Life is

“Life is an opportunity, benefit from it.
Life is beauty, admire it.
Life is a dream, realize it.
Life is a challenge, meet it.
Life is a duty, complete it.
Life is a game, play it.
Life is a promise, fulfill it.
Life is sorrow, overcome it.
Life is a song, sing it.
Life is a struggle, accept it.
Life is a tragedy, confront it.
Life is an adventure, dare it.
Life is luck, make it.
Life is too precious, do not destroy it.
Life is life, fight for it.”
? Mother Teresa

Who Works for a Startup?

Baby Steps of Financial Analysis

“An investment operation is one which, upon thorough analysis promises safety of principal and an adequate return. Operation not meeting these requirements are speculative” – Warren Buffet

Who said that finance is boring? It’s one of the things that I’m amused about right now. As many others, I thought that equity trading is like gambling. It’s not. And it’s fun. It’s one of the hot topics that I also talked about with my colleagues at Zynga over the lunch table.

I’m new in this world. I didn’t make any finance courses when I was at college or graduate school, so there’s quite bit of learning curve on terminologies. But it  wasn’t too difficult to figure out and understand. Another thing that I had to learn is understanding on how to read financials of a company: income statement, balance sheet, cash flows, etc. I’m still learning.

These are the area that I’m currently or going to be investing in:

• Technology
• Energy
• Consumer
• Retail
• Consumables

Warren Buffet is one of the gods in this area. As one of the richest person in the world, he is one of the most humble yet I known. I see him as the “Steve Jobs” on finance. And to get some shares of his fortunes, is not so cheap:

Life is a Gift

There was a blind girl who hated herself just because she was blind. She hated everyone, except her loving boyfriend. He was always there for her. She said that if one day she could see the world, she would marry her boyfriend.

One day, someone donated a pair of eyes to her and she could see everything, including her boyfriend.

Her boyfriend asked her, “Now that you can see the world, will you marry me?”

The girl was shocked when she saw that her boyfriend was blind too and refused to marry him.

Her boyfriend walked away in tears, and wrote a letter to her saying…

“Just take care of my eyes dear. I’ll always love you forever…”

This is how human brain changes when the status changed.

Only few remember what life was before, and who’s always been there even in the most painful situations.

Life is a Gift

Today before you think of saying an unkind word
- Think of someone who can’t speak.

Before you complain about the taste of your food
- Think of someone who has nothing to eat.

Before you complain about your husband or wife
- Think of someone who’s crying out to God for a companion.

Today before you complain about life
- Think of someone who went too early to heaven.

Before you complain about your children
- Think of someone who desires children but they’re barren.

Before you argue about who cleans up your dirty house
- Think of the people who are living in the streets.

Before whining about the distance you drive
- Think of someone who walks the same distance with their feet.

And when you are tired and complain about your job
- Think of the unemployed, the disabled and those who wished they had your job.

But before you think of pointing the finger or condemning another
- Remember that nobody is perfect are without faults.

And when depressing thoughts seem to get you down
- Put a smile on your face and be thankful you’re alive and still around.

Life is a gift,
Live it,
Enjoy it,
Celebrate it,
And fulfill it.

Three Words are not Enough

Girl: Do you really love me?
Boy: Of course I do.
Girl: I wanna hear you say it.
Boy: I don’t have to.
Girl: Why not?
Boy: Because…
Girl: I just want to hear you say it in words.
Boy: I can’t…
The girl started to cry softly and said:
Then you don’t love me…
The two continued to walk in silence. They
reached the girls home.
Girl: Why?
Boy: Do you really want to know?
Girl: (hesitantly) Yes.
He hugged her gently, kissed the tip of her nose and whispered in her ear,
“Because three words are not enough…”

Happy New Year 2012!

Haven’t updated this blog for the longest time with actual text. So I thought that it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to start this year with a blog post (and may be a regular post as a new year’s resolution?). Looking back, there are a couple of bold beats that happened in my life, which I want to thankful for:

Graduation

Big deal right? I’m the first person who gets into college and graduated with a master’s degree in my family. That makes me the 3rd person in the bigger family (from my mom and dad’s side), who earned a master’s degree. Quite cool. The other two person are my aunt and uncle from my mom’s family. But it’s kind of embarrassing too because my dad, doesn’t even earn any degree (paid my tuition).

Zynga

I think it’s one of the best decision I’ve ever made to join this company. I love what I do. I learned a lot. Had taken a lot of responsibility. An awesome team. Awesome manager. Awesome perks. And last but not least, awesome location. I work at the Los Angeles office upon my own request, as a new college graduate (I never thought that it would worked out!).

Friends

Memories of good friends shall never perish. Good times. Bad times. Formed a distinct mark that sticks as part of life history. This year I made all kinds of friends: new friends, old friends, special friends, cool friends, awesome friends, and last but not least, ass holes too (I’m jk). The plan is to increase the rate of new friends for the upcoming year.

Faith

I watched Stephen Hawking’s documentaries about the universe. The whole theory about the big bang and how the universe is created from nothing, makes me even wonder, even if the theory was proven as true, be something greater that would even started the nothingness. The theory itself is obviously has a lot of flaws. At the same time, I also watched documentaries about the Gnostic gospel such as the Gospel of Judas, which opens the other perspective about Judas and the gospel. Last but not least, a cool church.

Startup

Worked on a startup at the final year of college, and launched it at the DEMO Conference 2011. Our startup won the DEMO god award, and went to several publications on the web. Raised some money. And still working on it. Awesome team. Learned a lot of things. Super fast iteration. Lead the a mobile and a front-end developer. Let’s see what’s next.

Family

There’s nothing greater than to have a happy family that’s always supportive.

Those are the bold beats last year. Lots of things I learned from each of those bold beats. And I have a lot of plans that I want to do this year. There are some sets of goal that I wanted to achieve this year. While some of them are carrying over the bold beats from last year, others are something new. May be skydiving this year? Need to gather some people!

Happy New Year 2012!

Merry FarmVille Christmas

Through It All

Through It All
by Hillsong United

You are forever in my life
You see me through the seasons
Cover me with Your hand
And lead me in Your righteousness

And I look to You
And I wait on You

I’ll sing to You Lord
A hymn of Love
For Your faithfulness to me
I’m carried in everlasting arms
You’ll never let me go
Through it all

You are forever in my life
You see me through the seasons
Cover me with Your hand
And lead me in Your righteousness

And I look to You
And I wait on You

I’ll sing to You Lord
A hymn of Love
For Your faithfulness to me
I’m carried in everlasting arms
You’ll never let me go

I’ll sing to You Lord
A hymn of Love
For Your faithfulness to me
I’m carried in everlasting arms
You’ll never let me go
Through it all

Everlasting Father, I love You
Ever living Savior, I love You

Everlasting Father, I love You
Ever living Savior, I love You

I’ll sing to You Lord
A hymn of Love
For Your faithfulness to me
I’m carried in everlasting arms
You’ll never let me go
Through it all