Earth hour

Today is the day where you have to save one hour of electricity.

That is pretty easy. Just shut off all the electricity in your house for 1 hour and start to ruminate about what other things you can do to save the earth.


Use that 1 hour wisely, stay away from your handphones, computers and television sets. Just think to yourself what you can do in the future to stop this world from being obliterated as a result of global warming.


Let's look at the stark difference between a lighted city and a switched-off city.

Ostensibly it seems like a great movement, where the world can save one hour of electricity. But to think of it as a one-shot pony campagin will result it in being a futile attempt to move the world.


What I mean here is that the 1-hour global campaign is to remind the others of the pivotal importance of saving electricity in your everyday life. Obviously that 1 hour saving is not going to do a thing as compared to the rest of the number of hours in your 365 days. The point here is to offer us a caveat that if we do not our part, soon our city will be perpetually living in darkness like during that of the 1 hour we are experiencing.


Campaigns, events, advertisements are going all out to remind us about the 1 hour campaign today.

If they are doing it to merely remind us to switch off the electricity for 1 hour, don't you think that the total cost we saved would have been overwrited by the cost of all the campaigns, events and advertisements used altogether ?

Then what's the point right?

Hence, we should look at the bigger picture and start to save electricity whenever possible. Especially when we are not using any appliances.

A final note, if you switch off your appliances rather than putting them on standby mode, you can save up to $50 a year. That might be very littlt but imagine if everyone is doing that, the amount saved would be gargantuan.

Do not think of it as an individual effort, think of it as a global effort.

I presume that is what the Earth hour campaign is trying to tell us.

The magic of 285 Apple Stores

In a report to clients issued overnight Monday about Apple's (AAPL) opportunities for growth in China, Morgan Stanley's Katy Huberty adds, almost as a throwaway, the instructive charts at right (see also below the fold).

They show what she calls the "Positive Correlation Between Apple Store Expansion and Mac Market Share."


It seems flagrant that the accrued market share is a corrollary of the expansion of the number of Apple stores worldwide. Right now, Apple is planning to open up another 25 retail shops in China. This might be a perfect opportunity to expand in China given that Google has some conflicts with China at the moment.


It might be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to convert the Chinese into Apple fans!


Nonetheless, Apple still has many other opportunities elsewhere other than China. For instance, in Asia it is becoming more and more prominent where more and more teenagers are enticed by the iPhones and iTouch. Many are wowed by the number of applications and you can hear them talking about the up and coming applications of the day on the train everyday.


To be a topic of the day is HUGE!


The best form of marketing to date is for sure without a shadow of a doubt, the word-of-mouth marketing.

Imagine you yourself going up to the highest floorth in your country. Then, you pierce a pillow (which you have brought along) filled with feathers with a knife. Every single feathers will float along with as the wind gust and you will have no idea where each feather goes.


That is the power of the word-of-mouth. With the increasing number of shops as a concomitant, Apple is approaching invincibility.

I'm pretty sure that even though iPad was not a huge success, Apple will continue to move on with even greater success in the near future.


You have my word!




Credits -cnn, -charicemania, -cache4

Waiting Area

Just a picture of the day at work.

Facebook Surpassed Google

"It shows content sharing has become a huge driving force online," said Matt Tatham, director of media relations at Hitwise. "People want information from friends they trust, versus the the anonymity of a search engine."


Well, the day has finally arrived.


Facebook triumphs Google. The point made by Tatham is very intriguing. Content sharing is becoming a huge driving force on the net.


I thought this is really a fact.


I personally always get the thrill and adrenaline rush when I post a status message on facebook and then I get lots of reply on my status message. Somehow, I feel very happy to reply to these messages even though that person replying to my message is actually on msn with me.


So right now, I'm thinking to myself, is it because we humans prefer to share the message with the rest and also, we are able to show off to the rest of our friends that we are popular in the sense that our message get tonnes of replies on it.

Right now, it becomes a competition to see who has the most number of replies. It's a vicious cycle.


Don't you think so? Come to think of it, when you see others getting lots of replies on that status messages and you getting none. Doesn't it makes you reflect on yourself? Whether all your friends doesn't like you?


But when you suddenly get lots of replies, you tend to study the trend. What is it that I have to type to get lots of replies.


Interesting isn't it? Now it becomes what I should type rather than what I want to type.


We've just been manipulated by the society and social network.


Google has recently came up with Google Buzz but it was a major flop. Perhaps if Google can come up with something better, then maybe they will trash facebook.


Otherwise, facebook will still take the lead for now.




Credits -cnn, -mythsandfacts

America's next top model Cycle 14 Episode 3

Alasia

Not too bad

Alexandra

Classical Armani

Angealea

Dissapointment

Anslee

Average

Brenda

Pathetic

Jessica

Beautiful

Krista

She seems photoshopped

Naduah

Killer.

Raina

She looks like daredevil. Wow gorgeous man

Ren

Too messy

Simone

No impact at all

Tatiana

Not very impressive

Creidts -livejournal

Google Uncensors

In a long-awaited announcement, Google said Monday that it will stop censoring search services on google.cn, its Chinese search site.




Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) is now redirecting its Chinese users to its Hong Kong site, google.com.hk, which offers uncensored search results, according to Google's company blog. Google's search site for Chinese users is now hosted on servers that are in Hong Kong.

Well, it seems that after much persuasion, China is still adamant about its stand on self-censorship. It appears that there is no way the burgeoning giant is going to let a step back on this one and that Google can only take a back seat and obey China on this one.


Nonetheless, as you guys can see, Google has decided to finally uncensor everything at the risk of offending China. They are currently testing the water by hosting their sites based in Hong Kong in order not to infringe the rights of China but even by doing so, their search services still can be banned within the borders of the country per se.

This also includes it Chrome services, its operating system and its Android services along with its online-advertising business.


It will have a huge impinge on Google if they were forced to leave altogether because these services hold a gargantuan amount of revenue for Google and has the potential to set the platform for Asia. China could jolly well be a pedestal for Google to step on in an attemp to reach the entire of the Asia in terms of spreading its clout and services as a giant corporation.


Nonetheless, China will most probably not do such a fatuous thing because it will leave a bad trademark on them if they were to ban Google altogether from China. It will have adverse effects on its public relations and the entire world will be scrutinizing China once again for barring the global giant from entering its market.

To be honest, the world is already scrutinizing China's operations. A while back, United States governors have already tried to request for a litigation against China for manipulating its currencies in an effort to support its exports business. By doing so, they are actually impeding United State's recovery as a result.


Also, China is notoriously infamous for its protectionism policies and thus it is really difficult for other businesses to thrive in China. Domestic industries are booming because they can export easily without much tax but they can't import because the import taxes are hefty due to a weak currency.


With so many eyes staring at China, I doubt they will self inflict damage on themselves by barring Google altogether.



Credits -cnn, -osmoothie, -amnesty, -sanssoucistu

Justin Foo

Remember the name because he's going to be a top chef soon.


He's in the midst of hardcore training at Le Cordon Bleu so in the mean time, you guys will only have pictures to satisfy your cravings.


Indulge in them and enjoy.

Medaillon de porc sauté, sauce au thym.

Filet de rouget à l'anis.

Lotte au poivre vert.

Filet de flétan à la Dugléré.

Feilleté d'escargots aux champignons des bois.

Moules Marinières.

Praires Farcies.

Filet (contre filet) d'agneau à la croûte au sel.

Like the food? I'm sure you did.


Drop by his blog at and click on the nuffnang ads if you happen to see any.


That's the least you can do after looking at his pictures !

Ring Ring

Okay, let's talk about my work again, I hope this doesn't bore you guys out :)


Yeah, so I was forced by my senior colleague (who is only 23 yrs old but he's been working with Starhub for 2 yrs already so he's really good and knowledgeable I must say) to pick up the calls from the shops and dealers.


Haha, it was pretty cool I must say.


At first, I was actually a little apprehensive because I thought that they were going to yell at me through the phone but to my surprise, they actually talk to me very politely.


They translated their requests to me in a congenial manner which truly impresses me. I was in fact more than willing to help them with their queries even though I'm not yet a master of all the softwares and stuff.


However, I did manage to help quite a few of them with their queries and they reciprocated back with a sweet "Thank you!" which truly made my day!


Haha, I don't know if I'm crazy or what but I think I'm actually addicted to the picking up of phones now.


Perhaps this is one of my weird idiosyncracies, that is I feel extremely gratified after helping someone and even better when they reply back with a smile or a thank you!


Such an simple act is more than enough to keep me going. The amount of energy I'm supplemented with is for sure, insurmountable and powerful!


I think I'm loving my job more and more!


Cheers !!! And I hope you guys are enjoying what you are doing as well!

Work

Hi guys, as some of you might know.


I'm already working and so far I must say that there are ups and downs throughout this past 2 weeks at work.


Let me start with the initial process, it has to be during the first week of course. I was constantly, frantically, copying down a plethora amount of notes because I realised that they are teaching me whatever they know through their experiences and there are no manuals around or any standard operational procedures.


So I thought I might be able to remember a lot more of what they say by recording them down in what they call the "Holy Bible" later on.


Other than copying, I was doing on-job training, which literally means that after I'm thought one thing, I'm required to execute it immediately for the next few hours before I learn something new again. So I repeated this process for the other skills I have to master for the next few days.


After a while, I got a hang of things and I thought to myself, "Hey this job isn't half bad, I get $8 a day and the job scope is not too harsh and the colleagues are super hilarious."



Example of a conversation they had,


A: Hey, have you seen the Jack Neo's article?

B: Yes I did!

C, D, E: OMG I DID ALSO !?!?!?!

A: Very the bad hor the jack neo.

C: Aiya, if I were the wife hor, I also won't divorce him, I can live off him for the rest of my life leh.

B: But if you divorce him you get the alimony leh, must be a huge amount also.

D: You very myopic leh, if you divorce him your alimony is that fixed amount, but if you stay with him, you can constantly ask for anything you want lo.

E: EEeeeeeeee, you all damn money-minded leh.

A,B,C, D: You not meh?!?!?!?!?

E: Actually I also la !!!

A,B,C,D, E: HAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHA!!!!!!


And the entire office bursted out laughing at the 5 of them. It was epic man.


Yeah, but during my 2nd week, everything start to change, both my attitude and mindset towards the job. What makes me change the most is that almost all the temporary staffs are leaving.


To be honest, we only have 3 permanent staff out of the 20 staffs in the office. Why is that so? This is because the long-term temporary staffs are usually studying at SIM and surprisingly most of them are leaving by the end of this month! Also, the rest of the short-term temporary staffs are leaving for National Service, Polytechnic Institutions, or other jobs for new experiences.


This also mean that my status suddenly surged all the way up to a senior staff when I'm only there for 2 weeks? I'm now ranked 3 in my department and I'm already teaching the newer guys. Unbelievable right? When I'm actually still in the midst of training.


Almost everyone who is leaving gave me a caveat, they said that the longer you stay, the more you are required to learn and the more you do and naturally the more blame you get when things go wrong.


At that point in time, I felt really despondent and I almost had the urge to leave with them as well. The leaving spree seems to have galvanized my spirit and optimism altogether.


But, there's yet another turning point which made me stay.


1. One of my friends are working there with me but he's in a different team but he told me that I just have to stick it out with him and everything will be fine.


2. My outside friends told me that I have to be grateful for all the wonderful colleagues I have, including a super-nice supervisor. They mentioned that their supervisors are very mean and almost like a pharaoh in nature.


3. When I complained that my job is a little stultifying, they told me that that's probably the best we can do now as an A-level student because most of the employees will not allow temporary staffs to handle projects and stuff. At the very most, you will be providing admin support to the project team and it stops there.


So after considering what they said and the fact that this job is offering me a high pay plus shift allowances, I thought that it is not that bad afterall.


It's really how you look at the job and the people around you.


To me, what's pivotal now is that the job offers me a lot of opportunities to learn about human interactions and how they deal with mundane work. I realised that some of them can actually spice up the environment and make the job fun! There's really alot to learn from these people.


For that, I will continue to work hard and strive for the very best while at the same time pick up the important human-relations skills from my peers.


On a side note, my notes were taken and photocopied to be passed down to the new people who will come the next time. Haha so proud of myself! Now, we have a manuel.


I love my job, I love my job, I love my job!