I resign

I resign,
from the days of 9 to 5,
to the days of 5 to 9.

I resign,
from standing in a single file,
in the freezing cold and the Scottish rain,
to spot the company bus from a mile,
before my patience wane.

I resign,
from waiting for the bus,
the bus with only one life,
there and back it brings us,
there before 9 and back after 5.

I resign,
from the beautiful Scottish Highlands,
to the expansive Scottish lowlands,
from the miles of Scottish lochs,
to deep fried pizzas and Mars bars.

I resign,
from all my possessions,
from the house i stay in,
to the Mini i drive in,
from the bed i lie on,
to the sofa i sleep on.

And finally,
I resign from my company,
to be in a different country.

Categories:

• work
• life
• change

The contenders

In pole position, we have the ipod - where all MP3 players are compared to. Ooozes with cool, intuitive to use, and because it's so popular, it's got a lot of support from accessories to hacks. Down side is the one-format only player, where all other formats have to be converted to ipod-friendly format before being able to use. Plus, no radio or recorder (of course, with 30GB of music, why do u still need the radio?!!)

Next, we have the contender from Singapore. Sleek, smooth and with a better video quality than ipod, it's coming in strong from all sides. It's got the same brain power (30GB hard disk), and does not discriminate among audio and video formats, well, except against ipod's and sony's format. Plus, it's got radio and voice recorder functionality! The controls are less intuitive compared to an ipod, and it's just not as cool as an ipod. It's also slightly more expensive.

And finally, we have the contender from Japan. No colour screen, no identity crisis, no fuss. Just shows basic information about the music, and does what it's suppose to be - an MP3 player and nothing else. Have a whopping 50 hours battery life, making this the clear marathon winner. It's got the same discriminatory treatment against other formats, and apparently the software is not quite up to scratch compared to iTunes - the ipod's format.

So, who do you think will be the winner in this line up?

Categories:

• tech
• rant

Lead or be led?

My dad once asked me this question when i was very young.

"Do you want to be a leader or be led by other people?"

"I want to be neither. i don't want to lead or be led."

"This is the most difficult person to be..."

And my dad never said anything on this matter again. I think secretly... (click here for more), he's still hoping i'd be a world leader some day, or at least be some senior manager of a large company. He has big plans. I have a different plan.

I suppose most parents will want to be proud of their children. They want to show off their offspring in the best light. This is certainly true in chinese communities where a son going to Harvard is just like buying the first Mercedes, whether or not your business is a success. It is the glow they're after. (and by the way, it has to be a Merc for some quirky reason!)

So, do you want to lead or be led? Is this a choice of one or the other? is there no middle ground where you can choose not to lead or be led?

The "lead or be led" question has been popping up throughout my life, taking one form or another but always manage to make an appearance (can I use the word omnipresent here?). In school, possibly because I was braver then, and got some good grades, I landed myself in some sort of leadership positions. class monitor? head-prefect? i don't know how i got myself into these things, and i still don't! nevertheless, they did happen. And when i got to secondary school, the courage to speak up dwindled and so has my grades. Naturally (by society's measure!), the leadership positions became non-existent.

And I see this happening in work life again. Vocal people will tend to fill up the management positions. Also, the more certificates you have hanging on the wall, the more likely you'd be in a management role.

Because of the social value the current society places on management roles, we have come to regard being in management roles as a goal in itself, without realising what being in management roles actually mean. The most consistent job description I can come up with for a manager is... "tell your managees exactly what to do". Using a job description like that, it is no wonder that managers often feel to have god-like power, controlling the work life of their managees. And managees will often feel like a child, the "can't do this, can't do that" mentality.

Is there no system where the balance of power is shifted? Where the managees have the ability to fire the managers as much as the managers have the ability to fire them? A system like this should promote more respect among managers and managees. It'll treat everyone like adults. It'll remove (or at least reduce) all the childish spats that go on in the adult world.

So... lead or be led? I want to believe in a third way. I want to believe, instead of not lead and not be led, a more positive way is to lead AND be led, concurrently. Leaders should try to give up the "do this for me" attitude and promote a more "what happens if we do this" (note the 'me' and the 'we'). Others should take up more leadership roles. Afterall, you are the only true leader of yourself. Everyone else is a guide.

Technology has given the opportunity for leaders of the world (that's you and me!) a place where we can share our leadership qualities. I am able to blog this and let you know what i think. Others join in online forums and bring companies to keel. There's also Google who because of the leadership in all of us, able to provide a search engine that's useful to all of us (minus the recent China-Google censorship).

So, technology has given rise to a collective wisdom where everyone is a leader. Maybe we can learn from what technology has given us, and apply the same "system" in our work and daily lives. To lead or be led? You decide! To quote my favourite cartoon (at one point!), the power, is yours.

Categories:

• inspire
• society
• work
• think

Categories

I've added some categories so that these blog posts are more manageable. Feel free to browse through the tags above (or at the side bar) and let me know what you think. It is based on the tagging engine commonly used by sites such as del.icio.us. More frequently used categories are right at the top with "cissyn" being all my posts. Clicking on any of the categories will take you to the del.icio.us site which will list all the blog posts relating to that category.

I have painstakingly back categorised my previous posts. I might one day explain the categories. For now, I think i'm going to bed. Enough of climbing the learning curve on this.

Change is in the air...

I'm undergoing a change in my life pretty soon. No change in physical appearance (can't afford it!) but i'm going to need to adapt to a new life soon.. or should I say old life? I'm sure going to miss UK... scared? u bet i am! any word of advice?

Categories:

• change
• work
• life

Square maggi in a round pot

At this day and age, i thought we would have solved this problem... but NO!! I still can't fit my square maggi noodle into my round pot. Ok, a bigger pot might get round this problem, but that will be too much water! Am i just being square? why can't the noodle be round? wastage? or why can't the pot be square? just make a square pot that can fit most noodles. I'm sure the students and the lazy bunch of us will appreciate it. Come on, it's the most frequently made meal!! Or is it just me?

Categories:

• eat
• noodle
• tool
• kitchen
• rant

The A to Z song

When was the last time you tried to remember the order of A to Z? Remember the song you were taught when you were young? Or how your mum or your teacher try to make you remember what comes after the letter P?

I thought i refresh this blog site a bit just for a change. When updating the list of blogs, i thought it was a good idea to list them by A-Z. I didn't think I would find recalling A to Z can be difficult! I wouldn't want to go back to the primary school years again!

But it does remind me of how little do we use the order of A to Z anymore. You don't need to search for a book by A to Z. Just type the book into the search engine and it'll let you know where it is, or the helpful librarian will tell you where the book is. You don't have to go through a list to find what you're looking for. Just search for it and it'll appear. Want to know the meaning of a word you haven't come across before? Forget about the dictionary. Just type the word into an online dictionary and voila, out pops the meaning, and even how to pronounce it!

Will we one day forget the order of A to Z? Just like how we could one day forget how to write again? What about other common activities like driving. Will we forget how to drive one day? Is this the natural evolution of the age of information, where collectively we have a lot of information, but individually we lack information? Are we going to let technology substitute our daily activities, so much so that we have to ask technology how to do a certain thing? like typing into google "What is the order of A to Z?"

Categories:

• think

Alcohol can be good for you

I'd never imagine i would write something positive about alcohol. Nevermind the "one glass of red wine a day is good for you". Alcohol seems to have a very bad reputation. You get addiction, under-aged drinking, vandalism etc. The "good" side of alcohol is being seen as sociable, able-to-hold-a-drink-is-cool, entertaining clients whom may bring in lots of money for your business.

Because i didn't want to conform to norm, i've chosen not to drink alcohol. ok, i don't like the taste, apart from some red wine and a recent palatte addition - rose (pronounced row-say?). However, very recently, i got very drunk (for my standards!). My head was spinning and felt really heavy everytime i stood up and try to make my way to the toilet. I did really silly things (don't ask! i can't remember... i was told.. ;).

Amidst all the confusion, i actually really enjoyed myself. I haven't felt so happy for a very long time. Maybe it's the company. Maybe it's the atmosphere. But the most surprising positive effect of this alcohol is the improved relationship among us. The company were people I haven't seen for a very long time. Somehow, going out together like this brought us closer together. Or maybe it's just me!

p/s: For those who're interested, there is a device who you can use against young drinkers, or anyone below 25 in general. You can use this device if the under 25s annoy you in general! The device is called a Mosquito. It emits a high frequency which the over 25s can't hear due to the natural ageing of the human hearing. Check this out!

Categories:

• relationship
• drink

Going once, going twice...

I was at an auction today, for fun and hopefully to bag a deal as well! i've never been to an auction selling electronics before. To give you an example of what they're selling... XBOX 360 (!!), plasma screens, LCDs, laptops, ipods (older ones), PS2, PSP, mobile phones... someone actually got a laptop, ipod, PSP, mobile phone... for £50!

The auctioneer is really amazing. Playing with the psychology of the audience. He can sense the mood of the crowd, and he tries to entice everyone with each auction. He also forms opinion on everyone with each auction. He's got the momentum going so well, everyone was listening, waiting to raise their hand up for the next auction, including myself!

Then came the unexpected... an old man collapsed on the floor. I think the room was probably too warm. No one really knew what was happening as the man fell right in front of the auctioneer, literally under the nose of the auctioneer. Even the auctioneer thought the old man slipped and fell. The fall was slightly more serious. The old man couldn't get up.

Someone called out to ask for a mobile phone to call the ambulance. Others (me included) tried to contact the hotel staff (the event was held in a hotel). By the time i got back from reception, there were several people crowding round the poor man already. One of the hotel staff was holding what i think is a procedures folder! I'm not sure if that's a promising sign or not. Following good procedures is great, but if you have to pull out a folder in an emergency, i don't think that's promising at all? Are we so reliant on written procedures that we can't exercise common sense?

Anyway, the auctioneer's assistant tried to move the poor man away, against the advice of the hotel first aiders there. He got shouted at by another woman. She shouted something which had a sub-tone of "it's someone's life at stake here, it's not always about business".

Needless to say, the auctioneer ended the auction. He lost the mood of the crowd, he lost motivation to go on. I guess he hope to cut his losses by ending early.

Categories:

• rant

A-Z of Bloggers

damn interesting | freakonomics | Guy Kawasaki | Google | hew | John Battelle | Jessica | Kea | mikanico | moongster | Noelle | Rambling Librarian | Stephie | Steve Pavlina | Sum | Tai Ji Student | The Star |

Categories:

• blog