Lessons From Ezra

Some of the greatest lessons or refresher of great lessons I'm learning from little Ezra.

Small for his age and a little man of little words, he speaks through his actions and leaves us to catch upon his daily lessons. Like many great teachers, they impart some form of knowledge and it is only when we are ready to accept it that we are able to truly free our minds and learn. Otherwise we would probably just end up like school syllabus of spoon feeding that students don't need to understand what they are taught. Just digest and regurgitate. Knowledge should be precious. Where only those who are truly ready can comprehend the simplicity of it.

This brings about the image of people trying to seek enlightenment and would scale ridiculous mountains and cut themselves through thick foliage to meet some "wise" man up upon the mountain of knowledge and hear him impart just a few words for that person to ponder and act upon. Come to think of it maybe its not the content of those words that are truly precious, but because the journey was so difficult to get there and so humbling to admit one is in thirst of knowledge that even whatever scraps of wisdom would expand itself into an explosive expression of enlightenment.

Bringing little Ezra to the playground, I cannot help but be amaze at his actions and inactions.

Lesson 1: Look Before You Leap
For a kid who just loves the slide and cannot stop him from ascending the slope more happily than the descent....he can keep perfectly still to look around and make sure he knows what he is up against before joining in the foray of childhood madness that grace all tiny playgrounds.

Gives thought how as adults we don't spend enough time to assess and evaluate before we jump into conclusions or actions. Even in an age of fast decisions and digital speed, we should still take a moment to look around and decide before taking that leap.

On the other extreme, we adults sometimes take that leap too fast and frequently make multiple changes hoping from one decision to other on a singular issue. Sometimes even mimicking the leadership of a headless chicken in a leap-frog decision style (more of hopping multi-directional rather than the common meaning of being ahead of competition)

Lesson 2: Love Is All Around
Love is a 2-way process. One gives and the other reciprocates by receiving. Receiving a random hug may be a little shocking for little Ezra but reciprocating doesn't mean he has to hug back. Even just receiving it gracefully and not pushing the hugging party away is a sign of love in its innocence.

Now I wonder what will he be teaching me today.....

"Seek and you shall find; Even the young can enrich your mind"

Er-Go-No-Mics

Ergonomics....

I swear I didnt know what it was prior to 1999. Sounded like the study of ego, with a wrong spelling.

That was when I met a friend of mine or more like I was acquainted with someone who eventually became a good friend of mine who was pursuing his Masters in Ergonomics. Heck I still didn't know what it was and he blabbed about making designs human friendly, talking ATMs, etc......still have no freaking idea coz I thought it was all just technology.

Then he said Nokia.....making a better phone that suits the users' need. Ahhhhhh

Since then, wherever I go, whatever product I'm exposed to....it's all about the ergonomics.... Is this good enough? Why isn't it good enough? How can it be better..... I was like a self profess believer of ergonomics and wished I had study that instead.....But like all fads the craze wore off and soon it was just a subconscious effort this whole ergonomics thing.

And today.......EUREKA!!

Recap......Eureka was shouted by Archimedes, a famous greek mathematician who discovered the law of displacement to determine the density of an object. (For more info go here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archimedes)

Now today was an Eureka moment combined with a nostalgic flashback to ergonomics.....

As I sat on the almighty throne pondering what to do with my subjects and state.....I felt a sudden rush of ideas going down south. Now this throne.....comfy as it was, had the right height, had the right width, but had the wrong design.....

It was not human friendly!!

Now there's nothing more disgusting (at this moment) than to feel the displacement of your own excrement splashing back onto your own skin each time a dollop falls. I mean.....pthummm... splash... splat...... yucks!!!!

This throne has some SERIOUS ergonomic flaws!!!

The next time someone complaints I left some sticky stains on the toilet bowl....I'm gonna tell them its perfect ergonomics.....better there than your thighs and buttocks!!!

Designed for Humans

The most difficult part of management is the human resource.......

I use to wonder what was the function of the human resource department. Back in the government offices, they were virtually non-existent. We call them Sumber Manusia (Human Resource), but in actual fact, when we go to the department, there usually are no humans for us to begin an interaction with. So hence for many years, the infamous Government cycle continues. We don't know about our personal file.......we have problems with promotion......clinical staff are the last to know about upcoming changes because they are busy doing clinical stuff and trying to save lives (or prevent themselves from killing it....)

Then I went corporate......and oh....my....God....

HR as it is fondly abbreviated took a whole new meaning. Coupled with the fact that the MBA course I'm taking emphasizes so much on the importance and function of HR (and also the crap loads of money they can make by just managing people). So I thought to myself, what the heck....its just managing people.... how difficult can it be. Go try take a look in jobstreet.com under HR positions and you see a ton of people's resumes all online with a repertoire of talents, qualifications and experiences. Some are well written, while others I have no idea if they exist in the same planet.....

Suffice to say, in the last 3 months HR has taken a new meaning. On one hand they are the "friendly" face from administration that interacts with the people...yet on the other hand, they are the true loyals to the company and are required to best advice the company to act on the best interest without jeopardising the welfare of the staffs.

Its a full time job of nurturing and listening to the grouses of the people. Doing RCA (Root Cause Analysis) to determine the main problem and working a solution to appease people and not displease management. To periodically report on the staff count and the flow of employees. To advise on the employment of new staff and to be well versed in the laws that govern employment etc. And the list goes on...

As I said, the hardest part of managing a company is managing the human resource. Biggest mistake a general manager can make is to not know the functions of the HR and under utilising their talents to serve the company......eeepppp wishing myself luck.....

Hopeless Lament

I can't help if it falls
I'm not in control at all
It's not the pain that I feel
For even that is not real

No one knows me inside
Why run when I cannot hide
Hope fades in a while
At best a reluctant smile

So why bother you would say
Today will be yesterday
Tomorrow will become today
And today will be yesterday

You Don't Know Me, Do I?

"Know thyself. To thyself be true"

I love the above statement.

For I believe that before we set out to perceive, assume, and judge other people, we must first take a look within and know ourselves. Its an internal audit or feedback mechanism if you like to call it. To be able to self evaluate ourselves truthfully if we are better than what we are about to comment, preach and propagate.

All too often I have been involved in altercations that involve a clash of ideas or personalities that stem from an egotistical stand of not wanting to admit that I am wrong when clearly I know I am. It's a defense mechanism as I would have argued and stood up for unrelentingly. In fact the defense is so good that it becomes second nature to go on the offense and start to delude myself into thinking that if I can find someone else's wrong, then automatically I should be right.

Unfortunately this is not how problems should be solved.

I believe until I can know myself well enough to identify my good, my bad, my evil, my strengths, my weakness, my sins, and my whims, I will never know what I truly want and where I truly belong or ought to be. To sail without knowing what kind of ship I am or where the wind is blowing. While in certain aspects in life being serendipitous would have suffice, but not in life management, intra- and inter-relationship management.

I still remember a little quotation on a bookmark that I read and memorized when I was about 10. It read "God give me the serenity to accept the thing I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference".

I would also like to quote John F. Kennedy, who in 1963 said "Our problems are man-made, therefore they may be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings."



Knowing myself better, empowers me to change myself, the mortal man, to better suit the environment and its problems. For certain things cannot be changed. But that doesn't mean if we have changed ourselves that problem cannot be rectified. It's just a matter of being able to see it differently, think differently, do it differently. Don't remain status quo from within and certainly not in action or inaction.

I look upon the opening statement with renewed hope each day. I carry it as best as I can. Hopefully the world I am in contact with will subscribe to it with me.

The 3 minute essay

This is a most interesting exercise that was introduced to me by Dr. Mugu, my lecturer in my MBA class in public health management. This is in preparation for the assignment that was entrusted to us to complete within a span of 8 weeks which must contain approximately 4500 words that covers a wide range of topic.

However that is not the point. The point of this particular exercise as Dr. Mugu has put it is to continuously write without stopping for a duration of three minutes and up until now it is about 1:30 and counting down. It has been shown that to over come writers' block, one of the exercise is to do exactly this. Be it with a pen or with the keyboard. But the objective is to go on for a total of 3 minutes and let the ideas flow. What he has postulated is that if this exercise is kept as a journal for someone who does it once a day and for 30 days, even the most simplest of writers would be able to express themselves much more freely and thus I feel it is worth a try.

3:00 minutes
You should try this

Making A Dirty Word Work....

CALORIES!!!

That's a dirty word by many people's standard and invites scorned look from those who are gastronomically inclined to those who scoff at the very thought of some OCD behavior displayed by others in reaction to this word and its implications.

But as I have promised to do a short write-up regarding it, I shall keep it sweet (no pun intended)... (yeah right)

So basically what we're trying to do is MAKE the calories work for you...yeah make it work!! Calories per se is not a bad word....its a measurement of energy pretty much the same as how we would equate how powerful an air-conditioning unit or vacuum is based on the amount of Watts is displayed.

So here's the low down simple stuff.....

1. Use MORE calories than you CONSUME....... = weight loss
OR
2. Consume LESS calories than is required to MAINTAIN your present self = weight loss

So to calculate how much of calories you need to consume, reduce or refuse....we use the BMR calculator. Few factors come into play, namely the height, weight, age and activity lifestyle. Below I have embedded a calculator for your disposal (yeah, so nice of me). BMR or basal metabolic rate, in a nutshell, means the amount of calories you would burn per day if you slept a full 24 hours. Yeah sitting on the couch to watch TV takes effort too you know, especially when it comes to using the tip of fingers to channel surf....

Alterations of activity, and even the most sedentary lifestyle would require to use some form of energy, so when a BMR is stated, you would usually need a little more calories than the BMR to merely MAINTAIN the current weight.

Simple exercise if John Doe is 30 years old, 170cm and currently weight 80kg and has a sedentary life, he would have a BMR of 1808 calories (he can sleep the whole day and burn that much), but because of he has a sedentary life (which is a small level above dead sleep for 24 hours), he would require 2169 calories to just MAINTAIN his weight of 80kg.

So if dear John wants to lose weight with MINIMAL effort in 1 year....we simply recalculate his BMR based on the new details, such as....31 years old, 170cm and achieve weight of 70kg with a sedentary lifestyle. He would attain a BMR of 1664 calories.....

In other words...if John cut his intake by 500 calories a day, and do it everyday for a year.....he would have dropped that 10kg without going to the gym!!!

If you think about it, that just means don't eat that roti canai with teh tarik.....pretty cool eh.

Cheers and happy calculating

Electoral Performs....

Part of my job scope at the moment requires me to be present at the House of Parliament, not as a representative, but to be on standby to receive any ad-hoc questions that may be posed to the minister during the parliamentary sitting that requires an immediate answer. Across all ages, I find only two types of speakers would draw the best attention (not the most), which are those who can articulate the loudest, and those who can answer swiftly.

My colleagues and I were present from 230pm and it was only at 930pm that our services were called upon as it was our ministry's turn for presentation and rebuttal.....7 freaking hours of waiting!!!

And why did we have to wait??? Because 6 other ministries could not keep their points concise and other speakers had to make a circus of the parliament but getting emotional, rude, and many times demanding statistics that is nice to know, but in essence contributes nothing in value to improve the country.

While I had brought work and reading material along to kill the hours away, 7 hours seem ridiculously long to wait upon while elected representatives from the country trash it out with sometimes very childish mannerism. At those very moments I wonder....who elected those people into power....and I realised it was the people themselves..... And perhaps it was because to garner votes and popularity, a politician would be in the best behaviour under the public limelight, while in parliament is where their true self surfaces....

Maybe the people are getting short changed....

So here's an idea....to curb time wastage and for people to get to know their elected representatives better so that citizens would have a better idea if their representative really have the people's best interest at heart....

I propose during parliamentary sitting, all TV channels including satelite TV and subscription TV only show the parliamentary sitting live.... News can be a scrolling marquee at the ottom of the TV.... There will be no shows, no dramas, no Star channel, no ESPN....NOTHING but the parliamentary sitting so people will see just what kind of business transpires in the great hall by our elected representatives.....

Who knows, it may breed a future generation of well mannered, learned, concise, and transparent representative and leadership that this country is starving for.

My Brotherly Advise

This past month has been somewhat of a challenge...

My poor car has been hit 3 times and it is no longer funny....resulting in a dent back mudguard and door, a scratched front bumper and a cracked wind screen.... I feel the pain just looking at my car and the hidden pain of an upcoming repair bill makes it worse....

I will be starting a new job and adventure soon and the remaining days of my current workplace has been wrought with never ending issues and ad hoc matters that seems almost comical that it should happen in such swift succession bar the fact that the pain and mental anguish reminds me it is neither comical or a dream. Compounded by the fact that the future endearvor will not be an easy one with alot of uncertainties but I feel I should be up for it. Quoting Prof Carlton, "Do not promote someone into a role of incompetency". I shall deny any incompetency of the future task, just alot of room for improvement.

Yesterday marked the first day back to school after a long hiatus.

It has been a long time target to enrol for a Masters of Business Admin or MBA for short. Dad had his done while working, and though back then I couldn't see the significance of it, it was through working life that I saw perhaps this could aid me in my long journey of a career path.

While being a once reverred certificate and title to have, the MBA has since taken a back seat perspective in the eyes of many as it has now been regarded as a misnomer Masters degree as it is a "Jack of all trades, but master of none" Masters programme. But heck, a Masters is a masters, and its better to be a jack of all trades than just a jack-ass i reckon.

So here begins a new chapter.... As dad puts it a general overview to business admin. the syllabus is rather interesting as it deals alot with day to day management issues and the perspective of different individuals from different industries provides an interesting learning sessions to see how one issue or problem can be tackled differently. Though a word of caution, that traditionally an MBA entrance requirement was between 5 to 7 years of working experience, which is good because it gives a person time to mature in a workplace before they bring their perspective into the class. These days with more lax entrance requirements, some opinions which may border between fun to hear to just down right annoying.

So here's to a course thats a misnomer Masters programme and journey on with the impression that the MBA is a wayfor professors and gurus to dispense "My Brotherly Advice" (sisterly too but then it would be MBSA or MSA....not cool)

Don't Bet On It

One day I'm gonna lose all my loyal readers with the way I update this blog as and when I can haha..... For those of you who stuck by me, I have no idea why you do it.....but I appreciate it ;)

Yeah....so I'm a little way behind on my book review....FYI I have finished one....for Feb but I haven't written it (Maybe the next entry....so for those who dont like book review, come back in another 2 months) And I am one behind for March...ick...

Anyway....my grouse for the combined entry of March and early April comes from my daily morning drive to work.....Radio adverts.....50% have got the customary fake laughter that seems odd and out of place to end a commercial (I mean seriously....who ends a general conversation with laughter without a real joke to precede it?? I wonder where these advertisers get their input from). 10% of commercial time lands on some air conditioner advertisement that sounds a little like "We've got YUCK....have you?" Grammatical erroneous, cheap production, and makes me not want to get it anyway. But lately the one that really ticks me off is some bank advertisement where the 2 kids seem to out smart their dad in ALL the bank promotions and now even entice dad to start an account with the bank so that they will win prizes from the periodic draw....

Now it's not so much the advert that I'm gonna give my 2 cents worth but the content of it....

Here is a bank.....that encourages you to save (that's a good thing), by giving you an entry ticket to a lucky draw for every RM100 saved. So there more you save the more tickets you have for the draw. No need to fill up any other forms. No need to answer any questions or make a creative slogan. No need to collect multiple coupons. No effort needed.....just put in the money and wait for the bank to announce your name as a winner. Probability in winning? No odds stated, but the more you deposit, the higher your chances.

Here's some snippet...

I love the line......"who knows, you could be our next winner"

So we have an element of randomness.....so all the tickets from the RM100 a person invests is still not guaranteed even a participation prize.....just a "who knows" chance.....cool....

Wait...there's more

How does it benefit you? Why...by enjoying the PROBABILITY of receiving valuable cash prizes....

Kind of like playing Russian roulette..... how does Russian Roulette benefit you, one might ask....why, you may ENJOY the PROBABILITY of living...... :)

And yet....there's more....

I abhor likes like these "subject to change at discretion". It's really likened to the children's song... "If you're happy and you know it....make a draw...". Even the frequency of a draw falls into a probability....

Yes.....I'm on a roll....

I admit.....perhaps I'm ignorant and can't see the relevance of the verse in context of allowing a randomized, not everyone wins draw to take place and lead people to believe it is not a form of gambling. From some reading, verse 44 seems to talk about having faith to believe in the miracle of the unseen and to believe in it even if one plays no part in the decision or outcome. So the bank's lucky draw is like a miracle of the unseen, where one is to accept the outcome or lack of outcome.....HUH???? Please someone help me through comments section....

And the icing of the cake....

Yes....the list of winners....Full names are published because it is the right of everyone to know who won it. Transparent. FYI....did you know winner no. 4 stays in Mersing, Johor. Sells Cosway with a published address, phone number and operating hours. And that's just on a simple Google search for his name and not an in depth search yet....Good thing he won RM1,000 and not the RM200,000. Otherwise he would have alot of new friends and relatives......and be subjected to have his kids taken from him.....

Only one good thing about this.....its a money back gamble.....in case your RM100 per ticket doesn't win you anything, you can withdraw the money and wait for the next promo.....

Otherwise, one would be better off going to the punters like Magnum4D (Disclaimer: No I am not condoning gambling) whereby
1. Your ticket starts at RM1.00 only
2. Your chances of winning are 1:9999 (That's better than 1 in 10,000)
3. Magnum doesn't simply reduce their frequency of draw
4. The prize has been fixed at a known quantum
5. They don't justify gambling.....they just tell you to play the game
6. Your identity is not known to everyone.....only the numbers to your winning ticket

scoff.....at least there is a chance for people to be exposed to islamic gambling bank draws *scoff* *scoff*

Leap Of Faith

Standing on the edge of present

Looking back without regrets or resent

Through the windows of time i'm looking in

My box of experience of where I've been

Far has my journey taken me

Still further ahead lies my destiny

Time is my essence and my enemy

Woven in an intricate tapestry

A thousand miles a step a day

Till the cliff's edge with no path ahead

Moving forward may not be the easiest way

Sometimes it takes a leap of faith.

Are You Home? (No Knocks Needed)

Businesses will resort to many methods to promote their products. I have nothing against it, but at time a little more thought should have been put into it...

Today at about noon, a creative form of advertisement was left dangling at my front gate. Bearing the shape similar to the door hangers we get at the hotel that typically says "Make My Room" or "Do Not Disturb". Anyway a close up shot of it for your benefit....

The contents didn't really reflect the intended message that it wants to drive home. Looking at that card I couldn't be bothered really to read further, and would have thought my REAL neighbours were cuckoo.

I paid no attention until I got back from dinner round about 9.30pm and what struck me was more than half of the homes still had that door hangers still dangling from their gates!! Now this weekend happens to be a LONG weekend as the following Monday and Tuedays are public holidays and there would definitely be a number of family taking the opportunity to travel out station.

With this door hanger still dangling, I figured it would pose as a security risk to those homes who may still have it dangling by tomorrow evening or night....If I was a robber, I'd target a series of 3 houses that still has that card on the front gate by tomorrow night and pick the center house....I'd be some what assured or certain that no one has been back and perhaps give me enough window period to ease the home off some burdens....

Why can't the advertisers just leave it in the post box like normal people do....

I guess in the eyes of the advertisers...they were thinking something like this....

As for the robbers....I'd think they would love these cards to read something like this....

I wonder if there are laws to govern irresponsible dissemination of information or advertisement. Or maybe it can be charged as abetting to theft......

Huff Puff....and blow it all away into the Blue Ocean

What's the most difficult part about a weight loss regime (assuming you're not on weight loss drugs and liposuction)??

The diet? Nope. Just eat a spoonful less rice per meal....how difficult is that???

It's the first kilometer of a 4 km jog.....that's what it is..... It is the point where all the lazy muscles are just waking up. The stretch and use of the lesser known muscles that makes it feel like a rusty machine just kicking into life. Muscles that scream out "GIVE UP" when you're only on the 300 meter mark and at 500 meters it plots with your lungs to make you feel a little more breathless as you break into a very un-sexy sweat....ughhhhh

That's pretty much how it feels like when I wanna stick to my resolutions as stated in my previous entry. Oh and its nothing to do with the weight maintenance or the running....that's ok despite the dramatic introduction earlier about the perils of jogging......

So here goes....

Book review #1 (of 12)

This month's book of choice is Blue Ocean Strategy - by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne

Now this is an interesting book, and by interesting I mean of late I've been hearing so much about it. Seems to be a fad in Malaysia to be excited over something very intensely and let it die off fast too once the commotion settles. Blue Ocean Strategy has been frequently quoted in many of the policy making meetings and conferences held by the Malaysian Govt (esp the Health Sector). Every other speaker in the task to appear knowledgeable use this bombastic term "Blue Ocean Strategy" like Abra-Cadabra to a Magician in hopes to woo listeners into their abysmal chain of thoughts.

The main cover has a background of a blue ocean (WOW....Original idea huh?) and big bold words "BLUE OCEAN STRATEGY" and with quick summary "How to create uncontested market space and make the competition irrelevant" and published by Harvard Business School Press (If it's good enough for Harvard, it's good enough for anyone)

Coming back to policy makers....yeah so I've attended a handful and without fail, the most exciting speaker of any day would be the one who must almost always include the phrase Blue Ocean Strategy (I'm gonna make it short into BOS from now on....hmmmm BOS......how uncanny!!), and like magic show in their next point within the same speech would be the phrase "By doing this.... we create uncontested market space and make the competition irrelevant"....

Again like magic...the crowd will be mesmerized and people will either start to clap like a toy monkey or most people will nod their head and whisper "BOS....BOS..."

So I gotta know....do people really know what they are talking about....or is it just a hyped up phrase that a few use and no one reads about it but everyone agrees to it (hmmm sounds almost the same principle as how gossip works....)

So after painstakingly reading it, and I do mean painstakingly.....here is the breakdown.

This book (or shall I say post dissertation publication they call a book) employs the general principles of Kaizen through the PDCA process (Plan-Do-Check-Analyse) in combination with the SWOT analysis (Strength-Weakness-Opportunity-Threat).

That's it......really.

The rest of the book is repetitive review (won't even call in depth analysis) of many many many companies that were successful because of the PDCA + SWOT technique. (But since PDCA + SWOT has no term, they call  it BOS)

To be fair, the jist of the book can be summarised into an analysis whereby -
1. Eliminate industry standards that are taken for granted (aka useless, negligible ones)
2. Reduce non productive standards
3. Increase productive standards
4. Create new opportunities
5. Recognising the types of customers (Purchasers / Users / Influencers)

Of course, like all good theories there must be a disclaimer, which BOS states that no company that they reviewed has been successful eternally despite using the Blue Ocean Strategy method. Which brings to mind then what's the point of teaching something that has a finite usefulness and cannot adapt? Does BOS really work or is it a theoretical reasoning for the emergence of capitalists?

What's my take on it?

Perhaps CREATING uncontested market space to make the competition irrelevant is not enough. One must still learn to ADAPT and INNOVATE to stay ahead. Not just one step, but two or more steps ahead. Take Steve Jobs for example, who was able to create a never seen before Supply and feed the people to Demand it later as seen with the iPod, iBook, iMac, iPhone, and iPad. Towards the end of his life, his successors have yet to Create anything exciting, and failed badly to Innovate on the iPhone. So much so until poor Siri has been frequently called as Silly in the Chinese speaking community here who have a problem to pronounce the letter "R"

I'd give this book a 4/10 for having wonderful examples of companies that created new demands in their respective industry, but the write up could do more than calling a combination of past models as their own strategy.

Till the next book....huff puff huff puff....

New coins.....Starring.....David?

So I've allowed myself to be a little ignorant of late with the development of the country.... I was aware of the new notes for the Malaysian currency that was launched at the end of last year, which will see new denominations using the polymer notes that were experimented for the RM5 in 2005. With the 3rd series launched in 2011....we see the return of the RM20 (brown) and the RM100 (deep purple...not the band) notes. All notes are donned with designs inspired by Malaysian flora and fauna, bar the RM1 notes that have the Wau (Kite) design.

Along with that were new coin designs that I could not make up the new designs because the photos were so blurry and hence paid no attention to it. That was until I picked up one recently and checked out the 10 cents design....

 So....the notes are as shown.....

But here's the more interesting scoop...

50 cents (not the singer/rapper....) floral design

20 cents ......more flower design....orchid i believe

5 cents.... Islamic design....cool

10 cents.... 6 pointed star design??? hmmmmm I wonder who did the design and who approved of it haha...

Oh twinkle twinkle David's star....how I wonder how you got this far.....

(wonder if there will be a recall due to security issues *wink*)

Rewinding a year back next year

Long hiatus.... Often wondered why I stop writing for more than a month and its not like me to keep quiet. There's always much to say, but perhaps not enough to share. Yet i recall, it has not been my nature to seek an approval on what is worthy to be read.

Let that be the final lesson of 2011 and the first lesson of 2012 for me.

Round about this time last year, i wrote of Steve Jobs and his challenges. Within the year Mr Jobs is no longer with us. Pancreatic cancer....its a real bitch of a disease to have. Most people don't know they have it till its too late and don't live long enough to enjoy the remaining years versus the remorse and pity hours they spent on themselves. Mr Jobs had a long duration before his inevitable demise, yet with him he fought till the end.

As I reflect upon his death and how the world mourn at the loss of a great mind, a revolutionary person who change the world. Many say we will never find his parellel. Not many of his generation has surpassed what he has achieved. Its not difficult to agree, and not difficult to disagree.

Every death of a star, means a new rising star will be born.

While the far reaching rays of Steve Jobs begin to fade into legendary memory, so should the world require the light from another star to feed upon. We're just waiting for it to go viral and cult-like.

Which brings to the next point....resolutions.

I hated resolutions or the coming of each new year. My dad would always ask the same thing each year come 31st December or the afternoon of 1st Jan (in case i managed to slip out on the eve) and its always "boy....what's your resolution for the year?"

Each year i made repeated ones that don't make sense and would lie to get over with it. I suspect my dad knew of my non intention to participate but let me off easy because i answered something as opposed to nothing.

Today I ask people I meet (because its an ice breaker) and most adults answer that they don't believe in resolutions. To them its like rules that were meant to be broken. So if you are going to break it, then why make it? If you know deep inside you can't achieve it, why make a farce and lie only to renew the vows the following year of things not achieved for the previous year?

I likened this process as "if you know you're gonna die in the end, then why bother living?"

however, i do admit, that i too did not differ much from the response of people I interviewed. I had the same view of why make promises that I cannot keep? I believed that a serendipitous and happy go lucky attitude would be able to lead me, as long as i have the courage to move in that direction. After all, doesn't luck favour the brave? Seems to work well in movies and tv.

"I want to go somewhere, i don't know where, as long as it's anywhere but HERE"

Serendipity. Happy go lucky. Let fate decide. These are descriptions of a journey, not a destination. For many years, i took it as a destination and realised that I have gone EVERYWHERE but I' still HERE. Because we start from where we were comfortable but irritable, and we journey back to the place we last felt comfortable.

So while i will serendipitously return back to my comfort zone, there are places that I want to go and things I need to achieve. So here are my resolutions for 2012 no matter how small it is.

1. I will run a mini marathon of 10km by mid year
2. I will attempt (but may not finish) a half marathon of 22km before the year ends
3. I will not allow myself to bloat beyond 72kg
4. I will start my MBA in health administration by April, and complete by 18 months
5. I will read a book a month at least

5 is enough. Beyond that i'd just be fooling myself. Doubt i have the time for a 6th decisive resolution. But then again, i'll need some other for next year I reckon.

Thank you all for a wonderful 2011.

For the times I don't say enough, thank you dad for everything. For the lessons you taught when you were around but I didn't seem to learn. And for the lessons I learnt in your absence but through my reflections. You have been my secret idol that I don't glorify but have come to realise. Love ya.

(ps... No no no....fatherhood didn't teach me that....)