About
Anne Ku
On music
I began taking piano lessons at age 8 in Okinawa, together with my mother and my sister. Impatient and curious, I learned to sight read so that I could always play new music.
I started performing in public soon afterwards, first as pianist at parties, and subsequently as school choir accompanist, church service organist, pianist for wedding ceremonies, pianist for musical productions, and keyboardist for rock bands. I learned how to improvise when I was called to play solo as a keyboardist.
The emotions of my teenage years lured me to compose. I continued to compose and arrange music whenever I got the inspiration and sometimes out of necessity, when an emotion or mood gripped me.
Later I realised that I enjoyed organising soirees, or those wonderful atmospheric evenings where wine, food, conversation intermingled with music and diversity.
In spring 2002, I released my first CD - 80 minutes of myself performing my piano solo compositions and arrangements at the two Easter concerts in the Netherlands. Sales of this CD go towards the support of analyticalQ.com.
In May 2003, I gave my first sight reading workshop to students at the Eastern Mediterranean University in North Cyprus. Following my piano guitar duo concert with Dutch guitarist Robert Bekkers, I gave a two hour piano master class.
On writing
At first, I just wanted to express myself. Then I wanted to share what I wrote with others and get feedback. Soon others started submitting their work, and the analyticalQ.com site became a platform for people to express and share their poems, parodies, jokes, and travel stories.
I started keeping an online diary in May 2000, mainly to discipline myself to write everyday as well as to introduce my visitors to different parts of my site. After 365 entries of the Diary of Anne Ku, I decided to keep a Bon Journal that's more liberating. In other words, I didn't have to commit to writing every single day.
There is no shortage of things to write about: hotels I've stayed in, books I've read, restaurants I've dined at, and events I've been to.
Who was it that said - an event didn't happen until it's been described. Well, I'm the type who would deliberately experience it so that I could write about it.
Indeed I decided to write for different audiences and purposes using the research from elsewhere. For example, I wrote about immigration after I had conducted research into it for my own sake. Similarly, I wrote about weather, climate change, energy, etc. I wrote a piece on reflexology to help my Swiss reflexologist get her practice off the ground. For my article on wedding music, I even attended a bridal luncheon just to interview the bride-to-be's and their mothers. Such subsequent articles have all been published by the Internet newsletter Freepint.
More at Le Bon Journal
On building web sites
It all started with building a corporate intranet to help UK gas traders in 1997. In 1998 I was asked to build a larger intranet to prepare for the trading of natural gas on continental Europe.
Who helped me? Steve with Frontpage 98. Cyril with the first links. Ata with the world wide web.
In October 1998 I improved the web site of London Financial Studies in exchange for my own PC and printer.
In November 1998 I built a web site for a UK immigration advisory company in exchange for their advice and help.
On 15th March 1999, I launched my own site: analyticalQ.com - a platform for self-expression, a passion for world travel, in pursuit of flexibility. It's a collection of my compositions, poems, academic work, useful links, photos, and my sister Frances Ku's artwork.
In May 2002, I launched anneku.com as analyticalQ.com had become too big - almost 200 MB and was becoming too cluttered.
In May 2002, I also registered bonjournal.com with plans to make my online journal kept at analyticalQ.com into a book.
In October 2002, I launched Le Bon Journal, a 2 page newsletter in PDF format for anyone to download, print, photocopy, and distribute freely. This is mainly aimed at offline readers. Each issue has a unique theme: work, love, fun, music, travel, websites, etc.
In May 2003, I built Just Harp for Peter Murphy, harpist. Within 3 weeks he received his first booking for a wedding in Leeds Castle. In the first week of July, he received four bookings in a row via the web site.
In early July 2003, I registered Ark London for Yousif Naser's Ark Gallery in South Ealing after he had heard from a friend that he can now be found in Cyberspace as a result of my preliminary web page for the Ark.
Meanwhile I continue to get questions from visitors about how to get started, how to build a web site, where to go for good designs, how to promote their sites, etc. I'm happy to see that many of these people have not only built their own sites, but also become my cyber-friends. And it's time to let the world know that I am for hire: web consulting and advisory services, writing and editing, and everything else related to the portfolio career.
On energy, decision analysis, and other "serious" stuff
How did I get into writing articles about the energy industry? Let's go back a few years. I was consulting for a publishing firm before I became an editor. Consulting resulted from my earlier stint as researcher and analyst for an energy trading company. I was doing quantitative modelling back then. I got into this, after doing my doctoral research on modelling for electricity capacity planning. I merely wanted to test my hypothesis about what happens to decision making after an infrastructural industry like electricity gets deregulated. There would be more risk and uncertainty.
I consider myself a decision analyst in that I enjoy analysing decisions rather than making them. From my doctoral research emerged the seriously tempting idea of flexibility as a means to deal with uncertainty. I still have plans to write a book about decision making for flexibility someday. The problem is, of course, committing myself to it, for flexibility is about postponing your commitment.
Meanwhile, I'm just as happy to use decision analysis to prepare and analyse decisions in other areas.
Latest publications:
Risk and flexibility in electricity: introduction to fundamentals and techniques, published by RiskBooks, hardcover, 241 pages, November 2003, ISBN: 1904339115
Affiliations and associations
Stanlake Search
international recruitment experts based in London
Asia Write Research
Centre
a writing, publishing, and training firm based in Singapore
Piano guitar duo of Robert Bekkers and Anne Ku
Decision making workshop with top UK life coach and best-selling book author Mark Forster