Category: My Abstract Life

I am not a big fan of sport broadcast but since young, I fall in love with high platform diving. With a high platform, the athletes are given enough time to chain the difficult moves together and yet land onto the water with the minimum amount of splash. Perfect ten is made of this.

Some argues that gifted people with talents are able to paint a picture, write a book, compose music, perform drama acts, and etc. naturally without the need of long hours of practice. Little do some knows that these gifted people devote much of their lifetime doing what they love best.

What prompted me to think of high platform diving was when I was doing recording for my new song (this is the one). It was frustrating trying to get the vocal recording right. Taking the song into pieces trying to make each piece sounds right is not unlike the moves within one high platform dive. Lots of practicing.

With the recent Hong Kong trip still fresh in my memory, I find it hard not to compare the customer services experience in Hong Kong and in Singapore. Back in Hong Kong, one evening I entered an electronic shop not unlike Courts near closing hours. The salesperson was very helpful full of enthusiasm showing me the subtle differences between Plasma TV and LCD TV of various brands. Beyond the statistical information and general product descriptions that some Singaporean salespersons can’t even memorise, he showed me the TVs in the viewers’ perspective. In particular, he was pointing out the color vibrancy, the feel of realism, the comfort level, amongst many other key feathers that a viewer should look out for.

Today’s lunch time, I took a train to Raffle City and walked all the way to Suntech to visit the optical shop that I have purchased the contact lens from since 1995. I forgive the fact that as a salesperson, he has thick nose hairs sticking out of his nose (eeeewwww) but I can’t forgive the fact that after looking at my long record card, he said that the product that I have been using is a monthly disposable lens. I told him that no, it is bimonthly. He insisted till he has to refer to the one who sold me the lens (does that make a difference?!).

Excited by new toric lens, I asked this salesperson what the differences are. “Supposed to have more oxygen” was I think the only reply. “Stick with the lens that work for you” was I think his only suggestion. Fine, I have ordered a trial pair to see for myself what the differences will be. Don’t they know that they can easily solicitate customers’ feedback when the customers have decided to place an order after the trial period is up?

Walking back to the office, I stopped by Funan for lunch. Passed by the Nokia shop at ground level after my fish soup rice meal and besides me was a foreigner who was interested in one of the phone. He asked how much the phone is in US dollars. The friendly salesperson even borrow his colleague’s phone and did a live demo on what the phone can do. After the foreigner has gone, I proceeded to ask a few more questions and all his smile suddenly disappeared and gave me a two or three words reply like “It’s a designer phone” and turned his back to me. I am not kidding, he has literally turned his back on me! I asked another salesperson to show me one of the phone and she passed it onto me without a word. She was not even trying to sell me anything. Not a single smile. Like I was a waste of time. Even in Hong Kong, the salespersons are professional enough to give the potential customers a good impression

My friend JT and I have a long debat on what constitutes to a good song. To him, a song must be original that has hooks; to him, majority of the commercial songs are “typical” and not worth listening to; to him, majority of the songs I listen to are “typical” and not worth listening to.

The question in his mind is: why would a songwriter like me indulge into songs that are typical?

Tongue-tied is the word.

To him, if a song is branded as typical, he will not even listen to it. To me, however, if I find something interesting that arouse my interest – or I see a potential of me liking the song so as to say – I will give it a few tries just to see if I like it or not. It is hard to decipher what arouses my interest. It could be the special voice, the special lyrics, the special musical layout, the special beats … etc.

Bottom line is, if a song’s tune can stick onto my mind and I happen to like it, does it matter if it is typical or not? Out of typical songs are rare and is like fine dinning to me. More often than not, I do enjoy MacDonald’s if you get my drift.

Yesterday as I was trying to explain to JT what the online gaming World of Warcraft is like, JT kept on insisting that it is just a virtual world and you get nothing out from it.

This morning as I pondered, when you really think about it, the world we are living in, in this short 75 years of our life, what is our purpose anyway. In no way I am trying to justify the way I indulge in the virtual world but all the fun I have had, all the money that I have earned in that virtual world, what different is it from the world we are living in?

For those who believe in after life, heaven and hell, all the currencies that we hold, we cannot bring it to the after life. All the deeds we have done, there are consequences in the after life. I know the analogy is kind of cruel but face it, if you are not believe in the after life, you will just have all the fun you have had in this world.

What different is it from the world I am indulging in anyway? To some of us, this earthly world is not real compares to heaven. So?

Deep thougths we have had.

Today I was having a coffee with my colleague WT and he was sharing all the exciting new things that he has learnt during the 2-days Learning Organisation workshop. One of the case study was on how IDEO designed an innovating shopping trolley with three objectives in mind: (1) to radically improve upon the existing design in 5 days, (2) to reduce the no. of trolleys that go missing, and (3) to enhance the reputation of IDEO. The case study can be found here.

I have to admit that I am so much impress by the process and especially the end result. You can see the image of the trolley from the above link.

But what impressed me most about the workshop is that one should set a vision. With the knowledge of current situation, we can then align ourselves to the vision in everything that we do.

Kind of make sense … then I asked myself: what is my vision in life?

Don’t know … as of now.

Sigh … in this civilised world, most of us have to devote nearly half of our lifetime – counting all the travelling time and the overtime hours – working. Actually, working by itself is okay so long as we can derive some sort of pleasures out from it. Painful is that abuses that come with the job itself. Abuses from the top, from the bottom, and from the level on par with you. It is kind of ridiculous that most of us have to put through these.

Work could generate a lot of satisfaction. But at the same time, when people around you – again, on top, from the bottom … etc. – keep on disappointing you from time to time, you can sometimes be put down and ask yourself: Dear God, don’t You have better purpose for all of us?

Abuses come in many forms and however way they are branded – professional or personal – they are still unpleasant.

True, many things I have learnt through my working life. But, how do all these that I have learnt contribute to my purpose in life? Each and everyday, thousands and thousands of us are transported to our working places where we do what we are told to do and each day comes by, we all get older. Each and everyday, a piece of our dreams vanishes in thin air.

All for …

Let me think. All for a sense of security after our retirement? Say our life expectancy is 75 and we retire at the age of 65 (no joke), say we all start work at 20-ish, most of us have to work over 40 years to buy 10 years of security after retirement.

No wonder the advancement of civilisation is so slow. Our society norm makes us so inefficient.

Sigh.

I admired the beauty of the sky while on my way sending my wife to the airport. The sky was decorated with cotton-like clouds and the sun looked like a big orange light bulb covered with a thick sheet of white paper. I could look at the sun without hurting my eyes. It was at that moment when my imagination ran wild. I dreamed that I could ride a dragon and flew up to the sky. The scene was indeed beautiful.

Traffic jam at the rush hour and as we came to a halt on the highway, I looked sideway and saw a lot of purple colour flowers on my right hand side. Singapore is indeed a garden city. So rarely I could admire the flower on the highway. I did not mind the jam.

And that was how a painter spoils a picture at the final stroke: I saw movements from the bushes and I saw a pair of rats in close encounter.

Again, such a beautiful day – almost.

How we may wish some of our bosses play online games more often. At times some organisations drive people nuts. I wish I could apply what I learnt from DAoC (Dark Age of Camelot) to my working life.

• Team up at the right level
• Skill set is important
• Never pull a resource out during the project
• There is so much endurance one has
• If people are not having fun, they will leave the team
• Leadership is everything

Team Up at the Right Level

I learnt much from DAoC that teaming up at the right level is important. For instance, if I am a level 30 fighter, there is no point in grouping with a level 5 healer. Chances are, I will be dead long before my healer can heal me. And guess what? Very soon, my healer will be dead too. Teaming up a very junior consultant with a senior consultant is not effective. Definitely need something in between.

Skill Set is Important

Very often, my organisation assigns resource based on availability rather than skill set. That is really bad. If you play DAoC, you know that having the right skill is very important. Teaming up with people of the right skill set is crucial to group success. People should complement each other. If majority of my group are fighter class, time to recruit healers such as clerics.

Never Pull a Resource Out During the Project

During a fight in DAoC, each group member focus on bring down the monsters. No one leave the group during a fight. It is just counter-productive. Sigh … wish my bosses realise that. By pulling out resources during a project is like having team members leaving the group during a fight. It is a doomed move.

There is So Much Endurance One Has

You just can’t slave drive people. Each of us has limit. In DAoC, each character has a certain amount of endurance. When the endurance runs out in the middle of a fight, you know that is when trouble begins.

If People are not Having Fun, They will Leave the Team

This is obvious. People join a group and fight together. But if they are not having fun, they will just leave the group and find another group. Work-wise, it is the same. Do you really expect people to stick around if they are not having fun? No way! Be creative and add the fun to working life.

Leadership is Everything

I lead group in DAoC and I am led by others. Leadership is important. One trivial mistake can lead to the doom of the entire group. I look into the eyes of my group and I feel a sense of responsibility. If you are not fit to be a leader, step aside. Make someone else a leader. At least that is what we do in DAoC.

Car price has come down quite a fair bit since I bought my car about 4 years ago. New tax structure has brought the car price lower. Many of my friends have already upgraded their cars. Shall I follow suit?

The case for upgrading my car to a new one is simple. I bought my Toyota Corolla at S$91,000 with a OMV valued at S$15,000. If I scrap my car at the end of 10 years, the government will give me back 80% of OMV – i.e. $12,000. Hence, my yearly depreciation is going to be S$7,900.

Since I consider my made in Japan Corolla as the top of its class (the new Corolla is made in Thailand and I won’t consider brands like Mazda, Nissan, Honda, and other European cars of the same class), if I ever change my car, it will be an upgrade from my 1.5 liter car to a 2.0 liter car.

Consider a new Camry, or Accord, or a VK’s Pussat, they are retailing at about S$100,000 and the OMV of the cars are in the region of S$23,000. Under the new tax structure, at the end of the 10th year, the government will refund 50% of ARF and ARF is 110% of OMV. So new car will only get back 55% of OMV – i.e. S$12,650. Yearly depreciation is about S$8,700.

With a mere increase of less than S$1,000 a year, I could have ended up with a much better car. Why not?

The case against it is as such. If I am to trade in my car right now, due to the crash in car price, I will only get back slightly more than S$40,000. That is to say for the last 4 years, my car has depreciated by S$50,000 – i.e. yearly depreciation is S$12,500 instead of S$7,900 as previously calculated!

The bright side is that if I consider the past as write-off (I have to if I consider upgrading one because once I do so, I will realise the loss), the yearly depreciation for the next 6 years for me will be calculated using the current value of my car minus off the goverement refund at the end of the 10 years and that is S$4,600 per year!

And because I have almost paid up all the car loan, my cashflow for car financing for the next 6 years will be S$0.

How about an increase in car related expenses? The road tax for my 1.5L car is S$875. The road tax for a 2L to 2.4L car is S$1,550 to S$2,150. That is an increase of S$1,000 per year on road tax alone.

I travelled about 20,000 km a year. My car’s fuel consumption is 13.32 km per liter. Each year, my car consumes 1500 liter of petrol and if petrol cost is about S$1.5 per liter, I paid roughly S$2,250 on petrol per year.

A 2L+ car’s fuel consumption is estimated to be about 9.5 km per liter at best. Hence, it is a 40% increase in petrol consumption. That translates to about another S$1,000 of extra expense.

At the time of posting, I don’t have the exact figure for an increase in car insurance. My guessimation will be in the region of S$500 to S$1,000.

To sum up, for the next 6 years, I will have to pay an increased of S$4,000 on yearly depreciation and closed to and additional S$3,000 on expenses versus my putting up with my older car and increased maintenance cost, the choice is obvious.

That’s why I am not going to upgrade my car any sooner.