I'm currently hooked onto this pinball game on my ipod touch. Best of all, it's free.

In it, I get 4 balls to get as high a score as possible. The world top players' scores are insane.

When playing, I have a tendency to restart the game if my first ball goes into the gutter very early in its play time. My rationale was that if I didn't have a good headstart, it didn't matter how well the other balls performed later - the overall score would still be dragged down. But after some thought, I figured that of the 4 balls, only 1 or 2 figured significantly in contributing to the scores; as long as I had 1 or 2 of such performance balls, it didn't matter whether they came in first or last in sequence - my score could still be a record breaker.

In my opinion, this is highly relevant to decision making in more important decisions too. Being a perfectionist and insisting that a particular outcome must be as desired will not allow us to move on and strike gold in one of the decisions in the sequence.

The belief of Freedom

North Korea and Iran; both want to own nuclear weapons. The important question is – WHY?

The more obvious underlying reason is that having WMDs gives a sovereign state more bargaining power. Why do these 2 countries want more bargaining power? Could it be because they feel threatened if they did not own WMDs? What are they threatened by? - Capitalism? Pure Democracy?

Let’s face it. People in power do not want change. Change means their power and influence are at risk. It’s applicable in every power house. Say Bush was made President again; would Guantanamo Bay stay indefinitely? Everyone truly believes what he believes in is correct.

So how do we manifest these ideals of ours? We try to find roles of power and authority. What do these 2 aspects give us? - FREEDOM TO BE IN CONTROL OF ACTIONS (e.g. Political).

The feeling of freedom of our actions is a very important factor in our way of living. Say you have a choice of marrying either of 2 girls. The first girl is hot like hell but she tells you that if you have sex with her more than once a month, she’ll divorce you and take away your entire fortune. The second girl is an average Jane but she imposes no such rule on you. Who would you choose? Even if you knew Jane had a medical condition which might prevent her from having sex with you at all in certain months, you would still choose her because you feel a sense of freedom to have a romp when she’s up for it, albeit probably getting less sex than the former girl.

Back to the 2 nuclear-proliferating hungry nations; do sanctions really work? The purpose of sanctions is to tell them, “Hey look, if you don’t be a good boy, I’m gonna take these away from you.” Sense of freedom gone. See, this is very evident in N.Korea’s reluctance to be a cooperative member of the global community. Sometimes, its actions are quite like a ‘angsty’ teenager who receives allowance from his parents but will jump at every opportunity to get out of their oppressive clutches should they decide to ground him for his mischievous deeds.

An alternative method which might yield better results for international cooperation is to give such countries a sense of freedom in their affairs. Treat them like a brother. Shower them with love. Then implicitly hint indirectly that such brotherhood and love are only possible because they are already doing a good job in being a positive member of the international community. Maybe they are not yet doing a good job. Sometimes we must pay compliments forward so that people will know it’s a good feeling to be part of the team and do better next time.

Let me give an example of how this is evident in many of our families. Say you are a wife who is deciding if you should do a bigger portion of the housework. Typically, I would infer a woman would like to see herself as a good wife who does not need to do more housework, but would do it willingly because she likes the wholesome image of her role in making the family happy and normal (as accepted within a societal norm). In response, the husband will tell her how much he loves her and give her a massage later. However, if the husband yells at her to do the wife thing and cook the dinner, will she do it willingly?

The international community could try pampering the leaders of these 2 nations and treat them like one of their own big boys. It’ll be surprising if they still make aggressive motions afterwards.

Disclaimer: I am not a sexist pig. The wife willingly doing more housework is a proven fact of studies. Even when husbands claim they do equal amounts of housework, wives still acknowledge that they do more than the men. But the women are happy with the status quo because they have compromised by make-believing that it is actually a fair arrangement.

I haven't been using my brains much recently. Taking in recent news from here and there but not really feeling very strongly about anything in particular. I think the reason for this disinterest is probably cuz of the same ol' thing happening over and over again.

My admiration for Obama has risen recently. On a sidenote, I would think he'll make a very good soccer manager. And I support him fully for the fly swatting. For the love of animals, we need more intelligent people to support the championing of commonly neglected rights. The person from PETA who issued the Obama chiding is not one of them. He has potentially turned away many potential supporters who were sitting on the fence. And for what? A lousy fly. A fly which spreads disease. He should marry a fly since he cares more for it than fellow humans. He better not campaign for mosquitoes next. I will buy a ticket to wherever he is, don a mosquito suit, and slap him real hard.

Starbucks Campaign

Publish at Scribd or explore others: marketing campaign

A very good report by a group (of students?). It has certainly enlightened me and the fact that it kept me reading proved it really stood out from the boring stuff students tend to write.

melia and her waiter.. 

Happy Birthday Nic. 25 years old. Aspiring to get a car within 3 months.

Thanks to my hiadihood and their gfs for the fun filled chalet and 2 visits to wild wild wet. HAHA! 2 times. Shiok.

Well anyway, I had a major presentation yesterday and after 4 hours of lessons, didn't have any plans. Abit sucky but nvm, had a good presentation anyway. Since it was a major one, there was an appraisal and had the same comments as for the prof comm presentation in the youtube video below - "relaxed and confident."

I'm damn good at sprouting reasonably good stuff impromptu for such presentations now. In actual fact, halfway through my part, I realised I was running out of time and plan A had to be ditched. Sprouted some stuff on the go and when it ended, I really had no idea what was the main point I intended to bring to the audience. Overall my group presented well. But erm, the prof ranked us and I came up tops. okay thank you. HEE HEE. (",)

Wow! the godfather is a damn good show! It's amazing!

I was over the moon when I saw this. I REALLY REALLY THOUGHT I WOULD FAIL 1 OR 2 SUBJECTS. But I passed all! Actually I think I'm quite good. HAHA! Considering that I'm quite slack in my course cuz I really hate the subjects and find no motivation at all, I still pass 8 subjects and get B- for FYP. Nic, you are really something. HAHAHA!

Marketing's next and I'm done with studies!

So very elated. I can finally go out and earn my own money. Not part-time jobs. A PERM JOB. It's really pretty exciting cuz I've got so much more control over my decisions now and what makes it even more thrilling is that the salary I earn is indeed a very important priority now and if I'm jobless, I'll starve!

That's what drives me. Adversity. Pressure. Yah sure, I'm 'happy-go-lucky' as viewed by some friends. But I always believe true capability shows only in stressful times, otherwise we should be happy on other days.

HAHAHA! I might come across as extremely cocky. But you know what, I've come to acknowledge that it is better to be a little cocky than to be humble. I'm gunning for a sales/marketing/biz development job and I believe a damn thick skin is needed. Being nice and humble won't feed me. Portraying a cock-sure image to garner confident trust in my skills will feed me.

So what are you waiting for? Hire me! I'll give you awesomeness.

Finally, first interviews!

If I get my choice job, I swear it'll be the turning point of my lesser than average achievements.

Enough of the engineering, physics, chemistry and yada yada. BORING. General knowledge in science is interesting. In-depth knowledge is not.

Time and time again, I've followed pressure from wherever it came from. Pure Science in secondary, science subjects in jc, and of course if I don't do well from there, dumped to the course where I was lucky enough to get in with my crappy A level grades.

And the lesson I've learnt from all these is that, never ever make an important decision based on other factors other than what truly excites you.

At least that's for me.

Some people say, "it's the same with any job, it's boring. that's why it's called a job."

That's utter nonsense and I infer they are stuck in the rut of this mentality and thereafter, 'birds of the same feather flock together'.

See, the test of whether a job is suitable for you is the morning rising up. If you readily get up, well done; if not you are in the wrong job. Seriously, I always tell people this - If you get banged down by a car tomorrow, do you really want to die with this lacklustre attitude.

The other matter in contention is when seniors tell us, "you know, you should do this job, the money is better. You'll need it for the family."

Well, the most probable reason for them being in this situation of working-just-for-money is that they were stuck in a vicious cycle simply because they chose the wrong career paths initially and it went on and on.

The other common mentality is this - I don't want to waste what I've learnt, so I should first try out this field. Makes sense right? NO. Analogy - You've spent everyday fighting with your partner. Would you marry him/her because it would be a waste of the time spent together?

Money wise. I would like to stress this point to my friends. It doesn't matter which industry has the most potential opportunity to earn big bucks. If you like what you're doing, you're going to get good at it. And when you're good at it, people will pay you to do it.

Well of course, things aren't that clear sometimes. You might like doing something but just ain't good at it. Or you might not like something or you're just damn good at it. Well then, maybe other factors might help in weighing the pros and cons.

Oh, and a parting comment. This is based on my experiences thus far. You know how we all have cliques of friends and how these influence our decisions to a great extent. I'm not saying we should choose our friends based on this, but seriously, it is better to surround yourself with high energy and positive people during crucial stages of your life.

I give myself as an example. On days when I'm feeling lazy and tired from the non-responses to my resume sending, talking to like-minded friends just keeps me in the lull longer.

But the very next day, when I chat with more motivated people, I feel the stress to get a good job before they are all taken up.

DISCLAIMER. I still 'love', for lack of a not so gay word, my close friends no matter what they are. But energy levels are indeed infectious and it is important to have selective hearing sometimes. LUCKILY, my closest hiadihood consists of high-calibre and capable pple.

Felix - The all-rounder
Rongxin - The hardworking and intelligent dude
Yongjie - The somewhat slack at times but actually is very smart guy
Myself - The worst of the lot. Chui in studies. Terminated from university(got back in fortunately). But all those hiccups have taught me invaluable lessons. And now, I know what I want.

Oh very nice. Watching "Marley and Me" makes me wanna start a family. Nothing better than going home to a wife, baby and a dog.

The last part is damn sad though.