Madness Knows No Limit

It's been a while since I last updated this blog. The last post was about 5-6 weeks ago after checking my blog.

As a matter of fact, I started working about 5 weeks ago and since then, it has been a little crazy somehow. And madness seriously knows no limit. Here's why:

1. In the past 1 month, I have travelled more than 3,000km by car, possibly more than 5,000km. This is a lot considering that all these travels are not because of work (I can understand how a salesman can travel 5,000km). There were even some weekends that I travelled from KL to Teluk Intan, then from Teluk Intan to Seberang Jaya in Penang and finally from Seberang Jaya to KL again. That should be about 700km. And there was 1 day that I travelled more than 500km @.@

2. I have quite recently started running again (last week to be specific). Here's the crazy part: I went running at 11.00pm at night =.=''' And that's because I can't find time to run in the evening.

3. Was in one of the craziest discussions that I have heard. The topic is political, so I won't share about it here.

That's all for today's update I suppose. I'll try to post more updates whenever I am available.

What Does An Orphanage Need?

Based on my experience of doing community work, let me just share with you on some of my thoughts on this matter, "What does an orphanage need?"

The first and most important thing that the orphanage need is of course money. Why money? Because it is the one thing that will determine the life and death of the orphanage. Is it the most important thing? No, I don't think so. Why don't I think so? Because there are enough good Samaritans in Malaysia who wants to do charity but don't know how to do it. Typically, they just give donations to orphanages, old folks' homes and welfare homes. So, the money is not the biggest concern for orphanages because it's lacking only at the 'want', not lacking at the 'need'.

The second most important thing that an orphanage need are the other things like shelter, occasional support in terms of materials and so on. Why is it so important? There are times when things are expensive and money can't buy it. Partially it is also the reluctance of people and companies to give cash straight to the management of the orphanages. So, these people and companies donate things instead of money. With the increasingly prevalent trend of corporate companies having their own CSR programmes, donations in kind don't come in as difficult as it used to be anymore. 

The last and most important thing that an orphanage needs is long-term commitment. One example of things that need long-term commitment is tuition for the children in the orphanages. Orphanages typically don't send their children to tuition because they can't afford it. So these children lose out in school because they don't get additional guidance at home (lack of attention from their caregivers) on their education. As donors to homes, I believe that it is difficult for the most of them to commit to a long-term project/programme for the children at the home because personally, everyone of us have our own priorities. More importantly, commitment to the home that they contribute to is not the top priority to the donors. 

This leads to a dire need for more contributors, not in monetary or in kind but in terms of energy, time and effort. There are many things that orphans need. But one thing that is lacking for these children is LOVE. By committing our energy, time and effort to love these children, I believe that the children will have a more enriching life. I think that we should try to contribute to orphanages for a longer term which will enhance the benefits of the contribution instead of the one-off cash or in kind contribution. 

With Love,

Alex

Random-ness

It's starting to feel like there's nothing much to life than work, earn money, spend money and wait for your next pay-cheque. As it is, I'm currently unemployed and I have to admit one thing, I dread joining the workforce.

Here's how I see it, once I join the workforce, the ongoing cycle of going to work everyday to earn money starts. From there on, you only pretty much live from pay-check to pay-check with savings. Once this cycle starts, my fear is that I will be stuck in this cycle, not being able to escape from the so-called rat-race simply because I'm just addicted to my next pay-check and the stability of an employment.

Here's the thing that I realized after internship in my previous company. My wage for one month is RM800.00. However, the company is charging the client RM80.00 for each hour that I put in doing the client's work. This basically means that the company is generating RM640.00 per day from my 8 hours at work. It also means that the company has pretty much broke even after I have worked for 1 day. That leaves me another 21 days more to work for the company generating revenue for the company. Hence, the profit margin for the company from my employment in my previous company is approximately 1500% to 2000%. My thought: why work so hard when most of the benefits of my hard work goes to the company?

This has led me to think of other alternatives other than employment.

Dare to Dream

Often, we always see people day-dreaming. Now, the question is always: is it good?

Dream is a very important part of our lives. Dream is the place where we can think without using our sense of logic, without boundaries and without limitations. This is where ideas come about and ideas are very important part about being human

I have heard of a story of how a scientist came about with the molecular structure of benzene ring. The scientist who came about with the theory that the benzene molecular structure was in the form of a ring was Friedrich August Kekule. The theory was developed when he was day-dreaming that a snake had bitten its own tail.

No doubt not everyone can be like Kekule. However, without day-dreaming, how can we think about the unthinkable?

Why The Notion of Changing the Official Religion to Christianity Is Not From The Opposition or ex-PKM Members

Based on what I have read, there's only one possibility of such a notion spreading in Malaysia. And I can give you a clear account of why I think the opposition is not involved:

1. DAP members who were alleged to have wanted Christianity to be the official religion of Malaysia are people who had been reprimanded through our dear Internal Security Act (ISA). And that very person is Mr. Lim Guan Eng who was detained under ISA in Ops Lalang in the late 1980s. Being a person who has been to Kamunting, he's definitely not that stupid to say something that detrimental to his political career in public. Likewise, the majority of the people in the opposition party will not be that stupid to say something that stupid. These people in the opposition party are fully aware that if they had said anything like that, they will be in jail within 24 hours for 2 years. That's probably a mistake that nobody wants to make.

2. It sounds even more ridiculous when you think that Christian priests will come up with the notion to change the official religion of the country to Christian. Firstly, Christian priests are people who are not aggressive. Knowing fully well that the religion of the majority in Malaysia is Islam, it sounds totally non-sensical that they would come up with such a notion. Secondly, Malaysians in general are brought up to be people who are 'kiasi'. And people will not want to end up in jail simply because of something stupid that they have said (note: going to jail for at least two years without any trial and subject to extension by the Home Minister)

3. Mr. Ibrahim Ali has come up with the suggestion that ex-PKM people are infiltrating powerful NGOs and pushing for the official religion of the country to be changed to Christianity. Firstly, do Communists even believe in a religion? Obviously they don't believe in religion. Secondly, if indeed they are existent, would it not be more resource-effective to come up with the notion to change our country from a democratic country into a communist one? Why would they want to waste their resources on coming up with such a notion when they don't even believe in the notion? Based on the above two reasoning, it is impossible that ex-PKM members are responsible in spreading such lies'

4. Currently, the Home Ministry has not issued any directives to arrest anyone. Just recall the time when Mr. Anwar Ibrahim was detained under ISA. There was a big hoo-hah created just to detain a 61-year-old man who doesn't carry any firearm. The convoy who detained Anwar was like a convoy to detain 'Botak Chin'. If the notion to change the official religion of the country was indeed said by a person in the opposition party, I'm sure that the same convoy of cops would have been mobilized to detain whoever came up with the notion

Having ruled out the possibilities of the opposition party and ex-PKM members coming up with the notion to change the official religion of the country, there seems like only one party remaining who might just have come up with the notion.

*** Note: This blog post above only represents the opinion of the author and written to neither sway the opinion of its readers nor jeopardize the harmony currently existing in the country. It has been written for the sole purpose of externalizing the author's thoughts and nothing else through his train of thoughts using logic and reasoning skills and is no way a vessel of any parties whether ruling or opposition. The author is a member of neither the ruling coalition nor the opposition coalition and strongly believes in peace and harmony in a heterogenous society where everyone lives in symbiosis. ***

Why Malaysia Can Never Be A Truly Developed Nation

I have never believed that Malaysia will never be a truly developed nation. It is only recently that I've actually managed to find out why this is as such. First of all, what do you define a developed nation in the first place? The normal definition for developed nation is when the economy becomes a high-income encomony. Hence, I have searched for the definition of a high income economy here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_income_economy

"A high-income economy is defined by the World Bank as a country with
a Gross National Income per capita of $12,196 or more in 2009"

Yes, we might just be able to achieve this criteria considering the fact that the USD is collapsing and the fact that life in Malaysia is getting better. However, let me just take a different approach in defining developed country

A developed country is a country where the society is developed and refined. What does developed and refined means? A developed society is a society that occupies the moral high ground. Qualities such as courteous, selflessness and patriotism should be emphasized in the society. Why do I consider these qualities paramount to a developed nation? Just imagine a nation with income per capita of higher than USD20,000 but the residents of the country are habitual queue-cutters and demonic drivers, like in Malaysia. If this is the case, what really makes us human as compared to other so-called 'lowly' animals? What is the point of earning more than others when we're morally unsound?

For those of you who do not know, I often take public transport to work during my internship period. Taking public transport really gives you a whole new perspective to the Malaysian attitude and culture. There are times when you feel like Malaysia as a whole has matured as a society with courtesy as one of its core values. However, there are some things that saddens me more than anything else.

The public transport in Malaysia, as you and I know, isn't the most efficient public transport system in the world. During peak hours the public transportations will always be full. However, it only takes a little bit of effort just to go into the bus/train (not hovering near the entrance) so that everyone else behind you can enter the bus. This simple gesture of being considerate goes a long way to letting other people enter the bus/train. If you don't believe what I have just said, take the bus during peak hours and you will notice that you can actually stand very comfortably in the innermost part of the bus when your fellow passangers near the door is struggling to find a place to stand.

The following are the few qualities that I think a high-income/developed societies should have:
1. Courteous
2. Selfless (has big-picture view)
3. Responsible
4. Efficient (maximise use of time)
5. Considerate

With that, I'm signing off for the day

Why is Brain Drain Happening?

Based on my personal observation, Malaysia is a very nice country. We have a peaceful country, unlike many countries where civil war is a commonality. We have a fairly robust economy where everyone is allowed to earn a living. We also happen to be a country that is blessed with not many natural disasters. If you're a citizen of Malaysia, what else could you ask for?

Let me state the fact. We have produced many young, bright and talented people. The list of names of former Malaysians (emphasis on former) who have made it big in another country is almost countless.

It was only recently that a former Malaysian became the head prosecutor in a state in the United States. Now, this is where the media will put that person's name in one of the first few pages in their newsprint. It appears to me that we seem to want to claim credit for having a former (once again) Malaysian serving as a head prosecutor in the United States. As far as I'm concerned, I have no interest in knowing who the person is.

Have we asked why so many bright people left?
I have a theory about why so many people left our beloved country to work elsewhere in the world. A layman would typically tell you one of the following standard answers:
1. Better job prospects overseas
2. Higher salary
3. Better lifestyle

Of the three, there is a 90% probability that people will say the first two answers. But as I thought about it, I discovered that these are only minor factors that led to so many bright students leaving the country to serve another country.
The Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs states that there are 5 different levels of needs; physiological, safety, love/belonging, esteem, self-actualization. These levels of needs are satisfied from the lower-most column in the pyramid to the top-most column in the pyramid. The top-most column in the pyramid can be deemed as the least-important need, or so people thought.

Based on my observation, the average Malaysian would have already satisfied the bottom-most column in the hierarchy. Now, put yourself in the shoes of one of the brightest student in Malaysia. Safety will definitely not be a problem.

Technically, the next point of consideration should be love/belonging (friends and family). However, this is not happening in Malaysia's brightest students because esteem (self-esteem, confidence, respect by others) has replaced love/belonging as the third column. They have valued items listed under Esteem as more important than feeling love/belonging.

Why is this happening?
For those of you who have left your home to study in another place, you will know that it is very difficult to leave your hometown and parents to study elsewhere. It is not easy for most people to leave behind everything that they have built in Malaysia behind; the friends and family who you will dearly miss.

Based on my observation, the brightest students are feeling that their effort and talent is not appreciated by the nation. Yes, the other factors that they left are job opportunities and better income abroad. But in this case, the brightest have felt singled out and not recognized as well as appreciated.

Personally, I have heard of a case where a 4A-STPM student being offered a place in the University to study Biotechnology (Biotechnology is her 7th option in her UPU application form). Last I checked, she has since left the country to study in NUS, Singapore. I'm guessing that she has no plans of returning after completing her studies

There are times when I ask myself, what will happen if this 'tragedy' repeats itself for 100 other students? It basically means that we have lost 100 of our brightest future leaders (bear in mind that they're our brighest students)

Gender Equality: Are We Serious About It?

It has been many centuries that women has been looked down upon as the weaker sex. From the beginning of civilization, women has been deemed to be weaker and it was in the 1970s or 1980s that gender equality has increased in prominence.

It is not that gender equality has never been discussed in the past. It has been discussed by many great philosophers of the past. In fact, feminism/gender equality dates back to the 1800s where the idea of feminism was started by John Stuart Mill, a philosopher from England who created the 'harm principle'. In the modern world, gender equality has become almost a universally accepted principle and all women are granted the same rights as other men, e.g. right to equal pay. However, there are times that you will see women getting lower pay compared to their male counterparts. The rationale given are numerous.

I am a believer of gender equality. I have always believed that women should and must enjoy the rights enjoyed by men. However, there are times when women who lay their claim on gender equality AND still want to maintain that they should get preferential treatment by their male counterparts. This is what I would call too much

Not too long ago when gender equality was not something that is in vogue, men used to buy the ladies that they like drinks, presents and so on. Women have always been the passive party in relationships and they have always had and expected men to approach them. And this mindset has continued to be the main belief of many modern women

This is something that I find hypocritical: What is with the double-standard when laying claim on gender equality? Claiming gender equality has always been fine with me. I will always treat my female friends as equals. But women who expect men to do everything for them and still want to lay a claim on gender equality will only be utter hypocrisy. In life, you win some you lose some. You don't win everything and lose nothing. So if you expect to be treated equally, please start to treat others equally

Here's what I think an understanding lady can do:
1. If men offer to buy you something or do something for you, please let them do it. After all, they are willing when they offer. Otherwise, it will be better if you ask first if they're willing. Worst-case-scenario: going dutch. Not that you're going to lose anything anyway. Imagine that you're dining at a very upclass restaurant and you have to pay for two. Your monthly salary/allowance will dry up in no-time
2. Not all men are created equal. After all, we're still humans. Some men are just more timid while others are more confident. Do not expect all men to be the same. If you're interested in a guy, please use stronger indicators, not indicators that guys don't even understand. It's sometimes very difficult for some guys to read women's body language

So, to the ladies, please be more understanding to guys. We're not gods, we're only humans and we're not perfect
For the guys, if you think that the content of this post is rational, please tell your female friends about this

Disclaimer: This post is the opinion of the author alone and does not represent the opinion of any other individuals. It may represent the opinion of some people. You are entitled to your own opinion. The expression of your opinion is entirely up to you

Auditor Passed Away From Overworking

There was a report in international newspapers that a lady who is an auditor with PwC Shanghai passing away from acute cerebral meningitis infection. Cerebral meningitis is defined as the inflammation of the meninges which is the thin outer layer of the brain. And like all other inflammation, the section of the meninges that is inflamed will swell and be damaged when the cells are pressed against the skull. Based on some of the reports that I have read, it appears that the symptoms of cerebral meningitis is headache / migraine and fever

[Source: http://shanghaiist.com/2011/04/15/25-year-old_shanghai_auditor_worked_to_death.php]

At another report that I read, it is reported that auditors working 100 hours per week is very common considering the peak period for reporting. And it is reported that this girl has worked more than 110 hours per week. I have to admit that this is a little bit too much considering that you only have 168 hours per week for everything (including sleep)

My thoughts
I have always had the belief that auditors in Malaysia should be paid higher than what they are paid now. I can't speak on behalf of other auditors who are not in Malaysia because I don't know how their pay scale is like. An auditor in a medium or small firm will be paid between RM2,000 to RM2,500 (smaller firms pay even less).

This is even lower than Engineers and commercial accountant by a lot. A simple comparison between Big 4 accounting firms and MNC Engineers will tell the whole story. Auditors in Big 4 accounting firms are paid approximately RM2,700 at current market rate whereas Engineers in MNCs are paid at least RM3,000. Some are paid even more. And all this is despite the fact that Auditors and Engineers are both professionals. And both Auditors and Engineers are knowledge workers

It is high time that we reward knowledge workers more handsomely than non-knowledge workers e.g. administrative staff. My rationale that we should pay knowledge workers more handsomely is because knowledge has value-add but administrative work does not have value-add. Considering that the Malaysian government is always talking about Vision 2020, all I can say is "You have to pay for the best brains". Without breaking free from this trend, Malaysia will never become a high-income nation

Recently, my friend said a very interesting quote:

"You pay Peanuts

You get Monkeys"

Disclaimer: This is not a shot at auditors being lowly-paid people. The author strongly feels that auditors should be paid for the amount of work that they are doing, not just paid what their bosses think they should be paid

Straws: Do we really need them?

Ahh.... The straw. Always used at the eateries but few people actually pays attention to it. Always thrown away after one usage, it is one of the things in life that many can live without. But for some, it is just life-defining. It becomes a habit of many people that when they visit KFC or McDonald's, they will take straw and put it into their cup. This happens naturally out of habit for a lot of people. I've been wondering for a while now why was the straw created and how does it help us.

So, out of curiosity, I surfed the net to find out more about the history of straws and how is it helping us in our daily life especially in helping us drink. It appears that the straw was created many thousands of years ago for the purpose of drinking alcoholic beverages (must it always be about this drink?) and the very first straw in the world was made of, well obviously straw

After some reading, turns out that straws can actually help us to mitigate tooth decay especially when we're drinking carbonated drinks. It works by funneling the drinks straight into your mouth and reducing contact with your teeth (carbonated drinks are acidic and will corrode your teeth)

My thought
As for me, I will typically pass the straw and move on to get my chili sauce at the sauce counter whenever I visit KFC and McDonald's. I view it as a complete waste of resources since the straw is made of plastic (plastic is non-biodegradeable) and it's only used for a while (approximately 30 minutes or so for normal diners). And after the straw has served its purpose, it will lie in landfills for another several hundred years. My conclusion? It's not like we can't drink from the cup without using a straw anyway

Investment in Education (Part 2)

As a follow-up of a previous post, I would differentiate education into two kinds, formal and informal. Formal education comes from going to school, college and university whereas informal education comes from learning on the job and self-learning.

To prove that investing in formal education will no longer be beneficial, here's the computation based on the following situation:

Estimate of total cost to complete a Business degree (in Monash University): RM100,000
Monthly salary upon graduation: RM2,500
Monthly expenditure: RM1,300
Monthly savings: RM1,200
Annual increment: 6%
Annual Bonus: 3 months
QUESTION: How long will it take to attain payback?

Then answer is definitely more than 5 years. That is only for payback before taking into account any kind of inflation. With inflation and the time-value of money, the payback period would be so much longer than 5 years

Having said that the cost of education is increasingly difficult to bear for normal middle-class families, all is not lost. The main reason that I'm saying this is because of the increasing amount of information available on the Internet. You can literally learn how to repair a car online if you know where to find. Information is so vast on the Internet so much so that the only problem is for you to find the right sort of information online

However, to think that formal education is entirely not important will only be understating the importance of formal education. An accountant, lawyer and doctor cannot practise their profession if they do not have the right sort of formal education. This effectively makes formal education equally as important as an informal education

One simple example is programming. I have a friend of mine who studied Engineering in his university days. He went for internship for 2-4 months in an IT company, doing programming in PHP. After doing internship, he was already doing free-lancing in programming of websites. All the knowledge came from the exposure, the interest and the online sources of information. And all this came from only a little investment in time, effort, electricity and broadband connection.

On the flip side, another friend of mine who aspires to be a medical doctor cannot practise as a medical doctor if he does not go to university.

My thought
However, to think that formal education is entirely not important will only be understating the importance of formal education. An accountant, lawyer and doctor cannot practise their profession if they do not have the right sort of formal education. However, to think that formal education is entirely not important will only be understating the importance of formal education. An accountant, lawyer and doctor cannot practise their profession if they do not have the right sort of formal education.

Read: http://lexlex-truthseeker.blogspot.com/2010/08/investment-in-education-part-1.html for Investment in Education (Part 1)

Earth Hour 2011

It was Earth Hour 2011 yesterday night from 8.30pm to 9.30pm. I was in Midvalley at that time having my dinner and about to go home by bus (I went there by bus). As far as I'm concerned, the majority of the shops/tenants there did not really observe Earth Hour 2011. And I don't really blame them for not observing Earth Hour anyway

Here's why:
Earth Hour is only a publicity stunt to create awareness. It has one of the largest impact to create awareness of the need to conserve energy, either for individuals like you and me or for individuals to pressure the government to do something about the need to conserve energy (some countries in the rich world has parties that goes by the theme of Green). But if you look at the effect of Earth Hour on the environment, it is pathetic. I'll show you why in the calculations below:

There are 8760 (24 hours * 365 days) hours in in one year
We are only switching off our lights for 1 hour every year
So, the direct impact of Earth Hour to the environment is 0.0114155% (1 hour /8760 hours * 100%)
Which also means that the impact of Earth Hour is almost negligible

How can we make a difference?
1. The first and most important way to make a difference is to drive less and take public transport more. I know that the public transport system in Malaysia is just plain bad. And the government lacks the initiative to improve it because we have a national carmaker and a national petroleum company to feed. However, it would make a minor difference if we just drive less and try to take the public transport more often. It also saves you some money as well. As a large group of people, we will be able to reduce carbon dioxide emission (not much but the impact will still be greater than Earth Hour)

I remember when there was a time when petrol price was RM2.70 per litre not too long ago in the distant past, there was less cars on the road compared to when it was less than RM2.00. It was good for the environment

2. The second way that you can make a difference is to pressure your government to clean up its act, namely establish a policy to control emissions. I have heard of many methods that are used by governments especially in the European Union on how to control emissions. One of the many would be to encourage the use fuel-efficient cars instead of the gas-guzzling cars. Another method that the government can control emissions using policies is through the establishment of clean manufacturing regulations and the enforcement of it.

Hence, as voters you deserve the right to vote for the government that you put in office. It is your right and please exercise your right in voting. You can make a difference

My thought
I would not observe Earth Hour not because of the fact that I'm a pollutant. It's just that I don't see it necessary to observe Earth Hour because the direct impact on the environment is just too minute. It would be more beneficial for us to reduce our consumption of energy throughout the year instead of just reducing our consumption of energy for 1 hour of the year and leaving the lights on for the rest of of the yeare

Most Important Words

Everytime someone learns a new language, it is always the foul words that are learnt first. In Malaysia where there is a diverse range of subjects being spoken, it is only natural for us to be able to learn other languages that are spoken in the country

However, when we learn something new in a particular language e.g. Tamil, the only word that actually sticks would be the foul words e.g. su** and pa***. You'd sometimes even listen to non-Chinese who don't speak a word of Chinese swearing in Chinese. That's how quickly someone picks up a profanity

As I was reading through a friend's blog a moment ago, I saw the two very important but usually not remembered words: Thank you. It actually made me think of this one question: What's the most important words in every language?

After a while, I concluded that the words are as follows:

1. Yes
2. No
3. I don't know/understand
4. Thank you
5. Sorry
6. Okay
7. Any combination of the above words

Despite the fact that it's not commonly remembered, just try fitting these words into your daily life. You might notice that you can provide an answer to anyone who speaks to you with the above answers. Try :D

Investment in Education? (Part 1)

Since I have started working, I can't help but notice that the cost of education is increasing so rapidly that it's starting to get illogical to get formal education. Just to illustrate how expensive it is to study in University:

Fees for each subject
MMU (3 credit hours) = RM952.50
Monash University (Business course) = RM3,812.50

Conclusion: the course fees for all private institution is increasing rapidly. The problem? Salaries and wages are not increasing as rapidly. The effect? More people cannot afford private education.

Is education important? Yes, education is the most important thing that one should have. Even physical possessions is not as important as education. The only thing that I would deem more important than education would be daily needs like shelter and food

Having said so much about the importance of education, how much should one invest in education? Should you invest in education without restriction or should you invest in it sparingly? At the end of the day, what will you gain?

For more about investment in education, please refer to my next post. Running out of time to blog XD

What Makes You Think You're Special?

Recently, I answered a call from someone wanting to apply for something. What I essentially did was to tell her that the application has been closed for two weeks and she can no longer be registered.

Then, this lady told me "Is there any way that you can make exceptions for me?". If I'm the boss, I might consider this question seriously. But the problem is, I'm not the BOSS!! Besides, what makes you think that you're so special to get exceptions? If you're late, you're late. There's no reason for you to request for exception. It's not my fault that you're late!

I guess that's just human attitudes. They always think that they're special, different from other people. But at the end of the day, they failed to realize that they're just as common as the rest of us. And for my case, I'm pretty certain that this person is not that special after all. If you're special, you would've been watching out for the application deadline!

Something that just came out from my mind: "To be special, you have to think that you're average"? Just a wild thought though

Secret? What Secret??

Nowadays, I see many people equating being slim to beauty. Girls especially. There are times when I'm asked how to lose weight and so on, there's only one possible answer than I can come up with. And this is the ONE AND ONLY SECRET (probably the worst-kept secret)

Weight Loss = Output - Input

* Output: Energy output, Input: Energy Input

Whether it's exercise until you vomit or not eating until you have gastric, this rule applies. Some people find controlling their food intake is easier while others find exercising easier. It's entirely up to you on which you prefer to use as your method to lose weight

Personally, I find exercising to be a better way to do it. It helps me stay fit and not to mention, develop my muscles. After all, I enjoy eating too much to not eat :)

Training Regime & Diet for Women

Usually, I'm a person who's very direct when I'm talking to friends who are very close. And this includes female friends (usually from my hometown because of the amount of time we've known each other). So when I see someone who's grown sideways, I'll tell them just that.

More often than not, I'll suggest to them on going for jogs. I always suggest this because it's the kind of exercise that I usually do when I need to control my weight.

[Source: http://www.surreywebsight.org.uk/assets/Image/photos/Fundraising/events/]

Here's why: cardio workouts are the best in burning fat. During the workout, your metabolic rate increases, causing your body to burn sugar faster. After the workout, your metabolic rate is maintained at the high level when you were exercising for a few hours. This gives your body more time to burn sugar. When there isn't enough sugar to burn, then fat is used as the raw material to provide your body with the energy. That is how you lose weight.

That aside, there are only two kinds of response that I'll typically get from female friends when I suggest them to go jogging. "Lazy". "Don't want". For those who are in the "lazy" group, all I can say is "No pain, no gain". But for those who are in the "Don't want" group, I've heard of complaints that they don't want their calves to enlarge. In their opinion, large calves are "ugly"

[Source: http://www.girlshealth.gov/fitness/images/stretch_calf.gif]

Since it's a problem, I gave some thoughts into it and Voila! I've thought out a special training regime for women who wants to stay fit and still maintain slim legs. Here's how:
1. Training: Jog for 20 minutes (doesn't include walking) for 3 times a week. Start from slow jog for the first 19 minutes and 1 minute of moderate speed running. Increase the intensity of the jog gradually as your body gets used to the training
2. Diet: Like all other weight-loss programmes, diet is the key. Since the problem is muscle enlargement, I'm suggesting a low-protein diet. This will prevent the muscle from growing in size after exercise. High protein foods include eggs, dairy products, soy products and meat. For results to show faster, it'll be good to reduce carbohydrate intake as well

[Source: www.fitnessandmuscle.net/tag/protein/]

Now, you have the tools to go jogging without the worry of enlarging calf muscle. So have fun exercising. But remember: No Pain No Gain :D

Note: The training regime and diet above has not been experimented on. It is not confirmed to yield positive results. Try this regime for 2-3 weeks first and evaluate the results it has given you. Kindly let me know if the results of this training regime worked :D

Secret to Longevity?

It was only yesterday that I was at a talk at SJBA listening to Sis. Theresa Hsu (read profile at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theresa_Hsu_Chih/), a 112-year-old lady who behaves like a 70-year-old woman. Very healthy and I think might be able to live up to 120 years old. But what's the secret?

According to her, 'Laugther Is The Best Medicine', which is true. She is an extremely jovial person, telling jokes throughout the night. I believe that she always laughs off her worries and upsets. Scientifically, being jovial helps us to maintain a steady blood pressure. Being angry and emotionally upset only increases your blood pressure, leading to heightened risk of stroke, heart attack etc etc.

[Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theresa_Hsu_Chih]

Another reason why she can still stay healthy at that age is because of her she stays active physically, mentally, socially and emotionally

As it is, she's still doing charity at 112. Quite a feat considering that we see so many people falling terribly sick at 60. It keeps her mentally and socially active since she meets a lot of people and it's really not easy running a charitable foundation. She also does meditation to keep herself emotionally calm and peaceful.

[Adopted from: http://seniorsaloud.blogspot.com/]

Aside from that, she keeps herself physically healthy by practicing yoga. Her flexibility can really beat my flexibility by a mile! Other than all the exercise, there is no denying that a healthy diet is very important for health. According to wikipedia, she eats modestly but she claims that she likes to eat vanilla ice-cream! A documentary that I watched some time ago talked about a place in Japan called Okinawa. Here, there is a disproportionately high percentage of people above the age of 80. Their secret? Eating only until you're half-full. According to the documentary, there's scientific proof to it. But I just can't remember what the facts were :(

So the secret to longevity?

1. Laughter the best medicine
2. Staying active, physically, mentally, socially and emotionally

So, I'll see you all 100 years from now :D

What Happened to Our Identities?

Hairdo

These days, I find it hard to differentiate certain people from one another. One of the main contributor to this is the fact that people are sporting the same hairdo most of the time. It starts to get disturbing when everyone just walks around with the same hairdo like it's a uniform!

These are the templates that I often see among men and women:

[Adopted from: www.facebook.com - Jasmine Lim]

First of all, I have to state my stand on this hairstyle. It's not that I don't like this hairstyle, it's just that I find it irritating when so many girls have this hair. Not everyone can sport the same hairstyle looking good in it.

[Adopted from: http://dinodeart.blogspot.com] - I think the picture isn't original after all

The location of the fringe doesn't really matter because somehow or rather, they all look almost the same to me. They look punky to me and that's all that I'll recognize them by

What about cosmetic surgery?

Another situation when everyone will look the same is when everyone engages in cosmetic surgery especially the same cosmetic surgeon. The possibility of one person looking like another after cosmetic surgery is very high.

Just imagine yourself being given a chance to define what's perfect. If you're given 10 opportunities to define what perfection is, chances are all 10 of them are the same. So pretty much the same goes to the plastic surgeon who does more than 5 surgeries a month!

I definitely hope that we start to look more like ourselves than look more like someone else!

P/S: Not many people can recognize me if everyone else in this world is skin-headed (Thank God I'm bald) :P

Pain-Phobia?

We are humans. And our attitude leads us to avoid pain as best as we can. This is a reflex reaction that is ingrained in our brains over the centuries of evolution

However, that is the least effective way to grow ourselves. There's a saying that goes "something that doesn't kill you makes you stronger". This is in fact a very true situation. I believe that there are times when I have put myself through unnecessary situations that has made life more difficult for me. Ironically, these situations have helped me to grow as a person

As it is, I'm a person who's very academically daring. I believe that I'm not afraid of making mistakes and learning from such situations have helped me to improve academically. There's also a part of me that is always reluctant to put myself into difficult situations. One example is to approach people. I have to admit that I'm a social idiot. Although I appear to be calm for most of the time when I approach someone to talk, I find myself very reluctant to do so. Perhaps I'm just a naturally shy person or an introvert

As much as I'd like to improve myself on this point, I don't really work hard enough to improve myself on this. I sometimes tell myself I wanna improve this but the real effort doesn't really come in. That's where the plan to improve my sociability fails miserably. I'm starting to feel that I'm not trying hard enough to improve myself on this sector of my life. Stepping up will be difficult but it's a necessary choice