Category: My Abstract Life

Categories
Memorable Events

So My Buddy Popped the Question … to My Sister

What an eventful week.  Just when I thought I could sit back and relax because I have written a whole week worth of blog entries, my best buddy in Singapore popped the question … to my little sister.  So time to dig up one of the old photos that my pa has recently digitalized and start writing.

I began today like every other day, happy and energized, and then my phone beeped.  I have one new message, from my sister.  That’s odd.  We are in excellent term, of course.  But we seldom communicate.  I opened up the message and she said Benny has proposed!

Wow!  I must have felt like I have won a million dollar lottery at that moment.

Flash back to my previous short visits to home in Hong Kong over many years, inside a low lit living room my ma and I sat opposite each other.  My pa was asleep in the bedroom with the door ajar.  Our dog rested comfortably on his bed looking curiously at us.  And I would start the conversation, like I always did, with “So, has sis hinted anything yet?”  My ma’s response varied but both of us would end up sighing, staring at space, and I would say, “Look ma, all in good time.”

Now, at least we don’t need to think of when my sister will be getting married.  Yay?

So I met up with Lora for dinner and I couldn’t wait to hear about our parents’ responses.  “I called this morning waking ma up from her dreamland,” she said.  “You did?” I asked.  “Yes, and she was initially happy, then she paused,” my sister paused.  “And?” I asked eagerly.  “Ma asked if I have said yes,” she continued.

Did my sister say yes?!

I laughed so hard.  OK.  I personally don’t think any response other than a yes would be possible.  And my sister would have had a lot of explanations to me had she even said maybe.  Seriously … ha ha ha.

Anyway, knowing how dramatic my family is, I was eager to hear my pa’s response.  “He was excited of course,” my sister said.  “Of course,” I replied.  “And he asked if the proposal was sincere,” she smiled.  “What is a sincere proposal?” I asked in puzzlement.

It is good that both of our parents are so supportive.  Being a big brother, my response was totally business-like.  After a business-like congratulations as though Lora has just won a million dollar deal, my action oriented nature kicked in.  So I advised, “You have to perform a stakeholder analysis, sis.”  “A stakeholder analysis?” my sister was awed.  Yes, we have to figure out what Benny’s parents’ expectations are like, what about our parents, what is the time line like, and budget, and have you started to think of the brothers and sisters team, who are the event organizers, are there going to be two wedding dinners in two different locations, formal versus informal, who will be there, Church wedding, which country will go first, outsource versus insource …

I bet Lora was amazed at what went inside my head.  But seriously, there is nothing to be amazed about.  Success is when preparation meets opportunity.  I have been dreaming of today for a long, long time.

Back to my pa’s response that got me puzzled, I called home after we reached home.  5 minutes had passed and he was just asking about me.  OK, did pa get it from my sister at all?  I didn’t want to be the first to break the news.  “So pa, Lora is getting married, are you happy?” I casually asked.  He replied, “She is not getting married.”  I paused, panicked, and continued, “Yes she is.  Hasn’t she told you this morning?”  “She is getting engaged,” my pa said it as-a-matter-of-fact.  “Pa?!” I screamed, “It’s the same!”  “Did she say yes?” he asked.  “Pa?!  Of course she said yes,” I laughed.  “Was the proposal sincere?” he queried.

Uh-huh?

“How would I know, pa?!” I genuinely didn’t know.  “Did he get on his knee when he proposed?” he asked.  “How would I know, pa?!” I genuinely didn’t know that either.  “What century are we in now?  People don’t do that anymore in real life,” I added.

Do we?  Maybe people do.  Maybe Benny did.

And as of this very moment, my ma is still outside partying and celebrating so I have yet to speak with her on the phone.  Anyways, many congratulations to my beloved little sister and my best buddy Benny.  Stay tuned.

Categories
Whacky Thoughts

Of Dr. Nanorobot, Human Power Plant, Chip Implant, Eyeset, and More – My First V-blog (Prelude) Episode 4

I can be a futurist.  I see a future that our bodies will be repaired by robots of nano-scale in the comfort of our home, bulky televisions are things of the past and instead, we will have our own Eyeset (think headset).  Walking through the building entrances, office doors, and immigration checkpoints without the need of any physical identities because we will have a chip implanted inside our bodies.  Not a passive chip that tells the whole world who and where you are, but one that you can voluntarily set the privacy level.  Imagine no more forms filling in front of a counter and the customer service officer will be able to address you by name – because your name as broadcasted by your chip implant with your consent is shown up in the Eyeset she’s wearing. 

And I have more of such vision to share.  Just bear with me for a moment.

This was meant to be a nostalgic post, dedicated to the early Xers with a working title as “Of Chamber Music, 80s Computer Magazines, App on Tape, and Flash Today”.  But blogging is like a show biz.  Some titles may work, others may not.  And before I continue with my bizarre vision of the future, I wish to share with you where the idea of this post comes from and how it relates to my upcoming v-blog (that is if I’ve decided to continue writing this mini-series).

How time has changed, how time hasn’t.  Here are four random observations.

  1. Closed to a century ago, the first radio show was aired.  People started to listen to music played on air.  Half a century prior to that, gramophone was made common to play recorded sound.  So what happened before 1870 in the era of Bach, Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven?  If one wished to listen to the chamber music back then, I guess the only way is to listen to a live performance.  And if you were to come up to Beethoven, hand him a hearing aid, and tell him that you have a recorded copy of his Ninth Symphony with you, how would he have reacted?
  2. Prior to the advent of Internet, no one would have thought that he or she could download a piece of information, rampantly copying and pasting to different places with a few clicks of a button.  Why do I say that?  As briefly mentioned in my upcoming v-blog, one memorable childhood moment that my dad and I did was to type in the programs or codes as printed on a computer magazine into our computer, line by line, character by character.  If we were careful enough with those incomprehensible codes, our computer screen would turn into some pretty evolving symmetric patterns in green pixels.
  3. One decade is really not a long time, in a larger scheme of work.  But it is hard to imagine that DVD was not common back in the nineties, isn’t it?  I was an eager graduate ready to face the corporate world and in my hand, I had this installation tape.  A tape, you may ask?  That’s right.  It was a bulky one indeed.  One time, our clients flew in from France to view a demonstration of our back then state-of-art technology.  Their server in Paris dialed into our Singapore server for a connection and the sound of the dialing tone was so surreal, singing the tune of “From Paris with Love”.  Dial-up connection seems so ancient, looking back.  Anyway, our demo didn’t work initially.  We had to call our French clients back from the taxi stand after one magic touch of mine that made it worked, much like a football goal in the 93rd minute.  What did I do?  Don’t ask.  It’s technology.  When all fails, wash your hand and repeat the exact same step again.  It may work.  And I am not joking.
  4. If you are curious, my upcoming v-blog is created using Flash.  It is a wonderful application that enables me to manipulate my video in a frame-by-frame, layer-by-layer manner.  Except, how time hasn’t changed.  As I spent the entire Sunday morning redoing, recreating an entirely same video from the old one that failed to be published, I felt as though I was transported back in my childhood moment with my dad and our 80s computer magazine, back in my early career days of application on tape.  Things just don’t work, for no apparent reason.  And after a few rounds of doing the same thing again and again, an unexplainable solution would emerge.  That’s technology for you; a bloody time sink; productive tools with unproductive results almost guaranteed.

How these random observations lead to my vision of the future, I shall leave it to you to connect the dots.  I love the Eyeset idea.  Think about a world with no more road signs, road advertisements, but instead, information is streamed onto your Eyeset in your native language real time, as you drive and as you walk.  Upon exercising your brain muscles – literally – detail information is shown.  Yes, turn left to the main street that leads to your destination.  But it will take you 10 minutes.  Alternative routes are shown with estimated time of arrival.  Special advertisements are lit up according to where you go and your profile.  Before you spit on the idea of advertisement, guess what?  They are the ones who are funding this entire world of virtual reality.

You don’t expect time changes everything, do you?

You think, characters will appear on the screen.  Say goodbye to computer keyboards.  And one last wild idea of mine to share with you.  I was used to walk pass a gym every working day when I headed home.  I saw athletes exercising on treadmills, on cycling machines.  Maybe like that famous sci-fi movie, humans are like batteries.  Gyms in the future will connect all these sport equipments into a power generator.  I mean, why waste the energy away?

PS. I change the timetable because the original plan was a bit too ambition.  Also, I have no sensing what the reception of this mini-series is so far.  Perhaps the theme is a bit too heaving for a twice a week rhythm.

My 1st v-Blog Mini-Series:

Categories
Experience Sharing

The Cycle of Learning and Sharing: Why Be a Caterpillar When You Can be a Butterfly? – My First V-blog (Prelude) Episode 3

I love to learn; I love finding something new to learn; more so, I love to share what I’ve learned.

In my upcoming video blog, I talk about one memorable childhood moment I had with my dad.  I thought I only had one.  But I was wrong.  There are more.

We bred butterflies, inside a glass container.  A container of a pair of Japanese dolls – one of my parents’ wedding gifts.  Once in a while, my dad would bring home a caterpillar found at the rooftop of the cinema he worked at.  And we would see how a caterpillar turned into a pupa, and finally a beautiful butterfly.  My sister and I would take turn to carry this divine being and see how its wings grew, dried and hardened, and it would attempt to fly away.  Initially reluctant to leave our hands, we would see this pretty butterfly that not too long ago was a tiny caterpillar took one brave leap of faith, carried by the wind, out from our 7th storey apartment, and disappeared right in front of our eyes.  Where did it go?  My sister and I would ask our dad, ask each other, ask ourselves.

Where did it go?

If I could travel back in time, I would have imagined our little baby butterfly grows up, turns into eggs that hatch into millions of fresh green plump caterpillars, and time stops.  All of a sudden, when time resumes, these beings magically transform into millions of butterflies.  And the cycle continues.

Articles say that caterpillars are like eating machines.  They eat and eat and that hunger, that relentless primal hunger reminds me of how our brains work when we are small.  Our brains like sponges that soak up everything around us.  We absorb knowledge, stimulated by all that is new.  We read, we listen, we watch.

We learn as the caterpillars eat.

How many of you stop right there?  You read a book, you return it to the bookshelf.  You take an exam, you move on.  How much do you get out of this reading, listening, and watching?

I cannot recall when I have started to obsess about internalizing what I learned and to find someone to share the newly acquired knowledge or idea with.  It is exhilarating.  In sharing I force myself to question what I’ve absorbed.  While sharing opens my eyes to how other may apply the knowledge.  And I think, the learning process is as simple as step one, two, three: absorb, internalize, and share.  For that two extra steps, just a little bit of extra effort, I get much more than what I used to.

That vision of a flying butterfly turning into eggs that in turn transform into millions of butterfly prompts me to imagine that learning is a cycle on its own.  We learn (i.e. absorb, internalize, and share), we experience, and we re-learn.  One wise man once told me that experience is the opposite of examination; we take the test before the lesson.

So true.

As I write this blog entry, using my wireless phone, I can’t help but to be taken back to the days when I was with my family in Hong Kong, looking at the butterfly took flight.  So brave it was; so happy we were; so beautiful the nature.

Next time when you learn something new, stop for a moment and ask yourself one question: why be a caterpillar when you can be a butterfly?

Notes: (1) Some of you were curious if I created or drew the recent black-and-white pictures by myself.  Yes I did and I enjoy doing that.  (2) This entry was written entirely using my wireless phone while waiting for Cynthia to finish her work.  Hence the different writing style.  (3) Happy Father’s Day.

My 1st v-Blog Mini-Series:

Categories
Coincidence Diary

The Coincidental Encounters and the Incidental Chain of Events That Leads to This – My First V-blog (Prelude) Episode 2

I don’t want to sound too much like a rip off from Haruki Murakami’s short story “Chance Traveler” but I too have my share of coincidental encounters to share.  Totally random of course but interestingly, these coincidences happened in the span of three consecutive days.  And outside this three-day window, puff, my days have become as ordinary as they have always been no matter how hard I observe.

What are the odds to meet the same person in the morning queuing just one spot in front of you at your favorite coffee joint two days in a roll?  And the queue was otherwise empty, just you and him.  And if you think that I always have the same timing every morning, I don’t.  I have not seen him since then.

How about the same colleague whom enters a lift with you when you head out for lunch, both of you have your own lunch plan, and you see her taking the same lift with you when you are done with your lunch?  In my case, I wasn’t even observing the lunch hours.  And apparently, neither was she.

One morning at ten, I was at the lift lobby and with me was the cleaning lady who was done with the day.  We chatted and I learned that she starts work at six every morning.  The following morning at ten twenty, I was at the same lift lobby, patiently waiting for a lift, and with me, the same cleaning lady.  She was late because there was more trash to attend to.  This time, I learned that after she has finished with the cleaning work at our office, she heads over to another office.  And she lamented that we only pay her S$350 a month for that 4 hours of work a day.

All these lift encounters can’t beat this particular one.  I often carry with me a cup of freshly brewed coffee to work every morning.  The lift was crowded and at one floor, the door opened.  Just when it was about to close, one guy from behind jerked into action and pushed through the crowd as he dashed towards the closing door.  He knocked onto me and I spilt the hot coffee onto a huge fellow in front of me.  How embarrassing!  But it was not as embarrassing as meeting the same huge fellow in the same lift the next morning with me holding another cup of hot coffee.  I so wanted to dig a hole and hide inside.

*          *          *          *

While the above encounters that happened in the span of three consecutive days may sound random, the incidental chain of events that leads to my wanting to create a video blog is all but.

I don’t get to have lunch with my good buddy Choong Yoong often.  We both know about it though we both deny it.  We meet once a year, usually due to some last minute arrangements.  It is just the way how we operate, I guess.  Every time we meet, I am always delighted by the variety of topics he has.  Mostly out of the world kind of ideas or news or theories or gossips, it is hard not to be enchanted by this precious lunch appointment that rarely occurs.  So out of the blue, I suggested that he should set up a podcast and I will be his faithful subscriber.  He laughed and told me that he has tried making an episode, and that was hard.  He then turned to me and said: You should have your own podcast instead!  I asked why and he pointed out that I have a dynamic voice to keep the audience interested (or something like that since that event happened quite a while ago).

Podcast and me, you have got to the kidding right?

But ideas are strange little fellows.  They stick to your head and refuse to go away.  And I parked this little idea in my head for months.

Another idea comes from the limitation I feel about blogging.  Don’t get me wrong.  Blogging is great; it is spontaneous; and I can write about anything and everything to my heart content.  Almost.  Except the invisible word count restriction that hangs on my neck all the time.  I have to try very hard to keep my blog entries within 500 to 1,000 word count.  Occasionally I hit 1,500 words and I have to remind myself not to do that often for I do treasure my own little crowd of online readers.  It is said that an average adult reads prose text at 250 to 300 words per minute.  In that sense, perhaps even a 500 words entry is still too much for the my precious audience to take.

And because of that, I have got another idea – to have a series of blog entries with a related theme and a time table to adhere to.  I often wonder what the online readers would feel if there is a sense of anticipation, like a TV series.  And even if this little experiment doesn’t take off, I would have published a 10,000 words entry that is broken down into ten little pieces.

Finally, I have always fantasized with the idea of making a little video using 100% original materials.  Can this be done?  How far can I stretch myself?  Connecting all these three little ideas prompts me wanting to just do it.

So, do it I shall.  A v-blog it will be.

My 1st v-Blog Mini-Series:

Categories
Announcement Whacky Thoughts

A New, Shall I Say, Mini-Series and I’m Still Not Sure About It – My First V-blog (Prelude) Episode 1

Ideas are peculiar little tangibly intangibles.  They are not as abstract as dreams like you want to marry a perfect guy (or girl) when you grow up or that Lamborghini you must have; wanting to be a rock star or to save the world.  Ideas on the other hand are more tangible than that.  It could be as simple as wanting to date this particular person whom you’ve met at a concert, to shop for a car, to learn how to play a musical instrument, or simply signing up for a beauty contest and hopefully be an ambassador of world peace.

So on and so forth.

Ideas are tangible because they are something you can action upon.  Like right now, right here.  Ideas are alive and can be planted in our heads; they grow and some are hard to be obliviated.  Think of it as metamorphosis – you have to kill an idea or an idea will turn into a series of actions whether you like it or not.

And because it is so easy to kill an idea – I murdered gazillion of them since I was a toddler – and I am notorious in sitting on ideas or taking forever to finish what I have started (like taking 3 years to complete that Bangkok video), I have decided that if I go public at even the crystallization stage, an idea may be materialized into something tangible.  Pretty much like how a virgin vow works.  Not a 100% guarantee, but it is much better than just a feeble idea.

So I have decided to create a video blog, with 100% original materials.  That is, from storyboarding to scriptwriting, from pictures of the primitive animation to the even more primitive soundtrack.  And I intend to roll the end credits with a sample of one of my refurbished songs.

Sounds exciting?  Since I have already put in 72 hours on this video blog and I am – keeping my fingers crossed – 20% from completing it, I have even come out with the following timetable.  What’s entertainment without a sense of anticipation after all?

My 1st v-Blog Mini-Series:

Categories
Snippet of My Life

Snippet Of My Life Episode 13 – A Thin Slice of Singapore, 7 Characters

“Have you eaten?”

That’s how the cleaning lady in my office and I often start our conversation.  It’s not “How are you” but “Have you eaten”.  As though in the eyes of the older (Chinese?) generation, if one is well-fed, one is “I’m fine, thank you”.  Strange, isn’t?  This late morning, we got further.  Leveraging on my close to non-existence Mandarin and a pathetic meagre level of understanding in Hokkien, the cleaning lady asked me if I have eaten.  I was puzzled, looked at my watch, and she laughed, “It’s too early for you.  I have my lunch at eleven.”

I guess lunch hour would be the best time for her to work, while most of us are away.

When I lived in Paris with my uncle who has survived the Vietnam war, he always reminded me how precious food is, how hungry he was during the war, and after the war.  Perhaps those who have lived through tough time tend to equate well-fed with “How are you and I am fine, thank you”.

On the same day, I bumped into the man who services our drink vending machine.  It is quite a repetitive job I think: clean up the interior compartments, fill up the powder, and fill up the paper cups.  We came out from the same lift and I tried to overtake him and his trolley but he reached the machine before I did.

“Hi… do you mind if I grab a cup of coffee first?  I really need it,” I pleaded nicely.  He smiled and said, “Go ahead.”  While the drink was made, I had a quick chat with him and learned that he drops by our office twice a week.  And he services 23 vending machines a day, throughout the island.

Did you know that the Subway outlet at China Square has moved to Far East Square?  I miss the lady who was used to work at the previous location.  Since I order the same thing every time, she remembered my preference, and we used to talk about everything under the sun including her driving trips to Malaysia.  Where is she now?  I don’t know.  At the new Subway outlet, there is this old man at the counter.  He is the boss, a very friendly boss.  During my visits, we would chat and chat while his rather inexperience staff made my sandwich.  So I asked: why do you need to be around?  He answered: Ah, I have to be around till these staff of mine know what to do.  Before I left the counter, he said in all sincerity – as always – “thank you for choosing Subway”.  I like his attitude.

The guys in Fuwell – my favorite computer shop in Sim Lim Square – are nice people too.  My friend Sing Chyun recommended Fuwell to me donkey years ago and he loves their “one-for-one exchange within thirty days” policy.  In fact, this time when I had to lug my heavy brand new computer for a diagnosis, that triggered a piece of memory; years ago, I had to do the exact same thing.  Lucky for me, this time my problem was easily replicable.  In less than a minute, this muscular technician named William from Philippines removed all the components and handed me the defective motherboard.  I ran back to the main shop and got myself a new one.  Within 2 minutes and 45 seconds, he put it all back.  And it worked.  Wonderful!  I can understand why Fuwell employs such a muscular man as a technician; these machines are darn heavy to move around.  God knows how many he has to handle a day.

Ever since my friend Alex Ang recommended where I shall get my guitar cables, I have been visiting the Sim Lim Tower whenever I need some (the 2 photos in this blog entry were taken in around that area).  There is an old man siting outside the shop Electronics Enterprise making cables day in day out.  God knows why he likes to dye his hair gold, but he is (also) a very nice guy.  I left my order to him, paid the invoice, and I headed out for lunch.  When I returned, we talked about food while he was finishing up with my order.  I told him that I love fish soup and the famous one at Berseh Food Centre has closed down.  He told me that there is another famous one near by that are always very crowded (again, I didn’t quite get the Mandarin he said).  He continued: if you want to do takeaway, you have to bring your own container and help yourself!

The last character in this blog entry is a girl scout.  One morning, during a weekend, a door bell woke me up from my beauty sleep.  Time to pay the newspaper agent again?  I was in my PJ and I saw a little girl at my doorstep, with an uniform.  Uh-oh.  She asked in all earnestness: are there works for me to do?  I wish I had read a SOP Manual on “What to Do When a Girl Scout Shows up at Your Doorstep”.  I couldn’t think of any good responses so I said: Sorry, not at the moment (I was really sleepy).  She looked disappointed, started to turn away, and then came back and asked: would you like to donate?

OK, that I could do.

So, have you eaten?  I just had my Subway meal and feel darn full.  Oops, there are still cookies in the refrigerator.

Categories
Fragments of My Dreams

Fragments Of My Dreams Episode 6 – Detonation At The Galaxy

Fragment of my dream

Our enemy has driven us from the surface and many of us hide underneath the ground.  Soon we build home and community underground.  We don’t drive like our ancestors once did on the surface of Earth.  Some of us ride on a robot that is five times our size.  That is how we travel. At least some of us do.

After a rather long ride, I land onto one of our settlements.  I park my robot and walk to my favorite music store – HMV.  It is crowded.  Full of people as usual.  There are not many places like where I am no more.  Damn those enemies of ours.

Suddenly, an alarm rings.  Everyone flee in panic, in all directions.  I run to my robot knowing that once again, our enemy has found our base. I need to run for I am carrying something of huge importance known to me and a few other scientists.  Our enemy is not coming after our settlement.  They are coming after me.

I mount my robot and shoot up to the sky.  Pass the surface – the forbidden place for human being – and into the galaxy.  Trailing behind me are the troop of our enemy – all ride in robots.

I pass one star after another.  I go as fast and far as I can but soon, I am surrounded.  I see hundreds of our enemy surrounding me.  Indeed, I am trapped.  Indeed, I have nowhere else to flee.

I take out my precious – an atomic bomb that has enough power to destroy myself together with our enemy.  This is the moment that I live for … I detonate my precious and …

I find myself in a town I am unfamiliar of.  Somewhere that looks like Japan.  And I meet my friend there.  We are looking at a construction site, or rather a demolition site.  We see a roll of workers all dancing and singing, at the rims of different levels within a building that is hollow from the inside.  All of a sudden, a worker drops from what seems like a five or six stories high.  Everyone gasp and there is a police car right outside as though the policemen have anticipated such a freak accident.  They take the victim into the car and presumably, they are heading towards the hospital.  I see a hole in his head.  Meanwhile, the workers are now back to dancing and singing.  How strange.

My friend and I continue the walk and at one junction, right beside the market, I see a showroom.  I say to my friend: One day I am going to own one of those vehicles.

I love to drive; I love to fly.

PS. I had this dream way before I watched the movie “Iron Man”.  Observant readers may realize that the episodes of the category “Fragments of My Dreams” are not in running number.  Well, I always try my best to space out blog entries that are not time sensitive.  Some do get stuck inside my ‘dusty shelf’ for a long time.

Why today?  Believe it or not, my blogging pipeline has been chocked by a few massively time consuming entries – or rather personal projects – that take a lot longer than my plan.  And it is my desire to update my site at least once in two days’ time, if not everyday.  Stay tuned!

Categories
Snippet of My Life

Snippet Of My Life Episode 12 – The Art of Miscommunication

Apart from the time we eat and pee, poo and sleep, we spend much time communicating with one another, misunderstanding each other.  It is staggering how many different ways one finite thought in our heads can be altered before it reaches its intended destination, or worse, unintended destinations.  That gets me thinking: is it that hard to, communicate?  Shouldn’t it be as simple as plus and minus, multiply and divide?

One evening, a friend and I visited a pub and she ordered a JD and a diet Coke.  I had no idea what a “JD” was and thought that it must be some sort of fanciful bottled beer or cocktail (I had a pint of diet Coke that night, don’t laugh!).  We drank and chatted, chatted and drank, staring at her half finished glass of diet Coke, just when I was about to ask if her “JD” was coming at all, something struck my mind.

Jack Daniel’s.

How would I know?  It was the first time I heard someone called it a “JD”.   How about a “CR” – my favorite whisky before I have become a teetotaller since January this year (Chivas Regal that is).

Second round, and my friend wanted something stronger.  A different waitress came to our table and my friend said, “JD and diet Coke … make it …”

There was a confused look in our waitress’s face and her reply didn’t sound too English to me.  So my friend repeated slowly, “I want a diet Coke … and Jack Daniel’s … and …”

The waitress still didn’t get it.  I chipped in and said very slowly, “Diet Coke, yes?”.  The young waitress nodded.  “Jack Daniel’s, yes?” my friend followed.  The same look of confusion and her eyes dashed between my friend and I as we took turn to explain JD in a million different ways.  Finally, we managed to get the message of “whisky” across and just before the poor young waitress left our table with a sigh of relief, my friend gently pulled her arm and said, “Make it a double please”.

We burst in laughter in unison.  But what was so comical?  We laughed because of our own helplessness, more than anything else.  Definitely not at the obvious fact that the waitress wouldn’t understand what a “double” was.  A single JD and diet Coke arrived within seconds (got to appraise the waitress’s efficiency in order delivery).  My friend took a gulp and asked another waitress to give her another shot of JD, in the same glass.

Language barrier and unfamiliar synonyms aside, I have this bad habit of wordplay.  At times when I am late for an appointment that I happen to take a train, I would blame the tunnel jam.  Of course, taking an underground train is by far the most reliable mode of transport in our city and almost instantaneously, every friend of mine know that I am joking and we just laugh about it.

Recently, I like to use the term lift jam (like traffic jam, like tunnel jam) to describe the excruciating lift ride from where my office’s floor is (37th) to the ground floor and vice versa.  Stopping almost at every floor, I can listen to a complete music track, read a few pages of today’s newspapers inside this 5 by 5-feet confinement.  So, at times when I am late, I would apologize and blame the lift jam.  One time, when the same friend whom I had a drink with received my lift jam text message, her immediate response was, “Are you OK?  Shall I call someone for help?”

Uh oh.

Since then, I stopped using the term lift jam.  Same lobby, same lateness, I always enjoy meeting this friend of mine who also happens to work in the same building as my JD friend.  She is like my syringe of liquid motivation, my little boost of self-worth on demand, and her everlasting energizer-bunny-like enthusiasm was just what I needed when my boss pulled me into an empty meeting room one morning and said, “By the way, I think you are a little bit soft”.

Those who have the un-privilege of working with me, lived under my constant hands of a tyrant – a Mr-oh-no-the-man-is-in-town-let’s-take-cover by day – you must have difficulty to reconcile the word “soft” and I.

But the fact is, empathy can be a curse.  People do change.  I can go, soft.

“You have got to be firm.  You have got to do it like a man.  You have got to … ” my friend paused and I found myself repeating every word she said with the same zest.  She continued, “… practice in front of a mirror and say: Look honey, this is NOT what I want”.  I attempted to copy the tone.  My friend frowned, shook her head, and said, “You have got to say it this way: Look honey …”

I tried again and she said better.  I tried harder to imitate and she said much better.  I pictured a mirror in front of me when delivering the same line and my friend screamed, “This is it!”

This is it!  I am so going to look-honey my colleagues.  I am going to picture a mirror in front of me, say the silence words of “look honey” and deliver the tough messages.  I am going to look-honey you, you, and you!

In fact, my look-honey worked so well in the office that I got a bit scared.  I got people around me a bit scared.  The next day, I met the same friend for lunch and I repeated the exact episodes on how I look-honey’ed my colleagues to her.

“[Look honey,] You.  Should.  Know.  About.  This!” I said.

My friend got scared, for real.

I felt really bad of my recent transformation.  Then one night, I read my friend’s blog on how she dealt with a less than enthusiastic worker when she was the manager-on-duty.  Somewhere in a hotel or service apartment in Vietnam.  With her permission to reproduce the exact words, here was what she wrote:

So I told her “Honey, if you want to work in a coffee joint at Raffles Place, you gotta work faster than this.”

OK.  Perhaps this is how it should be done.  Look-honey’ing people is the way to go.  Especially when …

Outside a meeting room, one colleague of mine said casually, “I think I am falling sick again.”  So I casually asked, “Why?”  He laughed with a hint of a perceived sarcasm and replied, “How the f**k do I know?”

Zomg!

Perhaps he dislike me; perhaps he thinks that I dislike him; perhaps he thought it was funny.

1145 is a magic number.  1145 is like being thirties for the single women (sorry, just an example).  If I can’t find a lunch partner by 11:45am, most likely I will be eating alone, which is not a bad idea at times.  But if I can catch up with some dear friends of mine, why not?

Early one morning, one old friend of mine sent me a text message for a lunch invite.  Too bad, I had something on and he asked if I would be available the next day.  After some exchange of text messages, I ended the conversation with, “Tomorrow it is then”.

Apparently, on the next day, I realized that my friend didn’t understand what I meant by “tomorrow it is then”.

Totally baffled, I sent the following message to some of my close friends whom I am quite sure that they won’t laugh at me as I genuinely wanted to do some reality check.

Quick question: if you ask me out for lunch but I can’t make it today.  You suggested tomorrow and I said, “Tomorrow it is then”.  What does that reply mean to you?

All of them got what I said and most thought that it was a test of some sort.  And I got to love my sister.  She thought it was a creative way for me to ask her out for lunch and she gently reminded me that she works at the other end of the island.

I so love my sister.  She replied, “Yes” and I was baffled.

Apart from the time we listen to our mp3 players and watch TV, running on the treadmills and writing blogs, we find ways to communicate with one another.  It is staggering how often miscommunication occurs.  This gets me thinking: is this an inherit problem of our genetic makeup or we have not been taught the right way on how to communicate yet (the “De Bono Code Book” is still far from the goal I think)?  Or perhaps miscommunication is simply part and puzzle of how we are meant to communicate?

Wait.  It’s part and parcel …

Categories
Experience Sharing

Audio Effect: Compressor!

My friends at Facebook know that I have been working on this rather mammoth article on “Audio Compression for Beginners” for days.  The reasons why I am always so passionate towards sharing what I’ve learned are simply twofold – one is rather selfish and one is not.

  1. Nearly all of us who use the Internet regularly use it to search for some information, opinions, or knowledge.  Most of the stuffs in the Internet are written by ordinary folks who do it as a hobby.  Since I’ve been at the beneficiary end for so long, it is only right to contribute whenever, whatever I can.  Besides, someone has to populate, right?
  2. I believe that if I have already spent X number of hours to learn a new skill, spending an extra Y number of hours writing what I’ve learned and share with others forces me to internalize what I’ve absorbed and challenges me to question myself what I’ve learned.  Besides, I sincerely hope that my this website lasts longer than any paper notes and electronic files I have at hands so I can always refer to what I’ve learned.

So, why would anyone care about audio compression besides ooo’ing and aah’ing on my article that is equivalent to my 5 days worth of blog materials packed with over 30 diagrams including a hand drawn illustration that looks like a blueprint of some NASA secret weapons?

Well, it is a skill that helps to make your audio recording sounds professional.  Very much like what the airbrush does to all those photos of the models in the magazines, the gravy and garnish on your main course, and the make-up you wear before your big date.  You’ll need that for your Podcast, video editing, and music recording.  Why?  Because without audio compression, the sound appears to be thin and soft; because you want your home video to not only look but also sound like a Hollywood blockbuster; and because with a touch of technology, your band sounds much better than when you play live – pretty much like most of the bands in the world.

And perhaps you are just curious and wondering what I have been obsessing with these days.  Go on.  Just click it.

Continue to read: Audio Compression for Beginners: Setting Compressor Threshold, Ratio, Knee, Attack, Release, and More.

Categories
Memorable Events

These Are The Days That Put A Smile To My Face

Check out the McGraw-Hill website!  Tons of people to thank (yes, you loyal readers too!) especially the one who trusted me with the opportunity and those who are so enthusiastically supportive during this rather long but excitingly hush-hush journey.  You know who you are!

I know it’s a tiny little baby step.  But still …