Mixed feelings

Today is my last day going through the clearance procedure; my mission is to go to 6 different places to get the authorised signatures. I feel funny like I'm having company orientation, which I didn't have when I joined. Now I understand why I didn't need to have one on my first day, because I will be doing it during my last day. A few places I don't even know they exist until today!

I haven't been updating my blog recently because I have been busy with my farewell parties. I'm touched by Mich and Pat efforts in organising farewell parties one after another. esp Pat offers to prepare steamboat at her place, there are so many things need to buy and prepare...

Despite the ridge system and the layback way of thinking in this company, this is the place I felt the warm and friendliness from the people that I worked with. From strangers to good working colleagues and now we have become friends. esp. my Marcom team is so crazy and crappy and fun to work with. Sometimes I can't help but being influence by their craziness.

Whenever I'm leaving a company, it's always the people I will miss. Not that I can't meet them in future, but I no longer able work with such a fun group of people once I leave this place.

I always have sentimental attachments whenever I packed my stuffs. My fav office clock holder broke down out of no good reason... Was it a sign that it's really the time I should move on? My clock has been with me since I came into the office for almost 2 years. Time really flies....

Good memories will always stay with me and leave the bad memories behind. I will definitely miss the people here. I know that these farewells are not goodbyes but see them later... :)

Going forward or moving backwards?

Today I received an email requested me to revamp the whole corporate presentation slides, using the ugly template created by our parent company with immediate effect. According to the dictionary "with immediate effect" means "now!" which means i have to change the entire 70+ slides now!

I was abit shocked as we have been using our own templates created all these while and we agreed to make our slides professional as well as interesting in the design because all of us felt that the preso slides are boring and dull.

With the request from the parent company, all seem to change. The reason is because they want to cut down the ink on printed materials. Now they want to go back where it belongs to the old and dull template.

I still remembered a year ago, they wanted to change the whole corporate preso because they feel that it's dull and boring, lack of colors. It took me a long time going through the painful process of getting the informations and cracking my brain to design the backgrounds and layout of the preso.

The reason of having a creative design for the presentation is to impressed with the clients so that the clients will not feel too bored with the same design over and over and get excited over our products.

Can you imagine yourself looking at nearly 70 slides for the same boring and ugly design template when the contents are already quite dull?

Anyway, my boss agrees with me with the ugly template however she tells me it unnecessary to get so worked up. If there are no changes, there won't be an existance for our jobs. So just do what is being told.

I am thinking loud to myself, perhaps if they stick back to the original dull and boring slides, I wouldn't even be hired here as a designer. Perhaps few months down the road, the co is too bored with the ugly template will change again, right?

It might be a good thing to KISS it. This company seriously don't need a designer.

The List

My colleague, Michelle is very crazy over her relationship now. She recommended me this book "The List" by Mary Corbett and Sheila Corbett Kihne. She keeps telling me, it works, it really works.

Alright, alright, Point noted.... It's my first time reading such relationship book. To me, its quite weird to read such "self help" book esp in relationships. Nevertheless, not harm reading it since Michelle highly recommended it.

It's grabbing statement is "For Single men out there: 30 Days or he's out. Only the strong one will survive!"

In this book, it says there are 7 list items that your Mr Right will do, if not, he will be out! Wow, that's intimating for the guys, isn't it? But then again, if that guy is not, he is not the right one. Why waste more time on him when I have better things to do, rite?

Here are the 7 list items that shows that he wants to marry you.
1) He makes the first move.
2) He calls you within 1-2 days make the first date.
3) He makes the first date fun, easy and relax.
4) He calls you within 1 day for subsequent dates.
5) He wants to talk to you every day and spend all his free time on you.
6) He demonstrates loyalty.
7) He talks about you in his future plans.

After spending one night of brushing through the contents, some of things mention does make sense. It's says "When the guy is not interested at you, don't bother with him and move on with your life. You are wonderful person, that person just can't appreciate you. It's his lost, not yours.

Don't ever use emails for dating: It's too lazy, impersonal and insincere."

However, I don't agree with rule #1 that guys must always make the first move. At this century, it's a fair game that girls can always chase after guys. What happens you notice him first, you have to let him notice u as well, right?

I just take a pinch of salt when I read it. After all, our relationship should build by our minds and lead by our hearts and should not follow a book blindly... But it does send me a reminder that I should get to know more guys hahaha :)

Logo Design Experiment

Whenever I come to see an interesting logo, sometimes it makes me wonder, "Why didn’t I think of that?" It makes me think deeper on how create an effective logo that creates impression.

I did a research on logo design. It says "There are four critical elements that can be seen in every great logo design:

1) It must be describable
2) It must be memorable
3) It must be effective without colour
4) It must be scalable i.e. effective when just an inch in size
Points 1 and 2 go hand in hand, because if you can’t describe what a logo looks like then how will you be able to remember it?

Point 3 is important because colour is secondary to the shape. Adding colour to your logo should be left to the very end of the process, because if the mark doesn’t work in black only, no amount of colour will rescue the design.

Point 4 is vital for things such as office stationery (pens, pin badges etc.). All those little things that people often forget about."

A good opportunity comes along, my friend wants to create an anniversary logo to be printed on the couple t-shirt. You know, girl normally tends to be more "hardworking" in doing little things for their partners. I thought it was a good idea to explore and apply the 4 techniques I have just learnt.

It's very difficult to design something out of nothing. I asked her what kind of logo design she has in mind. At first, she says nothing yet. With some knowledge of logo design, I propose to her simple and classy theme. After awhile, she gave me some ideas on what kinds of logo designs, she would prefer.

Pretty soon, I have inspirations about the kind of design she wants and start to draw some sketches...

Here are my ideas.


The couple initials are W and M. I was thinking of using them as the logo design.
I proposed 3 designs logo 1 to 3. She likes the elegant look but she felt these hearts were too open. I personally felt that Logo 2 is quite classy so I asked her why she didn't like logo 2. She says it's too domineering, she doesn't like him to be overpowered her (another independent woman haha).

Okay, it's alright. Since the logo is too open, I start to think how about interlocking hearts? I proposed the next 3 logos. Logo 4 and logo 6 are interlocking each other. Logo 4 design looks more dynamic. Logo 5 design is W is to embrace M. Logo 6 design top view of interlocking hearts.

Most of the people don't really know what they want, until you give them a few options. She likes logo 4 and 6. Finally, she chooses Logo 4 because that's the first logo that catches her eye.

I go back to my checklist about the effective logo
It must be describable -
Interlocking hearts

It must be memorable -
Intials of W & M. M could be seen as shadow, if use gray tone color. It looks dynamic enough to capture the attention

It must be effective without colour -
Have tried it with black & white

It must be scalable -
The curves are thick enough

Okay I'm done! I can't wait for my logo to be printed on T-shirt hehe. What are your views?

吉祥三宝

My mum introduced me this song few years back. I always wanted to download this song but never have a chance to find it. Until today, Xiao Mei played it on her pc and I got really excited.

I really likes the simple meaning of this song because mongolians cherish their family values deeply, which was reflected in this song. It created a warm feeling and expressed the wonderful affection among family members. It really warms my heart and brightens up my day. I will try to upload this mp3 in here :)

"My three precious" is a ballad by a Mongolian composer, Bu Ren Ba Ya Er. This song was originally composed as a birthday gift to his three-year old daughter. It was written as far as 14 years ago.

This mongolian song was converted into chinese version and is sung by a little girl and her parents. In the lyrics, the littler girl asks her parents what are the Sun, the Moon, the Stars and all other "silly" questions while her parents tell her they are the precious–three-treasure, painting a harmonious picture of life’s basic joys. At the end, the little girl knew not about what the heavenly bodies and the plants are, but when she asks about her family, she knows that it is a precious part of her life.

"My Three Precious" is not a pop music that you will hear on billboard, not a classical music that is worshipped by musicians. However, it is a song that is easy to remember, to sing along the first time one hears it. After all, a great ballad is not measured by how many awards it received, but by number of hearts it touches.

My Three Precious Lyrics

----- Mongolian song 吉祥三宝-----

Daughter: Papa
Dad: Yeah
Daughter: Does the moon go home after the sun’s rising?
Dad: Oh, yep
Daughter: Then where is the sun after stars’ appearing?
Dad: Oh, in the sky
Daughter: But why can’t I find them?
Dad: Oh, they’ve all gone home
Chorus：The sun, the star and the moon, what a happy family they three are!

Daughter：Mama
Mum: Yeah
Daughter: When will the flowers bloom since the leaves are green?
Mum: Oh, in summer
Daughter: Can we pick the fruits since the flowers are red?
Mum: Oh, in autumn
Daughter: Will the seeds bud when they are planted?
Mum: Oh, they will grow
Chorus：The flower, the leaf and the fruit, what a happy family they three are!

Dad & Mum：Honey
Daughter: Yep
Dad & Mum：Papa is like the sun shining on Mama
Daughter: How about Mama
Dad & Mum：Mama is like the leaves holding up the flowers
Daughter: Then me
Dad & Mum：You are just like the budding seed
Daughter: Oh, yep
Chorus: What a happy family we three are!

Breach of trust & professionalism

My friend asked me to help him with his company website because he no longer able to trust the webmaster. He did complain to me about the webmaster a few times before. That webmaster was always trying to smoke his way through. I have seen the website before, it was in a mess, wrong color combination, slow download and weird background sound, basically the webmaster has screwed up the whole website.

I suggest to my friend that he should backup the site before the webmaster tried to be funny. True enough before he could even asked, the webmaster was very unethical to remove the entire website.

I was shocked and disappointed by the webmaster's professionalism. How could he wipe off the entire website just like that? That's not the way to do things.

Why is it once we have breach the trust, professionalism has to suffer? When we are angry, we will have negative thoughts. We should really control our emotions, not to get the negative thoughts into negative actions.

I did ask myself if I were the webmaster. Will I behave in this way? No. I will not. I feel even if the trust is no longer there, professionalism should still uphold. With this kind of bad attitude in work, even he works else where he will have problems working with anyone...

Weddin planning

After stable dating for two years, my girlfriend is finally getting married this year. Congrats :) Happy for her but at the same time I find her amazing loh, having to plan her own wedding, her own house and even her wedding. It's not because she is domineering or she wants to do it her way but rather because her hubby says he doesn't know how to do it and gives her the full rights to go ahead with the plans.

In a relationship, there is no right or wrong, who should be the decision maker. As long as both parties are agreeable to the arrangements and that is fine. For me, I would prefer to discuss and plan together, cos wedding planning should be something fun and interesting. It's planning for you and I.

I felt that it's very draining if there is only one side that is contributing to the marriage. I really, really hope that he will appreciate what she has done for him.

New perspective

I read an interesting perspective today.

"Sometimes great knowledge lies in the discovery of something we did not anticipate, something that enlightens us to a new perspective. Then we are changed and enriched. Real discovery is a stairway that requires our participation and begs us to climb and climb some more..."

This reminds me of learning how to swim. Ever since I had phobia in water, I only dare to swim at the sides of the swimming pool, where I can grab the edge once I feel out of breathe. I have been doing that for years. I never believe that I'm able to overcome my water phobia until one day a friend told me that I could overcome it when I choose to do it.

True enough, I have not only overcome my water phobia and I could swim better that I could imagine. Now, I am always looking forward to swim every week whenever I have the time.

Although swimming is an exercise but its the learning process I have learnt to adapt. When we change our mindset and give ourselves time to learn and develop new skills. There's nothing that we cannot learn.

Ironically, one of my girlfriends is trying to overcome her water phobia too. I encouraged her just like what my friend has done the way it to me. I can tell that she's trying hard... and I encouraged her even more... I tell her don't give up. If I can do it, she can do it as well. Hopefully in no time, she will overcome her phobia just like what I did.

When we have fear and worrying in doing something we thought we are incapable of doing, we will rather not doing it. Hence, we are limiting our own capabilities. Sometimes we just need to have just a little bit of confidence and courage to do it and enlightens us to a new perspective... just like the statement above :)

We are not alone

A young child is taken into the forest by his father. He is blindfolded and left alone. He is required to sit on a stump the whole night and not remove the blindfold until the rays of the morning sun shine through it. He cannot cry out for help to anyone. Once he survives the night, he is a man.

The boy is naturally terrified. He can hear all kinds of noises. He was thinking that maybe all the Wild beasts are around him or maybe some human might do him harm.

The wind blew through the grass, the earth shook his stump but he sat nonchalantly and never attempted to remove his blindfold. It would be the only way he could become a man!

Finally, after a horrifying night, the sun appeared and he removed his blindfold. It was then he discovered his father was sitting on the stump next to him.

The father had been watching and protecting his son from harm throughout the entire night.

Few weeks back, I saw the news that a mother after divorced with her spouse, tried to commit suicide with her son. Unfortunately, her son didn't survive. I felt sad after hearing it. Dying is not even a solution. She will leave her life with regrets, a huge regret that she will never able to forgive herself.

When we faced life challenges / problem, we must always remind oursleves that we are never alone and there is always an alternative.

80s fond memories

You would have remember these things if you are born in 80s:

You grew up watching He-man, MASK, Transformers, Silver Hawk and Mickey Mouse, Ninja turtles, Carebears, Robocop, My Little Pony and Smurfs.

You grew up brushing your teeth with a mug in Primary school during recess time. You would squat by a drain with all your classmates beside you, and brush your teeth with a coloured mug.

You hated or loved the school nurse (she was either pretty or mean).

You know what SBC stands for.

You paid 40 cents for cartons of Chocolate or Strawberry milk every week in class.

Everyone's wallet used to be the velcro type

Your pencil case is hard core type with lots of compartment

It was cool to have pagers in primary school

SBS buses used to be non-airconditioned. The bus seats are made of wood and the cushionwere red. The big red bell gave a loud BEEP! when pressed.

There were still bus tickets and bus conductors would come up to check them.

Envelopes were given to us to donate to Sharity Elephant every Children's Day.

You've probably read Young Generation magazine.You know who's Vinny the little vampire and Acai the constable.

Penpal is a very IN thing during that time.

Writing lines and caning hands were common, esp if you failed chinese spelling (caning was actually allowed. no shit).

You were there when they first introduced the MRT here. You went for the first ride with your parents and you would kneel on the seat to see the scenery.

Movie tickets used to cost only $3.50.

Gals were fascinated by Strawberry Short Cake and Barbie Dolls.

You learn to laugh like The Count in Sesame Street.

You bought tidbits called beebee (20 cents per pack, 10 cents in MGS), and mamee (30 cents), that had a different sticker in it every time.

You carried a lunch box to school but either threw away the food or brought it back home again.

You watched TV2 (also known as Channel 10) cartoons because Channel 5 never had enough cartoons for you.

Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, VC Andrews, The Three Investigators, Famous Five and Secret Seven were probably the thickest story books you thought you would ever read.

KFC used to be a high class restaurant that served food in plates and had metal forks and knives.

Soft drinks are in glass bottles instead of cans.

Catching and pepsi-cola was the IN thing, and twist was the magic word.

Your English workbooks were made of some damn poor quality paper that was smooth and yellow.

You came to school 15 mins before the bell every morning just so you could copy someone's homework.

CDIS was your best friend.

The only computer lessons in school involved funny pixellized characters in 16 colours walking about trying to teach you math.

Waterbottles were slung around your neck and a must everywhere you went.

Boys loved to play soccer with small stones or tennis balls in the basketball court.

Girls played five stones and boys played with marbles.

Science was fun with the Balsam and the Angsana being the most important plants of our lives, guppies and swordtail being the most important fishes.

Who can forget Ahmad, Bala, Sumei and John, immortalized in our minds from school textbooks.

We conducted experiments of our own to get badges for being a Young Zoologist/Botanist etc.

Every Children's day and National day you either got pins or pens with 'Happy Children's Day 1993' or useless plastic files with 'Happy National Day 1994'.

You wore BM2000, BATA, or Pallas shoes.

Your form teacher taught you Maths, Science and English.

You went to school in slippers and a raincoat when it rained, and you find a dry spot in the school to sit down, dry your feet, and wear your dry and warm socks and shoes.

There would be spelling tests and mental sums to do almost everyday (you hated them).

Your friends considered you lucky and rich if your parents gave you $2 or more for pocket mone everyday.

You saw Wee Kim Wee's face in the school hall.

Boys liked catching fighting spiders, earthworms or tadpoles.

Collecting and battling erasers was a pastime for boys.

Class monitors and prefects are known for teachers' pets and they loved to say, "You talk somemore, I write your name ah!"

You got booked for muddy shoes in class.

There were at least 40 people in one class.

You brought every single book to school, even though there was a timetable.

There was a pro-yo/bumblebee, digimon craze at some point in time.

Anyone wants to add in more memories here?

如果

I was listening to this song, like the lyrics and I want to dedicate this song to someone in my heart.

不瞒你说 我真的有想过
从今以后不再跟你有任何联络
不要再试着暗示我
后来你发现什么

不瞒你说 并不特别寂寞
接下来的几个周末节目特别多
偶尔会有人喜欢我
但并不代表什么

现在的我 不缺什么
认真的生活 偶尔会难过
新朋友很多 他们(都)不够了解我
问了太多 我只是微笑的带过

未来的我 没有如果
不相信星座 能预告什么
假设那么多 过去会不会复活 (过去能不能来过)
最好没有如果 (我不相信如果)

不瞒你说 经过几次风波
你不能再从我脸上读出些什么
要适应的事越来越多
改变的不只是我

President's Forum

Every half a year, my Co will have President's Forum. This is the 3rd time, I have attended, which means I have worked in this company more than 1 and the half years. Time really flies...

In President's Forum, my Co president will share with us our achievements, our company directions and his own philosophy. When I first joined this company, I was thinking to myself, why this president talk until so ah beng?

When I get to know him better, he has a warm and friendly personality. He likes to crack jokes. He has a set of basic principles in Business Dealings: 信 义 仁 which means whatever business that we do, we must have Integrity，Commitment and Compassion.

Yesterday, he shared with us this line:

一万军离心，不如百人同心

He shared with us the importance of teamwork. He always try his best to align everyone's mindset together, so that 4000+ of us are heading the same direction as him.

What I always enjoyed is the Q & A session because this is the best time where you can whack any questions and Co President look into the matters. There are always a few jokers coming out with funny questions and asking him for his answers or opinions. Eg some minor complains about the toilets, carpark lots and canteen aunties. Of course, our Co President has never failed to reply them with his humor.

Compared the leadership from the past to our modern days, leadership has evolved from strict and ridge way to a democratic and liberal way of leading the people. Once you have gained strong leadership skills, your people are more than willing to work for you whole heartedly with dedication.

Perception

I went to attend Jill Lowe Image Presentation recently. She asked 3 long hair girls to go up to the stage and just give them a rubberband each. The 1st girl was asked to tie her hair right to the top, the 2nd girl was asked to tie her hair in the middle and the 3rd girl was asked to tie her hair at the bottom.

Which girl do you think looks like cheer leader?
Which girl do you think looks like office girl?
Which girl do you think looks like tsunami victim?

Turns out to be the first girl looks like cheer leader, full of vibrant, the 2nd looks like office girl, just a plain normal girl and the 3rd girl looks like tsunami victim, looks so drained out and weary

And Jill asked them to change the position of rubberband and the 3 girls immediately switch roles.

She said "See, a 20 cents rubberband can change your life." and everyone laughs :)

The morale of the story is image is quite important to a certain extend because it is the first impression that a stranger will receive when he looks at you. Because he doesn't know you, that person will based on the first impression and the way you talk and started to judge you on his perception.

I know it's lame and shallow to judge a person just on image perception. But sadly, most of the time people do that. That's why some people willing to spend thousand of dollars on image makeover or even on face surgery.

When you think back, you can't really blame them because they don't know you yet... So it's our duty to let people get to know us better so that the first bad impression will not become a permanent perception.

Nowadays I try not to form my personal perception until I really get to know that person.

Dating Game

What do you look out for when you meet a new guy?
He must be good looking, responsible, hardworking, tall, smart, witty, funny, rich etc

What do you look out for when you meet a new gal?
She must be sweet, cute, caring, pretty, smart, witty, funny, cute, preferably rich etc

Well, all these things don't really make sense to me... yes, it does make a certain physical attraction from the start but as the days past you will find that all these "points" are no longer that important because once the couple's life values are totally different, its not going to work.

Let me share with you 3 guys I have met recently:
I just hang out with the first guy who is a graduate and things went quite smoothly until one day he asked me about my education level? I told him that I'm JUST a diploma holder, and very soon, from love voltage 1000 watt quickly dropped to 0 watt. It just amazed me that he felt that paper qualification is more important than feelings when comes to relationship. Must I say that he is just too shallow... or he's being realistic leh?

Anyway I moved on and meet guy no 2: He is a master degree holder, he doesn't mind me having my diploma holder. Sounds good right? But I mind because he is too stingy, keep asking me to treat him free meals, which I ignore him and one day I finally think that maybe hes quite sincere after a few outings and he offered to send me back home. When I ask him where was his car, he told me he parked his car at Newton Circus when we were having a drink at city hall. Too smart to be generous?

Finally, I meet this 3rd guy who was a ITE guy, he is quite okay which I thought. But turns out to be a flirt... OMG... Next, Next, Next.... Can love cupid stop giving me these weird people, pls give me more decent ones can?

Some friends asked me don't be so choosy but I know these guys are just not the right type of guys I'm looking for. There is one thing i realised when a guy is really interested in you. He can give 101% of his energy on you. Once he lost his interest, you cant even feel that 1% of his energy. I guess dating is a game, too fast you lose quickly it but too slow you lose it as well :)