About Vanessa Tan

I am a blogger, a musician, an Arsenal fan, a Christian, and a Singaporean. I appreciate good design in all forms. I have a wide range of interests.

I founded the Gahmen Bloggers and am a member of the Media Socialists. We aren't left-leaning; it it just a group name for those of us who practice social media.

I am currently an MBA student at INSEAD, the Business School for the World. I have a separate INSEAD blog which may be more frequently updated than this blog, at least up to July 2009. At INSEAD, I learned that my Meyers-Briggs profile is ENFJ, which may give you more insights into my personality.

Previous stuff about me ... (to be rewritten)

I was born in the year of the Horse (not telling you which one). Friends and relatives have noticed a particular sense of humour that can be classified as punny, corny, witty or annoying, depending on my mood and theirs. I'm not very good at Chinese, although recent interactions at the workplace have forced me to engage more in the language. I picked up basic French several years ago. I played classical piano but found it stifling; I now play worship music and jazz piano. I have a little music studio where I write and produce my own music.

I tend to read more than watch television or listen to the radio. My favourite newspaper is The Guardian, for the quality of its content as well as its visual layouts in print. However, while online I tend to rely on the Beeb for most of my world news. As a child, I read Enid Blyton books, and lots of Asterix and Tin Tin comics. I collected Transformers and my favourite Autobot was Optimus Prime. In my mid teens I read David Eddings and later on, collected X-Men comics, and my favourite X-Man was Gambit. My favourite magazines are The Economist and Wallpaper.

If you asked me to pick an all-time favourite company, I'd be hard pressed to choose between two fruits - Orange, which was my telecoms provider in the late 90's, and Apple, creator of fine machines. Both have great branding strategies with inspiring products and services, online and offline.

Apart from books, CDs and gadgets, I'm terrible at shopping for things. Particularly for clothes, shoes, accessories - and don't get me started on makeup, which I never wear unless I have to attend a lavish wedding dinner. If you haven't guessed, I'm not particularly vain. At best, I used to work out at the gym, but stopped, then I got injured and haven't recovered since. But I do intend to work out regularly again! I've played snooker since I was a child, tennis and swimming in my pre-teens, badminton in my teens but haven't actually played any of these sports for a long time.

When I do watch TV, it's usually focussed on football, tennis, the news, Discovery Channel, a good comedy or drama such as CSI. I seldom watch local shows, and I really ought to watch more movies. Where English football is concerned, Arsenal is my club, but I have no favourite players there. My original premise for supporting them was that almost everyone else I knew in Singapore seemed to support Manchester United; and it's more exciting supporting the 'underdogs' with smaller budgets to play around with. It's good to invest in young players, anyway.

As a child, I was blessed with the ability to travel well, and was taken to Japan, Scotland, England, Sweden, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Belgium and the United States. As an undergraduate in Bristol, England, I travelled to France and Spain. More recently I have been to Australia (Perth and Margaret River), the Philippines (Manila and Cebu), back to the US (New York in 2000, and Los Angeles and Las Vegas in 2004), Shanghai, and Bangkok. My ancestors from both sides of the family hail from different parts of Malaysia, and have their own little chapter in the history books. We visit an ancestral home every few years. I would like to go to Iceland, Russia, South Africa and Latin America.

Sometimes I write about my experiences with God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit. This is only meant to inspire readers who believe, and for those who are searching, to let them know there is a God out there. It may not go down well with everybody, but since this is my personal blog, I want to share what I feel is good news with everyone. My walk hasn't been always smooth; and sometimes I let readers know it isn't easy either.

I believe the world could be a better place if we understood where everyone was coming from - why they do things which don't seem to make sense. I feel that recent acts of terrorism are merely symptoms of a much deeper, root cause, and more effort should be put into understanding the latter instead of simply retaliating at the former.

Remainders from my previous About page

• I graduated from the University of Bristol, UK. Bristol is the home of Wallace & Gromit, Massive Attack and Portishead.
• I have a law degree. I know. It's a long story.
• Former job: Web tech advisor, and general pain in the arse in the relentless quest for total web standards compliance. No other Singaporean understands me. Okay, maybe Lucian and Andrea. [Update: There are 10-15 of us now. Cool.]
• Denomination: Anglican, but I believe in one unified church based on principles established in the Bible, and not by man.
• Read: 100 things about me (still counting).
• You can contact me here.