Liverpool is still making the news because they continue to bask in glory after the Merseysiders ended 2008 as Premier League leaders! I loved this quote from Liverpool assistant manager, Sammy Lee: “This is a very strong, determined and focused bunch of players and they have a real belief. It’s not arrogance but we’re prepared to succeed and not prepared to fail”. Go for it, Liverpool!
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Bidding Farewell to 2008
Liverpool is still making the news because they continue to bask in glory after the Merseysiders ended 2008 as Premier League leaders! I loved this quote from Liverpool assistant manager, Sammy Lee: “This is a very strong, determined and focused bunch of players and they have a real belief. It’s not arrogance but we’re prepared to succeed and not prepared to fail”. Go for it, Liverpool!
Monday, December 29, 2008
NTV7 Breakfast Show
I am also remembering another talented Toastmaster, Stephen Fernando, whom I have had the privilege to have met. I am intending to invite Stephen Fernando to HICT to give a humor workshop sometime next year. Wei Wei in her capacity as Vice President Public Relations (of our HICT Toastmasters Club) shall have to work harder to bring in the crowd.
With one week to go before the start of the new 2009 academic year, I have been busier than usual, preparing for my classes. I cannot quite recall now but I think I am slotted for either 5 or 6 subjects in January – and one of the subjects that I am hard-pressed to get ready the powerpoint slides is for Strategic Management. As of this morning, I am still doing Lesson 5. It is slow-going but when you insist on doing your own slides, it’s like that lah. But I believe it’s worth it because my students will benefit. Why? Because when I do these slides, I draw upon more than one source – for this subject alone, I am relying on 4 textbooks to put the slides together. OMG, it sure is hard work!
Back to football, and Arsenal managed to carve a narrow 1-0 win over Portsmouth, the solitary goal courtesy of Gallas in the 81st minute. Still, a precious 3 points in the bag for the Gunners – this win allowed them to overtake Aston Villa, and settled in fourth place. I don’t believe Arsenal is a contender for the topmost placing in the EPL but if they can stay within the top 4 places, they should be happy nonetheless. Nice to see The Star’s sports page carrying the headline today (December 29) that desribes Liverpool's feat: “Five-star show”! Tired of always seeing Man U or Chelsea grabbing the headlines – a nice change, indeed!
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Logi and Monti


In the SPL, Celtic bested Rangers 1-0, thanks to McDonald in the 58th minute – although to be fair to the latter, they dominated possession but unfortunately, couldn’t find the breakthrough. And in the EPL, Liverpool gave Newcastle a 5-1 walloping; the Liverpool scorers were Gerrard (31st minute); Hyypia (36th minute); Babel (50th minute); Gerrard (66th minute); and Alonso (77th minute penalty). This was Liverpool’s last match of the year and what a match to end the year! Liverpool is sitting pretty atop the table with 45 points! Liverpool haven’t been crowned champions of England since way back in 1990, and this season represents their best chance to pull this off! We all believe victory is possible, and nothing is impossible.
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Books and Interviews
Todate, our Andy McDonough’s “Out of the Blues” sales have climbed to 600 CDs. It may appear that CD sales are slowing down – alas, this is true but we are confident that once the students are back from their hols, there will be another concerted push to fast-forward the sales momentum. I trust Mathew can look into this.

Thursday, December 25, 2008
Blogging is Mainstream?
(As an aside question: What is wrong with that? I say, if blogs can make money too, so be it).
Another tech writer, Paul Boutin is also mentioned. “Scroll down Technorati’s list of the top 100 blogs and you’ll find personal sites have been shoved aside by professional ones”. Let us not forget that personal blogs are, by definition, individual – so unless the contents are something that can reach out to touch a significant majority of the world’s IT-connected population, I guess we won’t make it into this list. I have no pretensions – my own blog is very personal. Who is reading my blog? I venture a guess. My friends, my students, acquaintances who may be remotely interested in me (Hahaha, but somehow I don’t think so), HICT (if you care to know about HICT’s happenings), Toastmasters stuff (probably not unless you are like me – just starting out as a Toastmaster and my reflections can help you learn about the journey that we as Toastmasters must walk through), football results (only if you are interested in EPL and SPL football), and other trivial stuff which I may deliberately choose to write about. But this is just an educated guess. So, readers, tell me – who are you? Why do you read my blog? Nice to know, I guess. Hehe, now, I am curious!
Remember Nike? The company started out as Blue Ribbon Sports (renamed Nike in 1973 after a Greek goddess) selling athletic shoes, way back in 1962. It was catering to a niche market because this was before we mass-adopt the fitness craze, the healthy lifestyle; before we consider shoes to be a fashion statement; before we covet them like some self-important badge of social prestige. But today, can anyone consider Nike to be a niche company? A resounding and thumping No. Nike is the leading maker of athletic shoes, equipment and apparel, and their products cover a broad range of sports including basketball, football, running and so on. Wholly-owned Nike subsidiaries include Converse Inc., which designs, markets and distributes athletic footwear, apparel and accessories; Cole Haan, which designs, markets and distributes luxury shoes, handbags, accessories and coats; Hurley International LLC, which designs, markets and distributes action sports and youth lifestyle footwear, apparel and accessories; and Umbro Ltd., a leading United Kingdom-based global football (soccer) brand. In fiscal 2008, Nike had revenues of $18.6 billion (a 14% increase from 2007) and net income of $1.9 billion. And in terms of staff strength, Nike employs over 30,000 people worldwide; in addition, to about 650,000 workers who are employed in Nike contracted factories around the globe. So, Nike is a mammoth company serving a gargantuan market – hardly what you would call a niche player! [Source: Webpage http://nyjobsource.com/nike.html, accessed December 25, 2008].
Yes, Oon Yeoh cited some impressive statistics from Carr: 133 million blogs were identified since Technorati started indexing them in 2002. At least 94% of them have gone dormant; only 74 million blogs have any postings in the last 120 days; and get this – 1.5 million had any postings in the last 7 days. Well, listen Oon Yeoh. I am one of these 1.5 million active bloggers. And I would even argue that if the number of active bloggers has indeed massively dwindled, it can only mean that blogging has ceased to be mainstream, that blogging has reverted to becoming a niche activity. I mean, 1.5 million is just a drop in the ocean when we compare to the number of worldwide Internet users standing at 1.407 billion (according to Internet World Stats, at webpage http://librariesinteract.info/2008/07/26/size-of-the-internet-2008/, accessed December 25, 2008), right? Hah! So c’mon, Oon Yeoh – try and answer this!
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
We Are Replaceable
New York has 165,000 highly qualified people who lost their jobs because of Wall Street. About 10,000 are highly educated Chinese who studied in some of the best B schools and were (repeat: were) holding well-paid jobs in some of the best known companies in the world. 10,000 of them (just from New York) are returning to China and Asia. These are PhDs, MBAs, engineers, financiers, bankers, IT experts who have some of the best exposures working in Fortune 500 companies. Their spouses are equally qualified - professors and senior staff of universities and research houses. Now they are coming home to Asia.
They can easily replace us. I cannot think of one position in HELP that they cannot take over. They are hard working, experienced, global-minded, and realistic with their remuneration. These are the people we want.
But wait a minute, there are also many brilliant Indians who are in a similar situation. They are also returning from the Silicon Valley and the investment banks. But they can't find jobs in India. So they, and others from India, are coming to Singapore and Malaysia and Asia. And they are also quality people, including Malaysians, who are leaving Singapore and Hong Kong to return to Malaysia.
We are nothing compared to these "gold collar workers." Companies are now replacing existing staff, who are average to mediocre or overpaid, with these returnees. I have never seen such massive movement of top quality people. No one is indispensable, and no one is not irreplaceable now.
Once upon a time we take things for granted, getting too complacent and getting even arrogant. They hold employers hostage. Not so now: this is a buyer's market. Caveat venditor."
Now, isn't this a sobering message? There are those who will even say that this is a scary proposition. When I say, work is becoming scarce, you'd better believe it!
Monday, December 22, 2008
So Close...
In Scotland where really miserable weather prevails, Celtic, not unexpectedly, trounced Falkirk 3-0 (Samaras, 48; Mizuno 90; and McDonald 90). But Celtic manager, Gordon Strachan got it right when he said, “When opportunity meets preparation, then you get that today”.
And last but not least, here's me wishing everybody Merry Christmas!!!
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Paul Chan's Email
We recognize the focus, priority and tenacity you and your team demonstrated. I observe how you all work and I am glad that you are functioning as teams, not groups of individuals. Always keep in mind that matrix management and project leadership work somewhat differently from the conventional hierarchical model. This is mostly vertical whereas the other is more horizontal. Power and authority are somewhat distributed differently. When we understand this then there will be no conflicts during execution. Good luck to your recruitment. Paul"

Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Anyone for a Sloppy Joe?
Ambience: One star
Food Presentation: 3 stars
Food Taste: 3 stars
Bang for Buck: 4 stars
For a more detailed report, check out his blog at www.foodposition.com
I am pleased that at least we scored well for service (thank you, Wei Wei) and "bang for buck" (i.e. value for money). We had two offers: nasi kunyit with chicken curry and/or Sloppy Joe hotdog. Personally, I did find Sloppy Joe genuinely appetising as far as looks go, and to me at least, it was also yummy - if we compare to, say, A&W's Coney Dog, this Sloppy Joe wins hands down, methinks!

Still, I have no quarrel with his opinions, and we will, for sure, be mindful of his observations, and make the necessary improvements. After all, we intend to view his review positively.
Christmas-y Toastmasters
Yesterday (December 16), the price of petrol is trimmed by another 10 sen. Honestly, this very modest price cut is not going to make any appreciable difference to the liters of petrol that goes into our tanks. If the BN government wants to earn the goodwill of the rakyat, then they should consider a more significant downward adjustment because really, what can you buy with 10 sen nowadays?
Monday, December 15, 2008
Jump!
I thought this is really hilarious!
Sunday at HICT
As for my talk, it was attended by about 30 persons, and generally, I can say "Future Career Directions: Options After SPM" was well-presented, if I may say so myself. The talk from Toastmasters International on "Become a Communication Maestro" which came on next, saw 23 people attending. Foong Weng Tuck and Chan Siew Peng did this segment, and it was a nice surprise to have Dr. CP Lim on stage to also give her take on this topic. When these individuals speak, it makes me realy proud to be part of the Toastmasters movement - they were so eloquent.
Given how occupied I was this weekend, I had to forgo my football, and believe me, I didn't miss a thing! Both Liverpool and Arsenal persisted in disappointing their fans by giving us uninspired games. Likewise, Celtic. As a matter of fact, all 3 games ended in draws: the Liverpool-Hull match produced a lackluster 2-2 scoreline (Liverpool's Gerrard scoring in both the 24th and 32nd minutes); the Arsenal-Middlesbrough match was equally disagreeable, with a 1-1 scoreline (Arsenal's Adebayor scoring in the 17th minute); and Celtic and Hearts played to a one-all draw (McManus producing the only goal for the Bhoys in the 79th minute). I am so disappointed that I am not putting any photos of the games!
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Suki is One in a Million
Since the last time I reported Andy McDonough's CD sales, we have seen sales surged forward to a total of 580 CDs todate.
I am not really that excited about the UEFA Champions League, but when my three teams are playing – I do sit up and take notice. It’s good to see Celtic gaining some redemption by beating Villarreal 2-0 at home; Liverpool also beating PSV 3-1; but Arsenal was beaten 0-2 to FC Porto.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
HICT Open Day & Career Fair
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Missing Glasgow





Monday, December 8, 2008
Missing Scotland

Sunday, December 7, 2008
Barack Obama at SNHU


Friday, December 5, 2008
The Land of Food Blogs
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
The Ups and Downs of Petrol Prices
Planning Speech No. 3
Monday, December 1, 2008
The Gunners Believe
