Marry for money or love

Are you dating now? What is the motive for you to get into a relationship?

You may say that relationship is for love, not for money. You love your boyfriend or girlfriend and are willing to commit to a legally binding relationship in marriage. You marry for love, not marry for money.

What about your girlfriend or boyfriend? Does he or she love you for who you are? Will he or she leave you when you are out of job and penniless? There are people who married for money.

They seek the security of money. Once the money is gone, the appearance of a loving husband or a loving wife fades. Many divorces happen during the recession than during economy boom. When there is no money, there is no love. Recession is often the time to know who marry for money, and who marry for love.

How do you know whether your girlfriend or boyfriend love you or love your money? How do you know your future mate want to marry for money or marry for love? There are many ways to find out.

The first way to find out whether for money or for love is to discuss the question openly. You do not have to ask him or her, “do you love me or love my money?” That is a very tactless and stupid way to ask the question.

You can get the real answer in the roundabout way. You can discuss the question of “Are relationships for love or money? Why do you think people marry for money?” Discuss all the morality of the poor ladies from the developing countries marrying the middle-aged guys from the developed countries.

You can talk to the friends and parents of your girlfriend or boyfriend. If all his or her friends are those who rather marry for money than for love, this should trigger a warning in your mind. Since he or she can get along with those friends, then they are likely to share the same view. Even though you may find it hard to believe, many parents still urge their kids to marry for money, not for love.

They will try to stop the romantic relationship when they find that their beloved kid is dating with someone who has an honest but low paying job. They rather their beloved kid marries for money, so that their beloved kid can enjoy all the good things that money can buy.

There are many practical persons in this world who do not marry for money, but they will not love a person without money.

Money is important. Without money, you cannot survive, much less to support a family in this world. However, the love of money is the root of all evils. If you get into a relationship for money, you will have to bear the fruitage of your choice. You will not be happy living with a person you do not like.

On the other hand, if your boyfriend or girlfriend marries you for your money, you have to bear the fruitage of your choice too. He or she does not love you, and will not share your interests and goal in life.

So folks, give serious thoughts to this question “are relationships for money or for love”. Search your heart and soul for the answer. If you are dating, make sure your partner shares your view to marry for love, not marry for money.

The law of attraction

The law of attraction is a very powerful concept that can change your life. The law of attraction tells you that you can be what you want to be.

The law of attraction is the underlying concept in Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. After all, you have to think first and know what you want first, then let the law of attraction does its part to give you what you want.

The law of attraction is the underlying concept in Rich Dad Poor Dad. The rich dad wants to be rich and the law of attraction attracts richness to him. The poor dad wants a steady paycheck and the law of attraction makes it happen.

So the rule is that, be careful what you ask for, the law of attraction will not give you more than you want. If you think that you can never be rich, the law of attraction will ensure that you live in poverty, even if you have the good luck to win lottery.

Some people do not believe in the law of attraction because they want everything immediately. Life does not work this way. The law of attraction will make sure you get what you want, but in its own time.

You want to be rich. You desire to get rich. You set your mind and heart to get rich. That does not mean that the law of attraction attracts riches to you immediately. It can take ten years. It can take twenty years. The law of attraction works in its own time. And usually the law of attraction gives you what you want, at the right time.

Since you cannot control the law of attraction in the fulfillment of your wish, you have to focus on what you can do to make law of attraction works.

The first thing you must do is to decide on what you want. You must prevent conflict in your mind. You must not confuse the law of attraction. If you want to get rich, yet view riches as filthy money, then you are confusing the law of attraction. How do you expect the law of attraction to attract filthy money?

You have to change your mindset about wealth and richness before the law of attraction can work. If you think all rich guys are bad, and selfish, the law of attraction will not work either.

The second thing you must do is to visualize your desires. Do not feel guilty or unworthy. You have the rights to all the best that life can offer. You must see in your mind what you want, and let the law of attraction fulfills it for you. For example, you visualize world tour and financial freedom. Can you feel the sea breeze? Can you feel the fresh air in the Alps? You have to visualize and see yourself there. The law of attraction will make it happen for you.

The last and most important attitude is to keep a positive attitude, no matter how long it takes for the law of attraction to work.

If you can visualize the riches of life one day, and tell yourself it’s not possible to get rich the next day, how do you expect the law of attraction to work?

The law of attraction will think you have a change of instruction, and give you all the monetary worries and problems.

The law of attraction seems to fulfill negative thoughts faster than positive thoughts. The moment you start to panic and think that you are doomed to poverty forever, the law of attraction will make sure all your fears come true.

If you learn to control your negative thoughts and learn to deal with problems, while at the same time, keep your hope high, the law of attraction will start to send good things to you.

Let the law of attraction attracts only goodness to you. Please do not let the law of attraction sends all your fears and negativity back to you.

Drinking Midnight Wine by Simon Green

Drinking Midnight Wine by Simon Green is an outstanding fantasy thriller.


My copy of Drinking Midnight Wine by Simon Green has 336 pages. Can you imagine that the whole book talks about events in three days? And not three full days.

Drinking Midnight Wine starts from Friday evening and ends on Sunday morning.  It took me longer than three days to finish Drinking Midnight Wine by Simon Green.

The hero, Tony Dexter, was on the way home. He fell in love with a beautiful lady in the same train.

Tony Dexter had fallen in love with this lady for long time, but hadn’t the courage to speak to her.

When the train reached the station, Tony Dexter and the beautiful lady alighted. It was raining hard. People were running for the buses and to their cars. Tony Dexter and the beautiful lady were still in the station.

The beautiful lady was no ordinary person. She was a powerful Being in human form. She opened the door to the magical world. She did not realize that Tony Dexter was watching her.

Tony Dexter followed her into the magical world.

When he woke up on Saturday, he did not realize that he was looking at the magical side of his town. He got a shock when the ATM spoke to him, and said that it like his face.

Tony Dexter discovered that he was a focus point. He would change world event.

The fantasy thriller climax on Saturday night, where he made decision to save the world from destruction by the Devil. He loved and still loved the beautiful lady, despite the knowledge of who she was.

Drinking Midnight Wine by Simon Green ended on Sunday morning. The beautiful lady returned his love. It was a nice, fairytale ending.

What I love about Drinking Midnight Wine by Simon Green is the many interesting quotes about life, and unfulfilled dreams of ordinary men and women.

I have written the following interesting quotes from Drinking Midnight Wine by Simon Green. It is as much to remind me that dull people leading dull life can experience great changes in their lives. Obviously Drinking Midnight Wine is a thriller, and nobody can experience the life-scattering change in the fantasy world.

However, ordinary people can have fairy-tale ending.

Quotes 1 from Drinking Midnight Wine by Simon Green

“Deadly dull people leading deadly dull lives.”

Quotes 2 from Drinking Midnight Wine by Simon Green

“People were still paying twenty quid a copy though, proof if poof were needed that you could sell absolutely anything if people thought they weren’t supposed to be reading it.”

Quotes 3 from Drinking Midnight Wine by Simon Green

"Cities were like natural disasters; enjoyable only if viewed from a safe distance.”

Quotes 4 from Drinking Midnight Wine by Simon Green

“But at the end of each and every day he was still just a shop assistant, another faceless drone in the great hive of the city, doing the same things over and over, achieving nothing, creating nothing.”

Quotes 5 from Drinking Midnight Wine by Simon Green

“Self pity suits you.”

Quotes 6 from Drinking Midnight Wine by Simon Green

“Good impressions aren’t exactly what I do best. With me, what you see is pretty much what you get.”

Quotes 7 from Drinking Midnight Wine by Simon Green

“Suffice to say that money and I seem to have only the most fleeting of relationships these days. I don’t understand where it all goes.”

(This is the best quotes of all;  I think many of us share the same thoughts.  If only money loves us as much as we love money.)

Quotes 8 from Drinking Midnight Wine by Simon Green

“You’re free to be greater than you think you are.”

When to buy life insurance?

When is the best time to buy life insurance? The answer is: when you do not need the protection coverage of a life insurance policy. That means you should buy life insurance when you are young and in perfect health.

You know that old and sickly people are not eligible to buy life insurance policy anymore. That is why you should buy when you are single and in good health. That is the time you do not need life insurance coverage, and the insurance companies will accept your application for life insurance policies.

Insurance companies are profitable business. The insurance companies do not sell you insurance policies when the people need the protect most.

Those people suffering from terminal illnesses are the ones who need the money from the insurance policies, but the insurers will never sell any insurance policy, including whole life insurance policy.

When you are young and in good health, the insurers want to attract you to buy all kind of insurance policies, including whole life insurance policies. You are right that you do not need life insurance policy at this moment.

That is why you are encouraged to buy as many life insurance policies as you can. If you can afford it, please invest in some life insurance policies from different reputable insurers. You can treat buying the life insurance policies as a saving and investment plans.

You can always cancel one or two life insurance policies when you need money in the future. However, make sure that all the life insurance policies have accumulated more cash value than your total premiums.

Generally, a whole life insurance policy will reach a breakeven point between ten to fifteen years. The best is to convert to a paid up life insurance policies so that you can enjoy the protection for the rest of your life.

When you are young and in the pink of health, you can pay far lesser premium for whole life insurance policy for guaranteed protection for life. There is a difference in the premium for smoker and non-smoker.

It is best to be a non-smoker, since you pay lesser premium in life insurance coverage than smoker. The premium that you pay to the insurance companies will not increase as you grow older, but the protection sum of the life insurance policy will grow. The cash value of the life insurance will grow too. You can treat buying life insurance as saving up for old age.

Buying life insurance is a method to make sure that you save money for rainy days. If you do not pay the premium of the life insurance policy, you are likely to spend the money away.

As long as you pay the premium for life insurance until the life insurance policy has enough cash value to keep the policy in force, you get protection for as long as you live. Nobody is getting younger and younger every day. All of us, including you, grows older and older.

And with age, comes all kinds of health problems. The life insurance policies will be useful when we are weak and too sick to work. That is the time we need money most, and that is the time the life insurance policies with all the riders can help us financially.

When you start a family, you have more family obligations. That is the time the importance of having life insurance grows.

You know that the insurance companies will pay to your dependents, should any unforeseen incident happen to you. This provides a peace of mind to you, knowing that your spouse and children will enjoy a similar standard of living when you are no longer able to take care of your family financially.

The best thing about buying whole life insurance policies is the ability to add on riders to enjoy other insurance coverage.

The minimum riders are medical coverage for inpatient, and personal accident riders. You do not need the medical coverage when you are working in corporate world, since your company provides medical coverage. However, your company does not, and cannot guarantee life long employment.

The moment you lose your job, the medical coverage ceases. Destiny has a kind of weird humor to some people. Just when they are retrenched and in need of money, their health problems surface. That is the time when the medical coverage rider can help them.

The cash value and protection value of life insurance increases with each passing year. If you buy a life insurance policy when you are in a young working adult, and you live until a hundred years old. The insurance policy is still in force as long as you pay the premium until your retirement.

Since the life insurance policy is a participation policy, the insurance company will declare bonus, adding to the value of life insurance policy every year. The cash value and the protection value of the life insurance policy will increase every year.

When you need money in old age, you can surrender the life insurance policy for cash. That is why you should get more life insurance policies when you are young and in good health.

The time to buy life insurance is when you are young, single, and healthy. Buy a few life insurance policies from different companies, so that you have protection in case any of the insurance companies go bust.

Kidney stones prevention

Kidney stones, Urolithiasis, are the results of crystallization of minerals and substances. When the crystallization of minerals occur in kidney, we called them kidney stones. However, some kidney stones stay in the ureter or in the bladder.

Kidney stone s, nephrolithiasis, can cause pain and suffering when the kidney stones block the urine flow.

If kidney stones are removed as soon as possible, the kidney stones can lead to many kidney problems and can hurt for a long time.

The best is to prevent kidney stones from growing.

Kidney stones are easily preventable and easily treated, as long as they do not grow in ureter. A person can avoid kidney stones if he makes up his mind for a healthy lifestyle.

Even though the causes of kidney stones include clinical history, hereditary factor, and medical condition. However most victims of kidney stones develop kidney stones due to unhealthy lifestyle.

They live a sedentary life with no regular physical exercise, and they take in excessive minerals or substances from their diets. They are eating too much calcium or sodium to produce kidney stones.

If they want to prevent kidney stones, the first thing they can do is to drink enough water.

We often heard the advice to drink water, and drink enough water. Drinking enough water is the most basic way to prevent kidney stones, because enough water is needed to flush the minerals and substances out from the system before they develop into kidney stones.

The best form of liquid is water which is free from major impurities. Drinking soft drinks with high sugar content makes it tougher for the kidney.

Make up your mind to drink lots of water everyday for the sake of preventing kidney stones. You can aim to drink at least 8 glasses of water, so that your body has enough fluids to flush the waste products from the body.

If your diet includes excessive consumption of calcium and sodium, you can reduce the risk of kidney stones by drinking more water. Since water help to dilute the minerals or other kidney stones-forming materials such as salts present in the person's urine.

Even if you are already suffering from kidney stones, you should drink enough water to flush out the smaller kidney stones. You should avoid drinking sodas and other juices, since these are not helpful in preventing the formation of kidney stones.

You can change your diet to get rid of excessive calcium and sodium, so that you do not suffer from kidney stones when calcium or sodium crystallize.

Many people do not have a single kidney stone in their lifetime because of their balanced diet.
Most kidney stones are calcium oxalate kidney stones. Calcium oxalate kidney stones develop from excess calcium intakes.

You can prevent calcium oxalate kidney stones simply by cutting down on foods that are high in calcium and oxalate. You can moderate your consumption of dairy products, leafy vegetables, soda-colas, cranberries, chocolates, and peanuts. You do not need to stop the consumption of food high in calcium and oxalate. You just need to eat in moderation so that they do not accumulate enough to form kidney stones.

Uric acid kidney stones are easily preventable too. You can cut down on foods that have high animal protein content so that you do not develop uric acid kidney stones. You can cut down on poultry and red wine because they have high purines content, high enough to produce kidney stones.

The next kind of kidney stones you want to avoid is the kidney stones made of salts. You can avoid meals that have high sodium content, so that the salt do not become kidney stones in your body.

You can start to eat foods that are high in fiber, and increase consumption of citric acid or vitamin C. Critic acid can help to dissolve the small kidney stones, and the body will flush them out through your urine.

When you have kidney stones, you must remember to take proper medication under doctor‘s supervision to remove kidney stones. Doctors can prescribe medicines such as thiazide, sodium cellulose phosphate, oral calcium supplement, allopurinol, polycitra K, thiol, D-penicil-lamine, Acetohy-droxamic acid or AHA, and toradol to help relieve pain from kidney stones and reduce the concentration of kidney stones-forming materials in the body.

Reflection: On Success and Success Factor in life

Everyone likes success. Nobody likes to fail. Nobody likes to fail in life.

Even the failures hate themselves for making a mess out of their lives. They do not want to take responsibility for their failures in life. They want to inflict pain and hurt on others so that successful people will feel like failure.

When we talk about success factor, we generally think of management studies. The textbooks have too many examples of success factor for career, success factor for project management, success factor for business and success factor for many other business-related aspects.

Hardly anyone uses success factor in conjunction with life. If we want to have a successful life, we need to have a list of success factors. The only time to measure success in life is at our death. However, the success factor for life is not determined so late in life.

The first success factor in life is to understand ourselves. There is no right and wrong in many things in life, including our personalities. Some people are natural pessimistic in their outlook in life.

There is nothing wrong with that as long as they set a limit to the pessimism. Over-optimistic is not a success factor in life. Over-pessimistic is not a success factor in life. The best is to strike a balance between pessimism and optimism.

The ability to control our mood swing is another success factor in life. We often get angry and over-react for nothing serious. Some bosses fly into a rage when their employees are late for five minutes, and yet they forget to show appreciation for employees who stay late for five hours after the end of official working hours.

That is a failure factor for life, and not a success factor. Life is fair to everyone. If we have a success factor, we will get reward accordingly. If we show a failure factor in handling of our relationships with others, we will get the bad result too.

The moment we detect the demon of our emotions getting control over us, we should learn to kick it off, and let reasonableness takes over. That is a success factor in life. Successful people are those who know themselves and know how to control themselves.

The third success factor is to learn as much as we can. We do not just learn technical knowledge. We learn about life, and building lasting relationships with people important to us.

Our family is important to us. Our colleagues are important to us. Almost everyone we meet in life is important to a certain degree in our lives. The success factor in life is to have lasting relationships with those who love us and whom we love.

Knowledge makes us humble. The more we learn, the more we find that we do not know everything. The quest for knowledge and to rejoice and share in knowledge contributes to the betterment of mankind. We should view gaining and sharing knowledge as a success factor in life.

The most successful people share their knowledge. If they do not share their knowledge, we will lose many great things in life. The writers of the Bible shared their knowledge of God. Confucius shared his knowledge and influenced millions of lives throughout history of China. Napoleon Hill interviewed the richest persons in his era, and wrote books to share his knowledge with us. All of them understand that a success factor in life is to share.

The fourth success factor in life is to set a goal in life, and set many different goals for different parts of our live. Life goal is sometimes easier to set than various goals for different roles we play in life.

Some people set their life goal as “Be Good”. This goal contributes to a successful life. It is the key success factor in their lives.

Some people set the life goal as “Serve God”. This goal governs nearly all their actions in life. It is the most important success factor for their earthly life.

There are many small goals in different aspects of life, such as career goal, health and wellness goal, relationship goal, and goal for riches and wealth. Every goal needs some success factors to turn it into reality.

So folks, how do you define success in life? How do you define the success factor in life?

More on kidney stones

Most people do not realize the importance of taking care of kidney until they develop kidney stones.

Each kidney plays a very important role in our body since kidney is the ultimate "filter" for blood. When the kidney is in good working order, it serves as a removal system for the waste in the body. The kidney helps us to regulate the level of minerals in the body and helps the body to function properly.

When kidney stones grow in the kidney, the kidney stones can disrupt the filtering system of the kidney. Kidney stones can indirectly create diseases because of this disruption in the kidney’s function.

Most people view kidney stones as painful and unnecessary nuisance in life. It is relatively easy to remove kidney stones. And most kidney stones are not really harmful to the body.

As long as the kidney stones are not located in the uterer—the tube that is connected with the bladder and where urine passes, most doctors do not view kidney stones as serious condition.

If you have developed kidney stones, or your sedentary lifestyle puts you at higher risk of developing kidney stones, you have to learn more about kidney stones, so that you can avoid developing kidney stones.

You can learn the definition of kidney stones. You can learn what is a kidney stone.
Kidney stones are defined as the crystallization of substances and minerals in the urine. Kidney stones are literally hard as rock. Kidney stones can block the passage of urine and may cause pain and suffering to the person. Kidney stone will grow bigger if the person takes no action.

Kidney stones can grow in number if the person does not seek medical treatment.

There are a few classifications of kidney stones. Calcium Oxalate kidney stones are due to excessive calcium in the kidney, "struvite kidney stones" are due to an urinary system infection, "uric acid kidney stones" are due to excessive acid in the urine, and "cystine kidney stones" are due to excessive cystine.

Some people are prone to kidney stones because of heredity. They inherited the genes from the family, and as a result are more at risk with kidney stones.

The kidney related diseases that runs in many generations of the family can account for the higher risk of kidney stones and kidney problems.

Sometimes the geographical location plays a factor in kidney stones formation. The geographical location is related to the climate, lifestyle, especially the common diet, which has an impact on the risk of kidney stones among the population.

Some common diets require high consumption of calcium, sodium, and oxalates. All these are the minerals that cause kidney stones. Many processed food also aids to produce kidney stones, because these contain too much minerals, eg sodium.

Lack of regular physical exercise is one cause of kidney stones among the city folks. Many office workers do not have opportunity for enough exercise in the office, and they are too lazy to exercise after work. That is why many office workers develop kidney stones repeatedly.

Many people ignore the mild symptoms of kidney stones, until they have unbearable pain from the kidney stones. You should go for checkup for kidney stones if you feel insistent pain in your back or side. You do not have to wait for the intense back pain before you start taking action. As the kidney stones grow in size, you will feel more painful.

A tinge of blood present in your urine plus slight chills or fever as a result of infection are also symptoms of kidney stones.

If you have serious symptoms of kidney stones, such as vomiting, foul smelling urine, cloudy or yellowish urine, urge to urinate often and painful urination, you must take action to seek medical treatment for the kidney stones immediately.

Most victims of kidney stones are middle-aged men who do not exercise enough. It does not mean that other people do not have kidney stones.

When people do not exercise enough and do not pay attention to their diet, they can develop kidney stones, regardless of their age. Women and children suffer from kidney stones, especially those in higher risk group, such as those with heredity, lifestyle, and medical condition.

It is relatively to diagnosis kidney stones. You can go for a medical checkup, either a full body checkup or just to check for kidney stones.

When you are diagnosed with kidney stones, even those kidney stones that are too small for you to feel back pain, the doctor will recommend different treatments for the kidney stones.

Most people with small kidney stones need medications. Some people have large kidney stones or kidney stones in uterer. Doctor may recommend medical procedures such as shock waves, lithotripsy, tunnel surgery and ureteroscope to remove the kidney stones.

Web Shopping

Web shopping or online shopping is changing our shopping habits.

There are many reasons why web shopping or online shopping is gaining popularity. I doubt web shopping or online shopping can overtake literal shopping experience. The experience of shopping in the mall cannot be duplicated by web shopping.

There is no way web shopping can let you experience the jostling of the crowd. There is no way that web shopping can duplicate the festival atmosphere in a crowded shopping mall.

However, web shopping will never go out of style for many reasons.

The first reason for the popularity of web shopping is the cost of hosting a site. Hosting a site for web shopping is cheaper than opening a shop in a shopping mall. Since the overhead is lower, the savings is reflected in the lower price of items available in web shopping mall.

The second reason for the popularity of web shopping is that shopping is available for 24 hours whole year round. For people who live in remote areas, web shopping makes it possible for them to buy so many products at the click of a button (of course with a credit card).

Before the era of web shopping, the choices are limited. They can buy only those items selling the shops in their areas. With web shopping, they can buy practically everything from the world.

The third reason for the popularity of web shopping is the availability of electronics products and services. Many paperbacks are available in ebook format. Readers can pay for the book via web shopping and start reading immediately without leaving their house.

The cost of ebook is also much lower than hardcopy book. The game card to play online game is also available through web shopping. Many gamers buy and sell the game id and items through web shopping websites.

The fourth reason for the popularity of web shopping is the availability of price information. It is easier to check prices of products and services in web shopping. There is no need to travel out of the house. Many people forget to check the cost of shipping when they check the selling prices from online stores.

Some online stores allow customers to select the cheapest available shipping method. Even though they have to wait longer to get the products, the cost is still lower in web shopping.

However, web shopping can never take over the shopping mall. Not everyone has computer at home to enable web shopping.

Grocery shopping is probably an area that web shopping cannot match. After all, who want to use web shopping to buy a few potatoes and tomatoes? They cannot afford to wait for the tomatoes and potatoes while the family is hungry. I doubt anyone uses web shopping to buy a packet of salt or sugar too.

The preference of consumers to try out new clothing and shoes before buying is deterrence in the popularity of web shopping. While online stores do sell shoes and clothes, not many people like to buy through web shopping. They want to try out before buying. I am one such shopper. I still prefer to try out the shoes, and feel the soft leather on my feet.

There are still many shoppers who enjoy shopping experience in shopping mall. Many are just window shopping. Some just like the atmosphere in the shopping mall.

Alopecia: hair loss condition

This is the first time I come across Alopecia, the name for hair loss condition. The article in the newspaper talks about a boy with alopecia universalis condition.

Alopecia universalis refers to the complete hair loss, including eyebrows and eyelashes. At least boys can take ridicule better. I doubt any young teenage girls with this total hair loss condition can maintain a high self-esteem.

If you have asked me earlier on about Alopecia, I would think that you are asking about some great ladies in the history of ancient Rome or England. Lady Alopecia sounds like a nice name.

Since Alopecia is a blanket for all the different hair loss conditions, we cannot just tell the doctor (dermatologist) that we want treatment for Alopecia.

Some types of Alopecia, such as alopecia universalis is extremely difficult to treat. Alopecia universalis is an auto-immune condition.

The immune system of the body somehow thinks that hair follicles are the great enemies, so the immune system destroys all the hair follicles. The worst thing is that condition can pass down to the future generation genetically.

Less than half the patients with alopecia universalis respond to treatment. Even when patients responds well to treatment, the hair loss can start again. Topical immunotherapy and phototherapy are the two main methods to threat this kind of genetic permanent hair loss condition. Both methods have to do with tricking or suppressing the immune system.

A similar but less hair loss condition is Alopecia Areata. This hair loss occurs in patches anywhere in the body. Sometimes the hair will grow back.




For most hair loss conditions, the factors are stress, nutrition, or self-abuse of hair.

Stress can cause the hair loss. Hair loss is the body reaction to stress. It may not be permanent condition. When the stress level reduces, the hair may grow back. In some cases, the hair never grows. They have to seek professional treatment for hair loss.

Hair loss caused by poor nutrition is easier to treat. Lack of iron and protein can cause hair loss. Since hair can grow back, a proper nutrition intake can help to improve the hair loss condition.

Some people abuse their hair so much that hair loss condition occurred. Self-abuse of hair includes too frequent dyeing of hair, and tying the hair too tight.

For those cancer patients who have hair loss because of chermotherapy, hair loss is the least of their problems. As long as they can survive cancer, they can worry about the hair loss later. Most cancer patients experienced hair growth after the chermotheraphy session ends.

I think humans are funny. Hair loss causes them to lose their self-esteem. Yet the risk of getting heart diseases does not stop them from eating junk food.

Compared to hands and legs, and other more useful members of the body, hair is hardly that important a function of the body. Just that hair loss makes us lose our self-esteem, and we become the target of many curious glances.

I think it's time for us to appreciate whatever we have, including healthy hair. Let us not wait till our hair has problem to appreciate our healthy hair.

Prevent hair loss in women

If men worry about hair loss, then women will panic about hair loss. Most women spend money and time on their hair, so that they will look good and feel good about themselves. Hair loss is the ultimate nightmare for women.

Since most of hair loss problems are lifestyle and diet related, we can prevent hair loss through proper care. Some hair loss problems are hereditary, and these are hard to prevent. Preventive methods can only help to reduce the occurrence of complete hair loss.

The first way to prevent hair loss is to eat a balance diet. Healthy hair can be a good indicator of healthy. Eating a balance diet can promote good hair growth, and prevent hair loss.

The second way to prevent hair loss is to take supplements. Hair loss is often a result of insufficient iron and proteins. Taking supplementary can solve the iron deficiency problem.

The third way to prevent hair loss is to avoid bleaching, dyeing or perm the hair too often. These methods cause stress on the hair, and will cause hair loss.

The fourth way to prevent hair loss is to avoid using curling irons and hot rollers too often. The heat will cause the hair to break, and makes the hair dry and brittle.

The fifth way to prevent hair loss is to avoid tight braiding of your hair. When you tie your hair too tight or braid it too often, this will put pressure on the hair. You can tie your hair looser.

The sixth way to prevent hair loss is to rub your hair dry gently. If you have a habit of drying your hair harshly with a towel, it’s time for you to treat your hair gently.

The seventh way to prevent hair loss is to let your hair dries naturally. Using hair dryer can cause dry and brittle hair, and is not good for the hair follicles.




The eighth way to prevent hair loss is to comb your hair gently, especially when it’s still wet. Wet hair is more fragile, and tends to fall off when you comb it hard. Even when the hair is dry, you can avoid combing it hard. Too frequent combing of hair can cause the hair loss too.

The ninth way to prevent hair loss is to avoid undue stress. Sometimes we have the bad habit of pulling at our hair when we are stressed. You can teach the children not to pull their hair when they face difficulty in solving mathematics questions. Hair loss and premature white hair are often signs of acute stress. Learn to reduce stress naturally to avoid hair loss.

The last way to prevent hair loss is to use hair conditioner regularly, especially when the hair is dry. Sometimes the hair turns out dry because we sit in the office so many hours a day. The dry and cold air from the air conditioner can make our hair dry, especially when it blows directly onto our heads.

It is great to have healthy and shiny hair. Let us take care of our hair and prevent hair loss. It is cheaper to prevent hair loss naturally than to spend money on hair treatment. Healthy and shiny hair is great as confidence booster too. Most of us do not have film star beauty, the least we can have is to have healthy hair.

How to deal with kidney stones in children

Many adults are having kidney stones. We know that many adults are developing kidney stones due to sedentary lifestyle and unhealthy diet.

We do not feel shock when we hear adults having kidney stones, since kidney stones are so common among adults.

However, when you hear a kid suffering from kidney stones, that would be a different story.

Children do not usually suffer from kidney stones. Children love to run and jump about, and since physical exercise can reduce the chance of developing kidney stones, we seldom hear children have kidney stones.

Children are less prone to kidney stones. However, that does not mean that children are immune to kidney stones. Recently, there is an increase in the number of children with kidney stones.

Children with kidney stones can be a result of sedentary lifestyle, especially sitting in front of the computer or by eating foods that are too high in protein, calcium, and sodium.

Studies show that most of the children with kidney stones are those who suffer from underlying medical conditions. The underlying medical conditions make those kids at higher risk of developing kidney stones.

Parents have to understand about kidney stones before they can deal with kidney stones in their children.

When parents have knowledge of kidney stones, they can trace possible causes of kidney stones, as well as identify symptoms of kidney stones, and able to give immediate response to the children in pain from kidney stones.

There are different types of kidney stones in children. Kidney stones can either be "calcium oxalate kidney stones", the "struvite kidney stones," "uric acid kidney stones," and "cystine kidney stones."

Calcium oxalate kidney stones are the most common of all kidney stones. Calcium oxalate kidney stones are caused by too much presence of calcium in the urine. Different types of kidney stones are formed because of different levels of the minerals found in the urine. Excessive minerals will form kidney stones.

Parents would not know whether their children are suffering from kidney stones when they are not familiar with the symptoms of kidney stones. Symptoms of kidney stones include abdominal or back pain, blood in the urine or hematuria, vomiting or nausea, and frequent need to urinate.

When children with kidney stones are too young, the symptoms of kidney stones are not easily recognized. There is a need to undergo laboratory evaluation and tests to diagnose kidney stones in younger children.

Kidney stones in children are not common, especially kidney stones in very young children. There is a need to determine the risk factors for the kidney stones in children.

If younger children develop kidney stones, they are at risk of developing kidney stones in future.
Studies show that children with history of kidney stones are likely to suffer from kidney stones in the next ten to twenty years of their lives.

One possible risk factor for kidney stones in children is the low fluid—especially water—intake. When children drink less water, it affects the ideal amount of urine that should be released daily.
Low water or fluid intake is a major cause of kidney stones in both adults and children. If there is lesser water or fluid intake, the chances of developing kidney stones are much higher because hardening of the concentration of substances leads to kidney stone.

Another cause of kidney stones in children is the diet. When children, and adults, consume diet high in animal protein such as beef, pork, lamb, or chicken, they are more likely to develop kidney stones.

The meat-based diet leads to higher concentration of protein, and that is a primary causes of kidney stones.

Children who consume too much protein are probably at risk in developing "calcium oxalate kidney stones" along with intestinal absorption problems.

The third risk factor for kidney stones in children is having a ketogenic diet that has minimal carbohydrates because that directly affects the mineral intake levels.

Another risk factor for children with kidney stones is cystic fibrosis. Urinary tract abnormalities like dysfunction of the bladder or the kidneys can also cause children to develop kidney stones.
Sometimes, children with kidney stones inherit some disorders from the parents.

The last possible reason for children with kidneyt stones is when they use medications such as "furosemide," "allopurinol," and "acetazolamide". All these medications are known to promote formation of urine crystals that leads to the formation of kidney stones.

How to avoid kidney stones

Even though kidney stones are not fatal, you would rather not have kidney stones. Like I have said before, most people probably do not mind producing kidney diamonds, but they hate to produce kidney stones.

Kidney stones are nuisances. Fortunately, it is very easy to avoid producing kidney stones.
As long as you pay attention to your lifestyle, you can prevent your body from developing kidney stones that are so painful.

Medical experts agree that the best way of avoiding kidney stones is to have a major lifestyle modification. When you change your lifestyle, you can eliminate the risks of having painful kidney stones.

The first way to avoid kidney stones is to drink lots of water. In fact, it does not take you much effort to drink water.

Drink enough water can help you avoid kidney stones, since you are eliminating wastes from the body through urine.

Some doctors say that two liters of urine a day can eliminate enough wastes to prevent kidney stones from developing. You need to drink at least eight glasses to ensure that you will have enough liquid to wash away substances that can harden into kidney stones.

However, that is just a guide. If you are outdoor and the weather is extremely dry and hot, you need to drink more water to prevent kidney stones from developing.

The second way to avoid kidney stone is to change your diet. You must make changes to the amount of fiber, protein, calcium and sodium intake.

You can increase fiber intake and decrease protein intake everyday. You are helping your body to avoid too many substances to develop into kidney stones.

When you consume a meal that is high fiber, you lessen the chance of developing kidney stones because fiber aids digestion and other functions of the kidney.

If you consume meal with high protein intake, you are likely to develop "uric acid stones". Uric acid stones are caused by having too much protein in meals servings.

You should also avoid excessive consumption of calcium from your diet. Having a moderate intake of calcium is a simple yet very effective means of preventing kidney stones. Since having just sufficient calcium can reduce the risks of developing the most common type of kidney stones, the calcium oxalate kidney stones.

Another mineral to decrease for the sake of avoiding kidney stone is sodium. Reducing sodium intake is necessary because you reduce the risks of developing kidney stones. You can reduce the daily sodium intake to 1,500mg or less everyday.

The third way to avoid kidney stones is to stay fit and physically active.

When you are physically active, you are safe from the pains of kidney stones. Sedentary lifestyle makes the minerals and substances gather at the kidney, and become kidney stones. Thus, people with sedentary lifestyle are more prone to kidney stone.

Some people manage to remove small kidney stones by medication and then jumping up and down. The purpose is to loosen the kidney stones, so that urine can get rid of them.

The last way to avoid kidney stones is to pay attention to your body. This is a common sense tip, yet it is the most sensible tip for people who are prone to kidney stones.

As we grow older, our bodily organs and functions tend to go slower, that include the kidney function.

To avoid developing kidney stones and suffer from the kidney stones, we must learn to listen to our bodies. When we feel something wrong with our bodies, we should go for a checkup. We do not need the kidney stones to grow into such a big and painful kidney stone before we take action.

The best is to schedule a full body check up with a doctor, and to take medication to get rid of the small kidney stones.

It is far better than to remove the large kidney stones surgically.

What are kidney stones?

Kidney stones are so common among the people I know, so much so that I always teased them about the kidney stones.

Whenever I hear anyone having kidney stones, I always joke, “why don’t you have kidney diamonds instead?”

I guess many people will be rich if they have kidney diamonds instead of kidney stones. Since their bodies are so productive, and keep on producing kidney stones, I wonder why scientists never invent a way for human bodies to produce kidney diamonds.

Since we are talking about kidney stones, and we heard so much about kidney stones. Let us see what actually are kidney stones.

Kidney stones are very common and found in kidney and bladder. It is much nicer to know those hard little things as kidney stones, and not bladder stones.

Kidney stones are results of unhealthy diet and lack of physical movements.

Most people do not have just one episode of kidney stones. They get rid of one set of kidney stones, and another set of kidney stones start growing.

Anyone can get kidney stones. Fortunately kidney stones are not fatal disease, just painful for the sufferer.

Kidney stones are easily prevented and, with early diagnosis, easily recovered.

As long as you lead a healthy lifestyle, with healthy diet, drink enough water, and regular exercise, you can prevent your body from producing kidney stones.

Some people tend to neglect kidney stones because they kidney stones are not fatal and easily treated with medications and medical procedures available today.

The problem is that if they continue to have their kidney stones unchecked or undiagnosed, they are more prone to develop other related diseases which will make their health conditions more complicated.

To avoid further complications when it comes to kidney stones, it is best that you arm yourself with all the knowledge about kidney stones that you can get—especially if your lifestyle makes you prone to developing of kidney stones.

The first thing that you need to know about kidney stones is what it really is.

Kidney stones are made up of minerals and other excess substances in body. Kidney stones are the products of the minerals and substances found in the urine. The process of developing kidney stones involved the crystallization of minerals and other elated substances. This minerals and substances harden to become kidney stones. Kidney stones can be hard as a real stone.

Many people have kidney stones which are very tiny initially. These small kidney stones grow if they are not diagnosed and removed. From a small kidney stone about the size of grain, kidney stone can grow beyond a quarter inch.

Those who have kidney stones have to worry on the location of the kidney stones. The size of the kidney stones are not as important as the location of the kidney stones. The location of the kidney stones matter because the kidney stones can affect the functioning of kidneys and other organs. Some people experienced great pain because of the location of kidney stones.

The most dangerous location for kidney stones is the uterer—the tube that connects to the bladder. Kidney stones at this location can block the path where the urine should pass. A person experiences excruciating pain from kidney stones because kidney stones at this location will stretch the kidney so much.

The pressure caused by this stretching can build up and can even result to other related symptoms such as blood in the urine or hematuria, nausea, vomiting, and slight fever or chills especially if there's already an infection.

You should also pay attention to the possible causes of kidney stones. Some causes of kidney stones include the Urinary Tract Infections (UTI). Urinary Tract Infections can result in kidney failure. Some other causes of kidney stones involve the kidney, foods that contain high levels of calcium, sodium, oxalates, and others, as well as lack of regular movement or exercise.

Personal take on how to buy shoes

The best time to buy shoes is the late afternoon or early evening. That is the time when our feet are larger than in the morning.

It is better to walk a lot in the day before heading to the shoe shop. When we walk a lot, we are putting much stress on the feet. We may not feel our feet getting larger, but they are getting larger.

We like to buy shoes that are comfortable and look nice on us. Many people fall in love with shoes at first sight. It is a bad habit to buy shoes just because we like the color or the style. Many ladies cannot help buying shoes. They are addicted to buying shoes, as they are addicted to eating chocolate.

Buying comfortable shoes is important. The style of the shoes plays a great part in improving our self-esteem. However, when our feet are painful from all the blisters, we will not care how nice the shoes look on our feet. We will feel very miserable and painful when walking in the shoes that bit our feet.

Many of us do not seek the opinion and the expertise of the shoes sellers. We merely ask for the right size of the shoes to try on and then bargain for the shoes. The shoes sellers are very experienced people. Sometimes when they take a look at how we walk, they know the problems of our feet.

Some of us are so unfortunately to have a foot bigger than the other foot. Some of us have bones that stick out, and cause pain when we put on shoes with narrow edge. We need the expertise of the shoe sellers to find the right kind of shoes for us.

The shoe sellers are so experienced that they know the problems our feet faced by watching us walk a few steps.

Once I brought my relatives to buy a pair of shoes for a dinner. My aunt has the problem of protruding bone in one foot. The shoe seller took a look at her feet, and knew which foot caused problem. He took a few pairs of shoes for her to try.

My aunt tried all, and then looked around the shop for other shoes. She took a liking to a pair of shoes. The shoe seller told her that the pair of shoes would not suit her. My aunt insisted on trying. It turned out that the shoe seller was right. The front of the shoes was too tight for her protruding bone. In the end, she selected a pair of shoes recommended by the shoe seller.

I like to shop for my shoes in People’s Park area. There are many shoes shops there that exist for many years. Many of the original owners had retired, and they passed the business to their children. Some of the current owners have more than thirty years of experience selling shoes.

They are able to recommend shoes that suit my character as well, as long as I am clear in my expectation. Most of us keep different kind of shoes for different purpose. Some shoes are for going to supermarket. Some shoes are for walking outdoors. Some shoes are for dinner. Some shoes are for work.

The shoes sellers are able to find shoes with the right fit and the right colors. I like to pump their knowledge of shoes. They are able to explain the design of the shoes that provided arch support for different persons. Our walking style plays a big part in the shoe selection. The shoe sellers are able to find shoes that match our walking styles and lifestyle.

For example, the shoe sellers can tell me the difference in the shoe making between shoes from China and shoes from Brazil, even from the same brand. Some of them are able to tell me the difference in the rubber soles between two different model of shoes in the same brand. Some of them share the price trend of the shoes.

Almost all the shoes in Singapore are imported, so the foreign exchange rate plays a big part in the pricing of the shoes. Sometimes when the foreign exchange rate is favorable, I assume that the price of shoes from a certain country is lower.

The fact is that, the shoes may not price lower due to the fact it is older model that imports into Singapore when the price is still high.

I find that when I seek the expertise of the shoe sellers, I seldom choose the wrong kind of shoes. The shoes are comfortable, reasonably priced, and last a long time. The color of the shoes suits my skin color.

I think buying shoes is a skill beyond me. I can’t trust my ability to find the best shoes for myself. However, I know when to trust the judgment of the shoes sellers.

How to read quickly and effectively

You are bombarded with a lot of reading materials every day. Learning to read quickly and effectively can help you save time and make decision faster.

How do you read quickly and effectively?

The first step to learn how to learn quickly and effectively is to sort the reading materials into different categories. Some required your full attention. Some required you to scan over the information and pick up the gist. Some hardly required more than 30 seconds of your time.

How to read newspaper quickly and effectively

Do you read newspaper every day? Do you read every single word in the newspaper? You are unlikely to read the newspaper with full concentration on every single word. You are likely to read the headlines, and decide the importance of the news to you. Most news in the newspaper does not have impact upon your life. You are unlikely to read beyond the headlines.

How to read emails quickly and effectively

Do you have a hundred emails in your inbox? You can delete those emails that do not require your attention. You can open those emails that inform you of certain promotional items. You need to read only the promotional price and the duration of the promotion. The rest of the email is not important. You can delete the email if you are not interested in the promotion, or move to a folder while you consider the offer.

The second way to learn how to read quickly and effectively is to pay more attention to those emails that need immediate reply. You have to ask yourself, what does the writer want of you? Do you have to reply with a ten pages documents? Most likely the writer wants a specific answer, and does not need your elaboration. Keep your reply short. Give the writer exactly what he wants.

How to read legal documents quickly and effectively

Reading legal document requires more attention and time on your part. You have to decipher the legal terms and pay attention to all the clauses. Scan through the document. Pick up the main clause. Once you are satisfied with the main clauses, you can read the whole documents. Pay attention to all the non-standard clauses. Pay attention to all the usual legal terms. Highlight the key points. Put a question mark on those clauses that you need to clarify.

How to read management textbook quickly and effectively

Reading a management textbook is easy once you learn the trick. Read the title, subtitles, and the captions and illustrations by the side. These are the main points. Read the summary at the back of the chapters a few times. Take note of the key points. When you are ready to read the chapter, read as fast as you can, and learn to pick up the important idea. Slow down when the paragraph summarizes the key point of the sub titles.

After reading the chapter, read the summary at the end of the chapter again. Ask whether the chapter answer the 4W and 1H: Why, when, where, what and how. Once you know the answer to the 4W and 1H, you have grasped the concept.

The last tip to learn how to read quickly and effectively is to read more and read widely. Reading is a skill that improves with practice. The more you read, the faster your reading speed. Learn to read fast. Learn to pick up the main points in any reading material. This ability will save you time for other important work.

Grand Expectations in life

When it comes to grand expectations in life, it seems that children have much higher expectations. The older a person gets, the expectations get mellow until the only expectation is to wake up every month.

Children have grand expectations in life. They believe that they can do everything they want. They do not believe that they or their parents cannot do anything. They want to fly to the moon. They believe that it is possible to do so.

The funny thing is that when it comes to academic result, the grand expectations disappear. Many lazy students just aim to pass. They do not aim to be the top student in class. The grand expectations of the laziest students probably involve burning down the school.

They think that mathematics is so difficult that they give up mentally. They do not have any grand expectations in tests or examinations. It is ironical that parents have grand expectations for their kids.

So many parents foresee the day that their kids grow up and graduate from universities. They believe that their kids can study. They believe that their kids can ace the country to gain the scholarships. The grand expectations of the parents cause much stress on the children.

Many kids do not mind failing the examination. But they fear the punishment from the parents. They fear their parents banning them from watching cartoon. They do not share the grand expectations of their parents, they merely fear their parents enough to study hard.

However, when it comes to spending the money of their parents, kids have grand expectations. They expect their parents to shower gifts on them, and buy whatever they want.

The parents do not have grand expectations themselves. They just aim to survive through the work day, and spend a few hours coaching the children. They no longer have grand expectations. They put all their hope on the kids.

Life is sometimes very weird. Many uneducated parents have such grand expectations on the kids, that the kids know they can never meet up to the parental expectations.

Many educated young people do not have grand expectations in their career after working for a few years. They want a less stressful job, and want to enjoy life more. They do not feel the need to climb the corporate ladder. Some are simply too tired to have any grand expectation.

Almost everyone dreams of financial freedom. That remains a dream. They do not dare to put the dream of financial freedom down as a grand expectation, since they do not believe for a moment that they can obtain financial freedom.

An expectation is a goal. When a person has grand expectation, he will work hard to achieve it.

It’s best for each individual to set his personal grand expectation and lives up to it. It’s miserable living up to the grand expectation of another person.

Event planning ideas

If you are in charge of event planning, you will find that event planning is not easy.

The first difficulty is to come out with event planning ideas, since you do not want to copy the event planning ideas from someone. You don’t want stale and dull event planning ideas, you want fresh and exciting event planning ideas. You want everyone to look forward to the event, and excited about participating in the event.

Event planning ideas start from knowing the purpose of the event, and the targeted party for the event. For example, McDonald’s is famous for kids’ birthday party. Nobody in the right mind will ask McDonald’s to plan for wedding party.

Once you find out the purpose of event, you can start to search for creative event planning ideas. You have to know how the usual event planning goes for this kind of events, and then you can improve on the event planning ideas or come out with new event planning ideas.

If the targeted audience includes people from all races and all age groups, you can start to gather event planning ideas for the kids. Happy kids in the event can bring joy to everyone. Bored kids can kill the joy of everyone.

You can start to brainstorm event planning ideas for kids. Brainstorm as many event planning ideas for kids as possible. Jam as many activities for kids as possible. Kids have short attention span. You must have more than enough activities to keep them happy.

Event planning ideas for kids include having special characters there and special costumes for the kids to put on. You can hire people to dress up as cartoon characters that kids are familiar with and keep the kids happy.

Event planning ideas for kids also include child's hobby. Many kids love to draw and sing. You can have drawing competition and singing competition to keep them occupied.

Event planning ideas for kids also include using sports and fun filled activities to keep them occupied.

Event planning ideas for all age groups include a costume party. You can set the theme for the party, for example Fairyland Party. You can get people to dress up as different characters from fairyland to the party.

The next brainstorming for event planning ideas is to have great games for everyone to participate.

While you can plan for time for people to just mingle and enjoy the food, you should have some games for all who want to join. People do not come to your party just to gossip over coffee. They may find it awkward when running out of things to say.

Brainstorming for event planning ideas should include great games indoor and outdoor for people to enjoy and have fun.

If your targeted audience are young adults and teens, event planning ideas include singing and dancing.

You can ask the targeted audience for their favorite songs, so that you can hire a DJ to play their favorite music. They can dance to great tunes all night long.

You can even have a singing and dancing competition.

The next brain storming session for event planning ideas include using decorations. The key is to use the cheapest material to create a unique and special decoration for the venue.

You can create special designs and theme out of normal material. You can use newspaper and water colors to create many special pillars and palaces for your party.

After you deal with the decoration, you can brainstorm for event planning ideas for food and drinks. You have to know the eating habit of your guests. If there are more vegetarians, then having more steaks and meat is a waste of food. You can plan for international food cuisine, such as Indian curry, Chinese herbal soups, and other food items.

Event planning ideas should include a few surprise events in the party. For example, you announce the birthday of certain guest, and roll out the birthday cake in the midst of the party.

That will make the event very memorable for everyone.

When you brainstorm for event planning ideas, you can incorporate charity giving as part of the event.

For example, you can make use of the event to sell little decorative items to raise money for the charity. You can also order special cookies and sell them in small bags to commemorate the event and donate the money to charity.

Planning an unforgettable event involves brainstorming many event planning ideas. You will feel very proud and happy to see the guests enjoying themselves and talk about the event years later.

Reflection: Buy Shoe

I think someone should write a book about The Art of buying shoes. It seems that many people, especially ladies, are addicted to buying shoes, yet they do not know how to buy shoe.

I have some colleagues who never learn the art of buying shoes. They usually buy shoe that hurts their feet. Blister is a common problem when we buy new shoe. Even though it is painful, at least blister is just a temporary and small problem.

Some people buy shoes that are too small for their feet. Some women buy high heels that are too high and hurt their feet. Some people buy shoes that look nice but do not last.

I think many people use their emotions to buy shoe, rather than use their head. They prefer shoe that looks nice, without thinking about the quality of the shoes. Some shoes have very slippery soles. The owner will fall on slippery ground, and sustain blue-black bruises all over.

Perhaps the only time when people use their heads is when they buy sport shoes. Many people want to know about the function of sport shoes before they part with the money. They know that it is worth to get a good pair of shoes, otherwise they will sustain injury in training.

When visiting shoes selling sport shoes, I like to see how people try on the Nike, Reebok, New Balance shoes. I like to see them jumping up and down to test the quality of Nike, Reebok, New Balance and other shoes.

The salespersons of sport shoes are very knowledgeable. Many of them are runners and trainers as well. They are able to recommend the best type of Nike, Reebok, New Balance, or other shoes to match the budget of the buyers.

It is a pity that when it comes to other type of shoes, the consumers do not use the same tactic to buy shoe. They generally try on the shoes, walk a few steps, look at the mirror to see how nice the shoes look on their feet, then they pay for the shoes.

They do not care about the material used to make the shoes, whether it’s synthetic rubber or real rubber for the sole, whether the shoes can last long, whether the sole is slippery or not. As long as the shoes look nice, and is cheap, they are willing to pay for it.

Once my colleague bought a pair of shoes for less than ten dollars. She thought it’s a good offer. However, she didn’t bargain for the problem that the cheap pair of shoes caused for her. The shoe cut her feet. She wore twice, and threw away the shoe. She nearly fell from the bus because of the shoe. It’s really not worth to buy a pair of shoes that can kill.

I think paying less than dollars to get a pair of shoes to wear for just two days is a plain waste of money.

Buy shoe is an art. Buy shoe that brings comfort to the leg, and enhance the walking experience is an art.

I still prefer to buy leather shoe, even though it is among the most expensive types of shoes. Some leather shoes are so ugly, yet they are so comfortable. I prefer the comfort of the leather shoe.

Reflection on blogging

After blogging for more than six months, and interacting with many bloggers, I guess it is time to write a reflection on blogging.

Many new bloggers started blogging with a fiery passion. They could update the blogs three times a day, and spent hours decorating their blogs. Then they asked people to look at their blogs and gave suggestions to the layout and colors of the blogs.

After a first month of intense blogging, and to see that visitors from search engines never arrived, they felt that the blogging effort was wasted.

After the second month of blogging, with just a couple of posts in a week, they almost gave up on blogging.

Most new bloggers gave up blogging after two months. And their dead blogs are buried somewhere in the cyberspace’s graveyard.

Some bloggers continue blogging, with less fiery passion but with more determination. They continue blogging doggedly, and at the same time look for a way out of blogging.

Many bloggers build up their blogs to a Google Page Rank 2 and above, and then they signed up for sponsored reviews or payperpost.com. They want to harvest from their months of blogging efforts, knowing full well that the search engines will penalize them and cut off the traffic flow to their blogs.

Many blogs die in this matter, after the blogger harvested a few hundred to a thousand dollars from their months of blogging effort.

Some bloggers do not take this route out of blogging, since they like blogging, and have pride in their blogs. They use different methods to make money from blogging. Some bloggers are not really thinking of making money from blogging, and it takes more than a year before they reach the minimum payout from Google Adsense.

Out of so many bloggers blogging in the cyber world, there is a small group of passionate bloggers with no intention of making money from blogging.

These are usually bloggers with personal blogs or religious blogs. Blogging is a passion, especially for those with religious blogs. They view blogging as a mission to share their love for God and to help fellow beings. These are the ones who are so passionate about blogging that their blogs thrive from the love and care of the bloggers.

Yet there is a group of bloggers with interest only in money making. They use PLR articles and hire writers to rewrite the PLR articles. Their interest is not in blogging. Their interest is in marketing.

They focus on affiliate marketing, and they aim to get as many traffic to their blogs as possible. Many of them use traffic exchanges, both manual and automated, to create constant flow of traffic.

In a sense, their blogs strive because of the marketing effort, rather than the blogging effort. When making money from blogging becomes an obsession, they can make big money from blogging for a long time.

I get to know some bloggers who are very passionate about blogging, and cannot imagine a day without blogging. While making money from blogging is a plus, it is not the motive for blogging.

They start blogging because they love blogging. They make money from blogging, because they provide useful information to readers, and they are able to make money from blogging.

I guess they will continue blogging even without the monetary benefits of blogging.

As for me, yes, I love blogging. However, making money from blogging is also important. Since I love blogging, and I love money, blogging to make money makes perfect sense.

As long as I can continue to do what I love most, I guess I can continue blogging for a long time, and enjoy making money from blogging for a long time as well.

Caring for leather shoes

I am a leather shoes lover. I love the feel of leather shoes on my feet. I love to try on a pair of leather shoes, and find it hard to resist owning another pair of leather shoes.

I love leather shoes with leather insoles and rubber soles. However, I don’t like the price of leather shoes with rubber soles. Leather shoes are always so expensive. I seldom get to see a good pair of leather shoes selling below a hundred dollars. Some Italian leather shoes even sell for two hundred dollars and above.

Since the cost of leather shoes is so high. It makes sense to learn how to care for leather shoes. Most of my leather shoes last for many years. When I use the accounting method of depreciating the cost of leather shoes over its useful life, the cost of leather shoes is not so high. In fact, it is cheaper to own a pair of leather shoes than other kind of shoes.

How to care for leather shoes?

I seldom buy patent leather shoes. Even though I love the shine of the leather shoes, I find it hard to keep the patent leather from crackling.

Many people try using Vaseline for keeping the patent leather shoes shiny. Vaseline can also help the patent leather shoes last longer. It’s just too bad that I didn’t know about using Vaseline when I owned a pair of patent leather shoes. Anyway I don’t buy patent leather shoes anymore, I go for soft leather shoes that do not shine, and are gentle on my feet.

Since Singapore is hot and humid throughout the year, I do not have to fear the cold weather destroys the leather shoes.

The only problem is the rain. Rain is the enemy of leather shoes. It is impossible to stop the rain from falling and soaking the leather shoes. I will let the wet leather shoes dry in the open air for at least three days before wearing them again.

It is not a good idea to store wet leather shoes into the cupboard. The dampness will cause mold on the leather shoes.

Sometimes I cannot help walking in the muddy road after a rain. I will wash the leather shoes thoroughly to get rid of the mud. After that, I will use newspaper to keep the moisture out of the shoes to a reasonable extent.

However, it still takes at least two days for the leather shoes to dry. I do not put the leather shoes under the direct sun to dry. The strong sun will cause the leather to crack and brittle.

The best is to avoid direct sunlight and yet dry the leather shoes in a place with good air circulation. I find a windy and cloudy day best for drying leather shoes.

Leather shoes seldom give off odor. Leather shoes, by nature, allow air circulation and keep the feet dry and cool. The only time I find that leather shoes give off odor is after I put on the leather shoes before it dries completely. If I allow the leather shoes to dry completely before wearing, they will not give off unpleasant odor.

If the leather shoes give off odor, then I have to wash the leather shoes with soap and water, and let them dry for a few days.

Leather products are expensive. Leather shoes are no exception. Since a pair of leather shoes is so expensive, I make sure that a pair of leather shoes can last me for at least three years.

Most of the times I wear out the leather shoes before throwing them away.

Success factors in life

Everyone wants a successful life. There are many success factors to lead to a successful life.

Success means more than money, educational qualification and titles.

One important success factor in life is to plan for success. You have to plan and map out the life ahead, so that you can live a successful life.

The starting point is the first success factor in your plan for successful life. The first success factor starts from now. The first success factor starts from knowing who you are, not just what you are.

It does not matter that you are a student, a career woman, a professional engineer or retiree. This is knowing what you are. However, the success factor is to know who you are.

To know who you are, you have to look closely at your beliefs, values, and principles aside from your economic, professional, cultural, and civil status. Do you know how you gain the values that you hold dearly? Do you know why you hold the values dearly? The values and principles make up who you are, not what you are. Gaining the understanding of the values and principles is the first success factor for a successful life.

Please note that your values and principles differ from others. The fact that you value hard work does not make you a better person than those who value smart work. Since the values are different, the success factors to measure a successful life will change accordingly.

You can reflect on your experiences to gain insights on your good and not-so-good traits, skills, knowledge, strengths, and weaknesses. The success factor is to know yourself. The success factor is the courage to face up to your failings.

You know that you are not perfect. Even if you value honesty, you may be prone to lying. Admit and accept that you lie occasionally is the success factor to life.

The second success factor is to have vision of who you want to be. Since you start from knowing who you are, the next success factor is to know who you want to be.

It is important that you know yourself so that you have a clearer idea of who you want to be.

There are probably things that you to change whether these are attitudes, habits, or viewpoints.

If you do not even know yourself, then your vision for a successful life is not clear.

Your definition of successful life should cover all the physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual aspects of life.

You do not need a religion to be spiritual. You have your definition of successful life, and various success factors to lead to a successful life. That is part of spiritual aspects of life.

The third success factor is to write out your mission in life.

To a certain extent, the third success factor depends on what you know about yourself, especially what makes you happy.

Your mission in life can affect your career choice and your hobbies. Some people have the missions of saving lives. And they become successful medical professionals. Having a mission in life is an important success factor. It is also the success factor that is most visible to the world at large.

The fourth success factor is your knowledge, skills, and attitude in life.

The combination of your knowledge, skills, and attitudes is an important success factor. Out of knowledge, skills, and attitudes, the most important part is your attitude.

There are many people with more technical and financial knowledge, yet they are not rich. They are using their knowledge to make the rich persons even richer. The different is the attitude. Between two persons with similar skills and knowledge, positive attitude is the success factor for one person.

There is a need for you to assess what knowledge, skills, and attitudes you possess and what you need to gain in the future. The first thing you have to change is your attitude. Your attitude to make use of your available knowledge and skills is part of the important success factor. Your attitude to acquire skills and knowledge is part of the success factor.

This success factor is often visible to us and others. This success factor is reflected in our eyes. The hunger for success and riches often growls louder than our words.

The fifth success factor is listing all the measurements of successful life.

When you know what you want, you must also determine how to measure the outcome. Is a million dollars the sign of success? Is a loving spouse and two children a measurement of success? You have to determine the measures of success.

This success factor requires you to use specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time bound measurement for success.

You have to focus on one measurement of success at a time. When you set the measurement of academic success as earning a master’s degree, it is impossible for you to set another measurement such as working longer hours to pay off the house. You simply do not have the time to do everything.

This success factor requires you to set realistic milestone and work systematically to achieve your goal.

The last success factor in life is to anticipate problems and turn threats into opportunities. Nothing in life ever happens like clockwork. Problems often happen out of the blue to delay our success.

When you are thinking of reaching the millionaire goal, a major sickness can happen to you or your family member. You have to learn to cope with unexpected events and adjust your plan accordingly.

Many successful people know the value of turning negatives into positives. This is a very important success factor that we need. Most employees dread the days their bosses fire them. They seem to think that is the end of the world.

They lack the success factor to anticipate problems and turn threats into opportunities. They can acquire this important success factor by learning to see the positive points in every situation.

You need all the success factors to succeed in life. You can learn to put all the success factors in your life. You can practice the success factors until the success factors are ingrained in you.

Reflection: Michael Connelly’s The Poet

After reading The Poet byMichael Connelly, I start to question the saying of the Bible that the love of money is the root of all evils.

The Poet is about a serial killer. This serial killer headed one FBI division before he was known as a serial killer.

Michael Connelly mentioned Ted Bundy in The Poet. Almost all books talking about serial killer mentioned Ted Bundy. Ted Bundy appeared to be the symbol of intelligent serial killer.

The saying that “the love of money is the root of all evils” cannot explain why Ted Bundy became serial killer. Serial killers are motivated by something other than money. Serial killers are not making money from their killings. Serial killers are not professional hitters.

Michael Connelly did not explain what this particular former FBI serial killer got out of his killings.

Whatever it is, it is not money. Serial killers do not kill for money. If serial killers love money, they would become professional killers.

I guess in The Poet, Michael Connelly was showing the intelligent and arrogance of serial killer. This serial killer was nicknamed as The Poet. The Poet was arrogant. Without his direction, FBI would never find out the place where the serial killer buried his victims. This particular serial killer wanted attention. This particular serial killer challenged the authority to hunt for him.

Probably many serial killers feel the same way. They are invincible. At least many serial killers who were caught felt they are invincible. They thought that ordinary people cannot catch them, that’s why they left clues to lead to the discovery of their acts.

As more and more serial killers are caught and studied, we get to some patterns of serial killers. Even then, there is no way to predict who will become the next notorious serial killer.

The name of Ted Bundy would be forever tied up as an example of serial killer. The law enforcement officers will study the case of Ted Bundy for many years to come, hoping to understand the psychology of serial killer.

The thriller writers, such as Michael Connelly, will mention Ted Bundy as the example of serial killer in the books.

The old sayings that the love of money is the root of all evils no longer stand. The love of money is the root of some evils, but not all evils. Serial killing is a great evil that cannot be explained by the love of money.

Sleep is a blessing

Sleep is a blessing. The ability to sleep soundly and deeply is a blessing. While many people fail to count their ability to fall into deep sleep as a blessing, sleep is really a blessing.

There are so many people have sleeping problems. Many have chronic insomnia problems, and they will pay you if you can give them a year of sound and deep sleep.

Many of us envy the sleeping ability of the kids. They are the ones who can fall into deep sleep everywhere and anytime.

Some people have difficulty falling asleep. Some people have difficulty sleeping through the night. Some people suffer from sleep disturbances throughout the night. Most people cannot fall asleep if they are awakened in the middle of the night.

Many people need artificial help to a sound sleep. They need some laxatives or sleeping pills to help them sleep. It’s too bad that sleep is not a blessing to them.

If you can sleep well, and sleep deep, each and every night, you should consider the ability to sleep well as a blessing.

Many people are seeking professional help to get a good night sleep. Those specialists in sleep clinic are monitoring the sleep patterns of people to find out the sleep problems. They are good but they are expensive. Sleep is such a natural ability that it is a pity to lose it.

I think if anyone wants me to fork out money to know my sleep pattern, I will lose a few nights of sound sleep. Forking out money for nothing is definitely a factor that makes me unable to sleep well. Other than that, I can sleep soundly and deeply every night, through thunderstorm and lightning.

I know that many old people find it hard to fall asleep and stay asleep. They are unable to sleep more than six hours a night. Even though many of them are not working, and they have all the time in the world to sleep, the inability to sleep well is very frustrating.

Apparently not all old people suffer from poor sleep quality. My mother seems to have fantastic genes to make her sleep so well at night. She and her sister can sleep through ten solid hours every day.

According to my mum, her family has this special gene, since my grandmother also can sleep very soundly at night, and can sleep through lightning and thunderstorms.

I think I have this gene too. I have no problem with sleep most of the times. The only time when I have problems falling asleep is when I consume too much coffee, eat too much chocolate or drink too much tea.

All these I can control. I just have to remember not to drink coffee or eat chocolate in the late afternoon, and that will basically ensure a good night sleep.

My problem is waking up in the morning. No matter how well rested I am, getting up in the morning is a challenge, the most difficult task in a day.

Even though I can suffer without sleep in a night, I can’t it hard to sleep for a couple of hours and have to wake up. Somehow it’s easier to stay awake the whole night, than to sleep for a few hours in a night.

I prefer a solid eight to ten hours of sleep, without artificial aid. The only thing I like to drink before sleeping is to drink a cup of hot chamomile tea. Chamomile tea soothes me and makes me ready to get a night of good sleep.

I think insomnia is not an isolated problem that taking sleeping pills can help. Many chronic insomnia patients either have poor eating habits, and their body lack balanced nutrients or they lack the ability to deal with stress. A person cannot sleep well if he tortures himself with all kinds of worries and horrible possibilities.

Sleep is a blessing. Deep sleep is a blessing. Be thankful for the ability for sleeping well and sleeping soundly at night.