La-critic

Incredible Presentation on Global Warming

2008-04-08T04:58:00.000-07:00

You heard of Al Gore? You must have.

So you would have heard of global warming as well. Who cares about global warming?

If you are an environmentalist, you might. If you are a responsible parent, you might. For the rest of you out there, if you are given a choice to be our Earth's hero, would you?

Watch the video to be convinced.

"If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together"

Take action, together.

Singapore Won Inaugural Youth Olympics Game

2008-02-21T03:16:00.001-08:00

It is quite exhilarating to announce Singapore as the host of the first Youth Olympics Game. Being a Singaporean , I am really honoured as well to be posting this good news on the internet.

This goes to show that no country is too small to execute an order so big; you just need to have the 'think outside the box' spirit that you are able to do it. And just keep on doing it.

I would like to thank the Big Boys out there for giving us a chance to serve the world community at large in providing a peaceful and non-political arena for sports to thrive.

Thank you, World.

Please Reuse, Reduce and Recycle

2008-02-04T01:37:00.000-08:00

Recently what happened, or has been happening in my house for the pass 24 years startled me. For a moment, cold sweat broke out of me.

I was doing the usual Chinese New Year spring cleaning when I saw the huge amount of recyclable and toxic objects in my house.

I am pretty sure I have 'culled' at least 500 pieces of plastic shopping bags, slightly less than a hundred disposable plastic spoons,those pesky little rubber bands, plastic disposable food containers and a few dozens of empty sauce glass bottles.

What makes me paranoid is not the amount of trash my house contains ( You believe!), it is visualising the huge amount of trash one is capable of producing, without you consciously knowing it before you do a reality check.

One thing that really intrigues me is that recyling companies actually hand out big plastic bags for people to throw their recycleables in. isn't it ironic that at least 1/5 of those plastic bags i found are for recycling purpose?

It is a good start by introducing Bring Your Own Shopping Bag day, but i think more should be done to instill a since of urgency in people. People will not give up something so accessible and given in order to sing to your tune of saving the Earth.

Maybe they should introduce a plastic offset tax on plastic bags so for every plastic bag they you get, a certain amount is contributed to the acquisition of plastic bag maufacturers and close them down.

Are you acting like you have succeed?

2008-01-29T08:03:00.000-08:00

In my 25 years of living, I haven't heard of anyone saying they have failed, at least not significant enough that I can remember.

You must be thinking, that's cool, you must have successful people surrounding you.

Bullshit.

The reason why people do not say they have failed in any way is because of our cut throat society. Nobody will tolerate a slow learner or a failure, sometimes not even your grandma. You are either up there, or you are out there.

You must be thinking "hmm, all these doesn't fit the title at all". I am glad to tell you that I wasn't off course in any way.

In fact, most people out there hasn't been near success in anyway. They just thought they are.

Now now, I have just opened the pandora box of psychological theories. You must be saying success is a state of mind, or success doesn't need to be anything fanciful.

That is absolutely correct ( Omg, am I crazy to acknowledge that?)

You see, success is really a state of mind. But state of mind itself can't be sustained if it's not backed by physical success.

You can't say that you are successful by setting your own company either. Anyone can loan a 100k from the bank and set up some money losing business, and boosting outside about how great their company is, how many girlfriends they had. Talking about state of mind.

Do you know what is Silicon Valley's definition of success?

It isn't attaining a 100billion bucks status, or created something that half the whole's population is using.

It is about setting up a foundation. The highest form of success comes when you are able to feed one million people under your care, or have the power to change the state of poverty in certain countries.

TheSummerLife.com website is up

2008-01-28T23:26:00.000-08:00

Ok i shall clarify now that TheSummerLife.com is actually a content website.

Live Your Life

This website is specially catered to people looking for health and effective weight loss advices.

Commercial weight loss programs are either too expensive to purchase or too confusing to follow. The last thing you need to solve your weight loss problem, is to create more problems.

You will be informed about proven weight loss plans that encompasses nutrition, training and mental strengthen in order to achieve your goal.

The Next Big Thing In Triathlon

2008-01-28T07:59:00.000-08:00

I used to say that Running Is My Religion. But I have since upgraded it to Swimming as well. Soon, you will see, that Cycling is next.

You know why? Cos I will be the Next Big Thing in the Triathlon World.

Sounds cocky isn't it. I beg to differ. Since young I know I am prepared for something great on this Earth of ours. I know all of you might have some sense of this feeling before. But it might not be so strong.

That Is the difference between someone who's able to raise their hand to ask question in class every lesson, even when all other classmates are pissed, and someone who wouldn't.

I wasn't particularly fast in school and wasn't the best swimmer in the pool. In fact I am one of the worst freestyle swimmers in the pool.

But the sense of being criticised, and excel in it will be tremendous.

Arnold Schwarzenegger was once criticised for his puny calves ( come on, how fucking puny can his calves get).

Guess what he did in return?

He turned his trackpants into trackberms. He wants to show the world how SMALL his calves are, and he dont sulk at it. He loves the criticism. It makes him grow.

The difference between WINNING and LOSING, is about self belief.

Right now, I am going to achieve it. my target is peak at age 35. Don't worry about telling me that's not impossible, I already had a few reminders.

And would you please, Slap me on my face and Tell me GET IT GOING!

Does success always comes with a price?

2008-01-25T07:55:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine's MSN nick caught my attention - Does success always comes with sacrifice?

Technically everything, that you do and don't do, is a sacrifice - a sacrifice of time that is. And when a time sacrifice affects your ability to engage in another activity, then that is the oppurtunity cost of it.

And let's say that this alternative activity brings you anything that is constructive, that means the time is not wasted on some useless activities. So in this case, you have successfully make use of time.

Now, the answer is nearer.

Everything you do is either useless or useful,

and doing one useful thing can be more useful that doing another activity. This goes to say that to be success, you either pay the price the price which is spending time doing useless things, or spending time doing more successful stuffs, which is quite unlikely as in the first place, success is the state of mind. And since you have chosen success no. 1 as the real success, then the 'more' successful stuffs become less successful.

Disclaimer: Reading this post might make you rethink your goals, at the expense of more important goals that you don't seem to understand.

Are you a Gypsy friend?

2008-01-23T04:05:00.000-08:00

You might be wondering what does that mean? A gypsy friend? I thought gypsy is the thing of the past.

Well, not quite.

I was having a shower last night and this term came to my mind. A gypsy friend.

Basically a gypsy friend, from what I deduced, is a friend whom you might have close to your heart, but at the same time they are always on the move, always doing something new. Even though this friend is always away, somehow they still come back to you, and you always had this feeling he/she isn't really so far away most of the time.

This gypsy friend might have been away for half a year climbing some mountains at south africa or went exploring the world, one town at a time. He/she is those kind whom seems so oblivion about the things happening in the world, but he/she is just too pissed about how things are portrayed as doomsdays everyday on the news.

Life isn't so bad if you have a gypsy friend. This friend wouldn't judge you as much as you have judged him/her. He's just happy to be hanging around chatting about everything at the present, nothing from the past, nothing from the future.

You can say this friend of yours might seem to care only for himself/herself, but at the same time help is just a call away if you should need one ( and if he's around to help)

I am sure most of you have this gypsy friend. The next time when you are meeting this friend of yours, remember to pass a lucky charm to your friend.

Are you Affiliated to any B*&%h? I mean Niche

2008-01-22T02:31:00.000-08:00

I was recently catapulted to the world of affiliation and money-making niches ( How I wish I am blasted straight to the bucks). I can say it's quite daunting to see so many individual's dedicating their time to blog or set up websites talking about these two words- affilliate and niche.

A quick search on the Google and you can see like 35 millions pages on the word Niche, and a staggering half a billion pages on the word Affiliate; a mispelled affilate already turns in 1.39 millions pages.

You can see that no matter how hard I did my homework on the Search Engine Optimisations (SEO), I wouldn't be able to make this post to the top of these 2 words search.

So how did it happened?

The first reason is that money makes the world go round, and in this case, makes the world spin faster as well.

Internet + marketing = Gaudsend

Internet + individual marketing = FedEx Gaudsend

Life on the internet nowadays doesn't leave much to the imagination: a few google ads on the side bar, and some nice graphical referral ads that you can click on to find yourself in a pool of yet more ads and sales pitches.

Someone once told me that I should do some online research before getting my hand on some products.

I just hoped that product is not a niche...

Trading emotions with emoticons

2008-01-16T01:11:00.000-08:00

I just chatted with a friend over the MSN. I probably did like 50 'Lol's over the timespan of 10 mins, a few dozen ,') and some :P. Ok, maybe I have exaggerated abit. Buy you know wat I mean: when enough is enough for emoticons?

I am not saying that emoticons are nuisances. Contrary to this, I actually encourage people to use more of it, together with proper punctuations, so as to drive across a genuine emotion of the state that the writer is in, or is made to be in. I will leave the punctuation usage to another post for some other time.

So genuine emotion is the operating word. As you would know, non-verbal conversation cues take up

85% of the overall message that you want to bring across. verbal cue only take
up 15%.

It's not hard to recall a situation when a genuine joke was taken as an offensive sarcastic remark.

Although technology created a vast variety of communication medium, people are using brick and mortar style of interaction. One thing that lacked behind is the human touch. A simple handshake or the assuring look in the eye and the pat on the back is exchanged with some emoticons or a *pat*.

I personally have the habit of overdosing my chat sessions with 'LOL's. I cant help it but to mind-laugh everytime I use that. It's not exactly an emoticon but I guess it brings the emotion across.

So remember to inject a healthy dose of emoticons in your next sms. Just don't use a <3 on the email to your boss.

What comes first, content or layout?

2008-01-13T00:15:00.000-08:00

Recently I was spending at least half a day's time every day searching for the 'best' layout for another blog. I wanted it to be as appealing for the masses and as functional to my liking.

So what about the content? It is the content that keeps people coming back for more in the first place right(provided it's not some random spam from the internet). To tell you the truth, I have neglected on the content part of the blog. What a sin I have done.

I am sure any of you bloggers out there have this dilemma at some point. It is true that content draws readers in. But what if there is no mechanism of getting the readers in in the first place?

What I have realised is that both are equally important and both needs to be
treated with different care.

The quality and quantity of content grows with time. With these, the layout of
the blog morphs along with it.

As stubborn as you want the layout of the blog to be multi-layered and multifunctional, you cannot do it if you do not have sufficient content on your blog.

So the next time when you wanted to start a new blog or website, remember that no blog is good without content, and no content is good without a good layout.

So I still hasn't answer the question....

Test entry

2008-01-11T22:17:00.001-08:00

Ok I am testing out the function of Adobe Contribute CS3. It is a tool that allows you to update your blog or website and the comfort of a centralised program and allows you to add/edit content wysiwyg style. I am still testing out this software if there is anything great about it maybe you should get a copy too.

Cheers

The psychology of trust

2008-01-09T23:59:00.000-08:00

Hi people sorry for missing in action. I have been trying out on some new stuffs on a domain that I recently acquired. The theme and mood of the website will be quite different from what I posted up here: less critical but still as fun.

I recently come up with the idea that trusting someone maybe more than just a personal trait. It may come down to the understanding of a person's hierarchy of needs.

When we talk about trusting someone, we give approval for certain action that the other party is going to carry out; this is usually some actions that doesnt occur to the norm. This may sound vague and confusing to some, so let's provide some illustration to this point.

Let's say you are strained in some island with a group of 5 survivor from an airplane crash( i beg your pardon if it sounded cliche to you). Now all of you are in a state of severe hunger. So someone in the group decided to go find some food. Sounds great right? This is because it is still the usual way of what a person may do.

However, if this guy wanted to lure some pork or beef, by offering some food as bait, this is where the psychology of trust comes in. You are in the physiological state of need and this guy wanted to take this need away from you, what will you do?

On another scenario, when you just ate half a large size pan pizza and is feeling very full. Someone come around and asked if he can take the other half of the pizza to feed his family, what will you do? Hell ya thanks for helping me to clear the plate right? Now the person can't be that poor if he can patron a pizza place but you couldn't care more, since your physiological needs had been fulfilled.

This psychology of trust happens on all level on the hierarchy of needs, if what that requires you to trust conflicts with the state of needs you are in now.

I would love to hear your point of view so post'em up!

Free wireless internet for the masses

2008-01-06T00:42:00.000-08:00

Wireless internet access has been a commonplace for most of us netizens for quite some time. The concept of an internet cafe where people can register for a computer to use from the cafe counter. Now it is the age where people bring a cell phone with wireless capability, a laptop or your itouch and have a good time accessing the internet while still able to hold a decent conversation with the person opposite you, whom you are having coffee with.

In Singapore, the 3G community had been hard to catch up with the wireless access set up at most cafe and public places around the island. This can be due to the fact that the audience that mostly used wireless (I am talking about any type of access to the internet other than using a fixed cable.) internet are people like us whom uses it for daily activities like check the mail, updating friendster, write a forum or simply to chat online. When you are doing daily net activities like these, you usually would be thankful enough to just use a free wireless access. Never mind that you sometimes get disconnected halfway ( for my case now, I can’t even log in to the public library that I am in. It may be just due to my lousy network device since people around me are happily using their sub-2kgers) through you chat or the pesky advertisements that comes along with the free access (well, nothing is really free without a reason right?)

From the trend i see these days, wireless access penetration rate may easily match the boom period of the cell phone, or even the antique pager. When you see that the rate of adoption is faster than the rate where people feel comfortable reading their favourite novel under the cable-bounded table lamp, you know that people don’t like to be physically bounded ( except for those sad-masochist type maybe? Hmm..)

I can see that in the near future, people will not need to ‘log in’ any form of wireless internet access. The users may just need to make a one-time registration of their MAC address to the service provider. Users will be logged in every time and anytime when their wireless device is near an access point, and with roaming capability.

One thing for sure, advertising companies will be the first to adapt.

Ok I just got connected.

Like father, unlike son

2007-12-31T21:30:00.000-08:00

Admit it. You must have some sort of conflict over your father's character and the way he does things. This is even though you could have adopted the same character from your father.

I don't know if it's the nature's way to show who's the real alpha tiger or it's just nature's selection mechanism: to judge someone that you had adopted your character from, so as to strength this character or to abandon it. Someone may say that this is the process of adolescence period. But you know that it still happens to you now. It gets quite frustrating sometimes though. Most of the time he had some strong belief in things that you may have a stake in it as well. But your belief is not as strong as his. This created some sort of difference in the depth of thinking. Maybe this is why arguments sets at this point to clear the haze. It is through arguments that beliefs are made more concrete, or shatter to a pile of dust.

But one thing for sure, it's hard to understand how dearly your father holds his own concept behind things, and yet showed so much leniency when you don't really follow his footsteps.
Maybe because he's old enough to know that people should have their own viewpoint.

Or maybe that's what differ a father from the son.

New year, new acquisitions

2007-12-31T20:41:00.000-08:00

Year 2007 was bad for the Western economies. It maybe as bad as Sept 11. But this time round, instead of buildings being destroyed, they were being acquired.

You see, the year 2007 is the year of US subprime market meltdown. Apparently banks are too optimistic about the grown of the economy. Monies are lent to home buyers with poor financial track records. The American dream of each family or a person owns a house seemed like a dream come true.

2008 will be the year of acquisitions. Middle Eastern and Asian countries are beginning to bail out those western economies in dire state. This is the time when companies with huge fundings can strike a good deal with ailing banks and old establishments, without too much concern about bad management. This is because this singular fund crumble could not be an effective judgement of the management of a company. When everyone is cycling round a hillside bend, no one could see what is coming from the other side.

This is the year where companies will change hand and it's not if the management can hold up the companies, but it's up to the new stakeholders to not ruining what they bought.

Evolution of the Muscle Man

2007-12-28T09:06:00.000-08:00

Being a Muscular Man is a tough outfit to wear. Across the centuries, Muscle Man had been given different labels. They had been called masochists, gay, hunk, pea brain, narcissist, etc. The interesting thing is that the muscle man do not try to silent the critics. They embraced the labels well and along time, ride high on the waves of labels.

So is it that the labels created the Muscle Man, or the Muscle Man created their own labels? I would think that it worked both ways. In the ancient societies, warrior are depicted as huge tall beasts with scared skins. It is essential for the ancient man to have a galactically proportioned body, since they need to wear all the heavy armour and wield the sword or axe that easier weighed half a damsel. I would say their well built bodies is the by-product of their lifestyle.

For the Muscle Man of the modern days, it's still the lifestyle that changed their physique. Only that this time round, this lifestyle is not essential for their living.

Please help me continue with this argument anyone, as I am having a brain freezing session now.

The Plight of Instant Coffee

2007-12-25T06:34:00.001-08:00

"Instant coffee was invented in 1901 by Satori Kato, a Japanese scientist working in. George Constant Louis Washington developed his own instant coffee process shortly thereafter, and first marketed it commercially (~1910). The Nescafé brand, which introduced a more advanced coffee refining process, was launched in 1938. Its popularity soared in post-WWII America and today it can be found all over the world." - Source, The People's favourite free Encyclopedia

I didn't know instant coffee had such long history had i not did some research upon writing this posting. I would have thought that it's a creation of this fast-paced internet driven world. I would love to think that instant coffee sole purpose is to provide enough caffeine to nourish our thirsty brain.

A cup of instant coffee can't have such a long history behind it, I reasoned. If it is, it definitely wasn't an instant hit like a Coca Cola or Earl Grey. If it were, there wouldn't be so make 'Improved' instant coffees. After trying so many times of instant coffee in the market, I am thinking:' how come the guys at Nescafé or Owl don't get frustrated over frequent 'improvement' of their coffee, without really making it more alluring?" It's true, they should get frustrated as I really am.

I am beginning to think that the incompetency of perfecting the art of producing instant coffee may be a message from Mother Nature: Don't think you humans can play Gaud everytime. Coffee is coffee and that is it. It's not some Macdonald's or KFC.

A simple cup of instant coffee, it resonates with the pace of this internet age: fast-paced innovations but most of which failed to impress.

It's the most...wonderful time of the year, cos we all had the same religion. You know what i am saying??

2007-12-24T10:32:00.000-08:00

Early in the day on Christmas eve I went for my Industrial Attachment company's X'mas party. Kind of 'nostalgic' to be back to the place where I was formally 'employed' as an 'intern' 'engineer'.

First of all, I wasn't really quite nostalgic in the sense that I had only completed the internship 6 mths ago, and thoughout the last 6mths I was constantly updated about the status of the company. Dont' get me wrong, i wasn't a spy to the company, i was just curious about how a SME function and all the interpersonal relationships with various stakeholders both internal and external.

Secondly, I wasn't quite an intern. Let me quote the definition of an intern in the people's favourite free encyclopedia.

"An intern or stagiaire is one who works in a temporary position with an emphasis on on-the-job training rather than merely employment, making it similar to an apprenticeship" - People's favourite free encyclopedia

The operating words here are 'temporary position', 'on-the-job training' ( aka OJT) and 'apprenticeship'. Ok so apprenticeship may need another quote from a dictionary, but i guess you guys can check the meaning out. The first description is definitely right, but i am not sure about the second and third description. I wasnt on the job that needs much training, so there wasn't really training. As for apprenticeship, I wasnt much under the supervision of anybody...........ANYWAY, THIS WASNT THE MAIN TOPIC.

Phew...Ok, back to the main topic. ( Thank you ZX for the gift 'down the chimney'. Appreciated it.) Well, the main topic is actually,

Merry

Christmas to all of you out there.

Embrace in the new religion, that is, Capitalism.....

Am i seeing things?? I am not, i just felt the sun

2007-12-21T04:36:00.000-08:00

It's the most wonderful time of the year. But apparently i only felt the wonder today: the first day i saw a bright sun in a long time.

Thank Gaud i brought along my swimming attire for the meeting in school. ( Doesn't mean that i never wrote about my meeting, it is not important. It's not a topic that would make me famous.) Ok where was I? ya about the swim. Nothing fanciful. Did my usual stuffs: Start with breaststroke if i saw a weak competitor swimming that stroke, or start with very easy freestyle if i saw a strong competitor. That gives the impression that i can beat you any time but i am just taking it easy.

Are we there yet? my friend would complain again if she found out my second entry is as short as the first one. ok just nice. I am outz.

my world view

2007-12-19T17:48:00.000-08:00

My world view is very simple: Half the world is in the dark and half the world is enlightened at any point of time. That's wat the BIG BANG theory made us to be ( no offense to any religion but a 10,000 old earth to me sounded like a way off propaganda.).

Anyway, this is my first blog and be prepared that most of my blog will be along this line: sitting on the fence but tendency to jump towards the muddy side.

Enjoy, homosapiens....