Booh ....

If you take a part of something and start commenting it for what it is, you usually end up looking like an idiot or worst yet, a politician.

The story is as old as man.
But it seems like we don't really learn.

But maybe its good for business.

I am going to go kiss my wife again now.
Why?
Because I love doing it.

Just a friendly reminder.
We started the journey to death the day we were conceived.
So stop worrying about it coming for a visit.
Don't forget to Live Your Life while you still have one.

Because you asked for it ...

She-Ra : Princess of Power

izso says ...
... I deliver.

Wonder Woman ...

When puberty came knocking, she was the first woman that come to mind.
Don't be offended.
Its the hormone talking.
But its true.
At least for those of us who follow DC comics.

Wonder Woman is the epitome of a goddess.

Intelligent.
Sexy.
Kick-ass.

Anyway, found this image while going through yahoo news and thought I should share it with you guys as well.

Its not a real promo picture.
But it sure is shinny.

World Invasion - Battle Los Angeles

As the name implies it has something to do with the movie that is currently shown in a theater near you.
The gist of the movie is already indicated within the title itself.
So no spoilers there.

Went and watched the movie with my best friend and felt that it was a rather entertaining show for its action genre.
I mean, its not an Oscar Nominated Movie.
Well, maybe for special effects but definitely not for its value in story telling.

This is the story line...
The premise - Los Angeles.
The city of Angels.
The problem - Invaders from Space.
The solution - A lot of bullets and C4, plus a few ballistic missiles.


So anyway, both of us enjoyed the movie for its effects and I recommended it to my colleague at work on the basis that it was a gun throttling, building exploding show.

And of course, trusting my taste, he went with his wife last night.

Big mistake in my part.

Apparently, he and his wife almost puked their guts out half way through the movie.
According to him, majority of the people in the cinema had the same "greenish" look on their face when the movie ended.

The reason for the vomit inducing reflex?
Sorry, if your guessing its the "shallow" story line, its not.
It was caused by the consistent "jittering" effect that is employed throughout the show in order to show its "authenticity" for being in a combat zone.

Personally I was not effected by it.
But apparently it happens to everyone else.

So I apologized to my colleague on my bad recommendation.
Take heed from my experience on this.
Should have kept my recommendations to "The King's Speech" or "The Social Network".

Second post of the day ...

Small steps.
Shorter time lines.
More visual results.
Simpler approaches.

That is what I am going to be attacking.

The issue with large projects, is that when its not done properly, it is very destructive in the morale department.
Like a never ending road in purgatory.

With smaller chunks, it becomes easier to chew.

Focus and consistent result based delivery will bring me out of this stupor that I am in.

Do you see?

Subtle but substantial.
I made a small change to the look of the site.
If you pay attention you might see it.

A work in progress but definitely a move forward.

Work has been creeping up on me and its my fault that its able to do that.

Focus.
Keep on focus.

As the water rides in ...

Just like yesterday
it's scent lingers of possibilities
what could have been
what would have been
my past, my present, my future
yet it is not so

Different from the current...

I want to cry
but tears do come forth to comfort me
only the fickle touch of acid rain
washing my face away
leaving behind my eroded skull

As yesterday
happiness ceased to be
Life as I know it
Is no more

Birds flying in the wind ...

Rebooted.

Well not really.
Just re-imaged.

Finally made the decision to just use the stock Blogger templates for this blog.
The previous free template codes were giving me a lot of strange behavior.

So here is the new look.
Will update the background to something more "personal" in the ensuing weeks.

Thanks for visiting.

My Blog have been acting strange lately ...

My Blog have been acting strange lately.
It could be Blogspot itself or the JavaScript it employs causing these mysterious happenings.

I am honestly not sure.

Anyway, the past few days have been rather silent for me.
Due to the fact that my throat is soar and I could not talk loudly if I do talk at all.

The wife unit would have been enjoying her peace and quiet if not for the fact that her monthly pain had not come visiting.

So the both of us are not having the best of time right now.

Will put up something nice later when we recover from our "pain".

McApple ...

When I first seeing postings in facebook on subjects like children within the age of 2 - 5 playing with iPads, I was fascinated at how well children integrated with modern electronic devices.

These poster's claim that their children seems to be smarter after utilizing apps created in iPad for children. They are able to spell, count and make proper sentences after only 1 year of iPad exposure.

The stories are remarkable.

And then somewhere at the back of my brain it shouted ...
"It's McDonald's all over again."

One of the reason why McDonald's is so successful now as a franchise is because of their ability to capture an entire generation of youngsters during the 80's and 90's.

When I was young, the most consistent commercial that I get to see whenever I am watching TV would be McDonald's.

Its more or less engrave into our brain structure now.

With parents now purchasing iPad's for their children as toys (be it expensive toys) they are now slowly integrated into the Apple branding. Which basically means, Apple just bought an entire generation of Apple users.

With the quality of the devices being so high, it would not be far fetched to predict that the future desktops, notebooks and tablets would slowly be dominated by these "Apple Generation" babies.

If Microsoft, Google and HP do not start making their tools more "accessible" to these younger generations, they aim to face a whole new world of users shifting from their products to that of the Apple logo.

Children of today will eventually forgo the windows and androids for their childhood companion.

Just look at how many of the our childhood "cartoon" movies are created and you will see how strongly people cling to their toys and dreams.

Apple is not just aiming to claim the throne for today.
Their aiming to claim the throne for the next 40 years.

I just can't stop myself ...

What constitutes to an addiction?
I am currently refraining myself from going to Wikipedia for a definition.

So this is me trying to make an interpretation on the subject of addiction.

From my perspective, the nutshell on it would be this ...

A consistent lack of ability in controlling oneself from performing an action or behavior towards a particular subject matter.

It does not get any simpler than that.

So if you find that you are unable to stop eating candy's even if you know that you should stop, that would constitute an addiction.

Another example would be, the total inability to stop ourselves from booting up the computer when we get home, would also be an addiction.

The same goes with people who can't leave their iPad's out of hands read even when they are only going out to the balcony for a nicotine stab. Yes people its an addiction.

So I can safely say that I am an addict as well.

I am addicted to my wife.
I have all the markers of an addict when it comes to my infatuation of her.

Everyday, everywhere, anytime, my mind will always tend to float towards her.

I might see a pretty dress and instantly my mind will conjure a picture of her in it.

Or that I am in a conversation and an interesting topic jumps up, my mind will be marking it down as something that I should tell her later.

Even when I am working on a software design, the patterns might remind me of the places that I want to visit with her on our next vacation.

Every time I walk pass her, I have to kiss her or touch her.
When we go out, her hands are always within mine.
At night when we go to bed, I tell her how much I love her.

We have been together for 11 years.
And I still can't get enough of her.

So yeah, I am addicted to my wife.
And I will not want it any other way.

Really?

The latest tasteless cartoon that appeared in one of our national daily gave me pause when I first saw it on the stand.

Really?
This is the kind of humor that we promote?
The kind of pain that wrecked my heart was staggering.

Its been many years since I made the decision to give up a chance to live and work in a foreign country because I believed that I was needed back in at my home to help build a better future.

I felt that it was part of my obligations to contribute back to those who had helped given me my life.

But now?
After all these years of working and living among my fellow countryman, I finally realized that I no longer have that fire in me anymore.

It has been drenched from my heart by all the bigotry and narrow-mindedness leaders that we have in office.

"Isn't it the same everywhere?" you say.

I am ashamed to say that on a majority, it seems to be so.

There are exceptions of course and that is the sad part.
Freedom, Justice and Honor are the exception cases.

I can almost hear the cries of the faithful that echo their ancestors.
"Why have you forsaken us, lord?"
"Why have you allowed these charlatan's to poison the world you created?"

The grievance is the same.
Yet we do not learn from history.

We had always been given the freedom of choice.
That singular most powerful ability that is of man.

So choose.

Don't cry.
Don't complain.
Don't blame.
Choose.

Because if you don't.
Someone else will do it for you and you might not enjoy the outcome that it reaps.

Those who don't stand for something, will fall for anything ...

A famous quote used by a lot of famous people, yet not fully appreciated for the magnitude that it represents.

Human's today tend to survive day by day without much thought of purpose or objective.

We eat.
We sleep.
We shit.
Repeat cycle.

Day in day out, the same routine again and again.
There is no real motivation to be better.
To be stronger.
To be more.

Movies that we remember watching always has a theme or a message that they want to convey.
The stronger the message, the more compelling the story.

It would be the same with our life.
There should be a purpose to it.
It does not NEED one but it should HAVE one.

History has again and again shown us that those who live for a purpose are often those who will achieve greatness.
One simple life can change the course of history itself.
A simple choice can create a whole new world of possibility.
All because of their unwavering strive towards a goal.

Maybe that is why so many people around the world love a good game of football/soccer/rugby.
A singular purpose that inspires billions of people to cheer and cry at the same time.
All just to see a ball fly through the goal posts.

In a recent article I read about Steve Jobs, it says that if they were to point out the one singular trait that explains why he is what he is today, it would be his persistent view on what he wants to achieve in whatever he sets out to do.
And that sense of purpose is what drives him and those that he inspires to follow him into the abyss and beyond.

The same can be said for all those who were before him.
These leaders, martyrs, presidents and prophets all have the same trait.
Their refusal to silently go into the night and the ability to show the world what they see when everyone else don't.

The simple science of courtship ...

The idea of getting into a relationship with another person is one which most people do without much consideration.

Statistically we tend meet our other half at places that is surprisingly of diverse origin.
For instance at bars.
At parties.
At cinemas.
At restaurants.
At the side of a road.
The hospital.

And hooking up with total strangers.

Of course we will like to tell ourselves that we did get to know them first before getting into a real relationship.

One way is to spend a substantial amount of time in observation in order to properly obtain useful perspective of our person of interest.
It takes time and effort to analyze the data that might become useful information before any sound judgment can be made.

Then there is the other way which is "love".
If love is present than everything else are just details.
All is good when love is in session.

Most will say "love is blind".

My version of it is "Desperation is blind".

What it is that we want in which we knowingly switch off all the alarm bells in order to gain companionship?
That fabled thing that we call "love"?

Ah, but those of you who have been following my blog will say that I am a strong advocate of "Love".

Am I not madly in love with my wife?
Am I not the one that will willingly walk onto air with nothing but faith?

So how can I say such things about the one thing that I am so passionately provocating?

That my friends is because I understand what it means to be in love before participating in the ritual of courtship.
I went in with my eyes wide open.

My sense of "love" is based upon the foundation of understanding and acceptance.

I do not thread lightly on these grounds because I believe them to be sacred.
I believe them to be fragile as well.
Constant effort and vigilance are required to keep them well nurtured and healthy.

You don't just ask for love.
You work for it.
Day and Night.
Twenty Four by Seven.
Never a day off.
That is what love is.
A constant motion of giving to the individuals all that we are and more.

I made it point to know my wife before I was in love with her.

When the dance started 11 years ago, it started with a fact finding mission.
One after another, I gained more and more intel on her and the life that she leads.
And the more I understood, the more I felt that I can love her.
At the end, I gave her my soul because I know deep down she will never betray it.

So what is love?
It's the day that we commit our time to someone other than ourselves.
It's the days where her smile is worth more than a trillion dollars.
It's when we know deep down, we are not alone anymore.
A decision that is founded upon trust and interdependency.
But most of all, a vow to share the rest of my life with another soul that completes me.

I do not say "I love you" because it's what she wants to hear.
I say because it is the truth.

How do Giants change the world ...

There has been a lot of talk about the new iPad release on the 2nd of March 2011.

Some hail it as a better tool for normal consumers.
Some call it a 1/2 upgrade that is meant to snub their competitors on the nose.

The non-tech savvy general public as a whole does not really have an opinion on this matter other than "it looks cool" and is very much integrated in their daily activities.
Activities like reading a novel and web surfing.
Social networking works like a charm with their Twitter and Facebook apps.

Simply put, its a very much useful gadget for 90% of my friends.
With their current price cut of the version 1 iPad down to a measly RM1199, it becomes an even more attractive purchased to those who don't own one of them.

It is arguably one of the most interesting gadget that has surfaced for the last 10 years. One that integrates itself into our daily lives so nicely that it lives up to the phrase "Plug and Play" better than anything else in the market right now.

So the question that comes to focus is "Why is only Apple" able to do it?

Its been 1 whole year since iPad came into our living sphere and a lot of other manufacturers have thrown in their version of the Pads/Tables/Slates, but why is Apple still getting so much attention?

Why haven't the market "balance" itself out yet?

Some say its because iOS is currently a much better OS than their competition, which is Android and WebOS (just to name a few).

Some say that its because Apple's App Store has more Apps than those of their competitors.

Some say that its because Apple makes nicer looking gadgets than all their competitors.

Some (though few) say that its all a hype and it will eventually grow stale.

I personally believe that its all of the above and none of it at the same time.

If we look at the iGadgets and broaden our perception a bit, we will find that one of the most successful aspect that these gadgets have is that all of them actually does what it says its suppose to do, and it does them very well.

Some people don't see it that way, but they know it to be true deep within themselves.

Looks look at this via an example.

The first version of the iPod plays music.
Its what it was created for and it does it very well.
It gave its user a very convenient way to do just that one thing.
Creating a portable jukebox that can play up to hours of non-stop music and with little to no hassle.
As newer versions were introduced, it kept its original objective well within its sight.
Today the latest version of the iPod (which is basically the iPhone without the phone capability) is much more than its first generation ever was, yet it is still predominantly a bloody good Jukebox and it is priced relatively exactly as it was when it first came to market.
Apple never waiver from its primary objective.

The same pattern applies itself in iPhone, iPad and all the other apple devices.

iPod as a music device.
iPhone as a communication device.
iPad as an entertainment device.

The key to Apple's success is their uncanny ability to focus on what their tools are meant to address and sticks to it.

As of now, none of the competitors that is rushing into the market have that kind of focus. Their grasping at the hints that Apple (which means Steve Jobs) leaves around during their keynote addresses. Desperately trying to figure out how to be at PAR with what they come up with.

The only other person that I know of that has that ability is now philanthroping around the world, spreading his wealth and knowledge to those that wants it.

These people are giants by themselves and seems to be invincible when facing enormous odds. Yet they are very much human beings like the rest of us.

Their core behavior are very similar in the sense that they know exactly what they want and they aren't too shy about the way they go about getting it.

Which is why they garner so much attention as well as resentment.

Will Apple continue to strive into higher places, as Microsoft did when it was still under the nurturing hands of their founder?

Only time will tell as history writes itself another chapter of how greatness is achieved by simply being honest to oneself and dedicating all that is within us to reaching that goal.

PS: I don't own a single piece of Apple hardware currently nor do I see myself getting one in the near future, so please don't tag me as an Apple Fanboy. I am typing this blog using my trusty Dell (running windows 7) while connecting to the internet via my Sony Ericsson W901 phone.
This is just my personal opinion on the subject matter based upon my understanding and analysis of the information available to me.
Thank you for reading.

The winds will blow ...

I have been very quiet for the pass week because I was sick again.
Traveling in Taiwan gave me a strong strain of flu virus that just won't quit.
Wife and I were quarantined at home for the whole week with constant medication and a bag full of medication.

Now that I am better, I thought I would just drop a note here to tell you guys "Hi".

The latest news that might be of interest would be my decision to purchase an iPad sometime in the next few months.

Why?

Because they decided to slash their machine by RM300 when iPad 2 was announced.
So now its at a price range that I am quite comfortable with.

Plus with most of the current owners deciding to ditch their "old" unit for a new iPad 2, they would be a huge influx of semi used iPads availble in EBay or Mudah for cheapskates like me to get it for no more than say RM700.

So now owning an iPad would not make a huge dent in my wallet and I get to have a eReader that is comfortable in my hands.

I wonder if this is part of Apples plan when they introduced this new version.
It would definitely fit the kind of schemer I visualized Mr.Jobs to be.
Bravo.
Nicely played.