[Note] 2014 – You have been good to me!

befearless

2014 is definitely one of the most memorable years in my life. Words cannot describe how grateful I am to the things that happened to me and the people that I have met throughout this year.

This year, I shared an amazing term with my best friends at UBC, and I won’t forget the days I spent at this beautiful campus.

This year, my wish 6 years ago came true. I visited London, again and on my own. It’s funny that after so many changes in my summer plan, I still ended up in London – the city in my dream.

This year, I made friends with some random people in the most unexpected ways, and I’m truly thankful for the things they taught me.

This year, I ended up at a job in an industry that I have never thought of before. Yes, I’m talking about being a sales person in a real estate company. But that’s a necessary step I need to take to achieve a goal far more ambitious.

This year, I returned to my hometown, and I stick to my decision. Saigon is a lovely place, and I still don’t understand why people would ever want to leave this city. I love being surrounded by my family and friends. I love speaking in my mother tongue language. I love riding my motorbike at night and see glimmering street lights. I love eating Vietnamese food. I love helping Vietnamese people. I love the weather of Saigon. It’s true that not everything about Saigon is great, but I have been a child of Saigon for 22 years, and I can say for sure that the city has improved a lot. Everything takes time, and I want share the burden with the people in my country.

Still, there are many things I haven’t accomplished this year. As of now, I can say that my reading goal totally failed. In 2015, I will make sure that I finish my reading list and take time to read newspaper everyday.

2015 comes with many challenges, and may God give me strength, courage and patience to overcome those challenges.

Happy New Year everyone, and may the odds be ever in your favor 🙂

[Note] The last term at UBC

gratitude-quotes-12

So I’m back, trying to record all those crazy things that happened to me in the last three and a half months. This semester gave me so many up and down, so many excitement as wells as disappointment. But I’m thankful for all experiences, even the bad ones, as they did help me become more aware of who I am and my limitations. Đọc tiếp “[Note] The last term at UBC”

[Review] Tiểu thuyết Kẻ Mạo Danh

Nếu bạn là người hâm mộ tác phẩm Bá tước Monte Cristo của Alexandre Dumas, vậy thì chắc hẳn bạn cũng sẽ có một sự yêu thích nhất định đối với cuốn sách này.

“Kẻ Mạo Danh” được viết bởi Jeffrey Archer (đồng tác giả với Hai Số Phận) và xuất bản vào năm 2008, có thể được coi là phiên bản hiện đại của Bá tước Monte Cristo. Tuy nhiên tình tiết câu chuyện không bị lặp lại một cách rập khuôn nhàm chán, mà ngược lại có một số điểm sáng tạo rất đáng khen ngợi.

Đọc tiếp “[Review] Tiểu thuyết Kẻ Mạo Danh”

[Note] Inspiring speech about self-confidence

I post these clips to remind myself why I’m doing what I do. It has been a difficult journey for me for the last 4 years because I started losing my self confidence. Despite all the good grades and feedbacks I got, deep down I couldn’t convince myself I am good at Marketing. I chose Marketing because that’s what I love and because I want to train my communication skills, even though my strengths aligned more with accounting or finance. I am really good with number, logic and research, but not so much with creativity. Anyway, I always choose to follow my passion, but it’s painful sometimes to see that I am not able to excel Marketing the way I did with other things related to Math and pure logic. But to keep going with what I chose, I know that I need to rebuild my self-confidence as fast as possible, and to learn to appreciate who I am.

Talking about the matter of introversion, I really love Susan’s speech – “The power of introverts” – because it really resonates with me. I would recommend it to anyone who is struggling with society’s favouritism of extrovert. I am myself a loner at heart and always enjoy solitude. I took philosophy courses partly because I wanted to have time to think for myself, to get what life is, rather than just solely focus on doing things to earn money. That’s why sometimes I don’t feel like I belong to my college community because as you know, most business schools are fond of people who can talk smoothly and do a lot of activities. I know some people are great at public speaking and have great brains at the same time. But most often I encounter people who just talk, even though what they say makes no sense whatsoever. Those people are admirable in some sense too because I can never bullshit while looking so confident like them. Listening to Susan’s speech definitely helped me to re-appreciate the introvert in me.

[Tâm sự] Đối diện nỗi sợ

Gần đây trong khi chuẩn bị cho phỏng vấn xin việc, tôi bắt gặp một câu hỏi: “Thành công lớn nhất trong đời bạn là gì?” Một câu hỏi khá hay vì nó cho phép tôi nhìn lại bản thân trong suốt những năm quá. Thú thật tới giờ tôi vẫn không biết cách trả lời câu hỏi này sao cho hợp ý nhà tuyển dụng. Họ muốn tôi kể ra một thành tích mà tôi đã đạt được và những khó khăn mà tôi đã vượt qua sao? Hay họ muốn biết tôi coi trọng những giá trị sống nào? Tuy nhiên, nếu cho tôi trả lời một cách thành thực, có lẽ thành công lớn nhất mà tôi có được, chính là việc tôi luôn dám đương đầu với những nỗi sợ của bản thân, cốt để theo đuổi thứ mà tôi thích.

Đọc tiếp “[Tâm sự] Đối diện nỗi sợ”

[Thoughts] Mercedes Benz Fake Commercial

One of the ads that caught my interest two months ago is a fake Mercedes Benz commercial made by a group of film students from the Film Academy in Luwigsburg. Setting aside the morality question of the ad, I personally think it is a brilliant commercial with a very creative perspective.

I would say there are 2 things that make this ad really captivating:

  • Great visual effect and music choice: The quality shooting of this ad is non-arguable. I think we can all agree that every scene is captured beautifully with careful intention, as expected from film students. The shooting angles, the smoky background, the lightning, the gloomy-yet-artistic atmosphere, the actors, all those elements are integrated gracefully to create a picture of Germany in the past. And in that picture, Mercedes Benz simply stands out as a powerful and compelling force with every of its move. The last scene, especially, is spectacular with the image of young Hitler lying on the ground and creating a Nazi symbol. You probably also notice how the music accelerates near the end of the ad.  I think the song accompanies the plot very well and I just simply like it. Nevertheless, commercials for cars have always been praised for high shooting quality, so in that aspect, this ad is not something new.
  • Interesting and controversial concept: What I love about this ad is how those students take the tagline “Detect dangers before they come up” to a deeper meaning level. What if the Collision-Prevent-Assist-System were developed ages ago? What if it could look into future and had a soul to judge good and bad? In that scenario, “dangers” are not just about physical obstacles on the road but also about what will actually harm people in future. The ad showcases that Mercedes Benz does not just detect and avoid dangers, it eliminates the root of dangers before they even occur. I think it is very daring to humanize Mercedes Benz’s system to such an omnipotent level. The morality, however, is debatable. The fact that the car hit on a young boy is in no way appropriate, but is it justifiable if killing one can save thousand lives later? It is a tough philosophical question, and that somehow makes this commercial even more meaningful. Some people might think the ad is disturbing, but I find it more thought-provoking. It is controversial but not in a lame and shallow way like other overly sexual or racist ads out there.

Nevertheless, I would say it is a smart ad as it definitely captures viewers’ attention and has already gone viral. Funny thing, although Mercedes Benz called the ad “inappropriate”, they did not try to take it down. Give or take, I think they are actually happy to receive this free publicity. People may like or dislike the ad, but at least they are now aware of Mercedes Benz’s Collision-Prevent-Assist-System.