A wave of inspiration came over me and it led me to blogger. Perhaps not writing for sometime might have led to a sudden burst of inspiration. It could also be due to my head almost on the verge of explosion due to an accumulation of ideas over the past few weeks. One thing is certain. Prince is back.

Deciphering Songs

A friend of mine told me that it is best the listener deciphers the song on his own rather than reading books and visiting websites to listen to people's interpretation of the song. The people's interpretation might/will greatly differ from the writer's intepretation at the time the song was conceived. It is best left to the imagination of the listener to decipher the song.

Thus, I have tried to decipher all the songs I listen to. Numerous artists have troubled me with their uncomprehendable lyrics and Mr Dylan ranks at the top of these artists. The only song which I claim I could fully understand is his earlier record, "Blowing in the Wind". The problem creeps in when I listen to his other songs. The first 4 verses of "I want you" is so unrelated in my opinion and yet in tune with the music and makes me wonder why will a undertaker, organ grinder and saxophonist have anything to do with the song.

The same confusing theme runs in almost all of his poetic songs where there seems to be some connection between all the verses and a novice listener like myself have trouble deciphering. He was either playing with peoples' mind by adding in random phrases and gaining satisfaction in confusing people. Or he feels a real strong sense of connection and conviction when he writes the song. Till then, I will continue to submit to Dylan's uncomprehendable, poetic torture.

Paul Simon

The curiousity of Dylan led me to a google search of the best song writers of all time and in all of the links I visited, Dylan came out tops but the person to occupy second spot on certain websites shocked me. Paul Simon the half of Simon and Garfunkel duo is supposedly the second best songwriter beating John Lenon and Paul McCartney. I chanced upon the Paul Simon Companion book containing selected interviews of the artist.

The book brought a fresh perspective to how I view music. I began to listen to the rhythm, melody, the different instruments, the lyrics and how these various elements interact to produce a song. All these parts have to be tuned and tweaked to produce a song and arranging a song could take hours and Simon put in a lot of energy into ensuring that no detail is left hanging.

Song writing is indeed tough and I tried my hand at writing but I constantly suffer the common writer's block. Simon discusses about writers block in the book and how he used to suffer from it and what he did to overcome it. He goes on to explain that he employs many different approaches to song writing and does not stick to one. After reading the book, my respect for musicians had risen and made me realise that music is indeed a mixture of science and art.

The Dark Knight

I created a lengthy post discussing about the merits of the Dark Knight and found that I was not going anywhere with the post. To sum it up in a paragraph, Heath Ledger did a fantastic job as the Joker. Christopher Nolan is one of the best directors of our time and a pity that he did not win the best director award. The screenplay is in a class of its own. In short, the Dark Knight is one of the top ten movies of my all time favourite list. The change in opinion from a over hyped commercial film to an amazing movie is down to the second watch and understanding the complex and brilliant plot and making sense of the story and concept.

I managed to catch the production scenes on the DVD and was blown away by the elaborate set-up and the attempt to make every scene as realistic as possible. It is a shame that Dark Knight did not get as much attention as the other "Oscar worthy" movies but then again, such movies are not meant to be popular.

Bombay

I caught Bombay after my first exam. It has been an exam ritual of mine to watch a movie after an exam and these exams are no exception as my next paper is in ten days. The movie was exceptional. The director had a lot of courage and balls to make such a movie. The movie was about a couple from 2 different religions who eloped to Bombay and married despite their parents objections. The riots and the aftermath were almost lifelike and it made me almost sick. A.R. Rahman's score is excellent and went well with the movie. Watching the movie with the theme music is a hair standing experience. It is a movie which made me further appreciate the importance of religious and racial harmony.

One can just stare at this for hours and admire the beauty of this piece of art. Lennon is shown to be a colorful and yet serious in his long haired, spectacle wearing pose. The artist deserves the full credit for transforming this portrait into an amazing artwork.

A classic picture of Dylan in pink and black. Dylan hates to be 'decoded' and defined and this picture is symbolic for what he might stand for.

Crucial Week

This is a make or break week. I have a FYP final draft due next friday which I am not even halfway through. I have a presentation for my politics module next thursday which I have not even started. I have to submit applications for a few jobs that I have shortlisted by next week which happens to be the deadline.

I had the entire month of February to do both my report and presentation but I chose to take it easy and let things take its course and find myself paying for it. I will be working extra hard for the next few days before the start of next Monday as I do not want to get myself into further trouble and backlog by then. I have been in that situation before and know far too well what happens if I have a backlog of work and face a time crisis. The thought of the circumstances sends shivers to my brain.

Ali

My sister managed to buy the Ali DVD from HMV and I was so elated at seeing the DVD. I watched the movie again and as usual, watched certain scenes repeatedly. Will Smith did an amazing job as potraying the Greatest. I felt that the movie was too short in capturing all the pivotal moments in Ali's life as it could have included a few scenes of him throwing the Olympic medal into the river and being refused entry into a restaurant because of his skin colour and an additional boxing match.

The best scene of the movie was the first boxing scene in the movie which was Ali's first Heavyweight title challenge. The scene managed to capture the essence of Ali's boxing style and the footwork and techniques displayed by Will Smith was incredible.

I do not know how Ali managed to survive the prime of his life by choosing not to be enlisted and subsequently banned and ridiculed by the mass media and public. He was definitely the People's champion for walking the talk and I respect him for that. Few people have the guts to do what he did.

Popularity of self-help books

I do not understand the popularity of self-help books. Why do a large group people subscribe to self-help books? I, once was a sucker for self-help books as I felt it made me see the world in a different perspective and willed me to change. I will try to effect the change and found myself going back to ground zero due to a lack of discipline and will power after a few days. After reading a few books, I realised that it's much harder to change and almost all self-help book authors rehash the same concept over and over again.

This paragraph will summarise almost 99% of self-help books. Most people are not happy either with their life or due to the problems which plague them. The most important thing is that you must yourself identify the problem, find a solution to the problem, be willing to accept the change to your life, habits and problems and have the guts, discipline, will power and determination to see it through.

I suppose reading self-help books or wathing motivational movies helps us to gain the motivation to succeed for the short period of time and we are back to square one. Reading a book or watching a movie will not help unless we see the need in the change and we will do anything to effect the change because we have a mind which is capable of great things.

The scheme

A year ago, I remember having dinner with my friend at Canteen 1. I recall him mentioning about a terrific investment which he was giving serious consideration. One of our mutual friends had made an investment in the company and he was making good returns on his investment and was advising his family members to seize the opportunity. My friend recommended me the investment and I was very skeptical at that point of time for a number of reasons.

It was too good to be true and I sensed something was amiss about the scheme. The company was Sunshine Empire. When I saw the company in the paper last week, I thought it was the bread company. After a friend told me about the company's name today, it begun to dawn upon me that it was the same company which my friend recommended me a year back.

My 2 friends had invested a bit of money into the scheme and it will be sometime before they might get their money back. I will have flipped if I was in their shoes losing my hard earned money. This is a very important lesson for future investors who should think twice about such easy get rich schemes.

Investment

I have officially begun my education at NTU where I am doing something useful with my time for the first time in 4 years. I felt almost lost wandering aimlessly for the past 4 years until I stumbled upon investment. I am currently reading an investment book written by Peter Lynch and have finished 1 book earlier and gained a considerable amount of knowledge in the space of a month and I still have long long way to go.

I have benefitted tremendously from having a few friends who are more knowledgable than myself in finance and business whom I can clarify with if I have any doubts. Friends do play an important role. I am not sure if this is my true passion as my new found passion has yet to be tested. Only time will be my judge and I will find out. Until then, it is investment time.

To the person who loaned me Rich Pop Poor Pop: Thank you so much.

The Pursuit of Happyness

I frankly have lost count the number of times I have watched The Pursuit of Happyness. It is a heartwarming story which I still could not bring myself to believe that it is based on a true story because no man should ever live through such problems. Will Smith, his son and Thandie Newtown did an amazing job in the movie.

I will not know how I will have fared if I was in Chris Gardner's shoes. Any ordinary man will have crumbled and gave up with doing numerous sales calls to sell unneccessary bone density scanners to hospitals. On top of that, he had to cope with the demands of internship where the chances of being selected were very slim, fatherhood where he had to take care of the baby after finishing work and homelessness after being thrown out of his rented apartment for not paying his rent.

I went to check out the real Chris Gardner interview online and was surprised to hear that his son at that point of time was only 2 years old. He told in the interview that the son was portrayed as a 5 year old for the sake of dialogue. During the entire interview, one thing which he said stood out: Baby steps do count. As long as you are moving forward, these baby steps add up and will bring you to the desired destination.

Sense of Purpose

The movie is a clear reflection of people who truly want something will get what they want if they put their heart and soul and work hard. I'm still lost and trying to find my direction and sense of purpose. The hardest part is finding your passion and I will not stop until I have attained it. I have begun to immerse myself into a world of finance which could be my passion but I should not be sure until I'm very sure.

Newspapers

I have been reading the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and The Times for the past 2 weeks and have been impressed with the high level of journalism. The papers do not subscribe to their government and I’m glad for that as the papers will lose their credibility if they did so. I’m particularly impressed with NY Times columnists who offer an insightful opinion on the issues that they write. They have Paul Krugman, the Nobel prize winner, Thomas Friedman, the author of The World is Flat and even the Libyan leader, Gaddafi as their guest columnist.

I was very intrigued by the article written by Gaddafi which touches on the Israel Palestinian issue. He will employ a systematic approach in his article highlighting the problems faced by both sides and will propose a solution which makes perfect sense. This solution will not be accepted by both sides as it seems ridiculous but in my opinion, it is the most logical answer to the Palestinian issue. I shall not reveal the answer on the blog as I will rather want the reader to view the article at NY Times. You will not be disappointed for sure.

Investing

I had the good fortune of being recommended Rich Dad Poor Dad by a friend and I took to the book immediately. The book was written in an informative and simple manner. It discusses the reasons why the Rich gets Richer and the poor gets poorer. Although the book did not give outright tips on how to invest, it did awaken the sleeping ‘investment’ giant within me as I realized that I have simply wasted too much time doing useless things.

Investing takes obscene amounts of patience, intelligence and guts. These qualities are repeated throughout most investment books and it’s not easy to possess all 3 qualities considering the environment that the people are brought up.

It made me realize that I do have a passion for Business and Finance which I silently kept it under wraps as I was lazy to bring it out of the open. I aim to read a few investment books and get a basic understanding of the market in a few months before I begin my investment education proper.

Reflection

The start of 2009 has been pretty good as I’m getting into the flow of good habits which I told myself I should cultivate and continue. I have met with average success on the goals that I set out to achieve as I lost the drive and discipline to continue certain habits like waking up at 7a.m which I did for 1 week before I became lazy(the magic word).I will have to continue working towards to improve on my old and new goals and not slacken on them.

Job Search

It is very depressing not to know the direction that you will be taking after 4 years of university. I thought I will have a better idea when I came into university and told myself that I will eventually find my passion and the job that I will love to work in. I did not spend enough time finding my passion and instead whiled my time.

I have started to give my career a serious thought this semester and told myself not to even think of teaching as it robs my prime years of life. Moreover, I will not enjoy the work after I leave NIE. Although the money is certainly tempting, I shall not give in as learning on the first job is very important and do not want to make the same mistake as I did with CEE. I shall continue the search.

The Rainmaker

I read the rainmaker when I was in secondary school and borrowed it again last week as I completely forgot the story. It was one of the best John Grisham's books that I have read and the story talks about a newbie lawyer, Rudy representing the parent of a leaukimia patient taking on a insurance company. A classic example of David vs Goliath. As much as I enjoyed the story, I did not like some parts of the story where it was too good to be true. For example, the judge for the trial happens to know Rudy whom he taught for bar exams and he was exceptionally considerate towards Rudy. The final part of the book fizzled out as the verdict was ruled in favour of Rudy's client as I had expected end to end drama and twists and turns and killer lines but Grisham disappointed me.

LTA

To send or not to send? That is the biggest question that I have been trying to answer for the past 2 days. LTA came down to my college for a recruitment talk and there were a lot of job openings. I will be sending my resume to LTA as I want to gain the interview experience but to join the company is another question mark. I am not sure if I can learn a lot on the job. Although the current job market is depressing and a job with LTA will be the best that I can have, I will be no doubt be depressed by the stifling work environment. Signing a contract means a lot of compromising and I'm not keen on. I eventually sent my resume and wondering if it is one of the worst choices that I have made in my life.

Professors

Professors can either make or break the attendance and interest of a subject he is teaching and I truly stand by this statement. The chances of me either not understanding or sleeping through the lecture are high when the professors either do not know what they are saying or boring. One professor whom I had the misfortune to take the elective taught by him put me through 3 hours of depression and boredom until I felt a massive relief when I changed the subject.

Although it was a non-examinable module, I will rather take an examinable module and study useful stuff than to study the mind of a famous strategist. For obvious reasons, I shall not name the Professor in this post as I do not want to run the risk of being Googled by the clown and tracking me down and exacting his revenge(a bit dramatic). He is one professor which NTU should have sacked a long time ago and one of the reasons why they are keeping him is his ability to churn useless research papers.

As long as there are research papers coming in, professors can still keep their jobs. One professor who taught me R.C had her contract terminated as rumours had it that she was not churning out enough research papers. She was one of the best lecturers in my faculty and was able to teach and yet her contract was terminated or not renewed whatever the reason was. Good Job, NTU.

Denied my rights

Why am I denied my 4th year rights? I'm in my final semester and I have to take a general elective to complete my course requirements. Why didn't my dear university allocate me my first choice and instead my second choice which is non-examinable? I'm willing to drop the non-examinable subject for business finance but almost all the slots for Business Finance have been snapped up even before Add/Drop is to begin. There was 1 slot and that slot was snapped up before I could even breathe.

I'm going to write a reasonable appeal to them through the online appeal system. Something tells me that my appeal will be rejected as it was once rejected and I do not have any faith in the appeal system. I hope my reasonable appeal will allow me to take the 1 subject which I have been unable to take for the past4 years in NTU.

First Day

First Day was almost non-existent as the lectures were pointless and general. I ended up discussing about the bad job market, retrenchments across the country and unemployment among fresh graduates. Both lectures had surprisingly strong attendances considering it's only the first day of school and I expected my batch mates to either give the lectures a miss or spend it in a productive manner. No doubt the lecture attendance will as usual drop as the weeks pass by and I will see less of the lecturer if he does not interest me.

The day just got worse with the meeting with Uncle and the subsequent drafting of fabrication drawing and visit to the Laboratory. The fabrication will take a few working days and I could take a few days off the project before I begin on my experiment. Not a memorable first day but at least I know it's over and tomorrow is my free day.