Read more: http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/11/women_leaders_need_self-confidence.html

What if Titanic never sunk, and what if they made it across the Atlantic safely?

What if the apple never really hit Newton on his head? What if it landed somewhere else, on the grass patch, perhaps?

What if Mr. Morse hadn’t created a telegraph system that allowed communication in the early days?

What if Bell never went about to create those huge ass old school model of telephones?

What if Steve decided to follow the pack and never head a revolution? What if he had stayed in school and just do what everyone else is doing, and be boring while at it?

What if…what if…

Steve’s departure has been the biggest news this week, and Apple’s home page is still dedicated as a tribute to him. Truly, this man left one of the biggest legacy this world has ever seen.

Rest in peace, Steve.

From a recent post by The Atlantic, it seems that the fashion industry is flocking to a cheaper, more fun medium to expedite it and allow users to express themselves while at the same time connecting with the brand in a fresh new way. To be fair, the app isn’t exactly a revolutionary tool given the many other forms of photo filters and photo sharing app we have on our phones, but the fact that an entire industry is riding on that wave is just brilliant. If you’re an avid user of the app, you’ll identify brands such as Burberry and OscargirlPR to be some of the pioneers of the fashion industry to be exploiting this outlet in the most fashionably way, so to speak. I really love the campaigns that both brands are rolling out using this app, such as the #artofthetrench campaign from Burberry and Oscargirl PR’s instagram. Not only does the app allow them to be social, it also allows them to retain class and exude the aura of their brand’s reputation. Classy, I say!

I’m pretty sure that as far as creative juices can get us, more bright campaign ideas might just come out from these existing campaigns that we already see from these fashionably social brands. Or perhaps travel companies…you know, some sort of photo contest involving landscapes will be nice too hey. I mean, #justsaying. Afterall, technology is only as smart as the person using it hey…

Fun reads for the week:

10 Instagram Fashionistas You Need To Follow

10 Amazing Accounts To Follow On Instagram

Instagram iPhone app is Popular at Fashion Week

Pretty neat and cool if you ask me. Both poem and typography.

Who’s gotta save the world tonight? Who’s gonna bring you back to life? We’re gonna make it you and I…We’re gonna save the world tonight.

We tend to read the following terms and think they refer to any company doing business in another country. Multinational International Transnational Global Andrew Hines over at BNET has brief and clear definitions of each of these terms, Get your international business terms right. Each term is distinct and has a specific meaning which define the scope and degree of interaction with their operations outside of their “home” country. International … Read More

via Lee Iwan Accumulated Experience

“Where are you going?” he asked.

“Out. For a walk. I’m bored of staying indoors,” she replied curtly.

She waited a while, wondering if he would hinder her. She wanted to step out, be out in the cold wind of midsummer. Yet secretly, she wanted him to call out and stop her. “Do you want to come along with me?” she asked, impatient.

“No. I think I’ll stay behind. We’ve been with each other too much lately…” she did not want to hear him finish his sentence and walked out immediately.

She had no idea where she was heading this time. It was a quiet Saturday evening, though the sky was still bright, in this small Swedish hillbilly town. She took a deep breathe of the cold air of the surrounding, and decided to wander off, wherever the road might take her.

Ten minutes into the walk, she found a bench and decided to sink into it. Truth was, she did not want a walk. She just wanted to be out and away from him, just to get herself out before he could frustrate her even more.

Not in the bad kind of way. She was only getting too emotionally attached to be leaving him in a couple of days time.

She was also mad at him for making her so incredibly angry at his bad planning of the days left with her, and then when he made it up to her, she would be even deeply in love with him. (love, sure, love)

She took out her notebook to jot down her feelings. She had not done it in a very long time, but started practicing the art of keeping a journal again ever since she found how therapeutic it may be to just be writing down whatever she feels and thoughts without any limits and restrictions.

The dark clouds above her started to show signs that it was going to rain soon. Before she could decide to take a walk back, it started pouring.

And so she sat there on the park bench, letting the raindrops fall on her and letting go of every bit of emotions within her washed by the rain. She looked back at the open window of his apartment which she could see from the spot, and hoped for a fairytale scene of him running out with a coat and umbrella to save her. But she knew it was too surreal to happen.

She did not want to walk back now, especially after being disappointed at him again, for the umpteenth time, especially after walking and crying in the rain alone.

She stayed there in the rain, letting herself be drenched out alone. She did not want him to come, no longer, and she did not want to think about him.

And then her phone rang. It was him.

“Where are you? It’s raining…”

“I’m outside. I’m fine…”

“Don’t stay out in the rain babe. You’ll get sick. Come back?”

Her weak heart succeeded her stubborn heart, every time. She ran back to his room and once she opened the door, he stood in the hallway, about to grab his coat.

“Now where are you going?” she almost heard herself scream.

“To get you…I didn’t want you to catch a cold out there,” he touched her wet hair and clasped her head to his chest.

She pulled herself out from his grip and stared him out. “Why? It’s not like you care…”

“Who says I don’t? I just wanted a little bit of time off today. That’s all…but I still care about where you were heading up just now…”

She wanted to cry, but she held her tears back. She had never felt so incredibly frustrated to be expressing it to this boy, but she could not take it any longer.

Outside, the thunder roared.

She grabbed his hand and led him out of the building.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“What we should be doing. Have an adventure, baby,”

She led him into the rain, with no rain boots, no caps, no hoods, nothings. His hand in hers, she led him into the woods at the back of their flat building.

“I want you to know that you make me mad all the time. You make me insanely pissed at you but you always find a way to slime your way out and then make me laugh at you. You always anger me and then apologise and then things are okay again. How do you do that? What do you do? What is this effect you have on people? Or is it just me? Why are you like this? Why do you make me angry all the time? I hate you…do you know that? No wait, I don’t know. I don’t know what I’m saying to you or what else I want to say or you just…I…you just…”

He pulled her and kissed her, silent. And then, in the pouring rain, in the lush greenery of the woods, they kissed. Right there, at that very moment, she felt the forces of nature conspiring to make everything beautiful for that moment.

It’s a beautiful sunny Monday morning out here in Singapore’s financial district and everything is back to normal. Yea, you know, the usuals. Gaunt looking working people walking to their offices with solemn expressions on their faces, some fresh-faced, crisp looking bank personnels walking around looking important, and oooh hello, a suave looking man with briefcase and blazer in hand. Heh heh. (Me looking at men, yea that’s normal too yea.)

Seems like everyone’s still experiencing the post-election hangover, from the looks and feel of it. We observed history-in-the making on Saturday night/Sunday morning when the Opposition party made what is said as the biggest win in the Singapore Parliamentary Election the nation-state has seen in its 46 years since independence. And what is this big victory? 6 seats in Parliament, occupied by the Worker’s Party, out of a total of 87 seats.

Yup. That’s right. 6 out of 87, of which the rest are of course occupied by the ruling party PAP, and that is considered quite a revolution in this country. Well, just as a few of us predicted, this win by the Opposition is a realistic one, and expected.

Despite the outburst of political activism that we saw expressed by many young Singaporeans, with social media serving as the platform for discussions and any expression of resentment towards the ruling party or showing their support for the Opposition which has came out strong this time round, there is still plenty of time before Singapore sees a real change. Much like Dr. Cherian George (read blog here), I agree that it will take some time before we see a paradigm shift in politics here.

What we had seen in the previous weeks were plenty of lively discussions and debates by the masses online and it had been heartening to notice that apathy had taken a backseat in Singapore’s politics. Singaporeans are getting more involved and aware of the political climate and taking a more active role in this election. That is of course, the next big take-away from this election, besides the biggest win our Opposition has seized. It’s a refreshing change, for a start.

Social media has of course been a significant catalyst for this rejuvenated activism, and as blogged by my classmate Stoofi (read blog here), there were definitely plenty of interesting discussions and arguments posted by fellow Singaporeans, ranging from satirical analogy to well thought out argument pieces contributed on Facebook and blogs and shared across Twitter, etc.

Of which, a recent Youtube video produced by a friend also made me realise the power of social media and the strategies that make the shared content viral. FallenSuperheroSG’s Youtube video, the currently viral Yam Ah Mee’s club mix (watch here) is a good case study for the strategies for viral videos. Firstly, of course this guy’s skills is a commendable one (haha yea yea biased remark but it’s true so this is valid). But on top of that, the rate that this video is being shared amazed me. It was even shared on Stomp, Yahoo! News and The Online Citizen, so he’s making it big islandwide hey! I mean personally, I take this as a good learning point. Viral videos are not produced with the sole intention to be a “viral vide”.

Very often, viral videos are unintentional. The strength of the viral video lies in its content, and the creative element it has. Or anything that serves human interest. In the case of FallenSuperhero’s for example, he pegged on the current most talked about issue that people are all bothered about, and took something out of it, and spun it around into something that entertains other people, and they go on sharing. Once you have a number of other platforms picking it up, there you have it, a video worthy of everyone’s time. Good stuff, I must say.

That being said, check his Youtube channel out. Guy produces lots of pretty sweet mixes and sometimes rock covers of pop hits. FallenSuperhero FTW!

(Told ya this isn’t exactly entirely politics related)

While this is the first time I’ll be casting my vote, I have been closely listening and observing to what everyone has to say, and what the political parties have to offer. I’m not going to deny that I am partisan, and I have my own political view that I hold on to. Yet, being a first-time voter, I have taken on an objective stance to give everyone a chance to say what they intend to say.

Coming out from all these campaigns, I am certain that the opposition has a strong conviction of what they stand for and represent. Yes, much like my classmate Stanley, if we are being realistic about the policies that they propose, the feasibility and practicality of those propositions are questionable. I’m not going to deny that our government has done an excellent job over the years, as they are efficient with what they do, and not to mention pragmatic and realistic. As a matter of fact, I like our government for what they have done for us. Let’s admit it, there is no popular government in the world. People will always be dissatisfied with what they have, nothing can ever fulfill their expectations perfectly, and they will always be criticising what the government is doing. Because are people are human. And that’s just a human thing to do. Look at the US. People were all for Obama to be president, and 4 years after, his popularity ranking dropped amongst citizens as they criticise his incapacity to bring about the changes he had promised in his Presidential campaign.

And Singaporeans exemplify this quality precisely. We will never be happy about what the government does. Sure, because there is always something to pick on. But never have I seen so much anger, dissatisfaction and criticism expressed to the ruling party until this election.

We know for sure that the younger generation voters represent a desire for change, one that stands for equality and democracy, which is exactly the foundation that this country was built upon.

It’s funny how the ruling party keep emphasising on the past, reminding citizens to remember the past and the foundations that Singapore was built upon, and what they have done for us in the past to convince them to make the right decision when voting. It amazes me that it is at this juncture when they themselves stop to realise that the past matters too. This coming from the government that is all about progress and change, seeing how fast they themselves are developing the country into…something that sometimes I don’t recognise anymore. The crowded trains packed with foreigners, the fast-changing face of the city exuding the aura of luxury and world-class facilities at the expense of the lives of the working class enslaving their hours away to make ends meet, the constant remarks about racial minorities and how these remarks make them feel even more estranged and uncared for. That wasn’t what we all signed up for. That isn’t the Singapore I grew up with. That isn’t what we want.

As I’m making my way out to the Polling Station, there sure is a lot to reflect on, and what we want from this election. Having raised these issues, I do hope that whoever wins this election will pay attention the concerns raised from the grounds, and be more sensitive and aware to what the masses have to say.

All the best to all the contesting parties. May tonight be a determinant of Singapore’s bright future.