Flickr Gossip - Corazzo Sues

What is the world coming to? First someone steals your photos on Flickr and claims they are his, then when you write to inform people that they are actually yours, you get sued for defamation and stealing your own photos?

Good time to pick up photoshop and add small trademarks to all your photos so that everyone's clear on who's photos they are...

Lawyer's letter from the plagiarist to the person he stole the pictures from on the left. Read the blog discussion on this in Flickr here.

How's Your Bandwidth

I'm sure all of you have favorite sites to test the health of your bandwith. However, speedtest.net makes it a little more interesting by giving you a graphical demonstration of the speed of your uploads and downloads.

It displays you IP address, as well as the speed of your internet connection. Click on different locations in the world to see how fast uploads or downloads to those servers are.

The Fart Dilemma

So my trip to bangkok has temporarily given me an embarrassing dilemma of sorts - to fart or not to fart. The spicy food there has given me a lot of gas, and on my first day back in Singapore, I had to hold it in in front of others and go to the toilet for relief.

However, as I was walking past a colleague's cubicle while talking to another colleague, I was taking long strides and lost concentration. The result was a short, fat, fart as I walked past my colleague's cubicle. I'm sure he must have been offended. Of all the colleagues on my floor, this male colleague was one that I had tension with. For some reason or other, I disliked him at first sight as he looked like someone who came from a rich family, and was a little stuck up. It didn't help that he was from global.

We started off on a misunderstanding as well, and I think he must have thought he had offended me in some way, which he did though it wasn't exactly justified. Anyways, it resulted in a tense and strange awkwardness between the 2 of us, and though there were opportunities to open up and be friends, we simply chose to put each other at arm's length.

It was under such a circumstance that I walked past his cubicle and let go of that untimely fart. He must have thought I did it on purpose as an expression of what I thought about him... Ok, ok, so I'm being sensitive. He shouldn't have been as petty as that. However, he was one of those you could tell came from a formal, upper class family with strict upbringing. The fact that someone farted in front of people is a display of bad manners and crudeness.

Well, there's no use crying over aired fart... I can only say that it was entirely without malice that I farted; It was a natural bodily chemical reaction. It was either fart or have my intestines explode at his cubicle. I did him a favor by choosing the lesser of the 2 evils...

Rice and Rouge

My US colleague followed me back to Singapore to do some focus groups at our office. Since she was only here for a day and a half, I planned her only night out with some colleagues from Thailand and one from Australia.

We had dinner at a restaurant called "The Rice Table". It served all you can eat yummy Indonesian food, and the bill came up to S$20 per person. Not a bad deal at all! After dinner, we went out for drinks at this hip club called "Rouge" and found out a lot of interesting facts about my colleagues. It is interesting how 1 drink under a neutral setting can relax one and coax you into revealing your very personal thoughts.

The content of our conversations included a confession about having thoughts of divorce, how a banana indicated a mate for life, and how sometimes God lends a hand in putting 2 people together, even if they had to follow each other all over the globe to be together.

I had my apple martini (vanilla martini was a stretch for me as I hated vanilla anything) and was very happy to be part of the sharing that was happening without really contributing. It was a good night, not as high on the party level as our dinner for our Sales Director, but good in another way.

Taking a Rap - Head First

I extended my trip to bangkok over the weekend so that I could include a visit to Jatuchak, the weekend market. It was like this incredibly huge outdoor mall which would take up to a full day to cover. Things here are cheap, about 60% of what items are being sold at major shopping centres.

So if you're willing to put up with the sweat, heat and weekend crowd, you could very well find yourself with some really good deals. I wanted to go there to hunt for furniture for my new home. However, most of the home decorations there were beautiful zen pieces, and I was left wondering if I made the right decision to go Bohemian for my home style. But renovations were halfway through, and I was a bohemian at heart, so I used the Thai Baht that I had on clothes and other accessories instead.

I decided to get some garments made from Thai silk and came across this shop selling beautiful formal tops and dresses made with hand sewn stones. While browsing through the pieces, the lady inside the shop was using a long wooden pole with a metal hook to take down some pieces hung near the roof for another customer. As I saw her removing the piece out of the corner of my eye, I suddenly felt as if a piece of beam or the roof had fallen right on my head. Stunned, and in pain, the area where my head had been hit immediately swelled and grew a bruise.

Apparently the store woman, after removing the piece of clothing, had let the long wooden pole drop, careless to the fact that I was standing in its path. When she heard the "THWACK" and saw the bruise, she was immediately remorseful and guilty at her carelessness. I was stunned for quite a while and felt that my skull must have broken. It was a hard whack and I was in shock. Fearful at the damage she had caused, she kept apologizing and blabbering in Thai while shoving some fainting oil under my nose to shock me awake. I have hated the smell of that oil since I was young - pungent and sickeningly sweet - and she kept rubbing it all over my head and pushing it up almost right up my nostrils. As I gasped and wheezed, "No!" and "Enough!" which she obviously did not understand, I tried my best to let the full brunt of the shock come on so that it could go away.

I finally recovered enough to buy 2 pieces from her, although I must say that I have been in many accidents before, this was one that I truly worried about. Maybe I have watched too many episodes on CSI where many seemingly innocent whacks to the head were seemed as harmless but led to the death of the victim a few days later. I definitely plan to make a trip to the doctor's to get a check up - once I manage to clear all my urgent tasks! My only consolation was in knowing my purpose on earth was definitely not over - especially since I had no idea what it was - and that God wouldn't let me leave planet earth until my purpose was accomplished. Self-consolation if you will, but its sure better than fretting about bleeding to death on the inside of my head...

The True Measure of a Woman

One of the highlights of my bangkok trip was meeting up with a key customer. I learned many things during this business exposure trip that put all the bits and pieces together into a more complete picture for me. However, the most enlightening moment for me personally was this interview.

My US colleague is an extremely capable person. Very structured, knows what she wants, and tries very hard not to disrupt anybody else's plans while getting what she wants. But she has the determination to get her objectives fulfilled down to the last detail. Which should be the way it is.

However, even she was overwhelmed by the humility and modesty of the key customer we interviewed. I had requested for the interview from our Thailand colleagues who helped me set it up. This item in the agenda was highly recommended by the same global accounts manager who had commented that I look like an 18 year old. As there were many articles about this customer in the press, as well as a couple of people who were pushing for a story with this customer, we followed closely on our Thai colleagues to clinch the time for the interview.

It was finally confirmed that she had accepted the request and we were nervous at meeting this highly accomplished and respected professional who had an incredible international reputation. We were ushered into the VIP room, which overwhelmed our sales colleague who had personally approached this customer through her assistant. Apparently, only top level VIPs had been shown to this room, and he himself had only been up there twice because he had to make presentations to VIPs.

When she walked into the room, it was like a rush of wind blew in, straightened everything in the room that was wrong, then flew out again. Of course, the interview was not as quick, lasting for a couple of hours. But the impression that she gave me was someone full of positive energy, efficient, fearless, brisk, focused and knew exactly how things should be, and how to rally everyone to get it done the right way, her way.

Far from being a dictatorian, she works with her team like a family. She attributed her success to previous bosses who had groomed her and paved the way to her success. She deemed her ability to keep the business prospering to the dedicated team she had, and to her business partners who had been extremely loyal and supported her right up to the 3rd generation. While this may sound like an incredible possibility of someone who had the blessings of the gods, the fact that she had kept the business successful AND growing at an exponential rate for a quarter of a century, any smart business professional would tell you it takes more than luck to do that.

After the interview, I felt incredibly lucky to have been included in an interview with this woman. Rising above her male counterparts in a man's industry, she had such leadership qualities that she was third in command in a multinational company that earned billions of dollars in gross margin. On the way back to the Thai office, I had a good time of evaluation. I don't know if I had the inclination, nor the drive, to push myself the way this customer and my boss do. And I had slightly different priorities in life. But I did take away many valuable nuggets - the pursuit of our true passion in life, being focused in our endeavours, embracing the grit of discipline, having a clear view of what success means, and never being afraid of hard work nor sacrifices. Hooray to all the female professionals who are in pursuit of their personal success!

Laptop Woes

So we have been reading about exploding laptops, and dell woes on bad publicity and plunging sales. I have a few woes of my own. On the second night of my trip in bangkok, my hard disk dies. Being a non-technical person, I thought I had corrupted the Windows OS program when I did a hard reset to shut my machine off (it was taking forever!).

Well, I brought it into the bangkok office the next day for the IT department to fix. So while I was out for site visits and interview with a key customer, they ran diagnostic tests on my IBM Thinkpad. When we returned to the office during lunch, I was told very grimly by the country marketing manager, that my laptop hard disk had died.

If I had foreknowledge that this would happen, I would have been really upset. Just thinking about the flood of emails in my inbox, being unable to access nor reply them, the emergencies piling up... I would have been majorly stressed.

However, I did not. Whether it was that Thailand has a good effect on me, the fact that I was in Thailand for site visits rather than meetings, or simply because I have been thinking since 2 months ago that my laptop would break down anyday soon, I don't really know.

Fourth possible reason - Am I psychic? No. Well, at least not in this case. Just the logical deduction of someone who goes through the consternation of hearing the whir and click of the hard disk getting noticeably loud, pronounced, and slow. The "clicks" got more as the startup (and log off!) got slower. I kept thinking to myself "If it's not going to die today, it'll die tomorrow".

Why my Thinkpad chose to die in Bangkok, I am clueless. Maybe that was where it was manufactured and he wanted to join the spirits of the laptops before it in the place where it was born. But that it died when I was there, meant that I could not work over the weekend, but was actually forced to enjoy my weekend without work.

So I went shopping and eating and sleeping without guilt as there was nothing I could do about my situation. It didn't make sense to change my flight to reach home on a saturday instead of a sunday as the IT department in the Singapore office won't be at work until Monday. The use of the Internet at the Business Center costs 500 Baht an hour (full day internet access in the room on a laptop was 642 Baht for the entire day!!) so that wasn't good for my budget, and no one would be at the office on a Saturday anyway. They had my mobile number, so if anything was really urgent, they could call me.

I am amazed that I was that calm when the marketing manager broke the news to me though. He (half) jokingly commented that I could trash my laptop. Frankly speaking - i was very tempted to. But our company policy was that you had to return the old laptop - no matter how broke it was - in exchange for a new one. Same goes for every piece of instrument / gadget the company gives you. Want a new one? It has to be broke, and you have to return it first. Almost like a trading business.

So I lugged my broken laptop home with 2 bags of luggage and a hand carry bag of shopping. My calf muscles are really sore now. Where is a Thai foot massage when you really need one??

The Bed Supper Club

The first day I arrived in Bangkok for my business trip, I made a trip down to a tailor's at Asok station. It was recommended to me years ago by a good friend of mine, and my first set of office clothes from "Ambassadors & Smart Fashion" have kept me looking professional while being a comfortable wear for a number of years. So I took this opportunity to make a 2nd set.

After measurements, I made my way back to the hotel to find a voice message from my US colleague, with an invitation to the Bed Supper Club. It is not a new place, having been around for a number of years and gaining international fame in the process. The last time I meant to visit it with some friends, I was already tipsy from a Mai Tai, and my other 2 friends were shy of paying the high cover charge. We were also in Bermudas and casual wear, and upon reaching the entrance of Bed Supper Club, realised that it is very much a dress up club.

Thankfully, our hotel was only less than a minute away from the club, so we simply strolled back to the hotel while I sobered up and the other 2 talked about the place where I had the Mai Tai with this gorgeous Filipino singer whose voice made the evening feel like we've been to the world's first class lounge.

Well, on this trip, our Australian colleague had reserved 2 tables for us and invited some friends. Also, my US colleague managed to get me on the phone just as I was coming out of the shower. I couldn't turn down her personal invitation, so I said Yes. Besides, though I was no longer as curious about the Bed Supper club, it was in my list of "To-dos" in my travel, even if its the last few priorities. Also, it gave me the perfect opportunity to show off the first Singapore shawl that I bought. Not the one with the snake - a much more traditional and striking shawl that made me look really classy & slim.

It was an interesting night, and a very international one at that. I was among australian, vietnamese and hong kong friends who had stayed in the states for a number of years. And the scene at the Bed club could easily be any club down in NY - there were so many nationalities there that it could very well have been the congregation of the last people left on earth, all squeezed onto a tiny dance floor and beds around the walls.

We were told it was Salsa night, and I was looking forward to a night of some dancing action, but was sorely disappointed by the crowd. The people at the club were definitely not there for Salsa. It was more of a high class "pick up" joint (is there any other types?). There were so many posers that I felt I was at some fashion parade or actors' guild. Everybody there was primped and pumped up, dressed up to the nines, and sat and stood at uncomfortable poses to exude the "cool" and "hip" looks. Both my US colleague and myself got fed up at waiting for the action to start at the main club and popped next door to the "disco" section of the club for some solid drum dancing.

After some shuttling between the 2 dance floors, we were ready to make it back to our hotel at past one in the morning. And I had to be up at the lobby by 7.45 am the next day for pickup by our company driver... It was a nice start to the trip though - bonding with my colleagues in an informal setting, getting to know each other before we started working together. It cuts through all the stiff formalities and courtesies as we would have gotten to know which other under a neutral setting.

I don't think I'll be making my way back to Bed again unless I'm there with my own group of friends I can have fun with, though I must say the food was pretty fantastic. The bill was equally stupefying. But its still a good tourist spot to visit if it's your first trip to Bangkok, you're looking to have some fun, or even a learning experience. I may bump into you there. Do remember to bring a formal party dress though unless you don't mind looking (& feeling) out of place.