Saturday, April 05, 2008
Pitching
This week I was busy preparing for to present our company's projects to a visiting Dutch delegation. They were on tour in China to get a feel of the country, the market, and visit some companies, and I was contacted to see if our company would like to present on Friday (yesterday).
They wanted to hear from a foreign investor's perspective what it was like to deal in China, things to look out for, lessons learnt and so on. They also were interested in companies pertaining to new media and so we offered to introduce 2 of our projects to them.
Jose did the investor perspective presentation and I would prepare the material for the project companies. Since one of the project CEO's was able to speak English well enough, we let him present one and I would present the other project. So it was back to slide churning again.
After you get your final deck of slides, then it's practicing your presentation. The way I saw it, this was an opportunity to get an early stage investment partner in for our projects. And it was also an opportunity to show our value-add as an investor to this project's CEO and to the visiting delegation. So I knew I had to be good.
And now that the seminar is over, I know that my pitch worked. You can feel it when you've connected with the audience, you can feel the high attention level. And you know it for sure when you get complimented repeatedly on an entertaining and really good presentation, applause and all that.
But I know also that the project itself is interesting, it's exploring a new frontier in China. That's why it had gotten people's attention, that's why they were expressing interest. We had dinner with a small group from the delegation last night and after that, 2 of them pulled Jose aside and expressed intent to invest in this project. So there'll be more work after this.
I am encouraged because these are indicators that we are doing something right. And that we are working well together for this project. The CEO does his thing to create and deliver a project that is meaningful and valuable in China, and that as the first and main investment partner, we seek, pitch and sell the project to potential investors, and do the negotiations.
There is still a very long way to go, and no deal has been made yet. But gosh it feels good to have a sign that says you're headed in the right direction.
12:25 Posted in Hurray! | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email this
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Scrubbed clean
I finally got my act together and got an electric toothbrush. Man, I should have done it a long time ago. My teeth now have this really nice and clean feeling after using the electric toothbrush. I now feel like, how could I have held out for so long?
So about a week after my first brush, my toothbrush started being funky like its motor was working in spurts or something. I was a bit surprised at first, wondering why an braun/oral-b product would be like that. Then I realized its battery was almost flat and so I charged it. Now it’s back to normal. :)
Anyway, if you’re still wondering whether you should switch to electric toothbrushes, take it from me, I feel good! (na-na-na-na-na-na-na)
Go get yours today.
19:52 Posted in Hurray! | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
The F1 Grand Prix
For the first time in a very long time I sat down to watch the F1 Grand Prix on Sunday night. It was the British Grand Prix and Kimi Raikkonen, Finnish, representing Ferrari, won. Yay!
I started following the F1 Grand Prix when I was in college. During summers when I was back home, my dad and I would plunk down on the sofa in front to the TV and watch the cars speed around the circuit. Whatever dinner plans we had would work around that race timing. If we were ever late, we’d only miss a few laps and there’d still be lots more to go.
Those were the days when Mika Hakkinen was still around. I was rooting for Michael Schumacher but Mika seemed to be the better driver. Then when Mika left the F1 world, Michael ruled the circuit. His brother Ralph became a driver and seemed to have some potential, but I always supported Michael, well, because I think Ferrari is cooler than McLaren. Then this Kimi came onto the scene representing McLaren and he sure gave Michael a run for his money.
I can’t remember why I stopped watching… but it’s been a few years since I’ve really paid attention to the sport. Michael has since retired. But when I followed the race on Sunday, I was kinda excited about it again.
These days, Lewis Hamilton, British, representing McLaren, is creating headlines with his good and steady performance and the fact that he’s leading the drivers’ ranking. But because I’m a Ferrari supporter, I’m happy that Kimi won. And it helps that Kimi looks better too… haha. (I mean, sometimes you just wonder what they look like… all you usually see is them in their helmet whizzing around in their cars.)
As of now, Lewis still leads the drivers’ scoreboard, and McLaren the manufacturers’, but it looks like this season should be more competitive. Go Kimi!
15:50 Posted in Hurray! | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this
Monday, July 02, 2007
On a roll
You’ve probably noticed, I had a lot to say in June. A blog post for every working day last month except for the 8th. the 8th was actually a mistake; I thought I had one for that day, but apparently not.
I hadn’t originally planned to blog that much but I guess things just worked out that way. I was reading interesting articles, had more inspiration to write and stuff. And on the 3rd week of June I decided I would make a run for it… see if I could go till the end of the month. And I have.
I wanted to get a feel of what it would be like to be one of those more concientious bloggers who have to post something everyday. I realize that I don't have to think up something everyday. Somedays, I have a few ideas in the same day and I'll generate 2-4 posts and preset the publish date. This then gives me some space for days when I've just got nothing to say.
But I think June was special month, I was on a roll. Lately the news hasn’t been particularly exciting, so I’ll slow my pace down some. Anyway, it was nice to be on a roll, you don’t get those everyday.
11:53 Posted in Hurray! | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Upgrade
I love my new handphone, you know that? It’s a Nokia 6300.
Apparently the 6300 was designed to appeal to the same users who loved the Nokia 6100 – which is also me. My new phone is so gorgeous compared to that old heap I was using previously. (After I misplaced my 6100, I inherited my dad’s phone since he wanted to upgrade and I didn’t see any handsets that I liked enough to buy). I call it an old heap because every time I had to set the date for various reasons, I always had to change the year from its default setting i.e. 2004 – which is probably when that model came out.
I’m not one of those people who want all this cool stuff on my phone. I remember when I was back in Singapore in May, uptowngal was telling me about this phone she really liked, I think it was the N95. Whoa, it was like this hunk of metal that had all these functions (which is doing wonders for her I imagine) and I knew for sure it wasn’t the phone for me because it was just too much for me to handle.
Then meeshell said, “I know just the phone for you.” It’s funny, her description, and the fact what she said appealed to me might say actually something about me too. “It looks really nice but it’s got nothing inside.” Well, that’s not really an accurate description but in comparison with its contemporaries, the 6300 is simpler. And that was exactly what I was looking for. I just wanted to very beautiful piece to carry around that would fulfill my communication needs.
After 1 month of thinking about it, I finally have it. And I love it. *beam*
10:45 Posted in Hurray! | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
A random act of Swedish madness
The other day, I received a care package from the States. A friend had casually asked for my address and I did thought she was going to send a card or something.
It turned out to be a bag of my favorite gummy candy, Swedish fish.
For those of you who don’t know, Swedish Fish candy looks like this. They are usually red in color. The normal Swedish Fish gummy is about 2.5cm (1 inch) long.
And the regular-sized packet looks like this.
The bag of candy I received though contained giant Swedish Fish measuring about 5cm (2 inches) long! 1.5kg (3.5 lbs) of such red monsters loomed inside the massive bright yellow packaging.
My Chinese colleagues who had never seen such candy before thought someone had sent me a big bag of clothes detergent powder.
Apparently they call it the “wholesale pack”. I call it a “random act of Swedish madness”. Thanks Mug-mug!
22:35 Posted in Hurray! | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this
Thursday, July 14, 2005
I've been referenced!
Quick congratulate me... I just discovered that my post on Generation Gap is being used as a source for a project concerning the generation gap in Singapore. Here it is: http://www.kn.sbc.com/wired/fil/pages/webdiscussimi.html Look under the "Young Singaporeans' point-of-view" section. I have no idea who the project leader is, but hey I'm glad she found my post useful for her students. Makes me feel real good... like I have been published or something. Then again, you never know. Maybe the students are blasting me in their report. Oh heck.
So, while we are on the topic of referencing, I still find that I have to do this quite a bit at work. Always got to cite your sources, I remember my professor telling us repeatedly. I find that even in my conversations, I like to cite people... only that my memory is so bad that it ends up going something like this.
"Hey, who was it that said that....?"
"I don't know. When did it happen?"
"You know, that time when we were out with Anna and Paul, and then suddenly whats-his-face showed up? Yeah, that's the guy I'm referring to. What's whats-his-face's name?"
Yes, everybody goes by the name "whats-his-face" or "whats-her-face" at some point in time. Especially if it was just a fleeting encounter. I do not mean to be rude. I am just so incredibly lousy with names. All those tricks they teach you about imagining a picture above the person's head when they introduce themselves (like "Honey Han Ee"), or adding an alliterative adjective before their name (like "Lucky Leonard")... they do not work for me. The only thing that does work is for me to be upfront and say," I'm very bad with names so please forgive me if I forget yours. No offence intended." But of course I try not to let the person know that I have already forgotten the person's name by the time I finish that sentence. Rest assured once we actually have some experiences together, I will remember your name.
My parents used to play memory games with me. They would put a set of items in a box, we would stare at them for 10 seconds, and then they would cover the box and we would try to list down as many things we could remember on our own papers. I always did poorly. Which probably explains why I always get lost and have such poor sense of direction - I can read maps fine, but when I walk out of a building I just have no "gut instinct" of which direction we should be headed in. No worries though, we shall eventually reach the destination.
I have completely digressed on what I really wanted to say on this post, how typical. I meant to continue on about how this month has been really quite good for my blog. The search engines have also been kind. I must be using the right key words in my posts because my blog is showing up more often in search results. My hits have also been a whole notch higher than last month... You guys have really been giving the Refresh button a workout huh? THANKS :)
Thanks for reading. For putting me on your Favorites list, for swinging by regularly and leaving comments. Always good to know that someone cares about what I think or feel. Or wants to know what sort of new nonsense I have to spout. Or finds that I can make them laugh, or that they can relate to what I am saying. Sweet.
18:10 Posted in Hurray! | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this
Monday, May 30, 2005
My good friend's wedding
Azzamac got hitched this weekend. The church wedding was on Saturday, and the wedding dinner was on Sunday. Congrats dude. This is me capturing snapshots of thoughts through the weekend.
Saturday
730am
Rise and shine. Great weather! Send message to bride and groom to wish them happy wedding day.
830am
The girls are here. We are off to the bride's. The groom will go to her place later with his groomsmen.
930am
Azzamac and Co. are here. Boy do they have a lot of "obstacles" that the bride's party has set out for them.
1030am
He does love her. The groom, and his team, they have gone through quite a bit:
1. Worn white disposable underwear OUTSIDE of their suit pants, and run around the neighborhood in them.
2. Drank 4 gross-looking concoctions that are way too sour, sweet, bitter and spicy
3. Each guy had to have their legs waxed. Well, not all of it, one wax strip on each leg. Bad enough.
4. The shy guys had to sing "I believe in miracles" (think Full Monty) and the guys who could actually sing had to dance to it. Heh!
5. Azzamac had to compose a poem to declare his love for the bride on the spot. The love poem has to involve a wooden chair, a hair dryer, a plastic chicken wing, a 6th grade math syllabus book and an abacus. Wow, the poem is actually pretty decent for a two minute effort. It goes something like this:
When you sitteth in your chair
And you blow dryeth your long long hair
It gets me all exciteth
And it makes my heart beateth
Like when I do math syllabus
with the abacus
It makes me want to eateth chicken wingeth
And it makes me want to singeth
Well ok it is not exactly a love poem, but you try writing something better in two minutes!
12pm
It is too hot. The girls have come over to my place to rest. Air-conditioning, Animal Planet. Ahhhh... coolness!
1pm
We have ushering duties for the church wedding. Go to go.
3pm
Wow, Azzamac's buddies just did an acapella gig for the processional - lovely. They sound like the real thing you hear on CDs!
430pm
The wedding was a wonderful affair. For a moment there I thought the groom forgot to unveil the bride and kiss her. Obviously I was not the only one who thought so because someone apparently sent a note up to the groom to remind him to kiss the girl. Azzamac's sis did a little number for him "You'll never walk alone" - not the Liverpool version - that was sweet. Did I say the wedding couple looked great yet?
Sunday
240pm
The wedding dinner is tonight. Still trying to figure out what to wear.
It is pouring - relief from yesterday's intense heat. Thank goodness it didn't rain yesterday - everyone would have been soaked and mighty unhappy.
Did not sleep well last night. Time to fall asleep to the pitter-patter of the falling rain.
630pm
Dressed and ready to go. Have decided my theme for the night is "One Night in Shanghai".
845pm
Seated at my table. Oh, the team that designed the bride's wedding gown just arrived. Two guys and a girl. They look so cool, the girl especially. She has this Cleopatra hair cut - how do you pull that look off? Amazing.
1215am
Just got back from the wedding dinner. Food was good. Azzamac's buddies did a really enjoyable gig. What I enjoyed about it was that I had a good table - we had some fun :) Needless to say, the bride was gorgeous (beyond her usual prettiness) and the groom looked extra sharp!
---
I found another blog: this one is about a young guy and girl (Josh, 20, and Ash, 19) who are getting married. Actually, I think they got married this weekend too. They write about their feelings, preparation, transition, and about themselves. Quite nice really. You can either click on the link "For Better or For Worse" on the left under Go here, or you can just click here.
00:30 Posted in Hurray! | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this
Sunday, February 27, 2005
Happy Birthday
This weekend, sister gill and i decided to go to the zoo to celebrate my birthday. Sister gill likes going to the zoo, and if she could, she might make it an annual pilgrimage, but she has not been there in the past five years. I have not been there in about ten years, so it was good timing for us.
Other than the botanical gardens, the zoo is the other tourist attraction I would recommend people to go to in Singapore. The occupants are 100% natural, with a reasonably diverse spread, the zoo as a whole does not bear a cheesy concept, and you actually learn a few things about our world. It is a different kind of fun from the theme parks and other man made wonders. Man made wonders are great pieces of work, but you know that one of our kind built them. Not quite the same awe that fills you when you appreciate how beautiful animals are, or how magnificient must have been the hand that created them.
You also begin to realize a few similarities between us and them. Perhaps more with primates. We were at the Honduras Baboons exhibit, and noticed that they understand the reward system. For example, a few young baboons would make eye contact with you, wait for us to wave food at them and they would do a stunt (such as a headstand, backflips, spin around), and your response would be to throw the food at them. Other similar behaviors include adult females expressing their readiness to mate by presenting their behinds to the males, and adult males always being ready to get some action - taking about ten seconds from start to finish. (Yes, you may express your disagreement in the comments box below) But anyway.
As much as I was so glad to be able to see some animals that I might never see in my life normally - like tigers and lions - I was saddened by the fact that they were in such confined space. The difference is painfully obvious when I compare them to what I see in National Geograpic and what I read about in my recording stint for azzamac. These animals' muscles are underdeveloped (lack of space to run?) and their coats of fur are not as luscious or glossy.
Mr. Trees and I talked about whether the zoos are the "right" thing to do. I think zookeepers try their best, but animals out of their natural habitats will not do as well in such small confines. Yet these zoos play a part in educating the city slickers looking for their next beautiful coat, accessory, sexual performance booster, or mantelpiece. I fear that one day, all we will have of the wild are zoos and royal gardens...
After the zoo, sister gill brought me to a surprise barbecue party. Phil was there. The food was superb (kudos to azzamac's mama and Clazzic Butchery) and we had a great time hanging out long after the barbecue. It reminded me very much of the surprise birthday parties my college roommate, !, would throw for me. Like sister gill, ! would try her hardest to prevent me from smelling a rat, but I guess you always can tell somehow. I had a fantastic time, at the zoo and at the party.
I figure I should really enjoy my birthdays now because there will come a time when I hate celebrating them and I'll just be living in denial, forever claiming that I am 26.
16:45 Posted in Hurray! | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email this