Wai Keen search on Google still leads here!

Dear friends,

I noticed there are still a couple of visitors here, so I have to announce...
I am not updating this blog any more. I never have for a couple of months.

For personal stuff with a little bit about Internet Marketing, go to www.tweak-me-site.com
For personal stuff with a little bit on Wedding Videography, go to www.whykeen.com/videography/
For pure personal stuff! (And a copy of this site...) Go to www.whykeen.com

I am not promising updates at these places, but at least they are alive in
my books!

And yes, I have blogged about this in these few places, Google still points
to one of my blog entries for a search on "Wai Keen". Truly amazing.

4400 - A different kind of TV series

I have started watching 4400, a TV series cross between Heroes, X-Files and Taken.

It is really really similar, you have to have watched these series in order to understand what I mean.



This is from Wikipedia:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_4400


Why am I so busy lately anyway? I am involved in a couple of things.
1. Primarily, I am back at my old job as a part timer. I work two full days a week.
2. I am also doing video editing, and video taking. Because I haven't got too many clients, it's mainly video editing now.
3. I am doing a classified project with an old friend. I can't reveal too much.
4. I am working on another project, building website, and doing marketing for someone. I am working together with Zhiwei on this for a company in Singapore.
5. With Zhiwei, I have signed up for a course by World's No.1 Affiliate Marketer, Ewen Chia. So we would be working on doing marketing for an affilate product.

I realised something lately. Including 2-5, I have tried to start 8 businesses since I started my journey 6 years ago. So in effect, I have failed in 4 businesses, because they couldn't take off.

Yay!

Why am I so happy?

The odds are on my side. They say out of 10 businesses, 9 will fail. So I will have to try 2 more before I get even. :)

Help! A lot of updates!

Haha...

It's a good challenge, really. We just went for a wealth retreat in Genting, followed quickly by National Achievers' Congress 2007, then followed quickly by World Internet Mega Summit.

I am still in the midst of the WIMS.

From these three main events, I have at least 10 ahas to add.

I recently noticed that viewership had dropped drastically. Haha... I can't complain, really, I haven't updated. But do stay tuned. Lotsa updates coming soon! I promise!

Positivity - The Meaning Of Events Part 2

So how was it? What were your thoughts on my question?

The difference, in my opinion, is what the event represent.

For example, it's an evening at the shopping mall with your date.
A cleaner barks at you for dirtying the floors with the mud that
you brought in from the outside.

Purely looking at this situation, how will you react?

That depends on what this situation means to you. It could be

---Interpretation 1---

"She's so rude! She's obvously easily annoyed and likes to take
it out on customers. I don't have to take this kind of nonsense.
I can't let this disservice carry on either. I will either
i. Walk away in anger, purposely make the place even dirtier,
ii. Scold her for being rude,
iii. Complain to her manager or
iv. All of the above"

---

You might not do any of the above, but you would probably be at
least a little annoyed, right?

What if I explained what happened to the lady just prior to those
actions you saw before?

---Interpretation 2---

"Before you met Mdm Shelia, she had received a call from the
hospital about her daughter. Her daughter had met with a traffic
accident and was in critical condition. Mdm Shelia had informed her
boss, but was told she had to complete her tasks before she could
leave.

Since it was raining heavily outside, the muddy floors were one of
her final tasks. However, as luck would have it, a bunch of teenagers
were making things difficult for her. The hooligans from a nearby
school had been scolded by Mdm Shelia for dirtying the floors, so
they had taunted her by doing it repeatedly, on purpose.

You happen to come along at the wrong time."

---

That was a very tall story, right? Talk cock? Not likely, right?

But what's the difference between Interpretation 1 and 2, really?

Are not both perceptions a false reality? How can we know if either
reality is real? The only thing that is REAL is what we saw.
She scolded you. We imagined the rest about Mdm Sheila.

Angel or devil, YOU DECIDE.

But once you do... I want to say that you have made it real!

It is real because your heart beats faster due to your feeling angry.
It is real because you write in to complain. It is real because you talk
about it to your friends.

It is real because you feel compassionate. It is real because you ask
yourself how you can make her feel better.

Which version is better? You decide.

I am an S

The irony of it all. I have quit from my job. But I was
quickly back in the company as a freelancer.

It was only when my former manager asked me to come up
with an invoice about the scope of work and charges that
I realised that this was a sign! It was a sign that I am
indeed in the S quadrant now!

(if by now you still do not know what I am referring to
and what I have been referring to in my previous posts.
ESBÌ are acronyms for different quadrants from Robert
Kiyosaki's Cashflow Quadrant.)

Regardless of how long I can last in this venture into
the S quadrant, it seems like the universe is presenting
itself to me purely because I asked for it.

I would now have to adopt new skills, and a different
mindset toward things. Some things i've discovered pretty
quick:

1. Accountability

o I have to keep track of my income and expense.
For tax and CPF purposes

o A doodad can be tax free! Ok... It must first
be a legitimate business expense of course. But
no one says I cannot use an MP3 recorder which
is business expense for outdoor recording for
my own personal use too, right?

2. Time management

o With no one to tell you what to do, I really
have to become more disciplined with my time.
Now that I am self-employed, it means I can take
my 30 mins power nap, but it could also mean a
2 hour killer nap if I don't watch myself.

3. People Skills

o Ex Managers and colleagues have now become
clients. Managers no longer exist. Partners do.
What is the protocol when discussing work with
partners? Very different than with colleagues or
managers, let me tell you that.

Positivity - The Meaning Of Events

I know my blog posts are erratic. So just wanted to
put a bit of my thoughts, my AHAs down today.

What is positive thinking to you? Why is positivity
so important??

The way I see it, when I am negative and down...
I feel tired, and not so good in general. When I am
in a negative state, everything seems bad, everyone
seems angry, things seem to get worse, everything
is not going my way.

Murphy's Law seem to work overtime, and it is applied
to me and only me!

When I am feeling good, everything seems to go my way.
I can function so much more efficient, I am much more
creative, I feel happier, I feel alive!

What is the difference between the two experience?

Think it through. Because I am lazy, I will share my
thoughts another day. Please comment away if you have
any thing to share!

A New Beginning - Backdated Blog Entry

Ok... this is going to be weird. I have had a couple of blog posts since the last one, but did not get to upload it.

Read them and you will see why I was not able to find time to do so since my decision almost two weeks back.

This one is dated 6th of April.

----

It's official. I am going to be out of a job starting from 4th of May.

I can't describe the feeling of relief when I finally told my bosses that I had to go. I've been hiding for so long because I was worried about loss of my bonuses. It feels very wrong and sounds very petty. That is why I am determined not to feel this way again.

What was nice was that someone offered me a job almost immediately. Although I rejected the offer without any hesitation, it felt good to be wanted.

What am I going to do? Real estate sales. I am now in the midst of talking to my future bosses and mentor, so I can't reveal too much, but very exciting.

In the meantime, I will also be training up to become a professional videographer to make ends meet.

Yup, none of it safe or secure. That's how I like it.

Steps into the unknown

What are the steps to success?

• Have a compelling reason. Checked.
• Have a vision that is made more real than fear. Checked.
• Take massive action. No time.
• Burn all bridges, and don't look back. Er... Don't dare to.

It is what Robert T. Kiyosaki said. Robert G. Allen talked about burning bridges.

All those years of what I'm sure some people will say is brainwashing and I am following that advice.

I am quitting my safe secure programming job, and taking up something that is as different as possible, real estate sales.

Will I succeed? I am certain of it.

(I am fully aware that I am accountable for everything I say in this entry, on public domain, in fact, that is partially why I am saying it. Burn another bridge. You being my witness, there's no going back now.)

To me, it's a massive change.

I have friends who tell me I am crazy. Our wedding is coming in little more than half a year's time. Wedding package, actual day photography, house renovations... Things will get pretty tight very soon.

Of course, it's not as bad as I make it out to be. I have a supportive partner, surprisingly supportive parents and very empowering friends. We have enough savings for the wedding, and a lttle more to last me three months without a paycheck. I have a house that is paying itself, more or less.

But why now?

It gave me goose pimples when I read "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" again recently. Robert T. Kiyosaki said to "work to learn and not work for money."

Rich Dad also said that being broke is a temporary condition, but being poor is a mindset. If I am to become broke, doing so before 30 would be best because I will still have time to catch up,

Amazingly... I am following Robert's footsteps, maybe consciously at the start, but now semi consciously now because I am who I wanted to be now, and that person finds what I am doing perfectly reasonable.

I sure don't want to be broke, but in quitting, I am saying I don't mind being broke in order to achieve freedom.

Zombie Republic

Have you stopped and looked at people around you sometimes?

I've come to a scary realization that there are a lot of zombies in Singapore. I am quite worried that I might end up becoming one. I am close, I tell you.

Have you noticed a scenario like this?

Someone trips on the bus, you see many hands stretched out near that person. But all the owners of these helping hands have expressionless faces. Once the near-victim is standing, and safe. The hands retract. No smile, no 'Thank you', no 'You're welcome'.

How about this?

A cleaning lady clearing tables at a food court. You say 'Thank you'. And she snaps out of her zombie curse, and looks at you in a funny way.

Sometimes she might actually break from her curse and start conversing with you. But most of the time, she goes back to her state. Looking down, at the piece of cloth she is wiping the table with, with a scowl on her face.

What is happening? I think all the debate about raising our service standards would come to naught if we can't stop the zombie curse. We would just have trained zombies, reading lines, saying thank yous and have a nice days.

It's the frenzied pace we Singaporeans live at la... I think. Anyway this reframing makes me realise that sometimes it's not that Singaporeans don't care, but that they are not aware. Which is actually worse, but makes me feel better about people...

"The Pursuit of Happyness"

Watched a great movie on our proposal anniversary, and the timing for that movie couldn't be more amazingly coincidental. The title is 'The Pursuit of Happyness', by Will Smith.



It is based upon the life of Chris Gardner. He was a struggling salesman in the 80s who went through hell to get to where he is.

Talk about a wake up call for me. What is the price for success? Will I be willing to pay it?

Right at this juncture of my life when I am deciding when to quit my safe, comfortable job, the timing for this show couldn't have come at a better time.

Chris had a child. He went through countless fights with his wife over making ends meet. Debts were piling. At one point, he was literally homeless, and he had his son with him all along.

His break came in the form of a job opportunity to be a stock broker at Dean Whitters. But he had to undergo training without income, and for a job that wasn't even a certainty. There was only one vacancy, and he had to the best out of 20 interns.

I have quite a 'safe' cushion in terms of finances, I should be able to function without disaster for Hwei Min and I without any income for at least 2 months, and I have a considerably much better network than Chris had. It is still a little intimidating to imagine going without a pay check for training... Which I planned on doing.

Going to 'S' in the cashflow quadrant had been my plan all along, on my path to 'B'. But now I am making the first 'bridge burning' decision.

The movie was nice, but as Tony said, if I had to model after someone, I have to get inside his head, and understand how he ticks. So I am looking for the book now. If I can find the book in Singapore, that will be great, meantime, I found the book at amazon.com.



Here's a video of the actual guy...

Happy Birthday and Proposal Day!

Happy birthday Peppermint!

One full year ago, today was the day I proposed to Hwei Min. Today is our proposal anniversary.

We went back to the place where I proposed, the roof terrace of Esplanade mall. It was a wonderful day.

I am beginning to believe in my special powers. Hwei Min and I... We can control the weather!! Just last night, we mentioned how nice it would be if on the next day, the weather would be just right for us. There will be rain clouds, there will be a strong breeze... But no rain.

We got EXACTLY that!

Look at the pictures we took. Throw in birds singing, and you can imagine how great it was.

A lazy Saturday at the museum

Been to the National Museum lately?

You should go. The building had been restored and updated with a modern look and feel, while maintaining the old colonial charm.

Too bad the rest of the museum are camera-unfriendly. The tickets to enter the display areas cost $10 per adult. We didn't even go in. The "no-cameras" signs are a real turn off.

But no loss to us. We enjoyed ourselves tremendously just walking around. Along a huge hallway, I thought I captured a cherubim, a small angel. A cheerful and energetic little boy running around. His dad was very friendly! Can see where the little boy got his cheerfulness from. When I asked for permission to take a picture of this cute boy, he posed for the photos. I have left my email address with him. I hope that he can give me his permission to share the other pictures I have of his cute son here. And I would like to hold to my promise of emailing him the pictures. Please email me! I want to share the photos with you!

Click to take a look at the rest of the pictures I have taken.

Saturday at the Museum

tweak-me-site.com finally up!

After many days of tinkering around with WordPress... www.tweak-me-site.com is active! Took so long to understand how the hierarchy of pages work. As you can see... it's 3 a.m. already, so I am really really SLOW at learning...

Just a quick check.. with Super Green and Tony Robbins... I have had 20 hyper days and counting.

Enjoying life man... enjoying life.

Read about what I did over the weekend tomorrow! It's time for bed!

27 Year Old Midas

Have you read this about this 27 year old engineering who gambled on the stock market and lost 700K?? You can read the original article here.

He is no kid, he is about the same age as me. What could have caused him to have so much confidence in himself as to gamble on nothing?

Yes, gamble. There is absolutely no way we can call what he did investment. He gambled on high-risk contra trading. (Contra trading just means selling stock that you ordered but have not paid for within the 3 day period before you have to buy. So despite the bad name caused by irresponsible traders, it is a neutral feature of trading.)

He made some money, 80K to be exact, picking some counters that managed to perform within the 3 days. A few friends called him "Prince Midas". He suddenly felt like he was an expert, and he had the Midas' touch.

Probably enboldened by the 300K from his father's savings, he bought shares with 700K that he didn't have. Crash... boom... bang... hundreds of thousands gone.

Overnight, this guy made his father and himself bankrupt. This guy had been gambling on nothing. Less than nothing is what he has now.

Is this how investments work? Trading? NO. Please do not believe it is!

True investments are logical, emotionless decisions based on clearly defined entry and exit points. True investments are managed carefully, weighing risk appetite and gains.

Zeag has some comments on money management that would be worth reading. He's 27 too. Read to find out how his brain ticks. He doesn't have astronomical gains like the guy in the article did once upon a time. But I'll entrust my money with him, anytime.

Who wants Midas as a friend anyway???

On Google ... PR 0

Haha...

I've just installed the Google Toolbar for Firefox, and checked my very own PageRank. Zero. Kosong.

Hee hee... What do I expect right? I hardly update this site, and hardly anyone visits anyway.

At the very list, it seems google has at least cached my page, but nothing to be proud of, the cached snapshot was from February, the "Who is Rich Schefren?" post.

So what have I been so busy with these few days? Trying to get my site www.tweak-me-site.com up. You can take a look now... quite empty, but I will be working full steam ahead. The seminar will not be too many days away now. MUST COMPLETE ONE MORE VIDEO!!!

I've decided to redefine myself as a video blogger. Most of it will be posted on tweak-me-site.com. This blog shall remain my personal blog. Hwei Min could be coming on very soon as a guest. She will have a cool 'super hero' name, Pepper Mint.

So this page might be called TWeaK Me and Pepper Mint! Cool?? COol??

Shameless Promotion

Yeah! I've got my name cards!

Let me tell you, nothing can describe how thrilled I was to get hold of these as they were printed and cut.

I overhead the staff joking as she passed one of my cards to her colleague, "Wanna play poker?" When I hear that... I know I have something good.

I can't wait to give these out. I can't do so until www.tweak-me-site.com is up, though... So full steam ahead!

It's all about hype

It's been confirmed. I will be going for Stephen Pierce's seminar from the 23rd March to 26th March. So I have a few tasks to complete by that time.

The idea now is to bank on aggressive offline marketing first, to get the first influx of traffic. I am targetting Singaporeans who are interested in Internet Marketing first, since I am going for a couple of seminars this year.

So, I'll be creating hype using a cool name card, and at least 1 fun video which I hope will be viral. I say hope because there is no way you can predict such things...

These are the tasks at hand:-

1. Print cool name card.
2. Complete 1 viral video.
3. Complete 3 training videos.
4. Complete www.tweak-me-site.com
1. Sign up for autoresponder.
2. Set up autoresponder form on site
3. Write the thank-you email. With free ebook.
4. Design site.
5. Put up videos and articles.
6. Pray hard. :)
   

So far.. I am behind time.

1. Cool name card. Done. Not printed.
2. Completed viral video. Very fun.
3. Completed 1 training video.
4. Not started on site.
   

Raffles Institution

Just popped by my alma mata Raffles Institution today.

We were viewing a unit at a condominium nearby, and I thought I just walk in to take a look. Wow... a lot has changed. The school is well maintained, (Rich school lah...), looks ten times better than I remembered it. New additions were made, the canteen had the most changes made to it. Now there is a foyer area just above the canteen. I can't really remember what used to be there.

Of course, now that RJC is sharing facilities with RI, the running track had been removed, and the field looks VERY well maintained. So did the tennis court.

But on the whole, everything I remembered was still more or less there. All the old photos (which I did not appear in), all the pictures of former headmasters (Mr. Wijeysingha will always be my favorite), all the classrooms. (some of them seemed air-conditioned, those lucky kids!)

I am thankful that I had a chance to study at RI. I am not sure I will enrol my kid to study there, however, but I do not regret studying at RI at all. I have learned confidence, and leadership at an early age. I was inspired by Mr. Wijeysingha. He managed to exude regality and calm, and yet remain fatherly and kind.

I don't regret not going to RJC, however. I have learnt that RI and RJC attracted a certain group of kids that I nearly became. Thank goodness I came from Ai Tong before that, and YJC after that, so that I ended up pretty balanced. And of course, because I met Hwei Min in YJC, hee hee...

The condominium we visited on the other hand, gave us a very bad impression. Maintenance was poor, that whole place needed a repaint. There was one disgusting bald patch of grass next to the swimming pool. On the newspaper ad, it was stated that the showroom was open from 10 a.m., and when we were there at 12p.m, the guards told us no one came.

Multi Task

Had a huge aha today as a couple of things i've learnt over the past weeks seem to line up to give me the same insight. All of this is triggered because I observed my friend Hoe Swee when we were in office today. I was sharing with him the power of Tony Robbin's Personal Power program and how I felt a change in me. I asked that he tried the first of the whole series of tapes, and see if it worked for him. "If it works for you, it could well change your life" was what I said.

Well, he did try listening. He switched it on quite softly (understandable, since we were in office), and he was doing his coding at the same time. After a while, I heard the track repeating from the very beginning again. He was multi-tasking.

Zig Ziglar mentioned in his tapes how some of us do not have goals for the things we are working on now. Some think about their families when working. They lament about missing out on spending time with our loved ones when they are in office. When they are at home, however, they wil start thinking of what they have to do when they get back to office! No wonder they always claim to have no time!

Well, this ties in nicely with what Rich Schefren shared in his preview about the tasks we are doing and how much they are really worth. Basically, if something can be done while ‘multi-tasking’, it is not worth your doing them in the first place.

How much are we guilty of this? I know I am. I’ll be staring at Hwei Min while she is talking, and my mind would wonder off. Otherwise, I’ll be staring at my computer screen while listening to something Hwei Min is saying, and not really concentrating on either. I can accomplish so much more if I gave my 100 percent to each task at one time, and ironically, multi-tasking accomplishes less.

So, reminder to self:-

Regardless of whether for work or for play, concentrate on what I am doing, until that thing is done.

Lion Dance

I have written this last Saturday, but took such a long time to prepare the video. But hey... I am getting better...

-------------------
Written on 24th February 2007
-------------------
Spent an afternoon at Hwei Min's office today.

Ginza Plaza was hosting a lion dance performance today. Managed to do an hour of work on my introduction to the Internet. It's coming on quite nicely now. Just trying to streamline the information further.

It was quite a disappointing turn out for the lion dance performance. Hwei Min said most of the guests went for their holidays over the weekend. Thankfully, there was a family with kids around. There were three girls who really enjoyed themselves.

Now that I have figured out YouTube. I've decided to piece a short video of the dance troupe together. Enjoy.

AHA - Allowance mentality = employee mindset

We had a great 'aha' today about financial education.

I was just thinking about my kid's education. Hwei Min and I were discussing on when we should teach our kids to pick up academic skills.

I talked about making learning interesting. We thought about it and realized that maybe the reward system most parents practise (“You get 90 out of hundred for 3 subjects and you will get the latest Superman figurine”) is a way to create short term goals for kids to aim for. In a sick kind of way, it makes learning a little more ‘fun’.

Then I said that I wanted to train our children to like passive income, and we should make the reward passive instead of one off reward.

Suddenly, I realised, isn't child's allowance something like an adult’s paycheck? We go to school to get an allowance. Some kids are not given allowances during school holidays. We go to work to get a paycheck!

If in primary school, we get 5 dollars a week, in secondary school we will get 10 dollars a week. What has changed? Did we study harder? No. We just got older! Now what does that do to our mindset when we start working? We get "greedy"! (Go read "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" for the Rich Dad's definition of greedy)

So here lies a very important lesson which we have yet to grasp. We must really rethink the system in which we teach our kids about life, and about money! Maybe we pay allowance based on performance? Maybe the allowance comes in the form of passive income?

Cousins

This year, we had a couple of new additions to the family. My little cousin, Aaron, and my not so little cousin Terence. Aaron is the life of our party. Just having him around and the rest of us pampering him added a lot of fun and laughter to our gathering. I've noticed that Aaron is quiet, but very smart with his hands. He plays and picks up spatial skills pretty fast. He is shy when trying out new stuff, like new words he learnt for example, but you can see that he understands what you are saying.

I guess this is a problematic age for parents because he is just beginning to understand boundaries and also beginning to test those boundaries. How much discipline to apply? Spare the rod? Will it spoil the kid? Aaron is just at the brink of cuteness turning into naughtiness.

Meanwhile, Terence is a cousin we have not seen for at least 12 years now. The last time we met him, he was only slightly older than Aaron is now. Now at 17, he is a stranger, but still familiar, still family. He still has the same looks, for one. It's as if he got stretched by Willy Wonka's stretching machine because he looks the same except taller, and his face is longer. He's quite handsome too, so it's not as bad as how I am sure you are visualizing in your head now.

Chinese New Year 2007

I came back last night. As mentioned, a brief update on my chinese new year. How did you spend your new year? Pigging out like me?? :P

A typical chinese new year's eve begins at home with my mom preparing a dish for the reunion meal. I say meal because we usually have lunch instead of dinner.

Then we move off to my grandma's place (Teo Family) in JB at around 10 a.m.

No point going too early, cos my grandma would be making prayers. Nowadays we are helping her, as she is not so mobile any more. Traditionally, the gods will have their meals before the mortals do, and the ancestors before the living. Don’t ask me which gods and which ancestors they are. We lay a few dishes and three sets of chopsticks, whisky and tea. My cousin, Han mentioned that he finally understood who those three sets were for, but that's blasphemous and disrespectful to both Taoists and the Christians, so I shall not mention what he said now.

We move in to the living room shortly after and different sets were laid for the ancestors of the family this time.
Only when all the traditional ceremonies are done do the rest of us eat.

Every year, we have all the meats;- fish, duck, two styles of chicken, roast pork. We would have my mom's dish with mushrooms, fat choy and ho see. And not to forget, the very expensive soup with abalone and sea cucumber in it. Very nice!

By the time we start eating, it's 2pm, so I tend of overeat my first meal.

We will spend the day and the rest of the days at my grandma’s place watching movies together, playing mahjong, eating. Just chilling. Ok… not really chilling cause it is really quite hot in the house, and stuffy at times, what with 18 of us in the small 4 room HDB equivalent sized house. But hey, it’s the only time we get to meet, and I sure do cherish the moments.

Ever since my grandpa (Tham side) passed away, my father’s side of the family meet on the 1st day of lunar new year at my 1st Uncle’s place. Very huge gathering, my 1st Uncle alone has 3 generations under the same roof. I have 9 uncles, my dad is the 7th, and he has 2 elder sisters and 1 foster sister. Each of my dad’s siblings have kids, and some of them have kids, so you can imagine how many people there are in the gathering.

So a lot of ang baos are exchanged. Now that I am getting married, I am thankful that the currency for ang bao exchange is in RM and the norm is 4RM each packet. Phew...

Anyway, I tried the youtube upload again. Ya'tta! It works this time! Enjoy!
(Note : The video takes a while to become active after upload.)

Gong Hei Fatt Choy!

JB for the Chinese New Year!

So it's a short break for me from blogging not because I don't want to, but because I can't. No Internet there. I will write when I am there and post everything once I come back Tuesday night or Wednesday.

So here is where I shower you with tons of greetings like Gong1 Xi3 Fa1 Cai2, Wan4 Shi4 Ru2 Yi4, Cai2 Yuan2 Gun3 Gun3, yada yada yada.

But most of all, Hong2 Bao1 Yao4 Na3 Lai2!!

Riding Too Hard

I have started listening to Deepak Chopra, and he was talking about the close relationship between mind and body. Basically, our external reality is affected by our internal representation. So I thought I had it. I am enjoying myself tremendously!

I am learning so much every night. Watching videos online, writing my ebook, writing our story for the video on our wedding, getting regular exercise. I am having fun!

However, I have been pushing my body too hard. For the past week, my body had been showing signals. I had very bad eyebags. My eyes were swollen. It usually doesn't bother me. I don't care so much about how I look, but this time my eyes hurt.

I think I can only say that I have been trying to do too much, too fast. I am cutting on my sleep. I always wondered how successful people can stay awake for 20 hours a day. I guess I'v ebeen trying to accomplish that myself.

Unconsciously, I am walking faster, I am eating faster. I am filling up every second of my time I can fill with something useful. When I walk from Bukit Merah to my office, I am listening to an audio book. In bed, I am reading a book until I can't read any more. Every single moment, I must be hearing, watching or at least thinking something. Unconsciously, I think I must have been breathing faster, my heart must have been beating faster too.

So yesterday, my body finally gave in, and I felt a cold and sore throat developing. Went to see a doctor, infected sinus and throat.

Working at a faster rhythm is great, but I think we have to bear in mind our Human Dynamics too. I am a PE, and I need my natural rhythm. I do not think that increasing my rhythm is a problem, but I guess I need a slow acceleration, rather than a sudden spurt. So when I am home, what did I work on straight away? Slowing my breathing, taking a long rest in bed. My body deserves it. :)

Who is Rich Schefren?

Watched the Rich Schefren business presentation today while waiting for Hwei Min in her office.

Must say that it is a good reminder for me. It was a revision of Robert Kiyosaki's Casflow Quadrant for me. In the midst of my struggle with the technology and development of my product, I have neglected the importance of treating Internet Marketing as a business. A business with a capital B!

I am reminded to think of the scaleability of the business from the very beginning. Rich says to focus on your core competency and get others to figure out the rest.

For example, I know that that I suck at programming. I really dislike figuring out the technology of IM. I can learn codes, I am trained in the square syntax of prograaming language, so any language should be easier for me to pick up than others who are not technically trained. But I have come to terms with the fact that I find it a struggle to think linearly. I can, with lots of hard work, train myself to pick it up, but I figure I will always be slightly slower than those who are technically inclined.

So instead of forcing myself to work on the technology of it all, I should find someone else to help me. Instead, I should work on the content, I think I do better at that.

Bring back my Animaniacs!

I really miss that show... Yay for Youtube, i can search for old shows, music that are hard to find.

I can't really pin down the reason why I love it so much. And I will personally hantam anyone who says its a cartoon for kids! It's not!!!

IM Update - Getting your domain up

Ok... from what I know, getting a search engine friendly domain name is one of the basic things you can do to optimize your site.

So today, I spent ONE HOUR to sign up for the domain. Ok... I spent half the time checking email, checking forum, doing this blog, searching for a proper domain... talking to Hwei Min...

Speaking of which.. a cool resource is nameboy.com . Go there to try out different combinations of keywords to set up your name with. They will also show you its availability.

The rest is crap however. If you really want to buy a domain, go to godaddy.com. Its cheaper.

Hwei Min and Wai Keen Animation

Quick updates on my progress on our video montage. It's been confirmed,we will do an interview plus photo montage plus animation on how we met.

For the animation, i've developed a simple character profile for the major characters, in a cross between Toriyama's style of drawing plus South Park style of animation.

Dragon ball meets South Park? Ya la... Its too tough to animate fully like Naruto, Bleach or even the Dragon Ball series. South park seems simpler, the key word being "seems". It's still many frames. Sigh...

Internet Marketing... A fresh new start

Its official. I am moving into Internet Marketing again. I have put in quite a bit of money, seminar junkie again. In fact, I am at AKLTG attending a lesson on strengthening Internet presence by Stuart Tan.

Don't worry, I will try not to flood this blog with too much about Internet Marketing. But I have set up an account at MySpace.

The IM blog

Take a look. Now nothing there yet lah... but its a start.

Let it blow, let it blow, let it blow

Oh my goodness, isn't the weather excellent! It feels more like Christmas than December. Winds are strong, temperature maintaining below 30 degrees, even during the day. I have to wear a sweater out in the morning, for goodness sakes! That is a first for me!

And the wonderful thing? Dry weather. Humidity just nice, no rain, not too much sun. What can I say? Perfect as Singaporean weather can be!

Yay, I hope this goes on indefinitely.

Miss Potter - Movie Review

Just watched Miss Potter yesterday.

Yes... I went blur too. Potter? Harriet Potter? No lah... its the author of Peter Rabbit, Beatrix Potter. Sounds a little more familiar?

"The Tale of Peter Rabbit" is a children's tale wonderfully drawn and written by Beatrix Potter. Her art has become one of the most well known icons for merchandise from Great Britain.

We both found the movie to be quite good. Sweet and simple, moving in some parts. not enough to cause us to tear, but good enough that we felt for the characters. It's been a while since we watched Renée Zellweger and Ewan McGregor act together in "Down with Love". Their chemistry just works on screen.

We were quite lucky to watch the movie in an empty cinema at The Cathay. Quite scary, actually, when I tried to book for tickets for this show, there were many occupied seats shown on screen, but when we arrived, the cinema was empty. Spooky...

Yes... Once again, it is a story about an author who writes... fantasy. Well I consider stories about clothed rabbits fantasy. I remain inspired... but still trying to get my story down. Hee hee... lots of excuses.

I've been robbed... by the BANK!

If you have a DBS Cashline account, be very very wary. (Ok... that sounds odd)

Unlike Credit Cards, the interest is charged daily, irregardless of when you receive the statement. Meaning to say, you sign the cheque, transaction is made 20 days ago, you just received the statement, you have to pay 20 effective days of interest, at 17.5% interest p.a.

Ok, my maths really lousy, but that's a LOT OF MONEY LOR!!! In my case, for a loan of $138, in 13 days, it is close to $1 already. Thankfully I called them up immediately after receiving the statement, if I blur blur, and wait a few days more, will be even worse.

Despite being as careful as I could, I've been robbed... again... by the bank.

Latest Influences...

Phew... It's been a tough week.

Been going down to site almost every single day last week, and OT almost every other day, hence too tired to do anything.

Good thing is that I have more time to read, and I have been reading mainly Isaac Asimov last week. Read Magic, a collection of fantasy short stories as well as articles by him on fantasy as a genre, and I found my inspiration in his writing.

Isaac Asimov? Fantasy? He talks mainly about the structure and idea of magic in stories, and explore that genre with a few formulaic shorts.

So it is quite interesting that the two movies I've watched for the past two weeks were Pan's Labyrinth, and The Illusionist. Both on fantasy. Reviews coming soon... I hope.

But anyway, I have gotten inspired to write. I shall be coming up with some soon. I hope this is the right place to share them.

Oh... just for fun, take a look at these videos. Incidentally, they are all from the same genre of fantasy. Please, take everything with a pinch of salt, especially my Christian friends. :P

F1 Singapore Circuit?

Cool news... have been reading about this on Today for the past few days, so its hardly counted as news. But I haven't been updating for a while... so it is new. :)

Watching Dr. No (1962) now. Starting to watch everything in order now. No point watching the beginning of the story, Casino Royale if I don't know where it leads. Not bad, but it is quite funny seeing some of the old video effects they used then. Hey, Sean Connery is damn handsome. Yes, I am man enough to be able to admit that. Hwei Min said she did not recognize him. True, he's gotten older, but the same calm, suave gentlemen is still there. In fact, I prefer the older Sean. If only we all can grow old like that.

No fight, man, the new Bond...

Daniel Craig, I can't find a picture where he is NOT HALF NAKED! OK... you have a nicer body. So what? Sean's.... er... wrinklier.

And is it a coincidence? I am considering buying a bug detector and a camera detector.


Don't you find it scary? Nowadays wireless cameras can fit in almost anything. I just saw a set that's selling for less than S$200 at Carrefour.

Sick... Fever ... Diarrhoea

How to spell diarrhoea? (Wikipedia)

I had problem with that word since goodness knows when. :(

I've had it since Tuesday. Down with recurring fever, stomach bloatedness and diarrhoea. Feel very tired too, so I've not been able to come online pretty much.

Mundane Update ... College Saga!

A little bit of the mundane setting in as we're settling into the beginning of 2007. As always, it's getting less rainy, getting a little hotter.

Like a carrot to make us run faster, I think these few months make the rest of the year worthwhile. So many holidays squeezed together, ang pows to collect (keeping in mind the change in status soon, its not really something to look forward to), and bonuses, it's all a ploy to make us work harder!

Things are starting to get rough at work. Demanding and impatient users, always a bad combination. I think it is a fine art, trying to balance client expectation with reality, and I honestly think we have not done that at all, so I am stuck directly in the middle, trying to match reality to never-ending-always-and-constant-and-daily absolutely MASSIVE shifts in expectations...

Other than that. Everything's great! :) Nothing much else to add. Just thought that this following clip is cool. You must have played Final Fantasy to really appreciate it though... Enjoy. There are 4 parts to this, so be sure to watch all.


College Saga Episode 1
College Saga Episode 2
College Saga Episode 3
College Saga Episode 4

Return of Ramu’s Curry

Had a delicious meal at Ramu’s Curry. I don’t know if you’ve been to Ramu’s before. It used to be at Upper Thomson Road, along the row of shophouses at the 7-Eleven near Thomson Plaza. I still have memories of eating at that restaurant many years back then.

Back then, it was a great deal to go for dinner at Ramu's. It was almost an event on itself. After it was closed, we could not find another place for that kind of experience any more.

When you walked into the restaurant, they would serve you by first laying out a piece of banana leaf on the table, then going around serving the rice and the vegetables separately. There are 3 kinds of vegetables that come with the rice set, and this, the waiter would serve in an interesting hand-held container with a ladle.

Well, Ramu kept this practise at his new place. It may not be unique to Ramu's Curry, i've not been to enough South Indian restaurants to know, but it meant a lot to me.

With some stroke of luck, I found Ramu's again from an article featured on Today. Here's a link to their pda version of that article. They've yet to set up a website. I'll try to convince them, I nearly could not find the place! Thankfully Today had kept an online version.

The biryani rice was fabulous! You can taste the fragrance of the herbs in the rice with every mouthful. I believe this to be the best I have had, and believe me, it is good, because I consider biryani one of my top favorite food in Singapore.

Must try the curry fish head. The gravy was appetizing, spicy and sour, and filled with subtle layers of spices. Half a fish at 12, it was more than enough for the five of us. The fish meat was not flaky like how other fish head dishes i've tried felt, the overcooked ones. The meat was still tender, and yet, with the seasoning managing to get infused just right.

Also try the masala chicken. I have run out of descriptive phrases for the chicken, take the earlier part abou the fish, replace curry with gravy, fish with chicken, and you will get what I have to say.

One thing we missed was the fish cutlet, if their standard is intact, try that too!

The greatest fact about Ramu's? It did not burn a hole in my pocket. It was my treat that afternoon, the meal cost 40 plus, and we were all sufficiently full. The great thing is that Ramu's is air-conditioned, clean, (the kitchen was located next door, so no spicey smell on clothing when you are done with your meal), and moderately priced. You can't find many of South Indian restaurants that fit that category in Singapore. Either you have Muthu's Curry at Little India, which cost double for the same group of five, or 20-30 at Casuarina Curry at Casuarina Road, the other end of the spectrum. Ramu's is somewhere in the centre, representing great value for money.

Address that took me so long to find :-

Ramu's Kitchen, 198 Yio Chu Kang Road
Telephone: 6286 9861
Opening hours: 11am to 10pm, daily

On Today today, woo hoo!

I have sent a feedback letter to Today and SMRT concurrently, regarding the bus I took not too long ago.

I didn't notice, but it was published last week! Woo hoo!

In case you didn't read it either, I have attached it here. :)

New Year's Eve Shopping

Originally written on the 31^st of December 2006, at Raffles City.

At shopping with Hwei Min on New Year's Eve. At Raffles City now. Spent the first half an hour looking at bedlinen, cutlery, even baby items at Robinson's to plan how to spend her voucher she won during her company's dinner and dance. I enjoyed myself marginally for that, but well ... I am bored already.

Now I am standing outside G2000 waiting for her. I would much rather watch people than look at clothes. We've been in G2000 so many times already! I don't want to buy anything! She doesn't want to buy anything either!

Once again, this is an example of the fundamental difference between Hwei Min and myself, and judging from experiences recounted by all our friends, most men and women as well.

First of all, I think the common misconception that men hate shopping is wholly untrue. It's just that men and women have a different definition of the word "shopping".

When men shop, we look for something at the shop, find it, buy it. Men ENJOY the satisfaction of getting what we want tremendously. We want to go home immediately to use the new device or gadget (usually) that we have bought.

When women shop, they mean walking around, looking around at things that catch their eye, buy something that catches their eye. And the words ‘SALE’ or ‘OFFER’ or ‘… % OFF!’ really catches their eyes. Usually, the words are in red, but they don’t always have to be. Never ask a woman if they need something, or what they want to achieve from the shopping trip. They don’t know most of the time.

Now I don’t know about other men, though I suspect it to be the same for them. I do not enjoy women’s way of shopping. In fact, it causes real pain to my back. Mysteriously, my lower back aches faster than it normally does when I am just walking around, waiting for Hwei Min to shop.

I found that my back aches are alleviated 50% almost as soon as I stepped out of the shop. The pain is then alleviated a further 25% if I am looking at electronic devices, music CDs, games or DVDs. If I were to sit down somewhere where I can play at a LAN shop, or if I were to go to some new historical site and I can take my pictures, the pain will be 100% gone!

If what I read from ‘Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus’ is true, then this is very easy to explain. Men are motivated by a goal. Women are motivated by senses.

So to a man, shopping without a goal is, literally, a pain. Our testosterone levels drop tremendously, and thus I feel the backache.

Women however, need the shopping to raise their oxytocin levels. They need the flood to their senses. In fact, women actually enjoy talking, and asking for opinions on what to buy. They enjoy the feeling of togetherness.

So a proposal for couples…

- State how much time you spend shopping together at the start (SENSORY), so that men can aim to complete that time (GOAL).

- Then the men can go wander off and do something else that has a purpose, like maybe play a game, or even get a drink, (a GOAL) while the ladies can continue their shopping (SENSORY)

- Then, meet together again at a stated time and place. (a GOAL).

- Then the men can help the ladies make a choice on what to buy, of all those things that she has found. (SENSORY).

Wonderful? Hope that this works for you. Now to convince Hwei Min that we should follow this.