On branding, anniversaries and discounts

A common marketing practice is to give discounts during the anniversary month of a company. For example, during the 25th anniversary of a departmental store, they may decide to give a 25% storewide discount to thank customers for their support over the last 25 years. This helps build goodwill and customer loyalty, essential to a store's survival.

The recent decision by the government to retain the name "Marina Bay", after spending $40k to find the best name, was insulted by many parties as a waste of taxpayers' money. They claimed that any Tom, Dick and Harry could have told you to retain the same name, and would cost far less. They also questioned the effectiveness of this branding.

To me, one effective way to build goodwill and customer loyalty is to give discounts during the anniversary month. If a 40% discount is given on HDB flats bought during the anniversary month of August, there will be a stampede to be customers of HDB. Perhaps that would be too steep a discount, perhaps they can use this opportunity to sell off those unwanted flats that have been accumulating dust in the more ulu parts of the island. You know how retailers try to give steep discounts for old stock so they can free up their inventory space and get some value for their investments, far better than to let it rot. Even a 40% discount off the HDB loan for the month will be very welcome.

SBS and SMRT can also give a 40% discount for all rides during the anniversary month. ERP discounts is another way to help the man in the street get by. All of these are ways for the rulers to show that they care, by giving discounts through GLCs that will help the common citizen. But they did not do it during the recession years, and they will not do it now that the economy is picking up.

Help yourselves, they said. Lower the land pricing and the lives of the people will be easier.

No energy

Haven't been blogging lately. Too tied up and not much energy to reflect or write. Used to blog a lot more, but that was when I had little challenge at work and blogging was a hobby. Time there still is, but the energy has all been sapped up by my work and wedding preps.

When my mind was on blogging, I would tend to think in terms of what I can blog about. Things that happened will be reviewed in terms of how I can blog about it, how I would phrase it. Now that every hour of the working day is spent on following up, chasing people, servicing requests, tracking progress, checking to see if things can be done in parallel, I can hardly spare the brain juice to think of reviewing my everyday life.

I have collected the keys to my apartment, shortlisted the contractor, the design is almost finalised, the list of helpers starting to be drawn up, the indoor photoshoot over and the outdoor shoot rescheduled because of the rain, 2 of the 4 pieces of jewellery have been bought, and I did not record down any of it.

Perhaps I should have just spent 10 minutes a day writing down whatever I could, just so that it would be recorded somewhere and not forgotten. But that would not be very meaningful without some reflection, and is without joy, end up as another thing to followup on instead of something I enjoy doing. Meaningless. There are enough things to do as it is.

Sometimes I envy the bloggers who manage to take time out to blog properly despite their tight schedules. Though they do not get enough sleep, they will still squeeze in the time to write a short entry that is at least coherent and properly worded. Perhaps words come easier for them, or they are just more disciplined. Then there are those who have amazing amounts of time to do what they like to do. Lucky bastards. Or did they just choose the right jobs?

ICQ5 allows you to create your own status and messages. I have created a status that says, "At work: paying off my housing loan" and 2 colleagues have found it terribly amusing. I am going to be 29, and I will be bound for the next 30 years. And I will have perhaps 15 years after that to retire, more likely find some other job that I will enjoy doing. Perhaps I will finally get to write the whole day. If my CPF can stretch that far, or if I discover a talent for writing that people will pay for.

A person must have something to look forward to, whether or not it is realistic. Just don't dash your last hope. For now, it is to look forward to the day when I can move into my own apartment. I'll worry about my career prospects half a year later.

Permanency

My old blog is gone. After months of inactivity, the hosting company has decided to remove it. I had wanted to copy out my entries and store them on my wordpress-on-a-thumbdrive but had not gotten around to finishing the job. 20% to 30% of the entries are now irretrievable lost. And it will not be long before I have forgotten those experiences myself.

Why do I blog? See Ah Lim's reasons for blogging.
I don’t know, but I guess I blog because I want to announce my existence. Because I feel that we human are so fragile, so fragile that we never know when we are going to die. Because I want my life to not go unnoticed and if I die tomorrow I know I had shared the good things, the bad things, and even the mundane things with someone, somewhere, out there. They might not remember, but at least they get to witness my life’.

On hindsight, maybe I should have paid for a single month of subscription, around SGD$5 and exported everything one-time when I decided to call it quits over there.

I blog for a sense of permanency. Kinda like I'm suffering from Alzheimer's disease.

Maybe not that serious, but how long can a person retain all of his memories? What was I doing on this date? When was it when I last met up with a particular friend? What the heck did we do for anniversary donkey years ago? What was going on through my mind at that time? There is lots of information that will be lost forever if not recorded down. Sometimes there are things worthy of remembering, but it takes too much effort to write them down…

One way to overcome this is to become a cult leader and be worshipped by faithfuls who will record down everything I do and say. Or a celebrity who gets hounded by paparazzi, who will record every single foul-up for posterity. Or get indecently rich so that I can hire my own scribe to write it from a nicer angle. A more feasible (and much less evil) way is to wait for technology to advance enough so that I can run my own blog on a PDA with a integrated keyboard. Then I can bring it everywhere and record everything. The blog server must be web-based with a database that can be easily exported and saved offline. Current technology is still too slow and I hate to wait for computers and PDAs to respond. The price will probably drop to an affordable level within the next 2 years or so, but the speed must pick up.

For now, what I can do is to get a camera phone, take lots of photos of lots of things that happen, upload them to a blog server running on my pc when I get home, so I can put minimal comments or keywords so the stuff is searchable. Minimal use of brainpower on those days (pretty common) when I go on autopilot after work. If only there is a simple way to record down everything that is happening, for searching later on, maybe years later. I have read about a project by this guy who was building a portable device to take photos every minute or so and record onto a 40GB hard disk.

That still doesn't solve the most important thing that I wish to record: my thoughts and insights, what I have learnt. Before I lose them to time.But sometimes what is the point of remembering everything? Inability to let go is a liability. I still don't attain to the heights that I wish to reach. I wanted to start a new life, but unable to let go of the past, I remain who I used to be.

The Engineering Mind - a danger to themselves

During the time of the French Revolution, many people were beheaded for "crimes against the state." One day, a Priest, a Drunkard and an Engineer were led up to the guillotine.

Before being placed in the guillotine, the priest requested the he be allowed to lay face UP so he will be looking toward Heaven when he dies. When the blade of the guillotine is released, it comes speeding down and suddenly stops just inches from the Priest's neck. The executioner takes this as divine intervention and releases the priest.


Next the Drunkard comes to the guillotine. He also decides to die face up hoping that he will be as fortunate as the Priest. When the blade of the guillotine is released, it comes speeding down and suddenly stops just inches from the Drunkard's neck So they release the Drunkard as well.


The Engineer is next, and he too decides to die facing up. Just before releasing the blade of the guillotine, the Engineer exclaims "Hey! I see what your problem is...."

---

NASA was interviewing professionals to be sent to Mars. Only one could go, and he couldn't return to Earth.

The first applicant, an engineer, was asked how much he wanted to be paid forgoing. "A million dollars," he answered, "because I want to donate it to my alma mater."

The next applicant, a doctor, was asked the same question. He asked for two million dollars. "I want to give a million to my family", he explained, "and leave the other million for the advancement of medical research."

The last applicant was a lawyer. When asked how much money he wanted, he whispered in the interviewer's ear, "Three million dollars."
"Why so much more than the others?" the interviewer asked.
The lawyer replied, "If you give me $3 million, I'll give you $1 million, I'll keep $1 million, and we'll send the engineer."

---

A man drifting in a hot air balloon realized he was lost. Reducing altitude, he spotted a guy on the ground and descended to shouting range. "Excuse me, sir," he shouted. "Can you help me? I promised a friend would meet him a half hour ago, but I don't know where I am."

The man below responded: "Yes. You're in a hot air balloon, hovering approximately 30 feet above this field, between 40 and 42 degrees North Latitude, and 58 and 60 degrees West Longitude."


"You must be an engineer," responded the balloonist.


"I am," said the man. "How did you know?"


"Well," said the balloonist, "everything you've told me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to make of your information, and the fact is I'm still lost."


Whereupon the man on the ground responded, "You must be a manager."


"That I am," replied the balloonist, "but how did you know?"


"Well," said the man, "you don't know where you are, or where you're going. You've made a promise you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problem. The fact is, you're in the exact same position you were before we met, but now it's somehow my fault!"

---

A pastor, a doctor and an engineer were waiting one morning for a particularly slow group of golfers. The engineer fumed "What's with these guys ..... we must have been waiting for 15 minutes!"

The doctor chimed in "I don't know, but I've never seen such ineptitude! "

The pastor said, "Here comes the greenskeeper. Let's have a word with him."

"Hi George. Say, what's with that group ahead of us. They're rather slow, aren't they?"

The greenskeeper replied , "Oh, yes, that's a group of blind firefighters. They lost their sight saving our clubhouse from a fire last year, so we always let them play for free anytime."

The group was silent for a moment. The pastor said, "That's so sad. I think I will say a special prayer for them tonight."

The doctor said, "Good idea. I'm going to contact my ophthalmologist buddy and see if there's anything he can do for them."

The engineer said, "Why can't these guys play at night?"

---

There was an engineer who had an exceptional gift for fixing all things
mechanical. After serving his company loyally for over 30 years, he
happily retired.

Several years later the company contacted him regarding a seemingly
impossible problem they were having with one of their multimillion
dollar machines. They had tried everything and everyone else to get the
machine to work but to no avail. In desperation, they called on the
retired engineer who had solved so many of their problems in the past.

The engineer reluctantly took the challenge. He spent a day studying the
huge machine. At the end of the day, he marked a small "x" in chalk on a
particular component of the machine and stated, "This is where your
problem is."

The part was replaced and the machine worked perfectly again. The
company received a bill for $50,000 from the engineer for his service.
They demanded an itemized accounting of his charges.

The engineer responded briefly: One chalk mark $1. Knowing where to put
it $49,999. It was paid in full and the engineer retired again in peace.

Changing a leopard's spots

... might be impossible, or maybe it just need more work.

Changing my blogging identity and making some effort to change my style is not just not enough, I am still not that different from who I was a year ago. Less angry, but still cynical and jaded. I cannot believe how much tension and pressure can be released through a simple 4km run after work, and the feel-good lasted 24 hours and made my next working day easier to live with. I can change the way I write, my outlook in life and my viewpoints, but the things that push my buttons remain the same. I am still who I am.

Having pioneered the use of blogs in my department as a communication tool for the project team, I was tasked to set up a wiki for knowledge sharing. I had previously set up 2 proof-of-concept wikis to demonstrate the benefits of wikis, but I had not bothered to really put in the content and made my pitch to the department. And so I lost to someone who was better versed in claiming credit, whether due or undue. By transferring my proof-of-concept into a linux server, he got a more reliable environment and sold the idea as his own. By setting up a new server, he could sideline the old and pretend it never existed and so made no mention of what has been done before this. Give credit where due, give respect where due, damnit!

There are many kinds of people in the world. There are techies who will give due credit when building upon other people's achievements. Then there are the management type who will build on it as though it was entirely their idea in the first place. The evil M$ type who buys over and absorbs within themselves with no trail of their history left behind. I hate playing these games. The only way to stay on top in the pecking order is to stay constantly vigilant and guard against bloodsuckers.

That time when boss was asking about the wiki, I had ignored the bloodsucker's request for help and presented my achievements directly to the boss. I could see the bloodsucker's disappointment and perhaps some fear of losing this chance to promote himself. And I can see his unease when he hears me telling people that I was the one who pioneered and set up the first blog and wiki, that I explained the concept and benefits, that the bloodsucker only moved it into a new server. He knows that his achievements pale beside mine, and he is not comfortable to be found out. I mean, if he has nothing to hide, would he fear being found out?

Such tactics can be used, but what for? If I'm still asking questions like this after a period of 5 years in this company, perhaps it is time to move on to a place I am more suited to, where I don't have to ask such questions. A place more worth striving for. Or perhaps I'm not using such tactics because I am not an imbecile with the pressure of a house, baby and a car to feed, so I don't find it worth resorting to such underhanded measures to stay on top.

Are they worth changing my spots for?

Advertisment

Sometimes it is convenient to associate one thing with another to achieve your objective. For example, something that brings good feelings can be associated with something that you are trying to sell. The good thing you are associating with it has very little to do with what you are selling, but the advertiser knows that associating them together helps nudge the potential buyer into opening his wallet. And as the saying goes, a fool and his money are soon parted.

KFC is known for deep fried chicken that is delicious, but terribly oily and fattening. Oily and fattening are 2 words that will never appear in KFC's advertisement, for they will only remind diners of what is bad about them. Instead, you will find other words such as delicious, finger-licking good and great taste. That is still ok, at least they are being truthful and attracting the customer with direct attributes of their product. But when they start mentioning that one of the secrets to a healthy lifestyle is to use fresh food in their ingredients, it seems that they are stretching it quite a bit.

Healthy lifestyle is one of the phrases I would not normally associate with fast food. When I eat fast food, I know that I am committing slow suicide, but I do it willingly and happily. They have found a way to overcome this stigma by linking their fried food to the freshness of the ingredients. How much of the nutrients in chicken will degrade in slightly less fresh chicken, I wonder. I only know that this is a more important issue in fresh vegetables and fruits, which are painfully lacking in a typical KFC meal. The only issues I know regarding fresh meat is taste, not nutrients. It takes a leap of imagination and creativity to link healthy lifestyle with KFC. Must have been one long brainstorming session.

Are there any who dig in happily thinking of the benefits to health that they are reaping from their deep fried fresh chicken?

Seen on a car's windscreen

Be kind to animals, go vegetarian.

I've got a better one - Be kind to vegetables, don't eat. Be kind to your fellow men, stop cannibalism.

I like these better:
Baby on board
Child of God onboard
If you can read this you are too close
Sex instructor, first lesson free - you still win even if your lesson is lousy

They are among us!

I saw an Autobot today. The logo was on a black Hyundai driving towards Orchard Road. I have been seeing guys walking around in Decepticon t-shirts for months, but did not take them seriously. But there is a vehicle with that logo! Is there a secret war going on in the midst of us and we are just now aware of it? This is after all the year 2005, the year when the Autobots would win the war and reclaim Cybertron.

Will we be seeing fighter jets with Deception logos soon?

Autobots Decepticons

Get to know yourself better

Interesting quiz, found the link on Tetanus's blog. Go try it yourself.
http://quizbox.com/personality/test82.aspx

Your view on yourself:

Other people find you very interesting, but you are really hiding your true self. Your friends love you because you are a good listener. They'll probably still love you if you learn to be yourself with them.

I listen. But good listener? Dunno.

The type of girlfriend/boyfriend you are looking for:

You are a true romantic. When you are in love, you will do anything and everything to keep your love true.

That is simple enough and true enough.

Your readiness to commit to a relationship:

You are ready to commit as soon as you meet the right person. And you believe you will pretty much know as soon as you might that person.

Yep, though I don't believe in the one person destined for me, I believe I know a good match when I see one.

The seriousness of your love:

You are very serious about relationships and aren't interested in wasting time with people you don't really like. If you meet the right person, you will fall deeply and beautifully in love.

It's not just about BGR, but with friends in general. Either deep or nothing.

Your views on education

Education is less important than the real world out there, away from the classroom. Deep inside you want to start working, earning money and living on your own.

I enjoy my study days, but independence is much more important.

The right job for you:

You have plenty of dream jobs but have little chance of doing any of them if you don't focus on something in particular. You need to choose something and go for it to be happy and achieve success.

I know what I want alright.

How do you view success:

You are afraid of failure and scared to have a go at the career you would like to have in case you don't succeed. Don't give up when you haven't yet even started! Be courageous.

Sigh. I'm trying. Half a year more and I will shoot for it. 30 years of housing loans. How?

What are you most afraid of:

You are concerned about your image and the way others see you. This means that you try very hard to be accepted by other people. It's time for you to believe in who you are, not what you wear.

Why is this so?

Who is your true self:

You are mature, reasonable, honest and give good advice. People ask for your comments on all sorts of different issues. Sometimes you might find yourself in a dilemma when trapped with a problem, which your heart rather than your head needs to solve.

That sounds like me, or who I think I am. Maybe I should get someone to do a test that evaluates what they think I am. Forget it. See 2nd last point.

Link a song

I have heard it being said before that pop songs are not particularly creative, that they are too similar. I thought it was all bullshit, can't they tell the subtle differences between them?

And then someone comes along and managed to form a new song from 23 Chinese pop songs, using 1 verse from each song. The tunes link up surprisingly well.

http://flash2.1ting.com/znew2/200503/12/9.swf

It's amazing.

Initial D live movie

The action is good, even when I was only 2 rows away from the screen. Even when I had to strain my neck for 2 hours to watch the movie. Drifting on Mount Akina is really possible! I had seen the CG version in the anime, but to watch real cars drift on the actual roads is something else altogether!

Live movie adaptations of such wildly popular comics can be roaring successes, or they can fall flat on their faces. The live action movie is a summarised version of stage1, 2 and the stage 3 movie. It retains the feel of the anime and doesn't take too much artistic license. The bored driving of Takumi, the excitement of the spectators at the races, the love story of Takumi and Mogi. Takahashi Keisuke has been dropped along with a few other characters and the idiocy of Itsuki takes on a life of its own. But it's still good.

There was a bunch of NUS hostelites from KR Hall in their windbreakers and shorts. There was a girl in the first row who kept exclaiming how handsome and cool Jay Chou was. Yes. he has his own page at Wikipedia too. Cool!

It's a dog's life

In Singapore, it is generally not allowed to paste your own notices on the walls or pillars. If you paste a piece of paper advertising your service as a tutor, for example, you will get a call from your friendly town council asking you to remove it. You are not even allowed to paste over the noticeboards of the town councils, even if they have been bare for a long time.

Cold Storage provide noticeboards near their cashiers, and you are allowed to paste your notices on them. So the notices entertain shoppers as they wait in queue and the noticeboards fulfill their purpose in life, and people get a platform to post. It's much easier to post these days, with numerous forums, free classified ads services, your own blogs, webpages and all, but it's still amazing what you can learn sometimes.

"Jacky needs a new garden." There's a photo of a dog with its tongue hanging out.

"Find a new home for Blackie." Another dog.

Gosh, what's it about a dog's life? I have to work hard for the next 30 years to pay off mine, and it doesn't come with a new garden. Can someone find a new home for me? Four legs good, two legs bad, in another way.

SPG unmasked

Sarong Party Girl has been in the news recently, her mug shot on today's Straits Times and she was interviewed over her nude photo posted on her blog. It was her own nude photograph, and her fans got to witness for the first time if she is really as hot as she claimed to be. What's ST trying to do, printing her URL on the national paper, inviting 13-year olds to look at nipples when they are allowed only after they reach 21?

I had stopped following her exploits for a while already, her romps with white skinned men getting boring after a while, though she continues to experiment and to try out new and unconventional things that can be pretty shocking. Such as her bondage games, her search for a sugar daddy and her nonchalance at letting neighbours see her almost naked. It was fascinating at first, but it got to the point that I was wondering, is this all that there is? Of course she would write more about her sexploits on this blog and stay away from other aspects of her life that would still be interesting (probably), but focus too much on one topic and it inevitably gets dull on the senses.

There are many other local bloggers who post about their more rounded lives that are more fun to follow than hers. You want a good and sensuous read? Try Tetanus, though he might not be posting as much in that category for a while. His writings are still heartfelt as ever. Fiona is back, the girl who is amazingly honest and open about her (much more balanced) personal life, complete with pictures of herself so that there is no way you will mistake her for someone else. Calm One has ceased to post at his blog. A voice of reason among the sea of hormonal teens. There are many more gems on the local blogging scene that are worth reading too. It need not focus on how cool you are and what morons everyone else is.

Xiaxue was on the Channel U chat show last night, hosted by Xu Zhengrong and Quan Yifeng, on the topic of pre-marital sex and the changing moral standards of the society (I think). She sat on the panel of youngsters who gave their views that they follow their feelings, they know their limits and are willing to bear the responsibilities of their actions. The older folks (20s to 402?) had a man who took a firm stand on keeping sex strictly within the bounds of marriage, to the point of being offensive towards the youngsters. There is a distinct gap between the traditional values with their restrictions, and the go-by-feeling-and-think-later attitudes of the young. The other 2 members on the "older" panel, a DJ and a teacher, are more enlightened and tried to find a balance between feeling and self-preservation.

Sometimes traditional values serve the purpose of preserving the society that lives by those values. Feelings can lead you to live a bright and spectacular life. It can also be brief if you are not careful and if you lack the necessary wealth, health and brains you need to enjoy and take care of yourself. Values can be boring, but they preserve the society so that the people can collectively improve their lives. Need the values be boring? I think Mr Brown is having lots of fun with his family, as is Faith.

I'll be getting married in half a year's time. It's not just a matter of following my feeling. It is also a path I have consciously chosen, because I believe that some things are worth working for, worth committing oneself to.

paperwork

Paperwork is killing my brain cells... minuting down the previous meeting... compiling lists of things to discuss for the next... calculating the remaining budget... followup on procedures... sending out change requests... getting manpower to photostat a book (cannot just delegate coz nothing will move. wah lau!)... chasing colleagues for their inputs and documents... chasing infra to recover the failed server...

life as a programmer is infinitely easier and more immediately satisfying... code and get it to run, pass a set of tests and your job is done... immediate gratification... more pride because you know you can deliver...

but life is never so simple... and he who is unable to manage will be managed... unless he lives as a hermit... and personal space is already getting more and more scarce... there is no other real option... but to learn to manage... it used to be kill or be killed... now it is manage others or be managed... the new jungle... which has been around for donkey years in fact... and is unescapable and unavoidable... all that a person can ask for is a respite from the pressure... not a permanent escape...

The problem with piracy

... is that you cannot be totally sure you are getting the right stuff.

A friend passed the soft copy of Harry Potter book 5 to me some time back, which I have started reading only recently. Towards the end of the book, it occurred to me that I should verify its authenticity by googling for it. I found a number of reviews and analysis on the plot and characters that you can find in book 5, which I did not find in my version. Hmmm.... looks like I have been reading a fan-fiction version of it, and a very well-written one too. Other than the explicit content, I have no reason to think that this is not the real stuff. Filled with adventures, rivalry between houses, heroism, desperation, history of magic, a trip to the ministry of magic, magical incantations, even a dueling club, a non-hardcore fan like me (or a twit like me) cannot tell the difference.

Looks like piracy doesn't pay does it? But who cares, this fan-fic is as good a read as the real thing, as thick and with as many twists. And I don't mind having spent the time reading the wrong book because it is as good. And I got it free. I also have the authentic version, verified against the hard copy in San bookstore. I will be reading that soon.

And it introduced me to the fantastic world of HP fan fic, which I doubtless will not have the time to explore. Just check out the romance category, which is filled with endless permutations of who will end up with who. Is it Harry and Hermione, or Ron and Hermione, or Harry and Ginny, or....

Energy Fan Girls

Energy is a boyband from Taiwan. They held an autograph session at the shopping mall below my office. Their fans are the uniform-wearing variety. Not JC uniforms, more likely secondary, or maybe even primary.

These kids have a lot of energy. Some had been queueing up since Monday at the MRT station's exit! When I got to office at 9AM, I was amazed to find security guards making them queue up outside Coffee Club on the sealed-off road. After lunch, I fnd them sitting behind baricades at 1AM in the hot sun, some with umbrellas. I wonder if any ambulances had to be called in. Our building management conducted a firedrill the week before, and we were complaining about having to stand in the sun for 15 minutes around 10AM. The things kids will do for love. I hope none of them had piles from sitting for hours in the sun.

By the time I left the office in the evening, there was already a crowd in front of the stage. Finally moved them into air-con! Hope it's the same group that were outside, who got there earliest. If those who got there later went straight to the stage in air-con comfort, then it will be most unfortunate for the poor girls.

Boss was telling us that this is normal, that he also cut out photos of his idols and pasted them into his dunno textbook or notebook when he was their age. I was a little horrified. Somehow I had a little problem mapping his face to those adolescents and imagining him doing the same things. For the sake of retaining my sanity, I shall refrain from writing any more on this topic.

Addicted to exercise

I'm an endorphin junkie. Strenuous exercising releases endorphins into the brain naturally and gives a good feeling. I almost always feel better after a session of running, stretching and working with some light weights in the gym.

I felt on top of the world. I felt at peace, confident that I can take on the world, that I can finish the projects tasked to me. I feel as though I can do project management and take on the politics and human problems that come with it. I feel like I can challenge management and steer the project to a successful outcome. Such high-induced delusions can be dangerous.

If I go to sleep now, I will wake up a very happy person. If only that state of bliss can last until Friday night.

Dead tree documentation

Spent half an afternoon poring over old documents to see if they are relevant to what I'm doing. Some of these things really should be properly scanned in and archived so that they will not be lost over time.

Hard copies tend to be locked up and kept by a single person who does not bother to read them. Centralised storage of hard copied tend to fall into disuse because it takes effort to approach the person in charge of storing the documents and searching through the dead trees. Keeping in soft copy on the network is the way to go, just as the Internet makes information much more accessible than the library.

Some people will say that the documents should be properly handled and stored, but try to discuss in detail about how to preserve and share them out and they will clam up and keep quiet. I believe very firmly that if something is important enough to you, you will do something about it. It's the acid test of whether something is significant enough to you that you preserve it instead of letting it drift away. Whether you really believe in what you preach, or if it is just propaganda.

Using students to scan them in is an option, but cannot be too chek ahk and make 1 person scan all of them in. It's too mind-numbing and demoralising. Perhaps 1 book each, or 1 day each, rotate among the students. It is all within reach, I'll see if they really believe in what they preach.

IT systems are never totally bug-free, that I can understand. But when you have bugs in your documents? In your hard copy?? A colleague opened his cabinet and found a beetle crawling among his papers. A living, breathing, crawling bug. All of us felt like fainting. Nope, it's not a bookworm, it's a bug. At least soft copied will not have beetles crawling around.

Friends in need

I'm very thankful for the new friends who keep volunteering to help me with my wedding preparations, and those who will ask from time to time how my preparations are. The old friends who called me up to offer to run through the activities with us, and those who are more than willing to help out when asked.

Some say it takes a crisis to see who your real friends are. I find that a wedding also has a way of drawing people nearer. People whom you otherwise won't have a chance to meet actually made an effort to travel to meet with you. Some are cool about it and gave the impression that they did not really want to be involved.

Perhaps those who have actually gone through it themselves are more willing to help, knowing how tough it can be for the inexperienced to go it alone. Hey, this is the first time we are doing it! But already I'm filled with admiration for those who have helped with numerous weddings already and are still more than willing to pitch in and help.

There are still lots of things that we need to do, and time is drawing nearer. Somehow we will manage to finish up, as countless others before us have managed to do. Perhaps we really should take a project management approach towards this and add in schedules, resources, tasks, stakeholders and all that stuff.

Note to self: make lots of lists when I get home. I need at least the milestones and key personnel also.

The Truman Show

The library@esplanade has many titles worth watching. For $20 a year (and then some for GST and stuff), you get to borrow 4 audio-video items for a period of 1 week. If you finish earlier you can return and borrow another 4. Through this facility, I have watched a few good shows that I would otherwise have difficulty getting hold of. For example, to buy or download the entire Roughnecks: The Starship Troopers Chronicles will need quite some cost, or effort, but I was able to borrow the excellent animation from the library. I will write about that another time.

Tonight's screening on my PC was The Truman Show, a 1998 production starring Jim Carrey. Now I had never been a big fan of Carrey, but the reviews of this show had been good. It took me a few years to get around to finally watching this, and I'm not disappointed. The story goes that this Truman Burbank person lives in a seemingly perfect world where people are nice to him and he is always happy. However he puts a few clues together and eventually realises that there is much more to his world than it appears, that there is a conspiracy around him. He sets out to discover the truth, which has been artfully kept from him for 30 years.

This is conspiracy theory and paranoia before The Matrix (1999). Will you brave storms to find out the truth for yourself? Will you risk losing everything you know? And what will you do, when "the creator" speaks to you at last? Or will you turn back and go back to the comfortable lie, as Cypher did in The Matrix?