Calling someone homophobic...
Calling someone homophobic is like calling someone who doesn't like smoking smokaphobic.
I've never rejected my smoker friends, but I don't approve of what they do.
Live Life With No Regrets!
Entrepreneur, philosopher, thinker, game designer, software developer, actor, writer.
"My purpose in life is to entertain people, to allow them to have fun, laugh and enjoy life."
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October 31, 2007
October 29, 2007
What The Facebook, Flickr, YouTube Really Is...
What Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, Blogger.com really is, is that you are creating a presence for yourself, an extension of you that people can access online.
Marshall McLuhan's seminal book, "Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man" puts forth that mans inventions are extensions of himself.
The phone is an extension of the ear and mouth.
The car is an extension of the feet.
The TV is an extension of the eyes.
Using this metaphor, we can generate an infinite flow of ideas on how we can create services and ideas for internet business startups. (Though success may not necessarily follow.)
Facebook is an extension of our need to express our current feelings, our emotional moods and state which we need to express to our fellow man.
Flickr is like this virtual photo album which we would like show the whole world.
Just go through your day, and jot down the things you do, everything from waking up to talking to people. Which of these activities do you think would be made more efficient or better by web-enabling it?
October 27, 2007
How Many Times?
How many times should you try?
Try a thing you haven't tried before three times:
Virgil Thomas.
- Once to get over the fear.
- Once to find out how to do it.
- And a third time to find out if you like it or not.
October 25, 2007
It's Readiness that Matters, Not Years
I think that for any endeavour, whether it's business, career, sports, love, college, we should not look at the chronological age or the number of years a person has spent in it but whether the person is ready.
A young 27 year old could be ready to be CEO, a 14 year old could be ready to go to University. It's not the age.
Moses needed to be prepared for 40 years till he was 80 before he was ready to lead the Israelites out of Egypt.
That is not to say that we can adequately prepare fully for everything, there are no such things as perfect conditions, but we can remove conditions we know that will definitely cause us to fail to reach our goals.
As we plan long term, we must think, are we ready? If we want to get married, we must prepare beforehand to be ready for it. Or for business, are we ready to handle the burden, do we have the financial, social and psychological resources? Or at least have access to help?
October 23, 2007
Too Busy To Worry...
I'm too busy solving my problems to worry about them.
Imagine If...
Imagine if you could really have an Aladdin's lamp to wish for whatever you wanted.
Imagine you had no problems, that everyone agreed that you were always right. If you had a husband or wife who disagreed with you, with a snap of your fingers he/she would agree with you.
Or if you had no girlfriend or boyfriend, you could attract whoever you wanted with a blink of an eye.
That if you were fat and overweight and wanted to run a marathon the next day, you could do it in world record time.
That if you wanted to be an entrepreneur you could become a Bill Gates the next day.
Or if you were an artist you could create works of art with a wave of your hand.
Though tempting, it would take the joy out of life. Where would effort be? How would you ever grow? Where would the attachment be if you did not spend the time, energy and effort into creating?
A man who lovingly tends and nurtures a single rose would value it much more than if he could buy a whole garden of rosebushes.
Life is a journey. The paradox is that you cannot focus on the journey but on the goal. Just like maturity. Try observing yourself becoming mature, "Oh, look I'm growing". It doesn't work.
Instead, focus on a goal, aim to achieve it, yet realize that the journey is also an important part of it.
October 20, 2007
Spanish Harlem Orchestra
The Grammy award winning Spanish Harlem Orchestra at the Singapore International Salsa Festival. Time to parteee!
There really is a difference listening to a live band versus listening to a CD.
The thing during the performances of the different bands is that I could observe local Singaporeans actually mouthing the Spanish lyrics! It's amazing that local salseros could actually memorize what to me are unintelligible syllables.
October 16, 2007
When Everyone's Moving One Direction
The current wave in startups is now to develop another social networking application, to see who can build the bigger network. Hi-5, Friendster, Facebook, MySpace, etc.
This reminds me of the portal wars, back in the first Internet wave, the mentality then was to see who could build the biggest and best portal (which was won by Yahoo! and MSN). Then Google sneaked up on everyone and just built a better search engine.
The herd mentality is now into social networking, I think that that is a signal not to follow the crowd. There will be a clear winner, but I think that the winner is already in the market, and its just a battle of attrition now.
I think the next big thing would be something simple and overlooked that no one will expect it.
October 15, 2007
If I Had The World
It would be meaningless to have the world in your hands, and yet have no one to share it with.
October 12, 2007
Goodbye Mourinho, Hello Sven
With Jose Mourinho departing Chelsea, I find it hard to support Chelsea much, besides Lampard, Drogba and Cech, there's nothing better than supporting "The Special One"
I doubt Chelsea would do any better without him. It seems that Mr. Abramovich neglected to read Sun Tzu's "Art of War" which admonishes the sovereign from interfering with tactics of the general.
I admire Jose because he epitomises self-confidence, discipline, always has something witty or a great quote up his sleeve, has good family relationships (he's still married to his childhood sweetheart till now, goes out with his kids), doesn't let his medals go his head (he threw them into the crowd on winning his second premiership title), and finally has a really good dress sense. (Urggghh, Avram Grant in his training jacket just looks like a tired old fogie.)
I'm switching my support to Mr. Sven Goran Eriksson now and Manchester City.
The Common Theme In All Stories
The common theme in all good stories is that it involves personal growth.
Because of that, it must involve a proactive protagonist who sacrifices something, be it his pride, his ego, his life, his ideas, etc.
Isn't that what life is all about? Facing your fears, and dying to yourself, so that you may be reborn anew.
October 11, 2007
Salsa at the Esplanade
Salsa dancing at the Esplanade this night. Performance by ACTFA. This kicked off Dans Festival in Singapore.
October 9, 2007
Experiment Over
After the few weeks experimentation of doing virtual betting, I've stopped.
The results are: I would have lost money. (No surprises there.)
I do not have a keen eye or nose to pick winners. Even picking a winning team isn't good enough, the betting companies know how to give low odds on big teams like Arsenal and Man Utd. You have to get a good secondary pick like actual score or number of goals scored, etc.
But the second thing is, doing soccer result predictions takes time. It may seem easy enough to pick who is the winner but there needs to be some research into it if you're "serious" into betting. You have to find out who's injured, guess the morale of the team, pick the right bet with the best odds, buy the morning paper, read pundits opinions, etc. No wonder there are 1900 numbers that charge a whopping $50/call just for you to hear an "experts" pick.
It's not just the money, it's the time. That's why I couldn't even get started on Fantasy Football. It's the same thing, checking the injury list, thinking about the tactics, guessing which player is worth buying, home and away, etc.
(The ironic thing is if you spent money on every match, blindly betting on AOS (Any Other Score, i.e. any score not listed like 9-0, 7-4, etc.) you would be just about making a profit now. A fluke nonetheless.)
October 5, 2007
The Internet Is The Computer
Yes, rephrasing of Sun's "The Network is the Computer" tagline.
But it is clear from mashups, web services, social networking applications (like Facebook), that the whole network of computers on the Internet forms a computer in itself.
Using public API's, like Facebook, Yahoo! Pipes, Google Maps, what developers are building on are functionalities that combine everything together. Mashups as they call them.
What I think is the next step is "The Mobile/Internet is The Computer" where everything is linked together. What needs to be done is an API that allows developers to connect mobile users together.
People Do Lie
We must be wary of lies. I wish I didn't have to write this, but it is true. The world isn't such a utopian place as we would like to believe.
There are people who lie, cheat, steal, rob, betray, injure and even murder.
I read about con-artists in the newspapers and even met them in real life. A beggar telling that he lost his wallet and needs a bus trip back. (Buy him the bus ticket, don't give money). Someone asking for money to buy food. (Give him/her food. Not money.) A guy asking for money because he's unemployed. (I pointed to Subway Sandwiches..."Get a job. They're hiring.")
But even worse are the crooks in business suits. Who talk of "market appreciation", "great opportunity". They can even rent hotel function rooms complete with buffet dinners.
There won't be an end to them.
Even more diabolical are people who pose as potential boyfriends/girlfriends on the Internet and use emotional manipulation to con them of money.
Then there are liars who could be your colleagues and business partners. An accountant told me that bad debts eat up 5% of business revenue. I wonder how many told them "The check is in the mail." Or how about colleagues who claim "I planned this and implemented this" taking credit from other people.
Lying isn't as uncommon as you think. Not just kids fibbing about doing their homework, parents do it too. Promising them things they cannot do or won't do. I know one mother who would exaggerate the truth or lie to create guilt in her husband or children she wanted to influence.
The final nail in the coffin is that we are one of the best liars to ourselves. The number one killer of people isn't cancer or heart disease. It's denial. People tell themselves that they're going to be alright, that there's no need to go for a check up and die when it's too late. Or telling ourselves that a relationship's okay, when an outsider would observe that it's sliding downhill.
Isn't truth so important?
Perhaps another skill we need in life, is to learn to discern lies from truth.
Judges need this skill everyday to make judgments. I wonder how they can handle listening to people tell tall tales in court everyday. Policemen need it. Teachers need it. Businessmen need it. Kids need it. Adults need it. Senior Citizens need it. As long as we live in this world, everyone needs it.
October 3, 2007
No Point Being Depressed
We all go through depression.
But I realize that in the end depression doesn't do anything. It may make you feel "better", but it doesn't change your situation.
Unless I do something, nothing is going to change.
