Snapshots of Life!: October 2006

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Like beer? So do the Geeks

http://www.99-bottles-of-beer.net/language-perl-737.html

If you run this script, it actually produces the entire song! The guy who did this is brilliant!

Monday, October 30, 2006

Diamonds in the Sky

I can be such a "wise-ass" sometimes....was looking over a friend's profile today when I realized he had quoted me on something I said last year. I definitely felt honored since I was listed alongside the likes of Albert Einstein, Charles Spurgeon etc. (you get the point)

"We spend too much time looking around us; it's only when the lights go out that we can remember to look at the stars."

I forgot I even said that. I'm not Thomas Friedman or Albert Einstein...and I am notthat deep, I don't think I even made that statement knowing it could mean a lot more. Maybe it's the stage of life I am in, I'm understand now that there's so much to that statement that I'm surprised I even had the brain juices to be so philosophical about life as a college kid.

Here's the context of what happened. I do have to thank Victor for this.

Last summer, during our trip to McLeod Ganj, we were dining at an open-air place when the electricity went out. Typical of India, and since this place was in the middle of nowhere, it was pitch black. So, those weathered warriors among us continued to eat as if nothing had happened, and of course, those who were relatively newer to India moaned about the lousy infrastructure and electrical cuts. All except one person - Victor who had been in India for over a year now. He immediately looked up into the sky and marvelled at the stars. I think at that moment, we all stopped what we were doing and just sat back and enjoyed the constellations. It probably rivals the one I saw out on a camping trip in the Dunes back in MI....the most beautiful diamonds in the sky can only be seen when it's dark.

All I need to do is to remind myself to "look at the stars" when the going gets rough or when I think it's getting rough. :)

Sunday, October 29, 2006

Fire-trucks :)

That innocent passion for a certain job, without knowing the salary or the working hours or the preparation required, is what you need to get back in touch with. It's the child-like feeling of "I want to do that because I want to do that - and I don't have to explain why" that we all need to rediscover. To put it simply: You need to rediscover your inner fire truck. We all have one, and when you find it, you'll know it.

- Thomas Friedman

Saturday, October 28, 2006

Visiting the National Mosque

For what it's worth, I am from SE Asia and have known about the existence of Islam for as long as I can remember. I used to live near a Mosque in Singapore, and would hear the Friday noon prayer broadcast over a sound system in the mosque. All it meant to me was that the end of the week was here since classes in my elementary school would always end around that time. Someone later explained that it was the Call to Prayer, not the actual prayer session.

But shame on me, to have lived in a multicultural society and then taken for granted other ethnic groups, and to have lived all 18 years in Singapore with a sheltered view of the world. So when Jana (trainee from Germany) proposed the idea of visiting the National Mosque 2 weekends ago, I jumped on it out of curiousity and because I wanted to take a break from studying.

Getting there was a nightmare in itself since we had no clue where the mosque was located and it was HOT that Sunday. In addition, we had a crazy party that lasted from 11pm to 5am the previous night and both of us were trying to recover from that.

Well, we got to the LRT station, and could SEE the mosque but couldn't find a path that would lead to it. So after crossing highways and scaling barricades, we finally found outselves standing outside the old train station in KL. Ehh! Not quite where we wanted to go.

But all the muddling around for an hour was worth it because the National Mosque - otherwise known as Masjid Negara was HUGE! I can only imagine what it's like when there are thousands of people praying in the mosque. (to bad we can't see that, tourists aren't allowed at prayer time).

We had to put on the blue head scarves and a coat that covered us from head to toe. Even though I understood the need for decency, both of us had actually tried to cover up and were melting under the layers of cloth. I thought Jana and I looked like convent girls. I used to wear a blue shapeless pinafore in my convent girl's school days. I just wonder why the male tourists don't have to put this on since they're showing skin too! Hurm...not fair.

Malaysia - Blue Skies and White Clouds

Woohoo! The gorgeous weather that defines the tropical region is back! No more haze and rainy days. I stepped outside 2 mornings ago, and saw the bluest sky and tuffs of white clouds - lifted my mood instantly!

Now, if you aren't from these parts and are wondering what the haze is, here's a quick 1 min explanation. Every year, the owners of oil palm plantations slash and burn the matured trees in order to clear the land and replant new oil palm trees. Slash and burn is a known agricultural method for clearing land. The problem occures because these are commercial plantations, not your small time land owner and so when you've got 16 plantations burning at the same time -- viola lotsa smoke, ashes which get blown around SE Asia and we don't see the sun for 2-3 weeks.

Naturally, visibility is reduced and it's like you're in a smoky heaven - except it smells bad and people get sick from the air pollution. Here's a photo of Malaysia on a hazy day.

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Ctrl Z

In my earlier post, I had listed down things I want to do by the time I am 30 years old. I have to make a little change...scratch out the PhD. Oops!

For the longest time, getting a PhD was my life goal. I think I had it since I was 18. And I've spent the most part of the last 10 months telling myself I would do it, and talking to people about it. I wanted to be just like the professors I respected, advance the field in Org Beh and show students new perspectives and how to think. But there was a nagging thought in my head, that I would end up sitting in a library gathering dust for 6 years, research a topic that would mean little to people, and at the end of the day - possibly knowing so much that I no longer make sense to myself and the world. Plus to get it done by 30 would mean heading back to school next year. And I realized .... I'm just not ready for this. It's kinda hard to admit this, "It's not what I want to do with my life." Funny I say that since I've already taken the TOEFL and have the GMAT exams looming in the horizon. The good is that all these exams can be applied to a Masters.

What's Plan B? I don't have one. And it feels wierd not knowing what to do next since I've mostly had an idea of where I'm heading in life. It's like a overhaul of ideals, and at this point, my only answer to every question about life: What do you want to do? Where do you want to live? What drives you? What are you passionate about? Where do you see yourself in 5 years? I DON'T KNOW...

It's like I'm standing at the traffic light which has turned green. And I don't know if I should turn or go forward. One thing is for certain, I don't want to stay still. Even a runner in a marathon has checkpoints and mile markers to keep going and to know where to go. Or I could always do a Forrest Gump and just run for the fun of it. hah!

Monday, October 16, 2006

Reflections

What's real, what's not?

What's right, what's wrong?

Is life simply the story we choose to tell ourselves?

Do we share the same version of reality?

Are we mirrors of one another?

Saturday, October 14, 2006

Things to Do by the Time I am 30

A few days ago, my boss - Mike celebrated his 30th birthday. We kinda got on the topic of things to do by the age of 30. Have a business, get a life partner, live in a different country etc. (Someone said "Have a threesome" - MEN!)

And today, my friend tells me he is getting engaged end of the year with his true love. We're the same age!

And I am still mucking around with my life. Well, not really "mucking", I'm on sabbatical. heh!

So it got thinking about my life...and the things I want to acheive by the time I am 30 years old. It's like my posting awhile back when life should be lived in such a way that you can slide to the "finish line" body bruised and battered with champagne in one hand and shouting Woohoo!

So what do I want to get done by the time I am 30?
I came up with a list below. Do-able? Yeah :) Okay, not so sure about the last one.

- Get a PhD.
- Start an NGO that supports education for less privilledged children below 16 years old. (Not sure where yet.)
- Learn to speak Spanish.
- Travel from Malaysia to Moscow by train. (it's hannu's idea but I've always wanted to do the trans-siberia train ride)
- Visit and Live in South America.
- Find a person who wants to do all these things with me :)

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Quiet Day at work...

So much for trying to start my day at 8am and knocking off at 5pm like everyone else. I lasted for one day before slipping back into my 10am - 8pm routine.

Our main server is down in the States...and no one is able to access the eCommerce websites and emails we get via our official websites. I've spent my day scrubbing Google Adwords - the secret sauce behind how people get traffic to their websites, and creating Google Ads.

Nothing too exciting except that it's hazey and raining all the time in Kuala Lumpur. :( Hmm...is this the version of Malaysia's "Fall season"?

Ladies Night today...let's hope the night gets better...

Monday, October 09, 2006

Introducing the newest member of the team - Tiger!

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Excuse me Miss, are you Singaporean?

There's a huge group of "displaced" foreign talent population who are living and working in Malaysia but without the "right employment paperwork". I attribute this to the inefficiency of the Immigration Department because if we really waited for that to come through, half the length of my internship would be over by then. I guess that does make many of us illegal workers though I must reiterate that it's not by choice.

I was writing to Julia (who is in Germany on a traineeship) today and told her that "sometimes I forget that I am on a year long internship in Malaysia" living the AIESEC experience. Perhaps it would have been different if I had gone to places like Brasil, Russia or Azerbajian - where I would have been shocked out of my Asian-ness. In fact, I travel back to Singapore every month to see my family and get my social visit pass extended, so it's unlike my last AIESEC experience in India when I was really thrown into the deep end and couldn't "escape home".

People often ask "which country are you from?" The most popular guesses are that I am from Hong Kong. When I say I'm from Singapore...it kinda leaves people confused as to why I am on a traineeship in Malaysia since part of the point of a traineeship is to gain a wider world view and a cultural experience.

Unlike what most people think...yes, you can culture shock in Malaysia even if you are Singaporean. A simile would be an Canadian getting culture shock in the States. It's subtle but it's there... Only separated by a 1 mile long bridge and 6 hrs by bus from KL to Singapore. We're connected in so many ways and yet I feel the differences in my bones. And this is despite the fact that I'm no longer clear on what it means to be Singaporean anymore.

For some reason, I considered myself Singaporean up till when I was 19 years old. Unfortunately, I think I had bubble-wrap around my eyes and had a very narrow view of the world. Then I left to study abroad and I think it was at that moment when I discovered my ethnicity - Chinese and simply considered myself Asian.

When I was in India, it was the first time I realized how americanized I had become. (note: I don't say westernized because the europeans behave differently from the americans) I think it was at that point my nationality - being Singaporean ceased to hold any meaning for me. It used to perplex me at AIESEC Global Villages when we had to run country booths - I didn't know if I was supposed to stand at the table where the Singaporean, Chinese or American flag was flying. Perhaps the rest of my friends were just as confused because we ran around the village all day in our MI t-shirts swearing allegiance to none. What happened next was that people then thought MICHIGAN was a country. LOL! Seriously, ask anyone who was at IC 2005 in India. We actually had people come up to us asking if Michigan was a country in Asia. :)

Even now when I am in Malaysia, I don't know if I have reclaimed my "Singaporean identity". I don't know what that is or means. Now that I've met people who've repeatedly challenged my assumptions on nationalistic and ethnic identity...I realized I can't look at a person based on the passport they hold or place they were born.

In an increasingly globalized world, I think the idea that you can "know" a person based on their nationality or ethnic origin is weakening. If anyone told me "you're so Singaporean", they'll probably just get a blank stare from me.

Sometimes I'm envious of people who can still claim their identity based on a country flag or national origin. I wish I had that much pride (and an understanding of what it means) in declaring myself "Singaporean" as I have seen my friends done in the past when they said they were "Brazilian", "Colombian", "Puerto Rican" or "Indian".

*sigh*

If only there were aliens out there, a typical conversation would go like this:

Alien: Where are you from?
Me: Planet Earth, if you know where Mars is...yeah, we're next to it. Yup, that one.
Alien: Oh yes, I've been there before....

Until then, I'll just consider myself as Asian.

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Re-birth of Instant messaging

My friend showed me a screenshot of a recent conversation she had with a friend over MSN.

I call it the Linguistic "Evolution" due to the Revolution of Instant Messaging"

Let's see if you can decipher what is being said ;)

Snapshots of Life!