Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Effective Marketing

"In my experience, bottom-line, people of all ages and geographies are influenced to buy through their peers, family and reference groups. These groups are usually influenced, writ large, by meaningful content in a meaningful setting (e.g. storytelling or media articles), in-person meetings (e.g. events or sales meetings) or external influences (e.g. experts, celebrities, etc.).


... As you might be able to tell, I approach marketing from a very specific thesis: namely, content is king, and that bringing digital conversations into brick-and-mortar events/meetings are the true ways to build core repeat customers and scalable results."

- Neil St. Clair

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Remembering a Dream


Its not very often one wakes up remembering a dream in vivid details. Three nights ago,  I woke up from a 15 - 20 minute power nap (of sorts...), remembering every single detail of the dream I had. I decided to record it all down before crashing back into bed again. 



So the memory of my dream kinda begins with my sister, Elaine, walking into a fully furnished room, one very similar in design to the living room of our old flat, clutching on to some eggs. Soon after she walks in with them, they hatch into young monitor lizards, about 6 in total. I experienced a short time-lapse here, where everything kinda blacks out. The next thing I remember is finding myself standing in a garden watching the 6 lizards, now significantly larger, frolicking around in a garden. Whilst they're running around in the garden, one of them finds a young fledgling in the bushes.  The young bird was struggling to escape the damn lizard when I jumped in, desperately trying to put it back in the trees. Sadly, it fell off the branch and got eaten up. I noticed some movement in the bushes nearby and realised that there was a medium size terrapin trying to slide away from the commotion but had inadvertently attracted the attention of the monitor lizards. I ran over and snatched the tortoise from the ground. 




Picking up the tortoise, I ran over to the house and managed to slide past the closing doors. I experienced another short time-lapse here, and the next thing I remember doing was looking frantically around in a kitchen, similar to the old house for a container to place the terrapin in. I remember not being able to find that container and freaking out entirely, throwing (yes I remember explicitly flinging the flailing animal on to the table top...) the tortoise aside and sweeping everything on that counter top onto the floor in my usual dramatic fashion. As soon as I finish doing that, I start to loose control of myself, sliding to the floor, twitching uncontrollably. This whole twitching episode , I remember distinctly,  and the sensations were scarily familiar hence I suspect that I was actually experiencing an episode of sleep paralysis too. 



Just as soon as it began, the twitching and paralysis stopped and I next found myself back in the kitchen with Sri, my former domestic servant. She was milling around, lamenting about the mess I created and insisting that I, for a change clean up the mess. I relented and proceeded to clear up all the mess in about the same time it took me to cause it. Just as I finished cleaning up the place, the damn lizards appear once more and start chasing chasing me around the kitchen. They succeed in cornering me in the living room, the same one where the dream began. One of them leapt forward, mouth agape, and I avoided it by jumping back on to that very familiar black leather sofa that I used to spend many hours on. I tried scaring it away by swatting it with the red pillows that we used to put on our sofa but the lizards held their ground. Interestingly enough, I noticed that they were now frilled; just as large but frilled and they were getting all hissy (like cats...) and upset with me. I was freaking out terribly and I yelled for my sister. I shouted for her to move fast because they were destroying most of the pillows. She came down the stairs  (don't ask how) and snatched the pillows out of the lizards' mouths. 

I next remember myself getting off the sofa and walking down the narrow corridor towards my the master bedroom. As I was making my way towards the inner hall, I realised that I was being stalked by my entourage of childhood soft toys. I remember explicitly seeing the baby blue bear, the big brown bear, the green spike dinosaur amongst other soft toys just lumbering behind me as I made my way into the house. I distinctly remember the pace of things accelerating at this point... almost as if someone was pressing the fast forward button continuously.




Things get a little freaky from here onwards. I next remember myself kneeling on the ground with all these little soft toys lying in front of me, with their bellies up as I give them all a belly rub. I recall tearing a little as I started rubbing the blue bear (my very first soft toy given to me when I was about 1 year old...) and the bear in that denim overalls. I remember accessing their thoughts in a telepathic sort of manner with a Whatsapp sort of display manner (Again... I am not sure how to describe it accurately...). They kept asking me about how I've been all these years and what I have been up to etc. I was just choked up with emotions and could not answer any of them. I vaguely remember hearing mum in the background encouraging me how I felt about everything... as she started fading away. I woke up shortly after my mum's voice faded. My mum wasn't anywhere around me and I glanced at the clock and realised that only about 15 minutes had passed since I knocked out. 

And that pretty much sums up my first (shared...) recorded dream :)





Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Solitude

I've deactivated/suspended most of my social media accounts. I was once click away from deleting my Instagram account but… I guess the account or should I say the pictures on it mean a little too much for me to just wipe out with the click of a button. I can't say for sure exactly how and why this happened, but you know what they say about breakdowns, they just happen. I am extremely demoralized and honestly very upset and disorientated about where I am going in life. This mediocracy… it bothers me. It upsets me immensely. The fact that I am still paying for mistakes I've made years ago… frustrates me.   I think sometime alone will help me find myself. I hope. 

Friday, April 4, 2014

Fatigue

Oh the perils of being unemployed. I hope things start looking up soon.

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Escapism...

It's nearly 1 am and I should be focusing on my damn job applications instead of blogging. But seeing how I can't seem to focus on the readings at hand, and that I am getting increasingly unproductive on Words, I figured I should just let off some steam here. Well, it isn't exactly steam either, seeing how I am not exactly frustrated or particularly upset about anything right now. A lot has happened in the past couple of months, as mentioned numerous times in previous posts. One issue that has cropped up quite a bit was the manner in which I dealt with my relationships. I've been accused of being negligent, callous, rude, arsehole-ish... basically every known negative adjective. Well, I do concede on being somewhat self absorbed... let's just say it takes two hands to clap and I am not the only one with issues. I'll discuss this in detail in a future post. This is, in actual fact, a warm up post. It's amazing how fast one's writing skills go all rusty after months/years of neglect. Till the next post! 

I vaguely remember ending all my blog posts with a witty one-liner. Sadly, given the late hour and my fatigued state. This will have to suffice for now. 


"I'll be back." 
T-800 

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

An Old Friend

I logged in my very first blog entry on the 20th of September 2007, approximately 6 years and 1 month ago. A lot has happened since that first entry, though much of what has happened hasn't been entirely productive. I have good times and bad times, gained weight and lost (sadly not much) weight, fell out with friends and made new ones... indeed quite a bit has happened. I find reading through my old posts strangely therapeutic and altogether depressing. The one thing I keep asking myself is what happened to that 20 year old who wanted to change the world not too long ago? If I were to hazard a guess, I'd say he got distracted by fleeting fantasies of success and smitten by delusions of grandeur to make his own road. Well, it's not like I didn't try... I did, but probably not hard enough. I've decided to mothball my entrepreneurial endeavors for the time being. I am in the midst of tidying up my resume and will strive to secure a regular job by mid-november. There's a lot that needs to be done and a lot I would like to type about; my run-in with URA, my entrepreneurial journey and something a little closer to my heart, the highs and (mostly lows) of my dismal love life. Well baby steps I'd say. I am off to lunch now :) 


Mum, Me and the latest addition to our family... Gus :) 

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Akan Datang :)



Back from the Dead. Again.

I made a commitment to start blogging again a while back. I obviously failed in keeping to that commitment. Anyhow, I am back for good. Granted that I am not embarking on my own little social enterprise, it's best if I start honing my writing skills back again. I stopped blogging a while back because... well... let's just say I had issues that needed settling. Now that most of my emotional baggage has now been flung out of the window, I think I am ready to start blogging all over again :) We're almost halfway through the year and things have been interesting so far. I can't wait to write about it in my latter posts. Stay tune for that :) 

Peace out :)

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Post Breakfast Reflections

Reality. Reality is the 3 ton truck that comes rolling down at a breakneck speed and smashes into you before you even realize it's even there. Reality is painful and mediocre. Reality is... where all your fantastic dreams go to die. 

The only reason why I am writing this post at 8.30am in the morning is because I decided to skip my morning run and whilst trying to enjoy a quiet peaceful morning before heading in to work, I had inadvertently pissed off my mum with a comment I made. Something about "Being commanded around by women at work and at home, so please leave me alone for an hour...". Not the smartest nor nicest thing to hear your son say at 8am in the morning after preparing the day's lunch for him to take with him to work. 

I apologize unreservedly for the comment mum. It was tactless and pretty mean. More importantly, that wasn't what I meant when I said it. 

I am extremely frustrated about almost everything that's going on around me now. The mediocre existence, working ridiculous hours for pittance, the disruption to my exercise schedule... everything. I have had things pretty easy for the better part of my life and I am still trying to adapt to this whole "your time and life does not belong to you" bit. I, unfortunately, have become extremely overprotective of my "personal time" at the expense of infringing on others... especially you mum. To be frank you're one of the few people I am pretty cool with chilling out at the end of a long day. Thanks mum for everything and sorry about that "domineering women" comment again. Though you must concede you can be quite assertive at times :)

Anyway this has been pretty cathartic. I think I can make this a regular thing once more :) Alrighty... back to life :( 

Saturday, September 29, 2012

Family... pfft...

Dad told me there will come a time where we sit back and watch the whole house of cards come crashing down... didn't think that'll happen so soon :)