Why can’t meeting finished within 30 minutes?

There is something very wrong with local companies’ meeting culture, where it would drag for hours without any conclusive decision being made at the end of the day. This is a very bad habit, and everyone takes this as the norm and does not realize how unproductive we could be.

What is wrong with current meeting culture? What could we do to improve it?

• The are always a few people who would be late, thus further postponing the meeting and wasting more time. Thus, make it a habit for everyone to be on time. If you are the leader, make sure you are the first to arrive.
• Usually no meeting agenda is prepared prior to the meeting, thus everyone came empty handed and unprepared. You need to prepared your members for them to participate and contribute their ideas, not everyone can work and think spontaneously.
• Even if the agenda is distributed before hand with relevant material, many do not take the initiative to read them, not to mentioned drafting their ideas and contributions before hand. Thus, we need to instill a culture of preparation and contribution. The leader then needs to test the preparation level of their member and encourage them to contribute. If necessary, he might need to make the unprepared ones feel bad so that he never forgets next time.
• List down the agenda before the meeting and tackle them one by one. Make sure the meeting in steered in such a way that it would be finished within 30 minutes and drawn useful conclusion for most of the agendas.
• The leader must chair the meeting. Jokes and chitchat must be keep to the minimum, unless it serve a purpose. Whenever someone deviate from the agenda and start talking grandmother story, stop him and pull him back. When no one has an idea, throw an idea. Keep the discussion clean and meaningful, and filter off unnecessary disturbance and white noise.
• Assign an unofficial time slot for each agenda. When conclusive decision had been made, move on to the next immediately. When the allocated time slot is exceeded, try to conclude within 5 minutes or move on to the next agenda. No point merry goes around dwelling on a agenda, which cannot be concluded anytime soon. Plan it for the next meeting when everyone gets more facts correct and better prepared themselves.
• Once the meeting is done, the meeting report must be distributed with stated conclusion together with unsolved and new agenda for the next meeting. This is necessary to make every clear and aware of the conclusion made, and also to prepare for the next meeting

The most important person is still the leader who control and steer the meeting. He should not let the meeting run wild and being overwhelmed by all sorts of input from the members. He needs to control, filter, keep the direction steady and accelerate if necessary. If a meeting got dragged for more than 30 minutes, is all his fault. Why should meeting be 30 minutes then? Because 30 minutes is more than enough for normal meeting, and people start getting impatient, sleepy and shut off their brain after that. Besides, meetings eat into your production hours. Too many long meetings are definitely counter productive and a waste of time and resources.

Mistress And Toy Boy And Pimp And Enterprise Business

I have a very funny and bizarre conversation with a friend, where the topic start from young girls dating older man to mistress to toy boy to pimp to enterprise business. You would need to understand a lot of Cantonese, some English, and a little bit of Mandarin and Bahasa Melayu in order to understand the following conversation (most probably you are a Malaysian if you succeed).

Warning: The conversation is full of crap

---

Me: old n experience man + rich really can treat girl like princess, pamper her until like no tomolo

Me: tats why mistress is a popular profession, haha

LukLuk: haha.. guys also can mah, can tackle foot tai .. hhaha

Me: hmm, dunno foot tai got keep guys like keep mistress like tat or not le

LukLuk: hehe.. interested in this kinda job?

Me: hmm, if a pretty old lady good also ge

LukLuk: bou lou ngau? hahah

Me: den got bmw, got bangsar condo, got armani, got good monthly income, got expensive watch

Me: tak payah kerja liao la

Me: den when she get bored wif me, i got enuf money to keep a mistress liao, muahahaha

LukLuk: den free that time can use the money go tackle some young ladies also wor hoh

LukLuk: siu fan dau sap gei nin..hahaa

Me: haha, ya lor, since got convertible bmw

LukLuk: but gotta keep urself strong la..hahaha.. dunno those foot tai got strong sex drive or not

Me: hmm, we r pro ma, of coz need to work like pro

Me: need to gym, go saloon, eat health product, sex enhancement recipe

Me: u tot sit there no need do ar, hahaha

LukLuk: always gotta take jong yeung food la like tht..hahaha

LukLuk: mayb the foot tai heng SM den mai cham lor

Me: hmm, den have to charge more la

LukLuk: den gotta always learn new tricks 2 please her lor

Me: sum lei tong mai kei yuk seong ge chong xiong pui siong

LukLuk: sounds like quite an enjoying job hoh. hhaha

Me: buy more porno tape lor, fun noi si je

Me: do dak good, year end got bonus, hehe

Me: so, mistress betta or toy boy betta le?

LukLuk: hmm... both also sound quite attractive

LukLuk: can consider juin hong... u

Me: hmm, but a lot need to be done b4 turn pro wor

Me: somemore, my potential not very good

LukLuk: ha.. den u can deh har d foot tai, ask her 2 sponsor u set up co ... jst 2 achieve ur dream..hehhe

Me: if like handsome_boy, den no prob la

Me: maybe i could invest in handsome_boy to kau foot tai

LukLuk: haha... can b trained 1 geh.. from today onwards, everyday go gym.. lin dai jek..hahaa

LukLuk: den u mai bcome guai goong? hahha

Me: den i become pa pa sang, mai even betta

LukLuk: guai goong..haha

Me: 1 person wif many foot tai, wah, syiok ma

Me: i earn commision from them, somemore can go kau lui

LukLuk: jai dak goh, jai dak goh..

Me: still can drive convertible bmw

Me: ya lor, must think big

Me: where can so mou tai ji become toy boy one

LukLuk: den not only can hire toy boy, can hire mistress also

Me: i wanna become toy boy pa pa sang

Me: ya lor, tat time maybe u can pong chan me also

LukLuk: jong hor yi gao kei yip wah, gok jai fah.. wahhh...

Me: u become my agent, i give u one free toy boy

Me: u want SM one also can

LukLuk: wahhh.. good also wor.. can choose wht type of toy boy or not?

Me: sun ching xiu min yong also got

Me: kum seng mou type also got

LukLuk: sun ching xiu min yong, kong yeh yum wah also got hoh

Me: lau dak wah can also

Me: yum jin but nang yi is the jiu pai foh

LukLuk: hahaha

Me: if u like girl, i can arrange 4 u also

LukLuk: ah gua also got rite?

Me: ah kua less demand, but if u say le wor, i fu tong dou hoi also find one 4 u

LukLuk: hahhha.. jan hai tai tip sai sum ger jek

LukLuk: sure got a lot of customers la like tht

Me: LukLuk ma, gang hai u tap pit guan jiu lei la

LukLuk: wan yat goh nam, yat goh nui ...den mai dim sai lor

LukLuk: hor yi yat chai wan tim..heheh

Me: yum yong tong sat? hou, gor yim hai gou sau har

Me: jong hor yi tip lo hom tim

LukLuk: wahhh... wan fa sik tim ar..

Me: lei jung yi ma

LukLuk: gum yiu dang ngo lin fan gei har yoga sin..hehehe

Me: pong lei pak mai video yau tim wah je

Me: yoga? kom mai hou sai lek? gou sau jong ge gou sau

Me: pui fuk pui fuk

LukLuk: tin yan hap yat! hahhaa

Me: haha, yuk sin yuk sei jau yau lei fun

LukLuk: hai poh.. dou you si har yuk sin yuk sei geh gum gok..hahaha

Me: hai si hou la, ngo lau fan d hou ye bei lei

Me: xiong dang for sek, mmm hai chi for

LukLuk: yao mou dak tai har ban sin gah?

Me: lei lor hei sai sin la

Me: mmm ngam fan lei wun gor

LukLuk: 5 ngam bao wun tim ar... jeng wor

LukLuk: hahhaha

Me: hak mou zi xiong ma

LukLuk: guo yin fuk mou 5 cho ha.. gum gam man jao dai hui goh lei la

Me: gam man yau hou dor go, lei hor yi man man gan

Me: yau ham sap pak pak la

Me: yau jing cheong long zi la

Me: yau nam yan zhong ge nam yan la

Me: yau t** p** mou zi nui san la

Me: sat joi tai tor la

Me: jung yi ge jau lor fan hui la

LukLuk: toong toong sat sai la..hahha

LukLuk: si har 5 toong 5 toong geh foon dou hou mah

Me: hou, yau sing gak, gau tum sum, gau yum jin, hahahaha

---

Fascinated by all the crap that we can talk about :)

Pointing out a Person’s Weakness?

Whenever I found a person is weak in something, I usually don’t bother to point it out as long as it doesn’t bother me. Sometimes the person is pretty close to me, and I felt the urge to tell her so that she is aware of it and improve on it. But this usually doesn’t work quite well, as pointing out someone’s weakness could be easily taken as a criticism or complaint, or totally ignore as my statement carries no merit to them. You know what is the worst? Pointing out the mistake or weakness of girlfriend. People who are very close to us would probably be very sensitive with what we said, and it could easily turn good intention into very bad situation.

Lets take me for example, where the girls usually pointed me up as someone un-gentleman and not very caring of people around me. Basically I can understand why I am labelled as un-gentleman, as I usually left them behind while crossing the road. I usually give myself some excuses such as the girls is not paying attention (or they are too busy chit chatting before crossing the road) or I can’t actually hold their hands to cross or I can’t chase them across like a herd of sheep or I had used to walking alone. With all excuses aside, I think I am still a tiny bit at fault. There are many ways which I could interpret their comments, such as:

“Maybe they are right. I shall pay more attention next time”

“I really suck. I should work on this”

“They are big girl already and I am not their boyfriend. Aren’t they capable of crossing the road?”

“I don’t care what they think. I think there is nothing wrong with me”

“Complain about me some more. You very good meh?”

So, I could choose to response from the very best to the very worst. Sometimes I also found it quite hard to accept criticism. If I can logicalised their criticism, then it is a little bit easier to accept. If I adapt a more open-minded policy, then I would be able to take this in a more constructive way. But, if the criticism comes from a lesser person, I might just ignore them totally. Sometimes, I do get offended as I felt people are asking too much of me. I was thinking, “I am who I am. Take it or leave it”. This is the time I am being a little bit too defensive. Sometimes people criticize for my good; perhaps I just take it as a little awareness and ponder further on it. Only by awareness (self or by other people) can we actually become a better person (as we learn more about ourselves from a 3rd person view). Perhaps most people are always very self-centred, thinking they are always right and it is always other people fault. Asking and saying things like:

“Why he doesn’t listen to me”

“Why she is so naïve and childish”

“He is such a control freak. He is always right and I am always wrong”

“She is so stubborn and always never listen to me”

At the same time we are saying these things, the opposite might say the equal to us. Who is right and who is wrong then? All these are never really meant to point out who fault is it, bit rather to acknowledge that a problem exists and how could we actually solve it. Being a young person as we are, we usually don’t know or don’t want to take the first step towards problem solving, thinking, “Why should I always be the one who apologized? He is the one who is wrong.” Thus we never grow up and never understand, keep trapping ourselves in the eternal loop of despair.

Criticising is a great skill to be mastered. How to criticize without offending, and how to accept one without being offended. Most of the time it might just turn out bad, especially with the one we love. The most famous phrase is, “I am already like this when you know me. Why didn’t you say anything back then?” Though we can choose to keep quiet and "tahan" with it for the rest of our life, and we could try to help our other half to be a better person. Though this is the most ideal situation, but many un-ideal scenarios do pop up, such as we criticize too much, criticize unnecessary, criticize without merit or have a bad habit of criticizing. Whenever we criticized someone, there would be a natural urge for the someone to criticize us back (unless we are a perfect beings). I guess that’s how we learn, as long as we know how to manage it.

Perhaps being humble with a little bit of logical analysis would help :)

I shall only lend my hand to those who need it

Since I was young, I always have tendency to only help those who could actually use my help. Meaning you must satisfy the following criteria

• You need help
• No other people is going to help you
• I am capable of helping you

When my cousin sister first approached me to join her in her new business start-up, I viewed this as a business proposition. Her business’s nature (Education) is not really my forte, thus it doesn’t really interest me. But since I am thinking of quitting my job, helping her out part time could give me some minimal side income and perhaps some fix weekly activities (so that I don’t loose myself in the process of working solo). Thus I kinda agreed.

As time goes by, my perception kinda changed slightly. My cousin have been nice and caring to me all these while, and I appreciate that (she is probably my closest cousin). I should really help her in the area of ICT since she could really use my help, and she had almost zero computer knowledge (except using her DOS-based WordPerfect and remembering all the shortcuts). Though she could employ a IT Consultant or something like that, but that would cost her a lot of money and could achieve far less with many inconvenience. Besides, where could you find a IT Consultant which could help you setup/maintain a computer lab, do website/brochure/presentation slide/video and create ICT Teaching Syllabus for kids? So, I decide to help her since she could really use my help, and I am capable of it (though not exactly my favourite).

Last week her mom passed away, leaving her alone with other married siblings in this world. For the first time I felt, she could actually end up as a lonely woman (since she is not married, and both parent had passed away). Though sometimes I have doubt whether I should embark on this venture with her, but now I felt that I should really support her. As a cousin, as a family. My dad had raised his intention to help her in financial management once he quit his current job. Though this is still not exactly my favourite job, but I could and should spent some of my time to support and help her out. She is definitely someone worth helping, and she is a caring and good person.

We can’t be selfish all the time. Sometimes, we might want to think for others, and sacrifice a bit of ourselves and be there for them in time of needs. One day, who might be there for me? I really dunno.

Why do we want to be in a Relationship?

While reading Eliza’s “Hopeless Romantic I am”, I too start wondering why would we like to be in a relationship. When we were young, probably we want to try some new and exciting adventure: to find a girlfriend, to get a taste of love. To try holding hands, getting someone you like close to you, to do some helplessly romantic stuff, to behave childishly, to kiss and to love. If we were not one of the luckiest bunch on planet earth, then we would have to go through some sadness, get some minor scars, go through breakup and be alone again.

Some people can’t be lonely, so they can’t help but to jump into another relationship straight away. I kinda envy them in fact. I am the kind would take sometime to cool off, enjoy the air of freedom after a long period of serious engagement, start pampering myself rather than the love of my life and start making tons of money so that I can pampered myself even more (or the next lucky one). I am the type who could like people easily, but to decide whether I would want to be in a serious relationship with them is another matter. It is not that I am afraid of commitment, but I do afraid of making a “unwise” choice, choosing someone who is incompatible with me and I end up can’t tolerate them.

So, how do I pick the next girl? Firstly, I must like them. Then, I need to communicate with them. After which, I need to date them. Usually I would let them know I like them at a earlier stage (nothing too serious, just a sign of care and affection). If all goes well, where the feeling is right and our thinking is pretty much in sync, and I manage to appreciate her qualities and accepted her weaknesses, then she would be a probable candidate. If she doesn’t resist me, I would then take this relationship more serious, giving more commitment and at the same time, inevitably having higher expectation. This is a critical stage, where things start to change. If we are not quite ready or understand each other, a lot of hidden problem and issues shall arise at this stage. If we can’t get passed this stage, we would probably end up as only friends, where it is not meant to be. If somehow it miraculously workout, and she accepted me, then it would lead to more frequent dates and finally asking her to be my girlfriend. Liking a person is one thing, but do we have the fate (timing) and faith (acceptance) to be soul mate is totally another. I can no longer do what I used to do: asking someone to be my girlfriend just by liking them, without knowing them.

Back to the first question, why do we want to be in a relationship? When we are young, we are in for the fun and excitement. When we are mid 20’s, we think it would be nice to have someone to share things with. When we are in early 30’s, could we be seeking potential life partner? (I dunno, I am not there yet) At this stage, I am just in for the very simple things in life: to talk to her, to understand her, to make her laugh, to dine with her, to enjoy a movie with her, to be childish in front of her, to try to be helplessly romantic to her, to give each other nicknames, to cuddle her, to be close to her, to kiss her and to sleep with her. Someone to share many small and intimate things with. I have no idea what big plans or agenda is in other couples’ head, but I am in for the simplicity in happiness. If I can appreciate and tolerate someone special, I would be a happy man. If she feel and do the same for me, then I am the luckiest man on Earth :)

The Ultimate Flip of Nokia N90

While I was walking around Sunway Pyramid, I walk pass this Nokia shop and saw LCD display with the word “touch-screen” there. While I am attempting to touch the window to see if it is really a touch-screen, suddenly a young handsome chap approach me and handed me with a new Nokia N90 flip phone to play with.

This phone is really quite amazing, as it is the KING of all flip phones. I mean there is many ways to flip this phone. There are two pieces (the screen and the keypad) attached to the centre piece (the camera). The keypad can be flipped by itself without moving the screen. The screen can be flipped and twisted as well, thus u can make it into a cool L-Shape camera pose. The camera piece can be twisted as well. There is so much fun in flipping and twisting each pieces of this phone.

The phone have a Carl Zeiss lens which is supposed to be some branded high quality lens which capture better quality picture. The camera is 2 mega pixels, the highest quality of current mini camera offering. The phone’s onscreen interface is pretty nice and clean, seems like a mini PDA interface. The phone had a reduced size MMC slot as well, many rooms for quality pictures and videos. It comes with dual screen too. The downside is the phone is pretty bulky, but not necessary heavy. Good for guy’s big hand, I guess the size is inevitable for all the goodies pack into it phone (3G and Bluetooth too).

I kinda like the concept of convergence, where they add all the features of PDA, Phone and Camera into a single piece. I don’t like PDA phone, as they are too bulky to be a phone. If I have to carry around a phone, a PDA and a camera, then I would need a wear cargo pants or Dockers or utility belt. Everything converge into a phone seems like a good idea, since the phone is the most useful gadget which I have to carry everyday. I like the N90 (and I can live with the size) and it is pretty stylish as well. The good photo/video taking quality is a plus to me, since I would like the ability to take good photo/video anywhere anytime to be posted up to my blog. So many times I wanted to take photo of things, places and people, but just don’t have a good quality camera with me. Even though I thought of buying a Digital Camera, but I don’t think I’ll carry it all the time like Kenny Sia did (even though I am planning a pocket size camera). So, this phone seems perfect and cool. One minor problem, it cost a freaking RM 3199. OMG, it is like almost the price of a freaking notebook.

So, this shall be my Christmas present wish (Yvoone will say guys are so hard to please again). If you bought me this phone, I shall feel be extremely thankful to you for one whole year, and give you one kisses everyday (if you are a girl) and a bear hug (if you are a guy). And I shall take a picture of us with this superb gift (using my gift) and post it here so that I can show my eternal thankfulness and appreciation (as long as Blogger/Blogspot doesn’t charge money or remove my blog).

What does she look for in her man?

While having a conversation with a friend, she told me “I found dat some guys have high requirements on picking gf … some require leng lui, smart, understanding, cute yet wild...like looking for Miss Perfect” Now, I wonder want kind of requirement she had for a boyfriend or husband?

Below is her list:

• Smart or Talent. It seems like we are looking for the cream of all boys, the top of the class, which means like the top 10% of male species? Talent is even more challenging; it is like the Top 1%.
• Sporting with a little bit of humour. Combining with the previous requirement, we are like looking for someone with High IQ and EQ. Sporting, she need some who is capable of having lots of fun with her, and can mix well with her friends as well. Humour, someone who can cheer her up.
• Communication. I think this means a guy who can understand a woman very well, capable of listening between the lines and understand her well. Sometimes capable of mind reading and knows exactly what she is thinking.
• Healthy Look. It can mean handsome, macho, well build, tall or all of them. Basically, you cannot be fat and ugly.
• Know Cooking. Someone capable of cooking a romantic dinner and pamper her. This could mean she doesn’t like cooking or don’t know cooking.
• Love Her. Definitely, can’t argue with that. But, does she need to love him?
• Caring & Gentleman. Ahh, every woman’s dream man. A man who is capable of pampering and take good care of the ladies, do the many small things at the exact right moment all the time to score points.
• Financially Independent. The man need to be ranked above average financially (meaning he is a high ranking Manager, General Manager, CEO, COO, President or Business Owner) or just plain rich.

Okay, where do you find such a guy, the PERFECT GUY? Would Brad Pit or Takeishi Kaneshiro do? I guess all of us are actually looking for the perfect person in our mind, but whether our dream comes true or not is another matter. As we grow older and wiser, we become more realistic and start to accept "flawed" people. I wonder how many of her criterias will come true in the end.

The standard bar to be a Good Man had been raised so much that I gave up hope to be a good man. I might as well turn to the dark side and be a bad boy instead. I can be and do whatever I want, and no one can complain, because I am BAD.

There is always Hope for Marriage, even when it seems Hopeless

Yesterday I skipped my dance practice session to attend my cousin sister’s (another) wedding. Initially I wasn’t very keen on going, but I kinda felt bad for leaving my parents go there alone. You know, the relative expect my dad to bring the full squad, else he will have a hard time explaining why I didn’t come and forced to give some lame excuses.

Anyway, we drive two cars out as we need to pick up my 3rd uncle’s family on the way home. Unfortunately, we got the wrong place as the invitation is verbal (prone to mistake). My relative had a hard to time to direct us to the correct place, as she isn’t quite familiar with KL either. So, we abandoned one car (as we were late and uncertain), dash to the new unknown place and break a few laws by driving and talking (on the phone). Someone thought Subang Jaya and USJ is the same.

My cousin sister found her husband in another wedding ceremony quite a while ago, perhaps it is fated. She is way past 30, but didn’t manage to find her guy, perhaps due to her narrow social circle. She works at home running her brother’s business and help to take care of his children as well. He is a musician who is in his 40’s. They meet in the wedding, and it happens that their parents are old friends. Thus, it seems fated, and everyone want them to be together, including themselves.

Only relatives and close friends are invited, and I saw many small kids running around. It seems like people still enjoy having babies in this country, good. Some kids are really naughty like devil, while some are adorable like angel. I wonder izzit inborn (gene factor) or discipline and teaching. Like the Taoism teaching, we do need to have children to complete our life. When young we are taken care by parents, so now is out turn to take care of the young (to form a complete circle, fulfilled and completed life). Though it is a difficult and challenging process, but it should be part of life endeavor, plus the end could be rewarding if we do it right.

After a simple ceremony and dinner, it is time for Karaoke. We have a little girl (my niece) who wanted to sing, but become shy in front on the stage. But she did eventually sing the loudest when the crowd is there, and won’t let go of the microphone (she really likes singing). Then we have a whole bunch of nieces singing with the bride (she is shy in singing), and all their singing skill is a good as mine (now I know the same singing gene runs in the family). Then the Karaoke continues with the elderly, and they are really very good (looks can be deceiving indeed). They are brave, emotional and really good.

Actually the dinner is pretty boring, and I didn’t expect much also. Probably I don’t know how to socialise very well. Meeting some relatives, knowing the family is still growing strong and everyone is healthy. I like my aunt, she is a very nice old lady with a big heart, and a good hug too. I wish my cousin sister and her hubby happy forever (白头到老，永结同心).