Detoxifcation

Are you experiencing constant indigestion, headaches, and allergies or recurring infections? Are you suffering from poor circulation, constant fatigue, acne and stiff joints? Are you suffering from bad breath and skin problems? If your answer is yes to one or more of the above, there is a possibility that you may be suffering from toxins accumulated in your body throughout the years and as a result your body defense and immune system become weak and succumb to gems.

Our body is constantly exposed to harmful toxins. The food that we eat, water that we drink and polluted air that we breathe contains contaminants. There is no way our body by itself is able to expel or get rid of all the harmful toxins and foreign substance accumulated in our body. The human organs such as kidney, liver and lymphatic system could only do so much with regards to expelling harmful waste and toxins from our body. Over time, the toxins accumulated in our body may get recirculated in the blood stream and this may pose serious health problem.

You could just imagine what its like for a clogged drain fill with filth and garbage do to the environment, much less the human body.

All machines needs to be service at one time or another and so is our human body. Our body needs cleansing from inside out to rid itself of harmful foreign substance, for instance mercury. Thus it is important for us to consider detoxification of the body to help expel harmful toxins and restore our health.

There are many ways to dispel waste product from body. Some of the methods are water fasting, medications, diet, and exercise to name a few. Some of the techniques involves are extreme in nature and may not be suitable for busy working people who hardly has times for health care. Furthermore, side effect and symptoms may occur during some of the detoxification process. This may include fever, headaches, fatigues and tight muscles to name a few.

One of the easiest and simples way to cleanse our body is via sole foot detoxification. The interesting thing is that we can even release and discharge harmful waster from our body while we are sleeping.
You can find various brands of foot detoxification plasters from off the shelf counter (OTC). The foot detoxification plasters and pads work based on the basis that tree trunks have numerous tiny tubes that are able to draw water and nutrients through the roots and up to all other part of the tree. Thus it is possible to draw toxins away from our body based on the above principle. Most of the foot detoxification plaster contains natural tree extract. Does foot detoxification works or is it just pure nonsense?


I am confident to say that foot detoxification is beneficial and works.
Of course there are those who thinks it is completely false and claim that the changing of the color of the plaster is due to oxidation of iron based particles. There are researches being conducted to determine the contents of the plaster after it undergoes change of color. Not surprising though, toxic substance such as mercury and other harmful substances were detected. These substances were never part of the plaster to begin with.


Consider the fact that Chinese medical doctors believe the body has over 60 reflexology meridian points on the soles of the foot. The Chinese Theory of Reflexology explained that every organ and system of our body is represented by a specific point of the soles of our feet. Known as the “second heart”, they are the reflective zones of our major internal organs. And, because gravity and our body’s own natural defense system that moves toxins away from vital organs, our feet become a “storage pit” for heavy metals and toxins.

In summary, there is no harm to try out foot detoxification. You’ve got nothing to loose though since it is convenient to use, less expensive and less risky as opposed to other detoxification techniques.

Skin care

1)Cleansing or washing face too frequently in a day.

It is not advisable to cleanse our face too often in a day. Unless our face is exposed to excessive pollution such as dust and other harsh environment, cleansing too often could unnecessary remove too much natural oil that is important to the skin. It is not the frequency of cleansing that really matters; rather how effective is the cleansing in getting rid and removing dirt and excessive oil from the facial skin pores.

Generally, cleansing three times a day will do, once in the morning, once in the afternoon and finally just before bedtime. Always wash hands before washing face.
Firstly use rinse your face with mild warm water to open up the facial skin pores, next apply the necessary cleanser and use circular motion to massage, and thereafter rinse off the cleanser from your face with cold water. If there is really a need to cleanse more than 3 times in day due to severe facial oily skin condition or environmental stress, use oil-blotting paper to remove excessive oil. Never use handkerchief to dry your face. Use soft clean tissue instead to dab your face. Let your face to dry naturally. If you prefer to dry your face with a towel, make sure it is clean. A dirty facial tower could cause more harm than any other factors put together!.


2)Do not use normal soap as facial cleanser

Never use normal soap on the facial skin. Rather, use the appropriate facial cleanser products suitable for your skin type. For instance, if you have oily facial skin condition, use cleanser that is formulated to get rid of excessive oils. If your facial skin is dry, use facial cleaner with conditioner and non-oil based moisturizer. In any case there is no shoe that fits all size. Thus you are your best doctor with regards to knowing which type of facial cleanser is best for your facial skin type. Check with the dermatologist or doctor if your skin condition is serious.


3)OTC Topical Treatment

Most acne can be easily treated with off the shelf counter topical creams. It is very important to follow the directions indicated in the package. If in doubt, apply the creams on small-infected acne areas for at least a day or two to check for allergy or any side effects. There are just too many brands of OTC topical creams, not all are suitable for acne sufferers. Some topical creams dry out skin unnecessary and could worsen the problem.

Getting acne free skin is a process that includes life style changes and knowledge regarding skin care. It is not necessary to waste huge amount of money seeking treatments from commercial skin care centers to solve your acne problems. Consult a qualified dermatologist or a doctor if you have severe acne condition.

Cancer cure

It was reported in the British Journal of cancer that extract from a certain type of mushroom may stop breast cancer cells from growing and could be use as a potential cure for other types of cancers in the future.
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSL1582873820080415

Intake of white button mushrooms could potentially reduce breast and prostrate cancers.
http://www.mushroomcouncil.org/export/sites/default/nutrition/AICRabstract.pdf

Who knows, perhaps in the future, it might just be as easy to treat cancer effectively by popping mushroom extract formulated pills instead of having to undergo chemo treatments. Lets hope that day will come soon.

Insanity

Most of us prefer to live within our own comfort zone. We prefer to live, interact and do the things that we are familiar with so much so to the extent that we sometime don’t realize we keep doing things the same way over and over and over and expecting different results.
I know its sounds crazy but the heck, if you think about it, there are many things we do that sometimes border on insanity isn’t it?
For instance, we keep buying lottery tickets in the hope that we will strike it rich even though the odd is against us.
Of course there are those who says if we don’t try or act on something we don’t stand a chance, if we attempt it, we might stand a chance. However looking at the probabilities and statistic we are well aware what’s our chance of striking the lottery 1st prize.
We enroll in slimming course, once we completed each session, we continue to munch our away throughout breakfast, lunch and dinner with all sorts of unhealthy foods. How to lose weight if don’t change our lifestyle?

Living on the edge

What does living on the edge means to you? It was reported in today’s Channel News Asia that Frenchman Alain Robert, dubbed ‘The French Spiderman’ scaled a top Hong Kong hotel on Tuesday. With no safety rope attach during the climb, one bad move would see the man free falling to certain death. Alain Robert is no stranger to many people; some wondered why he chooses such dangerous acts. It is certainly not worth the money and I suppose most people wouldn’t trade money or fame for such human death defying feats. There are of course those who constantly feel the urge to challenge the human limits. Some called it thrill seekers. No one knows for sure how far Alain will goes with regards to pursuing this philosophy of his. Lets hope someday he would call it quits and share his experiences and life struggle with the younger generations.

So back to the question, what does living on the edge means to you? Take look at the above photo shot. A toilet builds on the edge of the high-rise cliff? It takes courage to build such a toilet and it certainly takes even greater courage to relief oneself in it.

New Olympic Relay Torch

Here's a good one, an interesting humorous picture of China's new olympic relay torch.

Black Hole

Heads up, the ‘Large Hadron Collider’ (LHC) is completed and scheduled to be up online for live testing some time this year. The LHC will create the highest energy collisions ever attempted in the history of mankind. Even though there is only remote possibility of creating black holes with such experiments, nevertheless we truly live in frightening times whereby technology has reach such a proportion of considerable concerns.
Lets hope LHC Super Collider experiment will not end up like Spiderman 2 “Dr Octavious” particle physic experiment gone terribly wrong.
Who knows, perhaps such experiments and future particle physic breakthrough may enable us to achieve time travel.

http://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0703062
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Hadron_Collider
http://www.nature.com/nature/supplements/insights/hadroncollider/index.html

Failure blueprint

Most people usually focused on doing what needs to be done rather than what should not be done. In other words, we have a tendency to focus on the ‘do’s’ rather than the ‘don’t’. Our mind is automatically program, subconsciously to believe that it is more important to focus on accomplishing the list of the ‘do’s’ task list. We feel better off completing the do’s first and thereafter consider the ‘don’t’ task list later. In reality, at times the cost of one mistake, even minor as it is could wipe out all our hard work and efforts.
We can do nine good things and commit one mistake, people generally will overlook the nine accomplishments and remember us for that one mistake we make. It is human nature to remember a person’s bad past rather than one’s achievements. No one is perfect thus it is normal for us to commit mistakes once in awhile, learn from it and move on with life.
Some mistake must be avoided at all cost though, the consequence are too high a price to pay. For instance, pilot error resulting in air crash.

There is a saying that goes like this:
"A wise man learns from his mistakes. But the wiser man learns from the mistakes of others."

Thus we can prevent wastage of effort and time through minimizing of trials and errors. Smart people pick up cues and learn from the mistakes of others to expedite their success. Yes, one of the shortcuts to success in life is by emulating and doing what successful people did, implementing the blue print of success so to speak.
It is equally important though not take our eyes off the blueprint of failure and avoid unnecessary mistakes in life.

Inflation

We are well aware that the US Fed and JPMorgan stepped in to rescue UBS, pouring billions of dollars to keep the bank afloat, away from possible chapter 11. It seems ridiculous that a huge and reputable bank such as UBS could get away with mismanagement of funds and investments. Big banks go about squandering away money through ill investments and big daddy government bails them out.

This bailed out occurs amidst US debt that has soared to trillions of dollars, continued oil price hikes and US currency dropping to all time low with no economic recovery insight. There are those who believed US government is least concern with or rather perhaps intentionally wants the cause the US currency to drop as much low as possible since a low US currency would make the country more competitive in terms of exports capability. There are also those who believe in the greater US conspiracy theory; the super power nation has no means and has no intention to repay its soaring trillion dollar debts. A nation speaks the loudest when it has the strongest military might.

Whatever which way you choose to believe, it is evident that US economy is in for a rough ride, world renown investors such as Jim Rogers is pulling his money out from US currency basket and moving into Asia funds. Most Singaporeans are beginning to feel the pinch and the aftermath effects of the oil price hikes, faltering US economy and rising inflation.

I went for a medical checkout at Raffles Medical Center at Causeway Point today. Guess what? The basic doctor consultation fee has increased by 5 dollars. Thus a basic appointment and consultation with the doctor could easily set you back by at least 15 bucks. Medical prescriptions are charge separately. There is a joke that you can afford to die but you cannot afford to get sick. Apart from the oil price hikes now it seems there is sign of shortage of rice. Next what’s on the table for price hikes? We’ll see till then what's next on the card.

Get the things you want!!!

There is an effective method that you could use to get people to subconsciously and voluntary agreeable to render assistance to you. Here’s an example: For instance, you wish to borrow 100 dollars from someone whom you know of but not close though. How do you go about doing it? If you start by asking the person to lend you the amount you need say 100 dollars chances is that he or she will turn you down.

Lets consider another different scenario. Instead of asking the person to lend you the amount you need (100 dollars), ask instead say 1000 thousand dollars. You might probably get the same negative response.
Tell the person you desperately needed the money and instead of the 1000 dollars that he or she could not afford, ask for 100 dollars instead. I bet he or she will more readily agreeable to lend you the reduce amount, the amount which you need in the 1st place!

Women sometimes wittingly or unwittingly apply this technique to their advantage. For instance a woman may bring the husband to see a very expensive sofa set and tell him how much she desire to acquire that expensive beautiful item. Later she brings him to a slightly cheaper sofa set, beautiful and expensive albeit much cheaper than the initial sofa set, you bet the husband will agree to get his wallet out to pay for it.

Online bookmark

Spurl is a useful free tool that allows you to bookmark your favorites sites and links online. The tool saves you the trouble of having to export your bookmark and favorite links from one pc to another. Thus you can store and access all interesting pages you find on web from any computer connected to the Internet.
Apart from Spurl, technorati also has similar tools for online bookmarking.
Spurl

On a footnote, this is good, Amazing Dog in my brother's blog ...go check it out!!
Amazing Dog
Cheers
Rich

Healthy complexion.

Cosmetic industry in particular those pertaining to facial skin treatment is a multi-billion dollar business. One of the main problems affecting many of us is outbreak of pimples and acne. Just go to any drug store such as the Guardian Pharmacy and you will find all sorts of facial skin treatment lotion cream , pimple and acne lotion products and etc.

There are multiple factors that cause acne and pimples. Hormone imbalance, menstruation, illness, drug or food allergy, vitamin and mineral deficiency, environmental condition such as stress and lack of sleep exacerbates skin problems.

Generally women are more prompt to facial skin problems as opposed to men. Part of the problem is due to the cosmetic make up products that women apply daily on their face. Barring any serious health problems, there is a simple way to reduce or even get rid of pimple acne effectively. The advice I am about to give couldn’t be simpler; it is however the golden rules that leads to a good facial complexion. It is common sense practice but hard to follow when your face itch though.

The 1st golden rule is that just before you call it off a day, rinse your face with warm water, apply facial foam or facial scrub and thereafter wash your face with cold water. Doing so would help you to get rid of the dirt and dust that clogged your skin pores throughout the day. Get facial cleaning foam and scrub that is appropriate to your facial condition type for e.g. oily, dry or normal skin type. Use a clean tower or facial tissue to dry your face.

The 2nd golden rule is that ensure your pillow is clean to prevent dirt and germs from infecting your face while you spend hours in contact with it. Many people tend to overlook this; no amount of facial treatment could help if your face is in contact with dirty and contaminated material throughout the nights. Change pillow case and bed sheet as often as you can.

The 3rd golden rule, which is probably the most important rules of them all, is that with the exception of bathing or washing our face, under no circumstances, and I repeat, under no circumstances should you ever touch your face with your fingers or hands. Reason being that your finger or hand contains plenty of gems and viruses that could easily aggravate facial acne you are experiencing. Sometimes your face itches so much that you could not control nor help but scratch it. One way to overcome this problem is by applying pimple or acne and itch relief lotion or cream on the affected part of your face to relief the itch.

That's so much to it today, I will be covering more secrets to healthy complexion in next coming blogs.

Cheers
Rich

More harm than good by too much water intake?

So we are finally told there is no evidence to support the notion that drinking at least 8 glasses of water everyday is good for health. On the contrary drinking too much water it seems could probably put a strain to our kidney. I wonder why it takes so long for the medical authorities to figure this one out. It seems strange though that no one question the recommended amount of water for drinking daily, why 8 glasses and not 10 glasses or 5 glasses? Apart from that the fluorine and chlorine added to the water for drinking is harmful to human and may probably cause serious side effects such as cancer. I wonder what’s next on the table? Perhaps we should avoid taking hot shower?

8 glasses a day?

Evolution of dance!!!

You gotta see this...This is good!!!



Cheers
Rich

Baoding

Baoding is a city with history dating back to thousands of years. The city is located between Hebei capital Shijiazhuang to the south and Beijing to the north. Like most major cities across China, Baoding enjoyed tremendous economic growth due to its close proximity to Beijing. More and more Beijing residents are moving and relocating to Baoding. It takes 2 hours train ride from Beijing to Baoding and roughly 3 hours ride by car. The train ticket cost less than a hundred Yuan while most Beijing cab drivers asking for 800 Yuan or above to go to Baoding.

It’s been almost a year and a half since I last visited Baoding. I will be traveling to Baoding this coming May.

The best time to visit Baoding though is September to October. Baoding has long cold winter and short autumn and spring. Lake Baiyangdian, better known as the Pearl of the North also the largest lake in Northern China and is within 2 hours drive from Baoding city. As usual, most of the China lakes and rivers are heavily polluted. Of late, the Hebei government has disembarked on an ambitious plan to clean up the lake, an important source of water catchments and source of fish for its northern regions.

Baoding is well known for its exercise balls, also better known as meditation health balls. It is believed that the Baoding balls, usually comes in a pair; when placed on the palm of one’s hand and rotated to orbit could help to improve one’s health. Baoding balls come in all sorts of colors, patterns and sizes. I am an avid collector of home decorators, the Baoding balls makes a nice gift to friends and families though. Attached are photo shots of some of the Baoding balls that I brought back home from mythe previous Baoding trip.





Below are links to Baoding Balls.
Enjoy reading and cheers!
http://www.baodingballs.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baoding_Balls

Growing cactus

Growing cactus can be quite fun. As a matter of fact some called growing cactus a lazy man’s hobby since it does not involve lots of efforts. Cactus comes in all sorts of shapes, sizes and colors.
There are three major environmental factors that we should take note with regards to growing cactus successfully.
The factors are 1) soil, 2) water and 3) light.
You can easily get cheap and value for money readily pack soil formulated for cactus from most gardening shops. Some would prefer to spend time mixing the necessary ingredient themselves. Unless you have the time and knowledge, it is better to get pre-mix soil that has the appropriate ingredients for cactus. Try to add fertilizer to the soil if possible; perhaps once every 2 months of so. Get fertilizers that are formulated for cactus.
Cactus thrives under plenty sunlight in particular morning sunlight when the weather is cooler. Provide afternoon shades to protect the cactus from mid noon heat which may be too intense and harmful.
Cactus is able to survive under harsh rugged conditions hence you do not need to water it everyday or too frequently. Too much water may be detrimental instead since it may cause the cactus root to rot if the soil traps too much water. Depending on the climate, chances are that you may probably just need to water the cactus once a week. One simple rule of thumb is that if the cactus is place outdoor and expose to the direct hot afternoon sunlight, water it once every 3 days otherwise once a week will do. Make sure the pot has drain holes at the bottom. Cactus grows fast given the right environment thus it is important to move the cactus to a bigger pot if necessary.

Below are some link resources to cactus gardening tips.
http://www.cactusgardeningtips.com/cactus_resources.html
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/191631/cactus_gardening_tips_for_the_newbie.html

Cactus breeding

Jim Rogers, one of the most successful investor who once heads the Quantum Fund sold off his 15 million Manhattan apartment and relocated to Singapore. Singapore is one of the smallest nations in the world; it is just a tiny red dot in the world map.
The tiny nation has been nominated to host the year 2010 Youth Olympics. This coming September will also see the country hosting its first Formula 1 car rally. Apart from that, the country’s first casino and resort, two be exact is scheduled to open by year 2009 and beyond. Singapore Airline is the fist airline in the world to receive and commence the A380 jumbo airbus service. Aircraft engine maker, Rolls Royce established two new engine facilities in Singapore that would result in creation of new jobs for the population.

Despite intense competition with surrounding nations such as China and India for foreign direct investment, the country has relatively coped well by moving into high value added sectors such as the biotechnology, financial services and information technology areas. There is so much going for the country it seems. Despite the glamour and promising future which the nation can look forward to, looming world economic uncertainties such as the deteriorating US economy, rising inflation, oil price hikes and world political conflicts has considerable impact to the country growth. The full impact of the US recession or the world as a whole to the country will only be felt half to a year timeframe down the road. It remains to be seen how prepare or how well its population is ready to cope with economic downturn.

On a lighter note, more interesting photo shots of the baby cactuses that’s thriving in my home. These cute plants with colorful tiny flower buds are wonderful sights to behold. Over the new few weeks, I am going to try my hands on cross breeding and joining the different cactus species. Here is a link to information pertaining to cactus. http://www.cactus-mall.com/

Cheers Rich

eBay restrictions on digital products

It seems that we can no longer deliver digital products online via eBay. That includes e-book and software products. You probably have to cut out a CD and mail it to your customer via postal services. We should expect complaints from existing eBay customers with regards to such rulings; restriction to distribution of digital contents via eBay. http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200803.shtml#2008-03-24125416
It’s a pity though because eBay is one of my favorite sites where I get to sell or buy e-books online. The move by eBay to restrict digital product transaction via the net would no doubt in some way cause the price of digital products to increase as competition for online digital content business reduce dramatically with eBay out of the picture.

With the US currency heading towards south and inflation rate heading towards north, life is going to be more challenging and undetermined in the future. I have considerable stock options in the company I worked for. With the sliding US currency and the company stock price taking a hit, it might not be anytime soon before I could consider selling off the stocks to make reasonable profit, but till then it wont be anytime soon though before I do that. Will the US currency continue to slide? I doubt so unless the United States runs into another great depression. What goes up must come down; similarly what comes down must go up one of these days. US currency is at all time low, perhaps now might just be the time to start to invest in US currency. Warren Buffer can’t be right all the time I hope. He don’t like US currencyJJ

On the local MLM business frontline, it seems that Sunshine Empire Singapore business has been severely impacted by the recent Singapore CAD investigation. There are rumors that the self glorified founder is going to call it quit as far as the Singapore operation is concern and planning to move his so called greater than ‘Warren Buffet’ business to Hong Kong instead. So much so for the man who claim to be better than Warren Buffet and his money spinning Business Empire. Sunshine Empire has indeed seriously tarnished and given MLM a badname.

MLM is not a scam, just too bad that there are people who go around using MLM as an excuse to make quick profit at the expense of others.

Well on a lighter note, I love to collect small decorative items to beautiful my humble abode. There is no need to spend huge amount of money on expensive items to brighten up your home. I love to collect magnetic decorative stickers and labels. Most of these items cost just a few bucks. I make it a point to get some of these magnetic decorative items in different countries that I’ve been to. Apart from decorative effects, it reminds me of the wonderful places of the world that I’ve been to.Attached are photos of my humble kitchen, the sticky labels on my fridge looks good eh?

Cheers

Rich

Mixed signal

I commute to work daily using the public transport. Its routine to hear the following announcement in the train namely ‘ If you see any suspicious person or any suspicious items in the train, please press the emergency button to alert the train officials.’ There’s warning message sticker pasted besides the emergency stop push button though; the message? A person is liable to be fine up to 5 thousand dollars if he or she press the emergency stop button unnecessary.’ How about that? I wonder who would want to take the risk of been slap with a hefty fine for pressing the emergency stop button of the train even if he or she chance upon a suspicious looking character? I may find a person to be of questionable character while another person may think otherwise. One man’s meat is another man’s poison so to speak isn’t it?

On a lighter note, do you keep any plants at home, particularly if you are staying in HDB flats? I suppose not everyone is cut out to rear indoor plants successfully. Apart from having to ensure adequate sunlight and water, it is important to know the type of soil and the type of nutrients that the plant required. I must admit I am complete nerd when it comes gardening.

There’s one type of plant that require minimal attention and handling; a type of plant which I enjoy and have successful grown throughout the years though. What plant am I referring to? Of course it’s the mini or baby cactus. Cactus belongs to the member of the succulent plant family. Cactus is well suited to the hot and humid tropical environment such as Singapore. I once bought a dozen or more baby cactuses from Cameron Highland, Malaysia and brought them back to my apartment in Singapore. Within two weeks or so, tiny buds of flowers sprung up among the cactuses. It was truly a wonderful sight to behold.

How to earn big money

My HDB apartment is just a 2 minutes walk from the nearby Singapore Turf & Pool betting center. Over the weekend, people of all of different races, social background and age formed long queue to bet on horse racing and Toto lottery lucky draw. Some of these punters drive big expensive cars. I am not a regular 4D or Toto punter, occasionally when the winning prize is big; I will buy one or two tickets, not so much expecting to win but just for fun and besides, you never know if you are lucky enough just this once.
With rising inflation and tight job market, it seems harder to live a descent living and even much harder to retire comfortably. Yet seemingly surprising the number of millionaires in Singapore has risen to record high. For many, the only surest way to getting rich is by wining the lottery luck draw. Unless we are the CEO or big shots in a big company, we can almost forget of dreaming becoming rich and financially independent via our regular paycheck. Sure enough financial institutions such as market fund companies would like us to believe that we can beat the market by parting our hard earn money with those moron financial planners who make use of the money to brush up their financial investment skills.

So it boils down to the same big question of as to how we can earn big money. After spending over 20 years working in several companies, it is obvious that working harder is not the answer to making more money. Neither is taking huge risks the answer to making more money. I have read many self-improvement books, for instance, Rich Dad Poor Dad and books written by Anthony Robbins, Napoleon Hills and etc. We may get motivated for a while but as time goes by, reality sets in and we are back to where we are.
There are many fake Gurus around which only make money by telling others how to make money. You buy their books and they make money. In reality things are easier said than done. Never mind what these books says, after all, they are just words and the way I see it, hardly anyone who make it big in life and become successful ever attributed their success to any motivational books that they read. Most of those succeed has their own story to tell. There are those who believe that our destinies are sealed the day we were born. So say some people, that some are born to sit on the president chairs; some are born to sit on the electric chairs.


Here’s a great website with lots of good information that may be of useful to wide audiences, be it wealth, health or happiness.
www.earlytorise.com

Cheers

Gold investment

The US markets are in a heap of deep trouble. Unemployment is soaring. Large financial and investment institutions such as Merlyn Lynch, Citigroup and etc has loss billions of dollars due to the sub prime housing mortgage loan mess and the oil price hike and declining US currency further aggravate the situation.

Keeping US currency is no longer a wise decision at least in the short and mid term since there is no telling how further down the dollar will slide. Wall Street, once the pride of the US economic power no longer controls the world market. Oil and cash rich countries such as Abu Dhabi, and Saudi Arabia to name a few have large stakes in some of the US largest financial institutions. Sovereign Wealth Fund better known as SWF of Singapore is one of the top four contributors has market capitalization amounts to trillions of dollars, and its impact on the US economy far surpass that of Wall Street.

US economic recovery is no-where in sight. President George Bush has finally acknowledged that the US economy is undergoing tough time. ‘Tough’ time is an understatement though since the economic situation facing America right now is different from the early 90s.

US debt to the World Bank amounts to trillions of dollars and couple with the need to pay pensions to the baby boomers, one wonders if the US has any magic formula to overcome this crisis. Furthermore, more and more countries are catching up with the US in terms of economic strength. China and India alone are schedule to overtake the US and Japan as the leading economic power by year 2015, that is of course if the US economy continues to falter.

The world has lost faith in the US currency; so much so that Venezuela has sign some oil contracts in Euros in the face of plummeting dollar. China may stand to potentially loss billions of dollars if its huge cash rich surpluses, notably in the form of US treasury and bonds value drop in the face of declining of US dollars. Gold prices have increased multiple folds the past several months. There are rumor that China may look to gold to offset and reduce risk of further declining US dollars impacting its reserves.
Is now a good time to look to gold? The answer is probably yes and most gold related ETF stands to gain from China sought to move its US dollar denominated reserves, from bonds and treasuries to gold and other raw materials.
So for those who has money to invest, its worthwhile to consider gold as an investment.
In the face of current market situation, one can’t go wrong with gold.

Sun block

On my way to Jiuzhaigou Sichuan during my recent China trip, the tour guide reminded us time again to apply sun block when we reach our destination to prevent skin burn and harmful rays to any expose part of our body. Jiuzhaigou is located almost 5 thousand meters above ground level and the high plains weather condition is extreme.
The temperature could rise as high as 35 degree in the afternoon and drop to sub minus 20 degree in the evening. I have never applied sun block lotion on my face and I will never do so because I cannot stand any lotion being applied to my face and to any part of my body. Thus everyone applied sun block when we reach our destination sans me.

There’s a big hole in the sky due to the depleting ozone layer. We are no longer safe from sunrays that exposes our skin to harmful ultraviolet rays, all due to the lost of the ozone protection layer. Sounds familiar?

At least that is what we are being led to believe that exposure to afternoon sunlight is dangerous and may result in skin cancer. We are further advice to apply sun-block lotion if necessary, in particular if we intend to spend time on the beach, in high altitude locations and etc.

Contrary to what most of us believe via doctors and mass media exposure regarding sun block, there are now strong evidences that sun block lotion may in fact contribute to skin cancer instead of the very purpose it was design for, to protect us from contracting skin cancer! There is also medical evidence that lack of exposure to sunlight may contribute to increase the chances of contracting cancer due to the lack of vitamin D, which is generated by our body in the presence of sunlight.

It’s hard to imagine why this important information is not made known to the public? Even doctors are led to believe such false information, partly by the big pharmaceutical companies that stand to lose billions of dollars if such truth is told. Why is that so?
You can patent vitamin D and you certainly can’t patent Mother Nature, sunlight.

http://www.vvv.com/healthnews/dsunscre.html
http://www.naturalnews.com/021903.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/411226.stm

World class transport system?

With Singapore inflation rate forecasted to be over 6% and projected annual wage increment be around 6% or below this year, most of us are going to have to tighten our belts in the coming days ahead. Just a simple lunch in the hawker center could easily cost 5 dollars or more. Taxi fare, bus and MRT fares have all increased multiple folds throughout the years. Most of us are feeling the pinch due to the inflation resulting in higher cost of living. Our desire and dreams to retire earlier in life seems to be harder and harder to realize. Despite the increase cost of living and inflation, it seems strange though public service transport sector in particular the SMRT bus and MRT are making profits.

The increased waiting time for bus arrival is getting more ridiculous than ever. Sometimes I wonder what the heck the transport ministry is doing. I don’t mind forging out more for the increase bus fare hikes if the increase cost translate to improve efficiency and safety, instead it seems that the number priority for these privatize transport companies are the shareholders interests. The service frequency for bus has deteriorated over the years, more and more passengers are pack dangerously into the bus well exceeding the maximum standing capacity. Waiting time for bus service can exceed well over 25 minutes, so it pays to bring books or any other things to pass time while waiting for the bus. Singapore boast and pride itself as having a world-class transport system, it is a shame though because I feel it should be world-class profit making transport system to be exact.

Dealing with urgent issue.

One way or another most of us need to deal with problems in our daily life. If the problem confronting us deem insignificant or rather not serious enough to warrant immediate attention, we tend to want to just blush it off, close one eye, hope that someone else will come and fix the problem for us or ignore it all together hoping that the problem will go away the following day or as time goes by. If we are lucky, we might just get away from the problem, otherwise a trivial problem left unresolved would come back to haunt us in a bigger and more threatening way.
Either way, to resolve a problem, serious or trivial, we need to first understand what the problem is, the consequences of the problem and thereafter based on our understanding of the problem, devised a solution to address and resolve the problem.

Due to circumstances, for instance time constraint to resolve a complicated or difficult problem at hand, we may end up deriving and eventually deploying a solution to address a problem that is effective only on a short-term basis but not effective or rather not workable nor applicable on the longer-term basis. Hard press for timeline, we may be tempted to take the easy way out by delivering a temporary get around solution to the problem instead of addressing the root cause of a problem. A temporary get around solution to a problem may or may not be a wise decision. Life is imperfect so I guess at times it makes sense to find the most expedient means and manner to resolve an urgent problem without having to worry too much about how perfect or how good the solution is. So long as the solution we seek do not create side effects or create other new problems it makes sense to quickly deploy if time is not on your side. Deploy a solution to get over a crisis first and at the same time continue to fine tune that solution or explore other more robust and effective long-term permanent solution to address that problem and other potential shortcomings. In other words, get a quick fix and then work towards a long-term permanent fix when time permits.

Microsoft knows all too well with regards to the philosophy of quick fix; the company response quickly to releasing software patches to address serious program flaws and while at the same time work vigorously in the background towards releasing more robust and consolidated long term software fixes via service pack releases.
The same goes in our daily life whereby we take painkillers such as aspirin to tide over headache while we are in the office. We don’t rush to the clinic and ask for complete lengthy and thorough medical checkout whenever we have headache.


Perfectionist on the other hand though usually seek to deliver a solution that is as close as ideal in solving a problem once and for all. As much as we all want to solve a problem in the best possible way and permanently, however we know that this is not possible in reality given the time constraint.

I am reminded of a software engineer who took weeks trying to fix a simple software bug. When asked why he needed a week or more to resolve the software bug, he said he needed time to clean up and rewrite a sizeable portion of the software because he felt the code was badly written, hard to understand, difficult to maintain, basically he just don’t like the way the code were being written. As one responsible for software project deliverable, I had no choice but to insist he work out a less elegant and quick temporary software patch in order to meet the tight schedule.

I guess that’s how life goes; we live in a constant fast paced society that demands quick solution to anything and everything. We can provide the best solution to a problem but if it takes ages to deliver the ideal solution, you can bet it is as good as delivering nothing at all.

Alternative cancer treatments

Research has shown that Graviola, a tree growing in Brazil is effective in treating many types of cancers. Some researchers claim that Graviola treatment is several thousands time more effective in killing cancer cells compare to chemotherapy.

Conventional chemotherapy sometimes kills far more normal healthy cells compare to cancer cells. No doubt, conventional chemotherapy is slowly making way to more advance effective cancer treatment which allows doctors to deliver more accurate radiation doses with precision without harming healthy cells, such advanced cancer treatment though for instance the integrated TomolTherapy system is very expensive and beyond the reach and means of most ordinary folks.

As a matter of fact there are some people who believed that big giant pharmaceutical companies are aware of Graviola treatment but choose to withheld such important information from the public for over a decade. Why do all these pharmaceutical companies withhold such important discovery from the public? Graviola cancer treatment cannot be patented since it is all natural ingredients extracted from the tree and since it is not a patentable there is no profit to be generated by these big companies thus why would they want to promote something that cannot generate profits?

Information with regards to alternative cancer treatment is easily accessible to everyone nowadays, thanks to the power of the Internet. Do share such information to your friends and loved ones who may need of such information, in particular those who are in the midst of seeking cancer treatment, either for themselves or for their loved ones. Alternative cancer treatments such as the intake of Graviola may be combine with standard cancer treatment such as radiation therapy to form a holistic approach to treating cancer more effectively.



Here some useful links to alternative cancer treatment.
http://www.cancertutor.com/Cancer/Graviola.html
http://www.naturalnews.com/003536.html

Advice

Pass any good advice that you may have to your friends and loved ones. Good advice are seldom use on oneself, usually it is meant for others. At least that is what Olson Wilde once said with regards to advice meant for others and not for oneself. On the contrary, there’s another saying that states one should practice what one preach. So is it necessary for us to walk the talk so to speak so as to maintain our integrity or should we just give any good advice we may have a miss from ourselves for the time being and instead pass it on to others?

Naturally we would expect top management of any organization inclusive of political parties to walk the talk since the average citizens and employees look up to the leaders for confidence. In a bid to dispel fears among the Thai consumer with regards to safety of poultry consumption amidst the bird flu situation in the country, the then Prime Minister Thaksin of Thailand walk the talk by publicly eating fried chicken wings.
Even though it is more of a publicity stunt more than anything else nevertheless it does goes to show walking the talk or doing what one preach has tremendous impact on audience.

I recalled an American Olympic goal medalist swimmer who was taught by a coach who does not even knows how to swim. Speaking about passing good advice instead of using it on one-self, aren’t the swimmer situations described above the best classic example?

I bet you didn’t you know that there are many doctors who wouldn’t even consider chemotherapy themselves or for their loved ones if they themselves or their loved ones are afflicted with cancer? Chemotherapy and radiotherapy are some of the standard medical treatment that doctors are taught to recommend for patients stricken with cancer. Why is it that I say there are many doctors themselves who wouldn’t even think nor consider chemotherapy treatment on their own selves? The answer is simple, doctors knows that the recovery rate for chemotherapy treatments for patients with advance stage cancer is very slim, perhaps less than 10% and even so, the recovery rate becomes almost down to one figure or virtually zero if one is to consider the possibility of complete cancer remission beyond 5 years after the 1st year of the chemotherapy treatment.

I am also reminded of my family dentist who chooses to bring his daughter to another dentist specialist to have her teeth mended instead of doing it him-self. The fear of not being able to give his best treatment to his own daughter or fear of being blame by his own daughter for any botch up dental job or the lack of confidence to perform dental surgery on one’s own loved ones if enough to bring any bravest and most experience dentist to down to their knees I suppose.


Thus next time if you feel you have any good advice, consider if you have an immediate need of use for it and if so apply the advice you have pickup to try to address your problems first be whatever they are instead of trying to pass it blindly to others. Advice that works for you may not necessary work for others though so be cautious when passing advice to others. I would suggest you do not pass any advice that does not work for you to others, be very sincere and honest in helping others. If it does not work for you chances it may not work for others too.

If you have no immediate need of use for the advice you have, be cautious when you pass it to others, less you get blame for making things worst, always remind those whom you gave advice to use it at their own discretion and that the outcome depends very much on the circumstances involved.

So there goes so much so for advice, attached are photos taken during my recent Sichuan trip. Enjoy reading and cheers.

Just do it.

Well, I have been busy lately with lots of paper work and management related activities which I hate to do but have to since it is part and parcel of my job responsibilities. These include software audit preparation, logistic and training planning for the incoming new software engineers that I have recruited and schedule to be onboard the company on March 14th. In addition to that, I have been told to take on new responsibilities in terms of providing software support for a newly established engineering function that has been setup recently within my department. No headcount resource addition to my team but yet I have to my team to cope with extra responsibilities that translate to extra workload with no pay increases whatsoever. Well I guess at times we are not left with much choice but just do it. The hell with ISO or BSI audits requirements. I have work long enough in the software industry to come across many companies winding up even though it boasts of various ISO and BSI achievement awards and excellent certifications. Motorola started six-sigma concept but yet take a look at that company? It is heading down the drain in terms of profit and losing technology competitiveness. Moreover, a number of Motorola mobile phones are badly designed and build. There are so many obvious firmware bugs and design issues with some of the Motorola mobile phones that I could hardly imagine its QA staffs would miss such serious design shortfall. Well, attached camera shots of Sichuan Jiuzhaigou that I took a month ago using Sony DSC-T2 camera. Time sure pass quickly. March is just around the corner and soon the weather in these places will become warmer and much more comfortable to travel. According to most people, the best time to travel to such places is during September or October timeframe. Till then it is not likely that I will be traveling to the same place twice but no one knows for sure though. Life is bunch of chocolates; you will never know what you gonna get so to speak.

Sichuan

Four and half hour flight from Singapore and additional 45 minutes flight or 10 hours coach ride from Chengdu to the final destination, a national nature reserve. Situated 4,900 meters above sea level, Jiuzhaigou, a spectacular scenic area, earmark, as one of the world heritages is located 500km from Chengdu, northeast of Sichuan province. Sichuan is the most populous province in China.

Jiuzhaigou is known for its crystal lakes, waterfalls, beautiful forests and rare animals. The locals used to call the natural reserve area ‘fairyland’ and I guess that place truly live up to its name. The panda bear, red panda and the golden monkey are some of the animal species that are unique to Sichuan. Each seasons brings forth different spectacular scenery and one must go to personally experience the breathtaking views. During late winter or early spring, the morning and evening temperature could drop as low as minus 20 degree while the mid noon temperature could rise as high as 35 degree C. Applying sun block to the exposed part of the body, in particular the face and hands is a must to avoid sun burnt and the strong ultra violet rays during mid noon. Jiuzhaigou is located in the high plains where the air is thin and exposure to ultra violet rays could result in skin irritation for those who have sensitive skins and complexions. It is truly a trip worth remembering though.

The flight from Chengdu to Jiuzhaigou were fully booked during CNY so I had not choice but to take the coach. All together there were 6 of us who took the coach ride and we did not regret at all since there were so much natural scenery to watch and appreciate during the journey. Due to the long distance, the tour guide decided to split the journey into 2 days. We spend a night stopover in ‘MouXian’ county, a semi populated town situated in between Chengdu and Jiuzhaigou. By far and large the hotel that we stay put for the night in ‘MouXian’ situated between vast range of mountains is considered the best in its vicinity. The temperature was in the subzero range when we reached ‘MouXian’ around 7.30pm in the evening and it started to snow when we finished our dinner and headed to our respective rooms.


I must comment that China’s transport infrastructure; in particular the highways and roads are very well built and maintained. Only a handsome few coach drivers from Chengdu are confident and experience enough to drive from Chengdu to Jiuzhaigou. The route from Chengdu to the final destination is dangerous at times, with steep and treacherous seemingly unending bends that cut across high mountains and valleys. The roads seems to wind endlessly in the form of reverse and forward ‘S’ shapes route. The coach seems to lose speed as it heads towards higher plains where the air gets thinner and this takes its toll on the engine that needs to burn more fuel due to the lack of air required for the combustion.

Traveling to remote parts of China has never been easier today compared to 10 years ago whereby the infrastructure such as land and air transport has been greatly enhanced and improved over the years. Barriers are built to improve road safety and warning signpost is placed in dangerous and narrow bends.

There some things that foreign tourist has to keep in mind with regards to central China heating system. Most of the restaurants and hotels in central and southern China are not adequately equipped with regards to heater facilities unlike its northern province counterparts. Standard air conditioners are used for warming, barely enough to warm a standard size room at maximum 30 degree Celsius.

Take a shower could prove to be a challenge even to the toughest guy on earth during winter. One could easily catch the cold when stepping out from the shower room which has no heater element installed. A sizeable number of restaurants do not have any heater elements at all so be prepare to have lunch or dinner in sub zero freezing cold temperature.

One thing that I have learned with regards to traveling to China is that one must be fully prepared in terms of physical fitness and health. Buy travel insurance if possible. Bring adequate first aid kit pack comprising medicine such as painkillers, anti diarrhea pills, gastric pills, muscle acne plasters and etc. Bring as many winter clothing as possible if you travel during winter. Never drink from the water tap. Drink from bottled water such as mineral bottled water during the trip. Depending on location, at times it is advisable to even brush your teeth from bottled water. Bring multi adaptor plug if necessary required to charge up your camera battery or mobile phone.

Most of the Sichuan food and delicacies are extremely oily thus advisable to bring along some tidbits and cup noodles. Never take your eyes and sight off valuable stuffs. Pickpocket incidents are rampant in China.

Try to empty yourself (if you know what I mean) before setting off for the long coach ride. Almost all the coaches in China are not equipped with toilets thus advisable not to drink too much water or take too much food before the long journey. Depending on the next stopover checkpoint, you may have to tolerate 3 to 4 hours ride in between breaks.
If you really had to relieve yourself during the journey, umbrellas would prove to be invaluable because you are likely to have to do your business in the open space thus umbrella is very handy to protect your privacy. Even if there are public toilets in the rural areas, you can be sure that there are no doors at all. Surprisingly I found that the condition of the public toilets has improved tremendously even in rural and remote areas.

Most of us would tend to put the blame on the local authorities for not improving and maintaining the cleanliness of the public toilet, we seems to overlook the fact that the civic mindedness of the public toilet users plays a large role in contributing to hygiene of toilets.

The thing that irritates me the most throughout the trip is the show off altitude of some of the members of the tour group. There is this woman who goes around telling people how much money she make through property transactions and boast of being the top 50 ERA property agents. It irks me to find such a thick skin lady who is arrogant beyond description and thinks she is the most successful person in Singapore.


Someone once asked me why I spend money to go on tour instead of saving it for rainy days. I guess as much as we should save money for rainy situations nevertheless we should enjoy ourselves if time permits and appreciate the rest of the world while our health permits us to travel. After all we only live this once so the more we should pamper ourselves if possible.
Last but not least, the Jiuzhaigou and Chengdu trip has left a deep impression on me. Chengdu may not have an airport that is comparable to Changi International Airport. However, the lifestyle in Chengdu is much more relaxing as compare to the hectic life style in Singapore. Chengdu climate is humid much like Singapore however its weather is much cooler and this makes it an ideal place to relax. More and more big companies are setting up R&D labs and research facilities in Chengdu. Big names like Intel, TCL and many more have established research facilities in Chengdu. Like many other places, property prices in Chengdu has sky rocketed as of recent. This is inevitable given the increased affluent lifestyle and improve standard of living. By and large, Chengdu is pretty much self-sustaining and provincial government has great plans to transform the city into a major industrial, technological and commercial hub.

Over promise under deliver versus under commit over deliver

There are times in our life whereby we unwittingly over commit to get something done but under deliver eventually; in the sense the outcome of our efforts fell short of committed expectations. At times we may succumb to the pressure from our superiors and thus say ‘yes’ to whatever ridiculous and unrealistic demands, only to eventually lose our credibility when things don’t turn out as expected to what we have promised to deliver. Our self egoistic and over confidence altitude may also lead us to over commit to something that we may not be able to deliver down the road.

Conversely, we may be overcautious at times and lack the ability and confidence to commit to a deliverable only to eventually realize we are able to and indeed actually deliver beyond what was committed. The question that I often ponder is which is preferable, over commit under deliver or under commit over deliver? At a glance, it seems that we are better off with under commitment over deliver; we should be mindful though if we constantly under commit but over deliver, the management may no longer take our words seriously and assume we are trying to live the easy way out with regards to project deliverables by understating the ability to accomplish goals.

So in summary, yes, we are probably better off with sticking with under commit over deliver situation and circumstances, however we should exercise caution to make sure it does not becomes a habit which may result in management wrongfully thinking that we are trying to take the easy way out by intentionally under committing to a project deliverable.

Be your own advisor

Sunshine empire Singapore operation is suspended pending CAD investigation. It’s been months since the CAD probing began and to date there is no insight as to what the future of SE Singapore might be. People who have placed their money into SE are advised to wait for further updates by the CAD. Just prior to the saga leading to the CAD probe, I was asked or rather advised to invest more money into SE Singapore.

I am thankful that I did not heed Mr ‘X’ advice as if I had done so, my money would’ve stuck down there. I feel bad for a friend of mine whom I introduced to part his money with SE Singapore. Just two or three months into it, he is having trouble to get his money back due to the CAD probe. I am also thankful I did not put money into another investment scheme, ‘OilPod’. Mr ‘X’ tried to sell me the OilPod portfolio, I did not sign up as I do not have cash at hand. I recalled the last time I attended a seminar by ‘OilPod’, a number of investors are very upset with delay of their dividends payout.

Next, I was advised to withdraw my AXA fund after less than a year into it. 5% service fee might not look at like a huge sum to many but I find it kind of ridiculous to be lead around the nose to listen to advice to withdraw my AXA fund and to put my money into another fund management company with no guarantee of any returns. Bottom line? Do your homework and be your own best advisor. Don’t take others advice blindly. What other better way to do than reading. Do yourself a favor. Go to the public library, pick up books on financial investments and read it.

Weakest link.

The Chinese empire under the ‘Qin’ dynasty represents one of the world’s most powerful nations in the world during its time. At times I wonder if the Roman Empire, at the hike of its glorious achievement could ever hold up to the Chinese golden age. The Great Wall of China remains one of the human greatest achievements, spanning over 6 thousand kilometers and remains the only man made structure visible from space. The Great Wall was built for one sole purpose, to prevent the northern tribes, better known to by the Chinese Hans as barbarians of north from attacking and invading the Chinese land. For hundreds of years, the Great Wall has proven to be an impenetrable fortress, shielding its Chinese Han population from the foreign invaders. For those who are into Chinese history, the Manchurian force, subsequently better known as the ‘Qing’ dynasty in time to come finally succeeded in defeating and conquering the mainland thus putting an end to the Ming dynasty. One particular event seals the fate of the Ming Empire. All it took was one man, a Ming General to order the opening of the gates at Shanghai Pass to let the Manchu army enter. The history of the final moments leading to the downfall of the Ming Empire reminds me of an old Chinese saying:

‘Never be afraid of a thousand events, always be alert though and watchful of one particular event.’

The Manchu army probably had mounted several if not more attacks and failed in their advances due to the Great Wall. The Chinese, with regards to the Ming army defenders thought that the Great Wall is all that is needed and all it takes to prevent the Manchu from succeeding in their quest to enter mainland. Little did the ignorant Chinese Han realize that the Great Wall is only as secure and strong at its weakest link, the gates of the Great Wall it seems. If only if the Ming emperor and its government realize the importance of the gates at Shanghai Pass and send more troops to protect the gates from being opened, it would’ve probably taken the Manchu army many more months or perhaps even years to conquer the land.

We should always be cautious and be watchful of events, in particular events that may affect and impact our daily life. We need not be undue worry or afraid though.

Many a times, we cannot predict or control events as many situations are beyond our control. We can however take steps to reduce unnecessary impact to our daily life due to events by making appropriate plans and acting on it as events takes place.
We don’t need to resign our life to fate. We are the masters of our own destiny, by that I mean taking hold and control of our life, be responsible for our own actions and knowing that what we do today determine tomorrow outcome.

On a footnote, I have been rather busy lately. Apart from having to worry about software deliverable timeline, I have to work as mediator to resolve squabbles within my team. I believed I did a great job in diffusing the situation though. I am almost done with reading the book Rule#1, authored by Phil Town. It is one of the best books I’ve read to date. This is a must read book for individual investors, in particular for newbie like me.

Hello 2008

Time sure pass quickly. This is my 1st blog for year 2008. It’s been a hectic and busy days for me the past few days working late throughout the nights, stuck in the company to resolve software bugs. It feels sucks to work throughout the night as most of the staffs left office after lunch to celebrate the incoming New Year.

Most of us hope 2008 to be a better year compare to year 2007, some Chinese believe 2008 will be a good year, well at least for those born in the year of the dragon. Why is that so? Well, at least according to those into believing 2008 horoscope and fate predictions. I don’t believe in horoscopes and any of those related superstitious craps, but I must admit it feels good though to know that good things were predicted for dragon children. Firstly it was mentioned that I don’t have to work hard to achieve wealth and success this year. It’s the exact opposite though it seems coz in reality; I felt myself having to work harder since the beginning of this year. I guess it must be foolhardy of us to believe that success in life depends on fate.

I once come across an article written by a wise chap who says that the outcome in our life depend not on fate rather on one simple equation that is ‘events + action = outcome’.
Since most of the time events occur due to many circumstances that are beyond our control, how we respond or react to events and situation happening in our life determine our future, be it good or bad. Thus we should not blame others for our failures. Instead we should reinforce our positive thoughts, take the necessary actions given the circumstances or events to achieve the results and outcome that we want. Events without the appropriate actions will not generate outcomes that we desire.

What are my wishes and plans for year 2008? Firstly I wish good health and protection and well being for all my loved ones and friends, secondly, I wish my investment portfolios in AIA, AXA and Prudential will continue to grow healthily despite the uncertainties surrounding the world economies with inflation predicted to hit the world largest economic power namely United States; which would in turn indirectly impact the economies of rest of the world.

Back at home front Singapore, the recent hike in GST, electricity bills, taxi fare and many other basic necessities and with annual forecasted salary increment that could hardly compensate inflation certainly paints a gloomy picture and spells for belt tightening and caution in expenditures.

Countdown to 2008

Count down to a new year is closing in; it’s less than 2 weeks away to saying hello to year 2008, how time sure passes quickly. Is the soon to pass year 2007 a memorable one? Well, in some ways yes and well perhaps no in some other ways, depending on how one view it I suppose. It’s time to do some soul searching, to conduct personal reflection so to speak so as to determine what we have achieved this year, the goals that we have set and how much of it that we’ve attained and accomplished.
It is also a time to consider what to be done with goals that we set out but did not achieved. The famous Chinese philosopher Confucius once said that one should not change goals that were being set but cannot be achieved, rather consider changing the method or ways to achieve the unattainable goals instead. There is also another saying that the goal is not as important as the journey taken towards achieving that goal. Well, so much so for goal setting and achieving the goals we have set for ourselves. Last but not least, set realistic goals that we are confident of achieving within the required time frame. Set goals inline with our aspirations, interest and thoughts. There is no need to chase after people’s dream.

By the way here the link to a free utility that helps you to restore the condition of your storage device, notably the computer hard disk drive after it has being affected by virus.
http://downloads.zdnet.com/download.aspx?&compid=65081&docid=332870&tag=nl.e550
My computer has been free from virus for almost a year. Installing anti virus is not good enough, one must also ensure that proper firewall is installed to minimize cyber attacks.

Persuasion

In the course of my work and dealing with people I realize it is important to master the skill and art of persuasion. Persuasion is very much an art as much as a skill that almost anyone can learn and develop. There are talented people who are natural persuasive experts and possess magnetic dynamic charisma.

Almost everything we want in life requires us to get with the cooperation of other people. Without the cooperation of others, we would hard press to get the ideal job or have any friends. Sometimes we need to use persuasion among other techniques to make children stop crying In order to gain cooperation and success, we have to use persuasion to get it.

Being persuasive though should not be equated with manipulation. Neither do we need to become a hypocrite to be persuasive. Of course if someone is able to master the combination of the skill of persuasion and manipulation power he or she is likely to achieve the intended goal and objective more quickly. There are limits though to how far one is able to deceive and manipulate people. No one likes being manipulated. We would never one to be associated or mix with anyone who has manipulated us.

We often try persuading others by rationalizing or reasoning out with people. Sad to say at times rationalizing doesn’t always work. Sometimes we try to argue with someone to get what we want or to get our message across. Smart people though use effective persuasion, convincing and effective approach by learning to give the other person something valuable in the exchange for a favor. A successful salesman knows very well the importance of persuasion to clinch the big deal.It is human nature to want to look for something in return in exchange for a favor rendered to someone.

It is also human nature to prefer dealing with people whose thoughts are align or in agreement with ours. At times it seems though that we may have to compromise our own comfort and sing to the tune of others whom we needed support.As much as we dislike not being ourselves, I guess that life’s; we may have to persuade and do others bidding so as to obtain the thing that we want in life.

Relationships

I came across a free report on how to maintain healthy relationship and preventing breakups. This is unlike many of the other dating advice freely available in the Internet whereby the guys are told not act like a wussy so to speak, to be a challenge and maintain attraction to the opposite party. I like the report because it is not lengthy, it offers pure sound common sense and practical advice, I guess couples, young and old alike will find it useful. Enjoy reading and cheers!http://www.smartrelationshipscourse.com/preventbreakup.pdf

In our quest to pursue financial freedom, it is important to remember that health is the most important aspect of our life that we should never take for granted. It is our personal responsibility to look after our health much as we desired wealth.
If you desire to maintain good health, it is important to follow up with sound advices, share experience with like-minded communities and live a healthy lifestyle.
Here’s the link to a great health forum that you can participate and get valuable information to some of the questions that you may have in mind.
http://www.healthiertalk.com
Last but not least, yet another link to information pertaining to cancer treatment and avoidance.
http://www.isecureonline.com/reports/600SCANC/E6DDHBCR/?o=1396420&u=23498359&l=835242&g=1082
Enjoy reading!

Decision making

Here a link to a great resource about decision analysis and risk management.
http://images.globalknowledge.com/wwwimages/whitepaperpdf/WP_DecAnalysis.pdf
We all have to make decisions at some point in time. Making hasty decisions based on emotional feelings so to speak can be a very costly affair down the road. There are those who are inclined to make ill informed decisions based on their own personal liking and preferences, equally bad choices.

Sunshine Empire

Recently there’s has been much publicity about Sunshine empire, a fast track growing network marketing company based in Singapore. The Malaysia and Singapore monetary authorities have both included Sunshine Empire in its watch list of companies to beware of. In other words, Sunshine Empires is currently under the closely watchful eyes of the relevant authorities.

James Phang, the founder of Sunshine Empire boasts he is a legend and smarter than Warren Buffet, now that is a tall order comments self-appraising oneself. James Phang has time again emphasize that Sunshine Empire is not an investment company though the way the business operates closely resembles those of investment fundamentals. I find this man a very interesting person indeed. Firstly, he is the founder of the Sunshine Empire yet he assumes neither official position nor responsibilities associated with Sunshine Empire. According to some members, he sees himself as the guardian of Sunshine Empire and that he’s presence is critical to the operation and survival of the company. I guess where he is coming from is that someone should take the rap for him if the authority were to go after Sunshine Empire one of these days. The way I see it, the future of a company, no matter how big or small should in principle never be dependent on solely just one man. Yet for all the promises of great returns associated with signing up to join Sunshine Empire, this man put his own worth and self above those of those who makes it possible for Sunshine Empire to flourish as it of today.

Secondly, Sunshine Empire is expanding at incredible paced. I bet a sizeable of the Sunshine Empire members do not know what businesses Sunshine Empire is into or who is driving the business deals. I have to honestly admit I am one of them who do not know what business the company is into though. It seems that some of the front end business Sunshine Empire deals with serves more like a smokescreen for some underlying more secretive, if you will secret business which very few but the top of the management knows in details. Sunshine Empire business is expanding in such an incredible breakneck speed such that it may become a serious problem for James Phang to oversee all these businesses. Unless James Phang is able to recruit and designate and assign honest staffs to manage the business empire, the company is in for trouble one of these days. What irritate and worries me most though about Sunshine Empire are the young chaps in their early 20s that are at the top of the food chain, the elite business managements so to speak who manage many of the company businesses. It is not that I don’t trust nor is it that I have no confidence with young people, the fact of the matter is that I prefer to have older experience people managing my money rather than those young hot blooded and ambitious chaps who are still picking up the ropes and has very little concern for the welfare of the members.

James Phang is no new comer to MLM business. Don’t get me wrong; I sincerely believe network marketing is a perfectly legitimate business model. There are many who have deal with James Phang in one way or another prior to the setting up of Sunshine Empire who sadly do not have good impression of him though. I am told James Phang claims that his problems with the previous company that he established were due to mismanagement of funds by some of his close associates and close relatives. A great leader is someone who is humble enough to accept mistakes and takes full responsibilities for not just his own actions but also those of that of his subordinates.

Is Sunshine Empire a business scam?
Probably not since even MAS does not label it a scam or illegal so to speak.

Would I recommend friends and colleague to sign up as members and participate in Sunshine Empire business? I will not hesitate to share with people on profit opportunities associated with Sunshine Empire, however I will not coerce or convince people to part their savings with Sunshine Empire.

Let be honest, there are risk associated with all forms of investment and Sunshine Empire business is no exception likewise even though the company claims it is into wealth distribution and not into investment. As the saying goes; you win some, you loose some. What matter most is not whether you make a loss or not, rather how often you win compare to your losses. In that regards parting your money with Sunshine Empire are a very risky business deal, the rewards and profits entails are equally enticing and rewarding though. If you have spare cash to play with, why not take chances and give a shot with Sunshine Empire rather than placing your bet with the lottery draw or splurging the money on buying a luxury car that you can afford to live without. If you do not have any spare cash to play around with, forget about Sunshine Empire completely. What I meant by spare cash is money that you have no need of be it in the near term or mid term.

Patents

My boss has been requesting the Reliability software team that I am leading to generate patents for the department. Apart from having to struggle with tight project timeline, sad to say, most of my engineers are the least interested nor motivated to think about patents. Most of my engineers pay more attention to the annual increment rather than monetary rewards associated with successful filing of patents.
Successful filing of patents or trade secrets represents the ultimate recognition awarded by the organization top management to the contribution made by the team. It is surprising how many employees overlook the lucrative cash rewards associated with patents.
Is it difficult to generate or develop patent? The answer is surprising ‘not difficult’ at all. What is required is little bit of creativity, common sense and in-depth of knowledge of the areas of your work scope. The ability to think out of the box and deriving simple solution to solving a complex issue lends itself easily to patent design.

Medical leave

Why is it some employees always ends up falling sick and taking medical leave as soon as they return from their long vacation? I have observed some employees in my department that are more prone to taking medical leaves compare to others. Guys in particular who are still liable for reservist seems to use up their medical leaves compare to employees who are not liable for reservist! There are some who are more prone to ill and taking medical leaves either on Mondays or Fridays, how interesting isn’t it?

I feel those who are healthy should be rewarded for not taking too many sick leaves. Perhaps employers should reward those who are healthy by granting the opportunity and option to convert unused sick leave into paid leave. Otherwise, those who don’t take many sick leave would feel short change, after all, there are 14-paid medical leaves per year entitle to employees in my organization and without option to convert unused sick leave to paid leave, might as well as used up the 14 days sick leave isn’t it?

Start your own business

Some of my colleagues have left their full time engineering jobs to pursue financial and investment related businesses. There is one guy who decided to go into Forex trading and investment related training business. I was surprised he decided to quit his job as Senior Manager in the R&D section of large MNC in Singapore to venture out.

One of my senior engineers has quit his job to pursue Internet related project business. It is no easy tasks to start own business. 9 out of 10 startup companies go bust before the 5th year. On the average, most small local startup companies takes 3 years or more to break even. Apart from the financial risk involve with starting up a business, there is no effective short cut to getting your own business off the ground quickly. It takes sheer hard work, dedication and determination to get your business takes off. My younger sister has also left her managerial job of over 8 years in cosmetic and beauty related business to strike out on her own with another business partner.

There is another guy, my former superior so to speak who has decided that he has enough with working for others. From being a network-marketing skeptic, he has now become a leading firm believer and advocator of network marketing and currently venturing out on his own, exploring various multi network-marketing businesses & moneymaking opportunities. Anthony Robbins, the famous motivational speaker was in town a few weeks ago. Is there any thing interesting about Anthony Robbins teachings which strikes accord with those guys I mentioned, guys who has decided to venture on out? I bet you can guess, act upon something, not later but as soon as it is possible to do so. Most of us like to procrastinate. Yes, we have dreams, dreams and aspiration without action is just that, dream in the end.

Here a link to a free resources pertaining to investment information. I stumble across it while looking for information pertaining to stock market guide.
http://www.investmentu.com/aboutiu/SignUp.html?o=1355231&u=25898271&l=812293

Loan sharks

Have you ever wonder how the rich gets richer? Have it ever occur to you to the fact that the smart and wealthy people make use of other people’s money to acquire and accumulate more wealth? Why is it that most banks prefer to lend money to customers than to have customers deposit money into their bank accounts? This is evident from the low interest rate associated with saving and high interest charge by the banks and financial institutions with regards to credit borrowing and lending.
Banks makes profit from the high credit interest charge to those who borrow money; the longer the repayment loan period the happier is the bank. Credit card companies are also making tons of money during economic downturns. How does a credit card company go about making profit despite the economic crunch? The answer is much simpler than you could ever imagine. Credit Card Company prefers to do business with the average Joe, the working class types rather than dealing with rich customers. Why is that so? Broke borrowers like the average Joe are what the banks and credit card companies often like to deal with. Those who have experience bankruptcy are more likely to struggle harder to repay the loans since they do not wish to end up in bankruptcy again.
Banks prefer borrowers to stretch the loan period to the maximum duration thus enabling maximum interest charge across time. Ordinary borrowers like the average Joe are more likely to stretch their loan repayment period.
Come to think of it, it seems that the banks and credit companies are no different from the normal loan sharks isn’t it? Banks and loan sharks equally alike charge high repayment interest for loans. Thus there are two things we must avoid if possible, the first one being to borrow money from the bank to finance our needs such as housing and etcetera, and secondly to partially pay our credit card bills since the interest charge for outstanding remaining credit card bill payments are enormous to begin with!.

Guangxi

The word ‘guangxi’ literally means interpersonal connections or networking in Chinese terms. It is well known that one of the most important requisite one must have when trying to strike successful business deals and joint ventures with China business partners and customers is establishing good ‘Guangxi’. Earlier Singaporean, Europeans and Americans learn the hard way when they tried to penetrate into the China markets. Early foreign companies thought they are good to go strictly by the books when dealing with Chinese business counterparts. Some the foreign businessmen think that ‘Guangxi’ practice is a form of corruption. Is ‘Guangxi’ a form of corruption? My personal thought is that we can’t escape from dealing with ‘Guangxi’ or networking in our everyday working life.

Consider the fact that each year thousands if not millions of students graduated from colleges and universities each year. But how do they differentiate themselves? Many of the graduates have hundreds if not thousands of classmates who are vying for the same jobs with the exact same knowledge. In my over 15 years of working experience, I am bold to say that 90% of the time, it is not what you knows or how much you knows about that lands you successfully on the job. Rather it is whom you know and who knows you that make the big differences in terms of landing that dream job of yours. It just our human nature to prefer to interact with those we know and to get something in return for our service render to others. It is thus not surprising that network marketing, shuns by many as illegal business practice has gain momentum and is regarded by business experts as the 21st century business model.

High paying job. TT Durai does it again.

It was reported in today’s Strait Times that TT Durai, the disgraced former CEO of the National Kidney Foundation (NKF) has been offered a job that pays well over 25k per month. I can’t help but admire this man who I felt in one-way or another a slight cut above the rest in Singapore. While many has lose their jobs due to company downsizing and having trouble getting new jobs, here is a man who has lose his position of CEO and being charged for corruption, demonstrate the ability to adapt to situations and land himself a job with lucrative pay. It was reported that he is able to pay off all the debts and charges own to the state in 4 years time. As much as I felt disgusted with this man who had misappropriated charity funds and betrayed the public trust, I must admit thought that there are things we could learn from him. I am sure many who not mind to spend money on books if any written by TT Durai on effective financial survival techniques.!

Why blog

Someone once ask me why I write blogs? Don’t I have anything else better to do? Why would anyone want to publish personal thoughts into the worldwide web for everyone to read? I don’t have particular reasons for spending time on blogs, in actual fact I don’t really care if anyone would read my blogs at all. So back to the question why do I even bother to become a blogger? The answer is simple; I just want to brush up my skill in writing in expressing thoughts. I hope to be a good freelance writer one of these days. Perhaps when I retire someday or I get laid off due to company downsizing, I may consider becoming a full time writer.

There are those who write blogs to earn money, either indirectly or directly through the contents they publish or via advertisement programs such as ad sense. It’s amazing though how the Internet has change the way we live our live. I suppose it’s wonderful indeed that we can express our feelings and thoughts through cyber world. I enjoy reading topics of interest and quality contents posted by many bloggers around the world. There is just so much we can learn through the Internet, particularly through network of bloggers who share interest and thoughts on topics of interest. However we should be mindful of what we write in our blogs. My personal thoughts are that we should never write on anything that touches on sensitive issues, in particular with regards to race and religion. Inflammatory remarks won’t solve problems, on the contrary sensitive topics would only aggravate situations so why blog on such topics?