21 Days to change a habit. Experts say...

Have you thought of breaking or changing some of your habits, especially the bad ones?

Do you have the habit of overeating, overspending, procrastinating, being consistently late for meetings or appointments, thinking negatively, losing your temper easily, neglecting your health, watching too much TV, always blaming others for your problems, smoking, gaming addiction, telling lies, compulsive shopping and many other habits you may have?

All you need to do to change the habit or to form a new habit is to do the new habit for a continuous period of 21 days. By then, your new habit would have set in. Now, you have got to make sure you make the good habits die hard!

Looking for Battery Pack Replacement? Read This Blog!

Recently, the battery pack of my notebook computer died a natural death. It held zero charge and could not be charged anymore. I contacted the manufacturer of my computer to enquire on the price of a replacement battery pack. It costs around $200.

In the spirit of cost-cutting, I wasn't prepared to pay too much for the battery pack because the computer is already more than three years old. So, I called up a good friend of mine who is in the computer business. He told me that there is a shop at Sim Lim Square that repairs and sells batteries. Hearing that, I was excited. I went down the next day to find out if my dead battery could be revived. If it could be repaired (by changing the six cells inside the pack), it costs $96. Well, I left it there. They took a week to check and test, I believe they did because they actually cut it open, but it was beyond repair. I had no alternative but to get a new one from the same shop. It costs $140 plus, and is made in Japan. It has been working well so far.

I discovered that this shop sells pratically all kinds of battery packs for most of our modern day electronic gadgets, such as digital camera, mobile phone, PDAs etc. Besides the battery packs, the shop carries other items such as batteries, battery charger, battery parts, battery holder, battery connector and AC/DC power supply.

I am sharing this piece of information on a voluntary basis without any monetary gains. The owner of the shop does not know that I am advertising free-of-charge for him. You may visit their website at http://www.battery.com.sg/

City Harvest Church - The Second Largest Church in Asia

My family and I attended the Sunday Service at City Harvest Church (CHC) at Singapore Expo Hall 8 last Sunday. Pastor Kong Hee was the speaker.

Pastor Kong Hee, the founder of CHC, is a Senior Pastor (Honorary / Volunteer) in the church. I have heard him several times, sometimes over the church's webcast. Kong is a very charismatic, committed and visionary church leader. In one of the services, he mentioned that he asked to be taken off the church payroll in 2005 on his own accord.

He is pastoring a church that is the second largest in Asia with 23,000 members and is planning to grow the membership into 30,000 within the next year or so. The church has an annual income of more than $10mil as reported in the local press recently together with four other churches. It is into its Arise and Build season, reportedly planning to build a 15,000-seat stadium of its own in the next few years.

Years back, the chuch has already built a titanium-clad building at Jurong West debt-free. The achievements are incredible. But, the church, contemporary in its approach but traditional in its belief, has created much controversy amongst many traditional churches.

Interested to know more about this church and to listen to the sermons online, visit their website at http://www.chc.org.sg/

Do You Care For Others?

The following quote has been used regularly but relevantly on various speaking platforms notably those in the church and in the insurance industry:

"People don't CARE how much you KNOW until they KNOW how much you CARE." Think about it.

Have we cared enough for others? Or are we still in the pratical world of 5Ks? The originality of "5K" is attributable to me. I created and used it in many of my speaking engagements. It stands for ka-ki-ko-ka-ki, which in the Hokkien dialect, literally means "Each for himself".

In Singapore, many would know about 5Cs - Cash, Condo, Credit cards, Children, Car. Unknowingly, in the pursuit of 5Cs, many have fallen into a quagmire of self-centredness and selfishness.

A drink a day for health? Forget it, research says

"Scientists have amassed persuasive evidence that drinking alcohol regularly in any form, even inmoderate amounts, can pose a serious threat to your health."

Interested to learn more, please read the science of Dr Robert O Young by clicking on the link above.

A Coaching Class for Students

I had good conversations with two mothers who came from Ipoh, a town about 50 over miles from my hometown, Taiping. They have settled down here for the last 10 to 20 years.

One of them has 3 children, the youngest is studying in JC, while the other mother has two young boys studying in Primary 1 and 2. Both of them each obtained a copy of my book and wanted me to talk to their children. That is what I do on a voluntary basis.

The second mother wanted me to start a coaching class for her school-going children and she would be trying to "recruit" a few more students so that I can coach them in a group. That's something many parents have been requesting me to do, but I need a group of five to ten students before I rearrange my priorities.

Lack of Understanding of Malay and Indian Names

I often read in the papers wondering why such ignorance or lack of understanding of Malay and Indian names could go uncorrected for a long time.

Very often, we get to read names like Bin Laden. For goodness sake, that is NOT the way to read his name. His name is Osama, his father is Laden, so in a Muslim/Malay name, it is written as Osama Bin Laden, for a man; for a woman, Binte is used in place of Bin. He should be rightfully addressed as Osama. Period.

What about in an Indian name? In Malaysia, you often see Indian names such as Rajan A/L Govindasamy, for example. A/L means Anak Lelaki (a Malay word which means Son); in Singapore, S/O is used in place of A/L, which means "Son Of". The feminine version is D/O (Daughter Of), whereas in Malaysia it is A/P (Anak Perempuan).

I have previously commented about how Chinese names have been erroneously understood and written in the west. Read my blog on 11 October 2007. While one could be accommodating towards the lack of understanding towards his/her name by a foreign culture, I feel some conscientious effort has to be put into understanding names of a different nationality, ethnic group or culture as a basic form of courtesy and respect.

A Promise Kept!

Referring to my blog yesterday..........
Yes! The boy kept his promise. Wonderful! He called me in the morning and told me that he had finished reading my book. He learnt many things and he shared with his mother what he has learnt. His mother was impressed.

In fact, later in the day, I was invited to his home and his mother shared quite a fair bit with me about him. The mother is doing some home-based labour-intensive job to supplement the family income. I was told that the father has to take on two jobs in order to earn enough to maintain the family expenses.

I believe all parents work really hard to take care of the family, without complaints and grumbles. It is the hope of all parents that their children would appreciate what they do by just learning to be good children, behaving well and doing well in their studies. That is the heartbeat of most parents. So, Children! Listen to your parents' heartbeat. Be kind and good to them while you have them.

Cybergaming - A Cyber-Addiction

Cybergaming, something synonymous with the new generation, has wondrously infused the minds and unconsciously captivated the hearts of the young, so much so that it has robbed many of their sleep, and to the extent of jeopardising their relationships with their family members. It has become a uniquely strange force hard for them to resist.

I spoke to a Secondary One boy yesterday. He knew he got addicted to cybergaming. He also knew that there is no apparent benefit for him except for having some fun. He also knew that he was spending his father's hard-earned money unwisely. But, he just found that it was hard for him to get rid of this bad habit.

As I was talking to him, he was such a nice boy who listened so attentively and interactively. He was willing to take my suggestion and put it into practice. He was ready to enforce some discipline upon himself and learn to overcome the temptation. What did I suggest to him? Well, to break the cybergaming habit for two days at least, say NO to his cyber-buddies and concentrate on reading my book. He will be calling me in two days' time. At least, he is trying. I appreciate people with such positive attitude.

Earn extra income by reading emails ... check it out!

Thinking of making some extra income? Just register into the above programme and start reading the emails. This sort of money-making activity makes sense to those who understand "effort gets rewarded" and "every drop makes an ocean"!

Click on the link above. Once you are in the page, look for the "JOIN" tab that appears somewhere at the top of the page, click on it and get yourself registered. You will then be on your way to getting paid by reading the emails that come into your inbox.

The FIRST shall be LAST; and the LAST shall be FIRST...

It is not uncommon for most of us who surf the net to have somehow keyed in our name and email address into some of the forms on the webpage, to request for a certain report or e-book to be delivered to our mailbox. Some of the forms would ask for your first name and last name, while some just the first name.

For the uninitiated, the last name is the surname or family name, and the first name is the given name. For example, for a typical Chinese name, Tan Ah Kow, Tan is the last name or family name, and Ah Kow is the first name or the given name. In this part of the world, we understand the structure of the name. Even our identification documents would carry the name as Tan Ah Kow. But, in the west, the name begins with the first name, followed by the last name. So, Tan Ah Kow would become Ah Kow Tan.

We may not realise the problem until one day, we receive a cheque from the USA and the payee name is Ah Kow Tan. Your bank record shows Tan Ah Kow, but your cheque writes Ah Kow Tan. Will the cheque be accepted and cleared into your bank account? Let me know if there is any bank that accepts a cheque with the name written in a reversed manner.

To avoid such a problem, when filling in forms from the west, it might make practical sense to write Tan as the first name, and Ah Kow as the last name, so that the name will be written as Tan Ah Kow.

Get Paid To Read Emails ...

How do you like the idea of reading emails and getting paid?

EmailCashPro is the FIRST "Get Paid To Read Email" Community Portal in Singapore and is now expanding its reach to Malaysia, Philippines, US, UK and other parts of the world. It's based on the idea of paying you to read emails that you are interested in.

There is no joining fee whatsoever. Therefore, there is nothing to lose but everything to gain. Check it out by clicking on the link above.

Another similar programme that offer many more benefits is "Take The Internet Back". Here is the link http://www.taketheinternetback.com/index.php?refId=17632

Going for the THIRD PRINT now !

My sincerest appreciation to all school principals, teachers, parents and students, who have purchased my book entitled "15 Forgotten Secrets That Will Make You A Better Student". With their encouragement, support and purchase, the book first published in June 2oo5, is going into its THIRD print now.

Nothing encourages an author more than receiving constant feedback from readers that they got inspired by the messages in the book. I am personally aware that many young lives have been transformed as a result of reading the book. With this encouragement, I am currently writing another book in Chinese for the Chinese-speaking parents with their popular demand. Check it out in the bookstores or in this blog soon. I plan to get it published before end of the year.

For those who are interested to get an autographed copy of the book "15 Forgotten Secrets That Will Make You A Better Student" at $1o (Singapore only), please call me at 92358797.

Keep The Goal in Mind

"Live your life each day as you would climb a mountain. An occasional glance towards the summit keeps the goal in mind, but many beautiful scenes are to be observed from each new
vantage point." ................... Harold B. Melchart