Saturday 14 November 2015

I am not coming back to live in Malaysia anymore.

That charming old man said....I HAVE BEEN TO MALAYSIA 30 YEARS AGO, I LIKE TOBE THERE, WHY DONT YOU GO BACK TO YOUR BIRTHPLACE TO CONTRIBUTE YOUR WORK?

No..not for now. That question required a broad spectrum of answer. It’s not for economic reasons, but simply because I feel that the environment there has become so negative and oppressive that it’s impossible to be able to live as peaceful, productive, creative citizens anymore.

This photo taken prior landing in Schiphol where a question was asked to me by a older Belarusian businessman who sat beside me. Impressed by my ability to speak Russian, our conversation continues till we depart to our next departure gate in Schiphol.

- Opinion is solely mine when I made this article.

Sunday 13 September 2015

When Hario V6 meets Mocha Orange

Morning coffee to wake up the sleepy head. What is your choice when it comes to morning coffee?










Warm pain au choc and handmade flap jack to compliment our morning.

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Wednesday 22 July 2015

Some people just not born with humanity...

In life...sometimes.we will face many unexpected things. Though we didn't harm others, there will be a moment where we are threatened, verbal abused, humiliated for an unkind people. These really a learnt to learnt.

The reason why I decided to travel to Montecatini was because of the peaceful town itself. On the way to Fonteverde, I chose Rosario' place. As he accepted instant booking, I expected he is a kind of host that can accept last minute traveler like me. I don't choose other host without instant book on that day because my arrival from Pisa probably will delay. I messaged to him after several of my calls didn't answer by him. I don't feel good, continuously calling him and at last he answered, I'm in a meeting will call later..I put my phone roaming so that he can call. But none.

Exactly as what I thought it is true..we was informed that there were delayed en route to via reggio. I wrote to Rosario but he didn't answer. Again.. But in my part I have protect my self by messaging him. Between Pistoia again the train was stopped for almost two hours because of the hit an animal. Typical italian, no loud speaker to inform about the incident u til we have to ask the local people. I sms Rosario but again he doesn't answered. I started to feel annoyed.

Prior Arriving at Montecatini Terme, I write to him if he will wait for us or not..If not how can I reach his place. Then he asked me how many person am I with.. I wrote back..all together is 3. Me, my man n my son. Then he started to write."u wrote only one person on AirBNB" I said maybe I was auto search as one person as I was alone in Marseille when I stayed at AirBNB host there. He replied extra person is €15. And I said ok. But the. I started to think that since he advertised the house can fit into 5 person.. What is wrong with 3 person? Has he count it wrongly? The he wrote again..late arrival after 11pm is €40 but with discussion!

Then I started to get annoyed.. And wrote to him.. Whatever it is please clearly inform me when I arrive. I took the taxi to his place and he wasn't there. I called again and he informed me that the care taker is not around and already sleep and nobody can open the house for me. Whatttt! Why don't u tell me earlier? Why do u accept my money n didn't inform me all about this! Even worst when the taxi driver talked to him, he informed that he is in Milan!!!! And he doesn't informed us until the taxi driver forced him to tell where he is.

I cried..in that hour (00.05am..) in a strange place, none that I know.. We are hungry, we are tired and my son is sleepy, and he couldn't care to say apology or say sorry. All he say is "I AM NOT A HOTEL, U COME LATE" No sense of pitiness to hear when I cried.

If he has a heart, if he is gentleman, if he is kind, if he has a BRAIN, he should confessed when I sms him prior arrival.. Perhaps he should know how to say I am sorry, I'm now in Milan n I cannot host u. He doesn't sms me at or message me at all through AirBNB or phone. ALL HE MENTIONED WAS ..EXTRA PERSON IS €15 LATE ARRIVAL IS €40 !!!! MONEY MONEY MONEY! (Are u mafioso such a like?) No sense of humanity! I complaint to AirBNB. I made a police report because I scared he will see my future journey at my AirBNB which AirBNB doesn't provide privacy. The police at Montecatini stated this is a harassment and commercial crime. I have to say I proud with my decision to made this police report as an evidence.

After few days that Rosario wrote to me and beg (though he wrongly wrote as back) me not to write bad review about him and promise to pay my money back! USE Your head! You think money can buy honesty.. Maybe u can do that in your country or other people.. But not me. It showed that your integrity , honesty, respectful level is low.. So be careful traveler..avoid this host, avoid this address in Montecatini.

After I complaint to AirBNB n messaged to him then only he message and begged me not to tell or write bad review about him.. It's not about bad reviews it's about truth. He said he will pay me back/refund me for not review him.. If he scared of bad review why does he treat me like that.


- Opinion is solely mine when I made this article.

Saturday 27 June 2015

Before u buy your groceries

In the 80s, when my mom wanted to do her shopping groceries. All in her mind it should be from the local producers #PasarTani because it ws cheaper n fresher. #PasarTani not only offer local grown veggies or fishes but the products are way too cheap.

Now 30++ years later I care the details on most products that i shopped. Not all our veggies that we found in #LocalTorvet #GrønTorvet are self-grown by the farmers. Unfortunately they sell veggies from Holland that are mostly #IndustrialFarmers . The Dutch (ok the Frisian mostly) produce good organic/biodynamic veggies but it hardly sold for export. I love how bio-dynamic centric the German are, encouraged by The founder of Wardorf Living, Rudolf Steiner decades ago.

Here are my concern..is your food :-
1) pesticide-free
2) organic
3) kosher/halal
4) Genetic-modified free
5) bio-dynamic
6) origin/country political practise










































































































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Location:Oxford

Wednesday 10 June 2015

When summer arrives Denmark

This is when I was in Nyborg, a little bit South of Denmark. Whenever i went outstation.. I always look for flower shop. This is Tina P Blomsterwerk Florist. So colourful






























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Location:Slotsgade,Aalborg,Denmark

Tuesday 31 March 2015

Mental toughness & emotional intelligence

How often you heard about negativities from others when you share your dream?
Remove negativities, remove friends who will not bring you up to victory. Remove friends that need you while they are in trouble..borrowing money, asking for money, consuming your time (they need you for advice but don't know how to appreciate your effort to comfort them - next time you have charge them for consultation)

How often others are back-stabbing you while you do nothing insane to them?
(Just because they know how you trade, they humiliate your talent, your talent is your currency. Don't share how you do it but share the winning time once you have completed)

And lastly how strong are you to be (bloody) ignorant to negativity?

It takes a lot to kill negativities. One method is called mental toughness. That defines you from others..that brings you your own winning power..

What’s the difference between you and Rory McIlroy on the green? Well, apart from about a 50 stroke handicap, the main thing that sets apart people like pro athletes from the rest of us is the ability to perform under pressure.

Maybe you’re not trying to win an ugly gold blazer, but we all face moments of pressure in our lives, especially at work.

So how can we cultivate the same sort of mindset and skills as a professional athlete on the course — in the boardroom?

It’s mostly mental.

Turns out, according to sports psychologists, the way we face a stressful situation mostly comes down to how we instinctively react in those first few moments. Do we assess the situation as a challenge to be met, or a threat to be feared.

A lot of this is instinctual — which is why it seems like some people are just wired to perform well under pressure. But there are some ways you can help increase your chances of success, even if you aren’t one of those lucky ones wired to meet a challenge.

Prepare. Then prepare some more.
A lot of the “stage fright” type fear that arises when we are forced to perform comes from worry that we aren’t prepared — that we’ll forget our lines, sound like an idiot, our tech won’t work or we’ll fall off the stage. The best way to address this fear is to practice. Practice a presentation forwards and backwards (literally). Test out all the tech beforehand. Walk the stage. Whatever you can do to feel as prepared as possible.

Play “What if?”
It seems counter-intuitive, but go ahead and let your mind wander and think of all the worst possible things that can go wrong. Go wild! Imagine your computer catching fire, the boss falling asleep, the crowd booing you. Imagine how you will handle each situation and succeed. I can practically guarantee that if anything does go wrong, it won’t be as bad as the scenarios you dreamed up — and you’ll already have thought about how to handle it with grace.

Mentally rehearse.
Once you’ve played the what if game and taken it out to its most ridiculous conclusions — stop it. Focusing on what could go wrong directly leading up to your performance situation is just about the worst thing you could do. Instead, in the days and hours leading up to your moment, visualize yourself knocking it out of the park. If that feels hard, bring to mind past successes and really focus on the details: sights, smells, sounds, feelings. Inhabit these visualizations as fully as possible.
Use positive self-talk.
If your mind is playing a constant litany of negative thoughts — “I’m going to fail. They’re all going to laugh at me. I’ll never live this down,” — it will just increase your stress levels. Instead, give yourself one to three positive mantras like “breathe,” “stay focused,” and “be your best,” to give yourself something positive to focus on.
Eliminate as many variables as possible with routines.
You don’t want to be searching your house for your keys before a big interview or panicking when your computer crashes moments before a presentation. You can help eliminate these sorts of negative variables by setting up a “pre-game” routine. Lay out your clothes, car keys, phone, etc. the night before an important interview. Make backup copies of presentations, print hard copies, or know where you can borrow extra tech before a presentation. Experienced photographers and event planners often have an “emergency kit” they bring to every job full of random bits like tape, hair pins, extra batteries, and breath mints — things they know from experience they might need. Build your own emergency kit for any high pressure situation.
With practice and preparation, even those who aren’t normally comfortable in high-pressure situations can relax and seem a little more adept and at ease.

Mental toughness is something that I had learnt while attending the World Economic Forum twice (2013 & 2015)





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Location:Broad Street, Oxford

Friday 20 March 2015

2015 Solar Eclipse from Oxford City Center

The solar eclipse commences in Oxford..cloudy weather n through my phone..i cant really get the real first contact. The glaring was absurd to eyesight so..this is from my window. Cloudy but still great.

















If you are at Park End Street now, should go to Said Business School where the Oxford University Professors and students are watching the Eclipse till early noon.











































































































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Location:Broad Street, Oxford, United Kingdom

Thursday 19 March 2015

Activate your brain, generate your senses, be the smartest

Oh well.. Thomas Edison changed the world of technology.

Albert Einstein changed the world of physics.

Charles Darwin changed the world of biology.

Not many of us will ever achieve that level of brilliance, but we're all looking for creative thinking, better ideas, and more innovative solutions.

To get there, you have to let go of your everyday thinking and embrace your inner genius by generating as many ideas and taking as many risks as possible.

Here's how to generate ideas like a genius.

Brainstorm.
Generate as many ideas, alternatives, and conjectures as possible--don't worry about the quality of your ideas but how many you can come up with. There will be time to assess them later, and even if you end up tossing out nearly all of them, all you really need is one great idea.

Withhold judgment.
No matter how wild or unlikely your ideas are, keep them coming. To look at old subjects with new eyes, it's critical to try out different perspectives until you find the one that will serve you best. The object is to let your mind run free, not to judge.

Make a list.
Write down or otherwise record every idea, even the ones that don't seem worth bothering with. Even the worst idea may include an element you can use, and you don't want to be in the frustrating position of thinking, Wait, what was it? Later you can use your list to connect the dots.

Elaborate and improve.
Come up with variations of your ideas by incorporating random or unrelated factors. Look for alternative ways to think about a subject even if the old ways are working well.

Simmer and incubate.
Allocate time to simmer your thoughts and allow them to incubate--creativity takes time. So work on a problem, generate ideas, then walk away and do something completely different. Don't think about the problem for some time but leave it on the back burner. You may be surprised at what your subconscious can do when you leave things alone.

We all want to bring our best qualities and best ideas to the things we do. To improve the way we think, the way we lead, and the way we manage our time, the first step is to improve the way we think. Who knows? You might truly be the smartest person in the room someday.

Arghh TQ Lolly, some of these were from yr book that I adapted.

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Location:Cedar Road,Oxford,United Kingdom

Thursday 19 February 2015

Trust - a rare commodity that easily tarnished

Trust is built and maintained by many small actions over time.

Trust is not a matter of technique, tricks, or tools but of character.

We are trusted because of our way of being, not because of our polished exteriors or our expertly crafted communications.

Here are some quotes that may be useful to consider as you think about the role of trust in your life and leadership:

1. "It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it." --Warren Buffett

2. "We need people in our lives with whom we can be as open as possible. To have real conversations with people may seem like such a simple, obvious suggestion, but it involves courage and risk." --Thomas Moore

3. "The glue that holds all relationships together--including the relationship between the leader and the led--is trust, and trust is based on integrity." --Brian Tracy

4. "Trust is like blood pressure. It's silent, vital to good health, and if abused it can be deadly." --Frank Sonnenberg, author of Follow Your Conscience

5. "Just trust yourself, then you will know how to live." --Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

6. "Better to trust the man who is frequently in error than the one who is never in doubt." --Eric Sevareid

7. "It takes two to do the trust tango--the one who risks (the trustor) and the one who is trustworthy (the trustee); each must play their role. --Charles H. Green, The Trusted Advisor

Trust is built and maintained by many small actions over time.

Trust is not a matter of technique, tricks, or tools but of character.

We are trusted because of our way of being, not because of our polished exteriors or our expertly crafted communications.

Here are some quotes that may be useful to consider as you think about the role of trust in your life and leadership:

1. "It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it." --Warren Buffett

2. "We need people in our lives with whom we can be as open as possible. To have real conversations with people may seem like such a simple, obvious suggestion, but it involves courage and risk." --Thomas Moore

3. "The glue that holds all relationships together--including the relationship between the leader and the led--is trust, and trust is based on integrity." --Brian Tracy

4. "Trust is like blood pressure. It's silent, vital to good health, and if abused it can be deadly." --Frank Sonnenberg, author of Follow Your Conscience

5. "Just trust yourself, then you will know how to live." --Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

6. "Better to trust the man who is frequently in error than the one who is never in doubt." --Eric Sevareid

7. "It takes two to do the trust tango--the one who risks (the trustor) and the one who is trustworthy (the trustee); each must play their role. --Charles H. Green, The Trusted Advisor

8. "The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say 'I.' And that's not because they have trained themselves not to say 'I.' They don't think 'I.' They think 'we'; they think 'team.' They understand their job to be to make the team function. They accept responsibility and don't sidestep it, but 'we' gets the credit.... This is what creates trust, what enables you to get the task done." --Peter Drucker, author of Managing for the Future

9. "Trust is built when someone is vulnerable and not taken advantage of." --Bob Vanourek, author of Triple Crown Leadership

10. "The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them." --Ernest Hemingway

11. "If you don't have trust inside your company, then you can't transfer it to your customers." --Roger Staubach

12. "The people when rightly and fully trusted will return the trust." --Abraham Lincoln

13. "Trust is the lubrication that makes it possible for organizations to work." --Warren Bennis

14. "Trust, but verify." --Ronald Reagan

15."Trust each other again and again. When the trust level gets high enough, people transcend apparent limits, discovering new and awesome abilities of which they were previously unaware." --David Armistead

16."People follow leaders by choice. Without trust, at best you get compliance." --Jesse Lyn Stoner, author of Full Steam Ahead

17. "When people honor each other, there is a trust established that leads to synergy, interdependence, and deep respect. Both parties make decisions and choices based on what is right, what is best, what is valued most highly." --Blaine Lee

18. "When a gifted team dedicates itself to unselfish trust and combines instinct with boldness and effort, it is ready to climb." --Patanjali

19. "He who does not trust enough will not be trusted." --Lao Tzu

20. "Leadership requires five ingredients--brains, energy, determination, trust, and ethics. The key challenges today are in terms of the last two--trust and ethics." --Fred Hilmer

21. "You must trust and believe in people, or life becomes impossible." --Anton Chekhov

22. "Wise men put their trust in ideas and not in circumstances." --Ralph Waldo Emerson

23. "Few things help an individual more than to place responsibility upon him, and to let him know that you trust him." --Booker T. Washington

24. "It is mutual trust, even more than mutual interest, that holds human associations together." --H. L. Mencken

25. "When the trust account is high, communication is easy, instant, and effective." --Stephen R. Covey

26. "To be trusted is a greater compliment than to be loved." --George MacDonald

27. "When mistrust comes in, loves goes out." --Irish proverb

28."Trust is built with consistency." --Lincoln Chafee

29. "Learning to trust is one of life's most difficult tasks." --Isaac Watts

30. "Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters." --Albert Einstein

The most precious thing in this world is trust. It can take years to earn and only a matter of seconds to lose, so it's important to keep trust at the forefront of everything you do. It can make a big difference in your life and leadership.

Start today with a concerted effort to cultivate, earn, and build trust, and discover the difference it can make.




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Tuesday 10 February 2015

How business leader can successfully embed the scientific mindset in their business mind

With Mathematics background and work as Statistic Engineer and now studying Neuro Science, I really feel that there are few things we Can collaborate between the engineers and scientists.

I believe scientists have skills and ways of working that are relevant and transferable to problems outside of science. Sir John Beddington, then the UK government’s chief scientific adviser, argued in 2013 that we should “put scientists and engineers at the heart of government” because of their range of skills and evidence-based culture. Read here http://www.theguardian.com/public-leaders-network/2013/feb/14/scientists-engineers-heart-civil-

To me, Here are three attributes contributing to the thinking of a scientist, and ways they might be applied to wider contexts.

1. Sceptical curiosity
Scientists need to be sceptical. Like their colleagues in business and industry, they also must innovate. As they innovate, scientists strike a careful balance between curiosity, intuition and scepticism. Their work is driven forwards by curiosity, and it is guided by intuition and prior knowledge, but techniques such as external and internal peer reviews and randomized control trials are also embedded in their way of thinking to avoid blind optimism and bias.

How to apply it: In your organization, invite sceptics and non-experts in. Ensure that initiatives are checked by someone outside your team, even outside your organization or industry.

2. Collaborative competitiveness
The best scientists readily compete and collaborate with one another. Someone in a different field or organization could have the key to unlocking the problem they are working on. When the problems get tough, scientists want to build the best team, even if the partner is a fierce competitor. At one time, collaboration and data sharing were the purview of “big science”, such as the scientists at CERN. Now we see new collaborations all the time when it is opportune to bring together diverse teams such as at the Crick Institute or in complex areas such as climate change or public health for an ageing population.

How to apply it: Look at those problems and opportunities in your business or organization that cannot be solved in isolation. Areas such as cybersecurity, global political and economic forces, or significant technological requirements, all benefit from collaboration across the industry and across sectors. When corporations come together, as they do at Davos, they can make important things happen. Bringing together industry, government and higher education can be even more powerful. Collaborate like a scientist.

3. Confidence in the face of uncertainty and the unknown
The scientist’s business is the unknown. Where something is unknown, it is an opportunity to be pursued rather than avoided. This requires the ability to deal with ambiguity and uncertainty, which most people find difficult. In experiments, a lack of correlation moves science forward as much as a positive correlation. No information is ever complete. Scientists are comfortable with moving forward purposefully when faced with incomplete or problematic data sets. For example, Michael Stumpf, a professor of theoretical systems biology at Imperial and Kia Nobre at Oxford University , have created a methodology to utilize multiple mathematical models to reduce the chances of drawing a wrong conclusion as a result of simplifications and assumptions.

How to apply it: Break down problems into smaller hypotheses to be tested. Evaluate probabilities and the interrelation between factors affecting probability and move forward armed with that imperfect knowledge. Build a team that can deal with uncertainty and ambiguity by pooling their understanding and gaining confidence.

At Oxford University I have learned much from the research relationships with business leaders especially at WEF Davos. Sound business practices are necessary to keeping a university strong. At the same time, incorporating sound scientific thinking into business decisions can help keep businesses strong by thinking more boldly and creatively.







Embedding the scientist mindset is important in every life aspect?

Leaders often talk about the application of sound business practices to universities and other public services. I want to turn the conversation on its head and suggest that a scientific mindset can inform and benefit the decision-making process outside of the laboratory. Adopting the mindset of a scientist can help all of us approach a changing world.

What skills and mindset will our leaders, workforces, students and young people need to tackle the problems of this century? Ubiquitous information, complexity and new technologies have challenged traditional approaches to solving problems. The internet and communication technologies have created new sources of information and have made that information more accessible. But they have also forced us to think more deeply about what information can be trusted as a basis for decision-making. Our attempts to follow logical processes are constantly challenged by new and disruptive influences.

One area of promise has been the increasing collaboration between the business and academic communities. This collaboration has fostered research, accelerated the movement of ideas and insights from the lab to the marketplace, and benefited society as a whole. In this process, businesses and universities have learned and gained greater respect for one another.

What does a scientist do?

While most agree that the outputs of science are beneficial to society, a sizeable part of the general public do not know what scientists do and scientists are often stereotyped as apt to be odd and peculiar. The science community is likely in part responsible for these misconceptions and the public feel that scientists are poor communicators and appear secretive.

Scientists are, even when pursuing discovery- or curiosity-driven research, keenly aware of potential future applications of research and how it will impact society. The scientists who have worked tirelessly for decades at CERN to see and measure the fundamental particles of the universe are, for example, extremely excited about the way technology from particle accelerators creates new medical diagnostics such as PET imaging scanners. They are also motivated by the way the hunt for the Higgs boson has stirred public interest in science and raised the engagement of the world community.

Science is also a profession that embraces change. We are seeing the epithet “scientist” applied to new disciplines outside of the conventional laboratory, such as the data scientist. While there is no strict definition, data scientists could be considered scientists because of their ability to go beyond analysis and programming and show a detailed understanding of problems and contexts. New multidisciplinary scientists are emerging, such as bioengineers and synthetic biologists, who combine scientific knowledge and techniques with engineering and medical knowledge.





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Thursday 29 January 2015

The future of 'Healthy' in Economy

Living and working in Denmark make me pay 60% of my salary
To the tax department. How to get rid of this. I couldnt. There is NO easy way or hanky panky alternative that can hide my income from being acknowledge by them. During the first year was like a pain in an ass, trying to adapt the expensive lifestyle, hefty food price, oil/benzine Price that goes up every day on the chart. But when i reached my third year here, i began to understand the situation and keep my lifestyle in a moderate tempo..no more Prada, Hermes, Burberry shopping like when I was in Zürich. So I bought this garden house to do gardening, to grow veggie, to enjoy fresh air, to have that 'old-age' community (everything bio-logic farming) and started to walk/bicycle to work. I can see the different lifestyle that i had. I hardly sick, never had cold in winter. That the Danish healthy organic-living, eco-logic, bio-logic living that is good. Limited luxury shopping due to expensive cost of living, healthy living option and do more exercise. At first, it is very difficult to understand, later on we kind of understood that those expensive cost of living leads us to healthy lifestyle (option/escapade) . And how this cheaper option leads us to healthier life and productive nation.

But Healthy populations are the backbone of a sustainable economy – they are more productive and less expensive for both employers and healthcare systems. Reductions in illness and mortality are estimated to account for about 11% of economic growth in low-income and middle-income countries as measured in their national income accounts. However, very often health is still seen as a cost rather than an investment.

Objectives

The project aims to highlight the value of healthy populations and their ability to boost socio-economic growth. Three specific objectives are to:

Articulate the systemic links between health and other sectors such as employment, education, GDP and competitiveness
Re-think the concept of return-on-investment in “healthy” for governments, businesses and society, and establish the investment case for healthy populations
Transform the investment models for the eco-system of healthy.

Maximizing Healthy Life Years: Investments that Pay Off
In times of economic uncertainty and slow growth, it is more important than ever for economies to find alternative ways to gain a competitive advantage. Healthy populations can be the solution. Through increased productivity, reduced healthcare costs and overall higher levels of well-being, investments in the health system yield a proven return in terms of health outcomes and economic growth.

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Wednesday 28 January 2015

Every age, every life, make the best of this short-lived stay

Every age has its turn
Every branch of the tree has to learn
Learn to grow, find its way,
Make the best of this short-lived stay

Take this seed, take this spade
Take this dream of a better day
Take your time, build a home
Build a place where we all can belong

Some things change, some remain
Some will pass us unnoticed by
What to focus on, to improve upon
In the face of our ancient tribes

Feels so clear, feels so obvious
To each one on their own
But we are here, together
Reaping what time and what we have sown

We don't choose where we're born
We don't choose in what pocket or form
But we can learn to know
Ourselves on this globe in the void

Take this mind, take this pen
Take this dream of a better land
Take your time, build a home
Build a place where we all belong


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Brain and kindness

What happens to your brain when its focus is on kindness? Did you know that performing acts of kindness has been shown to increase the positive energy of all involved, both the one who gives and the one who receives.

"Intelligence plus character, that is the true goal of education."


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Sunday 18 January 2015

Broccoli as a Spa Food and Cognitive effect

This is my favorite veggie. Little that I know it has plenty of other trace minerals that I never thought of. The reason I love broccoli, it is because its crunchiness, high content of selenium n calcium. Often broccoli, cauliflower n Brussels sprout not a favorite veggies among the Danes.






Broccoli's nutritional profile is impressive. It contains high levels of fiber (both soluble and insoluble) and is a rich source of vitamin-C.

In fact, just a 100 gram serving of broccoli will provide you with more than 150% of your recommended daily intake of vitamin C, which in large doses can potentially shorten the duration of the common cold.1

Broccoli is also rich in vitamin A, iron, vitamin K, B-complex vitamins, zinc, phosphorus and phyto-nutrients.






So this is what this green lumps do -

Prevent osteoarthritis - a British study revealed that broccoli contains a compound called sulfophane which may help fight osteoarthritis3 - sulforaphane can block cartilage-destroying enzymes by intercepting a molecule that causes inflammation.

Protect your skin against the effects of UV light - broccoli may help prevent skin cancer, not by eating it though, but by applying it directly to the skin. An article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that the damaging effects of UV (ultraviolet) radiation can be appreciably reduced with the topical application of a broccoli extract.

Reverse diabetes heart damage - eating broccoli promotes the production of enzymes that help protect heart blood vessels5 and reduce the molecules that damage them.

Reduce cancer risk - eat broccoli just three times each month and you could potentially reduce the chance of developing bladder cancer

Broccoli plant compound detoxifies air pollutants in the body .














On top of this, there is evidence that the chemical compound sulforaphane found in broccoli can protect the brain from post-injury damage. A study published in Neuroscience Letters in 2009 reported that mice that were given this compound performed much better in a maze test than those who were not.

The vitamins in broccoli help convert tryptophan into serotonin, your good mood brain chemical, and the large amounts of vitamin K in broccoli enhance cognitive function and improve brainpower. Try adding green veggies like spinach, broccoli and brussels sprouts to your diet. The easiest way to add green veggies is simply to add a salad to your lunch and dinner.














- Opinion is solely mine when I made this article.




Friday 9 January 2015

So you want to work with me? I check your Emotional Intelligence

When I hosted an interview at the office, I always observe one's emotional intelligence apart from their CV and impressive résumé. In my personal opinion, this is vital when u have to work as part of the team, to see how do u deal with stress, challenges, in order to achieve your target, completing your tasks in a very limited time and represent yourself as an 'ambassador' to the company u are attached with.

Often, people can't really give their best at work when stress is included in a project. To control 21 male 2 female (18 male 3 alpha male, 2 seasonal femme brutale) staffs in my department ain't easy. Gender, age differences, education, ethnic background, time constraints piled up in my decision to construct endless motivation, risk management, back-up plan while keeping your stress at bay and flaunt that subtle 'You-better-be-ready' smiles.

Earlier this year, Container Store CEO Kip Tindell said one of the most important things a leader can have is high emotional intelligence.










“Emotional intelligence is the key to being really successful,” he told Business Insider’s Jenna Goudreau.

Perhaps that’s why more and more companies are asking interview questions that are designed to measure a candidate’s emotional intelligence — which is the ability to perceive, control, and evaluate emotions.

Assisting HR Department to choose the expertise in my team, I am the second person u have to deal with after the HR Manager satisfied with your Education qualifications. Often, I have my own questionnaires to ask these job applicants. I usually promote and let them talk/tell about themselves while answering my question.

Here are some of the most common ones:

1)How will this role help you to achieve what you want in life?

2)What makes you laugh?

3)When is the last time you were embarrassed? (What happened? How did you handle the situation?)

4)What activities energize and excite you?

5)How do you have fun?

6)What are two personal habits that have served you well?

7)How good are you at accepting help from others?

8)How good are you at asking for help?

9)What is one of the internal battles to have each day?

10)What makes you angry?

11)What aspect of your work are you passionate about?

12)How could you create more balance in your life?

13)Who inspires you? Why?

14)On an “average day” would you consider yourself a high or low energy person?

15)On an “average day” is your main focus on results and tasks or people and emotions?

Believe me, handling a job interview in a Nordic country, this seems a new thing to be included. This something that learned from the Swiss while I was in ABB. Male job applicants are intimidated to open up and to answer. To avoid these, your intonation while asking does matter(please note this should be an above casual interview but not an interrogation) and your attire play a role (don't get me wrong, nothing should be flashy here). Present yourself as a feminine interviewer rather than a female-bossy interviewer.

Please be prepared that question no 5 might lead to an unexpected answer. Once a job applicant answer - making love/having sex. If u have this kind of answer, dont crack a laugh. Instead..smile, and execute another question, how that making love/sexual activities benefit his day. #becreative Well..I appointed him as part of team not because that unexpected answer but because he wants to be himself, showing the truth of him can be accepted (I'm in a country that practice #freedomofspeech and he earn positivite vibes after his fun activities that he chose.

Hope this will work!

“Emotional intelligence multiplies the results and effectiveness of intellectual intelligence,” and remember "Emotional labor is the most difficult type of work to do and up until now, the easiest to avoid. It is the essential education we need to embrace the unimaginable"

#emotionalintelligence #creativity #employment #leadership #leadnotplead #leadwith thebest #jobinterview


A story from some of #aileennoura life at office





Thursday 8 January 2015

Truth tellers and their role in our life

My eyes wide awake. Blink! And blink..and blink..!

Legend says..when u can't sleep at night, it's because u are awake in someone else dream. It's a legend, don't believe that. He probably snoring or sleep so good there.







Some fellow Oxonian said..people with the highest IQ stay up late at night because their brains have increased mental stimulation between 1.30am till 4.30am. I looked at the time, it was 3.30am.

I started to think about work, nothing crucial, but man..why on earth that I am so creative at this wee hour. In a way I like it too.

And suddenly I think if u are in love, u will definitely miss someone. (Blushing..!feel the warmth on that face) Your love one probably away and communication is less than usual to each other. Perhaps don't even think that the messages u sent 5 days ago ever reach him. Network difficulties and communication breakdown. Angry..? No. Sad? Not really and rather put the understanding word here. U kind of take it at a slow phase because u trust your heart, your brain, your six sense that your love one can be trusted. Perhaps your love is away solely on duty. What have U miss? The closeness when both of u talk, chatting, sharing stories and intense feeling together. U trust him because u know he is honest. Throughout your relationship he has a good history of being honest. When u told him your pain, your hardship he tried to help. He tried his best there. Understanding that he has ownership of his own life. So..he is your truth teller there.

Do u know the important role of truth-tellers in our lives is to keep us in balance (usually the people closest to us)?

Toxic people is everywhere. Most of us know one or two. If u've ever spent time with truly toxic people, u already know how destructive and exhausting they can be. They are mean, mentally, verbally and maybe physically.







Truth teller can be your beloved one, your childhood friends, the one u trust. They will say how they feel straightforwardly..about themselves and about u. Once u have one or few of them in life..keep! They hard to come by. Your life probably already happy. Adding a truth teller in life can make u laugh bigger, smile wider, grow better, lust, want, crave, feel, make u mad but happy, keep that. That's euphoria





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Monday 5 January 2015

'Literally,' Emojis, and Other Trends That Aren't Destroying English

Below, is an article that I copied from the online newspaper #theatlantic Due to difficulties to open that note with various ads and mini banners, I decided to copy and paste it here. Written by #ScottPorch , it's something worth to read from a Brit point of view.

As an experimental psychologist, Steven Pinker thinks about writing. As a linguist, he thinks about writing.

In The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Writing in the 21st Century, the author and Harvard professor mines both the science of cognitive psychology—how the brain processes language, how we associate words with meanings, etc.—and the art of language to re-engineer the writing guide.

I spoke with Pinker about his new book, his grammar feud with The New Yorker’s Nathan Heller, why the misuse of “literally” doesn’t literally or figuratively drive him crazy, and how italics—as used in the first paragraph of this interview—may be the writing tool you’re not using enough.

Scott Porch: Do people write the way they talk?

Steven Pinker: Not really. Clearly, there’s overlap and some people write in a more conversational style than others, but it is striking how a transcript of a talk given extemporaneously does not read well on the printed page. I first noticed this when I was a teenager and read the Watergate transcripts—the conversations among Nixon and advisors like Haldeman and Ehrlichman and Mitchell. A number of people at the time who had never seen conversations transcribed were astonished at how difficult they were to interpret.

Porch: What do you think about the flagrant misuse of the word “literally”? Does it literally make your head explode?

Pinker: [Laughs.] It’s understandable why people do it. We are always in search of superlatives, of ways of impressing upon our hearer that something that happened is noteworthy or even extraordinary. And the words we use to signal that eventually lose their meaning.

Porch: Like “awesome.”

Pinker: “Awesome” is a recent example. In the UK, “brilliant” is used for the most banal observations. Before that, words like “terrific,” meaning inspiring terror, “wonderful,” inspiring wonder, “fabulous,” worthy of fable. We see the fossils of dead superlatives that our ancestors overused the way we overuse “awesome.” “Literally” is a victim of a similar type of inflation. The figurative use doesn’t mean the language is deteriorating. Hyperbole has probably been around as long as language has been around.

Porch: I don’t think it’s hyperbole. I think people don’t know what “literally” means.

Pinker: I think people know what it means but can’t resist the temptation to overuse it. When I give a talk and point out that someone doesn’t “literally” explode, everyone in the audience laughs. I think they get it.

Porch: Does the comma go inside the closed quotation mark or outside?

Pinker: If I ruled the world, it would go outside.

Porch: That’s terrible. It looks terrible!

Pinker: Our British cousins don’t find it that ugly.

What many writers before have never asked is: What makes a rule a rule? Who decides? Where does it come from?
Porch: It looks untidy. It looks like a bedroom with clothes all over the floor.

Pinker: Your aesthetics may have been shaped by a lifetime of seeing it in the American pattern, but this would be a case in which any aesthetic reaction should be trumped by logic. Messing up the order of delimiters in a way that doesn’t reflect the logical nesting of their content is just an affront to an orderly mind.

Porch: Should it be “the news media is” or “the news media are”?

Pinker: I tend not to be a pedant about Latin plurals. I like “the media are,” but I’m in a fussy minority here.

Porch: What about “data”?

Pinker: I prefer data as a plural of datum—so I refer to one datum, many data— but the linguist in me recognizes that it is quite common for Latin plurals to become English singulars, such as “agenda.” Originally it was agendum “is” and agenda “are.” Likewise, candelabra is now singular, and it used to be be the plural of candelabrum.

Porch: Are you an Oxford comma guy?

Pinker: [Laughs.] I put my vote with the Oxford comma.

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Porch: I like the Oxford comma. It keeps things clear.

Pinker: I do, too, though I think Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young would disagree with us!

Porch: Nathan Heller dinged you in The New Yorker for having what he considered a loose approach to usage rules on things like “who” vs. “whom.”

Pinker: Nathan Heller’s an ignoramus. He really does not know what he’s talking about. He said that in the sentence “It is I” that “I” is the subject of the sentence, which is just a howler. Sentences don’t have two subjects. He is doing exactly what I said one should not do, which is to confuse meaning, case, and grammatical relations, which is what he does in that preposterous claim. If you were to say, “I think we should break up, but it’s not you; it’s I,” you’d sound like a pompous jackass.

Porch: He’s making an argument, though, that language needs committed rules to give writers a baseline, which is different than a writer knowing the rules and taking license with them.

Pinker: He’s wrong. That’s absolutely not what I say. As you and I have noted in this very conversation, I have motivated guidelines as to how one should or shouldn’t write. It’s not that good writers have chosen to flout a rule; it’s that the rule is not a rule in the first place. What Heller and many writers before him have never asked is: What makes a rule a rule? Who decides? Where does it come from? They write as if there’s some tribunal or rules committee who makes the rules of English, which there isn’t, or that it’s a matter of logic or objective reality, which it isn’t.

Porch: In the book, you cite a flyer that had some accidental language about an event featuring “sex with four professors.” Can you talk a bit about that?

Pinker: [Laughs.] It was about “a panel on sex with four professors,” which sounds racier than it was. We tend to connect material to the immediately preceding words as opposed to words even earlier in the sentence. The intended reading was that “with four professors” modified “panel,” but we associate it with the immediately preceding word “sex.”

But that does not work when it is a “a panel of four professors on drugs.” We store the patterns of usage when we learn phrases like “on drugs” and “sex with.” That overrides the expectations we have that sentences are right-branching.

Porch: Italics are a good way for a writer to telegraph what he means by telling you how to say it in your head, but they seem informal to use. Are they?

Pinker: No, I’m a big fan of italics. I think your intuition is correct that it eases a reader’s task of parsing and interpreting a sentence in the way that a writer intended. It’s particularly useful in emphasizing contrast, which echoes what we do in conversation. There’s a strain of Jewish humor that hinges on which word is stressed in speech, which corresponds to which word is in italics in writing.

I remember a joke from my childhood that Stalin had read a letter from Trotsky that said, “You were right, and I was wrong. You are the true heir of Lenin, and I should apologize.” And a man ran up and said, “No, you forget that Trotsky was Jewish. The proper reading is: You were right, and I was wrong? You are the true heir of Lenin, and I should apologize?”

Porch: When you recognize that a phrase is like Faulkner or like Hemingway, is there something about the syntax and style of those writers that a linguist can actually describe?

Pinker: That is largely unexplored territory at the intersection of linguistics and literary studies that I would love to see filled. There are computer algorithms that look at statistics of word choice and transition probabilities—how often you use one word after another—that can distinguish writerly styles. It has been used, for example, to figure out which passages of The Federalist Papers were written by Madison or Hamilton or Jay and to determine whether Shakespeare had a co-author on some of his plays.

Porch: And plagiarism is being discovered that way.

Pinker: Indeed, it is. Even though those statistical techniques can ascertain authorship, they don’t provide much insight as to what makes a style a style. I think a literary scholar with training in linguistics, or vice versa, could comment insightfully on what makes Faulkner Faulkner.

Porch: Eric Hayot’s new style guide for academic writing says graduate programs don’t put enough priority on writing instruction and that the things you have to write as a graduate student aren’t especially conducive to the things you would write as an academic. Do you agree with that?

Pinker: He’s absolutely right. The amount of writing instruction in a typical graduate program is zero, which is definitely too little. I find it interesting that the writing of graduate students is often worse than that of undergraduate students.

Porch: Hayot thinks that may be because students in masters and Ph.D. programs tested out of a lot of high school and undergraduate classes where they would have learned how to write well.

Pinker: That’s not mutually exclusive from my observation, which is that when you enter graduate school you enter into a tiny clique, a sub-sub-sub-set of your discipline. Your estimate of the breadth of the knowledge of the people you are writing for gets radically miscalibrated. Highly idiosyncratic ideas are discussed if they are common knowledge, and you lose the sense of how tiny a club you have joined. And you’re in terror of being judged naive and unprepared, and so you signal in your writing that you’re a member of this esoteric club.

Porch: And the professor you’re defending your dissertation to may not be a very good writer either.

Pinker: The professor may not be a good writer, and he’s exactly the person who knows all the idiosyncratic jargon and who talks about “stimulation used in a habituation paradigm” and may even have coined that jargon.

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Porch: Is there anyone you would point to who is writing about language and usage today along the lines of what William Safire wrote for years in his “On Language” column in New York Times Magazine?

Pinker: The foremost would be Language Log, which has contributions from about a dozen linguists. The two main contributors are Mark Liberman and Geoffrey Pullum, and they are both astonishingly brilliant and both are superb writers. Pullum is one of my favorite essayists in any genre. John McWhorter is extremely good. Ben Zimmer, who wrote the “On Language” column at one point, is also fabulous. Another is Jan Freeman, who has a blog called Throw Grammar from the Train.

Porch: There was a big think piece on emoji recently in New York magazine. Are you pro- or anti-emoji?

Pinker: I don’t think it means the death of language. One of the interesting discoveries I came across reading earlier style manuals was a manual written by F.L. Lucas in the 1950s. He said the English language really could use a new punctuation mark that indicated that the foregoing sentence was used ironically or in jest. He basically called for the smiley face 35 years before it came to email.

Porch: Can we talk about the hair, or is that off limits?

Pinker: [Laughs.] So what’s the deal with the hair?

Porch: There’s an illustration of you on your website with huge hair that looks like a caricature from the New York Review of Books.

Pinker: That is absolutely from the New York Review of Books by longtime artist David Levine. I bought the original a number of years ago and have it hanging in my study. A fair number of people approach me and say, “Are you Simon Rattle?” [Rattle is the conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic and has lots of curly hair.] If I ever meet Simon Rattle, I’ll ask him if people ever confuse him with Steven Pinker and be prepared for the answer, “Who?”


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Friday 2 January 2015

Take challenge, Unleash your talent, learn something from the fish and shark

Often challenge brings u stress and worn out due to lack of capabilities, creativity to overcome it. How often do u able to twist them and gain positivities out of it. Ever meet an annoying boss who love deadlines? Ever meet someone who has endless energy, workaholic like a German engine or people who keep on smiling while handling stress.

Perhaps there is something we can learn from the the story of these Fish and shark.

The Japanese have always loved fresh fish

But the water close to Japan has not held many fish for decades.

So to feed the Japanese population, fishing boats got bigger and went farther than ever.

The further the fishermen went, the longer it took to bring the fish

If the return trip took more time, the fish were not fresh.

To solve this problem, fish companies installed freezers on their boats.

They would catch the fish and freeze them at sea.

Freezers allowed the boats to go farther and stay longer.

However, the Japanese could taste the difference between fresh and frozen fish and they did not like the taste of frozen fish

The frozen fish brought a lower price.

So, fishing companies installed fish tanks.

They would catch the fish and stuff them in the tanks, fin to fin.

After a little thrashing around, they were tired, dull, and lost their fresh-fish taste.

The fishing industry faced an impending crisis!

But today, they get fresh-tasting fish to Japan.

How did they manage...?

To keep the fish tasting fresh, the Japanese fishing companies still put the fish in the tanks but with a small shark

The fish are challenged and hence are constantly on the move.

The challenge they face keeps them alive and fresh!

Have you realized that some of us are also living in a pond but most of the time tired and dull....?

Basically in our lives, sharks are new challenges to keep us active.

If you are steadily conquering challenges, you are happy.

Your challenges keep you energized.

Don’t create Success and revel in it in a state of inertia.

You have the resources, skills and abilities to make a difference.

Put a shark in your tank this year and see how far you can really go....

This fish story if you have not come across..


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