What is this?

My bosom buddy just returned to London today after having visited for 20 days, and returning home alone felt really odd/ empty. There were, however, 2 'surprises' outside my door that almost spiced things up a little:

I recognized the first one - 18 pounds of commitment, pain and hopefully, reward.

But I didn't recognize the 2nd one: which I walked by unknowingly and shocked the life out of me. It seemed pretty gentle though (and didn't seem to mind me snapping flashing photos of it) Does anybody know what this animal is?? It's at times like this that I wished Google would develop some form of photo identification search :)

On an aside note, I just got the Snow Leopard OS installed onto my macbook and am pleasantly surprised to see that it has freed up almost 8GB of space with a smaller OS footprint! Cool cool... :)

Rising to the level of incompetence

The Peter Principle... hm, very interesting, never heard of this one. But the idea of humans rising to their level of incompetence actually has some truth in it.

Sept 12 - I'm ONE in the Land of Dreams!

When I first took up my current job, I took it to lose myself, and then, to find myself. To open my heart and eyes and learn more about the world than newspapers and packed trips can accommodate. We need sometimes, to escape into open solitude, into the unknowing, run into hazards - in order to sharpen the edge of life, to taste hardship and shake up our complacencies. I like that people cannot put a name or a tag to me, and have the opportunity to come into contact with more essential parts of myself.

Part of the enjoyment comes in finding fun in ordinary things, and truly discovering - not in seeing new places but in seeing with new eyes. The past year has taught me not to get answers, but to ask better questions. It has given me the chance to be transnational - able to adapt anywhere, used to being outsiders everywhere and deposited in the midst of terror and wonder. The most valuable Pacifics we explore will always be the vast expanses within us. The year past has brought me to a heightened state of awareness, in which I am hopefully more mindful, receptive, undimmed by familiarity and ready to transformed.

The freedom and joy of traveling in the midst of work has been phenomenal. If a diploma can famously be a passport to a journey through hard realism, a passport can be a diploma for a crash course in cultural relativism. As what Santayana said, "There is wisdom in turning as often as possible from the familiar to the unfamiliar; it keeps the mind nimble; it kills prejudice, and it fosters humour." I know I have evolved to be a better person with a stronger character yet a lighter heart in the past year in the USA. I hope to keep this going - even when I eventually, hopefully get back home. :)

On an aside note, my sister is here, along with Clone! :p We celebrated their visit, along with my 1 year in the USA (which was just purely coincidental) with an evening at the HOLLYWOOD BOWL. I love the bowl! Tonight's concert had guest star Bebel Gilberto (one of my fave. Bossa Nova singers), alongside the LA Philharmonic Orchestra and eye-popping Samba dancers. It truly went beyond what I expected, with even a spectacular firework finale as part of the concert "Firework Finale - Blame it on Rio"!!! What good fun, considering we're going to Brazil - Rio in a month's time! Talk about the little things in life that come so nicely together.. ^_^ (Paiseh, meant to edit the video but no time for iMovie now, so pardon my crazy cheers...u got to see the finale at the end..the fireworks are REALLY amazing!)

The power of Focus & Energy

Buddy & Xiaomeimei left today. I'm missing them already. So much to do, so little time, so many distractions, all rolled up in a period of bad/tight timing. I need to focus so badly. A holiday should be a rather simple affair; it can be so draining when it ends up being a list of justifications and plenty of moving parts. Speaking of which, I read this article in the Harvard Business Review on "Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time" which I thought was pretty interesting.

The core problem with working longer hours is that time is a finite resource. Energy is a different story. Defined in physics as the capacity to work, energy comes from four main wellsprings in human beings: the body, emotions, mind, and spirit. In each, energy can be systematically expanded and regularly renewed by establishing specific behaviors that are intentionally practiced and precisely scheduled, with the goal of making them unconscious and automatic. I was reminded of a time in the past when I experienced how interacting with someone really drained the energy out of me even though our conversation hardly lasted 5 minutes. It was so unbelievable, I made it a point to reflect on that. So I really believe in this, we have to learn to manage our energy, not our time. :)

On an aside note, I've been appreciating how God creates opportunities for us in every day life. The way in which things we think are less than ideal do work out beautifully fine like a clockwork mechanism in His time. Really amazing when we get to reflect upon His blessings in retrospect and go "Uh-huh! NOW I know why it happened!" :p

Being an Entrepreneur

Lots of entrepreneurial ideas brewing in my mind lately - I wished so much I could be back home in Asia to make things happen. Hopefully I'll get to be back come Dec/ Jan :p Really liked the part: "Discover what is needed that you believe in with all your heart" ... "Earn enough for your need but not your greed..."

Funny!

Mgmm - this is why I am (was) laughing! I hope you feel better soon! :p Love you! Gmail is really cool...we both tried gmail google chat with video for the 1st time and boy, don't we love google? :) [I love the 2nd photo- check out the funny panty face!]

Just confirmed that I will be in New York, Chicago, Connecticut etc. next month for several business trips...and plan to take the weekends to visit Niagara Falls and Toronto!! - hope that works out!! And hopefully a vacation to Brazil too! :)