Rants Works Works Works

Blessings of the Day: I still have God, Kg, my family and friends in my life.

I've been pretty stressed lately. Is like I've got alot of things to do and yet I can never finish them. I want to go for a break and have a relaxing trip. But so far I see is unlikely.

Monday Blues

Hmmm who ever said self-employed have no monday blues? I think is not true! 

Lately ever since the deliberate decision of not going to FB during the lent season, I was pretty much focus on it. There were times, I type "www.facebook.com" without me realizing when I launched my browser. My eyes & mouse cursor always got to quickly move to the "Close" button quickly in order not to view the feeds! Talked about addiction. Didn't realize my addiction to FB was rather severe! Finally in order not to give  in to temptation, I cleared all my browser cookies and the next time my subconscious mind or  auto reflex fingers keyed in "facebook.com", all I'll see will be the login page instead. It was rather depressing to hear live feeds from KgBook or RayBook or other ____Books you named it when you can't really go in and view what's happening.

Due to the strong commitment, I did get more productive at work and managed to be on the ball clearing as much works as possible. But it also got me abit overworked too! There were no "recreation" times for me after work. Cos all I did was work work work work! Kg at one point of time told me to perhaps "reward' myself to view FB only after working hours. Ha that almost got me to reconsider haha. But I decided not to give in and continue on with it. I think it was almost 3 weeks already! Time flies huh? But the amount of work stress seem to be quite overwhelmed at times and last Friday I've decided is enough! I should take a half day break for myself to do what I like to do!

Talked about being a workaholic, I never felt good leaving my laptop behind on weekdays and always carried around. Yet i really needed a break! So I thought of a way, charged my laptop battery full and headed out without my powerpoint cables! I found a quiet Starbucks corner and did my work for another 3 hours or as long the battery could last me. Finally the battery died and that's when my real quiet time began.

It takes a lot of discipline to say NO to work and give yourself time off. No wonder they said Singaporeans does not have sufficient rest and sleep cos all we do is work work work. Another 3 hours passed quickly when I did my QT and I definitely felt more refreshed (+ with a cup of green tea soy latte)

Now what should I do next? Should i join church camp or should i head to Vietnam to visit a good friend of mine ? :)

The travelling bug is here again :))

Catching Up

Sometimes i feel like a snail very slow in my learning. There are so much things to learn especially in my area of work. New things keep constantly appearing and the old ones are constantly being push behind.

Yet this is something I appreciate that my learning path never stop. It is never ending and testing my ability to push myself up to the next level. I often feel very good that I am able to accomplish something out of my usual scope.

Praying that God will continue to grant me wisdom and perseverance in this season of my work :)

Work

Blessings of the Day: God gives me good and nice clients :)

After CNY, I embarked on a new project.  The project had been fun and enjoyable with lots of stress added to it due to the tight timeline given.

During the project progress, I would have to send updates to my client to update her the progress. Apparently due to the security issue, she couldn't view quite a number of my updates. I did not realize until the eleventh hour. All these time, I thought the website was down and that why she couldn't view the updates. Ah why must all the company blocked so many sites?!

So the crazy weekend rushing impossible timeline of 24 hours to get things done and waiting for revisions. More crazy when I had to go for drill com on Saturday which means I lost another precious day to work. While I was grumbling about the silly issue why all these time I should have realize the problem and I wouldn't have to rush through the crazy deadline. Despite my planning, all things went haywire.

I did eventually meet the timeline and even had time to make adjustments to make the work better. I am now tired and really grumpy.

But why am i blogging about this when i should be sleeping.

Well there were a minor hiccup, so while it is currently in progress doing some auto-resolving, I decided to blog about this. An sms came in and really made my day or my crazy weekend worthwhile.

"... Thanks for working along side. Nothing like a vendor but like a team. Thanks for making this journey not so lonely :P"

Awww, if only all my clients are like her. Appreciative, understanding (yes stressing me at times no doubt) but really genuine and nice clients to work with makes your efforts worthwhile to work hard for them.

Thank you God for granting me such clients. You are so good :)

Overwhelmed (again)

Oh no i am so overwhelmed with work. Fear, Anxiety and many more negative emotions seems to be controlling me :( I need to prioritize and plan my time better. God is my helper! Be with Py!

Be my stronghold and your prefect love will drive out my fears. Indeed!

Going Bonkers soon

Am so .. Tired

Counting down

11 more days...

Good Job!

 

Rest

He gives me work that I may seek His rest,
He gives me strength to meet the hardest test;
And as I walk in providential grace,
I find that joy goes with me, at God’s pace. —Gustafson


If a blackout hits me, i will cry out in desperation cos means i can't work anymore. When i don't work, i probably felt very "unwanted". But yet God doesn't want us to feel that way. In fact, He wants me to focus on Him and find rest in Him.

As I pray, Lord grant me the strength to complete the 5 projects before I go and rest @ the 2 camps.

Thinking

Image source

There are many things I want to learn yet there are so little time. Thanks to the wide resources available online, there isn't the need to spend too much moolah to learn new things. (pat pat my pocket)

IS a fishy Business after all..

 After all Jesus called fisherman to be His disciples.

Simplicty Sells - by David Pogue

New York Times columnist David Pogue takes aim at technology’s worst interface-design offenders, and provides encouraging examples of products that get it right. To funny things up, he bursts into song. 

One of the thing that struck a chord with me is to stop adding new things and improve the current situation. :)

Shd i join? (Or rather Shd i get?)

Browse and saw iPhone Developer Program. In the past, my poly final year project was to develop games app for Nokia phones. Maybe now is the time to venture into this area since the whole world is on iPhone. Haha.

PY: I need to get an iPhone NOW

KG: Why you need that ? Your Samsung is working.

PY: I am going to develop cool apps on iPhone.

KG: You're just finding an excuse to get an iPhone.

PY: Exactly, else when can i find another perfect excuse to buy iPhone.



I got a C+ by the way for the final year project. Because there were countless alot of bugs. hehe


Above conversation was just fictitious but in anyhow it might just come true becos i could almost picture him saying that anyway.

Clear my head

 Philippians 4:7-9 (New International Version)

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

Gosh time flies... 3/4 of the year left... Review Renew Recharge

Seth's Blog - We Can do It

Lost the bid. Feeling down and moody. But yes His ways are higher than mine and there are better things in front of me.

Too often, it seems, this attitude is missing from teams, organizations or the community.

It's missing because people are quick to opt out of the 'we' part. "What do you mean, we?" they ask. It's so easy to not be part of we, so easy to make it someone else's problem, so easy to not to take responsibility as a member of whatever tribe you're part of.

Sometimes it's missing because people disagree about what 'it' is. If you don't know what you're after, it's unlikely you're going to find it.

And it's missing because people confuse cynicism with realism, and are afraid to say "can". They'd rather say 'might' or even 'probably won't'.

Just about everything worth doing is worth doing because it's important and because the odds are against you. If they weren't, then anyone could do it, so don't bother.

Product launches, innovations and initiatives by any organization work better when the key people agree on the goal, believe that they can achieve it and that the plan will work.

Do we have a cynicism shortage? Unlikely.

Successful people rarely confuse a can-do attitude with a smart plan. But they realize that one without the other is unlikely to get you very far.

Count me in. Let's go.

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2010/03/we-can-do-it.html

Smashing Magzine: Is John The Client Dense or Are You Failing Him?

Totally expressed how I felt at work but this article gave me a fresh perspective (& positive) from the client's view.

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Is John The Client Dense or Are You Failing Him?
By Paul Boag
February 19th, 2010

Meet John the client. John runs a reasonably large website. He is a marketer who considers himself smart, articulate and professional. That said, he doesn’t know much about Web design, and so he needs your help. John comes to you with a clear set of business objectives and asks for a quote. But what happens next leaves John confused, frustrated and extremely unhappy.

Explain Why You Are Asking About Money

Before giving John his quote, you ask a little more about the project. After chatting for a few minutes, you ask him about his budget. A fair question, you think. After all, you could approach the project in so many ways. Without knowing the budget, knowing where to begin is impossible. In your mind, building a website is like building a house. Without knowing the budget, you can’t possibly know how many rooms the client can afford or what materials you should use to build.

John, on the other hand, is instantly suspicious. Why would you want to know about his budget? The only reason he can think of is that you want to make sure you don’t charge him less than what he is willing to give. Besides, he doesn’t really know his budget. How the heck is he supposed to know how much a website costs?

Don’t come across as money-grubbing. (Image credit)

John leaves, determined to find a Web designer who doesn’t want to take advantage of him. Fortunately for you, all of the other designers he speaks with also neglect to explain why they need to know about his budget, and so you manage to win the project after all.

Justify Your Recommendations In Language John Can Understand

Once you have won the job, you arrange a kick-off meeting to nail down the specifications. However, John instantly regrets his decision to hire you because his worse fears have been confirmed. In his eyes, you are all of a sudden trying to squeeze more money out of him as you waffle about the importance of usability and accessibility. John doesn’t care about disabled users. He doesn’t expect disabled users to visit his website anyway.

And as for usability, surely the job of the Web designer is to make the website usable. Why do we need expensive usability testing? He is pretty certain that usability testing involves expensive things like cameras, labs and two-way mirrors. You thought you had explained these issues clearly. You spoke of WCAG 2, and you mentioned Jakob Neilsen. You are beginning to wonder if John is a bit thick.

Avoid techno-babble if you expect clients to understand what you’re talking about. (Image credit)

Perhaps if you had talked about accessibility in terms of assessing search engine rankings and testing usability as a way to increase conversion, then John might have listened. As it is, John puts his foot down and refuses to pay for any of these “unnecessary extras.”

Include John In The Process

You walk away from the kick-off meeting pleased to have a signed contract. But that feeling in the pit of your stomach tells you that this might be another one of those projects. Regardless, you try to be optimistic, and you dive into the design process. Almost immediately, you get a phone call from John asking if there is anything for him to see. You explain that it is still early in the process and that you are not ready to present anything. John sounds disappointed but resigned.

A short while later, you are ready to present the design to John. You are pleased with the result. It took you a lot more time than you had budgeted for, but it was worth it. The final design is extremely easy to use and will make for a great portfolio piece.

Stop hiding from your clients. Show them your work early on, and include them in the process. (Image credit)

When John sees the design, he is horrified. From his perspective, you have entirely missed the point. The design clashes with his offline marketing materials and doesn’t hit the right selling points. Also, he is convinced that his suppliers will hate it and, although they are not his end users, their opinion matters.

After a tense conference call, you feel demoralized but have struck a compromise that hopefully will make John happy. You wonder in hindsight whether showing John some of your initial ideas and sketches would have been better. Perhaps you should have presented a wireframe first.

Educate John About Design

After much agonizing and compromise, you are once again ready to present to John. John is much happier with the new design and feels it is heading in the right direction. However, he does have some concerns. For starters, he has to scroll to see most of the content, and yet white space takes up either side of the design. He tells you to move key content into this wasted space. Also, as he thinks about his young male target audience, he realizes that the color scheme is too effeminate, so he tells you to change it to blue.

While John feels somewhat happier, you feel crushed. You feel as though he is trying to do the job for you. The instructions to move this there and change this color to that makes you feel like you have been reduced to pushing pixels.

Educate your clients so they make more informed decisions. (Image credit)

By this point, you are sure the client is dim, and now you just want him to sign off on a design. At no stage do you think to ask John why he is requesting these changes. Perhaps if you had appreciated his thinking, you could have explained concepts such as screen resolution and suggested an alternative to corporate blue, which is so over-used on the Web.

Instead, you wash your hands of the design and just give John what he wants.

Communicate With John Regularly

Now that the design is complete, you turn your attention to building it. John certainly won’t care about your code. Now you can finally do things right.

It’s a big job and takes a lot of time. Even though you put too much time into the design and washed your hands of it, you still have your pride. You are not about to cut corners with the code. After all, other designers might look at it and judge you! You work really hard, putting in more work than you probably should have. John even manages to slip in some extra functionality at the scoping phase, which turns out to be a pain in the butt.

For his part, John is wondering what’s going on. He hasn’t heard from you in weeks. Surely the website must be ready now? He decides to email you to ask how things are progressing. You reply with a short email telling him that everything is progressing smoothly. You never did like project management, and you are sure John would prefer that you spend time building his website instead of writing him detailed reports.

John receives your email and is becoming increasingly frustrated. What does “progressing smoothly” mean? He writes back asking for an expected date of completion, and you reply with a rough estimate.

The date comes and goes without a word from you. After all, it was merely an estimate, and several complications have delayed completion by a few days. John finally loses his temper and calls you. He tells you that he has arranged a marketing campaign to coincide with the launch date, and because he hadn’t heard from you, he presumed everything was on schedule.

Communicate with your client regularly. (Image credit)

You defend yourself, citing “scope creep” and unanticipated delays. But responding is difficult when John says, “All I needed was a weekly email keeping me up to date on progress.”

Explain John’s Ongoing Role

By this stage, the relationship has broken down entirely. You finish your work, and the website finally launches. Begrudgingly, John pays the invoice after delaying it for as long as possible. What amazes you most is John’s pronouncement that he is bitterly disappointed with the result. How can that be when you gave him exactly what he asked for? This guy isn’t just thick: he’s a jerk!

Of course, John sees things differently. He came to you with a list of his business objectives, and the website has failed to meet any of them. He had hoped to launch the website, watch it achieve his objectives and then move on to the next project. Instead, after an initial spike in interest, the number of users and inquiries dropped over time, and the website stagnated.

Ensure that your client understands what kind of ongoing care their website will need. (Image credit)

What John does not realize is that websites need continued love and support. You cannot build a website and then abandon it. John has to nurture it by adding new content, engaging with visitors and planning for ongoing development.

If only someone had told him.

The Moral Of The Story

It’s amazing how quick we are to judge our clients.

As Web designers, we communicate and empathize for a living. Our job is to communicate messages to our clients’ users. We create usable websites by putting ourselves in the position of our users, which allows us to design around their needs.

Why, then, do we so often seem to be incapable of empathizing or communicating with our clients? Perhaps it is time for us to apply the skills we have cultivated as Web designers to our own customers.

(al)

Paul Boag

Paul Boag is the founder of UK Web design agency Headscape, author of the Website Owners Manual and host of award-winning Web design podcast Boagworld.

6 more days to our wedding

Is really exciting. haha

But work is still on my mind. Just now i got a very disappoint email and sms from a very disappointed client. Hmmm, I am starting to wonder the problem might just lie with him not me. Oh well, what can I do? I do feel angry and upset but however, I need to find peace with God. not with that client. So God please grant me the peace that I need. You've given me all the blessings in all wedding prep. Everything is going smoothly so far. You will carry me to the end and for the next 3 working days, I commit to You and ask You grant me the strength to go through it. With 2 deadlines in 3 days.

The Lord is my helper Amen =)

The title doesn't really seemed to match what I am rambling now. haha

Many asked me if I am nervous, uptight and anxious? The answer is Yes! Cos i am thinking about work! Opps sorry. Well, No. Wedding is just a day simply. It is a day where I get married legally to KG. Haha. God have been good to us. We are thankful for the 12 years of friendship cum 10 years of loveship, He brought us so far till today. Is definitely not by our strength and understanding what relationship really means. If not for God, we won't be holding hands till now.

What I look forward is the marriage that a new chapter we are starting in 6 days time. KG had been really looking forward to this day. Certainly there were stress in the wedding logistics and other areas but what matter most is we are standing together as one.

I certainly need to change my lifestyle. No more late working hours, eat healthily, exercise regularly and to pray for my family and love ones more often. I felt sometimes when a couple get too involved in meeting objectives aka task oriented, we lose the little moments of life that God wants us to see. We miss the main point what God really want to show us. I certainly do not want to miss anything that God wants me to see. I prayed for the both of us to walk more closely with God each day as we lead our life as husband and wife.

God this is our prayer, that we will live together and lead a life that glorify you. Help me and KG to go through the next 10 years, 20 years, 30 years and more just like how You have brought us through for the past 10 years.

This week will be "tough" both Kg and I are literally slaves to our work. We both really pray hard that God will release all the unnecessary stress from now till Saturday. Teach us to LET GO and put all anxiety and burdens unto God. Peace to dwell in our hearts.

Be with us God, in Jesus mighty name we pray Amen :)

This is what keep me going - Part 1

Blessings of the Day: "Working for Jesus"

My CLIENT WROTE THIS IN HER BLOG:
"A big thank you!

To my husband who has embraced the role as an "advisor" fervently (ha ha!), friends who have given me valuable comments (legal and others), and a big applause to my lovely and ever so patient web designer :)"

My client's blog first write up for opening her e-shop. I am really thankful that God have enabled me to complete this project. It is by His Strength. Amen :)

Reflect 2009 @ work

Shall I choose to see the glass half full or half empty?

The very discouraged Happy very much want to see it half full. But sometime the truth is, it is also half empty.

Reflect 2009, coming another 6 weeks we are coming to 2010. I look back and can count the number of blessings that God have given me.

I also hit the lowest point of my life at work which was something I didn't quite expect it coming this year. Blame it on recession, blame it on lousy leads. But the truth is, is time to blame myself. I felt very disappointed in myself - on my work performance.

Sometimes I felt I missed many opportunities. From time to time, God sent various people in my lives to show me something. I missed it. I forgot about it. and worst .. I might have even choose to ignore it.

As i start to get very discouraged, or I have already did, Kg reminded me that nothing on earth belongs to us. to me. I have to let go and take God lead the way. Pride swell in my heart and make me ignore God's words and advice. My heart was hardened and bitter.

I remembered a good friend's dad words "Don't pity yourself". Yes that what i am doing now. Pity myself. Sigh

As the year come to a closing in another just 6 more weeks, God i pray, ... "Don't let Happy pity herself. Let her trust in You instead"

Looking forward

"As the deer pants for the water, my soul longs after You"
Reflect on Psalms 42

Been feeling very weak and lousy.

Abba Father, please be with Happy.

"I can do all things through Christ who grants me strength" - Phil 4:13