2010 challenge

i have lots to blog but never really found the words for it. However, with 2010 coming, i think i will just do what most people do. Set a artificial goal for 2010. What i see for 2010 is the fact that this year will be very defining for my career. First of all, i am at a crossroad. With the current position, i feel that i am no longer building myself up technically. I need to look for a direction where i will learn new things. That is why, i think i need to be championing a roadmap for module engineering. Right now, there just isn't anyone in ATDM with this role. The absense of a champion in that sense is really handicapping ATDM as a robust organisation. We are reacting to every generation of change adhoc. I feel its a real road there. 2010, will be started with a challenge to myself to try to work into this area.

Mentoring

1. Understanding big picture
2. Align to decision to be made.
3. Align objective to decision to be made.
4. Plan activities to support the objectives.
5. Think of lateral constraint to understand how current scheme fit into the organizational need.
6. Make sure support is available.

Ning Ning can starts to point her fingers on things she likes. She also learned to go around obtacles. I can feel that her voice cord is getting some muscles and she is clearly articulating different sounds to make her point. This is exciting time for her. Her mobility is also improving with much faster crawling and walking while holding on to support. I think she is trilled with her ability. Great.

Tomorrow is the start of my one week holiday. Thrilling. Its also thrilling that this quarter i have managed to get a GT up to speed. She still needs help to think about her approach to engineering problem. But she is getting there. Great.

public bank, ytl, airasia

Today, public bank is about 10.40 per share. It is interesting to note in this economic condition public bank has already announced a dividen payment of 30cents per share. If the company announced a 25cents dividen per share as of last year, the bank will have a very interesting dividen yield of 5.3%. This is attractive as it means that it is higher that fix deposit by about 2% point while maintaining good loan growth locally. If interest is to rise in the next two years, it means that public bank will enjoy the loan that it has captured today and turn them into significantly higher profits. I think public bank at this price is a great toll road to be capture.

On YTL, interesting to note that this company has grow its earning by 5x in the last seven years. While this is not as interesting as highly innovative companies, the growth rate is phenomenal and represents a very very interesting growth company with interest all over the world. However, this fact is not appreciated by local investor due to the low profile business YTL is in. For a P/E ratio of 12, this is a bargain for a company that grows five X in seven years. A buy. Continue to accumulate to RM 10000.

Airasia is a stock that ask questions on the investor's skill. The stock is growing great both on the high line and bottom line. The business strategy to grow anxiliarry earning to overcome high fuel cost seems to be working where this earning doubles in the last 12 months. It contributed to 29ringgit per passenger. Considering that air asia's average ticket price is 189 ringgit, this represents about 16% of the ticket revenue. With the management focus to grow this earning to 60ringgit pax, if successful airasia will have a highly innovative low cost model. This stock is dragged down by the high level of dept due to aggressive purchase of aircraft. However, looking at the recent cash flow, the company suffers a deficit of about 20millions. However, this is the slow quarter and also not all the flight to singapore has been introduced. Going forward, there will be a increase in route quality due to increase flight to Singapore. The 20millions deficit should be narrowing or eliminated. I will say a buy at 1.40.

just a thought about share market

What a 'celaka' business! I admit of being a chicken. In five years of investing, i have missed a few golden opportunities. The most recent crisis is an example. Back in December when the market was at its bottomless pit, I did not took the opportunity to buy anything, although the valuation for some companies like Top Glove, IOI Corp, Public Bank were at absurd low. Knowing that these companies had strong track record during good and bad times, it was a golden opportunity to own them. Also knowing the history of the Great Depression, where shares appreciated 30% before any sign of recovery in the general economy, i should have been prepared to make the swoop. But alas, fear of a deeper recession and the market hit even greater low freeze me in my step. Great mistake! The market has recovered almost 25% from December low. What add salt to the wound was i have amass plenty of cash for just this sort of scenario. Moral of the story, have an idea of what stocks you want to buy, at what value and when the storms hit hardest, go for them.

Its a bit of work...

Scan was good. No crack seen on indented units. Still some noise on the scans that could be mistaken as a crack by inexperience operator. Seek expert user help to use the scanner. The current girl did a good job creating the scanning recipe, so far. However, she is inexperience, untrained and in need of better mentoring. Lets hope the expert will help up.

On another note, little Ning Ning is getting strong. She can crawl well now, and learning to stand on her two feet. She enjoy standing, but it will be months before she can walk properly.

durian season. This season has been fun. I purchased these wonderful fruits early. So a month into this season, i have already wobble up more fruits than the whole of last season. The fact that there are less rain in February and March this year helps to retain more flowers on the tree. So we have lots of durian stalls mushrooming along streets in Penang. The price is still a little bit high, but who is would complain for such wonderful taste that leave your mouth feeling the joy hours after having them! So for you fellows who has not go out and get your durian this season, its time to do it.

Tax..... better we sh** on gov's head

tax season is here. Just did my filing. 5 figure tax paid. It just hit my bank account to zero again, despite me getting a 3600 hardship bonus and salary a couple of days ago. My happiness has been suck dry, to finance another by election. Five bloody election cost 34million of tax payer money (aka working class folks). Those five bloody elections just through away the sacrifice made by 2-3 thousands Malaysians who pay taxes. All because of some useless candidates that decided to resign from their party. The curse of course do not applies to the hard working assembly man/women who met unfortunate death.

Ning Ning is now six months old. I hope my tax and those of my wife will contributes to some useful purpose for her sake. Together we are giving Malaysians a car every year.

another day in paradise...

Ning Ning baby sitter is sick. So i have to take leave today and take care of this little rascal. She has grown to be a strong little baby. For a small frame of only 6kg, Ning Ning has proven to have the lung of a soprano and loves to kick and push around. We observed that she is beginning to develop her personality and it is a joy to see her grow. Any parent who miss this stage of their baby is poorer for it. For me....its another day in paradise, to spend time with her....although it leave me with no energy at the end of the day.

End of a road...

Feb28 2009:- QBMall reported closure of a FnB shop at LG. It so happened that i owned a shop there as well. And i closed down my business on the same day. I sold hotdog. Not for a living, but for extra income. However, I learned a hard truth of live. Not all businesses are profitable, and those that are not profitable will suffer tremendous lost. Well, while i don't feel pain, I do feel a tinge of sadness at the very end. I expect to close shop for a while now, since business has been slow and I am ready for it. However, i am sorry for my worker who has to look for a new job in this uncertain environment. Compensated that guy two months salary. Hope he will be able to pay for his car.

Brought Ning Ning to the shop before we closed down. Took a few pictures for memories. She is too small to know yet. But i think it will be nice to show her one day that her old man did some small business before.

Weekend .... hurray!!!

Its Friday man! Weekend is coming! I look forward to some relaxation after a week of hustle and bustle. At the moment, things has quiet down a bit. Ning Ning, my little 4 months old daughter is finally asleep. Its been a battle recently to get her to sleep. She is on automatic mode to cry for about half an hour loudly and most pityfully. Then she will slow down and go to bed. Today, a little bit of milk finally enticed her to her doldrum. However, the usual routine of craddling and whispering to her milky smelling little crown was needed to quiet down her thunder humbling cries. I am beginning to feel the weekend mood. Tomorrow, a bit of newspaper reading in the quiet of the morning is called for.
How was the week? Well, i would say it was pretty productive. I have managed to sort out a few things in the work place. One or two presentation did not go down well with management. But overall, i think the technical understanding was in placed, although some fellows failed to understand the message. Well, i will need to recalibrate my presentation a bit.
I think most of the problem lies in the lack of managers understanding of the analysis. This needs to be bridge with advanced calibration. Well, better send them the analysis. Enough about work.
Another proud moment this week is Ning Ning is getting very active. Her turn and twist is getting more energetic this week. Which makes us worry about her safety. so we no longer let her out of our eyes, especially when she is lying on a table or bed. i also find her eager to test out the usage of her legs. Well, she can hardly turn her body to stomach down position, but this little spirit would like to use her leg to walk, with a little bit of anti-gravity help from the father. Well, i hope she will start to eat more than her usual 110ml of milk from now onwards. Her milk is filling up the freezer too fast too furious.

Invisible barrier .... why we should just dream that out of our mind

It was valentine day. My wife complained to me she can't go anywhere since having our little girl. I got to pity her. She really did not go anywhere of note for the past four months. For her, it is too much hassle to take all the necessary equipments for any trip longer than 2 hours from the house. For those of you who have no kids, just imagine breast pump, ice box, need to look for mother friendly location etc. So my poor wife end up in the house most of the weekends. She was truely buely bored. For me, it is not necessary. In live, this are the kind of invisible barrier that we built around ourselve limiting what we can do for our happiness. They are more about mental state than any true constraint. I hope she will start to go out again and enjoy live and also look not at our new born baby as a barrier. May the dream fairy brings wonderful thoughts to her mind tonite and fill her with inspiration to search for fun.

Innocence.... the beauty we miss as adult

Today my little girl is 4 months old. She is my pet. So innocent. Speak her mind freely and clearly with her smiles and cries. There are no petense of joy or sadness. Only honesty of friendship and desire. The world of adulhood sadly miss this element of openess, shrouded by our constraint of perceive decency. If only we learn from babies, that innocence and pure honesty breed joy. Lets be a baby again....

Missing the depression

This is a time of great turmoil. Every day a new story of somebody lost his or her job, or a factory running at 10% or one version or another of doomsday scenario is the order of the day. Personally, i am loosing my own business as well. By some dumb luck, my partners talked me into stupid hot dog business. We no longer call it business, but charitable feeding of Penang folks. With this depression on going at full gale now, my client abandoned me by drove. So i decided to shut down the store. It doesn't cause me depression, but rather give me a sense of relief. Luckily, my day job look safe at the moment. I do not know if i will be able to find something if i loose my job now.

I missed the 1997-1998 depression because of my age. I was a student in UK. However, it hits Malaysia much more badly then than now. I can only hope this round, the great feeling of hopelessness for people who are badly hit by economy downturn will miss me again.

For you folks out there, good luck.