history book?

i have finished smart trust. it's a feel-good book.

next up is "adapt: why success always starts with failure". i'm one-third through the book and there's this big question mark on the top of my head, "is this a history textbook?" the author goes on and on about the american history in iraq...gosh. i'm never much a history person to begin with..so it's boring me to tears. as i flipped to the next chapter ahead, i thought i saw MORE history in them.

i seldom give up on my books half way (i can only think of black swan), but if i reach half way and it's still rambling about history (not that i destest reading history but i borrowed this book with a different set of expectation. the title looks NO WAY like a history book right?).

i hate a lousy read.. feels like a waste of time sometimes. i can better spend my time reading other more constructive stuff. bleah.

reads for the week

done with this! not a bad read. scanned some pages for keeps

now onto this. last of the 3 books from the library. put in a new request for a new book this morning. hehee

biking on the spot

uneventful weekend after a long week at work. somewhat aimless, but i guess it's sometimes good to just do nothing much.

lots of chatter with the half ironman today and other races when we were at asics getting our trail shoes. i can't help wishing i was part of those some events, which would give me something to talk about and train towards.

the run at mr felt exceptionally difficult these days. it's like chasing a bus that seems to be pulling a distance further away; i don't think i can catch up anymore.

tossing with the idea of meeting bel up for morning runs at the padang. i think it'll give both of us some discipline in running more regularly, though logistically more cumbersome.

i think work has gotten somewhat more interesting with the ongoing project. hopefully that fuels me long enough for the next 9mths, to reach the 2 year mark.

my posts sound boring these days. i only talk about my lack of training. my somewhat boredom at work. books i read. what else can i talk about. hmm.

other avenues of learning

i have been eyeing on a masters of applied economics course with NUS or SMU but i don't have the spare $20-30k to do so.

dearie introduced me to the MIT open courseware. it is a blessing! i hope they do add on more lecture videos to econs and management modules. i started on the introduction to microeconomics during lunch today. 34mins and it was superb! to me it's relearning economics again.. and i can distinctly tell the difference between the lectures i have attended compared to this. can't wait to start on the next chapter. this, to me, is a marvellous way to spend my lunch time - learning.

please upload more lectures! i'll scoure for more lectures on itunes after this. hehe.

received all 3 library books today! woohoo!! i'll start with the macroeconomics one. quite a thick book. i'll give myself a week to complete that.

my SMU course has been approved..so that means i'll get to embark on it come early apr and it'll keep me busy till end of may. assessment is end of Jun. am i weird? i'm actually looking forward to going for courses. and i'm just glad i can spend 3 months doing something that will earn me a small certification plus a baby step towards what i feel will be useful for my career!

learning should never stop and i'm just only getting started =)

holy grail

finished the china price this morning. the book is GOOD!! (one of those i won't mind owning a copy, but unfortunately we haven't got such space to house a mini-library of books)

i am learning and making alot of sense out of the books i read these days.

waiting for this book to come via dispatch.

in the meantime, i have already lined 2 more up after this. i am lucky to find the new titles this morning before the email blast was sent out. reserved 2 out of 6 new titles and i hit my loan limit.

in the meantime, filling the gap between now and the arrival of the holy grail, i'll be going through some tax updates and forex-for dummies.

the china price

done with fixing global finance. it's much a macroeconomics book. good for those with a sound understanding of economics. statistical. not a bad book but i think more for the scholastic readers. most of the time i plug in to music while i read on the trains. for this book, i needed to concentrate to think through what was written and i couldn't even have music in my ears.

for suggestion for the publisher if they do another edition of this book - widen the spacing please? it will help make reading more comfortable.

this new book is soooo timely. i book-dropped the fixing global finance today and this book came in the afternoon. and being kiasu of having some time lapse between the time i finish this book and going onto the next, i have made reservation for a new book which should come by next week. woohoo!

best thing about this book? it's paperback. hahaha!

strange me, i feel invigorated with the reading. can't wait to start on this.

impetus to study

a sudden surge of envy came over me today. seeing local uni grads have such an edge made me feel unjust and tempted to enroll myself into a local uni too.

i wish i could have done so for my masters back then..but local unis claimed they don't recognise acca. sigh. one of my regrets in life is not having the chance to study in a local uni.

i kept scrolling through the sponsorship pages on our intranet. i could try asking for a scholarship, but also being mentally prepared of a likely 2.5years bond. i stopped short though, because i know my bosses are not pro-education.

keeping my fingers crossed, no hiccups to my oct block leave.

friends are posting photos of tokyo marathon. i miss that run soooo much. i wish i can do that run again.

time to read my book and lie in bed. run run tmr morning!

weekend done

it's been quite a fruitful weekend.

finished 2 months' of accounts for mummy.

handed my part time job over to the new lady. the rush this morning affirmed that stopping this job is the right thing to do. won't have to gobble down my sunday breakfast no more!

ran mr this morning. did circuit on sat evening. feeling healthy!

japanese curry attempt was flunked! it ended tasty neither like japanese curry nor chinese curry. blame it on the lousy recipe! hahaha!

never throw away a pair of chaco sandals. stupid tricia threw it away when it could have helped save us 20% on new pairs! arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!! so angry with myself. dearie needs a pair for his upcoming camp, so heck the 20% discount. i'm going to get it for him.

visited ling with mummy and dearie today. glad she's doing well after delivering max! he's so tall for a 2 weeks' old!

haven't done much of the reading i intended. oops!

why are the prices of the handsets not coming down? why don't they release some new phones soon? so i can lay my hands on a new hp!

time to watch a tv show and get an early night. back to work tomorrow.

next weekend will be good! dearie's bringing me to movies! =D

new book fix

yay! the book from the library is here!

this is my new read for next week..maybe for the weekend too!

being book-less can be soooo aimless! i don't know where to look at in the mrt. i can literally feel my brain coming to a halt. not good!

something to read keeps my mind stimulated. =)

cycle coe

one of the biggest contributors to the ever rising inflation in singapore is the price of cars.

we read cpi is up 4.8%. last round of coe prices jumped too. we don't need to read the tarot cards to see coe prices staying elevated for the near future. there's a whole slew of rants on coe prices hurting the middle class.

i think we seriously need to rethink our lifestyles. is there a better way to commute to work? i wish i have the option of cycling to work, but i have scoured my entire building to only find one toilet that has a shower. i think more can be done to encourage people to find alternative ways to get to work.

it has to be a paradigm shift in mindset. First, stop lamenting and whining, because that doesn't solve the problem. Second, it's about understanding what are the daily things we do adding towards the environment as a whole. look at the drastic climate change we are already experiencing. try taking a deep breathe in cities like beijing and hongkong. what kind of a world have we created at our convenience? Third, corporations must stop thinking it's all about profit. it's not. what are they doing at the expense of our future generations?

so we ask, how much can we do as it's just an effort of one or few. but imagine if everyone start being more conscientious of what goes into the environment and does abit. then the impact will be great.

should i write to the big big boss and start asking him to do more for staff who are keen to find alternative ways to get to work? afterall, we pride ourselves with the many green projects we do, don't we? haha

ongoing efforts

with our ongoing efforts to improve ourselves, dearie and i took up a new challenge - learning and re-learning chinese.

john has kindly loaned dearie a K2 chinese textbook, which he has embarked on saturday. i was pretty appalled how difficult chinese is for the children these days, i didn't remember chinese being so tough back in my kindy years.

for me, being the cheapo i always am, will be attempting to do my own reading instead of enrolling for the chinese business courses earlier planned. i think cost is one factor and not having a friend to go with can make it quite lonely.

hence, i resolved to start reading My Paper on a daily basis, as it has a fairly short chinese section, which i deem manageable for my snail-pace chinese reading. in effort to be more environmentally friendly, i am going to read the e-version (though the toggling of the page is proving to be such a nuisance).

Hopefully we can both keep this up, because knowing how to read, write and comprehend chinese is an asset in the coming decade at least.

I'm doing a little research on the S-Reits as part of work now. Pretty interesting to go through all the results and presentation slides from all the S-Reits. Should I stay on in the Reits industry? If yes, should i do the CMFAS reits management paper? after so long, i'm still circling around this.

Not reading any book at the moment. sent an inquiry to check on my reit book that was suppose to come.

running has been on a slackened mode. something inside of me says i should be more disciplined about it but i guess that's not of much importance for dearie for now. it is hard for me to ask for more than what i am already given.

alright..back to reading. ought to give my cv some botox as well, spruce it up a little. =)

nothing to read

completed a gift to my children during the morning mrt trip to work. a good book! recommended to dearie so i'm not returning it as yet.

i finished all the cpa mags and newspapers i have. nothing to read for now. i'm not really in the mood for a japanese writer's book for now.

anything good worth the read? hmm.

one done!

catch me if you can done!

proceeding to next on the list. i can start on it tonight while waiting for dearie to come home from his desaru feasting trip.

keep it going tricia!

still tossing on what courses to do this year.. shd i do the cmfas paper?

books in queue

a gift to my children is here! that's fast!

alright. game plan for tricia.

60 pages more of catch me if you can. to complete by this evening's trip home.

85 pages of a gift to my children. to complete by end of this week. if i'm diligent, i might be able to finish it by Fri morning.

2 old edition of CPA Singapore mags. thrown off to next week! that's what i call prioritising!

love simply

Yesterday was valentine's day. Ours was a quiet one. dearie ran the 8km with me, as we chatted along at smell-flower pace. We had home cooked porridge, something light enough for his inflammed throat.

While i jokingly grilled him for my flowers and candle light dinner, i thought about what does having those represent love.

i have learnt that love is expressed in simple ways. actions that need not be amplified into distorted proportions. small ways that reaches the heart more than fanciful ones that entertain the crowd. i am just glad to have him. when i have a hectic day at work, i know he will pat me and i can fall asleep soundly in his arms. that to me is loving simply.

all in line..one by one

i've put in 2 loans from the company's library..which i reckon will take a while to reach me. in the mean time i'm almost half way through 'catch me if you can'. this will be the next.

subsequent to that, i've given myself a challenge to read up all the books on reits i can find in the company's library. personal challenge for myself and also to prep myself before i decide if i should do the cmfas exam on reits management. this should keep me busy for a while!

catch me a better next read

done with the wind up bird chronicle. took another 3 wks to complete this as well. the Japanese writers i have been reading have a peculiar way of story telling. i get lost sometimes, like when i was watching the eternal sunshine of the spotless mind. it makes one go, " huh? what?...wow, that's a good one."

i'm onto a simpler book, catch me if you can. i read that the book was not written by Frank Abagnale Jr himself and this book contains a tad bit of exaggeration which serves its entertainment purpose.

i haven't got many other books i want to read. been looking for the e version of 1q84 but found none. at the same time i think i've got enough of the strange prose form for a while..thought i could move on to something more mainstream.

something about the cultural revolution might make an interesting read next. let's see what i can find.

run for something

bel, yenling and i discussed about the possibility of doing the taroko gorge marathon in taiwan, coming nov.

it's good to have something to train towards. hope we can get things to fall into place. i haven't ran a marathon in 2 years! it'll be challenging to start training for one.

running with the gals make me feel sorry how my speed and endurance has degraded over time. i can't seem to catch up with them these days, often left behind. i try to take it in stride, follow my own pace and run my own race. but i'm hoping i won't be the slowest among us in the coming marathon! (which i think i'll most probably be)

i've decided to give up my part time job. i can definitely use more time given a more hectic full time job now. lesser income so that will mean i've got to be more cautious in my spending. may not all be a bad thing.

kafka to bird chronicle

completed kafka on the shore today. took me 3 weeks to read cover to cover. and i'm listening to the beethoven archduke trio mentioned in the book.

plot of kafka on the shore is weird; unique if this is a better word to describe it. the story line is like a clockwork which gradually makes its full turn. you can't predict what will happen next. bits of the story gel together by a peculiar glue. definitely not your typical fiction read. conclusively, i like the read. i like haruki murakami's writing enough to line another of his earlier book in my next read.

huff puff

stepping into office each day is like stepping on a non-stop treadmill. you just run endlessly till into the night.

my mind is at a point blank at this moment. there are so many things to be done. it can be overwhelming.

there goes another exec. she tendered when we came back from the long new year weekend.

i wonder why i am able to survive? is it because i have stopped thinking what all these is leading me to?

there's little to look forward for now. promotion is a near impossible. chances of a meaty pay raise might be vanquished with the slowing economy. so what else can there be but tasks that are left to be completed?

time for myself becomes shorter as hours at work stretch longer.

i hate to lament.

a new project is starting. i have these mixed feelings. on one hand it is an opportunity to do something different. on the other, it means even longer hours. fast forward to end of it, question is asked if it adds value to my career. shrug.

alright, back onto the treadmill now. huff huff puff puff.

学不会

while watching 娱乐百分百, found out JJ will soon be releasing his new album 'Lost & Found'.

Been listening to 学不会over youtube on repeat.

nice.

xmas eve

it is christmas eve. merry christmas to all.

spent the morning cleaning the house. went to work. met mummy to shop. had dinner. walked to cq to help do some despatch for a colleague. and took a long walk from cq to outram park mrt, lugging 2 bottles of shampoo and conditioner in a shopping bag with laptop on my shoulders.

now i sit in front of my laptop drafting a letter for my mum to be sent to mom.

pretty uneventful day. but i did enjoy shopping with mummy. she bagged many dresses that can probably last her for half a year! =) i ranted to her about work and stuff, while both of us chomped down a big bao (which apparently wasn't that big) each. i like times like these because i get my mummy's full attention. life's so busy we don't really get to talk alot most of the time.

i'm glad the day is over. i want to plonk into sleep quick while awaiting for tomorrow to come. i am thankful for yenling, who is willing to spend the christmas weekend with me. if the weather holds up, we'll be running at mr, go for a good bfast before checking into citadines at 2pm. after that we plan to roam town.. let's hope we get to go for the morning run on monday to marina barrage too.

it's back to work on tues. back to the heaps of reports to clear.

kafka on the shore

done with the bloomberg mag and i'm back to my fictions.

next up, kafka on the shore by haruki marakami.

is it time to set resolutions for the new year already. i can't remember if i made any at the start of this year. i probably wished i could do well in this job and rise through the ranks. seems more unattainable now, just want to hang on and survive through the stipulated term.

my brain feels tired. i need to hold through this prolonged ot-ing nights for another 2.5wks.. i can't wait for the long weekend. the stack of work will welcome me back next tues.

back to finance

done with never let me go. it's a good book in its own sense.

now back to some decent finance reading. on with bloomberg markets nov'11 edition, courtesy of dearie from his school's library.

after that, it'll be kafka on the shore. =)

holiday tomorrow. it's been a very long week. tired. dying for a break. and really want to catch up with abit of running too.

yay..shopping too! =)

is it dawn yet?

i'm so done with the twilight series. concluding note: draggy. i got so bored with the whole storyline by eclipse, hoping for something better in breaking dawn. i was sorely disappointed. i have no idea how the story went on and on with the most uninteresting details..and such a bo liao fanfare of the volturi and the cullen gang. i'm just glad the series is done and it definitely stirred no interest in me to pay and watch the movie for now.

alright. so the next book on the list was actually this: never let me go but the pdf version i have in my kindle isn't in that a readable form. the font seems a little too stretched and i am not able to find another copy of it. sigh.

perhaps it'll be kafka on the shore first, till i find another copy of never let me go.

Update: Found a readable version! yay! so it's never let me go FIRST!

finding the lost

i thought about the old things i used to write and posted on diary-x. those were the time i was more literally inclined. i wrote better prose and sometimes in riddles. i remember writing short stories which i thought were pretty nice.

diary-x on wikipedia

"Diary-X (commonly abbreviated dx) was the name of an online journaling service which allowed Internet users to create and maintain a journal or diary. It was launched in 2000, and between half and three-quarters of its users were between 14 and 19 years old.Basic use was free, though for a small fee users could email their entries. The creator and webmaster was Stephen Deken. In early 2006, the server's hard drive failed. Since there was no backup, the entire website and all of the users' diaries were lost irretrievably^"

^{yea..that was about the time i started blogger.com.. i wish i had saved a copy of those things i wrote on my hard disk. argh.}

breaking down next

i thought i can save the last portions of eclipse for my journey home this evening. guess i was eager to read how it ends.

i'll start breaking dawn this evening.

the movie puts faces to the characters in the book; pretty faces i must admit. however, the book contains more details than what those faces can personify. in the book, bella was torn and that internal struggle she puts up between 2 loves, i think the movie didn't quite bring that out well. bella in the movie feels abit too distant and acts indifferent to how she feels towards jacob.

anyway, i thought it's a fresh storyline of a romance triangle between characters of a different world. surreal yet attention grabbing.

i think i've been talking alot about books on my blogs recently. what a nerd i am! i am glued to my kindle the moment i board the mrt till the time it reaches my stop.

weekend is here! rifle range! bt timah walk? or just bum at home!

let's go for a walk some time

whenever i fish out my kindle from my bag and start reading, i feel enclaved into another world. stepping into this warped world of literature.

loaded my kindle with my books by jap writers. revving to finish eclipse followed by breaking dawn very soon.

work is starting to step up as it moves into the year end. i am wondering if i should pack a sleeping bag and supplies to work. it may just come in handy soon.

been wanting to plan out some races to do with yenling but haven't got into the right frame of mind to do so.

want to make time to go for a walk at bt timah. can't remember when was the last time i went there. i kind of miss mountain biking there..but i think i lack the courage to 'risk' my life/limbs in such manner these days. i was lucky that fine day, back 6 years ago.

alright. time to get to bed and snuggle in with dearie. =)

eclipsed

i'm 2/5th done with eclipse book. the movie is not totally true to the book. apart from ommisions, the movie makers made some changes to the storyline too.

i should be in good progress to complete the book by end of this week.

next up is breaking dawn.

then i start on japanese writers: starting with some books by kazuo ishiguro, recommendation by yenling.

mono at part time

i'm feeling like i'm suffering from mono with this part time job. just a little burnt out.

yenling and i have made plans to spend christmas together. we'll be extending the invitation to isabel too. it'll be like a girls night! hopefully bel doesn't bring her beetroot salad to the party..haha

what should i do? stop? quit?

i'm somewhat unsure how dec will look. pretty sure i'll be busy with work, ot-ing daily for an extended period of time.

i do not actually need the money that badly. it's extra pocket money and it's pretty brainless work too. just that sometimes the sacarsm from the boss can be a wee too much. on top of the flashing of her xx carat diamond ring (which almost blinded me under the sunlight) and gawdy fashion show parade of her branded bags.. all that in rojak comparison of how calculative and mercenary she can sometimes be.. shrugs. i try not to think about it too much into it.

yea, maybe i should not think so much about it. just move along for now. it's not painfully unbearable, yet.

eclipse next

i'm done with new moon. i thought the movie got a little draggy at the end, the book is way MORE draggy! but i think reading is alot less yawn+sleep inducing than actually seeing actors and actresses put up a show that making way too many detours.

i thought the twilight series started well with the first. the story kind of plunges into a boring drag in the 2nd. now i'm on to the third. not particularly excited about it; i'm reading it more because i want to finish what i started. a story should have an ending. i want to read the series in totality.

i'm giving myself till end of next week to finish eclipse.

the kindle is the best thing in my bag right now. without it, i will not be able to devour so many books. it's a gem!

read liberated

i never noticed how reading can be..liberating.

i can be that pair of eyes looking at someone's life. i can almost hear the protagonist's heart speak from the words. for a moment, i can almost feel like i'm standing at the cliff's edge. the next moment, feels like i've got a vampire breathing down my neck.

knowledge sets one free too. being in the know. understanding why things happen the way they do.

i've almost cleared out that stack of old newspapers underneath my workstation. i'm only left those dated a month ago. it should all be done by tomorrow.

i'm more than 60% done with new moon. i'll try to finish it by sunday. watch eclipse on sat or sun then read eclipse. the plan is to read breaking dawn..because it'll be a long while before i'll be able to catch the show itself.

the next 2 books will well bring me to somewhere close to year end closing, by then, i'll be so stretched at work to have much energy left for reading.

alright.. time to look into the cfmas exams which could be the new goal for 2012. fics..cfmas. hmm..next year might be a busy year!

seven billion

un leader, mr ban ki moon, has this to say on the birth of the seven billionth child.

where ever he or she is born, "will be born into a world of contradiction". "plenty of food, but still a billion of people going to bed hungry every night. many people enjoy luxurious lifestyles, but still many people are improverished".

"Seven billion people who need enough food. Enough energy. Good opportunities in life for jobs and education. Rights and freedoms. The freedom to speak. The freedom to raise their own children in peace and security."

"Everything you want for yourself - seven billion times over".

wow. seven billion.

7,000,000,000.

new moon

done with twilight. the movie was pretty true to the book. a sweet romance novel.

i'm suppose to slot a non fiction book between this but i think i may just end up with new moon next. haha.

not so lucky

i had 100/1500 chance of winning something..but i got none. -pout-

ok, i have to admit i never had luck with lucky draws.

the d&d programme was a little boring. the food was alright. the company was good though.

winning the lucky draw would have made the uneventful night fantastic.

bare some fangs

i am behind target for twillight..only slightly more than half way through the book..but i'm enjoying the book..it's one of those nice lovey-dovey romance novels..though it still lacks that sweep-me-off-the-feet kind of tryst in the judith mcnaught novels i love. maybe vampires and werewolves feels much too surreal..too far fetched than the dukes, knights and medieval dudes..

so target has been moved backwards to next week.

oh ya..review of the high fidelity movie we caught over last weekend.

it has 50% less vulgarities..it put up about 85% of what you can read in the book. overall a pleasant movie though dearie fell asleep half way through it.

twilight up next

this is next on the list. target to complete by end of the week.

maybe i'll hop back onto the catch me if you can bandwagon..then hobble back to this series again.

let's see how it goes.

after seeing so many good playing on the guitar through the weekend, i have an impetus to take guitar lessons..progress on from my G-C-D chords. then again..playing the guitar hurts my fingers. i get this tender to touch on my fingertips before hard skin starts to form. it makes playing the piano uncomfortable after playing the guitar. argh. i think i'll stick to listening to guitar music for the easier way out of things. hahahah

high fi done

High Fidelity done. funny book in a crude way. it was like reading into the author's mind.

what's next? should i start my twillight series now?

next: high fidelity

a whole new mind done. today i started high fidelity (paperback).

target to finish by end of this week or beginning of next.

i want to read my twillight series after this.

hoho, when are my finance books going to be next in line?

good quote from a whole new mind

The capacity to see the big picture if perhaps most important as an antidote to the variety of psychic woes brought forth by the remarkable prosperity and plentitude of our times. Many of us are crunched for time, deluged by information, and paralysed by the weight of too many choices. The best prescription for these modern maladies may be to approach one’s own life in a contextual, big-picture fashion – to distinguish between what really matters and what merely matters.

half way through this book and i've got to many good quotes to keep.

ahh..i want a copy of this book for keeps!

wowow..i'm onto the last bits of the book and u know what? daniel pink (the author) actually made reference to viktor frankl and his book, man's search for meaning. that was the book i read right before this.

i love reading! =) especially when i get to read and listen to mahler's symphony at the same time. hohoho!

a new mind?

completed man's search for meaning.

onto a whole new mind in HARDCOVER. it's so un-tricia to be lugging a hardcover in her bag.

got to read 6 pages of catch me if you can. interesting read. that will be next after this one.

no blackie. i need meaning.

1/3 through with the black swan and i gave up. it is beyond me. clockwork orange made better sense than this book. this is a far cry from fooled by randomness. this was one of the very few occasions which i didn't even bother to browse through the rest of the book and simply closed it shut (literally, because mine was in soft copy).

i thought i wanted to read something which made more sense, so it's on to this.. man's search for meaning. =)

night review

i finished Elie Wiesel's Night. It is a great book! =)

Found this photo which was described in the book, the gate to the camp which bore the words "Arbeit Macht Frei" (it means Work Sets You Free). How oxymoronic.

Next book, back to The Black Swan.

i got deviated from the next book on the to read list. this is because i spent lunch time reading up about holocaust (just to give me a better understanding of the context which diary of anne frank was written in).

i googled for "good books on holocaust" and found out i have one ebook in my kindle which was rated quite well! therefore, taking a skip from the black swan, my official next read is this:


not a very thick book..so target to complete this by mid or late next week.

read

completed this after a break from it for mags:

this is next on the line..managed to find a soft copy which i can read over my kindle. target to complete? end of the month. will update my next read soon!

define success

a recent sense of aimless awakened me to find goals for my time in the company.

i walked through a shopping mall on the way to my part time work; i was surrounded by youths. it reminded me of my younger years which don't seem too far off. my mummy has never given me excessive pressure on how i should perform in school, but just reminded me to always do my best.

i listened to the standford's commencement speeches steve jobs and oprah made.

he talked about connecting the dots, that we cannot see into the future how things work together. we only start to connect the dots when we look back.

a good education opens doors. i sat on a table with bankers over dinner, one of the analyst (presumably the lowest tier in investment banking) was an imperial college graduate.

while i try to tell myself, how successful you are is not determined by that college certificate (looking at the richest people in the world, not many even graduated from college), but the truth is good education will give you some form of leverage in life.

i haven't had a fabulous education which i can flaunt of but i hope i can still do some catch up now. i am not sure if my non-confrontational personality will be good as i move on..yet i know i don't want to become someone i am not.

ok, back to goals. my short term goal while i serve my "term" is to read tenaciously. i want to devour as much publications as i can. i'm almost done with my outdated bloomberg markets mags, though old editions, still contain relevant information. my company has a library with a reasonable collection of books, open for staff to borrow. i think i should make use of that resource. as dearie works in a tertiary institution now, that literally means i have greater access to even more publications. after i finish my current to-read-list, i am getting dearie to help me borrow bloomberg markets mags regularly for reading.

i've started my garang guni work in office again. i've been getting colleagues to pass me old newspapers which are due for disposal from the racks. those are usually straits times and business time which are 3-5days old. i collect them in a neat pile underneath my table and i read them over lunch. apart from the news websites, these are the sources of current affairs updates. ahh..so much to read but so little time. did i say i want to start reading chinese papers too? never quite got around them too! (haven't seen chinese papers in the office too)

i've been penning my learning into emails and sending them to dearie and bro. i hope i don't bore them off..but i think sharing it helps me learn better..

i listen to definitions of success. everyone define success differently to much extent. i think i should be working harder to earn more. i think i should be saving more. i think i should be more aggressive at work.. but looking back at it, at the end of the day, does it give me the success..or "success" in inverted commas? somehow, i think being happy is important. i am happy when i get to tinkle the ivories..i am happy when i can go for a good run.. i am happy when i can cook for dearie and he finishes all the food. i am happy when i can spend time with family.. do all these fall into the definition of success?

don't want to think too much. i'll just keep up with my learning and reading.. let's see where the road leads to. =)

cert collector

it has been another draining week at work. the long nights make the work feel like it's never ending. let's hope this ends in another 1-2weeks because those involved are over whelmed by the blistering speed reports have to be handed in.

it made me wonder how we can do things better and of course faster.

it made me think if i can do this for years to come.

a recent discussion with a new colleague made me feel life has to be more purposeful than just getting by. i am irritated by the term "cert collector" she used, because i value the learning process over that piece of paper. she probably thinks why have i attained so much academically but still not doing fantastically in my career development.

honestly, i must agree that good career development requires more than just academic qualifications. i have cornered myself by choosing to join my current job. i have no choice but to stay on and make the best of my time here. i tell myself repeatedly, next time it has to be a step forward, no more stepping backwards or staying on the spot anymore.

should i do the cfa is still a question mark. it's more a structured learning than actually getting that title itself, because to attain the title will be almost impossible for now given that i lack of the 4 yrs' relevant experience.

while i get this all figured out, i should be working on my financial model now (stilll not done and it's due soon!)