On Working and Research

As much as I'd like to blame the office broadband for spewing out crappy internet for my research, I think about 20 years ago when there was no internet for reference. I'm assuming most of the people have to talk to experts or experienced colleagues to get answers or information.

Now I'm curious how dad does his work...how he got so far and so up so fast. He is absolutely my work guru. A lot of people who know him in the office regard him as strict, hardworking, thorough and brilliant (one of the SVPs even said he looked like a genius: maybe he is!).

Living with my dad for a year in Singapore opened my eyes to his work habits. Since we never saw him other than the holidays when we were kids, it never occurred to me how he worked and became successful.

1. Work hard, work smart -- he always told me to work smart.. make sure you know the purpose of your work so you don't end up wasting time in meaningless work.

2. Have concrete goals -- dreaming of becoming a CEO in 5 years is not very objective. Take it a step at a time. Start with accomplishing a task and move forward; you get to see real results- which is more motivating!

3. Never be afraid to ask questions -- it's better to make mistakes at the start. Asking questions and sending drafts saves you and your boss future headaches and delays

4. Learn -- you are never too old to learn. Combine education (book smart) and wisdom (street smart).

I'm sure dad does a lot more. He's the kind of guy that goes the extra mile. I'd love to pick his brains one time and ask him what's a day like for him.

Life was so much simpler way back

I read past entries and realized that I had a lot of time to blog back then...! I just feel that time slips past my fingers and I barely realize it's the middle of the week already.

I looked at the blog entry that I did while I was starting HP..my very first company. Compared to my first day in EDC, HP was a walk through hell... in all honesty, I wasn't prepared for a life of German programming language, flex time (when you're young and given that much freedom, it's BAD) and no sense of discipline (I mean it in the "non-traditional corporate environment" sense).

Since my parents were baby boomers area, one could only imagine the corporate life way back when. And that is the kind of corporate life I was expecting. Of course, things change, people change culture and the culture now is a celebration of independence and accountability. At least in my mind of MNCs.

EDC seems more structured, more "back to the future" type of environment. Since my parents came from that company 20+ years back, this is exactly the corporate life they were painting in my mind. It's not so bad. It's an eye-opener for me. The difference between a local and a multi-national company. A flat organization vs. structured hierarchy. A private company vs. a recently privatized GOCC.

There are so many things I have yet to know about corporate life. The formality, the "traditional" sense of going to the office...

I must say, working in EDC has charmed me. It seems down-to-earth (in it's literal and figurative sense!) but at the same time, I'm learning a lot...fueling (hahaha) my knowledge of management and governance from masters classes.

HP and I had a good ride. I met a lot of people who have become my closest of friends. I have shared wonderful experiences and have experienced the best and worst (so far) of living an adult life. But now, it's on to a new chapter. Move on, move forward, move towards future and wonderful opportunities out there.

Ah life, we haven't even started!

Getting fit for the apocalypse

Lately I've been researching on books or fiction with alternate realities, specifically the scenario wherein Nazis won World War II and left the Allied powers almost broke with no military force to protect them incase the Axis powers decide to invade their country. One good suggestion for a novel is Robert Harris' Fatherland. He's the same author of Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal. I personally haven't read Fatherland but I read Hannibal and Red Dragon. I'm thinking of buying the Fatherland ebook. It might be a good read and see from his imagination and perspective a world with Germany as the most powerful country on earth.

Jumping to the future, I've been watching some gameplays of Left 4 Dead on youtube. This also makes me wonder what kind of world we'd have if zombies live among us. Many popular theories are depicted either in books (Max Brooks' World War Z and Zombie Survival Guide), movies (Night of the Living Dead, 28 Days/Weeks Later, I am Legend) and even on TV (The Walking Dead). This may suggest the possibility of a widespread virus that attacks the human body and turns it into lifeless cannibals.

Apart from The Zombie Survival Guide, the movie Zombieland gives us tips and tricks which may be useful in the event of that catastrophe. Which kind of changes my perspective on fitness. Instead of going to the gym to help me lose weight, I could see this as a paradigm shift a d turn it into a training for zombie protection. Improve stamina, build mental toughness and even learn how to fire high-powered weapons. Personally, I'd think it would be a better motivation than improving self confidence and body image. But that's just me.

Cooking Kars!

The past few days, I've been experimenting lately in the kitchen. With much prodding from my mom to *at least* try cooking something simple, I've finally tried making simple dishes (thank you Mama Sita and Knorr mix!).

Wish I could post the pics now but my iphone can't get a wifi connection properly to email the pics in my laptop. Maybe next time I'll use my ipad or an actual camera.

But anyway, I cooked chicken caldereta on Monday night, which tasted incredibly edible! On Tuesday, I tried Sinigang (which was a bit too sour for our liking) and Pork Caldereta (aka Plan B) and asparagus with garlic and oyster sauce. I think I'm doing pretty well with this cooking thing.

I guess one pet peeve about all this is the dishwashing part. Thank God for younger sisters who can't cook! Mwahahaha!

More Motivation

I got a new (smaller and lighter) notebook last year for class. I was hauling it to class everyday.. and even if the transportation is very efficient in Singapore, it was still a challenge to haul it.

From dad's apartment, I would take:
- a 10minute walk to the MRT station
- take the red line to City Hall to transfer to green line (11 minute ride)
- 40minute travel to Boon Lay station
- wait around 10minutes to hop on the 179 bus going in the campus
- walk uphill from the bus stop to Research Techno Plaza for about 3 minutes

My old laptop isn't really that heavy. It's one of those multi-tasking notebooks that's not too big, not too small. But with constant travelling, it gets heavier the longer I hold onto it.

But now that I have a smaller laptop, it's more portable and has more battery life. I also like the color! It's a swirly pink with purple and white with some butterflies (how girly can you get?!.

I also promised myself that I'd be more active in my blogging in parallel with my masters but sometimes, I don't have that much inspiration to create something for my blog.

I still want to creative..maybe more witty than my older posts... not just create half-hearted posts and ideas.