Nick Pan – Page 32 – nickpan.com

14th August, 201114th August, 2011

NDP 2011

We balloted for the NDP tickets like every other year and this year we got it! We basically punched in ALL the available NRICs into the NDP website from our household and opted for 4 tickets each. I did not know the odds, but yay! we got them. Green Zone! Which meant we would have the city skyline as the backdrop for any photos we take.

The ushers did a fantastic job. They calmly guided people to their seats systematically. You could see from their perspiration and volume of their instructions that they must be super tired. They still did it with a smile. Kudos to them.

The motivators at the venue were all very enthusiastic, they tried their very best to do all the dance moves and encouraged the audience, but the chilled out crowd was not really in the party mood just yet.

Out came the emcees and they got us on our feet. We waved our flags, shouted MAHJULAH! did the wave and shouted lots. Instagram version of this photo here.

As with tradition, the parade displayed our country’s military might. All services were showcased. Army, Navy, Airforce, Civil Defense, etc.

Then came the marching contingents. They moved in quickly and when the country leaders arrived, we all sang the National Anthem with the flag fly pass like every other year.

This year’s performance was like a huge musical with In A Heartbeat as the theme. As far as musicals go, I do feel that it was nicely arranged. The musical score and different renditions worked well with the overall storyline. Kinda emo in the end where the mom died. However there were also cringing moments in the performance that seemed like a hard sell effort to relate to the general commuting public. No matter what people say, I still think overall it was a good musical and it brought out the essence of the theme song.

After the pledge moment at 8:11pm where the whole nation recited the pledge, the fireworks started.

BOOMZ! BOOMZ! BOOMZ!

The best pop song that they played that night to me was LMFAO’s Party Rock Anthem. Hearing it really makes me wanna PaRtY!

Kids were tired and hungry, so we went to Marina for dinner and talked about how the parade was put together using the booklet that was given out. We explained to the kids who the different people were and their roles in the parade.

My daughter Clié then out of the blue said “daddy, can I not do PSLE and just go to Secondary School?” I was like huh… Apparently the mammoth task of putting the parade together was to her like the mammoth task of doing well in School.

Anyway… we wish Singapore a very Happy Birthday and hope to come to the Parade again with our baby Clara next year.

8th August, 2011

Doing the Do

Cube within Cube Sketch by Nick Pan

The Executive

Earlier in my career, I did what it took to get things done. I passionately executed my tasks, fought for my colleagues with conviction, even crossed boundaries of job scope and also sacrificially threw in the neccasary hours in the expense of my own family time. What I did was not classified as work, I think of it as a campaign, a battle at hand, a victory to be claimed, it will take what it takes.

Constantly worrying about missing milestones, worrying about upsetting clients, worrying about not meeting my bosses expectations, but that should never hold anyone back.

Looking back, I thank God for the situations i’ve been placed in, the experiences i’ve gain, the true friends i’ve made and the fun that i’ve had.

If you feel that you are in the trenches, rejoice. If you feel what you are doing is more than what you can handle, hang in there. That’s how being streched feels like, thats how growth feels like, thats how winning a battle feels like. I’m sure VICTORY is in the horizon, as sure as the sun will rise from the east tomorrow.

The Manager

Then I became a manager. No longer do I need to do everything, but I had to make sure my fellow comrades are equipped and are doing what they are supposed to do. I had to make sure as a team we are doing things correctly. If they fail, I fail, if they succeed, we succeed.

The scope is bigger. I used to be responsible for a handful of projects, being a manager means a few handful of projects. The battles are still similar, there are loads to do, hours are still long and problems are becoming more complex.

I thank God for good bosses and great peers that make the tough battles seem less daunting. They highlight to me my blind spots and are mature enough to tell me how I should change the way I do certain things knowing that I will take them in as constructive criticism.

Management

Then I got into senior management and had the opportunity to chart the company’s direction.

Individual projects are now managed by managers and worrying if they did their job was a small issue. The larger task at hand is to see how can they do things even simpler and achieve more. How can they be better equipped. How the down stream and the up stream and its dynamics shape the culture and morale of the organisation.

The scope is as big as I want them to be. I used to be responsible for my job, being in management means being responsible for the jobs of everyone in the organisation. How can they progress, how can they be happy, how can they do better, how can they smile and make the company a place where people don’t drag their feet to work. How can we draw better talents, how can we retain good talents. How can we make everyones job more than a job.

Looking Back

From executive to manager to management is not a long linear process. It does not take 10 years. It does not take 50 projects. It does not take 5 jobs.

All it takes is a mindset.

All it takes is an open, willing, teachable, positive and driven mind.

30th July, 20117th April, 2012

Youtube Covers

I believe I’m not alone. We love to listen to covers done by people on Youtube. What are your faves? The following are some that I really like. Hmm… kinda mainstream already I think.

Maddi Jane – Price Tag

Boyce Avenue – Teenage Dream

Far East Movement – Rocketeer

Megan Nicole – The Lazy Song

Janice and Sonia – Officially Missing You

Maddi Jane – Impossible

Tyler Ward, Megan Nicole, Eppic – Love The Way You Lie

Maddi Jane – Rolling in the Deep

Tyler Ward – Party Rock Anthem (Rock Version)

Inch Chua – I Started A Joke

Inch Chua – Rubber Duckie

Jennifer Chung – Someone Like You

Maddi Jane – Breakeven

You can clearly tell who I like best.

16th July, 201112th August, 2012

WebSG Jul 2011

WebSG was great as usual this time round. Sean Thambiah shared on HTML Email Newsletters, while Andy Croll shared on Responsive Web Design.

Web designers and developers have all been moving ahead with cutting edge cool stuff and are constantly being held back by what browsers can and cannot display. Developing work arounds to have that pixel perfect presentation across all devices and browsers is a pain. But emails are even trickier, they are wrapped around yet another layer… the email client and some are within browsers, some are native to devices, some are desktop applications.

Sean brought back the importance of using tables for layouts in emails, strange behaviours across the different email clients and how some of them just want to do what they want to do. Gmail / Hotmail image gap problems, Hotmail changes header colours, Yahoo have its own way of displaying paragraphs. Pretty weird stuff. There was also a few cool examples. Check out his slides on Slideshare.

Andy shared on Responsive Wed Design. We are truly in a “Post PC” era like he mentioned and screen sizes vary from super small mobile devices to large 27″ iMacs. From the few examples he shared, I think winnielim.com was an excellent example. I opened up the site on my iPhone and also on my 27″ iMac and they all look same same but different in a very nice way. You could hardly tell which was the master design and which was the adapted design. Check out his slides on Slideshare.

The best line for the evening had to be:

“Design like it’s 2011, Code like its 1999 “~ Sean Thambiah on HTML Email design

The session ended with discussion on being an entrepreneur vs being an intrapreneur. Lucian who organised WebSG led the discussion and he rightly pointed out that most in the room are passionate in what they do, hence taking out time on a weekday evening to attend this meetup. The entrepreneurs started out on how wonderful it is to have the freedom to do what they want and be able to control their limitless destiny. Of cause there were also talks on the pressure of owning a business.

The employed spoke less, but it was evident in the discussions that being in a larger organisation allowed individuals to be able to work in larger teams, hence take on projects where smaller setups might not be able to.

Being blessed with good bosses, I shared how I’ve benefited from life experiences that my bosses shared with me. Things like taking care of your health, difference between learned skills and sheer acquired experiences which makes you a better manager.

It was overall a good discussion and a good evening which ended at Kopitiam @ Plaza by the Park with cheng teng (local dessert) and industry gossip.

Thanks to Lucian for consistently organising WebSG ever since the first one in 2007. Till the next one.

12th July, 201115th July, 2011

Mom

She is excited posing for a photo and she wants to look as pretty as she can. Feeling awkward, but she still got her picture taken.

Her natural beauty and smile takes your breath away.

Work. Focus. Making others happy. Selflessness. Strength. Optimism. These were her strengths and how she conducted her life.

About 50 years later, she had four kids and five grandchildren. Still caring for her kids like how she did when we were little. Breaking for me that soft-boiled egg every morning for breakfast before I boarded the school bus.

My mom have always been a pillar in my life and her stability and exemplarily selflessness have somehow taught me lots of life lessons. I guess as a young girl, she would have never guessed the life she would have.

As a parent now, a dad of three girls, I too want to do a good job.

Mom, thanks for the life lessons that you’ve never taught. <3