So I was up late last night and somehow I stumbled upon a YouTube video that showed someone speaking for President Obama for presidency for four more years. So lo and behold (as YouTube goes), I ended up clicking on all the related videos and am now pretty embroiled in the US Presidential 2012 campaigns.
It really blows my mind just how much information there is from both these campaigns. But I guess this is the way it should be because the US is that huge. With all the facts flying here and there, and the attacks and parries and dodges and curve balls being launched from either camps, it can get really confusing really fast, especially for someone like myself who isn't a citizen and who isn't living in the United States. So I am just going to express my opinion about what I have seen and what I feel about the IMPRESSION that both campaign teams have presented to the American public, and now (obviously) the rest of the world. Well, most of the world.. as long as the world has access to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, the Internet, that is.
Just looking at the general feel and direction of the types of messages being sent out, it really does seem that the Romney camp is way more inconsistent than the Obama camp. With the Obama camp, their campaign is packed with star (meaning CELEBRITY) power, clear and concise facts, and calculated attacks/counterattacks pinpointing the Romney camp's allegations. The Romney camp has been too rigid and repetitive in their messages and have shown little ability to respond to the Obama camp.
I think if you look at the scope of work that President Obama has embarked on, just purely looking at his campaign strategies alone, there is no denying who more of a 'people's president'. There is more real-ness, more connectedness, more attention paid to the people grassroots on the Obama camp, than the Romney camp.
The Romney camp seems more focussed on forcing through their campaign messages through and evading specific questions asked by numerous journalists, economists and the general public. I guess it's a little late, but I honestly don't think the Romney camp has enough time to turn the situation around.
Voting has always been strongly tied to the likeability and at this point in time, President Obama is definitely more likeable, encouraging, all-encompassing and INSPIRING. Governor Romney just seems too straight-laced and reluctant to address the diversity clearly in front of him - I refer to the specific target groups like women and members of the LGBT community. Is there TRULY enough clout amongst Romney supporters to pull off a Romney upset?
I don't think so. Can't wait for November 6.
PS: I wish our local politics could be like that... but I guess we would just have to wait awhile more. =)
Check out these links if you want to see how each campaign has tried to reach out to the people of America:
http://www.barackobama.com/ | http://www.youtube.com/user/BarackObamadotcom
http://www.mittromney.com/ | http://www.youtube.com/user/mittromney
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Pain
I have always been someone who likes to deal with his emotions on the spot. I am not a person who waits, who avoids, or pretends everything is okay. Unfortunately, I always seem to end up dating people who do exactly those things...
Right now, I am writing this because I seriously need some kind of outlet and this old blog of mine seems to be one of the most convenient ways I can get this settled. It really sucks when you are at that point where you need to cry, but the tears just don't seem to come. And even when they reach the edges of your lids, they don't roll down your cheeks like you hope they do.
I just want to be able to talk to you again. To be able to hear your voice. To be able to share my thoughts, feelings, and everything with you. I feel alone and I feel lost. I know what I need to do to move ahead, but unfortunately I need you to be able to do the same, which I know you cannot do.
I find myself having to suck it up and try to be strong, but to be honest I just want to cry myself to sleep.I am listening to the first and only song we had ever slow danced to and it hurts to know that we will probably never be able to do that again.
I just wish things could be worked out properly and that I will find the salve that will sooth my heart. It really hurts and it really sucks that everyone around me, around us, thinks that it's a damn shame... I read through our messages again like some obsessed teenage girl and I only saw how good we are for each other...
Fuck this... my grammar, tense and syntax is going to the shits... I can't stand it anymore... gonna find some other way to let this out....
Over and out.
Right now, I am writing this because I seriously need some kind of outlet and this old blog of mine seems to be one of the most convenient ways I can get this settled. It really sucks when you are at that point where you need to cry, but the tears just don't seem to come. And even when they reach the edges of your lids, they don't roll down your cheeks like you hope they do.
I just want to be able to talk to you again. To be able to hear your voice. To be able to share my thoughts, feelings, and everything with you. I feel alone and I feel lost. I know what I need to do to move ahead, but unfortunately I need you to be able to do the same, which I know you cannot do.
I find myself having to suck it up and try to be strong, but to be honest I just want to cry myself to sleep.I am listening to the first and only song we had ever slow danced to and it hurts to know that we will probably never be able to do that again.
I just wish things could be worked out properly and that I will find the salve that will sooth my heart. It really hurts and it really sucks that everyone around me, around us, thinks that it's a damn shame... I read through our messages again like some obsessed teenage girl and I only saw how good we are for each other...
Fuck this... my grammar, tense and syntax is going to the shits... I can't stand it anymore... gonna find some other way to let this out....
Over and out.
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Freedom
Tonight I had an interesting conversation with a very important person. We spoke about destiny versus free will and how do us, as puny human beings even begin to fathom the mysteries of the universe.
The prognosis is bleak. At the rate all humans are going, we are probably going to die pretty much dumb, unaware and full of regrets.
Purposes in life are so hard to figure out and sometimes we don't question enough. And there times when we question too much. How the hell are we ever going to find that balance?
It was a very depressing, neutral and heartening thing to discuss (see? This sentence does not even make sense to lesser beings).
I think at the end of the day I'm not going to fret over it too much. It's more important to just ensure that our earthly shells are kept serviceable while we seek a higher purpose to fulfill.
What else is there to do? *shrug*
The prognosis is bleak. At the rate all humans are going, we are probably going to die pretty much dumb, unaware and full of regrets.
Purposes in life are so hard to figure out and sometimes we don't question enough. And there times when we question too much. How the hell are we ever going to find that balance?
It was a very depressing, neutral and heartening thing to discuss (see? This sentence does not even make sense to lesser beings).
I think at the end of the day I'm not going to fret over it too much. It's more important to just ensure that our earthly shells are kept serviceable while we seek a higher purpose to fulfill.
What else is there to do? *shrug*
Friday, May 04, 2012
Rice Dumplings!
So I tried to make dumplings last night and suffice to say... EPIC FAIL! It was mainly due to my inspiration from eating some QQ Rice dumpling. Which wasn't too bad I must say.
So I got back and decided to try making a batch myself. The initial batch was too oily so I gave up and chucked everything into the fridge.
This morning however I cooked more rice and mixed it in. That made it better. Now my only problem was trying to get the rice the right flavour.
I'm super squeamish about adding too much vinegar or mirin (you DON'T WANT your rice to taste like it was the bastard child of a lemon and a packet of caster sugar). In the end, the rice was still slightly bland, but it's alright. I shall improve next time!
This round the stuffings were caramelised onions, diced and browned chicken franks and curry tuna (from a can lah. No time to cook. Hee).
The trick I used was something Mom taught me. You stick the rice into the corner or any plastic bag (preferably the kind you get from supermarts to put your veggies and fruits. Or you can use a ziploc bag), then use that to shape the dumpling. That's why the dumplings I made are this shape. Lol.
I think it still tasted quite good and it was fun making them. So give it a try if you're the kind who likes to have fun with your food.
Oh! DON'T forget to wash your hands before doing this. :)
So I got back and decided to try making a batch myself. The initial batch was too oily so I gave up and chucked everything into the fridge.
This morning however I cooked more rice and mixed it in. That made it better. Now my only problem was trying to get the rice the right flavour.
I'm super squeamish about adding too much vinegar or mirin (you DON'T WANT your rice to taste like it was the bastard child of a lemon and a packet of caster sugar). In the end, the rice was still slightly bland, but it's alright. I shall improve next time!
This round the stuffings were caramelised onions, diced and browned chicken franks and curry tuna (from a can lah. No time to cook. Hee).
The trick I used was something Mom taught me. You stick the rice into the corner or any plastic bag (preferably the kind you get from supermarts to put your veggies and fruits. Or you can use a ziploc bag), then use that to shape the dumpling. That's why the dumplings I made are this shape. Lol.
I think it still tasted quite good and it was fun making them. So give it a try if you're the kind who likes to have fun with your food.
Oh! DON'T forget to wash your hands before doing this. :)
From left: Sausage, tuna & caramelised onions.
Wednesday, May 02, 2012
Operation: Tingkat Surprise!
So my mom mentioned that she wanted me to cook my 炸酱面 (meat sauce noodles). So I did!
It was really fun actually. I've cooked the noodles before but I had never used this insulated tingkat I received as a Christmas present, I think, 3 years ago?
Anyway, it was pretty awesome to cook and then pack everything into the tingkat and of course the look of surprise on my mom's face was awesome as well. :)
Here are some photos:
It was really fun actually. I've cooked the noodles before but I had never used this insulated tingkat I received as a Christmas present, I think, 3 years ago?
Anyway, it was pretty awesome to cook and then pack everything into the tingkat and of course the look of surprise on my mom's face was awesome as well. :)
Here are some photos:
Thursday, April 26, 2012
So I dreamt that I was in a Harry Potter movie...
Wooden floorboards, walls with the paint peeling off them, and flickering lamp lights swung gently as the members of the Order milled around minding their own business and preparing for the battle ahead. Suddenly, there was a loud bang from the Wands Analysis Department. I rushed over to see what had happened.
Smoke was in the air, and there was a burnt odour in the air. One of the wands we had captured from a previous battle wasn't reacting well to all our attempts to bend it to our will. This was a strange as our Wand Will Benders were the best around. I looked at the offending wand and picked it up. Wisps of smoke were still trailing off it. I waved it and attempted an incantation, but nothing happened. I tried another spell, and suddenly the wand glowed. A angry red ring formed at the tip of the wand and rapidly traveled towards my hand. I could not react fast enough and got burned. I tossed the wand away and somehow it levitated and smashed through a nearby window, escaping into the night. The wand had been booby-trapped.
It escaped the hideout and flew across the sea. Upon reaching the main city, it cast a spell. From tendrils of green and red energy that sprung from the wand tip, a huge vortex of energy coalesced and rampaged through the city. We watched from the hideout across the sea and tried to stop it - casting counterspells and counterhexes. But each time the vortex was hit, it reformed from the snaking tendrils of green and red energy.
By the time we realised what the wand was trying to do, it was too late. The vortex wasn't trying to destroy anything... It was a signalling spell, designed to help the Death Eaters find the location of the Order's hideout. And it worked.
Before we knew it, more than a dozen Death Eaters has descended upon our location, and tore through the house. I was cornered, with 'Nick' (not his real name, but who he felt like) and Nurse (definitely a Nurse-type character, but her essence was Nadia). Backed up against the wall, we crouched in terror. For some reason we were without our wands and were defenseless. The Death Eater took off his mask and going talking on and on about how easily we let them penetrate our defenses and how he was going to kill us all. He paced back and forth as he said this.
I felt 'Nick' nudging me. I glanced down and saw that he was trying to pass me a hand full of Healing Squares. He figured that applying enough would help us to stave off most of the killing and torturing curses the Death Eater so loved to use on their victims. I took about a dozen or so, and tried to pass them to Nurse, but the Death Eater caught me! "Medro cinnar mobis!" and I watched helplessly as I felt my right hand open and the Healing Squares floated towards the Death Eater.
The Death Eater smirked and stood in front of Nurse and uttered something about us being fools for thinking that the Healing Squares would be able to save them. He pointed his wand at Nurse - "Avada Kedavra." Green light filled the room momentarily and Nurse slumped over. He turned to face me. "Seetrasoris" I felt the cold gray energy ooze over me. It crept into my body and I felt myself slowly dying. It was like a slow implosion of death energy. My mind spun and I felt my lifeforce drain away. The only thing keeping the gray energy from completing taking me was the wad of Healing Squares in my mouth, but those were not much help either. I slumped over and blacked out, but not before seeing the Death Eater raise his wand towards 'Nick'.
Smoke was in the air, and there was a burnt odour in the air. One of the wands we had captured from a previous battle wasn't reacting well to all our attempts to bend it to our will. This was a strange as our Wand Will Benders were the best around. I looked at the offending wand and picked it up. Wisps of smoke were still trailing off it. I waved it and attempted an incantation, but nothing happened. I tried another spell, and suddenly the wand glowed. A angry red ring formed at the tip of the wand and rapidly traveled towards my hand. I could not react fast enough and got burned. I tossed the wand away and somehow it levitated and smashed through a nearby window, escaping into the night. The wand had been booby-trapped.
It escaped the hideout and flew across the sea. Upon reaching the main city, it cast a spell. From tendrils of green and red energy that sprung from the wand tip, a huge vortex of energy coalesced and rampaged through the city. We watched from the hideout across the sea and tried to stop it - casting counterspells and counterhexes. But each time the vortex was hit, it reformed from the snaking tendrils of green and red energy.
By the time we realised what the wand was trying to do, it was too late. The vortex wasn't trying to destroy anything... It was a signalling spell, designed to help the Death Eaters find the location of the Order's hideout. And it worked.
Before we knew it, more than a dozen Death Eaters has descended upon our location, and tore through the house. I was cornered, with 'Nick' (not his real name, but who he felt like) and Nurse (definitely a Nurse-type character, but her essence was Nadia). Backed up against the wall, we crouched in terror. For some reason we were without our wands and were defenseless. The Death Eater took off his mask and going talking on and on about how easily we let them penetrate our defenses and how he was going to kill us all. He paced back and forth as he said this.
I felt 'Nick' nudging me. I glanced down and saw that he was trying to pass me a hand full of Healing Squares. He figured that applying enough would help us to stave off most of the killing and torturing curses the Death Eater so loved to use on their victims. I took about a dozen or so, and tried to pass them to Nurse, but the Death Eater caught me! "Medro cinnar mobis!" and I watched helplessly as I felt my right hand open and the Healing Squares floated towards the Death Eater.
The Death Eater smirked and stood in front of Nurse and uttered something about us being fools for thinking that the Healing Squares would be able to save them. He pointed his wand at Nurse - "Avada Kedavra." Green light filled the room momentarily and Nurse slumped over. He turned to face me. "Seetrasoris" I felt the cold gray energy ooze over me. It crept into my body and I felt myself slowly dying. It was like a slow implosion of death energy. My mind spun and I felt my lifeforce drain away. The only thing keeping the gray energy from completing taking me was the wad of Healing Squares in my mouth, but those were not much help either. I slumped over and blacked out, but not before seeing the Death Eater raise his wand towards 'Nick'.
Friday, March 30, 2012
Musings at 4+ in the morning...
So I'm lying in bed just thinking about my conversation with J earlier and I guess I ought to start getting my act together. I mean these are things I already know and have thought about doing for awhile.
I think the strange thing about me is that I tend to do many things with others in mind and I rarely pay attention to personal things that need paying attention to.
So yeah... It's about high time for a home improvement project and I want to make it work. Time to draw up a plan and a schedule and break it down room by room.
I do want to change the physical space around me and a small part of me wants J to be impressed and to be proud of me. I never thought I'd say this but I think I've found a rare gem in J and he actually has the unique ability to push me without me feeling the need to rebel or be defiant.
He makes me want to clean up my act even more (I make it sound like I've a terrible life at the moment but I actually don't... Though I could do with slightly more drive. I am SUPPOSED to be able to push myself to greater heights of course, being the life coach and all that, ya know) and I know I will be better because of this.
April shall be my month and I will start making important changes to my life. As much as I want to say that I want J to be a part of it, I know in my heart that this has to be MY project (maybe he can help paint something or change a light bulb or two).
So I'm gonna make it work.
Gosh... I should totally be sleeping. Argh!
Good night (or morning)! :)
and thanks J for being so ah-MAzing...
I think the strange thing about me is that I tend to do many things with others in mind and I rarely pay attention to personal things that need paying attention to.
So yeah... It's about high time for a home improvement project and I want to make it work. Time to draw up a plan and a schedule and break it down room by room.
I do want to change the physical space around me and a small part of me wants J to be impressed and to be proud of me. I never thought I'd say this but I think I've found a rare gem in J and he actually has the unique ability to push me without me feeling the need to rebel or be defiant.
He makes me want to clean up my act even more (I make it sound like I've a terrible life at the moment but I actually don't... Though I could do with slightly more drive. I am SUPPOSED to be able to push myself to greater heights of course, being the life coach and all that, ya know) and I know I will be better because of this.
April shall be my month and I will start making important changes to my life. As much as I want to say that I want J to be a part of it, I know in my heart that this has to be MY project (maybe he can help paint something or change a light bulb or two).
So I'm gonna make it work.
Gosh... I should totally be sleeping. Argh!
Good night (or morning)! :)
and thanks J for being so ah-MAzing...
Sunday, March 25, 2012
The Two Types of Secrets
(from Patrick Rothfuss' The Wise Man's Fear)
"There are two types of secrets. There are secrets of the mouth and secrets of the heart.
Most secrets are secrets of the mouth. Gossip shared and small scandals whispered. These secrets long to be let loose upon the world. A secret of the mouth is like a stone in your boot. At first you're barely aware of it. Then it grows irritating, then intolerable. Secrets of the mouth grow larger the longer you keep them, swelling until they press against your lips. They fight to be free.
Secrets of the heart are different. They are private and painful, and we want nothing more than to hide them from the world. They do not swell and press against the mouth. They live in the heart, and the longer they are kept, the heavier they become.
Teccam claims it it better to have a mouthful of poison than a secret of the heart. Any fool will spit out poison, he says, but we hoard these painful treasures. We swallow hard against them every day, forcing them deep inside us. There they sit, growing heavier, festering. Given enough time, they cannot help but crush the heart that holds them.
Modern philosophers scorn Teccam, but they are vultures picking at the bones of a giant. Quibble all you like, Teccam understood the shape of the world."
Notes
1. Teccam is a historical figure in the book. Of course I want to draw your attention to the actual content regarding the two types of secrets.
=================================
This passage just reminded me of the things that ails us human beings each day. There are so many things to say, or not say. Think, or not think. Feel, or not feel. It may seem simple, a choice derived from the classic phrase 'to be or not to be' (Thank you William..), but it is not. Almost every single time, we remain unaware of the consequences of holding on to these different secrets, both unto others and unto ourselves.
Because of our ignorance, we cause immeasurable harm to the people we meet, and to ourselves. 'Painful treasures' they are because though we know how much pain 'secrets of the heart' inflict on us, we guard them jealously and without reason. It's almost like we willingly poison ourselves each day, and willingly die a little quicker than we would have if we had dealt with these secrets.
These things happen all the time:
"There are two types of secrets. There are secrets of the mouth and secrets of the heart.
Most secrets are secrets of the mouth. Gossip shared and small scandals whispered. These secrets long to be let loose upon the world. A secret of the mouth is like a stone in your boot. At first you're barely aware of it. Then it grows irritating, then intolerable. Secrets of the mouth grow larger the longer you keep them, swelling until they press against your lips. They fight to be free.
Secrets of the heart are different. They are private and painful, and we want nothing more than to hide them from the world. They do not swell and press against the mouth. They live in the heart, and the longer they are kept, the heavier they become.
Teccam claims it it better to have a mouthful of poison than a secret of the heart. Any fool will spit out poison, he says, but we hoard these painful treasures. We swallow hard against them every day, forcing them deep inside us. There they sit, growing heavier, festering. Given enough time, they cannot help but crush the heart that holds them.
Modern philosophers scorn Teccam, but they are vultures picking at the bones of a giant. Quibble all you like, Teccam understood the shape of the world."
Notes
1. Teccam is a historical figure in the book. Of course I want to draw your attention to the actual content regarding the two types of secrets.
=================================
This passage just reminded me of the things that ails us human beings each day. There are so many things to say, or not say. Think, or not think. Feel, or not feel. It may seem simple, a choice derived from the classic phrase 'to be or not to be' (Thank you William..), but it is not. Almost every single time, we remain unaware of the consequences of holding on to these different secrets, both unto others and unto ourselves.
Because of our ignorance, we cause immeasurable harm to the people we meet, and to ourselves. 'Painful treasures' they are because though we know how much pain 'secrets of the heart' inflict on us, we guard them jealously and without reason. It's almost like we willingly poison ourselves each day, and willingly die a little quicker than we would have if we had dealt with these secrets.
These things happen all the time:
- The regret of never saying what you wanted to say to loved one.
- The pride that fuels a need to 'save face' when the clear cure is an apology.
- The sick indulgence in one's greed for food, money, sex, misery (yes, this is possible), 'love' (it's actually emotional masturbation in disguise, not true Love)
- The refusal to admit one's current state of mind, heart, body and spirit, which leads ultimately to delusion and estrangement.
The list of scenarios can get very kaleidoscopic, much like all human beings are - multi-faceted and colourful. Hence, the types of secrets of the heart, and their effects are many and varied.
Personally, I have found that the best cure for the poison that comes from a secret of the heart is to find it's very core and snuff it out. This process is by no means simple, but if we search deep within ourselves, we will find that we actually are capable of discovering the core, and the exact way with which to destroy the secret before it crushes our hearts.
I am particularly partial to speaking plainly, soul-baring, and go-letting, as my preferred choice of weapons.
How about you? What would you do with your secrets of the heart before they crush you?
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Bored Out Of My Wits
I am not proud to say this, but it is the truth, and I guess no one can really fault me for speaking it...
I AM BORED.
I am so bored, that I have resorted to blogging about it. I think that tipping point where you realise that you REALLY have to get started on something productive instead of bumming around all day has finally arrived, and yes, I have officially TIPPED OVER. (like a teapot, short and stout and all)
At least I am glad that I have my trusty MacBook with me so that I can actually do something with my time (i.e. writing this post). I am now sitting at StarBucks at Wisma Atria, enjoying a grande iced chai tea latte, and secretly trying to will the guy next to me to finish his drink and go away (reason being he is hogging the table with access to a power socket...damn it.).
Other than that, I am in full view of a very pleasant-looking barista who has been all alacritous and 'good-English-speaking'-ish, so I am happy for now. Heehee. So...what should I blog about... *think think think*
Ah! I know. I shall share about my running experience yesterday night.
So my flatmate (Emmeline) and I decided to go for a run around our neighbourhood, and we ended discovering many an interesting place in the Keppel/Labrador/VivoCity/Harbourfront vicinity. It started off as a slow jog down Alexandra Road, past the PSA building, before turning onto Pasir Panjang Road. It amazed me that I was still alive at that point (it was only 15 minutes into the jog), and I was also amazed by how different the entire area looked.
There were now stations where jungle used to be, and up and coming condominiums and 'uniquely' named park-esque places like Berlayer (I think I got the name right) Creek. Well, we went down the road and turned into Keppel Marina, and went round the entire around. Yes, past Prive, and the yachts moored in the marina, and past the mostly empty apartment overlooking the sea.
We joked a lot about how rich all these people must be, and I did my best impersonation of a Malaysian auntie, complete with accurately accented Mandarin and speech patterns. We went past a long wooden walkway that snaked around the mangrove areas, and past a creepy looking colonial house on the hill. (That place gave me the chills...it was all too negative and 'yin' for my tastes).
We alsocaught discovered couples 'pak-tor-ing' in the few rest points along the trail. How/Why a mosquito-ridden mangrove can be a place for romance still eludes me, but hey, to each his own.
All in all, it was a good 2-hours spent, as we did a lot of catching up on the run, and got to discover many new and interesting places for our next run. =)
I AM BORED.
I am so bored, that I have resorted to blogging about it. I think that tipping point where you realise that you REALLY have to get started on something productive instead of bumming around all day has finally arrived, and yes, I have officially TIPPED OVER. (like a teapot, short and stout and all)
At least I am glad that I have my trusty MacBook with me so that I can actually do something with my time (i.e. writing this post). I am now sitting at StarBucks at Wisma Atria, enjoying a grande iced chai tea latte, and secretly trying to will the guy next to me to finish his drink and go away (reason being he is hogging the table with access to a power socket...damn it.).
Other than that, I am in full view of a very pleasant-looking barista who has been all alacritous and 'good-English-speaking'-ish, so I am happy for now. Heehee. So...what should I blog about... *think think think*
Ah! I know. I shall share about my running experience yesterday night.
So my flatmate (Emmeline) and I decided to go for a run around our neighbourhood, and we ended discovering many an interesting place in the Keppel/Labrador/VivoCity/Harbourfront vicinity. It started off as a slow jog down Alexandra Road, past the PSA building, before turning onto Pasir Panjang Road. It amazed me that I was still alive at that point (it was only 15 minutes into the jog), and I was also amazed by how different the entire area looked.
There were now stations where jungle used to be, and up and coming condominiums and 'uniquely' named park-esque places like Berlayer (I think I got the name right) Creek. Well, we went down the road and turned into Keppel Marina, and went round the entire around. Yes, past Prive, and the yachts moored in the marina, and past the mostly empty apartment overlooking the sea.
We joked a lot about how rich all these people must be, and I did my best impersonation of a Malaysian auntie, complete with accurately accented Mandarin and speech patterns. We went past a long wooden walkway that snaked around the mangrove areas, and past a creepy looking colonial house on the hill. (That place gave me the chills...it was all too negative and 'yin' for my tastes).
We also
All in all, it was a good 2-hours spent, as we did a lot of catching up on the run, and got to discover many new and interesting places for our next run. =)
Monday, December 05, 2011
Dinner at Wild Rocket
So I was having dinner with Theresa at Wild Rocket last night and it was amazing. The food was well balanced, and the ambience was nice and cosy, and the service - enthusiastic and prompt. Perfect for a dinner for two.
Granted the long walk, I mean, climb up Emily Hill was somewhat...how you say... Tiring? Lolx~
Anyhow, at the end of the dinner, I started cooking up some story about why the restaurant was called Wild Rocket (the story was about a 'wild' space rocket pilot who has become infamous for flying recklessly) and Theresa actually believed me!!!
She didn't know that rocket was a kind of lettuce!!! For the entire first 95% of my tall tale, she actually bought it!!!
Hilarious lor....
Anyway, here are some photos of what we ate:
Granted the long walk, I mean, climb up Emily Hill was somewhat...how you say... Tiring? Lolx~
Anyhow, at the end of the dinner, I started cooking up some story about why the restaurant was called Wild Rocket (the story was about a 'wild' space rocket pilot who has become infamous for flying recklessly) and Theresa actually believed me!!!
She didn't know that rocket was a kind of lettuce!!! For the entire first 95% of my tall tale, she actually bought it!!!
Hilarious lor....
Anyway, here are some photos of what we ate:
Thursday, June 30, 2011
The Business Times?
I am attempting to read the Business Times.
I am FAILING terribly. It's so freaking boring to me!
Boohoo! :(
I am FAILING terribly. It's so freaking boring to me!
Boohoo! :(
Friday, June 24, 2011
Print to PR
This blog post marks the end of my first week of work as an Account Manager at a PR & Marketing Consultancy. It's been an exciting week with many hectic moments, slow moments and weird moments. I think it's difficult to say whether I will be able to get myself confirmed as a member of the company, but things are looking up for now.
There is a lot of freedom involved in the current work, and I get to do things at my own pace (which surprisingly is pretty fast! But I'm sure it's just 'new job' enthusiasm). I also LOVE the location. I have a direct bus to work, and I have the keys to the office, so there's a lot of... I don't know... 'power'?
I have a MacBook Pro to fiddle around with for work, and it's fun talking to my boss. It's not that difficult to connect, but I just have to be wary of her bitchiness (but hey, pot calling the kettle black yeah? =P). I like that I get to wear ALMOST whatever I want to work... (Today, I'm in a black polo, jeans, and my trucker cap.)
I was doing the whole 'put-on-a-business-shirt-and-roll-the-sleeves-up' thing for the first half of the week, and pairing that with a tie (I really like that look... Hehs). I especially liked this look (see below):
Black tie on pink shirt! =) Love it. Oh, this photo was taken with the Photo Booth program on my MBP (that's MacBook Pro for you non-Mac users). I am such a camwhore now... NOT GOOD, I tell you. Lolx!~
Anyway, I think that's all I really wanna say about my first week at work. Now just waiting for time to fade away, and for my work week to end! Pay's coming in next week, so I'm excited! Ka ching! $$$ =)
There is a lot of freedom involved in the current work, and I get to do things at my own pace (which surprisingly is pretty fast! But I'm sure it's just 'new job' enthusiasm). I also LOVE the location. I have a direct bus to work, and I have the keys to the office, so there's a lot of... I don't know... 'power'?
I have a MacBook Pro to fiddle around with for work, and it's fun talking to my boss. It's not that difficult to connect, but I just have to be wary of her bitchiness (but hey, pot calling the kettle black yeah? =P). I like that I get to wear ALMOST whatever I want to work... (Today, I'm in a black polo, jeans, and my trucker cap.)
I was doing the whole 'put-on-a-business-shirt-and-roll-the-sleeves-up' thing for the first half of the week, and pairing that with a tie (I really like that look... Hehs). I especially liked this look (see below):
Anyway, I think that's all I really wanna say about my first week at work. Now just waiting for time to fade away, and for my work week to end! Pay's coming in next week, so I'm excited! Ka ching! $$$ =)
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Monday, April 18, 2011
Emo Memo...
It's been a long while since I've blogged about anything, but tonight seems to be the time to really do some journalling to help clear my mind a little.
I just realised that the current state of my romantic relationships really sucks, and that I feel so stuck. I feel like I've hit a glass ceiling amongst all the potential people I have in my life. I can see the various possibilities ahead, but there is no way I can actually move ahead in anyway. This seriously is the story of my life, and I just feel so trapped.
I feel stupid, dumb, useless and totally not in control. I wish there was a way I could just be able to be happy for once and not have to worry about this or that. Why can't things be easier for me? Why can't I find someone who can really make me happy? Why is it that I STILL have to suffer through all this nonsense despite all the training and 'consciousness' I have? Why do I always build such amazing connections, but they all cease and desist at a certain point?
I still feel like I am still always and only 'the best friend'. I'm quite tired of that. Honestly, but I have no idea how to break free of this trap. It's at time like these when I wish I didn't get so close to certain people. Or that I don't have certain feelings for certain people. I don't get why I have to still be so controlled by these emotions and thoughts.
Aren't I supposed to be the more 'evolved' one? The one who is supposedly more in control? Bullshit sia... Life sucks...
I hope I can get through this. Cos it feels like I'm about to hit a brink of some kind of breakdown again. The pain is building up. I can sense it coming... if it's not already here.
I just realised that the current state of my romantic relationships really sucks, and that I feel so stuck. I feel like I've hit a glass ceiling amongst all the potential people I have in my life. I can see the various possibilities ahead, but there is no way I can actually move ahead in anyway. This seriously is the story of my life, and I just feel so trapped.
I feel stupid, dumb, useless and totally not in control. I wish there was a way I could just be able to be happy for once and not have to worry about this or that. Why can't things be easier for me? Why can't I find someone who can really make me happy? Why is it that I STILL have to suffer through all this nonsense despite all the training and 'consciousness' I have? Why do I always build such amazing connections, but they all cease and desist at a certain point?
I still feel like I am still always and only 'the best friend'. I'm quite tired of that. Honestly, but I have no idea how to break free of this trap. It's at time like these when I wish I didn't get so close to certain people. Or that I don't have certain feelings for certain people. I don't get why I have to still be so controlled by these emotions and thoughts.
Aren't I supposed to be the more 'evolved' one? The one who is supposedly more in control? Bullshit sia... Life sucks...
I hope I can get through this. Cos it feels like I'm about to hit a brink of some kind of breakdown again. The pain is building up. I can sense it coming... if it's not already here.
Saturday, December 04, 2010
December Project - 3
Busy-ness at work leaves me with little time to actually get all those postings up.
So, I'm going to post No. 3 first, then tonight I promise I will find the time to complete No. 4 before the day's up.
So yesterday was a crazy-ass, busy day at work. Had to rush all my work because of all the backlog I've accumulated over the week. But also because it was Friday Night Magic night, and I wanted to be sure that I could make it in time for the game!
And I did!
We played 3v3, Team Drafts, and I drafted quite a solid, mono-red, metalcraft deck. A lot of beats and red removal. I went 2-1 though. Lost to this crappy black-red, infect deck. It was the bomb man... poison counters coming out of nowhere to steal games right out from under my nose.... super upsetting sia.
But the highlight for the evening was when I went super-补! (This is slang for, I got my money's worth and more.) What happened was that I got tempted when my friend was opening M11 Core Set boosters and I started buying them as well. At $4 each, it adds up really fast (my friend had already opened 7 packs by the time I started), but still I got tempted and jumped into the fray.
Now, he was looking for this $50 card called Primeval Titan, and I just wanted to open packs for fun. I managed to crack a Primeval Titan on my fourth pack (much to his chagrin, of course)! Sweet! But the shop didn't have change for two 10s, so I went ahead and cracked the fifth pack to round off the amount. Not a bad haul for a $20. =)
Tomorrow I'm going to head down to Suntec tomorrow for the Pro Tour Qualifiers... *excited*
Wish me luck! I'm going to sign off for now!
Ciao!~
So, I'm going to post No. 3 first, then tonight I promise I will find the time to complete No. 4 before the day's up.
So yesterday was a crazy-ass, busy day at work. Had to rush all my work because of all the backlog I've accumulated over the week. But also because it was Friday Night Magic night, and I wanted to be sure that I could make it in time for the game!
And I did!
We played 3v3, Team Drafts, and I drafted quite a solid, mono-red, metalcraft deck. A lot of beats and red removal. I went 2-1 though. Lost to this crappy black-red, infect deck. It was the bomb man... poison counters coming out of nowhere to steal games right out from under my nose.... super upsetting sia.
But the highlight for the evening was when I went super-补! (This is slang for, I got my money's worth and more.) What happened was that I got tempted when my friend was opening M11 Core Set boosters and I started buying them as well. At $4 each, it adds up really fast (my friend had already opened 7 packs by the time I started), but still I got tempted and jumped into the fray.
Now, he was looking for this $50 card called Primeval Titan, and I just wanted to open packs for fun. I managed to crack a Primeval Titan on my fourth pack (much to his chagrin, of course)! Sweet! But the shop didn't have change for two 10s, so I went ahead and cracked the fifth pack to round off the amount. Not a bad haul for a $20. =)
Tomorrow I'm going to head down to Suntec tomorrow for the Pro Tour Qualifiers... *excited*
Wish me luck! I'm going to sign off for now!
Ciao!~
Friday, December 03, 2010
Project December - 2
Damn, I missed yesterday's post! Sometimes, I really wonder why I make myself so damn busy. Anyhow I had an amazing time at a party last night.
To cut a long story short, I won two brand new mobile phones for myself! Pictures coming soon! So watch this space. =)
To cut a long story short, I won two brand new mobile phones for myself! Pictures coming soon! So watch this space. =)
Wednesday, December 01, 2010
Project December - 1
So it begins, my one-post-a-day project for this month of December. I've been on medical leave for the past two days...dastardly cold that I got from goodness knows where. It's been awful. But I did enjoy the quality time I got to spend with my full body length pillow, my blanket, my mattress and all the snuggling in the world. I even got to wake up to a finger on my forehead, at the exact moment that I dreamed it up. Amazing stuff. =)
So here I am again in the office and I just wanted to post a quick one about work. Below is the transcript for a speech by Jason Fried about "Why work doesn't happen at work?" I couldn't get the video to start, so I read the entire transcript instead. Poor me...
You can either click on the transcript to go to the webpage (the entire thing's linked), or you can just pore through the text. Either way's quite informative and interesting.
Have fun!
=================================
So I'm going to talk about work, specifically why people can't seem to get work done at work, which is a problem we all kind of have. But let's sort of start at the beginning. So we have companies and non-profits and charities and all these groups that have employees or volunteers of some sort. And they expect these people who work for them to do great work -- I would hope, at least. At least good work, hopefully, at least, it's good work -- hopefully great work. And so what they typically do is they decide that all these people need to come together in one place to do that work. So a company, or a charity, or an organization of any kind, they typically -- unless you're working in Africa, if you're really lucky to do that -- most people have to go to an office every day. And so these companies, they build offices. They go out and they buy a building, or they rent a building, or they lease some space, and they fill the space with stuff. They fill it with with tables, or desks, chairs, computer equipment, software, internet access, maybe a fridge, maybe a few other things, and they expect their employees, or their volunteers, to come to that location every day to do great work. It seems like it's perfectly reasonable to ask that.
However, if you actually talk to people and even question yourself, and you ask yourself, where do you really want to go when you really need to get something done? you'll find out that people don't say what businesses think they would say. If you ask people the question: where do you really need to go when you need to get something done? Typically you get three different kinds of answers. One is kind of a place or a location or a room. Another one is a moving object. And a third is a time.
So here's some examples. When I ask people -- and I've been asking people this question for about 10 years -- I ask them, "Where do you go when you really need to get something done?" I'll hear things like, the porch, the deck, the kitchen. I'll hear things like like an extra room in the house, the basement, the coffee shop, the library. And then you'll hear things like the train, a plane, a car -- so the commute. And then you'll hear people say, "Well, it doesn't really matter where I am, as long as it's really early in the morning or really late at night or on the weekends." You almost never hear someone say the office. But businesses are spending all this money on this place called the office, and they're making people go to it all the time, yet people don't do work in the office.
What is that about? Why is that? Why is that happening? And what you find out is that, if you dig a little bit deeper, you find out that people -- this is what happens -- people go to work, and they're basically trading in their work day for a series of work moments. That's what happens at the office. You don't have a work day anymore; you have work moments. It's like the front door of the office is like a Cuisinart, and you walk in and your day is shredded to bits, because you have 15 minutes here and 30 minutes there, and then something else happens and you're pulled off your work, and you've got to do something else, then you have 20 minutes, then it's lunch. Then you have something else to do, then you've got 15 minutes, and someone pulls you aside and asks you this question. And before you know it, it's 5:00 pm, and you look back on day, and you realize that you didn't get anything done. I mean, we've all been through this. We probably went through it yesterday, or the day before, or the day before that. You look back on your day, and you're like, I got nothing done today. I was at work. I sat at my desk. I used my expensive computer. I used the software they told my to use. I went to these meetings I was asked to go to. I did these conference calls. I did all this stuff. But I didn't actually do anything. I just did tasks. I didn't actually get meaningful work done.
And what you find is that, especially with creative people -- designers, programmers, writers, engineers, thinkers -- that people really need long stretches of uninterrupted time to get something done. You cannot ask somebody to be creative in 15 minutes and really think about a problem. You might have a quick idea, but to be in deep thought about a problem and really consider a problem carefully, you need long stretches of uninterrupted time. And even though the work day is typically eight hours, how many people here have ever had eight hours to themselves at the office? How about seven hours? Six? Five? Four? When's the last time you had three hours to yourself at the office? Two hours? One, maybe. Very, very few people actually have long stretches of uninterrupted time at an office. And this is why people chose to do work at home, or they might go to the office, but they might go to the office really early in the day, or late at night when no one's around, or they stick around after everyone's left, or they go in on the weekends, or they get work done on the plane, or they get work done in the car or in the train because there are no distractions.
Now there are different kinds of distractions, but there aren't the really bad kinds of distractions that I'll talk about in just a minute. And this sort of whole phenomenon of having short bursts of time to get things done reminds me of another thing that doesn't work when you're interrupted, and that is sleep. I think sleep and work are very closely related. And it's not just that you can work while you're sleeping and you can sleep while you're working. That's not really what I mean. I'm talking specifically about the fact that sleep and work are phased based, or stage based events. So sleep is about sleep phases, or stages -- some people call them different things. There's five of them, and in order to get to the really deep ones, the really meaningful ones, you have to go through the early ones. And if you're interrupted while you're going through the early ones -- if someone bumps you in bed, or if there's a sound, or whatever happens -- you don't just pick up where you left off.
If you're interrupted and woken up, you have to start again. So you have to go back a few phases and start again. And what ends up happening -- sometimes you might have days like this where you wake up at eight in the morning, or seven in the morning, or whenever you get up, and you're like, man, I didn't really sleep very well. I did the sleep thing -- I went to bed, I laid down -- but I didn't really sleep. People say you go to sleep, but you really don't go to sleep, you go towards sleep. It just takes a while; you've got to go through these phases and stuff. And if you're interrupted, you don't sleep well. So how do we expect -- does anyone here expect someone to sleep well if they're interrupted all night? I don't think anyone would say yes. Why do we expect people to work well if they're being interrupted all day at the office? How can we possibly expect people to do their job if they're going to the office to be interrupted? That doesn't really seem like it makes a lot of sense to me.
So what are these interruptions that happen at the office that don't happen at other places? Because in other places, you can have interruptions, like, you can have the TV, or you could go for a walk, or there's a fridge downstairs, or you've got your own couch, or whatever you want to do. And if you talk to certain managers, they'll tell you that they don't want their employees to work at home because of these distractions. They'll also say -- sometimes they'll also say, "Well, if I can't see the person, how do I know they're working?" which is ridiculous of course, but that's one of the excuses that managers give. And I'm one of these managers. I understand; I know how this goes. We all have to improve on this sort of thing. But often times they'll cite distractions. "I can't let someone work at home. They'll watch TV. They'll do this other thing." It turns out that those aren't the things that are really distracting. Because those are voluntary distractions. You decide when you want to be distracted by the TV. You decide when you want to turn something on. You decide when you want to go downstairs or go for a walk. At the office, most of the interruptions and distractions that really cause people not to get work done are involuntary. So let's go through a couple of those.
Now, managers and bosses will often have you think that the real distractions at work are things like Facebook and Twitter and Youtube and other websites. And in fact, they'll go so far as to actually ban these sites at work. Some of you may work at places where you can't get to these certain sites. I mean, is this China? What the hell is going on here? You can't go to a website at work, and that's the problem, that's why people aren't getting work done, because they're going to Facebook and they're going to Twitter? That's kind of ridiculous. It's a total decoy. And today's Facebook and Twitter and Youtube, these things are just modern-day smoke breaks. No one cared about letting people take a smoke break for 15 minutes 10 years ago, so why does everyone care about someone going to Facebook here and there, or Twitter here and there, or Youtube here and there? Those aren't the real problems in the office.
The real problems are what I like to call the M&M's, the managers and the meetings. Those are the real problems in the modern office today. And this is why things don't get done at work, it's because of the M&M's. Now what's interesting is, if you listen to all the places that people talk about doing work -- like at home, or in a car, or on a plane, or late at night, or early in the morning -- you don't find managers and meetings; you find a lot of other distractions, but you don't find managers and meetings. So these are the things that you don't find elsewhere, but you do find at the office. And managers are basically people whose job it is to interrupt people. That's pretty much what managers are for, they're for interrupting people. They don't really do the work, so they have to make sure everyone else is doing the work, which is an interruption. And we have a lot of managers in the world now. And there's a lot of people in the world now. And there's a lot of interruptions in the world now because of these managers. They have to check in: "Hey, how's it going? Show me what's up," and this sort of thing. And they keep interrupting you at the wrong time, while you're actually trying to do something they're paying you to do, they tend to interrupt you.
That's kind of bad. But what's even worse is the thing that managers do most of all, which is call meetings. And meetings are just toxic, terrible, poisonous things during the day at work. We all know this to be true. And you would never see a spontaneous meeting called by employees; it doesn't work that way. The manager calls the meeting, so the employees can all come together, and it's an incredibly disruptive thing to do to people -- is to say, "Hey look, we're going to bring 10 people together right now and have a meeting. I don't care what you're doing. Just, you've got to stop doing what you're doing, so you can have this meeting." I mean, what are the chances that all 10 people are ready to stop? What if they're thinking about something important? What if they're doing important work? All of a sudden you're telling them that they have to stop doing that to do something else. So they go into a meeting room, they get together, and they talk about stuff that doesn't really matter usually. Because meetings aren't work. Meetings are places to go to talk about things you're supposed to be doing later.
But meetings also procreate. So one meeting tends to lead to another meeting and tends to lead to another meeting. There's often too many people in the meetings, and they're very, very expensive to the organization. Companies often think of a one-hour meeting as a one-hour meeting, but that's not true, unless there's only one person in that meeting. If there are 10 people in the meeting, it's a 10-hour meeting, it's not a one-hour meeting. It's 10 hours of productivity taken from the rest of the organization to have this one one-hour meeting, which probably should have been handled by two or three people talking for a few minutes. But instead, there's a long scheduled meeting, because meetings are scheduled the way software works, which is in increments of 15 minutes, or 30 minutes, or an hour. You don't schedule an eight-hour meeting with Outlook. You can't. I don't even know if you can. You can go 15 minutes or 30 minutes or 45 minutes or an hour. And so we tend to fill these times up when things should really go really quickly.
So meetings and managers are two major problems in businesses today, especially to offices. These things don't exist outside of the office. So I have some suggestions to remedy the situation. What can managers do -- enlightened managers, hopefully -- what can they do to make the office a better place for people to work, so it's not the last resort, but it's the first resort? It's that people start to say, "When I really want to get stuff done, I go to the office." Because the offices are well-equipped, everything should be there for them to do their work, but they don't want to go there right now, so how do we change that? I have three suggestions I'll share with you guys. I have about three minutes, so that'll fit perfectly.
We've all heard of the casual Friday thing. I don't know if people still do that. But how about no-talk Thursdays. How about -- pick one Thursday just once a month and cut that day in half and just say the afternoon -- I'll make it really easy for you. So just the afternoon, one Thursday. The first Thursday of the month -- just the afternoon -- nobody in the office can talk to each other. Just silence, that's it. And what you'll find is that a tremendous amount of work actually gets done when nobody talks to each other. This is when people actually get stuff done, is when no one's bothering them, when no one's interrupting them. And you can give someone -- giving someone four hours of uninterrupted time is the best gift you can give anybody at work. It's better than a computer. It's better than a new monitor. It's better than new software, or whatever people typically use. Giving them four hours of quiet time at the office is going to be incredibly valuable. And if you try that, I think you'll find that you agree. And maybe, hopefully you can do it more often. So maybe it's every other week, or every week, once a week, afternoons no one can talk to each other. That's something that you'll find will really, really work.
Another thing you an try is switching from active communication and collaboration, which is like face-to-face stuff, tapping people on the shoulder, saying hi to them, having meetings, and replace that with more passive models of communication using things like email and instant messaging, or collaboration products -- things like that. Now some people might say email is really distracting and I.M. is really distracting, and these other things are really distracting, but they're distracting at a time of your own choice and your own choosing. You can quit the email app, you can't quit your boss. You can quit I.M., you can't hide your manager. You can put these things away, and then you can be interrupted on your own schedule, at your own time, when you're available, when you're ready to go again. Because work, like sleep, happens in phases. So you're going to be kind of going up and doing some work, and then you're going to come down from that work, and then maybe it's time to check that email, or check that I.M. And there are very, very few things that are that urgent that need to happen, that need to be answered right this second. So if your manager, start encouraging people to use more things like I.M. and email and other things that someone else can put away and then get back to you on their own schedule.
And the last suggestion I have is that, if you do have a meeting coming up, if you have the power, just cancel, just cancel that next meeting. Today's Friday -- so Monday, usually people have meetings on Monday. Just don't have it. I don't mean move it, I mean erase it from memory, it's gone. And you'll find out that everything will be just fine. All these discussions and decisions you thought you had to make at this one time at 9:00 am on Monday, just forget about them, and things will be just fine. People have a more open morning, they can actually think, and you'll find out that maybe all these things you thought you had to do, you don't actually have to do.
So those are three quick suggestions I wanted to give you guys to think about this. And I hope that some of these ideas were at least provocative enough for managers and bosses and business owners and organizers and people who are in charge of other people to think about laying off a little bit and giving people some more time to get some work done. And I think it'll all pay off in the end.
So thanks for listening.
(Applause)
So here I am again in the office and I just wanted to post a quick one about work. Below is the transcript for a speech by Jason Fried about "Why work doesn't happen at work?" I couldn't get the video to start, so I read the entire transcript instead. Poor me...
You can either click on the transcript to go to the webpage (the entire thing's linked), or you can just pore through the text. Either way's quite informative and interesting.
Have fun!
=================================
So I'm going to talk about work, specifically why people can't seem to get work done at work, which is a problem we all kind of have. But let's sort of start at the beginning. So we have companies and non-profits and charities and all these groups that have employees or volunteers of some sort. And they expect these people who work for them to do great work -- I would hope, at least. At least good work, hopefully, at least, it's good work -- hopefully great work. And so what they typically do is they decide that all these people need to come together in one place to do that work. So a company, or a charity, or an organization of any kind, they typically -- unless you're working in Africa, if you're really lucky to do that -- most people have to go to an office every day. And so these companies, they build offices. They go out and they buy a building, or they rent a building, or they lease some space, and they fill the space with stuff. They fill it with with tables, or desks, chairs, computer equipment, software, internet access, maybe a fridge, maybe a few other things, and they expect their employees, or their volunteers, to come to that location every day to do great work. It seems like it's perfectly reasonable to ask that.
However, if you actually talk to people and even question yourself, and you ask yourself, where do you really want to go when you really need to get something done? you'll find out that people don't say what businesses think they would say. If you ask people the question: where do you really need to go when you need to get something done? Typically you get three different kinds of answers. One is kind of a place or a location or a room. Another one is a moving object. And a third is a time.
So here's some examples. When I ask people -- and I've been asking people this question for about 10 years -- I ask them, "Where do you go when you really need to get something done?" I'll hear things like, the porch, the deck, the kitchen. I'll hear things like like an extra room in the house, the basement, the coffee shop, the library. And then you'll hear things like the train, a plane, a car -- so the commute. And then you'll hear people say, "Well, it doesn't really matter where I am, as long as it's really early in the morning or really late at night or on the weekends." You almost never hear someone say the office. But businesses are spending all this money on this place called the office, and they're making people go to it all the time, yet people don't do work in the office.
What is that about? Why is that? Why is that happening? And what you find out is that, if you dig a little bit deeper, you find out that people -- this is what happens -- people go to work, and they're basically trading in their work day for a series of work moments. That's what happens at the office. You don't have a work day anymore; you have work moments. It's like the front door of the office is like a Cuisinart, and you walk in and your day is shredded to bits, because you have 15 minutes here and 30 minutes there, and then something else happens and you're pulled off your work, and you've got to do something else, then you have 20 minutes, then it's lunch. Then you have something else to do, then you've got 15 minutes, and someone pulls you aside and asks you this question. And before you know it, it's 5:00 pm, and you look back on day, and you realize that you didn't get anything done. I mean, we've all been through this. We probably went through it yesterday, or the day before, or the day before that. You look back on your day, and you're like, I got nothing done today. I was at work. I sat at my desk. I used my expensive computer. I used the software they told my to use. I went to these meetings I was asked to go to. I did these conference calls. I did all this stuff. But I didn't actually do anything. I just did tasks. I didn't actually get meaningful work done.
And what you find is that, especially with creative people -- designers, programmers, writers, engineers, thinkers -- that people really need long stretches of uninterrupted time to get something done. You cannot ask somebody to be creative in 15 minutes and really think about a problem. You might have a quick idea, but to be in deep thought about a problem and really consider a problem carefully, you need long stretches of uninterrupted time. And even though the work day is typically eight hours, how many people here have ever had eight hours to themselves at the office? How about seven hours? Six? Five? Four? When's the last time you had three hours to yourself at the office? Two hours? One, maybe. Very, very few people actually have long stretches of uninterrupted time at an office. And this is why people chose to do work at home, or they might go to the office, but they might go to the office really early in the day, or late at night when no one's around, or they stick around after everyone's left, or they go in on the weekends, or they get work done on the plane, or they get work done in the car or in the train because there are no distractions.
Now there are different kinds of distractions, but there aren't the really bad kinds of distractions that I'll talk about in just a minute. And this sort of whole phenomenon of having short bursts of time to get things done reminds me of another thing that doesn't work when you're interrupted, and that is sleep. I think sleep and work are very closely related. And it's not just that you can work while you're sleeping and you can sleep while you're working. That's not really what I mean. I'm talking specifically about the fact that sleep and work are phased based, or stage based events. So sleep is about sleep phases, or stages -- some people call them different things. There's five of them, and in order to get to the really deep ones, the really meaningful ones, you have to go through the early ones. And if you're interrupted while you're going through the early ones -- if someone bumps you in bed, or if there's a sound, or whatever happens -- you don't just pick up where you left off.
If you're interrupted and woken up, you have to start again. So you have to go back a few phases and start again. And what ends up happening -- sometimes you might have days like this where you wake up at eight in the morning, or seven in the morning, or whenever you get up, and you're like, man, I didn't really sleep very well. I did the sleep thing -- I went to bed, I laid down -- but I didn't really sleep. People say you go to sleep, but you really don't go to sleep, you go towards sleep. It just takes a while; you've got to go through these phases and stuff. And if you're interrupted, you don't sleep well. So how do we expect -- does anyone here expect someone to sleep well if they're interrupted all night? I don't think anyone would say yes. Why do we expect people to work well if they're being interrupted all day at the office? How can we possibly expect people to do their job if they're going to the office to be interrupted? That doesn't really seem like it makes a lot of sense to me.
So what are these interruptions that happen at the office that don't happen at other places? Because in other places, you can have interruptions, like, you can have the TV, or you could go for a walk, or there's a fridge downstairs, or you've got your own couch, or whatever you want to do. And if you talk to certain managers, they'll tell you that they don't want their employees to work at home because of these distractions. They'll also say -- sometimes they'll also say, "Well, if I can't see the person, how do I know they're working?" which is ridiculous of course, but that's one of the excuses that managers give. And I'm one of these managers. I understand; I know how this goes. We all have to improve on this sort of thing. But often times they'll cite distractions. "I can't let someone work at home. They'll watch TV. They'll do this other thing." It turns out that those aren't the things that are really distracting. Because those are voluntary distractions. You decide when you want to be distracted by the TV. You decide when you want to turn something on. You decide when you want to go downstairs or go for a walk. At the office, most of the interruptions and distractions that really cause people not to get work done are involuntary. So let's go through a couple of those.
Now, managers and bosses will often have you think that the real distractions at work are things like Facebook and Twitter and Youtube and other websites. And in fact, they'll go so far as to actually ban these sites at work. Some of you may work at places where you can't get to these certain sites. I mean, is this China? What the hell is going on here? You can't go to a website at work, and that's the problem, that's why people aren't getting work done, because they're going to Facebook and they're going to Twitter? That's kind of ridiculous. It's a total decoy. And today's Facebook and Twitter and Youtube, these things are just modern-day smoke breaks. No one cared about letting people take a smoke break for 15 minutes 10 years ago, so why does everyone care about someone going to Facebook here and there, or Twitter here and there, or Youtube here and there? Those aren't the real problems in the office.
The real problems are what I like to call the M&M's, the managers and the meetings. Those are the real problems in the modern office today. And this is why things don't get done at work, it's because of the M&M's. Now what's interesting is, if you listen to all the places that people talk about doing work -- like at home, or in a car, or on a plane, or late at night, or early in the morning -- you don't find managers and meetings; you find a lot of other distractions, but you don't find managers and meetings. So these are the things that you don't find elsewhere, but you do find at the office. And managers are basically people whose job it is to interrupt people. That's pretty much what managers are for, they're for interrupting people. They don't really do the work, so they have to make sure everyone else is doing the work, which is an interruption. And we have a lot of managers in the world now. And there's a lot of people in the world now. And there's a lot of interruptions in the world now because of these managers. They have to check in: "Hey, how's it going? Show me what's up," and this sort of thing. And they keep interrupting you at the wrong time, while you're actually trying to do something they're paying you to do, they tend to interrupt you.
That's kind of bad. But what's even worse is the thing that managers do most of all, which is call meetings. And meetings are just toxic, terrible, poisonous things during the day at work. We all know this to be true. And you would never see a spontaneous meeting called by employees; it doesn't work that way. The manager calls the meeting, so the employees can all come together, and it's an incredibly disruptive thing to do to people -- is to say, "Hey look, we're going to bring 10 people together right now and have a meeting. I don't care what you're doing. Just, you've got to stop doing what you're doing, so you can have this meeting." I mean, what are the chances that all 10 people are ready to stop? What if they're thinking about something important? What if they're doing important work? All of a sudden you're telling them that they have to stop doing that to do something else. So they go into a meeting room, they get together, and they talk about stuff that doesn't really matter usually. Because meetings aren't work. Meetings are places to go to talk about things you're supposed to be doing later.
But meetings also procreate. So one meeting tends to lead to another meeting and tends to lead to another meeting. There's often too many people in the meetings, and they're very, very expensive to the organization. Companies often think of a one-hour meeting as a one-hour meeting, but that's not true, unless there's only one person in that meeting. If there are 10 people in the meeting, it's a 10-hour meeting, it's not a one-hour meeting. It's 10 hours of productivity taken from the rest of the organization to have this one one-hour meeting, which probably should have been handled by two or three people talking for a few minutes. But instead, there's a long scheduled meeting, because meetings are scheduled the way software works, which is in increments of 15 minutes, or 30 minutes, or an hour. You don't schedule an eight-hour meeting with Outlook. You can't. I don't even know if you can. You can go 15 minutes or 30 minutes or 45 minutes or an hour. And so we tend to fill these times up when things should really go really quickly.
So meetings and managers are two major problems in businesses today, especially to offices. These things don't exist outside of the office. So I have some suggestions to remedy the situation. What can managers do -- enlightened managers, hopefully -- what can they do to make the office a better place for people to work, so it's not the last resort, but it's the first resort? It's that people start to say, "When I really want to get stuff done, I go to the office." Because the offices are well-equipped, everything should be there for them to do their work, but they don't want to go there right now, so how do we change that? I have three suggestions I'll share with you guys. I have about three minutes, so that'll fit perfectly.
We've all heard of the casual Friday thing. I don't know if people still do that. But how about no-talk Thursdays. How about -- pick one Thursday just once a month and cut that day in half and just say the afternoon -- I'll make it really easy for you. So just the afternoon, one Thursday. The first Thursday of the month -- just the afternoon -- nobody in the office can talk to each other. Just silence, that's it. And what you'll find is that a tremendous amount of work actually gets done when nobody talks to each other. This is when people actually get stuff done, is when no one's bothering them, when no one's interrupting them. And you can give someone -- giving someone four hours of uninterrupted time is the best gift you can give anybody at work. It's better than a computer. It's better than a new monitor. It's better than new software, or whatever people typically use. Giving them four hours of quiet time at the office is going to be incredibly valuable. And if you try that, I think you'll find that you agree. And maybe, hopefully you can do it more often. So maybe it's every other week, or every week, once a week, afternoons no one can talk to each other. That's something that you'll find will really, really work.
Another thing you an try is switching from active communication and collaboration, which is like face-to-face stuff, tapping people on the shoulder, saying hi to them, having meetings, and replace that with more passive models of communication using things like email and instant messaging, or collaboration products -- things like that. Now some people might say email is really distracting and I.M. is really distracting, and these other things are really distracting, but they're distracting at a time of your own choice and your own choosing. You can quit the email app, you can't quit your boss. You can quit I.M., you can't hide your manager. You can put these things away, and then you can be interrupted on your own schedule, at your own time, when you're available, when you're ready to go again. Because work, like sleep, happens in phases. So you're going to be kind of going up and doing some work, and then you're going to come down from that work, and then maybe it's time to check that email, or check that I.M. And there are very, very few things that are that urgent that need to happen, that need to be answered right this second. So if your manager, start encouraging people to use more things like I.M. and email and other things that someone else can put away and then get back to you on their own schedule.
And the last suggestion I have is that, if you do have a meeting coming up, if you have the power, just cancel, just cancel that next meeting. Today's Friday -- so Monday, usually people have meetings on Monday. Just don't have it. I don't mean move it, I mean erase it from memory, it's gone. And you'll find out that everything will be just fine. All these discussions and decisions you thought you had to make at this one time at 9:00 am on Monday, just forget about them, and things will be just fine. People have a more open morning, they can actually think, and you'll find out that maybe all these things you thought you had to do, you don't actually have to do.
So those are three quick suggestions I wanted to give you guys to think about this. And I hope that some of these ideas were at least provocative enough for managers and bosses and business owners and organizers and people who are in charge of other people to think about laying off a little bit and giving people some more time to get some work done. And I think it'll all pay off in the end.
So thanks for listening.
(Applause)
Monday, November 29, 2010
Sword of Body & Mind
Anyway, I'm seriously beginning to think that I have no luck with Planeswalkers... So sad right? Haiz... Just my friggin' luck. I've been getting all the relevant Mythic except those that I really want... i.e. PLANESWALKERS!!!
Alright... End rant...
Thanks for listening. =)
Sent from my Nokia E72.
Friday, November 26, 2010
An Online Project...
It's been a long while since I've posted anything. And right now, I suddenly have the urge to say 'hi' or make my presence felt again.
I apologise to my aunt especially, because I know she relies on this to really get in touch with what's happening here in Singapore. I think it's time that I re-start this endeavour again. Blogging is something like playing Magic - you can never truly quit it solely because it's so easy to access anytime.
Anyhow, I think I will start on a December project. And that is to blog about something every single day. I will try to make it interesting, but I can't guarantee anything yeah?
So watch this space com 1st December... It's going to be exciting! (I hope.)
I apologise to my aunt especially, because I know she relies on this to really get in touch with what's happening here in Singapore. I think it's time that I re-start this endeavour again. Blogging is something like playing Magic - you can never truly quit it solely because it's so easy to access anytime.
Anyhow, I think I will start on a December project. And that is to blog about something every single day. I will try to make it interesting, but I can't guarantee anything yeah?
So watch this space com 1st December... It's going to be exciting! (I hope.)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)