Month: November 2008

Categories
I See I Write

Nokia N96 Test Drive Episode 1 – First Impression

Rarely do I play around with my wireless phone when I am having a meal with someone.  But when the three lovely ladies from the Nokia and Text100 teams handed me the Nokia N96 for a test drive, not even the thunderstorm outside The Rogues could keep me from having my hands all over this one true beauty.  I know you wish you were me.  And you could well be!

First Impression

This lovely Nokia N96 could well be your early Christmas present.  Or for your loved one.  Or you could email the link of this post to your loved one and hope that he or she would get the hint.  When I first laid my hands on the new Nokia N96, I was much impressed by the elegance of the overall design.  This new design now comes with the eye pleasing rounded corners, new stylish materials for the side and the back too.  

The new Nokia N96 feels lighter, and certainly slenderer than the Nokia N95 that I have.  There is a total redesign of the keypad as well.  I love the flat surface shiny black material with some of the button labels light up or fade away depending on situation.  The new keypad is scratch resistance too.  I have been sms’ing, msn’ing, facebook’ing, gmail’ing, and more for the entire weekend, not a single scratch.

From N95 to N96 in 60 Seconds

When I choose a wireless phone, I don’t just choose a model or a design, I choose a brand that truly care about its customers.  And I have stayed with Nokia since 2000.  Here is one good example of how Nokia delights me.

My wireless phones contain all my vital contact information, together with my notes, to-do list, and calendar items.  And just how easy it is to transfer all that from my old Nokia phone to the Nokia N96?

60 seconds, the wireless way.

First, I logged onto the Nokia’s OVI homepage and added a new phone into my online profile.  A sms was sent to my new N96 and I opened it with my temporary PIN displayed at the OVI website (for my eyes only).  I then used the Sync tool provided by the N96 to download all my latest contact, notes, to-do list, and calendar information I have previously synchronized with my old phone.  60 seconds, with no wire or complicated desktop applications.  I now have a copy of my vital information in my old N95, in the Nokia’s OVI website, in the new N96, and any future Nokia phones I will have.

A detail write-up on the Nokia OVI blogger event can be found in here.

Incremental Improvements that Shock Me Off My Chair

The new Nokia N96 is loaded with so many improvements over its predecessor that some put a smile on my face, some shock me off my socks.

The little stand that is hidden behind the camera near the lens is very good to have.  No longer do I need to hand hold my phone while watching CNN video podcast in the morning with my cup of coffee as I wait for my corporate computer to boot up.  There is also a physical keypad lock latch that makes a lot of sense.  I often find the N95 keypad locking mechanism a bit odd at times.

The music player now allows me to adjust the volume with double the precision than before, which is nice.  And the volume output through the headphone is much louder, which is very car stereo friendly.  I have long replaced the CD changer with my Nokia Nseries.  Did I mention that the new Nokia N96 comes with a car charger in the box as well?  Big deal you may say.  But having the flexibility to perpetually switch on the GPS positioning system (Nokia Map) without worrying that I may run out of the phone battery during my road trip in Malaysia, that is very, very nice.

While it still has the same good old 5 mega-pixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens that works well (see my favorite sunset photo), the newly expanded 16 GB built-in memory with option to extend to another 16 GB and more put Nokia N96 beyond most (if not all) of the MP3 phones in the market today.  The menu feature has been improved too for better productivity and user friendiness.

Above all that are too many to mention in one post, here are two observations that make me a very happy Nokia N96 user.

  1. “5 seconds” is all it takes for the phone to lock onto the GPS satellites.  It is very fast, lightning fast.  And it is free.  Unlike the N95 that takes up to 5 minutes for initial satellite connection, you don’t need to slide the phone open.  The precision is so great now that it can be used not only for driving, but also for walking.  Think of the possibilities.
  2. “4 megabytes per second” is the transfer speed from my computer to the Nokia N96 via the supplied cable.  Big deal?  Well, this is up to 8 times faster than my N95.  Transferring one music album in MP3 format will now only take 15 seconds.  That is fast for a phone.  I timed this myself, loving it.

In Summary and Coming Soon

Throughout the years, Nokia has created wireless phones with better functionality and better design generation after generation.  It is evident when you hold one and try one, like the Nokia N96.  A big thanks to Angela, Evenlyn, and Felicia from the Nokia and Text100 teams who so patiently answered my questions from communication, to product, and to marketing.

It is impossible to cover all that Nokia N96 has to offer in one entry, nor do I enjoy documenting specifications line by line.  Depending on how long I get to hold onto this new phone for my test drive, here are some of the potential working titles for the upcoming episodes.  Stay tuned!

  • Episode 2: So Cynthia Took Over My Old N95 and My Second Impression on N96 (check out the picture above to see how happy she is)
  • Episode 3: GPS in the Highlands
  • Episode 4: Learning Spanish with Nokia N96
  • Episode 5: It is Spore!
  • Episode 6: Satellite Watches Me Jog
  • Episode 7: Geo-tagging Photos of My Year End Trips
  • And more

Related Tag: More Nokia N96 Test Drive Episodes

Categories
Diary My Hobbies Photography

Clarke Quay is Lovely – Project Experiment with Nikon SB-900

Clarke Quay holds a special place to my heart, it has always been since I first visited Singapore more than a decade ago.  The vibrancy, the color, the tourists, and when I was toying with a location for me to experiment my new flash unit Nikon SB-900, I thought of Clarke Quay.

To tell you that I know how to operate that flash unit would be a lie.  Half an hour before we stepped out of our home, I was busy going through the manuals and tips-and-tricks the first time.  I got the essential information – pretty much like most that I do in my life – and reckon that the best way to learn is to go out to the field and experiment.

This Nikon SB-900 is a large flash unit.  Attached it to my already monstrous tool make me look like an alien walking on earth with a huge laser gun.  When TK joined us, he was shocked by the size of my tool.  Oh well, I was shocked too.

So we had a Spanish meal – my first – at The Tapas Tree.  One of the staff whom we have not met before is a teacher from Las LiLas School, where Cynthia and I learn Spanish.  Cynthia was shocked that I initiated a Spanish conversation with her.  I was shocked that the lovely Spanish lady understood what I said.  And she gave us a 10% discount.  How nice.

We bumped into a couple who asked if I could take a picture for them.  I offered to send them the photo via email but I guess they were too drunk to response.  I think I got a bit better with the flash unit towards the end.  Keep practicing I guess.  If all (pictures) fail, at least we’ve had a lovely evening.

Categories
For the Geeks

In the World of MMORPG, One Game Rules Them All – World of Warcraft: The Wrath of the Lich King

God knows how many hours some of the avid gamers have queued for the 1pm launch party.  It wasn’t so much of a party per se and when I was a few blocks away from my destination, minutes before the gate at SAFRA Town Club opened, a random group of lovely ladies right beside me crossing the same street, one of them started, “Look at the queue!  Something free is it?”  Another one replied, “No idea leh.  Maybe free food?”  And they continued speculating the obvious.  I really wanted to turn around and say, “That is for the launch party of the new World of Warcraft expansion”.  But I held my tongue.  Because they would have stared at me as though I was from another planet.

Like the way you stare at me now.

Just how big is this online gaming business?  It is huge.  At minimal, each gamer pays S$20 a month subscription fees to Blizzard, the company that created World of Warcraft.  And at this very moment, there are 11 million active subscribers worldwide.  That is a S$2.64 billion annual revenue.  But that is not all.  Whenever they release an expansion pack, assuming that all who are actively playing the game will get one, that is a S$770 million additional revenue within a very short time.  World of Warcraft enjoys a commercial success unseen of in its gaming domain, not to forget to mention the growth of player base.  On the flip side, it is also featured from time to time in the world news due to its negative social impact.  As for me, I joined the game in 2004 and am now a casual player.  Cynthia has recently joined me in the worldwide phenomenon too.

So tell me, in the world of massively multi-player online role playing game (MMORPG), which game is king?

Random Observations:

  1. The event organizer needs to get some hot young girls as helpers next year.  Though all geeks love Lara Croft, we do prefer real life beings at times.
  2. Walking up 8 flights of stairs just to get the game is very un-gamer friendly.  The (rather plumb) foreigner in front of us was panting hard and complained to me, “We are gamers.  We don’t exercise.  How can they do this to us?”  Uh-huh.
  3. Maybe it is a little bit of truth that when people see you carrying a huge camera, people immediately think that you are a pro and/or you are from the media.  When I talked to the staff, they were very friendly to me.  Did you know that estimated market size for the new expansion in Singapore is 30,000?
  4. When I told my buddy Mark that the queue was too long, he joked that I should tell them that I am an avid blogger and jump the queue.  Now, that would draw lots of aggro that is more than I could handle (note: aggro means that if you piss off someone in the game, you will get an attack!).  Mark, please come back to the game.  We need you!

Categories
My Hobbies Photography

My First Ever SLR Photo Shooting Session – A Test Drive of the Nikon D700 at the Singapore River

Love, can be nurtured.  I think.  I have been staring at my new Nikon D700 for quite some time wondering what I shall do with such a complicated, heavy, fine piece of equipment.  Today, I took it out for some test drive at the Singapore River during lunch.  I think I am falling in love.

When I was back, sweating and feeling a bit tired, I couldn’t hide my excitement and shared with one of my colleagues who is really into photography (and owns a D300) the first day in my life using a SLR.  Yes, all my life I have been a point-and-shoot guy.  Hence, pardon the amateur results and I am keen to hear your opinions (note: my personal preference are those wild and crazy colors).

I don’t think I am and will ever be a big fan of post production work on the photos taken.  Hence, all you see here are the actual results from the camera, with no modification except a simple resize and the addition of captions.  I am still trying to find my way as there are quite a number of settings that I can and do use on the spot.

PS. A big thanks to a friend of mine who was gamed enough for me to take a picture of her while I was doing street shooting during the lunch hours.

PS. When I told my colleague (who owns the D300) that it is hard to go unnoticed on the street carrying such a huge camera, he joked with me that he was used to carry big lens on the street.  And he stopped after realizing that he drew more attention from the men than the girls.  I thought it was a funny story he shared.

Categories
Diary

So I Bought A dSLR That Defies All That I Was Advised Upon

It is probably one of the most breathtaking decisions I have made lately when I got myself an early Christmas present for the next 5 years combined: an entry level full frame camera.  To my dear friends whom I have been bugging for months asking the same set of questions in 101 different ways, thank you for your patience.  I really appreciate it.  Though my final decision is probably not what you would have imagined, your consistent answers have lent me much clarification.  Or so it seems.  I am certainly not as rational as what some friends of mine would think.

OK.  I am most definitely not the smartest dude in town.  I got a shock when I saw the 70-liter dry cabinet delivered to my office.  It is bloody huge!  Big enough to fit a baby inside!  I swear I thought I’ve ordered a 60-liter.  And I got a shock when I held my camera.  So bloody heavy!  Unlike my friend Mark who has also got himself a Nikon camera on the same day (how excited and productive he was!), my accomplishment for day 1 was as follows.

  1. Fully charged the battery!
  2. Took me a long time to tie the stripe.  Really, Nikon should just attach these stripes for us.
  3. Took me a long time to figure out how to attach the bloody heavy lens to the rather heavy body.  I swear I saw virtual dust going into the body while I was holding my breath throughout the nerve-racking process.
  4. Spent a long time staring at that heavy beast pondering: What shall I do next?
  5. Took a picture of Cynthia while she was sleeping.  Then decided against keeping that photo.

This morning I woke up and made some progress.  I managed to set the time zone, date, and time and … time to go to work.

So, why a Nikon D700?  Here is the secret dream world of a simple guy.  The irrational bits first.

  • I love a bigger size, a hand full.  One friend of mine suggested that I should try these bodies before putting down my hard earned cash.  I would agree with her.  Not sure why I trusted my visual instinct so much.
  • Somehow the point-and-shoot picture control dial bugs me.  The one that comes with the landscape, portrait, night scene, and etc. icons.  So I picked D700 as it doesn’t have that dial.  To me, I want the hard way.  Except, now it is so darn hard that I don’t even know how to take a picture.

I know I know … what can I say?!  OK.  Now comes the less irrational bits.

  • I know wise man says “invest in the lenses and not the body”.  I am certainly investing on lenses (got myself a decent Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8) but I am also very hung up on one obscure and basic requirement of mine ever since the day one I started to research on which camera to get: full frame. 
  • This is a baseline requirement for me because I can safely say that I will keep this body for quite some time.  I am not into the mega pixel race.  That is silly to me because it is highly unlikely that I want my photographs to be printed in an exhibition size.  Not now, not for the next decade.  And since I am happy with the mega pixel and the full frame sensor size, what else would I want from the future upgrades?  Perhaps a video function?  Perhaps a better frame-per-second?  Perhaps a Wi-fi connectivity?  Nah, not for me.
  • I don’t see camera sensors can be larger than the 35mm full frame ones that I have.  Lenses will have to be much bigger than what they already are today.  Nor do I see that sub-frame will be the de facto standard for the professionals.  Hence, I prefer to collect lenses that are made for full frame cameras and not to think of the crop ratio that keeps screwing up my brain.
  • I am aware that sub-frame camera has a perceived farther reach due to the crop ratio.  But I am also aware the advantages of a full-frame that I am happy with.

I am so glad that the days of debat is over.  Next step, figure out how to take pictures!  Stay tuned.

Categories
J Pop Music Reviews

Ayumi Hamasaki Complete Singles – Is This for You?

Hardcore Ayu fans will get this, regardless.  For just over S$30, even if most of us – the fans – have already had most of her albums (I have close to 300 songs of hers that amount to 23 hours of continuous enjoyment), this box-set is a very nice to have.  It has:

  • A beautifully printed booklet that contains a selected set of single covers of hers
  • A rare DVD that contains a live recording of her 2003 tour in Tokyo as well as the a-nation recording from 2002-7 (Ayumi releases 2 live DVDs per year – the countdown tour at year end and the arena tour in the summer – but not the a-nation, which is an Avex organized tour for the artists from the same record label)
  • A 3-CD set that contains all the singles released from “A Song for XX (1999)” to “Guilty (2008)” including the new single “Mirrorcle World” and a Chinese version of the song “Who”
  • The hidden track “Kanariya” from the “Loveppears (199)” album – the first hidden track ever to make it to a single release
  • Lyrics, with Chinese translation

I don’t have her first official album so I am happy for these 5 songs that are “new” to me.  If you have already got the “A Best (2001)” as well as the “A Best 2 -Black- (2007)” and the “A Best 2 -White- (2007)” like I do, do you still need yet another compilation album?  Here are some of the analysis for you.

  • 11 out of 44 songs from “Complete Singles” exist in “A Best (2001)”
  • 16 out of 44 songs from “Complete Singles” exist in “A Best 2 (2007)”
  • 26 out of 44 songs from “Complete Singles” exist in “A Best (2001)” and “A Best 2 (2007)”
Categories
Action & Thriller Diary Movie Reviews

Prefer Casino Royale to Quantum of Solace – My Quantum of Mad Rush from 1450 to 1658

I think I had my fair share of action packed excitement prior to the five o’clock movie “Quantum of Solace”.  At 1450 (timestamp from one of my messages to M), I stepped into my Aston Martin (OK, more like a … whatever) with one hand on my Nokia phone doing last minute checking on my GPS ordinates (I did turn on my Nokia Map because I couldn’t afford to make any error and you will see why) …

OK.  If you are here for the movie review, please skip to the next section.  

Now, back to my quantum of mad rush … I am usually quite good at working backward and estimating what time we shall leave our doorsteps.  Today, so much needed to be done and … I gave up planning.  1450 was terribly late, that much I knew.  Tailgated the first car I saw on the quiet road of our neighborhood, I overtook it over a hump.  My car’s engine went vroom vroom vroom and … oops, the car belongs to the Colonel whom I just greeted at the lobby, whom was my client back in my consulting life, whom must have thought who this mad man on the road was.  He must have been shocked that I was that mad man on the road.

Sir, sorry Sir!  It was mad rush time!

I am terrible in road direction and I relied on my Nokia Map in times like this.  Spun the car to YCK Road, drove up the Lornie Road, turned right into Holland Road, exited into Holland Avenue, and as I negotiated a sharp right turn into the car park, I was greeted by the sign …

Car park full.

Uh-huh.  Parachuted Cynthia out of the car with an encrypted message “6 Dim Sum Dishes, Crystal Jade”, I patiently waited at the entrance with a path that slopped upwards.  My phone rang just when that dude from the Mercedes-Benz CLS in front of me let go his brake and gravity pulled this huge German machine towards my car.  NO!  I furiously slammed my honk while Cynthia was on the phone asking me which of the two Crystal Jade restaurants we were supposed to meet.

Handbrake Sir … please!  How would the insurance agencies know who hits who in situation like this?!

As I was waiting for our dishes to arrive, I was so happy to see the ATM machine right opposite the road.  In such a high tech city like Singapore, you would have thought that cashless payment is the way to go.  Apparently not for where I was going to visit, Sim Lim Square (amongst many places here).  One time, I literally withdrew S$1,000 notes over-the-counter so that I don’t need to bring a briefcase of S$50 notes to buy electronic gadgets.  Paid by Credit Cards I will need to add 3%.  Paid by NETS I will still need to add 2%.  You know what?  Our supermarkets should follow suit.  Imagine a 2% discount on grocery bills if we pay by cash.  Why not?  I would.  Especially now that we are in recession.  Any saving counts.

I had a vague memory on where M’s client site is at, theoretically a 5 minutes drive from Holland Vee.  I did get lost and I managed to get back on track thanks to Cynthia and Nokia Map.  M must have forgotten how impressive my driving skill is and as I was waiting and waiting for M to appear, I calculated the route to my next destination, Sim Lim Square.

If all go according to plan, mid next week, M and I would be two very happy men on Earth with our two new cameras.  So today, we went for an accessory shopping trip.  To help some of you to relate, imagine you have ordered a beautiful pair of earrings together with a matching necklace from Tiffany & Co.  While waiting for these lovely items to arrive, what would you do?  Yes, go shopping for some new dresses to go along, correct?

We entered into Singapore River area and have to pay S$2 ERP road charges (on a Saturday?!).  We turned into Rocher Road and paid another S$2 ERP road charges.  Good gracious me!  No wonder I love to stay at home during weekends.  And when we reached Sim Lim Square, we saw the sign …

Car park full.

Uh-huh.  Parachuted M out of the car to kick start the purchase process and when we reached the basement, I parachuted myself out of the car and handed Cynthia the car key.  Time was 1620 and it was running out.  Ran up to Alan Photo and M was happily holding his new lens.  I asked for the UV filter, no stock.  Battery, no stock.  Dry cabinet, no stock but I could place an order that comes with free home delivery.  OK, at least I got myself a rather expensive memory card.

Jumped back into the car at 1640, I paid another S$1 ERP for entering the Orchard area.  By the time we arrived at the 6th floor of Cineleisure, it was 1658.  TK greeted us with the popcorn set that Cynthia has been talking about for the whole day and … time for “Quantum of Solace”!

Quantum of Solace     

To the character James Bond, “Casino Royale” and “Quantum of Solace” are separated by merely an hour.  To some of the audience who have caught the previous installment, that is a 2 years wait.  If I was to watch “Casino Royale” right before “Quantum of Solace”, I think I may be more sympathetic over Bond’s grievance towards the quite possibly love of his life Vesper’s betrayal and death.  This chapter of James Bond starring Daniel Craig seems like part of a trilogy.  I made such a guess because there are some loose ends and in the end credits, it says something like “James Bond will be back again soon”.  If so, that may explain this mid episode syndrome when the majority of the plot is to provide answers to the lingering questions from “Casino Royale” but yet, the climax has to come from the next episode.

I prefer “Casino Royale” because I like the storyline better, because the Bond girl is more intelligent, has more air time, and because I get to see James Bond having fun, falling in love, rather than feeling so heartbroken.  Besides, I think the villain of “Casino Royale” is a lot cooler.

If you like Daniel Craig role in the Bond franchise (like me), you would enjoy “Quantum of Solace”.  There are some breathtaking action sequences and certainly, refresh your mind with “Casino Royale” prior to watching this one will help to understand James Bond’s state of mind better.

PS. I like Olga Kurylenko better in Hitman.

Categories
For the Geeks

Nokia N-Gage Games Night – I Was There (How Video Games Have Evolved)

How video games have evolved, how they have not.  After attended several of their press / blogger events, this time I was as close to where their home in Singapore is as I can be – the Nokia HQ.  When I arrived at the lobby, I gasped at the grandeur of modernity, perhaps a bit too quiet after office hour, nevertheless a strong statement of what the 5th most valuable global brand is to be ($36 billion).

There is a little corner of a posh retail store setup, there is another little area of some secret prototyping workshop going on, a booth for the N-Gage mobile gaming station next to the retail booth, and I peeped into the heart of the office through the floor-to-ceiling glass door and saw another beautiful lobby area behind the public reception area.  I joked if I could take a look inside and the friendly Nokia staff told me that it is strictly for staff only.  Judging at some of the funky unmarked Nokia devices that some of them are carrying, I reckon there must be quite a few top secret next-next generation wireless phones inside the restricted zone.

In My Days of the Arcade

Previously, I was with the Nokia N-Gage development team and have checked out some of their upcoming N-Gage hits.  Last evening, I had the opportunity to go hands-on with some of their upcoming titles.  And how video games have evolved, how they have not.  As I was staring at the video screens, looking at how two players battle each other in the fighting game “One”, I had flashbacks of my University days in UK, when I often hang out at the social center, admired at how my best mate flair when he played the “Street Fighter” and the “Mortal Kombat” at the arcade video stations.  He is a physicist, and I often joked that the knowledge of quantum physics must have got him far to the games.  I am a computer scientist, and I couldn’t even beat the computer character in those arcade video stations.

Neither could I beat my opponents in the Nokia N-Gage Games Night.  The game play of a fighting game has not evolved that much since the days of the arcade – basic navigation on movements, a set of buttons to execute a combo move, a set of timed counter moves, and a health bar hanging on top of each character’s head.  Yet, gone are the bulky arcade video stations and they are magically shrunk into a tiny device that fits onto our hands – a device that is always switched on in our waking hours and follows us wherever we go.  Finding an opponent is as simple as making an Internet or Bluetooth connection using our mobile devices that in today’s world, it is largely affordable and in many instances, free.  How video games have evolved.

Game with Your Built-in Camera

How video games have evolved that the way we play our game is no longer constrained by what happens inside this tiny mobile device, but we take the environment around us into the game.  “Metal Gear Solid Mobile” for instance enables players to take advantage of the external environment to advance our game progress.  Using the camera that comes with the wireless phone, the game allows you to navigate precisely by how you physically move your phone.  Not only that, you can take a picture of your surrounding area and use that as a pattern to camouflage the suit of your character that helps your stealth mission.  If you need a dark suit, take a picture of a dark object around you.  If you need something light, take a picture of the sky perhaps.

In Love with Racing

One friendly Nokia staff was passionately showcasing the new “DChoc Café Solitaire 12pack” to me and for those who are into solitaire type of games, you would love this one.  As for me, I was literally glued to the upcoming racing title “Asphalt 4 – Elite Racing”.  It is fast pace, taxing on concentration (initially at least), when after a few rounds of virtual racing on the street of Paris, my head was spinning.  I must be experiencing a virtual G force of some sort (too much F1!).  To skip to the end of the story, yes, I did get a rank 1 (I swear I would have kept the entire Nokia and Text100 team locked inside this booth till I get there), with one hand (playing with two hands is not a mandatory), and I could watch the “One” tournament of how the rest of the gamers face off each other live while I raced in my Mini.

How video games have evolved, how they have not.  Kudos to those who are so passionately developing and promoting the next generation of mobile gaming.  The device may be small, the outcome is anything but.

Related Links: Nokia events I have attended

Categories
Experience Sharing My Favorite

Recession and You Think You See the Axe Coming … So What? Practical Ways to Stay Happy

Lovely picture isn’t it?  When I retire, I want to live somewhere that I can see this view every end of day.  But between then and now, I reckon I still need to make just enough money to get there.  And I reckon I will probably see a few rounds of bull and bear runs between now and then.

These days, increasingly I have friends at my workplace, outside of my workplace who share with me their concerns about losing their jobs during this downturn.  I know that feeling of anxiety.  I have been there, seen that, during my more than a decade hanging onto the corporate ladder, like many of you.  This blog entry is my wish to share my humble thoughts on how to stay happy based on my very own experience.  And I am happy to hear yours too!

My strategy here is simple.  It is not about how to survive not being axed.  That is hard because of so many moving parts that are beyond your control and influence.  But rather how to excel in your workplace amidst all the uncertainties that affect everyone around you, but you.  And it comes down to one word: Preparation.  A happier you makes you perform better at work.

1. Your Mentality Towards Work

Look around you and you can easily see those who are so committed to work and you wonder: do they have a life at all?  To some, work is more than an entity.  Take the job away from them and they will collapse, don’t know what to do.

Sure, most of us need to earn a living.  I love one quote from my ex-colleague: Day job is to pay my bills, what I do at night feeds my ego.  So true.  When I started my career, I worked 16 hours a day, seven days a week.  One day, I read somewhere that I shall begin with an end in mind (back to that image) and I asked myself: Do I want to leave this world being remembered as a good employee who has contributed this much top line sales or bottom line savings to this organization?  Or do I want to be remembered as …

And it struck me there and then: work is just an entity.  That memo I wrote today at work, or that conference call I participated, sure they are important.  But are they that important to me?

At work, I have a role to play, to be responsible for a certain set of items that are important to the organization.  To me, there are more important things in life.  I want to excel while I am at work.  And I want to excel after I step out of my office at sane hours as well.

Take a moment to reflect what is important to you.  Are you sacrificing too much for your career?  What if you let go of your job today?

2. Build Your (Genuine) Network (Early)

Genuine network takes time to build.  You can’t build one right now when you suddenly realize that how nice if you have one.  Don’t get me wrong.  I am not here to ask you to befriend only those who are of value to you.  Quite the opposite.  I believe in give and take, give before take, give without thinking of what to take in the future.  That is genuine network.  I enjoy reaching out to friends because I genuinely want to get in touch with them.  If they need my help, I am more than happy to lend a pair of helping hands if I can.  And I don’t hesitate to ask for help if I need one.  Most people prefer not to bother others.  To me, it is give and take.  You give others the opportunity to help you hoping that one day, others will ask the same from you.

Unless you don’t want the latter case to happen.  

When you step out of your job for good, it is good to know that you have support out there and you are not alone.  Don’t you think?

3. How Long Can You Hold?

When time is good, it is easy not to think about affordability on your spendings.  Different people have different philosophy in life when it comes to managing personal finance.  I respect that.  I am a simple person.  My main objective in terms of personal finance is to keep the loan commitment low.  In fact, I often joke with Cynthia that she manages assets while I manage liabilities.  I enjoy reducing the principle sum of my mortgage whenever I have a lump sum of money.  When I bought my first car, I took minimum amount of loan.  When I bought my second car, I paid by cash.  I reckon if I save hard enough, I shall be able to repay the entire mortgage in 3 to 5 years’ time.  By then, I will be debt free.

The question remains: how long can you hold when you stop working right now?  Hence to me – since I am a simple guy – I love to hold cash (and let Cynthia manage investments).  I am not saying that mine is the best strategy for you.  Quite the opposite, I think my friends who are into investment have been doing really well.  But since I suck at that, I prefer to save hard and know that if I am, touch wood, to live without my monthly pay check, I can vegetate for a couple of years while looking for something else to earn a living.

Do you know your average monthly expenses?  Good.  Now, do you know your average monthly expenses should you trim down your lifestyle if the worst is to come?  Divide your total cash savings with that and that is the number of months you can last without the constant flow of pay checks.  Every dollar you now save will lengthen that period that you can afford to take a career break.  Think about that.  Once you build a comfortable buffer, taking a long career break is no longer such a scary concept, is it?

Axe?  So what?  What’s there to be fear of?

4. What’s the Worst That Can Happen?  (What’s Next?)

At times I don’t know which is a better situation.  Struggle to survive in an environment that is collapsing with people around you losing their jobs or to head out and look for better opportunities out there.  Imagine you are one of the penguins out there trying so hard to hunt for fish that is diminishing by day due to overfishing, global warming.  Should you starve with your mates and hope that you will outlast them?  Or shall you go somewhere else like a Singapore Zoo and get fed every day?

I saw the axe coming before and looking back, I agree with the butcher.  That was the best day of my life.  What’s next turns out to be way better than where I was.  In fact, it is good to give ourselves time to self-reflect, to re-evaluate our key strengths, and to look for an environment that we can perform well.  Both external and internal environments change all the time.  That is an universal rule.  Go ride with that.

5. The Ingredients for Longevity

Thank you for reading such a long post and I hope your career is as wonderful as it can be within the boundary of work life balance that you define.  If I could leave you with one last thing to ponder, you can only work well and live well with a health body, mind, and soul.  I have a glass of orange juice each morning, stay out of excess stress, and I rarely visit the doctor or take medical leave for quite a number of years.  I am blessed to have great friends and lovely family.  And I believe in doing the right things in work and life will get me far.

In Summary

You too can stay happy during recession by getting prepared.  You may not become instantly happy today after reading this post but I am confident that in time to come, you will.  Life is really not only about work, is it?  A lovely quote to share.

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain

PS. Picture taken at East Coast Park using my Nokia N95 phone.

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Jamming Session

Our Band Has a New Vocal Coach, Woot! – Live on Nov 29 (Sat) 7pm @ Heeren

Finally, the program for the charity event “Music for Hope” is out.  I was just about to wonder if our band’s slot is still on, or off.  It will be a whole day event at Heeren (Singapore) and our band will perform right in between the last leg of the show (Nov 29, 7pm), right in between a young children band performance, a dance performance, songs by a Korean singer, and songs by another unplugged band.  Let’s see how this will play out.

I love looping in my friends for fun events like this (and I am more than happy to be involved in any of theirs in the future).  So I gave my old friend Jason Seet a call and without hesitation, he is happy to be our band’s unofficial vocal coach, give us some fresh ideas to work on, and much like our private performance previously in Petaling Jaya (Malaysia), it i always good to perform in front of real audience.  It is much easier to get into the songs this way.  So he turned up at our practice session, together with his wife Silvia whom Cynthia and I have met before they got married.

Jason Seet is a model consultant (we worked as a team before together with Cynthia).  Full of enthusiasm and encouragement with crisp clear suggestions for areas of improvement.  I always think that to criticize is much easier than to propose how to be better.  After we were done for the day, Jason reviewed our recordings and pinpointed word by word where the emphasis should lie, how some of the lyrics can be rewritten for better impact.  Hands down, the best vocal advice I have had.

OK, time to put the advice into practice.  See you at the Heeren!