If you are feeling bored, and when you are on holiday, you yearn for something to fill your time, and yet, you can’t seam to find any. You are probably not to have any mission in life, just like me. It was a long holiday week in Malaysia, with the ethnic Indian Divali festival (festival of light) and the Muslim’s end of fast festival, Malaysia had a 5 day weekend holiday… Well, at least me and my wife had. We were so excited to have such a long break, and was looking forward to it for months. We thought we could just laze through the 5 days and enjoy a much needed time off from work. We did just that for the first two days, and when come the third day, we were utterly bored. What’s there to be done in Penang, we have seen it all. The mall is crowded with colleagues, and we didn’t have the money to spent anyway.

At this point, I realize we need to have a Mission in our life. We have been drifting in the waves and let weather determine our future. Its time to take control and start paddling towards a destination. We are sort of like in the middle of the ocean right now, and there is no island in sight. Where is north, where is south, we don’t know. Even if we know, is north our destination? I’ve no idea. I’ve been told to follow my destiny, but what is exactly my destiny? For this, I turn to what I’ve been desiring for a long time. Back in the days when i was in University, I’ve always wanted to have an Italian restaurant, to server good Italian food in an utmost romantic setting. I sort of kept that in the back of my mind, and let the dreams died with time. Then when I started working as an engineer, I fell in love with books, buying them, and most of the time, did not finish reading them. I wanted to have a book shop. Then I could read them for free and have time to read them, and again, it was active at the back of my mind for some time, and it died with time. Then some time later, I fell in love with music, and wanted to have a record shop, this too died with time.

If I had a mission in my life, I wouldn’t have time to be bored, I would have spent my time pursuing my dreams. If I had 5 days off, I would have spent my 5 days pursuing my dreams. Time would have disappeared. I would have enjoy my work so much, it would not be called work at all, every day is fun day. Its also ‘fund’ day, earning money while having fun. How great would this be….

I guess it is time for me to put forward my Mission in Life. Lacking one, I am just wasting my life away, floating aimlessly in the open sea, leaving my raft to the weather, waves, etc. Its time to pick up an ore and start paddling. But firstly, determine the destination…

For quite some time now, I’ve been wondering if the printed media is still relevant. One could get the latest info online, printed media info is old news, especially tech news, who would want to buy printed media? Everytime, I read the tech pullout on The Star, I quickly skip through it as it is old news to me, why can’t they have something new, at least something that I don’t know, I exclaim.. If you are subscribed to PetalingStreet project, you will never be outdated (though the post quality have drop as it is flooded with yuppies complaining about their life demise). And so my mind was made up that printed media is no more relevant. I was so wrong.

Through jeffooi.com, I came to know of a new magazine just being launched, and its about the local web scene. I was curious, why would people want to report about news that happen 2 weeks back, that people already knew about it the minute it happen? One the web, the latest “sensation” is either get Blogged, Digged or Syndicated. Why would people online wants to buy a magazine on things that that they already know. People who don’t go online wont be interested in an online megazine, so the target audience must be people who gets online. If the target audience is people who goes online, isn’t it like carrying coal to Newcastle?

With all the wrong reasons, I picked up a copy of Surf, and didn’t expect much. I wanted to re-enforce my thought that printed media is no more relevant. The minute I finish the fist article, I concluded that I was dead ignorant. Printed Media is still relevant and very much alive and for time to come still. The first article was about legalized digital download in Malaysia, the musiccanteen startup and Tmnet’s efforts to bring big labels content to Malaysia. I knew about music canteen, but not how it started up, and I didn’t know about Zainal Abidin’s effort to release his next album of 5 songs online and Tmnet’s bid to sell digital music at an affordable price to Malaysians.

The fact is, online penetration to the average Joe is relatively low, printed media penetration is much higher, newspaper and magazines have been around for ages, and their exit will also be slow. The world will not go without printed media at least for the another 20 years, the amount of time I predict to get everyone on earth Online. Even so, old habits are hard to be broken. I just had a discussion with my boss about setting aside some money for books next year, and I suggested to subscribe to online books referenceware, where for a small fee, we could get access to thousands of books. He commented how he still like to feel the book when reading it, and reading on the palmtop is harder. So, even with the right tools, the old habit will still die hard, people still like the feel of the book, rather than a palmtop or maybe an e-book reading device.

Congratulations to Ah John for taking Penang Hokkien to a new height. Penang Hokkien Podcast recently celebrated it’s one year anniversary, captivated my attention when it first startup. I’ve always felt that there is a lack of Hokkien media around, and Ah John and his gang fills the gap. For me personally, I’ve always felt like Hokkien is a dying breed and the podcast gives a certain sense of security that the language is still holding on. Penang Hokkien is different from the southern Hokkien and also Mingna of Taiwan, but the podcast is truly global, and have participants from all over. Not to put any un-necessary pressure to Ah John and his gang, I hope his podcast could be a platform for the language to flourish. I hope to listen to Penang Hokkien Podcast for many years to come, up to my graves..

Congratulations to Ah John for making the news on The Star Today.

I’ve been pirated! No, I’ve not been cloned, but my words have been used or rather quoted on another blog. Good or Bad, is very hard to say.. Hehehe, neither was I happy nor distraught by this, I just wished the author should have credited where credit due.

I thought I have seen the sentences before. Oh yea, I have, I wrote them on my previous posting.

Good or bad is very hard to say. I woke up early today, and the plan was to reach work before 8am. After work up, I checked my work mails and started working, and before I know it, it is already 8am, and my wife is still in bed, well, just woke up. And I attend the phone meeting from home. The meeting was suppose to end at 9am, but was extended 30 minutes. At 9am, my wife could not wait for me to get to work anymore and went with the Honda City. I was a little distrusted on the fact that we could not get to work together and almost cursed the meeting chair for letting the meeting drag on and on.

Little that I know, missing the ride to work was a blessing in disguise. My wife called 30 minutes later that the car jerked on the way to work, and the car was running on empty. If she have been given me a ride to work, we would have gone another route to my office, and this other route do not have any gas station on the way, we would be in trouble then. This reminds me of an old story of situational view point. The story is re-produced below. Good or bad is Very hard to say.

Once upon a time, there was a king. The king liked one of his followers very much because he was very wise and always gave very useful advice. Therefore the king took him along wherever he went. One day, the king was bitten by a dog, the finger was injured and the wound was getting worse. He asked the follower if that was a bad sign. The follower said, ‘Good or bad, hard to say’. In the end, the finger of the king was too bad that it had to be cut. The king asked the follower again if that was a bad sign. Again, the follower gave the same answer, ‘Good or bad, hard to say’. The king became very angry and sent the follower to prison.

One day, the king went hunting in the jungle. He got excited when he was on the chase of a deer. Deeper and deeper he went inside the jungle. In the end he found himself lost in the jungle. To make things worse, he got captured by the natives who lived inside the jungle. They wanted to sacrifice him to their god. But when they noticed that the king had one finger short, they released him immediately as he was not a perfect man anymore and not suitable for sacrifice. The king managed to get back to his palace after all. And he finally understood the follower’s wise quote, ‘Good or bad, hard to say’. If he hadn’t lost one finger, he could have been killed by the natives. He ordered to release the follower, and apologized to him. But to the king amazement, the follower was not mad at him at all. Instead, the follower said, ‘It wasn’t a bad thing that you locked me up.’ Why? Because if the king hadn’t locked the follower up, he would have brought the follower along to the jungle. If the natives found that the king was not suitable, they would have used the follower. Again, the quote ‘Good or bad, hard to say’stands.

The moral of the story is that everything that happens in this world, there is no absolute good or bad. Sometimes goodthings turned out to be bad eventually, while bad things become a gain. Whatever good things that happen to you, enjoy it, but don’t hold too tight to it, treat it as a surprise in your life. Whatever bad things that happen to you, don’t feel too sad or despair, in the end, it might not be a totally bad thing after all. If one can understand this, then he or she will find life much easier.