Bottled in Extreme Clarity

…is having a lot to do but not knowing where to start.

“How to divide my head?” I asked someone who promptly replied, “Divide your time.”

Time? What is that??

…its so easy to get embroiled in them and you wont see me going near one, anytime soon.

Some years ago (about 2001)… waaaaaay before i ever knew what blogging was and of course way before blogging as a phenomenon even caught on… i was a member of a web community. A travel web community to be exact. Complete with pages for you to post up travel stories, travel tips, travel pics…if you were the citizen of a widely popular travel destination, chances are that your pages would have lots of visitor hits and you would be sought by equal number of pleasant and unpleasant elements as a “travel guide” of sorts. It didnt help (or does it?) if you are a nice looking bloke or chick.

There was even forums (wildly entertaining on slow slooooow work days) and the obligatory chatroom with moderator. It was on VT and on here that I met many people, made a few friendships and even a dear friend. Anyway, to cut a long story short, the experience was harrowing, though there were just as many great and fun memories. There have been some long lasting relationships made via VT, and as a result a few Malaysians have even made the trip to Sweden to witness a VT-er’s wedding, I met my baby boo, met VT-ers through meetings and so on and so forth.

After being part of a web community for a few years I decided to withdraw and took a long break- there was just too much politics, narrow-mindedness, bigotry and prejudice. I was so up close to it that i didnt even realise what I was doing in forums and chatroom; literally waxing lyrical about online communications.

In the end, all the negativity and frusration outweighed all the good that the few really nice VT-ers brought to the community. What were a bunch of inherently diverse and different individuals doing trying to be friends online and offline when all they really seemed to care about was not the experience but taking fantabulous travel pics, building kick-ass travel pages and raking up as high as possible travel ranking scores? I

just got fed up and tired of a hypocritical online community that prided themselves on having travelled as far as possible around the world, but could not allow members to be themselves if it meant being different with non-mainstream preferences or lifestyles.

I took a break from VT, threw myself into work, discovered that real life society is really not much different, got embroiled in frustration again and then got myself out before more damage could be done. In the process, i diverted any excess energy into my job and this year found that its really on track.

Now more so than ever, Im sure Im doing something that i really enjoy and the learning process in a new field is long and painful…also frustrating because so much more needs to be done…… but its all been worth it so far. Its also kept me out of unwanted trouble.

And then, just recently i found myself looking through old VT member pages. How time flies!!! What memories!!! Has so much really happened since I last visited? Also more than ever, I see how social mediums (like travel website or blogs) as tools of expression for online populations are over-ratedso much, its ridiculous. ie. a blog criticising someone is all it takes to start a flame war. In Malaysia and Singapore, at least that seems to be the case.

Power of the masses, my foot… how about collective herded cows mentality? That being said, never underestimate critical mass numbers… its what helps marketers see if something will be a trend (even though IMHO its silly to want to maintain status quo just because its comfortable. Ive stopped reading the papers and online news sites because it reminds me of inertia and thick molasses.)

I marvel at the power of the Internet and how small it makes the globe seem. At how same-same but different we all really are. Maybe, we speak and hear and read too much of the same language that we’ve forgotten how to “listen” to what others are really saying.

Wise decision there. Reminded me to take down my posts too…

Important consideration to note: DON’T drag the mag. Plus - go out and get a life lar u people.

…that work is almost done.

Its nearly 9pm, am at the office contemplating going through notes or just writing on here.

Came back from Spore last week, where a whole lot of stuff happened at Shangri-La hotel for 3 days in a row.

Is it just me, but because it was a WiMAX event, everybody I met was espousing the virtues of Wimax over 3G? This was unheard of just months ago, and now all of a sudden… 3G wont scale, 3G cant handle data-rich apps, 3G expansion plans would involve “cell splitting till our eyeballs bleed” (according to one operator) etc etc etc.

On the other hand, because its more comfortable to maintain circuit-switched networks, operators will maintain their upgrade path till about 3.9G in 2010 whereby quadplay services will theoretically start to exist.

Apparently the 3 main camps 3G LTE, UMB and 802.11m (mobile WiMax II) are converging around OFDMA and MIMO…. hence the pressure for vendors to consolidate and combine their portfolios.

Nortel’s done it, comfortable about selling off UMTS (to Lucent btw) and pooling all resources into WCDMA and WiMAX.
Nokia-Siemens and Alcatel-Lucent merged and consolidated literally. Ericsson expressed somewhat disinterest to jump on WiMax (at least equipment-making side), and Motorola wants to turn the whole globe into one big hotspot. Cisco’s turned around and announced interest via combo-ing with Alvarion etc etc.

Its far from over.

An operator’s 4G business unit?
Notes unclear, but will try to read it when I can!!! Sigh.

Microsoft makes another play for Yahoo!

It may seem the logical thing to do (if they are doing it cos Google successfully outbidded them for DoubeleClick) to catch up with Google (what catch up?)… all I know is that the deal goes through, I WILL dump my Yahoo! and MSN accounts and use ONLY Google.

There is no way for both to collaborate further and remain autonomous while maintainining their own respective brands, cos honestly… MS might just overwhelm Yahoo. But, a buy out just wouldnt do it, if its meant to increase shared Internet properties to rival Google’s.

So, what if Google has become the top internet destination? A buy out would hv worse effects than a stupid brand ranking, IMHO. When people go onto a Google property… the average consumer doesn’t even know it belongs to them. They dont really care… should they?

So, their search engine is phenomenal… i use it as a utility… a really useful utility. It’s hardly the social networking tool that consumers like myself have grown used to ie. blogs, photos, vids, music, forums… Where’s the community? I need more than just a really long contacts list on my Gmail app. Localisation - these two have a headstart, Google has only just started… and i dont know how committed it is to getting in touch with the crowds at ground level. (I think Google will be more popular among small biz users than the average person on the street ).

But, what do my needs matter? I’m just one in a world of millions of Internet users. At the end of the day, advertising networks and revenue will demand that its numbers that count - not brand loyalty. Or what web users really want.

…. not at all.

There hasnt been this much clarity in my life as there is right now. But, life doesnt stop. It isnt. Lots is happening now even though i dont write on here about it. One such is tarot readings at KL Hilton.

The girls are dabblers of sorts and when word got around, Hilton wanted to hold tarot readings for ladies nite. Suffice to say, i went along… out of curiousity and to learn how its done. I even have my own beginners set now… and was sitting in with friend. Amidst the free beer and fingerfood, curious querents came, one after the other.

Most popular questions asked:
1. Will i meet mr. right this year?
2. will i get married this year?
3. Will i stay married this year?
4. will i be millionaire this year?

A lot of leaving it in fates hands?

Naaa… certain steps can be taken. For example: How to be a millionaire?

1. Gooo to a river in September. Catch a salmon. It has to be green. Then buy 4D.
orrrrrrr
2. Save only USD100. Convert to RM…then go to Indonedia and convert to Rupiah.
orrrrr
3. In 16 and a half years, buy lottery according to your third child’s birthdate.

The least favourite of course is this:
- Get a job. Work hard, work smart. Increase responsibilities to get equivalent increase in $$$. Do this for 20 years.

Id say tarot isnt an exact science (yes, i said science!), but it can be helpful as guideline when one is in a muddle and arent sure what immediate steps to take.
That said, readings have to be taken with a pinch of salt. If u think a reading applies… well and good, but mostly its all just meant to be fun and if u let it, revelatory.

Maybe we’ll see you one Thursday?