Once upon a time in Japan during the Shoguns era, there is a stable boy working on the horses everyday. By trade this boy is an excellent craftsman, secretly learning the trade of making good Katanas from his observation of other craftsmen daily chore of producing very sharp katanas for the Samurai warriors. Before long, he started to produce his own Katanas all the while not neglecting his responsibilities in upkeep the warlord's stable and its war horses. After some time, he manage to produce an excellent Katana, one that is sharp, strong yet flexible. A trait that is highly appreciated by warriors.
One of the elder craftmen notice this and quickly coaxed the stable boy into telling him the secret behind his sword making technique. The stable boy got excited and felt appreciated thus telling all he could remember and the detailed steps up to how much coal was used to heat the sword. The elderly craftsman learned all the secret and in a swift move accused the stable boy as being a spy for the other warlords. The surprised stable boy felt sad and dumb, knowing full well he will be punished or perhaps executed for his 'crime'. What is his crime exactly? Well his crime is that he is too silly and trusting of the old craftsman.
A tribunal was set up and the Shogun was invited as the judge at the tribunal. The stable boy was produced infront of the jury and he told his part of the story to them. Unpertubed by the hostility he told everyone what has happened and how the old wily craftsman has coaxed him into telling his sword making secrets and them blamed him for a crime he didn't do.
The Shogun listened tentatively and asked for the imperial guards to search the stable boy's shack. In there they found nothing and no trace of treachery or betrayal from the boy side. There was simply no case against the stable boy and the jury has to let him loose while thinly veiled threats were thrown at him should he thought of betraying the Shogun clan. Things went back to normal, the accuser was not questioned while the boy has went through hell and back due to some accusation that was thrown his way.
The stable boy was very disappointed, he lost the chance to present to Japan his katana, the old craftman got the credit and he almost lost his life due to the accusation. He became demotivated, he became negative and he became nonchalant. His work rate diminished and the horses suffered as a result.
One day a rival clan attack the citadel when the Shogun was out fighting another clan. A messenger with the fastest horse was sent out to seek the return of the Shogun and his warriors. However half way through its journey, the horse fell and injured itself and killing the messenger. The root cause of the fall? A failling horse shoe that was poorly fitted to the horse by the stable boy. The message was never delivered and the citadel fell in the 2nd day. By the 4th day the Shogun and his warrior came back and was ambushed in their own citadel. In one swift move, the Shogun was defeated, shamed and out of luck he committed suicide to preserve his family honor....
The moral of the story?
For the failure of the horse shoe, the message was not delivered.
For the message was not delivered, the warning was not sent.
For the warning not sent, the Shogun lost his citadel and life.
Life is a funny thing, sometime small things will lead to big issues.
If we're not careful on how we thread our moves in life, problems and troubles will be your friend.
Don't underestimate small things, it might lead to a big obstacle if not handled properly.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Friday, February 12, 2010
World Famous Silly Bean and her precious cute son; de Natster! behold...
Nat Boy & Silly Bean enjouing the plush and comfy room at Millenium Hotel
Another picture another post...aint the Natster look cute?
Silly Bean looking sweet and happy! :-)
How can you resist kissing such a cute thing?
Natster looking cool and cozy!
Mum with Natster, both seems to be very happy!
Silly Bean looking silly as usual with Natster posing a big boss pose~
Cool looking kid~
Nothing beats an afternoon walk in a park while sucking the ol'good thumb~
Another finger licking good moment from the big bad Natster~
A terrified Natster, I think he saw Wei Ling walk in during the buffet breakfast! Pity boy~
Cool eh?
Savvy enough?
The Tiger Claw clan, revisited!
Monday, February 8, 2010
Gong Xi Fa Chai~
Ok now, it is the time of the year again for the more than 1 billion Chinese around the world to celebrate the famed Chinese New Year. Every year, during this period, Chinese will embark on a spending spree to buy new clothes, new shoes, new hairstyle, new car(for some), new paint for the house and a lot of new or reddish and loud decorations.
Everything needs to be new for Chinese New Year to represent the Lunar New Year with the hope that the New Year will bring good health, wealth and luck! However one annoying thing about Chinese New Year is the never changing Chinese New Year songs from Mainland China or Taiwan. Local artiste does their part but mostly is a 'rebranding' exercise with different tempo but singing to the old same tune and beat. Though it gives me the festivity mood and generally drumming me the message that I'm going to be older again, it gets annoying when wherever you go the same old beat are played.
And when I say everywhere you go, I meant everywhere you go...from supermarkets, to shopping malls to clothing boutique and even coffee shops. The blaring of the Chinese New Year song is played as though it is a propaganda machine, enticing you to shop more and be more blatant in your spending. There is a statistic that Chinese shopper spends 79.4% more when the Chinese New Year song is played through the PA. Seems like the CNY songs send a strong message albeit a hidden one to spend more and more. Ok, the statistic part is a fakey, but ol'Jon went on a short shopping trip with Nat boy and Silly Bean the other weekend. The end result? 600 hard earned bucks was spend in the first 15 minutes! Shockingly all the while the PA system played the Chinese New Year song and I felt good spending the money. Only when the adrenaline and the propaganda songs passed, I realised my Spending Spree!
Anyway, my 1st grumbling today is about the CNY songs that never seems to improve/change or rewritten. It will be the same old tune year in year out. Check out this new Chinese New Year song from Malaysia famed but foul mouthed rapper namewee;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5w0DFvcZ_vw
My 2nd grumbling is the marketing/sales ploy that shops do to Chinese buyer during CNY period, by using the CNY tune to mesmerize and entice shopper to spend and spend and spend. While it worked in the micro scale, I wonder why it wasn't done at the Macro level?
Look at it this way, the Chinese constitute more than 1/6th of the world population. If you're an economist and want to pull the world out of this economic slump, all you need to do is to get some old CNY songs and played it to the 1.3 billion Chinese out there. Instantly 79.4% increase of revenue and moreover the Chinese felt good spending them money! Why haven't any Buffets or Gates or Li Ka Shings thought of this moves is beyond me....and before I cracked my head trying to figure how to entice more than 1 billion chinese into buying my yet to be invented product; I wish everyone here a Happy Chinese New Year and may you enjoy a prosperous year of the Tiger no matter you're White, Black, Brown or Yellow(Chinese la...haha!) Gong Xi Fa Chai.....This year must HUAT x 13!
Everything needs to be new for Chinese New Year to represent the Lunar New Year with the hope that the New Year will bring good health, wealth and luck! However one annoying thing about Chinese New Year is the never changing Chinese New Year songs from Mainland China or Taiwan. Local artiste does their part but mostly is a 'rebranding' exercise with different tempo but singing to the old same tune and beat. Though it gives me the festivity mood and generally drumming me the message that I'm going to be older again, it gets annoying when wherever you go the same old beat are played.
And when I say everywhere you go, I meant everywhere you go...from supermarkets, to shopping malls to clothing boutique and even coffee shops. The blaring of the Chinese New Year song is played as though it is a propaganda machine, enticing you to shop more and be more blatant in your spending. There is a statistic that Chinese shopper spends 79.4% more when the Chinese New Year song is played through the PA. Seems like the CNY songs send a strong message albeit a hidden one to spend more and more. Ok, the statistic part is a fakey, but ol'Jon went on a short shopping trip with Nat boy and Silly Bean the other weekend. The end result? 600 hard earned bucks was spend in the first 15 minutes! Shockingly all the while the PA system played the Chinese New Year song and I felt good spending the money. Only when the adrenaline and the propaganda songs passed, I realised my Spending Spree!
Anyway, my 1st grumbling today is about the CNY songs that never seems to improve/change or rewritten. It will be the same old tune year in year out. Check out this new Chinese New Year song from Malaysia famed but foul mouthed rapper namewee;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5w0DFvcZ_vw
My 2nd grumbling is the marketing/sales ploy that shops do to Chinese buyer during CNY period, by using the CNY tune to mesmerize and entice shopper to spend and spend and spend. While it worked in the micro scale, I wonder why it wasn't done at the Macro level?
Look at it this way, the Chinese constitute more than 1/6th of the world population. If you're an economist and want to pull the world out of this economic slump, all you need to do is to get some old CNY songs and played it to the 1.3 billion Chinese out there. Instantly 79.4% increase of revenue and moreover the Chinese felt good spending them money! Why haven't any Buffets or Gates or Li Ka Shings thought of this moves is beyond me....and before I cracked my head trying to figure how to entice more than 1 billion chinese into buying my yet to be invented product; I wish everyone here a Happy Chinese New Year and may you enjoy a prosperous year of the Tiger no matter you're White, Black, Brown or Yellow(Chinese la...haha!) Gong Xi Fa Chai.....This year must HUAT x 13!
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Through Persistent and Knowledge, the Earth was round! Or Sphere? :-)
Once upon a time, people believe the world was flat. Literally you would fall off the edge if you go to the horizon. It took some careful observation and a few hundred brave sea farers to prove the Earth was indeed not flat. The bloke who come out with this idea that earth was a sphere shape was ridiculed, laughed at and endure endless jittery, hardships and scars along the way.
When it was proven that the earth was indeed round as observed through the missing ship theory or only the massive mass of the ship was visible after a certain distance; the bloke was duly acknowledge and the doubters put into their place. From that day onwards, radical thinking; out of the box thoughts, unorthodox method was slowly accepted into society. Fortune favors the brave they say, and I fully agree with it...every single word of it!
Ok, morale of the story? You need to be confident about things in life, you need to be sure as hell in life and you'll need to analyse things with good sense, knowledge and logic. This bring me nicely to what just happened to me recently.
I've got a very demanding client recently, it was a passed down project from my superior last time. He had changed department and thus scoot free of the consequences and problems faced by ol'jon right now. This particular client is technically clueless and temperament. And every e-mails exchange, if he see something he don't like, he will cc to everyone he can think of. In 'Hokkien' a chinese dialect, cc means "cover cahcheng"; literally meaning covering one's backside.
The application was a tough nut to crack, the proposer(my boss) was; how do I put it, technically unsound as well, the client was 'unaware' of the difficulties and due to smooth sales strategy by my boss, accepted the proposal and proceed with PO and much fanfare.
3 months later, the project is now in Shanghai and facing lots and lots of difficulties. Here ol'Jon is trying to remotely simulate and settle the problems. It is a toughie, with lots of brain juices needed and some arm twisting with my affiliate office in China. ol'Jon's boss was not helping the situation by his reluctance to get involved in the trouble shooting. Every questions raised was replied with a standard answer; "I don't know!" or "I forget!". But deep down, like the explorer of the old days, I know I can do it. I just need to be 110% focus, settle the technical issues, more arm twisting with the canny Chinese Sales Engineer and a lot a lot of patience pills when dealing with this over the top, impulsive, unappreciative and EQ questionable client of mine!
And if I'm able to do that, then nobody can laugh at my persistent and passion anymore, coz I'm Jon and I don't just do the talk, I walk the talk! And in case you're still confuse, the earth is indeed round and it is not flat~
When it was proven that the earth was indeed round as observed through the missing ship theory or only the massive mass of the ship was visible after a certain distance; the bloke was duly acknowledge and the doubters put into their place. From that day onwards, radical thinking; out of the box thoughts, unorthodox method was slowly accepted into society. Fortune favors the brave they say, and I fully agree with it...every single word of it!
Ok, morale of the story? You need to be confident about things in life, you need to be sure as hell in life and you'll need to analyse things with good sense, knowledge and logic. This bring me nicely to what just happened to me recently.
I've got a very demanding client recently, it was a passed down project from my superior last time. He had changed department and thus scoot free of the consequences and problems faced by ol'jon right now. This particular client is technically clueless and temperament. And every e-mails exchange, if he see something he don't like, he will cc to everyone he can think of. In 'Hokkien' a chinese dialect, cc means "cover cahcheng"; literally meaning covering one's backside.
The application was a tough nut to crack, the proposer(my boss) was; how do I put it, technically unsound as well, the client was 'unaware' of the difficulties and due to smooth sales strategy by my boss, accepted the proposal and proceed with PO and much fanfare.
3 months later, the project is now in Shanghai and facing lots and lots of difficulties. Here ol'Jon is trying to remotely simulate and settle the problems. It is a toughie, with lots of brain juices needed and some arm twisting with my affiliate office in China. ol'Jon's boss was not helping the situation by his reluctance to get involved in the trouble shooting. Every questions raised was replied with a standard answer; "I don't know!" or "I forget!". But deep down, like the explorer of the old days, I know I can do it. I just need to be 110% focus, settle the technical issues, more arm twisting with the canny Chinese Sales Engineer and a lot a lot of patience pills when dealing with this over the top, impulsive, unappreciative and EQ questionable client of mine!
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