Just realised that I have not written anything for 2009 and the year is ending . . . . Gained some, lost some, but in average I’m a big loser for Year 2009.

Till now I’m still quite obsessed with the word optima. . . .

People always say, do your best, put in your best effort, whatever crap. May be I’m lazy or I just not that good, so I always think that “best” is not something that we should achieve. I only believe in optima.

Lets put it in a very practical and day to day scenario: as an ordinary office slave in your company, do you really bother to put in double of effort in order to get an additional month of bonus? Yes or no, may be some people don’t mind working harder for that as they like what they are working and they know that the effort will be appreciated as well as rewarded. To some other people, there ain’t smart bosses around to recognise that so they rather channel the additional energy to somewhere more rewarding.

How about me? Still the same word, I will do it optimally =)
Just like what is illustrated in control engineering, system input -> system output and output will be fed back for system input’s reference. When S curve is form, I will create another S curve instead of waiting for the miracle inflation point to occur on the original S curve.

This Saturday I decided to wake up earlier to walk around my neighbourhood, to enjoy the fresh air and sun light, to help me refresh my mind as well. Too many decisions need to be made, too many roads ahead, which one is the right entrance to the correct path?

Walk out from Licuala Garden

Crossing the road to the park

Some pics along the park

This is one of the million dollars bungalows, nice design, good size. Imagine having your kitchen at the side of the house, with an island inside the kitchen. The kitchen is enclosed by full glass panels with a door leading to the swimming pool beside it. Imagine you can prepare dinner with the love one in the kitchen while watching your kids playing in the pool, isn’t that great?

Do you really need to work your ass off in order to enjoy this kind of life? Not necessary, but I don’t know how yet LOL. One thing for sure is your 9-5 freaking stupid job won’t help you anything on that, and your freaking 7-12 can only earn you an empty house.

Related Links:
Setia Tropika Facebook Group
Setia Tropika Community

Too tired to think of a proper topic.

Had been jogging quite frequently 2, 3 months ago, on average at least 3 to 4 times a week until I don’t feel comfortable with my neck/shoulder. I went for TCM massage in order to fix that, end up it became worst. So bad that I cannot sleep at night, my right hand had difficulty to reach my mouth, my hair, and my head can’t look straight. Finally have to take muscle relaxant and pain killer from clinic.

On my second visit to the clinic(a different clinic), doctor referred me to do x-ray and specialist, result = $$$$$

Specialist recommended me to go another x-ray and MRI, result = more $$$$$

I decided to hold the MRI appointment as I will be seeing physiotherapist first. Well, therapist just did some assessments, ask me to do a bit of stretching, according to her it may be just stiff neck. I got another appointment with the doctor in December, I need to decide whether to do the MRI or not before that.

Now is so much better, although still can feel the stiffness, numbness in finger, etc, at least that does not affect my normal activity. =)

This is my first attempt, a valuable and enjoyable experience. We got a fun and interesting team. This trekking trip changed me as well, I think it set a new baseline for me.

Mt Kerinci – the highest peak in western Indonesia and the highest volcano in South East Asia(3,805 m above sea level)

The trekking starts at Kerinci Seblat National Park entrance, which is marked by the small shelter, and our destination is the summit, which seems like unreachable.

The terrain is quite slippery, muddy, and narrow. Basically it is just like walking(or crawling up) in a deep jungle. This trip is really a combination of mountain trekking, rock climbing, and tree climbing.

It took more than 2 hours just for the 800m to summit.

The condition is really too bad to take any more photo after this.

1. I’ve upgraded to Wordpress 2.8, everything looks fine, but the theme doesn’t work quite well after the upgrade.

2. I’ve deleted all comments, too much spams to delete, sorry folks.

One day over the dinner in an event . . . .

lcs: “we are going for trekking at the end of August . . .”

fred showed interest, and thinking may be should join this trip in order to prepare for Mount Kinabalu.
The next day

fred: “hey, count me in”
lcs: “Cool”

few days later

lcs: “we are going to Mount Kerinci”
fred: “OK, cool”

another few days later, after googling

fred: “Seems like very tough . . . . ”

I think there will be 6,7 hours of trekking from entrance to base camp during the first day, and another 2 hours of trekking from base camp to the summit. Should be expecting something like these:

http://www.geocities.com/dojistar/i_kernici_trail.jpg
http://hensler.ca/photos/DSC_6274_540.jpg
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HwjIobbbOFk/Sjkq1bCoqrI/AAAAAAAAAXs/CzMsYQ5-4A8/s1600-h/CIMG1591.JPG

And some other paths that may be too difficult to take a shoot. LOL.

Really need intensive trainings and shed some pounds in August.

You reached this world around the same time, being brought up within similar environment, and you are now fighting for your future. Some people are doing extremely well, some just so so. If you are just an average guy, what are the things that you can do in order to outperform your peers who are doing as good as you? I’m talking about financially outperform here.

Some of the things that off my mind:

1. Turn your hobby into something profitable
Photography can be an expensive hobby, but if you are good at it, you can actually take some freelance photo shooting jobs, etc, which is a real good money right now. Or if you are into cars, may be you can approach some of the websites to offer your expertise as a freelance reviewer/editor? Or if you like to do online shopping, may be you can help to organize spree and make some pocket money or good deals out of it?

2. Investment
I think it is important to start investing since young, although it may not guarantee monetary return, the training will help you to manage your money in a better way. Parents used to ask their children to save as much as possible in olden days, i think this is not true anymore. To me, saving as much as possible meaning putting your money in the bank only. You don’t get to utilize it, as a result, you don’t get to learn how to make use of money except spend that for necessities.

There are different types of investment, from equity to forex, bonds, insurance, T-bills, etc. You may lose money at the beginning, but the knowledge you gain will help you make better decision in the future. While expecting investment gain, you will be able to manage your money more effectively than your peers.

3. Freelance
If you are an IT programmer or graphic designer, that will be easy for you to get freelance job. I think it is easier to get freelance jobs for IT related projects, as things can be done remotely and after office hour.

4. Start a business
Well, this can be anything under the sun.

At the end of the day, I think knowledge and information is very important. Some people may try very hard to save money on daily basis, for example take a 15-20 min walk instead of spending less than 1 dollar for a bus ride, he may end up a lot poorer than his peers if he does not know how to get better home loan deal and how to refinance it at the right time.

It has been such a long time since my previous post. Enjoyed my life, wasted months, and now is time put things on track again. Tones of stuff in my mind, but too little time to do . . . .

I think one of the very first thing that I need to do is to upgrade some of the blogs, including this one, from the outdated version to the latest version 2.7.1, get a new design, etc.

I’m also exploring joomla, and thinking of implement that for some of the sites, which is a major effort.

I’ll be launching some online campaigns to test some of the current web 2.0 phenomenals.

The list go on and on . . . .

Just created a facebook group for Setia Tropika Residents.

I was inspired by 2 things during last Saturday.

1. I saw a western guy carrying 2 backpacks, each of them is like 70+10 little type. At that moment I told myself that may be he really need such big bags to go around. Soon after him, I saw a lady with a small bag and a baby pram, then followed by their kid. Wow…. so cool to go backpacking with your 5 year old kid right?

2. Watch Kong Fu Panda, very funny, and inspired by this phrase from Master Wu Gui:

Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift, that is why it’s called the present

Again….. reminded me to enjoy my life while I can.

Types of innovation

Technological Innovation
- Remixing old new ways (mountain bikes) or inventing new technologies
Business innovation
- Supply chains (Walmart), processes (Toyota), business models (Dell), brands (Nike)
Product/service innovation
- Products (Skype), marketing (Apple), services (Salesforce.com)
Design innovation
- Look & fell (Apple), emotion & experience design (Idean)
Cultural innovation
- Leadership (Linux), organization (Google), transparency (Seismic)

Eric Schmidt – Google CEO
Virtually everything new seems to come from the 20 percent of their time engineers here are expected to spend on side projects. They certainly don’t come out of the management team.