Infocomm Industry Forum

I'm usually not the kind of person who goes around attending seminars and forums, but these two days I've had them back to back!

The first was the Infocomm Industry Forum 2010. Informative, inspiring, and led by high-powered executives and entrepreneurs full of vibe! They presented on the hottest ICT trends, on cloud computing, analytics, mobile techs... all poised to evolve the way we do business, and even the way we live.

I especially liked the last two presentations, about Globe Forum, an ideas and capital marketplace for environmental enterprise, and Grow VC, that promotes the system of communal investment, i.e. growing a VC from the ground up. I grabbed the opportunity after the forum to talk to Mr Jouko, a long-time entrepreneur, investor and the founder of Grow VC. It was inspiring to see someone who believes in a vision and great ideas, especially at his level of multi-million startups!

At the same time, I also talked to Mr Johan of Globe Forum, and.. it was not so inspiring. I asked about his personal motivation (besides being a hero to his daughter!), but instead of hearing about the importance of environmentalism, he exhorted about how it was a truly profitable idea, by taking a stake in multiple startups. Sounds like a VC masked up by lofty ideals.

Of course firms must be profitable. But in which sense? Money? Sure, money is a universal medium of value. But what if this value is not recognized in the monetary sense? Just as housewives and mothers receive no banker's pay, so do many not-for-profits toil away at solving the needs and problems that society falls short in today. How about giving them a pat on the back and some healthy financing, eh?

I'm sure there are so many worthy startups out there that can earn huge profits. With minimal costs they can maximize their revenue: millions worth of peace, billions in conserving the environment for the future, and trillions of happiness for many, many people in the world. Do we really have to leave it to people who get realllllyyyy rich before they can give away half their fortunes to charity and NPOs? (Nice initiative btw, Bill!)

Anyway, I'll been contacting Mr Jouko soon, and hopefully get to engage him on these issues.

Fishin' in Sibu

Back from the Kelong fishing trip in Sibu, Malaysia. And lovin' it. :)

I haven't felt so refreshed for a long time... Sitting on a stool, rod in hand, hook in the waters, the vast expanse of blue skies and white clouds immersing me in peace and serenity. The horizons drew me in, and the hours passed like minutes. Here was a great getaway, replete with a overflowing atmosphere of calm that enabled us to talk and share freely and have fun. These were the halcyon days...

It's not the fishing, but the company that matters. I feared at first that i wouldn't be able to make friends there, but it was just so easy to get to meet and know so many new people whom i've never seen before!

There were the 'villagers' and Exco who worked hard to make the event a success... Jame, Xinyi, Sophia, Jason, Wei Qiang, etc. There were the 'mahjong khaki' that i played with, including Felix, Huang Hui and Wei Kang from German class :) There were the random peeps i've met, either queuing for the toilet, helping me with my line, or just plain chatting as we fished, like Jia Long. And of course, the girls whom i'd spent most time with, fishing, playing cards and had meals with... Xinru, GC, Carol and Yeexian! It feels refreshing to know more people for a change, and though it were just two days and a night, i had open, interesting conversations with a lot of different personalities.

Yet another big catch :p

We fished as much as we liked, with squid as bait, and easily caught a myriad of fishes. From a white one that made kissing sounds as it spat water at us, to a colorful variety that had spiny fins along its back. At first it was fun putting them in the pail, like a record-keeping book; but later when they started suffocating, we could only release them back to the sea. And make no mistake, fishing is cruel, really cruel! I regret the times i had to pull out my hook from the fish's eyes or mouth, leaving them bleeding! In the end, i stopped fishing the second day.

We ate as much as we could, too. There was good seafood, and i enjoyed the restaurant-style yet communal meals. The locals rang the bell to start the meal, and we streamed in like schoolchildren to get our ricebowls and sit at random tables, each with full five courses set out tantalizingly. There was even a supper BBQ; you just had to feel satiated the whole day and night.

I liked to wander around and talk to people. The kelong was an open-concept, mammoth wooden platform with rod holders all around the perimeter. In the day we shuffled around like rabbits, looking for new spots to hopefully dig out something. At night we waited patiently for the squids at the bottom of the sea to bite, which rarely did. When we got sick of it, we played mahjong, chatted, got drunk (not me!)

It was all a good, wholesome weekend :) Hopefully next year, when i come back from Germany, i'll be able to go for it again. Hurrah for retired uni. life! It's really great to take a leisurely pace of life to things, for a change.

Life must be so full of all these new and interesting experiences, waiting for us to explore and discover :)

Doldrums

In the doldrums now. Perhaps there's just so much uncertainty in my life now, that it gets to the point where it's terribly, miserably upsetting. I still don't know what i want to do with my life. I can't find an internship anywhere outside Singapore (though i haven't tried Kazakhstan). And, now, after stepping down from umpteen things in my past two years of hall and school, i can't find something new to be passionate about.


I did try. I joined the Anglers' Club, and it was fun going down to Pasir Ris pond and catching that monster of a fish. I'll be going to Sibu this Sat too, to a kelong floating in the sea half an hour off the Malaysian coast. Hopefully it'll be exciting enough to lift my mood.

I joined the NBS Exchange Club, but after the first event, we got caught up in some bamboozling red-tape stuff and that was that, till the next event at the end of the month. And i'm in the German Society, which has yet to notify me of anything.

To sum it up, my CCA life has been grinding to a halt now. Guess i've been so used to the hectic workload of being a leader at the top, that now that i've stepped down, to relax and retire as an ordinary member, it bores me. I am at a complete loss of what to do when i'm free. Even now, i am doing extra work on my biz. project, because it occupies me for the moment. Keeps me from thinking too much.

To top up the depressive moods, i had been watching '1 Litre of Tears' the past week. And it made me tear almost every single episode. The original story is sad enough, but the drama's addition of the love element really ups the ante far too much.

The most touching scenes were, to me, those of Aya and Haruto... it's like having an infinitely bright and beautiful scenery that you can but peek through a window. It was so deeply poignant when Aya tells him not to see her again... because she couldn't bear being reminded of the happiness that she 'could have' with him. A tragic love story that did not begin or end, but only simmered in bittersweet sorrow in each other's hearts.

I will always remember this serial for being so different from the usual riffraff. This is a serial not made for entertainment, but for inspiration. Not made to sell, but made to touch. This is a love story you'll dream about vividly at night. Perhaps just as Aya does.