Don’t Forget To Greet The Stranger On The Road

You never know, you just might have made the acquaintance of an angel without knowing it.  Call it a hunch, or an intuition or the sixth sense.  Call it what ever you like.

Come to think of it there was something about this stranger yet somehow, at that very moment it just did not dawn on me, until sometime some where down the road I faced another near encounter and THEN another stranger approached in the distance and I stopped in my tracks.  Should I greet this person again?  Is this the same person or are there many like them?

I recalled some of the many instances where someone came along in the other direction of the road.  Someone good always does!  Often in times of distress.  And I sat by the side of the road and reminisced and I wondered of those encounters where I had met a remarkable person who should not have been there in any other ordinary circumstance. 

Some of these folks we may have met only once, and then they are gone forever.  Never to be seen again in our life time. Maybe it was so long ago yet the scene still plays out on the grey screen like it was just yesterday. 

Often times we do not see them again because they have fulfilled a purpose at a particular moment in our life and their job is done and because we have probably moved away from where it all began, in the end we simply remember them as ordinary folks. Nothing more nothing less.  Just ordinary people. Or were they really?

Others, believe it or not, we still meet every other day in this present time in different circumstances. Think about it! Different scenarios for different people and in the bustle of life, in our busyness, we don’t realise the plans that are in store for us that slowly but surely unravel before us in ordinary circumstances that, most times we take for granted as just normal events.

What about you?  Do you ever wonder about the good folks you have met along the way, folks you have met in different situations in your life whether it was positive or it was negative? Folks who for some reason were not there by mistake, and whether you liked it or not and whether directly or indirectly they had left a lasting impression or made an impact on your life that many times their stories don’t ever make the the blank pages of your  personal diary because its already written forever in your heart.

I Am Thinking Of A Word

They say a picture reveals more than your own words can in a sentence.
 
Like this brunch photo taken at the KMC food and bar restaurant at Badili over the weekend.

Not that I don't have anything worth sharing from my long absence from here cause I do.

Honestly I just got lazy with all these writing ritual I stopped blogging here for almost too long I'll say.

Anyway you will be glad to know that I have a few important updates in coming logs.

One of which is my part-time diploma studies at the IBS which is currently on hold due to lack funds to self sponsor.

Which makes me question my current job security in a third world country and wonder how in the world can a person living in Papua New Guinea generate multiple income sources using just the net.

There is already reliable broadband internet in most cities and towns in PNG which would not have happened without Digicel PNG leading the PNG Telco market with its "bigger better network " mobile data services.

However the cost of accessing online information is still quite expensive in PNG compared to our Asian neighbors.

I love my country but there is whole world out there and I am not going to sit in a cubicle for the rest of my life while just across the Vanimo PNG-Indonesia border, Asia beckons with lifestyle adventure.

That reminds me I have to renew my PNG passport.

Concerning internet data costs in PNG let's just hope we will see much cheaper data rates when Vodafone Fiji comes onto the scene later this year.

I have also been thinking about the future of this blog and I have decided to self host using WordPress taking the advice of many who have gone before us.

This will be a first for me and so I expect to make some mistakes along the way as I make the transition so please bear with me.

How are you ever going to learn without making mistakes right? 

Just Over Broke

Sitting here looking out this office window every day for the last decade at distant sprawling hills and blue skies beyond. Hoping things would get better doing the same thing over and over. Unless I get out of this comfort zone I am just another statistic walking on thin ice.

But during those office hours while the body is only reacting and the mind is drifting far away out there beyond these four walls. Somewhere beyond those hills far away from the city life is more refreshing to the human mind and soul, then this shrinking cubicle with all its work load pressures and dead line schedules with no incentives to motivate but drive one insane.  It has all been a lie.

Who came up with this idea of a job in the first place?  Wake up in the mornings and splash water to your face. Skip breakfast because you are running late again and head out into the day like the rest of the zombies in the public transport stuck in the morning traffic that's become the norm in this city.

You clock in.  Switch on your computer .  Log into the network. Open your office applications.   Open your virtual work queue.  Start processing for the next 8 hours or more.  Then the phone starts ringing off the hook, emails are coming, faxes are coming, more paper work is coming.  Finally its time to go home.   You close your applications.  Shut down and clock out.  You travel home, have dinner and go to bed and have a strange dream about cubicles closing in on you in a psychiatric ward.   You wake up screaming and morning has just broken. You are tired you want to sleep further but you have to wake up to earn your bread and butter. So you rinse and repeat what you did yesterday...to be continued. 

Wish Me Luck!

I have an Economics final exam tomorrow (Friday).

The last exam for me for this semester and the sixth one so far in the IBS business diploma program.

I have two more units to take, next year second semester, before I get a diploma.

So I am currently reviewing my economics study notes.


Its been peaceful the last couple of months of this semester with family away.

I have had a lot of time to plan out this idea that I have to create other sources of income stream or cash flow apart from my day job salary.

But that is a story for another time.

For now I just want to get this exam over with so I can start on this project.

Wishing you a pleasant final week of September.

Cheers Walkdan

It Is Never Too Late

Happy weekend to you all.

It's been like more than 14 weeks of study, burning the midnight oil, for all the tests, and assignments.

The final exam this week was a relief to say the least.

I have got two weeks to wait for the results to come out.

School is out now for a month or so and I am back to my usual route to the office in the mornings.

A bit of back ground about the course I am taking at the IBS.

I am studying for my Diploma in Business (DIB) at the Institute of Business Studies a tertiary college in PNG that is affiliated with the Southern Cross University of Australia.

The IBS also offers an MBA program through its affiliation with the Deaken University.

The diploma program offered is the foundation in a career path that leads towards a bachelors degree.

After the diploma program, the next step in the career path is the associate degree and finally the bachelor degree program.

You can obtain a diploma with the IBS in a year and in three years get your bachelors degree majoring in accounting, marketing, information systems or information technology.

What I like best about the IBS is that you can obtain an international qualification right here at home which means you get to be close to your loved ones while you take up studies.

This year (2011) the IBS saw the highest number of student intake ever recorded as a result of clever marketing and recommendations from past students.

The average student per class this at the IBS was around 90 students compared to an average of 30 students per class in the previous years.

The IBS has a unit research centre to ensure that the curriculums they offer are up to date each year.

For those who are working you can always take up studies part time and complete your diploma in two years and in four years you can get your degree. 

So far I have completed 4 units out of the 8 units in the diploma program and have 2 more semesters to complete before I can get my diploma.

To interested persons living in PNG or Port Moresby I would highly recommend studying at the IBS to further your academic education.

Image source: Ports.com

Burning The Midnight Oil

Since taking up part-time studies at the IBS I have been staying up late to do my school work. I find it peaceful at these odd hours of the morning.

After midnight the streets are empty except for the occasional night riders speeding down the road. Outside my window dogs can also be heard rummaging through my next door neighbors garbage left beside the road for pick up the rubbish truck. The city is asleep and I am usually along with my thoughts at these early hours of the morning.

Currently I am working on a management assignment.  Its a team work assignment and we are to address several questions based on a hypothetical case study.  The assignment is due midnight next week Wednesday 11 May 2011.

However, I am not pleased with the effort of our team.  As we have not had an official meeting to discuss the questions. This assignment is crucial if we are to pass the unit at and it is the last week. Crucial to me especially since the condition of my continued sponsorship is that I get C and above in all the 8 units I study under this diploma program.

I am not one to give up that easily so I have attempted most of the questions and will hunt down my my team this week to collaborate on a draft.  This is now a crisis and since this is a management cost it must be managed at all costs. That also means burning the midnight oil to get it done.

Image source Midnightcomm

Calidus Autogyro – My Personal Sky Ride

The Calidus Autogyro designed and manufactured by Autogyro GmbH and launched in 2009 has got to be the ultimate personal joy ride machine by far I’d have to say.

Well may be you have your own tastes.

But for me this has got to be it, for now. 

It is cheaper then conventional helicopters and ultra light planes.

It is practically safe to ride because of the principle behind how it is flies.

It does not need long run ways to take off or even land.

You can travel cross country with it and visit families in the rural country.

You could even take it home with you. 

Just some of the benefits about it.

How cool is that?  And that is why I love it.

I am from Papua New Guinea and it has one of the most rugged and mountainous terrain with untouched virgin jungles and forests in the world; making it of one the most difficult to travel practically by road.

So the only way to get around the country, ever since, is by air.

It is expensive but that is how this country was built; through aviation transport and services from the shores to the inlands and the highlands.

The only national airline carrier in PNG is Air Niugini and it has a monopoly on the airline industry in PNG.

There are other third-air line such as, MAF and Airlines PNG but Air Niugini has aerodromes in all the provinces of PNG.

Getting back to my personal choice for the ultimate joy ride machine, the Calidus Autogyro would make personal cross country movement a lot cheaper in PNG I reckon especially for those daring enough to take a ride in one of this sky “motorbikes” ;) 

To fly a factory made autogyro such as the Calidus or the Gyro MTOSport you would require a gyrocopter pilot license. 

By the way, I don’t know how to fly a conventional airplane or a chopper yet but I read you can fly a gyrocopter quite easily with about a minimum of 30 hours of practical flight training plus theory and exams.

Imagine what it would be like to go flying early in the mornings or late in the afternoons just before the sun rises or sets. The views would be just spectacular.

Have you flown an autogyro before?  What was it like? It must have been a rush your first ride.

Be sure to tell me more about your adventure ride in an autogyro by leaving me a comment.

I got to go now. 

Chat soon!