Switching off the light of 2009

And here we are. A couple of days away from the end of 2009. What a lovely year it has been, I'm looking through my calendar and just seeing all the appointments I had already blows me away. I mean, did you know that 2009 was the first time I ever went to the US? And to top things off I went twice! Once on my own with my manager, the other sponsored by the US Consulate!

2009 was also the year I went to Singapore and performed comedy there, went to Shanghai for some business, given lectures at universities and secondary schools about how I coped with being a local foreigner, the same year I screwed up my knee by dislocating my knee cap and also hit the lowest body fat % I've ever reached in my life. It's also been the year where I met many new and interesting people as well as the year I realized that when I look back at some of my older blog entries, I understand the importance of the process of success.

There was a video I made on 23 April 2007 (see this entry) in which it was pouring with rain and I hiked my way up the Morning Trail near home. I remember constantly mumbling to myself "greatness awaits" as I tried my very best to psych some self confidence back into myself. Till today that day lingers in my memory because it truly was a low point in my life. Things didn't seem to be working out at all for me and I just felt lost as a person, with no direction nor hope. The only thing I had was myself and that was the turning point of my life. In a couple of years look where I've gotten to!

This year has also been the year I've learned to realize that life is much more than what meets the eye. I'm not talking about God or anything like that, but things like the human touch, how body language can make or break a person, how just smiling can affect a person's day and how the environment you surround yourself in can energize you or tear you apart. For a long time I used to wake up and feel mentally bored with my work environment. It just didn't have that vibe I was looking for. I'd flip through tonnes of interior design books at bookstores and libraries and get inspired by other people's offices, yet once I got into my room it felt dead. I tried re-organizing my stuff, playing with placement and adjusting everything but somehow it just felt dead. I used to spend a long time at different stores and wonder why it was that somehow anything in a particular store just felt so cool while perhaps the same item in another store felt so bland. I started subscribing to a lot of photography websites before it finally hit me. Lighting. It's all about lighting. Great photography must be assisted with great lighting, great restaurants don't just server nice food, they serve nice atmospheres. Why is it that everytime you see photos of geniuses at work they only have a table lamp and surround themselves in darkness? It's about lighting and how it can help you focus.

Much like how make up is nothing more than creating the illusion of perfection, lighting helps me create the illusion that I'm in a different room. If I can't see something, it seems like it doesn't exist. So what I did was re-think the way I lit my room up. For a long time I used to have a flat white light shining over my desk which would basically move my focus to this area while keeping the rest of the room dark. That worked great, it got my mind into work-mode, however, the light made my desk very... flat. Lit up, but flat. While working, I'd be focused but uninspired... which caused me to rethink how I wanted to work on the lighting while I was at my desk. So check it out while it's boring and flat.

Booorrriinnngg! Sure things are organized but do you feel creative sitting here?
So after some adjustments, this is what I look at while working:

For those of you wondering what that purple light at the back is, it's the uber lovely Philips Living Colors LED lamp. When I added it to my room, it totally blew my mind at how it has got me inspired.. alongside the lively lava lamp, I finally don't feel like I'm alone and rotting to die in my room anymore, it feelsl like I'm in a hip lounge and I've got the company of bouncing goo in my lamp :)

I also adjusted my bedside reading area so now it has a lamp from Leitmotiv and my plant. This is what it really is:
This is what it is like with the lights off and just the lamp on:
Yummy eh? Would you want to sit there and read for a bit? I know I would, and I've been doing so before sleeping. A great way to end my day.

Which really brings me to what I want to say, the one thing I learnt from this whole experience is that it's not so much just about shifting your focus, it's creating the environment to suit what you're trying to accomplish. I've always been a big stresser about satisfying your 5 senses and I'm currently doing so with these lights, my scented candle, great lounge beats, a comfortable Microsoft ergonomic keyboard and comfy Logitech mouse and my Aeron chair. I've given up the idea of having tasty snacks nearby because I honestly don't have the need to snack while working, just my trusted bottle of water will suffice.

The 6th sense that no one can identify, in my opinion is that overall feeling when you've touched upon all 5 senses. Right now, I feel at ease. I'm in no way stress free because I still have a pile of to do's to take care of, but I think I've finally reached a point where I don't feel like I need to keep making adjustments to get comfortable...I'm finally working in harmony where the only stressful factor is work and that should be how it is really.

So this is why I say I'm ready to switch off the lights of 2009 and step into the dark world of 2010 and enjoy it as my path gets illuminated by my surroundings. I've already got a lot lined up for the coming year and I've got a bunch of personal goals to achieve. I'm fairly confident this is the year where these dreams of mine are going to be realized. I've built and worked with enough systems to keep my personal growth on track. All these logs I use to keep track of everything has finally paid off allowing me to better understand my life and accordingly make adjustments to better suit it.

And now, I can begin starting up all the things I've planned for 2010, so I'm one step ahead of my expectations... and so should you! Enjoy the last few days of 2009 and I wish you all the success, laughter and happiness that is in store for 2010. Write down how you feel today and compare it after 365 days. You'll be amazed at how far you've gotten from this moment. I know I have :)

Macbook pro!

Yes!!!!!! I am the proud owner of a brand spanking new Macbook Pro! I had a big debate in my head between the 15" and the 13" and eventually settled for the 13" which acted as a great upgrade from my old (but classic) white Macbook. It was time it retired.

With the new Macbook Pro comes new ways of working and a lot of "new" lifestyles for me. I've re-arranged all my toys in my room (I love action figures from mcFarlane Toys) and adjusted the way my room is lit. After doing a lot of research, I discovered in interior design, lighting, to my, is king. You can have the worst furniture in the world with a layer of dust on it, but add some good lighting and you can visually add so much to anything. It kind of explains why restaurants and bars are so dim and why clothes look better in the store but suddenly are disappointing when you wear it at home. It's not the mirror, it's the lighting! Speaking of mirrors and lighting, I saw a really cool hanging light from Tom Dixon called the Mirror Ball. It would be perfect for one of the corners in my room because it'll give me a great fish-eye view of my whole room. Heck, one of M. C. Escher's famous drawings was thanks to a mirror ball.

I've also rethought how I follow the advice I got when reading Think like DaVinci about satisfying the 5 senses.

Smell
Scented candles have become a new addition to my room. Now that it's winter, I don't have to worry about the fan blowing out my candle. I'm also going scented candle shopping later tonight because I've come to realize scented candles from Ikea just don't cut it anymore.

Sound
I've become an avid fan of both Sky.fm and Somafm.com with my lovely Foobar 2000 keeping my ears satisfied with grooves ranging from Smooth Jazz to zen-like Indian beats.

Sight
As I said, I've re-arranged my toys so now my desk is actually clean! Also, I've tied up all my wires in a little black tubing so, even though I can't hide them completely and look like I'm wireless, I can still keep them less distracting.
I've also decided that I'm probably going to repaint the wall which I face while working a neutral grey (RGB 128, 128, 128) and get myself some Idea Paint for one of my walls. I've learnt the power of having a plain wall and adding simple decals to it.
Oh and have I told you my recent fascination with Bonzai plants? I'm still in the process of deciding where I will keep it in my room. Hmm.

Touch
My lovely Herman Miller Aeron chair is more than perfect although it needed a little tightening, after all, I sit on this like every single day! Also, for my new Macbook Pro, I went with an Incase hardshell cover. It has a rough surface so there's extra friction/grip which is good because sometimes when I'm on the go, I have the Macbook Pro out by my side, under my armpits.

Taste
Here's where I'm still kind of lacking. I've set up charts with suggested snacks that are quick and easy to make such as Cheese toast. I've even got its calorific values as well as the amount of time it takes to make so I know if I only have 5 minute, certain snacks are out of the question. I considered getting some green tea ready so I could sip at that while working, but I realized, I'm still more of a water person. I consume so much water, I actually find myself spending quite some time refilling my bottles and jars every day! To the point I even tried to fill up 3 - 4 bottles in the morning and have them next to me before I start work, so I'd always be nice and hydrated. Otherwise, I don't snack on anything tasty like Chocolates or candy. I don't like to.

What do you do for your 5 senses?
So now I have 10 days to give this "setting" a work out to iron out all the teething problems. I already encountered one, that is the high-level of work it take to keep my desk clean! Yikes, I have never had one night, before bed, where I had an empty desk. Somehow things just creep on here! But on a brighter note, I've recently ordered a new bed-frame which'll give me 2 extra draws on the floor that will allow me to use them as spaces to just shove everything I want to deal with later there. Kind of like a GTD inbox, but for real objects that I don't want to see when I wake up.

Speaking of waking up, the people upstairs are still renovating which means I wake up to crazy drilling every morning!! I must admit, at first I thought I could ignore it, weeks into it though, I've found it's really, really irritating. Oddly, when I leave and go out, the normal noise of the roads, vehicles, people talking, sounds like silence to me. Hmm :P Which makes me wonder, if I make my room too nice for myself, will the outside world look like shit? I hope not.

See you in 10 days!

Update:
I got inspired by Kimmy_ to take pictures of my desk and share it with everyone. So here it is in all its glory :)

94 hours

That's what I'm listening to. 94 hours by As I lay dying. The first time I heard this song was when I was playing drums for a band called Hypothalamus. Wow, when I heard the intro, I thought holy shit! That's totally insane. I could barely even figure out what was going on let alone dream about playing it. Today, I still listen to it and love the song so much. I really love metal and hardcore and all the energy it brings me at times when I just feel alone and stressed. For some people, they get frustrated from all this noise, for me it brings me peace. While I'm listening to my favorite metal tunes, I feel like I've transported myself to another world. Like I've escaped the reality I'm in and all the visual images I see are just part of the music video that goes with the music blasting away at my ear drums.

Ahh drums. I'm so glad I picked up my drum sticks and decided to be serious about drumming 2 and a half years ago. I've never looked back and regretted the day I spent around HK$10,000 on my Roland TD-6K electronic drum set. That's another getaway for me. Whenever I put on my headphones and sit in my corner practicing or just playing, I feel like everything around me, all the pressures and stress I'm under can get lost for the 30 minutes or 1 hour I'm at the drums. When I first started playing drums, I thought it's just about coordination but man! Was I so wrong! There's so much more to drumming it's like I've opened Pandora's box! Every time I learn something new, I realize there are 10 new things that come with that! It's exciting yet exhausting at the same time because sometimes I lose my focus and look at all the things I cannot do rather than celebrate all the things I can do. Chris Adler woke me up when he said on Modern Drummer Festival 2005 that you really lose sight of the whole experience of drumming when you only focus on the things you can't do rather than enjoy what you can. Thanks man. I'm learning some Rap Beats at the drum set while complementing that with exercises on my foot and hand pad. There's so much that I want to improve so I can do so much more. I'm working on blast beats at the moment as well which really require precision and speed combined with brutal energy. I can hit a good 160bpm on my bass drum using my double pedal but if I really break it down and keep going with weird patterns, I'm around 144bpm. I remember the day I used to struggle trying to do straight singles at 140bpm. Today that's like a warm up for me :).

How I've grown in my own metal expression. I started off as a vocalist because I couldn't play any instrument except for my voice. I then picked up a guitar and finally moved to the drums. Today I still really love screaming into a mic and would be more than happy to growl away but I have to choose drums or vocals and I go with drums for my own band. But who knows :).

I love performing. It's not so much the rush but more the relief after the performance that I enjoy. I want to be able to look back at all the pressure I went through and know it was well worth it for the proud feeling you get when you accomplish something. There have been shows and performances I didn't like but none that I regret. Even if I messed up, there's so much to gain from it. Like my first stand-up comedy open mic performance. It's not one that I want to be going about showing off to someone but from the video, I can improve myself so much. Stand-up comedy, another one of my passions will and is taking off for me. Who knows where it'll take me but I need to focus on my material as well as delivery. It all takes time.

Time. One thing I realized about time-management is that I need to understand things that require digestion over time vs. things that just need time to get done. For example, it takes around 10 minutes to go over one of my bass drum exercises, so technically I should be able to master 6 exercises in an hour. However, this kind of stuff requires internal learning and digestion by my body which means even if I alloted 5 hours in a day for drumming, I'd get less done than if I alloted 1 hour a day for 5 days simply because of the digestion factor. This has made me re-think a lot of things when it comes to setting my priorities. I try my best not to sacrifice drum practice and working out because I know these things require time to digest and work out whereas stuff like clearing my room, sorting out my organization systems and processes just need time to get done.

Once again, it's late at night, like 3am as of now and I am excited. I really am because now that I can see where I was 1 year ago and where I am now, I can't wait to see where I'll be this time next year! My friend Bun will be coming back in a year and we've decided to evaluate where we've both gone with our lives at that time. It's really encouraging because it makes me want to do so much more not because I want to show off but I want to share with him all this stuff. I really appreciate Bun because he's one of those guys that gives it to you straight. If he's happy for you, it's not because he's being polite, he really is happy for you! I'm like that with him too, he knows that if I'm going to smile, that means I really am happy. If I didn't like something he did, I let him know. I guess in many ways it has driven people away from me and also brought others closer to me because they know I'll be honest with them.

Lamb of God - Laid to Rest is playing now. I love the band's voice because it's angry, angry metal which is my favorite. This stuff really gets me going in the gym when I'm working on my last repetition and my muscles are giving way. My arms are still a bit tired from yesterday because I really pushed myself further and also because I did new exercises to avoid my muscles hitting a plateau and wasting my efforts. Tomorrow's gym day again for me so I know for an hour in my life, I'll be listening to my music and just focusing on myself. It's one of those healthy selfish moments where I don't care about anyone else but myself :).

I'm actually mentally quite exhausted today which is why I let myself take a break and do nothing productive. I really need days off like this because it lets me get out of my typical routine. I was talking to a friend tonight and realized I've finally found a routine that I enjoy and don't feel like I'm forcing myself into it. I guess it's also because my freelance projects are falling into place where I'm not struggling with figuring out what I need to do and rather am focusing on just doing the work. Not to mention now that I've implemented refined systems into my work process, it's saved me a lot of headaches. But there's still a long, long way to go before I perfect this system.

Well it's 3:10am now and I guess I should get back to...er... relaxing heheh. Oh wow, I just realized today is a day 10 entry! Hmm, so what's the big day 10 wisdom for this time? I guess it's that I'd suggest for anyone out there who wants to do so much with life and feels like they're limited because they don't know where to start, I say start with everything! Do everything! Some people say you should specialize, get one thing done and then move on, but I feel if you're patient and realize the digestion principle I talked about earlier on, it may be in your favor to work on everything at the same time. And always have faith in yourself. I'll be honest with you, very often I lose faith in my drumming because I'm bombarded with super drummers everywhere I look, but heck, that's only because I'm looking up rather than down. Why compete with grade B when you're aiming to be the top of grade A? I mean I've played in shows where most of the drummers were quite crap other than putting on a cool image. I mean, the audience and fans would say how great that drummer was but I'm sure he/she really knows how good he/she is. I mean, you can fool others but you can't fool yourself. If you have faith in yourself, no matter how shit you are today, you know you've got the potential for greatness.

I remember one of my previous entries, I had walked up the mountain one morning while it was raining and just screamed out into the wilderness and then told myself that I sense greatness ahead for me. I had no idea what was in store for me but I had faith in myself, enough to pick myself up no matter how many times life smacked me down. I think my friend Samuel told me that "Good people need to go through hard times" and I think it's quite true because that really filters out the genuine people and the others who want to be good guys. I really believe that when a person is genuine to themselves, they have the strength of their core values rather than the image or perception they're trying to portray. Like a person who pretends to love metal vs. a person who really loves it. Sure, you can put on an act and head bang away, but there's a certain energy that flows in a person who is really having a good time vs. a person who's pretending to fit in by acting like they're enjoying something.

Faith. One thing that I keep reminding everyone to have because it's an intangible cure to a lot of emotional problems. When you believe that the next moment can be better than the current, you're already opening the doors halfway. My Dad used to joke about how he'd buy a lottery ticket only after he wins it first. I think that's a really good point because it really made me realize that sometimes you need to believe it's possible even when the odds are against you. For my stand-up comedy, I was competing with people who've been doing it for months while I had barely done it for 3 weeks! I aimed for the moon and even though I didn't reach it (well I did, I got the Chinese prize :)) at least I found myself amongst the stars. So have faith! HAVE FAITH! If you believe, you're halfway there!

Designers' Saturday 2007

Poof, what a long day! Today was Hong Kong's annual Designers' Saturday and it was quite exciting I must say especially since the company I work in, Fluid was a part of it so I got to feel all special welcoming guests in and talking to them about what I do. At around 1pm, I got to head out to all the other studios and I got to learn all about what they do as well as how their offices look. It ranges from the cozy, to the hip, to the really grand and high-class.

So far there are a few general things I learnt:

• If you got it, flaunt it. Almost everyone had stuff on display, showcasing their biggest clients. On top of that, almost everyone showcased their huge library of design resources and books, usually near the entrances.
  
• Be friendly. Everyone was really nice, willing to answer questions and give advice. The only thing I didn't like was when people were standing around being overly-friendly. What I mean is when people are standing to greet you at the lift to say "hi, welcome!" it made me felt like I was in a clothes store where all I wanted was to look around and this annoying salesperson kept bugging me.
• Normal neat and tidy. What I really liked was that many studios had their staff's desks in such a way I'd never suspect they purposely made it neat and tidy. I'm not doubting that they at least reduced the messiness, but compared to what my company did (we pretty much hid everything away other than our monitors, keyboard and mouse), they were a lot more honest.
• Inspiring view or area. Some places either had a little (and some big) outdoor area (I'm guessing for designers going through a mental block and smokers to escape) but usually featured some sort of lounging area. I don't know how free they are with allowing their staff to take it easy and lounge and read books, but whatever it is, at least they have a sofa :)
• Leaving you a memory. Fluid gave out coasters, Landor gave out pirated versions of the Designers' Saturday mascot (basically, they made their own dog and made it into a sticker sheet, not very classy if you ask me :\), Clifton Leung Designer Workshop gave out shitty Siemens mugs with their stickers on it and China Stylus (which is also Atomic Sushi) gave out posters and some really cool and hip stickers.

If you ask me, I was most excited when I visited China Stylus because they do urban art and boy did I have a good talk with them :) I got some contact information to get in touch with people interesting in exploring Hong Kong's urban art scene and hopefully I'll be able to help out and learn from all of them :) Now all I have to do is follow through. I'll probably post another entry when I follow through on that and get some sort of response so let's stay on track for now.

All in all, today was well worth it and I shall leave you with a set of pictures for you to enjoy along with captions explaining them :) Please feel free to share your comments about your experience as well. Forgive me for the noisy images (you designers should know what I mean, but basically I'm saying all the yucky graininess in the images) and some blurriness, I didn't want to use Flash or a tripod while inside the studios.

Designer's Saturday 2007