Month: June 2007

Categories
Animation Movie Reviews

So We Watched Shrek 3 One Day Before Cynthia’s Birthday

Tuesday nights are traditionally the nights when the Movie Review Squad comes out and watch some movies. Tonight (June 5th) was no different – except we were celebrating Cynthia’s birthday one day in advance as well. Buddy TK picked up the bill and that is very nice of him. We were dinning at that Japanese restaurant previously featured in my blog and like the last time, we have to infiltrate the service area of Hyatt Hotel in order to travel all the way from Fast East Plaza to Cineleisure in time for the movie Shrek 3.

Many people try to compare between the episodes like which one is better than which. To me, they are all Shrek and they are all funny in their own ways. Not that I remember any of the plots anyway but you know what the Shrek franchise is like – entertainment with the capital E. Personally I prefer Princess Fiona in human form (prettier that way ya?) and fortunately, Shrek 3 has more eye candies like Snow White and Sleeping Beauty. Shallow I know but it is not as though you can derive any “moral of the story” from any of the Shrek episodes anyway.

A funny movie with lots of laughter from beginning to end.

Categories
Music Reviews Pop Rock & Alternative

Artist Gone Solo Part 2 of 3 – Dolores O’Riordan of The Cranberries

In Part 1, I wrote about Brett Andersen of “Suede” and “The Tears”. My guitarist Jason and I both agree that most artists gone solo are not as good as when they were with the band (with some exceptions of course) but look, not that the band “The Cranberries” was going anywhere except down. I love their first album and perhaps the second one. “Wake Up And Smell The Coffee”? Just not my cup of tea.

The first two tracks of Dolores O’Rriordan’s “Are You Listening?” are very attractive. It has all the trademarks of the early Cranberries that I like. If you are a Cranberries fan, it is hard not to fall in love with the opening tracks. The downside is, her singing has gone a bit … weird. I don’t think my bassist Cynthia can get pass some of the songs. However, one afternoon I was with my buddy Ken at Mama Africa (a pub in Raffles Place) and they were playing this album. To be frank, “Are You Listening?” is quite a good CD to play when you are chilling out with your friends. Since then I have been listening the album and somehow her singing doesn’t bother me that much anymore.

There are quite a number of good tracks inside this album … very Cranberries style. Like the songs “Ordinary Day” (featured below), “When We Were Young”, “Angel Fire”, “Ecstasy”, and my favorite “October”. All the songs are written by Dolores O’Riordan inspired by her personal life – which explains why it has a mixed of darkness (her previous band and deaths) and lightness (her new baby). Her new band – all seems to have issues of their own except one – appears to be able to play some of the very unique Cranberries tricks (especially the drum) that the resemblance is haunting. Yet this new assemble manages to breath new creativity into the songs. It is an album worth checking out … if you can get pass her new way of singing that is (more glaring from the 3rd song onwards for some I can imagine … my advice is to do a thorough sampling of the entire album).

Categories
Diary

Interesting Couple of Days With Interview, PC Show, and Jamming

I seldom write my blog in an online diary style. Mainly because I prefer subtlety and through the books I review, music I listen to, photographs I took, and movies I watched, I hope I am able to show the facets of me without telling you what sort of cereal I eat lately (hmmm … tempting). However, events of these couple of days are so random that I just cannot find a common theme. So, let’s start with …

[Part 1 of 3 – Interview]

Thursday. Just before lunch I got a call on my wireless phone (a term I learned from watching American Idol).

She: We have spoken couple of weeks before. Are you still interested in the XYZ position?

(more like 2 months in exact)

Me: Yes I am (firm with much enthusiasm).
She: Can you come in during lunch?

I looked at my clock and it said eleven-thirty. Lunch was just half an hour away and if you know me, I think visually. I pictured myself showering, I pictured the need to wear my contact lens and do up my hair, I pictured myself ironing a white shirt, I pictured myself polishing my pair of business shoes, and above all other unimportant images such as breakfast and publishing one of the blog that was written a day before (patting my own shoulder: your dedication to your web audience is quite admirable) – I have to get prepared for the job interview. My buddy BCM has passed me some materials to read in order to get to know what products the company is selling.

I told the person on the line that I was at home and would properly take some time to get to the town center. We then agreed on late afternoon. Between the company and I, we have waited each other for 2 months in exact (I was called one day before I climbed Mount Kinabalu while I was at Kota Kinabalu). I am sure we can afford to wait for another couple of hours.

I love interviews. It is more like a friendly chat between two strangers. A sort of discovery journey not unlike first dates. And since dating is not something I can do these days, job interview is one of the alternative avenues … kidding! Anything beyond the first two and a half sentences in this paragraph is rubbish. On the record, I do enjoy interviews.

After the interview, I had a short coffee break with my buddy BCM just to touch base (“touch base” – such a commonly used corporate phase … I always thought touching base with someone means many things – from patching up from all the corporate backstabbing to “long time no see and though under any normal days I don’t want to see your face but this is business” to “we are both bored at work and let’s kill some time outside the office” to … ahem … corporate intimacy). Of course touching base with BCM was more like old friends who have known each other for 10 years having a crack on my interview and other things in life.

Tried to call up a few friends for a drink in the evening before Cynthia emerged from her office but everyone seemed to have something on. Not to worry. Entertaining myself is one of my strengths – funny that Strength Finder 2.0 did not pick that up. I brought with me a book called “Strategy Paradox” and it is surprisingly a good read. Rare as it is for any consulting book to be entertaining, this one is special. Do keep a look out for the upcoming book reviews in my site.

[Part 2 of 3 – PC Show]

Friday. I have not seen my buddy Mark for a long time and he suggested to see the Friday “PC Show” exhibition. I seldom miss any IT show or motor show for that matter so I eagerly agreed – the same level of enthusiasm as I agreed to that job interview. Mark suggested bringing a camera to take some pictures of the hot babes in the exhibition and I said …

Me: PC Show?!
He: Yes.
Me: But there are no hot babes in PC Show. Motor show, yes. PC Show, no.

Mark then mentioned Nikon and Canon … and ah ha … I remember. Last year, the promoters from Nokia were stunningly attractive posting for everyone to take picture with the new N95 and have them printed out as souvenir (I got a teddy bear phone holder instead). These models were very popular amongst the male population during the last IT show. Funny as I read the last sentence. 99.99% of the people in any given IT show are male … duh!

The PC Show was very crowded. We did one round in the outer circle and then another round in the inner circle and then we gave up. No photos of hot babes neither.

Not knowing what to do next and as Mark’s wife was shopping elsewhere, I suggested to him to hang around with Cynthia and I and I would send him home afterwards. And then there was beer while waiting for Cynthia, Chinese food as three of us chatting on our favorite online game … and three of us were online till wee hours after we returned home. To describe what we have done would have alienated 99.99% of my readers so let’s just say … we’ve had our share of frustration and we’ve had our share of fun. For Mark and I, it was like bringing back old memories two years ago when we first started playing the game.

[Part 3 of 3 – Jamming]

Sunday. After a month and a half of inactivity, my guitarist Jason finally gave me a call to book a jamming session. To be honest, in the name of jamming, I would have dropped any pending activities. As the icing on the cake, Cynthia made it as our bassist too! Hooray to the power Nth! One time Jason suggested that we shall include some of the older songs we have jammed into our open-mic set. So while waiting for this jamming session to occur, I managed to memorize two more songs – “Leaving You” and “Jealousy”. So together with “Something In Your Eyes”, “My Little Swallow”, “Some People Say”, “Feather”, “I Erase Your Face”, and “Kids From The Park”, we have 8 songs in total.

As the cherry on the cream that rests on the icing on that cake, I have invited my sister Lora and her boyfriend Benny to listen to our music. They were clapping and yelling at the end of each song. Probably the most enthusiastic audience we have seen or I have seen.

We did the entire set once and then another time. Satisfied with our progression I asked Jason if there is any song he would like to add onto the set and he suggested “Broken”. We jammed it out a couple of times and though it must have been more than a year if not years since we played that song together, we have it tightened in our second try. Started the session at 1.30pm and by 5pm we were shagged. We were playing non-stop and imagine, three and a half hours of concert … close to 20 songs … it was tiring – to the band as well as the audience (things that our “fans” have to put up with …). Next time we meet, we are going into live recording mode. If Jason and Cynthia manage to memorize some of the chords especially during chorus, we are one step closer to public performance.

Hooray!

Categories
Book Reviews Non-Fiction

Strengths Finder 2.0 And Hence My Results … What Do You Think?

My friend Barbara from Philippines whom I have met back in Mauritius one day went online and as we chatted, I realized that she was like me taking a break from career and unlike me, she is a whole lot more productive – she is into charity works. Barbara introduced me to means to find out what our strengths are and we have made a pack – we are going to find our dream job at the same time. Some sort of support group we have.

In “Strengths Finder 2.0”, the author Tom Rath preaches that we should put our effort to develop our talents (hence making them our strengths) rather than to work on our weaknesses. That I am not too sure if I am entirely agreeable to it. According to the author, we all have our natural talents that are inborn. Hard work can only bring us to a level of mediocrity if you are not born with that talent. Personally, I would rather think that working hard on our passion does mean something and without paying attention to some of our weaknesses (like empathy for some), we can only go that far.

Anyway, here are my results. I am still very puzzled on what to make out of it. As in what sort of insights I should derive. I think friends of mine may have some idea on what my strengths are and looking at the listed ones below, are these my strengths? If so, what can I make out of it? It is so generic in a sense. So readers of my site, please lend me your two cents of thought.

In the order of my strengths are …

  1. Strategic – People who are especially talented in the Strategic theme create alternative ways to proceed. Faced with any given scenario, they can quickly spot the relevant patterns and issues.
  2. Learner – People who are especially talented in the Learner theme have a great desire to learn and want to continuously improve. In particular, the process of learning, rather than the outcome, excites them.
  3. Activator – People who are especially talented in the Activator theme can make things happen by turning thoughts into action. They are often impatient.
  4. Individualization – People who are especially talented in the Individualization theme are intrigued with the unique qualities of each person. They have a gift for figuring out how people who are different can work together productively.
  5. Futuristic – People who are especially talented in the Futuristic theme are inspired by the future and what could be. They inspire others with their visions of the future.

On a side note, I think the book is a precipitation of a great business idea. The real gem behind that book is that online survey that people would love to take. But in order to take the survey, you have to buy the book. Each book grants one entry to the survey and therefore, you cannot possibly share that book with others. To be frank, part one of the book tries to convince you why focusing on your strengths is important and out of 34 themes that are listed out in part two, only 5 that are relevant to you (hence only 15% is relevant to you). In another words, you put your money to the online survey rather than to the book.

The online survey consists of 177 questions each comes with 2 descriptors. Your job is to decide which of these 2 descriptors best suits you in a scale of 5 (visualize a lever that slides between the 2 descriptors at each end). Mind you, you have 20 seconds in exact to complete each question and the website will automatically proceed to the next question if you take too long to think. No toilet break or whatsoever.

An afterthought of mine is … it is good to reconfirm what my strengths are. The big question is: what’s next? The final report – pretty much like a condensed version of the book – further describes what each strength theme is and to probably help you come to terms with who you are. Each theme is also accompanied with 10 action items so all of a suddenly, there are 50 action items to work on. Some who took the test (as read from forums) wonder why the report only shows top 5 strengths rather than perhaps all 34 themes in descending order. I actually have no problem with that because I think there are only that many actions I can focus on at one time. And since the author preaches that focusing on weaknesses is a waste of resources, knowing what my bottom 29 themes is just a satisfaction to my curiosity.

Having said all of the above, I still wonder if these strengths are really inside of me all these while or because I have been a management consultant for over 10 years, I am conditioned to be good at these 5 areas. And if indeed all these years I have been working on my strengths, I shall be happy and growing and successful by now, which is not quite the case. The only conclusion I have is that there must be some fundamental flaws that blindsided me – something that the book fails to answer. Or perhaps …

… all these years I have been given opportunities to sharpen these strengths of mine but I have not fully exploited them because I did not manage to list down my strengths all these years and come to terms with myself until now?

It is funny how everything seems to make sense if tackle from random directions – however senseless the reality is. I still have my doubts.