Graduation Day!

I DID IT!

I didn't think I'd finally pull it off! There were moments I swear I almost gave up on writing my dissertation. I even wrote a poem on my dissertation blues! It was just too time consuming and I was just too tired juggling between work and research. I thought I'd just graduate with a post graduate diploma instead. But luckily, I persevered. I suppose the difficult part is in getting started on the writing. But once we overcome that obstacle, the rest is a lot easier!

Now, after 4 years 12 modules and one dissertation later, I finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel! Wahoo! Most of the folks during my batch and the batch after me have already graduated. But I really took my time. I confessed I really enjoyed the whole programme except for the final part of writing the dissertation. It takes a lot of discipline to sit down and read and summarise and think. Oh well, that's all in the past now.

Another year, another milestone. Although I did not really plan on attending my graduation earlier, it didn't take much persuasion from my parents to do so. And I was one lucky gal as a few friends and my entire family braved the long distance to get there. My family lost their way in the process while my friends accompanied me and faced off hunger pangs and boredom while awaiting my family to find their way to the campus. All in all, it was a great day although I was absolutely pooped in the end.

Thanks folks for coming to the event. It meant a whole lot to me!

We finally made it!


What would graduation be without the traditional mortar board throwing shot! And there they go ... up, up and away!



And what were my friends doing while I sweat it out in the "monkey" costume? Let's take a look.

All: Take our photo! Forget about Leanne. She has enough shots already!:p


Derek: AHAHAHAHAHA .... That's wayyyy tooo farnie!


Alex: Watcha' looking at?


Me: Hey! Look! Look! The SIAMESE TWINS ... NOT!


Me: Now, open mouth and show me your pearly white teeth!


Val: Did you see that dude? Phooey! Way cool man!
LK: Which one?
Val: That one with that large soulful eyes!
He just walked pass not 5 mins ago!
PW: Which one?
Val: ..... blah blah blah blah ...


Val: Aiyoyo! Enough already la! Is she still taking pictures? I'm hungry!


Val: I'm hungry!
PW: Me too!
Derek: Me three!
LK: Let's have ikan bakar!


Me: Sorry folks. Forgot to take the ikan picture. Took the mutton instead.

Pussycat Dolls PCD World Tour 2006 "live" concert in Malaysia

We found out a friend was organising the above concert recently. And by sheer luck (and thick skin), I managed to get two free tickets to the concert.

Another friend who also received two free tickets ended up not going because he didn't know who the PCDs are. Talk about NOT knowing what he is missing! His last words to me, "go along and play with the kids tonight". Hahaha ...

Another friend asked me if I have mid-life crisis. Hmmm ... from listening to PCD? Does being over 30 mean we only listen to 80s and 90s music? I would have thought music is universal and surpasses age, race and language barriers.

In any case, the dolls were HOT! HOT! HOT!

But alas, I was very late for the concert. Luckily it started late and I merely missed the opening act and 1 PCD song (was told it was Buttons). The venue of the concert at Sunway Lagoon Surf Beach was also quite unconventional. At least for me! We were literally standing on sand while swaying to the beat of the PCD songs. But as we were standing quite far away from the stage and it was too hot to wedge ourselves among the crowd, we couldn't quite feel the 'beat' of the concert. I couldn't quite see the dolls from where I stand and thus was looking at the huge screen most of the time. After awhile, I was wondering what I was doing there. It would have been better to stay in the comfort of my home with a glass of wine in hand and sway to their music. :)

All in all, the concert was just alright. As they have only one album, they performed all my favourite songs i.e. Sway, Don't Cha and Beep. Loved the tongue-in-cheek lyrics of the latter two. However, the concert was too short (i.e. 1 hour) to rush all the way from KL to Sunway.

Frankly, the next concert I go to, I should either be up front near the stage or I stay home and watch.

Dont Cha - Pussy Cat Dolls

Single - Natasha Bedingfield

I will take a break from the final part of Steve Jobs speech for this interesting song. :)

I was driving to work today and caught this catchy number over the Fly FM airwaves. The lyrics seem most appropriate and I wish to dedicate it to all my single friends out there!

Ladies, enjoy your singlehood and be groovy! Oh Yeah!

Natasha Bedingfield - Single (UK version)


Intro:-

Ah yeah that's right
All you single people out there
This is for you
Yeah

Verse 1:-
I'm not waitin' around for a man to save me
(Cos I'm happy where I am)
Don't depend on a guy to validate me
(No no)
I don't need to be anyone's baby
(Is that so hard to understand?)
No I don't need another half to make me, whole

Make your move if you want doesn't mean I will or won't
I'm free to make my mind up you either got it or you don't

Chorus:-
This is my current single status
My declaration of independence
There's no way I'm tradin' places
Right now a star is in the ascendance

I'm single
(Right now)
That's how I wanna be
I'm single
(Right now)
That's how I wanna be

Yeah, uh huh, that's right

Verse 2:-
Don't need to be on somebody's arm to look good
(I like who I am)
I'm not saying I don't wanna fall in love cause I would
I'm not gonna get hooked up just cause you say I should
(Can't romance on demand)
I'm gonna wait so I'm sorry if you misunderstood

ooohh yeah

Chorus:-
This is my current single status
My declaration of independence
There's no way I'm tradin' places
Right now a star is in the ascendance

I'm single
(Right now)
That's how I wanna be
I'm single
That's how I wanna be
(Right Now)
I'm single
(Right now)
That's how I wanna be
(Right Now )
I'm single, oh oh ooh

Verse 3:-
Everything in its right time
Everything in its right place
I know I'll settle down one day
But 'til then I like it this way...
It's my way
Eh, I like it this way, eh

Make your move if you want doesn't mean I will or won't
I'm free to make my mind up you either got it or you don't
'Til then I'm single

Chorus:-
This is my current single status
My declaration of independence
There's no way I'm tradin' places
Right now a star is in the ascendance

This is my current single status
My declaration of independence
There's no way I'm tradin' places (Right now a star)
Right now a star is in the ascendance

I'm single
(Right now)
That's how I wanna
I'm single
(Right now)
That's how I wanna be
I'm single
(Right now)
That's how I wanna
I'm single woooh

Part 2 ~ Don’t Settle

Don’t you just hate it when you meet people who know exactly what they want from life and exactly where they want to go? For example, they would have their entire life mapped out for themselves in terms of personal and career i.e. when to get married and have the first kid; when they would become manager and director of a company; when they want to make their first million, etc. Yes! I have friends like that in varsity days and yes, a few of them are doing very well in life now.

Perhaps hate is too strong a word. Don’t you simply feel envious of these people who seemed so sure and confident of themselves as they trudge forward in the path of life while you struggle to come to terms with who you are and what you want from life?

The second story from Steve Jobs’ speech at Stanford University addressed this issue.

From the mouth of Steve Jobs:

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky - I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents’ garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation - the Macintosh - a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired.

How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out.

When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me - I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life. During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I retuned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking.

Don't settle.

As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it.

Don't settle.

~~~~~ To be continued ~~~~~

Whilst most of my friends stayed on at one or two jobs or at most three and built their careers with these companies, I have changed a total of 6 jobs in the span of 11 years of working. It was never part of my grand plan in life to move so frequently. I am cognizant of the fact that a rolling stone carries no moss. I badly wanted to stay on at one job and build my career, but it was never meant to be.

Part of the problem was me. I was always looking for a challenge. I hated routine and which job didn’t become routine after awhile? I did not want to settle in a job where I feel no passion for it. After all, I probably spent 60% of my waking hours at work. And I figured I darn well better enjoy it! The other part of the problem was the circumstances that befell me. In one instance I was retrenched and in another, the company wound up.

Be that as it may, being retrenched was never a great feeling. No doubt you get a chunk of money from your employer. However, you can’t help but feel like a failure in some ways. Even after you moved on, the stigma still remained and it would take months to regain your level of confidence. But as in the case of Steve Jobs, being retrenched was probably one of the best things that happened in my life. It moved me away from a situation of contentment and complacency and put me right back into the race to fight for something I feel passionate about.

What I have learned in the corporate world is that there is no such thing as long term employment. Restructuring comes and goes. Bosses come and go. One has to learn to roll with the punches. But the one important thing I learnt about myself is that I have to feel passionate about what I do and enjoy my work. The day I quit doing so would be the day I would look elsewhere to paddle my wares.

And as in work, life and matters of the heart, the words from Steve Jobs ring true, “Don’t Settle.” I have yet to do so though the pressure has been great in recent years. My creed in life for so long has been to do something because I feel the passion and the joy for it, not because society demanded it of me.

Marching to the tune of a different drummer is not easy. Sometimes we falter because settling for something is always the easiest solution. In matters of the heart, there is a constant fear that we would settle due to the constant urging of good meaning samaritans who believe in conforming to society’s time line of getting married and having kids. I certainly hope not.

I shall keep the words of Steve Jobs close to my heart.

You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking.
Don't settle.

As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it.
Don't settle.

Yes! Don’t settle.

P.S. Look out for Part 3 – Death

Part 1 ~ Connecting the Dots

Recently, a friend forwarded me an email on a simple but yet meaningful speech given by Steve Jobs (to the uninitiated, Apple Computer CEO) at Stanford University on June 12th 2005. I thought to share it with you as the speech “spoke” to me on so many levels.

The following is a transcription of that speech, which I will break up into 3 blog postings i.e. one story for each posting.

From the mouth of Steve Jobs:

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college.

Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation.

Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal.

Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit.

So why did I drop out? It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5' deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on.

Let me give you one example: Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating. None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life.

But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it’s likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

~~~~~ To be continued ~~~~~

I remembered my first major interview with the folks from Effem Foods (the company that produce Mars and Snickers, M&M’s, Pedigree, Whiskas, etc.) I had graduated recently and had only one year of working experience behind me. I was among eight final candidates vying for a position in Effem Foods.

In those days, interviews to get into corporations like these were long, drawn-out one-and-a-half to two-day affairs. We had to go through various written tests (which encompassed multiple choice questions, written essays, calculations and questions on general knowledge), performed five-minute impromptu individual presentations to the panel of interviewers, put through various group dynamic tests and of course, a final sit down dinner at the end of the interview to test our social etiquette.

After going through the battery of tests, I figured I’d most likely get the job; except for one person standing in my way i.e. this other Chinese chap. He oozed self confidence in every sense of the word but he had one major flaw ~ he never listened to anyone and was opinionated on everything to the verge of annoyance. (Note: I could be biased since I was vying for the same position.)

In any case, “gwei los” (who happened to form part of the interview panel) have a tendency to admire self-confidence in a person. Not that I lack any; just that I do not come across so strongly ~ if you know what I mean. Anyway, we had to go through a final group dynamic test where all the eight candidates were secluded in a room and were given a task to come up with a solution for a case study within a stipulated time. There were “examiners” observing our behaviour while we discussed the case study and arrived at a solution.

I was pretty sure that I had bagged the job the moment this test was presented to us. Why? Because as usual, Mr Oozing-with-Self-Confidence had his say and pretty much shut everyone up because he thought he knew what the best solution was. I watched his antics with glee as I knew the purpose of the test was not the solution in itself but how a leader manage his team and provide a platform for everyone to say his/her piece before arriving at a solution. And I believe I passed this test with flying colours and ousted my strongest contender for the position. As they say, the rest was history.

One may ask, what did this have anything to do with connecting the dots?

Well, during my varsity years, I was deeply involved with this student organisation called AIESEC. I spent a lot of time and effort with the organisation that in some ways, I neglected my family and my studies. Often, my parents questioned me on my time spent in this organisation and what I hoped to achieve out of it. Well, other than the fun, the games and the networking, I learned about handling group dynamics. We organised and attended lots of sessions on the above. One of which was the same test that I went through in my interview in Effem Foods.

And that was how and why I knew I had the edge over the rest to win the job at the end of the day. It was nothing as ground breaking as what Steve Jobs did with the Mac but if you had asked me at that point in time what I hoped to achieve from joining AIESEC, my reply would have been fun, games and networking. Little did I know that it would have helped me succeed in getting the highly sought after job with Effem Foods later on.

As Steve Jobs said,
Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

I shall leave the above for you to ponder over.

P.S. Look out for Part 2 – Don’t Settle

Bad Day

Bad Day - Daniel Powter


I love this song and finally found the lyrics.

Song lyrics

Where is the moment when we need it the most
You kick up the leaves and the magic is lost
They tell me your blue sky's faded to grey
They tell me your passion's gone away
And I don't need no carrying on

You stand in the line just to hit a new low
You're faking a smile with the coffee to go
You tell me your life's been way off line
You're falling to pieces every time
And I don't need no carrying on

Cause you had a bad day
You're taking one down
You sing a sad song just to turn it around
You say you don't know
You tell me don't lie
You work at a smile and you go for a ride
You had a bad day
The camera don't lie
You're coming back down and you really don't mind
You had a bad day
You had a bad day

Well you need a blue sky holiday
The point is they laugh at what you say
And I don't need no carrying on

You had a bad day
You're taking one down
You sing a sad song just to turn it around
You say you don't know
You tell me don't lie
You work at a smile and you go for a ride
You had a bad day
The camera don't lie
You're coming back down and you really don't mind
You had a bad day
You had a bad day

Sometimes the system goes on the blink and the whole thing it turns out
Wrong
You might not make it back and you know that you could be well oh that
Strong
Well I'm not wrong

So where is the passion when you need it the most
Oh you and I
You kick up the leaves and the magic is lost

Cause you had a bad day
You're taking one down
You sing a sad song just to turn it around
You say you don't know
You tell me don't lie
You work at a smile and you go for a ride
You had a bad day
You see what you like
And how does it feel, one more time
You had a bad day
You had a bad day
You had a bad day

World Cup Lessons

Yes! I did finally get into the World Cup Fever, beginning from the quarterfinal matches. Sadly, my samba boys (Brazil) did not clear their quarterfinal match and allowed the Frenchies to stride into the semis and then the finals. Neither did my German cuties made it to the finals. A very sad World Cup Finals for me indeed.

But the match that left the strongest impression on me (I didn't watch that many matches after all) was the one between Germany and Italy. Their match was tied at 0-0 right up to the 29th minute of extra time and suddenly the Italians scored two goals straight! What a waste!

Lessons Learned:

Lesson 1
No matter how vigilant we are, the moment we relax our defences, our competitors will find the crack and hit us where it hurts. Witness the Germany versus Italy match.

Lesson 2
It doesn't matter if you are a legend. You butt (headbutt), you pay (red card)! Poor Zidane. What a way to go.

Lesson 3
When in Europe, the Europeans will triumph.

Lesson 4
Everyone's an expert on football. From beauty queens to sexy teens. From mat motor to pak mamak.

Lesson 5
Football fans become nocturnal animals. Comatose by day, vampires by night.

Lesson 6
Not hitting sales targets? Reason: everybody's too busy watching World Cup to stimulate the economy!

Lesson 7
The less you know about football, the higher the chances of winning your bets!

Lesson 8
World Cup is more popular than Wimbledon!

Lesson 9
Late to work? Blame it on World Cup!

Lesson 10
It doesn't matter if everyone lies. You can be sure of one thing. Your hips don't lie! :p

Here's to my samba boys!

Hips Don't Lie

Are you lonesome tonight?

Akon - Lonely



Lonely a. solitary, isolated; (sad because) companionless
Company n. being with another or others
Companion n. one who accompanies or associates with another
Source: The Little Oxford Dictionary

I recently heard that a friend of mine is getting registered for marriage. Strangely enough, she was crying with tears of misery when she told this to another friend. She was happily into this comfortable relationship and would have continued with the status quo if she had not been pressured to choose either marriage or nothing at all. Fearing the loss of the companionship and loneliness, she succumbed in misery. Is loneliness reason enough to get married?

A couple of weeks back, another friend had to face the reality that the four-year “on-again off-again” flirtation she had with this guy might not go anywhere. She was devastated. And during one of her low moments, she said, “I don’t want to grow old and lonely. But I fear that in order to avoid doing that I might one day succumb into a relationship with a married man.” Is loneliness reason enough to get into a complicated relationship?

There’s this story I heard about a chatter who goes on dates with guys she met online and because she wanted/ needed the “love” and companionship, she was willing to sleep with these guys on their first dates. Sadly, at the time of the telling, she had not found one willing to go the whole nine yards i.e. red picket fences and the little house on the prairie. (Story is hearsay and unverified.) Is loneliness reason enough to sleep around?

A friend once asked me if I am lonely or if I fear loneliness. I answered; of course I get lonely sometimes. Don’t we all? It is not necessary to be alone to feel lonely. We could be among a sea of faces and still feel lonely. But I have learned that loneliness hits when our emotional well being is at its worst or when we have long periods of idleness or aimlessness. And we have no one to talk to about that. After all, an idle mind is a devil’s playing field.

Do I fear loneliness? I have not given that much thought. Perhaps because I live a reasonably good and fulfilling life; with a family who loves me and friends who keeps my life interesting and exciting.

“But your friends won’t be with you forever. They would eventually settle down, get married, have kids and live a life of their own,” my friend persisted. “You don’t want to grow old alone do you?”

Hmmm … now that’s food for thought. Not that I have not considered this aspect before. But getting married and having kids do not guarantee that we would not end up alone and lonely. After all, there are no guarantees in life. Here today, gone tomorrow. Who knows? *shrugs*

Should fear of loneliness spur us into relationships that we do not want or are not healthy for us? To what lengths would we go to avoid loneliness?

I would like to think that I would grow old surrounded by friends and family; whether I am married or not. And I would expect I will extend the same support and friendship to my friends and family.

Perhaps that’s the eternal optimist in me!