Flying Made

Official Gmail Blog: New in Labs: Inbox preview: "No big deal, really. But now imagine that you access Gmail on a super slow connection from a remote place in Ethopia where it might take minutes to completely load your inbox. The disappointment is larger when you find out that there is nothing new to read and you could have saved all that time."

It’s been a while since I write in this blog. I am starting all over again. This feeling of punching the keyboard again to put my thoughts into words in this blog reminds me of the first time I publish a post here. Fewwh, I’ve got to start all over again.

The last post was November 2008. I can’t deny it that I have lost many things. I’ve lost the skills to explain things in my head with letters and numbers. I am not in touch anymore with friends who are not in Singapore as I didn’t read their blogs quite often. Most importantly, I’ve lost sensitivity about little things happening around me.

For the reasons above, especially the last one, starting all over again is worth the effort.

When I thought that Google has won my trust to manage my data and take almost 40% of my time in the Internet, Microsoft comes back brilliantly.

This post is written via Windows Live Writter.

I am always impressed by people who sacrifice their time and resources
for the goodness of others.

I experienced a number of incidents involving kind hearted people
these past two days; at least 3 occurances. Considering the country
that I'm living, the "spike" in the number is amazing.

Firstly, yesterday my girlfriend lost her wallet. She thought she
might have dropped it in the taxi; yet she didn't remember the name of
the taxi driver, she could only recall the color of the car. I said to
her that I would call the taxi company once I can get the hotline
number.

I reached home and turned on my computer to google the phone number.
Before I started the lovely Firefox browser, my girlfriend texted me
to say she had received a call from the taxi company saying that they
had found her lost wallet. Strike one!

Have you hitch-hiked a stranger's car in Singapore before? 99% of the
people probably say, never. But I'll say, I have.

Yesterday, when I walked down the hill at fort canning park, I noticed
a car moved very slowly behind me. I thought I blocked the road, so I
move aside and signalled to the driver to move ahead. The car moved
forward and I continued walking. The car stopped 5 meters in front of
me and the driver wound down the window. She said, "do you need a
lift?". Surprising. Without a second thought I said, "yes. A drive to
a bus stop would be good".

In the car we enganged in a lengthy conversation. I asked why she
offered a ride and she said, "just because I saw you smiling". Well, a
smile works, eh?

Today, in front of me in the train, there sat a China-national man. He
talked loudly using his phone. Then he saw an old woman, he stood up
passionately and said, "zhuo, zhuo". I guess the meaning is "sit". The
old woman said, "no need", but the china man insisted. He smiled
warmly with and his small eyes were filled with kindness. Never mind
his loud voice, I was touched.

In our everyday's life, we are inspired by many things. I am inspired
by stories of people who work so other people can gain. I am inspired
by that car driver. I am inspired by people. As a return, I want to
add values in the life of the people, my source of inspiration.

Regards,

Made Adi
Hoiio FollowMe: +65 64036171
Mobile: +65 92719590

IMG_3916
Originally uploaded by made.adi

Political campaign in Singapore is "illegal", do you know that?
Well, legally, you can do that, but at this place called Speakers' Corner - a place where your voice would be unheard. A little bit of Googling would tell you that there's only few number of speeches held in that "deaf corner".

On top of that, gathering more than a number of people (I think it's 5) without any Police License is illegal. Surprise... surprise...

Press and news are really controlled until there's virtually only one news company operating, Singapore Press Holding.

Anyone tell me, how can I reach the crowd? How can I let my opinion be heard.

Because of this and the sensitivity of the issue of "demonstration", we design a marketing activity that looks like a demonstration. Shouting out to people that "The end is Near".

People are a little bit skeptical when they saw our placards waving in the air,... but hey... we do no harm ;).

Speaking about general consensus, we all agree that love is universal. Why? Because everybody understands love and the feeling of it is almost the same for everyone. Love is easy to understand. A Malaysian can fly to Tanzania and fall in love with a Tanzanian. How the Malaysian expresses it? Just by giving "that look".

Deriving from that, I have a strong argument that English shouldn't be an international language. The reason is because English is hard to learn. There is grammar, tenses, gender-dependent subjects, gerund, bla bla bla.... For people who are not familiar with this, it would take them a donkey time to learn to express themselves to people in other countries. Must a universal language be that difficult, the answer is NO!

Here is one encounter that I have today that looks silly. It is the result of poor mastery of English. There was this lady in my office building whom I always exchange a smile with every time I bumped into her (a pretty nice lady, eh). I didn't know her name and I didn't know what her job was. So my knowledge about that lady was only limited to that smile on her face. So, I bumped into her again and trying to be nice I said:

Me: "How are you doing?"
Lady: "Finance, and you?"

I was tempted to say, "I am doing good, business is picking up". However, that would make the situation awkward, so I replied:

Me: "Sales"

Okay... that's not correct, but that makes the atmosphere a little bit convenient =). Not the right answer and I wouldn't receive 100 mark on the exam. However, it was right one given the circumstances.

If I am to put a finger on whom to blame, I would straight away point to English - the most overrated language that climbed the universal ladder because England's era of colonialism.