Quarter-Life Crisis: In Search of Passion



In the year 2014, I was excelling as a Marketing Executive at SEED Institute and everyday was an opportunity for me to improve on my processes for greater efficiency and effectiveness, but that was when Quarter-Life Crisis hits......

"Is my work going to be more of a Job or Career?"

After much thought, I think not many of us may be that fortunate to have our Work and Passion aligned, but am I working towards my "Passion in Life"? For the past 26 years, I have been living a comfortable life, without me to really question myself what is "Passion". So I wrote a list of my interests and started narrowing them down to a handful, but it seems like I couldn't do much even if I managed to rank them into my top 3.

Early this year 2015, I have made the decision to leave SEED despite leading a great corporate life and took a leap of faith to pursue after my passion even though all my family and friends pointed out that I should only leave after securing a job offer or once I have any concrete plans of my future.
That being said, it has been roughly 2 whole months of soul searching since the day I left and I have encountered more obstacles than I could imagine. So, I would like to share how I felt at different stages and hope that it will be of benefit to you at present or in the near future.


--> Parting with SEED


Professionalism to the test
This should be something that is in-built in us and it will be a clear mirror that reflects how one views their work. While serving my notice period, I didn't have the mindset of "Why should I care? it does not matter coz I am leaving soon!", but rather performing at my best everyday thinking that "I have so much more to do and I am running out of time!" Even on the very last day, I was so busy that I had to even stay back after work just to send out email to thank everyone for the pleasant journey and memories in SEED.



Importance of Memories & Friends
Memories be it good or bad, those are what I take away when I leave SEED and that shall always be kept hidden in my mind. However, I started to miss my friends as though we are losing each other day by day and we wouldn't know when we will meet afterwards. So there were the farewell lunches with a couple of my colleagues that I have previously worked with and I appreciate the effort to check with me about my plans for the future.



Planning for a Bright Future
Since I have narrowed down my interests to a handful, everyday was about planning something for each of them and I will execute them all once I get all the time I needed. For example, 'I like photography and I should explore it by spending a day on the streets even though I am not comfortable with it'. The thought of being able to do the things I wanted, just makes me happy and smile ear to ear!


--> In Search for Passion


Pamper Myself with an Overseas Trip 
After a year's worth of work, I deserve to take a breather and this was a part business part leisure ShenZhen trip to broaden my mind and may be start up a small business, but I didn't get to see any potential and it turned out to be a full leisure for me. To read up on the FUN of ShenZhen trip, click --> HERE!



Who need alarms?
The greatest joy of being unemployed is to wake up naturally without the need of an alarm clock, but that also turn into a disaster as I wake up later by the day, sleeping more than I need every single day. I'm guessing that it is a placebo effect as I tell myself that I haven't sleep enough and I couldn't get out of it as my bed is just too comfortable. This has to change back to the way they were while I was at SEED!!



Putting in more effort to meetup with friends
In my heart and mind, I told myself that I have to cherish my close friends and also try to reconnect with friends from different stages of my life by linking up with one friend or a group every week, but then I ended up going out more often than when I was holding a job and I was taking away time allocated to chase after my passion. So I've been cutting down on that and focused more of blogging to let them know what I'm doing. I shall continue to have more meetup once I have everything going!



Time slipping away
"The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time" - Bertrand Russell
Some days are productive and some days not. Facebook, YouTube, Online Shopping and Gaming are the activities that can sap away my time when I sit in front of the computer. So most of time, I have to almost work in solitude and silence to get things done; slowly gaining the momentum back.


Anyway, Thanks for the support by reading this, that is all for this blogpost and I shall share my discoveries once everything starts to settle!


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Impressions: Xiaomi Mi 4i



On 23 April 2015, Xiaomi announced the Mi 4i at its global premiere #MiLaunch2015 in New Delhi, India and it will soon reach the shores of Singapore in May, adding on to the phone lineup of Redmi 2 and Redmi Note 4G that is currently available on the Xiaomi SG online store.



The Mi 4i
Xiaomi stated that the "i" in this case, refers to the flagship phone that is specifically designed for India, but can also be defined as International that is meant for the global markets as they extends the launch to other Asian countries (Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia and Indonesia) later in May.






Design
Mi 4i has a fairly rectangular design with a polycarbonate back and does not feature any curved edges, but focuses on cutting its thickness to a mere 7.8mm at 130 grams and offering it in 5 funky colours.


Camera
For photography, Mi 4i's main camera comes with a 13MP f/2.0 Sony/Samsung sensor and the front camera 5MP f/1.8 that performs better in low-light conditions. Not to mention that it even comes with intelligent two-tone flash.



Display
The 5″ 1080p HD display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3, scratch-resistant and pixel density count of 441 pixels per inch is definitely sharp at arm's length and provides superb durability, but the selling point is in Mi 4i's sunlight display that provides better readability under sunlight by adjusting the contrast of each pixel in real time and avoids draining the battery as compared to maxing out the brightness levels.




Battery Life
Within Mi 4i's slim body, it packs a 3,120 mAh battery and allows Quick-Charge to deliver about 40 percent charge in 1 hour and a full charge in 3 hours. More impressively, Xiaomi claims that the Mi 4i will be able to last one and a half days if used normally.


Dual SIM
In this modern age and time, there are times when we separate our work and personal life into 2 separate phones, but it can be quite an inconvenience in some cases; Dual-SIM provides this group of people the flexibility to switch between work and personal life with ease.



Storage
Mi 4i's significant downside is having only 16GB of internal storage and the lack of a memory card slot for expandable storage, but users can work around it with proper file management practices.



Price
As Mi 4i will only be available in Singapore some time in May, pricing has yet to be confirmed, but it should not be far from Xiaomi - India's selling price of Rs 12,999 (about S$ 275).



Final Thoughts
Xiaomi has hit the sweet spot once again as Mi 4i offers a set of attractive features and hardware at a cost effective price to waiver the hearts of smartphone consumers.

*Source: Xiaomi


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Leaked: LG G4



The LG G4 is due to launch at their New York press event on 28 April 2015, but there seems to be a leak on the specifications 1 day before the actual announcement.


Leaked Functions and Specifications 
 




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Everything We Know So Far
Whether or not if the leaked information is true, we will soon find out later at their press event, but we can confirm that LG G4 will feature a f/1.8 camera, a state of the art QHD display and a leather backing through the teaser videos that they have released.





PS: Leave a comment and let me know if you think any of the leaked specifications is true!


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Home Alone #1

Hey guys and gals! What’s for dinner??

My parents just went Taiwan on 18.04.2015 (Sat) & I am actually #HomeAlone for the very first time in my life seriously thinking how to make my dinner plans!!

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18.04 (Sat)

Sent my parents off to Changi Airport in the early morning.

Afternoonat Karen’s housewarming party with my SEED – Marketing Family

Night at Mustafa Centre


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19.04 (Sun)

Day time wasn't much except watching the Flash, playing ClashofClans and lunch at Bangkit kopitiam. I was already planning for dinner with Audrey and figured out that we can cook ourselves a simple dinner. It was really an impromptu thing as we grabbed whatever ingredients that could go together. 

Main: White Snapper
Sides: Dou Miao & Spam Fries
Wine: Cloudy Bay, Sauvignon Blanc 2013

Audrey prepared the ingredients which took roughly 20-30 minutes and the cooking was done within another hour; I was spam fries in-charge, while Audrey took care of the fish & vegetables.

With Audrey's plating, the meal really looks up to standard, but the moment of truth is when we take that first bite and  then we knew that everything was worth the effort. I would give ourselves 8/10 for effort and 5.5/10 for taste; this shall spark off the journey to have more home cooked meals!


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20.04 (Mon)


For the past 26 years, there are quite a number of moments that that I am left alone in the house during the weekends when my brother is out with his activities and my parents are out hunting for delicious hawker food, but I know they are definitely coming back home before the night ends.

However, the definition of loneliness has changed ever since 18.04.2015 (Sat) as my parents are on a Taiwan trip and my brother isn’t home most of the time after he got married.


My dad always like to say,
你好命啊! 没有爸爸,你一定会饿死了~”
Translation:
“You’re so lucky that daddy buys food for you or you’ll starve to death~”


And I’ll always rebut, 
我哪里会饿死!!? 我自己会去买东西吃的!”
Translation: I won’t die!!? I know how to buy food myself!


In short, I didn’t really appreciate or realize how fortunate I am until this very day when I am really really #HomeAlone and have to figure out my dinner plans, but I do now and will put in more thoughts when it comes to dining with my parents.

Thank you for reading & I hope you have a nice evening with your friends / family!


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Impressions: The New Apple Macbook (2015)

With the new MacBook (2015) available as of 10th April 15, it’s definitely one of the lightest ultrabook at only 920g, but I will not buy it for a couple of reasons and I hope you will hear them out before making that purchase.

So, “Why not buy it?”
I would say the problem lies in almost every aspect of it.

1) Aesthetics
There’s no back-lit apple logo and it is sort of losing some of its identity.


2) Display


The 12 inch Retina display is with an aspect ratio of 16:10, that means there will be more black borders on the top and the bottom when watching full screen videos / movies.


3) Webcam

With only a 480P webcam, it takes away the enjoyment for better skype / photobooth quality when you need it & it doesn’t match the premium retina display.


4) Intel Core M Processor 
Its capability is of a netbook more for browsing the web, Facebook and simple office required tasks. Trust me, I wouldn’t even rely on it for any intense photo editing or serious gaming. 


5) Battery Life
Although the core M processor requires lower power consumption and the MacBook is packed with mostly 80% batteries, users only get the standard 9 hours of battery life.


6) Connection port
There is only 1 USB - C port that will be used for both charging and any other peripherals. It may sound very cool and elegant, but that also means users will have to buy adaptors in order to charge and use thumb drives at the same time.

7) Price
Starting at S$1,788, it is too high a price point for a netbook. 


For these reasons, I’m out and I will rather recommend the following alternatives:
ASUS Zenbook UX305 - A windows laptop with similar hardware that cost much less

MacBook Air – The closest match in every aspect, yet retaining the familiar hardware

Alright, that sums up my views on the new MacBook. Thank you for reading & I’ll see you in my next one for the breakdown of my recommendations.


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