Back in Business…Literally

So here you go, a new post after nearly two months since my last post. There are a lot of things going on since then:

• Completed my degree (MB, BCh, BAO) in UCC
• Migrated back to my homeland in Malaysia
• My older brother got married
• Taking a few months break before starting internship
• The best part: Bought a new WorkStation with dual 24” LCD Monitors

Introducing the newest member in the family

This baby deserves a post of its own (grin). The best part of living in Malaysia is that you can get a spanking new PC with the latest rigs for a fraction of the price. I bought this baby in Lowyat Plaza last two weeks for under RM4.5k. For my Irish friends (especially Gary), that’s way less than €1000! Enough said, here’s the spec:

- Intel Core i7 920 2.66 GHz
- Corsair TR3X3G 1333C9 DDR3 3GB
- Western Digital 640GB SATA2 Hard disk
- Asus P6T Mother Board
- DVDRW LG 22x
- Cooler Master 650W Extreme Plus
- Cooler Master 330 ATX
- ATI Radeon Sapphire 512MB PCI-E
- AOC 24” wide LC 2434PW (x2)
- Sound Blaster Audigy 2
- Logitech Wave Wireless Combo (Mouse and Keyboard)
- Altec Lansing 2.1 VS4121BLK

Currently I am working on two projects worth around RM5k so hopefully I can get things moving in these few weeks. Wish me luck!

More pictures? You Got to be Kidding me!

I'm slowly becoming another stereotype, by putting more pictures of my little baby boy on the net. Instead of putting them in my Facebook account (which I don't have) or Friendster (which I have but have not been using it for so many years), I have decided to put in my personal blog.

I'm a type of person who are very picky when it comes to what I do especially when it involved conforming with what others do. This time I'll make an exception.

(In)competent Leaders in the Making

Everyone is a leader in some way, from a husband who took the role as the leader of his family to leaders of society. Great leaders exhibit consistent traits while incompetent one share the same lack of aptitude. Therefore, it is very crucial for us to reflect on ourselves- identify our weaknesses and work on them, so that we are prepared to take the roles of being a leader in the future, thus, avoiding ourselves being a liability to an organization.

After reading few articles about signs of incompetent leaders and why leaders fail, I can safely say that a number of factors pointed in the articles demonstrate a reverse of great leader trait in a book written by Jim Collins entitled Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...and Others Don't. To summarize, Jim Collins use an analogy of a bus to represent an organization. The bus' destination is the goal of the organization while the driver can be regarded as the leader. The first step is to get the right people into the bus and to place them in the right seat. Getting the right people into the bus is as crucial as getting the wrong people out of the bus for established organization. Finally, set the destination (goal) and work towards them. Read More

T-shirt Design for IluvIslam.com

I have submitted two designs for catalog project by ILuvIslam. The admin asked for two themes, one theme is about saving Palestine and another theme is open to any islamic design. So below are my submission and feel free to comment.

Theme: Open

Theme: Palestine

It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want To Be

Last month I received a gift voucher for Eason worth EUR25 from a friend of mine. So we (my wife and I) decided to have a quick run to one of the Eason bookshop in Mahon Point here in Cork. I did browsed through earlier their online selection of books so that I can get the things done as quick as possible. We drove to Mahon Point in 'our' brand new 2008 Ford Focus (which we rented, off course!).

I was pretty excited at first and I have a list of books on my mind. To make the story short, the bookshop there did not have any books that I wanted and surprisingly they provided little selection for business and computing books (in contrast to their online selections). We ended up buying most of the books for Uwais using the gift voucher. In desperation to buy something for myself, I just grabbed one book that I found interesting and went straight to the cashier and paid him.

The book was entitled It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want To Be by Paul Arden. It is a short book which provides a metaphor of business practice using the creative processes of good advertising. This book is beautifully design with creative use of typography, suitable with the eccentric ideas proposed by the author. There is one excerpt from the book which I found very revealing:

..That's the nature of the creative person. All creative people need something to rebel against, it's what gives their lives excitement, and it's creative people who make the clients' lives exciting.

Anyway, I have been longing to read this book by Alan Fetcher who happens to be one of the most influential graphic designer in this modern time. Probably there is someone out there who are kind enough to buy me one (chuckles).