RAPE is a CRIME, nothing less

RAPE has been legalised in this country! As in the minimal years of sentencing these criminal isn't enough, they can get away "scot-free" because they are either young first-time offender, cooperated with the police, shown remorse, had not been "very much older" than the minor and guarantee not to commit such offence again.

Over and over again, we read and listened and are exposed to news about women and children being raped around the globe. Over and over again, people are being educated that rape is a 'crime', and thus focus should be on the criminal, and not on the victim for the way they dress, they way they act for NO ONE ask to be raped!

As in the crime itself is not heinous enough, here in Malaysia - criminals are bound over for THEIR good behaviour. Definitely makes you wonder what kind of law there are (which are actually effective), to protect the victims in this country.

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Case 1: A former national youth squad bowler NOOR AFIZAL AZIZAN was bound over for RM25,000 to be of good behavior for five years after he pleaded guilty to the statutory rape of a 13-years-old girl. 

Reason given by the Court of Appeal? He was 19 at the time of the offence, had not been "very much older" than the minor he had consensual sex with, had cooperated with the police, shown remorse, and guarantee that he would not commit such an offence again.

 # Question 1: Is 13-years-old OLD ENOUGH to give consensual sex and able to understand the outcome or result surrounding it? This girl is STILL a CHILD!

 # Question 2: Doesn't being "older" make him understand and realize the situation he's in MUCH BETTER?

 # Question 3: Does his "guarantee" actually warranted anything at all?

 # Question 4: If I stabbed a person, and I plead guilty, and that person allowed me to stab him/her, I cooperated with the police, shown remorse, and guarantee that I will not commit such thing again, will I too be freed?

 # And while the court has defended their decision, saying it has nothing to do with him being someone with power (even little), this decision proves to be rather suspicious, isn't it?

 # Will the court actually still have him bound over if she's their own daughter?

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Case 2: A 22-years-old Electrician has been bound over on a good behaviour bond for RM25,000 to be of good behaviour for 3 years after being found guilty to the statutory rape of a 12-years-old girl and 10 months. 

Apparently, the court took into consideration that CHUAH GUAN JIU was a young, first-time offender, consensual sexual act, being a school dropout and HIS future.

The most interesting part are the details of this case which I listed below:

1. DPP Lim Cheah Yit said Chuah had coaxed the girl into skipping school and following him back to his flat on the pretext of him being sick.

2. "She asked him many times to take her to school but he said he was unwell and took her to his home," Lim had said when pressing for deterrent sentence.

3. Counsel Yusuf Idris said his client earned RM30 a day and was staying with his parents and a younger sibling.

4. "This is his first offence. He has a fixed job now and many years ahead of him," he said.

5. Yusuf said his client has repented and urged the court not to impose a custodial sentence in view of Chuah's age.

# Again, a girl who is still very much a child. Can she really consent to sex? 

# From the content of the case, it is highly understood that he has every intention to rape her (so what's so consensual about this?)

 # Does earning RM30 a day as well as staying with parents indirectly caused a person to have an urge to rape, or more precisely, why do that has anything to do with his own decision to rape?

 # Being a first-offender nor a school dropout DO NOT suggest that he will not do it again nor the fact that he do not realize the consequences of his action.

 # Age of a criminal has nothing to do with the crime he commit!!

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It sure looks like our Malaysia Courts are lacking funds, else I can't see any reason why these two criminals are allowed to be in the society without any punishment to remind them that what they did is more than wrong, it's heinous. The fact that they are both adults (over the age of 18-years-old) and are more than capable in finding someone of eligible age for sex, speaks volume for their action. 

Despite that offence under Section 376(1) of the Penal Code carries a maximum jail sentence of 20 years and whipping, the fact that I have NEVER throughout these years notice that rapists are punished for more than 10 years shown how little the law cares to protect their very citizens.

I'm not even disappointed anymore, I'm DISGUSTED. Disgusted with the system. Disgusted with the law. Disgusted with this country. Disgusted with the fact that while nothing is being done about all this, the government/politicians are more concerned about protecting their asses with Section 114A of the Evidence Act of 1950 - which very existence is just to stop the citizens from finding out their dirty works in the ministry - just another ISA.

Malaysia declared as one of the safest countries in ASEAN. Seriously?

I find this piece of news extremely disturbing, as well as misleading to our own citizens and others. Perhaps the government want to create some sort of appeal to tourists, investors...  but to announce that we are one of the safest, is another level of bullshit all together.

If Malaysia is safe, why there has been a recent hike of cases report in the media - where women were stabbed and robbed in broad daylight?

If Malaysia is safe, why people are killed and kidnapped over a mere hundreds to several thousands Ringgit?

If Malaysia is safe, why crimes rates have steadily drastically increased over a span of several years?

If Malaysia is safe, how is it that the same robbers in my area are not caught up until today? It has been more than a year, to say the least. And amusingly, almost every single house in this area has been robbed at least once by the same people. So if Malaysia is safe, what are these issues?

People are getting desperate these days, with poor economy as well as rising living expenses. People are to be blamed as well, for feeding on their wants towards luxury lives, as encouraged by media and corporates alike.

People are kidnapped and ransom, even for a mere several thousands of Ringgit. Killed even. How about rates of crimes committed against women these days? They are targeted for their vulnerability where rapes and many other crimes continue to escalate. 

Problem with these robbers in Malaysia - they rob more than just cash. They robs their victims' lives as well. Do you even hear of robbers just taking cash and snatching stuffs then leave? They stab and slash you before you can react. COLD BLOODED ANIMALS on the prowl. That's what they are. And our government can't seem to stop them. Why is that the case?

Are policemen not motivated even enough to protect the citizens? If so, then why are they even hired as policemen to begin with? And to say the least, sometimes the police themselves are the criminal instead!

We, the people in Malaysia, are living our lives in fear... unable to trust the police, unable to trust the government, unable to trust our neighbours, nor even friends. It's a sad time indeed for everyone. Thus I'm not at all surprised to notice how people are turning colder and hostile towards one another.

Government should revamp the laws. Laws are to be updated as civilizations evolved. But what are laws if they are not enforced? Noticed how often some things always end up stopped half-way (be it building development, laws... ) because nothing is enforced for the long term?

I don't really give a damn about the politics, as long as the people will at least be protected at all times. Corrupt all the hell you want, but at least do something right!

Malaysia. Safe. Yeah right.

Ignorance or Naive?

History repeats. And it's proven yet again, how parents failed their duty to protect their children. And somehow, this is incredibly rampant in Asian countries with the lukewarm effort to improve the system or even putting up any effort into it.

Take Malaysia for example. The recent missing child Nurul Nadirah Abdullah, whose charred remains was found at a plantation. It's a typical horror event that somehow always repeat itself in the news. And as always, it shares two points. Point 1: Young children wander about without adult surveillance. 2) Parents said their area is safe.

I wonder how many children need to be lost, hurt, or killed in order for parents in Malaysia to learn about "child safety". Malaysian community have a typical attitude in life. A "tidak apa" behavior which you can see in the way they live as a family within any community, in their performance at work and literally everything itself. Malaysians make a huge fuss and fights when things go wrong... though this usually only last for, say... a few days? Weeks? Months? Years? And then the whole issue will die down and repeat itself once again when things happen, yet again. Malaysian never "prevent", they only "react".

The most Malaysian parents have almost no rules or regulations for their children which I believed, an attitude ingrained in them since long ago, a very cultural thing. Children ran on the streets where vehicles passes by all day. Younger siblings will be placed in the care of the older siblings, sometimes as young as SEVEN-years-old. Parents and community are too comfortable with the idea that "it is all in the hands of Allah or the Lord". Unfortunately, some communities are affected more on this particular topic than any other, mainly because they are very trusting to others - which make them one of the most close-knitted community who look out for one another. However they must realize that the current society that we are living in has since changed much. Crimes has increased drastically. The violence and senselessness of the crimes these days should serve as loud warning bell in any parents mind. Parents who commit heinous crimes against their own children are in the rising and even reported quite often in the news, how can you expect people in the public will not harm someone's else child? So is this "naive" or just plain "ignorance"?

Over and over again, parents have been reminded to look and monitor their children. Over and over again, children are left to their own devices. And when bad things happened, parents and the public cried foul over the crime and want justice. Yet, they are just as guilty. They could have prevent the crime from happening all-together.

If parents are not able to learn on their own devices, it is big time that a proper law to be put in place. A law to ensure that the parents are fit to care for their children, and harsher laws for crime against children. It is laughable that a monster who molest, rape, hurt, abduct are only sentenced to a few years for such crime, only to repeat himself on other children when he's out. Where is the justice in this?

Tiger Mum vs. Tigger Mum

An interesting topic in the Sunday Star. And yet a topic strangely familiar to all, regardless of whether you are a parent or young adults – as this topic is definitely one that everyone can relates to from any walks of life.

It’s understandable that the Western people voices (or quite literally, “scream”) over their dissatisfaction of this Tiger Mum’s way of raising her children, and at the same time condemn many quarters – from education to the Western way of raising their children. And yet, for people like me whose grew up in a Chinese family (but I must state, mine is pretty much liberal), this is nothing to be upset or to caused an uproar for. And in fact, as upsetting as some of her statements are, this Tiger Mum’s statements aren’t that far from truth.

Let’s look at this. I must admit that some of her ways - such like pushing her kids beyond the limits in practicing their skills to belittling them are NOT the right way to treat the children. But then again, certain disciplines or even punishments are needed to guide kids to the right path. While her ways are very extreme, you can’t deny that it pushes her kids to over-achieve themselves.

While Tigger Mum was at first, intimidated with all the news surrounded this Tiger Mum and her book, she too can’t help but agree on certain things about children these days. I’m not a mum at all, yet I notice how kids to teenagers these days, are all pushing the limits of their parents and at the same time being hard-headed, selfish and rude. I don’t FULLY blame these kids / teenagers for misbehaving. I blame their parents in failing to teaching their children from wrong to right.

I have seen the Western way of up-bringing during my travels (and I’m not IMPRESSED, to say the least), and I also noticed how the media influences the present Asians in up-bringing their kids in the so-called “western way”. Mind you, I don’t fully detest the Western way of bringing-up their children. I must say that I was impressed with some parents, that while they do not hit their children, they are able to impose punishments to discourage bad behaviors. Yet, I’m seeing less of that – and more on pampering the kids to the max and just literally, let them have their way. And yes, I am very much blaming the media on that for these are the exact message sent out from movies, advertisements and more.

So anyway, let’s look at some of these examples that I’ll be sharing here based on real-life experiences of my own and shared by fellow friends. Here I will list these kids (and teenagers) of their races – just to prove my point that this happens to all races, without being racist.

Story 1: My family with my grandma (except for me) went for a holiday in UK visiting my sisters. I was told by my grandma that while she was climbing up the stairs to my sis’ apartment, a white kid threw cans at her and sniggered “You yellow skin don’t belong here!” from inside his home. Even when my mum and dad followed from behind her, he continued with his truant and showed his tongue then went back in to his TV (I assume). My grandma was very upset and I feel for her. She was almost 90 years old then.

Story 2: While at the UK airport, my family witnesses yet another outrageous (and amusing, for me) another scene. A young white boy (no more than 5 years old) threw his tantrum in public by literally stomping on the ground, had his back on the floor, kicked, wailed and glided his butt around. Yes, every single parent’s nightmare of a scene. And these white people who were around actually commented, “Oh my, that boy is so cute!” while smiling from ear to ear watching him. Excuse me but, what is so CUTE about a kid throwing his tantrum in public and mentally abusing his parents?

Story 3: My aunt and her family has been in UK since her marriage and even worked until they own and manage their own restaurant. One day, my uncle caught a white teenager stealing from his shop which he gave chase on. He too, grabbed unto a baseball bat trying to scare this teenager from ever returning to steal again. But, the teenager did return only with his attorney and the police. While he admits to being a thief, he also sued my uncle for intending to cause him harm with the baseball bat. I must say I’m IMPRESSED with their protection laws over the children.

Story 4: A family friend was initially residing somewhere in Europe (I’m guessing, New Zealand) with her husband and her toddler son. While she was out walking with her son in his stroller, they stopped by a café for tea. Somehow, her son misbehaved and she slapped his hand and told him to behave. Then a white lady, who was nearby scolded her, “Don’t do that to a child! You will cause him to have a possible impairment for the rest of his life!” over his palm being slapped. Wow.

While I am amazed with the Whites (Americans, British – all ‘guai lohs’ in general) in up-bringing their kids with the highest self-regard and self-belief, however when it comes to matter of disciplining or righting the wrongs done and even educating their kids – they failed miserably in my eyes.

Perhaps it’s their culture, and definitely it’s their “over-protective” human rights on the children. While I agree that some children are abused with excessive use of rotans or any form of physical punishment – whether the children deserve it or not; but you can’t deny that some form of punishment is necessary for their up-bringing. Since when did a few strokes of rotan or slaps cause one to have “trauma” for the rest of their life? You want to talk trauma, let’s look at rape victims. These victims are robbed out of their trust towards people, self-esteem, self-value and more; yet what do the criminals get (if they were caught at all)? A few ‘lovely’ years spent behind bars with a roof over their head and their needs being taken care off with the public funds, because we need to treat them like humans with rights. How fucked up is that?

Once, China passes a law that states that the parents of a criminal who committed crimes too will be punished by the law – to which many people in China and around the world causes a huge uproar over, as parents can’t be blamed for the wrongs that their children did. I agreed with the idea behind the law, up to a certain degree as I believe that parents are to nurture and teach their children from young – however they can’t exactly be put to blame for all things that their children did. There are good parents, and their kids sometimes gone astray – then who are to be blamed?

The Whites will loathes the Asians’ mentality and strict punishment saying that its inhuman to treat people (regardless of their crime) in sometimes gruesome manner, you can’t really deny the effectiveness it holds over the people. But then again, question on whether it helps or worsens the situation is another discussion altogether as ‘fear’ is not exactly the best solution to anything. Of course, certain laws in some countries are biased and unfair, and that too will be discussed in a separate blog.

Back on the topic, I recall a particular movie about a White man in China, who was accused of committing a murder, was being put on trial. China, being a man-dominated country with no or little respect for women (whether they are capable or not), were being mean especially to the White man’s Chinese female lawyer because 1) she’s a woman, and 2) she’s helping a foreigner in his case. There was an argument between the White man and his lawyer, which he complains or states that “China is being too strict or inhuman in its law, where for crime committed, a huge or heavy penalty awaits its criminals – death for murder, kidnap and such” while supporting USA laws, to which the Chinese lady replied “And yet, the crimes committed here are so much less than those committed in your great country”. He was left speechless then and there. Both parties argues some rather fine points, which further points how some balance in laws (or any other matter) are needed without being an extreme on either end to benefit the people themselves.

Now I shall continue with real-life scenarios in Malaysia, Singapore, China:

Story 5: Sis and I were walking around in the shopping mall while mum went looking for her things. For a brief moment, sis stopped and glared at a Malay kid who just ran off and complained, “That bloody kid KICKED me!”. We didn’t think much of it and continued on. In just a span of a few minutes, this kid came back and KICKED my sis again right in front of me while I shouted, “HEY!” and he giggled and ran off again. At this time, both of us were visibly frustrated and angered. And guess what, this time he came back and he KICKED again (I was on the verge of slapping or kicking him back – I was just about 15 or so, sis was 4 years younger) and HIS MOTHER was just right behind him! I glared at her, she just held on her son who was still kicking my sis at this point and glared back at me and just walked off. Just like that. So much for being a MOTHER. *spit*

Story 6: When I was around 16 years old, I notice that my Chinese neighbor’s son (my age) will bring home his girlfriend (a year or two younger) on any occasion – regardless whether the parents are home or not. Within the same year, this girl moved into the household. Mind you, they are both still schooling. In case you are wondering – yes, the parents allowed the girl to move-in and the father, in fact was so proud of his son that he was literally boasting it out to other neighbors. I don’t get it, if you ask me. But one thing for sure, this area that I’m in has a high rate of underage girls getting pregnant and ended up married and dropped out of school – this is an issue for all races here. I blame these on the parents and teachers for choosing to be ignorant towards this matter and just shrugged their shoulders and said, “They are old enough to know what is right and wrong. Thus, it’s their choice.” How are they supposed to know what they suppose to know when they are not taught on the basis of their action? Telling them it’s wrong to do it without discussing the issue does not sum up to them being educated on it.

Story 7: While I was queuing up to pay to purchase my ticket from the machine in MRT, Singapore – an Indian girl in her teens just jumped right in front of me and started fiddling with the machine. A little stunned, I choose to just ignore the fact that she cuts the queue and allow her to continue. I didn’t see much benefit in making a fuss as I wasn’t in a hurry, and also, I’m not in the mood to screw people up and down. Within seconds, her WHOLE family barged in with the mother, father, brother and a little sister. I was more amused than being angered. “So this is how the parents teach their kids these days,” I said aloud to my friend next to me. Since they were thick-skinned enough to cut my queue, of course they ignore me (or maybe they don’t understand me). Either way, I regretted not taking a picture. It would have made a good story in STOMP or something.

Story 8: When Hong Kong Disneyland opened, my family and aunt’s family (minus the husbands) visits within the year or so. Unfortunately for us, it was filled to the brimmed with China people as it was some special holiday. Lucky for me, the weather is well below zero degree – so no sweaty smells can get its way around. It was the first time for me to meet these China people during their holiday and it’s NOT pleasant at all, to say the least. They were rude, they made a mess by throwing rubbish on the ground (despite bins being provided in every corner), they cut queues, and my list will go on and on. Purpose of this story is to prove that NOT all the Chinese families teach or educate their children like Tiger mum, for if they did, perhaps there will be more well-behaved China people on their holidays. Maybe it’s the culture that we lived in are different, but I was expecting better behave people than those I met. Of course, it’s not only the China peeps. I met some really rude blacks, whites, browns… just shows that it’s more than just the culture, it’s the up-bringing.

I could continue on and on, on this matter alone but I would say I make more than enough arguments or points with such a LONG post written. To summarize the “Tiger Mum vs Tigger Mum” – I would love to have a balance of both. It’s not easy, but nothing is easy after all. Especially in bringing up kids in these days and time.

Gong Xi Fa Chai!

Here wishing all the readers a great Dragon year ahead!

I know many people are trying their best to get pregnant or ARE pregnant, here wishes the best for your family and your bundle of joy! But one shouldn’t go all out for the sake of having a DRAGON baby ‘cos it’s about responsibility here :)

I’ve been in this CNY spirit since the beginning of the month itself, extremely rare for me! Usually it is only the day before that I’ll be in full spirit. Even with the shopping.

What’s exactly is the difference? The overloaded shopping on clothes and heels? A new beginning to a money-making career? The fact that this year, 2012 will mark the END of the world?

I don’t know, but hey maybe it’s all those mentioned. I’ve been wondering whether I’ll die this year, and if I end up dead, I wouldn’t want the world to END. Let some nice people lived on, will ya, oh Lord? I wouldn’t want to fly straight to heaven (or majority Chinese believe, it’s hell – kinda sad. I rather heaven, seen enough of “HELL ON EARTH”) for judgement. I would BEG and BEG and BEG that they give me 5 minutes more to do one thing. JUST ONE DAMN THING. And I’m happy.

And I’m sure you must be wondering, what’s that – if of course, you didn’t managed to read my FB or Tweets :P

I just want that 5 minutes to scare the shit out of people by saying, “Hey, guess we are the only ones left. Wait a minute… am I getting transparent? AHHHHH!!” Hopefully, that fella will not die of shock… and he/she may find it as hilarious as I did!

BACK TO CHINESE NEW YEAR…

I’m not exactly keen on going back to Malacca as usual, but hopefully my little cousin will make things more bearable. And oh, I just MUST bring books and games back, else I would have d***, oops… I mean “eek” of boredom (not auspicious to talk about death now, since I’m back on CNY topic. LOL).

Then I’m sure to have a blast in Tapah with my tones of cousins and relatives… Just a pity that my sisters won’t be able to make it back home – miss them and their family very much!

Just wonder what does this DRAGON year have waiting for me. Hope it’s all good :)

So here wishing that our "all-time-favourite" Mister Prosperity will visit us and gives us tonnes of blessings for the year!

GONG XI GONG XI!!

Crazy Week

Seems that I stopped writing for a while, again.

Kinda have to drag myself to write, else I'll stop writing for another few months. Pretty hopeless in keeping myself in track. Heh heh.

Though this crazy week isn't entirely horrible. Managed to slip away for a few days vacation-ing with my family and cousins in Pangkor. I shall write about that soon. It's a blast!

Then one-day trip with my fellow mates up to Genting (unexpected) and Bkt Tinggi (we got lost driving in those old junk road for 2 hours or so). It was a totally random and quite interesting trip.

Then work... ah, the work. Headache and everything. It's all so rush, to the point I'm not too excited about it. Sheesh...

And I spent RM500 on some health products to detoxify my system. Mum gonna kill me. She told me to save for CNY shopping already...

That's like a week or two summary. Hahaha!!

Pimple Joke

Been working on so many late nights recently, I'm getting burned and tired more easily. Not to forget, those darn pimples just relentlessly appearing non-stop. The worse (or funniest) pimples to appear is:

How bloody obnoxious is that? It both came out at the right time, and bloody in one straight line!! Seriously, even pimples know how to make a joke these days...

Piece of Sh*t!

I was thinking of putting some images of REAL or "look-alike" of shit... but that is wayyy too disgusting even for me! So skipped that idea...

So the reason for this SHIT is because I freaking stepped on shit right before I got into my car after sending a fellow friend home... and I didn't realize it til I put my foot on my carpet and my first instinct of the slimy feel... "Oh Fuck". I thought it was leaves until I start scrubbing my slipper and realized... it's a freaking "POT OF GOLD". Too bad there isn't any REAL gold in that!!

Ta Ma De...

Business English - Lessons from Steve Jobs

An interesting read from Guy Kawasaki ;)

WHAT I LEARNED FROM STEVE JOBS
an article by Guy Kawasaki

Another unconventional Business English post. In this one we are going in for the finer words and expressions. These are not unknown to you at all, these are used in everyday English but the way these words and expressions are used make them worthwhile mentioning and labeling as part of Business English. Context, usage, style all defines the way these terms are used. NOTE: These are not necessary always important or vital words but they can hurt a great deal if your conversation is sidetracked because of them.

Oh, and not the least – this article is a summary of an extremely good lesson. Just in case you don’t know who Guy Kawasaki is: He is an Apple veteran and chief evangelist of the company (as it turns out in the article). His blog is considered one of the most influential ones on technology and close to 1 million people read each post.

THE ARTICLE (courtesy of Guy Kawasaki’s blog – ‘How to Change the World’):

Many people have explained what one can learn from Steve Jobs. But few, if any, of these people have been inside the tent and experienced first hand what it was like to work with him. I don’t want any lessons to be lost or forgotten, so here is my list of the top twelve lessons that I learned from Steve Jobs.

Experts are clueless. Experts—journalists, analysts, consultants, bankers, and gurus can’t “do” so they “advise.” They can tell you what is wrong with your product, but they cannot make a great one. They can tell you how to sell something, but they cannot sell it themselves. They can tell you how to create great teams, but they only manage a secretary. For example, the experts told us that the two biggest shortcomings of Macintosh in the mid 1980s was the lack of a daisy-wheel printer driver and Lotus 1-2-3; another advice gem from the experts was to buy Compaq. Hear what experts say, but don’t always listen to them.

Customers cannot tell you what they need.“Apple market research” is anoxymoron. The Apple focus group was the right hemisphere of Steve’s brain talking to the left one. If you ask customers what they want, they will tell you, “Better, faster, and cheaper”—that is, better sameness, not revolutionary change. They can only describe their desires in terms of what they are already using—around the time of the introduction of Macintosh, all people said they wanted was better, faster, and cheaper MS-DOS machines. The richest vein for tech startups is creating the product that you want to use—that’s what Steve andWoz did.

Jump to the next curve. Big wins happen when you go beyond better sameness. The best daisy-wheel printer companies were introducing new fonts in more sizes. Apple introduced the next curve: laser printing. Think of ice harvesters, ice factories, and refrigerator companies. Ice 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0. Are you still harvesting ice during the winter from a frozen pond?

The biggest challenges beget best work.I lived in fear that Steve would tell me that I, or my work, was crap. In public. This fear was a big challenge. Competing with IBM and then Microsoft was a big challenge. Changing the world was a big challenge. I, and Apple employees before me and after me, did their best work because we had to do our best work to meet the big challenges.

Design counts. Steve drove people nuts with his design demands—some shades of black weren’t black enough. Mere mortals think that black is black, and that a trash can is a trash can. Steve was such a perfectionist—a perfectionist Beyond: Thunderdome—and lo and behold he was right: some people care about design and many people at least sense it. Maybe not everyone, but the important ones.

You can’t go wrong with big graphics and big fonts. Take a look at Steve’s slides. The font is sixty points. There’s usually one big screenshot or graphic. Look at other tech speaker’s slides—even the ones who have seen Steve in action. The font is eight points, and there are no graphics. So many people say that Steve was the world’s greatest product introduction guy..don’t you wonder why more people don’t copy his style?

Changing your mind is a sign of intelligence. When Apple first shipped the iPhone there was no such thing as apps. Apps, Steve decreed, were a bad thing because you never know what they could be doing to your phone. Safari web apps were the way to go until six months later when Steve decided, or someone convinced Steve, that apps were the way to go—but of course. Duh! Apple came a long way in a short time from Safari web apps to “there’s an app for that.”

“Value” is different from “price. ”Woe unto you if you decide everything based on price. Even more woe unto you if you compete solely on price. Price is not all that matters—what is important, at least to some people, is value. And value takes into account training, support, and the intrinsic joy of using the best tool that’s made. It’s pretty safe to say that no one buys Apple products because of their low price.

A players hire A+ players. Actually, Steve believed that A players hire A players—that is people who are as good as they are. I refined this slightly—my theory is that A players hire people even better than themselves. It’s clear, though, that B players hire C players so they can feel superior to them, and C players hire D players. If you start hiring B players, expect what Steve called “thebozo explosion” to happen in your organization.

Real CEOs demo. Steve Jobs could demo a pod, pad, phone, and Mac two to three times a year with millions of people watching, why is it that many CEOs call upon their vice-president of engineering to do a product demo? Maybe it’s to show that there’s a team effort in play. Maybe. It’s more likely that the CEO doesn’t understand what his/her company is making well enough to explain it. How pathetic is that?

Real CEOs ship. For all his perfectionism, Steve could ship. Maybe the product wasn’t perfect every time, but it was almost always great enough to go. The lesson is that Steve wasn’t tinkering for the sake of tinkering—he had a goal: shipping and achieving worldwide domination of existing markets or creation of new markets. Apple is an engineering-centric company, not a research-centric one. Which would you rather be: Apple or Xerox PARC?

Marketing boils down to providing unique value. Think of a 2 x 2 matrix. The vertical axis measures how your product differs from the competition. The horizontal axis measures the value of your product. Bottom right: valuable but not unique—you’ll have to compete on price. Top left: unique but not valuable—you’ll own a market that doesn’t exist. Bottom left: not unique and not value—you’re a bozo. Top right: unique and valuable—this is where you make margin, money, and history. For example, the iPod was unique and valuable because it was the only way to legally, inexpensively, and easily download music from the six biggest record labels.

Bonus: Some things need to be believed to be seen. When you are jumping curves, defying/ignoring the experts, facing off against big challenges,obsessing about design, and focusing on unique value, you will need to convince people to believe in what you are doing in order to see your effortscome to fruition. People needed to believe in Macintosh to see it become real.Ditto for iPod, iPhone, and iPad. Not everyone will believe—that’s okay. But the starting point of changing the world is changing a few minds. This is the greatest lesson of all that I learned from Steve.

Read more: http://blog.guykawasaki.com/#ixzz1eJTJ428Z

New thought

Just wondering...

Should I get political in this blog or leave it in "politics-free" zone? I got the tendency to write about things aggressively, and that may not sit very well with our... ahem... SIA or government. Not that I really care... but I love my internet time and game time... doubt I'll get much of that in jail. HAHAHA!!!

Or perhaps I should write it in a more neutral note? Though that will be quite challenging, given the fact that more harm than good has been done in this country ~

Dilemma!!

Love Love Love

It's embaressing, but I ABSOLUTELY loved my blog's header!!

Can't stop staring and admiring and drooling. HAHAHAH!!

Gone crazy :D

Late

I'm late late late...

Late on my Korea's writing trip!! And I could barely recall most memories now... but there isn't any strong emotion to write it down!!

Gosh, that's annoying...

New Outlook

I've finally decided to beautify this blog...

What do you think of the changes? I'm satisfied, at least for now :) It took me hours to get the header right!!

Loneliness Grabs Your Heart When You Are Not Prepared...

I love how the "Eat, Pray, Love" author put it, that Loneliness is actually a character that just appear and sticks to you. No matter how you tell him to back-off, he will just give you those sad eyes while silently sneaks into bed with you, despite knowing how unwelcome he is.

In fact, it does feel that way. You can be with loved ones, close friends and go crazy with whatever activities that you are doing... yet at the same time, you feel alone. This is what I hate most. I can be connected and going-out with all these people I care about, yet I still feel alone. It's sad. It's frustrating. And it's driving me nuts!

It just further drills unto me that I'm hardly a normal person. How can anyone go more complicated than what already is? I don't get it and I really hate myself. To actually feel such torn within me, it's upsetting.

When Loneliness comes knocking, I try to go out with people to make things better, but it don't for I still feel it lurking deep within me. Which is why I'm too tired to do anything anymore. I rather rot on my bed, locking myself in the room and just... stone. Like what's the point of any effort in trying to make things better when it just, doesn't get any better?

I'm still trying to solve that one thing out.

Music Heals the Soul

How often do you hears the phrase above, and did it ever make you wonder how true it could be?

At times of sadness and frustrations, I will just need to sing a few lines to myself and it will be just a matter of minutes before I feel slightly better – though of course that doesn’t mean the tears will stop flowing. It just makes me feel… less lonely actually.

There was this one occasion, which I finds very magical (if I erase or push away the logical analytical part of my brain). That one fine day I was feeling extremely down and upset, or you can say depressed. I’ve been crying my eyes out and at the same time, trying to drive while feeling all upset as it’s a working day. I went and had a few chats with different people on the phone, trying to make myself feel better but to no avail. And right after my last chat with a friend I made through a seminar, I was playing with my phone (horrible habit, have since stopped for… a week) while killing time in a jam. While my tears continue to stream down my face, I was trying to get into some game apps when suddenly I hear music in the background (I had my headphone on). It caught me by a total surprise as I was pretty certain that I did not press the music on my iPhone. While I was trying to figure what was going on, I realized the song that was playing was in fact, “Bridge over Trouble Waters”. Stunned somewhat, I just took it all in, and just keep replaying the song. It just felt although someone was telling me that “its okay” and I feel so much better already.

As much as music heals the soul, we must not forget about that hard-rock or heavy-metal style of music that gets people all aggressive and agitated. I always recall the time in college when I was feeling so pissed with everything as I’m under a huge pressure to get some assignments settled last minute, I ended just listening to heavy rock songs to get my adrenalin running and my anger was at its peak in fact. I was slamming my fingers on the keyboard in fury, scaring students that were passing by!

Or the other occasion when I was feeling alright, then when I started on all those sad love songs I ended up crying till I go to bed. That was actually pretty embarrassing, which makes me pretty happy to have the room all to myself at times like this.

So I guess we shouldn’t say music heals, instead music affects our emotional well-being so much more than words can do. Often words spoken can means so much, yet listening to it through music seems to much different.

For that, I thank all the great musicians out there and ultimately, I thank God for the blessing of a good pair of ears to enjoy my music.

Office Days = Blues?

Well, not really though I must say, it's almost!!

Let's start with the //Blues\\

Life hasn't been exactly "beautiful" in the office with my executive leaving in less than 2 weeks, finding out that my writer will be leaving in about 1 month as well... and not to mention that my company seems to be rather "slow" in hiring with these as reasons:

- there isn't anyone suitable in the market. We only want people with experience so that we wouldn't need to train them

My response : *I rather you get new graduates as they more likely to stay than leave, especially with the current situation we are in. Lack of human resource!!

- your sales team aren't making that much to cover the expense of hiring

My response : *Dude, chicken and egg story la! You don't hire enough, how to hit target? Like, seriously?

And one of the few things that really annoys me is this, "You have not been hitting your target or getting sales in from the time you are here. It's been 2 months now, it's not a short period nor long. But I'm expecting from you, 'cos you are a smart lad."

Okay, thanks for the 'smart' part, but seriously... 2 months is not a short period? Okay, too many internal things that affect my performance which I wouldn't state, but I do feel it's unfair somewhat. Which do makes me go *hair-pulling, teeth-grinding* at times!!!

Now to the **~*beautiful*~** part

I do have freedom of time in my hand. The best one that I love best is, I can be late for work... like 10am or straight to appointment and such... and work with my laptop outside the office!! That's because sometimes it's really inconvenient for me to head back to office. If I'm out in Damansara Uptown, it will take me 20mins to get back, which isn't that much of a time-efficient matter indeed. Of course, of course, I do work late occasionally in office as well!

Though no doubt that it can be really crazy, where I had a few occasions work til 2-3am for a few days in a row at home because there just too much to be done. Once it's settled, I'm free and slouched again.

Ultimately, it's only the freedom of time that I really love about this.

In the end ~

I decided that I will continue in this job. Just do my best without risking my health (you have no idea how I can get sick, like ultimate sick once two weeks!) and take the flow as it goes.

It's my job, but at the end of the day... as long as I'm paid and I'm happy as happy goes... why not?

PS: Advertising line indeed is one of the most stressful job ever!!