This brought tears to my eyes

The man pictured lulling his arthritic dog to sleep in Lake Superior has revealed that his dog Schoep saved him from the brink of suicide.

John Unger, 49, adopted the dog with his ex-fiancée 19 years ago, but after the relationship ended, Mr Unger fought a desperate despair.

The companionship of his trusty rescue dog gave Mr Unger the courage to go on, saying : 'I don’t think I’d be here if I didn’t have Schoep with me. I just want to do whatever I can for this dog.'

The water soothes the animal's pain, Mr Unger said, allowing him to sleep.

Mr Unger's good friend Hannah Stonehouse Hudson, who is a professional photographer, captured the heartbreaking moment between the man and his aging rescue dog in Wisconsin when Mr Unger thought his best friend was at the end of his life.

But thanks to the generosity of strangers, the MailOnline can reveal that thousands of dollars have been donated to Schoep's medical care, allowing the pair more time together than they ever imagined.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2186763/He-saved-MY-life--I-just-want-help-return-Owner-sick-dog-picture-touched-nations-hearts-reveals-loyal-companion-stopped-suicide.html#ixzz23JV0fvfw

‘Schoep falls asleep every night when he is carried into the lake. The buoyancy of the water soothes his arthritic bones. Lake Superior is very warm right now, so the temp of the water is perfect,' the photographer explained.

The story behind the special relationship behind this man, who works as a caretaker on a farm outside of Bayfield, and his dog is just as touching as the moment on the Lake.

Mr Unger, 49, adopted Schoep, who is named after a famous brand of Wisconsin ice cream, when he was just a puppy and it was love at first sight. 

He and his ex-fiancée had been searching for a rescue dog for a year, going to dozens of humane societies.

 

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'We wanted every single dog,' Mr Unger said to the MailOnline. 'We just hadn't found the right one.'

His then-fiancée they spotted the pup at the Ozaukee Animal Shelter 19 years ago.

'We fell in love with her immediately,' Mr Unger told the MailOnline. 

Schoep was in a cage with another dog, possibly his mother, crouched in the back quietly staring at the corner with his back to Mr Unger.

'I knew - that's him,' Mr Unger said.

Couple: John Unger, 49, adopted the dog with his ex-fiancée 19 years ago, but after the relationship ended, Mr Unger fought a desperate despair

Saved: The companionship of his trusty rescue dog gave Mr Unger the courage to go on, saying : 'I don’t think I’d be here if I didn’t have Schoep with me. I just want to do whatever I can for this dog'

Together: Thanks to the generosity of strangers, the MailOnline can reveal that thousands of dollars have been donated to Schoep's medical care, allowing the pair more time together than they ever imagined

At the time Schoep was named Tramp by the shelter staff and showed signs of abuse.

'He didn't even know what toys were,' Mr Unger said. 'I really wanted this dog because I wanted him to enjoy life.'

The couple worked hard to establish the trust of the dog and eventually brought out its 'full potential'.

Though Mr Unger's relationship with Schoep has clearly stood the test of time, the relationship with his fiancée did not, and when the woman moved to Colorado over a decade ago, he retained custody of the dog.

Capturing the moment: Hannah Stonehouse Hudson is friends with Mr Unger and spent hours capturing the perfect shot though she says it came naturally and was not posed

Lucky that he did, considering he told the Deluth News Tribune that one night, while in the depths of depression in the wake of the breakup, Mr Unger contemplated suicide.

'To be honest with you, I don’t think I’d be here if I didn’t have Schoep with me (that night). He just snapped me out of it. I don’t know how to explain it. He just snapped me out of it. … I just want to do whatever I can for this dog because he basically saved my ass,' he said.

Now that Schoep is in pain with his arthritis, it is Mr Unger's time to return the favor.

'In this photo, people have said they see everything from pure love to hope for the world. They see peace, kindness, the relationship between man and dog,' Ms Stonehouse Hudson told The Pioneer Press.

'Two women, both whose husbands died from cancer, said they never thought they'd see love again, but this photo showed them love.

'People are leaving me messages, crying and opening up about dogs they've lost, spouses they've lost.'

Mr Unger told the MailOnline that the photograph was four years in the making, as Ms Hudson and Mr Unger couldn't find the time for a portrait session.

But recently, Mr Unger got some devastating news. 

'To be honest with you, I don’t think I’d be here if I didn’t have Schoep with me.'

John Unger

'About two weeks ago I took Schoep in for a check up because he was limping,' Mr Unger said.

The doctor recommend pain medication, but said that it may be temporary or not help at all.

Then, Mr Unger said, the doctor told him, ' "If there isn't any improvement, we should probably..." a good vet wont say "put him down," but he said at that point I may start to want to think about it.'

Faced with the possibility of losing his best friend, he called up Ms Hudson for an impromptu session.

She met the pair at sunset on Lake Superior, because Schoep's cataracts prevent him from seeing in sunlight.

Compassion: Mr Unger adopted Schoep, who is named after a famous brand of Wisconsin ice cream, when he was just a puppy, and now that the dog has developed arthritis, he has trouble getting to sleep

'She couldn't believe he fell asleep in my arms,' Mr Unger said.

Ms Hudson watched the man and his dog float around the lake for maybe five minutes before Schoep began to get cold and shake.

Mr Unger said he had to take him out of the water to let him warm up and was worried she hadn't had the chance to snap an image.

AT FIRST SIGHT: JOHN AND SCHOEP

John Unger, 49, adopted Schoep, who is named after a famous brand of Wisconsin ice cream, when he was just a puppy and it was love at first sight.

He and his ex-fiancée had been searching for a rescue dog for a year, going to dozens of humane societies.

'We wanted every single dog,' Mr Unger said to the MailOnline. 'We just hadn't found the right one.'

His then-fiancée they spotted the pup at the Ozaukee Animal Shelter 19 years ago.

'We fell in love with her immediately,' Mr Unger told the MailOnline.

Schoep was in a cage with another dog, possibly his mother, crouched in the back quietly staring at the corner with his back to Mr Unger.

'I knew - that's him,' Mr Unger said.

At the time Schoep was named Tramp by the shelter staff and showed signs of abuse.

'He didn't even know what toys were,' Mr Unger said. 'I really wanted this dog because I wanted him to enjoy life.'

The couple worked hard to establish the trust of the dog and eventually brought out its 'full potential'. 

'I didn't think she even took one picture,' he said. 'But then she told me she got what she wanted.'

Mr Unger doesn't know how his ex-fiancée feels about the image going viral, or that it might be time to say goodbye to Schoep, but he is hoping that his love for Schoep might open the door to more romance.

'Women are also asking me if John is single!' Ms Hudson said.

The ladies are in luck because not only is Mr Unger single, but he is looking for a relationship.

'Boy, is it tough to meet women up here,' he told The Deluth News Tribune.

'So this might open up a new road.'

Mr Unger, who does not have a cell phone, said that while he got his first computer in February and is still confused by the internet, he has begun to explore online dating.

The most exciting thing to come out of the photograph, however, is the generous donations that people who have been touched by the photograph have been offering.

'A woman from Virginia basically paid for the latest laser therapy on his joints,' he said to MSNBC. 'She paid for a full treatment, and I don’t know how much it is, but I know I couldn’t have done that.'

He wept as he described how much strangers' kindness has helped him and his best friend. 

'People from all over are doing this. I can’t believe it. So much has come in already in donations that I don’t have to worry about anything at the vet anymore.'

He said that Schoep has already had two treatments and will get his third this afternoon.

'I have seen improvements in Schoep's ability to walk,' he told the MailOnline. 'He's walking faster. He's holding his head higher.'

Healing: Since the funds came gushing in, the clinic was able to treat Schoep with joint laser treatments, which reduce pain and swelling while healing the animal's limbs

All Better: Schoep will need these treatments every few weeks 'forever,' the vet said, but he should be able to spend his golden years pain-free

A spokeswoman from the clinic told the MailOnline that 19 people have made considerable donations to Schoep, amounting to nearly two thousand dollars in funds to help pay for his treatment.

Schoep's veterinarian, Erik Haukaas, said he was 'overwhelmed' by the generosity of strangers.

'John is a great guy but he doesn't have a whole lot of money. He does the best can to care for the dog,' Dr Haukass told the MailOnline.

He said that before the donations, all Mr Unger could afford was basic pain medication for his dog.

'He's failing. He's slowing down. Most dogs don't live near this long,' he said. 

'And then the picture came out and everyone wants to help.'

'Schoep is doing very well. I don't think John has to worry about Schoep for quite a while.'
Veterinarian Erik Haukass

Since the funds came gushing in, the clinic was able to treat Schoep with joint laser treatments, which reduce pain and swelling while healing the animal's limbs. 

Each session costs $200.

'It's like putting oil on a rusty joint,' he explained.

Schoep will need these treatments every few weeks 'forever,' the vet said, but he should be able to spend his golden years pain-free.

'Schoep is doing very well. I don't think John has to worry about Schoep for quite a while,' he said.

People interested in helping can call the Bay Area Animal Hospital at 715-682-8865 with a credit card number or mail a check to 3601 E Hwy 2 Ashland, WI 54806. 

All donations go right into Schoep's account at the clinic.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2186763/He-saved-MY-life--I-just-want-help-return-Owner-sick-dog-picture-touched-nations-hearts-reveals-loyal-companion-stopped-suicide.html#ixzz23JUtDXQb

How Google's Marissa Mayer Prevents Burnout

Many entrepreneurs don't even think twice when it comes to working around the clock. Marissa Mayer, Google's 20th employee and current vice president of location and local services, is no exception. When Google was a young company, she worked 130 hours per week and often slept at her desk. "For my first five years at Google, I pulled an all-nighter every week," Mayer said in a recent talk at New York's 92Y cultural center. "It was a lot of hard work." Hard work, she says, has been the key to Google's success, as well as her own. For young companies that demand so much of their employees, hard work can spiral into burnout. Learning to prevent it--for yourself and your employees--is essential to your success as a business owner.



Here are three steps to get started: Step 1. Watch for signs of resentment. "Burnout is about resentment," Mayer told the audience at 92Y. "[Preventing it is] about knowing yourself well enough to know what it is you're giving up that makes you resentful." Her assessment is right on target. "The question is whether you can replenish your energy when you get tired," says Michael Leiter, professor of psychology at Acadia University in Nova Scotia. If you can't restore your energy or resolve your values conflict with your work, you feel exhausted, cynical, and discouraged--the hallmarks of burnout. Related: 3 Postures to Boost Productivity Now


Step 2. Find your rhythm. Mayer's theory is that you need to figure out what your "rhythm" is, meaning the activity that matters so much to you resentment sets in when you can't do it. In Leiter's words, it's the activity that restores your energy. That might mean sleeping eight hours a night, practicing yoga daily, or getting out in nature once a week. Whatever it is, it's essential to your satisfaction, so don't skip it. "People--particularly entrepreneurs--can put in huge amounts of energy and time," Leiter says. "Overwork doesn't burn people out per se, but it's doing that without knowing the things that replenish you." Related: A Secret to Creative Problem Solving


 Step 3. Grant employees one must-have freedom. When Mayer suspects an employee might burn out, she asks them to find their rhythm. They've come back with, "I need to be home for Tuesday night dinners," or "I need to be on time for my daughter's soccer games." She grants those needs--no exceptions. "You can't have everything you want," Mayer cautions. "But you can have the things that really matter to you. That empowers you to work really hard for a long period of time on something that you're passionate about."

Credits -entrepreneur

Immortality by 2024?

Russian media magnate Dmitry Itskov is heading "Avatar," a tremendously ambitious and far-reaching multidisciplinary research project that aims to achieve immortality in humans within the next three decades. He plans to do it by housing human brains in progressively more disembodied vehicles, first transplanting them into robots and then, by the year 2045, by reverse-engineering the human brain and effectively "downloading" human consciousness onto a computer chip.

Fact or fiction?

When speculating on seemingly unobtainable goals such as this, one must be careful not to believe that improbable technological advances automatically become more likely simply by looking further away in the future. This is the cognitive trap that, for instance, has seen many leading IT experts predict the development of a human-level artificial intelligence at roughly twenty years in the future for at least the past five decades.

Looking at Avatar's proposed timeline, Itskov's project seems to suffer from the same fallacy. Certainly, if we borrow Carl Sagan's rule that "extraordinary claims demand extraordinary proof," the project comes up short for the time being; it does, however, have the merit of basing most of its steps on technology that is either in the works or of general interest. And with the rate of technological change continuing to accelerate, the project's goals may be within reach, although not necessarily within the project's aggressive timeline.

The roadmap to immortality

The first of the proposed steps, to be completed before the end of the decade, would be to create an android "avatar" controlled entirely by a brain-computer interface. The system would at first be of interest to physically challenged people, but might also enable people to work in hazardous environments or perform dangerous rescue operations.

As futuristic as this vision may seem, Itskov is not the only person to share it. DARPA allotted US$7 million of next year's budget to the development of interfaces enabling a soldier to guide a semi-autonomous bipedal machine and allow it to act as the soldier's surrogate. Other researchers have reported being able to exert basic control over the movement of a humanoid robot using brainwaves alone, and many are working on refining this technology.

The second step would be the creation of an autonomous life support system for the human brain, which could then be integrated into the previously developed "avatar" by 2025. If the efforts are successful, immobile patients with an intact brain would be able to regain the ability to move via their new synthetic bodies, and a varied range of bio-electronic devices might become possible, creating superimpositions of electronic and biological systems.

Not a great deal of research is going into this at the moment – in fact, the closest match would have to be the research of Dr. Robert J. White who, back in the 70s, managed to perform several head transplants in monkeys. Building an artificial environment in which a brain could not only survive, but also continue working to full effect, is sure to prove a much harder task.

By 2035, Itskov hopes to be able to reverse-engineer the human brain and find a means of "downloading" its consciousness to a synthetic version. Coupled with the previous advancements, this would allow humans to achieve cybernetic immortality. It would also lead to the creation of a human-like artificial intelligence, and even provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or enhance their own brains, for instance by manipulating memories.

While there is no current research going into transferring your consciousness into a silicon chip, there is plenty of interest among neuroscientists in better understanding the inner workings of the brain. Although we are just scratching the surface, recent advancements – such as a robotic arm that can analyze the electricity patterns of single neurons – are certainly steps in the right direction.

The fourth and final step is also the most science-fictiony. By the year 2045, Itskov would like to see "substance-independent minds" uploaded not onto a computer chip, but into bodies of different compositions. A holographic body could walk through walls or move at the speed of light, while a body made of nanorobots would be able to take on a number of different forms at will. "Humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species," he writes.

Funding and support

Itskov says he has invested plenty of his own money to kick start the necessary research, hiring 30 scientists to reach this goal, organizing meetings, with plans to establish offices in San Francisco later this summer. He is also working on building a social network to raise awareness in his initiative, and on a "business incubator" for the creation of commercial applications - mostly in the medical field - that would capitalize on the research and fund further development. In other words, as crazy as this sounds, Itskov is absolutely serious about this, and the wheels are turning on this project.

Of course, the sheer pace of scientific inquiry required to make this project succeed will require very large - perhaps prohibitive - amounts of capital. To address this, Itskov recently addressed a letter to billionaires in the Forbes richest list in an appeal for funds, but he is also looking for government support.

Surprisingly, the Russian Ministry of Education and Science announced its support of the initiative, and has scheduled talks to discuss a specialized research and development center. Oddly enough, the initiative has also received the support and blessing of the Dalai Lama.

The video below is a short presentation detailing the steps and goals of the "Avatar" project.

Source: 2045 Initiative

Marrissa Mayer's Secret Weapon

Everyone agrees that one of Marissa Mayer’s most urgent tasks at Yahoo will be hiring great managers and product people. Yahoo’s talent pool has been reduced to puddles, as the best techies have gone elsewhere and promising newcomers have come down with colorblindness when it comes to purple.  Some people wonder whether even Mayer can lure back the brains.

It turns out, though, that the new CEO has a unique advantage in fulfilling this quest. For the past decade, she has been the doyen of a collection of some of the most talented young engineers and product managers in all of technology. These are the hand-selected prime talents of an accelerated leadership program at Google called Associate Product Manager (APM).

Mayer invented this program, led it and never gave it up. It was a key part of her tenure at Google. And now she may reap some benefits.

Don’t be fooled by the modest title, prefixed by that timid word “associate.” The most coveted entry post at Google is spelled APM. This is an incubation system for tech rock stars. “The APM program is one of our core values — I’d like to think of one of them as the eventual CEO of the company,” Google’s Executive Chair Eric Schmidt once told me.

Consider the first APM, a fresh Stanford grad named Brian Rakowski. He became a key leader of the team that built the Chrome browser and now is the VP of the Chrome operation. The second was Wesley Chan, who made Google Toolbar a success, then launched Google Analytics and Google Voice. He’s now picking winners for Google Ventures. Another early APM was Bret Taylor, who earned his bones by launching Google Maps. He left Google and co-founded Friendfeed, then become the Chief Technical Officer of Facebook.

Though not all APMs achieve such glory, they are generally recognized as elite. At any given time at Google, there are over 40 APMs active in the two-year program. And since Google has been hiring them since the early 2000s there are over 300 who have been through the program.

And the glue to the whole shebang was Marissa Mayer, who was the APM boss, mentor, den mother and role model.

Mayer thought up the program in early 2002. Google had been struggling to find PMs who could work within the peculiar company culture — team leaders who would not be bosses but work consensually with the wizards who produce code. Ideally, a Google product manger would understand the technical issues and sway the team to his or her viewpoint by strong data-backed arguments, and more than a bit of canny psychology. But experienced PMs from places like Microsoft, or those with MBAs, didn’t understand the Google way, and tried to force their views on teams.

So Mayer came up with an idea: Google would hire computer science majors who just graduated or had been in the workplace fewer than 18 months. The ideal applicants must have technical talent, but not be total programming geeks — APMs had to have social finesse and business sense. Essentially they would be in-house entrepreneurs. They would undergo a multi-interview hiring process that made the Harvard admissions regimen look like community college. The chosen ones were thrown into deep water, heading real, important product teams. (As the first APM, Rakowski was asked to launch a nascent project called Gmail. By the way, I hear Rakowski is taking over the program now that Mayer is gone.) “We give them way too much responsibility,” Mayer once told me, “to see if they can handle it.” Also, Google had APMs perform tasks for top management, like note-taking at high-level executive meetings or drawing up white papers on ambitious potential products.

The program has a been massive success, with APMs filling key roles in dozens of key Google products, ranging from apps to search to ads. The program has been so successful that Google has created a variation for leaders of non-product teams. These are called Marketing APMs. Though not quite as prestigious as APMs, these Googlers are not exactly chopped liver. For instance, Kevin Systrom was an MAPM — before he left Google and founded Instagram.

The one constant in the program has been Mayer. Her staff ran the program, and continued to do so, even after she moved from heading search products to local services in 2011. You didn’t get to be an APM unless you connected with her; she was the last interview in a long series, and she’d typically make ultimate decision. (“Tell me about a product you love,” she’d ask candidates. There was no right answer. But not describing the choice with passion was the wrong answer.)

Marissa Mayer (third from right) leading APMs on a trip in 2007. Photo: Steven Levy

Once you become an APM, Mayer was available as mentor and counselor. She made time in her insanely busy schedule to meet. She worked behind the scenes to address any issues that arose.

Halfway through the two-year program, Mayer herself would lead the group on a summer trip to visit international Google outposts. (I accompanied the trip in 2007; we went to Tokyo, Beijing, Bangalore, and Tel Aviv. This year, one of the cities included Jakarta.) It would be a bonding experience for each year’s group of APMs — bonding with each other and to Mayer.

Many, if not most, of the APMs keep in touch with Mayer after they graduate from the program, meeting with her periodically for a career check, and consulting with her when they considered a move. This occurs even after APMs leave Google. (It’s not surprising that a high percentage of APMs go elsewhere. APMs are chosen for their ambition and independence. Those traits are often at odds with working at a big company.)

In short, Marissa Mayer has developed a deep connection to over three hundred of most talented tech people in Silicon Valley. They may still be at Google, they may have moved to companies like Facebook or Dropbox, or they may have started their own budding enterprises like Optimizely. But in some sense they are all Marissa’s acolytes.

It would be not be surprising if some of these baccalaureate APMs wind up at Yahoo. In addition, former APMs all have their own networks, and can tip off Mayer to promising hires. Naturally, one of the first e-mails that Mayer sent after accepting her new job was a blast to the entire APM network, informing them of her move and assuring them that she will still be in touch. She reminded them that they are all part of a very special family.

And Mayer would presumably be happy to welcome some of these family members to her new home at Yahoo.

Credits -wired.com

Robert Timms

Robert Timms is having a 1 for 1 so we went there for dinner ytd.

The food was really good but thank god for the 1 for 1 deal otherwise it would be very expensive.

One main course is more than 20 bucks.

China, India Grapple With Growth Challenges

China and India are both dealing with economic slowdowns but are on completely different footings to tackle the challenge. Beijing has a range of fiscal and monetary options to revive growth, while New Delhi must make tough political decisions to stem its decline.




China is better positioned to handle a shock than it was in 2008. It relies less on trade for growth: In 2008, China's net exports amounted to 7.7% of GDP; in 2011 the share had dropped to 2.6%. Beijing reported on Monday that inflation declined to 2.2% in June, compared with a year ago. With government debt at an estimated 22% of GDP, China has plenty of levers to pull to stimulate its economy in the face of declining demand.




"China is in a very comfortable position compared to the rest of the world," said Luis Kuijs, project director at the Fung Global Institute, a Hong Kong think tank. "It's more a matter of choice of what policy measures it will take to stimulate the economy, rather than whether it will be able to."








A large portion of China's economy is in the hands of its state-owned companies. That means the government can more easily get its economic decisions carried out—though it does present long-term problems for China as it tries to shift to an economy based on more innovation, competition and private enterprise.




The Chinese government recently has stepped in with stimulus measures. To boost demand for commodities and construction among other industries, the government approved two steel plants and several energy projects. On the monetary front, the central bank has cut interest rates twice in the past few weeks—the first such moves since December 2008—and in May reduced the level of reserves banks are required to hold. China has plenty of room for additional monetary moves.

"India's hands are tied, and because of that it's much more exposed to the global slowdown," said Frederic Neumann, co-head of Asian economic research for HSBC. "It has no fiscal ammo left to pump-prime the economy, so it has to endure a slowdown and take it on the chin."

India's main challenge is to stimulate business investment, which is drying up amid wariness among both domestic and foreign companies about shifting tax policies and regulations. The country's currency, the rupee, has tumbled against the dollar in the past year, partly due to growing investor concerns about India's high current-account deficit, which is roughly 4% of GDP. The rupee's fall has driven up real import costs for Indian companies and made foreign-currency loans more expensive to service.

The Reserve Bank of India in April cut interest rates for the first time in three years to fuel business lending. But when industry was looking for more last month, the central bank said it couldn't cut rates further with inflation uncomfortably high at 7.6%.

Self-Motivation Spirit

Okay, before I start this entry. I must say its really random but I was inspired by my long-time neighbour who is one year older than me.


I have not talked to him for a very long time because he's quite a far neighbour, he stays one storey below me.


So cutting to the chase, I saw him today in the lift and had a small chat. He told me that he's currently working in Logistics right now and that he's going to Uni next year. He mentioned that he should have studied hard last time because for him to go Uni at age 24, its very straining especially when he's working part-time as well.


What caught on to me was the tenacity he had, not the lateness of him going to the University per se. When I heard that he's going to the University next year, I was thinking oh wow, this guy actually is really determined. In the past, he used to be from the Normal Technical stream which is technically the worse class and he was extremely playful. But seeing the person he has become today and his perseverance to go to Uni even though he has to work, I can't help but be inspired by him.


Many a times, I hear people complaining about school and work. To be honest, I'm kinda sick of it and I think they are really lacking the resilience. People give up so easily these days and I don't see the hunger in them anymore.


There's no drive in them and there's no ambition at all. They are just getting by as the days pass, happy with being just the average.


However, personally, I don't just wish to be above average, I want to be the best and I work towards being the best.


Coming from a neighbourhood school background, I constantly live in the shadow of the elite students and since young I always thought to myself that they are of a different league and that there's no way I will be the best like them.


However, as I progress to Junior College, I got to be the first in my level and that was the first moment where I actually thought to myself, "Hey you know what? I can be the best!"


As I went to University, I knew it was going to be tough especially in Nanyang Business School where you get all the students coming from Raffles Junior College and Hwa Chong JC. Of course it was intimidating going head to head with these top students.


Nevertheless I fought hard and again I managed to achieve first in my level and I'm near the top student in Nanyang Business School right now. On hindsight, I'm quite disappointed with the level of the Raffles & Hwa Chong students. I mean no offence to them but I had way higher expectations of them. Perhaps its partly due to the marketing of their schools. But I'm certainly no where near impressed with these students at all. They lack the drive and ambition. I don't see them aiming high or even aiming at all.


And today, I see my neighbour even at this age, still striving to be a better person even with so much commitments. These are the people that give me goosebumps, those people that work hard for things.


They fight for everything and they give it their all each and every time.


I hope to work with such people as I enter the workforce and together, we will conquer that corporate ladder!