This week really flew by for me very quickly. I’m sitting right now in my living room on a Sunday afternoon as I write this on my laptop. Some badminton tournament is playing on the telly and on my left, Shorty is sitting with Fighter on the couch. Fighter is reading her book and Shorty for some reason tying up his hair.

I was deciding what to blog about so I pulled out my phone and flipped through all the pictures I took this week. I thought the pictures I took gave me a good representation of how my week was. So here it is:

1) I was so busy working that even when I was home I didn’t have the time to spend with Fighter. So one day Shorty brought Fighter to office to visit me.

He sat quietly on my lap as I did my work… well at least it lasted for a few minutes. Then he got bored and went on to greener pastures. By greener pastures I mean my female colleagues who gave him all the attention he wanted.

2) I think this next picture was taken when I was away over the weekend.

Fighter hanging out with Penny. Fighter used to be really jealous when he sees me carrying another baby but I think he has gotten used to Penny. He’s also learned to love her and “sayang” her.

Shorty’s strategy was to let him play with Penny. Sometimes we would cringe because not knowing how to control his force he sometimes can be a little rough with her. But Shorty made sure that we maintain our discipline and not overreact to it… for fear that if we do, he might resent her.

I think that has worked and he has really gotten used to having Penny around.

3) I’ve been treated to these cookies all week along.

I love cookies and Shorty has been making loads of them. Her reason for making cookies over cake or anything else is that cookies can be kept. Whereas cake.. well there’s only a certain amount of cake we can eat. And that’s even with me.

Her cookies are extremely awesome. I’ve stopped buying cookies from outside for now and just insist on her making more and more. My favorite is her oatmeal raisin ones but she has made others like chocolate chip or peanut butter ones. All equally awesome.

4) Weekends were spent with a lot of coffee. Fighter always insists on drinking whatever I drink. When I drink beer in front of him, he wants it.. but I insist on keeping it away.

The other one is coffee. He always wants to have a sip but giving him coffee would just make him bounce off the walls all day… from a caffeine high. Plus I’m not sure if caffeine would be good for him at such a young age. Yesterday I was drinking some coffee shake and he insisted on trying so I let him taste a little. Fortunately it didn’t have a major effect. He still went to bed a couple of hours later as scheduled.

5) Grocery shopping with Fighter is a joy. He doesn’t like to sit in the trolley but he likes to sit on this basket trolley thing.

He sits there quietly and plays with all the groceries we buy and put inside there. I had a hard time trying to convince him to get out of the trolley once we were done.

6) Since my 160KM ride in February, I haven’t been waking up early and doing any long rides. I just started being lazy and well.. lazy to wake up so early. This weekend though I decided to get back into it.

Did an 80KM ride with some 50 or so other cyclists from a cycling club. The experience of riding in huge groups of cyclists is really amazing and I wish I had brought my sports camera along to capture the moment.

I was happy to know that I could still keep up with the group after having not done a long ride in a long time. Before that my rides on weekends were like 20-30KM or so.

Alright I’m gonna go spend some time with the family now. I’ve got a really busy week going ahead with lots to do. Update again soon guys. Have a wonderful week ahead.

I just realized that it’s been about 4-5 days since I last updated. I’m sorry guys. I’ve been so swamped at work. Been working on something pretty big that we’re not ready to talk about yet. And well this big thing is taking up a lot of my time.

That and whatever time I have left I make it a point to spend some time with my family… and well.. get some exercise too.

My exercise regime has taken a beating too. I try to exercise 3 times a week or so. But now I barely make it to twice. I guess that’s the thing about life. Sometimes we get so busy with work we lose our balance a bit and that’s fine… just need to be able to get back to it once all this is over.

I’m off tomorrow for Ming’s bachelor party in Macau. If you wanna follow my updates there follow my Dayre.

I’ll update soonest as I can okay?

Until then have a great weekend ahead everyone!

If there’s one thing I really love about Japan it’s the vending machines that they have everywhere. EVERYWHERE. From the train stations to alleys. It’s like every time I see one I feel like buying something and I almost always do. Either a Calpis or a milk tea or something cool. I wrote about my love for them once before.

Why I suddenly thought of writing about vending machines is because Pierre is in Japan now learning about the vending machine business in Japan. For that trip he followed an employee of a vending machines company around for a day at work that starts at 5am.

I thought it was really interesting and I thought it would be worth sharing it with everyone here. You can read about it here on his Dayre.

Inspired by the TV show Spartacus, I’ve been reading quite a bit about Roman history. The Roman Empire is so well known for good reason, because even though it was around 1000 years ago, the technology, systems and developments they had were far more advanced than civilizations centuries after theirs.

One thing that stood out to me though was the act of torture. Torture on slaves and prisoners. They do the most disgusting things and I was appalled by how such cruel people could exist. Then as I thought deeper I realized that torture and cruelty such as this existed throughout history all the way to the modern world today. From the Rape of Nanking in World War 2 to even the world we live in today. There are still innocent people today who have been treated with much cruelty whether in Syria, North Korea or in some parts of Africa.

At times like this I ask myself why does God let this happen? Aren’t we God’s children? If we’re God’s children, why does he let so many innocent people suffer? It’s one thing to have people kill one another, it’s another thing to make the process worse by torture. Why? I can’t explain this.

Why is there so much cruelty in this world?

Then a thought came to me. That it’s not just Syria or North Korea but sometimes even in the most developed countries in the world that such cruel crimes are committed. So it’s people that are cruel. Not all of us but some of us regardless of which part of the world we come from. It’s just that in the more developed countries we are protected by laws and enforcement.

A quote came to mind.

“The only thing necessary for the Triumph of Evil is that Good Men Do Nothing”.

Maybe instead of looking to God to help us out, we should look first at ourselves.

Maybe what we need in this world… is for more Good Men to act.

Pray then… that God will give us more good men who will act against evil.

Game of Thrones is one of the most highly rated TV shows of all time On IMDB it falls just right behind Breaking Bad. I can see why. A very well thought out fantasy world and with very well developed characters with depth, it’s enough to keep us watching.

I however stopped watching after the first 2 seasons. Here’s why? (Note some spoilers may follow).

1) They make you fall in love with the good guys…..

ONLY TO KILL THEM IN THE MOST BRUTAL WAY POSSIBLE. Then they do the same thing over… and over… and over again. In the mean time….

2) The BAD guys always get away until 10 good guys are killed….

Then they kill one bad guy. And when they do it, they don’t do it in a satisfying manner anyway. You can’t help but feel “hey I think this evil bad guy that I’ve hated for so long got it too easy”.

3) The Red Wedding

I stopped watching Game of Thrones in Season 2. You see since Season 1, the Starks have been marching to war for the longest time. A march that lasted two whole freaking seasons. At the end of Season 2 I was a little frustrated because they haven’t even yet reached the battlefield.

So I sighed in disappointment at Shorty and she gave me a kind of look that made me realize that something was up. So I kept probing her on what would happen since she knew because she had read the book before. Finally she told me about the Red Wedding.. and how they never actually get to the battlefield. After that I was like “OKAY THAT’S IT! I’M NOT WATCHING ANYMORE!!!”. You spend two seasons marching to war and then never even get there to see the satisfying outcome? Talk about anti-climatic.

When the episode of the Red Wedding came out it, it hit a social media uproar. Everyone was shocked at the twist. Most positive though…. but there I was reading all the reactions and thinking to myself ok I’m glad I didn’t watch it.

Now I understand from Shorty that it’s the author’s intention to make this as close to real life as possible. That means in real life, not everything ends with a conclusion. Sometimes things just go on and are left hanging.

I understand that and I can understand why some people or the majority of Game of Thrones fans will love it.  For me my personal preference is that I watch movies and TV for an escape from real life. Not to be faced with the same frustrations we face in real life.

——–

Now don’t get me wrong. I think Game of Thrones is a great show and it’s so highly rated for good reason. For me it’s a matter of personal preference and the above is why I don’t watch it. On the flip side I’m watching TV shows now like Spartacus. Goodness watch Season 1 of Spartacus and that’ll tell you what kind of season finale I think is awesome.

But that’s just me.

Hi Everyone,

Just popping by here to give a quick Gong Xi Fa Cai to all of you. May you all have good wealth and health in the year of the Goat.

Let me give you a quick update on how New Year’s Eve was like for me yesterday. Lunch was with my in-laws (Shorty’s family). Our initial plan was to go to Tim Ho Wan for lunch but upon getting there we realized that they already closed for New Year. Everywhere else in MIdvalley was full. I couldn’t believe the lines. I guess we were wrong to assume that the malls would be empty by Chinese New Year Eve since most people would have gone back to their hometowns.

So we ended up in Thai Thai.

Here’s Fighter patiently waiting for me to feed him.

And here’s him being very happy with mommy.

This year is a quiet year for us because it’s the first Chinese New Year in a very long time (or maybe ever) that we’re not going back to Penang. We can’t go back this year because Shorty is on close observation for her pregnancy now… in case the pre-eclampsia comes back so we have to stay in KL where our doctor is.

Still the good thing is that a number of my Tiah relatives are based in KL and so is my grandma. So we could join them for a reunion dinner last night.

A reunion dinner in which Fighter was busy making phone calls with my grandma’s TV remotes. Heh.

Anyway I’ve gotta go visiting Shorty’s grandma now for the new year. I’m sure all of you guys must be busy doing the same. Visiting relatives and then friends.

Happy Chinese New Year guys!

Oh and Fighter says Gong Xi Fa Cai too.

I tried teaching him to do the “Gong Xi Gong Xi” hand gesture but every time I say the words “Gong Xi Gong Xi” he flips and laughs. Haha maybe next year.

I’ve had the privilege to watch two movies in the past week. It’s rare enough that I get to go to the cinema twice in a week but you know what’s even more rare? Having both movies be totally awesome. If you haven’t had a chance to watch them yet I highly recommend it.

1) Kingsman

I watched this at the Nuffnang Premier Screening and I was totally blown away. I mean I really didn’t know what to expect. Okay the trailer told me it’s sort of a spy or James Bond type of movie but what transpired was far more than that.

The movie had some of the most awesome action scenes ever. When I say awesome I mean the complete opposite of the crappy action scenes in Taken 3 where all you have car chase scenes that cut angles back and forth so much it makes you dizzy.  One of the biggest fight scenes you’ll see in the movie has the audience follow the hero from a 3rd person point of view through a fight scene that feels like it lasts 3 full minutes and it was all done in one take. ONE TAKE.

In fact I was so impressed with the way the action scenes were filmed I googled the Director’s name (Matthew Vaughn) and have made a list to watch the rest of his movies (X-Men First Class, Layer Cake, Kick-Ass).

Samuel L Jackson was totally awesome in this movie too. I found his character hilarious.

2) The Imitation Game

I just watched this last night with Shorty. It’s the true story of a code breaker named Alan Turing who broke the Enigma Code in World War 2 and made the single biggest contribution to the Allied’s victory against Germany.

The term “True Story” here can be used rather loosely though. I went back to read up on the accuracy of the film compared to the actual historical events and lets just say that a lot of the dramatised parts were made up or never happened. Even the portrayal of Alan Turing himself wasn’t accurate.

In any case it was a movie I really enjoyed partly because I’m a modern history junkie. Equally enjoyable was reading up on the history of those events right after the movie.

So if you wanna catch a movie this week, these are two awesome movies worth watching.

I seem to really like writing lists lately. Not so much because of its click-baiting nature or anything like that but because it very easily establishes a structure of my blog entry for me. So today I’m gonna try something different. I’m gonna apply that lists format to my personal life.

Here’s 5 things new in my life in January.

1) Went for our company trip in Bali

Company trip this year was in Bali. I wasn’t particularly excited about Bali at first because I went there once with Shorty and family and we didn’t enjoy it. Traffic was really bad, there were a lot of mosquitoes everywhere and we didn’t particularly like the food there. We spent most of the time in a villa we rented.

This company trip though helped me see a different side of Bali. While we did visit temples and all, the 80 Nuffies or so who made it to the company trip liked partying. So we spent two nights in a row going out and exploring the clubs and bars in Bali. It was a different Bali experience and it was fun… but I was so glad to come home to my Shorty and my Fighter at the end of it. Missed them loads.

2) I’ve been cycling intensively

Early next month I have a cycling race that I signed up for. It’s 160KM. So the bunch of us are training really hard for it. I’ve done just a little over 100KM before but never 160KM. So I don’t know what it’s going to be like.

Just this morning I rode 90KM to a town called Titi. Had to climb mountains on my bicycle just to get there. Definitely one of the hardest rides I’ve ever had to do. Hope my next update will say I completed the 160KM race successfully.

3) I’ve began an addiction to coffee

I’m careful to try not to drink coffee in the morning because I don’t want to be something I need just to feel fully awake. So I normally have coffee in the afternoon and guess what. Now I’m addicted to coffee after lunch. If not I feel sleepy.

I’m hardly a coffee purist or anything. I drink ice-coffee most of the time. This month I also had a chance to visit my friend’s company called Coffex Coffee. They’re a coffee roasters and distributor in Malaysia, Australia , Singapore, China and some other countries I think. It was interesting learning all about coffee.

Did you know that coffee is one of the fastest growing commodities in the world in terms of demand. More and more people are drinking more and more coffee each year.

4) Shorty started baking

January 2015 is the month that Shorty officially started baking. I don’t know what triggered it. She told me one day she found a bunch of bananas at home that nobody was eating so she decided to make banana muffins. I loved it… so since then she’s been making more and more muffins and moving on to other stuff.

She’s also been shopping for more cooking stuff too. For her birthday present this year, she doesn’t want any bags or fashion accessories anymore. She wants cooking stuff which I’m happy to buy her because I get to eat more 🙂

I’m seeing a very different part of my wife now that she’s cooking and I love it. I guess it’s true when they say that the best way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. I totally feel that.

5) Fighter has a new bed

With Bump coming along we decided Fighter might have to give up his cot for Bump to sleep in when she’s born. So Shorty bought Fighter a new bed. Not a cot anymore but a proper bed. He hasn’t really slept on it yet because when I first tried a few days ago he struggled with discomfort with it. I think it’s because the pillow was too high.

So tonight we’re going to try again. Wish us luck!

So that’s it for January!

I’m away in Bali for our annual Netccentric company trip now. You can read about it on my Dayre here.

The one thing I want to bring your attention to today though is a story I read on Dayre. About a 14 year old boy who is suffering from a disease that may force him to go through amputation of his limbs. This story really got to me and really made me tear. It reminded me of how trivial most of our problems are and how this 14 year old boy is fighting a fight bigger than I have ever faced.

Please go read his story on his sister’s Dayre and if you can, give him a little word of support.

I’m in Bangkok this whole week for the Netccentric Regional Summit. You see every year our company holds a summit in January where the managers from our 7 countries in the region come together. In this one week period we share updates on how each country performed in the past year, share best practices and learnings.

That used to be it. But as each year goes by we learn how to make the summit better and better. This year for example, instead of just sharing updates, the regional team plans out directives on what each country has to achieve in the coming quarters of the year. Everything is planned 2 quarters ahead.

It’s a really exciting time for us.
What’s different this year too is that we finally have a CEO.

Yep. Believe it or not, Netccentric never had a CEO or a managing director or a COO or anything like that. Ming and I never saw the need for such titles. Our name cards really just said Co-Founder and Executive Director.

How we ran the company was like how many equal partners might run a company. I would manage some of the companies and he would manage some. We both exercised our freedom to run each company in our own way.

That worked quite well for the past years but today the company has close to 200 employees or so and offices in 7 different countries. We were no longer a startup. The worst part was that because Ming and I were running half the companies each in our own ways, each country had different processes, goals, and strategies. Best practices weren’t shared too. We were like a boat where everybody was rowing in separate directions as opposed to one direction.

It took us a while, but Ming and I finally came to the realization that we had to consolidate. Netccentric and all its companies under it (Nuffnang, ChurpChurp, Reelity, Ripplewerkz, Dayre) would need to have one leader. One leader that would decide on the vision and strategy of the company.

I put my faith and confidence behind Ming. I asked him to be CEO. We made the announcement at the end of last year. Ming was to be CEO of the company, and me COO. Effectively making Ming my boss.

Before the announcement at the end of last year, Ming and I had already been privately playing those roles. He as CEO and me as COO. So we’ve already had a trial run and I can only say that I have never been happier and never been more confident of the future of the company.

I’m a good executor. I’m good at getting things done but I also tend to be really small picture. When a problem happens I go solve it immediately. Firefighting every day, like I’m a fireman.

Ming handles problems differently. He’s not interested in solving a problem once. He’s interested in finding the root of the problem and building a process to solve it forever. He has the ability to see things before they happen in business. When he knows what we need to do, he has the ability and resolve to really focus on what’s important and block out everything else.That’s the difference and that’s why I think he’ll make a great CEO.

We were blessed. Netccentric recorded really great growth last year and this year we’ve lots to look forward to. I’m really excited too for my change in role and our team and I can’t wait to achieve the things we have planned out this year.

Here’s some positive vibes to everyone in Netccentric, and everyone everywhere. May you all have a great year ahead!