It's My Turn! Have Fun

One way to live a positive and happy life is to try to have fun with any occasion/chances that you encountered and gaming/quizzes (especially those online game/quizzes) is one of the cheapest and simplest way to have fun.

If you are a Singaporean, you would want to pay attention to what I've going to share as I am sure you will have fun and enjoy the quizzes that I am going to share next "It's My Turn", it's a simple yet graphically appealing/fun quiz to analyse your personality to find out "What Kind Of Singaporean You Are?". The best part is it's seamless integration with Facebook that enable you to publish your result in your facebook's wall through one click. Also, you can retake the quiz for as many time as you like.

For your better appreciation, following are some screen shot of my personal result:



The main page of "It's My Turn"



My result : Apparently, I am a "Take It Easy Singaporean"

I am quite happy with my result as I am truly a "Take It Easy" guy! My motto in life is to stay positive and happy as long (or far) as possible.

Come and think of it, even for non-Singaporean, you are welcome to have fun and try out this fun quiz to find out "How Singaporean Are You"? Hope you enjoy it while I continue to search for the next fun game/quiz to share in the near future. Also, do feel free to share your quiz result here (in the comment section)!

Cheers! 

I will If You Will

Nope! This is not the title or speech from the love story or movie (like in Titanic's "You jump; I jump"). Actually, this is the campaign theme for Earth Hour 2012. If you are still clueless about it, Earth Hour is an annual world event (participated by 135 countries across the continents last year) that encourages people to switch off their lights for an hour on the last Saturday evening of March.

This year, Earth Hour falls on 31st March 2012, 8.30pm. As per this year's campaign theme "I will if you will", the aim is to courage people to go beyond the hour and make a longer-term green pledges. I've been participated in Earth Hour since 2010 and will definitely continue to support this initiative for as long as I possibly can.You folks are highly encourage to participate in this meaningful event too. After all, we all are living on the same, one and only, Mother Earth!

What make this year's Earth Hour even more special for me is that the Earth Hour HQ will be moving from Sydney to Singapore by May 2012, thus, I would be expecting more up-close and personal campaign and promotion happening in Singapore from 2012 onwards.

Lastly, like to share the official video from Earth Hour for your viewing pleasure:

Cheer!

SPECIAL: Cold Milo Drink In An Instant!

Imagine this: After a fulfilling workout or exercise, you are looking for a cup of cold Milo to quench your thirst and reboot your energy, however, you need to wait for quite awhile as traditionally you need to dissolve the Milo powder in hot water and add in the ice or cold water to make a cold Milo drink...

But hey, not anymore, if I tell you that from now on you can make a glass of cold Milo drink in an instant without any hot water, how cool is that?

Nestlé Singapore has recently launched a brand new 3-in-1 MILO® Easy Cool which allow you to do just that. With the free shaker bottle (that's what I called complete solution!), you can make the cold Milo as easy as A-B-C (or as per what the slogan said "Pour, Shake and Be Cool"!). The 3 simple steps are as per following:

1. Pour 2 sachets of MILO® Easy Cool into the shaker bottle
2. Add cold water up to the marking clearly indicated on the shaker bottle
3. Shake it!

The clear marking of desired cold water level

Viola! The cold Milo is ready to be consumed. Not only that, it is also endorsed by the Health Promotion Board’s Healthier Choice Symbol and contains healthy goodness such as:

• Actigen-E (a combination of B Vitamins and Magnesium)
• ProtoMalt (a special malt extract made from malted barley grains found only in a MILO® drink)
• Glucose, maltose and complex carbohydrates ( which gives you longer lasting energy)
• Vitamin C and Calcium
• Milk, cocoa and essential vitamins and minerals

MILO® Easy Cool is now available at all leading supermarkets and hypermarkets such as FairPrice, Cold Storage, Shop N Save, Giant, Carrefour and Sheng Siong. It is retailed at S$6.30 per pack of 15 sachets (Oh! Do remember to get your free shaker bottle!).

Lastly, MILO® Easy Cool is running a special Facebook contest with great prizes like iPad2 and a Sony PS Vita for users who submit their own videos demonstrating how “It’s So Easy to be Cool- If You Know How.” Simply log on to www.facebook.com/milosingapore and click on the “Easycool” tab to watch amazing videos showing simple ways to do everyday things. The contest ends on 28 February 2012.

Cheers!

Impossible Is Nothing ; We Have Linpossible!

No, there is no typo in the title, I really meant to type Linpossible. If you are a basketball fans (especially the NBA), I am sure you know what this newly invented word meant (watch out for other words like Linsanity etc..). For those who are not (a fan), I guess you've missed the recent phenomenal overnight success of Jeremy Lin (pretty much an anonymous one week plus ago).

The 24 years old Harvard graduate (in 2010) has made a remarkable (understatement here) appearances in the NBA scene recently (he is a player from New York Knicks). Being the first Taiwanese-American whom gain overnight success in the highest level of professional basketball tournament (NBA), he has became the new Taiwan's national hero. He has single-handedly help Knicks shot to the overnight stardom (both for himself and Knicks). With his great contribution, Knicks has obtained the record 7th straight wins (and still counting) as at today.

Lin is not only a stunningly great sportsman, he is also a very humble and caring gentleman. Being an Asian myself, I am very proud of him, his performance and his attitude towards life.

Inspired by Lin, I guess the formula of SUCCESS (especially in the sports arena) would looks something like this:  

SUCCESS = Hardwork + Persistency + Humble

Following are some photos of Lin extracted from the web (in case you are still clueless who is this young gentleman):

Cheers!    

P/S: I am not a NBA fan but I was intrigued by his performance just by watching him performing in the recent matches. With the current rates and performance of Lin, I would expect to see more and more coverages of Lin in all media and news. Stay tune! 

Divas Forever - Whitney Houston and Feng Fei Fei!

For the past 2-3 days, we have been bombarded with sad news of the demised of two Divas from the west and east. First, the shocked passing of Whitney Houston (from US) at the age of 48 (cause unknown) to the passing of Feng Fei Fei (凤飞飞, from Taiwan) (cause: lung cancer) at the age of 60.

Both are Divas in their respective arena and with countless followers from around the world!

Whitney Houston

Feng Fei Fei

Many of their beautiful and powerful songs have accompanied us throughout the different stages of our lives. They have left us with many fond memories and countless classic tracks to last for many more years to come.  

Rest In Peace to two DIVAs of our time!

In any case, life is short, let's do our part to live our life to the FULLEST and leave no regrets (unfinished dreams) behind!  

Today is Valentine's Day, I wish all of you: 

A VERY HAPPY VALENTINE's DAY!

Cheers!

How To Reverse Time And Benefit From There?

If we try and work hard enough, there is a chance that we can reverse many important thing in our life, for example, our fortune, our career, our wealth, our relationship etc... What about TIME? I am afraid I am gonna disappoint you as I do not have any cue or magic power to reverse the time physically! What I am going to share with you is about my view of reversing the time "literally"! 

Confused? Keep reading....

Here comes the explanation. My version of reversing the time literally means reversing the word TIME to EMIT! Everyone know we can't reverse the time physically but by reversing the time (in words) and internalize the meaning of the reversed word (EMIT), it might be able to help us "gain back" a portion of time that we've lost/wasted.

By definition, emit means "to discharge (eg heat), to voice (eg opinions)". Thus, to "gain back" the time, we need to practice and internalize the meaning of emit by:

1. Discharging more energy in whatever work/activity that we are doing NOW!

2. Voicing more opinions/ideas of issue on-hand!

In short, we are trying to focus on NOW doubly (or triple) hard/smart so as to recoup the non-quality time that we've lost/wasted in the past. If we do it continuously, you will notice that we are "losing" less time as many a time we are trying to do better at present moment (NOW) and thus less time is wasted!

Another way to look at it is that, with this practise, we are effectively trying to improve the chance of our achievement (at the present time) and to achieve more. With this, our mind will be focused on NOW and not the past! Make sense? Of course, this is only my personal viewpoint and there is no proofs that it works or the gain is equal to the time that you've lost/wasted.

Having said that, I do believe that if we can shift our viewpoint towards this definition of "reversal of time", we can enjoy more true living (at the present moment) and not being trapped in the past.

Cheers!

One Day Excursion at JPO (Johor Premium Outlets)

Last Sunday, being the last day of my long Chinese New Year Holiday, we (with my wife) decided to explore the recently launched Premium Outlets in Malaysia, called Johor Premium Outlets (JPO). All in all, it takes us about 2 hours journey from Singapore to reach the destination (inclusive of the custom checks). 

We reached JPO at about 12pm, without wasting much time, we started to zoom around immediately after gotten the VIP coupon booklet from the local tour guide. There are about 70 outlets scattered along 2 whole floors of 2 adjacent blocks. For your easy reference, following are the floor map and shops listing (click on the images to enlarge):

JPO - Floor Map

JPO - Shops Listing

We spent about 4 hours + to complete the whole "shopping spree". The outcomes are 2 pairs of shoes, some cosmetic products and a lanyard from Coach (effectively not a very satisfactory outcome). If you are looking for cheap and heavy discounts from the branded shops like Coach, Salvatore Ferragamo, Michael Kors etc..., prepared to be disappointed. Other than some selected value buys, the prices are not much cheaper than those in Singapore or other Premium Outlets oversea.

Following are some snapshots of the JPO (sorry for the amateur photo quality as I was using my iPhone for the shot):

Burberry

Coach

Salvatore Ferragamo

DKNY

Michael Kors

Guess

Gap

Nike Factory Store (the Man-In-Blue is ME)

Lacoste and Fossil

One of the 2 escalator/staircase

Shanghai Tang

 

The Food Court - Food Channel

Starbucks

Zegna Outlet Store

The child-trolley rental station

Another M-I-B shot in Singapore's Kallang Bahru Bus Terminal

For latest promotion and update, check out their official site at JPO. If you have been to JPO, do share your experience with us here.

Cheers!

SPECIAL: Magic Show!

Since the "David Copperfield" era, magic show has been gaining ground and popularity from all over the world. Many self-proclaimed magicians or illusionists are springing out at every corner of the world. Those more successful ones are gaining lots of followers and apprentices and some even have their own TV shows. It's one of the fast-lane to stardom or becoming a celebrity magician.

Of course, magic show has it's merits and entertainment value (be it online or offline), that's the reason why there are more and more different genre of magics being uncovered along the way. I must say that some of them are really "eye opener" and seems unexplainable to me! It is also a great business opportunity for the show business as well as individual magicians. For the latter, they are mainly magicians for hire to perform at birthday party, company event etc.

At this information age, most of the magicians (both corporate and individual) have some kind of online presence (e.g. through their own website and/or social networking profiles) to promote and market their talent. For example, I have chanced upon some interesting ones, like Magician Clinton W. Gray, Vancouver Magic Productions, Norden The Magician, Comedy Magic Of Chris Yuill etc...

During my "research" exercise, I chanced upon a piece of information regarding the magic show industry and the potential risk of offending the Canada's anti-competition Laws for certain such sites (for full details, please refer to the text in blue at the end of the post). I am not sure how true is it but I guess it is always prudent to do more research and comparison before you click on "Add To Cart" or "Buy" button (if you are a potential magician hirer residing in Canada).

Lastly, just like to clarify that I am not into magic show or magic show business, this post is for pure sharing purpose only.

Cheers! 

Full details of what I've chanced upon:

Is this group of Vancouver Magicians offending Canada’s anticompetition laws? We asked members of the legal community for their opinion, and got this reply..

[QUESTION TO A MEMBER OF THE LEGAL COMMUNITY]
Whether HOW this syndicate/cartel (see link provided) of Vancouver BC high-priced individual magicians via their self-described "non-profit organization", with a unified pricelist, potentially, or actually breaches Canada's Competition Act (formerly known as Canada's Anti-Combines Act).

http://www.vancouvermagician.ca/about-vancouver-magicians.htm

http://www.vancouvermagician.ca/fees.htm

[OPINION – ANSWER – FROM A MEMBER OF THE LEGAL COMMUNITY]
I’m very familiar with this and we were laughing in the office about this order because we just wrapped up a 9 month case in Toronto over the Competition Act so we’ve become very familiar with it.

I’ve done some research on your question and the company in. The price page is a little confusing because it states that those prices are for performers not on the site and is the general average price, not the price of the performers. However it’s a dirty marketing technique basically and switch and bait. They show you how expensive it is and when you contact a performer from the website you as the customer are relieved to see a discount of around 15 percent. For example, for the best it states it’s 1500 plus. We called 4 performers and the highest price was 1400 the lowest 1200, not much of a difference from the price sheet but enough to make a customer feel they’re getting a deal.

The website states that it’s non-profit. Under the law a non-profit company must be for the good of the people as a whole. This company is not “good for the people” so saying they are non-profit is a direct violation of law.

They state they collect NO fees or commissions from the customer which is true. However they do collect a fee from the performer which is booked from the site. By doing this they are now a profit company because nowhere on the site does it state where any money collected helps the people as a whole. Whenever you are a nonprofit you MUST state clearly what you’re doing with the money and how you’re helping those you are targeting. You must also disclose to the public how much money you collect goes towards the cause, to payroll and how much goes into the general ledger.

Looking at Section 76 of the act, this company has broken many of the laws outlined under fair competition. Not only the company but the performers as well. As you may or may not know, this act can be civil or criminal based on what sections of laws are broken. 

I would write a detailed letter along with a copy of this “answer” and send it to the following address so a full investigation can be conducted! Make sure to include the company name, address, what they’re doing, stating their non-profit when they’re not and so forth!

Legislative Services Branch
284 Wellington Street, SAT-3
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0H8
I hope this helps and answers your question(s). If you need anything further please don’t hesitate to ask. You really need to do something about this on your part because it’s not fair to the other performers trying to make a living and doing it right.

Thank You,
Staci

Lunar Chinese New Year 2012

In slightly more than 1 week's time, all the Chinese from around the world will be celebrating the Chinese New Year (to be specific, the first day of Chinese New Year falls on 23/01/2012 [Monday] and it will last for 15 days). As usual, this year I will be going back to my hometown (Taiping, Malaysia) for the reunion. However, basing on the Chinese customary , we cannot celebrate the Chinese New Year during the first year of our immediate family's passing. So, this year will be a quieter reunion for us.

According to the Chinese Zodiac, 2012 is the Year Of Dragon (a mystic and auspicious creature from Chinese Mythology, see photo below). There are 12 animals in the Chinese Zodiac representing the year of your birth. Thus, all Chinese belongs to one of the 12 animals (for me, I was born in the Year Of Boar/Pig).  

Dragon

The 12 animals of Chinese Zodiac

Usually during this period (few weeks before the Chinese New Year), most Chinese from across the world will be busy doing the annual spring cleaning, buying or making the New Year decoration, cookies and of course, exchanging the new notes (money) for Ang Pow (red packets) packing. Basing on the Chinese Tradition, married couples are to give Ang Pow (with money inside, of course) to the juniors (those who are not married yet) as a sign of great start of the year in terms of their study or work.  

Sample of Red packet

To spice up my blog, I've snapped some photos relating to Chinese New Year items from my recent marketing trip. Enjoy...

This is the god-offering food/item

Chinese New Year dried fruits in Dragon Packaging

This is what inside the Dragon packaging

Cheers!

CES 2012 - First Day Highlights

The International CES (Consumer Electronics Show) 2012 is currently being held in Las Vegas (from 10/01/2012 to 13/01/2012). This annual event likened to the Oscar in Show business. It is the time the heavyweights of the consumer electronics/technology products providers are showcasing their new wonders (or at least showing some of the working prototypes) to the world.

I know my blog is nothing to do with electronics or technology stuff, but I think it is important for all of us to be aware of the forthcoming eye opener(s) in the technology space because we are more connected than we thought. Just ask around, who do not own smartphone nowadays?   

As the show is still on-going, I would not be able to provide any complete summary of the event, thus, I am trying to identify some key highlights that would potentially impact us in 2012:

1. Mobile payment systems is here to stay -For example, Google Wallet allows you to make payments with the tap of a smartphone. More devices are outfitted with the crucial Near Field Communication (NFC) chip that makes these transactions possible.

2. Facebook IPO will happen in 2012 - This forthcoming monster IPO (in billions) will sure to cause a stir in the market. 

3. Tablets will continue to soar - A recent spate of Apple rumors suggest that iPad 3 could be arriving as early as February and may be accompanied by a smaller “iPad mini.”, Other coming soon competing products are  Android-powered tablets such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab or the Kindle Fire. 

4. Ultrabooks will gain traction as viable tablet alternatives - A perfect alternative for someone who likes the sleek, lightweight quality of a tablet but wants a full keyboard. Acer, Asus, Toshiba and Lenovo all offered ultrabooks.

5. Voice Recognition Technology - Siri is just the beginning, more are in the pipeline from the competitors. Wonder would Siri be able to communicate directly with other "counterpart"?

If you happen to be at CES 2012, do share with us how you find the show as compared to the previous years and which products/services you think are worth checking out in 2012?

Cheers.

How Did You Spend Your First Week of 2012?

First weekend of 2012 is just around the corner. How did you celebrate the new year count-down last weekend? Did you spend time holidaying in far far away land, like many other Singaporean here did or....?

For me, it's a usual annual brunch with wife at the usual restaurant called The Line (at Shangri-la Hotel, Singapore). Surprisingly, this year the place is quite crowded (I thought we are supposed to be having economic downturn? No?). Anyway, we enjoyed the food, the ambiance and the companion of each other. 

Also, managed to catch 2 movies (DVD) with my wife at our cosy home ("No String Attached" and "X-men : First Class"), both are deemed watchable and entertaining but no classic materials though. After which, it's all workdays until now... However, I am grateful that my works are not that demanding at the moment and thus able to spend more time with my loved ones. 

Hope that you folks have a wonderful first week of 2012 as well and do feel free to share your new year celebration here.

Just to get a little bit more up-close and personal with you guys/gals, I am sharing herewith some photos taken from the brunch session with my wife:    

First Champagne in 2012

The mix (Japanse Soba and chilled lobster)

That's my wife and me in MIB theme

That's me in solo

This one is outside the restaurant. How many birds are there?

Cheers!