At first it was just a “slightly unusual lunch outing” at Turf Club Road. Reason why I said “unusual” was because we brought Milo along to this dog café that serves human foods (to human of course) too.
But what is even unusual was where we went after lunch.
My wife and I were thinking of getting baby cam for monitoring our baby when he sleeps at night. There are many different kinds of baby cam in the market, priced ranging from $300 to $600 SGD. Even Singtel offers baby cam service for remote monitoring via mobile phone on monthly subscription basis.
We have no issue with the cost, but my problem is, those cams aren’t exactly cool and sexy in terms of product design; more over, I am not a big fan of spending money on something that is useful for only a short period. Once Jude starts to walk and talk, the cam is no longer useful per se. Well unless I can find a cam that moves and follows Jude where ever he goes (maybe something like R2D2?)
With this in mind, I began to think I can put the old MacBook into a good use. Why MacBook? Because it has a built-in webcam (iSight). Don’t worry if you don’t have MacBook, any spare computer, be it Mac or PC, as long as you have a webcam connected to it, you are good! The rest of this post will be made into a step-by-step instruction for easy reference. So here we go…
I was Baptized and received my first Holy Communion on this day, exactly 1 year ago.
Before I was baptized, I had to choose between following through The Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) — a 10-month program that helps me get to know the faith better as well as to prepare myself for the Baptism, or another coaching program that I had signed up earlier with a non-religious organization — a 3-day program that promises to “give me access to creating a life that fulfils and honors myself, that helps me re-examine my life and uncover who I am as my full potential, in order to begin my process of becoming a more powerful and enriched individual.”
Back in 2004, shortly before I started my freelance journey, I was at the lowest point of my life (and I bet it was!) I had to throw in the white towel for what I was doing at that moment, and decided to “get a job”.
I saw the hiring ad in the classified, a 2-month contract position for a webmaster, To me, it was already a gazillion times better than working in 7-11 (I’ll tell you this other story in another seating.) So I sent in my resume.
I was back in Ngee Ann as guest speaker for the second time (the last time I spoke there was December last year.) This time I was speaking to about 60 students; some are in second year, some are in final year. What puzzles me is they are actually engineering students, but they are also taught on web publishing and some programming stuff. Maybe that’s why the course they are taking is called “Multidiscipline Engineering”.
I was hoping to see a bunch of young women and men who are eager to hear what I had to share with them,
Jasmine, who is one of my longest hosting customers, asked if her team could interview me for their school project, which they were supposed to pick and interview an industry entrepreneur, on things related to, well, entrepreneurship. While I did not quite like being associated with this over-rated term “entrepreneurship”, I at the same time found the request too interesting to be declined. In the spirit of sharing, I took it up.
I met up with her team at Geek Terminal, we then spent the next two hours on some great sharing. So great until I forgotten what I had talked about, until Jasmine forwarded a copy of their report to me. As I read through it again, I was rather amused by the things I said. Once again, in the spirit of sharing, I thought you might like to be amused too. So here’s the full report.
I have made many wrong purchase decisions in the past, including my first car, the Dopod PDA Phone, the HP laptop, as well as the idea of becoming an insurance agent (and it still gives me the shivers whenever I thought about the time I couldn’t even make enough to pay rents as an insurance agent!)
But this time, I must say that I have finally made my best purchase decision in my 33 1/2 years of living: my Macbook!
Don’t bother to ask which Macbook I bought, it’s never about the hardware, but the fact that I have decided to switch to Mac. It is something I have always had in mind, way before Windows 95 was invented. Problem is, all those years I had the concern if I was going to get enough support for being a Mac user, including technical support, as well as the availability of softwares that I can use. Since I became web designer, I was also concerned if I used a Mac to build websites, will they work well in Internet Explorer since 80% of internet users are probably still using that joker browser.
When my newly purchased HP laptop went berserk for the 3rd time (that is running on Windows Vista), I decided to just screw it and went out to get the Macbook, that has by far the world’s best operation system — Mac OS X Leopard in it. All of a sudden, my computing world became so hopeful again, and I immediately started to wonder: how have I survived those years without a Mac?
I had to blog about this as note to self.
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of sharing my knowledge in web design business with about two dozens of lecturers in Ngee Ann Poly. I have covered topics of “Building a useful (successful) website”, “E-Commerce & Security”, “Marketing aspect of website”.
Those who know me well, know that I had never been to college, and I have wished I had a college life. I feel accomplished when, the day I finally walked into a college, I was there to teach.
This is one hell of a milestone! Wait… correction: this is one heaven of milestone!
Five weeks ago, I sent an email to people whom I know, told them that I was leaving for China for good. What happened was, I never left.
Sorry if this sounds like another joke, but I seriously did plan to leave. I’d sold most of my stuff, and have shipped some to China. I’d even gotten my China Visa! But I changed my mind in the last minute.
I realized in the end, that I could not afford to leave, yet.
And I don’t mean that I couldn’t afford the flight ticket (duh), but there is just too much for me to miss and to lose.
During the beginning of the year, I had a very clear vision of what I wanted to do and to be; today, I still have the same vision, for that matter, it simply does not make sense for me to leave it behind and move away. So, before I become what I want to be, I’m not going anywhere.
Amazing enough, the moment I made up my mind that I am staying, immediately I see couple of new business coming in, sales inquiries flocking in like it was Singapore Grand Web Design Sale! Things were happening too rapidly I decided to hire my first employee, and got myself an office.
And, the more exciting news: I will be interviewed on the radio! On 93.8FM, this Thursday (Oct 18, 2007), during The Breakfast Club segment from 7.10am to 7.30am. They are going to ask me to talk about my freelance web design career, and to share tips on how to start a web design business. So if you happen to wake up early that day, feel free to tune in :)
Lastly, to all of you who thought you have missed the opportunity to meet me for coffee (when I was still planning to leave), we’ll now have all the time in the world for it.
Damn! It feels good to be staying!
Ok, the latest news is: I’m not leaving for China, so I’m staying. Not only I’m staying, I’m expanding too. I hired my first staff, and got myself an office too! I will write more about this later, but in the mean time, you can take a peek at my new office :)
