What can we do to help global warming or safe earth?

Global warming seems to be a hot issue lately. Lots of movies with natural disaster and global warming issue are being released. The latest natural disaster movie will be 2012 and lots of people are enjoying it in the theater. It’s ironic because it’s suppose to be a movie that scares people but many coming out form theater laughing, exciting and amazed about the special effects. Perhaps many are still thinking that this super size natural disaster won’t happen, or even if it does happen they won’t be so lucky to be involved. Well, the thing is there might not be any super size natural disaster as what we seen in the movie but the rate of natural disaster happens really does increases. Just run a natural disaster check for the past 10~20 years and you’ll be surprise. Pick a natural disaster like for example typhoon and do some study about it and you’ll notice how serious it is. I suppose the world leaders began to notice the problems and start worried. That is why we can see so many discussion and conference have been carried out. The lasted conference is COP15 Copenhagen – United Nations Climate Change Conference Dec7~Dec18 2009. Although it seems that the conference did not have any clear and effect actions on the climate change solution but at least they know that they have to do something about it. The world leaders are having conference indoor and the people around the world are having peaceful gathering outdoor. I suppose some pressure from the public might push the world leaders to take action faster and seriously. Actions need to be taken but it won’t be an easy task. It’s easy to pollute the world then to clean it up.

Instead of waiting for the world leaders to take action on global warming issue, what can we do to help? Besides, it’s our world or home that we are living. We are suppose to clean out our own house or the one and only place to live. In other words, it’s every human being responsibility to take care of the earth. Ok then, what can we do to help solve global warming issue? Well, for start let’s try to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions. Stop producing carbon dioxide or CO2 by stop open burning unnecessary. Reduce the use of vehicles that emits CO or CO2. Instead of driving your car, you might want to consider riding bicycle or walking. Besides it’s good for your health. Second, save energy or do not waste energy. Simple habits like switch off the lights when you’re not in the room, reduce the use of heater during winter and changing the light bulbs with low power consumption fluorescent can be very helpful. Third, recycle and support ecological products. Keeping the place that we live clean is a must but we can do better by recycle the things that we used. We also need to support by purchasing products that are made from recycled materials. By doing so we basically reduce the amount of rubbish produced. Fourth, try planting trees. Just one tree beside your house is good enough. You might be surprise that you’ll feel much cooler during the summer when the tree is about 12 feet high. Fifth, try using solar energy or wind power energy. Many countries already started to use this method. In fact some houses already start using solar energy, but just in small scale. The best example will be the solar power water heater. Some people even purchase the Do IT Yourself magnetic power generator and make themselves some free energy.

Global warming is a problem that we all are facing. Instead of hoping or waiting for others to do something, it is better to do what you can to reduce global warming. We start by practicing the above ourselves and educate others to do so one by one. When we have more than 50% of world population practicing the same thing, we just need to plant a tree per person and we’ll get 3 billion trees around the world. This is not about who should do more or who should responsible but what each and every one of us can do.

A walk around Penang Kek Lok Si and the New Temple building

Lately I have a chance to visit Penang Kek Lok Si temple, or shall I say revisit as this is not my first trip. It’s has been a long time since I step foot in Kek Lok Si Temple. I think it’s more than 15 years and I can hardly remember a thing about it. This time I get to drive to Kek Lok Si and park my car in front of the temple. As I went there early in the morning on weekday, there aren’t many visitors. The way to Kek Lok Si temple is simple. All you have to do is search for Kek Lok Si temple using Google Map and you’ll find your way. If you’re coming from Penang Bridge, the best way that you should follow is through Lebuhraya Jelutong -> Jalan Tunku Kudin ->Jalan Masjid Negeri ->Jalan Air Hitam.
Just like any other temple, Kek Lok si temple is a quiet place. A place that people come to pray, wish or searching for a peaceful mind. Kek Lok Si temple is more than 100 years old. You can find lots of old painting, statues and work of art around the temple. Don’t forget to check out the ceilings as that’s the best part of the temple. At the top side of the temple a newly built 16 pillars shelter for the Kuan Yin statue along with some buildings were built. The opening ceremony was carried out just couple of days before I visited the temple. Honestly I have no idea about the ceremony but I did catch up with the evens after the ceremony. There seems to have some presentation and lectures given by the elder monk. I didn’t stay for the lectures. I’m more interested in scouting around the temple. It took me just an hour to check out the whole temple. As Kek Lok Si temple is situated along Penang Hill, you need to walk up hill to reach the newly built temple. Alternately you can try out the mini cable car that connects the old temple and the new temple. It’s a short distance but definitely better for the seniors to ride it. The walk to the upper hill temple is difficult for seniors. It will be better just to take the mini cable car. Plus you can enjoy the scenery from the mini cable car.
There is couple of things that I saw that I don’t like. The first thing is beggars. Don’t be surprise that the money they get might be more than your salary. Another type of beggars or shall I say people that going around asking for donation. These people will play their games offensively rather than defensively like the prior group. Neither one of them is good for the image of tourism. The second thing is the admission fee needed for some area of the temple. I still remember that I was free to go any place in the temple. The admission fee is just preventing people from visiting the area.
If you haven’t been to Kek Lok Si temple for a long time, perhaps this might be a good time to check it out as the new temple has completed. Make sure that you choose the visiting date carefully to avoid the crowd. If not you might spending more time in traffic jam than touring. It’s just a 2 hour tour if you’re able to beat the crowd.

P/S: Make sure your car can go up hill before you try to get to the top new temple. It will be a good idea to just stop at the old temple and take the mini cable car to the new temple.

Create your own coffee art at home

Remember the coffee art that we saw on videos? Drawing on your cup of coffee really brings out the early smile in a busy rushing morning. Sadly we can only see the actual coffee art at certain coffee house. Will it be nice if we can do it at home? Well, check out Coffeestencil. You can now have the chance to make your own coffee art. Coffee stencil is just a piece of transparent plastic that crafted with pictures. All you need to do is place the coffee stencil on top of a cup of cappuccino and sprinkle chocolate powder on it. The chocolate powder will drop on the foam through the hole that shapes the picture crafted. Remove the coffee stencil gently and you have yourself a nice cup of cappuccino with coffee art on it.

I think this is really a good idea. Instead of getting a picture coffee stencil, it will be better to get coffee stencil with words. Coffee stencil with words like “I love u, I’m sorry, marry me, I’m pregnant, you will be father, good luck, I do” can be very useful, especially for ladies. You can just make your loves one a cup of cappuccino with a message on it to give him a surprise. Just be prepared as he might drop the cup because some of the words really have big impact.

Reasons I play YoVille but not FarmVille, FishVille, Café World, Roller Coaster Kingdom or Mafia Wars

I have to say, I never did like the game YoVille, FarmVille, FishVille, Café World, Roller Coaster Kingdom or Mafia Wars. I’m a hard core video game player myself ever since I’m a little kid. I still remember that I’ll do anything just to play the famous Mario Brothers on the Nintendo game console. I bought my first generation Playstation during my university study and even modified the game console just to play the famous Final Fantasy 7. After graduated I got myself Playstation 2 and that was the time for Final Fantasy 10 and Metal Gear Solid. Throughout those years I try out almost thousand of games and spend most of my time pressing those buttons.

Let’s go back to the reasons I play YoVille but not FarmVille, FishVille, Café World, Roller Coaster Kingdom or Mafia Wars. Initially I never intended on trying out any of the games above. I saw some of my friends playing it but it just doesn’t bring out my interest to try it out. YoVille, FarmVille, FishVille, Café World, Roller Coaster Kingdom or Mafia Wars can be considered as MMORPG – Massively multiplayer online role playing game. One of the attractions is that players are able to interact with each other. The second attraction is the leveling system that players are able to customize and raise a character. The combination of these 2 attractions can create a very addictive game. Those of you that have been or are still playing Word of Warcraft Online surely will understand. YoVille, FarmVille, FishVille, Café World, Roller Coaster Kingdom or Mafia Wars are nothing compare to Word of Warcraft Online.

Since YoVille, FarmVille, FishVille, Café World, Roller Coaster Kingdom or Mafia Wars has nothing interest me, why do I choose to play YoVille only? The first reason is that it’s on facebook. As you know many people around the world sign up with facebook. It’s a social community site with lots of members. I want to experiment if I’m able to promote my blog through YoVille. My homework at YoVille is to make as many buddies as I can. Let’s just see if having a lot of buddies at YoVille can bring traffic to this blog.

My second reason, perhaps most of you has this same reason is to built or decorate a house at YoVille that might just be our future real house. In other words is to use YoVille as a tool to simulate our future real house. It’s not easy when it comes to decorate our own house. We might take a lot time to try out which decoration really suits us. YoVille gives us the chance to practice and simulate our own house before we actually do it on a real house. We are able to change the decoration easily until we feel satisfied with it. After that we can implement the same decoration to the place that we plan to stay and live in. That will save us a lot of time, energy and money.

That ‘s my reason for choosing YoVille but not FarmVille, FishVille, Café World, Roller Coaster Kingdom or Mafia Wars. What game do you play and why? Care to share?

Now that's the way to enjoy a nice cup of coffee

How to do enjoy you coffee? Perhaps you wanna try Ally's way of having coffee. I'm not sure if man can have their coffee that way.

The rise of FarmVille creates Cyber farmers in Office

If you have a Facebook account, I’m sure you know FarmVille. Yes, that’s right. It’s a popular game that let you experience the joy of being a farmer. You get to customize your character and farm any way you like. The goal of this game is to grow your farm and earn money. In the beginning of the game you need to plow fields, plant crops, harvest crops and work the livestock. Once you earned some money and experience, you get to level up and purchase more seeds, equipments, land, buildings and other stuff to expand your farm. You can even invite your friends or so call “Neighbors” to join the game. You may help each other in farming and send gifts to increase your experience to level.

That’s basically how the popular FarmVille is all about. Perhaps you might want to try it out to experience how attractive the game really is. I’m not sure in other countries but FarmVille seems to be very popular in Taiwan. FarmVille even hits the daily news on TV in Taiwan because many people are playing it. Whenever there is free time and a PC that can online, the first site to check out will definitely be FarmVille. Some people even farm during working hours when they are free. It might be a good way to release work stress but it is just not appropriate from the company point of view.

So just how crazy are you with FarmVille? Let’s see now. Will you login to FarmVille every day? Do you check your farm first thing in the morning after getting out of bed? Will you catch some bugs in your farm when you’re taking a break in the middle of working hour? Do you start working on your field right after you get off your work? Will you prepare your farm nicely right before going to bed? If most of your answers are yes, perhaps you might want to slow down a bit.

A game is still a game if your interest is just to have fun with it. Don’t you wish that the coins that you earn in FarmVille can be converted into real money? That will be really nice. If that can be done I think most of us will quit our jobs and farm at home. That is just my little silly dream. In fact some people manage to turn this game playing experience into a gold mine. How do they do it? Just check out the link below.

Coffee at Starbucks or Coffee at MacDonald

There are basically 2 choices that I’ll consider when it comes to having a cup of coffee. It’s either Starbucks or MacDonald. One is an expensive but comfortable to enjoy, the other is reasonable price but taste absolutely good. Here’s my evaluation of having coffee at both coffee shop and coffee restaurant. My evaluation refers to the lowest price black regular coffee.

Let’s start with having coffee at Starbucks. My first impression of having coffee at Starbucks is expensive, comfortable and lots of choices. I think Starbucks considered as one of the most expensive coffee around the world. Starbucks branches in any countries mostly selling coffee at a price of at least double or triple of the local coffee price. Probably half of the money we paid is not just for the coffee but also the environment and the music. I’ll say Starbucks really does have a unique way of creating comfortable environment. I personally like the comfortable sofa very much. With the help of the coffee smells and relaxing music, it just makes it a nice place to take a nap. Well, just make sure that somebody looks after your stuff if you really do want to take a nap. If you’re the person that always brings along laptop to coffee shop, perhaps Starbucks might just be the right place for you. As far as I know Starbucks install at least a power socket at every table for the convenience of laptop users. I did experience at one of the Starbucks branches where the power sockets are not enough for their customers. Guess what, the stuff took out extra power socket extension and make sure all their customers have all their laptops power up. Now that’s what I call service.

Now let’s take a look at MacDonald coffee. The first impression of having MacDonald coffee is cheap but taste much better then Starbucks coffee. In addition you get free refills. There’s nothing better than able to have a nice cup of coffee as much as you want with the price of one. The only time that I’ll go for MacDonald coffee is breakfast time. They did serve coffee all the time, just that breakfast meals goes well with the coffee. In my opinion burgers and fries matches soda better than coffee. I really do enjoy having breakfast at MacDonald with a nice cup of coffee. There are also free morning papers and WIFI available. The problem with laptop users is that there aren’t many power sockets available at MacDonald. Most MacDonald branches I found only have one or two power sockets and everybody are fighting for it. As some MacDonald branches open 24 hours, you can bring your laptop and spend the night. Just order a cup of coffee and you can refill it all night long.

P/S: Just how much difference a cup of regular black coffee between Starbucks and MacDonald? In my country it’s about 3:10. How is it in your country?

Let you Firefox browser run smooth and fast by blocking flash

I was playing around with Facebook and discovered that at certain point my PC runs slow. This happens whenever an application runs flash player. I open up windows task manager and finds that Mozilla Firefox used up 100% of the CPU capacity. This is cause by the flash player that uses up all the CPU capacity.

How do we fix that? Sadly there isn’t anything that we can do about it. We just have to wait for the flash player developer to solve this problem. The only thing that we can do but are not so recommended is to upgrade our PC hardware performance. This method is not encouraging because the problem lies within the flash player itself.

If you want your Firefox browsers to run smooth and fast, the only option that you have is not to use the flash player. We can do that by blocking the flash player using Firefox add-ons. The name of the Firefox add-ons is Flashblock 1.5.11.2. All you have to do is follow the link and click “Add to Firefox”. The application will then add on to your Firefox browsers. You will have to restart Firefox browser in order to activate the add-ons. Basically Flashblock 1.5.11.2 blocks contents from Macromedia Flash, Macromedia Shockwave and Macromedia Authorware. Once you install the add-ons you’ll find that pages will be loading much faster than before. Monitor the changes using windows task manager and you’ll see the CPU usage is very much lower than before.

If you decided to view the flash content or use the flash player, just click on the placeholder. It’s a symbol that looks like below. Once you click on the flash content will run as usual. I suppose if you’re playing YoVille, Roller Coaster Kingdom, FarmVille, Café World or Pet Society at Facebook, you have no choice but to run the flash player. Your CPU capacity will definitely max 100%. The least you can do is try not to run any other application. That might help in reducing the lagging condition when playing the games. Seriously I doubt that will be much of a help.

Reading from a book or reading from Scribd

I like to read. It doesn’t matter what kind of material it is, newspapers, magazine, books, blogs, website or pdf file as long as it’s interesting to me. Reading is a good hobby. The most basic and simple reading that we can get is from newspapers, magazines or books. Particularly from books the title or topic can be more precise. As for me most of my readings are online. I love to read from a book but sadly books are kind of expensive in my country. A fairly good book cost almost the same as 10 Mac D value meals. That is why I turn to the cheapest source of reading online.

Scribd is one of the sites that I found that have millions of document and readers. You can find books, presentations, documents and many other form of reading material. This is the site that I found most of my reading pleasure. Scribd is not just a place to read but also a community that you get to know people with the same interest. That will be reading of cause but most important thing is that you get to share your feelings and opinion with other readers, authors or even the publishers. You may even get to know with author of the book by checking out their bio and send them a message.

Although you can find many books to read at Scribd, but not all books are free. Still there are more than enough free to read material that can keep you busy for some time. You may choose to download the books for later viewing pleasure but there is a limit to the number of documents that you may download each day. You’ll have to wait for another 24 hours to continue download if you exceeded the limit. Download format can be in pdf file or in plain text file. Oh yes, you need to sign up before you’re allowed to download. Sign up is free so just go ahead.

If you think that you can write and have something to share with the world, Scribd provides the platform for you to do so. You can basically share anything as Scribd can transforms pdf, Word, PowerPoint and many other file formats into an elegant web display. If you’re really good, I mean good in producing a book or a journal, you can even consider selling your work as Scribd.

Scribd also has an interesting feature that allows others to embed documents into blog or web page. If you find something good that you like to share with your readers, you can do so by click on the Share & Embed tab above the document. You can share your findings at Facebook, Twitter, Wordpress or Blogspot.

For me, I just enjoy reading the books from Scribd, having something to read while enjoying the cup of coffee is just great for me.

A Trip From Penang to Kuala Terengganu

Lately I happened to have a chance to travel to East coast Malaysia – Kuala Terengganu. Consider it as a mission to escort 3 lovely princesses for relocation. We have 5 knights with 3 iron wagons fully loaded with supplies. We also have a little fairy call GPS that guide us all the way to our destination. We began our journey at about 6:30am in the morning. We started off from the petrol station at Permatang Pauh and below are the details of our journey.

Permatang Pauh (Road 67) – Kulim (Road 67) – Kuala Ketil (Road 67) – Kupang (Road 67 to K171) – Baling (Road K173 to A173) – Gerik (Road A173 to 4) – Jeli (Road 4) – Ayer Lanas (Road 4) – Machang (Road 4) – Jerteh (Road 3) – Permaisuri (Road 3) – Kuala Terengganu (Road T4)

Basically it’s a simple straight forward road as there is only one way to get from West to East side of Malaysia. We just drive straight ahead until we reached Machang. Turn right as we reached a junction that switch from Road 4 to Road 3. After that just drive straight ahead until we reached a road about. Choose the 2nd exit or 12 o’clock straight ahead road which switch from Road 3 to Road T4. Drive straight ahead for another 10 minutes and we’ve reached the famous Sultan Mahmud Bridge. After crossing the bride we arrived at the city of Kuala Terengganu.
I have to say this can be a dangerous journey if you’re not careful. We saw lots of dead animal lying around the road side including monkey, cow, dog and bird. These animals probably hit by cars or trucks. If you’re not careful these animals might cause serious accident. Along the road side we witness signs indicating appearance of deer and elephant. I was hoping to see these animals but instead I saw something that took me by surprise. We saw a wild tiger crossing the road while driving, but that was on my return trip. There are about 500 wild tigers left in Malaysia and it’s very rare for tigers to come out broad day light. Chances of having to see a wild tiger is very slim. I suppose we must be very lucky that day. By the way, the passenger next to me saw the wild tiger too. So I got a witness to prove that I’m not lying. We saw the tiger at about 11:00am in the morning. We couldn’t help to imagine what will happen if motorcyclist saw the wild tiger instead of us. Half of the journey is going up and down between the hills and forest. We are actually very close to where these wild animal lives. At some part of the roads, we did kind of worried about the foggy condition but it was just a short distance only. It was about 9:00am but the foggy condition still there, must be due to the high altitude and the forest around.We were lucky that the weather is fine all the way we drived. The road condition can be very bad if rain. Not to mention if trying to drive at night in these roads, just imagine how dangerous it is. Most of the roads don’t even have lights or reflectors. I can imagine it’s like driving into pitch black with no ends. So what’s the worst condition that you can get if trying to drive at night? Here’s what you might experience, driving through pitch black with no lights, raining, foggy and bumping into wild animals. For safety, it would be best to take this journey day time when the sun is shining above.

This journey is a bit dangerous and time consuming but the views along the road is great. That is if you love site seeing. Some rest area along the road side on top of the hills has great views. We’re able to enjoy the cool wind standing high above the hills scouting around the land below. Perhaps the best views throughout the whole journey are around Tasik Temengor, where we need to cross couple of long bridges. As for the buildings along the road side, I can only remember lots of schools and mosques.

We reached Kuala Terengganu at about 1:00pm. That’s about 7 hours of driving including stopping for fuel and rest. We could reach Kuala Terengganu earlier but for first timer it’s better to take more time and be safe. Crossing the famous Sultan Mahmud Bridge was the most exciting moment as that is the sign we reached Kuala Terengganu. The first thing that caught our eyes the moment that we drove on the bridge is number of mosque buildings on our right hand side. I suppose there are at least 5~6 mosques.This is surely an exciting trip and we were able to reach our destination safely and found the castle which our princesses stay. The castle is situated high above the ground and situated in the middle of the city. The view from the castle is gorgeous as we can almost see half of the city. That includes the famous Sultan Mahmud Bridge and the mosques. After staying for couple of days and safely relocated our princesses, we return to where we came from. Some of the knights took flights but couple of us drove back hitting on the same road where we came from. Mission accomplished!!

Dabbleboard online whiteboard for drawing and team collaboration

Dabbleboard is one of those online collaboration applications that I found useful and helpful. Best of all, it’s free. That is if you’re just using it for simple drawing and discussion. The biggest problem with teleconference is that you only get to talk. You can’t actually use other things like white board, slides or pictures to clearly discuss projects, problems or schedules. It’s actually not so convenient and not efficient. A picture equals a thousand words. If we’re able to show a picture, point to the location and highlight the problem, everything can be explained easily.

Dabbleboard is not just for businesses or people like designers, contractors, lawyers, developers, consultants or salesman. As we get to use this online application for free, teachers, students, parents or kids are able to use it as well. The best thing about using these type of online collaboration application is that we get to save money, energy and most important of all time. Just imagine the time that you’ll save by reducing the travel time. Take for example of 5 students that trying to get together and meet up with their teacher for a short 10 minutes discussion. If each of them needs to spend 30 minutes to meet up and go to their teacher, that’s 5 x 30 minutes = 2 hours 30 minutes of time loss. With the help of Dabbleboard, they can definitely cut the time lost for travelling. All they need to do is get online with a computer.

Another good example of using online collaboration application Dabbleboard is solving problems within factory. When factory faces problems on their new design production, the time requires for coming out with the solution can sometimes determine the gain or loss of a new product. Especially when designers and the factory are separated thousands of miles between several countries, time and money are lost just to send these designers to the problems. All these can be solve just by giving instructions in front of a PC using the online collaboration application Dabbleboard. As instructions and be delivers fast and understand clearly, wasting time on traveling is not necessary.

Dabbleboard is definitely a good online collaboration application that we can benefits from. I think it won’t be long as we can see other application starts to include drawing as one of their features. MSN, Skype and Yahoo Messenger should be among those popular applications to add this feature in. Let’s just wait and see.

Surprising Jobs that Pay $25 an hour? Perhaps only in America

According to an article posted at Yahoo hot jobs title Surprising Jobs that Pay $25 an Hour, below is the list of Jobs:

• Electrical and Electronic Engineering Technician
• Human Resources Recruiter
• Paralegal or Legal Assistant
• Respiratory Therapist
• Police Officer
• Advertising Sales Agent
• Interior Designer

It is true that you don’t necessary need a post graduate to qualify for the jobs above, but it’s a different story if you’re thinking of making at least $25 per hour. It might be true if you’re staying in the US but things might be different if you’re staying in other countries. It’s all about the demand of the profession versus the numbers of profession available. Depending on which country that you stay, for example China or India, the value of profession is very much different. A lot of foreign students graduated in the US decided not to return home to pursuit their career mainly because lack of demand of their profession in their country. Certain profession receive more paid and respect in US than other countries. That is why we see so many different faces and colors in Silicon Valley. Most of these foreign profession plans to work in US for few years and return back to their home country after their bank account have enough money. After few years of working in US, most of them already familiar with the working culture in the states. When they return back to their home country, most of them find it difficult to blend into the work culture of their country. Thus most of them decided to return to the state and make it a permanent job. Plus, the pay is way better in the state.

P/S: Just take an example of the salary of a Technician. Compare it with few other countries and you’ll see the big difference.

Roger Federer, US open and Coffee

Great game at the US Open 2009 Grand Slam Tennis final as Juan Martin Del Potro defeated Roger Federer over a four hour match. Perhaps a good cup of coffee might just alter the results. Coffee, anybody?

Earn money with your blog at Link From Blog

It’s not a new idea about earning money by writing post or reviews about products or sites. At Link From Blog you’ll find the exact same services. You can either be an advertiser and buy blog reviews or as a blogger and earn money by writing reviews. There’s nothing new about this if you’re already in the business of paying for posting. At least you’ll get more opportunity if you sign up at Link From Blog. Payments are done using paypal and you’ll need to activate your blog in order to receive opportunity. You’ll need to write a post about Link From Blog and temporally include a invisible counter. They need to check the traffic of your blog in order place a price on your blog.
Link From Blog also has an affiliate program which enable you to earn extra money. If you refer a friend and spends or earns a total of $500, you’ll get a $50 bonus. Plus you’ll get a free gift, 2 ebooks with LinkFromBlog Tips, tricks and secrest right after you send your first invitation. So go ahead and sign up.

Remembering Patrick Swayze

It is a shocking news that Patrick Swayze dies of cancer at the age of 57. According to the news, Patrick Swayze suffered from pancreatic cancer and has been struggling with the illness for the last 20 months.

Patrick Swayze starred in A&E network's "The Beast" that air recently. I saw that series and it did draw my attention to finish all the 13 episodes. The series first season is not bad and I was hopping to see more of Patrick Swayze in the second season. Honestly he did not look like a person that is suffering from an illness. He did look skinny but still can feel his energy and passion through his acting. It's truely a great loss for such a talented actor.

I still remember couple of the movie that Patrick Swayze starred in, "Dirty Dancing" and "Ghost". Some of the memorial scene in these movies are unforgetful, including the music, songs, faces and words. It also makes me remember the young beautiful Demi Moore, talented Whoopi Goldberg and Jennifer Grey.

Fans of Patrick Swayze will surely miss him, including me. As a tribute to Patrick Swayze, I'm sure television network around the world will be showing his movies and drama. I'm expecting to see "Ghost" and "Dirty Dancing" to air in my country.

Anything for a cup of free coffee

Some people will do anything for free coffee. If Mac D is giving out free coffee for doing that, I really don’t mind doing it. In fact, I think it’s fun. Perhaps I’ll bring my boss along whenever I’m getting that free coffee.

How to lose your job online

Anybody on Facebook or Twitter? If so, are you adding all of your friends into it, including your colleagues? These 2 online community applications are so popular that some of us are enjoying it even during work hour. It’s fun having able to chat and communicate with all our friends all around the world but still you need to be careful on the usage. Cause if you’re not, it might just cost you your job. Consider that Facebook and Twitter is not a place for any topic as some of the things that you talk about might just leak out to the world. Worst of all it might just end up to the person that you least wanted to. So if you want to pick a way to release your stress, unsatisfactory, anger, or misfortune, make a call or go meet up with somebody. Don’t print it online. As these info might just keep on passing from a friend to another friend, and another, and another, any another…until it reach the last person that you want it to land on. Ckeck out the picture below that I stumble on and you’ll know what I mean. ( Got this from Applicant)

Coffee Recommender to help choose your flavor of coffee brand

How do you choose your favorite cup of coffee? There are so many different type of coffee in the world. How do you decide which coffee that you like best? Let’s say if you’re able to purchase any coffee from any location in the world, which coffee will you get? It is true that it’s fun and interesting to be able to try out all the coffee in the world, but it will be best to avoid those flavors that you dislike. According to Wikipedia, there are about 68 brands of coffee in the world. That’s just estimation as I’m sure there are other brands of coffee which are not recorded in Wikipedia.
Let’s make this simple. When you’re shopping for coffee, which coffee that you choose? For sure you want to get the coffee that you like but you don’t know that unless you try it out. That is why in some shopping center, customers are allow to test out the coffee before decided to make a purchase. The problem is that how many brands or type of coffee you need to try out before you find the one coffee that you like? Well, here’s a simple test that you try out that can help you solve this question.

Coffee Recommender by Caribou Coffee

I try it out myself and this is my results:
Your Flavor Profile: Smooth & Bold
Your preference in fruit suggests that you like...
Sweet and gentle acidity, not too much, just enough
Your preference in wine suggests that you like...
Big, heavy, robust and spicy. You like to bully your way into the day, proclaiming here I am and I am awake!
Your preference in alcohol suggests that you like...
A smoother, warmer quality of coffee
Your preference in adding things to your coffee suggest that you...
Like coffee, but want to smooth it out, or sweeten it up with a little buffer
Coffees that match your flavor profile – Colombia or Costa Rica

Coffee commercial targeted for women

This commercial really is funny and good. It is good in persuades women customers to buy coffee but there is just one small problem. Who needs coffee after they found their loves one? I suppose any coffee can do the trick. It doesn't matter how good or bad the coffee taste. Finally, she can ask if he wants an alternative drinks like tea, beer, orange juice, coke, lemonade, apple juice, coco, milk, wine, Vodka, VSOP, Whisky, XO or even just a cup of plain water. I'm sure he'll say yes to anything she offers.

P/S: Just that this is not a coffee commercial.

Decaf coffee?

I really don’t understand why they even have decaf for coffee. I have to say, the only place that I ever have a decaf coffee is in US. After coming back to my hometown country, I never had seen any coffee shop selling decaf coffee. This is one question that I still don’t get an answer. I did try out decaf coffee during my stay in US and I have to tell it really doesn’t taste like coffee. Perhaps that is the reason why some places just don’t sell it. It might sound strange but having a decaf coffee is just like having a non alcohol beer.

Nciku Online English Chinese Dictionary with Great tools to learn Chinese Mandarin

Most of the online English Chinese dictionaries that you find online just give you the basic translation. Take for example Google Translate. It gives you variety of translation between lots of languages. It’s simple and fast but it doesn’t help much if you try to learn the language. If you’re trying to learn a language, perhaps you’ll have to search for a better website. Nciku is an online English Chinese dictionary that includes several online features that helps you to learn Chinese Mandarin. There are lots of sections created in this site just for the purpose of easy learning Chinese Mandarin, for example Chinese Conversation of the Day, Learn Chinese Characters and Learn Chinese from Pictures. Among those sections, I find that Learn Chinese Characters is the best part of all. It shows you exactly how the Chinese characters are written. The animation of the stroke order is perfect for those trying to learn how to write Chinese character. Each character written also comes along with pronunciation and definition. There is also a section that you can use your mouse to write the Chinese character in the given block section. Once you start writing, the dictionary will try to compare it and list out the character that you’re trying to write. Click on the Chinese character and it will be transfer to the search box on the left. This is actually a great tool as it can also act as a tool for you insert a Chinese Character without typing it. You can just write it directly. If you’re trying to skype with your friends that use Chinese Character to chat, this can be very handy. It will be a lot faster if you’re not familiar with using keyboard to type Chinese characters.

Nciku can be considered a good site to learn Chinese mandarin as it uses every available resources. You can write, listen to the pronunciation and watch videos and pictures to give you a better understanding and easy learning. I’m sure this site is good for anybody that trying to learn Chinese Mandarin. Especially for kids, learning a language online should be very interesting. Parents can use it as a tool to learn the language together with their kids.

Michael Jackson Memorial Set for Tuesday 7th July 2009

11000 tickets for Michael Jackson Memorial situated inside Staples Center in LA will be free. That is definitely not enough for MJ fans. I suppose Tuesday will not be a normal day. It’s going to be a special day for MJ’s fan around the world. Many of his fans might fly themselves to LA for one last MJ event. For those that are not MJ fan but staying and working in LA, Tuesday 7th July 2009 might just be the busiest day, especially for the LA police, fireman and the officials that will be on duty that day. There will be many people and traffic is going to be congested. I just hope that everything will be running smooth as plan.

As for the fans around the world, you might want to check out your local news channel if they have live coverage of MJ Memorial on Tuesday. Some of you might have to stay awake as it might be late at night at your time zone. Anyway, I think your boss might excuse you for attending the MJ memorial in front of the TV.

The question that I found a lot of people are debating is “Do we have to do so much and spend so much for MJ memorial?” Well, in my opinion MJ brings us a lot of joy and entertainment for so many years. No doubt that he earns a lot of money and become the king of pop, but sadly he did not get to enjoy the life of a simple normal person. I suppose compare to what MJ gives us, giving a respectful goodbye is undeniable. If MJ is just a normal person just like you and me, he too deserves a simple funeral ceremony. Not to mention he is a popular super pop star, fans will be attending his funeral at the same time but in different location around the world. “Goodbye and rest in peace” from all around the world will reach MJ on Tuesday 7th July 2009.

P/S: If I’m living in LA, I might just take leave from work or school on Tuesday 7th July 2009 and stay home. I suppose it is better to sit on my couch with all the food and drink that I can have and watch MJ Memorial. I’m thinking every TV channel, radios and even the internet will be all about MJ on that day. Think twice before you decided to walk out of the door as you might just get wash away by the crowds of people.

Got a math problem that can’t solve? Try looking for answer online at Mathway.

Honestly I’m quite surprise on how the internet can solve our problems and provide variety of answers nowadays. The cyber space is just like a giant big encyclopedia with lots of answer and information. There is one very interesting website that I stumble on today and I just wish that this website existed when I’m still in school. Mathway is the website and it’s basically a site that solved math’s problem. How does this works? Well, basically you enter the math problem in the given space, choose a subject and press the answer button. The subjects available are basic math, Pre-Algebra, Algebra, Trigonometry, Pre-calculus and calculus. I know there are some other programs that you can install to solve math problem and alternative you can also use a scientific calculator, but this is something that you can do it online. Perhaps kids might love this Mathway. Besides if you use it wisely, you might have a tool that can teach your children math. Instead of using the traditional way, using this online math’s solving website might just help getting your kids to be interested in working on math’s problem. According to the website, over 11130402 math problems have been solved. I’m not sure about that but I think many people already try out the website. The good thing about this site is that it shows both the answer and the step by step solution. Plus, you can graph the solution too. That makes it easy for self learning. Perhaps you might want to go through the help section to fully utilize this website.

P/S: This site is meant to help in learning math. Please don’t use it as a tool to do your homework.

Free E Book form Taiwan University Library

At the beginning, we wrote on bricks, animal skin or tress. We also make it into books with pieces of bricks, bamboos or animal skins. As time goes by books are now made of papers and are beautifully created. Perhaps this is the most common material for books right now. Later on in the future we might not use any material for books at all. Yes, you don’t need any material at for writing an ebook. The first thing that you helped by doing that is prevent a tree from becoming papers and then to a book.

Reading from a solid book that made from papers and hard cover definitely feels better then reading from ebook. It feels like you own the reading material and you can just hold it in your arm. As for an ebook, you’ll feel a sense of emptiness even if you pay hundred over dollars for it. Anyway knowledge is knowledge no matter how you obtain it. For sure there will be lot more stories, thoughts and study material made into ebook rather than paper books. That’s the effects of more people using computers and internet. Plus it’s a way to reduce the cut down of trees.

As more and more books are converted into ebooks, we can find lots of them online now. Here’s a site that I found which provides free ebooks. It’s a site from National Taiwan University Library. As for now, there are currently 68858 of free ebooks available. As it’s from Taiwan, the site is written in Chinese language. That doesn’t mean all the ebooks are in Chinese language. It’s still a library that keeps lots of different books including English books too. So feel free to check it out. All you need to do is type in the keywords of the books that you desire and press the button on the right. The search column works the same even if in Chinese language.

Free PowerPoint Templates and Backgrounds from Templates Wise

I think most of you that works in the office with a computer on your table definitely get to do presentation. Power Point, projector, pointer and of cause the audiences are the things that you’ll need to deal with when it comes to presentation. Among all the above, the one thing that I hate most is preparing the presentation draft using Power Point. Why? Lot of work and it always consume a lot of time. Few days of preparation will end up just few minutes of presentation. I know, I know, it’s important to convey the information to others correctly and effectively. That’s why we need so much time to prepare it. Just that I’m not that kind of person. Oh well, enough for my rumbling and complains. Here’s a site call Templates Wise that gives out free Power Point templates and backgrounds for presentation. I should have come to this site early. Any way luck for you guys as you now have more choices to prepare your presentation. Templates Wise categorize the Power Point Templates into abstract, general, business, nature, finance and travel. So just look around and see if any of these templates suit you.

How to make a Greek frappe coffee

This animation shows us how to make a Greek frappe coffee. It’s simple, clean and best of all makes you wonder if the coffee tastes good. That’s one thing about using animated style as it creates a lot of imagination space. You might even wonder if it’s that easy to make a Greek frappe coffee. At the end you might just go ahead and try to make the coffee yourself. Feels like have a cup of coffee now? Why not Greek frappe coffee?

The thing about working or studying late at night

Working late at night, especially between 12am to 3am early in the morning might not be what we plan of but sometimes it just can’t be avoided. This post is meant for those that have to work late at night. Honestly I’m the type of guy that works better during this period of time. I don’t know why but my mind works great and I can focus well without feeling sleepy. Instead if I have to drag myself wake up early in the morning and start work at 8am, my action will be taking over my mind. Even couple of black coffee won’t be able to keep my eyes open. Anyhow, some of us are night crawlers rather than the morning birds.

Let’s go back to working late at night. When it’s time for Cinderella to return home, most of the activities stop too. You can walk on the streets that use to fill with transportation, enjoying the cool fresh air without anybody around sharing it. Best of all you have the whole world as everybody is asleep. That means no disturbance or distraction from others. Instead you might find some company other than human. Problem is not all are good company. The no good company that you’ll get is the one that almost everybody hates, cockroaches. Yes, that’s right. If you ever stay up late at night, you’ll definitely see them. So it’s better to get yourself loaded with bug spray if you plan to work over night.

There are few things that I enjoy working late. First is sky, especially when the sky is clear. Either the moon will be around or the stars will take the spots. The quiet dark night just seems to be a big gigantic cinema and I’m the only one in it. The sky that fills with stars is the screen and sometimes the moon took the stage by itself. Either way it’s a visual sensation to me. During that time, instead of man made noise, we have tiny little sound that we might not be aware off. The little sound made by crickets. Although we might have some other sound for example frog but let’s just focus on the enjoyable sound. If I’m lucky I might find myself some good company too. Good company that try to light up the surrounding. Yes, fire flies. Perhaps they have what we call soft and gentle light.

Just like normal cinema, each enjoyable time last about 2~3 hours. No exceptional for the big gigantic cinema of mine. After 3am, the things around me might still be the same but the feeling might not be the same. That’s because we start feeling tired. When we feel tired, everything will turn out annoying and the only thing that we hope for is sleep. Besides the best of everything always come short, and I think that’s what makes it special.

Making Your Own Widget for Your blog with WOWZIO

WOWZIO has some widgets that you can customize and create for your blog. Best of all it’s free. No registration required and it can be done quickly. Almost all blog with JavaScript enabled can install Wowzio’s widget. As far as I know, only free accounts from wordpress.com are not allowed to install Wowzio’s widget.

There are several types of widget available that you can install to your blog. You have the option to choose gallery widget, panoramic slideshow widget, live activity widget, tag cloud widget and feed content widget. Depends on how your blog is, you might want to choose carefully which widget to use. Space is limited and valuable, so choose wisely.

Gallery widget and panoramic slideshow widget capture photos in your blog post and display the latest 50 photos you upload. All the photos display will link back to the corresponding post. This type of widget is best use when photos are one of the main attraction or discussion for your blog. Examples of blogs that suitable for using this widget are travel, food, celebrities and product reviews.

Live activity widget shows a list of your latest visitors. It shows visitors’ location and the post they are reading. This type of widget actually let your visitors know what’s hot in your blog. It’s a human nature of curiosity to check out why this post is view by others. So your viewers might just read more post after this widget is install.

As for the tag cloud widget and feed content widget, there’s nothing new about it as one is to create a tag cloud and another is to display the content of your blog. Good thing is that you get to use these features if your blog doesn’t have it.

Currently, I’m more interested in the gallery widget or panoramic slideshow widget. I’m planning to test it out on my other blog. Let’s just see how it goes.

The Black Hole within us

After long hours of work or having too much coffee, most of us might dream of having “The Black Hole” thing. The truth is we just need a break. A break from all these repeated same old fashion work load and the same old coffee taste. What will you do if you’re getting a piece of “Black Hole” as seen above? Perhaps put it on the floor and jump into it and see how deep it goes? Or perhaps change your job as a “Breaking an entry” profession? No matter what it is that you going to, this piece of “Black Hole” are going to change your life. Changes in life might be good or bad, depends on how you see it. At the end of the day you just need to feel happy about it and able to sleep well at night. The last thing that you ever wanted is getting caught or trap inside the changes or decision you made, unless you’re fine with it.

That’s what I call having coffee in the office

Office work sometimes can be boring, frustrated and stupid. There are times that we almost feel like blowing up, in other words going crazy or nuts. That is why we stop, take a break and have a cup of coffee. If you offering yourself to help others getting coffee in an office crowded with 20 people, you might find yourself asking for trouble. Imagine how you can remember so many different type of coffee if all of them start yelling “no sugar”, “black”, “white”, “with cream”, “lots of milk” and many more. Chances are you’ll never remember all your orders. Once you voice out to get them coffee, it’s too late to back out now. So the best solution to solve this is to get their orders one by one and write it down. Next you need to get one or two person to help you get those coffee ready and deliver them. In this part you’ll either pray that there’s someone willing to help you or you’ll need to beg for help. After delivered all the coffee, it’s time to go back to your work. As when you think that you’re done with the coffee, the impact or response starts. Some starts saying that’s not the coffee that they ordered. Later you’ll hear some complains about the bad coffee you made. When you think that a coffee break might change your mood but instead it just brings more trouble and frustration. Sometimes things just don’t work out as we plan, even if it just having a simple cup of coffee. So if you’re really not in the mood, you don’t have to be nice. Instead you can try this trick below in the video.

Do we need to worry about Swine flu?

Do we actually need to worry about Swine flu? Watching news about swine flu daily definitely is scary. Ever since the incident about swine flu takes place in Mexico, almost everybody is following closely to the flu news monitoring the spreading and action taken by the government. “Will swine flu ever get close to me? Will I get infected and die?” Perhaps these are the questions that most people will think of. The truth is before the swine flu gets to you, the news about swine flu might hit hard first. No doubt that swine flu is not to be taken lightly but sometimes it’s the fear towards the flu that is lethal. Take for example the mass slaughter of pigs in Egypt. Regardless if the pig has anything to do with the flu, this action might just destroy the living of many people. Not to mention that the amount of food that is destroyed, it’s just a waste. In some places people are worried more about starving to death then the swine flu. Or shall I say there are lot more deadly disease to worry about then swine flu. If we take a look around us and we can see that death cases cause by cancer, heart attack, AIDS including car accident has an incredibly large number. You don’t have to dig up the numbers and compare the statistics to understand it. You just have to recall the funeral that you’ve attended and you’ll feel the impact.

There are too many things that we need to worry about but that doesn’t mean we don’t have to take action about swine flu. The least that all of us must do is to get the facts right. Eventually knowledge about swine flu will help us through and so does the knowledge about other disease too. It’s not just about method of curing it. It’s about preventing, controlling and most importantly eliminate the fear within so we can continue our daily live without much disturbance.

Monday Morning War between Sleep, Work and Coffee

It’s always hard for me to go back to work on Monday. The bed feels extraordinary comfortable than usual. Eyes can’t hardly open and sensitive to sun light. There seems to have some kind of magnet in my body that keeps on pulling me to the bed. It very difficult to pull myself to the bathroom… These are all the excuse that comes in my mind saying “Stay, skip work today” every Monday morning. I have to fight on to go to work. It’s a terrible fight as the war zone is in my house. The Enemy has advantages on the land marks. The bed, the sofa, even the soft carpet on the floor can drag me down. The only way to survive is to get out of the house fast and rush to work. 10 minutes of washing and dress up is the basic necessary for work. After the preparation, breakfast has to be schedule in the office. Ever minute spends in the house increase the risk of going back to sleep again.

Next is run and pursued. This part of war occurs on the way to work. Strictly speaking, it’s the fight to keep awake when driving to work. It’s the most difficult and terrible fight. If you own a fairly expensive car that has a very comfortable seat, cool air conditioning system, absolute sound prove and super sound system that plays Johann Pachelbel Canon in D major, you’re going to have a hard time winning the war. If you lose this part of war, you might end up sleeping in the hospital for month. Worst scenario might just be not waking up at all. In order to win this war, you must switch to wake up songs like Girlfriend by Avril Lavigne. It might not be your type of songs but you need it. Roll down your windows and enjoy the cold morning wind. That is unless the air is clean enough and not carbon monoxide from the heavy traffic. Get some toothpicks in your hand and ready to poke yourself when feeling sleepy. This part of war usually last not more than 20 minutes, unless the work place is far away or unfortunate traffic jam occurs.

So when or where coffee comes in? Well, the first thing that we put into our mouth after wake up definitely is coffee. It is really not a good idea of having just coffee without any solid food but that’s one way to wake up. I’m sure many of us did that. Not encouraging as it’s not good for health. Thus some will wait to have their wake up coffee. Second location that we can take coffee is along the road to work. We just have to make sure that the coffee doesn’t get in the way while driving. Spilling the coffee while driving might cause accident. Thus some will consider wait extra longer to have their wake up coffee. The third and final place to have coffee is in the office. After all those excitement, it’s not “wake up” coffee any more, it’s “start working” coffee to be more precise.

P/S: I just hope that we can sleepwalking to work. Don’t have to go through so many troubles. Just wake up sitting in the office and ready to start working.

Entertaining Evening Dinner with My Friend singing on stage

It’s very enjoyable when you are able to enjoy a good meal with friends while listening to the songs presented by your friends. The food might be a bit expensive than usual but given that it’s delicious and the dinning environment is great. I say it’s worth the price. Not to mention that we are able to enjoy the singing performance for about couple of hours too. That evening definitely is entertaining.

At the beginning, a friend of mine that likes to sing started out singing in restaurant just for fun. It was once in a while performance and it’s not about money but the satisfaction of able to sing in public. He also participates in song writing contest and received great results. Lately he gathered couple of his friends and form a band just for the fun to perform at various occasion. The band is called Mangroove and you may check out the website for details.

That night I was around the area where my friend has a live performance in a small restaurant. So I call out couple more friends to join me for dinner and check out their singing performance. I pick a table that is close to the stage and wait until my friends show up. As usual while waiting, I look around and observed the people around me. The table beside me sat 4 youngsters that seem wealthy. They look like college students, having lots of drinks that seem expensive without a sense of worrying about money. They laugh and talk as if they own the restaurant and nobody complain about it. Oh well, it doesn’t bother me at all. In fact it’s kind of interesting for me to watch them. At the other side at the corner of the restaurant, is table of 4 is celebrating birthday party. I’m pretty sure that it’s a birthday party for a girl. Boys normally won’t or don’t celebrate birthday party in a restaurant where all the unknown waiters and captain singing “Happy Birthday” to god knows who they sing to. Still this trick successfully make the birthday girl put on a smiling face for the entire evening.

It rain that night but my friends still shows up. We talk and place our order. Couple more minutes later, my friend that suppose to sing arrived. We had a short conversation as he needs to prepare for his performance. When the food arrived, he began his little concert. To my surprise, the sound system in the restaurant is well equipped. It’s nothing like other restaurants that I’ve been before where only bass and shouts can be heard. In this restaurant, I’m able to listen clearly every single songs performed. That’s good for the audience but not completely good for the singer. Any songs that are badly performed will be noticeable clearly. That’s the thing my friend worried as some songs perform is requested by customers. He has to be ready and good enough to perform the requested song, or switch song if not familiar with the song. If not people might boo him from down below. Overall the singing performance is good. There are some songs that are not quite well performed but still acceptable.

It was about 2 hours singing performance. It’s very entertaining as some of the song brings back a lot of memories. We are able to enjoy English songs, Chinese songs, hokkian songs and kantonese songs thanks to our friend that speaks and sings so many languages. Even though

Expensive Coffee from Cat Poo

I post about this special kind of coffee about 2 years ago and it seems that this coffee is still hot. Cat poo coffee still tastes as good as before and the price still at the top of it, seems like it. An article that I stumble at thedaily.com.au features Cat poo coffee reminds me again that I must not miss out this special coffee. As a coffee addict, one of the enjoyable moments is to able to taste different kind of coffee from all over the world. That includes the expensive cat poo coffee. No doubt it might feel strange or perhaps may give it a second thoughts weather to drink coffee made of cat poo, but if the coffee smells good and looks good then why not give it a try. When you look into this cat poo coffee seriously, the coffee is made from coffee beans that go through the digest system of a cat call Luwak or civet. That means the cat eats the coffee bean, go through its stomach, comes out from its behind and people collects them and blend it for a fine expensive coffee. It’s still the coffee bean that is used, just that it goes through a cat body. The coffee is so expensive because of the amount of coffee able to produce using this process is limited. Perhaps the only way to increase the production of cat poo coffee is to breed more civet.

P/S : Even Jack Nickelson loves it. ( Check out the movie Bucket List )