Aspirations

Just finished a seminar by Microsoft, they call it MixItUp.. mainly to introduce Visual Studio 2008 and some cool looking development tools...

First is a short 15 min talk by their director, Mr Fernadez (think spelling is wrong), a wonderful speaker who didnt really say much technical stuff. Only the next 2 speakers touch on the technical details which really put me to day-dream a little..

Looking the way they demo the development tools, it really somehow inspire me to go into .net developing to realise the dreams of building chio chio applications accessed on the web. With a head full of coding knowledge gives me another kind of satisfaction which really no other IT job can give me.. This is truely what inspire me to be a developer, and possibily 1 day as a presenter or lecturer to give my lecture on a certain topic and answering every troubling questions that conmes. But how feasible is this goin to be? Can I ever stand up there to give a gd presentation and crack some joke to amuse the whole crowd?

Well for all those to happen, I first need to quit my job.. oops.. my colleagues will be seeing this. But you see, there is more things in life than realising your aspirations alone!!

How much have these ppl really gone thru to stand up high and presenting their knowledge and ideas? They are ever so readily prepared with answers to the most embarassing and political questions, did they go thru some terrible ordeal to learn that answer? Did they sacrifice some friends or love or family ties to gain all those knowledge?

Maybe I sound too serious also.. Well, there has to be quite some failure examples to see these success stories right in front of you..

It will be just another day of work and looking forward to my next pay day for now.. Hopes, inspirations, ambitions, all these have to come another day..

Cannot buy my iPhone...

Haiz, the wait has finally ended, Singtel has finally released it pricing for iPhone on the midnight of 20Aug 2008 just as rumours described..

I'm not a typical youtube or net savy guy who will hog on the internet even on the move, so their "fantastic" flexi plans is not for me.. I should just stick to classic "Classic" plan, since i'm already a loyalty customer. Only $568 for 8GB and $728 for 16GB. 8GB is reasonable enough for me i guess..

Just as I happily ready to commit then I stupidly realised, "ya hor, my 2 yr contract nvr 21mth yet!!!" $568 then should become $668.. omg.. budget burst!!!

Have to wait till November then can get liao.. see you soon iPhone..

To console myself, I can only tell myself, no point paying $100 more for just a 3mth wait, another thing is "use this waiting period" to see reviews and let our "pilot" users chiong in first to suffer.. haiz...

Table tennis star Ai Fukuhara

I'm not a big fan of table tennis but no man gets bored looking at gd-looking sportswoman. haha

Firstly congrats to Singapore reaching the finals of Olympics finals in table tennis, but they are not the ones going to be featured here.

16 Aug 2008 morning, Japan vs Hong Kong in the bronze medal play-offs, Hong Kong 1 Japan 0, the next game is between Japan's Ai Fukuhara vs Hong Kong's Lin Ling. When the TV was on, Fukuhara was already 2 games down, 1 more by Lin Ling and it will be Hong Kong 2-0, but somehow she fought back to 1-1 for Japan an amazing comeback.

As I watched, kindda notice this girl is quite sweet and cute looking. Though young looking, she releases a charm of a devoted sportswoman whom has a nvr-say-die attitude. Of course next, is to on the PC and start google-ing "Ai Fukuhara". Here some of results from the searches.

As I dig out more pics, managed to find more of her info on wiki, when has wiki disappoint us? After reading, I was even more impressed!!

Born 1 November 1988, already rank 10 at the age of 19++, highest table tennis ranking for any Japanese on the official ITTF rankings. Starting to play at 3 yrs old, and playing professional at 10, joining the Japanese team in the following year. Numerous competitons in her 20 years of playing. Recently made abassador to China-Japan Cutural and Sports exchange year along with Noriko Sakai. Impressive!! Education wise, she on her way to the Waseda University.

Besides all of those stats, she was the flag bearer of the team Japan at the Olympics opening ceremony!! A prestigious honour for any sportsman or woman, only the country's icon will be carrying the flag, such as Roger Federer for Switzerland or Yao Ming for China.

By the way looking at the rankings for ITTF, look at the names of top 25 woman players and see the pattern, while looking at their country again, what do you see? http://www.ittf.com/ittf_ranking/Ranking.asp

While we admire her success and talent, she has to be part of Japan sporting and world table tennis history. But are you aware that at the age of 3, you would not remember what you like and what you don't? At 3 when u start playing table tennis, is it really what you want? While many Singaporean were scolding some parents for using their young kids to show off and force them to produce trophies of all sorts, is Ai Fukuhara one of these victims like those in Singapore? If not, then what's the difference between her and some of our poor kids performing on Saturdays programmes singing and dancing? Why do we praise her only but scold those in Singapore? So when parents push their child to learn something, is she becoming another Ai Fukuhara or becoming a victim of Singapore critics?

Think about it...

Ai Fukuhara.. Stay cute..

You want to compare Olympics opening ceremony to National Day Parade?

As I speak, I'm watching the Beijing 2008 opening ceremony. I have heard so many times that the opening ceremony is spectacular, no doubt about it. Sadly, the next day is our very own National Day Parade 2008. Sad not because it is not as good as the olympics, but sad that from then on, there has nvr been a moment of complaint abt our parade compared to the ceremony!!

(trust me, wait till you take a look at PRK's national day, we managed to see some shots from documentaries, wun lose to Beujing 2008..)

What do you want? Do you know how long they take to organise this ceremony? How many students were involved? How much money was spend on the props and equipment? Mind you, they are doing it for perhaps 1 in a 100 years. How many billions of people is watching from their home's TV.

Well since you want that standard, ask yourself the following:

If you are a parent, will you not complain that your son is participating in the parade rehersals everyday and neglecting their studies? Probably half of them will drop out because of tiredness, another half because of school work, what's new?

If you are out of job and grumbling abt the government, would you make noise and say "Why the country can spend so much on a stupid parade but not give me some money to buy food or use some time to find me a job?"

Our poor NSmen and Ns personel are already poor thing enough to burn their weekends to help out at the parade, you think everybody will be happy about preparing and rehersing?

Beijing alone has 17million, SG about 5million maybe. What do you want?

Well, watch and enjoy the opening ceremony, praise them and remember till the next Olympics, just think abit before you make your complaint ALOUD..