7 wastes of the Toyota Production System

I come across 7 wastes while reading Guide to Waste Reduction published by Singapore Productivity and Standards Board (ISBN: 981-4032-58-1).

Even though this book is written to help improve productivity in factory, I find the concept of 7 wastes very useful in daily life.

Waste arising from overproduction is the first of the 7 wastes. Overproduction is one of the 7 wastes because it waste time and money.

I think many people are equally guilty of overproduction in their lives. For example, a person cooks too much, and cannot consume all the food. It is a waste due to overproduction, one of the 7 wastes. It is better to cook enough to feed the family, and not waste time and food.

Waste arising from defects (bad quality) is the second of the 7 wastes. Everyone knows that making mistakes and redo the work is very unpleasant. The tailor who does not pay attention when taking measurements may have to rework. That is a waste due to bad quality. This is one of the 7 wastes that all of us are guilty frequently. Sometimes we just don’t pay attention and do things wrong.

Waste arising from waiting time (delays) is the third of the 7 wastes. Waiting, waiting, waiting is part of our life. We can reduce waiting time when we go to the mall during off peak hours. Wasting time is an unnecessary waste. In fact, wasting time is one of 7 wastes that is very easy to get rid off. We just need to learn proper time management.

Waste arising from inventory (work-in-progress) is the fourth of the 7 wastes. While it is true that buying in bulk can save money. However, that is provided that we have the space to store the goods. If we live in a small house, and have limited space, then buying in bulk is not possible. We will commit the 4th of the 7 wastes.

Waste arising from transportation (movement) is the fifth of the 7 wastes. Some of us get a job that is too far from our house. We commit the fifth of the 7 wastes in this sense. It is a waste of time traveling a few hours to work every week. Since our bosses don’t pay us for the traveling time, it is our waste.

Waste arising from processing is the sixth of the 7 wastes. If we need just twenty minutes to do something, and we are using forty minutes, we are guilty of the 6th of the 7 wastes.

Some children waste so much time getting ready to do homework that they do not have enough time to do their homework properly. You can explain to them that they are committing the 6th of the 7 wastes.

Waste arising from unnecessary motion is the last of the 7 wastes. Sometimes we misplace certain items and have to search all over the house for it. We feel frustrated because we know that we are wasting our time. One example is finding the keys just when we are about to leave home. That is the last of 7 wastes.

7 wastes occur because of our bad planning and organization. If we can keep our things in proper order, we can eliminate the 7 wastes and have more productive life.

Just to summarize, the 7 wastes are:
Waste arising from overproduction
Waste arising from defects (bad quality)
Waste arising from waiting time (delays)
Waste arising from inventory (work-in-progress)
Waste arising from transportation (movement)
Waste arising from processing
Waste arising from unnecessary motion

All the 7 wastes make us waste time and money. And since time and money are our most precious commodities, we should eradicate the 7 wastes from our lives.

Meditation for preventing memory loss

Many people practice meditation to calm the body and the mind. Meditation is one way for preventing memory loss.


Meditation for preventing memory loss may sound difficult for you to try. However, preventing memory loss is not difficult. There are ways to make meditation for preventing memory loss simple.

This article will discuss the different simple ways of making meditation for preventing memory loss, so that you can benefit from meditation.

It is true you need training and practice to perfect the meditation skills. However, many people have benefited from the simplest relaxation techniques of meditation for preventing memory loss.

The simple relaxation techniques will make you feel better and relax your brain sufficiently for preventing memory loss.

Meditation is good for reducing stress. You know that you cannot think and remember well when you are under stress. You can suffer from burnout or brain damage if you are under constant and chronic stress. Meditation for preventing memory loss works because it helps you to relax.

Your concentration power is strengthened through meditation. You can focus when you are working on a mentally draining task.

It is beneficial for you to learn to control your mind and use your brain power efficiently. You can start to learn meditation for preventing memory loss by breathing techniques.

The first technique in meditation for preventing memory loss is to watch your breath. This article will talk about breathing and relaxation techniques, the most basic technique of preventing memory loss through meditation.

You have to find a place to sit and relax comfortably. When you are comfortably seated, you can pay close attention to your breathing. You have to clear your mind of all random thoughts and just watch your breath.



The first tip for meditation for preventing memory loss is to find your spot.

Since you are only a beginner in meditation, you should find a quiet place to meditate. When you become better in meditation for preventing memory loss, you will find that you can meditate anywhere you want to. In the mean while, you should find a spot to meditate in peace.



The second tip for meditation for preventing memory loss is to be comfortable.

You can find a position to keep you at ease but not falling asleep. Many people find that crossing their legs is the best meditation position for them.

If you can lie down without falling asleep, you can try lying down since this is your most comfortable position. You have to keep yourself perfectly still and comfortable while not falling asleep. You can keep this position as your meditation position.



The third tip for meditation for preventing memory loss is to let go of the tension.

You can observe the part of your body that is most tensed. You learn to tense up those body parts and then release the tension. You will experience the release of the tension as your body begins to let go of all tensions. You can repeat the process to learn how to relax easily.



The fourth tip for meditation for preventing memory loss is to breathe properly.

You must breathe properly through your nose. When you breathe properly, the air can pass through your lungs easily. You will notice that your diaphragm, chest and abdomen expand more when you breathe through your nose. This is the correct method of breathing.



The last tip for meditation for preventing memory loss is to pay attention.

There are instances when random thoughts cross your mind. You should remind yourself to return to meditation by paying attention to your breathing. As long as you focus on the breathing, the random thoughts that disturb your meditation will fade away.



You may want to perform this simple meditation techniques for five minutes. When you practice meditation every day, you can perform for a longer time. You will find that simple meditation techniques help you clear your mind and increase your focus. When you feel better physically, your brain performs better.

You will learn to utilize meditation for preventing memory loss as you get more familiar with it.

Since meditation for preventing memory loss does not take up lots of space, you can find any spot in any environment to practice for five minutes.

How to enjoy grocery shopping with your toddler

Do you dread bringing the toddler to the grocery store?

This article shows how to avoid problems at the grocery store with your toddler, and how to enjoy grocery shopping with your toddler.

You can build up anticipation of grocery shopping with your toddler. You have to plan the shopping trip before getting out of your house. You have to treat grocery shopping as a chance to teach your toddler. Prepare to engage your toddler at the grocery store.

You have to set the ground rule for grocery shopping. You have to tell your toddler that grabbing the cans from the shelves is not acceptable behavior. You have to tell your toddler that crying and screaming is not acceptable. You have to tell him what you expect of him when you are buying grocery.

You can explain to him that his favorite cartoon character does not want him to behave badly. You can make the expectations clear before going out of the house for grocery shopping. Make him promise to behave properly when you bring him for grocery shopping. Remind him on the way to the grocery store.

You can make grocery shopping as engaging and interesting to your toddler. For example, when you are at the fruits section, you can tell your toddler that you need five apples. Ask him where the apples are located. If he can point out the proper fruits, do praise him. Ask him to count when you pick one apple after another.

You can pick up seven apples, and ask him to verify that you have five apples. Give him a sticker when he tells you that you are picking seven apples, and not five apples.

When you shop for baby products, let your toddler make the buying decision. If he picks up the expensive item, you can reason with him that you have no money to buy sweets for him if he insists on buying that expensive item. Grocery shopping is a time to teach him the value of money.

Toddler has a short attention span. You should learn to do grocery shopping quickly. Once you have selected items from the canned food section, do move to the next aisle. Always keep him engage in conversation during grocery shopping and do not let his attention drift.

Do not let your attention drift too. Even if you meet your best friend, do keep an eye on your toddler. Do not let him have a chance to upset all the canned sardines from the shelves. Do cut short your conversation with your best friend. Promise to call when your toddler is having afternoon nap.

It does take time and creativity to make grocery shopping with your toddler an enjoyable experience.

How a Classic was Conceived

Do you like the idea of writing a book of 500 ghost stories and have the book translated into many languages, made into movies and read by billion of people?

Do you like the idea that you do not even need to think of the plots and characters and your job is just to write down what you hear?

Do you like the idea that this book will survive for more than 400 years after your death and make you world famous?

Is it possible? Yes. A classic was conceived without the author cracking his head for any plot. This compilation of five hundreds ghost stories had survived for the past 400 years and is still widely read.

How was it done? Please sit down and listen to the story.

Long, long ago, there was a man with nothing better to do. He had no success in getting a government position. His family was not rich. He had nothing better to do except to teach naughty children reading and writing.

Most of the time he had nothing better to do, so he wandered the street and listening to people talking.

One day, he hit the idea of writing a book. He wanted to write a compilation of ghost stories. The problem was that he was too lazy to think of anything to write. What could he do?

He took a table out of his house, set up a stall near the stream, prepared a pot of tea, some papers and ink (in those days, there was no pen or pencil). He invited the passers-by to sit down, have a cup of tea and to tell him a ghost story.

As he listened to the ghost story, he wrote the idea down. When he heard enough, he went home and completed the ghost story. With some imaginations as spices and his literary skills, he was able to cook up a lot of scary ghost stories.

Some other sources of ghost stories came from the oral storytellers. In those days, storytellers were a special breed of creatures that traveled from town to town and told stories. They had the special irritating skills of bringing the story to a climax and stopped there.

They would take out a bowl and passed around the audience to collect money. Once they were satisfied with the collection of money, they would continue the story till the next interesting climax.

This writer was Pu Song Ling[1]. He entered the world in the year 1640 and left the world in the year 1715. That was in China during the Qing Dynasty[2].

The book that made him world famous was translated as Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio (also known as Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio or Strange Tales of Liaozhai).

It was a compilation of five hundreds ghost stories. The bulk of the book was written before 1700, but he was too poor to print all the ghost stories and sell in book form. The known printed version dated to 1766.

Some of the stories were translated into English by Herbert Giles as early as 1880. The third edition of the translated stories (only 164 of them) was completed by 1916 and was available for download[3].

So folks, whenever you hit the writer block, please do not panic. Remember what Pu Song Ling did. Go for a walk, talk to people, ask them to tell you a story and write down the story. You need not compile just ghost stories, you can write so many different stories and post on the web. You may become the next Pu Song Ling and become world famous for the stories that are not even your own.

If Pu Song Ling lived till our time, he will be the greatest internet writer on ghost stories. I bet his blog will be followed by a million readers.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pu_Songling
[2] http://baike.baidu.com/view/7721.htm (in Chinese)
[3] http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Oracle/7207/GilesTOC.htm

Preventing memory loss

Preventing memory loss is crucial if you want to enjoy life right into your old age.


Many people know that as you get older, your memory deteriorates. However, that does not mean that preventing memory loss is for the older persons.

Many younger persons are in needs of ways of preventing memory loss as well. Sometimes, the stress of life makes it crucial for preventing memory loss.

There are many ways of preventing memory loss to help the older generation and the younger generation.



One way of preventing memory loss is incorporate more relaxation period into your daily routine.

Preventing memory loss starts from staying away from stress. When the body is stress, it trigger the release of cortisol. Cortisol is a neuro drug that can interfere with your brain’s performance, especially the brain’s ability to handle recent memories.

If you are under chronic stress, your brain’s ability to handle recent memories may deteriorate. Preventing memory loss means learning to relax and release the tension from the body. You must not let stress harms your mental and physical health.



The second way of preventing memory loss is to quit smoking.

The chemicals from cigarettes affect the blood flow in your veins. There is a risk of reduced blood flowing to the brain. Reduction of blood supply means reduced oxygen to the brain. When there is less supply of oxygen, the brain cannot function well, hence your memory will be affected.

Preventing memory loss means to quit smoking. Preventing memory loss means to quit staying in an environment where people smoke.



The third way of preventing memory loss is to stay away from the brain toxins.

Drugs cause harm to your physical health as well as mental healthy. Drugs overdose harm your brain’s functioning.

It does not matter whether the drugs are illegal drugs or prescription drugs. All drugs have side effects. The problem is that overdosed of drugs have toxic effect to your brain.

You must always follow the instruction of your doctor, and never use self-medication for a prolong period. Preventing memory loss means to quit misuse of drugs. Preventing memory loss means to cut the intake of prescription drugs once you recovered from your sickness.



The fourth way of preventing memory loss is to eat healthy.

Your brain function depends on the nutrients from the food that you consume. If you deprive your brain of certain important nutrients, your brain cannot function well.

Many people do not pay attention to their diet. They hardly eat healthy. They are surviving on a diet of junk food.

Preventing memory loss starts from eating a healthy and balanced diet. Preventing memory loss means you should absorb all the vitamins and nutrients for the optimal performance of your body and brain. Preventing memory loss means staying away from the junk foods.



The fifth way of preventing memory loss is to exercise your brain

Preventing memory loss requires you to find ways to use your brain. Preventing memory loss requires you to improve your thinking and memorizing skills.

Many experts have written books to propose techniques designed to improve mental abilities. All of us have the potential to possess a photographic memory. Preventing memory loss is the first step to the possession of photographic memory.

Preventing memory loss is something for us to improve. Many old people are still possessing a sharp brain that never forgets a single thing you say. You have to find ways and use techniques to improve your memory power tremendously.

Since all of us are different, with different talents and potentials, we have to find the techniques that work best for us.

Preventing memory loss is not hard once we mastered the correct technique to develop our potentials.

Most people know that engaging in educational activities is a way of preventing memory loss. You can try to engage in educational activities at home, even through the Internet. Simple activities such as number games and crossword puzzles can help in preventing memory loss.

These educational activities may help your brain to function better. Even if you do not get smarter, as least you are preventing memory loss.



The last way of preventing memory loss is to shield your brain.

There is no point of preventing memory loss if you cannot protect your brain physically. You must protect your head from injuries since trauma can affect the functioning of your brain. You must avoid simple injuries to the brain, because accumulated repeated minor injuries to the brain can harm the functioning of the brain.

Preventing memory loss means to use simple prevention, such as putting on helmet when bicycling. You must do whatever it is to avoid situations that could damage your brain.



Preventing memory loss means to take care of your mental health. You should keep the brain as healthy as possible through the methods of preventing memory loss above. You must avoid all the factors that may expose you to mental deterioration.

In this case, preventing memory loss even when you are in ripe old age is possible.

Quotes from Thick Face Black Heart by Chin-Ning Chu

Even though I find that Chin-Ning Chu did not put in effort to check the facts while writing this book, I recognize that there are several meaningful quotes.

Most of the quotes are by Chin-Ning Chu. The last few quotes are from other sources that she put in her book.

Quotes 1

“if you are assigned an easy task and it is beneath your ability, then you are wasting your talent and will perform poorly.” Thick face, black heart by Chin-Ning Chu

Quotes 2

“As long as prejudice and bigotry exist in our society, polarization will be a powerful tool. By utilizing the dark side of human spirit and dividing people against one another, you can effectively generate a support base to promote your objectives.”

Quotes 3

“Lovers cannot love others unless they feel secure enough to love themselves first.”

Quotes 4

“Encountering the cunning and ruthless stimulates the dormant strengths within us and allows us to bring forth extraordinary abilities that we are not in touch with under normal circumstances.”

Quotes 5

“Now if I were to be labeled as cunning and ruthless, so be it.”

Quotes 6

“The foundation to a successful life is being physically fit.”

Quotes 7

“Human beings thrive on competition, and the rule of competition is winner takes all.”

Quotes 8

“It is sad but true that one who possesses and is willing to use a perfect killer instinct is, was, and always will be a bankable commodity.”

Quotes 9

“Leadership is a state of mind – what you do to yourself, not what you do to others.”

Quotes 10

“For a worthy leader, one will walk across boiling oil and raging fire to support his leader’s objective.”

Quotes 11

“This is perfect,
This is perfect,
From the perfect springs the perfect,
If the perfect is taken from the perfect,
Only the perfect remains.” Ancient Hindu Scripture

Quotes 12

“The content of fear may be intense and gripping,
so much so that it overwhelms us completely,
But when we look beyond that content at the fear itself, what do we find?
Pure energy, energy which, if we focus on it directly, will begin to reveal its real nature.
Then, instead of filling us with agitation, the energy of fear can actually lead us to a state of exhilaration, or intense concentration, or love.” Ancient Hindu Scripture

Food that always make my coughing worse

I hate coughing. I hate to suffer from a cough, no matter bad cough or light cough. Whenever I recovered from a flu, the cough lingered for another week or so. Sometimes when I was not careful, the stupid cough would stay on and tortured me for a couple of weeks, even a couple of months.

Some of my friends refused to abstain from food, and that made their cough worse. Some of them suffered from coughing for more than three months, until they were so wary of eating anything. I always teased them that coughing is the best way to lose weight, since coughing comes naturally, and just refuses to go off until we are slimmer by a few pounds.

Having said that, I hate coughing. I hate those coughs that keep me awake at night. Some kind of coughs get worse during the night or during the rainy days. The phlegm that resulted from coughing is the worst of all. I hate the phlegm choking up the passageway and make me hoarse. I hate the feeling of the irritating phlegm stuck in the throat. How I wish I can get rid of the phlegm!


There are certain foods that always make my coughing worse.

The worst is seafood. Prawns and crabs are the worst kind of seafood. I can stay up whole night coughing my lung out, and coughing a few pounds of fats off my body, just because of one stupid prawn. If you think you want to lose more weight, then I recommend that you eat a couple of prawns when you are already suffering from a bad cough. I can guarantee that you will be much slimmer by the time you recover from the bad cough.

Other than prawns and crabs, I stay away from fish too. I love to eat fish, all kinds of fish dishes, including steam fish, curry fish head, fried fish, and fish porridge. However, I do not dare to risk eating fish when I am having a bad cough. The effect of eating fish is not as bad as eating prawn, even then fish can make my cough turn bad.

Chicken is another kind of food that always worsen a bad cough. Eggs do not have this kind of effect, but chicken always make my cough worse. Or more accurately, I should say that chicken produces more phlegm, and that makes me tend to cough more to get rid of the phlegm. It is very sad, since I love to eat chicken rice, and many kinds of chicken herbal soups. The moment I start coughing, I have to change my diet.

The only kind of chicken that I find good for my cough is chicken essence. I do not what is the reason. Since my colleagues advised me to try chicken essence, I have been faithfully keeping to the advice. Chicken essence does make my cough better. However, only those plain chicken essence, not those with ginseng or other herbs.

Many acidic fruits are bad, in the sense that they worsen an already bad cough. If you do not believe that, you try to drink a glass of lemon juice and see what happens. I can guarantee that you are down at least ten pounds by the time you recover from your cough. Acidic fruits can make the cough worse, and the phlegm multiplies million times.

Once I tried to drink a mug of warm honey and lemon water, I nearly died of coughing. Honey is one of the food I dare not take whenever I suffer from a bad cough since then. I heard that honey can cause the phlegm to thicken. I tried once and have not the courage to make another experiment.

Since people are different, and our reactions to food when we are having a cough is different. The food that makes my cough worse may not have the same effect on you.

Whatever it is, having a cough is not a pleasant experience, even though you can say that coughing is a free weight loss program. You are welcome to enjoy this free weight loss program. I don’t want to lose weight through coughing. If I can outsource coughing or eat anything to prevent coughing, I will definitely do so.

Seven ways to improve memory

Many people want to have improve memory. They want to improve memory so that they can score better in examination without much studying. They want to improve memory so that they do not make much mistakes at work.


If you want to improve memory, you can take the following actions.

These seven ways are basic ways to improve memory. There are many studies concentrating on each way to improve memory.



The first way to improve memory is to engage in regular exercise.

You can do simple exercises like walking or jogging. You do not need to engage in intense exercise to improve memory. Many people find it effectively to go for a walk before they study.

Simple exercises may trigger the body to release neurochemicals known as endorphins. Endorphins are responsible for making us feel happy. That is why many people feel relaxed and happier after exercising. A more positive effect is on the brain. The brain can think better, and can remember better. You do not need to pay money to go for a walk, yet it is so effective in improving memory.



The second way to improve memory is to supplement your diet.

Many natural supplements are good for the brain.

While it is true that you can benefit from a balanced diet, the fact is that most of us do not have a balanced diet every day. We lack the consumption of natural brain power food. The supplements can keep your body healthier. The supplements maintain the fitness of your brain as well.

This can resulting sharper brain and better memory. Many supplements are very popular. You can buy the supplements to boost your brain power and improve memory from the local health and food store and Internet.



The third way to improve memory is to use your brain regularly.

You can exercise your brain to improve memory. You can use your brain muscles more often to think and learn. You may read books, especially books that make you think. You can talk to people and play educational games to improve memory.

You can engage in many exercises to improve memory, such as remembering the shopping list. You can try to remember the names and cell phone numbers of your friends.

When you train your brain to remember things everyday, you are taking the right step to improve memory.



The fourth way to improve memory is to play games.

Watching TV is a passive exercise, and does not help you to improve memory. You can choose games that require active participation to improve memory.

You should not play games that are “no-brainer.” Many computer games are designed to exercise your brain, especially the interactive games. You can choose to play mmorpg games and pit your skills against other players.

With Internet, there is no reason for you to run out of games to play. You can choose the games that are enjoyable and beneficial to your brain. Playing games is an enjoyable way to help you relax and improve memory.



The fifth way to improve memory is to enjoy educational hobby.

You can select a hobby that is educational. It is not a difficult task to choose a hobby that you enjoy and improve memory as well. You can choose a hobby that allows you to learn from your experiences. Reading is one hobby that is educational, enjoyable and improve memory.

Many people are learning to make money online. That is an interesting hobby that provides endless potential to learn. There is simply no way that a person can learn everything about making money online.

Even in the subject of blogging for money, there is so much to learn every day. You have to make sure that the hobby is not monotonous or boring. Your hobby should be challenging enough to improve your brain power and improve memory. In this case, you will be able to keep your brain in tip-top condition and improve memory everyday.



The sixth way to improve memory is to sleep well.

The ability to sleep well is a blessing. Sleeping is the time for your body to rebuild and recharge itself. Most medical professionals believe that you should sleep for six to eight hours a day. Beside the deep sleep at night, you should try to take short ten-minute power naps.

You will feel better after enjoying the refreshing sleeps and naps. Your brain is in the condition to learn and remember things better. You will feel energized to take on mentally challenging for the day.

You should not deprive yourself of sleep, even if you are in the midst of stressful examination period. You will realize that sleep is the key to improve memory. Your brain can function better with sufficient hours of deep sleep.



The last way to improve memory is to relax.

Many people know the frustration of trying to recall a crucial detail, yet their brains refuse to yield the result. They know that they have seen something before, but they just cannot remember what.

The more they force their brains to recall, the less cooperative their brains are.

All of us experienced the frustration in the examination hall. We cannot recall the crucial key points to the examination questions. The moment we step out of the examination hall, the answers come. The key is that you are relaxed after the examination, and that is why your brain can recall.

Due to the complexities and stress of living in the society, your brain is as tired as your body. It is important for you to take the time to relax. You will find that the moment you relax, and don’t think so hard, the elusive answer comes suddenly.

You can learn to relax to cleanse your mind of the stresses and worries that crowded your thoughts. You can try a long relaxing bath or meditations to relax. While you enjoy the bath or meditation, you give your mind a break from the demands of life.

Sometimes, in the midst of meditation, the answer comes. The thing that you tried so hard to remember is crystal clear.

Relaxation is the key to improve memory. The ability to relax in a stressful environment is the key to improve memory.



All the seven ways to improve memory are very basic ways. Everyone can learn to improve memory using all the seven basic methods. You do not need special training or technical knowledge to master the seven basic ways to improve memory.  You may improve memory to such an extent that you possess a photographic memory a year later.
 

Eating habit and personality

I like to watch people, especially during lunch time. I like to guess at a person’s personality and character’s traits through watching the eating habits.

Some people literally eat like a hungry ghost. It’s very disgusting to see a well-dressed professional lady gobbles down her food, and fill her mouth with too much food. This kind of eating habit is really disgusting.

I think the time management must be very bad. There is a time for eating. And eating is an enjoyable though necessary habit.

Then there are some people who eat too slowly. I guess this kind of person really takes life easy, and do everything so slowly. That is the type of personality that does not survive well in the corporate world.

Most people eat their favorite ingredients first. For example, in eating chicken rice, some people eat all the chicken first, and leave all the rice behind. They do not usually finish up all the food. Once they finish their favorite part of the food, the rest become a chore. That is another type of eating habit.

I think when they were young, they would do the homework of their favorite subjects, and try to get out of doing homework for the tough subjects.

I belong to the opposite type. I keep the favorite food to the last. I usually finish all the rice, and then take my own sweet time eating the chicken. I think food is more enjoyable when I have the time to savor slowly. I seldom see people with the same eating habit as me. So far, there is just a handful of friends and colleagues who have the same eating habit as me.

This is the character trait that is reflected in my work too. I usually do the toughest and hateful tasks first, then I take my time to do my favorite task.

I like to see people finishing all their food. I hate people who waste food. Somehow I have the belief of karma. If we waste food now, we will regret it later when we do not have money to pay for food.

There are some people with such good eating habits to keep themselves healthy. They do not have desire to eat junk food. They build up a healthy eating habit and that are reflected in their health. They are literally in the pink of health. They have my admiration.

I do like to cultivate healthy eating habit, but I succumb to the desire to eat fried chicken wings often.

I do think that our eating habits reveal our personality. And we are usually very relaxed and off guard when eating. That is why I think that we can see the real person during meal time. That is when we should observe the eating habits and try to deduce the personality of the person.

Website traffic analysis

I used statcounter.com for website traffic analysis. Statcounter allows for invisible tracking option.

Why is website traffic analysis important?

Website traffic analysis tells me the behavior of the readers. I can see how the readers get to my blog. Some readers come from blog directories. Some readers come from social networking sites. Some readers come from search engines.

When website traffic analysis shows that most readers come from search engines, I will check the exit link activities of the readers in statcounter. I read the posts of other bloggers, and agree that readers from search engines are more likely to click on the advertisements powered by Google.

The website traffic analysis in statcounter confirms the accuracy of the observation. Most readers from social networking sites will not click on anything. They just visit to read. They are not looking for information.

Statcounter has many tools for website traffic analysis. My favorite tools are “recent came from”, “recent keyword activity”, and “exit link activity”. I like the “recent keyword activity” the most.

I notice that Google Adsense does not always credit the earnings from the click on the advertisements to me. Sometimes, I have to wait a couple of days before I get to see the money. Sometimes Google treats it as invalid clicks, and I get nothing.

That’s why the website traffic analysis tool is so important. Website traffic analysis helps me to see how Google functions. In the case when the readers double-click on the advertisements, Google has to double check the validity of the clicks.

When statcounter reflects double-clicks, Google credits me with the earning of a click two days later. When the reader clicks once on the advertisement, I get the money on the same day. It is only through website traffic analysis tool that I get to observe this.

When I know how the readers come to my blogs, and I know what posts attract readers, I can make use of the keywords to write a few similar posts.

The first thing I like about statcounter as a website traffic analysis tool is that it is free. However, due to the fact that it is free, the data storage is limited. If I want to store the data, and use statcounter as website traffic analysis for long-term analysis, I will have to upgrade to paying mode.

Since my blogs are relatively new, old enough to gain the attention of the search engines, but too new to attract hundreds of readers, I am satisfied with using statcounter as website traffic analysis tool.

Something’s down there by Mickey Spillane

Something’s Down There by Mickey Spillane is such an interesting and unusual thriller. I have a hard time deciding whether this book by Mickey Spillane is a detective thriller, ghost story or science fiction until nearly the end of the book.


From the back cover of this book, I get to know that Mickey Spillane is famous for writing detective thrillers. However, this is the first time I read Mickey Spillane book, and Something’s Down There does not seem like a detective novel.

Mickey Spillane sets this book in the Caribbean. Mickey Spillane describes the superstition of the local fishermen very well in this book.

Mako Hooker and his local guide, Billy Bright, are the heroes in this story, Something’s Down There.

There is a strange occurrence in the Bermuda Triangle. The “boat eater” sinks many boats. The “boat eater” has a foul smell, and it has teeth to bite the boats and sink the boat.

I thought that Mickey Spillane was writing a ghost story. Only when I reached the middle of the book where Judy mentioned War World I, then I started to realize Mickey Spillane was not writing ghost story. I thought perhaps it’s a science fiction, about submarine participating in WWI and the “boat eater” was the result.

I was wrong. Mickey Spillane is not a science fiction writer.

Something’s Down There by Mickey Spillane is complicated by the appearance of the former mobster and the “Company” of spies. The former mobster is now a seemingly respectable millionaire in Hollywood.

I find the following quote about the former mobster, Anthony Pell, interesting.

The quote from Something’s Down There by Mickey Spillane:

“Anthony Pell was a very determined man, a hard man, one who let nothing get in his way. You knew it in the strength of his hand, even though his smile was affable and his eyes laughing.”

It provides the excitement to the already exciting “boat eater”. Adds to the excitement is the fact that Mako Hooker has formally retired from the “Company”.

The superstitions of the local fishermen spice up Something’s Down There by Mickey Spillane.

Billy Bright, the local guide, refuses to call Mako Hooker by his name. Mako is the name of the shark. Billy says that Mako Hooker steals the name of the shark, and he better returns the name to the shark.

Mickey Spillane writes about the Mako Shark that follows the boat of Mako Hooker everywhere they go. In the end, the Mako Shark eats the explosive expert who wants to kill Mako Hooker. Billy Bright says that the Mako Shark and Mako Hooker are brothers.

I hope to get more books by Mickey Spillane. Something’s Down There is very interesting and exciting.  It's a story of sun, sand and sea, plus the superstitions of the local and the creatures in the sea.
 
Something's Down There by Mickey Spillane is not even his best book. I bet his detective thrillers must be really good.

Quotes from Tao Te Ching

Tao Te Ching exists for thousands of years since Laozi completed the writings. Tao Te Ching had shaped the culture and moral values of millions of people throughout the centuries.

Certain parts of Tao Te Ching are hard to appreciate. Tao means the Way. Tao Te Ching is a way of life, of behavior to benefit us.

These are some quotes from Tao Te Ching.

Quotes 1

“Give up virtue, renounce wisdom; people will benefit a thousand times.
Give up kindness, renounce morality; people will embrace love and filial piety.
Give up cleverness, renounce greed, bandits and thieves will vanish.”

Quotes 2

“Conquering others requires force. Conquering oneself requires strength.”

Quotes 3

“When the great Tao is forgiven, virtue and morality arise.
When knowledge and intelligence are born, the great pretense begins.
When there is no harmony within the family, filial piety and devotion arise.
When the country is confused and in chaos, loyal officials appear.”

Quotes 4

“Knowing others is wisdom;
Knowing the self is enlightenment.
Mastering others requires force;
Mastering the self requires strength;
He who knows he has enough is rich.
Perseverance is a sign of will power.
He who stays where he is endures.
To die but not to perish is to be eternally present.”

Quotes 5

“The Way that can be told of is not an unvarying way;
The names that can be named are not unvarying names.
It was from the Nameless that Heaven and Earth sprang;
The named is but the mother that rears the ten thousand creatures, each after its kind.”

Quotes 6

“The wise man hears of the Way and practices it diligently.
The average man hears of the Way and gives it thought now and then
The foolish man hears of the Way and laughs aloud.
If there is no laughter, the Way would not be The Way.”

Dealing With Stress In Your Daily life

Dealing with stress is part of life. Children need to learn the tips of dealing with stress since they have stress from uncompleted homework, and stress from examination.


As adults, we have more stresses in life, and dealing with stress is part of our daily routine. We have to learn dealing with stress from lack of income. We to learn dealing with stress from workplace. Even retirees have to learn dealing with stress from having nothing to do.

Before we discuss more about dealing with stress, let us talk about stress.



What is Stress?

Stress is a physical response when you are subjected to many types of demand. The demands are physically, emotionally and mentally demands.

Many people think of stress negatively and think of dealing with stress as dealing with negative emotions. Actually excessive positive emotions can result in stress too. You may find it hard to believe that too much money is a cause of stress.

Many people simply do not understand the concept of having millions and billions of money. Their family members cannot offer them advice in dealing with stress from too much money. That is why many lucky lottery winners become poor again. Dealing with stress from having too much money is hard.

When something that occurs or about to occurs that can cause stress, the body will produce certain chemicals to release into your bloodstream.

You can use these chemicals, as a result of stress, to produce more energy or added strength in dealing with stress. It is helpful when the cause of your stress is physical. Many people find enormous stamina when they face with danger. They find that they can run so fast to get away from danger. This is one way of dealing with stress.

However, you cannot run away if you are dealing with stress from emotional or mental sources.

Stress from emotional or mental sources has negative effect on your body. Your body does not automatically convert it to physical energy as a mean of dealing with stress.

That is why identifying the source of stress is important. It can affect the methods of dealing with stress successfully.





Causes of Stress

Stress is a part of life ever since you are young.

When you were young, even as a toddler, you learned dealing with the stress from parent scolding you. The way of dealing with stress is rather automatically. You cry. Crying is the most effective ways of dealing with stress when you were young.

Whether you were in school, you learned that dealing with stress from homework and examinations was different from dealing with stress from the school bullies. Many students learnt the trick of dealing with homework and examination. However, they did not learn the trick of dealing with stress from school bullies.

Many adults face similar stress at the office. They learn that dealing with stress from heavy workload is different from dealing with stress from colleagues who back stab them.

Dealing with stress requires you to deal with people and the environment. Since your physical body is closely linked to your emotional and mental health, you will find that dealing with stress takes more than physical relaxation. Dealing with stress means dealing with emotional or mental health.

It is important to find the cause of stress and to root out the cause of stress. Dealing with stress is a physical, emotional and mental battle.

Some common sources of stress that you face with every day include the following sources of stress.



Internal Stress comes from constant worry about certain events that happened, likely to happen or unlikely to happen. Many people are stressing themselves to death with worries about events that are not likely to happen. Dealing with stress from your imagination requires to take positive actions to control your thinking.

Many people learn that dealing with stress from internal source is easy when they make themselves so busy that they have no time to worry.

You can take up a new hobby or take up more work to do in order not to have time to worry. Keeping yourself busy and interacting with positive people are ways of dealing with stress.



Survival Stress deals with the physical danger. This stress comes from attack by human, animal or vehicle. When you are under survival stress, instinct takes over, and your body responses without you being aware of it. Dealing with stress is mostly an instinct, unless you are a well-trained professionals. Then your training will take over in dealing with stress.



Environmental Stress is your body's mean of responding to changes in your environment. The sources of stress could be extreme levels of noise or pressure from the physical work environment..

Dealing with stress is relatively easy. One way of dealing with stress is to avoid it altogether, such as avoid the noise. Another way of dealing with stress is to use physical aids such as ear plugs.



Stress Due To Work and Fatigue are types of negative stress that most people hate.

This type of stress builds up over time and can result in long term health problems. When you are spending too much time in your work or taking too much mental stress from your work, the stress can take a toll on your health.

One way of dealing with stress is to make sure you have enough time for rest and relaxation, so that your tiring body can recover from the heavy workload. There are many relaxation methods to help you in dealing with stress.

Another way of dealing with stress is to seek help. You can ask your boss or colleague to help in the workload

The third way of dealing with stress is to exercise, especially when you are dealing with mental stress from work.



Dealing with stress is a skill that everyone must learn. If you have young kids, you can teach them the different ways of dealing with stress. The knowledge of dealing with stress can benefit them forever.

Find a soul mate

One of the greatest quests in life is to find a soul mate. Many people think they have find a soul mate but end up with a broken heart.

It is not a good idea to use only your emotions to find a soul mate. The heart is treacherous and always wrong. The first impression is not always right, especially in matter as important as finding a soul mate.

You can find a soul mate by using a logical and systematic process flow.

The first way to find a soul mate is to understand your expectation for a soul mate.

What do you expect in a soul mate? If you do not have any expectation for a soul mate, you are not likely to find a soul mate. Everyone has different expectation for a soul mate. A guy may like a quiet and homely gal as a soul mate. Another guy admires outgoing and sporty gal as a soul mate.

You cannot expect God to lead your hand and brings to a gal, and says that this is your soul mate.

You have to decide on a soul mate that is good in cooking or expert in managing household budget. You have to decide on the kind of talents or character traits in a soul mate. You want to find a soul mate to share your life for the next fifty years and more. Make sure you find a soul mate that you can love and tolerate for the rest of your life.

Write in such a way that everyone knows the kind of person you are looking for.

How do you find your soul mate?

In order to find a soul mate among the billions of people in the world, you have to cast a wide net. You may seek the soul mate from the Internet. You can ask your friends to help you look for your ideal soul mate. You can get help from dating agencies to find your soul mate. You can join social networking to find your soul mate. You can use other ways of meeting people to find your soul mate. How do you choose your soul mate?

How do you know which is the right one?

Looks can be deceiving. You are searching for a soul mate, not a model. How do you choose a soul mate? You can seek the help of your good friends to choose a soul mate. You friends have your best interests in hearts. You have to tell them what you want in a soul mate.

Introduce them to your potential soul mate. Let your friends form their opinions of the potential soul mate. Your good friends must be courageous enough to ask embarrassing questions. Your friends may uncover a lot of deep and dark secrets of the potential soul mate.

How do you know the “real person” in a soul mate?

Please do not fall into the trap of accepting the person as you think he or she is. You must not make the mistake of believing every single word that your potential soul mate says. You must check to make sure that your potential soul mate is exactly the kind of person he or she claims to be.

You may call his or her friends and relatives to find out (with his/her permission). Please also call his employer to verify employment status of the likely soul mate. Just pretend that you are calling from a bank and needs to verify some essential data.

You have to check the financial standing of a soul mate. After all, you do not want to have a soul mate who is a bankrupt, and want you to help with the debt repayment.

You can conduct a criminal check on a soul mate. Do you desire a drug addict or convicted rapist or a husband slaughterer to be your soul mate?

Take time to seek your ideal soul mate and do your homework. You will not regret all the time and effort spent in searching for the right person to build a family.

How Personal Injury Attorney makes money

Personal Injury Attorney does not make money the way other lawyers make money.


The practice of Personal Injury Attorney is different from other law firms in terms of the financial arrangement and commitments.

In Personal Injury Attorney law practice, the Personal Injury Attorney has to spend his time and money to get the case ready for trial or settlement or trial.

Personal Injury Attorney does not get retainer, the upfront money that other lawyers get when they accept the case.

Personal Injury Attorney uses a contingency arrangement, meaning “no win no fee”. Personal Injury Attorney gets paid after a year or two after taking the case, and only if the Personal Injury Attorney wins the case. The money comes from the settlement or court awards. Personal Injury Attorney generally ask for 35% to 40% commission from the settlement.

If you think that paying a Personal Injury Attorney 35% to 40% is a lot of money, you should consider how much you lose out if you do not hire a Personal Injury Attorney to negotiate the term for you. You should not think that the money goes into the mortgage of the Personal Injury Attorney. You have to think of his time in court, the rental of his office, the salary of his staff, the payment to different professionals, his time in researching and negotiating for settlement.

Personal Injury Attorney does all the work for you, so that you can get more money in compensation, and then he can use the money to pay his bills.

Personal Injury Attorney does get paid for the time and money they spend on a case. Personal Injury Attorney has to do all the paperwork. Personal Injury Attorney has to arrange for medical for you. Personal Injury Attorney has to hire engineers, doctors, accident reconstruction experts, and other professionals to analyze the critical issues of your personal injury claims and paid them to testify in court.

You do not pay a single cent to those professionals. Your Personal Injury Attorney pays them out of his pocket, and he can only recover the cost when he wins the case.

If a Personal Injury Attorney happens to handle many personal injury cases, he would have to spend time managing these professionals and paid them on time.

A Personal Injury Attorney needs to win most cases in order to generate money and have the capability to hire more professionals to handle more cases.

If you are a law student, you may want to think of the practical aspect of the business. You have to think of the financial and personal risks involved as a Personal Injury Attorney. You must consider carefully whether you can tolerate the financial risks before you embark on personal injury practice career.

It is getting more difficult for Personal Injury Attorney to win a case in court. Many lawyers do not want to go to trial. The cost of lawsuits is so high, and the risk of failure is great, that any amount in compensation will probably not enough to pay for all the time and expenses in preparing for the trial.

Many states had implemented “tort reforms” legislation that places upper limits on the monetary amount for the injured person. Many insurance companies and corporations are less keen to settle before trial. While Personal Injury Attorney is eager for early settlement to avoid mounting cost, the insurance companies have the time and money to drag on the cases.

Personal Injury Attorney has to go through the due process of filing a lawsuit. That means more expenses incurred and a longer wait to payday, assuming the Personal Injury Attorney wins the case in the end. The expenses on filing fees, expert witnesses, depositions, and other court costs are part of the necessary expenses.

Many clients do not want to go through a lengthy process to get the money. They want money more than they want justice. Many of them do not want to wait for many years for the money, since they are not in the condition to work, and they need to live.

It is sad to that many clients end up getting a fraction of what the case is really worth. As long as they get the settlement, they can carry on with their life. However, that means the Personal Injury Attorney gets less money. The 35% to 40% barely enough to cover the operating costs.

The public’s attitude towards personal injury cases is rather discouraging to Personal Injury Attorney. However, there are great rewards for winning a personal injury case.

Even though we read news of insurance fraud and scams that involve the conspiracies among doctors, Personal Injury Attorney and their clients. These are very rare. It is very sad when the injured gets nothing when the court rules in favor of the insurance companies or the big corporations.

If you look at the brighter side, you can see that personal injury cases is similar to David versus Goliath. You hardly see this scenario of an individual going to court to battle with large insurance company and corporation.

Personal Injury Attorney differs from each other in terms of interests, personality, aptitudes, weaknesses and strengths. However, they enjoy the opportunity to help individuals like you and me who are in need of legal advice and suffered physical injuries from accidents.

Personal Injury Attorney gets the satisfaction when the court rules in favor of his client, after he has put up with all that abuse from the high and mighty insurance companies.

other side and having his or her cause validated by a jury. With this, you gain a measure of confidence and assurance that will motivate you to stay in the game for a longer time. If you can manage your practice wisely, then you will be able to experience moments of triumph constantly.

Personal Injury Attorney does not always go to trial to fight for his client. Many insurance companies and corporations are reasonable when they see that the injuries are genuine, and through no fault of the injured. They are willing to settle early so that everyone can get on with life.

It is quite rare for a Personal Injury Attorney to handle high-risk and high profile cases. Many personal injuries cases are rather minor and do not involve a large group of victims. It is highly unlikely for a Personal Injury Attorney to handle the personal injury cases in involving a hundred or a thousand victims. Most road accidents and workplace accidents do not result in large casualties.

Personal Injury Attorney can opt to handle routine cases that are settled fairly easily. The Personal Injury Attorney can handle more cases for thin profit margins.

A new Personal Injury Attorney needs to work with a law firm that specializes in personal injuries cases to pick up experience.

If the new Personal Injury Attorney wants to practice solo, then he has to prepare to go without pay for a year or two. After all, getting client is difficult, and to settle every case with maximum compensation is hard.

The Personal Injury Attorney has to pay the rent and the salary of the secretary or legal clerk.

A solo Personal Injury Attorney can achieve success in the legal practice if he is committed to the business.

A solo Personal Injury Attorney has to network with all professionals and manage his resources wisely. The resources include time, people and money.

A solo Personal Injury Attorney must have enough capital to stay on the business. Personal injury law practice is a high-risk business in term of financial rewards. Every case is a gamble, either you win and get the money or you lose the case and you lose the capital.

Personal Injury Attorney has to gamble with his money first before reaping monetary rewards a year later or two years later.

It is hard for a Personal Injury Attorney to get rich by specializing in personal injury claims. Many law firms handle personal injury cases as well as other cases in order to enjoy retainer and bill the clients hourly.

How to improve psychic abilities

While some of us think or rather know that we have the gift of psychic power, hardly any of us can utilize the psychic abilities.

We have to improve on the psychic abilities before using the psychic abilities to help us.

How do we improve our psychic abilities?

The first way to improve psychic ability is to accept ourselves. We must admit and accept and be thankful for the gift of psychic. Acknowledge that the gift of psychic comes from God.

After all, God is the Almighty and he has the psychic power to foresee events that will occur thousands of years later. Since man is his creation, just like animals are his creation, it is natural that some of us inherit the psychic abilities to a certain degree. Even animals can feel fear instinctively, it is natural for our psychic to give warning when danger approaches.

The second way to improve psychic ability is to trust the intelligence of the Higher Being. Sometimes a voice will tell you to bring along something or to go somewhere, without letting you know why. Sometimes it’s just a feeling that you have to do something. Listen and obey the voice from your psychic.

The third way to improve psychic ability is to spend quiet moments alone, and to listen to your psychic talking to you.

When a bad feeling surfaces, do not just dismiss it. Your psychic is giving you warning. Maybe your child has hurt himself in school while you are in the meeting with your boss.
Give yourself a quiet moment to listen carefully to your psychic.

The fourth way to improve psychic ability is to recognize what is happening. Your psychic abilities are different from your friends. Some people have the psychic ability to see vision or dream about it. Some people have the psychic ability to feel danger and feel lucky. Some people have the psychic ability to read others’ minds.

You have to recognize and treasure your unique psychic ability. You do not need to envy those psychic abilities that you do not have.

The fifth way to improve psychic ability is to learn meditation. Just relax and meditate. Do not let worries crowd your mind. You should let peace from your psychic envelopes you.

The sixth way to improve psychic ability is to get near to nature. Many people feel at peace in nature. Their psychic power let them feel they are at home in nature. They feel connected with themselves, with God and with the world at large in nature.

It is surprisingly how answers come to us when we are in the embrace of Mother Nature. Our psychic is the most powerful when we are in nature. Suddenly we have the answers. Suddenly we know what we should do. Suddenly we regain our confidence and self esteem. It is the gift of psychic to draw the answers from nature.

The seventh way to improve psychic ability is to receive and do not doubt. Do not doubt your psychic abilities. The answers from your psychic will not be what you want or like to hear. Your psychic will tell you what is best for you, not what you want to hear.

The last way to improve your psychic ability is to act according to the message you got from psychic ability. When your psychic tells you to expand your business, while everyone asks you to downsize, listen to your psychic. You will gain rewards in the future.

You can keep a record of your psychic voice and the result of following or not following your psychic abilities.

You have to analysis those moments that you listen to your psychic power and the result turns out to be disastrous. It may be due to misinterpretation of the message from your psychic abilities. It may be due to your strong desire overpowers the soft voice of your psychic.

How to develop psychic abilities

Most of us do not think that we have psychic abilities, regardless of what people say.

Sometimes we do see people with psychic abilities. They seem to know that someone is taking a pen from their desks even though they are on leave that day. They seem to know that their bosses are going to talk to them, even though the bosses are overseas.

There are many articles on developing psychic abilities. I have compiled some points in this blog post. There is no harm in reading and trying some of the ways to develop psychic abilities. These are very easy and commonsense ways supposedly to help you develop psychic abilities.

The first way to develop psychic abilities is to believe that everyone has psychic potential. After all, we know that children have very acute psychic abilities. That is why they are correct when they speak such simple and profound truth. Some children even tell their parents all the supernatural things they can see, and that makes their parents so fearful.

So it’s possible that we have acute psychic abilities when we are young, but lost the psychic abilities in childhood. So when we start to believe that we have psychic abilities, we can awaken the hidden psychic abilities.

I remember an incident when I was young. While doing homework, I had a sudden feeling that my friend was dialing my house phone number. I walked towards the phone, and managed to pick up the phone before the first ring. On hindsight, that was acute psychic power.

The second way to develop psychic abilities is to let the your intention known. You do not need to let everyone knows, you just need to say out loud, so that your hidden psychic abilities are awakened.

It is as if you are giving permission to accept your natural psychic abilities to manifest. You can learn to listen to your inner voice, the voice that your psychic abilities communicate with you.

The third way to develop psychic abilities is to accept that you have different psychic abilities than the others. After all, you are an unique individual, and your psychic abilities are manifested differently from other people.

Some people see in their minds. These are known as clairvoyant psychic.
Some people feel something good or bad is going to happen. These are known as tactile psychic. They can feel energy or presence or familiarity with certain places.

Some people hear voices or hear their inner voices very loud and clear. Those are clairaudient psychic.

You do not have to worry that you lack certain psychic abilities. You have to treasure the psychic abilities that you have, and learn to listen to your psychic.

The fourth way to develop psychic abilities is to keep track of what your psychic is telling you. The purpose of keeping track is to catch hold of that evasive psychic voice or sight.

Sometimes your psychic abilities reveal in your dream, and you wake up in the middle of the night. While still in that semi-conscious stage, you can remember the dream. However, the moment you fall asleep and wake up in the morning, the dream is gone. You miss out the message from your psychic.

So the best is that when you have a foresight, a dream or just a feeling, write it down, and give serious thoughts to that. Your psychic abilities may reveal more details. Otherwise, just relax and clear all your worries and anxieties.

The last step to develop your psychic abilities is to read and learn from the others. Some people share their experience through books. You may find it useful to learn how psychic abilities save their lives and improve their lives.

Psychic energy and psychic ability

Is there such a thing as psychic energy and psychic ability? The truth is: I don’t know the answer.

Sometimes I feel so good when I wake up in the morning, absolutely certain that something good is going to happen, and yes, many good things happen, such as winning lucky draw. I guess that is psychic ability. But then such moments rarely happen. Most of the happy-go-luck feelings never result in anything good.

Apparently some people have better psychic powers than me. Most people apparently have better psychic ability for predicting bad things to happen. I would rather have better psychic ability to grab every opportunity that will yield good result.

What is psychic energy?

Psychic energy is a skill to tap into our sub-consciousness or the sub-consciousness of others. I think it’s easier to tap into the psychic energy of others than ourselves. Sometimes just by looking into the eyes of another persons, we feel such power of psychic energy. Sometimes it’s fear, and sometimes it’s hope.

My colleagues even mentioned that when they bought lottery from a certain cashier, they knew that they were going to win lottery. It’s as if looking into the eye of the teller and they could feel the psychic energy flowing.

I don’t have such psychic ability to predict lottery winning.

However I seem to have certain psychic energy and psychic ability in the middle of the forest.

Once I was hiking in the nature park when all of a sudden, some weird feelings overcame me. I knew that was a very power surge of psychic energy.

I knew, I just knew, that I had to go home immediately. I just knew that the moment I turned the key into the door, the rain would pour.

I didn’t know how come this kind of feelings overcame me. I was in the middle of nowhere, and suddenly had the psychic ability to predict weather. Not a single black cloud in the sky and not a single indication of rain.

I needed more than an hour to get out of the forest and another hour to reach home. Ten minutes before I reached home, the sky was blackened with storm clouds. I was feeling lucky that I paid attention to the psychic energy.

When I reached my door step, and turned the key into the keyhole, a flash of lightning brightened the sky, followed by a clap of thunder, and the rain fell.

I was fortunate that this psychic ability prevented me from stuck in the rainforest. It was no fun walking in the rainforest when the sky was pouring.

Some people mentioned that learning mediation, Qigong and Taichi would help a person release the psychic energy.

I guess that one of these days, I better take up Qigong and Taichi lessons. Even if the Qigong and Taichi do not help to release psychic energy, at least they are beneficial for health.

I wonder how meditation, Qigong and Taichi help a person to improve psychic ability and manipulate psychic energy. So far, I have not seemed the practitioners exercise their psychic ability to predict the lottery luck.

Maybe psychic ability is to help a person foresees danger, and psychic energy to ward off danger. I think that will be a more appropriate use of psychic energy and psychic ability, rather than to use it to win lottery.

Reflection: Green project is expensive

“No money no talk” seems to be the unspoken theme of Copenhagen climate talk.


Green project is expensive. When the economy is not doing well, the governments of the world are not willing to sink money into any green project.

Every country is trying to push the blame to others. No country is willing to pay for the world to go green. The very least that each country can do is to cut down on emission of greenhouse gases. Yet many countries are not willing to do so, because green project is expensive.

Copenhagen climate talk is bound to fail. It is a waste of time getting the world leaders together for a climate talk. As long as the scientists are not able to come up with clean, green and cheap cars, there is no way for any country to launch green project cheaply.

Since vehicles is one of the main contributors of greenhouse gases, the only way is to produce green cars that run on renewable alternative energy sources. The no greenhouse gas emission cars must be cheap. The car owners are not willing to pay for a more expensive cars. No money no talk, because green project is expensive.

In many countries, the raw material for producing electricity is fossil fuel. If the countries want to launch green project for national energy consumption, they will have to sink money to build new power plants that run on renewable alternative energy sources. That is expensive.

I doubt developing countries have the means to do so.

Many developing countries have forests. They do not make money when the forest is a forest. They make money only when the logging companies cut down the forest and sell the woods.

There is no incentive for those countries to protect the forests or plant trees. Even simple green project such as reforestation costs money. The developing countries do not gain financially by protecting the forests in order to offset the greenhouse gases emitted by developed countries.

If the developed countries want them to launch green project, the developed countries will have to find money to fund the green project in developing countries.

Green project in developed countries is expensive. The developed countries cannot stop their residents from watching TV, using the Internet, using the heater or air-conditioner, using the washing machines, driving etc, all these activities emit greenhouse gases directly or indirectly.  They can only encourage their residents to launch personal green project, such as converting cars to run on renewable energy sources and green project for their homes.

The source of electricity in many developed countries come from fossil sources. The only way to stop greenhouse gases emission is to launch expensive green project national wide.

The only comfort for the government is that launching green project can create jobs. If every house owners buy solar panels for the rooftop, the producer of solar panels will have to hire more workers. The house owners will have to hire people to fix the solar panels.  Even if the house owners can build their own solar panel, they would have to buy the raw material.

It is best for developed countries to launch green project and cut down on greenhouse gases emission. They can set an example to the developing countries. After they have successfully reduced greenhouse gases emission, they can provide technical expertise to help the developing countries in green project.

Copenhagen climate talk fails because the discussion is not constructive. If each country focus on “what we have done, what we are going to do, what can we help you to do” approach, that is a valuable experience sharing session for all.

Unfortunately the Copenhagen climate talk focus on “what you should do”, and that leads to all the finger pointing.

Green project is expensive. In many cases, the cost of green project is not just monetary. The cost of green project is really an unknown factor.

When China decided on The Three Gorges Dam project, which is a large and expensive green project, the cost is bore by the government, the fishes and the animals. The Three Gorges Dam probably affects many fishes and animals in ways that we do not really know.

We know the benefits of The Three Gorges Dam since the purpose is to generate electricity from water. However, the actual cost of the green project may be known to us only in the far future.

There are many large rivers in the world. However, not all countries have the money and the determination to harvest electricity from water. It is hard to imagine countries in Latin America launching a large and expensive green project similar to The Three Gorges Dam. If they are able to do that, they can supply enough electricity for the whole continent. That will be a very large and costly green project after The Three Gorges Dam.

The current technology is enough for many countries to start green project on a national scale. However, going green is expensive. The rule of ‘no money no talk’ applies.

Free online fortune telling

A couple of years back, I made appointment with a Zi Wei Dou Shu (purple star astrology) for an hour session of fortune telling.

I was very surprised at the accuracy of the fortune telling result. The fortune teller even deduced that one of my parents just passed away. It’s very astonishing to me. I did not know that just looking at my date of birth, he could know so much.

Anyway, he was rather accurate in fortune telling when it came to the future. Anyway he encouraged me to take up a course in Zi Wei Dou Shu. He mentioned that I had the talent to learn fortune telling.

I took his advice, since I was very interested in Chinese culture, and fortune telling is an important part of Chinese culture.

After the first few lessons, I was completely lost. I was always very slow in picking up new things, and this fortune telling class was no exception. My teacher used the traditional method to teach fortune telling, that meant that we had to spend time memorizing some texts.

I was forced to turn to free online fortune telling websites to search for more materials. I came across this website, horo.itv.tw, a Taiwan based website for fortune telling. In fact, it was more than a free online fortune telling website.

This website went into detail of plotting a Zi Wei Dou Shu life chart. I printed out more than a hundred pages from this free online fortune telling site.

Since this was a free online fortune telling websites, I played around with different birthdates to see the difference in the explanation.

Later on, I searched for more free online fortune telling sites, and came across a couple of forums where the masters and public mingled. Too bad the free online fortune telling websites were in Chinese, Taiwanese Chinese, and I could not type in Chinese.

By then, I had enough knowledge to understand their analysis of the charts plotted by the free online fortune telling sites. The masters did the analysis and offered advice to the public.

Some of those folks were really unlucky. Even I, as a student of Zi Wei Dou Shu, could see how bad it was. It was bad through and through. But his luck for the future would be extremely good.

I remembered a guy saying that he had bad luck for two years. His investment lost money. He got a new boss, and the new boss terminated his service. His girlfriend left him. He wanted to know how long he had to endure.

All the three masters took a look at the life chart plotted through the free online fortune telling program, and said that they seldom seen such a lousy combination. That guy was to suffer three years of bad luck in career, money and relationship.

After looking at his chart, I returned to my chart, also plotted by the free online fortune telling program. Fortunately my extremely unlucky years were in childhood. No wonder my parents always said that I was a difficult baby, always got some mysterious illness and accidents.

The only thing I do not like about the free online fortune telling websites is the communication problem. I wish I have learnt to type in Chinese to communicate and learn from those masters through the forum.

I prefer the free online fortune telling sites using Bazi or ZWDS (Zi Wei Dou Shu), rather than those using horoscope kinds of free online fortune telling sites. The Bazi or ZWDS are two extremely complex and comprehensive method of fortune telling. The report generated from the free online fortune telling sites usually runs into several pages.

Renewable Alternative Energy Sources, Greenhouse Gases, Global Warming

Renewable Alternative Energy Sources and Global Warming


Renewable alternative energy sources and global warming are very hot topics in the world today.

Renewable alternative energy sources is a hot topic because oil price keeps on heading north, and no sign of it coming south.

Global warming is one of the “hottest” topics because many people are feeling the impact of the current climatic change. The problem is that they are experiencing the negative impacts of global warming.

Global warming refers to the overall increase in world temperature. Even though the increase is rather minor, the impact on the weather is a cause for concern. Many scientists blame global warming on the increasing volume of greenhouse gases trapped in the atmosphere.

Many people believe that searching for renewable alternative energy sources is crucial to combat the decline in oil reserve and to combat the warming global problem.

Greenhouse gases are produced by natural and industrial processes. The abundant greenhouse gases refer to carbon dioxide, ozone, methane, nitrous oxide and CFCs. While it is true that tropical rainforests are deterrence to the harmful effect of greenhouse gases, the problem is that the tropical rainforests are disappearing at a rapid rate. Many countries are cutting down tropical rainforests for timber and farming purposes.

There are many sources of greenhouse gases. The burning of fossil fuels and deforestation of tropical rainforests lead to a higher concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. When there are not enough trees to absorb the excess carbon dioxide emitted by burning fossil fuels, petroleum products and natural gas, the carbon dioxide stay in the atmosphere.

The use of CFCs or chlorofluorocarbons in refrigeration systems, in fire suppression systems and other manufacturing plants increase the greenhouse effect of our atmosphere. The use of non-organic fertilizers in farming also leads to higher nitrous oxide concentrations, which is another greenhouse gas.

In the United States of America, the greenhouse gas emissions come mainly from the use of fossil fuels as energy source. Most of the greenhouse gas emission in the United States come from the combustion of coal, petroleum and natural gas (United States Energy Information Administration).

In the case of Asia, China is contributing to the emission of greenhouse gas due to the construction of old-fashioned power plants in many provinces. The cities in China are polluted by the emissions from cars, and usage of coal for heating purpose.

The carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere are at record high.

If we do not control the greenhouse gases emitted by human activity, the effect of greenhouse gases can worsen the global warming problem. Global warming will cause undesirable climate change for many years. Human does not have sufficient knowledge to predict how the ecosystem of the Earth will react to worsening effect of global warming due to greater emission of greenhouse gases. The climatic effect so far is not welcome.

Finding renewable alternative energy sources is one of the necessary steps for reducing the toxic emission that form greenhouse gases.

Most of us can do our part to reduce our personal consumption of energy. This is a way to save money and help to minimize the consumption of oil, petroleum and other fossil fuel.

Many people do not really care about the environment. They do not really care about renewable alternative energy sources, global warming and greenhouse gases. However, they care about their money. They care about saving money and making money.

When we use energy efficiently, we are saving money. We are also helping to reduce emission of greenhouse gases that lead to global warming.

If the energy that we use come from renewable alternative energy sources, the Earth will be a cleaner and greener place. Renewable alternative energy sources refers to the usage of electricity generated from the sun, crops, winds, river and waves.

Green energy is another way to describe renewable alternative energy sources. Renewable alternative energy sources are usually environmentally friendly. The process of generating electricity from renewable alternative energy sources usually do not contribute to the greenhouse gases and related global warming.

The problem of renewable alternative energy sources is that the technology of generating electricity is not efficient. The technology to harass renewable alternative energy sources is still new, and many governments are funding the research for better conversion of renewable alternative energy sources into electricity.

There are many ways of generating electricity from renewable alternative energy sources that do not cause pollution. Sun, wind, river, and heat can generate electricity for less carbon emission than those of coal and even natural gases.

The concern of many governments is less on combating global warming than that of dealing with depletion of oil reserve.

The crazy oil price is affecting the purchasing power of many countries and people. Probably the Middle East countries are the only ones to gain from crazy oil price. However, even they know that the oil reserve is depleting. That is why their sovereign funds are buying companies worldwide, so that the Middle East countries do not have to worry about money when oil runs out.

The added benefit of using renewable alternative energy sources is obviously in resolving the drastic climate change due to greenhouse gases and global warming.

There are reports to say that with proper use of renewable alternative energy sources renewable energy, renewable alternative energy sources can deliver half of the world’s energy needs half a century later.

It is possible to reduce carbon dioxide emission by 50% if the world starts to replace fossil fuels with renewable alternative energy sources.

Many governments are taking action to use and tap renewable alternative energy sources. Many governments are running campaigns to help businesses and individuals to go green. They are giving tax rebates and subsidies to help businesses and individuals to gain from renewable alternative energy sources. One example is the encouragement to develop hybrid cars, and for citizens to drive hybrid cars.

The European Union leaders reached an agreement in March 2007 to ensure that 20% of their country’s energy should come from renewable alternative energy sources by 2020. This is an effort at international level to reduce carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases emissions. Some governments are taking it one step further by offering incentives to their citizens to use renewable alternative energy sources.

Renewable alternative energy sources are not the only way to reduce the greenhouse gases emission. The usage of renewable alternative energy sources are not enough to halt global warming. However, the increasing usage of renewable alternative energy sources are simple ways to reduce toxic gas emission and mitigate global warming.

Purpose of college degree education

This economic crisis is a wake-up call for many people who still think that the purpose of college degree education is to make money.


Many people in Asia used to think a college degree education is a ticket to good life. Frankly speaking, that is true for many years, especially during the colonial era. That was the time that a college degree education, especially from a college in UK, US and Australia, was highly valued.

That is no longer true in modern context. A college degree education is no longer a ticket to wealth and riches, given that many billionaires do not have college degree education. A college degree education is no longer a ticket to wealth and riches, since people are retrenched when the economy is not doing well, regardless of educational level.

The fact is that after retrenchment, people with college degree education find it harder to get a job. Since they have spent so much money and time to get a college degree education, they are not willing to do a job that a high-school graduate can do. What is the point of getting a college degree education just to flip burgers?

It is a time for us to rethink the purpose of college degree education.

Of all the knowledge gained in college, I guess the only thing of value I gained from college degree education is this: It depends.

One lecturer kept on emphasizing the point. Even if we never learnt anything else from college degree education, we had learnt “It depends.”

These two words sum up the value of college degree education. In a way, it’s ridiculous to spend so much money to get a college degree education just to learn “It depends”. On the other hand, “It depends” has a deeper meaning in everything.

Everything in life boils down to “It depends”. “It depends” is the right answer to every “why” question.

Why does you need a college degree education? It depends on your career goal. You can’t be a doctor without a college degree education.

Why is it that people can be rich without college degree education? It depends on their family situation. It depends on their personality. It depends on their determination to succeed in life.

Do I regret spending money on college degree education? No, I do not. I have learnt “It depends” and I have learnt to analyze situation based on “It depends”.

I would say that college degree education is worthwhile as long as you know how to answer the question “why” with “it depends”. There are many words after ‘it depends”, since people will ask you “It depends on what”. That is the difficult part. That is what college degree education is all about. It teaches you to think critically so that you know how to answer “it depends on what”.

“It depends on what” can mean anything from it depends on weather, it depends on your mood, it depends on the person, it depends on where you live, it depends on the economic situation etc.