Alvin Lai

This just tickles me like there’s no tomorrow :D

For the non techies, the mother in the comic actually gave her son a name that deleted the school’s database of students through a method called SQL Injection, so cool! :D

Aren’t you tired of rummaging through drawers of stuff, finding things that you have no immediate need for but feel maybe would be useful sometime down the road?

I sure have.

From old physics textbooks that I might need to refer, perfectly cute looking empty containers that would make potentially nice containers for presents to downright ridiculous spare pen caps just in case I were to lose the one on my current pen (Yes, looking back it was plain silly).

Other than keeping things, there are other ways to get stuff like impulse bargain purchases to storing something you don’t use because it’s ‘too good’, like ‘good china’.

Finally, there is a logical reason to this seemingly absurd behavior.

One of my favourite essayists Paul Graham wrote about accumulating stuff and how it affects you and I today in several different ways:

1. Wastes time
2. Saps your energy
3. Costs you money
4. Chains you mentally

We overvalue stuff

Many things have gotten a lot cheaper, with advances in technology and mass production by the Chinese and Indian powerhouses. However our attitudes toward stuff have not adjusted correspondingly, thus we overvalue stuff.

Paul argues that this mentality affects the poor and I kinda concur.

When I first came to America on a budget with 13 other people, everyone had one mission – to get as much stuff free or at a garage sale bargain from Craigs List or from our seniors.

Fair enough, we saved a lot on the essentials like tables, mattresses, table lamps, and fans. However our garage soon filled up with stuff we got free which nobody really used, but thought would be useful in the near future. When our seniors had to vacate their apartments to return to Singapore, we saw all kinds of stuff being relocated to our almost full garage, for our batch to pass down to our juniors. Believe me, there were hardly any climbing space inside. When our juniors came to scavenge, I saw the same cycle happening :)

Having too much stuff around you is stressful

For the first time after getting rid of a whole lot of dreadful stuff in my room, I feel real peace and serenity in my own room to get stuff done … and blog!

Paul attempts to explain why:

I think humans constantly scan their environment to build a mental model of what’s around them. And the harder a scene is to parse, the less energy you have left for conscious thoughts. A cluttered room is literally exhausting.

Now I realise why my mom nags at me so much back in Singapore to get rid of stuff in my room – she finds it tiring and depressing with little room for people in a room full of stuff! My mom will be so pleased when I get back, finally she’ll be authorized to dump a whole lot of junk haha..

Is this purchase going to make my life noticeably better?

With all the fantastic bargain sites like Slick Deals, 1SaleADay, Woot within shipping reach here, it’s really tough resisting impulse buys. Likewise other retailers who have spent years figuring how to make the experience of buying stuff so pleasant that “shopping” becomes entertainment, or shopping therapy, stress relief, as my dear friend Trina would say :)

A few helpful basic guidelines from Paul to rational purchases:

1. Would I use it constantly?
2. Is it JUST something nice?
3. Worse, a mere bargain?

Food Wastage

Check out this carton containing 6 pint baskets of strawberries Colin and I bought for a mere $8 by the road side on our journey to Los Angeles. It was so fresh with a lip smacking tinge of sweetness that we had strawberry for lunch, a dinner side and supper :)

Maybe not as relevant to stuff in general, but I’d like to include the topic of food due to the similarities of not wasting food to hoarding stuff.

I’m not sure if it’s an Chinese or Asian thing, but not coming from an extremely well-to-do family might have a part to play in this.

I stuff myself because I feel guilty wasting food.

Asian kids might recall their parents chiding them not to waste food with the African kids got no food guilt trip or reincarnation believing grandmas warning us about being reincarnated into a poor desperate starved person (or animal) due to sinful food wastage in the current life.

As a result, I grew up with the habit of cleaning my plate, often stuffing myself to discomfort because of this guilt.

It’s silly, but not without a logical explanation.

Kids my time have little pocket money, and we generally relied on our parents for food. Eating out felt comparatively expensive back then.

As my allowance increased with age and now finally earning my own keep, coupled with the food wastage guilt trip, this mentality has not quite adjusted yet.

To make things worse, American food portions are huge, often twice the size and cost almost twice as much as compared to Singapore dollars.

As a result I put on a whole lot of weight in the first few months I came to California. Now that I’ve kinda settled down, I’ve been jogging almost everyday (weather’s real good here!)

Wow!

It’s great having a peace of mind again and being able to blog effectively. The related thought on food wastage came to me spontaneously as I was finishing off the point about “Is this purchase going to make my life noticeably better?”, isn’t it amazing? Blogging about a topic and having relevant thoughts just appearing out of nowhere?

Superfabulous! :)

Finally, after wading through tons of work and distractions, I found some time to post this up. Enjoy!

Uncertainty was abound during the first week, when we arrived without knowing about anything. But it was also the period where everyone learnt the most about themselves. A wonderful experience!

Takeoff from Changi Airport

Transit in Narita Airport

2 hour wait, with Kaiwei looking funny :)

Esther and Quek

Kaiwei and I were bored so we went exploring.. and found a Akihabara store!

that sells delicious looking cuttlefish!

and some kinda small fish.

Finally, off to America!

Food-fare on board Northwest Airlines.

Some nice looking American bridge

Reach liao woo!

Breath taking scenery outside San Francisco airport

More breath taking scenery outside San Francisco airport

Waiting for seniors to pick us up. Still remember Devika coming to pick me up wearing her act-seh sunglasses :)

What's my first meal in America? In and out burgers!

The burger you guys saw in the previous blog post

Fries done animal style!

Seniors kindly put us (Bernard and I) up at their place, at Bernado's.

Bernardo's damn hip la.

As public transport is virtually non-existent here in Sunnyvale California, the first batch rented a Pontiac — USD$400 for a week man!

Weather's great, nice and cool with interest flora and fauna to see..

Beautiful leaves, aren't they?

The Vine's household, who put up the rest. Wonder what Bernard is really clutching. :)

Driving around in the rented Pontiac

Vine's mini eco-system in a rice-cooker..

David then brought us around in San Francisco..

The car got hyperdrive mode one u know.

You never know how it feels like in hyperspace.

Happy that we came out alive, 70MPH hyperspace haha.

Saw Gap!

The night streets of SF.

Try parking man.

Can eat happy liao :D

Shuyang no look tea pouring

Here comes the food. Jellyfish!

Crab! But still no match for my Dad's :D

The walnut prawns are seriously good.

Pork, I think..

A wholesome spread!

Awesome fish..

I couldn't resist a picture with this steep a car park.

We then drove up to Twin peaks and savored the stupendous scenery..

I think many would be pretty suprised when I mention of meeting my primary school classmates for BBQ. It's like who keeps in touch with theirs?

I'm thankful to meet them after parting ways for more than a decade since the Primary School Leaving Examinations (PSLE). There's also this warm fuzzy feeling when you try to piece names to faces and recall class seating positions.

We also had lots of fun trying to compile the full name list of our P6 class, updating each other about whereabouts and sharing nostalgic experiences.

The BBQ at Pasir Ris Park pit 36 was nice. After CiBao and I set us up the fire (I couldn't resist the set us up the bomb pun haha), the ladies wanted to grill the crab sticks.

The only problem was, the crab sticks would fray above the open fire and we didn't buy aluminum foil. We came up with the idea of finishing the Otaks (yummy spicy flavored fish slabs pre grilled in banana leaves) and using the banana leaves as placeholders:

It was an interesting sight.

The fire was glowing a nice amber and the food done in an utmost surprisingly delectable manner, with unbelievable great tasting chicken wings seasoned with honey garlic BBQ sauce at the last minute.

The fish balls were heartwarmingly tangy too.

XiaoJing couldn't really bear to eat some of the food after a discussion of cruel slaughter methods, and I was chided for saying "hey more body parts, oops wings!" haha..

YanShan was really capable in keeping the place spick and span and was unbeatable with the finances.

ChuanYun.. A new face and a new name for me today! "Pass Transport", a nice mnemonic!

Jihua came shortly after and man has he changed. Looking damn fit sia!

After the BBQ, Jihua drove us (Yes all 6 of us, including himself) to White Sands for a drink at Macdonalds.

Just as we were leaving, a Macdonald's auntie came to help clear our drinks.

The next moment she came up to ask us: "Did you know that Pasir Ris starts the day half an hour later than the rest of Singapore?" all that in perfect mandarin.

She said that during her time, the government wanted Pasir Ris to have the same time as the rest of Singapore, for purposes of time synchronized stock exchange with the Malaysian stock market, understandably for economic reasons.

"But is this good for the people?", she questions, throwing us aback.

Ah, the opposition, I thought to myself.

She goes on to explain that its not healthy to wake up prematurely, then going on to the situation of school children (in Pasir Ris) waking up extra early, due to the time discrepancy.

In a nice transition, she mentions herself as a teacher back then fearfully teaching the son of a rich indian man, whose name wasn't officially enrolled, under instruction of the principal.

She relates how she gave extra lessons to her EM3 students back then, helping them, only to be faced with disagreement from her superiors.

Rather than increasing the salary of teaching staff for some reason I forgot, she felt that the education system should focus on solving problems associated with the EM3 system.

Battling with her conscience, she quit the teaching profession that pays a monthly $3000 for a research assistant job at NUS that pays $700, a noble sacrifice for aspirations, I think, and finally ending up at Macdonalds for $400 a month.

Was she ranting? Maybe. But it was a refreshing take on things, interesting nonetheless.

Kena chided for being too patient with her by the rest later.

A splendid evening it is :)

What's the trivial difference, you might ask.

I've been reading Ian Ybarra's blog, for quite some time now and his posts are usually chockful of lime fresh goodness that strike you in your tracks pondering self reflection.

This one's particularly good, and he summarises it darn well:

1. You've got to have a dream. When you lose your dreams, you die.

2. We have so many people walking around who are dead and don't even know it!

3. Have no regrets. The elderly usually don't have regrets for what we did, but rather for things we did not do. The only people who fear death are those with regrets.

The original text is based off a chain letter and here's an excerpt, without the forward to 20 other people or God will hate you kinda thing.

---

The first day of school our professor challenged us to get to know someone we didn't already know. I stood up to look around when a gentle hand touched my shoulder. I turned around to find a wrinkled, little old lady beaming up at me with a smile that lit up her entire being.

She said, "Hi handsome. My name is Rose. I'm eighty-seven years old. Can I give you a hug?" I laughed and enthusiastically responded, "Of course you may!" and she gave me a giant squeeze. "Why are you in college at such a young, innocent age?" I asked.

She jokingly replied, "I'm here to meet a rich husband, get married, and have a couple of kids..." "No seriously," I asked. I was curious what may have motivated her to be taking on this challenge at her age.

"I always dreamed of having a college education and now I'm getting one!" she told me. After class we walked to the student union building and shared a chocolate milkshake We became instant friends. Every day for the next three months we would leave class together and talk nonstop. I was always mesmerized listening to this "time machine" as she shared her wisdom and experience with me. Over the course of the year, Rose became a campus icon and she easily made friends wherever she went. She loved to dress up and she reveled in the attention bestowed upon her from the other students. She was living it up.

At the end of the semester we invited Rose to speak at our football banquet. I'll never forget what she taught us. She was introduced and stepped up to the podium. As she began to deliver her prepared speech, she dropped her three by five cards on the floor. Frustrated and a little embarrassed she leaned into the microphone and simply said, "I'm sorry I'm so jittery. I gave up beer for Lent and this whiskey is killing me! I'll never get my speech back in order so let me just tell you what I know." As we laughed she cleared her throat and began, "We do not stop playing because we are old; we grow old because we stop playing. There are only four secrets to staying young, being happy, and achieving success.

(1) You have to laugh and find humor every day.

(2) You've got to have a dream. When you lose your dreams, you die. We have so many people walking around who are dead and don't even know it!

(3) There is a huge difference between growing older and growing up. If you are nineteen years old and lie in bed for one full year and don't do one productive thing, you will turn twenty years old. If I am eighty-seven years old and stay in bed for a year and never do anything I will turn eighty-eight. Anybody can grow older. That doesn't take any talent or ability. The idea is to grow up by always finding opportunity in change.

(4) Have no regrets. The elderly usually don't have regrets for what we did, but rather for things we did not do. The only people who fear death are those with regrets."

She concluded her speech by courageously singing "The Rose." She challenged each of us to study the lyrics and live them out in our daily lives. At the year's end Rose finished the college degree she had begun all those years ago. One week after graduation Rose died peacefully in her sleep. Over two thousand college students attended her funeral in tribute to the wonderful woman who taught by example that it's never too late to be all you can possibly be.

You can check out the original post here

The show producer called.

After chatting for a while, I found out that the show needed someone who had alternative debatable views on stuff like job hopping.

I personally feel that job hopping's fine, as long as you have valid reasons like the new job offers more opportunities (not more leave, pay) and opens up more doors to help you develop what you love to do and not reasons like oh the other job's less tough. Mildly debatable still, but I guess someone more controversial would better fit the shoes to run the show, initiate a debate and conclude with a lesson learnt.

She asked if I were free on Saturdays for possible future shows too ahh.. :)

All's well! It was really a moment in time when I seriously considered brushing up my mandarin!

Life's really unpredictable, with unimaginable stuff thrown at you, catching you unaware. For me it was potentially appearing on a Chinese TV show! Man! The Irony! Haha!

What a night!

Got an sms from a friend who has a friend looking for someone to go on TV to talk about expectations of job seekers from the perspectives of young adults.

Just the topic that I'm passionate about!

Well the only catch is.. its on Channel U! A mandarin channel!

Oh man! Friends who know me all say I can't speak Mandarin for nuts and have all given up.

I prayed about it.

My friend arranged for her friend to give me a call to check me out.

Received a phone call from her and after chatting for about what seemed like 45 minutes (I was amazed at how God enables) in mandarin (unbelievable!), she told me I'm in!

Far East Plaza, this saturday, 12 August at 12pm.

Miraculous!

Check out Jon Steward's take on net neutrality.

This one's contributed by Steve.

US E-Commerce Senator describing the internet not as a dump truck but as a series of tubes?

Freaking funny!

He never fails to ease multitudes of guffaws from me :D

Here's a google video of Microsoft demoing their new voice recognition software:

Watch it here

Pretty funny, when "mom" becomes "aunt", and the action of "select all" becomes "double the killer delete select all".

Hilarious! Enjoy :)

On my way back home, I've stumbled on the podcast of Steve Job's commencement address at Stanford university while scanning through for a song.

For the 15 minutes waiting for the bus, I went through his speech again and I thought it would be useful for me to jot down the salient points of his inspiring speech.

Here's it. I hope to make a difference like what Steve has done with his life and I believe you can if you'd like to, too.

1. Connecting the dots

   • Follow curiosity and intuition
   • Find out what's facinating, beautiful and subtle
     • Might not have any direct practical application
   • Impossible to connect the dots forward
     • Believe that God has a way for you
     • Trust in something, believing that the dots will connect down
       • the road, will give you the confidence to follow your heart
         • even if it leads you off the well worn path
           • that will make all the difference

2. Love and Loss

   • Still love what I do. Rejected but still in love. Start over.
   • Getting fired - heaviness of being successful replaced by
     • lightness of being a beginner again
       • Less sure about everything
     • Freed and enabled one of the creative periods of his life
   • Awful tasting medicine but the patient needed it
   • Sometimes life hits you in the face with a brick, don't lose faith
   • Only thing that kept him going was that he loved what he did
   • You got to find what you love
   • True for work and lovers
     • Work gonna fill up large part of life
       • Only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe what is great work
       • Only way to do great work is to love what you do
     • Keep looking and don't settle
     • As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it
     • As with any great relationship, it gets better and better as the years go on

3. Death

   • "If you live each day as if it were your last, someday you'll most certainly be right"
   • If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?
   • And if it's no for too many days in a row, I need to change something
   • Remember that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool that I've encountered to
     • help me make the big choices in life
   • Almost everything - all external expectations. pride, fear of embarrassment or failure
     • All fall away in the face of death
     • Leaving what's truly important
   • Remembering that you are going to die is the best way to avoid the trap of thinking
     • you have something to lose
   • You are already naked, there is no reason not to follow your heart
   • No one want to die
   • Death is the destination we all share
   • Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life
   • Don't be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people's thinking
     • Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice
   • Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition
     • They somehow already know what you truly want to become
       • Every thing else is secondary

Early morning hitchhiking road, the kind you would find yourself hitchhiking on - if you're so adventurous

Stay young, stay foolish.

Why? Because you'd never know if the company you're interning at would be thinking to outsource what you've been doing for them.

My boss was thinking of this, but was worried about company policies regarding outsourcing work to students. Then I said no problem, my friend and I could easily set up a sole proprietorship.

Nothing's confirmed, but interesting developments nonetheless :)

Have a blessed weekend!

It's interesting and even feels flattering when people from all over the world use your pictures for their stuff, as evidenced from Kojay's Blog.

I just thought that it would be nice if he could acknowledge me a little, like say "Even our singaporean counterparts love them, like Alvin Lai from Singapore!"

Then after notifying me that he has graciously linked to me, I would naturally link him back, resulting in increased traffic for both parties, a win-win situation!

I'm not complaining, just thinking of some unexplored territory here :)

Take my pictures if you like, I don't watermark them but please drop me a note! I'll be more than glad to get to know you better :)

If you're going to record your jedi ninjitsu on your home camera, remember to trash it.

Was thinking of getting a cat, but after this, I realise it can get a little heart breaking..

Well, according to Apple at least.

"Located in the hub of the Silicon Valley of Singapore--the Ang Mo Kio neighborhood--the campus features a cozy and spacious work environment, a health club with up-to-date gym facilities, and a cafeteria that offers balanced meals for breakfast and lunch."

Check it out under "Singapore Campus" here