Toastmasters
This activity has been taken a lot of my time off the first month of January. Here's the stuffs that I've been doing for TI this month.
08th Jan - Club Table Topic master cum Grammarian
15th Jan - Vistana Contest: Toastmaster of the Evening
17th Jan - International Speech Contestant (1st Runner Up)
19th Jan - Division S Judge Workshop (Co-Organizing Chair)
28th Jan - Club Exco Meeting (need to look for members seriously)
29th Jan - Success Club Meeting (evaluator for Assignment #3); VTMC Meeting (Table Topics Speaker)
30th Jan - Timer (To achieve my CL assignment goal)

The good thing is that, Toastmasters has gave me the platform to practice. So much so that my department presentation was an eye opener.

Yesterday I presented a paper about the project I've been doing, and everyone seated is very interested. I did not get the best scores of the day, but I can see that the director graded me better as compared to my presentation when I first join the company.

Company Event
I've been voluntarily helping up in some photography assignments since I join the company. Hopefully they'll show some appreciation by compensating on my equipment depreciation.

12th Jan - Golf Championship, Kulim Golf Club.
22nd Jan - Thaipusam, Waterfall Road.

Toastmasters will be having their Annual Convention in Penang this year (PG2008). And the organizers have asked me to coordinate the video/photography for the whole event. This shows that people start to acknowledge my photography skills. This is a good opportunity to expand my hobby into a full fledge career.

Financial
Since getting out from school, I have been saving enough to spend on the things that I enjoy - photography, travel, electronics...etc. So dad signed me up for an exam by FMUTM (Federation of Malaysian Unit Trust Managers). After hours of bed time reading (yes...I read technical papers to sleep), I managed to finish the exam in a blink of an eye. Turns out the paper is the easiest paper I've sat for the past 10 years!!!

Now, I'm waiting for my agent code, and will start to educate people about savings/ investing/ financial planning. 2 of the 3 is correct, need to sit for more exams to be a licensed financial planner.

I bought a RM1.50 log book to track my daily expenses and see where I've spend excess. Hopefully with the extra money I save, I can bring Irene for a week-long cruise to never-ever-land. So far the most expensive thing I've spent on this month is a RM150 Hoya Pro1 UV filter for my RM700 lens. Will justify the expenditure once I get my hands on this<1685>.

Technology
This month is a blessing for all techno-freaks. CES2008, MacWorld2008 and PMA2008 has announced a lot of wallet drilling gadgets. Here are some of the things I'm crave for includes the Panasonic 150" Plasma TV, MacBook Air, AF-S DX NIKKOR 16-85mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR.

And DPReview has launched a lens review section. They have 4 lenses tested (no Nikkors though) Looking forward to get the 16-85VR vs 18-200VR lens performance review before putting my money in. For now, 16-85VR is more suitable for the kinda photography I do.

Miscellaneous
February will be a month of celebrations (CNY, Valentines...). I've already building up my to-do lists...and hopefully it'll be a compactly exciting month. My target is to make a list of things I spend and start a sub-blog about frugality/personal finance. Lets see how things go.

Labels: Myself