Reading about writing

I’ve recently expeirenced the power of writing. This power is so prevalent that i had to find out more about it, hence finished these 2 books recently.

The Art of Writing AdvertisingThe Art of Writing Advertising : Conversations with Masters of the Craft: David Ogilvy, William Bernbach, Leo Burnett, Rosser Reeves

Its quite powerful to read about the legends of the past, way before internet, way before pagemaker, way before computers. A good concept can be so powerful and the whole idea of effective communication via a simple ad headline is really something amazing. Now we’re are not talking about good english here, we are talking about pure communication. Its a very good book on the insights of the great writers.

Clueless in AdvertisingClueless in Advertising

As i classify myself being in the internet industry, advertising have never been a major part of my work. But of late, it seems that building a website is no longer just about HTML, Javascript, CSS, W3c, etc… Theres a need for a big idea, a marketing idea, an underlying statement, an effective comunication concept. And with all these new stuff, i was thrown new jargons as well. So Clueless in Advertising was a good book to start me off.

Erdinger Oktoberfest 2006

Pearl and Nick at Erdinger Oktoberfest 2006

We were at China Square for the Erdinger Oktoberfest 2006 and we sure did enjoy ourselves. This is the first time that Pearl likes the taste of beer, maybe because Erdinger is a wheat beer (or maybe she just don’t like the taste of other beers).

The hungry and thirsty

The rowdy crowd there was really having fun, good German food, German beer, German man singing German songs. lol… we really felt that we were in Bavaria. Being in Singapore, there were also a few Yum Sengs (local way of doing cheers) that went around.

Singapore's Erdinger Oktoberfest 2006

The event is on till sunday, so don’t say i never suggest what to do for this weekend. More info at www.erdinger.com.sg.

All in all, its been a long time that we came out to have fun and as some of our friends might know, we don’t really drink, but we did down 2 mugs at least. I’ll let you decide who had more.

do you JSP

I’m looking for a JSP developer that has:

  • at least 3+ years of building JSP applications
  • JSP programming and
  • MySQL database on Linux OS

I’ve got real work on hand now, pls do drop me a comment or email me “nick at nickpan dot com”. Thanks.

Family Life

thepans

I never expected family life to turn out to be so enjoyable. And time flies when you are having a good time. Clié is now coming to 4 and Cleo just turned 2 and very soon i believe i will be walking down the aisle with them in their beautiful wedding gown. *sob*

It was just a while ago that i was working at Asiaone a single guy, a basic diploma holder, a gamer, an aspiring web designer, a guy who wanted to live the dream, but come to think about it that was in 1998 – 2000 a good 7 – 8 years ago. Now married, had kids, got a place of our own and monthly trying to make ends meet in my Singapore.

thepans

My home is where my family is, my family is where my love is, my love for them is what makes me do things i never knew i could. To work hard, to work smart, to persevere. To fight the good fight, to finish the race, to kept the faith.

For those who missed the article on Straits Times, the first picture was on page 2.

Do you copy?

Curiosity about life in all of its aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people.
~ Leo Burnett

Hire people who are better than you are, then leave them to get on with it. Look for people who will aim for the remarkable, who will not settle for the routine.
~ David Ogilvy

It is insight into human nature that is the key to the communicator’s skill. For whereas the writer is concerned with what he puts into his writings, the communicator is concerned with what the reader gets out of it. He therefore becomes a student of how people read or listen.
~ William Bernbach