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WordPress 3.0 Multisite for Pan.sg

WordPress 3.0 “Thelonious” was launched a few weeks ago (17 Jun 2010) and 15 days on, it passed 3 million downloads. The key feature that stood out for me was its ability to manage Multisite.

I wanted to have the sites running off different subdomains and not folders, hence it took a little longer than expected. Finally its done! Time for serious migration.

The main thing that made me rush this out is because my new daughter is on her way. So what will her subdomain be?

Thepan’s daugther #3 name call for entries is officially open. The closing date is somewhere in September. Suggest away! Her name needs to start with “C” and short would be good. :)

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Universal Studios Singapore 2010

Its the end of the school holidays and we have to end it with a BANG! So to Universal Studios Singapore we go!

Clié and Cloe love popcorns, so when they saw the giant popcorn truck, Cleo was quick to ask me to buy. I promised her after lunch.

The whole stretch when you come in is filled with shops and characters  to take pictures with. It does give you a wonderful fun / holiday feel.

We did not take many rides as the kids were too afraid. Here is Cleo with her typical RAWR! pose.

We stopped for lunch at Mel’s Drive In. Its decked with styles from the American 50s.

While I went to order food, the kids went outside to see some dancing performance. Clié loves such live performances and maybe, just maybe she will grow up to be a wonderful performer too.

Cleo is always so cuddly to me. She have lost all her baby fat, but still… cuddly. :)

The funny hat shop. So whose’s hat is the funniest?

There was a manhole shooting out mist and the kids ran to it like a moth to the flame. This photo was extremely difficult to take as they were prancing around so much, while I was trying to not get the camera wet.

As promised. POPCORNS!

One our way out, we took pictures with the Universal Studios Globe and bought lots of Hershey chocolates.

It was a real nice day. The weather was cool and although there was a shower in the morning, everything subsided when we got there.

A day out with the kids is always fun. New experiences, new places. They are really growing very fast.

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Balance and Focus

Clié and Cleo at The Garden Slug

Its June 2010, and its the school holiday month. Its the wonderful time that kids get to stay home and do ANYTHING they want. As a busy parent, i really wanted to spend quality time with them and hence took 3 days leave in total and created 2 long weekends for myself. It was a good decision, we had a blast.

During the break, its inevitable for me to still think about things in the office. I’m unable to switch off the work brain i have and especially when there is lots of important stuff to do.

I think this whole work-life balance / time-management thing is not easy at all. You can’t have 2 priorities at the same time. I’m caught too many times while driving my family around thinking about stuff in the office. I’m like there, but not really there. I spend in-between times checking emails and thinking about processes. Its like memory leak in a computer, you have the main activity running in the foreground, but in the background memory resource is still being used and sub-consciously still taxing (not in a big way, but still…).

My parents were hard working business people. I recalled spending alot of time in their office when i was young. Saturdays were mainly spent in the office. I remembered playing with PVC pipes and the many type of white plastic joints my parents sold (they are in the toilet supplies business). I remember sleeping under my mom’s desk when i was tired. I remember my parent’s colleagues being my auntie and uncles when i was growing up (too many of them literally saw me grow up). I remember going to countless restaurants to have nice meals with my parents and their European / Italian / Japanese friends which i later found out were suppliers.

To them work and family blended. It was the same thing. There was no such thing as work life balance. Work was life.

My dad being the boss could make it to my school at anytime. I don’t recall him missing any major event in school. My principle called and he came. Of cause there were the more positive events which he made it too.

But life have changed. We are more connected. Alot more is required out of the working class. There is a high need for productivity, efficiency, thinking out of the box, creative solutioning, leading, mentoring, etc. AND there is still a family that we need to allocate our time for.

Its tough to focus and balance. There must be a way and there will be a way. I just hope that my kids have good memories of their dad when they grow up. Yes, I’m actively creating good memories for all of us.

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Let’s Party

From young I’ve loved shows / movies with such format:

  1. Hero has a mission
  2. Hero meets other Heroes
  3. Each Hero has their unique story and ability
  4. A Party is formed
  5. The Party goes and accomplish the mission and does it with style
  6. EPIC WIN!

It could be Oceans Eleven, Lord of the Rings, Heroes and even articles like High Tech Cowboys of the Deep Seas: The Race to Save the Cougar Ace from Wired that gives me a strange kind of high.

I’m in love with the “Party” concept. Its some what like a “Team” but it has a very different feel to it. A “Team” is like… Goal / ROI driven, but for a “Party”, its all about that EPIC WIN!

A party is usually made up of a mix bag of individuals. People with different background, different skills, different life goals, different characteristics, different charisma and more. But however, when they come together, there is a common goal and all these differences compliments one another and the party as a whole is a lot more powerful and can achieve more.

The Party at the work place

In real life, we don’t recruit elves and dwarfs, we don’t wield swords, put on armour and go raid dragon lairs. In real life we also don’t rob banks. In real life, we work as teams on projects and bring back gold coins upon completing quests issued by our beloved clients.

I feel understanding the concept of a Party and how it works, is one step towards the success of the project. The next step would then be to find a party and a party that suits you.

Of cause just putting a bunch of people together will not work. It takes time for the right group of people to gather and to make things more difficult, none of them are actually looking for one another.

So what makes a good party?

Ok let me fast forward into the future that I would like to have. I envision having worked with many different people already and after many years I finally decided to work with a select group of individuals. These individuals together with me love to work with one another because there is a similar frequency, some kind of unspoken affinity. We end up not just being colleagues, not just associates, not just team members, but a close knitted group which not only do amazing work together, but also share life together.

I mean come on, we spend at least 8 hours on weekdays together, that is a huge chunk of our life. Why hang around difficult colleagues or even people you don’t like. Why not integrate work, life & friends, etc. I know its idealistic, but this is really the future I would like to have. So the following is what I think are the key points of a good Party.

  1. Complementing skills – We should know who is good at what so that when work is distributed every one can go do their stuff in excellence and as a group, we can achieve more.
  2. Work style rapport – Everyone is comfortable with different work styles. Some like to plan lots up front, some like things to be agile, some like to talk face to face, some like to just email and IM. Some like clear briefs up front, some like briefs to exclude the solution, some like to solution together. So long as everyone likes a similar style, I think it makes it smooth sailing.
  3. Trust – Once individuals have trust with one another, everyone knows what everyone will do and get done on time. There will be some kind of telepathy. There will be less to worry when there is trust.
  4. Mutual motivation – There will be times when it gets stressful and challenges are difficult or when timelines are tight. Team members will be cheering each other on, helping each other out, buying each other dinner and coffee. Maybe even looking after each other’s kids while daddy or mommy is busy finishing up the last 20% of the work.

So I say, start analysing the people around and keep the suitable ones around.

Does this make us slutty friends?

Just the thought that we like to hang out and work with people who have certain capabilities does on the surface make us kinda shallow. But you can’t help it. Why would you want in the majority of your waking hours be spending time with people who are negative contributions?

There are people who drain the life out of the team with their pessimistic views and offensive language. There are people who always do the wrong thing or sometimes not even around to do anything. There are the people who are plain useless and bottlenecks. Then there are those who spend more time creating drama in the project then focusing on completing the project.

GGG!

Go check out The Future of Work and you will know how I feel about the future.

Its time we go form our Party to achieve blissful productivity so that we can have our constant EPIC WINS!

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Ritz

The sun was slowly setting over the relaxed business district in Singapore. The skyscrapers slowly switch on its lights as the sky grew darker while the tele just murmured on. I was dozing off on the sofa while leafing thru Wired which i bought earlier. The wife was deep in sleep, there was no fixed plan for the next 24 hours. It was blissful peace.

We visited the Ritz Carlton as its been a long time since we took a break as a couple.

The last time we stayed in this hotel was in 1999 when we had our traditional Chinese wedding rites. 11 years on, we now have 2 kids and expecting another in a few months time. How time flies.

There was some commotion happening downstairs and we realised that evening was also the opening of The Helix Bridge on Marina Bay. We manage to catch the fireworks and felt really blessed to be able to see the fireworks so up close.

Other then going to the pool and chilling at the pool side, the best thing to do was to dip in the bathtub and enjoy the scenery. What luxury.

Also when in a nice hotel, the other good thing to do was to order room service. Nice, very nice.

On the way back home, my wife said “Thank you” and that sincere appreciation made all the arrangements well worth it.

Till next year.