Besides the precious conversion to oxygen, this plant is able to purify the chemical formaldehyde.  Examples of where this chemical exists are foam insulation, plywood, pressed-wood products, grocery bags, waxed paper, fire retardants, adhesive binders in floor coverings and cigarette smokes.

We will need 6-8 waist-height plants per person for air purification.

As far as I know there are 2 methods to grow the Mother in-law’s tongue:

1. Re-potting - From an existing plant, lift the plant and look for shoot or offsets. Cut though the flesh that is attached to the parent plant and pot it.
2. Cuttings -  From the stem, cut 4 inches across the grain and pot it.  Beware of the orientation to ensure that you pot it the right side up.  In about 4 weeks, you will have a mother in-law’s tongue plant.  If you see new offsets, you can re-pot those as well to propagate more plants.

In both instances of growing, ensure that the soil is moist and not soggy.  Water minimally once a week but before that, test to ensure that the soil is dry before watering. This is because the mother in-law’s tongue dislikes over-watering where the root will rot.

Now that I have the mattress for a month, I must admit that I have had some beauty sleep on it.  The mattress’ pocket spring supported my body well and since I’m a side sleeper, that helped much.  The mattress’ edges are “fortified” and does not sag when you sit at the side.  This mattress does not require turning and flipping on a periodic basis; making it an excellent choice for the lazy me.

As I skimmed through the drinks menu, I noticed that they had a fruity beer called Blanco and ordered that.  The drink came along with the SGD$15 bill which I duly paid in full.  A sip later and I can really exclaim that this is one of the fruitiest beer that I ever had; so much so that Hoegaarden pale in comparison.

The next time you are in Singapore, skip the “Singapore Sling” drink and order the best beer in Singapore; the Blanco.

After a quick unwrapping of the mouse, I got it to work on my laptop.  Here’s what I like about it:

1. It’s lightweight
2. Comes with 2 ‘AAA’ batteries and a nice velvet pouch
3. Saves battery by folding the ‘tail’ to deactivate the mouse
4. Small transceiver that is not obstructive when plugged into USB port
5. Transceiver is magnetically attached to the bottom of the mouse when not in use
6. Mouse is workable at distancesof 20 feet (yes, I tried this and Microsoft claims up to 30 feet)
7. Sensitive and works better than optical mouse

Having used this mouse for a 2 weeks period, I dislike the fact that the below the arc, it is empty space.  My 4th and 5th (ring and pinky) fingers have no support at the ’sides’ of the mouse; a feeling that I am accustomed after years of using ‘normal’ mice. Other than this minor discomfort, I do not have any dislikes for this mouse.

Now that I myself am flying in and out the region for work, I begin to drag my feet to the airport.  The early years of flying was fun; every trip seem to be an adventure on itself. Now, it’s a chore — waking up early in the morning, taking the dreadful taxi to the airport (in itself is already a risk. Cabbies are like F1 racers), long waits at the airport and things gets worse during transits.

If only my every flight destination is to some holidays, I will be looking forward to it.  NGC’s Air Crash Investigation series is not helping either.

There are several methods to get rid of bed bugs as listed below:

1. Move out of your home for 12 months - this is known to get rid of bed bugs because they will die from not feeding on you. However, cockroaches will be the head of your home.
2. Take a big piece of fabric and seal the entire mattress in it - because your mattress is sealed, no bed bugs can get in or out of it causing all bed bugs and their youngs to starve inside the mattress.  They will die after 6 to 12 months or so, therefore, you cannot remove the mattress cover for that period.  I tried using a large plastic sheet sealed around the mattress but it caused uncomfortable sleep and heat too.  The other fact I found was that this method is good only to kill bed bugs in your mattress but not entirely since bed bugs can live just about anywhere; bed frames, cracks in the wall, curtains, etc.
3. Drown them - bed bugs die easily when immersed in water.  Wash all your linens, fabrics (bed sheet, curtain, clothing, etc) that is in the room.
4. Sun everything - take your mattress out into the sun and let the sun ray do their magic.  Remember to turn the mattress over for a good and even tan. If possible, take your bed frames out for sunning.  If you are really desperate, move your furnitures out into the sun too.  The heat from the sun either kills them or makes them leave.
5. Use insect aerosol - Spray them with insect aerosol. I targeted the bed frames and furnitures but made one critical mistake, I used a non-water based aerosol which made my furnitures all oily and sticky.  Your room will stink for a few days, trust me on this.
6. Use steam to kill bed bugs - Heat from the steam makes bed bugs pop like making popcorn. And if you are wondering where to get steam to the room, I used a steam iron.
7. Call for professional help - if you can afford their fees.  Any pest-control company should know what to do.

Good night;
sleep tight;
don’t let the bed bugs bite.

Secondly, the keypad is a little difficult to depress. Texting over its small keypad area is a little frustration especially after you have used other Nokia mobile phones such as the 6300. I find it one time too many the errors I made from depressing the wrong keys. Imagine using the predictive text function and pressing one wrong key, the result can be embarrassing.

Thirdly, since I talk a lot on the phone, the battery lasts me for only a day and I’ve got to task myself to charge it every night. If I forget to charge, I will be cussing the next day. I won’t blame the Nokia designers for the short battery life but rather on the sleazy salesman who claimed that this phone has one of the longest lasting talk time. I was downright cheated but since the salesman looks fiercer than me, I shall let this one slip.

Lastly, this mobile phone has only 1 port; for hands-free, charging and USB connection. If this one special port screws up, you might as well throw the phone away. After all that I have said and done, the sleekness of the phone and overall cool design is what made me keep it…

Therefore, in order for my PSP to get connected to my home WiFi and subsequently to the Internet, I needed to add my PSP’s MAC address into the network whitelist. Doing that is simple but getting my PSP’s MAC address was not. I had to search around the Internet for it (and yes, I’m too lazy to read the PSP’s manual)

To get your PSP’s MAC address, go to the home menu, select System Settings and press the circular X button. Select System Information and press the circular X button again.  You will now be able to view your MAC address.

By the way, my PSP is Felicia Blue.

This phenomenon is not because of the way individuals work but rather because of business globalisation. Just as aeroplanes are capable of zipping us around the globe, similarly, technology enables office work to follow us around; e.g. email, blackberry and thin clients. Suddenly, you find that you are poor of time but rich in work. With long hours at work, we stand to lose quality and social life.

How often have you forgotten birthdays? How many times did you miss your child’s grand day?  Well, I have and I’m sure you have too or perhaps you have come very close to that.  If you are in this situation or hard pressed for time, the words concierge service and lifestyle management will become magical terms in your life.  When I first heard these words, I was like “What?”.

Well, I soon learned that these magical words are services that will enrich my life — where quality of life is once again part of me and my family. Believe it or not, there are companies or establishments providing services to make your life easier or rather I would say, to help you prioritize the important things in your life. Anything you need, absolutely anything at all, is serviced by these companies; from purchasing helicopter rides to booking golf tee-times through to pet-sitting.

These godsend companies relieve the hassles of my domestic chores, my business and personal life’s nitty-gritties in exchange for the priceless minutes and hours of my life.

Blogs have proliferated on the Internet so much so that Malaysian politicians have embarked to spread their news through their personal blogs.  Even the former Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohd has his own very successful blog (www.chedet.com); hitting 1 million hits in the first month it started online.  That speaks volume about the power of blogging.

If you have your own blog (not using free blogging platforms like blogspot or wordpress) and you intend to be as successful as the former Prime Minister of Malaysia, you have got to get a serious webhost who has the best package and the best uptime.  That’s the easy part; simply look for the best website hosting review for these site(s) have already done all the homework for you.  All you have got to do is choose a webhost.

The difficult part — write contents that continue to amaze your visitors so that they come back to your blog again and again until it becomes a habit for them to check out your blog everytime they come online.  If you are able to do that, you will soon find your blog is ripe for making some money (that’s another blog post for another day).

First step is to hose down your car so that every square inch is wet. Start from the roof so that water can trickle down to the other parts of your car. That way, you stand to save some money on un-wasted water. Once the roof are all wet, move towards the windscreens; both front and back and continue towards the bonnet and trunk. Lastly, wet the sides of your car including the wheel.

Having ensure that your car is well drenched, start cleaning the wheels and especially the rims. Use a brush or old toothbrush and start scrubbing with any detergent that you desire. After completing the four wheels (or 3 if you live in England), do not rinse/flush just yet. Let the detergent soak and really get into the residual dirt to remove it.

Next, get a cloth or sponge and wash the bottom half of your car. The bottom half starts from your doors midpoint downwards. This is important because the bottom half is lined with tiny little sand particles. These particles will make tiny scratches on your paintwork. If you use the same cloth or sponge to wash your entire car, it can result in potential paint damage for your whole car.

After completing the washing the bottom half of your car, get a separate cloth or sponge and start washing from the roof and work your way downwards until the bottom half. If you have completed the entire car, simply hose down the soapy detergent starting from the roof and work downwards.

All done!

For companies, the easiest and fastest way to start their cost control campaign is to look at the office stationaries. Most employees print documents without second thoughts as if paper and printer toners are free.  Printing has been identified as one of the major cost components of a business; hence, the proliferation of compatible printer ink, softcopy adoption and document management system.  Some company has gone as far as disabling printing for employees unless approved by their head of departments.

Controlling stationaries is simple to implement and takes little effort.  Papers, toners, inks and electricity can all be saved which can be very substantial in a large company.  Before you use generic toners, bear in mind that most printer manufacturers will void their warranty if found that a fault is due to generic products.

When I was in England, I had to get a car seat because you can’t possibly buckle up a baby using standard seat belts.  I was in for a rude shock when I shopped around for it.  The price for a single infant car seat is in the region of RM700-RM1000.  Discounts are given but at 10% - 20% at best.  Thankfully, in England, there are weekend flea markets called car boot sales.  I love these car boot sales where you find 2nd hand items at an obscene bargain.  Leather gloves goes at 50p, Peter the Rabbit jackets at 2 pounds and car seats at 20 pounds.

With the deadline to rear seat belts buckling starting tomorrow, shops with infant car seats and booster seats will probably find themselves running out of stock.  So, folks at the back, buckle up beginning tomorrow. It’s for your own good

That aside, today I wanted to write about the condition of my office blinds.  Currently, I have venetian blinds installed on 3 of my office windows but everytime when there is a breeze, the blinds start to flutter and make horrible, irritating noises.  These kind of noise does disrupt my train of thoughts.

I am thinking of replacing them with wood blinds that are more strudy, classy and looks more homely (not that office should be homely). Using wood is not a straightforward process as it needs to blend in with the rest of the office furniture.  Nevertheless, I am seriously considering this but of course, money would be the main consideration.

If you do not know what timeshare is, it is actually a group of people buying a piece of property and all joint owners have access to the property at different times of the year.  Though timeshare does alleviate the traveling cost associated to accomodation, there are other considerations to think about; e.g. air tickets, travel insurance, ground transportation, etc.

If you are a traveler who prefers the “tour company” way, timeshare is probably not for you.  I’ve long ago given up on tours because they are “hurry burries” and they take me places where I really don’t like.  Most of the time, they will make unscheduled stops at shopping areas so that they can earn commissions from your purchases.

Note that timeshares are long term commitment and if you are not up to travel periodically, you should consider other alternatives.

I suddenly realized that I need tools to help me in my work to increase my efficiency and productivity.  I needed tools to help me collaborate on documents with a multitude of customers and fellow project members.  I need something online and yet free. I found 3 tools that I could use.

First is of course Google Docs.  Totally online and easily shared among netizens.  However, I’m quite limited to word processor, spreadsheet and presentation.  You will need to work entirely online on the documents.  If you do not have a stable Internet connection, don’t bother. You will need a Google account for this.  It’s free.

Second is Microsoft Office Live Workspace.  I am able to create folders and share specific documents or the entire folders.  All that is required is a Windows Live account. I found that I was able to upload other types of documents into individual folders or workspaces.  There is a Microsoft Office plugin so that you can work directly on your local machine and yet update/create documents on Office Live Workspace. It’s free.

Third solution that I found was Zoho.  It has a multitude of applications including project, CRM, word processing, spreadsheet and the works.  Loads and loads of tools.  However, the free version has it’s limitations in terms of users and storage.  You will need a Zoho account.

In the end, I chose Office Live Workspace as I normally work with Microsoft products and the same for many of my clients.  I love the fact that I’m able to work offline and yet update online on an on-demand basis.  If you are in my shoes, try any of these tools.

News on The Star online said:

KOTA KINABALU: Scores of people in hotels and other multi-storey buildings rushed out to the streets after a strong tremor struck the southeastern Sabah town of Tawau at about 2.40pm on Sunday.

The tremor shook the buildings, causing window panes to rattle as the occupants ran out.

A Sabah Meteorological Services Department official said the tremor measured 4.3 on the Richter scale with its epicentre about 71km northwest of Tawau town, in the Kalabakan area.

That epicenter is right smack on our land. This is not like an earthquake happening in the Philippines and it’s tremors felt in Malaysia. This is earth shaking below our very legs.

Ladies and gentlemen, Malaysia got earthquake.

Back to the training in the US. May is currently in the US, staying in one of Texas apartments where she mentioned that it is a studio unit fitted with all the necessary facilities (kitchen, small store, etc).  Her company is also kind enough to allow her to rent a car for a whole year so that she can travel around the region.

On top of all that, she will be bonded for only 2 years.  I have known companies (including my own) where training/seminars costing more than RM5,000 will result in a year bond.  And here we have, May, one full year training in the US to serve her bond for 2 years only.

So, the age old saying is true - Some guys have all the luck.

Making a wrong decision can be a costly affair — but with a discrete voting system, you get frank/real answers to the questions you pose; especially when a system is affordable and well within your reach.  Another simpler way is a ballot box.  Easy to implement and very mobile but takes a bit of effort and time to conduct and compile the results.

Reality shows are known to implement these systems to encourage their viewers participations in the program; shows like Who Wants To Be A Millionaire is one of them.  Large training companies do adopt this to get participations from their “trainees” and a quick quiz from time to time keeps them on their toes — making the training much more productive.

All your sensory are recuperating from exhaustion except that of your smell. For some, they use aromatherapy, some use volcano vaporizer and some use the age old incense. Aromatherapy uses a combination of candle, water and essential oils. Certain types of oil are said to have certain healing and relaxation functions.

Volcano vaporizers are special devices used to vaporize herbs so that active ingredients and flavouring are released without any kind of combustion. Since combustion or burning of organic materials are said to be carcinogenic in nature, using a volcano vaporizer eliminates that possibility.

The ancient practice of burning incense is another popular method of relaxation.  Today, you will find many kinds of scented incense ranging from the traditional joss stick to incense cone. Some even burn raw incense over charcoal fire.

If you have not tried any of these, you should.  You will find that you relax and rest better.