A good father is one that does not make his children cry, but makes them laugh. (i fail)

A good father is one that does not let mommy worry about the kids. (i fail)

A good father is one that have patience to teach and educate his kids. (i fail)

A good father is one that will drop everything and give his children his full attention. (i fail)

A good father is one that will not break his promises. (i fail)

A good father is one that feeds his kids with nutritious and healthy diets. (i fail)

A good father is one that will read to his kids every night. (i fail)

A good father is one that will spend at least 1hr everyday with his kids. (i fail)

A good father is one that does not need encouragement from his wife. (i fail)

A good father is one that will do his best to be better at being a good father. (i think i pass)

So to all you fathers out there. Happy Fathers Day.

Keep it real. Don’t give up.

So if you can imagine, the mess starts here. Popular sites will only get more popular with tools being built around it as popular sites open up their API and encourage people to innovate and build stuff for them. This means the mess can only get messier when the conversation and interaction grows. This will not only happen to Twitter and Facebook, but for any Web2.0 websites out there that is trying to offer the next essential service or be the next big thing.

I think, this problem might be solved soon and it might be from the recently announced Google Wave.

The wave team started with a few simple and fundamental questions and i simply love the questions.

• Why do we have to live with divides between different types of communication — email versus chat, or conversations versus documents?
• Could a single communications model span all or most of the systems in use on the web today, in one smooth continuum? How simple could we make it?
• What if we tried designing a communications system that took advantage of computers’ current abilities, rather than imitating non-electronic forms?

I still remember learning about Data Normalisation in school 10 years ago. So now, its time for Normalisation of Communication Data.

For those who want to know more about Google Wave, read about it on Wired, Webmonkey, TechCrunch,  Mashable, Wikipedia, there are loads of good explination out there.

So its cool we are going back to fundamentals, its cool that the net will soon be experiencing a new rebirth. Its cool that conversations / interactions no matter where they are will eventually be done in a similar fashion while allowing individual websites / services to retain their autonomy. Someone have to lead this revolution, why not Google.

The Tsunami of Google Wave is imminent and i’m so looking forward to it.

For those who don’t know, the first time i set eyes on my wife, i was wearing ice skates. That was in 1993 wow… now 16 years later I’m bringing her daughters out ice skating.

Clié and Cleo asked me to bring them ice skating 2 months ago and i promise them that i will during their June school holidays, so today is the day.

The last time i brought Clié skating she was 4, Cleo could not join as she was too small and the are no ice skates her size. Now she is ready and i’m glad she could just hold the bar and move around herself.

After i wore her skates, my dad carried her down and put her on the ice with the bar, when i was done wearing my skates, she was already out and about moving around happily. So cool.

I think Cleo at least went around the rink like 15 times. She kept going and going as i told her the more she did it, the better she would become. She started just walking on ice, but after a while i could see that she is pushing the ice correctly. Yay! I think she really enjoyed it.

Clié and Chole could already inline skate, so they could ice skate quite well. Its good to see kids enjoying themselves and really feeling confident in what they can do.

After the ice skating session, we had a simple lunch, then went to catch Monsters vs Aliens. With popcorns, soft drinks, the kids could not ask for more.

Isn’t it great to be a kid! No need to pay for anything at all. The damage that day was substantial. lol… but well worth it.

Science. The field of study that allows us to understand the world around us more. I brought the kids to the Science Centre last year and they had fun, but this year there is a special Leonardo Da Vinci exhibit on, hence we went down to check it out.

My brother David suggested to go and since i already wanted to go, we all went together. My bro Louis was on this post basic military training break, so he came along too. My aunt had time too, hence she joined us too.

At the sight of the naked man (Vitruvian Man) they giggled and stared. lol… It was quite a funny sight. But hmm… how am i gonna cover that up when its displayed for public viewing. bah… just go with it. Pose… Smile… Photo. lol…

The Mona Lisa (although not the real one) was also on display and there were so many things about it that i did not know till today.

We could not take pictures inside, hence photos outside would have to do.

Science exhibits are always interesting, but i’m not sure if they are interesting to 4 and 6 year old girls or not. They kept wanting to move on to see other things. But for any exhibit that is interactive, they will stop and play with them. I tried explaining certain things to them, but its kinda hard.

For the record Cleo likes Wall-E, so we stopped for a photo, you can see how much she likes it by her smile.

There was also a mike that was on a stange like platform. It was suppose to be some audio exhibit, but we stopped and did a bit of nobody nobody. lol…

I hope the kids have interest in science early if possible. Its such an interesting and important thing.

When ever we go swimming, the kids will bring along their cooking toys. They will pick those that can contain water and they will have a good time cooking by the side of the pool.

Cleo loves the cool water, while Clié prefers warm water. This is something that is very different between both of them, which also means showering both of them means one after another. You can imagine its not easy to get both of them to agree on the water temperature.

Clié can be super energetic at times and super emo at times too. As there was nobody at the pool so early in the morning, her mood was more emo than energetic. I got into the water after taking all the photos and we had a good time playing.

I was the captain of a ship and they could climb aboard and go to anywhere in the world they wanted. We went to Hong Kong and America.

I really want the kids to learn how to swim, its like a life skill, everyone should learn how to swim. Maybe this year end school holidays i’ll get them to stay at my parents place which is near the pool to learn how to swim there.

We spent a good 1hr+ in the pool and you can see from Cleo’s pruned hands, she really enjoy being in the water.

it was lunch, then off to my parents house. They kids then stayed there to play with their cousins and i took off to spend some quality me time with cutting my OMG hair and spending time on my MacBook Air at City Hall Starbucks with Wireless@SG till 10pm. woot!

Its the start of my 1 week break from office life. I don’t remember a time where i really took time off between jobs. I remembered when i was in Uni, during the school holidays i would come back to Singapore and work. Then after Uni, i started work, we had a kid, i started working harder, we had another kid, i started working even harder.

Now its the June holidays, so its time to really spend time with my kids.

Monday Singapore Flyer, Tuesday Swimming, Wednesday Science Centre, Thursday Ice Skating, Friday Movie. woot!

Mommy was on leave on monday as well, hence we headed to Vivo first on the morning. Mommy got both girls 3 dresses each from Gap and they are really nice. Clié even got a nice pair of shoes with strings that tie up all the way to the calf. Very nice.

After a quick lunch, we headed to the Singapore Flyer. As we already had the family member thing when we first went last year, there was no need for us to queue or wait, we just walked in like we owned the place. lol…

The girls behaved themselves and looked out with interest. They were moving around the whole capsule, looking around and posing when i asked them to smile for the camera.

I simply love my girls and i know they know that.

We then headed to Marina for the rest of the afternoon. The kids had so much fun that Clié fell asleep while we were having a short break at a fast food outlet. It was quite a nice day and this is only day 1.

Today marks my last day at Convertium, an independent Singapore based full fledged internet agency.

I joined back in Feb 2006 and my interview period took several months. The strange thing was that back then, i was not looking for a job, but for some reason, i sent out just 1 job application impulsively. Convertium got back and i went to have a chat. After 3 interview sessions across about 4 – 5 months, i joined Convertium as a Project Manager.

Looking back, it has been 3 years and 4 months already, but somehow it feels like i have been in Convertium my whole life. Chalked 877 weekdays, clocked 8263.5 hours (we had to fill in timesheets, so i know.), sent 20770 emails (yes i don’t think its neccessary to file sent mails), so on average i sent at least 23 emails per weekday and on an average clocked about 9.4 hours a day (i really wanted to know, so i calculated).

12 Jun 2009, I now leave as a Projects Director with solid industry experience all thanks to my Boss who unreservedly mentored me and shared with me directly from his heart and from his personal industry experience. I’m especially appreciative of the enlightening insights, the management skills, the revelation of my blind spots and the need to always back things up with facts.

When lunch time approached, just like normal, the mass MSN group chat happened and everyone got ready to go for lunch. Little did I realise, there were more than 15 of us. We headed down to Far East Square area and had a nice Pasta-ish lunch.

I was asked to give a speech. lol… I feel super old, like someone getting a life time achievement award or something. lol… So i obliged. I shared that bosses / superiors are also humans. Bosses don’t have all the answers, bosses also want things to be better, bosses are looking for people who will be part of the solution and not part of the problem. People who are part of the solution will definitely be valued. So with that in mind, i hope everyone can cut their bosses some slack and face work life with more vigor and RAWR!!!

The big surprise of the day was when i got to my desk in the morning. There was a MacBook Air sitting there. There were signatures and scribbles all around. There were words of well wishes, there was lots of love. I’m speechless. Very speechless.

Thanks everyone its a HUGE parting gift and trust me, i’ll make good use of it.

“What do you want to eat today?” is the question my wife asks me all the time. The fact that she can cook almost anything (from what i can see) the options are really wide open. Pasta, Nasi Brayani, Jap food or maybe something simple, she can cook it all. I can cook too, but my standard is on another scale altogether.

I can see that she takes pride in her cooking. Not only must the taste be good, but the ingredients must be fresh. Being a stylish individual, the presentation is also super nice too. Just look at how the eggs roll up nicely. And not to mention, she actually bought banana leaf.

The kids don’t go for the spicy stuff, hence they did not get to enjoy the Sambal Long Bean or Kuning fish. I simply love it. My wife knows what i like. We were missing chicken wings, but thats fine as there was lots of food already.

Even the chilled cucumber sticks and cherry tomatos were fantastic. It made the whole table nice and beautiful. Everything was in harmony.

We went for brunch at PS.Cafe today and its one of the nicest way to start a no-plan type Saturday.

But why is PS.Cafe so nice? I seriously think its not just the decor, but the whole clanking of ceramics in the foreground with chattering of relaxed people in the background, the non standard chairs and cups, the beautifully served food. All these niceties out weighs the little paper that you stare at while walking back to your car while you leave.

Seriously i do like my under $2 breakfast at Maxwell market too. lol…

Ok, the flowers are simply cool. I know my wife likes big flowers, hence i suggested to drop by the Thomson area to go grab some flowers.

We got white lilys and pom poms. My wife did a simple yet beautiful arrangement when we got home and it simply transformed our whole bathroom. Its beautiful. Yes, guys can think flowers are beautiful too. A happy wife is a happy life.

The kids bathroom had pom poms too. So super cute. Oh we had diffusers for sometime already as well. They make the whole bathroom smell great.

I think flowers might slowly become a permanant feature in our home.

Dezzo brought us back to the 50s & 60s. He brought us to the Singapore National Museum to view works by the man who created an era of furniture design. Its none other than Verner Panton, the innovative designer that brought us the Panton Chair and many other funky stuff.

The design of his items might seem flashy, but the though and process that comes before the product is where the real magic is i feel.

Panton understood injection moulding and made a product that could be mass produced and this is none other then his Panton S chair. So the design process was not mearly an aesthetic one, but one of substantial technical knowledge and with an end product that also makes money sense.

As a web practitioner i feel its the same. There needs to be substantial knowledge in the technology, usability, best practices, etc. in order to come up with a good end product. Ok i shall leave this for another post.

It felt like we’ve time travelled. It felt like we’ve gone into another civilasation. The exhibits felt so strange yet brilliantly inspiring. A few things never change. Attention to detail and sheer smart and hard work.