Paperweights

I want to cite a paragraph from a book I recently bought. It talks about passion.

Authors Robert J. Kriegel and Louis Patler cite a study of 1,500 people over twenty years that shows how passion makes a significant difference in a person's career:

At the outset of the study, the group was divided into Group A, 83 percent of the sample, who were embarking on a career chosen for the prospects of making money now in order to do what they wanted later, and Group B, the other 17 percent of the sample, who had chose their career path for the reverse reason, they were going to pursue what they wanted to do now and worry about the money later.

The data showed some startling revelations:

• At the end of the 20 years, 101 of the 1,500 had become millionaires
• Of the millionaires, all but one - 100 out of 101 - were from Group B, the group that had chosen to pursue what they loved!

I hate bookstores!!!!!!

Talent Is Never Enough by John Maxwell

I also bought Wrox's Professional XML. You can check my bookshelf here for my growing list of paperweights.

Watching Movies Alone Ad

What's wrong with watching movies alone????

The Simpsons on Google Maps

..or is it the other way around? Ha ha. This is funny..

A Closer Look

Just some random pics.

Breakfast..


EH, is that Apr 5 or May 4???


I finished the whole carton and am not dead yet.

Anyway I think it's a marketing tactic to increase the shelf life of products. Please use LETTERS for months will ya.



Exit door towards staircase..



A closer look reveals a grasshopper candidly posing for a shot..

I Can't

Sleep






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The 5 B's to Unleash Your Creativity

Welcome once again to my foolproof-tried-and-tested series of inspirational stuff that aim to make you feel sorry for yourself because I have the intellect to come up with this crap and you don't.

Anyway, I'm here to present to you my 5 B's to unleash your creativity. Now why the hell would you want to do that. Well for one, you're bored with your life and want to do something different (you reading my blog is a testament to that). Plus, creativity makes you look cool to other people, even if you don't have the slightest idea of what you're doing. So without further ado, let's get on with it..

(Disclaimer: I do these stuff for myself, there's no assurance it will work for you. However for a slice of pizza I can make it work for you, whatever it takes)

My 5 B's To Unleash Your Creativity

• Break the habit

If you've been doing the same routine all day all night, don't expect an idea to hit you just like that. C'mon you've been brushing your teeth, taking a bath, eating lunch all your life. Maybe it's about time you do something different. Don't brush your teeth, don't take a bath, and stop eating. It'll do you wonders, and a torrent of ideas will come crashing at you as you struggle to find creative ways to survive.

• Bore yourself to death

People find it pathetic when they see someone staring at a blank wall or looking up at the ceiling. These people do not realize that they are deliberately doing this to themselves because they're after the ultimate high, of getting bored. Once you reach boredom nirvana, you will suddenly snap out of it, empty and void. Creativity sets in when you scramble to fill this void. By then, you'd have enough boredom in your blood to do something creative, no matter how pathetic it is.

• Bright people suck

Don't you hate it when you're hanging out with bright people who are "better" than you. They'll shoot down every idea you'll put on the table because they know it won't work. If you, like most people, aren't cut out for an intellectual battle with such people, I'd suggest you just nod your head and walk away. The cornerstone of being creative is first being "stupid". Brandon Boyd (Incubus frontman) said it himself in one of their songs "A Crow Left of The Murder"

Unlearn me.
Ditch what I read
Behind what I heard.

He's telling us to "unlearn" damnit! The less you know, the more ideas you'll have in your arsenal. We all know how creative Brandon Boyd is. And I won't even have to explain why girls are flockin' to him like flies to sh*t. So I say again, bright people suck. They don't know sh*t and you know that in your heart. Creativity favors the heart, not the mind.

• Buy stuff you don't need

Go buy that expensive cellphone with 3G, 10Gig MP3 player, 10MP camera, Bluetooth, wifi, drag-and-expand touchscreen, organizer, alarm clock, TV remote, can opener, mother-volume-control that you've always wanted. You'd be so overwhelmed with stuff you don't need that you'll be scrambling to find ways on how you can use them. I bought a bass guitar from a friend for $300 (or was it $150 i forgot already, anything beyond $5 is categorized as expensive anyway). I didn't need it, it's been gathering dust in the corner of my room. I'm thinking of dismantling the strings and turning them into trip wires that will sound off an alarm with lights when someone tries to get into my room. I'm so creative.

• Be motivated

Fine I ran out of B's, so what. BE motivated. Of course there's no point being creative if you don't have your inspiration/motivation. Er so how do you get motivated? I don't know, you have to figure out that for yourself hahahaha! Just kidding. Er can we reserve that topic for next time? All I can say now is I'm always motivated by PIZZA. And I'm hungry. :O


Thus ends my 5 B's to unleashing creativity, rounding them all up..

- break the habit
- bore yourself to death
- bright people suck
- buy stuff you don't need
- be motivated

I hope that I have touched your lives with my inspirational-stuff-designed-to-make-you-feel-sorry-for-yourself-because-you
-can't-possibly-come-up-with-this-sort-of-crap. As always I look for comments and suggestions from my avid readers which I will gladly ignore but read all the same.

Let's be creative! Prosper and multiply!

MRT Ride Companions

I love to ride the MRT. Some may find it weird but I've actually tried riding from Pasir Ris to Boon Lay (stopping by at Jurong Point) and back. The main reason was for me to "get out more". Hmm but staying inside the MRT doesn't really qualify as going "out" does it haha!

Anyway, I do still ride the MRT for such reasons and "hang out" pathetic occassionally in one station (I stay inside the platform, I don't tap out :P). Sooo it makes sense that I carry with me something, else I'd really look like an idiot sitting alone or looking at my reflection before the train arrives. I've gotten tired of looking at people's faces anyway haha!

• My Gameboy

Aptly referred to by Cheng as my "Playboy" (I knew it, she's green-minded) haha! Actually I've stopped playing with it a few months ago after I lost all my game titles (save one) when I lent it to a particular someone hahahah (just kidding, blog promotion!). But now I'm playing again because of Final Fantasy VI wooohooo! This was a game I played when I was a kid now they've released it for the playboy. You can check Gamespot to see what it's all about.

• Books

This is the one I'm reading now. If it's got Richard Branson and Bill Gates' picture in the cover, it must be good stuff haha! But really, this one's good, and so are the other "greatness" books I've bought before wahaha! (except for "Magic of Thinking Big" which I think is total crap). Anyway, it's a compilation of Fortune interview articles of successful people. I've read some of these articles before because my dad is subscribed to Fortune, but he's not sure why we have the subscription. He says he doesn't know how we got the subscription and he has no idea who's paying for it. We've had it for like 2 years and the magazines just keep coming. Hmm I see an expensive bill at the end of all this haha.

• MP3 player

This is probably the biggest mp3 player in existence, with a stylus to boot. Ok it's my supposedly smart PDA phone (HP IPaq RW6828). BUT, I don't use it as a phone, AND I don't use it to alert me of my schedule, AND I don't use it to list down tasks. I do use it sometimes to play mp3 hahaha! Actually that too can be handled by my SE W800i. So what am I using it for? To jot down my expenses. It's only advantage to my W800i is that it's got a faster processor, so the "money manager" java app can run comfortably. Perhaps a GPS receiver will breathe new life to it. Or I can finally buy the Lego Mindstorms NXT kit and use this as a "brain" to my Roomba project. My room still gets very dusty after a week..

--

Something unrelated.. do you guys know where I could buy blueberries? My mom's been pressuring me to buy them I assume she's seen someone on TV (again) detailing the medicinal benefits of blueberries. I had to settle with strawberries in the meantime and got away with it..

(Over the phone with my mom, in the MRT)
Mom: Did you get the blueberries I asked you to get in the grocery?
Me: What?? Sorry can't hear you say that again? I think we're going under a tunnel.
Mom: The blueberries. BLUEBERRIES.
Me: Oh yeah I got them right here jfsksldfsdfyrrhhs-BERRIES
Mom: Ok good.

I love strawberries by the way.

The Toilet Is Under Repair

We have three toilets in our office floor, one for men, one for women, and another designed for "handicapped" people. The last toilet is under repair though..


You know how those "handicapped" toilets are - cleaner than the "gender" toilets, very spacious, complete toiletries, doesn't stink, it's almost like a mini-hotel. Once in a while I see someone go in there with a magazine in hand, or a pack of cigarettes, a PSP even! I have yet to see someone go in there with a pillow, but it's not so hard to imagine.

So when someone decided to close this down for repair, he/she/they must've forgotten that it's not really the handicapped people using this toilet..

The "Wow" Starts Now

I Can't Believe It

I'LL BE DROPPING SOME BIG NEWS LATER. RIGHT NOW I HAVE TO FINISH SHOWER BECAUSE I WAS INTERRUPTED BY A CALL.


YAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!



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SOMA recording

A few months back I attended a SOMA (songwriting) class. We recorded this cover song (Angels - Robbie Williams) on the last day.

You know that feeling you get when someone scratches their nails on the blackboard?

Exactly the same feeling you get when you listen to this. Haha! Enjoy.

Google My Maps + Meebo

OMG, this was bound to happen..


Google has released their My Maps service which provides tools for anyone to create their own mashup. A mashup refers to two or more services integrated together. In this case I combined Google Maps and Meebo using My Maps. You can check out this clip from cnet that shows you how to create your own mashups.

HOWEVER, there's a bug that erases the embedded HTML Meebo badge when you try to save the map. I hope this is a bug, and is not by design. I'm looking forward to this mashup.

If anyone's interested to add their own Meebo badge to the mashup page I created, the login for the map is..

login: meebomashup
passwd: meebomashupmashup

See you there!

Gadget (Could Be Taken Down)

*Guess what.. another Vista gadget post hahaha!*

Er, I didn't realize they included the radio gadget in an ad in the Microsoft Singapore page..


Hmm I wish they chose a better snapshot of it haha!

Anyway, the gadget is currently under fire. I may have to take it down, but there are some complications involved. Will keep you updated..

CyberTwin Test

Finally! My own personal cyber-twin!! This service lets you create your own cybertwin so you can still do damage on the internet while you're away wahAhaha. In fact you can place him up to chat for you thru MSN! (Though I haven't tried it yet)

After answering a series of personality-type questions to "copy" your personality into the cybertwin, I loaded him up for a test drive. Here's our first conversation:

CyberTwin: Hi!
Me: you are my cybertwin right?
CyberTwin: A philosopher said: Love is blind, friendship closes its eyes. What is something you put up with in a friend?
Me: Hmm, you're obviously not thinking like me
CyberTwin: hm
Me: Say "Yo"
CyberTwin: I wish I could, but I have no vocal chords. I am a software clone.
Me: Argh how can you not have vocal chords as my twin you are expected to use them extensively!!
CyberTwin: You sound very confident about that.
Me: ...


He's got attitude. I still have to teach him some manners.

You can chat with him here, or you can use the one below..

UPDATE: He's currently as dumb as a rock and will only play you with words (hmm actually i'm not that much different haha). He computes one plus one as "one one" duh. Anyway I'm still halfway through the personality questions, so there may still be hope. Besides it's just an alpha version. Oh and the MSN version works :)

Waiting..

Waiting...



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I Am Gay

I can't contain this anymore. I've been struggling for a long time, hiding my true identity. If I've been weird around people, I guess this pretty much explains why. Recently I've been opening up to people, so most of you would know already. If not, then.. I am gay.

I've been gay for as long as I can remember. It wouldn't come as a surprise really. I hang around with girls more. I have very few guy friends. Well I do hang around with guys sometimes, especially if I find them interesting, or cute (giggle). Anyway, this isn't easy for me. I've known a lot of people in the past, and this revelation will for sure shock many.

To my guy friends: No need to worry, I'm conservative. I won't make a move, unless you do.
To my girl friends: We can all go shopping around sometime. Pillow fight! Rah rah!
To my housemate Hermes: Don't worry you're not my type.
To my family, friends, loved ones: Please accept me as I am. There's no point hiding this anymore. This is why I've been trying so hard to achieve in life, to compensate for this impending realization. I tried to make it easy for you. Isn't it great to have a son and daughter at the same time! :D
To my gay friends: Let's rock this planet!












Thanks for understanding everybody.

It's April Fool's Day today.