FIRING ON ALL CYLINDERS!

Ever since returning from Jakarta, Indonesia, just before Christmas Day last year, I have been very busy, physically & intellectually.

In fact, as mentioned earlier, I have been inundated with several project consultancy appraisals, in strategic partnership with my good friend, Dilip Mukerjea.

One has involved the creation of a new learning ecosystem for children, drawing upon internal as well as external landscapes in the existing premises, for a client.

Another has involved the conception & design of a digital web-portal, which entails the utilisation of an intelligent digital concierge to guide web-users on learning, creativity & innovation from wherever they may be.

More importantly, there were also several projects relating to eventual implementation in Indonesia, in collaboration with my good friend, Alex.

One involved the conception & design of a proposed curriculum for a 12-month Business School for Kids, interspersed with outdoor adventure camps to inculcate risk-taking behaviours, among other important entrepreneurial traits.

Indonesia has many beautiful natural landscapes to provide such an outdoor facility. Best of all, at low cost!

Another one involved the implementation of a systematic hand-holding program for students, in a defined centre or in the schools, to master my proprietary development of the 'Study Smart Process', which entails ten important process stages.

At this very moment, the projects are still in the "finalisation of negotiation" stage.

Actually, what has fascinated me most is the stretching of the intellectual muscles - firing on all cylinders - in my brain to deal with all the potential challenges & to come up with all the possible solutions.

In the course of preparatory work, I have to use a broad variety of software tools e.g. Excel, Powerpoint, SmartDraw, MindManager, etc., to flesh out initial ideas through mapping, storyboarding, flow-charting & spreadsheet analysis.

I also have to surf the net & read up on the latest & new technological developments, e.g. exploratory hypermedia, information mining, adaptive clustering, intelligent personalisation, digital content manipulations, technology-based & blended learning, paper prototyping, etc.

The resultant research has certainly helped me in the problem/opportunity exploration & project development process.

Frankly, the foregoing stuff was entirely new to me, although I have some inklings as to what they can do & contribute in the design & development of my projects.

[Dilip has also taken the opportunity to convince me to pick up a Mac Pro. I may consider it after the CNY holidays, to coincide with the expected launch of the new range of Mac products. Looks like there will be more & new learning curves for me.]

During the course of initial exploration, there were also many extensive hours of intellectual sparring with my good friend, Dilip.

By the way, for the digital web-portal, much of the intellectual property, which will form the total digital content library, will come from Dilip.

For me, the greatest challenge will be the digital manipulations of his published thoughtwares, as a start. The work has yet to start.

What also has excited me most is that the proposed layout of the system architecture as conceived by Dilip & me on our own for the digital web-portal has been given the OK by a system architect, engaged by the investing party to appraise the project.

In between the many project appraisals, I have managed to spend some quick time to catch up with the backlog of my reading.

In the light of 'firing of all cylinders' on my part, so to speak, I have been very slow in posting of my weblog. This is inevitable, as I have to consider first things first.

Regrettably, my weblog readers will have to bear with my "absence" or intermittent postings from time to time.

In fact, I have also not been posting any of my book reviews on Amazon for quite some time.

Worst still, I am also caught up in the preliminary preparation of my planned relocation to Ho Chi Minh City with my wife. We are currently finalising the building plans with the architect over there.

If the current projects materialised in the not-too-distant future, I will definitely be pulled out of semi-retirement, & also may have to shuttle frequently between Singapore-Ho Chi Minh City-Jakarta.

Nonetheless, I am not complaining, as long as I can continue to "indulge" in 'firing on all cylinders'. It's my only new way of keeping my brain intellectually alive & physically active. My body, too.