Mickey's blog

นิสิตจุฬาฯ ชนะรางวัล Global Innovation Tournament จาก Stanford University ประเทศสหรัฐอเมริกา นิสิตสาขาวิชาเคมีประยุกต์ (หลักสูตรนานาชาติ) หรือ BSAC คณะวิทยาศาสตร์ จุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย ได้เข้าร่วมแข่งขัน Global Innovation Tournament ซึ่งจัดโดยมหาวิทยาลัย Stanford University โดยกิจกรรมครั้งนี้เป็นการเปิดโอกาสให้นักศึกษาจากมหาวิทยาลัยต่างๆ ทั่วโลกได้เข้าแข่งขัน ซึ่งการแข่งขันนี้จัดขึ้นระหว่างวันที่ 12 – 17 พฤศจิกายน 2551 เป็นกิจกรรมหนึ่งในสัปดาห์ Global Entrepreneurship week และครั้งนี้จัดขึ้นเป็นปีที่ 3 มีวัตถุประสงค์เพื่อส่งเสริมการเป็นผู้ประกอบการ (Entrepreneurship) ให้กับคนรุ่นใหม่ โดยหลักเกณฑ์การแข่งขัน คือ ทางคณะกรรมการจะมีวัตถุปริศนา (Secret item) ซึ่งวัตถุปริศนาจะถูกเปิดเผยก็ต่อเมื่อการแข่งขันเริ่มต้นขึ้นเท่านั้น โดยทีมที่เข้าแข่งขันทุกทีมมีภารกิจ คือ ต้องหาวิธีในการสร้างคุณค่าให้กับวัตถุปริศนานี้ให้มากที่สุด โดยการสร้างคุณค่านั้นสามารถสร้างได้หลายวิธี ดังเช่น ทางด้านการเงิน (Financial value) ทางด้านสังคม (Social value) หรือทางด้านสิ่งแวดล้อม (Environmental value) เป็นต้น ซึ...

"Money is like a sixth sense without which you cannot make a complete use of the other five." William Somerset Maugham (1874 - 1965) Workers earn it, Spendthrifts burn it, Bankers lend it, Women spend it, Forgers fake it, Taxes take it, Dying leave it, Heirs receive it, Thrifty save it, Misers crave it, Robbers seize it, Rich increase it, Gamblers lose it, Stock brokers sometimes (?) multiply it and ... We will all always can use it! Richard Armour (1906 - 1989)

I made about 80,000 Bahts (2700 USD) in 20 days with the initial investment of 220,000 Bahts. How? In the stock market of Thailand, aka, SET (Stock Exchange of Thailand). Many people had told me not to set my foot close to the Thai stock market. They were saying that, Thailand stock market was so volatile and filled with bad (and rich) people. These people made so much money by doing insider trading while leaving the innocents licking their wounds at home. But after a few days of scrutinizing the history of Thailand stock index, I came to my own conclusion that this was the time to invest. Early of this year, SET was at 850 points and now it was at 380 points. I convinced myself that it would be hard for the market to tumble any further..(don't you think? 50% should be the maximum, right?). The price of PTT ( Thailand Petroleum company ) stock used to be around 400 Bahts/stock, right now it was 140 Bahts/stock. Banpu ( Coals - Energy company ) used to be at 450 bahts, right now it ...

As promised from the previous post, I will tell more about how I gave 500 Bahts to one of the students in my entrepreneurship class. So the class was on Wednesday and it was the first lecture of the semester. There is a limit number of seats in the class, namely only 40 students can enroll. It turned out that more than 60 students showed up for the first lecture. I told myself, wow..this class was quite popular. There are two lecturers for this class, particularly, Aj. Santhaya Kittikowit and I. Aj. Santhaya is quite charming and easy-to-work with faculty at Chula (I heard there was quite hard to find this type of people at Chula..Lucky for me! :) ) The first half of the class began with Aj. Santhaya lectured about the class's logistic and the basic concepts of entrepreneurship. We have a 10 minutes break and then my show was on. The topic of my presentation is "How to become a millionaire". The term "millionaire" I defined was to earn 30 million Bahts which rou...

Now it is 1.11 am and I'm still preparing for my class tomorrow (oh it is today, actually). I think it will take another 2 hours to finish my presentation. Oh dear. This week is a tough week for me. Why? It's because I was bombarded with many classes to teach, Tuesday all the way to Friday, 5 lectures in total. The new semester just started and there were a couple make-up classes from last week (from Piyamaharaj Holiday). I don't know why I am ranting about this rather than finishing up my presentation. I guess it is a way for me to release some pressure in myself? Anyway, I gave a one-hour lecture on my (first) entrepreneurship class today. It went very well and I have quite many things to talk about..like I gave (bribe?) student for 500 Bahts at the end of the class..I don't know whether doing that is against the university's policy or not. But I was certain the whole class learn something from that 500 Bahts. Anyway, it is always "better to ask for forgiven...

since my last post. It was just hard to keep up with this information world, leave alone creating your own information. Anyways, it has been quite some time since my last lecture. I have learned many things along with my lovely and (not so) lovely students. The good thing is I can feel that I am getting better and better at teaching. I have a couple of bad lectures which I feel sorry for my students (sorry guys!). But you might wonder why I am writing this post again. Two days ago, I wanted to dig down some information that is why I came to my blog, (remember the PlayPump?). I came across my New Year (2008) Resolution, which are the following: (copy and paste) 1. Learn how to play golf 2. Learn how to play guitar 3. Learn Japanese 4. Exercise 3 times a week (tennis, swimming, weight lifting, soccer) 5. Go to Japan 6. Read one book a month 7. Start one company 8. Change my sleeping habit (go to bed by 11pm and wake up before 8.30 am) 9. Create a homepage 10. Learn web design and Dreamwe...

My dad just jumped into the blogging business. I think it is interesting to see the early-adopter of baby boomer generation in the internet era. My dad is definitely an early-adopter in internet..why? I think this one fact says a lot: He has a Facebook account 3 months ago (in March, 2008). Did it say alot? I bet it is ;). Anyways, I am just very excited to learn that my dad is starting to write a blog. His blog is at http://ranthongkhunkai.blogspot.com/ and it will be in Thai (sorry for anyone outside Thailand who wants to learn more about gold industry in Thailand. In case you really really want to learn about this stuff, I suggest you post your comment on his blog. I think he is more than happy to translate the part that you are interested to English (his English typing skill is so much better than Thai typing skill) ) The blog will be about what he has been working in the past 30 years....about Gold Business. The topic will vary like when to buy/sell gold, how to invest in gold, ...

My friend just finished migrating Meddee.com out of Thailand. It wasn't that he did not trust Thai people, but it was the fact that he has less control on the server itself. For instance, he told me that he couldn't just restart the machine when he want to. He needs to call the guy at Internetthai (the company that he hosts the site on) and ask them to restart it for him. Also, there is no way for him to know if the server is currently not functional. He moved meddee.com back to the USA, hosting it on Softlayer. I guess he makes quite a right choice. The hosting service in Thailand isn't quite reliable and also there are a lot of politics in Thailand. I don't want to blame the system, but you know what..if this site gets so popular and someone with the power wants to shut the site off like YouTube.com, what else can my friend do? The country is supposed to be a free country, but people in power here are not acting like it..so sad :(. Anyway, I told my friend that ther...

First of all, I would say something about writing a blog...it is damn hard to keep up with it! In the past couple weeks, I have been to many places like Japan and Vietnam. But guess how many blog posts I did in the past month? Zero! :(. I will try to keep this blog sync with my life even though I know that there are just a handful of people who are reading it. This post will be about Japan. I went to Japan with the group from Department of Commerce, Chulalongkorn University. There were 15 people in the group. We were in Japan from 15 - 22 May, 2008. Tokyo and Nikko were the two places that we went during this trip. I've never been to Japan before and this trip would be my first time. I was quite excited since everything I heard from Japan was always cool like automatic toilets, cheap digital camera, on-sen, etc. I really like Nikko. I felt like there was so natural, waterfall, mountains, and all the trees. It felt very relaxing. And plus, when I was there I did something that was t...

Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them, disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them . Because they change things. They invent. They imagine. They heal. They explore. They create. They inspire. They push the human race forward. Maybe they have to be crazy. How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art? Or sit in silence and hear a song that's never been written? Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels? We make tools for these kinds of people. While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do. Apple Inc.

It is Friday and the rain has been pouring since last night. I decided that I will stay home today and get my pen (just the play of the words, I actually type my article into my laptop) back at my "Web 2.0 and the future of Thai business" article. It has been almost three weeks since I finished the fifth page of the article. Then, there were so many projects happening that it took the time out of me: project with CT Asia. Anyway, I am writing this post up because I realize how great it is to be a lecturer at Chulalongkorn. We, people in the academia, have so much freedom in term of work life. As long as you are responsible for what you are supposed to do, you can do it wherever you want (at my own house in my case). There is no need to come work at 8am and finish work at 5pm likes many many other jobs. There is neither timesheet to fill in nor a boss to watch you over your shoulder. There are only students and co-workers. In addition, you have to keep learning in order to be ...

Look, if you had one shot, one opportunity To seize everything you ever wanted, one moment Would you capture it, or just let it slip? "Lose Yourself"~Eminem

I have been involved in a project that tries to promote entrepreneurship in Thailand. The project was started by an incredible man named Mr. Chalermpom, CEO of CT Asia, Co Ltd. . His vision is to revolutionize the way people do business in Thailand. Almost all of the businesses in Thailand, according to Mr. Chalermpon, are still in 'the old world', particularly, food&beverage, retail, energy, and tourism sectors. Very few are from the intellectual property (IP) base. The project wants to make Thai people aware of the potential business in 'the new world' (whether it is in nanotechnology, biotechnology, or software). We have many great scientists and engineers in Thailand. They created many breakthrough technologies; however, they failed to use such technologies to create a sellable product in the market. We want to change it now. We want to make scientists, researchers, engineers, marketers all work together. I really believe Thai people are super smart, no less tha...

I went to Krabi for the department seminar. We stayed at Sheraton Krabi, a wonderful hotel. The seminar is on Friday (the first day) and the rest we just did all the fun stuff like snorkeling, playing tennis, sightseeing, etc. Man..it was fun but I got a bit sick afterward...(too much fun? ;P)

Despite the fact that it is the summer session here at the university, I start to feel overwhelmed by the work I have to do. Most of the work is about learning new stuff though. In term of actual work work, I only have one article to write and the due date for that is in June. I need to prepare some material for the class but that is quite minimal comparing to the new stuff that I will undergo in the near future. Here are some of the things I plan to learn when I have time: 1. Adobe Flex (what are this things? It seems to get more and more popular. I want to dig down and find out what I can do with this new technology. 2. CakePHP, a better way to create a website using this PHP framework. 3. OpenSocial -MySpace platform, Hi5 platform. This is where all the social media trend is heading in the future. Books I want to finish (currently reading) 1. The world is flat 2. Happier by Tal Ben-Shahar 3. The Tipping Point 4. Crossing the Chasm Wow, it felt great to have things in my head transla...

My first day of work went pretty smoothly. The day started with many logistics I need to learn about being a lecturer at the university. I have a shared office with, believe it or not, my old friend back in junior-high and high school. My friend graduated from this department, went to work at LEK consulting firm for 2 years, and joined the faculty of Commerce and Accountancy recently. Dr. Pasu Decharin (http://www.pasuonline.net) is my advisor who will be guiding me through this transition. He is pretty nice and very helpful. The first task that he suggested I should be working at is writing an article for Chula magazine. The topic should be related to entrepreneurial stuff. Hm...any ideas or suggestions? Dr. Pasu had arranged the 'welcoming lunch' for us, the new lecturers', (so nice of him). We had lunch and talked in many topics, some were gossips, some were serious stuff. I kinna enjoyed it. You know..it wasn't like intimidating or quite welcoming. At the end of the...

The people who came up with this PlayPump idea are just genius. A lot of people say that they can create something out of nothing. But guess what, these guys can create something^2 out of nothing. Watch the video and you will understand what I am talking about.

Just read it from my friend's website: www.supachaimd.com MIT - http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm Stanford - http://stanfordocw.org/ Berkeley - http://webcast.berkeley.edu/index.php I just post this to remind myself when I start doing the distant learning at Chula with Dr. Mongkolchai.

Finally, the day has come. I have been living my life randomly for two months. A life without an aim or a focus, a life that I go to bed at 2am and wake up at 11am will end tomorrow. I am very glad about that. Actually, to say that I have been living without an aim or a focus may be a bit exaggerated. I have been trying hard, thinking hard about what I want to do or what I can do in Thailand. For the past two months, there were many projects came by to my head and kept me busy. None of them seem to be taking off yet, too few clients or the idea was just too outrageous. I am still learning about Thai society and see where I can apply my knowledge. The playing ground here is quite different than the one I had played back in Silicon Valley. I made one friend today through my friend. He is a doctor at Siriraj hospital. After talking to him, I am quite impressed how much he knows about IT and computer. An incredible guy. He has a lot of entrepreneurial spirits. We discussed many ideas ...

Two days ago, I wanted to drink a glass of milk tea. So I asked Mack, my little brother, if we have any tea bags around in our house. It happened that Mack is on the tea-drinking spree right now, which is quite funny for me. He made tea and asked everyone in the house if he or she wanted to drink it or not. Anyways, I drank his tea and wasn't bad at all. But here is the punch line. After I finished up my cup, Mack came and told me that he used sooo much sugar in his tea to make it tasted ok. Dang...how much calories did I consume that day.. Anyways, this post is quite random. I just wanted to learn about how to make Thai Iced Tea. You know the orange creamy drink that is so prevalent in the street of Bangkok. But guess what. For this drink to be in America, it was the favorite of many people who went to the Thai restaurants. I guess that more than 50% of the people at the Thai restaurants ordered this drink. So I did the research on how to make this drink and you can check it ou...

Squidoo.com is a pretty cool website. It allows me to set up a new website with just a simple click. It consists of many modules that you can just add to your site, including text module, flickr module, poll module, and many many other great modules.  I created a 'len' (that how squidoo people call their site) about Eat Sense Restaurant. Check it out at http://www.squidoo.com/eatsense   Thanks!

Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they have been given than to explore the power they have to change it.  Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary.  IMPOSSIBLE is NOTHING! Go and do whatever you dream of and do not scare to fail!

This year was the first year that I got to celebrate my Valentine day with Fern. I was quite excited and a bit nervous what to do for this special day. Fern told me that I shouldn't buy any roses for me. I was like "Man! are you kidding? Roses and Valentine are supposed to be together. How can you have one without another?" Last year, I sent six roses for her from the US. I knew that she was very happy about it :). So, I came up with an idea to buy her a rose, a non-perishable one! Wow, what a smart dude! This one it can last forever, or at least until she decides to throw it away. hehe. Anyways, the plan didn't go quite smoothly. It turned out that we had a little fight over places for dinner. It was quite a fight but we managed to get through alright. Anyways, just want to say Happy Valentine to everyone who might stumble upon this blog :) Mickey

1. Learn how to play golf 2. Learn how to play guitar 3. Learn Japanese 4. Exercise 3 times a week (tennis, swimming, weight lifting, soccer) 5. Go to Japan 6. Read one book a month 7. Start one company 8. Change my sleeping habit (go to bed by 11pm and wake up before 8.30 am) 9. Create a homepage 10. Learn web design and Dreamweaver

Hi everybody!     Thanks for visiting my blog. This is my first time writing in the public. The reason I am doing this is I am terribly bored with my life right now. I have been back in Thailand for a month and felt extremely unproductive. I am in the process of becoming a professor at Chulalongkorn University. The process is quite slow and I really feel that I should do something with my life now. So why not writing a blog?