Identity Crisis

What's your identity?

Does your identity fall into any of the 6 TDF patterns, 9 Enneagram of personality, 12 Horoscope Signs, 12 Chinese Zodiac signs, 5 Elements, chinese eight-word, or any combination of these?

What if you don't find any? Even worse, what if you find yourself in many of these? Does that make you a freak? And if you are so lucky that you can find a single pattern that represents your true identity, should you celebrate?

Unlike other living things, humans are highly complex creatures. An attempt to stereotype humans is trying to over-simplifying it, and simply denying the fact that humans are intelligent beings. It will get the job done, but it does not fully represent the reality.

This is not to say that studies and findings of identity or personality types are without statistical truth or academic value. But ignoring the possibility of mixed identities and personalities, and blindly categorizing ourselves to a single classification is simply too naive.

Are you a Rooster, a Scorpio, a DTF, a FTD-TFD-DFT, an Asserter, or all of them? If the latter is the answer, then that already proved no single classification best describes your identity. Your identity will be better represented by a combination of the above and the more the better.

The best answer lies within you. You should know better than anyone else for only you truly know yourself inside and out.

Nowaday

Nowadays, life is so predictable.  It is so typical that every single day is the same.  Work and Life have now joined-up, work is life and life is work.  Luckily, my life is all about having fun.

Looking into the past weeks, my typical day goes like this:

(*) Work out meeting agendas in the head

Rehearse next day meetings and workshops (in the head, of course)

Rehearse next day presentations (in the h..., ok, you got the idea)

Rehearse Q&A sessions... dreaming up difficult questions people will ask, and funny answers I will give... It's like watching a comedy movie...  fun stuff

Go through the inbox in my head,

'Draft' answers in my head,

Play out different scenarios that will come up in the next work day... IMH

Twist and turn (physically, no shouting)

Smile, laugh, snore (not too loud, I hope), mumble, yell

Repeat  (*) 2-3 times

(#) Hear the sound of the alarm at, well, a couple hours too soon than I wished

Pick up the clock, turn off the alarm, reset the alarm, turn on the alarm, put the clock back to its place.

Repeat (*) 1-2 times

Repeat (#) 3-4 times

Smash the alarm clock.

Get up, do the toilet routines, shower, iron clothes, get dressed, drink water, take medicine, pack up notebook, keys and badges

Run for the car

Forgot the keys.. and lunch bag, go back inside

Really running for the car

Drive, listen to music

Check Blackberry

(@) Scan and reply 50 mails

Yawn ... x 78 times

Repeat (*)

Conference call at 8am.. damn

Make the call, listen in, raise tough questions that nobody can answer, turn blackberry on mute and LOL, turn off mute, answer the question myself: "Hey, I've got an idea..."

Racing thru the streets of RVB

Got caught speeding, pullover, salute to RCMP, thank you for the ticket, and ... RUN

Got to office late, park at P4, still yawning

Arrive Level 2, speed to office, hook up notebook and turn it on,

Freshen up, pick up coffee from pantry

Take a sip.

Wake up. Repeat (*)

Attend meeting (Repeat * and @)

Got caught by colleague for budget questions

Meet with boss (Repeat * and @)

Interrupted by big boss for budget questions

Chair meeting (Repeat * and @)

Lunch... well... fill up the stomach (Repeat * and @)

Bob: "Dude, do you have a minute?"

Attend meeting (Repeat * and @), yawn, running out of patience

Coffee

Facilitate workshop (Repeat * and @), change agenda, go crazy on the board

Boss: "Dude, I need an update in 5 minutes"

Join conference call with HK colleague (Repeat * and @)

R: "Can we talk before you go?"

1-on-1 with staff (Repeat @).  Rescheduled.

Brain dead.  Reboot.

Boss: "Hey, let's do 1-on-1 before I go!"

Dude: "Sure!"

Repeat @

Return to desk, pack up notebook.

Run... stopping by R and say "Don't work TOO late!!"

Drive home,

Debrief meetings and workshops, cracked a few laughs, Repeat @

Plan to finish a few office tasks at home

Got home,

Set up notebook, damn... left the power adaptor at work...

Get comfortable, eat, watch TV, surf net, facebook, gmail, hotmail, msn, cnn, apple, yahoo finance, blog, wash, yawn, surf net, facebook, msn, blog, yawn...

Determined to wake up at 4am to do the work

Set the alarm clock

Go to bed

BTW, I prefer to start my day in my dream.

Interplanetary Trade

The financial crisis of late has evaporated zillions of dollars. Major importers like US, and UK are in dire economic recessions. The slowdown in spending and demands have driven prices of big ticket items down, with property markets seeing a major devaluation. Stock markets have retreated more than 50% since their historical highs. Average net worth has dropped significantly.

Insolvency of Investment Banks, and conversion of surviving investment banks to traditional banking is in the works. Governments intervene to inject trillions of dollars to the money system to control volatility. The world's most populated manufacturing country has also announced fiscal policy to band-aid the suffering export-led economy. Corporates are laying off employees in tens of thousands in an attempt to cut cost and sustain in the competition. Credit is shrinking due to more stringent risk management, impeding investments in all sectors at all levels.

The day after tomorrow has arrived. Dire times call for dire measures.

Since the discovery of Americas by Zheng He, international trade has fueled global economies and has been a major vehicle for globalization. The answer to the current global economic turmoil, however, may not be found in this World. Humans should no longer limit our source of resources within the earth, but to think outside the Sphere to look beyond in the universe for business opportunities.

New terms such as Interuniversal, Interplanetary, Gross Universal Product, and Cosmic Economics will be added to the glossary of business literature. New business models and corporations will be created to capitalize on the opportunity. New disciplines, policies, governing bodies, global unions, industries, currencies, comodities, raw materials, studies, inventions, products will be introduced. A whole new World will emerge. Universalization will take globalization to the next level beyond imagination.

Interplanetary trade has been a research subject since 1978, and has been the plot of many science fictions. The day has come, and it is now for mankind to market ourselves to the Universe.

More on this...

Say Cheese!

How to align different technologies in a solution? Every technology has its roadmap, it evolves independently of others. If you want to build a solution that is made up of multiple evolving technologies, how to ensure they will work together?

Imagine you want to take a group picture of 20 smiling people while everyone is moving around and not everyone is paying attention. How will you do it? However you take your picture, you will catch a few smiles, but it's impossible to catch everyone in the same shot. One way to do it is to take individual pictures of each person or smaller group of people first. Then Photoshop them to make a group picture. If certain people are still not smiling, you'll have to dig out their old smiling pictures and Photoshop them. If you couldn't find any smiling old pics, Photoshop again.

Technologies alignment is the same. You will probably have to align key technologies first, then build generic interface to other technologies. Sometimes you may not be able to work with the latest version of certain technologies, but your interface will have to be flexible enough to work with older version of them and still be compatible with newer versions when they are available. Sometimes that means building adaptors for those that refuse to comply.

XML, SOA, EAI, adaptors are the Photoshops for technologies alignment.

Winning Numbers

Numbers are right if they add up.

Numbers are positive if they do not convey negative message.

Numbers are odd if ever they were even.

Numbers are rational to the irrationals.

Numbers are complex when they got changed all the time.

Numbers are real when they are complex.

Numbers are natural when they are really complex.

Numbers are whole when they consume your whole mind.

Numbers are prime when they are the only things on your mind.

No numbers are perfect - not until infinity.

Headcount month, FTE, $, ATD, ETC, EAC, Original budget, Approved, revised, forecast, hours, gap, surplus, rates, ratios, cubicles, hot seats, hot rooms, rooms, parking spot, staff count, moving cost, projects, % complete, start date, end date - all kinds of numbers.

Hope tonight's winning numbers are: 20, 22, 32, 34, 38, and 41.

Super High Intensity Tasks

I have probably jinxed myself when I (jokingly) said I had absolutely nothing to do last week. Now I am finding myself buried in a pile of Super High Intensity Tasks. Excuse me. I knew there's something funny when others took my word seriously.

It reminds me of couple years ago when I was the only one trying to make some sense of the numbers. The only sense I got out of it was a sense of chaos and insanity - and now a sense of humor, guess it's the insanity thing too. That was a good experience then and the effort was worth it for the team. Now it is history repeating itself. Luckily, there're lessons learned at my disposal.

Sometimes I wonder what causes Analysis Paralysis. A person is happier if he doesn't know anything that will disgust him. A person is making quick decisions because he doesn't think thoroughly or he thought he did. Are quick decisions good decisions?

There's a fine line between good decisions made quickly and quick decisions made badly. The former requires good information and fast thinking - 80/20 rule, SWOT analysis, six thinking hats, KISS, etc. The latter simply requires any combination of bad information, gut feel, ignorance, and a care-less attitude.

Seek and you shall find. Speak and you shall jinx. I wish I hadn't known better.

Much Ado About Nothing

All right, not writing for 2 weeks isn't going to help my blogger's block problem. So excuse me readers, I am going to attempt the most dangerous act of blogging at your expense - to blog about Nothing.

What is Nothing? If we can explain what Nothing is, then Nothing is something, something is going to lead to other things and this is not really helping the situation. So I would try to explain what Nothing is NOT. In fact, Nothing is not about anything. Nothing is less than nothing else. Nothing is something that does not materialize. Nothing is everything that does not count. Nothing is no-thing, nada, nil, null, zero, zip...

When you can do Nothing, you are a noble -- not able to do anything. When you do Nothing, you pass the time but you do not do anything of significance. When you know Nothing, you are nodding all the time. When you have Nothing to say, you are whispering nothings. When you have Nothing, you are a nomad going nowhere. When you are Nothing, you are Nobody.

If anything, doing Nothing to achieve everything is something everybody is thinking about these days. In fact, I'm doing quite the opposite. I'm on the verge of doing something to achieve Nothing -- another dangerous act that I would do Nothing to recommend it.

Speed Reading

Have been reading a lot lately and trying to do it faster...

I think it's often a waste of time to read a book from cover to cover for the sake of reading every word. I am training myself to skim through a 3-400 pager in half an hour. I needed information quick and I often find the books don't have to be that thick when the key points can just be summarized in a few millimeters.

Reading a book is like fishing or hunting, you scan the water or landscape for things that catches the eye, capture it, consume it, and continue with the next target. It's kind of fun, especially when you had your daily dose of performance-enhancing drug - coffee. You can feel that your eyes are chasing the words and your brain is catching up with the eyes. At times, your brain catches up ahead of the eyes and instruct the eyes to see specific words and skip all the words that don't matter.

What you see from your eyes is the book in its physical form, with pages and pages of words in black and white. What you see from your brain is an image of the book, with pages and pages that only contain the highlighted key words, without the other meaningless words... If we put all these keywords together, the book is only a few pages thick.

I wonder if, like the director's cut of a DVD, the author of a book can highlight the keywords for us and with a special pair of spectacles, one will simply see the keywords on each page without the other meaningless words, then we'll all be reading a lot faster.

Music To Your Eyes

How do you write music exactly? I am not talking about composing a piece of music - putting notes, dots, and ties on the staff. I really mean writing something to let the reader hear it. We are dealing with two dimensions here: sight and hearing - two of the traditional five senses that include touch, smell, and taste.

Any two of the five cannot be mixed up. For example, I cannot see the sound of a flying plane. I cannot hear how soft the pillow is. I cannot touch how good a perfume smell. I cannot smell the sweetness of a watermelon. I cannot taste how beautiful the nature is. Hence these distinct senses.

So the creation of musical notations for writing music; and written language + phonetics for speech communication are just brilliant inventions. They connect the different senses together to allow communication, and allow information to be recorded, stored, and then retrieved later on. For example, if you want to tell a friend about a piece of music, you simply write it using musical notations, then pass it to her and she can play it using an instrument or sight-read, and be able to hear it. We took it for granted, but it is really something.

The next breakthough is to write a piece of music and let the reader hear it without playing it. I know a lot of musicians can sight-read silently. But I don't mean to use the language of music, but the english language. Ok, why use english language when we have musical notations.. Aren't I creating a problem for myself to solve? The reason being I want general readers to hear it, not the few talented musicians. So that musics can also be printed on newspaper, books, magazines, and other printed forms.

Drop me a few 'notes' if you know the answer.

Things you should have known

1. Your strengths
2. Your weaknesses
3. Your priorities
4. What you like
5. What you don't like
6. What you want to be in 5 years
7. What you want to be ultimately
8. Why you are what you are now
9. Not everyone will know and understand you
10. Not everyone will like you
11. THE REAL YOU

Church of the Latecomers

Dear Father D,

I can feel your rage at the Mass today. You have every right to be disgusted by those who arrived late. You said the church was half-empty 10 minutes before the Mass, and people keep arriving and walking in even 20 minutes after it starts. I can definitely feel you as I walked in just now.

You spent 15 minutes during Mass to vent your fume. You treated the whole congregation as if everyone has come late. You made stupid assumptions that everyone who did come late are late by intention. You discounted the possibility of unfortunate events or accidents. Perhaps I was stuck in a traffic incident and had to help others or had to wait for it to clear. Perhaps my kid was sick and I took him to the doctor's. Perhaps I was on a support call and had to fulfill my duty. Perhaps I prayed too long in the morning and missed the bus.

There are countless possibilities but you see them as excuses. You treated all of us like criminals without giving the benefit of the doubt. You accused us of crimes some of us never committed. Does that ring a bell? We are not Jesus. We are only here for His second coming.

You complained that some of us always drove in the wrong direction in the parking lot, or exited through the no-exit entrance. But you took it out on all of us. By the way, I didn't drive today. You complained that some of us come late and leave early. Why don't you say so when they left just now?

Father, I just want to remind you that we come to church to worship the Almighty. Okay, some of us are disrespectful being late or leaving too soon, and some of us are bad boys in the drive way. But could you not speak to them in private? Could you not shut the door when the Mass commences and divert latecomers to another room for a special Service? Could you not give traffic tickets or warnings to those mischievous drivers on the spot? Could you not pray for their sins and ask the Almighty for forgiveness? Could you not improve your EQ?

There are other things you can do but you took it on everyone including the innocent majority who had to listen to all these despite they came early today. Should they vent it out on you after Mass? You made the Mass an unpleasant one today, and the only thing we take away is your outrage.

I am sure you will receive similar letters today, as we will only complain directly and privately. I hope you would acknowledge, apologize, and amend. I'll certainly pray for you and ask Almighty for his forgiveness of your sin today.

It's not so bad and I'm sure he will let you go this time.

'Sin'cerely,

Ex-Latecomer-and-Early-leaver

P.S. I'll be joining others to attend Father F's Mass starting next week.

Perfectionist A-hole and the Corner-cutting Bastard

Perfectionist and Corner-cutter -- the two types of office personalities, are both popular to some and hated by others. I came across both and here they are referred as A-hole and B-tard to protect their real identities.

A-hole goes by the recipe. He sticks to every step, every ingredient, every ounce. He polishes everything. He gives the final touch - the blessing. He knows what he likes and he wants to make it perfect even if Boss will never notice it. He leaves no room for error, no room for rumor. He only does it because it's the right thing to do. He values relationship as much as the task itself as the task will finish but relationship will last. He may miss the deadline. But it's not important to him, it's worth the wait for a perfect finish.

B-tard, on the other hand, gets the job done on time and budget. It may get messy sometimes, but that's not the point. He makes a few enemies along the way, but it ain't no matter. He builds castles in the air. He gives pain to his people, but he pleases Boss. He promises a 100 but he delivers 50. Yet he delivers. He polishes, and makes it look like a 110. He doesn't have to be around all the time, but he is there when Boss is around. He completes by cutting corners in every possible way.

Boss likes the ability of A-hole to draw people, to set good examples, to let people know that there's integrity and humanity after all. A-hole will fight to save his people. He fights for principles and justice. Boss likes the agility and drive of B-tard to get things done no matter what comes the way. B-tard is a fighter and he loves to fight. He fights for goals. And he works in masquerade.

A-hole's strength is B-tard's weakness, and vice versa.

Neither A-hole nor B-tard can save the world alone. Boss needs a third personality to balance the two. Someone who can speed up A-hole and deflect B-tard's mess. Someone who fights with strategies and tactics. Someone who fights for Boss's interests. Someone who gets the job done by uniting A-hole and B-tard. Someone who does wonders. She makes a trinity in Boss's dream League. And she's a C-... oh well...

finalize()

At a lunch, I asked my team: "What would be the very last thing you do, if you know exactly when you will die?".

It's not a simple question. It's not a trick question either. It's like the Almighty has given you a revelation and one last wish. It's all up to you how to play it out. The last moment in life is exactly when He told you, and you've all the time to prepare for it -- to ensure your loved ones are taken care of, to arrange your departure, estate, funeral and everything else. It's all scheduled to the very last minute. And you can do one last thing for yourself. Just for yourself.

Some says: "I would wash up, dress up, close my eyes, lie down, and wait for the moment". When asked why lie down? He explains that he didn't want to fall when he dies... I guess it doesn't really matter, does it?

Some would do crazy things that he had been dreading all his life... so may as well leave it at the final moment... sky diving, cliff jumping/climbing, waterfall rafting, highway crossing, speedy cop chase, robbing a bank, and fighting at Afghanistan are just some examples.

As crazy as he is, dude suggests to invite his friends and relatives to his funeral, make a big speech himself, shake hands while people go round the coffin, and close the casket himself just before signing off. Could also do this at the cemetary, right at the very lying spot, followed by the burial service. It's the last thing dude wants to organize for himself to complete his chaotic life.

How would you write your finalize() method?

Change

Was it a curse or a pure coincidence? The theme of our 'last' offsite meeting was 'Leading Change', and days after we are faced with a change that no one had seen it coming. To some, it's beyond belief, and it's almost unreal.

I'm a believer of change, and I believe every change comes opportunity. Well, I'm not sure now. I am trying to convince myself it's a good one, and I know I'll be over it some time later, and I will look back and see this a small thing to sweat about.

Regardless of what's being changed, the emotional roller-coaster ride one has to endure, from the moment of uncertainty to the moment of truth, is overwhelming. It's almost to the point of near death experience... okay, I've exaggerated a bit. But I think even before the change is taking place, the emotional turbulance is a memorable learning experience by itself. It's a great feeling, and a good oppportunity to train up one's EQ and confidence. Despite the occasional fright, I quite enjoy this feeling coz I know I'll only be stronger when it's all over. At which time, it will be back to business-as-usual -- the same feeling you get the moment you get off the roller-coaster. Will you then wish it hadn't ended so quickly, or will you then go for another ride?

Change is a fact of life as I've said it. Some like it, most dread it. But only the ones who enjoy it will take advantage of it, grow with it, and stay ahead of the rest of the crowd. I treasure every one that I come across.

No Jeans? Are you kidding me?

Every time a senior executive visits, we are reminded to dress better, clear desk, etc... and no Jeans was mentioned this time.. Are you kidding me?

If jeans are only not allowed when senior executives are around, then why are they allowed at all? Is there something unprofessional about wearing jeans that we should not let our senior executives know about? Are we hiding something from our executives and has to hide this from him when he is here? If they think it's not good for senior executives to know that we wear jeans everyday, then may be we should just ban jeans at all times. And let's show our professional look every day.

Why paint a pretty picture for our executives? IMHO, they want to know what we do everyday, not what we do when they are here.

Do senior executives concern about the desk, and how we dress? Is that something they are obliged to observe when they visit a department? Is it a reflection on HR or the staff in the department if the desks are not tidy and people dress like bums? I am interested to know what's going on in the executives' mind as they visit a department.

My 2.2 cents, I think we should dress as professionally, tidy up our desks every day whether anyone will be observing or not. And at the same time, we should not assume that our executives would mind seeing us wearing jeans, if that's what you would wear everyday anyway.

Reborn

Stay tuned
For the one is to come again
Don't be frightened
For the one is not with pain

Sickness is gone
Care and professionalism admired
Test confirmed no one
But soon will come the desired

Family swim
Promises keep
Late night film
Work will never sleep

Summer is here, let's all go have fun
Hail to readers, family, friends, and the one

Dude (? - 2008)

Founder of dudepidity.com (that is still under construction) died today. He is survived by his wife, his parents, his elder sister, a younger brother, and many friends who do not bother to make contact.

The exact cause of his death does not concern anyone, but he had been coughing for a few days and nights. He was also sick, tired, and bored - if that will kill anyone.

There will not be any memorial service. His last wish was to get back to work as soon as he died, and reborn as an office ghost.

Witnessing a plane crash

I was planning for the central library for the team.
Compiled a list of categories of the books. Supposed to pass this list to all team members to
have them classify their books.
Fanny gave me some advice.
I added a category called self help.

There was a huge explosion on the other side of the harbor.
Dark smokes formed a huge cloud.

A very small plane
1 lady pilot 1 passenger
3 propellers
The plane flew by very low, tilted to one side
Missed the ground
The propellers were very small, each is made of a wooden stick, like a long chopstick.
The lady flies the plane by holding the three propellers and adjusting their speed and angles.
The lady looked at me
One propeller breaks. She looked frightened.
The plane lost control, zigzagging in the sky
It missed a few buildings.

The second propeller is gone
The lady pulled it out, tried to fix it but it is still broken
The lady looked at me again. She is frightened
The lady lost control.
She tried frantically to maneuver the plane using the remaining propeller
It's hard
Many close calls. Up and down, left and right, the plane is like a fly which has lost its vision.

The lady wants to give up
Tried to kill herself by pulling the 3rd propeller towards her arm
It landed on her upper right arm
There was blood
The propeller stopped
The lady looked at me again
The plane hit a building straight-on like a paper plane hitting a wall

It is stuck between floors of the building
The lady is frustrated. She looked at me
She couldn't kill herself
They got out

Somehow she fixed one propeller
She went back to the plane. It was a rental, she needed to return it
The passenger didn't want to go back, but had no choice
The plane flies again
There was a huge explosion on the other side of the harbor.
Dark smokes formed a huge cloud.

Wife yells: wake up dude! You have 10 minutes to miss the haircut appointment.

Life discovered on Mars... Not exactly.

Mars Phoenix Lander touched down on the Red Planet on May 25, 2008. Although this is not the first time earth sent something to Mars, it is indeed the first time something lively was found.

For the next 4 days of its mission, the lander beamed back vivid images taken by its camera - Surface Stereo Imager. No visible life form was identified in these images, but scientists believe some of the pixels depict evidence of ice and that has been the topic of discussion and further examination for days to follow. The water quality and living condition on Mars finally proved that no life could ever have survived.

However, the mission took a dramatic turn on the 10th day. Some form of robotic machineries were found wandering around the planet, taking pictures of themselves and each other using their robotic arm, digging up soil, and collecting sample rocks and other goodies...One of the robots even came close to Phoenix and ripped off its arm and stole the patchy ice samples.

The shocking discovery of intelligent life on Mars was never thought of since the War of the Worlds fiction. Apparently, humans are not the only beings to explore the Red Planet. Other unknown civilizations have also been probing it with their kinds of exploration devices. The different shapes and sizes of these robots make scientists believe that they originate from more than one world. What on Mars were these creatures doing? Perhaps a question being asked among themselves.

Since the discovery, NASA has abandoned the Mars exploration mission. Rather, it's planning to build a permanent space center and a United Worlds on Mars as a portal for all extra-terrestrials; robots, at least. The first Milky Way Expo is also scheduled to be held in 2020. What a vision.

Lean or mean

High cholesterol is a common health issue in humans, but this may be a good thing after all.

If dude were to be put on a supermarket shelf as a food item. The food label will scare grocery shoppers away. Rich in Cholesterol, Saturated Fat, Sugars, Sodium, Caffeine; and low in Protein, Dietary Fiber, Vitamins, and Minerals, dude is the kind of junk food nobody nor alien would sink their teeth into.

But there's still no guarantee that dude wouldn't end up on a dinner plate, for nutritional values in typical food courts and buffets are probably even worse than dude, only a lot tastier.

Dude's high cholesterol level and bad tastes especially probably saved him; so readers please bear with him as this is only his way of survival.

CEO vs COO

Are you a leader, or are you a manager? Do you have followers, or do you have subordinates? Do you want to be a CEO who sets directions and makes important decisions, or a COO who runs the day-to-day operations?

I read a lot of management books... probably more than some superiors and others who should have read them. To me, management is too much task and result oriented. I like to also focus on people and achievement. Management is too much going by the book... and a bit too impersonal. It's like accounting vs finance, principles vs practice, and tactical vs strategic.

I think I can do a much better management job than many other managers... but do I want to be just a better manager? I guess not... that's not enough for me. It's too easy to do.

But then again, CEO could just be Chief Entertainment Officer... also, don't forget the good old EIEIO.

Got bum?

Different companies have different cultures. Some are so concerned about attendance and working hours, some have flexible office hours.

Do I really have to be at work to prove that I am working? What about those endless nights of working at home? Is anybody counting those?

I'm not complaining coz I don't care how others feel and I feel no shame of not working 'from' the office. haha.. nicely put.

Here's my 2.2 cents. I use my brain, not my bum, to work, so I don't have to sit at the office in order to work. My brain is still functioning wherever I physically am. Where's your brain?

The Death of Phil

On Feb 2, 2008, Phil emerged from his burrow, saw his shadow, and told the world we still have six more weeks of winter. Six weeks later, Phil, 122, was found dead near a 7-11 at Gobbler's Knob.

Apparently the rodent suffered from hypothermia as he struggled to survive the unexpectedly fierce weather that lingered on for months. Poor Phil could have survived had it not been the effect of Global Warming that changed mother nature. Conspiracy theory suggests that Phil could have been a victim of a prank played on him by his human friends who invented thermometers and other temperature measuring devices some 300 years ago, and who sent satellites above the earth to monitor weather.

The use of a rodent to predict the arrival of Spring is simply an insult to mankind. For years, Groundhog Day has generated substantial commercial benefits to the event organizers and media, who were in fact treating Phil as a sheer money-making plush toy.

Some have seen the depressed rodent frequenting neighborhood bars days before his death, suggesting Phil may have discovered the good intentions of humans and committed suicide himself.

However he died, there's a lesson to be learned (for our furry friends, that is): www.theweatherchannel.com

May Phil find peace as he returns to his burrow for good. Amen.

Information is free

You know what I'm talking about. I knew you have done it. And you knew I have done it.

So how exactly is information free? Does it imply information have a price? If so, who determines the price? Can it be free then?

I guess it depends on who owns the information. Does the creator of the information owns it? What if the information contains other information? Should we give credit to all who contributed? Anyway, I don't want to get into the topic of copyright or copyleft... for that matter.

With the advent of the internet, the speed and proliferation of information is phenomenal. Many new media has emerged and quickly became part of our lives. Sharing of information is key to the success of a lot of chic social networking utilities such as facebook, and file sharing technologies such as napster, emule, and bittorrent.

A reminder for you and me - Just because information can be freely obtained, does not mean that it is free.

fivefive

Those who have known me for 10 years or more should have heard of fivefive - my dream dog.

Haha. People have dream cars, but it's quite unusual to have a dream dog. Right, so how exactly does this mystery creature enter my dream? I've given away a little already.

I wish my brain had a good timestamp system. Until then, it tells me vaguely that it all happened in 1997-8. I had a bad dream... or should I say weird dream.

I was walking up a flight of stairs leading to a castle... ok... spooky isn't it? It's dark... crows covering the skies... I don't know why I was there... or what I was doing there. I was trying to walk up to the castle, I remember I fell, trying to get up, but can't somehow...

A few moments later, a white dog came to me... a dog that resembles a schnauzer but pure white in color... it's got red eyes, and the weird thing was that his mouth has the word 'five' painted on it in blue. He helped me get up and led me to the castle.

fivefive has been my handle in icq since then. There's no such dog in the real life that resembles fivefive, not even a white schnauzer. If I really have to materialize it, the drawing above would be as close as I possibly can with my current drawing skills. But it has been in my memory since then.

If I will get a pet dog someday, one can bet that its name will be fivefive.

Past and Future

How much time do you spend reminiscing the past? And how much thinking or planning for the future?

If I were to create a new saying, I would suggest "The future is becoming the past bit by bit, by the second".

How frightening that was! Future is coming nearer and nearer as we plan for it. If we are not fast enough, it became the past and we wasted our time even during planning.

But then reminiscing is already a positive motion. Many people even dwell in the past wrongdoings and mistakes, blaming themselves why they didn't do this or that, and feeling that they have wasted their time. But the only thing they didn't realize is that they are in fact wasting even more time doing so.

For me the past is the past, no matter how great or bad we were. We should focus on the future, and plan well ahead of time as "The future is becoming the past bit by bit, by the second".