the pen and the man

A colleague once said something like "the pen tells about the man". Think along the line of him wearing coverall and putting a Mont Blanc in his sleeve pocket. He said that he needs to go for meetings and so there is this need to present himself, although I know very well that he is not the one calling the shot, in fact he doesn't even take minutes.

I am a functionalist, so most of the time function takes precedence over form (much to the annoyance of some close ones :X). I carry a Pilot BP145 retractable ballpoint pen with me. Simple, low profile, plastic, but writes smoothly. It costs below $5 and you won't cry if you drop it on the floor accidentally. (the colleague screamed when his maid used his dunno Mont Blanc or Waterman to take memo). As for presentation (no, not powerpoint), I'm not sure if it helps to carry an expensive pen but have uncut dirty fingernails and unshined shoes.

But I must say the choice of pen is important for my previous job when the tip of your pen spends more time on the paper than you lying on the bed. Highly recommend Jetscream from Uni :) Used to be a big fan of Mitsubishi Pencil.

powerpoint ranger

One thing I begin to appreciate about my previous job in teaching is that I didn't need to get my powerpoint slides vetted before using them. There was no limit to how good or how bad your presentations could be.

Much to my frustration, this isn't the case for my current job. Now I have more slides to do but less freedom to play with. With different organization structure and different nature of job, I guess you can't compare, but still... Slides need to be vetted by 3 levels, and usually the hardest to get through is the 1st layer: my direct superior. Let's just say different people have different expectation and attitude at work, some want to show off while others want to keep a low profile, but most would want to cover their behind without taking any chance. So much talk for cutting red tape when it can take months to clear one powerpoint presentation.

It doesn't help that I am pretty anal when it comes to powerpoint slides. I believe in "death by powerpoint", but it is a necessary evil in today's corporate world. So next, I don't believe in wordy slides. I guess we all have been through boring presentations, so no need to elaborate. But the !@#$%^&* generation just loves slides cluttered with words like a MRT train at 6pm's Raffles Place. "You need to put in more content", but the content is going to come from my mouth! I might as well throw them the slides and let them read on their own if you want me to read from the screen. You want me to present, but you have revamped my slides until I don't feel comfortable presenting, so what's the point? One more thing, I don't believe in presenting with another person's slides.

And you know what is the best part, when upper level screw me, you join in the screwing when you were the one bastardizing my slides.

(I've only shown my real powerpoint power to the 2 profs who assessed my final year project. Still feel proud about it)

building planes in the air

Chanced upon this interesting video of making passenger plane in the air.


That's like building castle in the air. Obviously these guys don't know engineering. Or rather, their version is different.

Coincidentally, I have bad experience with the company that the video is advertising for.

organizations, the shoes, and the cup

Some companies really amuse me.

I got to know some companies which are in traditional core businesses. Then I'm not sure if they have grown bored or what, they expand, adding not in terms of core competency but rather "support" unit, "strategy" unit, "performance" unit, taking up a significant quarter of the organization structure. By right, these support units are supposed to help the traditional business units do their job, but end up they are creating more workload for those they are supposed to help. More reports, more presentations, more meetings. And you think they are happy to remain as a "supportive" role? They take on more glamourous role, roll out more eye-catchy projects, and definitely outshining the business-as-usual departments. They almost can control the weather in the company.

But you are not helping the ones who are earning the dough. If a pair of shoes makes walking difficult, then we should throw away the shoes and walk barefooted.

Ah, and then they talk loud on engaging the staff, developing the organization, blah blah blah. Oh puhleeze! You hardly bother about staff morale (in fact you make them do more nonsense and juggle with their usual task). You talk about attracting talent, projecting yourself as choice employer, curbing down on high turnover rate, ya da ya da, but like I said, what are you doing with your current staff? It is like filling a leaking cup. If you don't concentrate on blocking that hole, there is no way you can fill the cup unless you fill it faster. But mind you, the crack can and will propagate.

I don't know if they teach Lao Tzu in MBA or not. Oh well, Lao Tzu doesn't teach competitiveness, to start with.

grass boat borrow arrows

I was just away from office for one day and when I returned to open up my mailbox, I was greeted with arrows. I don't like it any bit. I don't exactly welcome receiving arrows, but why when I was away then you chose to "volunteer" me or "delegate task" to me? Don't I deserve an opportunity to say no due to circumstances? It is like when the head of state goes oversea then the coup takes place.

It seems related to how, with the development of emails, people find it more convenient to delegate task via email than say face to face, to save any chance of awkwardness. I don't think it helps in workplace communication or even workplace happiness. In fact I find it rude and even violating. Note to self: more talk, less emails when communicating with subordinates.

On another sidenote, I try to think positively about receiving arrows. I borrow from a chapter in Romance of Three Kingdoms in which Zhuge Liang "borrowed" 100000 arrows from Cao Cao (草船借箭). When people shoot arrows at you, you can take advantage of the arrows for your own purposes. Ok, not very convincing.

bridge with troubling waters

Many a times when designers design something, they pay so much attention on the form that they neglect the function.

It was a rainy afternoon and I was crossing the overhead pedestrian bridge outside The Central at Clarke Quay. On the end opposite The Central, it has one up-riding escalator and one down-riding escalator, but no stairs. Nevermind the fanciful truss-like triangular structure, but the roof barely covers till the rubber rail. Rain water was coming in aplenty.


I'm not an expert in escalator, so I don't know if exposing the escalators to the rain will make it less durable and more prone to breaking down. Well, there are escalators installed outdoor, such as the ones at the National Museum of Singapore.

And of course, there are overhead bridges that do not even have a roof, and there are those which do not have escalators. Now you give me a cover that does not effectively shield me from the rain, and I have to endure the wetness as the escalator inches its way up. There are no stairs as an alternative, and if I walk up the escalator I risk slipping on the wet footboard, adding to the number of escalator accidents.

Designers, whether architects or design engineers, shouldn't sacrifice the most basic of the function of the product in favour for creativity and form.

what you pay for your train rides and what you get in the toilet

The fares on the North East Line are higher than that of the old red and green lines, supposedly due to the system costing more. The Punggol MRT Station is an art piece that was featured in architecture magazine. Couple with the "Punggol 21+" name, what image is in your mind?

You just need a full bladder and a visit to the toilet to spoil it all. Click on the photos below to enlarge.



Where are the ceiling boards?!

Well I don't know about you, but it did affect my peeing mood. I mean, it looks cheap and like half-finished. If I was wearing my safety shoes I could have mistaken the place as construction site. It could be worse if it was a sit on the bowl. And I don't understand the forever repair/upgrading work at the concourse. At least put a sorry-for-inconvenience sign!

You may ask, what's the big deal? You are just there to pee. How about, you paying for buffet but end up only seeing plain rice. *shrug* you won't starve, I suppose.

burlesque

I always feel that a story needs to have a climax for it to be interesting, but the movie Burlesque seems to prove an exception.

Ali (Christina Aguilera) is this country side girl from Iowa who one day decided to help herself to the unpaid salary from the restaurant's cash register, and went to Los Angeles to go after her star dream. There she went to Burlesque, and begged the boss Tess (Cher) to take her in as a performer. Then the story evolves, yada yada.

The story is a bit long, and there is no dramatic turn of events, maybe just a small knoll if you are looking for a climax. No surprises except some gay turned out to be straight and some gays are indeed gay. But the story is able to capture your attention with those interpersonal relation and interaction, not unlike how people like those in Korean and Hong Kong dramas. The conversations, especially those at the backstage, are really classic. I always find musicals kinda fake, but the songs in Burlesque blend in naturally without leaving the messages unsent.

If you like to get a treat to some teasing on the screen, that's already one good reason to watch Burlesque.

google science fair 2011

Google is having their first Global Science Fair. If you are aged 13-18 (damn I'm a decade overdue) and have some great project ideas, form a team of 2 or 3 and enter this global event. Project submission deadline is 4 April 2011.

I bet it would be good learning experience and definitely not too early to be included in your resume :) Just look at the prizes, I don't mind visiting CERN! But of course, it is not the result but the process that counts.

See also their great promotional clip

4th roll of film

I can't wait to post up the photos taken with Agfa Vista 100 on my Gakkenflex twin lens reflex camera.

The Agfa 100 did not disappoint my expectation. Images are sharp and colours are accurate, although I did push it too much by snapping indoor as well as some multiple-exposure shots. The weird shots are just unusual but can't qualify as "nice", but the normal shots are abnormally nice.

I am just a bit short of finishing my exploration with different brands of film before I go loyal.

fair game

Went to the press screening of the movie Fair Game at the Shaw Preview Theatre.

The story is based on Valerie Plame's memoir, Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House. Ok this sounds interesting. Valerie Plame (Naomi Watts) is a CIA agent whose identity was leaked soon after her husband Joseph Wilson (Sean Penn) openly disclosed in the New York Times the lack of evidence of sales of yellow cake uranium to Iraqi. What followed were more betrayals from the government they have served, and new challenges to their marriage.

This is not those action-packed spy movie (sorry to disappoint), but rather, a story of how a man tried to tell the truth to the people, how a woman struggled to uphold her promise, and how this couple stood up against some of the most powerful people in the world. It is a nice coincidence with the WikiLeaks case still fresh in our head, and contrast this to how the government was the one leaking classified information in this story. In both cases, someone is trying to tell the truth and the government is not happy about it. Knowing that it is based on a true story, you can't help being drawn to believing the plot, even though the pace of the story is a bit slow to really captivate attention. The beginning of the story seems draggy and mundane (and even irrelevant), but you will realize it lays the foundation for the later part of the story. The transition of Wilson from being called a liar to someone fighting back isn't dramatic enough in the movie. But some of the more inspirational moments are saved for near the end of the movie.

When Sean Penn gave that speech talking about the duties of the people and etc, the scene reminded me of Michael Douglas in Wall Streets 2. Of course, with the difference in the storyline, Michael Douglas' "buy-my-book" version had a bit different effect.

This isn't really your typical popcorn-hugging movie, but if you like politics and current affairs, you may enjoy the movie like I did. Next step would be reading the book!

Thanks omy.sg for the invite!

the art and science of saying sorry

This sounds a bit like yes and no, but do you know that you can say sorry without being sorry?

Take for example, you did something and the other person isn't happy with it. You apologise to the other person, you say "I'm sorry if you feel offended". The "if" acts like an IF statement in programming, and imposes a condition to your apology. So if the other person feels offended, then you are sorry. If not, move on. This form of apology focuses on the end reaction instead of the triggering action.

How about removing the "if"? You still can be less apologetic. Let's try the following: "I'm sorry you feel offended"; "I'm sorry you are offended"; "I'm sorry to have offended you". Can identify which one is genuinely apologetic, at least in words? It's like, you feel offended? Too bad then! I'm sorry you feel this way, NOT I'm sorry to have made you feel this way.

I always believe that the purpose of an apology is not to seek forgiveness, but rather, to be apologetic about what you have done wrong and you really believe it was wrong, not just to pacify the other party. If the person doesn't forgive you, at least you have answered to your own conscience. Nowadays it seems more like a damage control measure.

To keep it short, if you really are apologetic, use "I'm sorry". Want to lengthen it a bit to sound more convincing, "I'm sorry for..." I've already explained "I'm sorry if..."

Oh well, I'm sorry if you didn't catch what I said.

thanks to facebook

Thanks to Facebook (or, no thanks), you can stay connected with your old classmates, girls whom you had a crush on (and their boyfriend usually appears in the profile picture), or just about anyone out there.

The other day I was just looking through the "People you may know" section in Facebook and couldn't help feeling a little disheartened. No, it wasn't about girls, more like guys. Oopz. It's like, you realize people whom you went to class with are going places, climbing fast on the corporate ladder, or leading seemingly more exciting life than yours truly. Before I end up in the extreme bipolar state of either self-flattery or self-pity, let me explain myself. It is like, hey I beat that guy in a maths test but now he is rubbing shoulders with important people, or I ran faster than that guy during PE lessons but now he is in some big MNC (I still don't know anyone working in Coca-Cola or McD, though).

You choose the path, the path chooses you. Your friend and you may be walking the same path at the same pace, but the spider may just decide to bite him and give him some power that comes with responsibilities. Not you. I look at myself, my mentality is that I am better than them but why them? But the fact that I rejected a potentially high-flying job (damn I'm still thinking about it) for a less exciting job could mean that in the first place I don't have the mettle for it while others took the plunge. Or, I just choose to be ordinary. So, why all the comparison and sulking?

There may be things that we have but others can never have. We should treasure that.

fewer people caught littering

And so, the news says fewer people were caught littering on New Year's Eve. On first glance, that sounds like good news, no?

Let's say, last year there were 1000, this year's 999, that's fewer, isn't it? Hold on a minute, we are talking about those being caught, what about those not caught? Now another hypothesis, what if last year there were 5 teams of catcher, this year only 1. Supposing the number of offenders caught per team stays the same, less enforcers = less caught, obviously.

The Chinese newspaper went a step further, claiming there are less "litterbugs" over the years. If we define "litterbugs" as those being caught, then well you are correct. A litterbug is not a litterbug until caught. That's like saying money is not money unless it's in your hands. *roll eye*

That's the fun part about statistics from the media. Season it a bit with words and they can paint beautiful pictures. That's why I think we should always be a bit more inquisitive and check out what's behind the picture frame.

when 10 turns 11

Wow, so it's 2011 already. Time flies so fast that yesteryear felt like yesterday. And yesterday I vomited thrice cos I wasn't feeling well. (nb: no alcohol was involved, just gastric juice) I don't recall vomiting one year ago though.

I thought it is a good time to reflect on the previous 1 year, or even the previous 1 decade. Maybe not. :P

Last weekend I took the spare time to troubleshoot the problem with my computer. It always restarts itself when booting up and this has been happening since the last time I sent my computer for repair, think some one year plus ago. With this problem I have to reset the clock every time I start the computer up. So I took out the motherboard battery, changed some settings in BIOS, and bingo, the computer started up like new!

Just when I thought I could put this as my 2010 achievement for solving a year long problem, the problem came back a few days later. Damn, why can't you wait till 2011 and let me be happy for a few more days?

Happy new year to all!