Writer Block

I am having a major writer’s block and not sure what to do about it. Having returned from two interesting trips to Venice and The Netherlands, and yet I found no inspiration and idea whatsoever to etch out any meaningful story or simple journal.

Perhaps, I am a little burnt out after forcing myself to produce only topics regarding Sarajevo, Bosnia, Prague and the Czech Republic. After awhile, things can get a little bit tedious. Maybe I should update this personal blog more, writing for just myself and forgetting about writing for others.

Playing Samba

After a few months of practice on how to make noises on Brazilian instruments: the sudo, tamborines, shakers etc. my colleagues and I finally performed at our company’s Salsa party at Vysehrad Congress Center. I play the shaker.

My ears are keen on melody but not rhythms, and I don’t feel so much for rhythms. I’m doing it to develop my musical ability and to balance my brain from my daily routine at work: procedures and technical details. If you care about left- brain and right-brain, you will know what I’m talking about.

After the shaker, I plan on playing other instruments. Let see!

I’m having trouble uploading .avi file to youtube, thus you have to wait to see the video of our performance.

Chill out before the performance

Our 15 min of fame

Winning the Company Women Squash Tournament

I didn’t buy any new sporting outfit to intimidate my opponents; I didn’t need to anyway as I won the women tournament wearing my old workout clothing and the same old, ridiculously long pants which I shortened neatly.

There weren’t many female participants anyway and the games were easy, but I was happy to win something. The prize was a dinner voucher for two at Hiton Hotel’s restaurant. Cool isn’t it?

Mind Mapping – Thinking and Organizing Creatively

Mind Map’s mastermind, Tony Buzan, developed the concept of Mind Mapping out of frustration for the ineffective traditional note-taking which was difficult create and review. Jotting down speaker’s words line by line or even summarizing keywords are done linearly and chronologically, meaning that notes relating to the speaker’s point X somewhere on page numbered Y can be on another page numbered Z. At the end of the lecture, we might not even remember the connection among related ideas. I have years of collection of useless college notes to backup this claim.
With Mind Mapping, a big-picture snapshot of your thinking process, your brainstorming session or your summary of a topic is laid out on one single piece of paper. Key points and important ideas are recorded in a way that show their ordered and connection to one another. The seen diagram is a summary of Michael Faraday.

I have applied this Mind Mapping technique to brainstorm my travel, to prioritize tasks for flat moving and to learn the grammar of a foreign language in addition to taking notes of horribly boring technical and procedural presentations at work. My work productivity increases as rehashing my knowledge and looking up forgotten points take only minutes.

I currently use are Concept Draw Mindmap, Mindjet Map Manager and free-version web-app MindMeister.

/>> See more samples of mind-map diagrams and view a list of mind-mapping software.

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A little of Burma

My best friend from high school was a girl named San from Burma. Then I had a crush on a very cute Burmese guy–let call him Y. who later became my boyfriend. I didn’t know much about their country and little did I care. Unlike San who was a legal immigrant, Y. came to the US as an international student. He graduated and went to college for one year before he quited to work full time at a video store which he later bought. He said that due to the recent political instability in his country (this is the late 1990s), his father could not operate his businesses anymore. The father had to send Y. all the money and asked if can start a business and support the family.

Political problem. This was the only thing I knew about Burma.

Because Y. did not go to school since his father could no longer send him money, he was not eligible for the student Visa and faced the possibility of having to leave USA. He asked me to come to Rangoon. I never said anything but it was not an option for me at the time. Though not a teenager anymore, I knew nothing about the world, scared of going to strange places and living among strange people. Now I wished I said yes.

If you like movie, check out “Beyond Rangoon.” It’s about an American tourist got trap in the fights between the students and the government during her vacation in Burma. Many years later, it was unfortunate that how little thing changed.

Not Yet Mamm!

Segolene Royal lost her bid to come the first female president in the France Republic after being defeated in both rounds by Nicolas Sarkovsky. For a brief while, I toyed with the images of two powerful countries in Europe led by women, Angela Merkel of Germany and Royal of France and Hilary Clinton emerges soon after from the US.

Oh well, it would have been fun.

Barak Obama – Web 2.0 Politician

Update: Myspace button was added. Hmm I hoped they learned from my post . But I think this had to do with the person who is in charged of his website is one of Facebook’s founders. Good stuff!!!!

That he’s running for the 2008 presidency?

-> You’re already known that.

That he’s black?

-> Uh unless you don’t watch TV or read the news lately, then yeah.

That he’s only half black.

-> Uh if you’re interested in the man this much, you probably knew this too.

That he went to a radical Islamic school?

-> Hot stuff, but sorry to disappoint you. This rumor was proved to be false.

No and no.

What you should know is Barak Obama is the Web 2.0 politician. Take a look of his web site.

Facebook, Flickr and Youtube.

Include three of the top power players in social sharing media. I’m surprised MySpace is nowhere to be found.

Your own BarakObama

Is this guy a rock star or what?

Seth Godin, the marketing guru, said “technology works because it gives you a shot at marketing.” Right on.

Ad: AGLOCO – Get Paid to Surf the Net!

Technorati Tags: Bohemian Biz, Politics, Barak Obama, Web 2.0, Website

An Almost Murder – What Does A Deer Have To Do With It?

Okay, no more internet biz, no more blog, I will now write whatever I like.

Two years ago, I drove along a narrow two-lane highway on my way to work. As I approached near a curve, I saw a deer standing on the bicycle-lane roughly 20 meters away. He (*) already had one leg out on my lane. For some reason, I didn’t break nor slow down. I insisted that the deer would be frightened by human sight and loud noises and back into the grass or sprint quickly to the other side like dogs and cats. When I got nearer, I started slowing down a little waiting for the deer to get out of my way. But as the car inched closer, my deer calmly began to cross the street. Then I realized I had met a deer which either blind, deaf, disobedient or careless as hell. I swerved my steering wheel to the left lane. Not enough, I went off completely to the other side, luckily there was no car heading on the opposite direction. The closer I was and the more I tried to avoid the deer, the faster it approached my car. Finally, the deer jumped and crashed on the passenger side of my car. I screamed “Ahhhhhhhhhhhh” …. in my head and worried sick that I had murdered the deer. After regaining my composure, I glanced at the rearview mirror and saw the same deer standing on the other side of the road.
Phew!
Driving off for another five minutes, I sighted “Aha.” The deer was neither careless as hell, disobedient, blind nor deaf and didn’t know how to avoid my car. It was me and my human conditioned thinking. Being human and had been interacting with them all my life, I used the human approach to the deer, hoping it would “behave” in a human manner with me. Dangerous! This falsehood almost got the deer killed and/or me into a car accident.
So you see. Being and thinking like human is not always a good idea.

(*) I assume it was a he ’cause I was taught that when we weren’t clear about the gender, then we should assume “male.” If this isn’t true then don’t sue me for being an animal sexist.

Death of a could-have-been doctor

If the Asian elders had their wishes, I could have been Miss. Doctor this year provided that:

1. I graduated from high school when I <= 18.
2. Finished my first bachelor when I <=22.
3. Got accepted to a medical school after step #2.
4. Passed all exams and advanced each year.
5. Graduate from medical school at 26.

Now I will spend at least three more years to study in my chosen specialized fields, interning in some clinics and hospitals , etc.

Wow! How much specialized can I be? This specialization process will break my little scattered head.

Time does fly by so fast. It seemed like yesterday when I agonized over the choice of studying or not studying medicine. Too many years of studying, too many books to read, too many hours spending in a confined box. I’m glad I didn’t succumb to the pressure of having to make the family–or should I say extended family including uncles, aunts, grandfather, step-grandmother, second-cousins–proud for having a Miss Doctor in the family. Oh boy! Have I done that, I sure would have spent the past 8 years in hell.

I hate medicine. I hate hospitals and drugs. I barely go to the hospitals and took aspirins only once. I can cut dead chicken, but don’t let me do that on your body parts.

…Nuff said. Just a quick eulogy for the forseen “death” of could-have-been Miss Doc a.ka. Miss Me.

My Newest Bohemian Adventure

I am now updating this site from a suburb city near Prague, Czech Republic. I left USA in November 20th for Paris, where I stayed for a week at a friend’s flat.

I want to implement a few projects and also look for a business opportunity. I thought a lot about whether I should not work right now to research for a possible business venture and work on my own projects. Despite what people’s advice about quitting your day job and go all-out for your entrepreneur’s venture, I think it’s best that I maintain a day-job, at least a part-time job to cover life’s basic necessities: rent, food, transportation, and a little entertainment. My boy friend owns the apartment so the rent pressure is not so great but I have to contribute to the maintenance and utility fees. I live 45 minutes by train from Prague, so I have to pay more for transportation as well.

Not only a day job helps with practical means, it boosts up my psyche:

1. Good job: Great! No complain. Work satisfaction. Good pay. Etc. Have money to invest and finance the business ventures.
2. So-so or bad job: Still provide an income. Motivate me to work smarter and harder on my own projects if I want to escape from this hell hole.

Either way, a day-job helps.

A former job recruiter contacted me and I will reply to them. Also I’m going to an event this Sunday to see whether I can hook up with a part-time job with this small adventure company. Seem great!

Resolution for a new bohemian life

• Job satisfaction
• Frugal with my money.
• Make some investment.
• Better time management: wake up early at the same time in the morning. Plan projects and allot time slot for each task.
• Balance my left and right brain: logical-intuitive, practical-creative sides.
• Research more about selling on Ebay.
• Generate more income and attract sponsors for my sites.
• Learn Czech.
• Pick up a musical instrument: guitar or keyboard.
• Do at least one of the following physical activities: Latin ballroom dancing, kick-boxing, martial arts, squash/badminton/pingpong.
• Write and update my blogs more.
• Planning for my next bohemian journey with J.