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No Country for Corrupted Men

2010-04-16T19:19:00.002+07:00

Nowadays the differences in opinions, esp. political ones, are dividing people everywhere around the world apart from each others. Thailand has once been a place of serene comfort for tourists, now it faces a great divide among red, yellow, pink, blue, and green groups according to their different assumed-to-be-pro-democratic believes. It is such a horrible sight to witness thousands of protesters to amass on street in front of luxury stores and hotels in the middle of Bangkok, in which it creates yet another class division – elite vs. grass-rooted.

These clashes centre around the vested interests of a few individuals, who caught in a web of tangled corruption charges/allegations. While more than 90 per cent of total population still thrive to live their everyday lives as usual as possible despite the inconveniences these protesters have caused, the damages that are both direct and indirect consequences of these ironically "peaceful" protests still affect the whole kingdom in an unimaginable scale. Not only the tourism industry, many local and foreign investors now reassess their portfolio to avoid the future uncertainties. The growth prospect of this year might be in a rocky status and would be difficult to get back on track again in the short term.

Those corrupted men, who have caused all the hiccups in Thai society, are now facing their own challenges, as their agenda also lead to more exposure among the public. The discussions have emerged both off- and on-line to reveal the ugly truths of both sides. With the far-reaching effect of social media today, the resonance of individual voices begins to amplify the sentiment and forms the judgement among various groups. No matter how hard they try, the exposed truth will not convince the public to tolerate any more lies and it is a matter of time that a fight strategy becomes a flight to find a safe shelter elsewhere, outside the anguish eyes of the fooled ones.

It is just a matter of time.

Economic Crisis in a Nutshell

2009-08-11T21:03:00.002+07:00

After many news and talk shows rambling about the recent global economic crisis, it has finally caught on into layperson's everyday topic. Since there is an indication that our lives are worse off than in the past few years, whether in the form of decreased revenue or sentimental awareness of peers and colleagues talking about their consumption drip. But how a vast and intricately complex topic as global economy becomes understandable to everyone's sense?

To talk about the crisis, one can speculate that any business owners should better explain it with their experiences than a scholarly expert in the field of data mining and analysis. Is it? The question posted is intended to be sarcastic, of course.

The crisis in a nutshell explained.
Take a medium-sized florist as an example. One day in a business life of a florist "Les Fleurs" usually goes on like this: the shop opens, every well-trained staff greets the customers, some higher-level executives take and ship the international (mostly online) orders and execute them to delegated personnel, delivery takes place during the day, the accountants cash in and register the daily account, the shop closes in the evening just in time for everyone to go home and enjoy their dinner.

Two years after the opening, this shop happened to be catching the big wave of globalisation and the chic of the moment. The shop owner considered investing into a second branch, third, fourth, ... until the business goes global with shops in major metropolitan cities worldwide. Any online orders from Seattle that once has to be in bulk can now be made by any love doves. The empire starts to be stable, with everyone thinking of this Les Fleurs as a generic name for florist shop, the likes of Starbucks for coffee.

Then, the multimillion-dollar business is more complex: more staffs, organisational hierachy, sales goal that is projected to grow every year, while the demand for flowers is steady or starting to decline. The company has to cut costs by lowering the unnecessary luxuries: the business-class travel expense, mid-year seminars, client entertainment, and such are cut partially or completely. The situation is not improving, which leads to more cut and somehow positions that once were considered crucial are now nothing to the company. Technological improvement has led to staff lay-off. Fees are incurred to the customers. All of the "necessary" measures to keep the company giant afloat has a negative consequence. Customers are retracting their orders, diverting to cheaper local alternatives. Revenue pool has drained off and in a matter of years dried up. The merger & acquisition, which was the last card a year ago, has become impossible as potential investors do not see any potentials any more.

Suddenly, the glory and legends of Les Fleurs come to an end. Any businesses depending on this shop also suffer a great deal as a change towards opening a new account at new florist shops does not mean a big discount they once enjoyed. Botanical gardens supplying beautiful flowers to the shop have an excess which leads to a lower price and lesser revenue. Some have to close altogether as it is difficult or impossible to find another big name to supply flowers to. The chain of reaction continues as ex-employees have to find new jobs which might take a couple of months. The consumption by these employees and its suppliers drops and hurts the economy as a whole. Internationally, the consequence has a wider impact as the synergistic effect might as well equal a national income of some isolated small island in the Pacific Ocean.

If there are more businesses or these vicious cycle happens to big wigs, it is not difficult at all to start the panic in the minds of everyone, like spreading the wildfire in late autumn.

Now, the next step to recovery does not come from watching the programme of the same name on CNN but the government has to intervene and smoothen the path for mid-income consumers to continue spending rather than saving and hurting the whole economy.

On Politics

2008-12-10T16:39:00.002+07:00

It is becoming a general topic engaging everyone to discuss politics these days. Despite the fact that we have democracy as our main system for decades but there are still serious incidents killing innocent people happening all the time. The Mumbai attack, Bangkok airports siege and demonstrations, Greek violent act, and many more have something in common: innocent citizens were sacrificed and the background can be linked back to politics.

For more than 300,000 years that the Homo genus have wandered the earth, the word "humankind," which should be composed of "human" and "kind" cannot be assured completely. The teachings of Buddha about lives are timeless but still our own blindness prevents us to normally live our lives and reach the ultimate nirvana. Concepts regarding utopia and organisation of civilisation are still the fantasy or theoretical illusion politicians are selling but, in reality, chaos is abound since lives are so complex and unpredictable.

Stop believing the propaganda, I say, the fabricated ideas without thinking with our logic and reasons first. If we believe truly, then act accordingly. Causing someone else's discomfort, or even hurt must be forbidden. Because, in the end, all that is worth doing is living the peaceful lives.

Publication designed by Me [Self-promotion]

2008-11-28T18:36:00.004+07:00

Get your own - Open publication

Getting Something Done – Listmania

2008-07-22T16:07:00.002+07:00

After years of studying and working, it is often believed that our brains are mature enough to think of itself as an organizing tool doing lots of lots of tasks in a specific pattern or order. Sequential and parallel task management is key to this GTD method widely appraised by workers worldwide as it sums up one of the most efficient ways to organize our personal and professional lives.

After some research, there are two softwares working great with this scheme: OmniFocus and OmniOutliner. In a few days users will become listmania obsessing with To-Dos, shopping lists, reading lists, must-have lists, etc. Moreover, since the launch of App Store by Apple alongside iPhone 2.0 firmware, loads of to-do-list applications (both free and commercial) are tempting us to download them onto our pwned 2G or legit 3G iPhones.

Life can never be this organized.

Capturing Thoughts

2008-07-22T15:55:00.003+07:00

There are various ways to capture our thoughts and ideas. Sometimes it is best for someone to write out loud because he or she might be in a mood to describe the events or wonderful experiences. Sometimes a photo can portray one's memory without the need to give caption. Or sometimes a mix of both is ideal because an image itself cannot convey the true meaning of the author or photographer.

A WordPress theme "Monotone" in the form of photoblogging is on one extreme, while this Blogspot theme is on the other, just plain text. While Tumblr sits neatly in between.

P.S. WordPress blog of mine (vi.blog) has once again been updated and it is decided to be one of photoblogging. Feel free to drop by.

Summary of Social Network Sites

2008-06-01T15:39:00.004+07:00

It is often sarcastically portrayed in JoT comics that social networking sites might somehow promote health deficiency (instead of the opposite). Somehow these sites are attempting to creep into one's life, virtual or cyber life to be exact. Various sites are designed so well and so minimal that almost everybody can easily subscribe in no time.

The formula of getting users to involve in their sites which are friendly-designed and well-equipped with themes and widgets results in Multiple/Dissociative Personality Disorder. Side effects of this is time wasted unnecessarily on updating each and every networking sites subscribed.

Symptoms of MPD can be categorized into two groups : psychological behaviour, physical illness. Examples of these are :

multiple mannerisms, attitudes and beliefs which are dissimilar to each other
headaches and other body pains
distortion or loss of subjective time
depersonalization
amnesia
depression (source : Wikipedia)

These can be diagnosed in a basic manner by viewing pages at various networking sites of anybody and analyse the differences between them. If they are of significance, then he or she may have MPD.

To cure such disorder, it is often cited that "reconnection" of the multiple personalities by psychotherapy (or behavioural therapy) and medication. Easily ignore other personalities and focus and respond only to single personality to help the person to establish a consistent one.

Therefore, if it happens to experience such networking sites, do visit one of these sites at a regular basis:

Hi5 : personal journal with interaction between friends
MSN Spaces : older posts
Blogspot : personal perspective and mumble-jumble
Tumblr : post of things stumbled upon on the net (newly added)

Happy treatment!

Иностранцы

2008-05-26T23:51:00.002+07:00

My experiences which involve me into a conversation of any kind of topics with foreigners so far have been exciting in a way that I never imagine myself being voluble, though verbose sometimes, because the barrier in between was so hugh and not easily breakable but more and more immersing and practising through various means and methods after so many years have proved useful and fruitful – not only allow me to communicate back and forth with other people but also open a world of information, both helpful and helplessly unnecessary, for my once-narrow block of space encompassing me and my imagination into one of limited and such.

Proofs that I can no longer feel the anxiety and shivering shrug of feeling is when I travelled to China with my family two years ago, which by that time the only thing that disappointed me was the tiny discount I got that I still regret it to this day, or when I travelled alone to Singapore and made my way to every place without fear of not being able to get back to hotel at all, thanks to the great метро "MRT," or when I dealt happily with the architect to finish the project.

The point of all this post is actually and absolutely ... nothing. Think of dummy text starting with Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet ... Existentialism may somehow be able to find ways to interpret this blog-posting act of mine but please help me find some topics worthy of post and I will see what I can do.

Technolust

2007-11-12T15:59:00.000+07:00

It is often debated recently whether we are or we are not affixed to the techno gadgets more and more. Can we survive without such things as Palm or Ultramobile Notebook or even Slim and Smart Mobile Phone?

When it comes to term of technological impact upon our lifestyle, we often argue that without such things our everyday life would be more difficult. We cannot move along the business pace and impossibly stay ahead of the coming wave of new generations.

How interesting would it be if we still use the letter as our mean to communicate and conduct the business? Comparing this to the overutilised e-mail would be like a gentle and polite snail competing in the race against outracious leopard.

No wonder nowadays that we cannot possibly wander around carrying a quill and a bottle of indian ink to summarise the minute of meeting for our ever-demanding executives, but at least we still have some room left for decoration of our e-mail template and signature to convey our identity. More and more time that we spend on the virtual world interconnected between us and the other end of the fibre-optic, less and less emotions and humours that we express toward our neighbours.

Anyway, we still crave for the latest model of do-it-all McPerson's 37 i-TV and throw our fortune on the upcoming Android-equipped phones as iPhone will not be cool tomorrow, right?

2007-10-19T20:19:00.001+07:00

Whole Wide World Within Grasp

2007-09-29T15:34:00.000+07:00

It is already obvious that, nowadays, no matter where you are, you can have the whole wide world within your palm - all in one device. The technological advances grant everybody with internet connection access to almost every content available online...

Sounds like an introduction to some business and IT textbooks? It is obvious and happening already for quite some time.

Of course, the latest models from every gadget manufacturers ensures that they can function as useful as possible (for a hefty price), ranging from fully-functional internet browsing, e-mail, phone, GPS, wayfinding, document and spreadsheet editing, calendar and appointment, stock and weather checking, jagged-picture-snapping camera, messaging, chatting, pirated song and porno video playback and sharing, games and entertainment, flashlight, mosquito repellent, pocket mirror, to anti-canine weapon (the cheaper and heavier, the more effective). What could one's life be without such devices in the past? Probably boring and dangerous, I presume.

P.S. Have a hand on the much-hyped iPhone and see for yourself how it transforms our experience toward the traditional mobile phones.

Multi-OS User

2007-06-26T22:40:00.000+07:00

Since the beginning of personal computer, there has been a continuous battle of users in their choice of operating systems (OS). OS functions as the set of computer codes that controls the orchestration of computer hardwares by interpreting user's input via devices like keyboard, mouse. It interacts with the user by displaying WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You 'Gonna' Get) user interface (UI). The systematic thinking behind every operating system involves inevitably the study of user behaviour.

Every year the software makers are introducing new kind of softwares or merely an upgrade version of them but they all must follow the same rules of UI already preconfigured by its respective OS -- menu bar, button and its action, dialog box, help window, and so on. Thus the OS is what every computer users sees everyday they turn it on.

Aethetics play a critical part of how users judge how good any OS is. Subjective judgement never really makes an argument a reasonable and reliable one without the comparative analysis of function. As one may put 'form follows function' versus 'function follows form' into consideration is one matter that never get resolved, it is the very reason that the battle of OS is never ceased.

My opinion? I am neutral to every operating system available on the market, as of now. I am currently using Microsoft Windows XP (the most popular OS), Microsoft Windows Vista Edition Integral (the french version of Vista Ultimate, the latest release), Mac OS X Tiger 10.4.10, and Ubuntu (update: unfortunately removed). Advantages and disadvantages of each OS are abound, while at the same time they have helped me getting through the most demanding nature of my work.

Getting ahead doesn't mean the best choice must be chosen but it is how to manage in the best way to get work done efficiently.

Viva La Vista! Hail Leopard!

Silence

2007-05-21T09:00:00.000+07:00

An illustration of silence is shown above. It involves reaction in the audience mind. But a real world demonstration of silence you can find at the work of John Cage titled 4'33" which consists of four minutes and 33 seconds of silence premiered on August 29, 1952. Sometimes this silence can help you better understand your true self.

One of the difference between the West and the East is a peaceful mind and an understanding of the true concept of silence (and other concepts), as is the case of this copyright infringement dispute between Cage and Mike Batt of The Planets band over A Minute's Silence. Silence does not imply peace, after all.

...

Eagerness

2007-04-25T14:37:00.000+07:00

It is generally believed that our intelligence derives from the inability to protect ourselves from the world around us and the lack of subconscious instinct. This gives us the urge to seek protective measures - the brainpower, which works very hard trying to figure out solutions and randomly connect the synapse to generate creative thoughts and possibilities.

The primitive needs are fulfilled. Survival the harsh environment gives us the comforting emotion, which leads to further and further steps up the hierachy of needs (according to Maslow) - safety, love and belonging, esteem, and lastly self-actualization.

Whenever we possess the ability to affect others (influence, power, or so), directly or indirectly, there is always a reaction or consequence to that ability, that is, to use it or not use it. Indeed it is up to our urge or eagerness to decide.

Perhaps the most interesting thing in humanity is eagerness itself. There are differences between inert versus eager person in certain extent. Lifestyle and mindset are a few examples. Should the first homo sapiens not eager to violate its own thought not to get involve with fire, our civilisations would have not been emerged. Curiosity alone does not push our inner self to explore everything. You want to know but may not necessarily your need. But when you eager to start something, it's always some type of action that will follow afterward.

In a sense of understanding, the id underneath our conscious is a very crude form of eagerness. Good or evil being not an issue, rethought, higher-level needs, and morality do filter the dark side of ours toward lighter self.

Be yourself.

Survival Of A Rock Star Pt.2

2007-04-19T22:41:00.000+07:00

Continued from previous post...

7. Your band must have a good naming. Advice: A good naming means a name you can't find in every dictionary on earth (or any planets within our solar system).

8. Sleep less or use JeanPaulGautier Kohl eyeliner. Dark eye circles (vampire-like) are "in" nowadays. Also, wear sunglasses even at all times (no matter if it's at night or in winter or indoors).

9. Incorporate sound effects like yeeeaaahhh, ohhh, wuuu, into your lyrics. Shriek or squeeze one or a few words as high as possible. Second alternative: shout.

10. Sign fast. This is very important because the more you can sign your autograph, the more buzz and stories will be spreading by means of word-of-mouth activity.

11.-20. The rules are there for you to define it! You're the rock star now. Improvisation is the key to becoming the legend. But remember this: TRUST NO ONE. But whenever things go wrong, DENY EVERYTHING. These two rules hold true - always.

New Tunes Update

1. MAROON5

From the successful smashing hit album "Song About Jane," the band responds to its fan's crave for the new album "It Won't Be Soon Before Long" by releasing the first single "Make Me Wonder," which you can view the music video at the official site here.

2. Linkin Park

A much-awaited new album from the alternative rock band, that changes the landscape of today's music from their past albums, is about to come out very soon. "Minutes Before Midnight" is the latest attempt to really proves the band's gifted talent. Watch the first single "What I've Done" at their official website here.

3. Arcade Fire

Canadian surprise strikes again. Even Bono of U2 and David Byrne praise this band for its rocking tunes that give the rock music another step further. The beautiful and elegant sounds abound in this album will surely change the way you listen to rock music.

Survival Of A Rock Star

2007-04-19T09:08:00.000+07:00

The music business in today's global landscape has forced all artists to keep up with their good works or styles in order to sell themselves to stardom. We have seen new faces rushing and sweeping the old ones every single day. It is not solely a matter of artistic expression or trendy tunes but involves a timely scheduled single release, an adequate radio station airplay, cool music videos, appropriate marketing campaigns, rocking concert tours, constant appearance on the news, and such.

Here's a little survival guide to becoming a stick-in-the-umm... ear rock star:
1. First, you have to look good all the time (on screen or on stage). A hyperactively-trend-conscious-and-perhaps-gender-bended personal stylist can help you on this.
2. Besides your look, you've got to have a hip mixer and cool producer with you every album.
3. You have to fetch a f**king great motion graphic designer for you music video.
4. It is compulsory for you to release new singles every year or your fans are forgetting you real fast.
5. Also find some time to appear on a popular and highest-rating talk show programmes as many as possible. Don't forget to bring fake tears in case you have to retell your past tear-sobbing soap-opera story (or stories) and be surprised every time a long-time-you-can't-even-remember friend shows up (expectedly, of course) chit-chatting about your nasty habits or jokes about you.
6. Most of new faces are becoming flattered, self-deplacent and ruining their future by taking drugs and party too much. So, get together with yourself.

To be continued...

Snippets du Temps

2007-04-10T09:57:00.000+07:00

It is 'Time' that flies by us at the moment we cannot possibly imagine the 'Time' itself has passed. In a world where killing time means a precious treasure, you can gain more of it only through travelling to a foreign land in the western direction but after you lose your time in pursuit of gaining it. Complex of time always wonders those who still have some time to think about it.

When time is not enough, there is no limit of 'enough' to define and be defined. The most interesting thing about time is that it is the fourth dimension, besides width-lenght-height world we can see, that we can only feel or just take a snap of it but not touching or seeing it.

Because time is scarce, the allocation or management of time is crucial to our daily life. The offset of doing one thing and not doing other things always differentiates the successful ones with the rest. Knowing what to do first and act accordingly always bring the satisfied outcome, at least to our own mind.

Love to live your life while you're still having it. Because Tempus Fugit - time flies.

Things To Do Before You Die

2007-03-08T21:14:00.000+07:00

As it is generally awared that we human beings are all in the same life cycle of birth - life - death, this fact does not reflect what most of us do or try to do in everyday living. We still live our lives with no preparation or planning ahead of things or goals we should achieve prior to our death in years to come. There is one saying that tells us to 'live each day like the last day of our life' as can be found in some movies or song like "Life Or Something Like It," "The Music's No Good Without You," etc.

If you visit the nearest bookstore, there could be a chance you will find a book with titles like "100 Things To Do Before You Die," "100 Places To See Before You Die," "100 Paintings You Must See Before You Die," "100 Dishes ...," "100 Books ...," "100 Museums ...," and so on. Interesting? It is intriguing to note that books with titles like these sell themselves with such a concept so private and so individual. To believe in doing things or seeing items or tasting dishes suggested in the book is an expression of brainwash or the like. Freedom and free will are what make us and the society evolve and innovate.

Of course, it is personal judgement to decide what, when, where, how to do anything. In a sense that our conscience keeps us awake and ready, there still are things that overcome our six senses, like at the moment I am very sleepy.

zzZ

Another (Chained) Tag

2007-02-13T22:33:00.000+07:00

After the headache of being tagged by kyu, there comes again another chained-tagged blog spree. Only this time the instruction is to blurt out the first word in mind. It is like the old times back when the English class teacher played a vocabulary game like this.

Okay, here is my list:
A - anonymous (guess it is related to internet browsing I am currently doing)
B - bird (first thought)
C - cat (my favourite pet)
D - ditch (I don't know why but I love the pronunciation)
E - emporium (extravaganza shopping complex I used to (window) shopping)
F - foxtrot (a fox trotting around, not the dance)
G - grizzly (sizzler-related word I came up when my stomach is craving for snack right now)
H - hedonist (hmm... don't ask)
I - ice cream (you can guess this one, I am really in need of sweet dessert now)
J - jien... (my surname)
K - koenig (german vocabulary for king, does this count?)
L - lioness (links to the above word in the sense of power)
M - madonna (subconsciously relates with the above, I suppose)
N - nutcracker (I'm really hungry now, you see)
O - overreact (my first thought of the word after over- prefix)
P - pesticide (I don't know)
Q - questionnaire (I love the rhythm of letter usuage in this word plus a sense of french touch)
R - restoria (Italian word for restaurant or something)
S - strenghten (actually I came up upon 'strenghtening')
T - thrust (it sounds more complicated than just 'trust')
U - ubersexual (someone's MSN nickname, who came online while I was blogging)
V - vi (my name in short)
W - walrus (it seems the whole theme involves only animal and food)
X - x-files (my most favourite tv series of all time)
Y - yolanda (sci-fi character, i guess)
Z - zealot (finito?)

From me with love,
Niew
Tomatarom
P'P
P'Jaew
Bie

I'm Tagged!

2007-01-29T08:12:00.000+07:00

As I was blog-tagged by k-yu, traditionally I have to tell the secrets or the not-so-secret-but-you-would-not-ask-about-it secrets. These are what I can come up.

1. Bedtime
I once fell off the bed. It was one night when I was a kid. Usually I sleep quite still but that night I must had been rolling around the bed and suddenly fell off by the bedside and stuck there for minutes. I can't move and then woke up. It's kind of embarassing, so I haven't told anybody about it.

2. Childhood
I was once stabbed with a pencil at my face near my nose by my friend when I was in kindergarten. Sounds scary? Not much. I still think the carbon is left there. What a child! Again, when I was a kid, I used to take a bath and go playing in the bathroom reservoir full of water. My parents finally catched me because my brother accidentally opened the door and found me in that and he ran out telling them I was drowning. How kind!

3. Accident
I experienced two serious accidents in my life. One time I was hit by a car driving towards me while crossing a parking lane. Another time I was hit by a motorbike while crossing a street. In both accidents I did not feel any pain or remember anything about being hit "at all". It was like my brain just switched itself off. Weird? Anyway it is great for me. The latter one gives me a scar at my right ankle.

4. Decorati
I used to collect Smerf glowing-in-the-dark figure set at my desk when I was a kid. Somehow my teacher just posed the policy for children not to keep toys at the desk and found my precious Smerf one day. I was almost crying but I cannot do anything about it. Oh!
Growing up, I turned my desk into some fantasy land where I can play whenever I want to. I decorate inside my desk with everything a kid could find amusing and appropriate enough to satisfy the imagination. One of my favourite theme is that I decorate my wonderdesk to be an amusement park. Up to the present I still decorate, but not my desk, one of my closet shelf to be like a window display at shopping mall.

5. Addiction
I am a fan of Cher – hooked to her voice since I heard her smash-the-record hit 'Believe'. I am also addicted to The X-Files, Great Expectations, Fight Club – my first three movies I bought, which I watched more than 20 times that I can remember every single line. I bought these films' soundtrack and score so that I can still have audio version to listen to on the road. I love sci-fi movies : The Fifth Element, Gattaca, Sky Captain, Star Wars, etc. I am a Mac fan. What could I say ... is this some kind of therapy session that people gather around and reveal their secrets?

I'll pass this to you guys:
Newtronn
Frame
Bee
P'P in Kalmar
Tomatarom

Computer Now

2007-01-28T14:55:00.000+07:00

Recently I just received a new notebook from my company for work. It is interesting that notebook nowadays are becoming like an ordinary consumer product. Price is driven down, thanks to advancement in technology. Features are richer and more interesting, which really help us empower ourselves to become almost any roles we would never be in the past. We can be the author, the web designer, the merchandiser, the buyer, the freelancer, the professional photographer, the clerk, the executive, and the list is endless.

This Dell Latitude 620 sports 1.83 GHz Intel Core Duo / 512 MB DDR2 RAM / 60 GB HDD / 14.1 inch TFT LCD / 8x DVD+/-RW Dual Layer Writer Drive / 4 USB ports / Bluetooth / 802.11 Wi-Fi / Windows XP Professional (of course, or you expect Mac OS X in a Dell?) / 2.00 kg weight / More Work From Boss^tm / Less Graphic Creativity (compared to Mac) / Pirated Software Protection / Colleague Virus and Malware Invitation^tm Technology.

It will take me a little while to get used to working with both Windows PC and Apple Mac. Anyway, there are still many high-end notebooks and desktop PCs out there like these ones :

Alienware Area 51 m5790 Special Edition – Roaring
The Alienware brand is known in gamer's world as one of the best and luxurious one could find on earth.
Windows Vista Capable / Overclocked 2.66 GHzIntel Core 2 Duo / 2 GB DDR2 RAM / 256 MB NVIDEA GeForce Go 7600 / up to 400 GB Dual Hard drives / Blu-ray Disk Drive / 17" Wide Screen Clearview LCD / Intel PRO Wireless a/b/g / 7.1 High def. audio / 4 USB 2.0 ports / 8 lbs weight (about 3.6 kg.)

VoodooPC Envy W:201 – Superb notebook
From the legendary VoodooPC comes the Envy W:201 notebook featuring 20.1-inch LCD with weight around 16 lbs (7 kg!) and NVIDEA GeForce Go 7950 in SLI mode and up to 320 GB dual hard drives. Price starting from $5,000. No more spec needed as you can imagine the power of this machine. Envy will certainly be around the one who purchases this one great notebook.

Shuttle XPC 1337 – Extreme monster
With this compact cube ensures that the gaming experience will be smoothhhh to the last minute. This lovely monster features Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 (Quad-core) / AMD ATi-Radeon X1950 Pro Crossfire / 10,000 RPM Western Digital Raptor 150 GB HDD / 2 GB Crucial Ballistix RAM / Vista-ready.

I wonder what the scene would be if an ordinary businessman or businesswoman just uses one of these to do his or her routine like browsing internet, typing documents, or spreadsheets. For me, I would just cry.

Update

2007-01-28T13:31:00.000+07:00

Awaken from sleep too much in recent weeks due to heavy workload, these are some updates from my personal perspective:

1. Apple iPhone – Revolution of communication
The long-awaited-and-rumored iPhone is showing itself at the annual MacWorld at Moscone Center by Steve Jobs, Apple Inc. CEO, with the crowd applausing, shouting and screaming with excitement. This blending mix between the iPod, the phone, and the internet communication device will be on shelf in US around June, Q4 for Europe, and 2008 for Asia. $499 is the price for 4GB and $599 for 8GB model plus 2-year contract with Cingular network.
This wonderful feature-rich phone supports multi-touch technology, which means no need for stylus. Many cool technologies like accelerometer that automatically detects whether the phone is in portrait or landscape position and then adjusts the screen to the appropriate mode, the proximity sensor turns off the screen when lifting the phone to the ear, the ambient light sensor adjusts the screen brightness according to the environment, would surely attracts many users. Can't wait to get one.

2. CNBC – Financial news channel
As the financial market nowadays is racing at an amazing pace that anybody who can catch up with the latest trend will certainly be able to make a fortune out of the opportunity pool out there. CNBC is a reliable and best known for its financial news coverage serving business enthusiasts around the world. I personally do not usually watch the channel as much as I wanted but recently this channel just offers me what the perfect financial news channel should be. Its graphics are very cool and exciting (that really helps boosting the eager to get to the market a lot) and the news just covers every regions more than ever, not just US and EU concentrated like CNN. Moreover, there are many interesting programmes to watch. Just love it.

3. Kuler – Colour cooler
This colour guru website will help you discover the world of harmony in a beautiful way.
Whenever the graphic designer wants to express the message visually, colour always plays the critical role. With this website everyone will surely enjoy producing creative works. Cool!

Oh, and there still are many interesting products and websites to come. Stay tuned.

Christmas Tree

2006-12-25T12:51:00.000+07:00

Various shots of Christmas Tree around Siam Paragon, Central World, Erawan, Siam Intercontinential this year (2006). Красиво!

Celebrate Christmas The Urban Way

2006-12-19T23:27:00.000+07:00

It is getting close to Christmas every minute now. The temperature is (luckily) not rising like el niño also, in fact it is 20º-26ºC, which is not as usual. You can feel the celebrating season coming as many prominent places, shopping complex to be exact, are exhibiting Christmas trees with beautiful decoration along with special discount promotion to lure the passers-by to enjoy shopping even more – harmony of marketing.

Many young urban residents are celebrating themselves X'Mas and New Year with their friends or lovers around places like standalone beer parks, shopping malls with beer parks, markets with beer parks and so on. The chill of weather combines with beer and delicious food – perfecto!

If you will be wandering around Thailand's shopping street – MBK, Siam Discovery & Siam Center, Siam Paragon, Central World, Gaysorn, Erawan, Peninsula Plaza, Emporium, Big C Rajdamri, Pratunam Center, Platinum Mall, Century, Pantip Plaza, Robinson Silom, Central Silom Complex, et al. Guess how many Christmas trees waiting for urbanites to shoot some photos and how many beer parks to serve their appetites throughout this festive season. At the least in your own way, celebrate the moment and have yourself a very Merry X'Mas and Happy New Year.

С Новым Годом!

Obsession

2006-11-29T00:11:00.000+07:00

The very long-awaited iPhone will, as has been rumored, come out early next year – probably at MacWorld Expo in January 2007.

No proof of any facts or specification on iPhone leaked out of the best-known-for-its-lip-sealed Cupertino-based Apple Computer. So I will not present any of inaccuracies here, therefore, leave the blank space for the reader's imagination of technical specification the Apple iPhone should feature.

Wow...
'Tis said that the best designed comes to those who wait. For those who can't wait, the next best thing is this Samsung's BlackJack 3G-capable smartphone. (Watch the commercial ad for this übersexy slender phone here)

Bond Franchise Continues

2006-11-22T14:58:00.000+07:00

James Bond Is Back! This time Craig Daniel, the well-built and stone-faced blond with ocean blue eyes, replaces the previous casanova, stylish and gadget-obsessed Pierce Brosnan. The most consecutively produced 007 has reached its 21st series titled 'Casino Royale,' which is also the first novel by Ian Flemming famous detective series.

List of actors who played James Bond is followed:
1. Sean Connery from 1962-1967; 1971 (Dr.No, From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, Diamonds Are Forever, and unofficial Bond movie Never Say Never Again)
2. George Lazenby in 1969 (On Her Majesty's Secret Service)
3. Roger Moore from 1973-1985 (Live And Let Die, The Man With The Golden Gun, The Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker, For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy, A View To A Kill)
4. Timothy Dalton from 1987-1989 (The Living Daylight and License To Kill)
5. Pierce Brosnan from 1995-2002 (GoldenEye, The World Is Not Enough, Die Another Day)
6. Daniel Craig from 2006 (Casino Royale, Bond 22)

It is recommended to prepare yourself with this new intepretation of Bond. I already warn you.

RU v. US

2006-08-11T13:27:00.000+07:00

I just read Murz blog and found that imbedded Google Maps miniature box interesting, so I (re)browse through various site of this blue planet and suddenly found this picture.

Where is this place, you may wonder? Russian territory and America (formerly Russian) Alaska region encounter each other here with a little island in the middle. It is not new or interesting until the Russian part resembles the grizzly bear, the not-official-but-globally-known-to-be mascot for Russia, and the leftmost tip of Alaska just looks like the Hawk, which stands for America (a bit imagination will help on this). The controversy and competition between the two countries can be summed up by this one image! I don't know much about politics but am sure to encourage you all to take more care about the one you love, especially your family and your friends.

This book should give you another point of view on how the World Police (you know what I mean) think about the Rest of The World by the EHM (Economic Hit Man) himself. What he did is to persuade and persuade the third-world countries to let the World Police bring facilities and civilization to theirs without stating the enormous sum of debt that follows, just like the fine print of every marketing advertisement or cosmetic package. The convincing facts and figures about projected growth rate and other supporting details he gave to these countries' leaders are, as he cited in the book, a mere jumble of guessing and making-up. Shocked? I thought not. Ask Iraq about the consequence of not agreeing with this hit man's dream. Hope this book makes its way to the screen like Fahrenheit 9/11 so that we can absorb some truth from lies we are facing everyday.
Again, the world nowadays is packed with concealed truth, half truth, no-of-course-not truth, and so on. Try embracing another confessions (not on the dance floor!) and live on your life as an enlighten who knows what's real.

The Truth Is Out There!

New Sony Gadget: Your Life Online

2006-08-10T12:55:00.000+07:00

The soon-to-be-released Sony mylo (My Life Online) introduces a next generation of online culture. You can connect to any 802.11b WiFi hotspot and browse the internet (HTML, not just WAP), listen to or share your music collection and chat with your Yahoo messenger, Skype, or Google Talk friends with no additional monthly fee.
Thanks to 1GB of internal storage plus MemoryStick slot, you can do the chatting while listening to your collection with ease. Try this site for a chance to win one of this cool gadget priced at $350.
Start exercising your fingers now to prepare yourself for this one.

Thai Silk To The World

2006-08-05T08:52:00.000+07:00

After many years of creative and authentic expertise in Thai silk, Jim Thompson just plans to expand its outreach in Europe, starting first in Munich then to Austria, Switzerland and la destination finale will be the metropolis of fashion – Paris. The delicate and unique-coloured Thai silk with cool (or hot in terms of attractiveness and the temperature of Thailand) exotic patterns give this brand an interesting appeal that lures everyone to its enthralling beauty. The price of each product line is pretty affordable while there are many ranges of selection to choose, for home decoration, business fashion, souvenir, or for evening gala – possibilities abound. New shop at Siam Paragon everyday from 10 to 9.

Mobi Glam

2006-08-05T08:45:00.000+07:00

Everywhere on this planet in any timeframe will always exist the überrich, who can afford anything extrodinaire. This fact of life proves to be true even in the futuristic technology realm these days. You may be blinded by the glitter of these thingies that cost you chingies chunk of fortune:

Motorola – MOTORAZR V3i Dolce & Gabbana edition
What a Glam! This quad-band clamshell slim mobile fully packed with Bluetooth, 1.23 megapixel camera with 8x zoom, MP3-4 player, Java, GPRS Class 10, CE Bus (MiniUSB), WAP 2.0, xHTML, 12 MB internal memory, up to 1 GB removable memory, all with just 97.6 grams! Also this anodized aluminium of Dolce & Gabbana golden colour comes with matching accessories, which are, the DG keychain, golden earplug, and bluetooth speaker. For those who love DG and the high-tech high-touch mix, this RAZR should be your companion that totally reflect your impeccable taste.

Vertu – Signature 18-carat Yellow Gold Half Pavé Diamonds
This extravaganza brand of Nokia impels you to wonder that a jewellery mobile phone can be marketed. With collections ranging from Ascent, Diamond to Signature Limited Edition, Vertu prides itself as the one born from an obsession to create a personal communication instrument that deployed craftmanship and technology in a way that had never been achieved before. To better understand the delicately crafted mobile phone, just go visit the Vertu boutique around (one on G floor Siam Paragon). When it comes to using this for making or receiving call, please make the conversation short and concise or you would suffer a little stiffness or fatigue due to its weight (not stated in the specification on the web, of course) as it reminds all Vertu owners to quickly finish the crap and move on to your multi-billion business. Time is money! Spend time wisely (... and forget about money just spent!)!

Ackingcray Ethay Odecay Ofyay Ifelay

2006-07-20T22:24:00.000+07:00

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P.S. Inyay asecay youyay ouldway ikelay otay owknay owhay otay ecipherday isthay ostpay, ytray earninglay ethay Igpay Atinlay anguagelay erehay.

Eye On Fashion

2006-07-17T22:11:00.000+07:00

Clothing is one of the first thing you notice about any persons encountered. It innocently shows the personality, taste, and style that one possesses. Time changes as does fashion. I browse through the latest collection from the runway of Vivienne Westwood and Dior Homme and found these interesting.

Vivienne Westwood – Spring/Summer 2006
Wearable and classy with unique details that are sure not to be too ordinary.

Dior Homme – Summer 2006
Prince-of-Bhutan style and formal rock tux from Heidi Slimane for Dior Homme. The only obstacle for those who wish to wear is that you have to be slim enough.

Even though these selections cannot easily be found in stores near you, it only requires taste and keen eyes to match one's personality, identity, occasion, and such, to the clothing out there waiting to be picked up. Time, money, fashion should be in equilibrium. Image is everything nowadays, remember?

Happy shopping!

Art On Film

2006-07-12T16:23:00.000+07:00

It is generally accepted that movie itself is an art – art of expression and imitation of life in every kind of imaginative and creative setting. Sometimes you may encounter the artist's life and works in movies, for example, Leonardo Da Vinci in Ever After and Da Vinci Code, Frida Kahlo in Frida, René Magritte in The Thomas Crown Affair, Francesco Clemente in Great Expectations, and so on.
My favourite pieces of art that included in films are listed here.
René Magritte – The Son of Man (Le Fils de l'Homme)
This iconic artwork was featured as a key to the con of Thomas Crown, starred by Pierce Brosnan. This businessman with an apple in front of his face is described by the artist as this:
Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see. There is an interest in that which is hidden...
Even though it is a self-portrait, you can not easily distinguish this fact due to the apple.
The belgian surrealist died of cancer in 1967 with many interesting artworks left for us. You may also read this for his biography and list of artworks.
If Dalì had crossed the bridge from his surreal side to our world, he would certainly see the back of Magritte.

Marc Chagall – Murals for The Metropolitan Opera House or "The Met"
In the movie "Moonstruck," when Ronny Cammareri finally met Loretta Castorini at The Met for "La Bohème" Opera, Ronny said to Loretta about Chagall's art like this:
Ronny Cammareri: This was painted by Marc Chagall. And, as you can see, he was a very great artist.
Loretta Castorini: It's a little gaudy, don't you think?
Ronny Cammareri: Well, he was havin' some fun.
Yes, maybe Chagall is having fun painting this mural at the coolest opera house in New York. It is a bridge between art and symphony – perfect "gaudy" harmony.
The contrast between harsh and stark building and this freely and inspiring art complements each other with awe to the audience's eyes.

George Seurat – Un Dimanche Aprè-Midi à L'Ile de La Grande Jatte (A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte)
When you watch "Amelie," french ironic movie, you might probably notice one character, who have painted imitations of this artwork for all his life. The french pointilist created this masterpiece in 1884, while the world have had enjoyed the chill-out positivism since the 1886 exhibition.

Francisco Clemente – Estella
This portrait of Estella, starred by Gwynette Paltrow, expresses the out-of-reach love of Finn, a naïve self-taught painter. This Alfonso Cuarón adaptation of Charles Dickens's "Great Expectations" sets in modern New York instead of London with all the Big Apple atmosphere – from costumes, lifestyles, restaurants, art, music, media, and such. It is my favourite movie, soundtrack, and score of all time!

These are just a few examples of many out there that bridges the movie and art world to encompass the audience with blissful appreciation.

Viva L'Italia!

2006-07-10T03:53:00.000+07:00

Italy wins the FIFA World Cup 2006 against France after playing for 120 minutes and Zidane being ejected for headbutt action. In the Olympiastadion, Berlin, every road paves its way for Italy to the World Cup as Italy has won their matches consecutively from Ghana, Czech, Australia, Ukraine, German, and France. Also noted that this time is the fourth championship they are celebrating, which means it surpasses Germany as the most successful European team in winning the World Cup. Many factors have been accounted for Italy success, including better position, better spirit, more player, and such. It is Italy year this very year.
Viva L'Italia!

Football Craze

2006-07-09T03:04:00.000+07:00

From my point of view, football is one of many games that teaches us about "practical" teamwork and strategic planning. "Practical" in this sense really means "in action" not in some meeting table or on monitor screen. That is one of many alluring aspect of this kind of game: many resources have been allocated to take every chance of winning, from technology, training, coaching, analyzing, planning to buying and even speculating. Football unites people as one.

I am personally not the kind of regularly watching football match but this time (World Cup 2006) is an exception and Portugal is the reason. Their great teamwork and determination, despite the weak scoring skill, get the team to semi-final. At the moment I am now writing this blog, Portugal losed Germany by 1-3. The only goal of theirs is a very beautiful shot. Hey, the match ended and we must live on to watch Italy vs. France tomorrow! Glory to Portugal.

Did I just mention my bias or broken-hearted aftermatch fever? Up to your judgement. But if you would want a second opinion or analysis, I could recommend this marketing pocketbook "Brand Sense" by Martin Lindstrom that will definitely open up your perception about how to achieve marketing excellence via five senses, instead of just tradition two. Football can be explained extensively and comprehensively through this book of why people all over the world share the same craze. Could it be the cheering of audience, the exciting player movement, the smell of the match, the high level of participation in the game by wearing the team shirt, the painting on your face, the singing of the team songs, the celebrations after the match, the drinking, the betting and many many factors. Every successful brand with landmark marketing strategy that can be "smashable" follows the same guideline written out well in this book - embrace as many senses as possible in each and every marketing activities and win the market gracefully.

Artist List Update

2006-07-07T12:58:00.000+07:00

After my conversation with my faraway friend, whose name is not to be disclossss (*cough* Murz) sed, she asked me to recommend some new music upon which I am not to disappoint her, so included in my list are as follow:

Enya – Amarantine
Mode: Sleeping beauty
Intensely packed with her full featured featherly voice to soften your mood like a sweet lullaby you could ever wish to listen. You could turn your stereo or iPod into a cradle
instantly whenever her songs are played.
This mermaid could definitely join up with Annie Lennox or Sarah McLachlan to the battle between human and giant and win! Light up your room with aromatherapeutic candles and her music to fully absorb the spell. In Enya, we trust.

Gnarls Barkley – St.Elsewhere
Mode: Out of your head
Jump out of your chair and start dancing like crazy with their smash hit single "Crazy" even though you prefer to keep the rhythm to your head. The album artwork best suggests its theme – to explode yourself out and live on freely. The music video of "Crazy" imitates the general psychologic blot-ink test but with artistic creativity that links craziness to psychology. Clever and crazy.
Enjoy the world of Barkley's and you would never return back normal.

The Goo Goo Dolls – Let Love In
Mode: Into rock
Despite the fact that Goo Goo Dolls is famous for its "Iris" hit and doesn't succeed in Thai market ever since, this album is another attempt to emphasize its true devotion to music. "Better Days" and "Let Love In" are one of my favourites at the moment. Cool as heaven, beautiful as (gutter)flower, and tempting as love Goo Goo Dolls invites us all in. It is this time that ears are also the windows to your heart.

Lee Ryan – Lee Ryan
Mode: Back to mainstream pop
This guy from Blue promises you with his debut album packed with a-little-bit-high-pitched songs that melts your heart away, especially women's.
His songs are easy to sing along and enjoy the ordinary pop sensation. You're my past, my future, my all, my everything, the six in the morning when the clock rings, and I open up my eyes to a new day – "When I Think of You". This catchy phrase is currently set as my ringtone due to its melt-your-heart-away sensation. Nice.

There are so many music to recommend but a little time to introduce them all, though, I will try my best.

More more more...

2006-06-28T17:40:00.000+07:00

There are many many more interesting tracks to recommend and many many books and movies to entice you to try. Here are some:

Corinne Bailey Rae - Put Your Records On
New face with beautiful voice to lead you to your childhood imagination you once dreamed about. She has every talent a successful young jazz genius has. Some might name her "A New Norah Jones" with confidence. Hey, buy her debut and you will never regret. The once-in-a-while polished gem in today's crowded music world is waiting for you to pick up and appreciate with intensive care.

Texas -Getaway
From the same voice of "Hush," "Say What You Want" and other smash hits, this album is a silent comeback. It should be noted that even though "Getaway" somehow reminds you of "The Hush" album, this album is worth the wait. Whether "Like An Angel" and "Say" may make it to the Billboard or not, it is no question that this Aussie has a wonderful voice and charm to entertain you every time you tune in to her world.

So much for music, now let's turn to books I find interesting:

Manatomy - Studiomagazine
It is interesting to turn the same dull sketch of anatomical study into life via professional photographers' eyes. This collection focuses on body parts with details never seen in any textbooks of the kind. Moreover, every photographers who participate in this book are one of big names that inspire you to the world of wonders.
To sum up, this is one of publications that Studiomagazine are proud of presenting you. Superb.

An Inconvenient Truth - Al Gore
The New York Times Bestseller paperback that invokes you to reconsider your role in the environment. Global warming has been an issue of this century as we already know but this guy, Al Gore, has brought it to everyday discussion with his total devotion to giving information and, of course, famous presentation around the country about this "inconvenient truth" we may vividly imagine by watching "The Day After Tomorrow" or reading this book. I personally prefer his style of presentation with Keynote. Hey, why don't you check this out about the production team and "Key to An Inconvenient Truth." If you are interested in Zen of presentation, I recommend this site due to its rich articles and useful tips to help you present more efficiently with confidence.

Recommended Tracks

2006-06-28T13:24:00.001+07:00

After not posting for such a long time, I start to realize that there may be any developments occurring around my point of view, esp. in the spinning world around us.

Many things have ever changed and that catching the glimpse of one of these may acquire your energy a lot. Things like style of clothing, music we listen, books we read, movies we watch are subjects to be studied, classified, tuned in. It is of our own exposure and experience to choose and judge what's 'in' or 'out'. Here are one of my favourites at the moment:

Keane - Is It Any Wonder?
Synth-pop track to lift your mood with bunch of craziness. It is not a track for those who adore Lisa Ono or Lisa Stanfield or Lisa Loeb or even Mona Lisa! Its MV features even more psychedelic to the sense with maniac train travelling and spinning around. Overall, this track may set you away from your boring day and help you define your own definition of 'dizziness'.

Robin Thicke feat. Pharrell - Wanna Love You Girl
Hip R&B beat of this Knoxville-George Michael hybrid. Though another critic said "The accompanying music video doesn't make any sense but prominently features speedboats, Latin women, and Skateboard P in a bucket hat," it is well served the spot on my "worth listening" list. You may wanna sleep while humming this track but you can't due to the background rhythm - interesting contrast. You will love it!

Many tracks and stuffs to update, I will post the rest later, so catch up.

And the story goes...

2005-10-08T04:25:00.000+07:00

Not that I'm boasting but it all starts to go on like I already predicted! Voila!

Someone acquainted said "...it's all like a loophole going on and on." Yes, it is. My understanding about this phrase seems to agree with what I have experienced. I begin to getting used to it and realize that the sooner you catch the trend or pattern of life, or work in this case, the happier and less worried you will certainly be.

The highlight today is the 'revolutionized' Assistant meeting, usually being held with regular agenda discussing the corporate internal problems and its solutions. Today Chief Human Resource Officer, CHO, and all Marketing Officers join us in expressing our very opinions toward problems concerning the work, the management, and the policies. We almost reach the same key problems but not yet visualize the feasible solutions that in the near future will be proposed to Chief Executive Officer. A good start should I say.

In fact, there were once occurences and attempts to shape the appropriate work structure and better system like this a while ago but to no avail. Maybe this time too.

I hope my pessimistic remark cited above would be only just remark and not become real.

I'm optimistic now.

Sunday Morning and Apocalypse Soon

2005-09-18T04:22:00.000+07:00

Work on Sunday Morning seems not my type at all! It starts back when CEO demanded that the Marketing Plan, the complete one, must be presented to the monthly board meeting, which turns out that 'it' should be done and first draft presented on Monday 19, that's right, tomorrow!

By now I'm writing with the curious mind that the whole thing is gonna be like this : Everybody in the department mingling on 'til noon and go out for lunch with relaxing mind not doubting anything at all, and then... suddenly the CMO, the beautiful and energetic boss, pops up assigning one or more task to be done. Late afternoon approaches and the whole plan doesn't seem to be finished soon... time slips by and we realize that hey! my buddha it's not finished... what're we gonna do? Explaining the excuses they can't get any information from operational department, CMO and I hurry down to the tiny bit of information to be added or deleted (mostly latter) and finish it near midnight... while others coming home with no such 'work conscience' in their mind.

The sun rises and the deadline is NOW! CEO sits at his seat with crystal-clear mind concentrating on the Marketing Plan to be presented one by one. 'Something's wrong with this' and his comments coming next... we're-gonna-finish-this-asap promise follows. Depression and all the hell surface.

Whether my prediction is right or wrong, we'll see. It's 11.32 AM now. In half an hour we're going out for lunch with relaxing mind... ...

Happiness of simplicity.

2004-12-12T23:33:00.000+07:00

It seems suddenly obvious to me now that the greatest thing in life itself is its simplicity and how to keep it simple as long as you can. Complexity always brings doubt, anxiety, self-destruction, and all the negative 'forces' with no hope. To wait for your belated friend, delayed train just five minutes or even two hours is an example. If you're mad waiting, your life is now out of control. "Life is waiting" as in the copy of "The Terminal" is totally true.

The Secret of Being Stupid

2004-11-14T13:10:00.000+07:00

Even though the word 'stupid' has a negative meaning, that doesn't mean it is unacceptable. We are all stupid, not seeing what the truth is by ourselves. We thought we are so smart, know what our ancestors always crave to know. But do we 'really' know or how can we be sure what we know is the 'real truth' and not the 'crafted truth' by a group or groups of someone? Do we really think that the birth of all lives in this bluey planet an 'ordinary' happening? While in other planet we've capable to investigate don't contain any lifeforms, the word 'birth' seems like the greatest miracle of all for Mars, Venus, Pluto, and so on. It's our stupid mistake to regard 'birth' as 'ordinary'. There are so many things in our reckonings that we used to call 'knowledge,' which turn out to be just false conceptions. Do you really think 'marriage' is a sacred ceremony? I think not. The purpose of marriage is just to announce the couple to live together, that's all and no priest is necessary. We are taught to believe things that aren't really true. I ain't a stoic but just someone who think that stupidity is the definition the human beings around the globe deserve. This stupidity is what keeps us alive, encourages us to explore, and approach the real truth.
*******

First Post is the greatest!

2004-11-13T23:53:00.000+07:00

As in one of Chinese sayings 'the greatest achievement is to start acting,' I agree with it perfectly. To start something does require a great effort and courage. But I'd rather put it 'it is of greater success, when you keep on doing without hesitation.'
*******
A computer course on web design I gave today has some concrete idea in it. Graphic design is the balance, or the 'golden mean,' between two opposites--art and commercial world. 'Tis the 'golden mean' that keeps our lives in equilibrium. The Buddhism mindsets are often misinterpreted by its followers. What a pity us fools!
*******
Maybe it's true that beyond the particles of atom lies not the 'nothingness' but the being of 'blankness'. What the Blind has always seen is the black tiny speck that forms the so-called 'darkness'. Our beings just serve the purpose of filling the blank canvas created billions of years ago--the beginning of time and space--before everything condenses into the same old big giant matter waiting to cyclically bangs again. Why must we follow the same cycle from time to time? 'Nirvana' is the ultimate goal of our lives. No more.
*******
There're so many things I wish to mumble-jumble out. I'll manage to write as often as I can.