Travel Agents

Went to the travel agent's office this afternoon during lunch to pick up my travel tickets and voucher. They weren't friendly, it was quite a change from the smiley happy attitude during the travel fair.

But i guess it's like that all the time. At the fair, everyone's fighting for business, so they're exceptionally nice and accomodating, since first impressions mean a lot especially when there are thousands of people passing by your booth, and there a 400 booths fighting for business.

Travel business is big business. It's always anytime of the year, and they are planning more travel and tourism exhibitions. Woo-hoo.

Say It With Gift Baskets

If you are running out of ideas of what to get as a present for your friends parties, then you may want to consider getting a gift basket. A good gift basket is an underrated present – it is elegant and tasteful, and the recipient will definitely appreciate the thought and the excellent contents of a well-chosen gift basket.

For the next anniversary party for your friends or family, choose from a selection of anniversary gift baskets to convey your love from Gourmet Gift Baskets. Besides that, they also other themed gift baskets like for a new birth, weddings, Christmas, and even Texas gift baskets, and my personal favorite, chocolate gift baskets.

Hazy Shade of Summer

Haze is back again. Not to mention the heatwave, but the haze is the one everyone's talking about. It's only been the first week of the haze season, so i suppose we haven't seen the worst of it yet. It'll be worse, definitely, in the coming weeks.

If you are a foreigner and am in here for the first time, let me just make it perfectly clear the haze is none of our doing. It's the uncontrollable forest fires from one of our friendly neighbouring countries, so there.

I suppose Malaysians have kind of got used to the haze every year now, it's been like 10 years of this environmental disaster that happens annually like clockwork.

Coupons As Gifts

With Thanksgiving and Christmas coming, it's time for giving gifts and sharing the joy. What better way to do that than to give gift coupons, and you can choose from many stores across the country via CouponChief. For example, last Christmas i gave my pal some Dell coupons as he wanted to upgrade his PC.

This year though, i think my wife would appreciate some BestBuy deals...

Rose for Mother

Mother's Day is coming next week, my kid just reminded me last week. Her school had the kids make a fake plastic rose for all the mothers, which was kind of nice. I stopped giving stuff to my mom long time ago, besides, she always makes a fuss about the gifts until such a point she makes me feel guilty for spending the money on her.

It's not that i get her expensive stuff, just simple things that say a lot from the heart, but she doesn't really appreciate it, so i kind of stopped some years back.

My kid is planning to give my wife the rose next Sunday for Mother's Day, but since the rose has been lying around in the house there is no way my wife hasn't seen it yet.

It's the thought that counts.

Your Next Holiday

If you want a hassle free holiday, you should do all the pre-holiday planning on the Internet before you even step onto the plane. The best place to get everything done is at one website - Hotel Reservations offers everything in one place. You can check the cheapest room rates, book your flight ticket, arrange a airport transfer, and even arrange for taxis and cruises.

Make your next holiday an enjoyable one.

Play Backgammon Online

I used to play backgammon with my friends as a kid, and was glad to find the game enjoying a bit of a renaissance in the form of cell phone games and online games.

Playing online backgammon is equally fun - you just need to download a small file and you can immediately play backgammon with other players across the world. the website is easy to navigate and instructions are clearly written and easily understandable.

You can also participate in backgammon tournaments if you think you are good...

Better Drive

Traffic is a breeze in this new job of mine. No hassle of waking up early and getting stuck in the daily gridlock like before.

But i have to pay dearly for my toll, though. I suppose it's a fair tradeback, time with my family is more important to me than spending behind the wheel wasting petrol and adding to the pollution.

The job is kinda slow in this first month.

Mailing Lists

My old boss used to say that any business is always just as good as its contacts. Although that doesn’t always hold true, it does hold some truth if you have a business that relies on maintaining a database of your existing buyers and potential customers.
But if you are one such company list a cabinet full of client lists, you may want to consider expanding your business by using the services of list brokers.

Martin Worldwide provides innovative mailing list products. Their ResponseCom is very versatile and can be configured for any kind of business by customizing your database. With their help, they can help you serve your customers much better and to find new business by analyzing the buying history of your customers.

Chatting Online

downloading the latest version of msn messenger live, the current one that i am using is 4.7 i think. yep, high time for an update. i've been missing out on all the cool stuff that all my friends are using!

Recently though i haven't been using msn messenger so much, it's been google talk of late. They're both quite the same functionally, for me at least. i get to chat with my friends. Although for most of the time when i am at work, i don't log on, because it can really drain my time if i start chatting. lots to talk about really.

but at home, i'm almost constantly on line.

B-ball

Basketball isn't all that popular here as compared to the US, but i am quite interested in it. I don't strictly follow the NBA, mainly because it is shown in the afternoons here, and I'm more likely to be at work at that time. But I do like to catch the highlights in the evening.

I played a lot of basketball in university. It all started when some of my coursemates were players since young, and we joined them initially, and after awhile, we were playing almost daily. It was as fun as it got, all of us playing together.

Wonder if it could happen again.

Time is Right for Gold

Ah, gold. The most beautiful and precious metal known to men, that has been hunted and coveted by men and women through the ages.

Today, gold still maintains the allure and captivates the imagination of the rich, because as time goes by, the stock of the precious metal in the natural ore form is getting harder and harder to find, and also more costly to mine.

But god still represents the ultimate in beauty ornaments. That’s why it is always a good idea to look into gold investing. Monex Deposit Company (MDC) offers the chance for you to purchase silver, gold or other precious metals in the form of coins and ingots or even bullion for safe keeping.

Review: American Gods by Neil Gaiman

First notes - i used to have a book blog, but i've decided to stop maintaining it since last November. The whole idea of having a book blog in the first place was to motivate myself to read books, at least 2 or 3 every month, and maybe once in awhile post some literary-related news. Unfortunately, it didn't work out - i'm no bibliobibuli, reading a couple of books a month was tough enough, and then i was mostly unmotivated to write a review about them. But so, i decided if i ever wanted to write any other book review, i'll post them here in my primary personal blog, and leave that book blog with the mothballs.

Anyway, here's a book i just finish today after dinner.

I've been a Gaiman fan for a long time, bought this book on another whim, but kept in a backburner for more than a year. Last week, i decided to start it again, and i pretty much ate it up in a few days.

American Gods is a book about road trip, both physically and spiritually, for the central character Shadow. He gets released early from jail because his wife is killed in a car accident. He then meets a strange old man on the flight back to his hometown, who turns out to be an age-old god, who hires him as a bodyguard / errand boy and together they traverse America.

I won't go much into detail of the story here, but basically Gaiman weaves his magic on the subjects he knows and loves best - mythology, fantasy, and a vivid storytelling laced with dark humour. It is obvious he has put in a lot of research in unearthing some of the gods and demons and folktales of various cultures that emigrated to America long ago, and he has embellished them with his own imagination to fabricate an intricate story for us.

The ending, although not entirely unexpected, can't be faulted much, although there are quite a few layers to it because of the complex storyline.

The book works probably because Gaiman writes as an outsider to America, and maybe thousands of his ancestors had emigrated to the new country and have brought with them their gods which have been forgotten over the years. As he says, America is 'good for the people and bad for the gods'.

I liked the book, maybe a little too long, and some of the 'coming to America' snippets could have been left out, and i may just pick up the sequel 'Anansi Boys'. If i see it on sale, that is.

Donate A Car

With the number of new cars being sold every month, the number of cars on the road are increasing at a similar rate. I was reading an article in the business magazine the other day about how the number of cars rolling of the plants in Detroit are reaching record numbers in the last few years. If you take into account the worldwide figure, this ratio is far greater, when you consider emerging and new markets like Southeast Asia and China.

In the US alone, families are buying second cars is a trend that is catching on fast. Some even are buying third cars for their teenage children. Another trend is also changing new cars every three to five years. So what do these people do with the old car? More often than not, they are traded in to get a slightly better deal off the new car, or owner can opt to sell the car himself to a second hand car dealer, which is a little more hassle for the owner. But usually this yields a slightly better price for the old car, although the isn’t really that good since the overall second-hand car market isn’t doing too well in recent years.

A third alternative is to scrap the car totally, this option is reserved for cars that are quite old and that may not fetch a good price in the second hand car market.

But here’s an alternative for you and your family if you plan to buy a new car and get rid of the old one - Donate a Car to a worthy cause like CarAngel.com. What they do is organize Car Donations, from all across the country, where ever you are. The funds go towards a good cause – they produce Free Children's DVDs for a better future for the kids.

Market At 13-Year High

The stock market is at a 13-year high at last check, and still going up, up and up. If you want a clear definition of a bull run, i suppose tihs is one good example. A lot of speculators who have 'deprived' of action over the last decade or so are rubbing their hands with glee, although a lot of people are also quite wary.

Like me. If you think about it for a moment, it can't continue to go much longer. this run started towards the end of last year, starting with first the blue chips, followed by the firstliners. Then the second liners were slow to follow, only probably kicking into action just before Chinese New Year. Now everything is going up.

I did more some money, but still am a little cautious.

Protection for Your PC

When you own a computer with broadband connectivity to the rest of the Internet, your PC's security is a very important aspect should never take lightly.

This is especially true especially when the PC is used to run a business and store all your important info. There are just too many types of malicious software out there threatening to harm your data, and there is no one software solution that will take care of everything. The next best thing is ESET a layered security solution that excels in handling Anti Virus, Anti Spyware, Exploits, and Firewalls and put them all in one place. Each layer of protection is strong in one aspect, and this will ensure that your PC and the data stays safe against different kinds of attack.

This software from Software Security Solutions is the best in it's class and is highly recommended.

This blog post was based on information provided by Blogitive. For more information, please visit Blogitive.com.

Work Work Work

It's nearing midnight, but for me, there's just too much work to do around here. Everyone’s left the office, most of them at a good and holy hour, leaving behind me with this mountain of weird paperwork.

Ouch. I need to have another of those long talks with my boss on Monday. When he comes back from golf that is. I think he is TOO obssessed with golf, that's partly the reason why he isn't so effective as a boss, but that's only my own opinion. But as a boss the opinion of your subordinates are paramount, aren't they?

Bosses are what their underlings make them to be, that may not be true for all bosses but it's very true for mine.

Professionalism Goes A Long Way

There's this bunch of external auditors in my office at the moment. Every year they send some bunch of kids to our office for a few weeks to do the external audit, and every year our company has a lot of complaints about them. They're loud, messy and a lot of other stuff, mainly they're sometimes a little unprofessional.

This new bunch this year has a new 'thing' - they use our company phone to call out to their office during lunch break. Loo-oong calls. Sometimes personal calls are made, although we're never sure.

Anyway, i think they should be professional.

Hiring the Right People

My company has been looking for a replacement admin executive for a good 4 months now. Good help is hard to come by these days. We have had a few candidates join us, only to leave after a few weeks. I have no idea why they can not stay longer than that, there is nothing extraordinarily difficult about the job.

It’s all down to getting the right person, the one with the right credentials and at the right price. Here’s a good way, get professional help from an executive search firm. These people have the track record to get you the right people, whether it is an entry level exec or top management.

Drug Rehab

Drug addiction is nasty business. Our government spends millions and millions of dollars per year in their anti-drug campaign to make sure our young adults do not get into the habit. This money is spent mainly in the form of education in schools and community centres. A large portion of this allocation is also spent on advertising in the media to get the message across to all the young people in the country that drug and substance abuse is bad, and once addicted, you are pretty much throwing away your life, money and future.

However, in spite of this concerted effort by the authorities, and the help of volunteers across the nation, more and more drug addiction cases are reported in the media every monthly, up each year despite the fact that the campaign against drug abuse seem to be getting more widespread and effective.

I think one has to pause and wonder why this is happening, even when the youths and young adults in the country can’t say that they are not aware of the consequences of their ‘trying out’ the drugs. I think one of the main reasons is the ready availability of drugs on the streets. Walk into any of the seedy clubs in our capital and you will see it being distributed.

Kicking the habit is a very tough process and it definitely needs the help of professionals. Drug rehabilitation is simply the best and most effective way to deal with addiction, and Chapman House Inc is an established drug rehab which uses a 12-step drug treatment process to help their patients.

The detox facility based in Orange, CA deal in a wide range of substance addiction, and if you or one of your loved ones are affected by drug abuse, this is a facility you may want to consider.

Buy A Maytag

So you want to buy a new refrigerator, because your old is dying out and is as cold as your radiator.

The big question is – where do you buy one? Drive from one store to another looking for the best deal? That’s time consuming, plus you never know just which model to get. Here is a better way to buy Maytag Refrigerators. Use Krillion Localization Engine, it will delve across the web and find the best deal around your local area – without you having even to leave your PC and home.

They deliver results category-by-category, and they also many other appliances like flat panel TVs, lawn and garden, seasonal appliances and others. It’s simple to use, and saves you a lot of effort.

This blog post was based on information provided by Blogitive. For more information, please visit Blogitive.com.

Top Ten Signs That It’s Getting Too HOT In Malaysia These Days

Man, it’s hot these days. I can’t sleep at night without sweating, and my colleagues don’t go out for lunch anymore because ‘it’s just too hot’.

I dunno, global warming is one thing, I feel like I’m living in a microwave these days.

Top Ten Signs That It's Getting Too HOT In Malaysia These Days

• Even the tudung-clad makciks selling nasi lemak outside my office under the hot sun are wearing miniskirts.





• Even the Bahrain Formula One GP is now branding themselves as ‘The Second Hottest Race On Earth – There’s No Way Our Desert Is Hotter Than KL!’





• Malay stall operators start flipping burgers on the bonnets of their modded Proton Wira’s to save on cooking gas.





• Speaking of Proton, the latest line of cars to be released this year has only two settings on the air-conditioning – ‘OFF’ and ‘3’. Nobody ever uses 1 and 2 anymore.





• KL roadside rats start migrating to Genting and Camerons for the summer during March to September.





• Speaking of Genting, they have changed their concept of the theme park rides to ‘Desert Heat Adventure’, ‘Tropical Jungle Cruise’, etc.





• For the fashion-conscious – White is the new black. It also attracts less heat.





• These days, at McDonald’s, soft drink refills are still free, but tube ice costs 50 sen per cup.





• Latest drink at the mamak - Ho Yan Hor Ais Limau.





• I stop eating curry mee during lunch. Serious.

Medical Supplies Delivered to You

People who need medical supplies usually need it on a regular basis, usually weekly, sometimes daily, like in the case of medication. When you are on that kind of tight routine, you don’t want to take any chances of missing your dosage due to irregular supply, so you usually go to the store regularly or stock up lots of the stuff, if it can last a long time.

But here’s an alternative – buying it online and you will get it sent to your doorstep. Saves the hassle of having to drive out to get it. They also now carry fitness equipment, baby and mother products and dietary supplements.

This blog post was based on information provided by Blogitive. For more information, please visit Blogitive.com.

Lap Band

Many people are now familiar with lap band surgery, due to its increasing popularity and effectiveness. Now there is a emerging and dynamic network of specialized surgical facilities called Journey Lite, made up of professional and experienced specialists in this field.

Basically if you opt for Journey Lite, they will do what is termed as a Laparoscopic Adjustable Gastric Banding, or commonly known as Lap band. Why is it so popular and effective? It is adjustable, and also reversible, something the other weight loss options may not offer. There’s no cutting or stapling or rerouting, and there are no serious long term effects.

Journey Lite offers the best in Lap Band for a better you.

This blog post was based on information provided by Blogitive. For more information, please visit Blogitive.com.

Get Help Writing Essays

If you were like me in college, you'd probably be too busy to do a lot of things. Assignments and homework have a way of piling up right when you are the busiest. So if you really need help to get you out of a hole, you can buy an essay to ease the burden of work, so that you can concentrate more on other stuff.

These custom essays cover almost any subject in school or college, and they are well-researched with you maintaining full control of the content. They also do custom research papers depending on your need.

Wedding Up North

I'll be off to the north for a wedding, coming back the next day. I just hope that the traffic will not be horrendous - i've heard enough horror stories about cars breaking down along the way. Things are not helped by the fact that after soooooo loooong, they have yet to finish the highway expansion works all along the stretch from KL up to the north.

Incidentally, i was speaking to OBC the other day, who was telling about how he worked for numerous companies in the mid 90's that were involved in the construction of the highway. He has a treasure trove of humourous and interesting tales to tell of those days, a real man of the toil so to speak.

According to him, even in the initial construction stages, the government has made provisions whereever possible to have an extension to 3 lanes all the way. This is more tricky than it sounds - considering the number of bridges and ravines along the way.

I suppose some places it would have been damn near impossible to prepare that extension 10 years ago - Gua Tempurung would be a good example.

Anyway, hope the wedding goes well. I don't know anyone there except for my in-laws.

Gourmet Food in Cancun

For some folks, they like to vacation on a shoe string even if they can afford a better package. That means staying at hotels that offer buffet lines like most of the affordable inns that dot our countryside.

But if you want to stay in the best and enjoy gourmet food together with your stay, then you should try the gourmet inclusive concept that has been introduced by Karisma Hotels in Cancun. It’s called All Inclusive Cancun and while during the day you can soak up the sun, sea and sand on the pristine white beaches of Cancun, at night it’s all about fine dining and gourmet food.

Mustang Parts

Owning a classic or vintage car can be a fulfilling experience. There is nothing more exciting than the rush you feel from driving a beautiful old Mustang, and spending all your free time keeping it in tip top condition. But it is all worth is to keep a thing of beauty running like new, plus its always a great feeling to have when everyone turns and admires your ride as you cruise down the freeway.

Must maintaining a Mustang isn’t always so easy, especially locating the right parts for it at good prices. If you are in search of a Mustang Radiator, you can bet your bottom dollar to find it at Radiator.com where they stock all models across the country at unbeatable prices.

Waiting For Payday

There’s nothing worse than being broke, and it is just as bad being broke and needing money with more than a few weeks to go before you get your next salary. But that is the reality for many of us, especially when you are an employee with little means of getting another kind of funding. Forget about applying from the bank and other financial institutions – even if you qualify to apply for a loan, and that is a very, very big ‘if’ there – it usually takes weeks before they even reply you on your application.

So if you need fast Cash Advance, banks are literally out of the question. So what’s a guy to do?

Going for Payday Loans is one good option. Forget the weeks waiting for the bank loan. Here, it takes only about 24 hours for them to respond to you, how fast is that? Their loan amount range from 80 pounds right up to 750 pounds, and there is no massive paperwork to fill up and submit. Just fill out the form available online at their website, and you are done. No fax, no payslips, none of that hassle.

So if you are looking for Salary Advance, get a payday loan.

Rising Cost of Medical Care

With the rising cost of medical care these days, more and more people are getting concerned about their old age, and also care for family members who are approaching their twilight years. With the number of age-related maladies on the rise in recent years, the insurance business is growing from strength to strength serving the needs of these people.

One way to Save Money on Insurance is through Advantage Term Life's Term Life insurance. They cover all kinds of term life insurance for you and your family, like the Life Family Plan Premium.

The website provides details and many informative articles for you knowledge.

Getting There

Working as employee from paycheck to paycheck is hard as it is, but the reality is even tougher when the paycheck is usually not enough to carry you to the end of the month. So what is a guy to do? Fortunately, there is always the option of Payday Loans, a fantastic way to get a hassle-free No Fax Payday Loans. You don’t need all the cumbersome paperwork, and it doesn’t take weeks for your approval to come.

All you need to do is enquire with them for their Faxless Payday Loans up to $1500, and before you know, you’ll have the money in your account.

15 Ways Stores Trick You Into Spending

You know how when you go to a supermarket just to pick up shaving cream and a loaf of bread, but when you reach the checkout line, you're carrying a few more items than you planned to buy?

You have unwittingly fallen prey to the shop's tactics to get you to buy more stuff than you actually wanted, without you even knowing it. i came across this excellent article on the Net where they list down some of the ways stores entice you to spend more than you actually need, and also some ways not to succumb to these persuasive nuances. It's a great article from this source.

Really good tips, especially if you don't plan your spending well.

Quotes on Honda Cars

Honda Cars are known for being trusty models that are comfortable and able to last wear and tear over the years. But while most people pay full price for the new models that come off the showrooms, you don’t have to do so.

Get the distributors to fight for your business by offering you the best prices, with Honda Car Quotes. With CarsBlvd.com, you check the best Honda Car Prices in your area for any model. In fact they cover all the car manufacturers and major models. Besides that they also have very informative articles for you to read.

Highly recommended.

Broadband Slowing Down

No idea why, but my broadband has been really slow these 2 days. Not sure if I am the only one facing this problem, but I have read a few other bloggers mention this in passing.

It's no wonder the ISP is getting lots of bad press lately. The clients are complaining about slow speeds, business are complaining, i think it isn't really providing the service that they have promise when we first signed up. The other problem is also the slow response time of the customer service, usually it isn't until days when they answer your query, and even when they do, they don't commit as to when they will fix your problem.

I know it's difficult to answer technical problems over the phone when you don't have enough technical folks running the lines, but that's hardly an excuse.

Online Shopping

Selling stuff online, whether it is a product or some kind of professional service is the next dimension to expanding your business. Many people who have been doing business the traditional face-to-face way are now branching out to the internet to reach out to a wider audience and bigger marketplace, since there are millions and millions of web users out there already, with millions more new ones joining every month.

But the competition is already heating up, as websites are fighting for the attention and time of the online shopper. The important thing to remember when setting up a website for selling online is to keep the website simple and easy to navigate. Users must be able to see all that you have to offer at one glance and be able to place an order with just one click of the button. That’s why you should get Ashop’s shopping cart software, it makes everything simpler for a better and faster online shopping experience.

They are having a great offer if you get their shopping cart software, and your business will grow from using it.

No Water

I can stand frequent power cuts, but water cuts are an entirely different story. I remember back in college there were frequent water cuts due to ongoing construction near our dorms. Every month there'd be cuts, the longest one lasted almost a week.

How would you deal with 6 to 7 days without water? tough, i tell you. most of the time, the first to go is the emergency fire fighting water tank. If a fire were to break out during that time, there won't be any water left for the hosereel. Danger danger.

And the water isn't clean. It's brown and muddy, especially at the bottom of the tank where it's sedimented.

Degree For Your Future

As more and more people are opting to continue their studies while working, the available options for post-graduate programs are widely available. With the marketplace getting more and more competitive with more qualified graduates, people like me are furthering their studies as a way to further their careers. capella university is a fully online university offering degree programs in business, IT, education, human services and many other fields.

If you find yourself being held back by your lack of qualifications in your job, getting a degree from the online program may just be the thing for you and your future.

is blog post was based on information provided by Blogitive. For more information, please visit Blogitive.com.

They'll Be Back

Don't write off Arsenal yet. They are known for their tenacity, and while they've 2 crappy seasons (finishing 4th on both occasions) they'll be back in a year or two. I can't say when it will happen, but when this generation of young players mature in time, they'll be challenging for honours on all competitions.

Well, one lesson learnt this season - don't bother chasing all four trophies. Chelsea did that and almost lost all, except for the League Cup but that was settled very early on. They had injury problems all along, but since they were all super expensive buys, they made hell of a lot of noise about it. Everyone has injury problems, mate - we played half our games with only our 3rd choice striker available. And we didn't do too shabbily.

But here's to a good break and another kick ass season next.

Parental Guide

Here is good news for parents and those interesting in parenting issues.
The Knot Inc. has brought to you a great website dedicated to helping out new and old parents in all things related to parenting. It acts as a hub for reviews for baby products, and where parents can post their own reviews and comments.

The cool thing about this website, Lilaguide.com is that it functions as a kind of social networking site, where you can find out about stores and groups in your own area. Cover many major cities across the US, so check it out and be part of thing growing Internet phenomenon.

This blog post was based on information provided by Blogitive. For more information, please visit Blogitive.com.

Because The Night

For those of you who ever listen to Singapore FM stereo during the early 90’s, you might remember the show ‘The A-List’ on The Perfect Ten 98.7FM. At that time, format radio was just taking off in Singapore, model after the Fox station in Australia (from which I think the current Astro radio channels follow, too). At that time, format radio was not heard of in Malaysia yet, we were still stuck with Janet Ambrose on the Blue Network / Radio 4.

In the post grunge era of the early 90’s, ‘The A-List’ (hosted by the composed Suresh Menon) focused on an emerging sub-genre called ‘modern rock’, a term that still survives today, although it refers to something a little different now.

I didn’t catch that many episodes of that radio show, it came on at a weird time of 7.30pm on Sundays. But they played mainly what was perceived as modern rock at that time – Soundgarden, Maniacs, Manic Street Preachers, Blind Melon, Smashing Pumpkins, you know the ilk.

But one song from that show really stayed in memory was 10,000 Maniacs’ “Because the Night”. Simply loved Natalie Merchant’s take on that the classic by Patti Smith. From that song, I started to explore some of the Maniacs’ older music, but I still felt that was the pinnacle of their underachieving career.

Merchant left the group soon after that, and released a solo album called ‘Tigerlily’.

Good News For Unix Users

Good news for those running the HP-UX 11i v3 operating system on their machines. Symark Software has just announced that the two popular access control solutions, PowerBroker and PowerPassword-User Management Edition (UME) will be fully supported on the platform.

This represents a patch on the many security gaps that have cropped up in almost all the versions of UNIX and Linux available out there. Because many critical functions and business run their servers using UNIX and Linux, this comprehensive access control mechanism for Password Reset will ensure that the systems will carry on running without any further security hitches.

Symark are one of the leaders in providing security administration solutions for more than 2 decades.

This blog post was based on information provided by Blogitive. For more information, please visit Blogitive.com.

Getting Hot In Here

Man, it’s really hot these days. I think it’s mainly due to global warming, but I am practically sweating day and night in this humidity and heat. Even with the air conditioning switched on every night, it isn’t helping much.

I try to stay out of the burning sun as much as I can, but however my job requires it. Too bad, but I try to drink lots of fluid and stay off the heaty food, helps a bit. But it’s hot and I can’t do much to help the situation. Short of emigrating to a temperate country that is. But that’s a little drastic.

For A Fuller Figure

Not everyone is born with beautiful features on the face and body, some are inherently blessed with better looks than others. The fact is that if you are better looking, the more chances you have in becoming famous, that is if you also have the talent and luck to go with it. That is why we see all those beautiful faces and fabulous bodies belonging to singers, actors, models, and other celebrities splashed on magazine covers and all over the media.

But that does not mean if you have less than perfect features, you have to live with it for the rest of your lives. If you want, you can have the option of correcting some of the features by way of cosmetic surgery. it is no longer just the rich and famous that can afford to do it now, it is very accessible to the public to carry out procedures like california liposuction to get rid of those flabby parts of your body, or california breast augmentation if you want a fuller figure.

Rodeo Drive Liposuction provides experience and track record for carrying out cosmetic surgery, for both men and women. If you want a leaner, fitter and fuller body, make an appointment to change the way you look.

Short Term Loans

If you are ever tight on money with payday more than a week away, you know how it feels like to be skint and feel the pinch.

One way out of the muddle are short term Payday Loans, and with RobertsBridgeFinancial.com, you can get a small loan ranging from £80 up to £750. The money will go directly to your bank account, so you can survive until the next payday.

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25 Years of MTV

This year marks the 25th anniversary of Music Television, or better known by its three-letter-acronym, MTV. There was an article featured on digg.com last week highlighting the 10 ways the upstart channel changed the world.

Here in Malaysia, we get the sort of a lite version of it called MTV Asia, which is pretty much the same content as the American counterpart, minus some programs and videos deemed not appropriate for ‘Asian values’. In it’s place there are locally or regionally produced shows like MTV Jus and request programs.

One of the biggest gripe that the younger generation have with MTV these past few years is that they have actually killed the very content that they are supposed to glorify, the music video itself. Gone are the days in the early 80’s through the late nineties when they actually showed videos for hours and hours on end. Produced shows like ‘Real World’ and ‘Laguna Beach’ were few and limited to a certain time in the day. Those days you could see the hot video of the day played at least once every hour, I remember when La Isla Bonita by Madonna and Unskinny Bop by Motley Crue where those hot videos. Want to see it? Just keep watching. It’ll pop up before long.

Nowadays, they show too many of these produced shows like Pop Inc and TRL, and the slew of reality shows like Making The Band, Newlyweds and the Osbournes (although with ‘Real World’, MTV can lay a serious claim to inventing the genre).

Of course, on the subject of the type of music they play, is a general reflection of music tastes of their key 18-25 demograph – these days rap and hip-hop are the big money spinners and they play it predominantly and if you’re the type who doesn’t like, you don’t watch a lot of MTV. Similarly, back in the late 80’s, Headbanger’s Ball was THE most popular show on MTV, mirroring young America’s obsession with glam hair bands and darker heavy metal. Then in the early nineties, grunge killed the metal dinosaur and ‘Unplugged’ was the top show of the day.

Nowadays, After School Rock is the only representation of rock or metal, but it’s just pathetic, recycling the modern rock tracks they play all the time anyway. (Headbanger’s Ball was recently been resurrected on MTV2, but we don’t get it.)

These days, I only regularly watch 2 shows on MTV – Cribs and Pimp My Ride (ironically both non-music related). There’s another one is technically MTV – it’s those VH1 shows like “Behind The Music” and “Top 40 Most Awesomely Bad…” shows. I just love them...

Good Service

These days i can't go a few steps on the streets or in the shopping mall without being stopped or harassed by pushy salespeople who can't take 'no' for an answer.

Sometimes when i want to really buy something, and when i don't get decent service from the salespeople, i get really upset. I am not being picky, sometimes these people aren't quite rude and lacking in basic courtesy.

Now here's a good idea, there is a site wher eyou can rate and review businesses with good service - thereby promoting the good ones and making sure people know about the bad ones. The site is Measuredup.com and i think it's a brilliant concept. Recommended.

Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend

Anyone remember the movie ‘Gentlemen Prefer Blondes’? I love that oldie. There’s this scene that I absolutely love where Marilyn Monroe’s character, Lorelei Lee, sings the song 'Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend'. There’s a later scene in the movie where the song is sung again by another actress.

More than 30 years later, Madonna sort of spoofed that famous scene for her ‘Material Girl’ video.

That aside, diamonds are always a girl’s best friend. Why? Because it stands for many things girls treasure. It is the ultimate in beautiful stones. It is also one of the most precious, not to mention that it is one of the hardest substances in the world, it is also used to cut metal and glass in industrial mills.

But as Ian Fleming rightly noted, Diamonds are Forever, and so does the allure of diamonds and diamond rings. Diamond rings are customarily used as Engagement Rings, because it symbolizes the eternal love between two lovebirds.

Similarly, gold rings or gold bands are commonly used as wedding rings, perhaps the unending gold circle represents the unending bond of a wedding matrimony.

But back to diamonds. The newest trend in jewelry is Black Diamond rings, a truly beautiful type of diamond encrusted into a ring, and it is at the moment very popular with celebrities, who can be seen on the cover of glossy magazines and gossip magazines sporting these stylish ornaments. Black diamonds, or carbonado as they are also known, are natural polycrystalline diamonds mined mainly in Central African Republic and South America. Most of the time it is black in color, but sometimes you get a grey shade.

If you do not fancy rings, then Diamond Pendants may be just the jewelry for you. Pendants are an elegant accessory that can be worn for formal events. A pendant makes a good gift for your loved ones regardless what age they are.

MySolitaire.com is the premier website to buy gold rings and diamond rings. But they have more than that, they carry almost every type of jewelry and accessory available, like pearl necklaces, earrings, Sapphire Rings, gemstone bracelets, and many others more. What’s more interesting, you can even design your own bracelet in this website, maybe make a special one that is one in the world for your loved one. They also have an active blog for the website, which we found to be very interesting!

I lift up my eyes to the hills

Dedicated to the memory of him...

I lift up my eyes to the hills—
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth.

He will not let your foot slip—
he who watches over you will not slumber;

indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.

The LORD watches over you—
the LORD is your shade at your right hand;

the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.

The LORD will keep you from all harm—
he will watch over your life;

the LORD will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.
Psa121

Come See Orlando

Ever thought of visiting Orlando? There’s a lot of stuff to do and see there, least of all the theme parks where everyone in the family and have loads of fun. There is, of course, the world famous Disney World, which is on top on everyone’s list of places to visit in Orlando. But other than Disney World, Orlando is also home to many other theme parks, like Universal Studios and Cove Theme Park.

If you are not into theme parks and roller-coasters, then you can visit the Charles Hosmer Museum of American Art, The Orlando Science Center and the Kennedy Space Center. But more than that, Orlando has a vibrant nightlife and great food for everyone.

It is easy to find hotels in orlando with Orlando.com, where you can easily find the right one for you.

This blog post was based on information provided by Blogitive. For more information, please visit Blogitive.com.

Shop Earlier This Time

Yes, my friends, Christmas is coming soon, and for me, that usually means one thing – frenzied last minute shopping for my wife and kids, and also for my colleagues and friends. I notice this problem does not just affect me and me alone, dozens of my other male friends have this issue year in year out. It is not that I want to do it at the very last minute, joining the mad crowds of people at the mall, but it’s always the case of not knowing what to get, and where to get them.

Now there is an excellent solution that will end all my shopping problems. The company Black Friday is offering a great opportunity for guys like you and me to shop online on the day after Thanksgiving. That particular day is also known as Black Friday, hence the name of the company. This means you get all your gifts about 3 weeks earlier before Christmas, via their thanksgiving ads. The store will send you e-mail alerts to notify what kind of items are available on sale.

This also means you don’t have to join the crowds lining up outside Black Friday’s stores at an ungodly 5am in the morning...

First time Parenting: The Bare Essentials For Dads (And Moms) Paying For It

A few friends of mine are going to be first time parents in a few months. Usually, I’m not the type to give advice when it isn’t asked for, not because I don’t like to give, but parenting is sometimes more meaningful when you learn it on your own terms, rather than lectured at by others who mean well.

But being a first time dad is also a bittersweet experience – sweet for the obvious reasons, but also less-than-saccharine when it comes to paying money for lots of stuff. While the usual stuff you need to get anyway, like bottle, napkins, breast pump, drapoline, towel, etc, these are big ticket items – and some stuff learnt from experience...

Rule no 1. Get stuff second hand from your neighbours / relatives / friends. I know, nothing beats getting NEW stuff for your precious firstborn, but this rule applies for people like ME who can’t afford to buy retail. Old stuff is free, works just as good as from Babyland.

Pram – Did you know ‘pram’ is short for perambulator? Anyways, get one that is light. Poor husband is the one to carry it in and out of your car boot, up staircases, hold it up escalators, across the field to the famous laksa stall that wife wants to go to… Also get one that is easily collapsible. Struggling to close the pram in front of other people in 1 Utama during sale IS NOT COOL. Getting your finger stuck (and screaming in pain) in the pram when collapsing it wrongly is also NOT COOL. And as you know, dads have to COOL 24/7. Like me.

Car Seat – Also important if you’re the jetsetting young parent (like me). Get one that is big enough to last your kid until at least 3 years old, get a small one and you need to buy another one later. Put a cloth or plastic cover below the carseat on the cushion, sh!t (and pee and vomit) happens. And if your car has airbags, don’t put it in the front passenger seat. Your car manual will tell you that. If you’re driving alone with baby, put it in the back seat left hand side, so that you can see baby, and baby can see you too. Also, don’t put baby on the car seat when your car is hot. Unless you want screaming baby.

Playpen – A good one will last many, many years. Get one with strong netting for ventilation and for your kid to watch TV, easily cleaned (yes, your kid WILL throw up in it).

Good Deal on Hosting

With the millions of blogs and websites birthed every month, more and more people are looking for hosting plans to host their websites and data.

But the question is, where can you find a good one that is cheap and gives a large disk space and bandwidth? hostmonster is offering a great deal that starts from less than $5 and offers 300GB of disk space and 3000GB bandwidth. Plus, you also get an offer of domain name and host unlimited domain under 1 account. Now that's a good deal.

Winter Holiday

With Halloween just over, that means that the Christmas and Thanksgiving holidays are coming soon. If you are planning a winter holiday escape, you should check out Holiday Whistler providing Whistler accomodation in beautiful British Columbia.

If you want to enjoy a ski holiday, where you can spend cozy nights in wood-burning fireplace, or take a walk in the scenic mountain outdoors, Whistler is the place to be. You can rent a Whistler lodging to stay all on your own or with your family and friends. One of these cottages that really caught my attention was Arrowhead Point 18. Looks really great.

But Whistler isn't just for winter, they're open for rental all year round.

A Safe Bet

Online betting and gambling sites are truly getting very popular these past few years, so much so that there are sometimes just too many of these sites around, and being promoted into your mail inbox every week. Guys love gambling and betting, and online casinos brings this convenience to their PC monitors without them having even to leave their homes. But sometimes finding a right and good gaming site is a very difficult task, given the number of available sites out there. If you are fortunate to have friends recommend one to you, then that’s good, but if not, going by trial and error is a difficult thing to do.

Bet365 is one of the most popular and established online casino sites that are available on the Net today.Bet365 has a full range of betting services through their online casino, Sportsbook facility and other great features like interactive games section and an area where you can play online poker. There are lots of other games available too, but they also have a full range of American and world sports for you to bet on.

Their online casino comes recommended, and with just one account you can enjoy a safe gaming environment without worrying about the safety of your particulars.

Refurbished HDTVs

HDTV are always great for watching movies. Gone are the days when you can watch the latest DVDs or your favorite TV series on a drab 21" screen, these days big is in and the bigger, the better.

If you are planning to get a set for yourself or for someone as a gift, you can always look for a great del from Second Act. They sell refurbished HDTVs, and also overstocked items so that you don't to pay full price. They Great Deal of the day features the best deals and you can register with them to get updates via RSS or email to be in the loop and be the first to grab the opportunities.

They are an established company so you do not need to worry about their service guarantee.