Cute ehn?

But I don't think it'll look that cute on my bellybutton.

get the Afro style

Found this ad on Bruno's head.

Just yesterday, I was asking fenfen how would I look if I perm my hair to the Afro hairstyle. She looked at me as if my brain was cooked or something. I just thought it might be cool to give it a try. heh.

Found another interesting ad on his blog.



hahaha.

a cautious student

pure joy

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.

- James 1:2-3

moonlight

alcohol creates new realities

Saw this print ad which 5 Pixels Studio did for the California Highway Potrol (or was it Patrol) Promotion.

crybaby olympics

During the 2002 Winter Olympics, a major publication had a headline that read, "Crybaby Olympics." The article highlighted the refrain of complaints launched by several competitors who felt they had been duped out of their legitimate attainment by some unscrupulous judge. I have no doubt that in any competition there is always the possibility that someone has been cheated out of winning. Any one who has ever competed knows the feeling of suspicion when medals are awarded on an inexact basis of measurement. Judging is a hazardous task but so is judging the judges.

However legitimate one's complaint might be, the fearful thing is that the winners of the award never seem to stop by the judge's desk and say, "Excuse me, but I really do not think I deserved that." Winners seldom question the validity of the judge's decision; losers often do.

Whatever else this displeasure proves, it proves two things. One, that we expect a judge to be objective and fair. But secondly, there is a more serious concern. Namely, how does a judge judge if there are no absolutes by which to do the judging? You see, it is one thing to measure how far an object has been thrown and another thing to say which was a more beautiful performance on ice. The latter demands an aesthetic measure, which is not always exact.

But you see, deep inside all of us are both of these moral realities. We affirm the need to be right and fair, and we somehow believe that even in beauty there are some misjudgments that reveal prejudice. What this tells us is that life must have absolutes. This itself reveals the fact that we are born as moral agents and when that moral agency is violated, deep inside, we cry.

The Bible makes it clear that God is a judge and He is fair. One of the most telling passages is in the book of Genesis when God is judging the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham asks God if He is going to wipe out both the righteous and the unrighteous. God assures Abraham that He sees everything and then says this, "Shall not the judge of the earth do that which is right?"

You and I may not have been robbed of a medal in the Olympics. But we do know that when destiny-defining decisions are made, the Judge of all the earth will do right. He knows the absolutes, and He will not make a mistake. That is both comforting and daunting.

- Ravi Zacharias, "Judging the Judges", 20 Jul 2004.

post mortem

"With old friends like these, who needs enemies?"


It's been a long time since I read a who-did-it book for don't know how many years. I love it man! It's really funny and suspenseful. I just laughed to myself as I read the dialogues. The murders were really sick and gross, like what fenfen warned me.


But not as sick as this:






This book is also about bullies and I start to look back when was the last time I bullied someone.

The meanest thing I did was flipped over a classmate's desk (and his books kept beneath it) when I was sixteen. It was the first period of the day so he didn't realised it was me who did it. I was his "neighbour" in class who remained calm while he was disgusted, bewildered and angry at the person who did this to him. I simply stared at the mess.

Why did I do it?

The best part is he didn't even do any harm unto me!

I just felt a sense of justice to give him a lesson because another classmate shared to me that he owed some money and he blatantly chose to forget about it and did not return the owed sum. He is quite notorious for his habit of borrowing money and not returning it. I was also too chicken to confront him since he is way heavier than me. So I chose the stealthier way out. Anyway the money was not any big amount. Maybe just about one or two day's of recess money.

Actually I felt guilty about it and thought it was rather a stupid thing to do. What for, I asked myself? I should let the both of them settle it among themselves. Furthermore, it's not right to bully anyone even if he has a bad character or anything. Violence or revenge doesn't solve anything at all. Not sweet at all.

I was being bullied before when I was around nine or ten years old and I witnessed a guy being pushed around by another group when I was ... perhaps seven or eight years of old.

Bullies. They are freaking everywhere!

I also tend to "bully" people around. *sheepish*

When I was in my teens, I shouted to my family members, "WHY DO YOU ALL HAVE TO RAISE YOUR VOICE WHEN YOU TELL SOMEONE SOMETHING???? HUH??? MUM!! WHY CAN'T YOU TALK MORE GENTLY TO ME WHEN YOU WANT TO TELL ME SOMETHING?? HUH???"

I also controlled the volume of the TV. It must not exceed three bars when I'm sleeping. And I slept quite earlier around 9 or 10pm.

All such events made my house quieten down for a long long period of time. I seemed like the terror of the house at that time man!

When I started to stay up late and all, I'll just turn up my computer speakers volume while watching movies or listening to mp3s at wee hours and they were already asleep. Not very considerate then but now I've learned.

The list can go on and I wonder if blogspot is ready for it. hahaha.

Maybe now I have to suffer for the consequences because I think my boss is a bully who likes to pull his weight around and hint to people that he's a good guy. He's our saviour. How hopeless can he be? Is he trying to "out-low" a worm?

colours do matter

how do i live without you?

For Africa, a godsend in cellphones

YANGUYE, South Africa On this dry mountaintop, 24 miles down a washboard dirt road from the nearest town, 36-year-old Bekowe Skhakhane must do even the simplest tasks the hard way. Fetching water from the river takes four hours a day. To cook, she gathers sticks and musters a fire. Light comes from candles. The older of her five children hike three hours to school each way.

But when Skhakhane wants to talk to her husband, who works in a steel factory 250 miles, or 400 kilometers away, in Johannesburg, she does what many Westerners would do: She whips out her mobile phone.

People like Skhakhane have made Africa the world's fastest-growing cellphone market. From 1999 through 2004, the number of mobile subscribers in Africa jumped to 76.8 million from 7.5 million, an average annual increase of 58 percent. South Africa, the continent's richest nation, accounted for one-fifth of that growth. Asia, the next fastest-expanding market, grew by an annual average of just 34 percent in that period.

"It is a necessity," said Skhakhane, pausing from washing laundry in a plastic bucket on the dirt ground to fish her blue Nokia out of the pocket of her flowered apron. "Buying air time is part of my regular grocery list." She spends the equivalent of $1.90 a month for five minutes of air time.

Africans have never been rabid telephone users; even Mongolians have twice as many land lines per person. And, with the majority of Africans living on $2 a day or less, they were supposed to be too poor to justify corporate investments in cellular networks far outside the continent's more prosperous cities and towns. But when African nations began to privatize their telephone monopolies in the mid-1990s, and competitive operators began to sell air time in smaller, cheaper units, cellphone use exploded. Used handsets are readily available for $50 or less in South Africa, an amount even Skhakhane's husband was able to finance with the little he saves from his factory job.

It turned out that Africans had never been big phone users because nobody had given them the chance.

One in 11 Africans is now a mobile subscriber. Demand for air time was so strong in Nigeria that from late 2002 to early 2003 operators there were forced to suspend the sale of subscriber identity module cards, or SIM cards, used to activate a handset, while they strengthened their networks. Villagers in the two jungle provinces of Congo are so eager for service that they have built 50-foot-high, or 15-meter-high, treehouses to catch a signal from distant cellphone towers.

"One man uses it as a public pay phone," said Gilbert Nkuli, deputy managing director of Congo operations for Vodacom Group, one of Africa's biggest mobile operators. Those who want to climb to his platform and use his phone pay him for the privilege.

On a continent where some remote villages still communicate by beating drums, cellphones are a technological revolution akin to television in the 1940s in the United States. In Africa, which has an average of just one land-line phone for every 33 people, cellphones are enabling millions of people to skip a technological generation and bound straight from letter writing to instant messaging. Although only about 60 percent of Africans are within reach of a signal - the lowest level in the world - the technology is for many a social and economic godsend.

One pilot program allows about 100 farmers in South Africa's northeast to learn the prevailing prices for produce in the country's major markets information - crucial in negotiations with middlemen.

Healthcare workers in the nation's rural southeast summon ambulances to distant clinics via cellphone. One woman living on the Congo River, unable even to write her last name, tells customers to call her cellphone if they want to buy the fresh fish she sells.

"She doesn't have electricity - she can't put the fish in the freezer," said Nkuli of Vodacom. "So she keeps them in the river," tethered live on a string, until a call comes in. Then she retrieves them and readies them for sale.

William Pedro, 51, a mixed-race plant dealer, said he tried for eight years to lure customers to his nursery in a ragtag township near George, a resort town on South Africa's southern coast. Only when he got a cellphone two years ago, he said, did his business take off.

"White people are afraid to come here to my place in the township to buy plants," Pedro said, standing outside his makeshift greenhouses. "So now they can phone me for orders and I can deliver them the same day."

Mobile operators cannot put up towers fast enough not just in established markets like South Africa, which is already home to about one in four African mobile subscribers, but also in nations that barely have electricity, much less existing cellular networks ready for expansion.

Congo, whose capital is Kinshasa, was in the midst of a civil war when Alieu Conteh, a telecommunications entrepreneur, began building a cellular network there in the 1990s. No foreign manufacturer would ship a cellphone tower to the airport with rebels nearby, so Conteh hired local men to collect scrap and weld a tower together.

Now Vodacom, which formed a joint venture with him in 2001, is grappling with other problems. It takes 15 to 20 men to haul each satellite dish into place with ropes. Base stations must be powered by generators. Each morning, executives send instant messages to employees containing the latest rate for the plunging local currency.

Despite all that, Vodacom Congo has 1.1 million subscribers, is adding more than 1,000 daily and predicts profits.

One problem remains even in the age of cutting-edge cellular technology: How does an African family in a hut lighted by candles charge a mobile phone?

In Yanguye, as in other regions, the solution is often a car battery owned by someone who does not have a prayer of acquiring a car. Ntombenhle Nsele keeps one in her home a few miles down the road from Skhakhane's. She takes it by bus 20 miles to the nearest town to charge it in a gas station.

For 80 cents a head, Nsele, 25, lets neighbors charge their mobiles from the battery. She gets at least five customers a week. "Oooh, a lot of people," she said, smiling. "Too many."

- International Herald Tribune, 25 Aug 2005.

Jack

"Wisdom from the World's Greatest Business Leader"

Fenfen laughed at this quote inside the book which I didn't notice,

At one time, GE executives spent more time on company politics than the did on actual business. People said that GE operated with its face to the CEO and its ass to the customer.

- Jack Welch

After reading this book, I learned that self-confidence is really important in whatever you do. It can make that difference in what you can accomplish in life.

always give 100%

Merf!!! Give it your hundred percent!

Ten

"What follows are ten secrets for success in the workplace. Each drawn from The Apprentice, the smash hit reality television program that already seems like an American instituition ... its addictive blend of brutal competition, manipulative head games, and ruthless bottom-lin accountability ... imparts identifiable principles for setting and achieving import business goals"


Here are the ten secrets the authors mentioned in the book:

Secret #1: Think big

Secret #2: Show the Competition No Mercy

Secret #3: Defend Yourself Aggressively

Secret #4: Remember, Consensus Is Overrated

Secret #5: Identitfy All Possible Resources, and Use Them Strategically

Secret #6: Cut Your Losses

Secret #7: Get Face-to-Face with Key Decision Makers

Secret #8: Step Up - Take Intelligent Chances, and Then Take Responsibility

Secret #9: Advance the Most Profitable Deal

Secret #10: Negotiate Tough; Negotiate Based on Your Negotiating Partner's Situation and Personality; Understand that No Single Negotiation Strategy Is Perfect

I find it hard to apply some of the principles taught in the book. Especially #2 and #3 as I give in quite easily and avoid outright competition but sometimes I HAVE to stand up for myself and do my best to perform. Shall give it a try.

i see dead punctuations ...

“While we look in horror at a badly punctuated sign, the world carries on around us, blind to our plight. We are like the little boy in The Sixth Sense who can see dead people, except that we can see dead punctuation.”




This book made me realised the importance of punctuation and I enjoy reading it by the way. Furthermore I like reading books which is not as thick as the dictonary. The way Lynn describe every punctuation is as if they are alive and concious (and some crying for attention) which made me see them in a whole new perspective. Really cool and she can't herself from correcting the stark mistake made by this Hollywood movie, 'Two Weeks Notice'. I didn't even realised the mistake until she points it out in her book!




She argues that with the convenience of instant text messaging and e-mail technology, there is a decline and neglect in using the punctuatuion properly and whether the content makes sense to our reader. Creatively, we have started to use punctuations to express our emotions instead of using words. Like this:

:-)

Or this

:-P


Looks like it's up to ourselves to use the punctuation correctly and also point out to people their punctuation mistakes.





Side note: Her new book is coming up and the title is so funny!

“Talk to the hand ’cause the face ain’t listening,” the saying goes. When did the world stop wanting to hear? When did society become so thoughtless? It’s a topic that has been simmering for years, and Lynne Truss says it’s now reached the boiling point. Taking on the boorish behavior that for some has become a point of pride, Talk to the Hand is rallying cry for courtesy. Like Eats, Shoots & Leaves, Talk to the Hand is not a stuffy guidebook, and is sure to inspire spirited conversation.

Why hasn’t your nephew ever thanked you for your carefully selected gift? What makes your contractor think it’s fine to snub you in the midst of a major renovation? Why do crowds spawn selfishness? What accounts for the appalling treatment you receive in stores (if you’re lucky enough to get a clerk’s attention at all)? Most important, what will it take to roll back a culture that applauds those who are disrespectful? In a recent US survey, 79 percent of adults said that lack of courtesy was a serious problem. For anyone who’s fed up with the brutality inflicted by modern manners (or lack thereof), Talk to the Hand is a colorful call to arms—from the wittiest defender of the civilized world.

- The books of Lynn Truss.

war of the worms

Infection Rates in New Windows Worm Low

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -- Malicious hackers unleashed new variants of a computer worm that attacks a vulnerability in Microsoft Corp.'s Windows 2000 operating system, but infection rates appeared to be relatively low and damage minor Wednesday...

- AsiaOne, 18 Aug 2005.

I was one of the victim! I was one of that minority being affected by that pesky little worm. Someone in the family has accidentally released the worm (through e-mail probably) while using this computer. Was trying to get rid of it last night but couldn't find the removal tool. Cause me to slept at 1am and was late for work. Dammit. Felt like shoving bucket load of worms down into that person's nose who created such irritating creatures.

This worm (W32 something) is programmed to restart the PC every 10 minutes or so after I had login. While searching for a clue or solution to the problem, the PC had restart four to five times. Very frustrated and tired. Gave up and I went to sleep.

Today, I realised I could get the patch and removal tool from the Microsoft Windows Update. Darn. Should have realised earlier.

I just came back from church after helping out to patch up and paint up the wall. Felt very accomplished like a young Michelangelo as I learned how to scrap away those left behind double-sided tape on the wall, patch up the holes, sanding the patches and painting the wall white. Couldn't have done it better with fenfen around. So nicely done that I think the congregation will turn around worship the wall instead! hahaha.

tale of virginity lost

I jumped off her, stark naked, and left the room. I wound up in the living room, and guys were sitting around having beer and talking, and I was naked. This may have been the beginning of my acting career without my knowing it, because they stood up and applauded—and I liked the applause.
- Dustin Hoffman

pinch me

Someone overheard this conversation carried between a masochist and a sadist. The masochist said to the sadist, "Pinch me." The sadist replied with a smile, "No."

一封信

爺爺過世的時候,我在他的書房找到一封信,是奶奶寫給他的.曾聽爺爺說過就是因為這封信他才撐了過來.那時他要去南洋當兵...

信裡寫著"在屋頂飄著竹葉的寺廟裡,住著一個因失戀而孤單的人.
他總是說天沒那麼大,為什麼在天上跑的不是車子?
他把李子樹都砍倒了,也把池子的水都放掉了.
不久,他突然明白讓他憂愁的不是秋天,只因為他正是簡簡單單二十多一點的年紀,有著一顆青澀的心,只希望能回到原來的那一頁." 如果你能明白我的承諾,你一定能平安回來.

大家能明白信中的諾言嗎?看出有那些端倪嗎？↓答案在下
















答案：
在屋頂飄著竹葉的寺廟裡...寺上竹 = 等
住著一個因失戀而孤單的人...失戀而孤單的人 = 你
他總是說天沒那麼大...天沒大 = 一
為什麼在天上跑的不是車子?...不是車子 = 輩
他把李子樹都砍倒了...李子樹都砍倒了 = 子
也把池子的水都放掉了...池子的水都放掉了 = 也
不久,他突然明白讓他憂愁的不是秋天...愁不是秋 = 心
只因為他正是簡簡單單二十多一點的年紀...二十多一點 = 甘
有著一顆青澀的心...青澀的心 = 情
只希望能回到原來的那一頁...原來的那一頁 = 願,

等你一輩子也心甘情願

很有意思，也很浪漫，令人羨慕的夫妻

temperance

Achieving Self-Control

For this reason the beautiful word temperance occurs strategically in the theology of the New Testament. Temperance is the helmsman in easy control of the powerful ship as it ploughs through the sea with all parts working in harmony. Temperance is that in the Christian man's life which brings every faculty into harmony with every other, and the total personality into accord with God's plan for the whole man. In a life so directed there can be no place for excess.

Two things need to be added. One is that temperance is not automatic. It is listed among the fruit of the Spirit, but it requires prayer, Bible reading, cross-bearing, hard discipline, obedience and self-denial before it can become a fixed part of the Christian's character.

The second is that a man or woman in Christ who has achieved true self-control may expect to be very much out of step with the world. Human beings given to excess will not take kindly to the Spirit-filled, temperate soul living among them. After he is dead they may build his sepulchre or name a college after him, but that will be a bit late for his comfort. He had a tough time of it while he lived.

- A.W. Tozer


Prayer
Father, how much I need to grow in the exercise of spiritual discipline. Forgive me for neglecting to take up my cross in following Christ.


Rather, he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined.
- Titus 1:8

sunday TRIST

tryst \TRIST; TRYST\, noun:
An appointment (as between lovers) to meet; also, an appointed
place or time of meeting.

intransitive verb:
To mutually agree to meet at a certain place; to keep a tryst.

And it bothers me that I begin to worry if she's planning a
tryst with my handsome neighbour.
- Anita Nair, The Better Man

Having left a "Dear John" letter for her husband on the
kitchen table, she set off to the airport, where she
waited, and waited. Of course, Henry had entirely forgotten
about the tryst, and she had to return home crestfallen.
- "The serial seducer who took Amis's wife," Times
(London), May 17, 2000

Once Nick goes into the kitchen to tryst with Martha, it is
Ms. Kurtz's turn to let loose with some fireworks.
- Frank Rich, Hot Seat

Scientists are hoping the cosmos will bear witness to a
romantic rendezvous today as a spacecraft attempts a
Valentine's Day "tryst" with an asteroid called Eros.
- Nigel Hawkes, "Eros beckons spacecraft for cosmic tryst,"
Times (London), February 14, 2000
_________________________________________________________

Tryst is from Middle English triste, tryste, "a station to
which game was driven (in hunting)," from Old French triste,
"a station to which game was driven, a watch post," probably
of Scandinavian origin.

I have a tyrst with Donald Trump every sunday watching 'The Apprentice'.

Talking about the Apprentice, the recent episodes were really interesting between the 'Street Smart' (Networth) vs 'Book Smart' (Magna). This is its third season already. The interesting part is those who claim that "I think like Donald Trump" or "I and Donald Trump are the same" were being fired. haha. Think that's the dumbest thing they could have done in the game and they got fired in the Board room.

The fact is they aren't even close to being Donald Trump because if they were, they don't need this game to prove themselves for a job in Trump Inc. Can't imagine the credentials they brought with them. I feel so normal while watching the show. haha. So comforting.

I'm starting to get addicted to the Apprentice and observe how they come up with business plans within a day to complete their mission. Can learn from their mistakes too.

Magna are relatively more united than Networth. I think Magna they might emerge as the winning team given their group dynamics, though they have lost quite a few rounds so far (Magna is the winner as I read from NBC.com). The street smart can't function as a team as they tend to be more individualistic and alot of blame game happening amongst them. The most obvious weakness for Magna is their lack of creativity. They got the brains but they lack the agressiveness in their selling.

Hopefully Magna can catch up in the next few missions (of course they will!). Shall continue to follow The Apprentice and find out.

I'm starting to have better impressions of Donald Trump after following some of the episodes. Such a brilliant and humble man. Or maybe that's what he seems to be on TV.
Here's something about Mr Trump:

Trump, Donald John
Trump, Donald John, 1946–, American business executive, b. New York City. After attending the Wharton business school, he joined the family real estate business. A self-promoting and flamboyant dealmaker, he was able to secure loans with minimal collateral in the free-wheeling 1980s and created an empire in real estate, casinos, sports, and transportation.

By 1990, however, the effects of recession had left him unable to meet loan payments. Although he shored up his businesses with additional loans and postponed interest payments, mounting debt brought Trump to business bankruptcy and the brink of personal bankruptcy. Banks and bondholders lost hundreds of millions of dollars but opted to restructure his debt to avoid risking losing even more in a court fight.

By 1994, Trump had eliminated a huge portion of his $900 million personal debt and reduced substantially his nearly $3.5 billion in business debt. Forced to relinquish the Trump Shuttle (bought in 1989), he retained Trump Tower in New York City and control of his three casinos in Atlantic City.

In 1999, Trump toyed with running for president on the Reform party ticket. Crippling debt payments forced his casinos into bankruptcy again in 2004. Widely known as simply “the Donald,” Trump stars in his own reality television show, which debuted in 2004.

Furthermore I found an 'extra credit' about him:

Extra credit
Trump's nickname is "The Donald"... Trump had three children with his wife Ivana: Donald Jr., Ivanka and Eric; he had one daughter, Tiffany, with Maples...

Trump is famous for his objection to handshakes; a 1999 Time magazine article quoted him as saying "I think the handshake is barbaric... Shaking hands, you catch the flu, you catch this, you catch all sorts of things."

a goat that can't escape

Went to search the origin of the word 'scapegoat' and I didn't realised that it first originated from the bible! Interesting. Good thing that we are not called to be scapegoats for God.

Scapegoat
This term, for one who is punished for the misdeeds of others, is the result of a mistranslation. The term was coined in 1530 by William Tyndale, who misread the Hebrew word 'azazel, the proper name of Canaanite demon, as 'ez ozel, literally the goat that departs.

In Leviticus 16:8, the scriptures describe how two goats should be prepared for an offering, lots should be drawn, and one should be sacrificed to the Lord as a sin-offering, and the other given to Azazel and set free in the wilderness bearing the sins of the people...

- Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd Edition; Merriam-Webster Online; Carver's History of English In Its Own Words


"Aaron is to offer the bull for his own sin offering to make atonement for himself and his household. Then he is to take the two goats and present them before the LORD at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.

He is to cast lots for the two goats - one lot for the LORD and the other for the scapegoat. Aaron shall bring the goat whose lot falls to the LORD and sacrifice it for a sin offering.

But the goat chosen by lot as the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the LORD to be used for making atonement by sending it into the desert as a scapegoat.

- Leviticus 16:6-10

Alibaba shouts Yahoooooooo

Jack Ma, CEO of Alibaba, which uses the Internet to link Chinese producers with purchasers worldwide.

Improbable saga of China's new Internet king

HANGZHOU, China Everything you hear about Jack Ma is improbable. But today, he looks like one of China's smartest high-tech entrepreneurs.

Yahoo's far-reaching deal with him has turned his company, Alibaba.com, into the largest online operation in China, where Internet use is growing at an explosive pace.

At a time Microsoft, Google and eBay are all seeking to expand their operations in China, Yahoo agreed last week to the largest Internet investment ever made here when it bet $1.7 billion on the future of Alibaba.com and its founder, Ma.

Jack Ma is only 40, and he started out teaching English. But he is now called the "grandfather of the Internet in China," even though he claims not to know much more about computers than how to send and receive e-mail messages.

His admirers and detractors both call him a clever salesman and savvy marketer who knows how to attract foreign money. But few expected him to pull off a deal that now values his company at more than $4 billion. Yahoo said on Thursday that it would invest $1 billion in the privately held Alibaba.com, which operates not only its namesake, a business-to-business auction site that mostly purveys Chinese goods to a worldwide market, but also the consumer auction site Taobao.com, a strong rival here to eBay.

In exchange for a 40 percent stake in Alibaba, Yahoo also agreed to hand over control of its Yahoo China operations, valued at $700 million, putting great confidence in Ma and his management team.

Some bankers say it was a brilliant stroke by Ma, playing off eBay against Yahoo. The two had pursued Alibaba in recent months, according to bankers involved in the Yahoo deal.

Over the years, Ma has surprised doubters again and again.

"He's a visionary," says Mark Su, who works in San Francisco for the venture capital firm H&Q Asia Pacific. "He's been there at the forefront of a lot of trends in the Internet."

Ma has a penchant for clever puns, gimmicky marketing and brash talk. He does not hesitate to declare that his company will crush competitors like eBay.

His critics have fought back by suggesting that Alibaba, which had about $46 million in revenue last year, is more marketing pizazz than substance. "It looks like vapor," said Merle Hinrichs, chairman of Global Sources, a Hong Kong-based competitor to Alibaba in the business-to-business market. "Their numbers from our perspective are exaggerated."

Regardless, Ma is now one of China's most powerful chief executives. And he did not need an initial public offering to accomplish that.

He has in turn persuaded Goldman Sachs, Softbank and now Yahoo to finance his company, helping transform it into a diversified conglomerate that offers e-mail, searching and electronic payment services along with auctions.

At Alibaba's headquarters here in Hangzhou, two hours south of Shanghai, Ma spoke in fluent English about how he had managed to win over Westerners, including Yahoo.

"A lot of people don't understand Alibaba," he said. "In the U.S., B-to-B companies died because they focused on big companies. We're focusing on small and medium-size companies. We're helping them make money."

Ma, who learned English as a youngster by listening to Voice of America here, taught at Hangzhou Teachers Institute for five years. But even then, he had an entrepreneurial impulse, founding a translation agency.

Next came the Internet. "It's a Hollywood story why I went into the Internet," he said, laughing.

As Ma tells it, he traveled to Los Angeles in 1995 to help a Chinese company recover money owed by a joint-venture partner but found that the partner had no intention of paying. The man, he said, displayed a gun and locked Ma in his house for two days. Ma talked his way out of the situation by agreeing to become the man's Chinese partner, promising to start an Internet company.

"It was a terrible experience," he said. "Every time I think of L.A., I have a nightmare."

With no idea how the Internet worked, Ma said, he flew to Seattle, where he told friends about his ordeal and they showed him the World Wide Web. He typed the words "beer" and "China" into Yahoo's search engine, and when nothing came back, he hit upon the idea of creating Web sites for Chinese companies.

When he returned home, he quit his teaching post, borrowed $2,000 and started China Pages, one of the nation's first Internet companies.

He began creating home pages for Chinese companies with the help of friends in the United States. "The day we got connected to the Web, I invited friends and TV people over to my house," and on a very slow dial-up connection, "we waited three and a half hours and got half a page," he recalled.

"We drank, watched TV and played cards, waiting. But I was so proud. I proved the Internet existed."

He then worked briefly in Beijing for the Ministry of Foreign Investment and Trade in a for-profit electronic-commerce venture. It was there that he made his first contact with Yahoo, when he gave a co-founder, Jerry Yang, a tour of the Great Wall in 1998, and the two became friends.

A year later, he went back to Hangzhou. At a meeting with friends in his apartment in February 1999, Ma said, he formed Alibaba. "That day I talked like a crazy man," he recalled jokingly. "Then I said, 'Put your money on the table.' We had $60,000. That was our first round of financing."

Six months later, Goldman Sachs and a group of venture capital firms invested $5 million in Alibaba. Soon after, Masayoshi Son, founder of Softbank, was at the door. "It was love at first sight," Ma said. Softbank, which initially invested $20 million, became one of its biggest backers.

When the Internet bubble burst in 2000 and 2001, the company was forced to pare its operations. It also suffered through the SARS epidemic in 2003, with quarantined employees working on their computers from home.

In 2003, around the same time that eBay acquired Eachnet.com, China's largest online auction house, Ma and Softbank found another way to jump-start interest in Alibaba: they created Taobao.com to go head to head with eBay in China.

The two auction houses have since competed fiercely, with Taobao eating into some of eBay's customer base with its no-fee service, an unprofitable effort that Alibaba hopes will eventually win enough customer support to turn into a fee-paying service. Some competitors and critics question whether Alibaba is generating profit.

"That's nonsense," said Joseph Tsai, the chief financial officer, calling the company "totally profitable." Alibaba's business-to-business operations generated $25 million of free cash flow last year, he said, "and this year we're going to be generating a lot more than that."

But even Ma acknowledged that Alibaba, searching for more traffic, needed a big partner.

He said he began seeing the importance that a search engine could play for auction deals. In May, he met Yang at a conference in Pebble Beach, California, and the two agreed to team up on something. That talk evolved into the Yahoo-Alibaba deal.

"The great challenge for a CEO is saying no to opportunities," Ma said. "But you don't say no to Yahoo."

Softbank, which has a stake in Yahoo as well as Alibaba and helped finance the start-up of Taobao, made a huge profit on the Yahoo deal but still plowed some of that back into Alibaba, according to several bankers and lawyers, coming away with a 30 percent stake in the company.

But analysts are already questioning the deal.

"The challenge which Alibaba now faces is whether it can manage a good business in so many different sectors," said Lu Benfu, an Internet analyst at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Ma's answer is that he has the focus and the foresight to make things happen. When eBay promised to invest hundreds of millions in China in the coming years, Ma said, he saw an opportunity to strike a deal with Yahoo and shift the game.

Now, posing for photographs in his office, Ma is standing before the smiling Alibaba logo he designed. And his grin is wide.

"Thank you, eBay," he joked. But he is not altogether kidding when he adds, "You made all of this possible."

- International Herald Tribune, 16 Aug 2005.

i though i saw a plank in my eye

captious \KAP-shuhs\, adjective:
1. Marked by a disposition to find fault or raise objections.
2. Calculated to entrap or confuse, as in an argument.

The most common among those are captious individuals who
can find nothing wrong with their own actions but
everything wrong with the actions of everybody else.
- "In-Closet Hypocrites," Atlanta Inquirer, August 15,
1998

The quote above sounds quite similar to this:

Judging Others

"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

- Matthew 7:1-5

yoo-BIK-wih-tuhs survey forms

ubiquitous \yoo-BIK-wih-tuhs\, adjective:
Existing or being everywhere, or in all places, at the same
time.

In spite of the ubiquitous beggars, gypsies and 'naked
urchins', Skopje was an attractive town in the early part
of the century.
- Anne Sebba, Mother Teresa: Beyond the Image

Airborne gambling, shopping and videoconferencing may all
be ubiquitous in the future.
- Peter H. Lewis, "The Cybercompanion," New York Times,
February 7, 1999

Adding to my perplexity, this lack of clarity even appeared
evident among the best and brightest sociologists,
historians, literary scholars, art historians, those
working in cultural studies, American Studies, and
journalism; the problem looked to be ubiquitous.
- Michael Kammen, American Culture, American Tastes

Before Tarzan, nobody understood just how big, how
ubiquitous, how marketable a star could be.
--John Taliaferro, [4]Tarzan Forever
_________________________________________________________

Ubiquitous derives, via French, from Latin ubique,
"everywhere," from ubi, "where." The noun form is ubiquity.

It's really hard to avoid ubiquitous students intercepting you with their survey forms in town, especially on the weekends. They are freaking everywhere!

nice doggy

They say nowadays that on the Internet you can't tell if you're a dog...
- L. Gordon Crovitz, Senior Vice President, Dow Jones & Company;
President, Electronic Publishing.








...Beyond mentoring Mr. Crovitz, [Robert] Bartley inculcated in him the conviction that newspapers are meant to be sold. That meant lively writing. That meant ideas needed to be argued forcefully and persuasively. That meant never taking liberties with the facts. And that also meant sometimes taking editorial positions that weren't exactly cheered in every constituency of the polity...
- Pranay Gupte, Senior Writer and Global-Affairs Columnist.

The Straits Times need more of such people like Mr Crovitz.

give that man a tiger

Navy man clears gruelling test of endurance

In a gruelling test of his skills, submariner David Foo spent 28 days under the sea, executing more than 50 back-to-back military missions - and all with just the occasional three-hour nap.

The 34-year-old Republic of Singapore Navy officer emerged last month as the first Asian to pass the Dutch Navy's Perisher course for submarine commanding officers, in which the failure rate is nearly 40 per cent.

Lieutenant-Colonel Foo joins 40 other officers who have passed the course since it was introduced 10 years ago. They are from the navies of Australia, the Netherlands, Israel, Denmark, the United States, South Africa, Brazil and Canada.

He assumes command of the RSS Centurion submarine tomorrow.

'I expected a very tough course and it turned out to be as advertised,' said Lt-Col Foo, who studied at the US Naval Academy in Maryland, trained as a submariner in Sweden, and served on missile corvettes and the submarine RSS Chieftain in his 15 years in the navy.

The 19-week course is legendary for the high failure rate as well as for the fact that any Dutch officer who fails it is never allowed to serve aboard a submarine again, he said. 'It's an opportunity for us to benchmark our training with other international navies,' he added.

Lt-Col Foo trained with four officers from the Netherlands, Australia, Israel and the US, as well as an observer from India.

The Dutch instructor said he was 'surprised I passed, knowing Singapore has a young submarine fleet'.

Lt-Col Foo had to quickly master the operating procedures of a Dutch submarine twice the tonnage of the one he served on in Singapore. He also had to quickly gain the confidence of an unfamiliar Dutch crew in time for the first round of tests.

One test required him to keep the submarine close to the surface for as long as possible with four ships charging at it and then use the periscope to decide when to take it down to a safe depth.

'There's some finesse to it because you've got to go down exactly at the last second, which means that as soon as you are down, the ships are right over you. If you went down too late, there would be a collision,' he explained.

Trainees were grilled on special submarine operations, from photo reconnaissance to mining missions, followed by a two-week exercise involving a nuclear submarine, anti-submarine warfare ships, as well as maritime patrol aircraft and helicopters.

Their endurance was tested on all fronts. They had terrible accommodation in a noisy, cold section of the submarine, with uncomfortable beds and only 'standing room' to prepare charts and plan operations.

Said Lt-Col Foo: 'A good friend of mine once told me that stress is mostly self-created. I simply did my best and tried to learn everything I could, as well as observing the other participants.'

Only three of the five trainees completed the course. One quit early as he felt he was not ready to go on, Lt-Col Foo said, and another was dropped for breaching safety rules.

Lt-Col Foo, who is married with three young children, is set to face another unfamiliar crew of about 30 when he takes over as new commanding officer of the RSS Centurion, a 51m Sjoormen-class submarine.

'The crew is aware I've gone through this very tough course and is expecting some tough training,' he said.

'My first priority is to get to know them better.'

- The Straits Times, 15 Aug 2005.

Give that man a Tiger beer; or how my ex-colleague likes to put it: "Give a tiger to that man!"

be transformed

Come Jul 4, 2007 will be the release of 'Transformers' Movie featuring in a combination of live and CGI action - produced by Steven Spielberg and directed by Michael Bay (The Island, Armageddon). Can't wait to see how the movie is going to turn out to be in the hands of Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg. Furthermore, the movie will incorprate recognizable brands such as Volkswagon Beetle for Bumblebee. Cool!


This was taken without permission from a forum which members display their artistic works.

Likewise, some of the other characters will undergo a 'facelift' to make it more appealing and relevant in the movie. More can be read from this link: '5 Things You Didn't Know About Transformers'

Transformers will become the next big thing!

on selling stocks

If you can sell cows, you can sell stocks.
- Arthur Levitt Jr., former president of the American Stock Exchange and chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

I used to be conceited, but now I'm perfect!

"I think all extremists should be shot."



"I hate all those people who make generalisations"



"I used to be apathetic, but now I just don't care."



"I used to be indecisive, but now I just don't know."



"I've decided that I procrastinate too much, but I'm going to change that in a week or so."



"The sooner you fall behind, the more time you have to catch up."



"I used to be conceited, but now I'm perfect."



"Once I thought I was wrong, but I was mistaken."



"I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous."



"Thank God for atheism."



"I'm not conceited. Conceit is a fault and I have no faults."



"I'm not arrogant, I'm just better that you."

Link

korean pics

Now I feel like spamming my blog with set of pictures I received last week. So adorable but I can't figure out what those korean words mean. If anyone care to explain it to me, can just drop me an e-mail.































































And I love this picture best!

please save the iPod!!!!

Someone posted this question to fenfen...

"If your husband and your iPod mini fell into the sea, who/which would you save first?"

And fenfen gave the most shocking answer one could possibly imagine:

"I'll shout to my husband to save my iPod mini!!!"

What a brilliant answer, woman!

The Beatitudes

Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them saying:

"Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.

Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called sons of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

"Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Matthew 5:1-12

Johnny IS good!

On Sunday, fenfen and I watched the movie, "Charlie and Chocolate Factory" at Grand GV. It was the first time for us to watch a movie at this cinema in Great World City. On the Golden Village website, it has installed this novel idea of "Scentertainment", claiming to "transported aromatically into the movie", at GV Grand and GV Bishan cinemas only. I was thrilled at the idea of this scentertainment and decided to book the tickets for the screening on Sunday.

Besides the smell of cocoa when we first stepped into the theatre before the start of the show, I don't remember that I have the feeling of being transported aromatically into the movie. What a disappointment. No matter how hard I consciously try to sniff during the movie, I don't smell anything chocolate-ty! Thought they would release some chocolate smell into the theatre when we reach the particular scenes of the chocolate factory. Nothing! I don't feel that I was being transported at all. HELLO! I'm still at my seat, F11! haha.

It's makes no difference even if I watched the show in other cinema theatres. They could have saved the money and distribute chocolate snacks to the patrons instead. At least the movie-goers go back feeling happy.

Nothing much in the movie excites me except the glasses which Willy Wonka wore during the show. I think they are cool! So retro. haha. Was super impressed with Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka. Makes me marveled at how versatile an actor he is and he has done so many different roles before. Johnny is actor who belongs to the "whatever you want me to be" category. Totally impressed.

The movie is just visually stimulating, that's all. I believe the book is much better than the movie. Children have tons of stuff to learn from the movie:

1) Keep your eyes on the floor. You just might find a stupid person dropping a 10 dollar for you to buy your favourite snacks. (I did pick up a $10 note in school when I was 14 and I was quite honest enough not to keep it. But I was quite stupid to place it on someone's schoolbag nearby cause I reasoned at that time, it must have been dropped from the nearest place. So have to be that nearest schoolbag. Duh.)

2) Remember to get back your change when you buy chocolates. Even when you won a Golden Ticket.

2) If someone told you that you can eat the grass, don't be silly enough to go and eat it! What if he tells you that the cow manure is also made of chocolate?

3) Avoid taking food from strangers.

4) Do not keep squirrel as a pet. It might think you are a bad nutcase.

5) Don't try to be a wise guy even when you are much smarter than your parents.

6) There are people who can't pronounce the word, "parents". So don't think you are that bad in your English.

7) You can stay young by eating chocolates! (Better still, live in a chocolate factory.)

8) Don't ever exchange anything in the whole world for your family's love.


Any more lessons to learn from the show?








What good is it
for a man to gain the whole world,
yet forfeit his soul?
Mark 8:36

monthly newsletter of Leta

An entry about Leta, eighteen months old, posted by her mum. What a heart-warming post*, especially the one about the author's mole.

*adorable pictures of Leta included.

I wonder what was I like when I was eighteen months old. Heard from my relatives that I was the easiest kid to babysit among all my cousins. No fuss. No tantrums. No running about like a little ferrari on the loose. Very quiet and still. One thing , they said, that captivates me is the television. I could just sit infront of the TV and watch the TV programmes the whole day without much fuss.

lost in Spain

Came across this description in a blog: "Lost in Spain, and enjoying every single moment." Sounds like a good slogan for Spain's tourism ads. I wanna get lost in Spain too!

Lo and bih-HOHL-duhn

beholden \bih-HOHL-duhn\, adjective:
Obliged; bound in gratitude; indebted.

Kate was quite fond of him and knew he was grateful to her
for all the help and hospitality she and Oliver had given
him during his period of gloom and puzzlement after his
wife's defection, but she did not want him to feel beholden
to her.
-Mary Sheepshanks, Picking Up the Pieces

The likely new government, which draws only a negligible
level of support from rural areas, will be much less
beholden to the farming interests than any government in
the past two decades.
-"Reforming The EU Budget," Irish Times, October 8,
1998

Peter did not intend to be beholden to any of his relatives
unless they proved their worth.
-Lindsey Hughes, Russia in the Age of Peter the Great
_________________________________________________________

Beholden is derived from Old English behealden, "to hold
firmly," from be-, intensive prefix + healden, "to hold."

I felt beholden to buy Brand's chicken essence for my boss when he secretly gave me a month's bonus after I completed my one-year contract. Maybe I shall also stealthily put it on his desk before he arrives for work on Mon.

why why tell me why

In the film, Hannah and Her Sisters, the character played by Woody Allen tries to tell his Jewish parents that he has difficulty believing in the God of their faith. His mother won't hear such nonsense and locks herself in the bathroom. Allen's character shouts after her, "Well, if there's a God, then why is there so much evil in the world? Just on a simplistic level, why were there Nazis?" From behind the bathroom door the mother cries out to her husband, "Tell him, Max." The father replies, "How in the world do I know why there were Nazis? I don’t even know how the can opener works!"...

- Stuart McAllister, 'Where was God', 4 Aug 2005.

i love t-shirts

Here are some of the coolest t-shirts you can find in the whole wide world. Any cooler, you gotta cut those extra holes on it yourself.




I can wear this if I ever go on a Fear Factor show.








Gonna wear this out if I ever get retrenched.









Hope by wearing this t-shirt, I can dissuade people from wasting their time and money, and hope in buying ToTo.

Then I saw this Mounty Hall t-shirt which I think is cool.

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