Looks like a peppercorn tree. Snapped the photo just as the joggers were running past. Haven’t had a good run with taking photos of late. Haven’t found any way to push myself in terms of perspective and viewing things differently. Need to put in the mental effort to take something exotic.

* * *

Heh, always looking into ways for improving oneself. I have to keep reminding myself that nothing is too difficult, and we are not all gifted in everything, but with effort, anything is possible. A few months ago when I got my guitar, one of the things I tried was playing the opening riff for ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ by Guns N’ Roses. My fingers had trouble sliding up and down the fret board but I kept at it for a few days. Fast forward a few months today, I tried it again and am surprised that I can actually remember which keys to press and that my fingers don’t get stuck nearly as much.

I want to do a business, to get side income, and I’ve been pecking at it over the last few years, wanting to do stuff but not quite getting there. I’d do my own reading on businesses, and have a view on what may or may not work based on other people’s experiences, but I have not gone off on my own to do stuff.

I recall being more entrepreneurial back in my university days. I had a few gigs doing website design and actually managed to charge more than what I’m earning per hour now. Back then I was spurred by my desire to apply my skills designing interfaces and writing markup. I also had to deal with the realities of clients who had different demands and didn’t have a goal in mine. It’s sort of like work now, where management wants to do certain things but doesn’t have a clear view or process to get it done (and I can put that into an entire topic on its own).

I still haven’t found any easy, sustainable business model yet, but it all comes from the lack of trying more than anything else. You can’t fail if you don’t set out to do something, but then again, you can’t succeed if you don’t set out to do anything. I have put items on sale on eBay and prior to that I was wary of doing it, being afraid of getting scammed and not receiving cash for the item sold, or getting complaints from the person who bought it etc. You overcome that fear and then you wonder if you are putting up the advertisement for your item right, with the right contents, setup at the right time to attract the most bidders. So I finally overcame all that and decided that you can’t progress unless you do something, so just do it.

I’ve made a few hundred dollars on items I no longer had use for and better to get 20% of what I paid for it than ZERO and it taking up space at home. Heh, I’m also not of the view of hoarding stuff just so that I don’t have to move it with me when I find a new place to stay further down the road.

I guess my point is, that to do anything, you need to put in the effort. You are interested in the cash returns, but you also have to do all the administrative work that goes with it. People tend to put more weight on the bad than on the good. As life puts it, there’s no such thing as a free lunch, so I’m writing this now to remind myself that I need to be more motivated and to do what needs to be done.

Got a kaffir lime tree and a meyer lemon tree for the backyard. I figure the only way to learn how to grow things is to trial it. Heh, plenty of sunshine and water for some plants is the way to go, while others require a little less of both.

* * *

Have been spending some time on the house, like getting a shoe cabinet to keep the back entrance tidy, a carpet to spruce up the living room, and the latest addition is a console table that has been arranged behind the couch that adds some texture to the living room. Vyanne has a keen eye for selecting furniture, so even though the things look fairly individualistic, they seem to fit in place when put together.

For me, I’ve just added some photo frames with pictures to the house. Heh, the 7 year old Canon colour printer I have does a nice job with prints and while it is not colour calibrated, I know the characteristics of the output to just tweak it and get the desired output.

My main interest of late has been to populate the backyard with more plants. Finally got my first kaffir lime tree when my aunts came to visit from Malaysia, and I brought her and my cousin to visit the nursery we discovered at the beginning of the month. I’ve since added a meyer lemon tree and got a rake to do some serious gardening out in the front yard. Heh, all the ideas about a compost bin and a Japanese maple somewhere in the house will soon come to fruition. Mom was an avid gardener, and I picked up this interest from her, so I’m going to populate the house with more plants over time.

* * *

Work has also been keeping me busy of late, with the budget process for the next financial year coming up and a few other side projects that I need to get done. I’ve had a couple of years to observe the managers come and go, learning in the process how some people work. You have the macro level managers who just like a great, big overview of things with little concern for the nitty gritty. You will also meet the ones who will go through every minute detail whether it made a difference to the bottom line or not. I’ve learnt that there’s a benefit to working both ways, and you need a fine balance to be able to manage your own division effectively. Micro managers work very well to eke the very last performance out of their areas, but you may not think of how you’d fit into the entire organisation as a whole to provide a better service with more benefits. Macro managers will have lots of good ideas but fall short on the implementation, when you need all the exact details for the plan to be carried out. Too often I see a good plan get bogged down by a lack of direction because the important details were all left out.

I guess what has hit me in the last couple of days is that I’m pretty much a micro person, one who can do the little individual projects well, but not have a clearer overview of what is required of me in the big picture. I have always done things as they came along but never have I really tried to plan ahead to do things to steer myself in a direction I wanted to go to. I am starting to give this more thought now, and hope I can come up with a plan to guide me to do the things I should be doing.

So I guess I need to look at bigger, bolder ideas while retaining the need to think these ideas through thoroughly so that I can get them to work down the road. Heh, there’s plenty of work to be done going forward.