Haiku on Financial Crisis

By Urban Dirt.

From him:
The Nikkei crashes. A worthless broker bullshits: "it's all sentiment"

Say it right!

Did you say homage? I thought it was home-age, it's not. It's aum-ij or haum-ij.

The Market

Well, it is a market.

And here's what I found in the Saturday Salcedo Bazaar.

Looks delicious!

Can I save money by unplugging appliances?

Yes.

How much? Probably just 10USD per year, based on research by Cecil Adams on Straight Dope.

Am I glad I read this! I used to think that unplugging actually saves loads of electricity because each time I unplugged the airconditioner, it would give a sound --and I thought this meant that electricity had been running through it and my unplugging it caused some rotors to stop moving.

Better rates for JPY!

SBI offers 0.57% p.a. for 1 month JPY Time Deposit.
What a wonderful rate!

Caveat: Not covered by deposit insurance

How to handle people

1- To get people to leave you alone --just have a "bad mood" kind of face --ooh and people don't know what they're doing.

2- When talking to the police

3- Habits of happiness! Watch a biochemist turned monk and he's a French male :-)

4- What we didn't know about fund managers

5- 10 who predicted this meltdown

Just like in Matrix

Pranav Mistry's Sixth Sense device.

>>>>>>

Some days are like this. Fun and funny. I'm talking to someone and he/she doesn't get it at all.

Mole excision

Mole removal methods

Deciding on what to do with it.

A week later, I can still see where the threads went it. With Contractubex, I hope it heals faster. I have it here somewhere...

Budget Tips

On spending at the grocery, on gadgets, on work clothes.

Get these things for free:
Wi-fi: Hotspot locations worldwide --yes, even in Shinjuku!
Freecycle where you can give away things and get things for free
Sample size shampoos!
DVDs

Stop repeat buying! Well, that of buying endless variations of the SAME thing --yes, even if it is what defines your look. More than ever, diversify smartly.

Invest for your children, or in your Isas.

If you're 60, don't act your age.

you'll be alright even if you don't know what you're doing

Why? Because people have no idea what they're doing!

The psychophysicist who made spaghetti sauce. Interesting? Watch Malcolm Gladwell. 600mio USD due to this! Ragu has many kinds of spaghetti sauce because there is no perfect spaghetti sauce, there are only perfect spaghetti sauces.

Sweetness between 8% and 12% --what is the sweet spot?

Hey, so you know, there is no one thing that will make you happy (and you don't know what it is really).

*****
Oh and remember, nothing lasts. So, enjoy what you have while you have it. Save up while you can.


*****

After reading Outliers, felt a bit of pain for the outliers everywhere. 10,000hours to be an expert in something is so risky. What if the other lucky opportunities aren't there?

The Other Outliers

A few years ago wasn't it the big accounting firms in the news for the same? Now it's the small firms Madoff uses.

Now, I wonder what Malcolm Gladwell can find out about "outliers" such as Madoff.

Girl Talk: Feeling useless

So, it's not just me? Women are feeling useless :-(

And I'm not even talking about purity balls. I'm actually glad I only found out about this now.

Oh! Bye to glib gurus this season. Hello to blogging mums all over.

P.S. Make-up --- use it!

FDA: please regulate food supplements

Proof: A study says the FDA should be regulating diet supplements

The steps the Food and Drug Administration has taken to more closely supervise the supplement industry do not go far enough, the report by the Government Accountability Office said. (from NYT)

Saying goodbye at work

Some really good goodbye emails.

Malcolm Gladwell

My new fave: Blink! The author's blog.

He touches on the fact that there are just a lot more (did he say 58% of all CEOs?) tall white men (6 feet or taller) who are CEOs compared to the fact that there are only 3.8% (or 3.9%?) white men who are 6 feet or taller. And yes, looking good works for women in the workplace too.

Nemesis by Peter Evans

I want to read this on JFK, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, and Aristotle Onassis!

Where can I find it?

Wikipedia

I use Wikipedia a lot --meaning I refer to it very often. And usually, since I use it for non-controversial topics, it serves its purpose very well.

I wonder if this means my view is shaped by fast typists?

Will see how it does on more controversial topics --when I have to look something up in the future...

>>>>>>>>>>>

Angelina Jolie is human!! A rare pic showing signs of her age.

Other pics that surprised: Twiggy, Madonna, Kate Moss,

Very pretty: Christy Turlington

>>>>>>>>>>>

Ashlee Dupree: life goes on

Her story's on survival has shown how grounded and focused she is.

Valleywag

I found Valleywag --it has a lot of info that I didn't know about-- and makes me think twice when I see certain faces again.

It has articles on the Google CEO, the Wikipedia founder, etc.

Susanne Hanna Ursula Quandt - Klatten, BMW Heir

A gigolo blackmails her. She's married with 3 kids, is the BMW heiress, is the richest woman in Germany, and also a philanthropist. What does she do? She tells the police, files court cases against him. He is going to jail.

The Wonder Years

One of my favorite shows of all time ---and I have less than ten!

Kevin Arnold (Fred Savage) and Winnie Cooper (Danica McKellar) were adorable in The Wonder Years.

Eeps! Fred Savage looks very different now... well, a different aura. Danica Mc Kellar looks spectacular and she writes books on Math! She graduated summa cum laude from UCLA and has published 2 books on math for children (specially girls) in Grade school.

Her sister, Crystal McKellar, who played Becky Slater in the same TV show is a lawyer. AND she graduated magna cum laude from Yale University in 1999 and in 2003 got her J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School.

Update: Danice McKellar (34) married Mike Verta (36) on March 22, 2009.

No iphone in the Gates' Mansion

Hey, I'm in good company after all... Look, no iphones, no ipod in the Gates' Mansion...

Well, ok, I have an ipod --but it no longer works.

Guess what this is...

A portable ATM machine!

Not only do events have to have food stands, they now have the option of having ATM machines on site!

I guess the person in red was hesitating to go in...

3 more planets needed!!

"If everyone in the world is to have the same standard of living as the average European, we would need 3 to 4 planets"

Jane Goodall's video. Start at 11:04.

Sending luggage to the airport

Narita's website is fantastic.

It even lists sites of the service providers there. This was very helpful when I couldn't remember the name of the takkyubin service.

Of course there are benefits to going online --QL Liner provides the best deal for roundtrip service ---3,300JPY.

For takkyubin service you can contact on free dial, it's only ANA Skyporter which provides this service --0120-007-952

However, if you want your luggage picked up between 5pm and 7pm, call ABC. 0120-9191-20 (doesn't work from mobiles nor from public phones)
+81(0)3-3545-2800
(Mon-Fri: 8:30 - 18:00)
(Sun., Public Holidays: 8:30 - 17:00)

How to make preserves --in reverse...

Step 3:


Step 2:




Step 1:

Blueberry Milkshake

And that is exactly what I had. Frozen blueberries --all 200g of it poured into the blender and soaked in cold low fat milk --and blended.

Yum!

Snow

It snowed last Friday --well, little bits of it. It was the first of the season. It's been so cold the entire week --now we know why.


*****

Homemade :-)

Red skinned radish traditionally eaten on new year's and spinach that was very sweet (no sugar added)!




*****

Harvard, make waves!!

Harvard Med School in an Ethics Quandary

More than 200 Harvard Medical School students and sympathetic faculty are intent on exposing and curtailing the industry influence in their classrooms and laboratories... (in NYT)

Medical Exam in Tokyo

Just to make sure I cover bits on the medical exam not usually talked about... I checked other people's.

I'm glad to say mine was a much better experience altogether -in terms of understanding what to do next.

The nurses recited directions in english and had charts and forms (to write my name and address) which had both english and japanese --no consultations/explanations in english though.

What was really nice was that once I got to the clinic, they gave me a number, gave me a form to check that my name was filled out correctly and to update my address.

Then a nurse led me to the locker and changing areas where I get to have a locker to keep my bag and my clothes since I was given the hospital type pajamas and a robe to wear over it ---and slippers. The pajamas and robe and slippers were individually wrapped in plastic --nice and sanitary!! Plus, they all looked nice and new :-) Whew!

I got a cup to pee in --the same kind of cup in vendo machines that are filled with coffee. Since I fasted and didn't drink any water for the past 12 hours, I could hardly fill the 50mm mark! Once I put my cup through the post box like window --I asked the lady in the other room whether it was enough. She said it was okay. (Oh, and I was surprised by how it was very dark yellow.)

The agony was the waiting --but I had a very funny book to read --and Vogue Nippon was all over the place --and every page I found seemed to scream Creme de la Mer as a beauty recommendation (I've read about this for ages and have seen it for even longer than that --and still I haven't bought it --what is with me?!) --so altogether, I didn't really mind that I had to wait long --until I realized how long the whole procedure took!

But then again, you can't say that they didn't try to help us all finish quickly. It was full --our numbers ranged from double digits to quadruple digits! Really!

Idea Board

Jan Denton Chua's Immunizers --I remember Jan Denton and Anne Lagman from Merit English (?) classes.

Certification

Things to do during downtime

1- Take a certification.

Some that I think are interesting:
GARP's International Certificate of Banking Risk and Regulation. (FAQs here)

(to be continued)