For those that don’t know already…I watch Glee….
It’s not bad at all. Here is a remade version of a song:
This, along with ‘Dream On’ are my favorite musicals on Glee so far. They’re just SO catchy. It also tells us a bit about how little the actual words in music matter….it’s all about the tone, pace, and music.
Everyone has a limit – the point where you just cannot push further.
That point where you’re tired and exhausted. That single point when you feel as if you have been done enough because you have already learned and practiced continuously to no ends. You’re just not made for this job. You’ve screwed up so badly that you no longer want to try. You have other things to do, this stuff is just boring, you can’t continue. One tired point when everything in the world stopped mattering, and you stop because you feel that nothing else can be done. Nothing should be done.
Stop making excuses.
Post inspired by Jordan:
North and South Korea remain the only divided nation since the divisions caused by the Cold War. Nowadays on the news, we get the feeling that they’re going to launch missiles at one another any second from now….could this be the spark to unification….or total destruction?
Or will the result simply be another Cold War stalemate?
History would suggest to us that a stalemate full of war-like rhetoric is most likely to occur. Afterall, the ‘two’ nations are quite equal in terms of military strength. This is especially true since North Korea has developed a strong arms over the years, investing whatever money and effort they have into developing nuclear weapons. Though South Korea has not invested quite as much into arms, I do believe they hold significant arms traded to them by the Americans. As we have seen from the Cold War example, countries will attack for two reasons: either they have a significant advantage, or they were provoked significantly. This boat sinking thing is merely contributes to the already long held long term grievances that the two sides feel for one another. It will not cause a war to break out. Rhetoric will not either.
Besides, other nations will force these nations not to go into war. If South Korea initiates an attack, it is likely that the UN council and America will object to their actions and deny them weapons, perhaps even imposing economic sanctions at a time of economic hardship. If North Korea initiates, then the UN and America will intervene to save South Korea. It’s a lose-lose situation for both sides to attack.
Rationally, I think there’s no reason for them to fight a war with one another, but it all depends when each side has had enough of the other. How tolerant can the Koreans be of each other’s arrogance and ignorance? Only time will tell.
Quite interesting…I found this all on a note that my friend was tagged in.
“A young and pretty lady posted this on a popular forum:
Title: What should I do to marry a rich guy?
I’m going to be honest of what I’m going to say here. I’m 25 this year. I’m very pretty, have style and good taste. I wish to marry a guy with $500k annual salary or above. You might say that I’m greedy, but an annual salary of $1M is considered only as middle class in New York . My requirement is not high. Is there anyone in this forum who has an income of $500k annual salary? Are you all married? I wanted to ask: what should I do to marry rich persons like you? Among those I’ve dated, the richest is $250k annual income, and it seems that this is my upper limit. If someone is going to move into high cost residential area on the west of New York CityGarden(? ), $250k annual income is not enough.
1) Where do most rich bachelors hang out? (Please list down the names and addresses of bars, restaurant, gym)
2) Which age group should I target?
3) Why most wives of the riches is only average-looking? I’ve met a few girls who doesn’t have looks & are not interesting, but they are able to marry rich guys
4) How do you decide who can be your wife, & who can only be your girlfriend? (my target now is to get married)
Here’s the reply of a JP Morgan investment banker
I have read your post with great interest. Guess there are lots of girls out there who have similar questions like yours. Please allow me to analyse your situation as a professional investor. My annual income is more than $500k, which meets your requirement, so I hope everyone believes that I’m not wasting time here. From the standpoint of a business person, it is a bad decision to marry you. The answer is very simple, so let me explain. Put the details aside, what you’re trying to do is an exchange of “beauty” and “money”: Person A provides beauty, and Person B pays for it, fair and square. However, there’s a deadly problem here, your beauty will fade, but my money will not be gone without any good reason. The fact is, my income might increase from year to year, but you can’t be prettier year after year. Hence from the viewpoint of economics, I am an appreciation asset, and you are a depreciation asset. It’s not just normal depreciation, but exponential depreciation. If that is your only asset, your value will be much worried 10 years later.
By the terms we use in Wall Street, every trading has a position, dating with you is also a “trading position”. If the trade value dropped we will sell it and it is not a good idea to keep it for long term – same goes with the marriage that you wanted. It might be cruel to say this, but in order to make a wiser decision any assets with great depreciation value will be sold or “leased”. Anyone with over $500k annual income is not a fool; we would only date you, but will not marry you. I would advice that you forget looking for any clues to marry a rich guy. And by the way, you could make yourself to become a rich person with $500k annual income. This has better chance than finding a rich fool.
Hope this reply helps.
CEO”
Funny how this works out. Never rely on looks…it never lasts in the long run.
I never knew the video was this sad…
First a minor song which got stuck to my head after hearing it from Glee.
Now for the actual post…
Technology is the wave nowadays. In the forefront of it all, we see two main competitors: Google and Apple. We’ve had a lot of posts about Apple before, so let’s focus a bit more on Google in the time being. We have all heard about Google’s ‘creative’ environment and their natural lure for innovative employees. But what does all of that mean? And most importantly, what can we learn from the Google model?
Brin and Page? Remember those two Standford Phds who started it all? Their company has one of the most relaxed work environments ever. You have free snack bars, a gym, volley ball courts; you name it. Cafeteria food is SO delicious that even Yahoo employees sneak over to eat there! (TechCrunch is the magazine which spread this rumor) They even provide dental, health, and psychiatric professionals to help employees DURING work. ON TOP OF ALL THIS you get free time (which is paid for, and is 20% of your overall work time) to think about innovative ideas for technological change. So tell me…doesn’t this sound like a dream place to work at? Leisure activities, good food, excellent physical care, and also paid creativity. It has been reported that Google receives around 100 applicants per day. That means they get to pick some of the best and finest talent out there to work for them!
Now, I’m not trying to sell Google out to you guys. Bear with me, and look at the results. Google’s employees are motivated. They are VERY motivated. Around 1000 of Google’s employees have become millionaires through Google’s stocks. BUT THEY DIDN’T STOP WORKING THERE. They continued and continued, striving to better the company, working extremely hard for the company. Porter would say here that switching costs are high for employees. Maslow would refer to how each employee has found all five of the pyramid blocks being fulfilled by Google. I would say that Google’s culture is very deeply rooted and one that employee’s cannot and do not want to detach themselves from. The strategic alignment of employees and the company’s vision of organizing the world’s information is so highly successful. Let’s look at some visual results:
Google’s very own mobile phone:
Google’s latest internet television:
You can see them slowly dominating the information technology sector. Soon everything you see and the information you want to access will be Google dominated!
So let’s just pause.
What happened? How did they suddenly grow?
Well, the two Standford Phds quickly realized in the 1990s that information was the wave of the future. And that’s where their business opportunity seizing skill comes into play. They designed an algorithm for fun, made it faster than other search engines, and wham! Google is the most well known search engine there is now.
To maintain their growth, they relied on the powers of their employees, which enjoy seeing the company expand. They feel that their work is THEIR work. They want to do things to make the company strive. It’s an emotional stimulus which drives them more than anything. The culture has maintained Google’s growth over the years.
So what next? I guess my guess is that Google will continue expanding into different markets and finding out new ways to organize information. But we never know what those creative guys are up to there…
How did anyone think of that? Seriously, genius.
Women. Wives.
What runs in your mind when I mention these words?
Quite embarrassingly, even though I know how many new rights women have now, I still imagine women to be the typical housewives who wash and look after the children at home. Sure, there are those ‘strong’, rich women out there, but I’ve noted that it’s somewhat difficult for them to find a love of their life (assuming that men are turned off by the thought of a ‘strong’ woman, and might merely be with the woman for the money).
So even though women have rights and freedom and everything, why is it they are still considered to be lower than men in society? This problem is especially prominent in Asian societies, and it’s a problem that even women choose to ignore. ‘Successful’ women find a man to settle down with; they’re fine with no work – it’s all good.
Betty Friedan (one of my newfound heroes) labelled this invisible problem ‘The Problem Which Had No Name’.
In essence, many women are okay with living as a housewife. But for those that aren’t…well, it’s either housewife, or no sex life. What about men? We happen to have the luxury of both.
Yes, it can be argued that biologically speaking, it’s more convenient for women to give up their jobs. Afterall, they’re the ones carrying the baby, so they might as well carry them forever. But that’s the thing…not only does the carrying process not last forever, but why is it assumed that they should be the ones carrying the baby until it becomes old enough to take care of itself. Once the baby gets old…then what? What do women do then? Have another baby? It’s absurd. They’ve given up their ambitions and passions, with their sacrifice being lifelong. How hire-able is the woman after she’s in her 40s, and has no relevant job experience other than household maintenance? It’s a problem, and a huge one at it too…
If all women think like that, then wouldn’t we lack babies? There’s no reason why the sacrifice is one way. I honestly see no reason. Traditionalists, feel free to flame me, but I despise such unfair beliefs. It serves no justice to think in such a limited way. It’s a problem…an inconvenient complication in something that should otherwise be very simple. But that should not stop us…us as humane beings that is.
During a recent beach BBQ, a classmate of mine (Jeff Fong) said something pretty interesting about superheroes. It went along the lines of:
“Don’t you think Iron Man and Batman are roughly the same? Think about it – both rich guys with super-cool gadgets but no superhuman abilities. Using force to fight evil…same concepts aren’t they?”
Of course, being a huge Batman fan, I immediately refused to believe the claim. But now, upon reflection, perhaps Jeff’s right.
Honestly…same type of superhero aren’t they? Tells us something about our society…we love those who are rich and justice-orientated. They’re the current wave of heroes.
Some old school, not-so-popular, superheroes include:
Yep, those with ACTUAL powers.
Then again, there are the bad guy heroes….
There superheroes, one way or the other, have something similar – they’re forced into their roles through the might of destiny. With great power comes responsibility…right?
So what’s next? What other superhero will we encounter in the near future? I actually wonder what would happen if the protagonist becomes a henchman of a supervillain…like in the Joker comic for example. It’d be pretty interesting….you’d have a monologue guy like in Matt Damon’s ‘The Observer’, and then that one petty thief will share his experiences of the joker with you. Of course he will be given emotional depth – with his background and everything explained, but the main focus would be why he’s working for the joker, and how the joker operates – and how the batman comes and saves the day FROM A VILLAIN’S perspective.
Why not just have the supervillain become the protagonist? Well, I think consumers like me are generally more interested in a mysterious, unpredictable villain. But that’s just my take. We also want the protagonist to win (we hate greek tragedies). But it’d also be very interesting if someone made a movie with the Joker as the protagonist. He’d have to be locked up in the end by Batman, but in the process of him working…maybe we’ll start rooting for the Joker since he’s the protagonist. The possibilities are endless when we shift the perspective away from the superhero himself.
Props to anyone who can recall the song which the title of this blog post is a lyric within.
I can hardly remember the time when I first opened my eyes. I wish I did. I want to remember when I started being able to remember, just so I can hold on to every single piece, and maybe linger on a while longer in the past 🙂
We may be future looking animals, but we can’t don’t that if we don’t look back once in a while. So before I move ahead to my 20th birthday, which is very soon, I want to take some time to really look through the things I learned.
“All the right friends in all the right places…”
What does it mean? Before I explain, it seems fitting that you know a bit more about me first. I wouldn’t describe myself to be antisocial, but I am definitely more introverted than extroverted. Being an introvert, by definition, means that I am naturally shy of people. But what I was even more shy of was travelling. I think I told a few people before my theory of travelling – every place was the same: same malls, same mcdonalds, same whatever. There’s not much difference, in my opinion. Some considered me weird, or simply out of my mind. Such people can feel safe to start talking to me again, because I have officially changed my stance! The reason? It all boils down to the people.
Around 2 weeks ago, I was called for to my Club meeting. It was an important meeting, since we were discussing new ideas and voting for our club slogan. On the very same day of my meeting was my Political Science exam. I attended the meeting, with questions raised such as “WHY ARE YOU HERE?” or appreciative statements like “Thank you so much for being here!” I think these examples, by themselves, indicate how much people forget the fundamental of life – people essentially live for people. Why do we achieve grades? Why do we achieve? We want to build families, want to repay parents, want to communicate our achievements to others – we achieve for the people we live around. Insofar as I’m concerned, grades merely indirectly communicate your abilities to others, so why forego an opportunity for a simple percentage boost when you can directly communicate your abilities through simple interaction? Some might be taken aback, and say that we should ‘live for ourselves’. In a way, I am. I am living for myself, by living for others. Through affiliation, I am finding my greatest fulfillments – more than any achievement can bring me. The taste of satisfaction may last at most a week, but the development of true friendship will last you your entire lifetime. People – this should always be the priority, no matter what.
People are probably the most interesting things in the world. Everybody has something different about them, and it is fun to be open minded about the ways different people act differently. This is why I now wish to travel. I want to see more, experience more – the more being the people I meet and the experiences I have with them. Everything in this life is unpredictable, and the more cultures you go through, the more unpredictability you shall experience.
So now, returning to the song lyrics – what does it actually mean to have all the right friends in all the right places? The fact is, every single place, and every single person, is ‘right’. As cheesy as this may sound – there is no such thing as a ‘wrong’ place or friend. The only wrong place, could be a place without a single person – here I will accept the argument that such is a wrong place. But for the sake of sustaining my argument, I will reject such a place to be considered a place 😉 I define place as somewhere with people! (philosophical/nerdy much?) Anyhow! Be it Hong Kong or Vancouver, we eventually love the land because of the people that inhabit the area. Such a feeling cannot be replicated by any other sort of activity.
How did I come to realize all this? Just take a look back to your memories? What do you see? Do you see yourself sitting down cramming in science notes for your final exam? No! You remember the people who have ultimately experienced a true connection with you. You remember the stupid jokes, the lame disses, the risky things you’ve done. You might remember the first day you met, and how you blew up a 7 Eleven Microwave together, or played Big Two together – laughing insanely for the most retarded reasons. You remember those times you sat at Cafe De Coral, chatting about nothing but values and ideas. What about those in UBC? Nerding out at Totem Park on a Friday evening. Nothing creates friendship like that :)True connections will last forever, as they shall for me.
Such connections can only be created if you give people what they need…not what they want. Think about that.
I guess that’s the type of person I am – more people-orientated than I could have imagined, or more than I can deny. Twenty years have gone so fast with you. I think somewhere along my life I forgot, or didn’t understand how significant they were to me. But now I know; I really do. They say I have a good memory, but really, the years could not have been memorable at all if not for you guys every step of the way. As for the years ahead, “這一次….我陪妳看到未來.”
Have you ever had the feeling that you’re just arguing for the sake of arguing? You don’t really know what you actually believe in, but you’re defending your point just because such a point somehow came out of your mouth spontaneously. It’s not that you thought of it, the words just somehow appeared, and you find yourself having to defend those words.
That’s almost what I do everyday =_= I say things without really processing, and find some way to defend my point. Interestingly, I come off as a person who thinks a lot when this happens.
