Iphone 4

I have succumbed to the legacy of the Iphone. Yes, I just bought the Iphone 4 despite all the negative reports on its reception and the dropping of calls. But I guess I can live with it (I hope). The phone is actually pretty cool. There are tons of apps to download and its loads of fun. I'm still learning how to really make full use of the phone, and the sms-ing. So I guess I'm be enjoying it even more once I managed to pick up everything... lol... =)

I GOT IT!!!!

This is one of the most exciting time in my life.... I GOT THE JOB!!!!! Hahahaha... I really didn't think that I did very well during the interview but I am very happy and grateful that they have given me the opportunity to prove myself to the organisation. Its the first time after graduation that I am going into an organisation without the help of any relatives or anything. So I am really proud of myself. I really must pull up my socks and do my best in this job and prove to my detractors that I can do it! =)

17 Cheap Ways to Jumpstart Your Metabolism

Found this on yahoo today, which I think is a good reminder for me... Maybe I can use some of its tactics to keep my metabolism up so that I can leaner... lol

A healthy metabolism will keep you in shape and raise your energy levels, both of which are essential to smart money management. By staying healthy, you'll save money on health care costs while maintaining your ability to earn a living. Your metabolism - more specifically, your metabolic rate - is how quickly your body is burning calories. So if you're trying to lose weight, raising your metabolic rate means you'll see results faster.
You don't need fancy diets or expensive gym memberships to raise your metabolic rate. Here are 17 simple things you can do today to jumpstart your body.

1. Fidget. Tap your foot, twirl a pen, chew sugar-free gum while at your desk. Fidgeting uses energy, and while you won't be shedding inches instantly, the mini-aerobics on a daily basis adds up - highly fidgety people may burn up to 500 calories more in a day.

2. Stay properly hydrated. Studies have shown that when we are dehydrated, our systems slow down. That includes our metabolism. Aim for at least 8 cups of water a day. An easy way to keep track is to get a 32-oz (4 cups) water bottle, and drink two full bottles a day. If water is too boring for you, there are several natural ways to make water more flavorful.

3. Avoid diet soda. Water is king when it comes to hydration, but many people find it boring and look for alternatives like diet soda. But just because it has 0 calories doesn't mean it's as good as water. The problem is that the chemical sweeteners used in diet sodas can increase food and fat cravings, which can make sticking to a structured diet and seeing results much harder.

4. Drink cold drinks. Research subjects' metabolisms increased by a third in the 30-40 minutes after drinking a glass of water. The metabolic rate increase is due to your body warming up the liquid.

5. Spice up your meals. Spicy foods speed up the metabolic process by 20 percent or more for up to half an hour after eating them. Adding a dash of red pepper flakes to stews, pasta sauces, and other dishes is an easy way to turn up the heat and increase the burn.

6. Eat a balanced diet that includes "negative calorie" foods. Complex carbohydrates like whole grains, fruits, and vegetables fill you up and take effort for the body to break down. Some vegetables (like celery) and other complex carbohydrates (like high fiber foods) even require more calories to break them down than they contain, making them "negative calorie" foods.

7. Eat more protein. Studies have shown that the body uses twice the energy to break down foods containing protein as it does food that has a high carbohydrate or fat content.

8. Eat fish to store less fat. Eating salmon, tuna, and other fish lowers the levels of leptin in your body. Leptin tells your body how to store calories, and high levels of it trigger fat storage. Eat more fish, lower your leptin levels, and your metabolism triggers your body to store less fat.

9. Eat enough calories over the course of the day. Crash diets don't work. If you take in fewer calories than your basal metabolic rate (NYSE: BMR - News) - that is, the amount of calories your body needs when you're completely inactive - then your metabolism will slow down as your body goes into survival mode. So make sure you eat enough to keep your metabolism from stalling.

10. Don't skip breakfast. Eating breakfast is a signal to your metabolism that it's time to start working. Skipping breakfast for the sake of eating less throughout the day is counter-productive; not only does it keep your body in rest mode, but it also makes you hungrier throughout the day.

11. Eat consistently throughout the day. Eating introduces food into your system, which puts your metabolism to work converting that food to energy it can use. So constant snacking keeps your metabolism elevated throughout the day.

12. Plan ahead for meals and snacks. Eating smaller meals more frequently has the added benefit of keeping your energy level from spiking up or down, which helps you avoid hunger, stay more active, and avoid stress. Have a food plan for the whole day, so you're not tempted by the vending machine in the afternoon and have the energy to exercise after work.

13. Kick your workouts up a notch. When you're walking, wear a weight vest, or bring dumbbells and do curls along the way. Use fitness bands and other resistance gear to get your body to burn more energy in the same amount of time. Need to stay organized?

14. Focus on muscle at the gym. Building muscle will help you burn more calories even when you're not moving. While cardio exercise helps to burn fat, muscle building speeds up your metabolic rate for up to 2 hours after every 20-minute session. Better still: every pound of muscle in the body burns 35 calories per day rather than the 2 calories burned by a pound of fat.

15. Perk yourself up with some caffeine. Whether it's a cup of coffee in the morning or a cup of tea in the afternoon, a little bit of caffeine increases your metabolism in the short term. Just be aware that milk and sweeteners add calories, which can counter the metabolic benefits. Also beware of having too much caffeine, which may lead to energy crashes or fitful sleep.

16. Dodge stress. Stress raises cortisol levels; cortisol is a hormone that can make you hungrier and slow down your metabolism.

17. Never underestimate the value of a good night's sleep. Like stress, though, lack of sleep can elevate levels of cortisol. If the risk of slowing your metabolism down isn't enough to motivate you to try for 8 hours of sleep, how about this -- when you sleep, your body produces a hormone that increases your metabolic rate.

2 weeks more to..... FREEDOM!!!!

Lol... Yup, those who are close to me know that I have already tendered my resignation and is currently serving my notice period. And the best part is........ drum roll...... I have not found a new job yet!!... Hahaha.... Oh well, I decided to take this step because I really find that I cannot focus to find something new to do. Something that I really want to do, if I continue to stay on. Everyday in office is a battle, after work you are so tired that you do not want to do anything but laze on the couch. I know that this is a big risk, but I am willing to try.

Very luckily, I did get an interview. And basically I screwed it up. I really didn't think that I did well enough to convince them to hire me. So it was a pleasant surprise that they called me up for a 2nd interview. Just finished the 2nd interview last week, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I really hope that I did well enough to get in. Pls hire me!

But still I think I will still continue to send out resumes. Because everything is still not confirmed yet. So if I really don't make it, at least I know I have my resumes floating in some HR's desk, and hopefully I can get more interviews. Good luck to me!

Been sick for the past few days, having an infected throat. Already finishing my antibiotics but I'm still not well yet. At the beginning the pain was excruciating, everytime I swallow my saliva I feel pain on my throat and the pain transmits up to cause a sharp pain in my head. Haiz, think I will go back to see the doctor again tomorrow. I hope that it is nothing serious. I don't know why, as I age, I do get worried when I have prolonged sickness. I will start to think of what it could be. Could it be throat cancer, or swine flue, or bird flu or some unknown illness that the world has not seen. The many what-ifs start to come into my mind. I hope that I am just imagining things. Pls get well soon =(

168 Hrs

Yup, I've made my decision... After 1 year and 5 months, my journey here will come to halt. Yup, I've decided to move on. I have already wanted to move on a long time ago, and have been considering about it for months, finally I'm going to make my move. Well, I think when the time is here, I should just let it go and go on to do other things. I had wanted to try and really make it work, but I guess its not working.

So I guess its back to the old drawing board. Hope that this spells a better start for me. And I hope I'll be able to get back to work soon. Got an interview coming up soon, really preparing myself for it hard, wish me luck!

2 seconds from death

I know the post has been getting lesser these days, and I regret to say that this posting is not going to be good news.... I was involved in a terrible accident last night. I had picked my friend up at his saloon yesterday evening before we headed to Thomson for Bak Chor Mee. Was having a great time chatting with him about his saloon, our plans and our holidays. After dinner I sent him home in Sembawang. As I approached Sembawang I suddenly recall that I've seen photos of Sembawang park and it looks pretty nice so I asked him about the place and how to get there. Because I have never been there and I don't have any other friends staying in that area. So he offered to direct me over to have a look. I drove to the park and we went around the area, we even drove to bottle tree park to see the famous bottle tree restaurant. After going through the scenic park, and him recommending some of the secluded restaurants nearby, we left the area to go towards his place. As I drove along Sembawang Road and headed towards the junction of Canberra Link, the green light was on. As I wanted to do a right turn into Canberra Link, I stopped the car at the junction to ensure that the traffic was clear for me to turn. After seeing that the road was clear I negotiated the turn. Just as I was about to complete my turn, a car suddenly appeared from the opp end of Sembawang Road and sped towards my car. When I saw the lights of the car appear, I immediately stepped onto the accelerator to try to speed forward to escape the car, but the pick up of my car was not fast enough to avoid and the on-coming car was just too fast. It banged into the rear left door of my car, sending my car spinning 360 degrees and smashing my window. After the car stopped, I immediately turned to my friend and his eyes were opening and closing, like losing consciousness. I kept calling out to him to wake up, I was terrified. Luckily he regained consciousness after a while. I got out of the car the the damned Indian driver kept calling out,"why you turn, its green light you know, there cannot be 2 green lights". I didn't say too much because I was very worried for my friend, I just wanted to go and see how is he. So we called the ambulance and Police.

The ambulance came shortly to check for injuries, and take the blood pressure of my friend. My tow truck also came shortly to help tow my car away. After a while the traffic police came to take our statements. Asked a few of the routine questions and ended with,"as there is no injuries and no one is sent to hospital, police will not interfere. You can lodge a GIA report with your insurance company to do the claims".

My friend was acting a little funny then, he seem to have forgotten a lot of stuff. Like a partial memory loss. He kept asking me what he was doing in my car and what just happened. That got me really worried. I kept telling him to go hospital for a check but he didn't want to. And then he called his brother to pick him up while my dad came to pick me up.

I was still very worried for him because he totally cannot remember what happened or why he was in my car. He doesn't even remember why we met up and what did we meet up for. He called me a few times to ask me what happened. After that I hear that what he is suffering from are symptoms of concussion. And I got really really worried for him, I kept asking him to go for a scan. I am just worried that there might be blood clots or something. I put my phone just beside me the whole nite so that I can answer it anytime, in case something happens. And I messaged him to ask him to call me once he wakes up because he told me that he still wants to go to work in the morning because he has a lot of appointments and he's the only stylist.

In the morning, he again asked me what happened and told me that his family keeps blaming him and screaming at him, I was really sad to hear it, and feel very bad about it. Although I am not totally at fault for the accident, he is my friend and it was my car. I feel so guilty for it. I met my mechanic in the morning and he was telling me that from the look of the bang, the on-coming car had to be traveling at least 120kmh, because the impact was really bad. But because of the 'right-of-way' rule, I will lose out, even though I was already close to completing the turn. I made my report at IDAC and was told to tow the car to them on Monday for photo taking and to send the car for the insurance pple to arrange for repair. After that I headed to look for my friend to see if he's ok.

He looks ok outside, but I am really worried about any internal injuries. Because he still cannot remember a lot of stuff. He told me that his GP is arranging for a scan, and I hope that they will get him the earliest slot and that the results will be very positive. Now as I am typing, I am super worried, because I just found out that he's been vomiting the whole day, which is very bad.

God please help, and not let anything happen to him. He really doesn't deserve this. I really hope that this is only temporary. Get well soon. Just at the thought of it, I'm tearing already. Haiz, please lord, this I'm begging you.

Worst words to say at work

I read an article on yahoo today and I thought its quite interesting and worth a thought. And I must admit that I have fallen prey to these words and phrases at work too. Time to reflect and improve myself for the better...

Worst words to say at work

By Linnda Durre.

Let’s look at some specific words and phrases that are used by some people to buy time, avoid giving answers and escape commitment. If you use these words and phrases yourself, take a scalpel and cut them out of your thinking, speaking and writing. Words like these only weaken you and make you sound noncommittal, undependable and untrustworthy.

“Try”

Try is a weasel word. “Well, I’ll try,” some people say. It’s a cop-out. They’re just giving you lip service when they probably have no real intention of doing what you ask. Remember what Yoda says to Luke Skywalker in Star Wars: “Do or do not–there is no try.” Take Yoda’s advice. Give it your all when you attempt something. And if it doesn’t work, start over.

Put passion into your work and give it your best effort, so you can know that you did all you could to make it happen. So if the outcome you were expecting didn’t come to fruition, it’s not because you didn’t do everything you could to make it happen. It just wasn’t the right time for it or it wasn’t meant to be.

“Whatever”

This word is a trusted favourite of people who want to dismiss you, diminish what you say or get rid of you quickly. “Whatever,” they will say as an all-purpose response to your earnest request. It’s an insult and a verbal slap in the face. It’s a way to respond to a person without actually responding. When you say whatever after another person has said his or her piece, you have essentially put up a wall between the two of you and halted any progress in communicating. It’s a word to avoid.

“Maybe” and “I don’t know”

People will sometimes avoid making a decision and hide behind words and phrases like “maybe” and “I don’t know.” There’s a difference between legitimately not knowing something and using words like these as excuses. Sometimes, during a confrontation, people will claim not to know something or offer the noncommittal response “maybe,” just to avoid being put on the spot. If that seems to be the case, ask, “When do you think you will know?” or “How can you find out?” Don’t let the person off the hook so easily.

“I’ll get back to you”

When people need to buy time or avoid revealing a project’s status, they will say, “I’ll get back to you,” and they usually never do. If people say they will get back to you, always clarify. Ask them when they will get back to you, and make sure they specify the day and time. If they don’t, then pin them down to a day and time and hold them to it. If they won’t give you a day or time, tell them you’ll call in a day or week and follow up. Make sure you call and get the information you need.

“If”

Projects depend on everyone doing his or her part. People who use if are usually playing the blame game and betting against themselves. They like to set conditions, rather than assuming a successful outcome. People who rely on conditional responses are fortifying themselves against potential failure. They will say, “If Bob finishes his part, then I can do my part.” They’re laying the groundwork for a “no fault” excuse and for not finishing their work.

There are always alternatives, other routes and ways to get the job done. Excuse makers usually have the energy of a slug, the vision of Mr. Magoo and the spine of a jellyfish. You don’t want them on your mountain climbing team up K-2 or Mount Everest.

“Yes, but …”

This is another excuse. You might give your team members suggestions or solutions and they come back to you with “Yes, but . . .” as a response. They don’t really want answers, help, or solutions. You need to call the “Yes, but . . .” people out on their avoidance tactic by saying something like: “You know, Jackie, every time I offer you a suggestion you say, ‘Yes, but . . . ,” which makes me think you don’t really want to solve this problem. That’s not going to work. If you want to play the victim, go right ahead, but I’m not going to allow you to keep this up and I may have to report you.” After a response like that, you can be assured that the next words you hear will not be, “Yes, but . . .”!

“I guess …”

This is usually said in a weak, soft-spoken, shoulder-shrugging manner. It’s another attempt to shirk responsibility–a phrase is only muttered when people half agree with you, but want to leave enough leeway to say, “Well, I didn’t really know. . . . I was only guessing.” If you use this phrase, cut it out of your vocabulary.

“We’ll see”

How many times did we hear our parents say this? We knew they were buying time, avoiding a fight or confrontation or really saying no. It’s better to be decisive and honest by saying, “I need more information. Please present your case or send me the data–both pro and con–so I can make an informed decision.” That way the interested parties will contribute to an in-depth, well-researched “verdict.”

This column is an excerpt of Surviving The Toxic Workplace (McGraw-Hill, 2010) by Linnda Durré, a psychotherapist, business consultant and columnist.