JM to da C

Selling furniture of our flat

2011-12-19T20:49:00.011+01:00

ITEMS TO SELL/GIVE AWAY (DUE TO MOVING OUT)

Zurich Altstetten
contact Petroula at: petroula.karagianni@gmail.com or 0788812343

Check following link for pictures: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151108078025221.800781.724055220&type=1&l=0a42dc1f99

1. Bed side “table” attached to the bed (MALM): FOR FREE

6. Seat with storage space EKTORP BROMMA in white (initial price: 170 chf): 70 chf
http://www.ikea.com/ch/de/catalog/products/S19885910/#/S49817552

11. Kitchen hanging light (initial price 80 chf): 30 chf
http://www.ikea.com/ch/de/catalog/products/40152280/

22. White shelf for books and other items: FOR FREE
http://www.flickr.com/photos/81893782@N00/6537092001/in/photostream/

25. Pillows

a. 2 green pillows one with flowers (10 chf) and one with abstract design (5 chf)
picture on facebook

- b. big beige pillow for sitting: 20 chf
http://www.flickr.com/photos/81893782@N00/6537093927/in/photostream/

d. Seat pillows blue (2*10 chf): 10 for both
http://www.ikea.com/ch/de/catalog/products/80114795/

e. Seat pillows red (3*10 chf): 15 chf for three
http://www.ikea.com/ch/de/catalog/products/20114798/

f. 2 white pillows: 10 chf for both
http://www.flickr.com/photos/81893782@N00/6537100401/in/photostream

g. 2 side brown square pillows: 10 chf
1 square brown pillow: 5 chf
2 white long pillows: 10 chf
http://www.flickr.com/photos/81893782@N00/6537094727/in/photostream/

h. 1 colorful pillow (small): 5 chf
http://www.flickr.com/photos/81893782@N00/6537094305/in/photostream/

28. Bathroom set LIMMAREN (initial price: 15 chf): FOR FREE
http://www.ikea.com/ch/de/catalog/products/90081389/

29. 2 sets for bathroom (initial price.?): 5 chf each
http://www.flickr.com/photos/81893782@N00/6537097149/in/photostream/

35. Carpets
-brown 133*195cm (initial price: 120 chf): 20 chf
http://www.ikea.com/ch/de/catalog/products/40188788/#/00163775

-brown and beige KARBY (initial price: 30 chf): 10 chf
http://www.ikea.com/ch/de/catalog/products/80094047/

-red (1 big 200*135 and 2 small 80*80): 20 chf for the big one and 5 chf for the small ones (each)

http://www.ikea.com/ch/de/catalog/products/10203790/
http://www.ikea.com/ch/de/catalog/products/80122432/

39. SKIMRA light champagne color (initial: 8 chf): FOR FREE
http://www.ikea.com/ch/de/catalog/products/40154137/#

40. While table for living room (initial 200 chf): 50 chf
http://www.flickr.com/photos/81893782@N00/6537092725/in/photostream/

41. Double bed white quilt (20 chf)

43. Sitting hocker for bathroom with storage space (initial price: 50 chf): 20 chf
http://www.ikea.com/ch/de/catalog/products/80154593/

44. Pictures/Frames
- Amsterdam (initial: 100chf): 30 chf

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/20150946/
http://www.ikea.com/ch/de/catalog/categories/series/18942/

- Poppy flowers (initial price: 50 chf): 10 chf
http://www.ikea.com/ch/de/catalog/products/10149717/

- Angels: FOR FREE - picture on facebook album

- frame MALM (32*72, initial: 10 chf): FOR FREE

http://www.ikea.com/ch/de/catalog/products/10186106/

- green painting: FOR FREE
http://www.flickr.com/photos/81893782@N00/6537097669/in/photostream

- 2 big frames 75cm*55cm(initial price 40*2) : 10 chf each http://www.flickr.com/photos/81893782@N00/6537099373/in/photostream/

45. Casserole for ceramic and non-ceramic surfaces PYREX (235 eur initial): 75 chf
picture at the facebook group

46. Glass PYREX pot transparent and other household for free
pic at the facebook group

Selling a Notebook backpack and a Trumpet: Yamaha YTR 4335 G

2010-04-16T15:22:00.008+02:00

Since I am not playing the trumpet anymore, I am selling my very nice trumpet: The YTR 4335 G.

It is a couple of years old, but still in extremely good shape. Only 3 minor scratches (smaller than 1cm).

The price is 450 CHF.

Another item to sell is a very nice backpack from Sherpani, it's the tosca V2: http://www.ebags.com/product/sherpani/tosca-v2/123601

The price is 50 CHF.

Let me know in case you are interested: jihming.chen[at]gmail.com

Weird, or just different?

2010-02-12T13:21:00.000+01:00

"There's a flip side to everything," the saying goes, and in 2 minutes, Derek Sivers shows this is true in a few ways you might not expect.

I think I'm gonna buy this one instead of the Ipad: Lenovo Ideapad U1 hybrid

2010-01-28T18:07:00.010+01:00

After being slightly disappointed by forum entries about the Ipad, I took some time to search for alternatives. And there seems to be something quite awesome coming out by Lenovo: The Ideapad U1 hybrid. It's a tablet and a notebook computer in one. For 1000 USD coming later in the year (end Q2). It has an onscreen keyboard, lasts 8 hours, and...well, just check it out in the videos.

It's still a prototype, so I really hope they're gonna fix some problems...it does look a bit laggy right now..

Article from Engadget with two good videos

Benefits of being a student

2010-01-27T10:30:00.004+01:00

So in less than two months I will stop being a student. Officially, my last day as a student will be 8th of March 2010. I have some days more to hand in the thesis, but from that day on many things will change...

It is always towards the end of something when you realize the nice parts of it. And for being a student, one of the best parts is definitely the discounts which you get :D

University Sport facilities - 18 CHF for 6 months

Neptun - Lenovo and HP discounts up to 35%

Apple - Discounts around 18%

Lunch and dinner for 5.40 CHF per meal

Discount for almost all museums

...just to list a few.

Are there any discounts you can recommend before I retire from student life? Definitely need to use this opportunity before the (hopefully short!) unemployment period starts :P

The soundtrack of studying

2009-12-24T06:30:00.000+01:00

Haven't written anything into the blog for a long time... so here a quick post.

Life is going great these days, there is this thing three posts ago, which is regularly on my face :)

It's Christmas time! Merry Christmas! This year, this means sitting in libraries. Yes we managed to find a way to have a (more or less) open library during the Christmas days :)

Accompanying all the reading which is being done right now are mainly two tracks I am listening to. One is a remix of a FF VI song, the other one is the Ending Titles of the movie "The International", one of the composers of this song is Matthew Bellamy (the Muse genius). Haven't seen that movie...if it is as good as the soundtrack, I should watch it.

Enjoy:

In case the videos don't show up on the fb note feed: http://jihming.blogspot.com/

My old diary

2009-08-25T07:24:00.002+02:00

"Today in school almost everyone cried. It was A and B, C, D, E. That was in the first break, and I played Game Boy with F. [...]". Diary entry from 6th Dec 1992.

Haha kick ass entry! Last Saturday I found my diary from 1991-1997, additionally to many memories I found out that my drawing skills have been the opposite of awesome from the very beginning on. :P

From Happiness to Economics and back

2009-07-23T08:38:00.002+02:00

So my semester paper is finally taking its shape. Some of you might remember a certain paper I started some years ago...YES it is the same one :P

Brush up: I'm assessing three theories on their ability to ex

plain the motivation behind CSR activities of organizations: Public Choice, Behavioral Economics and Happiness Research.

I am about to finish a book I'm reading for the paper: "Happiness: A Revolution in Economics" by Bruno Frey. This book goes further than "Happiness and Economics: How the Economy and Institutions Affect Human Well-Being" also by Frey, it has more comprehensive data to back up the findings, and there are also new sections which are quite interesting. Especially the chapter about Procedural Utility and its relation and possible integration with Outcome Utility was a cool new insight for me.

Anyway, the book is written for scholars, so unless you are into economic theories and statistics, it might take a while until you dig into it. But I still recommend you to read it and find out about how income, inflation, unemployment, marriage, watching TV, political systems, self-employment affect well-being; find out about how we are mispredicting utility in our decisions, and which policies are suggested to increase the happiness level of nations. Actually I wanted to write about some details in the book but

ended up writing sth like a book review..grml..

Sooo..:

Frey couldn't help distributing a side blow to popular media. This was too hilarious:

"A popular literature has emerged seeking to give readers personal advice on 'how to become happy.' Some of the advice is of little value [...]"

Which basically means that it's bullshit. But then he continues:

"[...], but some of it is soundly based on research."

Then he lists ten essential elements to a happy life.

So now I finally come to what I wanted to write in this post.

These 10 keys to personal happiness are listed with ascending order of importance:

10. "Don't worry if you aren't a genius": Intelligence as measured by IQ does not make you much happier, if at all. The reason may be that brighter people tend to have higher expectations. I guess you should worry most in case you are a genius :P

9. "Earn more money up to a point": Higher relative income does indeed buy happiness, but only to a small degree and only up to a specific income, whic

h varies by country and period.

8. "Grow old gracefully": On average, increasing age tends to increase life satisfaction. This is true if health and other factors (e.g. income) are not worsening. This insight contradicts the often-heard claim that elderly people tend to be depressive. An important reason for elderly ppl's happiness is that the realization that their time is running out teaches them to regulate their emotions: they concentrate on features that make them happy and avoid those that don't.

7. "Stop comparing your looks with others": Unfair.. Good-looking people tend to be happier, perhaps because life is easier for them. Individuals wanting happiness should avoid comparing themselves in particular with models and movie stars, unless your are called Megan Fox or Jih-Ming Chen. Oh wait, they are hot stars already!

6. "Be religious, or believe in some other system": Belief in God and an afterlife gives people meaning and purpose, and reduces the feeling of being alone. Religion therefore serves as a powerful way to cope with difficult times.

5. "Provide help to others": There is a strong relationship between happiness and altruism. Generous people and those who do voluntary work are more satisfied with their lives.

4. "Desire less": An "Aspirations gap" (the gap between how much you have and how much you want) prevents ppl from becoming much happier when t

heir income and other things increases. Those who aspire a lot in income, friends, family, work and health are in general less satisfied with life. Lowering the aspirations is an effective way to increase one's happiness. I guess this is one of the hardest ones...who does not aspire to have more?

3. "Make friends and value them": People with few material possessions but intensive social relationships do much etter than those who lack such relationships. Making friends takes time and effort, and it is not easy. And one note about the material possessions: "Adaptation" makes us not only get used to a higher income very quickly

, but also with material possessions (see the link the the aspirations gap?)

2. "Get married": There is evidence that married people have consistently been shown to be happier than single people. Interestingly, cohabitation does not provide the same benefits as marriage, perhaps because of the lesser degree of certainty. On

e thing here is that statistics show that the happiness level rushed up at marriage, but goes down to the previous level after appr. 5 years. It is unclear if married people apply a new way of evaluating their well-being after marriage, or if this is also an adaptation mechanism.

1. AND THIS ONE IS SHOCKING: "Make the most of your genes": Our feeling of well-being at any moment is determined half by what is going on in our lives at that time and half by a "set point" of happiness, which is up to 90 percent genetically determined and to which we eventually return after dramatic events. Plus: "While our happiness set point is largely determined by our genes, whether we bounce along above it or slump along under it depends on our - or our parents' - good sense and good training."

So there you have it...if you're not happy, it's 50% because of your genes, then it's your parents, and because you don't try to be happy :) They have also found out that extroverts tend to be happier than introverts.

Well, I personally believe that we shouldn't be trapped in the hedonic paradox, which means basically that by pursuing Happiness directly, one makes it even more distant. Happiness should be a side product of how you are living your life. Do what your intrinsic needs tell you to do and try to avoid following too many extrinsic needs.

Now go and find out what your intrinsic needs and what your extrinsic needs are :)

Recommendation of the week

2009-07-14T06:00:00.001+02:00

Find out why you are smiling.

Every single smile

NEXT -->

2009-07-08T09:00:00.003+02:00

Next comes some papers :)

First I wanted to rest some days before digging into the material, but after 1.5 days of doing nothing much I got bored~~

Maybe it hasn't sunk in yet, but getting into the role of a student after the MC term seems surprisingly easy. I guess it's because after such a long break off Uni (already half a year before the MC term started I haven't been doing much for studies) I was missing it a bit, or because entering the job market right now is not as fun, or just because the topics of my papers rock.

Yesterday was a day of organizing tons of things, and it has proven again that I am extraordinarily lucky. Things just work out. It is scrary, but it's nice :) Tell me I'm crazy, but I still believe it has something to do with the attitude, and making your own luck is to a certain extend possible.

Actually writing this post made me think about how excited I am about life after studies. The direction is clearly pointing towards Asia. I've been living in Europe for such a long period, it is high time to go back and see how I cope with life over there.

But right now, I need to finish up things before leaving on Friday for the AI Transition Party in Rotterdam, will be great fun!! :D

Nervosity, Optimism and Relief

2009-06-23T20:00:00.008+02:00

Nervosity tells what really matters to you

Optimism makes you unbreakable

With Relief comes alleviation, relaxation and gratitude

Question:

2009-05-17T15:59:00.002+02:00

Have you read / are you reading "Presence: Human Purpose and the Field of the Future"? Were you / are you also sometimes scared of continuing reading? Maybe it's not exactly being scared, but sometimes I have the feeling that it is too early for me to read this book. Sorry can't really describe the feeling.

Nevertheless, I like the book very much. The way it is written might not suit everyone, but the story-telling style is actually quite helpful for following the line of thoughts which the authors had.

I haven't finished it yet, it takes quite a while to read the book. Very often I need to stop, digest and reflect on what has been read.

What are your thoughts on it?

"2 Months"..

2009-04-27T00:31:00.002+02:00

..can mean so many things

2 Months..

..make you do the final spurt one more time

..make you live and enjoy time to the fullest

..make you think about good and bad times in the last 5 years

..make you being excited about the time to come

..make you wanting to stop time

..make you wanting to fast forward time :)

The gym

2009-04-15T23:31:00.009+02:00

Today I went to work out a bit. It was good, should get into a routine. But for now, I decided to reward myself for taking the step into the gym again with the two following items:

Feldschlösschen

and awesome sausages from Taiwan

Feeling good these days :)

It is Sunday

2009-03-29T22:00:00.000+02:00

Today was dedicated to resting and recovering. I spent the morning sleeping. The same happened with the first part of the afternoon. It is a pity that I cannot recall the dreams, I just remember that they were good and calm dreams.

Keep sleeping would have been nice, because half of the awake time today was used up by sneezing. Yes it is as annoying as it sounds. 1/2 of the time!!

Besides that, the day was very good. Doing nothing on a Sunday for the first time in 1.5 months feels like going on vacation in [fill in your favorite holiday destination].

....OK you got me, it was not exactly nothing, but almost nothing. The usual things like eating and brushing teeth need to be taken into account.

There was one matter which occupied me for a longer period: taking a long hot bath. Right after waking up, I took the strategic decision to invest the precious time into a revitalising hot tub. There were only two obstacles to overcome:

Obstacle 1: There is not enough hot water in our flat. Sad but true, this has always been a challenge. In the mornings, when you wake up the last in our flat, you need to be lucky to have anything but ice water for shower. It basically takes 2 showers to empty the tank of hot water in our place. The menace threatening my bath got even worse when I found out that my flat mate had showered earlier today. Don't panic! Knowing this challenge, I developed a 3 step plan:

Fill the bath tub with what is left in the tank.
Think what to do next.
Cook 5 big pots of boiling water and fill the bath tub with them. Actually I used only 4 at the beginning and kept one as refill when the water got colder.

Obstacle 2: I don't have Badedas. If you don't know what Badedas is: Click here. If you have used Badedas, you understand the problem: Badedas is probably the best bubble bath ever! And after getting used to Badedas, you don't want to use anything else. After a very short period of desparation, I decided that it is time to be courageous! So finally the ingredients which replaced Badedas were: Rexona activshower, Weleda citrus creme douche, Nivea energy, Soft & Gentle Dusch-Gel and Flair Silk Bath. It turned out to be a good mix :)

The bath was great: listening to chillout music and reading a book about Libra (my zodiac sign). It was surprisingly accurate in describing me.

Soon after the bath it was time for dinner. And after dinner, I was sitting there and suddenly had the urge to make some music. It might be because José and me were singing a certain song conntected to T-Pain and a boat for around 5 times..or it might be just because I hadn't played piano for at least 3 months. So I took my keyboard out of the dusty cover and conntected the ac adapter...BUUUUUUT no electricity!!! This time, all creativity was useless. The adapter is broken and there is nothing which can be used instead of it. And shops are not open on Sundays..

It did annoy me a bit at the beginning, but maybe my keyboard just wanted me to keep doing nothing, and that's what I'm doing now :)

How to cope with last times?

2009-03-27T21:47:00.008+01:00

EuroXpro was one great last international conference for me. You remember the moments at every conference which make it special for you? Yes there were some of those in Romania as well, some very good ones.

-Great opening ceremony

-Seeing the new MC team getting ready

-Good talks with old friends

-Good talks with new friends

-More talks about @ and also other stuff

-The Travel Smurf

-The invitation into probably the best nordic circle I've been part of

-The LEGEN...wait for it...DARY "I've never ever"

-Random moments like "她胸部好大"

-That evening plenary with the highest entertainment factor

-The closing

-Two days in Bucharest

-The interview by a radio station

-The journey back which proved to me that I'm a pro in being right on time and the master of efficiency

The last international conference was amazing. Thank you to everyone who has made it a great experience for me.

Now, you look at the title and think, there has to be a "but", right? And yes, there is. Do not worry, I wont come to the conclusion that I should not leave AIESEC yet. No, I'm talking about the many lasts which are happening now and which are coming in the next three months. To be honest, I don't want to think too much about "oooohh, this is my last international conference", or "Oh...this is going to be my last KICK OFF", anyway DO IT was always my preferred conference, dunno why :P

But back to the topic: I don't want to think too much about the lasts because I want to be fully in my role until it ends. At the same time, of course they are last times in my AIESEC time and this makes them special. I think the best is to dive into these last moments and enjoy them to the fullest. Because with last times you know only one thing for sure: There wont be a next time.

Maybe..

2009-03-09T01:22:00.004+01:00

Maybe I should close this blog and start writing a diary. There are 10 unfinished posts which have been started in the last 12 months but have been put on hold due to mostly privacy reasons. I remember my last diary, the diary which I have lost.. it was green.

Well until I take the time to structure a post in the way that it fits to my need for sharing, my need for privacy and other people's need for interesting posts, I will keep writing unfinished blog posts and not publish them.

For now, you can take a look at these mindblasting videos:

I'm on a Boat (feat. T-Pain).

新年快樂

2009-01-26T12:25:00.000+01:00

On Saturday I cooked some chinese stuff, and José, Sarah, Rene, Sara and Tomek joined for a nice new year dinner.

It tasted quite ok, but I think cooking wont become a habit because it took my two hours to do everything...

Yes we don't have chopsticks in our flat..

After the dinner we went to the ice-skating place in front of the parliament in Berne, where I lived up to "ins neue Jahr rutschen" :D

Lucky

2009-01-14T20:39:00.004+01:00

I must have done something really good in my previous life to be so lucky in this one :D Everything seems to work out.

Feeling Addiction

2008-12-17T00:01:00.003+01:00

How does it feel to achieve something extraordinary for the first time?

How does it feel to fail incredibly for the first time?

How does it feel to love for the first time?

How does it feel to hate for the first time?

and..

How does it feel to..... ...for the second time? Third time?

We become addictive to feelings...stronger feelings are more addictive. You could say that people should strive for positive feelings. But somehow both positive and negative feelings seem to be very appealing to different people. Either way, as soon as you have experienced one memorable feeling, in the 2nd time it is weaker. And you need more. Usually you get into repetitive actions/behaviors/tendencies in attitudes to keep up your dose.

[To me this is one explanation for streaks of bad luck or lucky streaks since negative or positive attitudes lead you to the feeling you are addicted to through "positive or negative" actions. Of course there is nothing like "being lucky", I believe that we are making our own luck with our actions and attitudes. (Hehe yes, people know that I say I'm very lucky :D) If this hypothesis is true, we are actually able to influence more than what most of us think is influenceable.]

So back to the feelings! There are three scenarios:

1. You seek for the feelings by doing the same actions in more and more extreme variations.

2. You find the balance between different feelings and avoid the addiction.

3. You become reluctant to feelings because it takes too much to give you new or stronger feelings.

Scenario 2 is desirable, scenario 1 is probable, and scenario 3 happens when you read too many books or watch too many movies which are putting you into situations with such extreme feelings so that you lose the ability to live, realize and enjoy your real life feelings. You would be like: "Been there, done that". It depends on the ability of putting yourself into a story, into someone else's shoes and experience the feelings.

Actually right now I am finding it difficult to process feelings and emotions, I hope it is not because of reluctance.

Oh now I understand why I shouldn't have watched so much TV and played so many videogames.

Mh..and if you think about it, scenario 3 is the reason why eternal life most probably wouldn't be a nice thing.

OK this post is becoming random..

Will take Christmas and New Years to clean up some thoughts and feelings.

Listening to

2008-12-04T09:56:00.004+01:00

The last part of Dancing Mad (FF VI Soundtrack)

The new Kanye West Album:

The Dark Knight Soundtrack:

Visa Free Travel

2008-11-11T01:32:00.005+01:00

It's so hard to decide where to travel first~~

Guess what :D

2008-11-11T01:09:00.003+01:00

Paralysis - the sequel

2008-11-06T18:57:00.004+01:00

The scary thing was repeated last night. Who doesn't know what I'm talking about can read the blog post of 26th Jan 2008.

The sequel was spiced up! Better, scarier and had more effects than Episode 1. Although the length was disappointing, it was still a special thing...comparable to a good short hollywood popcorn movie.

This time it started off with transitioning from a lucid dream into the sleep paralysis. In the lucid dream I prevented something bad from happening by stopping something through clapping (yes, clapping...sorry can't remember details :P)).

So I was lying there again, and that was kinda lame! Just as many sequels, there was nothing new: content same, actor same, just the room where it was played was different..so I didn't bother too much. But then the twist with the special effect came: Someone suddenly sat on the bed. Couldn't see the face..the appearance was all blurred. I was trying to hit that person..but of course I couldn't move. And there it was, the rush of panic!!

After a while I started to fight the paralysis in my head, not with the muscles..and surprisingly it worked out quite well. After only "felt" 3 minutes with that person in a red sweater (that's the only thing I recognized) chilling on my bed without any movement, I was free - and the person has disappeared without me noticing. A look at the clock told me that it was 23:33, only 30 minutes after going to bed...I was relieved that I still had a lot of time to sleep and fell asleep again after switching the lights on and off.

Woahh! So hallucinations, huh? Apparently that's normal for sleep paralysis. Want to know what's coming in the next chapter? Well to be honest, I don't really want know.

Why it happened again? Could be because I am in a similar situation as in Feb 2007. So at least the pattern is revealed, breaking it is the priority now.

Will find it

2008-11-04T23:53:00.005+01:00