aid to memory

I think the most attractive (and hence superficial thing) a man can do is to look at his lover, 100%. To learn to gaze, to want to enjoy with his eyes the crooks, curves and smooth undulating surface of the lady. It being superficial really doesn’t decrease any of its importance.

Ever asked yourself why women get so mad when their spouses look at other women? Every lady wants attention from the one she loves. Women want not only to be seen, but often, also to be looked at. The looks she may not respond to, reciprocate, or appear to care about, but every single one she notes, puts a spring in her step and makes her day. 

Doing some design work from home and it’s absolutely sweltering, don’t take the office A/C for granted but BOY I’ve missed using my Mac and making layouts on it. Windows is really a pain to use, esp. the old ones. I have Spotify on, which I can’t get at the office (kinda ridic now that i’m putting fingers to keyboard on this) and everything is perfect. It puzzles me why startups have abundant wifi, music and things to make work optimized and feel better, but in large firms they restrict the wifi and put an impossible number of limits on the use of technology - all of which seem to make working a lot more unpleasant. It’s perhaps for security and things they need to keep private, but it doesn’t hurt to get a wireless data plan for $100/month for your employees throughout the office. Separate from company servers and computers. 

Okay be grateful you have a job Charma. There’s only literally 6 weeks left until you bid byebye to media and off we go into payments tech!! So far... let’s see the rate of habit cultivation:

- Waking up early: 7:30am - recently degraded to 8am - need to push back to 7:15am

- Getting enough sleep: 12mn bedtime, push forward to 11:30pm

- Project planning: Not much, just spanning it out

- Keeping in touch with friends: Getting on it asap end this week

- Food @ work: Failed thus far, microwaving pasta makes me sick. Find other alternatives e.g. cold sandwiches, cold noodles, cold food, and buying takeout

Hopefully life will get better in July and I can stop wasting my youth away at impermanent jobs (doesn’t pay to graduate in Dec, grad on time!!)

It’s definitely been awhile since I’ve written, but all good things come to an end. Thesis grading went exceedingly well, and I felt a sense of inner calm although I hastily logged into myISIS and downloaded my transcript (no SMS notification when I was in the States), while sitting in my rental car in the parking lot of Enterprise in Belmont on a super rainy night in December. I’d just driven Sylvia and I to Livermore through what was practically a West Coast blizzard, where we did no shopping than a couple pair of jeans for my dad. I was also waiting for my Uber to arrive and decided that was the only safe place to wait at 9pm at night. I remember vividly scrolling down to the ninth semester’s grades and seeing a pile of As - and there it was - Dean’s Scholars. Finally beat the system! My Uber arrived, I got out of my car, locked it, dropped the keys in the drop box and ran in. It dropped me off at Jack’s place, where I told him as I stood, toes freezing on the linoleum kitchen floor and munching on a plate of fried rice he cooked that I had the legendary CAP 5. He gave me a hi-5 and it felt great. So, graduation rolled along, with job offer in hand and plane ticket to NYC. 

Fast forward two months: I left a contract appointment really quickly, and till now I’m still coming to terms with it. I’ve been working a long time, throughout college and at quite a number of places I’d say. I’ve been very lucky to always have great bosses who cared about me and gave me meaningful work, colleagues who inspired and I got along with. I just didn’t know what the opposite of that would look like. Startup? Check. Crunchbase profile? Check. Nice responsive website? Check. It didn’t turn out to be what I expected, but that’s an understatement. Logical me says that the work environment was toxic, but it also says that it took really good care of my finances. Seemed like I was paid to endure the toxicity of the environment, which didn’t make sense to me. So I went through a pretty traumatic resignation and returned to having a wide expanse of time before employment 101. 

Certainly, things picked up and I have another great contract offer at a huge, established place (American, no less) and I think what is to be pretty good culture - but isn’t so good with the finances. At least I’d feel happy going to work every day, and i think that’s by far the most important thing. 

Read this contrary opinion today on Quora that made a lot of sense: 

“A man I know only a little sits next to me in our local coffeehouse. He looks at the title of the book I’m reading, which just happens to be Jack Halberstam’s Female Masculinity, and says in a low voice, I never can figure out if you academics make everything sexy, or if you take all the sexiness out of everything. By the way he leans in further than he needs to when he speaks and holds my eyes after he’s done, I recognize that he’s making a pass. It occurs to me that he may not know that I’m married; he’s only the friend of a friend, and I’ve stopped wearing my ring because I tend to fidget with it in a way that gets on even my nerves. So I smile and say, It’s probably a little bit of both in my flirty voice and lean in for just a moment to enjoy the sparkle in his eye, the way he’s looking at me. But then I lean away again and say, But, really, it’s probably more of the former because I am married, happily so, and have gotten everything I want from this encounter.”

Two weeks ago, one of the students from NCSV25 (Silicon Valley Batch 25) wrote a blog post about NUS Overseas Colleges here and it was shared on my Facebook feed.

I didn't like/share/comment on it, because I had nothing good to say. 

While the post was written to stir the emotions and was of her experience and opinions and cannot be faulted, it did not reflect well on the program I and many students have strived to achieve a place in and this motivates me to rectify that on behalf of our collective achievements. 

NOC should not be represented as a ticket for an under-performer. Yes, I'm sure that we all needed a stroke of luck to be the 1 of 3 or 5 selected for this life-changing experience, but that hardly justifies the rest of who you are that made you a good fit. 

It's great to show that paper grades do not make the man, and I applaud you for baring sensitive information to make your point. However, NOC requires more than the requisite CAP. It's the qualities of tenacity, drive, and almost an x-factor of being crazy enough to believe that one can change the world that got you where you are today. Why not attribute your earning of the golden ticket to those instead? 

I have not met anyone who's an under-performer in NOC, only overachievers and experts in different fields and in their own rights. SV may have been a second choice you settled for after your first choice being New York, but please don't compare them as such.

SV is a place for tech fanatics who believe that tech can and will save the world; where developers and designers go to mecca; and want to play a part in down in the deep end, making and breaking things to make positive change. SV is known to be least tolerant to under-performers, and people need a similar mindset to the one I just described to fully enjoy and learn from the experience, because living in SV, like living anywhere else in the world, has its own challenges. 

I have personally helped juniors discover a fit between their interests and the college to apply to, because nothing can cripple one's ability than making the wrong choice of college and realising that the environment simply doesn't work out for them. 

Going on NOC requires great consideration both academically (planning) and a sense of purpose because really, what you get out of NOC is what you make of it yourself. It's definitely not a route to "stop yourself from sucking". 

I haven't written new year resolutions for years now, but I am going to deal some because I need change in my life, and here they are:

Thou shalt read. I will read one book, outside of academic readings, every two weeks and keep pace with Mark Zuckerberg's book club A Year of Books. This task will be made easier when I get my Kindle. Join me, friends, and fight the good fight *wield your highlighters*

Thou shalt write. I will write this blog once every two weeks, or more often as the need to express myself ensues. 

Thou shalt be less bothered by competition. Let's not deny it here, I'm naturally a competitive person and I can't stand being seen as slower, lousier or more backward in areas that matter. However I tend to forget that external indicators are not reflective of my abilities as they stand alone, and I should not let those affect my happiness. Or be a foundation for my self-satisfaction, rather. 

Thou shalt exercise once every week, unless ill. I will not be a sloth. 

Thou shalt learn to live a quiet life. This is the most difficult one yet. I am never unplugged, except for the hours when I'm asleep. I would want to attempt something like a shabbat, but probably a quarter of the time. No technology, home-bound and cultivating a zen. Maybe I'm being too ambitious here. The key is to reduce them anxiety issues, be less type A control freak and enjoy life for what it is. 

South Lake Tahoe

(all pictures my own unless otherwise indicated)

2014 was unlike any other year I had lived. I spent 2/3 of the year living in what had become my second home in San Fran, and 1/3 transitioning back home in Singapore. I keep harping on SF only because it was the best year I've spent, and I can only be eternally grateful HoneyBook took me in and I got to take risks without the risk. 

2014 was the year that saw me going to more places, states and countries and meeting more people than I ever have. 

Spent new year's eve in Burnaby, Canada with Kelman's family, and fireworks viewed from Coit Tower back in foggy SF.

SF you're so good on a good day, you know? First week 2014 spent exploring far off places in the city with Kel. 

HoneyBookin' all the way: New office, new people, new branding. Gearing up to conquer events market in SF and to scale further! HB raised a US$10mil round announced September 2014, to see that hard work translate into what's a now 30-man team is incredible. This photo was snapped at HB's first Bytes and Bubbles event at the beloved Bluxome St loft office, opposite which was the famous Creamery and a nondescript Asian coffeeshop which served amazing Banh Mi sandwiches.

Labour Day weekend: Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, with my Stanford buddies. A four-day trip, 12 hour drive from the Utah airport and the most breathtaking scenery I've ever had, it still takes my breath away. Watching a live geyser spew high into the sky with squinted eyes, bear-chasing with fifty other people, and walking right next to a mother bison -- these experiences are once-in-a-lifetime. 

Memorial Day holiday: Our cross-the-west-coast journey from Sunnyvale to Page, Arizona to the famed Antelope Canyon. As much as I insisted on a flight, the 16-hour drive and 10 NOC kids later, I say these Singaporeans can make it happen on a shoestring budget. The views were no less than expected. Sandstorm while leaving Mount Zion; looking for toilets in the least friendly woodhouse gas station; trekking to the Horseshoe Bend in 36deg weather and surviving the trek back up; and that fatigued last drive with my flatmate at sunrise back to SF for a shower and being at work in two hours. Travel was simply epic. 

The above picture was taken by our friendly guide at Antelope Canyon, and if looked at upside-down, the rock makes a perfect silhouette of a particular famed formation at the Indian Reservation. 

Magnificent, ain't it?

The following week I made a roadtrip and pilgrimage to Disneyland in Los Angeles with my friend Sophia and her family and relived some fantastic memories.

And two weeks before I finished my year in the States, I took my first solo trip out to Seattle, Washington. Just two duffel bags, the warmth of Tracy's family in Burion and a Seattle Travel Pass. It was lovely, I loved walking every part of Pine and Pike St and the longish road back to the house. I went on tours, ate food, had about two Starbucks drinks a day (city of coffee!) and ate tacos with Tracy's parents at the kitchen counter. 

Then it was time to graduate, to leave these familiar faces and my second family to go back home. School was tough, but it was good being back and catching up with friends. 

I took my first rebel move against college when I went to Phuket in the weeks before my only final. Then again, the difference that studying over that period made was none. Phuket was an intoxicating escape: Buggy rides, two whole villas, all-you-can-eat meals, Tom Yum at breakfast, lunch and dinner, the sea just a couple minutes away. It was the flip-flop life. 

And 2014 brought me to Hong Kong twice: not a favored place to visit. Need. To. Return. To. The. Grasslands. 

Yesterday concluded my one month stint with Tech In Asia (here take a look, best tech blog around!) and I can safely say: Favourite company I've worked for so far! Shoutout to Huiyi for getting me in :)

Job scope didn't turn out as I expected, but gave me a lot more opportunities which was a blessing in disguise. I was sponging up knowledge on the startup scene in Asia, talking to founders and being part of a culture that was frank, hilarious and productive. To be frank, the pay hurt but it's Singapore and startup, so I don't expect much. I also worked with a team of interns for the first time and it was a pretty phenomenal experience, all of them are very cool people. Hiring matters so much in a company, its a wonder why MNCs are not taking it seriously yet, and by that I mean in selecting people based on their fit and not necessarily paper qualifications or past experience. 

On the scene and learnings:

The Valley is the Valley, and Asia is a monster to be tamed on its own.

This company has scaled many heights, and has many more to scale.

Transparency is always the best option.

Working with a founder who has drive, direction and heart to teach will reap numerous rewards.

Ask not what others can do for you but what you can do for others. 

Product market fit, product market fit and product market fit.

Transparency in organizations is actually possible, I am startled, impressed and a little envious of these founders and their employees.  http://leostartsup.com/2014/12/personal-transparency/ https://open.bufferapp.com/buffer-open-equity-formula/ https://open.bufferapp.com/raising-3-5m-funding-valuation-term-sheet/ Let's put it this way -- I always knew Buffer was fantastic, but I didn't know why until now. 

Pecha Kucha presentations are a 20x20 format, where 20 slides are each shown for 20 seconds only. 50% of the grade in a course I'm intending to take next semester (NM4210) will be based on one Pecha Kucha. Feeling slightly apprehensive at how I will adapt, but it sure is exciting!

Don't go into anything until you know a substantial part of it. Not saying that there's not gonna be uncertainty, but being able to assess the uncertainty is crucial. 

Also, I wanted to leave a note of thanks for how the previous semester turned out, and I am where I want to be.