few times to get confirmation of shanghai trip, then going down to pay for the trip
pay for the ticket to US from STA
help my sis with her small biz venture - sell clothes. got her photos of the clothes up on flickr
organizing activities for jc class
buy textbooks for studies in US - manage to find 5 out of 7, which can save me quite a few hundreds
see my younger bro's gf hee hee

plus a lot more.

now i still have things to do:

get insurance for shanghai trip
confirm and buy insurance for US exchange program
prepare for shanghai trip - packing list, money, things to buy list etc
plan for the 2 free and easy days at shanghai
prepare for US flight - packing list, cash and traveller's cheque, collect ISIC card etc
help out my sis with her stall at the flea market @ tampines flea market (traffic junction opposite Tampines Mall along the MRT track near Blk 158, Tampines MRT station will be on your left & Tampines Mall on your right when facing the flea market) on saturday and sunday.
gathering this sat

that basically explains why i haven't been blogging lately.. and of course there are other headaches.. i lost my system of managing tasks haha. must spend some effort to get back my discipline. and of course the biggest one is the huge market correction! wow.. beyond words.. and its really affecting me. which is not suppose to, according to the guideline i gave myself when i start out on trading. lots to learn.. and its really amazing to experience how emotional and psychological factors came in during trading. its very different from looking at it from outsider's perspective. try it out and you will know haha.

family karaoke session

2007-08-02T21:13:00.000+08:00

my brother, wendy, my sister, zhihao, chi and i went to Yishun Safra Party World for a "sing song" session two weeks ago. it was fun and it was my first time hearing my brother sing into a mic haha!

My brother and wendy

my sister and zhihao

me and chi

the organizer in the centre

she look so cute in specs haha!

I want to sing more! hopefully can sing before i leave for US. how how anybody?

slideshare.net

2007-08-01T13:39:00.000+08:00

came across this on Guy's blog.

i think its quite interesting, check it out!

5 things to do a day

2007-07-30T23:26:00.000+08:00

Why am i doing this? because i realize i have been caught up with some stuff, and now i have got through it, so many things to do have accumulated that i don't know how to get them done. So i decided to adopt a simple and yet reliable method of getting things done - One step at a time.

La Vie en Rose

2007-07-29T12:20:00.001+08:00

Watched the movie "La Vie En Rose" at Cinema Europa at Vivocity yesterday. it is a show that i would recommend . Chi always has great taste :)

this show is like "Ray" (2004) showing the life story of Ray Charles. "La Vie En Rose" is a movie on the life story of Edith Piaf, a french singer who came to fame in the 40s and 50s.

"Edith Gassion is born in Bellevue to a life of dejection and poverty and seems doomed to live it till her dying day. Yet, somewhere between all the scurrying about, the abuse, the mud and the market, she finds herself singing La Marseillaise to a street crowd and announces herself to the world that a star is born. Spotted by Louis the cabaret manager, she earns the nickname piaf, meaning sparrow, and she begins to pull herself up into the glitzy domain of Parisian socialites but the trappings of fame would serve to damage her capacity to perform to the waiting world. Are talent, love and pain the same things spelt differently for different people? From the womb to the tomb, it seems that Edith was always fighting for something but just like in her song "Non, je ne regrette rien" -she regrets nothing."

From Yahoo! Movies

"Co-writer and Director Olivier Dahan did a wonderful job. He should be commended for shaking up the genre with a non-chronological storytelling approach that weaves in and out of different periods of Piaf's life with appropriate musical flow."

From ohgenki movies

if you want to know more about the movie you can click here

Je Ne Regrette Rien - Edith Piaf

Je Ne Regrette Rien favourite song. you can really feel the emotion of the song after you know the background of the song from watching the show. The direct translation is "I do not regret anything".

La Vie en Rose - Edith Piaf

If you decide to watch this show or you have watched it and enjoyed it, comment on this post or tag it on the right yeah :)

to fight or to please

2007-07-26T15:56:00.000+08:00

quoted from Paulo Coelho's blog

The duck and the cat

‘How did you enter the spiritual life?’ asked a disciple of the Sufi master Shams Tabrizi.

‘My mother said that I wasn’t mad enough for the madhouse or holy enough for the monastery,’ replied Tabrizi. ‘So I decided to devote myself to Sufism, in which we learn through free meditation.’

‘And how did you explain that to your mother?’

‘By telling her the following fable: someone placed a duckling in the care of a female cat. He followed his adoptive mother everywhere; then, one day, they came to the edge of a lake. The duck immediately plunged into the water, while the cat called out from the shore:

‘Come out of there at once, you’ll drown!’

And the duckling replied:

‘No, I won’t, Mama, I’ve discovered what is good for me and I know that I’m in my element. And I’m going to stay here even though you don’t understand what a lake is for.’

This sets me thinking. of course i am not so spiritual like the master, i am thinking of the dilemma that every child or even spouse might face - To follow your heart and do what is good for you or stay with your parents/partner so that they are pleased.

This Week (part 2): Playing with cute hamster

2007-07-22T14:12:00.001+08:00

I like the baby mother hamster and the four cute baby hamsters so much!! they are so different from other hamsters that we had, and they are so adorable haha!

Here's three videos to share:

1. baby mother hamster leg cramp

2. The gan jiong hamster family

This Week (part 1): Trading - Emotional week

2007-07-21T13:34:00.000+08:00

I haven't been blogging this week, mainly because of the emotional ride that i had with my trades in stock market. but overall it has been fantastic and i have gained quite a lot from the bull run, and i learnt some valuable lessons from it.

1. Guangzhao IFB

i have bought this stock on 2 July for $0.30 when it's been triggered by my strategy scan. i thought i have held it for too long and so i sold it on 13 July for $0.31, and made $53 profit. But if i waited for two more days, i could have sold it at $0.405 and make $1000 profit.. i guess you guys will know how i felt on monday, 16 July.. i didn't intentionally monitor this stock, it just caught my attention when it made its way into the top 20 volume stocks... A bad start for the week indeed. I had the feeling of regret for a moment, but got over with it soon, as i would definitely have to withdraw that position no matter what.

2. AdvSys

I bought this counter at $0.09 on 14 June and when i saw the huge trading volume on 18 July (Wed) i started to monitor it intraday for that morning. I got so excited when the price reaches $0.12. that is the rough target price for myself, and so i decided to sell it, fearing that the price might drop thereafter. But unexpectedly, the price shoot up to $0.14 within 15mins... and to the high of $0.165... I made $1440 profit, and i should be feeling happy.. But i couldn't stop blaming myself for forgoing the extra $2000 i could have made if i sold it later.. This a lesson i have learnt. it cost $2000. but its not a direct cost though.. i should have put a trailing stop instead, and let the profit run. But at the end of the day i felt less self-blame, because the close price is $0.115, which is lower than what i sold for, due to the heavy profit-taking sell-down in the afternoon.

3. Casa Holdings

As i have said, there is a heavy sell-down on 18 July (Wed) and STI dropped 60 points i think. I was wondering if this is the beginning of the huge correction that might come anytime soon. I looked at all the counters that i am familiar with, and almost all, if not everyone of them has a substantial drop in price. I was quite sure that i wouldn't be able to pick up any stock that has good buy signal. But it turn out that this Casa appeared. It is the only stock that appeared on my screen. And i immediately fell in love with it, hahah. it has got good chart pattern (forgot its name), increasing lows and resistance on high. The price got squeezed and it's quite possible that the price will have a breakout, given the bullish sentiment in the market. Furthermore, the price did not decrease on the day when many other counters are dropping substantially, in fact it increases, and its a good triggering signal. So i bought into this position the next day, at $0.175 (which is too high a price i paid i think..). And now the price is at $0.190. Will monitor it over the next coming week.

These three stocks really made me go through an emotional challenging week hahah. but i havei learn a lot. i need to create a more complete system, enhancing my exit strategy and system, so that i could objectively assess my trading system, instead of getting caught up in self-blame, regret or other useless and harmful thoughts and emotions.

Lifehacker

2007-07-17T23:24:00.000+08:00

Happen to see this vid at lifehacker.com
it's a fantastic source of useful information. borrowed the book at library. its a good read, teaches you "88 tech tricks to turbocharge your day".

Had a lot of post about, especially my recent gains in my trading system. now i finally understand the importance of mind over emotion, and the importance of psychology of trading. Busy with my laptop now.. formatted it and installing the programs all over. will post soon after these chores.

Devil on my left, Angel on my right

2007-07-17T07:51:00.000+08:00

Ever since after the processing during TCC, I have always wondered why I have certain behavior:

I feel the tendency to lean toward my left
my left shoulder is slanted, and it needs conscious effort to bring up to a presentable position
when I reject, resist or deny, my head will tend to turn left

Recently I realized something, that somehow the left side of me represents the evil and the right is angel. Left is bad, right is good. Left is negative, right is positive.

I have a simple exercise that I do occasionally. I relax my head and clear my mind as much as I can. Slowly my neck will relax and then I will follow the impulse of myself. I realize that when I have the impulse to turn left or lean to the left, I am in bad shape and the negative forces are gripping me. And when it is the opposite; I know that I am in the right state of mind. I feel much easier to be happy, and I can feel the love I have for myself.

Pictures and Videos

2007-07-15T01:55:00.000+08:00

Kiddy couple!! hahah

The confident Chi

The gracious Chi

Videos

Took this long time ago :) the hamster is trying to escape from his temporary home. male hamster needs to be isolated from the baby hamsters mah, coz father hamster eats the babies sometimes.. vicious..

The "fresh" baby hamsters and their mother

The baby hamsters which have furs growing already

"Sianness" visit me again..

2007-07-13T22:40:00.000+08:00

Sianness slipped into me today.. i don't know when, i don't how and i don't know why.. this is usually how it enters me, this is the only way it can sneak on me actually. Maybe the emotional distress i went through for the past few days and the lack of sleep has caused me to lose focus and strength to be on guard against it. anyway, no excuse, no blaming. its all my fault and the weakness in me that has allowed this to happen. It happened to me all the time in the past, and i never knew how to deal with it when i am in the state of "sianness". you will see me with a black face, staring in blank space, appearing distracted and frustrated at times, not interested in anything around me, not wanting to talk to anyone blar blar blar.. Seen me like this before?? :) this sianness is bad! it makes me waste my time away, spread the "disease" to people close to me, irritate people, procrastinate, make changes in my plan and feel bad about etc. Bad..

Now that i am back to the "awareness" state again, i can do some debriefing:

The possible reasons why sianness possessed me:

the emotional distress i experienced has affected me quite a bit, and left some shit in me. Didn't manage to clear all of them out. Never underestimate how much is inside, always keep in mind that there might be some more left. which is exactly what happened.
I was being cruel to myself. i am not sure exactly how to put it in words.. i was being cruel to myself in the physiological sense. i did not allow my body to express what it wants to. i kept thinking, kept looking out for my emotional shit that i forget about my own body. it wanted to rest, to slack, to take a break from the daily activities. But i didn't allow it, for many reasons. Well, i did the exercise for a while and that's how i got out of the freaking state of "sianness"

What work?

Just one person, Chi. She is the one who guided me out of darkness. She is becoming wiser and wiser! I am pleasantly surprised :) thank you darling.

We chatted on Gtalk, and she immediately recognized the "sian" me. She starts to show sign of "sianness" too (it is contagious to your close ones). I got worried, as this is usually how we start to quarrel. I called her, and i can sense that she's alright, but somehow she's replying curtly (now i know she is probably defending herself from the disease that i was spreading to her without my knowledge). All the negative voices start emerging inside me - "why is she like this.. she obviously know that i am in bad mood and she reply me in this manner instead of helping me and staying by my side..", "she knows that i am not in good mood, how could she still appear so hostile by replying to curtly..", "she don't know? she don't sense that i am in bad mood? she is so insensitive...".. blar blar blar and more.. It is easy to say yes and agree to any of these voices. just go on for a little more, let the silent or sluggish conversation go on for a while more, then it becomes more persuasive, and the voices got louder, and eventually you will subscribe to any of these voices, or all of them. BOOM!! thats it.

Fortunately this time round things are different. Chi told me "Haven't you always told me that when you feel "sian", DO something about it like changing your environment..."

My devil say loudly, "yeah.. as if you know what i am going through..."
(devil is always louder when "sianness" possessed you)
My angel whispered, "oh yea, hell yea, lets do it"

I love chi and i have trust in her words. i love myself, and i would not want myself to stay in that state of negativism, destruction and procrastination. I WANT to get out of this! I chose to heed chi's and my angel's advice. Sianness was kicked out, at last, after some of the things i have done about it.

Critical learning points:

hold on to your love - love for close ones around you and whom you trust, love for life, and most importantly love yourself
hear the voices in you, and learn to identify which are those from your angel, and which are those from your devil
seek help from wise people whenever possible. best is to keep in touch at all times, because you might not even realize that help is useful when the time comes

Wisdom and Courage.. Seek them.

Rainbow

2007-07-13T01:54:00.001+08:00

Saw a rainbow on the way to work. the rainbow together with class 95.0FM made a good start of my morning :)

Honoring My Elder Brother

2007-07-10T21:13:00.001+08:00

Today is my brother's commencement ceremony. Although the whole day is not as pleasant as what i hope or expect it to be, I am very happy for my brother's achievement. I shall not touch on the unpleasant issue, as it is not worth speaking of..

My brother graduated from NUS with a bachelor in Engineering (Electrical Engineering) with Honour (First Class). On top of that, he has been awarded a Book Prize, and therefore his guests (Wendy and I) have a VIP invitation. We were seated at the front rows. We were quite surprised when we were ushered to sit at the first row! That's really VIP man.. I like it, coz there is enough space for my long legs :)

My brother went to the dressing room to wear his gown and deposit his gown bag, and we took some photos before we proceed to be seated at the theatre. The whole ceremony is long and slightly unbearable after half an hour of calling name, walking up to the Dean, shake hand, take the cert and photo, and walk off the stage.

The feeling i experienced is almost similar to that of the moment when i saw my younger brother marching out to the parade square for his Passing Out Parade (POP) at BMTC in Pulau Tekong. Same in the sense that tears well up my eyes, I felt happy and proud of both of them. Hard to describe why its different, perhaps its due to the different identity (one as elder brother and one as younger brother).

When my brother went up to the stage, many thoughts came into my mind. If not for my brother, i might not be who i am today. He has always been my role model ever since young, consciously or subconsciously. He excelled in his studies and score a good grade in PSLE. I think i simply followed in his footstep. It is so much easier to convince myself that i could do and achieve whatever my brother has already done and accomplished. This continued and i followed him all the way from Primary school to Raffles Institution and to National Junior College. I was then inspired by him to want to go into OCS in the army and be an officer. But sadly my health did not do me the favour. It affected me quite a bit during that time but i have gotten over it recently.

My brother is a quiet person. He is disciplined in his daily life to work on what he wants. He can study the whole day at the common table in living room with lots of distraction (TV in front of him, computer games beside him, talking around him). He persevered and tide through several setbacks in his four years of studies. There are times he carried huge bags full of dirty clothes from home to school, wandered around outside just to stay away from home. He paid for his own school fees and never complained on the indifference he got from them. Along the way, he always made it a point to help us out whenever we siblings faced difficulties in life. He always wanted harmony and happiness for the family, and he has put in lots of effort to fight for it. Whatever happens, he is always the sturdy, hardworking, determined and caring brother. He would never hesitate to sacrifice his own time and energy for us and the family.

Today we went to eat at Jumbo Seafood, which cost about $130, not mentioning the taxi fares which he paid for. He never asked for money from me. and i know he would never accept my share even if i offered, after knowing my financial difficulty i would face. There is this unspoken agreement for me to take this as his treat, and i will repay in the future, probably at the same setting. We never speak to each other with regard to these issues, maybe its a culture in my family, and we never have the habit to express our love to each other. i used to think this is a bad habit, a very unhealthy habit that most people in Singapore shares. But now i look at it from a different perspective. The brotherly bond love between us can never be expressed in full with words. Whenever i meet my brother, i can feel it. unless i have shut down my emotion, i always see the love we share in his eyes and in his actions.

If you are reading this, just want to say:

Thank you for everything that you have done for me. I love you :) You are the best brother anyone could ever have, and i am proud to be the fortunate one.

Ok, enough if the mushy stuff :) here are some photos

From 2007July10 Br...

I can see that my brother is very happy :) but there is also a part of him that can never be truly happy until certain issue is ironed out and thrashed away...

Settling down

2007-07-10T01:55:00.000+08:00

Now that MCW is over, and i have celebrated with Chi last thursday, i need to work on new projects to keep my momentum going.

Seems like things around me are really in a mess, and there are so many clutters i have yet to clear up like my computer, exchange matters, shanghai tour, trading system, GTD system, project planning and execution etc.

But anyway i have decided to continue my primary project - to improve on my trading system, engage in other activities to improve on my skill, and my target to be achieved before i flew to Shanghai on 14 August is $3,000.

My second project would be to improve on my relationship with people around me. They are so important and yet i have not treated them as much as they deserve.

Yup, will look into it soon (not now coz its late, tomorrow)

Finishing Line of MCW

2007-07-06T01:24:00.000+08:00

Today marks the end of the program I have took up on 11^th of May, when I went for the preview of The Courage to Create, invited by Dionis. I went for it without much in mind for what I want out of it. I remembered talking to Dionis before about how little I know of myself, and the two sides of me that I have discovered, but not knowing much about how it has come about and why this happen within me. She said probably I should check out TCC. And I did. Not only that, I took the plunge into it. After a long and silent, internal struggle on the spot whether I should sign up or not. I think I have made the most important decision of my life at that point of time. It marked the start of the never-ending journey to discover who I am, to learn about what life is, and most importantly, to act courageously and wisely in order to fulfill the calling and purpose of my life.

The Courage to Create

It was like a crash course. Kelvin said that TCC seeks to help us achieve the realization, which would take years for monks to attain, in just THREE days. It was an amazing three days I had with them – Kelvin with the team of dedicated coaches, and other wonderful friends who were on the same journey. Some were skeptical about it initially, some came to the course with outright agenda, and some chose not to go with the flow. I thought that since I was already on it, why not go all out and follow with their guidance, it would be too late to assess it later on. This course was meant to clear up all the shits inside me, so as to unlock all the trapped energy – each trauma trapped half of your energy, and you live on with the other half, imagine what will happen to you after 10 “uncleared” traumas.. I am not sure if I manage to clear all of them, but I am pretty sure that most of them are cleared out. It also gave me the key, the key to enter the realm of infinity. A key that will stay with me. Forever.

Three main things I learnt from TCC:

Awareness of WHAT I am
Self-Love
I’m the B*** and I’m the S**

Making Courage Work

You know when you are going for a race like marathon, you will need to do lots of preparation before you start the race – conditioning your body with runs and increasing the distance gradually, prepare mentally for the race, eat healthily to make sure your body would be in the best shape for the race, drink enough water and get enough rest before the run etc. And when the horn sound off and you surge forward with your first foot landing on ground covering the first meter of your race, nothing counts anymore. The race has started. There is not turning back. There is no way to get back in time to drink more water, to condition your body more etc. All you need to do is just run. Follow the strategy and instructions you have in mind before you started the race and continue

If TCC is the preparation, MCW is the race.

It is about actions. It is about “transforming the intention into reality”. There is so much to learn from Kelvin and the coaches. It is about experience. The more races you have run, the more experienced you are. Once you conquered a race, you can move on to a higher level, or you can choose to move on to a new playing ground. I have lots to learn from the mechanism of making courage work.

I have just completed my MCW, and I shall show what I have done, and then share a bit on what I have experienced over the past seven weeks.

Primary Project: Create a Trading System

My primary project is to create a trading system. A system that would grow the money I have on hand now.

The following are the trades i have done in the seven weeks:

BanJoo – open long at $0.l5 and close at $0.225 with a profit of $2191.87

IndoAgri Warrant – open long at $0.16 and close at 0.115 with a loss of $995.83

Adroit – open long at $0.085 and close at $0.09 with a profit of $242.25

That’s a cool profit of $1438.29

I still have some positions that are still open, and I am in the green overall. And taking those into consideration, I would have made a profit of more than $1,500, and $1,500 is the target I have set for myself.

I have achieved the objectives I have set out for myself from the beginning, and I am really satisfied with myself! However, as I have come to this point, I have realized that there are much more thing that I would need to do in order to improve on my trading system, meaning I would need to put in more work to fine-tune my strategy. But as of now, I have met the objectives of my project.

Secondary Project: Create a lovely memory with Chi

My secondary project is to improve on the relationship between Chi and myself. Well, it is so much easier to work on something that involves your love one! Coz I completed this project within the first few weeks.. hee.. We are going to Shanghai for a trip, just two of us. And I am working now, and before the trip start, I would have raised the money for it. And this project extends to more than just the memory, as we confront some issues that is standing in between us, a barrier that has formed in between us in the four years we have been together. It is time we put up a good fight to defeat it, and we are on it.

MCW session

The weekly MCW sessions are so helpful. I always learnt something out of it – Will and discipline, XYZs, awareness anchors, enjoying chocolate (I love chocolate!!), Love that gives form to all the good qualities and makes miracle possible etc. Eric is a good coach (he is a public speaking coach as well), and he is one of the role models I look up to. Lin has offered me a new perspective of viewing some issues I have, she has lots of experience and commitment. Thanks Eric and Lin, and other coaches that has made this TCC and MCW possible.

My Coach

My coach is Chun Liang. We had coaching calls twice every week. And these coaching calls are so important. It keeps me on track on my projects, wake me up from "unAwareness", forces me to re-look into the effort I put into the projects, listen to my emotional issues, suggest simple actions that could bring myself out of awful situations. They say you are fierce and demanding, but I think you are helpful and always pushing me from behind whenever I was falling back. Thanks Chun Liang!

My Girlfriend

You are part of my life. And just as I was going to fall back into the abyss of self-pity and limitations, you came around and helped me. You seem to have dropped a rope down, the right rope for me in that situation. With which I accepted with humility, held on to it and climbed my way back again. What a wise decision you have made. Chi, you have grown stronger and wiser. Thank you so much Chi!

Quest for Wisdom of Life

The journey has not ended, and it is not going to end. TCC and MCW have built a firm and powerful foundation where I could continue the quest. I have made it a point to revise all that I have learnt, and that I DO MY WORK with the daily damnits :D

Cheers!!

The naughty hamsters

2007-07-04T22:53:00.000+08:00

My dad showed me the photos of the hamsters and the guinea pig he took. I missed them so much.. though i still have two cute ones at home hee :)

Look at how he sleeps!! aiyo.. later wake up with backache ah..

hello.. my name is quick pig..

Am i handsome?

Show you my body.. cute right :)

The hamsters know how to build nest!

the innocent stare haha

Still have some videos, view them here.

Re-climb the Mountain :)

2007-07-04T00:02:00.000+08:00

I felt like i have almost reached the peak of the Mountain. its just about 5% more to reach it. And over there, i can finally proclaim that i have succeeded in conquering the Mountain. There, i can rejoice in the celebration party. There, i will feel the satisfaction and affirmation that could spur me on to the next Mountain.

But i lost focus and allowed myself to make a mistake that is so grave that i fell all the way to the bottom of the Mountain.. the same spot i was before i embark on the journey...

What i felt at that moment can never be described enough with words.. sad.. disappointed.. frustrated.. hatred.. regret.. guilt.. ... ...

i'm back.. i'm back at the state where the negative thoughts, feeling, emotion, mood, temperament engulf all my energy, and they dominate the helm.

I seriously don't know how i felt, i don't know what was going on, i don't know what to do next. I have the feeling, and the emotion is surging within me.. and i cried.. just two drops.. because the conscious side of me immediately took over and reason out with myself that i have no reason to cry.

A warrior of light knows that certain moments repeat themselves.

He often finds himself facing the same problems and situations, and seeing these difficult situations return, he grows depressed, thinking that he is incapable of making any progress in life.

" I've been through all this before", he says to his heart.

"Yes, you've been through all this before", reply his heart. "But you have never been beyond it".

Then the warrior realises that the repeated experiences have but one aim: to teach him what he does not want to learn.

Chi quoted this from the book "Manual of the Warrior of Light" to me. It is where i was. The process of tagging the word "failure" to the situation and problem and integrating it into my emotional circuit. Now i am aware of it, and i will not let it happen.

Thanks dear, you are able to know what was going on, and guided me to the right path just in time. Now i am back on my feet again, ready to climb the Mountain one more time :)

Daily Debrief - 01 July 07 (Sun)

2007-07-02T01:47:00.000+08:00

What happen?
Had a quarrel with Chi

Why?
I lost control of myself and let my emotion rule me completely

What work?
Hugging her at times helps a lot

What did not work?
Expecting her to get over with her stuff

What did you learn?
Be conscious of other's acts of love, and accept them wholeheartedly. Everyone has different ways of loving and showing the love.
Appreciate what others do for me, and what i have around me.

What can you work on improving?
Think of what i expect of myself (to accept acts of love and appreciate all i have) whenever i have expectation of others

Sending Yi Lun off to Beijing for GIP

2007-07-02T01:12:00.001+08:00

http://thinkboxers.blogspot.com/2007/07/sent-yi-lun-off-to-beijing.html

Today Chiong Chiong Chiong!!

2007-06-29T21:57:00.000+08:00

Today i made quite a bit of progress. Went to Standard Chartered at Woodlands Civic Centre to get my cashier's order, so that i can pay for my US VISA next monday. Its so freaking expensive!!! Paid US$100 for the SEVIS before application, and still need to bring along $160 cashier's order (NO NETS, cheque, cash) as application fee. They are making cool money..

Went straight to Library, and decided to pick up a book at the reference corner.

I found The Encyclopedia of Trading Strategies by Jeffrey Katz & Donna McCormick.

Browsed through and took the important concepts out in 3 hours. I think i learn a lot about formulating a trading strategy! Time to get cracking..

Am going to MacDonald now to work hee hee..

All the way!!

Daily Debrief - 28 June 07 (Thu)

2007-06-29T00:24:00.000+08:00

Alamak.. suppose to have a little debrief everyday but seems like i lack discipline to do it every night.. grh.. buck up buck up..

What happen?
I know i need to work hard on my primary project, and so i sat in front of the table most of the time in front of my laptop, but seems like the efficiency (work done/time) is really bad.. though i got some work done..

Why?
I don't have the feeling to work and get things done at my table. For whatever reason man..

What work?
Things got better when i moved out to MacDonalds or Starbucks. No distraction, just me and my laptop and my phone.

What did not work?
Tried to set up a cockpit at home where i can get my work done, but obviously its not working. Furthermore its rather difficult, given that there are lots of limitation set by my mother. But more importantly, i think home should remain as a home.

What did you learn?
When things are not moving as well as we thought they should, DO something about it.

What can you work on improving?
Awareness of the situation i am in, and how things can be done to improve on it.

Kind of think this debrief is crap.. haha.. but will continue doing it and evaluate on it at later stage :)

Paul sings Nessun Dorma

2007-06-27T15:42:00.001+08:00

Saw this video from Su Yuen's blog

I felt what Peter was feeling and i shed two drops of tears..

Quoting from Su Yuen's Blog:

It was an audition video of Paul Potts, a ~~car~~ mobile phone salesman who has been aspiring to be an opera singer at the Britains Got Talent show featuring Simon Cowell as one of the judges.

See that?

Never give up on your dream :)

Book Recommendation: Getting Things Done

2007-06-25T01:35:00.000+08:00

I have just finished reading and compiling what i have learnt from the book "Getting Things Done - The Art of Stress-Free Productivity" by David Allen.

Do you sometimes feel lost and undecided for a certain issue, and that you feel your mind heavy with stuff?
- this book might help you empty your head
Do you want to be more creative and able to generate more ideas?
- this book teaches you how to deal with mundane stuff, so that you can engage in creative thinking
Do you have piles of papers and stuff lying around your workplace and/or home, but you do not know the efficient and effective way to deal with them?
- this book teaches you 5 stages of mastering workflow
Do you have projects on hand, but do not know how to get started with it, how to plan it, how to implement it?
- this book teaches you a simple and natural framework to do so
Do you have lots of To-do but somehow things just don't get done?
- maybe your Next Action lacks clarity
Not sure of what you need to get organized and to get your system operating smoothly?
- learn from the book the bare minimal of all tools you need to keep on hand
Unsure of how to choose which actions you should do everyday?
- this book shows you 3 useful frameworks to use in the context of deciding actions in daily activities
Have a organizing system but somehow things don't go as efficient as i want?
- this book teaches you how to organize your actions and make full use of the time you have wherever you are.

Grab it :)

hmm.. free advertising for him... shit.. haha

Daily Debrief - 24 June 07 (Sun)

2007-06-25T01:24:00.000+08:00

Basically didn't really accomplish what i set out to do. But today is still a fruitful day. I have set unreasonable timeline for myself. I should have left weekends free and easy.

Went to Orchard with Chi, bought books from popular, having clearance sales there. Suyuen told me about it :) Went to borders to buy Manual of the Warrior of Light by Paulo Coelho - a purposeful gift to chi :)

What happen?
I went into a state of 'sianness', when chi mentioned about money, and that i have spent a lot for the day. Luckily nothing went wrong and i recovered after half an hour.

Why?
There are stuff in my head that i didn't sort out.
- Whether to start work tomorrow
- Do i have enough money for exchange and trip?
- How much do i owe myself? For TCC course fee, Shanghai trip and exchange?
Adding all together got me into confusion and indecision.

What work?
I identify the stuff and decided to do something about it.

What did not work?
I should have identified it earlier and cleared the stuff.

What did you learn?
Always be aware of what is happening within myself, identify the source of negative feeling and nip it.

What can you work on improving?
Clearing all other stuff that is lying somewhere in my head.

Daily Debrief - 23 June 07 (Sat)

2007-06-24T02:03:00.000+08:00

Went to a investment seminar, then to East Coast Park with chi. had a fruitful time. Took Taxi to macDonald @ NUS, but it closes at 8pm and it was 8.10pm. Went to eat at Subway, enjoyed the italian BMT.

What happen?
Mishandled a situation with chi.

Why?
I slipped into one of the tramp personalities and lost conscious control over myself.

What work?
I was able to handle the situation at East Coast Park. I positioned myself as a 3rd party.

What did not work?
I allowed myself to get caught up in the past emotions..

What did you learn?
Know what are the triggers for myself, and be aware and extra conscious when it came.

What can you work on improving?
Handling my own emotions and as well as other people's.

Investment Seminar by IPP Wealth Management

2007-06-24T01:38:00.000+08:00

Went for a investment seminar by IPP Wealth Management. It's a seminar for the advisors to interact with the potential clients, but not so much of a sales pitch, its more like a sharing session, where the potential clients can get to know more about their investment philosophies and strategies.

Got some take-homes from the speech by Mr. Albert Lam (Director of investment department, IPP) :

Market correction occurs because of one of the three main reasons

Fundamentals
Sentiment
Fund Flow

If it's because of 2. and 3., the market correction is actually more of an opportunity, backed by statistical proof.

Economics is mainly about policies that put funds into the system, or get funds out of the system. Five considerations when we look at any economy:

Global liquidity
Interest rate trend
Valuation of markets
Economic leading indicator
Risk premium

IPP is an independent body that analyze funds. Stuff they do includes:

Looking at Funds performance, consistency etc
Funds correlation table - so as to determine if there is effective diversification
Compare similar funds' performance in the long run, by normalizing all of them to start at a same point
Breakdown of client's exposure in different aspects - currencies, industries, countries, geographical locations, asset instruments etc

It also brings alive some of the things that i always wanted to do. I wanted to start a virtual investment portfolio of about $1 million. And with this, i could apply what i have learnt in Finance. I would also wish to use this as a platform to interact with other people who might be interested to manage the virtual fund with me.

It also reminds me that what i am doing now (system trading) is very much a business, rather than investment. Investment is not about timing the market, speculating for a huge gain etc. Its about allocating your money in a professional manner that manages the risk and return, for purpose of retirement or other goals.

Prof. Gunter Dufey said in his one of his talk that one of the way a working adult in Singapore should diversify is to place their funds overseas, because much of the projected income in the future comes from Singapore economy.

Tokash

Debrief of 22 June 07

2007-06-23T01:43:00.001+08:00

Read a very nice article by Eric Feng on how to be twice as good in 70 days. Thought that the checklist is not bad, so i use it now to do my daily debrief of my life.

What happen?
I quarrelled with my mum.
And i almost quarrelled with Chi too.

Why?
I was not able to handle the shit that my mum was throwing at me, and as always, the voice came "Why does she always want to do this to me? Why can't she stop pouring her pain at me?". I couldn't control myself and lost out to the voice.

What work?
I calmed myself down and sticked to the normal plan i had, instead of disrupting it.
I apologize to Chi in time and got back myself.

What did not work?
I lost control of myself.
I lacked skills in handling emotional issues. Low EQ i guess.

What did you learn?
Problems begin from within myself, never from others.
Release the emotional struggle, and carry on with your life

What can you work on improving?
EQ
Stronger will to maintain awareness

Sunday Family BBQ!

2007-06-19T01:28:00.000+08:00

The weekends are so eventful haha. Went to West Coast Park to play and bought flowers for mum on Saturday, and we had BBQ on sunday!

We ordered Canadian Pizza in the afternoon

My younger brother, The Charcoal Man

Patrol, coz Sembawang is near the border.. it is the border

Zhihao (my sis' bf) with his dog, Mini!! (is that how to spell her name?)

so cute!!

She looked tired.. or she smell food? haha

I was quite scared.. its dark.. and i saw her face..

Happy BBQ! End of the day!!

This time round, we had more fun! coz we were enjoying the process instead of rushing to get to eat the food. We can make good food!! haha. liked the sweet potato, corn, chicken wing, nuggets, cheese hotdogs, prawn in sambal chilli sauce, sotongs!

Kai Sheng

Photos at West Coast Park, and flower for Mum!

2007-06-19T01:11:00.000+08:00

As promised! these are the photos taken at the West Coast Park:

taking photo with Sundae Hot Fudge in her mouth

Can i eat this also??

maybe eating this would be better..

wow!! having fun! luckily string didn't break..

she had fun too!

butt pain..

climbing mt everest..

taking photo at the peak, with a pointed butt!

a cute boy we met!

We are a weird couple in west coast park.. hee

Moral of the story: umbrella is not needed when we have fun :)

These are the photos taken when i gave flowers to my mum for the first time in my life!!

I am so happy for myself, and i hope she is happy too :)

Feel so great to please the two most important women of my life haha!

Kai Sheng

West Coast Park

2007-06-17T03:04:00.001+08:00

Saturday did not begin well for me, my cough got worsen and i felt quite bad when i woke up. I was walking to toilet every five minutes to spit out the phlegm.. Anyway i felt much better today with less phlegm trapped inside myself, though i was still coughing throughout the day.

Skype meeting with TDM. Couldn't go down to the meeting place at Dionis' house. Sick, and i would waste lots of time on travel as well, as i need to be home for MIO configuration in the afternoon, when the technician came down. Yes, my internet connection is now much much faster!

Then Chi came over to my place straight after her tuition. It was bad.. she's not feeling good.. and she's feeling moody over some stuff.. and it really affects me. The most influential people in my life are two women, my mum and my girlfriend :)

Then we made a decision to do something about it, instead of staying in the room doing nothing. I took the car key, and we went out. I thought maybe we could go to East Coast Park. When i was on the road, i realized that CTE cannot go to ECP directly, so i ended up on AYE. We then changed destination to West Coast Park. It was raining, in fact it rained whole day today at almost everywhere in Singapore. We went ahead anyway.

Sometimes we see a lot of restrictions around us. Chi and i have restrictions imposed on us, either by ourselves or by others. I was telling myself that i must finish my work today, which means i should spend less time with Chi. We need to eat dinner at home and there's limited time we have if we go out as planned earlier. Its raining out there. Chi is not feeling good. I was not feeling good too. Many others!!

Thankfully we stepped out of the energy-sapping situation and did something fun to cheer ourselves up. West Coast Park is so fun!! We took quite a few photos too. Will post it tomorrow :)

And i did something for the first time in my life, i bought flowers for my mum. For no particular reason. Its not her birthday, its not mother's day, its not any anniversary. I just did it because i have been wanting to give her flowers to show my love for her. And why not now?

Its so late now.. because i just finished ironing out the manpower and logistics details for the iX Academic Forum. Check it out! its on next wednesday, 20th June. Student can come for free!

Love yourself enough to bring yourself back to life.

Kai Sheng

Updates

2007-06-14T14:41:00.000+08:00

Things are not as well as i want it to be, but anyway, its life, there's good and bad.

ICT
Had a week of ICT in a reservist camp at Tuas area. Not a good experience, but at least i got away from lots of stuff and have time to enjoy time without work. caught up with Junhao, Fazrul and others, met Pang, Damien and others as well. Things didn't change much, they are still the same. and things still operate much the same way as before, but this time everyone is much more relaxed and less politics, except maybe for Fishball. Whatever it is, i'm glad i finished the first ICT.

Technical Mobilisation
Had this mobilisation straight away after ICT, on the saturday. It is at Clementi Woods Sec School.

Dinner at Olive Tree Restaurant
Straight after the Tech. Mob. i went to have dinner with Chi at Olive Tree at Intercontinental Hotel in Bugis. UOB one-for-one i love it! cost us $80 for it though, but its definitely worth it. here are some shots taken: (stupid blogspot got problem.. not sure if its mozilla's fault.. anyway lazy to try IE)

Exam Results
I got a shock after seeing my results, totally beyond expectation. A+ for Accounting and Finance, A for Business Law (incredible!!), A- for IT and physics of sports. Yeah!! achieved the objective of getting all As, because i didn't specify that A- is not an A hee hee.. Anyway my GPA is above 4.5 now! keep it there :)

Stocks Trading
Made a fortune at stock market! luckily i brought my PDA phone into camp, which allows me to check the prices using POEMS mobile with GPRS. Not sure how much i spent on it, but its definitely worth it. I bought Banjoo at 0.15 and sold it off a week later at 0.225. though i sold off too early as it went up to as high as 0.25, but still i made $2200 out of it. Sweet :) but of course this is not my overall result, got a losing trade as well.. closed it today and overall i made about $1500 these few weeks. Go go go!!

Trip to China - Shanghai
Booked the tour package to Shanghai + areas around it at Chan Brothers. Chi and i think its really a value package, so we went ahead with it. Good news is that we got $200 discount in all during the booking. Wow! Thats about 10% discount of our total budget. More for shopping hee..

PDA phone to service
My PDA phone speaker is spoilt.. after the ICT.. not sure what happened to it.. but its still within the warranty period. Had a very bad experience at the DOPOD service center at Redhill. Got a queue number (N55) from the counter and was asked by the staff to wait in the glass room next to it. After a while the staff came in and tell the guy processing the phone services request that they have ran out of the number paper (are they really so poor to buy a proper queue tag machine??) and asked the guy to call out name instead. We waited for an hour plus, then we realized they are serving people who are supposed to have queue number of 60+ !?!?! And guys behave as if they are not at fault.. really disappointed with their services.. think this would be the last phone i would get from DOPOD...

Brother POP from BMT
my brother POP on tuesday, and i went down to take photos from him. So happy for him.. i think i almost cried when i see him among the contingent marching into the parade. I felt so happy that he has grown up and showed a certain level of maturity.. Got photo also, but could load it up le..

Mother
relationship with her turned sour.. made her mad at me.. really bad.. its affecting me quite a bit.. but anyway, i will amend for my wrongdoing.. and hope she could get over with her sufferings too..

Now i am working to improve myself, my workflow, get stuff done for TDM iX conference, my exchange program, my trip to china, trading strategy.

Love yourself.

kaisheng

Last three days

2007-06-03T17:07:00.000+08:00

These few days i have been trying to sort out the things in my life, i have been living in a mess!! Not really sorting out for the sake of being organized, but rather making sure things start to move forward.

Friday
Went to ICA at Lavender to collect my new Biometric passport. The queue is super long! my queue number is 3357, and the counter is serving 3100+ people.. Plus there's no seats and its quite crowded. Wrong time to go man. Anyway i met Guanqing (my sec1/2 classmate). He just flew back from the states, having vacation. He's studying Maths and Music at Cornell. What a combination :)
Finally got my passport after an hour plus of waiting.

Went to National Library at Bugis to borrow some books to read on for my trading system. The books on Technical Analysis are always out on loan. That's very understandable.. Any book that teaches TA usually cost a bomb.

Went to Clarke Quay MRT after that to wait for the ThinkBoxers. Went to Settler's and have our dinner and play games from 6 to 9pm for $12! Yi lun's a member of MENSA which gives us 10% discount. Not bad! We decided to go for a drink after that. I suggested it because i saw that there is a bar just a few shops away from settler's cafe, but we didn't have our drinks there. We walked for about an hour, searching for a cafe. In the end, we found ourselves sitting in a Thai restaurant with no other people and two small plates of peanuts in front of us. I asked myself "How we ended up here?!?!". Well anyway, its a great night, sitting by the river, drinking wine and eating peanuts. We can go to better place next time.. haha

Saturday
My saturday started very badly, with shit being thrown into my face straight after i woke up. Shall not talk about it, i got to deal with it with more awareness of myself next time. Yes, there will always be a next time until i have the capacity to correct things.

Went to cut hair with chi, then to STAtravel to buy air tickets to Boston. Flying on 26August 6am and returning on 25December 12.30am.. Merry Christmas!! haha its still tentative, may need to change the date.

Then to the PC Show, buy camera!! Bought Samsung L73 for $399, comes with 2*2GB SD memory card, a multi-card reader, and an extra battery. Think its a good deal :) Though its not really my first choice camera. i was looking at Sony T20. But its $200 more at $599, and the free stuff is not as attractive. $200 to me has more value than that. But overall i am happy with it! And on the same day, my girlfriend also received a new camera from my dad! he has one extra one, and so gave to my girlfriend to use hee..

Sunday
Today is the last day for me to close up all ends! and get things in place before i go for ICT for a week. Been closing up all ends - my primary and secondary projects, clutters, exchange program stuff, other personal projects, TDM project, ICT stuff blar blar blar.. Today! Today i will kill them all, so i can focus on the important things that will make a difference.

Project Strategy - efficiency

2007-06-03T14:57:00.000+08:00

Chun Liang (my coach) gave me a simple and effective analogy.

There is a door in front of you that you want to open, and you decided to keep knocking and pushing the door with all your strength. But what if there is someone who can point to you where is the door knob? Instead of working on pushing the door, you can work on turning the door knob. You can probably open it with sheer force with the first strategy, but why not use your energy efficiently by working on something else that has a higher chance of getting what you wanted?

If you know someone who has succeeded, look to them for pointers, model after them, ask them for the secret, get their guidance.
If not, find out how they have gotten themselves to where they are, what books they read, who are their masters etc

Sourcing for the already-proven path will make the journey less energy consuming.

So choose between the two, 1) source for proven path or 2) beat a path by yourself.

To Fly

2007-05-30T14:56:00.000+08:00

Everyone dream of flying one day, or at least i do.

If i can fly, i can oversee the land and make the sky my home.
If i can fly, i can cover more distance and reach my destination faster.
If i can fly, i can feel the wind in my face anytime i want.
If i can fly, i can break free of forces that are acting on me.
If i can fly, i wouldn't feel trapped anymore.

I want to be able to fly. But how to?

Look around.

Aeroplanes fly with aerodynamic. People explore and discover how the earth operates. Keep running in one direction and gain speed. Once you reach it, it will take off.

Helicopters fly with a different principle. That's why they have different characteristics as compared to aeroplanes. They cannot fly long distance and as fast. But they can stay at a spot which aeroplanes cannot.

Birds fly by flapping their wings. Their second nature. They are built to fly.

Superman flies too. They can do many fanciful stance in the air too. But they only exist in cartoons, comics and in our mind. Fantasy.

How i wish i was born a bird. But i'm not.
How i wish my fantasy can come true, then i can fly without effort.
How i wish i have a machine that can bring me off the land.

I guess what i can do now is to buy myself a machine. Got money? No.
I need to build a machine then..
Do i know how things work? Basics maybe.
Do i have the skill? Probably i need a manual.
Can i start work now? Why not.
How should i get started? No idea.
Then how? Look for help.

So who can help me?
At least i know that i am trying to build a machine that can bring me up into the sky.

Looking around, i see people suffering. Some fighting with each other. Some fighting with themselves. Some running around a running track with many many others, trying to outrun one another. Some hiding in one corner waiting for their time.

But there are some who are already halfway with your machine. Some of them build machines together. some are already flying!

What am i waiting for? Work on it! Find help, look around for manual, test it, try it, find the resources, get yourself a nice workplace, design it, map out the overall plan, think of alternatives, plan for everyday, stay focused...

Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles living for the city

2007-05-25T01:45:00.001+08:00

Got a liking for Jazz music.

You can really feel the energy and joy when you listen and watch to them perform

A new Life!

2007-05-22T23:01:00.000+08:00

Sorry for not been posting lately! Went for a Life Coaching course from last friday to sunday. It was really intensive! Restricted time for breaks and meals, start early in the morning at 9am and ends at 1am plus the first night, and 2am plus for the second night and 5am for the third night, plus the homework that we need to do after we got home. Imagine! But it was really fruitful, and i wish that i could have more of it.

After the Courage to Create program, i feel that i am more prepared and more able to live my life. You can say that i am enlightened on how to live up to the title of my blog - living as though you may die anytime and anyhow eventually. The whole process of the workshop is the best experience i have ever had, and i would definitely recommend anyone to go for it. The wisdom, the activities and processes, and the conclusion with koans and realization.

Shall not talk more into it, just go for it if you trust me and yourself. Anyway there will be a preview soon, if you are interested email me!

21st May (Monday)
The day starts at 5am after TCC, and with no sleep. Went to my girlfriend's place to collect my stuff and probably accompany her and catch some sleep. But things didn't turn out well and we started quarreling. My mum called me to go back home so that i could follow her to 'bai' grandma. Dilemma. Stay or not stay? But i promised my mum that i would go back and drive her to the cemetery last week.. Shall not dwell on the details, but eventually the situation was saved by my understanding girlfriend :)

Went to 'bai' with my aunt, my mum and my sis. I missed my grandma's kopi.. that is the only thing that brought us close enough. Other than this, we had very little interaction, except the times we spent in the holiday to China Yunnan. I remembered that i always looked forward to drinking the wonderful kopi whenever we visit my grandma. It is the nicest kopi, and definitely the one with the most warmth.

Came back home and slept for the whole afternoon. Woke up, ate dinner and drove to chi's place. Brought her a new cage for the hamster and biscuits and bananas. Monkey? haha! Spent quality time with her and we chatted for hours. Really enjoyed it :)

22nd May (Tuesday)
Woke up at about 11.30am and then helped out with my brother's moving out his stuff to his new house. A pre-matured move-out.. Shall not blog about it. Anyway we had a long and heart-baring conversation over late lunch and on the car journey to collect the printer and his home theater set. At some point of time, we almost cried, but we are man, so we held back. We are both facing difficulties fulfilling the wish that we have deep down in both of our hearts, that is to have our parents to live the rest of their life in happiness. We both love our parents, even though we had went through difficult times with our mother, especially for him. He talked about how he had taken buses from interchange to interchange just to waste the time and stay away from home, and also how he had to carry big bags with his clothes in it to school and getting them washed at Wendy's place. Sometimes dwelling too much on individual event, word or action becomes meaningless when we are able to search for answers from within ourselves which would allow us to view the matter holistically.

Came back home, had dinner. Talked to my mum. She is still very defensive of her take in the entire matter, but at least i got her to vent out most of the frustration and anger. I really look forward to the day when she could get over with all these shits, and live happily with an open heart.

Talked to my father as well, and i hugged him from the back. It felt so good :) It is just the first step, and i would really want to do more than that, at appropriate timing.. considering the emotional state of my mum..

Now writing this post and wrote journal. Have to start working on the 72 unread emails! bleah.. and the stock recommendation that i need to present on tmr. Jiayou!!

And i will be running 2.4km tmr morning with my brother. I want to face the fear in me, the dark side of me inside, and conquer it. Wish me luck!

Best Internship

2007-05-16T19:13:00.000+08:00

Met a senior at Suntec recently. His name is Justin, my Badminton Vice Captain in RI, two years my senior. He is interning at Deutsche Bank now. Cool! Banks are definitely within my radar coverage for internship and employment.

A piece of advice if you are out for the bucks: If ever you are offered an internship to the two places, take it up no matter what job they give you, because they pay all interns $2k+.

What?!?! $2k!! Ya.. $2k..

And the two places are: Barclays Capital and Goldman Sachs

CFA or MBA??

2007-05-16T19:05:00.000+08:00

Article from eFinancialCareers.sg

The plus points of an MBA

• An MBA is still exclusive: it works in its favour that the CFA has been devalued now that more and more people are taking it (including, allegedly, one child's violin teacher).
• The best i-banking and asset management jobs still go to graduates of the top 10 MBA schools.
• An MBA offers contacts and networking; a CFA offers all the networking opportunities of an after-work home study course.
• An MBA from a top 10 school is infinitely better than a CFA, but a CFA has the prestige of an MBA from a top 20 school.
• A good MBA is a bonus for career changers; a CFA is best for someone already in the industry.
• An MBA gives you a prestigious brand name to market yourself with.

The plus points of a CFA

• A CFA is more difficult than an MBA; it's also more relevant, and more comprehensive.
• A CFA teaches hard skills and tests you on them; by comparison, an MBA teaches soft skills.
• A CFA is an excellent route into asset management.
• A CFA is already mandatory for most senior equity analysts and is increasingly required for fixed income analysts.
• Each of the three CFA exams requires 250 hours of study in your own time. That shows true commitment.
• MBA courses offer an introduction to financial theory. The CFA provides the tools to develop creative solutions to complex financial problems – and a growing number of top MBA schools are including it in their curriculum.

Conclusion

It helps to have both – the MBA for strategy and networking and the CFA for financial analysis – but even then you won't be assured of career success (particularly if you plan to use the combination to get a leg-up out of the back office).

Basically if you are good, go get both. If you want to specialize in finance (investment management), get CFA first. If not, its not really necessary, and MBA will be better.

Updates on me

2007-05-16T18:33:00.000+08:00

Basically i have quite a lot of things on hand and i seems to have insufficient time! I don't know how to organize them so i just mention them below:

paint at bro's place
Went to my bro's new house and help with the painting. This door gate took both of us three hours to finish painting. Damn..
make Waldorf salad
Here is the Waldorf Salad! I use to make the mayonnaise myself, but resort to buy it at Fairprice this time round.. lazy and i forgot the recipe also haha. Anyway it is much healthier if its homemade.

Went to eat at sakae for Mother's Day
We had a dinner at Sakae Sushi, Causeway Point. It makes a major difference between booking earlier and joining in the long queue at the entrance. Sometimes it saves lots of effort if decision is made earlier. Anyway i tasted the raw tuna, think salmon taste much better than tuna.

Coaching
Will be going for a course called The Courage to Create (TCC) this Friday to Sunday. So please don't try to contact me during this period of time, i wouldn't reply!

Quite excited about what i can learn out of it. Hopefully this course will allow me to know more about myself, and solve all the bugs in my OS :)

Spent quite a lot of time on the homework! wow.. doing the homework is quite a self-exploring process.

Investment Club
Met up with the guys - Yuan Man, Kelvin and Shu Hao. Had a major problem of tax problem. Not the technicality of it, but it takes out some incentive of being in an investment club, considering individual's capital gain is not taxable.

Anyway we are going ahead with it, and we are going to have our first meeting next wednesday! Everyone will prepare and do a stock recommendation, and we then decide which stock to invest in. Think it will be a good learning opportunity for all of us. So excited about it :)

strategic thinking
Got a book from Ming Yeow, "Developing strategic thought, A collection of the best thinking on business strategy, edited by Bob Garratt". Read a few pages and i think this book will be a good read. Will spend some time over it and share it over this blog!

exchange program
Met up with Huiyi two days ago, and we talked about the exchange program. We are the only two from NTU going to Bentley, and we were complaining how expensive it is, as compared to other universities that's available. She had a senior who left aside $15k for it, but discover it's just not enough. OMG!! Argh.. my money.. no no.. my dad's and mum's money..

Anyway i need to do quite a lot of preparation - VISA, new passport, air fare, tour plan, items to bring, insurance etc. Need to talk to jeremy!!

There are other stuff on my head of course, but just couldn't put down into words. Think i should start blogging regularly, as i blog, i review my life and activities and what i have done so far. I have been keeping journal for these few days as required by the course, and i realize that it helps me keep track of my pace, what i have done, when should i take a rest, when should i push myself to work harder etc.

Anyway, this is it.

Sneezing Panda

2007-05-10T15:57:00.001+08:00

梁智强 - 標準的新加坡人 - Jack Neo - Standard Singaporean

2007-05-10T15:18:00.001+08:00

This is from Jack Neo's blog. For those who don't know who he is (highly unlikely so..), he is one of the big character in local media. He is the director for several famous Singapore films.

Hope to discover more artistes' blogs :) read for fun

Internship

2007-05-08T11:16:00.000+08:00

First day of internship

Reported to the HR gal, brought me to my desk and around the place – pantry, auditor’s huge desks, directors’ rooms, managers curved table, and finally squared cubicles, and I’m situated at the end.

Supposed to report to one of the senior associate, but apparently she was busy, and had nothing for me to do. I stood beside her for a while before she finally told me to return to my seat, nothing for me. I was like.. “no work for me? So… what do I do? Surf net?” hmm..

Read through the stuff in the common drives. Found out that the founder/founders were from Arthur Andersen. Probably the loss of job pushed them to strike out on their own.

Anyway finally work came, my manager told me to “inventorize” files. It meant packing them nicely with cover page at the front and labels at the side so that they can be stored nicely.

But I could only produce roughly ten files that day, due to the printing error.. there’s some problem with the printing account they gave me. Told me and the IT manager quite a while to fix it, as he seems to be busy..

Anyway that’s it for the day, and I hope things will improve along the way.

Went for TDM meeting! Which I will put in another post :)

Second day of internship

It’s 10am now and I have produced 10 files. Hee.. compare the efficiency to yesterday.

There’s a lot of matters on my mind, been thinking of the conversations yesterday, and the stuff that I want to do.

Gotten more stuff to do now.. suppose to finish it by noon. More files! Hope I can lay my hand on the accounting software soon. If not I will just run dry and that’s it for internship haha!

Going to watch the spidy after work with chi. And my mum got angry with me for not having dinner at home for two consecutive nights.. sometimes its so hard to please everyone. It is important to me, as pleasing others will please me more than anything else.

Post Exam Syndrome

2007-05-05T00:10:00.000+08:00

For those who know me, perhaps you could feel that i have been missing in action for quite a while, not that i was very active, but i am totally unproductive this period of time.. My dear says its "post exam syndrome" that i am having, and i sort of believe it.

Exam is over this monday, had Finance as my last paper. It is quite a good arrangement, as my only worry after the paper is whether i will score full mark for it.. :) joking la... Generally, i don't feel good about the exams.. i have high expectation of myself you see.. i hope to push up my AGPA to above 4.5 this sem, and i only need one grade push (meaning an A which is one grade higher than A-, which is the grade that yield 4.5), due to the poor result for marketing last sem.. pooi! i think i did well for accounting and finance, and probably i have two grade push on hand. Physics of Sports is easy, i guess it can help too, but its a 3AU subject, unlike the rest which is 4AU, so it cannot really constitute a full grade push. What really worries me is IT and Business Law. If i score a B for Biz Law, and an A- for IT, i would not be able to get my 4.5..

ok enough of whining.. see, i'm really having post exam syndrome..

LOOK FORWARD! and GET YOUR CARCASS OFF THE SOFA and STOP NAPPING NON-STOP and START DOING STUFF!!!

how i wish someone is shouting at me, sometimes shouting at myself is rather tiring.

Anyway, as you can see the mindmap above, i have quite a lot of things to do for the coming months. I don't think i will be able to accomplish all, but I will definitely push myself to kill off the important ones.

Do give me a tight slap whenever you see me ya, i need that. i need to get angry. to shake off the PES, and start doing real stuff.

Collaborative Mindmapping

2007-05-02T00:20:00.000+08:00

Mindmapping is a very useful tool that could serve many purposes - get organized, brainstorming, task management, prepare for your essay, conduct meeting etc. I'm exposed to Mindjet and also FreeMind which is a free software.

Mindmap is not the best tool for all situation though. Sometimes a simple flow chart will suffice, sometimes a written notes with more information is more desirable. However, i would recommend everyone to give mindmap a try, and explore the different ways of drawing one. I am quite sure the result will be satisfactory if mindmap is utilized correctly.

If we have collaborative document like Google Doc and Spreadsheet, pbwiki, wikispaces etc, do we have collaborative mindmapping online application?
I googled it and this are the few that i found:

mindmeister
it is still in beta version, and you need to get into their mailing list before you are invited to join in and test the application for free. I tried it, and it is a very simple mindmapping online application, and you do not need to install anything into your computer. Which means that you can access your mindmaps easily on any other platform (i like this! thats why i like google). Able to share the maps with others and edit collaboratively. But if i am not wrong, they will start charging once they get out of the beta stage.
ConceptDraw
This is for Mac users i guess, so i didn't try it.
Mindquarry
This requires installation, which turns me off. After i installed the stuff, i don't know how to use it, Apache. turns me off even more.. i'm not a techy guy..
CmapTools
This requires installation as well.. The purpose is more of knowledge sharing using what they called concept map. it allows anyone to see maps from everyone. Each map created needs to have a focus theme that answers a specific concept. Its not what i'm looking for :)

For now, MindMeister seems to be the only one i can find. Hope i could find a free and good one. Why don't Google develop one? :)

Dick Lee's talent

2007-04-27T11:31:00.001+08:00

Got to view this video from The Intelligent Singaporean, when i was reading Mr Wang Says So's post on Lee Kuan Yew on Emigration.

It is really interesting to read about these stuff, getting to look at the situation from many points of view. But i am reserving my comments, coz this is sensitive issue hee..

Oh my god!!

2007-04-26T20:51:00.000+08:00

this is my profit from Aztech! haven't been checking my stocks ever since beginning of the year. bought this stock in january and now i realize i made this profit!! wow!
hmm.. now think of when to sell it..

what i am going to do after exams is probably to load off all my holding and start to engage in short term trades. am going to read up on all the related stuff, anything to do with security analysis and technical analysis and others. will work on a virtual portfolio and more importantly on strategies to profit with low capital and short time horizon.

here i come! before the market turn bear :)

Tickle - what is my color

2007-04-25T01:02:00.000+08:00

Adam, your true color is Black!

Your color is black. The color of night. Serene and mysterious, black conjures up images of elegant evening gowns, dashing tuxedos, and gleaming limousines. Traditionally a symbol of success, black also represents power and an uncompromising demand for perfection. Not surprisingly, you tend to set challenging goals for yourself and do whatever it takes to achieve them — your strength of character is second to none. This unfaltering determination, along with your natural elegance, impresses people. But keep in mind that your personality might be intimidating to some. Try to temper your demanding side with a little softness — trust us, it won't kill you. Overall, though, black is the color of professionalism and achievement, which means it's clearly the color for you.

Recently been addicted to the test on tickle. think the exams really forced me into such entertainment haha. learn a lesson though. its quite impossible for me to study all the time, all day long, and it is really impractical of me to allocate the whole day to study, because:

I will definitely need a break here and there
I will need a real long break after a while, and it is really necessary as i will not look forward to studies as much as i did
getting some productive sidetracks can build morale!
Keeping my mind off anything other than studies and exams will NOT lead to preparation for exams...

this means that next time round, i need longer and less intensive preparation for exams, and also a good continual revision system to make full use of my brain to produce good results with least effort.

Gays beware!!

2007-04-25T00:01:00.001+08:00

Mr Wang Says So: Lee Kuan Yew on Homosexuality

Last year's real news was that section 377 (unnatural intercourse) would finally be repealed. This is important, because section 377 says that gays who have sex with each other can be imprisoned for life. In other words, if two adult men willingly had intercourse with each other, the law considered this to be as serious as attempted murder.

Oh my god! i did not know that! imprison for life?? that serious?? if thats the case rapists should be castrated on top of all the punishment he can get..

Glad that what ever happened in army camp did not get out.. hee.. dhana *wink* *wink*

haha! joking la..

Exams not over...

2007-04-23T18:48:00.000+08:00

Just wanna break away from the relentless attempts to study!!

Here are some random photos taken in the past few days:

Nice hor!! new car sia!! dunno when can i get my hand on the wheel hee hee...

its big... !!

Look at the litters! while i was using my phone at the 'hotspot' (my place has a poor reception for GSM, only a few spots in the whole house have good acceptable reception) near the window when i saw papers flying down. I wonder if the kids up there are neglected or what.. always throw things down.

Exam Destress!!

2007-04-18T22:39:00.000+08:00

I want food! But the idiot (anonymous) over there keep giving me sh*t!!!

I'm drunk.........

"Yeah i win the drinking contest!!!"

"Who wants to challenge me!!!!"

This is what happens when you attempt to destress with your girlfriend...

Random Photos

2007-04-13T17:30:00.000+08:00

600 bags to prepare before nexus 2007 at NTUC Building. Thats kelvin at the background acting busy :)

The nexus boxes in production!! er.. thats weekiat.. think he went cuckoo.. notice the timing on the photo.. its 4.18am.. probably he mistaken the pillar for shuwen...
take this during physics of sports lecture.. nothing to do.. by the way, when we had mid term exam, this LT is not even big enough to fit the whole cohort, and this is the attendance for lectures...

The three hamsters! when they are still young.

me at Tekong jetty. don't have the chance to take when i was in there 2004
My girlfriend Nam Chi!! with her smart house project. Spent countless night on it!! Hopefully our house in the future won't have the wires hanging around...

Laozhabor's Rap

2007-04-12T21:43:00.001+08:00

An exemplary figure for all senior citizens in Singapore!

Take a look at her blog here, http://laozhabor.blogspot.com/

Be amazed!!

Let's wait for her MV :)

NTU Muggers' Society

2007-04-11T18:59:00.000+08:00

My friend Justin mentioned to me that he has just established a new club in NTU, and it operates only for a short period of few weeks in each semester. He is currently the President, and Lydia is the Vice-President :) Here's the appointment holders:

President: Justin Lim You Zong
Vice President (Welfare): Lydia Sim Qian Han
Vice President (Intellectual Development): Teo Yi Lun (MENSA representative)
Vice President (Chem Engineering Department): Sandy Lim Saw Sean(Secretary to Yi Lun)
Vice President (Discipline): May Chan Bee Bee
Vice President (Vietnam Chapter): Le Huong Lan

Honourary Member: Adam Toh Kai Sheng

I'm trying to climb up the "societal" ladder..

NTU is too far from my place, if not i will really consider going to school everyday to study. Really facing difficulty studying at home. all sorts of distraction - TV, laptop, radio, mum nagging, hamsters, guinea pig, household chores etc. Just like what i'm doing now, i should be studying now!
anyway i came across this entry by a fellow NBS student also. very interesting.

http://blog.putu.info/2007/04/11/tutorial-room-stories/

i saw one of the whiteboard outside one of the tutorial room at S4 with the word something like occupied, please do not disturb. and when i entered my tutorial room for my accounting class 8.30am this morning, i saw tables and chairs in front of the whiteboard, with bags and books and notes. One funny thing is, they actually spread out the papers throughout the whole of the tables, so that no one else can use?!? the same technique people use at Lee Wee Nam Library when they "book" the tables and go have lunch or lesson.

Anyway.. good luck for your exams, if you have :)

My bro enlisted into NS today..

2007-04-10T18:32:00.000+08:00

Woke up quite early today, and left home at 8am. He touched his precious hair secretly, and i caught it :)

Kaiyang don't seem very happy..
We went through a short tour in Tekong - went to see the swimming pool, bunks, lecture theatres, equipments issued, blar blar.. Then went to the solemn ceremony of oath taking. My bro is becoming man soon! Had lunch together in the cookhouse. the food is good, but i think the standard has dropped since my time..
last photo taken with parents before we leave the place.

As a brother i am worried.. but hey, i have been through it before and its nothing. Hope he can cope with regimental life in there. being the youngest in the family, he does exhibit the attitude of one who demands people to give in.. :) hope he doesn't read this blog. Anyway, go go go kaiyang! i hope to see you become officer just like your elder bro (not me, the other one).

Also funnily, i thought of how NS could be one of the factor influencing the political landscape in Singapore. Not going to go into the details here. Some of the interesting thoughts:

Follow instruction from above
exercise discretion ONLY within authorized boundary
Always have only one superior to have clear instructions
Bad superior?? blame your luck
whoever is on top of you usually knows more than you, and therefore MUST know better what is the best way forward
"white horse" policy
Your concerns and opinions ALWAYS come after the organization's
People up there do not have to convince you, they give you a choice instead: "do and no extra duty, do not and extra duty", "follow and not be maid, follow not and be maid" etc

Hmm.. very sophisticated tool of... ya.. I'm just being cynical..

System Thinking

2007-03-29T17:10:00.001+08:00

Thanks to mingyeow for commenting on my mental model - he said that i behave like a system thinker.

My first reaction: "What the hell is system thinking?"

I thought its something that he crapped up with, like many other terms he did. (haha not many la, a few only)

He told me to google it. Well, that probably indicate that this term really do exist out there.

Went to search for it, found quite a lot of site on it. Read about it. and i wonder how mingyeow knows of it! he is a very 'zai' guy, who is insiprational, energetic, attentive, focused, and he has the 'never say die' attitude. Anyway thanks to him i got to find out more about myself.

went to this site:

http://www.expatica.com/actual/article.asp?subchannel_id=159&story_id=11571

Quote:

Defining systems thinking
Have you ever worked with someone who answers a question with a
question? Someone who frustrates colleagues because he or she takes too
much time to reach a decision?

Most likely, that person was a systems thinker.

For those who know me, can you comment on whether i did the above-mentioned two things?? I think i do..

Amazing! so i have a system thinking mindset!

This is interesting: http://www.siso.org.sg/web/pdf/System%20thinking%20and%20WSH.pdf

Quote:

The organs of the body were having a meeting, trying to decide who was in charge.

• Each organ took a turn speaking up: Brain....I should be in charge because I run all body functions.

• Blood...I should be in charge because I circulate oxygen for the brain.

• Stomach...I should be in charge because I process food to the brain.

• Legs....I should be in charge because I take the brain where it wants to go.

• Eyes...I should be in charge because I let the brain see where it's going.

• Asshole...I should be in charge because I get rid of your waste.

All the other parts laughed & made the asshole very mad. To prove his point, the asshole immediately slammed

tightly closed & stayed that way for 6 days, refusing to rid the body of any waste whatsoever.

• Day 1- Brain got a terrible headache & cried out for relief

• Day 2 - Stomach got bloated & began to ache terribly

• Day 3 - Legs got cramps & became unstable

• Day 4 - Eyes became watery & vision became blurred

• Day 5 - Blood became toxic & poisoned the body

• Day 6 - The other organs agreed to let the asshole be in charge.

The moral of the story? No matter who you are, or how important you think you are, you will find that it is always

the asshole that is in charge.

So whoever's in charge is always an asshole.. haha

From http://www.business-opportunities.biz/2005/03/01/systems-thinkers/

Quote:

Entrepreneur:
“It’s my position that all successful entrepreneurs possess one
fundamental ability, one fundamental quality, one fundamental skill,
one fundamental interest, without which they would never be successful:
Entrepreneurs possess the ability to perceive the world as a system.
Without a doubt, every entrepreneur worth his or her salt is a ’systems
thinker.’ They could not do what they do without it.”

This is a very well written article by Michael Gerber (i don't know who he is..)

from: http://eventuring.kauffman.org/eShip/appmanager/eVenturing/eVenturingDesktop?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=eShip_legacyRedirectDB&amp;amp;id=517&legacyRedirectDB_actionOverride=/portlets/legacyRedirectDB/begin

Quote:

Systems Thinking: The Critical Component of Entrepreneurship
What is a Systems Thinker?
A Systems Thinker is one who intuits and sees the whole of a thing,
the entirety of it, the one-ness of it, the integrated unity of it, as
opposed to merely the sum of its parts.
A Systems Thinker transcends the world in order to transform it.
A Systems Thinker is an inventor as opposed to an engineer.
A Systems Thinker sees purpose in everything, and sees the system as the realization of the purpose.
A Systems Thinker sees meaning in everything, and if not, pursues
everything until the meaning becomes clear, until the System reveals
itself in all its glory.
A Systems Thinker is possessed by the meaning of things.
All great entrepreneurs are Systems Thinkers.
All who wish to become great entrepreneurs need to learn how to
become a Systems Thinker. Or, more accurately, need to develop their
innate passion for seeing things whole.
For transcending the world. Their world. Our world. All worlds.
And the good news for all of you who are called to it is that Systems Thinking can be learned.

Then he went on to talk about the 7-steps strategy to turning frustrations to systems.

More information on system thinking:

http://www.thesystemsthinker.com/systemsthinkinglearn.html

http://www.entrepreneur.com/management/leadership/article75258.html