The Holstee Manifesto Lifecycle Video from Holstee on Vimeo.

Let this video encourages you to make a difference in your life ahead, let this also encourages you to make a difference to other peoples life too, leaving them a positive and long term impact, to make them change and inspired for the better! Even though this video is based through cycling, it can also be applied to your life too, the journey and traveling, the people, friends and strangers you meet along the way.

It’s a celebration, of many different wonderful things in life, diversity and uniqueness of life, experiences that are both personal and shared among us, celebrating gatherings, friendships of old and new, experiencing the new life ahead that you choose to start! Let this video be the ignition that you need to kickstart 2012 !

Quote: “Whoever renders service to many puts himself in line for greatness — great wealth, great return, great satisfaction, great reputation, and great joy.”–Jim Rohn

Quote: “Don’t be reluctant to give of yourself generously, it’s the mark of caring and compassion and personal greatness.”–Brian Tracy (The Treasury of Quotes)

There was a quote that was imparted to me, it was something along this line “whatever you set and plan to achieve in the things that you do a.k.a running a business, you would take around 5 years to be start seeing/tasting the fruits of your success”, I can’t really get the exact quote, nevertheless, I promise to update here if I ever find it! With the exception of 2010, a year of freak incident, operation, post-op rehabilitation and post-op recovery (whereby I lost about 9 months of working time), the businesses and areas that started more than 5 years ago, started to grow more fruits and bigger fruits too. Showing more baby steps towards success, it’s more steps climbed up towards my ladder of achievement. Over the years of learning to give without expecting returns, there are times when I give and give, a lot, there were times when there were nothing in return and feeling abused. Through encouragement and determination, I continued giving and rendering services.

Quote: “No one has ever become poor by giving.”– Anne Frank

Quote: “Whatever good things we build end up building us.”– Jim Rohn

In 2011, good things begets another, more starting to appear, blessed with more privileges and kindness, access that were once reserved for media, blessed with gifts from lucky draws, connecting with brands and alumni bodies, building wider networks and friendship. However, I felt that this continuation and giving can be done better and bigger, since I felt the greatness and satisfaction in the returns, and I plan to make it better in 2012 for 1 area of my businesses.

Quote: “Constant development is the law of life, and a man who always tries to maintain his dogmas in order to appear consistent drives himself into a false position.”–Gandhi

Social Media Networking – here lies another huge area of networking that goes online and offline (in real life), it just gets bigger and wider, locally and internationally, more friends made online and met offline in real life to know them in person. Through social media networking, it can help to grow my businesses, time will tell.

Quote: “You have to put in many, many, many tiny efforts that nobody sees or appreciates before you achieve anything worthwhile.”–Brian Tracy

Health is slowly getting back to me, with a history of horrific injuries, I always remind myself constantly that no amount of money can buy my health back to normal, the injuries are for life and will be with me till the end of my time on Mother Earth. While still cautious on my rehabilitation and not too over zealous in exercising, it got me lazy and slowly gaining unnecessary weight and fats at the waist level, even without much alcohol drinking.

Traveling in 2011 was a breakthrough because for the past few years, I haven’t really traveled out at all for a holiday! Amazingly, 3 short trips to nearby countries, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, makes it a fun travel year in 2011, however, I am always tempted by medium to long haul trips and looking forward to do at least 1 or 2 of them in 2012.

Quote: “Develop an attitude of gratitude, and give thanks for everything that happens to you, knowing that every step forward is a step toward achieving something bigger and better than your current situation.”–Brian Tracy

Sports photography is another achievement that I am happy with the growth, being a sports enthusiast, I was able to cover cycling, football cricket, beach volleyball, handball, rugby 7s with media privileges while F1 was on a personal basis.

On the social causes, my personal projects on the Old Places and the Green Corridor are two areas that will keep me writing, sharing, photographing and documenting. Up next will be Bukit Brown, an area whereby I have roots relating to the area. Looking forward to 2012, I hope to be able to contribute more to these personal interests of mine, probably from a personal level to national level with iRememberSG , let’s see how things turns out for 2012.

Quote: “The foundation stones for a balanced success are honesty, character, integrity, faith, love and loyalty.”– Zig Ziglar

While we all busy earning money, there are things whereby money can’t buy when it’s lost or destroyed. Health, History, Heritage, Culture, Preservation and Conservation.

The year 2011 has been another year of learning, I subscribed to the mantra of lifelong learning, never ending and never stopping, that’s always something new to learn, everyday from different people, experiences, situations, sharing, mistakes, crisis and life changing. Moving forward to 2012, I always tell & remind myself that I always have something new to learn, a new skill, new experiences and many more.

Quote: “Commit yourself to lifelong learning. The most valuable asset you’ll ever have is your mind and what you put into it.” –Brian Tracy

 Quote: “Learn something new. Try something different. Convince yourself that you have no limits.”–Brian Tracy

What lies ahead for 2012 ? Well, coming to my writing near you, stay tuned!

How was my experiences, thoughts and analysis on this printer ?

Pros

- Easy to use & connect with my MacBook via the USB cable to print directly

- The SD and CF card slots are very useful and gives it more options to print out directly

- The LCD screen is very useful for me to look at the photographs that I wanted to print and choose it for printing

- Changing the ink cartridges wasn’t too difficult after all (I had to replace some of the ink cartridges during my review)

- LCD panel user interface is good, easy to use and move around the different applications and functions

- 2 separate loading trays for normal paper printing (bottom cassete) and photo printing (top slide down) , it works well for me and I don’t have to worry about changing the paper inside all one compartment and even mixing the papers up.

- Scanner is useful and the scan quality is pretty good

Cons

- The printing is not really that fast (well, it’s not that slow though)

- Prefer the LCD screen to be bigger in size

- If there were a lot of photographs inside your SD or CF card, it can be quite a challenge to find the photograph that you wanted to print (e.g. photo is number 400th out of 800 photos inside your card), the interface doesn’t allow the ease of search and selection of the particular photo as compared to searching and finding it on your laptop or desktop.

Other Points to Take Note

- Some points to take note that my MacBook screen is not calibrated before, therefore some photographs came out looking different from I have on my MacBook. If you would be doing home printing quite a lot, you may like to consider getting a device to calibrate your screen, that would help you with your post processing and printing and it helps too if you are sending it out for photobook printing or printing shops.

- 2 black ink cartridges inside the Canon PIXMA MG617o printer, this might help to save cost with the black ink not being used up too fast.

Overall, the Canon PIMXA MG6170 is a good printer, suitable for home printing and my short stint using it along with my prints, Final prints from the Canon PIXMA MG6170 printer are good and my friends who received my photography works like it, printed out 4R and A4 size photos for them to bring home & keep for memories sake! I shared my photography works with my friends, vendors, business/social media partners and supporters, spreading the joy of my photographs brightening their day!

FaithActs is a non-profit community service agency serving the needs of children, youths, families and seniors in Singapore. The Centre is located at Blk 76, Commonwealth Drive, # 01- 497, Singapore 140076. FaithActs aim to reach out and impact the lives of people through the provision of programmes and services which meet community needs and alleviate social problems, regardless of their ethnic, socio-economic and religious backgrounds. Source : FaithActs website

FaithActs provides quality and holistic services, addressing social issues, changing lives, meeting community needs, impacting, changing and transforming the lives of people there. With character development, sharing of life skills and values, FaithActs hopes to empower and heighten the confidence, self awareness and esteem of the needy children, youths, families and seniors in our community, thus helping them to cope with the challenges and struggles that they face in their daily lives. Source : FaithActs Mission

Mr Smith was very gracious and kind enough to give me a personal tour of the entire event and the facilities of the FaithActs and we had a good chat on how such smaller non-profit community service organisations are coping and doing in the modern society of Singapore, where they stand and how much help/aid can they get from the government to help their organisations to provide even more of their services to the needy people. From the various types of facilities, it’s not just for 1 group of people, it’s for everybody from the young to the old, a place for them to gather, learn and get together, instead of mixing with the wrong company or not having people to take care of them. There are also many other activities being organised such as sports and adventure photographs on their notice board.

This Open House is probably something new for non-profit community service organisations (Especially the smaller ones) to get themselves more known to the society, to share and tell people what they have been doing and how they can help the needy people in Singapore, especially in the current climate whereby the income gap is getting bigger between the rich and the poor, the haves and have-nots. I personally believe such Open House is not meant to get them more fame and publicity, and I personally helped out small non-profit community service organisation before too. Therefore, I can empathise the difficulties and challenges that they faced to get more funding, volunteers, publicity and recognition to allow them to continue their ongoing non-profit community services provision to the needy ones especially.

The visit to FaithActs Open House 2011 also strikes a chord in me, that I have to return back to my alumni mata Dragon Scout Group and help out together with my fellow old boys at the non-profit community service organisation that we had been helping out over time.

P/S: Coming from my days as a Boy Scout with the Gan Eng Seng Dragon Scout Group, volunteering my time at non-profit community service agency is something that I can relate to, helping out at Flag Days of the community service organisations that the Dragon Scout Group had ties with and it’s a meaningful and noble activity that brought back many old boys to continue helping them out. Till today, while I am not as active like before, I would try to take the time off whenever there are Flag Days that my alumni mata, the Dragon Scout Group is helping the non-profit community service organisations.

From the iPods, starting from the iPod classic, redesigning, re-innovating and re-generating itself, the growth is phenomenal and huge. Although I didn’t own an iPod and thought of owning one, the arrival of the iPhone 3G revolutionise and expedite my entry into the other side, some calling it a cult, it’s the Apple revolution, culture and belonging.

When Steve Jobs announced his decision to step down and hand over the reins to Tim Cook, it was like the end of an era, yet it also signify the start of another era in Apple technology and innovation. Looking back at Steve’s timeline, from the pioneer days to the remarkable growth days, he’s a great man beyond his peers, ranked among the great entrepreneurs and a master of leadership, innovation, vision and change. While I am taking the step to learn more about his entrepreneurship and vision, how he dealt with competition and leveraging. Steve Jobs will always stand high and above the rest, with the few elites of great innovative visionary leaders.

Here are some personal thoughts

- the iPhone revolutionsing the growth and expansion of social media networking on the move

- the iPad bringing the world of work & leisure into a portable handy powerful tablet with the best of both worlds along with social media connectivity

- iPods ~ brining songs to your daily life in different shapes, sizes and storage spaces, something for everybody from young to old, in different striking attractive colours too!

- MacBook Air ~ a beautiful marriage of a powerful laptop with portability, for work and leisure, all day round.

- Innovating, improving and getting ahead of their competitors

How did the world pay tribute to this great man Steve Jobs ?

Take a look at London Creative Digital Steve Jobs Infographic !

Source : London Creative Digital 

Newsweek’s The Daily Beast shared Steve Jobs 10 Commandments – The Genius and his creative process

Source : Newsweek The Daily Beast

Paying tribute to a genius and his creativity, a role model to learn from, not so much of designing a technology gadget, it’s about bringing it up and high above, a brand that goes beyond the stars, a following that just gets bigger, a vision that not many can dare or for-see into the future, this is Steve Jobs.

How was my experiences, thoughts and analysis on this printer ?

Pros

- Easy to use & connect with my MacBook via the USB cable to print directly

- The SD and CF card slots are very useful and gives it more options to print out directly

- Although I didn’t change any ink cartridges during these 2 weeks, looking at how they were designed, it doesn’t look too difficult to me if I have to change

- The LCD screen is very useful for me to look at the photographs that I wanted to print and choose it for printing

- Scanner is useful and the scan quality is pretty good

- Fast printing for 4R photo prints

- The Photo Enhance feature inside the printer is very useful for pushing up the colours and vibrancy of the photographs.

- When the photographs were printed on the premium glossy paper, the ink doesn’t smudge when it was “fresh” out from the printer with my hands rubbing on them

Cons

- I would prefer the LCD screen to be bigger in size than the current 2.5 inch

- If there were a lot of photographs inside your SD or CF card, it can be quite a challenge to find the photograph that you wanted to print (e.g. photo is number 400th out of 800 photos inside your card), the interface doesn’t allow the ease of search and selection of the particular photo as compared to searching and finding it on your laptop or desktop

- When I was printing from my MacBook directly to the printer, I wasn’t able to use the Photo Enhance feature on the LCD screen, which might be useful for us when printing from your laptop or desktop.

- While the LCD is useful and easy to use, I feel that improvements can be made on the user interface of the LCD screen, to make it easier for users to navigate and selection

Other Points to Note

- Some points to take note that my MacBook screen is not calibrated before, therefore some photographs came out looking very different from I have on my MacBook. If you would be doing home printing quite a lot, you may like to consider getting a device to calibrate your screen, that would help you with your post processing and printing and it helps too if you are sending it out for photobook printing or printing shops.

- I also took the opportunity to show my photography prints to fellow photographers and asked them for their views of my photography prints (since they know my workflow and style of photography), they were able to help me differentiate the laptop screen versus the final output. One of my photographer friends commented that the prints from this EPSON Stylus TX72oWD are warmer and I quite like it this way.

Overall, the EPSON Stylus Photo TX720WD is a good printer, suitable for home printing and my short stint using it along with my prints, I am happy with my photography print outs and I was happy to share my photography works with my friends, vendors, business/social media partners and supporters, spreading the joy of my photographs brightening their day!

I found this interactive and informative infographic map via SocialNomics and Social Media Today, produced by Overdrive Interactive, a very useful overview map of the Social Media universe, a good reference point to start off and learning the tools, trades and power of Social Media.

You can download the Social Media Map here on Overdrive website or pop into Overdrive’s Facebook page for more resources ! Hope this helps to get started off on learning more on Social Media!

Looking back into a short history timeline when social media rides on its boom and wave towards the new era of marketing and public relations, online and offline, digital and traditional. It’s pretty amazing on the exponential growth and expansion in the past 3-5 years especially, moving from internet marketing to a highly active social media engagement society. Through dedicated social media sharing and learning websites, such as Socialnomics, Social Media Today and Flow Town Blog, I chanced upon an intriguing and very helpful infographic to share with my readers on Social Media today

State of the Internet 2011 

Created by: Online Schools

Take a time to watch this infographic, look at how fast the world is “turning” with the social media wave!

Embarking on the social media enthusiast route, expanding my social networks tremendously, locally and worldwide, getting to know more friends online and leading into good friends in real life too! I am moving into more active social media engagement given my time and business commitments. While I am not planning to be a social media leader, I am learning and wanting to be into Specialist in my fields of my expertise via the various social media tools, channels and networks. Check out my Klout profile, currently, I am a Broadcaster!

With the different engagements by PR companies, Digital Marketing companies and organisations, I am still learning on how to be a social media leader eventually, along with specialisation in my fields of photography, blogging, mentoring and social media. This article on “Wanted : Social Media Leaders” would serve as a good reading!

Another interesting infographic for you all readers here who are into Social Media :

 

Flowtown – Social Media Marketing Application

Which do you belong to in this Class of 2011 : If Social Media Were A High School ?

Sometimes we just lose our directions, our creativity and we needed something to recharge and refresh ourselves, in our life, business, work, hobbies or interests, I found this video “29 Ways to Stay Creative” and would like to share it with all here, hope this helps you in some way or another to recharge, refresh and continue the journey and destination that you have embarked on!

29 WAYS TO STAY CREATIVE from TO-FU on Vimeo.

Even though these people have disabilities, it do not make them any less talented or less hardworking than any normal human being. In 2010, I was introduced to the Infocomm Accessibility Centre (IAC) and involved in TweetMeetSG 2010. Visiting IAC was an eye-opener for me, there were courses and training available along with special digital and IT equipment that caters to people with different disabilities. This year 2011, I was very honoured and humbled to be invited back by IAC and Dice Studio, for TweetMeetSG 2011, playing a greater significance and effort to the TweetMeetSG movement, by volunteering to visit a person with disability at his home, along with my partner, good old blogger friend and one of the nicest guy around, Keropokman, delivering gifts and our social media knowledge and guidance, that includes a NetBook and we helped them to setup, hook up and connect them to the internet, the social media community, family, relatives and friends.

The photojournalistic journey of our volunteering and blogging @ TweetMeetSG 2011 can be found here! We had a very enriching and humbling experience, happy that we were able to help out and make a difference in a person’s life and seeing the smile on his face, is simply priceless. The power of social media channels and networking can give a person with disabilities to connect better

From my TweetMeetSG 2011 volunteering and blogging experience, a personal quote that comes from my heart ~

“With IT skills, PWDs are given an opportunity to connect, interact and work with the society like any other people, allowing them to have higher self-esteem and self-confidence, thus helping them to integrate with the society better, contributing to the growth of the society and country.”

Moving forward ahead, while Singapore progresses ahead in prosperity and economic growth, we are in a better position to help people with disabilities in more ways possible. We can Pay-It-Forward and make an impact to their life, by introducing them to the NOTHING LESS project at IAC,  tell them about this wonderful and noble movement, encourage them to step forward and submit a video or write up telling IAC of an IT course from their list, and what they hope to achieve with it, followed by what does “NOTHING LESS” means to them. They would start their training at IAC and given a chance to intern with Tribal DDB, places are limited and the call for submission will end on 12th August 2011.

You, yes, You can make a difference in the life of a person with disabilities!

Personal Quote from my TweetMeetSG experiences and thoughts ~

“We never realize how social media networking can help a person to connect,interact & socialize, opening new doors for them #tweetmeetsg“