“If you’ve never failed, you’ve never lived”
Nov 9, 2008 life
Thanks for coming back. =). Glad to see you. If there's anything I can do for you, I'd love to hear from you. Drop me an email, or leave a comment, introduce yourself. I'd love to connect with you. Or if you have your own blog, why not let me promote your work?
Came across this video, and had to share it. It has a great message, in my opinion.
[?]Lessons from a long walk
May 5, 2008 Analogies, Personal
So, a couple of days ago I walked home (I stay in Tampines) from Victoria Concert Hall. More specifically, I walked from Victoria Concert Hall to the Singapore Flyer, to Kallang MRT, then along the MRT track to Bedok MRT, then through Bedok Reservoir and to Tampines and home. For those of you not from Singapore and have no idea what I’m talking about, it was a walk of slightly over 11 miles (based on Google Maps).
And well, the walk reminded me of two lessons.
Firstly, at a point during the walk (in Bedok), I made a wrong turn. I could have turned back, retraced my steps, and gone the original path. And it would have taken me just as long (or even longer). Instead, I went on, kept in mind the big picture (the rough direction I was headed), and adjusted my route accordingly. Eventually, I did make it back, and I learned more about the area because of that.The same lesson applies in life. We’re human, we’ll all make mistakes. If you’ve got the big picture in mind, if you know the general direction you’re headed, you’ll be able to readjust your plans accordingly when you do.
Secondly, and more importantly, the walk started out as just a short stroll, because I didn’t feel like going home yet. But after a while, it became a challenge, to see how far I could push myself. Honestly, I wouldn’t have expected to be able to walk all the way back home. I just wanted to see how far I could go, and in the end, I managed it.
Just goes to show that you never know how far you can go until you push your limits – and more often than not, it’s further than you’d expect.
Are you pushing your limits and stepping out of your comfort zone? Are you really going as far as you can?
[?]Tags: big picture, comfort zone, lessons, life, limits, readjust, walk
Making Decisions for Yourself First
Mar 14, 2008 Technology, life
A few days ago, John from 37signals blogged about why they disagree with Don Norman. Don had criticized them for designing for themselves, instead of other people. John responded by saying that “Designing for ourselves first yields better initial results because it lets us design what we know”, among other things (read the post for more).
I agree with John on this one, and I think it can be expanded to a greater theme, and one that raises an interesting question.
In your life, in the choices you make, who are you making the choices for? Are you making decisions for yourself first? Or are you making decisions trying to please others?
Personally, I do think that others are important. But I do also believe that you’re better of making decisions for yourself, living your life according to what you think is best.
[?]Tags: 37signals, be youreslf, beliefs, choices, decisions, life
Golf – Lessons for Life
Feb 16, 2008 Sports
Jon Percepto from Eclectic Commons shares with us the Philosophy of Golf in 95 Words.
I’m not particularly a fan of golf, but I have to admit, Jon’s post got me thinking.
Most of the challenges are against the environment. It’s not a direct competition to try to stop and defeat another, but more a competition to see who deals with the situation better. And as Jon said, it’s about reading the terrain, adapting to deal with the situation.
Resembles life quite a lot, doesn’t it?
[?]Tags: adapting, environment, golf, life, philosophy
Happy New Year
Jan 1, 2008 Uncategorized
Happy New Year!
Hope you guys have a great 2008. Don’t be like the chicken in the cartoon. Make 2008 different. Make it count.
Cartoon courtesy of Savage Chickens
[?]Tags: Announcements, life, make a difference
Problem = Opportunity
Dec 19, 2007 Uncategorized
I know I said I’d do a podcast. But I’m having a cough and all, and my throat isn’t too good. So I’ll just write what I intended to talk about.
It’s been a really interesting past week. A lot of ups-and-downs. But one thing it has thought me is that with every problem, there’s an opportunity. An opportunity to try something new, to do something else, which might work out even better.
My Windows system had been screwing up a lot last week. And it got really annoying, so it pushed me to change to Linux. I’ve been wanting to try out Linux (Linux Mint, to be specific) for quite a while, but never got around to it, because well, Windows was doing just fine. So with Windows starting to screw up, yes it was a problem, and yes it was annoying. But it pushed me to switch. And it’s a switch that so far has proven to be really good. The response speed and boot time is a lot faster, and I’m loving it.
Another thing that went wrong is FeedReader. I’ve been using FeedReader, the desktop application, as my RSS application. Last week, something went wrong with it, and it just stopped working. So, I lost my whole RSS list. My last backup was about a month ago, though, so not all my subscriptions were lost. But it was still really frustrating. So I’ve now moved to Google Reader. It’s working alright so far, and I’m still yet to get the hang of it, but I’m confident it’ll turn out well, considering how everyone’s been saying such good things about it.
Finally, my birthday. It was on Sunday, and the friend I was supposed to go out with canceled on me on Saturday. So that really hurt. And I was really down about it. Messaged a couple of my friends to see whether they would be free, but given how last minute it was, I didn’t expect it. Turned out I was wrong. On Sunday, at about 4 in the afternoon, Cindy messaged me, and said she was. So we met at 5, had dinner and all. And yeah. it made my day. I’ve been wanting to meet Cindy for quite long anyway, so getting the chance to meet her was good in itself. And yeah, it just made my birthday really enjoyable and fun (thanks again, Cindy!). If my other friend hadn’t canceled on me, I wouldn’t have had the chance to meet up with Cindy. It wasn’t how I planned it, but it turned out well in the end, and was fun.
3 problems that happened. But it also opened up 3 other opportunities. That’s always the case, isn’t it?
With every problem, there’s an opportunity. They’re two sides of the same coin. It’s just how you look at it.
Oh, and on a side note, I’m now 17 (and 3 days)! Just one year away from being able to legally drink and go clubbing and all.
[?]Tags: life, opportunity, perspective
Why I Love Twitter
Dec 2, 2007 Uncategorized
Ricky Van Veen presented us with the case against hyperblogging last month. And Fred Graver gave us his response.
Both of them seem to make the similar point that services like Twitter provide too much information, and lack intelligent messages. I think that’s missing the point of what Twitter can be great for. So here’s why I love Twitter (I’m using Twitter as a specific example because I use it regularly, unlike things like Tumblr).
Personally, I think that the “too much information” argument misses the point. You wouldn’t complain that in when people call you for a chat, there’s too much information (in that short period of time) and the person doesn’t think through (with drafts) about what he/she is saying, would you? Or an IM conversation? And to me, that’s what Twitter is about. It’s a place for conversations. It’s not as much about information as it is about connection and relationships. @loudmouthman defined it quite well, as “the open plan office water cooler conversations“.
To me, Twitter is all about community. It’s a great place to hold conversations, to build connections and get to know people. It’s a great way to just build friendships and relationships. The story of @kosso and @01000101 is a great example (they met and fell in love via Twitter, and are now engaged).
I love the community built around Twitter. I’ve had so many awesome conversations. And twice already, I’ve posted questions (on two vastly different topics), and gotten offers of help within a couple of hours. Things like what Chris Brogan did for Noell’s birthday (he’s never met her, by the way) are just amazing.
Queen of Spain’s post sums it up really well.
“So I’m done with talk of ‘what is web 2.0?’ and ‘what is social media?’It’s life.”
If you’re not on Twitter, yet, I encourage you to join it. It’s an awesome place. If you are already on Twitter – or after you join, as I’m sure you’re about to ; ) – feel free to follow me.
[?]Tags: Conversation, life, relationships, social networking, web 2.0
