Thursday, August 31, 2006

The Wedding



Oof shared with me the great news that Mama-G is expecting a baby-g. We have more good news from the institute...

Sexy A from the institute got married last Saturday in Seattle and it was my honor to be there to witness the occassion as one of the groomsman. I flew into Seattle on Friday morning from Connecticut while the Alaskan flew in from..Alaska. It was nostalgic to see the usual suspects from the infamous lab reunite after 2 years in exile.

I was also asked by Sexy A to propose a toast and I felt honored to do so. I wanted to make sure the toast was succinct, humorous, and touching. I rehearsed with the rest of the groomsman a few times but I realised the best speaches are the ones which are most candid and I just went with the flow. I heard laughters occasionally and claps so I felt I dint mess it up too bad. After the wedding, we had great indian food for dinner and danced for a couple of hours. I had a lot of fun dancing with the little flower girl.

The next day, both the Alaskan sausage and I were feeling kinda morose and moody. I wasn't sure why. We both acknowledged that we arent in the best of mood and started rationalizing it. The truth is, we were very happy during the wedding but the next day something hit both of us hard.

1. I felt nostalgic and maybe a little left out that Sexy A has left us
2. I felt sad I will be flying off the next day as I had a lot of fun with my gang
3. I started thinking about myself and what to do with my personal life

Weddings are fun to attend. I have not attended that many as I am seldom around physically to attend any. But whatever the case, No more wedding for me and the Alaskan, we pledged.

Thursday, August 24, 2006

Ford in disguise

This week I got the Volvo S80 as a rental and I felt reassured that god definitely loves me. But I felt doubtful soon after I started driving it.

I quickly recognized that it is a shoddy piece of junk steel. It felt like a Ford and if I closed my eyes, I would think I was in a Ford 500...freaky. If you look at the engine compartment, you can see its all plastic and looks cheap. The joints have bad tolerences and for sure its very different from the V70s I have been used to. I rented a V70 for two weeks in Germany and that was a totally different car. The transmission was jerky and will sprint forward unpredicably as u step n the gas pedal like a rabies infested wild dog on a leash that was out of control.

Nevertheless, I thanked god that I am alive and in good health and that is the biggest sign that she loves me.

Sunday, August 20, 2006

Pivotal point

I am currently presented with two opportunities that I am having tremondous difficulties making decisions. More than once, I've heard people in my life remark that I help make decisions for multi-million dollar companies and I have a lot of difficulties making simple decisions in my own person life.

The KL office wants me for 1 full-year for their biggest petroleum and energy client in South East asia. 1-yr in my firm's timeline is about 1/2 the tenure of average people come and leave. This will be an amazing opportunity to be back home still under the u.s. office and will make me a firm expert in petroleum but I am not sure if I want that label. Especially when I am trying to associate myself more towards venture capitalism, private equity, etc.

The other option for me is do a private equity rotation program for 6 month. It will definitely kick the heck out of me as I was warned about how intensive it can be but I have to bite the bullet and learn as much as possible in that 6 months.

In either case, I need to be making some quick decisions. I know this is one of those red vs. blue pill moment that could change my life forever. There were a few of these before in my life. Of cos, the biggest so far has been the day I decided to go to the U.S. for college. Let's hope I choose the right pill. Please keep your fingers crossed for me.

Friday, August 11, 2006

Nordic Seafood
















Seafood in Sweden is really good and I highly recommend it. This was not because of the way it is cooked but more because of how fresh it is and also because they are caught in the wild in the nordic seas. You would not get the sambal, chilli or pepper crab, etc. you get in Singapore. The seafood is cooked very plainly as with most food in sweden. If you can fine tune your taste buds to enjoy the subtle taste, you will love the freshness of the food sweden has to offer.

The cold sea water for some reason has some part to play. I read in wikipedia that the cold water only allows ceertain breeds of wild shrimps to survive and you don't find any jumbo tiger shrimps here. The shrimps in Sweden were kinda small but very chewy and slightly sweet. As you can see some semi-devoured examples of the sea food. The shell comes out easily coupled with meat that is a little tough, peeling the shrimp is a simple affair.

Above, you can see a seafood salad with pasta (made specially on my request) with some white fish, shrimps, crayfish, oyster, etc. and Mariestad, my fave Swedish beer in Gothenburg.

Below, what is left of crab and shrimp dinner.

Thursday, August 10, 2006

Is this worth it?

Just thinking of the aiport and travel is enough to motivate me in finding an alternate career. With red alert on flights all over the U.S. due to our creative foes having nothing better to do with their lives but giving the rest a headache, I just checked in my bag as I had my fave cologne ($50), nivea deo ($5), toothpaste ($5), contact lens solution ($5), etc. in my bag. I could have chosen to throw away about $65 of stuff and carry my bag on board to avoid the hastle but I chose to check that bag in. I just hope my bag gets there as I just realised that I have my ipod, bose headphones and my digital camera in that bag together with 5 pairs of shirt and my pair of dress shoes and my jeans and my chargers and my.....ARGH!

Monday, August 07, 2006

Meyers Briggs profiling

The firm puts heavy emphasis on the Meyers-Brigg profiling as a way to study team-member chemistries and how to effectively work together. You have to understand that every couple of months or so the agents are staffed on a completely new teams with new members, managers, leadership, clients, industry, functional expertise, location, etc. To work together, you need to understand the personality of your fellow members and get some work done as soon as you hit the ground.

I took my test some time last year and took the same test again just recently to see the difference. Your personality can change under situations and thus a the Meyers-Brigg is not your profile for life but those border line traits can change. I was quite impressed that how consistent the results were. Another thing I feel is the M-B profile is also dependent on location and environment. I am probably more of a extrovert outside of the u.s.

Anyhow, this was my profile last year:


TOTAL RAW SCORE (2005)

E: 11
I: 18
S: 5
N: 18
T: 16
F: 7
J: 10
P: 16

Predominant profile: INTP


TOTAL RAW SCORE (2006)

E: 15
I: 14
S: 2
N: 18
T: 15
F: 8
J: 9
P: 19

Predominant profile: ENTP


It is pretty interesting self awareness excercise. I learnt that my NTP is very strong and I am a borderline extrovert. The profiles for ENTP and INTP are as shown below....so my take is I am inbetween Weird Al and Tiger Woods in terms of personality.

So this is the profile for an INTP

INTPs are pensive, analytical folks. They may venture so deeply into thought as to seem detached, and often actually are oblivious to the world around them.
Precise about their descriptions, INTPs will often correct others (or be sorely tempted to) if the shade of meaning is a bit off. While annoying to the less concise, this fine discrimination ability gives INTPs so inclined a natural advantage as, for example, grammarians and linguists.
INTPs are relatively easy-going and amenable to most anything until their principles are violated, about which they may become outspoken and inflexible. They prefer to return, however, to a reserved albeit benign ambiance, not wishing to make spectacles of themselves.
A major concern for INTPs is the haunting sense of impending failure. They spend considerable time second-guessing themselves. The open-endedness (from Perceiving) conjoined with the need for competence (NT) is expressed in a sense that one's conclusion may well be met by an equally plausible alternative solution, and that, after all, one may very well have overlooked some critical bit of data. An INTP arguing a point may very well be trying to convince himself as much as his opposition. In this way INTPs are markedly different from INTJs, who are much more confident in their competence and willing to act on their convictions.
Mathematics is a system where many INTPs love to play, similarly languages, computer systems--potentially any complex system. INTPs thrive on systems. Understanding, exploring, mastering, and manipulating systems can overtake the INTP's conscious thought. This fascination for logical wholes and their inner workings is often expressed in a detachment from the environment, a concentration where time is forgotten and extraneous stimuli are held at bay. Accomplishing a task or goal with this knowledge is secondary.
INTPs and Logic -- One of the tipoffs that a person is an INTP is her obsession with logical correctness. Errors are not often due to poor logic -- apparent faux pas in reasoning are usually a result of overlooking details or of incorrect context.
Games NTs seem to especially enjoy include Risk, Bridge, Stratego, Chess, Go, and word games of all sorts. (I have an ENTP friend that loves Boggle and its variations. We've been known to sit in public places and pick a word off a menu or mayonnaise jar to see who can make the most words from its letters on a napkin in two minutes.) The INTP mailing list has enjoyed a round of Metaphore, virtual volleyball, and a few 'finish the series' brain teasers.
INTPs in the main are not clannish. The INTP mailing list, with a readership now in triple figures, was in its incipience fraught with all the difficulties of the Panama canal: we had trouble deciding on:
1) whether or not there should be such a group,
2) exactly what such a group should be called, and
3) which of us would have to take the responsibility for organization and maintenance of the aforesaid group/club/whatever.
A Functional Analysis -- by Joe Butt
Introverted Thinking
Introverted Thinking strives to extract the essence of the Idea from various externals that express it. In the extreme, this conceptual essence wants no form or substance to verify its reality. Knowing the Truth is enough for INTPs; the knowledge that this truth can (or could) be demonstrated is sufficient to satisfy the knower. "Cogito, ergo sum" expresses this prime directive quite succinctly.
In seasons of low energy level, or moments of single-minded concentration, the INTP is aloof and detached in a way that might even offend more relational or extraverted individuals.
Extraverted iNtuition
Intuition softens and socializes Thinking, fleshing out the brittle bones of truths formed in the dominant inner world. That which is is not negotiable; yet actual application diffuses knowledge to the extent that knowledge needs qualification and context to be of any consequence in this foreign world of substance.
If Thinking can desist, the INTP is free to brainstorm, calling up the perceptions of the unconscious (i.e., intuition) which are mirrored in patterns in the realm of matter, time and space. These perceptions, in the form of theories or hunches, must ultimately defer to the inner principles, or at least they must not negate them.
Intuition unchained gives birth to play. INTPs enjoy games, formal or impromptu, which coax analogies, patterns and theories from the unseen into spontaneous expression in a way that defies their own comprehension.
Introverted Sensing
Sensing is of a subjective, inner nature similar to that of the SJs. It supplies awareness of the forms of senses rather than the raw, analogic stimuli. Facts and figures seek to be cleaned up for comparison with an ever growing range of previously experienced input. Sensing assists intuition in sorting out and arranging information into the building blocks for Thinking's elaborate systems.
The internalizing nature of the INTP's Sensing function leaves a relative absence of environmental awareness (i.e., Extraverted Sensing), except when the environment is the current focus. Consciousness of such conditions is at best a sometime thing.
Extraverted Feeling
Feeling tends to be all or none. When present, the INTP's concern for others is intense, albeit naive. In a crisis, this feeling judgement is often silenced by the emergence of Thinking, who rushes in to avert chaos and destruction. In the absence of a clear principle, however, INTPs have been known to defer judgement and to allow decisions about interpersonal matters to be left hanging lest someone be offended or somehow injured. INTPs are at risk of being swept away by the shadow in the form of their own strong emotional impulses.
Famous INTPs:
SocratesRene DescartesBlaise PascalSir Isaac Newton
U.S. Presidents:
James Madison
John Quincy Adams
John Tyler
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Gerald Ford
William Harvey (pioneer in human physiology)C. G. Jung, (Freudian defector, author of Psychological Types, etc.)William JamesAlbert EinsteinTom Foley (Speaker of the House--U.S. House of Representatives)Henri ManciniBob NewhartJeff Bingaman, U.S. Senator (D.--NM)Rick Moranis (Honey, I Shrunk The Kids)Midori Ito (ice skater, Olympic silver medalist)Tiger Woods
Fictional INTPs
Tom and Fiona (Four Weddings and a Funeral)Dr. Susan Lewis (ER)Filburt (Rocko's Modern Life)

This is the profile for ENTP

"Clever" is the word that perhaps describes ENTPs best. The professor who juggles half a dozen ideas for research papers and grant proposals in his mind while giving a highly entertaining lecture on an abstruse subject is a classic example of the type. So is the stand-up comedian whose lampoons are not only funny, but incisively accurate.
ENTPs are usually verbally as well as cerebrally quick, and generally love to argue--both for its own sake, and to show off their often-impressive skills. They tend to have a perverse sense of humor as well, and enjoy playing devil's advocate. They sometimes confuse, even inadvertently hurt, those who don't understand or accept the concept of argument as a sport.
ENTPs are as innovative and ingenious at problem-solving as they are at verbal gymnastics; on occasion, however, they manage to outsmart themselves. This can take the form of getting found out at "sharp practice"--ENTPs have been known to cut corners without regard to the rules if it's expedient -- or simply in the collapse of an over-ambitious juggling act. Both at work and at home, ENTPs are very fond of "toys"--physical or intellectual, the more sophisticated the better. They tend to tire of these quickly, however, and move on to new ones.
ENTPs are basically optimists, but in spite of this (perhaps because of it?), they tend to become extremely petulant about small setbacks and inconveniences. (Major setbacks they tend to regard as challenges, and tackle with determin- ation.) ENTPs have little patience with those they consider wrongheaded or unintelligent, and show little restraint in demonstrating this. However, they do tend to be extremely genial, if not charming, when not being harassed by life in general.
In terms of their relationships with others, ENTPs are capable of bonding very closely and, initially, suddenly, with their loved ones. Some appear to be deceptively offhand with their nearest and dearest; others are so demonstrative that they succeed in shocking co-workers who've only seen their professional side. ENTPs are also good at acquiring friends who are as clever and entertaining as they are. Aside from those two areas, ENTPs tend to be oblivious of the rest of humanity, except as an audience -- good, bad, or potential.
Some Famous ENTPs:
Alexander the GreatConfederate General J. E. B. StuartSir Walter Raleigh
Fictional:
Mercutio, from Romeo and JulietHorace Rumpole, from John Mortimer's Rumpole of the Bailey seriesDorothy L. Sayers's detective Lord Peter Wimsey
A Functional Analysis -- by Joe Butt
Extraverted iNtuition
ENTPs are nothing if not unique. Brave new associations flow freely from the unconscious into the world of the living. Making, discovering and developing connections between and among two or more of anything is virtually automatic. The product of intuition is merely an icon of process; ENTPs are in the business of change, improvement, experimentation.
The attraction Extraverted iNtuition has toward the real and physical amounts to a cosmic non sequitur: theory is drawn to practice. Such encounters are clearly puzzling. Both parties--the intuitor and the realist--are aware of a xenic quality in their meeting, with reactions ranging from recoil to reverie.
Introverted Thinking
Thinking is iNtuition's ready assistant, an embodiment of the sort of logic found in laws, boards and circuits. Thinking's job is to lend focus and direction to iNtuition's critical mass. The temporary habitations of changeling iNtuition are constructed of Boolean materials from Thinking's storehouse. Ultimately, Thinking is no match for iNtuition's prodigiousness. Systems lie in various states of disarray, fragmentary traces of Thinking's feverish attempts to shadow and undergird the leaps of the dominant function. One can only suppose that Thinking must continue to work during REM sleep pulling together iNtuition's brainchildren into integral wholes.
Extraverted Feeling
To the extent that Feeling is developed, ENTPs extravert Feeling judgment. As a result, it is not uncommon to find affability and bonhomie in members of this species. Tertiary functions are potentially utilitarian. Their limitations appear in their relative underdevelopment, diminished endurance, and vulnerability. ENTPs may harness Feeling's good will in areas such as sales, service, drama, humor and art. ENTP loyalty often runs high and can be hooked by those the ENTP counts as friends.
Introverted Sensing
Like a tail on the kite of iNtuition, Introverted Sensing counterweighs these beings drawn to nonconformity and anarchy. These shadowy sensory forms, so familiar to SJ types, serve as lodestones which many ENTPs employ Herculean measures to escape. "Question authority! (then do exactly what it tells you)" sums up the dilemma in which ENTPs may find themselves by attempting to best the tarbaby Sensing. Occasionally acknowledging awareness of norms and abnormality could, in theory, be potentially freeing.
Additionally, I've noticed that ENTPs have the need to have areas of expertise/excellence/uniqueness in which one is second to none. I've never beaten an ENTP at his/her own game--not in the final analysis. (e.g., just tonight, my neighbor who is recuperating from an illness received a call from an ENTP friend offering his special recipe for tea. The instructions required only the finest ingredients, a particular brand of orange juice, tea made with a ball--none of those horrid teabags--..., which will of course make the best tea of which he himself drinks 50 gallons each winter!)
A Few More Famous ENTPs
U.S. Presidents:
John Adams, 2nd US president. [Adams appears to have been competing with Thomas Jefferson to see who would live the longest. ("Jefferson surv...")]
James A. Garfield (who could reportedly write Latin with one hand and Greek with the other, simultaneously)
Rutherford B. Hayes
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt
Thomas EdisonLewis Carrol, author (Alice in Wonderland)Julia ChildSuzanne PleshetteGeorge CarlinValerie HarperJohn CandyJohn SununuWeird Al YankovickMarilyn Vos SavantAlfred HitchcockTom HanksDavid SpadeCéline DionMatthew Perry, Chandler ("Friends")Rodney Dangerfield
Fictional Characters

Saturday, August 05, 2006

Some images

Time flies; I just noticed that I started writing nonsense here exactly a year ago. I probably had one of the worst weeks at my job this week; little sleep, 4 plane flights in 4 days, worked past 100 hours and to top it off there were some client issues. Well that is all behind me now...so some long due pictures now.






I miss the balcony of my apartment; i used to sit here have a glass of pellegrino and fix my toys (mountain bike, etc.)

P.S. I will update more pictures later, this is taking too long to update

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Silent prayer answered


God must be listening; after close to two years of perennial luck in ending up with Ford Taurus, Chevy classic and the like, I finally got the rental car of my dream...an AUDI A4!! I ended up at Hertz and the only cars they had with GPS were Volvo, Jaguar and Audi. Of course, I took the Audi but the unfortunate thing was I had to reject the Audi convertible as I have to be discrete as a code of conduct for a covert agent.

2.0T engine with responsive transmission, immaculate black leather interior...I hope not to wait another 2 years to get a rental like this. Fellow agents in Europe get to drive such cars as rental all the time; one close comrade in Munich got an A8 as a rental as he drove from Munich to Stuttgart.

Meanwhile, I will sleep tonite looking forward to my drive tomorrow.