swtee79's Xanga

Behind Every Successful Man...

Fri, 22 Jun 2007 02:12:05 GMT

Jane Austin had it right. It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. Of course the purposes of the man’s desire for a wife does vary and because of that variance, the kind of wife he will desire shall also vary.

You have the successful playboys such as the famous Hugh Heffner who desires the classic trophy wife. They fit the profile of the Hollywood beauty, are obedient and even submissive to the point of being willing to share their men with three others, two of whom are twins (shocking!), and do not have to be very intelligent (Not to say that they are not. Just that they don’t have to be).

You have the conformist whose main purpose of desiring a wife is that society, whether in the persona of a parent, friends, or otherwise, requires it. In this case, he will go even to the extent of participating in speed dating sessions to find someone, anyone, he can have the slightest connection with. He doesn’t know what he is looking for really, just that he needs it because that’s how the world goes. So just give him someone of average looks or average ambition. She may even be bossy just so long as she’s willing to tolerate him for a lifetime, or maybe just a while.

Now, there are people desiring to be in the first category, and you have those who like to fade into the background in the second category and I’m sure we all know some people in either. Nonetheless let’s analyze a third category of men who seem to have made a severe impact in the world. People such as John F Kennedy, Theodore Roosevelt, George W Bush (he made an impact good or bad), Prince Charles, etc. What do you notice about their wives? Jacqueline Kennedy, Eleanor Roosevelt, Laura Bush, Princess Diana. These are not just ladies sitting back and leading the clichéd “Tai Tai” lifestyle. These are ambitious ladies, who are willing to go out there and lead organizations fighting for civil rights, welfare of children in war-torn nations, or just protect their families from the vicious media. They do not sit back at home looking pretty and smiling to the camera. They are ambitious, brilliant, courageous women and they steer the marriage and their husbands while humbly standing by him whenever adversity strikes.

It suddenly seems so clear that one of the most important decisions in a man’s life is the choosing of the right wife. A man who chooses a wife who is domineering and shining out in the spotlight is going to spend his life serving her. He will be hen-pecked and revolve his life around her pleasure. A man who chooses a classic adoring bimbo for a wife is going to belief the world revolves around him. She is the most beautiful furniture in his house and he pays for all the maintenance required to enhance her to look better and will give her as much as she wants as long as she sticks by him. But there is an exaggerated sense of self-importance. The kind you get with a CEO who surrounds himself with yes-men.

I desire to be successful and wish to make my mark in the world. To me, there’s only one kind of woman who would be right for me. She needs to be ambitious. I don’t mind if she wants to stay at home and take care of the kids, but she needs to have her own set of goals with her career in mind. She can be a writer at home, or teach tuition to help support the family and herself. That’s fine. She needs to have a mind of her own and be willing to voice out her opinion. Men can be stupid. We don’t take hints and we don’t see many points of view. We need a woman who will put us in our place, yet still recognize us as a co-leader in the household. She needs to be forgiving because men make mistakes and will hurt people without intending to. But when we are told, we will make amends (at least the good ones will). She needs to recognize that the good of the family is firmly above her.

And I shout it out now at the top of my lungs to the males in the online community that the perfect woman does exist. I should know. I found my own. Milli is absolutely brilliant. Academically, she graduated with strong honours in subjects that I can’t even begin to grasp. She is fully tolerant of the cultures of the world and judges people based on their actions rather than their backgrounds. She is just as comfortable in a cocktail party as she is in a hawker centre. She has a much defined sense of style and has helped me to improve my own fashion sense. She’s my image consultant. She strengthens my own beliefs in the devotion to the family by showing me her devotion to hers. She encourages me to go for my MBA and fully supports my decision to leave for four whole months in order to improve my market value in the job world and strive to hit my goals. And just as she encourages me to advance my own career, she plans her own career with just as much ambition and I am proud to be the one to support her through the process.

Milli has given me the great honour of being her boyfriend since Dec 1^st last year (actually we met in October but I wanted an anniversary date that’s easy to remember) and through it all, she has changed and matured me in ways I have never even fathomed. They say that behind every successful man, there is a great woman. I disagree. My great woman walks beside me hand in hand.

As the Sands Through the Hourglass...

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 04:45:19 GMT

I just had lunch with some of my co-workers and I found out that one of my colleagues once wrote a blog about the things on her desk. I decided to take a page out of her book and give that a shot too so here goes.

Do you know how many things you have on your desk? I don’t. I can barely see everything. It’s all covered up by paper and stuff. Nonetheless, let’s do a quick inventory check from left to right. Now I can just describe the items but why the heck would I want to bore you with that? Let’s look deeper into them and consider the relationship they have with one another. On my left I have the tower of CD-Rs. I use them to film all the office scandals that happen around here and sell them for about S$6.50 per CD. I usually sell them out fast because I give a sneak preview to the stars. They immediately buy up my entire stock and the original presumable to ensure that they have enough to give it to their loved ones.

Next to it is the paper dump. What it looks like is a mess of paper strewn all over the table but in reality, it’s a whole bunch of paper running away from the dreaded hole-puncher which is intending to chase them all down and perforated the living daylights out of them (Maniacal laughter and lightning). Next we have the box of name cards. People think I keep them in a box in order to organize them. The truth is the box is a specially made soundproof box. I got sick of hearing all the namecards introducing themselves to each other all the time. The name card is placed next to Mr Ericcson Phone which is actually having an affair with the Mrs Monitor Dell. Mrs Monitor Dell is feeling unfulfilled about her marriage with Mr CPU Dell because he just gives her instructions and refuses to listen to her. He takes firm control of the marriage and one day when he was not looking, I forgot to turn off Mrs Monitor Dell and she ended up sleeping with Mr Ericsson Phone when one of my travel agents called. Poor CPU has yet to find out. I worry that if he finds out; he may reach for the scissors that has been placed right next to him and slaughter both Mrs Monitor and Mr Ericsson.

Tune in next time for yet another episode of General Cubical.

Wow writing that entry made me feel like my brain shrank. I think I’ll do something more useful now. Like act like I’m working.

The Changing Purpose

Mon, 11 Jun 2007 02:30:30 GMT

Do you ever marvel, or shiver, at the way life seems to suddenly blindside you and shake you up in the most unexpected way? You walk down the road and suddenly you look back and wonder how the heck you ever got to where you are at this present moment when everything you originally planned was completely elsewhere. You ever get those moments of great epiphany*? One of those moments occurred to me in a dream last night actually.

Last night, I dreamt that I was working at the front office of a luxury hotel in New York. Of course as with dreams, the place didn’t really look like New York. The street outside looked like a mix between Boston and Singapore. The hotel check in area looked like the Disney All-Star I was checking in my old Professor from Boston University and he looked at me and told me that I still had a report due that I never turned in. And I went to the back of house to pick it up and lo and behold, I was back in my house looking for the report. I couldn’t find it so I called Milli because I always call her for comfort. She asked me if I checked in my piano bag. Then I woke up thinking, “What the bleep was that???”

As I was rolling over again and trying to get back to sleep, I suddenly thought started to compare my plans from 2004 when I graduated to my current plans now and suddenly realized how far I have deviated from my original course. In 2004, it was all about passion. It all began from my job at the Walt Disney Resorts. Whether I was checking in guests or making beds and cleaning rooms, I was still actively involved in guest vacations. I would share with them the exciting things to do there and the best was that I would be experiencing all that at night due to the complimentary passes I had to each and every park in the Walt Disney World Resorts. If I was working in the morning shift, I leave office, take the bus down to the Magic Kingdom to watch Tinkerbell fly across the sky right before the final fireworks. Sometimes I would be just in time to catch the night parade just before the fireworks. But the key thing was the experience I had that made me love what I did.

When I returned to Boston and was working in Starbucks, I was serving my friends and giving them their caffeine fixes, then meeting them after the shift to finish off our final essays and projects. Then I graduated and went on to work for the Wyndham Hotel where I was still sharing my experiences of Boston with guests and basically helping them plan their vacations. I remember during Christmas when all my friends and family returned home, we had these three guests from South Carolina. Since they were alone and I was free, I basically brought them all over Boston during my off day and just introduced them to Malaysian Cuisine at the Penang restaurant.

Now return back to the present. I feel like I’m doing well. I’m hidden from guests so I don’t get the brunt of the complaints. Yet at the same time I don’t get to see the impact of the vacations on them. But then as I learnt in the Oriental Hotel, guests from Singapore, Malaysia and China tend to be extremely demanding and yet not expressive about what pleases them. I asked myself, “Can you express what you love about your job at this current moment?” The response astounded me. “I like the hours and I like the salary.”

What has happened that my purpose in work has changed from the simple satisfaction of pleasing a weary traveler and experiencing the joys of a world traveler through their eyes into something as mundane as money and time? Perhaps it’s because I am looking into the most satisfying part of my life which is planning a family and positioning myself to reach a career path that will allow me to provide the kind of blessed life for them that I enjoyed. Afterall, if I have the kind of money and time that I am trying to get at in the future, then I myself will be the world traveler and I would not have to live through the eyes of those whom I serve. But then again, I must confess that a huge joy that I derived from my job in operations is the enjoyment of those guests whom I serve. Service itself was my love. Surely there is a way to get my cake an eat it. Who ever came up with that phrase anyway? If I get my cake, of course I should eat it. It’s MINE!

I’m about to take the next step into my IMBA program with Peking University and the National University of Singapore. The purpose here will be to further my career and be able to fulfill one of the greatest jobs in my life – the provider of my family. I honestly hope that in my two years in the program, I will find a job path that I will truly like and that the family life that I will do anything for can be complemented by a job that I find just as fulfilling. I refuse to become another Singaporean corporate automaton. But I’m afraid that I may slowly blend in little by little.

*Words to use more often in everyday conversation

Epiphany:

sudden realization: a sudden intuitive leap of understanding, especially through an ordinary but striking occurrence

Girlfriend invasion

Mon, 09 Apr 2007 08:31:34 GMT

Before I begin, the wombat does not endorse this entry.

..............................

Someone is just plain lazy to type an entry so I shall do it for him. Yes, it is the girlfriend invasion. Don't worry, you fervent fans of Mr. Tee Shang-Wayne, this is a one-off time. Or in the words of the wombat, I am but a mere "guest" blogger. *wide smile*

What am I planning to blog about? Erm.. I do not know. Haven't got a slightest clue.

Just my little way of irritating the wombat.

i love you..

Horror-scopes

Fri, 19 Jan 2007 02:25:42 GMT

Greetings to you all. We are well into 2007 and I am still struggling to write the correct year when I write my dates. Well lets hope I at least get it right by February. Else I may accidentally apply to the NTU MBA class starting at August 2006. How embarrasing would that be?

A colleague just sent me a Chinese horoscope prediction for 2007 by a guy called Paul Ng. Here's what it says about my sign the goat.

SHEEP 1991 1979 1967 1955 1943
The sheep connects with the boar. As such, there are plenty of lucky signs. There would be power. Employees may get promoted. Business people may expand. Do not forget there are people around jealous of you. Your romances are strong.

WORK: A successful year for you. You favor those sectors to do with transportation, travel or logistics. Both financial real estates would be good for you too. Watch out those big swings in the market.

WEALTH: Your income is directly proportional to your hard work and authority. Short term investments are better for you.

ROMANCE: If you are single, consider marriage. If you are married, your marriage should improve.

HEALTH: Your health is weaker than your wealth. There are many small illnesses. Rest well.

Highlights of Sheep of Different Years

1991 Your health is weak. Beware of problems to do with the ears, nose and throat. Beware of legal conflicts.
1979 If you are married, you may have children this year. Your work is stable. You may have many new ideas.
1967 You are prone to moving - both your house and job. Beware of accidents. Your relations may not be too stable.
1955 You would make money. But your health may be weak. Your job is stable.
1943 Watch out problems with your heart and blood pressure. Don't get greedy, otherwise you would be cheated.
list all horoscopes <<http://paulng.com/CMS/index.php?/archives/13-PREDICTIONS-FOR-2007-Year-of-Fire-Boar.html#top>>

Wow! Now wasn’t that enlightening? I was especially impressed by what they said about work. “Your income is directly proportional to your hard work and authority”. Talk about counter-intuitive! Wait! There’s even a section of sheep born in different years. Let’s see what it says about me. “IF you are married, you MAY have children this year. You MAY have new ideas.” Right! And I think that monkeys MAY fly out of my butt. Notice they never gave the children prediction to a sheep born in the year 1943? How many 64 year olds do you think would have a baby this year? Ooh but his prediction for the sheep born in 1991 is priceless. “Beware of legal conflicts”. At 16 years old? Well juvenile jail will be filled up this year I guess. It must be a crack down on a whole army of kids cycling round neighbourhoods accessing unprotected wi-fi servers illegally to download free music. They can make a drama series on it. Desperate Teens.

Alright well based on his predictions, let me give my own psychic skills a shot. I will do a psychic reading for those of you who have two eyes, a nose and a mouth.

WORK: For the year of 2007, the harder you work, the more you will get paid. You will have some small arguments with one or more co-workers.

HEALTH: Take care of your health, otherwise you may get sick. The I-gallop doesn’t work.

LOVE: You MAY bump into a top “A” list Hollywood celebrity when you go to NTUC and get invited to a special after party to jam with the band. While there you MAY end up meeting Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie and end up making out with one of them (depending on your gender preference) by the end of the night and cause the breakdown of their relationship. You MAY then marry the man/woman of your dreams, get all the money and fame that you ever wished for and have a monument made in your honour after you die. Or you may not.

Highlights of people from different years

· 1991 You should study hard. Then you can do well for your exams

· 1979 If you are single, you should get married and work on having your 2.1 children so that you can contribute to the country’s fertility rate. Try Banyan Tree Lijiang for a honeymoon location.

· 1967 You may quarrel with your wife this year. Be patient and remember that women are meant to be loved, not understood.

· 1955 Do not buy the magic stone. Stop bugging your kids to get married.

· 1943 You should be retiring soon. This is good. Think of a hobby or your kids will chuck you in the old folks home for telling too many “when I was your age” stories.

See? That wasn’t so hard! I can quit my day job and do this all day. And when I become really good, I can join a network marketing firm or sell magic stones to little old ladies for lots of money. The beauty of this world is that there is always a member of the gullible masses out there to purchase your useless items. They even created a science to selling useless items to the gullible masses. It’s called marketing.

Faith, Trust and Pixie Dust

Wed, 01 Nov 2006 04:39:01 GMT

I love Disney movies. Whether it's the classic Disney fairy tales of Princess and adventure or the more modern ones about a car learning to appreciate the beauty of the desert (Luigi only supports Ferrari!), I love them. Whether its the non-animated movies about a coach inspiring a team of hopeless youths to win the ice-hockey championship or a cute romantic movie about a basketball jock and a science braniac discovering their shared love for singing and each other, I still love them.

The Disney movie has been thought of in recent times as childish, overly idealistic and to a certain extent annoyingly cute. I mean come on! This is real life here. People are born evil. True stories don't have a happy ending. Real life never ends with happily ever after. The Prince charming will have adulterous affairs with half of the girls in the kingdom which would lead Cinderella to an alcoholic frenzy after which she would have an affair with the son of a rich sheik who sells flying carpets. This will cause some serious interest in the medievial tabloids who will dispatch their paparazi reporters to hunt down the couple on horseback. During a wild chase the tragic couple's carriage is thrown off the road and rammed into a tree killing them instantly. Welcome to the real world. A world that such rubbish has no place being part of.

Yet doesn't it make the presence of such a positive outlook even more essential to survive? I would think so. There is an essential theme in all Disney movies that underscores the very purpose of existing - Hope. There is a point in every Disney movie where the situation seems so impossibly dire. The heroine gets locked up forever in a dank dark dungeon by a hideous monster, the little clownfish gets taken by a deepsea diver on a boat back to a dental office as a decoration, 101 cute puppies are stolen with the intention of making them into fur coats. Yet it is at this time where a person's character is tested. How many of us would just give up the chase and spend the rest of our lives moping about in despair? The true heros are the ones who feel the resistance and push back. And when they encounter more resistance they keep pushing. This is the point which proves the value of all Disney movies. It shows that when you push hard enough and perservere long enough towards the goal, you will get the prize. It's a concept that's biblical even.

Disney movies are an inspiration. It shows you the value of your will power and of human kindness. The most powerful ability we have as a human is to change a beast into a prince. And for that, we need patience and love. And in the end, we get our happy ending. That's the ultimate point that they try to make. Fairy tales happen. But you have to work at it and work hard. The princes and princesses were not given their victories on a silver platter. They got there through sweat and tears. But just as importantly with faith, trust, and a little pixie dust.

About a month ago, I've found the beginning of my own fairy tale. She just returned from Australia and goes by the name of Millicent. On our first date, she taught me how to drift. As in race car drifting. We spent the next few minutes trying to get my jaw back into my mouth. Milli's absolutely brilliant, beautiful and pretty affectionate too. Hers is a story of perserverance and determination. She's my new greatest inspiration and there isn't a day that goes by now that I don't feel like the luckiest man on Earth. For now we are on the verge of a great new adventure and I'm as excited as any prince could be.

Monday, December 12, 2005

Mon, 12 Dec 2005 09:02:13 GMT

Leadership

I was watching the Two Towers again today. For some reason I wanted to see the great scene of Gandalf the Grey plunging into the abyss after the Balrog. What do I find so inspiring about this scene? Well picture this. Gandalf just fell down from the Bridge of Khazad-Dum and is falling fast after one of the most powerful creatures in all of Mordor. Now a normal person would be thinking, "great I'm dead. Might as well just prepare for the end." Not Gandalf. This wizard squares his jaw and plunges down fast. Along the way, he recovers his sword Glamdring and proceeds to latch hold of the Balrog attacking him viciously. The Balrog strikes hard at Gandalf but he keeps going at it despite the Balrog's attacks.

How many times have we faced trouble and simply become paralysed by it. It feels like we're falling deep into an endless chasm and we need help. This is when your leadership qualities are truly tested. What do you do when the Bridge of Khazad-Dum falls apart beneath your feet? Do hang on tight and desperately wait for someone to rescue you? Or do you square your jaw and plunge after your obstacle. When you are falling down an endless pit do you give it up and wait for the end? Or does your mind race to find an alternative solution tackling whatever problem you can find on your way down? Afterall why waste time? Might as well go hunt a Balrog as painful as it may be.

And in the end after overcoming his foe through the lowest dungeons to the highest peaks, Gandalf is given a major promotion. You see a new mantle of leadership and authority on him. He seems more confident and daring then in the first movie. Leadership is a muscle. It needs to be exercised before it can grow. But when it grows, the most amazing things can happen.

When I was a kid, I remember a very common essay question they used to give us to argue in school. Is leadership born or developed? Of course everyone would say that leadership is developed. The truth is that no one wanted be excluded from leadership. Everyone wanted to have a cushy high paying job in the future rather than to be a road sweeper or a garbage collector. What honestly is the truth though? Can we really say that everyone is born with the same abilities? And it is only the different levels of development that brings the different skill levels of these abilities?

Here's the thing that makes it a little complicated. Leadership is not simply a skill that one can pick up like the piano or a new language. Leadership requires a vision. The complication comes because visions are not something that you suddenly get when you are developing a skill. Visions are passed on to you. They are revealed to you through inspiration. All the big companies have a vision and a mission. They are different. The vision gives the company the goal that they are looking to eventually achieve. The mission is a blueprint on how to get there. In the same way, a vision is absolutely essential to the leader because without it, he does not know which direction to steer the ship. The clarity of the vision is just as important because the clearer something the more real it can seem and hence the more achievable. If the vision is vague, the reality of achieving it becomes vague and it is easy to lose hope in it and give up.

But who can give you a vision? It could be someone close to you. It could be from books that you read. It could be a friend. It could be a teacher. It could even be a stranger you speak to on the bus while you are on your way to a destination. A vision is a dream. It is not completely based on reality yet. You need to refine it a little to make it more attainable. But do not make it easily attainable or it would not be a worth while goal. When the vision seems only just impossible, that's when you make your plans, your blueprints to achieve it. These plans are basically the platforms that slowly build a bridge across the chasm of impossibility between you and your dreams. Let's take the example of reaching the moon. Imagine all the naysayers when the plan was first unveiled. It would've been such an impossibility. But that was the vision. Now slowly little by little, they make a road map to get to that destination. Firstly, we need to find a way to store enough oxygen to make the trip. We need to make a powerful enough engine to break through the gravitational force of the Earth. We need to find a way to navigate from here to the moon and back. There were so many obstacles. But one by one as the teams began to tackle these problems and managed to solve them, they were building a bridge between themselves and the goal of reaching the moon until finally, they found their way. The leader is the person who saw the vision and didn't care about the impossibility but who saw these problems and assigned a team to solve each of these problems. Then who brought all the teams together to reach the final victory.

Everyone is born with leadership potential inside him/her. But many go through life not realizing them. They had parents who told them that they would never amount to anything. People who told them, "Don't reach to high, you'll only be disappointed when you don't achieve it." "Play safe. Study hard. Get a job. Don't try to set up your own business. The risk is too great." "Just be a middle manager. That way, you are paid decently but you are not blamed for too much. That's ideal. Straddle the middle ground." Theses are words that many of us have heard. Words that many well-intentioned people are telling everyone these days.

Well the truth is that we need leaders. The world has not had such a great need for leaders as it had in recent years. The world community seems resigned to stand still and take the middleground for fear of offending people. How long did the United Nations spend coming up with resolution after resolution to force Saddam to disarm fully knowing that firstly he had no intention of doing so and secondly that he was murdering towns in his own nation? How long did the United Nations take arguing over the definition of genocide while Hutus slaughtered almost a million Tutsis in Rwanda over a period of 4 months? How long did the Federal Emergency Management Agency take to mobilize and send aid to New Orleans? How long will it take for the North Koreans to finally realize that their country is not heaven and they are starving to death for no reason?

The world needs leaders. It's crying out for leaders. Leaders in every single area. The Biomedical field, businesses, religion, public policy, foreign policy, non-profit organizations, human rights, every single area of the world. All of us are born with a gift, a purpose and a burden. It is this that makes us unique in the world and it is also this that makes us best suited to tackle on that problem in the world right now that we were born to solve. Make no mistake about it. You are not insignificant. You were designed for impact. And in the words of Elron, "Put aside the ranger. Become who you were born to be." And make no mistake. You were destined to walk with giants, and to eat with kings.

Arise world-changer. Your time has come.

Sunday, October 16, 2005

Sun, 16 Oct 2005 12:36:48 GMT

Waking up on a Saturday Night

Alright, I openly admit, I love this song. It's almost embarrasing to admit liking any Hillary Duff song at the age of 26 but what can I say? I've always been a kid. Besides, Hillary Duff began in my favourite company of all time. Good ol' Walt Disneyworld. And if enjoying Lizzie Mcguire and Kim Possible and the House of Mouse while I was cleaning rooms in the All Star Resorts makes me a mega or ubergeek, then sign me up right now!!!

So what is it about Hillary? Well, she still hasn't adopted a slut image yet. And I most certainly hope that she doesn't! The world can use less of talented sluts (Christina Aguilera) and untalented sluts (Britney Spears). Today's seem actually to cater to depressed bitches (Avril Lavigne) and got bitches (Evanescence). Oh yeah, I forgot, incredibly cute bitches (Lindsay Lohan). I love the last three. Avril and Evanescence cut a couple of excellent albums not just singles. As for Hillary? Well, she's not really that talented unfortunately. I don't think any of her songs are really all that memoriable. And I think it's quite annoying that she lifted the black shirt with red strips look directly from Avril Lavigne's latest album cover. Aside from that though, I like how the video experiments with some new looks for her. The impish mischievious short black hair look and the classy gorgeous red lipstick matching red french baret look that reminds me so much of Debbie Gibson.

As for the song itself, Wake Up certainly gives a kind of feeling that suits my mood. It's the "Forget the pressures of the daily life, lets go out and have some fun with some good friends" feeling. It brings me back to my college internship days when I could work in the front desk or housekeeping and feel tired after a really rough day. I drag myself back to my apartment and collapse into bed to sleep and I'm woken up by a sound in the living room. So I step outside and see a bunch of my roommates and the rest of the crew from building 39 level one all dressed up. Ludwig and Kaisa turn to me and say, "Wayne what are you doing? Get out of bed! It's Jellyrolls night!" So I think, why not? and head for the shower. In 15 minutes, we're out in Ludwig's Jeep heading over to our favourite piano bar to meet Mindy and the rest of the gang.

See Saturday night isn't just Saturday night. Saturday night is anyday that you get out of your daily life to take a breather and head out for some fun time with your friends. Saturday night was PI nights on Monday or Thursday, Jellyrolls on Tuesday, or waking up on my offday to the sound of the phone ringing and Mindy's voice on the other line asking if I wanted to join the gang for a day at MGM Studios. Saturday night is time out with your friends because there is always time for work.

So wake up everybody! Time to have a blast!

Music Video Codes provided by VideoCodeZone.com

Friday, October 14, 2005

Fri, 14 Oct 2005 16:35:23 GMT

Well maybe humans aren't so bad afterall.

So I was attached to the concierge desk today. Unfortunately, our concierge, Edmund, was swamped with work so he attached me to the luggage captain, Izat, which was necessary anyway so I don't mind. Let me tell you, standing outside in the sweltering Singapore heat in a full business suit : NOT COOL!!! (Pardon the pun. I didn't think about it until I typed it and have just stopped typing for the last half a minute just to laugh at it. Okay it's more cheesy than funny. Sue me! I shall stop kicking this dead horse now)

So I started off thinking only about the heat and trying to sneak closer to the door. I loved when the guests came since the doorman would open the door and let in a nice gush of air-conditioned air and that was ...(I promise this is the last time tonight) cool. And of course, when you're near the door and the guests are coming in and out, you have to smile big and greet the guests. So I did a lot of that. And then the guests started asking me questions and I started to interact and that was fun. And finally by the end of the first half, I was approaching guests and interacting on my own will. And this is when I suddenly remembered why I used to love working at the Wyndham.

I felt energized once again from the interactions with guests. I spoke to guests from Brussels, Australia, Germany, met Mr Stalker (scary name) one of our more frequent guests and introduced myself to him. Basically being the friendly chatterbox that I naturally am. And suddenly I thought to myself for the first time in a long while, "Wasn't my entire purpose in this industry to create the greatest vacation experience for people? To give honeymooners a magical start to their ever after story? To help corporate guests impress their clients? To give kids of all ages a vacation to remember? To spread the magic that I learnt in Disney and give people a respite from a hard days work." So work finally began to feel very enjoyable again. I really can't wait to get back to the front desk though. That's when things begin to be really exciting.

After work, some church friends decided to have an impromptu R &R night in the form of a movie. Amy, Tony, Garry, Eric Tee and I were there. Amy brought her entire DVD collection which, I must say, was vast. The final result really amused Amy. She told me that she never in her wildest dreams would've imagined when she brought a collection that included war movies, sports movies, sci fi movies and other action movies, that four men would end up picking the Princess Diaries. To add to that, we loved it so much that right after the movie, Tony went straight for the Princess Diaries 2. So basically she spent the night watching chich flicks with four men. It was like a slumber party. Anyway I've finally gotten home. It's 1:30am right now. And come to think of it, tonight was one of the best nights I've had for a really long time. I once again found meaning in my job, and then I spent some quality time with some close buddies. Life is finally beginning to make sense again.

This doesn't mean that I'll stop looking for opportunities to be posted overseas, mind you. I'm not done with travelling yet. Believe you me that this bento box isn't going to hold Shang-Wayne Tee for too long. A wife probably would but I think that if my life moves fast enough, I might be able to outrun her. So to you out there, my future wife, the queen of my life, whoever you are, wherever you are, I love you more than anything in the world, but you're gonna have to catch me first. See ya!!!!

Thursday, October 13, 2005

Thu, 13 Oct 2005 14:24:43 GMT

The Simple Things in Life

I had an ice-cream today. It was an Anderson of Denmark's ice cream double scoop (one forest fruits and one banana nut crunch) on a cone. It was an explosion of flavours in my mouth. Then I walked over to the river side and ate while watching the waves hit the shore in front of the backdrop of the spectacular city skyline. It was 7:15 pm and the lights of the skyscrapers were on while the sky was dimming to a deep blue. The lovers were out craddling each other while enjoying the scene. It was a perfect end to a long day's work. And it was then that I thought, "Even though I'm still missing Boston, even though I currently hate my job, even though my heart is fighting an uphill battle against my desire to travel more, even though I wonder when I will be able to start my own business and see my career take of, for now, at least for this very minute, life is good. Life is perfect. And it is soooo good to be home."

And it is the simple things in life that make life good. The caring and loving parents who are always there for you. The brother who welcomes you home with a nice swift kick and a punch, who watches movies with you and makes fun of the characters with you. The smiling colleagues at the front desk who share your aspirations in reaching for the skies in the industry. The fellow yokebrothers and sisters at church who encourage you whenever you need to and celebrate every development you make in your faith. Most importantly, the knowledge that no matter how you feel like you are not where you want to be, your God who died so that you may live has you exactly where he wants you to be and soon you will see the full intention for your life.

Recently I have realized that while I want to be a hotelier and eventually own my own luxury property, that is not where I want to stop. I want to be a success and a philantropher. I want to be rich enough to retire young and take care of my children. And I want to be a motivator, inspiring young men to reach for the stars in their dreams. The last parts of these dreams I find are the most important part of it. But I need to be successful in the first part before I can be successful in the second. Who in the world would be inspired by a middle manager telling you that you can do anything you set your mind to? That's like William Hung telling us that we can sing. Wait a minute! He does!!! What a weird world we live in.

Well thinking about these dreams makes one realize that one has a really long way to go to reach them. That's why it's always important to stop by an Anderson of Denmark once in a while and get a nice double scoop on a cone. It helps keeps things in perspective. Because one lesson the ice-cream teaches you is that some of the best things in life melt away in your hand while you are enjoying it. But if you worry about it melting away in your hand, your mind will be too distracted to fully enjoy it. Don't worry! There are other ice-creams out there to enjoy. Other dreams to chase. For the moment as long as you have that delicious cone in your hand, let the flavour explode in your mouth. Life can wait. Once in a while, it is the simple things in life that matter.