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...

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Written on 24th February 2007
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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.