........

Meditation in progress.........

~ I'm running out of content to blog as well :p ~

Youth is basically priceless

I came across this comment while reading an article about startup projects:

"As a young founder your strengths are: stamina, poverty, rootlessness, colleagues, and ignorance."

It's true that we do not realise how much more we can give when we are in our 20s. How important it is to treasure the moment and make the most out of it. How incredibly beneficial and productive we can be at this very age. We are now at the point where we can be on centre stage, explore every options, path our future, work out our dreams, absorb all kinds of knowledge, learn from mistakes, strive endlessly, create ideas, reform... All because youth promotes an infinite level of energy or stamina (and so it seems).

"Time is on our side. Do whatever it takes to generate a future of success"

A lot of teenagers / young adults believe that the phrase "make the most out of your time" means to indulge in high-risk, crazy, wild, improper activities while you are still young. Those are the activities that we should "make the most out of the time" because when we are old we would not be able to do it anymore. Or some would probably regard our youth as a tool to get in a relationship. So it seems that in society, when you turn 30, you are considered a old hag. I don't see it this way... Wild activities, short relationships are minor achievements in life.

Major achievements are what you can teach the younger generation in the future, about the path towards success. It is when you can distribute your fruits of success to your family. It is the knowledge we can propagate to everyone above / below us. And in the end, we can just see that the future we have built is not just in our hands but also in the hands of our children and also in our children's children.... through generations. :)

And THAT can only be achieved if we make the most of our youth. By creating positive energy and use the energy to build foundations of our success. Use the time to create a vision, strive on it and live for it. We are at an advantage now... Believe (Guiness)

~ I live for the future ~

De "X" Challenge

I've declared it...! A full day of Fitness First Group "X" classes. Since I took the Monday off from work, I decided to do something fun on my own. The goal for today was to join at least 4 Group "X" classes. Here was the selected activities for today:

1:00 - 2:00pm : Body Attack
2:00 - 3:00pm : Yogalates
3:00 - 4:30pm : BREAK
4:30 - 5:30pm : Body Jam
7:45 - 8:45 pm : Body Combat

The morning sessions are scraped off as I would need it to energize myself, sleep and eat. :D
And I have allocated room for breaks after 1 or 2 sessions so I won't dehydrate. During breaking hours, I can probably rest, surf, read or whatever in the gym. It wouldn't be a problem. ;)

So, the heat was on. With my bags packed, I told my mother, I will be spending the day in the gym and although she gave me a "r-u-sure??" look which promotes a certain degree of negativity, I was determined!!!

The plan was 50% successfull!! I managed at least 2 classes; Body Attack and Yogalates.

Body Attack is a combination of Body Jam, Yogalates, Body Step, Body Combat. It is a very, VERY tiring work-out (for me at least). This is because you are required to jump a lot and hit the air a lot (punches). It requires more stamina then most workouts because of that. I was half-beaten in the 3rd track which was only after 20 minutes. The trainer is pretty good and gets the momentum going. There is quite a number of ladies in his class.

I'm pretty amazed by the outcome in the afternoon actually in the gym. The classes are pretty filled with young people. :)

Next up was Yogalates which focus mainly on the basic steps of yoga. Since I'm still a beginner, I still wobble a lot with basic positions. I found out that my stamina is still good after body attack. Altho' not much movement is required for Yogalates but I still need the strength. The trainer is top-notch. A very firm body indeed which I'm going for. heheh.. I can't say I'm much closer to what she have but it's nice to dream once in a while. :D

Okie, after the class ended, I decided that I need my daily dose of caffeiene. So, I took my notebook and ran off to Starbucks. The environment there is pretty nice as today was a bit cooling. I would not comment on the haze though. I spent an hour and half there browsing and reading before I decided that I cannot walk into the gym anymore.

The plan has to end......... And, well, I did drive back feeling healthy at least!

Anyways, I got back and started playing: GOD OF WAR. Wohhee.. I think it's a pretty cool game thanks to MJ. It's VERY gruesome with a lot of special moves to make that is why I like it!


So far, I think the PS2 is really a very good investment for me. hehehe.... It did reduce some stress along the way and it really helped me to get my mind of useless stuffs. Altho the whole gaming idea is useless by itself. :P Anyway, it still rocks!!!!

~ It's playtime!! ~

Do I over-promise or under-promise?

I spent another month working on tight schedules and last minute requests. Our customer rep decided that we need another installation test on the software load as there was too many fixes on the previous load. My boss, placed my name in as I had done this installation previously and also mainly because I've just completed my current feature.

They gave me 2 weeks with the requirement to complete an upgrade on a machine (no specific platform details) and I had to draw out the test strategy. While working on the strategy, I got various feedbacks on the scenarios I have to perform. In the end, I drew out 3 test scenarios for the upgrade where each scenario is tested on different platform requirements. The plan looks good and it fits into the schedule nicely.

The workload took 4 and the half weeks to complete. How was that possible???

Let's do a causal analysis on the problems that arises and the outcome of my workload.

#############################################################################

Problem #1:

The estimate on the test strategy was handed over by me. Upon the requested requirement, I was only asked to complete ONE upgrade. However, I've ended up producing 3 different scenarios (upgrades) in order to fully test the software load. Was I wrong in expanding the test installations?

Outcome:

My customer rep was supportive in trying different customer configurations therefore, he was willing to expand the schedule. My direct boss, however, wasn't too happy in my prolonged commitment on this work. He commented that "You should not be committed to this re-test this long. How come your work does not comply to the pre-determined schedule??" I can't blame him because, judging from my test strategy, I only managed to catch ONE minor usability problem which is still under negatiotion with the support team.

Problem #2:

Due to the late and immediate request, we were fighting through getting machine resources. 3 scenarios, requires 2 different sets of machines on a specific platform. Since this upgrade needs 4 different DVDs to complete, we concluded that we should perform it on the local lab. It would be VERY troublesome to do it remotely as we need another support engineer in other parts of the world to help us change the media. (mainly one from US and one from Ireland) The time difference is another factor as well, 2 days of local installation is equivalent to 3-4 days of remote installation. We are on a tight schedule and we cannot be affected by time differences and remote support. Therefore, 2 sets of local machines were sourced.

Outcome:

A whole week was spent troubleshooting on the local machines. The upgrades keep failing for no particular reason and the local support team was indeed as helpless as we are. The issue was escalated to the remote support team in US and the conclusion was drawn. We recieved an email from the other end stating "WHY IS THE LOCAL TEST TEAM NOT USING CUSTOMER CONFIGURATIONS?". It turns out that no external hard-disk and dvd-roms can be connected to the machine. The software load cannot handle it.... (???) However, our product is delivered as an integrated system to the customer therefore our issues will NOT be encountered at all. Gosh... in the end, 3 scenarios was completed remotely with no further issues. I had to say it was partly my fault for not checking through the customer specifications thoroughly before proceeding.

Conclusion:

My estimation was too perfectly drawn without giving room for mistakes / investigation time. 2 weeks is the ultimate time to perform the installation provided that we have a set of CORRECT configurations. I have also overlooked the idea of checking the pre-requisites of the machine before proceeding with the upgrade. In the end, I have doubled up my workload and introduced work redundancy. I do admit that I play a big part in producing the undesired outcome. And maybe my boss was correct when he questioned me on my "extended timeline". Anyway, this is a lesson to be learnt!... It's probably better to under-promise then over-promise.

~ I failed to plan and indeed planned to fail ~

Scratching strings :)

When I was 5, I always wondered when my parents would enroll me for a piano class. Due to the influence my older siblings had on me, I invited music lessons into my life gleefully.

Our first piano teacher, Miss Khoo, stayed in Sri Hartamas and my father never failed to arrive half an hour before the class starts. He would then bring us to the nearby park and test us on our Italian terms. While we hop on monkey bars and sit on slides, he would open the little "red" book and question us on the meaning of "allegro", "staccato", "dolce", "andante" and so on. Our music class is in a small, cosy and "yellow" (due to the light) room. There is a couch, a piano, a book selve on the left and a table in the corner (if I can remember clearly). However, the most distinct memory of our lessons is the stories my piano teacher creates.

Music theory was thaught to us like this:



"crotchet" is an indian and runs fast. (one beat)



"minim" is a chinese and its slower then the indian (two beats)



"dotted note" is greedy therefore it has a dot (three beats)



"semibreve" is a fat man which is why it is the slowest (four beats)

"Elephants Great Big Dirty Foot" (EGBDF) is how we should remember to read our notes on the music lines.

Treble looks like a woman / mother so it's higher in pitch.
Bass is a man / father so it's lower in pitch.

Every piece bears a character and a story and is related to us so we could bring out the life of that music score.



All those memories came back to me when I started to enroll myself to a Violin class. I decided to bring back music into my life. Master another instrument to fill up the spaces I have in my life. :D Although, the music teacher I have currently ain't that good. (deciding to change soon...) It would be a getaway for me at least so I can focus on other aspects in life.

Anyway, so far, I've been basically scratching strings and hurting everyone's ears. :) I seriously hope our neighbours doesn't start complaining. hehehe.. Well, hopefully I keep the music spirit alive so I can relate those wonderful stories to my kid next time.

~ another step towards success ~

August was a month ago ....

Another month has passed.. and I seriously cannot believe that my last post was in August. I checked the date today, and it's the 1st of October! What happened to September?? Maybe it has something to do with this song....

Green Day - Wake me up when September Ends

Summer has come and passed

The innocent can never last

wake me up when september ends

......

here comes the rain again

falling from the stars

drenched in my pain again

becoming who we are

......

ring out the bells again

like we did when spring began

wake me up when september ends

So, September has come and gone. The last thing I remembered was me and the gang hanging out. The Curve, batting, karaoke... joy, laughter, noise pollution.

The following week, work flooded in so naturally until I didn't take the short break that I promised myself to. I'm a workaholic I know. I never really enjoyed the idea of taking holidays just to sleep, laze around or simply to rest. Why?.. 'cos it stops my momentum of working and in the end, I would wish to have more rest days instead of looking forward to work again. That's the reason I sleep so little during my uni days. Since, I found out that sleeping is a must for me to gain enough energy for work, I'm now practicing longer hours of sleep. However, I'm still working more than 8 hours, pouring over my work like it's my life. And in the end, when things get out of control and I cannot take it anymore, I only have myself to blame. It was me who didn't plan properly. It was me who take up everything and hope to work on it. It was me who just basically think I'm a freakin robot. And it was me who saw that my capabilities was so damn limited. And it was me who fall out suddenly and realised my mistake. It was me who failed to see that I cannot deal with everything at the same time. Don't get me wrong, my work ain't that demanding. It's just that I work more hoping to achieve more than expected. But in the end, I drown myself with mistakes and achieve lesser.

And that was what september turned out to be. A month-ful of mistakes.. This month however, it would not be the same. It's time to reorganise.... and we'll just wait and see.

~ Kaizen!!! - Japanese management term referring to continuous improvement ~

Stories from my Mother

There was this rich man, in search of happiness, went up to a monk and confessed..

"Dear monk, I have everything I could dream of. Wealth, family, a big house and a growing business. But why do I not see happiness?"

"Happiness is always there. Right in front of you.."

"Really? Then why am I deluded from the sight of it? I can't seem to see it"

"It's because you, yourself are holding up this delusions in front of your eyes with your own hands. My advice to you, is to let go of what you are holding so tightly and you can clearly see happiness in front of you."

"How can I let go of something I'm unaware of?"

"Man have extra possessions, desires and thoughts that they think is worthful to them and they hold on to it so tightly. Those are what keeps them away from happiness. Only you are aware of it. You've got to go back and think about it. And once, you have identified it, then you can let it go."

The rich man contemplated for a long time at home and decided what he was holding on so dearly.

After a few months, he stepped into the monastery and approach the monk once more:

"Wise monk, I've did what you asked me to. I've let go of everything I owned. I retired from my job, spent more time with my family, gave my business to my sons and basically lead a relaxing life. But I'm still not happy. How can this be possible? I've let go of everything....."

The monk said, "My dear man, tell me, if today would be your last day on earth, what would you have not accomplished?"

The rich man instantly, replied:
"1. I haven't spoken to my lawyer regarding my possessions
2. I haven't bought a burial ground for my body to rest in peace
3. I have to think of my last words to say to my family members

There is a million things I haven't done. I cannot go away now."

Then the monk said, "When you go home tonight, you will meet a man of different status then you. This man will help you. But, before you go, you have to remember what I say to you now: 'you have to let go of everything, keep letting go and finally let go once again"

The rich man drove home, and at his doorstep, saw his gardener. Remembering what the monk said about meeting a man who could help him, he approached the gardener.

"My dear garderner, why are you still working at this time of day?"

The garderner replied: "I love life boss. I wanna make sure that this flowers live under my care. If I plant this fertilisers at night, the flowers will bloom healthily tomorrow."

"What makes you love life so much?"

"Well, before I worked here, I was very poor. Everytime I return home, I'm only afraid that I will starve to death. Then one day, at the lowest of times, when I got fired from my job, I returned home without any food. As I lay down with an empty stomach, I told myself that death is just a part of life. Anyway, a wise monk saved me from my misery and here I am now."

"But... how can you just accept death as it is? What happen to your possessions? Who is going to bury you? and How about your family members?"

The garderner replied: "Boss, I possess nothing that is worthy for my next generation. Besides my family members have all left me. And at that time, I didn't even have money to buy food, how was I even to think of where to be buried."

The rich man finally realised what the monk have taught him. He have successfully let go of everything he owned but he failed to let go of his thoughts / desires. That was what's been holding him back.

Problems are just trivial matters in life. The only problem in our world is that, in our minds, the problem itself is enlarged. We create mindless images of what should be and what shouldn't be. I once came across this phrase, that I always use to remind myself that "it's not that bad after all":

"More than half of the problems we face are problems that we create in our minds and is non-existent. The rest of it, we never got a chance to deal with."

My mum told me this story, when I was fighting through a time when I thought I made a huge mistake. And the problem was that I repeated that mistake again. Her advice to me is to "let go" of the guilt inside of me and deal with the problem. :)

"Free your mind, free your soul and you will be freed"

Nerds, Geeks or Dorks??!

Find this definitions so amusing... check it!

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We've been called all three, and to be honest, we always assumed they meant the same thing. However, according to the cool kids, there are differences.

Official definitions for nerd, geek, and dork each use the words "inept" and "foolish." Nerds have the added distinction of being "unattractive." Ouch. While it's hard to argue with the dictionary, we sought out definitions from the Internet at large.

According to Whatis.com, nerds are people of above-average intelligence who place little importance on their appearance. Nerds are often aware of their status, but they don't mind. In fact, many take pride in the putdown, as it means they're smart and not wrapped up in superficial worries.

Geek is a more specific term. Back in the day, geeks worked at carnivals, and (according to the dictionary) "bit the heads off live chickens." Thankfully, the term now has a different connotation. Like nerds, geeks are smart, but they tend to focus more on technology. As Urban Dictionary explains, these are the people you make fun of in high school and later work for as an adult.

Being called a "dork" is the biggest insult of the three. There's no way you can spin it into something positive. After all, even the dictionary writes that dorks are "stupid" people. And to make matters worse, dorks assume they're cool. Oh, and they smell, too.

So, to sum things up, if someone calls you a geek or a nerd, thank them. If someone calls you a dork, consider going back to school and investing in some new deodorant.

~ how true?!! ~

The Monkey's Paw

I think most of you would probably know this story. Follow the link....

http://www.room217.net/literature/monkeyspawtext.htm

It's about a monkey's paw that can grant 3 wishes. However, you have to be careful what you wish for as the consequences might be unbearable. So, this old man wished for 2 thousand pounds thinking that no harm could possibly be done. With that, his son met with an accident in the factory which he was working for and the company compensated the money to him. It's a pretty freaky story and I used to get real scared reading it....

Anyhow, the message to be conveyed is to appreciate whatever you have in life.

It's funny how we always moan and groan about our job, friends, family, partners or life itself. But we never did sit down and see the beauty of just being alive. Cherish life's pathetic ways or honour those who sit by us. We wish for luxury, hope for a better life and pray for our desires. Eventually, we are never happy, satisfied or contended.

The story tells us that, wishes do come true but it means that we have to sacrifice something in return. All good beginnings might not have a sweet ending and vice versa.

Therefore we should stop dreaming and start living. :)

~ a message to all who struggle through their mediocre lifes~