Category: My Abstract Life

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Experience Sharing Reflection

My Personal Scorecard for 2007

I have been toying with the idea of publishing a book on Personal Scorecard with my ex-colleagues when I was providing professional service to the military units and formations in crafting out the Balanced Scorecards. Personal Scorecard is not easy as we may or may not know our purpose in life. Without knowing our purpose in life, whatever we do today may or may not take us to where we want to be – that is if we want to be somewhere in first place. Personal aspiration is subjective and each of us have different character trails so much so that to standardise on an approach to develop a Personal Scorecard is indeed challenging. Besides, who do we, for lack of a better word, be accountable in life to besides ourselves? Of course, some may bring in religion, social constructs, and traditions as our “higher orders” whereby some may found it less acceptable to live their lives by others’ standards.

While I am still in search with the existence of such a Personal Scorecard, I think basing on New Year resolution is a good start. A New Year’s resolution is a commitment that one makes to a project or a habit, often a lifestyle change that is generally interpreted as advantageous. Though we may not know our purpose in life, I trust that we should be able to see what is good from bad and to recognise things that we can do to make our lives better. In a way, the concept of Balanced Scorecard still hold, the approach is entirely different.

First thing on my mind was my lack of enthusiasm to Cynthia’s desire to see the world. To me, a trip down to Botanical Garden or Sentosa or even a road trip to Malaysia is good enough. But Cynthia wants to see places that she has not seen before. There are many measurements that can address this as long as they satisfy the S.M.A.R.T. (simple, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely) rule. I can go with number of days overseas but then I will have to separate the long haul and short haul trips for the difference in impact. How about the places that we have not seen and the place that we have? In the end, I have chosen Traveling Budget Utilised as my measurement. It is a good proxy while giving us the flexibility to mix the different types of trips.

Shall I measure everything that I do? Of course not. So measurements like number of songs written, amount of content posted in my website, number of times I meet up with my friends per month, and etc. are important but are not things that I wish to track constantly. I know I will do reasonably well regardlessly. So I limit the number of measurements to what I most want to track. The magic number is ten.

I am not doing well in leading a healthy lifestyle so I think setting a target of 8 hours of exercise per month should be doable. That works out to be 2 hours a week. Half of the time having home cooked dinner should be achievable too. At present, Exercise Hours is zero and Percentage of Home Cooked Dinner is close to zero. So, any improvement is going to be good.

I have been lazing in managing my own money. I have seen how even with such a little effort Cynthia has put in, she has made some good return. So this New Year, I am going to start investing my money to beat the low interest rate.

On the other end of the money spectrum – a money making career – I need some sense of measurement as well. I have no idea what Career Fulfillment Survey is going to be. But the sooner I have this worked out, the clearer I know what I expect from my career.

After putting off the idea of turning my hobbies into something more serious for such a long time, I guess I should take this opportunity to see how far I can go with them. To the least, in the year 2007, I would have put in my best. So I am going to see how many live performance I can make and if I can publish a book or two on any topic.

I guess drinking in moderation at times is not that bad so long as I don’t have a hangover that affect my next day. I thought of having other measurements such as the unit of alcohol consumed but it is hard to quantify with the different type of alcohol.

My another habit to moderate is my time spent on gaming. My current benchmark is about 130 hours per month so having it down to 40 hours I think is a determined effort to make a change.

As I looked at these nine measurements, I pondered upon things that I should do to make my life more memorable. Things that I have no idea yet and hence, I classified them under Extraordinary Projects that have significant impact.

I don’t know how long I can sustain this process. Judging at this merely ten items, I think I have lots to do tomorrow. Wish me luck!

A recap of my measurements for Year 2007 by clicking here.

Categories
Reflection

New Year Resolution in a Scorecard Style

For years I have my New Year resolutions written at the beginning of the year only to look at them again at the end of the year when I need to do a self-reflection. So this year I wanted to do away with such a pointless exercise. On the way back from the countdown celebration at the church that did not appear to be such a good idea to me initially for there were thousand and one alternative places to do the countdown had Cynthia not wanting to start the year in a holy way, something struck my mind. New Year resolution does not work for me because while I put all my heart and passion into formulating what bad habits to get rid of and what cool things to do, I lack the discipline to see things through. Then the New Year Eve sermon suddenly rang a bell – don’t see things that happened as failures but as feedback instead. That is very much like what I have been preaching to the military units and formations over these 2 years before I left my job – continuous feedback is important learning points, strategy execution is as important, if not more so, then strategy formulation, and a balanced scorecard can be used as a tool to enhance performance.

So, day one of year 2007, based on my New Year resolution, instead of a list of abstract things to do or not to do, I have come out with ten measurements.  Detail explanation can be found in here.

Category Measurement Frequency Target Stretched Target
Life Traveling Budget Utilised Half-yearly S$3,000 S$5,000
Life No. of Extraordinary Projects Quarterly 1 2
Health Exercise Hours Monthly 8 10
Health Percentage of Home Cooked Dinner Monthly 50% 60%
Money Return of Total Savings Quarterly 5% p.a. 8% p.a.
Money Career Fulfillment Survey Half-yearly 60% 80%
Hobby No. of Public Performance Quarterly 1 2
Hobby No. of Books Published Yearly 1 2
Habit No. of Hangover Monthly 2 0
Habit No. of Gaming Hours Monthly 40 30
Categories
Memorable Events

Had Fun With Board Games

In the era of media domination when XBox360 and PC gaming are kings, movies are favourite past time, and people indulge themselves into YouTube and cable TVs, hardly do we remember that board games can be just as fun if not more. It is a great opportunity for friends to interact and for us to laugh at each other rather than to a television or a screen.

I have decided to, instead of our usual movie escapade, invite my buddy Tong Kiat over to my home to have dinner with Cynthia and myself and to play some board games. Dinner was delicious (roast chicken and chips), Ayu’s concert (DVD) was entertaining, but nothing beats our fun trying to outwit, outplay one another … in the name of Risk and Scrabble.

We did not take long to get ourselves familiarised with the rules of Risk. Round #1, Tong Kiat’s European yellow army took onto my African black army at Egypt and as a revenge, I took onto his Southern Europe. Meanwhile Cynthia’s Asian red territory of Middle East was at constant war with the yellow and the black armies. While our war focus was on Middle East, Egypt, and Southern Europe, Cynthia’s empire expanded into North America and without warning, she took over 24 territories and fulfilled her mission. Cynthia won the first round.

Round #2, my black army was determined to take over South America and Australia. Tong Kiat’s yellow army has decided to gave me hell and he has deployed all his troops at both South America and Australia. His mission was to eliminate my army. Without knowing Tong Kiat’s intend, I went frontal with his troops and right from the start, both the black and yellow armies were severely weakened. Cynthia’s red army took the environmental advantage, painted Asia and Africa red, and won the game.

Next, we moved onto Scrabble. Tong Kiat and I am both terrible in spelling and against all odds, Tong Kiat has won the game with a score of 176 (Cynthia – 152, Me – 140). Our final collective effort can be viewed by clicking here.

A very fun evening and we all agreed that we shall do it again.

Categories
Memorable Events

Against The Day

My big boss up there works in a mysterious way. One day I shall make some sense out of today. Meanwhile, my wild ideas and dreams of …

  • Going for a Silk Road trip with my buddy Ken (he takes pictures and I write the journal) and have the book published, the photos sent for exhibitions, and to explore the business opportunities along the way (I tried talking him into me playing at the pubs at night but he was not too sure on that)
  • Playing gigs at one of the Southeast Asia locations to promote my songs (initial thoughts on Manila but Jason told me recently that Bandung, Indonesia is quite happening these days)
  • Getting a PhD a.k.a. permanent head damage (kidding) on something that I have a passion on
  • Writing a book with a synopsis that Cynthia found it original and brilliant

… are one step closer to reality. That is if my foot actually lands somewhere.

Days ago, I spent S$60 on the book “Against The Day” by Thomas Pynchon after reading some interesting reviews on that book that is 1,120 pages thick. I was intrigued by the concept but I doubted if I can finish it even before I bought it. (Why did I buy that then? Well, the sleeve design of the hardcover edition is very beautiful and I could not resist the challenge.) Now that I have this nice long break, while in search of what to do next with my life, definitely a wonderful opportunity to start reading it.

Categories
Experience Sharing Songwriting

What I Found Most Difficult As A Songwriter

When friends of mine learned that I write songs as a hobby since 1994 having close to 150 songs written as of today, they frequently asked me questions such as do you write lyrics first or melody first, where do you get your inspiration from, do you have a band, do you perform, to whom you play your songs to, and etc. Seldom do people ask me what is the most difficult part of songwriting.

PS. The picture was taken when I was dining in this high class Japanese restaurant at Jakarta.  The lyrics of “Eternally Thankful” was born on that dinner table.

Writing a song is easy. Transforming a song from its draft state that is written at the spur of a moment into a song that is pleasant enough to last the years is tough. Recently I am reading a book written by a plastic surgeon and to me, songwriting can be as natural as the process of life creation but to enhance an existing song requires one to wear the hat of a plastic surgeon. What does this mean? Let me share my recent experience with you.

Last week I have written two songs “Diamond” (lyrics) and “Swallow” (lyrics) in two different nights. I managed to complete each song in one night, which is important because rarely the mood stays the same for more than a night. New songs take time to sink in and I practiced them for a couple of days. To my disappointment, I was not happy with the results. Something was missing. Something was not right. I felt as though I have missed the mark by a far margin.

So I called in Cynthia to help as a critic and lend me some fresh perspectives. Let’s deal with the second song first. “Swallow” was upbeat and the only discomfort I have with the song was that it sounded pretty much like my previous set of songs. It turned out that I may be over-worried as Cynthia did enjoy it. At times I wonder how far I can go without someone saying that my songs are lack of originality. There are artists who continue to churn our hits albums one after another sounding pretty much the same (Aerosmiths, Bon Jovi, Rolling Stones just to name a few).

That was “Swallow”. As for “Diamond”, Cynthia did shed a tear after the first listen to the song and it was the lyrics that drew her emotions. However, her first impression was that “Diamond” lacked some kind of oomph. In fact that was how I felt as well but I have no clue on how to improve upon it.

Cynthia asked me to play again and recommended a shift in key towards the end of the song. My only reservation was that “Diamond” was not written that way. I kept an open mind because she did help to transform one of my songs with the same technique. To shift the key, I first need to find the right key for my vocal range. I have lowered the entire song by a key and kept the ending as what it was originally written. It did enhance the song slightly but still, it lacked the oomph we wanted. We tried increasing the tempo but that took the emotion away from the song.

“Diamond” was basically divided into three parts without any chorus. The problem was a lack of memorable melody that could not be fixed by key shift nor a change of tempo. Now, that was the most painful part of songwriting – to throw away the parts that are not working well – because there is a certain sentiment towards each part of the song and today’s mood is definitely different from the mood when the song was crafted. We reevaluated the entire song and have decided that one-third of the song has to be rewritten.

Cynthia pointed out to me that there was a mismatch in part three of the song. All the chords were in major while the song started with minor. To those who are not familiar with major and minor chords, in short, minor chords create a darker mood while major chords tend to convey a happier message.

I picked up my guitar and started to experiment with some new chords. I was open to even changing the lyrics because it was this “hopefulness” in the lyrics that prompted me to stay major. New chords started to fall in place with the existing lyrics. Instead of the standard monotonous chord progression that I employed, I let the last part of the song to go free form creating a melody that follows the lyrics. The result was stunning even as we progress through the verse. Out of nowhere, an inspiration hit me with a surprise twist of chords that added colour to the song, creating a dramatic holding space before taking the song to the final lines of intense conclusion.

Having gotten a satisfying ending verse, that was not the end. It is because this new verse has to gel with the initial parts of the song. Like I mentioned, if parts of the song are created in two different mood settings, I need to find ways to put them together. That translated in me playing “Diamond” from beginning to the end again and again experimenting different chord transition to make it worked. Instead of the more mellow guitar solo chords transiting from part two to three, I have changed the chords to insert more emotion in preparation of the climatic last verse. This in turn drove me into having a completely different strumming pattern for the last verse to further bring out the building up of emotion to the climatic end.

With all these hard works, “Diamond” was transformed from a song that each time I played I felt something was missing into a song that each time I played my soul soared to the sky. That, is what songwriters put their blood and sweat for.

Categories
Experience Sharing

DIY – Silicon Gel

The contractors who reattached my cabinet that covers the rubbish outlet have done a lousy job. Crawling insects kept visiting my home. So I have decided to take matter into my own hands. My task was simply to remove the (transparent) silicon gel and reapply the more tasteful white silicon gel sealing up every possible gaps.

I have seen my dad done it zillion times back in Hong Kong (but never have done it myself). Knowing exactly what I needed, I visited a hardware store and bought the right tools (see below).

Just looking at those things, how much do you think it costs? Cynthia thought the “gun” was sold at S$20 and the gel itself is S$10. I thought likewise to be honest. When the boss told me that the “gun” cost S$3 (and the gel for S$3.80), my initial reaction was, “Huh? 30 dollars?”, and was about to pull out the ten dollar bills. He repeated, “3 dollars, 3 dollars!”.

After I got home, I gave my dad a call. Anyway, to share the experience with you, step one is of course to attach the gel into the “gun”.

Step 2 is to attach the nozzle and cut it diagonally.

Step 3 is to slow depress the trigger and you can see silicon gel starting to ooze out of the noozle. Steadily apply the gel to the gap.

Step 5 is to cover your nose … kidding … alright, the acidic smell could be overwhelming but the last step is important. I suggest you wrap your finger with a small piece of cling wrap and trace the gap steadily. Rub the excess gel off a paper kitchen towel.

Allow a full day for the silicon gel to harden and there you are! You can be the next DIY Expert!

Categories
Whacky Thoughts

Of Elephant and Duck

Day 1 of the Facilitation course at British Council, as icebreaker, the trainer asked us to think of an animal that best described ourselves and why (the activity was called “Animal Magic” by the way). So, some said dog, cat, lamb, hamster, cow, and some said lion, tiger, and eagle (I chose eagle because of the sense of freedom and the love for bird-eye views). And we were divided into two groups – the wild animals and the domesticated ones.

Then we were given the exercise of choosing an animal that best described our own company and some other questions such as the animal’s habitat, what this animal needs in order to survive and so on. Our group – the wild animal group – almost immediately associated our company to the most ancient animal on Earth (due to our company’s size and its legacy). We chose an elephant in the end and talked about how elephants left the footprints on all corners of Earth (well we did have some dispute with someone who think of himself as a lamb to start with and how the lamb ended up in the wild animal group was due to number imbalance).

The domesticated animal group, on the other hand, chose a duck to represent our company and talked about how ducks survive by keep peddling and feeding on small fish.

It did hit me at that moment through “Animal Magic”, perhaps how we see the world begins with how we see our own self.

Categories
Memorable Events

A Birthday Treat – World Cup Final

One of my best friend once complimented my passion I find in life. That’s true. Once I find a new passion, I hook onto it, savor it, and persist all the way through. I am not a big fan of football. My father supports Brazil and I simply follow the World Cup – especially my father’s favorite team – ever since I was young.

I have not quite watched the World Cup like I did this year. I have nearly watched each and every matches. It was almost like an obsession. I wanted to know every team, all the players, how they played, how they progressed, and what their strategies were like. And matches after matches, I was thoroughly entertained. It was like the whole season of American Idol cramped into a month. The problem, of course, is that I am now living in the European time zone instead (time now is three in the morning).

Categories
Fragments of My Dreams

So I Folded A Boy’s Head

(During my 3 hours of sleep after watching the controversial football match of Holland versus Portugal, I had a nightmare. I can’t decipher the dream at all. Can you? Note: The picture on the left was drawn by me.)
In my house that seemed a bit dark and rundown, I have a large family gathering. The old and the young all appeared to have a great time full of laughters and joy. Was it a festive event or a celebration of someone’s birthday? I have no idea. All of a sudden, the unthinkable happened.

The neck of a young boy chipped off like a piece of old wooden furniture and felt onto the ground together with his head. Suddenly, everyone was screaming and yelling. We all agreed that calling an ambulance may take too long so I took up the piece of the neck and the head and headed to the hospital.

Stepped outside my house, I met my colleagues and explained to them the dire situation. Carefully, I folded the head twice into a flat piece of shall I say “thing” and placed the head and the neck into my briefcase. Off I went as I have a client meeting to attend to as well.

My colleagues and I met my boss at some random location inside a sheltered bridge and I explained to her why we needed to rush to our client site as soon as possible. We were lost for a while and when we found our destinations, the hospital was on the third floor while the business meeting was on the fourth floor. So I asked them to go ahead while I made a detour to the hospital.

Once I reached the hospital – sort of a bit rundown as well, I grabbed a nurse and explained the emergency to her. She asked me to show her the boy’s head and so I took this flat piece of “thing” out and unfolded it back into the shape of a head. She gasped and asked me where the rest of the body was. I told her that I have left it at home. The nurse then paged for the doctor and together with the boy’s head and the piece of neck, they disappeared.

I climbed the stairs and joined my colleagues. In the center of a large room, there was a live recording of an executive interview. Apparently, our business meeting was inside one of the rooms. We took the time and watched the interview for a long while before heading into the meeting room. After what seemed to be a lapse of memory, we emerged out of the meeting room and took the chance to chat with the celebrities who have just finished the interview. My colleagues left the building but I did not.

I headed one stair down and entered the hospital that had quite a crowd inside the waiting area. I asked for the nurse again and she led me to the doctor. The doctor asked me where the body was and I gave the same reply as I did to the nurse. He took me into a lab and showed me the head that was now opened into two halves. I was starring at the layer of white and slimy gel-like matter and the doctor told me that even if he could cure the boy, the boy would suffer 75 percent brain damage.

Grievingly, I agreed with the doctor and someone has to carry the bad news home. At the entrance of the hospital, the nurse stopped me and told me that a police investigation was now underwent and I was one of the suspects.

I knew I needed to runaway. I knew I needed to deal with the body at home. I knew the police would be all over me. I wish I knew what to do next.

Categories
Whacky Thoughts

Why I Hate Dining Out

Many Singaporean friends of mine prefer dining at the hawker centers to cooking a proper dinner at home. I do prefer home cook food but ever since Cynthia frequently worked overseas, there is not much point in cooking my own meal. Hence I eat out. Choices are limited – either dine around my work place or dine around my home.

Near my home, I can either order takeaway from a hawker center (I phoned them to place my order) on my way home or I can drive out a bit and dine at a neighborhood hawker center. The takeaway menu is always the same. I feel sick just to think of the food itself. The neighborhood hawker center gives me 3 choices: super oily chicken rice, super oily Indian food, or moderately expensive Japanese food.

Around my workplace, the choice is really limted. I used to dine at the Singapore Delight located at the ground floor of where we park our car. One day, after I have ordered my Wanton Mee, I have witnessed the lady who cooked the noodle didn’t wash her hands after handling the rubblish bin and the other lady who cut the pork didn’t wash her hands after unpacking can drinks from a dusty box. Oh well, too late, I have to eat my food.

Today, I ate at the Golden Shoe hawker center. Just when I was making my selection of Chinese dishes, I saw a small cockroach crawling on one of the dishes. Again, too late, I have to eat my food.

Sigh.