to the point

long blogs bore me. that's why i always cheat by inserting random/related photos inbetween to make it seem less long.

it's like advertisements, as much as we hate them, they are sometimes necessary for our brain to take a break from following the plot and to absorb and understand the significance of the intricate details.

maybe it's because i am getting more short tempered due to the stresses at work. a few projects quickly approaching deadline and the penalty, known as Liquidated Damages in our industry, is at least $20,000 per day, per project. at least.


usually i try to be very respectful and patient to the older colleagues. they've been in the industry for so much longer than i have, and i acknowledge that i have much to learn from them

BUT CAN HE GET TO THE FREAKING POINT ALREADY!?!?!??!?!?

we had this meeting, he went on and on for 10, 15 minutes and he still hasnt answered my question or said anything that any of us didn't already know.

it's a neat trick. to talk a lot but say nothing of importance. to portray the impression of having a lot to say, going on and on about an issue. people's assumption is that if we keep using different words that mean the same thing, we are talking about something different, which might not always be the case. the important thing is to always be logical, and to stay to the point. don't try to insert anything controversial, or anything that the other person might have an interest in, or might have an opinion or objection to. stick to simple, logical statements and don't talk too fast, cos if you talk too fast, you'll very fast run out of things to say. if we talk slowly, there is even a chance we can go back to using some of the words we used earlier and hope that no one notices. because we had already said so much, people, who already not paying attention at this point in time,  might not even remember what the entire conversation, or monologue, is about and start thinking that we know a lot. which we know to be not true, because we actually haven't said that much at all. however, due to the fact that everything being said is logical, and there is nothing we say that catches their attention, and nothing coming out of our mouths that they object to, they see no reason to think of us as anything other than long-winded. which is by itself, not that big of a deal. and since i have so many things to say, the other assumption is that i must know what i am talking about, otherwise how on earth would i have so many things to say? also, maintain good eye contact, so that people get the feeling that we are confident about what we are saying. which is not that difficult when we think about it, there is nothing so complicated about the things we are saying. best part is, remind ourselves that at the end of the day, noone will remember what the conversation was about. and people forget about the real issue, which is that i might not even have answered their question. i would just sufficiently confused everyone into thinking that, yes, i am doing my job, yes, i know what i am doing, and yes, it is too complicated for you to understand, so leave me alone to do what you have always assumed i was doing. of cos it also helps if i keep talking and don't leave space for people to interject. and that leads us back to the point of not talking too fast, because we want people to be able to follow what we are saying, we just want to bore them into choosing not to follow. we are not trying to confuse them with big ideas and complicated theories, we are merely trying to get their brains to shut off and go into screen saver mode. that way, they can't blame us or be angry with us because they would feel embarrassed that they were not paying attention. and they won't dare to ask questions because they aren't sure if it is something we have already said just now in the very long statement.

in summary:
main point is to not give people a reason to get you to stop talking till you mean to stop.
-use simple, logical statements so people won't object to what we are saying
-don't talk too fast. aim to bore, not confuse or infuriate.
-use different words, or phase the same points differently

Early Valentines' Day

neither of us are very detail-orientated people.

it was the basis of our relationship. from the start, we came to a mutual agreement to set our anniversary date as 11th November so that it can be remembered more easily.



she reminded me yesterday that our first valentines' day present to each other were both very poorly wrapped by ourselves. which i had no recollection of.
i don't usually wrap presents, but it sounds like something i would try to do to impress her.


as it is, we were both very excited about the presents we bought for this year valentines' and i figured, why should we wait till the 14th? LET'S JUST EXCHANGE PRESENTS TONIGHT!!

=) so we did.


i had no idea what she was going to get me, so i was very surprised to see that it was a pair of beats earphones!!

all the more exciting because i actually wanted to buy a pair for myself while i was shopping for her present! =X


meanwhile, i bought her a lomo camera which she mentioned before in passing that she would love to have!

we had fun figuring out how to work it last night, and shot almost a whole roll in our room. =)
it's quite a feeling, shooting and shooting and not knowing how the photos will turn out, just waiting to be surprised.

i also bought her a pillow for her birthday cos she was complaining her pillow too high for her.
so as there's no sense in denying her the pleasure of using it already. so i gave it to her as well.
also, i just didnt know where to hide it.


=) it's a warm fuzzy, feeling, being with someone who likes the same things and knows me so well.
secretly, i plan to borrow her camera, and she outrightly demanded that she inherits my old set of shure earphones. =X

Intimidated

the hardest part about being in management is figuring out how to stop people from finding out how i am really feeling.
kinda like playing poker.

*poke poke poke her face*

2 colleagues nearly broke out into a fight in front of me during a meeting(i was chairing), shouting at each other and at one point 1 of them picked up his chair and slammed it down on the floor.
2 other colleagues at the same meeting looked at me, expecting me to somehow stop this fight.

so i had to sit there, stare at them, tell them to please stop this nonsense and get back to the issues at hand.

and pray my voice dun tremble. while contemplating what to do if they wouldn't listen.

should i shout louder than them?
or run?
or maybe hide under the table?


nobody teaches such things at management school.

thankfully they did listen and calmed down.

so i pretended nothing happened,
closed the issue by making a totally random decision cos i was too rattled to think straight
and moved on to the next point.

Decline of Morality Among Youths in Modern Day Singapore

how about that for a attention catching headline

"Undergrads Get Maids To Clean Their Hostel Rooms"

i am quite torn when i heard about this over the radio and news.

i can't decide if we have run out of local news to report, or if these are news that Singaporeans are genuinely interested in.


my first thought was "WHO GIVES A SHIT!??!?!"
initially, the radio said that maids were spotted coming in and out of hostels, and i thought they brought their maids to the hostels to have affairs with them or something.
that would be kinda sick, but at least something juicy.

but not as juicy as this banana

or if the maids looked like this

but to my disappointment, no.
the maids were there to.... clean.

legality aside (yes, this is illegal. but then again, so is getting maid to clean your car at a public carpark, and jay walking is also illegal, and speeding, that is illegal too, and littering, and drinking mineral water on public transportation, and downloading music, also illegal), what is the fuss about?

it is wrong because it shows how spoilt singaporean youths are, unable to clean their own hostel rooms?
but then it is ok if the maids clean the same youth's room at home? hello?? what's the logic??

personally, i have never done it before, because i think it's a hassle to have to drive the maid to my hostel room and then back home.
and also because my roommate cleans the room every now and then. =)
he even mops the floor on my side of the room, how nice is that?



u know what i do do tho?
i never once washed my own clothes while staying at the hostel.
i throw the clothes i wore in that week into a basket and every friday, i lug it home for them to wash.
on sunday, the clothes would have been washed and folded, so i take them back to the hostel to wear for the brand new week.


if anything, i think that what i did is more spoilt than getting maids to clean the room.
but i guess luckily for me, back then, people had more interesting things to talk about, and newspapers had more important things to write about.

spin doctor

as defined by wikipedia, spin is a form of propaganda achieved through creative presentation of facts.
and anything can be spun, or spinned.

which is the best part about numbers and statistics.
i can choose to show you some real number, and interpret it in a way that suits me.

simple example,

CNA: Number of immigration offenders arrested drops 35%

the article chose to attribute the decrease in arrests to "thorough examinations and tightened security at the checkpoints to sieve out immigration offenders".

can't i also say that maybe more are getting past our checkpoints undetected? 
with more thorough examinations, shouldn't more offenders be caught?

100% decrease in arrests. best security guard in the world.

1 of my favourite tricks is to put my handphone on silent so that when someone calls me and i don't feel like answering, i will just let it ring.
after that, when i feel like returning the call, or when the person calls me back, i can very honestly tell the person i didnt hear the phone ring the 1st time cos it was on silent.
what i don't say, is that i saw the call come in, and i purposefully chose not to answer it.


that is the 1st method of spinning: selectively presenting facts that support my position.


2nd method: non-denial denial.
statements like these appear to be clear cut denials, but when studied closely, actually doesn't answer the accusations at all.

example,
wife: are you cheating on me??
husband: how can you accuse me of sleeping with another woman behind your back?!? so to answer your question, NO, i am not having an affair with another woman!

fact: he is gay and having an affair with another man.
so he wasn't lying at all

3rd method: euphemisms
euphemism is the substitution of indirect and vague expressions with the aim to confuse or mislead.

commonly used euphemisms:
adult entertainment = porn
armed intervention = war
correctional facility = jail
environmental maintainance executive = cleaner

1 that i will always remember is "retrospectively normalised",
which basically means i am doing something wrong/illegal now, but i will correct it in due course.
example: i skip this year's taxes, but next year i promise to pay more.

personnel realignment and downsizing policy

4th method: burying the bad news
to announce good news along with several bad news, focusing the attention on the good news.

example: mom, today i failed math and science, but i finally passed my english! did you know that only 4 people in the whole class passed english???

i'm also helping their kids, not just killing their adults

it's good to be aware of how facts can be manipulated.
not just because we can use it on other people.
but also for how we know when people are using it on us.

be wise as serpents.

wisdom

case-study

she has to do a "show-and-tell" at work tomorrow on any topic relating to their industry, i.e. theatre productions.

and without hesitation, she turned to me and said "help me do leeeeh"

i can refuse all i want, but we all know a woman gets what a woman wants.  
especially since her birthday coming soon and i haven't gotten a present. need to score some points whenever possible.


suggested to her to do the presentation based on the 2 broadway musicals we watched, Spiderman: Turn off the dark, and Book of Mormon.

secretly, i quite enjoyed the process. it's like back when i was doing my MBA, we had to do these case studies and compare different companies and/or scenarios to identify the learning points.

so while watching soccer, i did some research on my ipad and she.. well.. she wrote down what i said.


here was what we(read: i) came up with.

1. Investments does not work the same way as Gravity.

For gravity, we always say, what goes up, must come down.
For investments, what goes in, might never come out. because a large budget is never a guarantee for high returns.

Spiderman set the record for the most expensive Broadway production ever, at US$75million, and weekly running costs of US$1million or more, and weekly net income of US$100,000 to US$300,000.
It is estimated that at this current rate, the show would need to run for at least 5 years in order to cover its production costs. and very few shows achieve 5 year runs on Broadway.


meanwhile, Book of Mormon had a budget of US11million, and costing only US$9million.
within 9 months, the entire production cost was recouped due to the high attendance and aggressive(read: bloody expensive) ticket pricing.




2. Don't Under-Sell, but Never Over-Promise

It is essential to identify the selling point, or the strength of the musical, and focus on it, so that people are not overly hyped up over something they'll end up getting disappointed with.

Spiderman got big names such as U2's Bono and The Edge to write music for the production, which is constantly stressed in their marketing campaigns.
however, reviews to date constantly lament that the show suffers from weak plot and bad music, which leads to the question of how familiar are those stars with Broadway productions.

i gave her the example, just because A-Mei is a great singer, doesn't mean that she'll do well in a musical as she has no prior experience and no track record to boast of.
so i might not be very wise if i intend to spend millions to get her to sing it 1.

Another of Spiderman's focus was on their highly technial stunts, with the actors swinging above the audience and landing on platforms on the 2nd and 3rd storey of the theatre. but on numerous occasions the stunts failed halfway during shows, resulting in embarrassing delays during which actors could be left hanging in mid-air.
there was even once the actor missed the platform and fell 20 feet into the audience.


on the other hand, Book of Mormon highlighted on the fact that it was co-created by writers, creators and composers for animated comedy South Park and Avenue Q.
just with those names alone, the audience has a rough idea of what to expect, and the show does not disappoint in the least. the plot was belly-achingly hilarious, the songs were catchy and memorable, the stage was grand enough to impress.
and the result? highest charting Broadway cast album in over 4 decades, fastest-selling Broadway cast album on iTunes, nominated for 14 Tony's and won 9, including best musical and best director.



(performance during Tony Awards Ceremony)


3. Same-Same or Different-Different

How many ways can Spiderman be remade?

Spiderman with wings

How can I make Book of Mormon interesting?

do i want to do something "same-same but different"? i.e. something that has been done before hundreds of times, but in a different way?

Lion King is a show everyone is familiar with, from the plot to the song, and yet its results on Broadway are phenomenal. because it didn't try to change the things about the show people loved, the song, the story. what it did focus its efforts on were the breath-taking sets, immaculately detailed costumes and the props which were nothing sort of engineering feats.

or do i want to do something "different-different"? i.e. something that has never been done before.
the problem then becomes how to generate interest in something that is completely alien to the general public.

any sane person would have thought, a musical about mormons, really?
i can barely stand to talk to one for a minute, now you want me to sit through 2 hours? and i still have to pay?!?!?


if anything, this should teach us that there are no limits to creativity.

thank you.

just a wife, not a bride

she picked this phrase up from who-knows-where and has been repeating it since 1st of January, or the 2nd.

"i am now just a wife, no longer a bride"

and we actually discussed this at length (from this you can probably tell we don't have very deep meaningful conversations about Syria and the possible future of Eurozone.)

in chinese, a bride is called a 新娘, and a wife is called a 老婆.
within a day, she changed from 新(new) to 老(old), and from 娘(girl/lady) to 婆(aunty/grandmother)

not much better for the groom, from a 新郎 to a 老公.
chinese actually quite fair in that aspect, 郎 means a young strapping chap, and 公 means grandfather.


=)

we are having what i call a very Lazy 老夫老妻 Sunday.
skipped church cos we went on Friday, woke up at 9:30 and headed to Holland Village for dimsum breakfast.
watched service using ipad while watching soccer highlights on TV while playing Scramble with Friends on iphone with each other, while lying on the bed.

that didn't last long tho cos she fell asleep before preaching started. =X

napped till 3pm, had some porridge for lunch, and watched Mission Impossible 2.


ok she's done showering. Mission Impossible 3 next!