Thursday, December 17, 2009

One year of flame
taken from AllProDad

One cynic described marriage as one year of flame and forty years of ashes. I believe he thought this because he related love to feeling, not to a daily decision. The feeling of love comes and goes and comes back again, like your appetite.

The commitment of love is unrelenting and sure. Loving commitment is an act of the will - a self-disciplined lifestyle. Act in love towards your wife even if you don't always feel like it. The feeling will return in time, and flood your soul with joy.

Here are some ideas for fanning the flames of romance.

Huddle up with your wife tonight and ask: How can I love you better?

Read more at AllProDad

Friday, December 11, 2009

Christ at the Center

Michael Horton says we need to once again let our lives and churches be driven by the gospel.

Interview by Mark Galli | posted 11/19/2009 10:14AM

The phrase "making Jesus Lord and Savior" does not appear anywhere in Scripture (any more than does "personal relationship"). It assumes we are the ones who make God something. It is hard to imagine a Jew saying he made God his liberator and Lord in the Exodus. No. God made the Israelites the recipients of his saving and lordly work. So we don't make God anything; it is he who makes us his people. The Good News is not that Jesus has made it possible for you to make him Lord and Savior. The Good News is that he has actually saved and liberated you, and that he is your Savior.

Read more at ChristianityToday

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Eight Great Date Nights

Need a kick-start to your relationship? Check out these ideas.

Ginger Kolbaba

4. Make it a three-course progressive dinner. Rather than going out to eat at one restaurant (how boring!), choose one restaurant for your appetizer, a different one for your main dish, then a third one for dessert. Share one course each if you're low on cash. If you have trouble deciding which restaurants, write down several options for each course, put them in a hat, and pick. As you drive to each, discuss the type of restaurant you would open and what types of each course you'd choose to serve and why.

5. Give an encore performance! Think back to one of your favorite dates or activities you two had before you were married, but that you don't get to do anymore. Was it to go antiquing? Book shop hopping? Hiking? Playing board games? Decide to do it again. While you're on the date, talk about why the date or activity was so special and what it meant to you. What did you discover about your spouse during that time that attracted you? Tell your spouse!

Tuesday, December 08, 2009

The Impossibility of Thanksgiving

Why gratefulness is more gift than duty.

Mark Galli | posted 11/25/2009 10:45AM

A YouTube segment from Conan O'Brien's show entitled "Everything's Amazing and Nobody's Happy," with guest comedian Louis C.K., has been making the rounds. In it, Louis talks about how he was on a plane that offered in flight Wi-Fi access to the Internet, one of the first planes to do so. But when it broke down in a few minutes, the man sitting next to him swore in disgust. Louis was amazed, and said to O'Brien, "How quickly the world owes him something that he didn't know existed 10 seconds ago."

Louis then talked about how many of us describe less-than perfect airline flights as if they were experiences from a horror film: "It was the worst day of my life. First of all, we didn't board for 20 minutes! And then we get on the plane and they made us sit there in the runway for 40 minutes!"

Then he said mockingly, "Oh really. Did you fly through the air incredibly, like a bird? Did you partake in the miracle of human flight? … Everybody on every plane should be going, 'O my God, wow!' … You're sitting in a chair in the sky!" And then he mocks a passenger who, trying to push his seat back, complains, "It doesn't go back a lot!"

The segment is humorous because we recognize ourselves in it. That's human nature. We take things for granted so quickly, so easily fall out of a state of gratefulness.

Thursday, October 01, 2009

Published on Network World Asia (http://www.networksasia.net)

Fighting things like Conficker

By Kristy Westphal | Sep 28, 2009

A lot of really good research has been published about the malware like the Conficker worm, its many forms, infection vectors and speculation as to what it’s going to do next. But what seems to be missing is the operational side of fighting Conficker. What signs would you expect to see, how do you really fight it and what can you possibly do to prevent it?

Here’s a fictional case study that may be of help.

Day one: Why is my account getting locked out?

You come in to the office thinking it's just another day in the security trenches, but when you try to log on to the network you notice your account is locked out. OK, no big deal, although a little odd. You could call the help desk but you reset it yourself and then head for a cup of coffee when you realize a number of employees are wondering around mumbling about being locked out and complaining about a huge help desk queue.

OK, now something is smelling fishy. You start to check around and realize that accounts are being locked out all over the network. Time for your operational team to start doing some homework.

Read more Network World Asia

Thursday, September 10, 2009

The 8 Laws of Leadership

Dr. William Cohen in his book, The Stuff of Heroes, writes that the eight universal laws of leadership are:

1. Maintain absolute integrity.
2. Know your stuff.
3. Declare your expectations.
4. Show uncommon commitment.
5. Expect positive results.
6. Take care of your people.
7. Put duty before self.
8. Get out in front.

© 2009 Family First. All Rights Reserved.

Thursday, September 03, 2009

At The End, It's Relationships That Matter Most
By: Gary Oliver, Ph.D.

Several years ago I heard a convicting story of the value and importance of making family relationships a priority. A middle-class family in the 40's had set a family goal of remodeling their old bathroom. After a year of financial sacrifices they finally had enough cash for the project. At the family conference held to pick the colors and finalize the plans one of the children suggested, "Why don't we use the money for a trip and fix the bathroom next year?" Even though it involved a change in plans, everyone liked the suggestion and that summer they took the money and went to Yellowstone National Park.

With the money spent the saving started all over in order to do the postponed remodeling the next year. When it came time to hire the contractor the family's conversation drifted to how much they had enjoyed the trip to Yellowstone and the inevitable suggestion surfaced: "Why not put off the bathroom for just one more year and take another family trip?" They all agreed.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

One Supplement That Works
Matthew Herper, 08.19.09, 06:00 PM EDT
Forbes Magazine dated September 07, 2009

A lot of nutritional supplements are quack medicines. Not fish oil.

In the late 1960s Danish physician Hans Olaf Bang became fixated on an epidemiological anomaly: Why did Greenland's Inuit rarely get heart disease in spite of a high-fat diet consisting mostly of whale blubber and seal meat?

"We have to go up there and solve this riddle," Bang told his prot??g??, J??rn Dyerberg, then 33 years old. In 1970 the two doctors cobbled together $6,000, flew to Greenland and collected blood samples from 130 Inuit. The cholesterol numbers were good but not enough to explain the healthy hearts. Back in the lab they used an old gas chromatograph to analyze Inuit blood. They found two chemicals they had never heard of before. The same chemicals didn't appear in the blood of Inuit who had moved to mainland Denmark and switched to a Western diet.

Read more at Forbes CEO Network

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Burning Question: How Do I Future-Proof My Digital Media?

By Bryan Gardiner

07.20.09

Illustration: Don Clark

You've spent years hoarding digital media, tossing aside those flimsy tape and plastic prisons after transmuting the information into its purer form. No outdated vessel is going to prevent your endless enjoyment of its contents, right?

Think again, Highlander.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

14 Ways To Affair Proof Your Marriage
By: by Brett & Kate McKay

Many people look at infidelity as if it was a natural disaster; no one could see it coming; it just inexplicably happened. Perhaps this is because we are a country that has abdicated its belief in personal responsibility. The truth is that not only can men see it coming, they can prevent it from happening as well.

It is possible to affair proof your marriage. Will it be a lot of work? Yes. But that's what you signed up for when you decided to marry your sweetheart.

What is cheating?

Before we begin our discussion on how to immunize your marriage against infidelity, we should establish what constitutes cheating. Having sex with another woman other than your wife is obviously cheating. But it's also possible to be unfaithful without having to go that far. Infidelity has shades of gray that should likewise be avoided. It is possible to be emotionally unfaithful without crossing any physical boundaries. A perfect example of this is online infidelity. More and more married men are having online romantic and sometimes sexual relationships with women other than their wife. While there's no physical contact, I would definitely say this is cheating. Men who "date" online are violating a trust that their wife has put in them to be faithful-both body and mind.

Now let's get down to business. Here are 14 ways to affair proof your marriage:

Read moreat All Pro Dad

Friday, August 07, 2009

The 2009 Defrag Shootout, and all the defragmentation utilities I can find

The 2009 Defrag Shootout is now under way, and results are posted as they come in. It takes time to get these results, because testing is done on Windows XP, Windows Vista 32-bit and Vista 64-bit environments, and numerous tests are carried out. Windows 7 testing will be added only once the final product actually ships.

Windows Disk Defragmenter: Version 5.1.2600.5512 supplied in Windows XP.

Check below for information on other packages, and the 2007 winners of the previous "Great Defrag Shootout".

Read more at Insights and Rants

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Roadside Emergency Kit
Even if you faithfully follow our 10 maintenance tips, some breakdowns are unavoidable. Do yourself a favor and save some room in your trunk for the following items. They could turn a potential trip-wrecker into nothing more than an unexpected pit stop:

Screwdrivers and wrenches of various sizes
Jumper cables
A jack and tire iron
A can of "Fix-a-Flat" for temporarily sealing and inflating a flat tire
Water for both the radiator and yourself
Emergency flares and reflectors
Gloves
Blanket and towel
Flashlight [source: CBS News]

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Wipe Your Feet

2.22.09 BY David Rupert

Article:

As a boy, my mother routinely reminded us to wipe our feet when we dashed into the house at full speed. She rarely even looked up as we came in. She just knew that brother and I would have dirty shoes.

Mom had good reason for concern. The empty lots and open fields were our playgrounds. And on the way home from our ventures, we walked through every mud puddle.

As an adult, I still clean my shoes before entering my home after a long day at school or work. I don't need my mother to remind me anymore—I get it because I pay for the carpet.

Recently, I've been thinking about the symbolism of removing the dirt from the world before entering my home. For years, I collected bad attitudes and negativity from the work world and brought them home to my young family. They never knew what my mood was going to be. Silently, hesitantly, they would size me up.

"What kind of day did he have? Can I tell him my problems? Can I share some good news? Will he snap at me for no reason?”

Tuesday, July 07, 2009

Poka-Yoke: A Misunderstood Concept

Shigeo Shingo introduced the concept of poka-yoke in 1961, when he was an industrial engineer at Toyota Motor Corporation. The initial term was baka-yoke, which means ‘fool-proofing’. In 1963, a worker at Arakawa Body Company refused to use baka-yoke mechanisms in her work area, because of the term’s dishonourable and offensive connotation. Hence, the term was changed to poka-yoke, which means ‘mistake-proofing’.

Poka-yokes are mechanisms used to mistake-proof an entire process. Ideally, poka-yokes ensure that proper conditions exist before actually executing a process step, preventing defects from occurring in the first place. Where this is not possible, poka-yokes perform a detective function, eliminating defects in the process as early as possible.

Monday, July 06, 2009

It pays for companies to take care of talent
By Abigail L. Ho
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:22:00 07/06/2009

MANILA, Philippines - The economic downturn is forcing businesses to cut costs here and there, sometimes going to the painful extent of letting people go.

While this may make sense at the onset, enterprises should think twice, thrice, 10 times before doing something that drastic.

The People Management Association of the Philippines says businesses should focus on strengthening their human resource if they want to be able to ride the recovery wave when it comes.

In a presentation at the Philippine International Franchise Conference and Expo 2009 last week, PMAP president and Corporate Executive Search managing director Grace Abella-Zata said the best route was to combine “buying, building and borrowing” talents.

Monday, June 29, 2009

Chaos Theology

Finding hope in the midst of the terror of creation.

Mark Galli | posted 6/18/2009 11:32AM

The cover story for the July/August issue of The Atlantic is titled, "The Ideas Issue: How to Fix the World." The article addresses, among other things, the housing mess, the Afghanistan war, the collapsing environment, illegal immigration, and homeland insecurity. A subtext of many of the entries is international terrorism, the most dreadful and symbolic of global threats. These are all but snapshots of the terrible panorama of blood, fire, smoke, and darkness of the present world order.

Except that the word order hardly applies. It's chaos we're living in, and we are weary and sometimes frightened. Among the many filmmakers who paint this reality in vivid hues are the Coen brothers. Their movies always feature a character who brings chaos to the world. Yet whereas in early films, chaos is always brought under control (in Fargo, for example, police chief Marge Gunderson captures the cold-blooded killer Gaer Grimstud), at the end of their last film, No Country for Old Men, chaos is still on the loose.

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Why Sing Hymns

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. (Colossians 3:16)

The trend today is to replace traditional hymns with contemporary praise choruses. This is not a good trend, especially for youth and new believers who need a strong doctrinal focus. Hymns present clear expressions of the knowledge of God and biblical truth. Col. 3:16 admonishes— Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.

Read more at Surf-in-the-Spirit

Hymn Singing

December 31, 2002 AM
By Rev. Dr. Robert S. Rayburn
From: Biblical Worship

Over the past twenty-five years, the American evangelical church has moved away from the hymns we sing at Faith Presbyterian Church. What are now widely referred to as “praise songs” have replaced the hymns that had been sung in Protestant worship for many generations.

Churches began to sing these songs, often putting the text before the congregation by means of an overhead projector, in hopes that their worship would be more accessible to the ordinary American who, it was thought, found the established church music alien, dull, and hard to sing. So complete has been the transition in many churches that the rising generation of Christians is now largely unfamiliar with the literature of Christian hymns.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

BlogSpotting: Time Management for Leaders

Keeping the main thing the main thing.
Tim Avery

One of my colleagues recently pointed me to the blog of Barry Werner, whose background includes serving as director of operations for World Wide Pictures at the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. In his entries, Werner has been walking through the Old Testament and considering how different leadership principles are represented in the passages he reads.

One of his recent posts—which he relates to Numbers 33—addresses the issue of self-discipline. He's primarily talking about time management, and I found this line to be the most helpful:

The essence of self-discipline is to do the important thing rather than the urgent thing.

An urgent task, after all, is easy to discern. All you have to know is the deadline, and how much time will be needed to accomplish it. In fact, an urgent task is almost impossible to ignore.

But an important task—well, to discern that requires a bigger-picture perspective, something quickly lost on a busy afternoon. Without a concrete deadline to remind us or compel us, we let it slide. So what do you do to clarify your daily priorities and stick to them?

Tim Avery is the associate editor of BuildingChurchLeaders.com.

Posted by Tim Avery at 1:55 PM on June 15, 2009 | Comments (2) | Trackbacks (0)

Read more at Building Church Leaders

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

'I Stayed'

There's power in knowing you and your spouse are in it for the long haul.

Christy Scannell

One of the advantages of living in San Diego, aside from the fantastic weather, is that we have two theaters that stage Broadway-bound shows, both to test how they fare with audiences and to get out the kinks before hitting the Great White Way. In the last few years I've seen several of these big productions, some winners (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) and others not (The Full Monty).

A few years ago, my husband, Rich, and I zipped over to the Old Globe Theatre to take in A Catered Affair. We agreed the musical had its plusses and minuses, but one of the standouts was Tom Wopat (yes, that guy from the Dukes of Hazzard) singing a lump-in-the-throat-inducing number, "I Stayed."

To understand the impact of this song, you have to know that Wopat plays a 1950s middle-aged husband whose wife, among other issues, is accusing Wopat's character of having never really loved her. They married because she was pregnant, so she always suspected he rather would have been anywhere but with her. Now that their daughter is marrying and moving out of their home, she frets over what kind of life she will have with this man who only tolerates her.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Master the Art of Working Remotely
Gina Trapani, Work Smarter

10:23 AM Tuesday June 16, 2009

Over the past five years I've worked off-site and online for employers across the country using email, chat, and web-based collaboration apps. My work life has been the envy of my traditional nine-to-five friends. While they suit up in an office-appropriate outfit, grab the briefcase, and brave a commute every weekday, I get to work from home (and my employers get to save money on office space).

But working with people in different cities and time zones with minimal face time presents a whole new set of challenges. While the tools available for working remotely are better than ever, it's how you use them that really counts. Constant and clear communication is the key to a good remote working relationship. Here are some best practices I've found for working remotely online.

Read more at Harvard Business Publishing

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

How To Spot an Email Hoax
By David Emery, About.com

Without researching the factual claims made in a forwarded email there's no 100 percent sure way to tell it if it's a hoax, but here you'll find a list of common signs to watch for...

Here's How:

Note whether the text you've received was actually written by the person who sent it. Did anyone sign their name to it? If not, be skeptical.

Read more at Urban Legends

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Conversation starters with your wife

Try out these questions on your spouse: What is your favorite memory of our dating days? What is your best memory of your mother? Your father? What are your three favorite movies of all time? What's the one thing you'd like to be remembered for? If you had more time, what hobby would you like to pursue? What living person, other than family members, do you admire most? What's your idea of a perfect night out - or in? If you could only spend $10 on a date night, what would you do?

Print out these questions and ask her tonight. You might learn something about her you never knew before!

Why does your marriage matter so much to your kids? Find out here.

Huddle up and ask your wife tonight: Mind if I ask you a couple of questions?

© 2009 Family First. All Rights Reserved.

Marital Interaction
By: Ken Canfield

One of the best things a father can do for his kids is love their mother and build a strong marriage. The effort you put into your marriage is worth it to your children.

To prove that, I'm going right to the source. Just listen to this sixth grade girl who wrote about her father for one of our essay contests. She writes:

Everybody in my family has had to put up a lot with all the things that have gone wrong. One thing about this divorce is that when I go over to my friends' house to spend the night or something, their fathers usually come in and say, "good-night," not "good-bye." When my father comes over to get something and he is about to leave, he always comes over and kisses me on the cheek and then says "good-bye," and walks out. And it hurts a lot. Sometimes I want to just cry. I wish this never happened. . .

This girl feels the pain so deeply that she is tuned in to subtle nuances like the difference between "good-night" and "good-bye." Her father may see her regularly and show her physical affection, but still the dominant images of her father will always bring her pain.

Thursday, May 07, 2009

10 tips for swine flu planning

As the swine flu outbreak spreads, CIOs and other IT executives are dusting off their pandemic plans. Here are some tips. By Carolyn Duffy Marsan
30 Apr 2009

FRAMINGHAM, 29 APRIL 2009 - As the swine flu outbreak spreads, CIOs and other IT executives are dusting off their pandemic plans and preparing for the possibility of high levels of employee absenteeism and extended telework scenarios.

The swine flu threat comes at a time when IT shops are already stretched thin as a result of layoffs and other cutbacks because of the ongoing recession. We talked to several experts in the business continuity and IT operations, and here's the advice they are offering CIOs:

1. Stay calm. Model the behavior you want to see from your employees. This includes continuing to be productive but also shoring up your supplies of hand sanitizer and bottled water. "What CIOs and other managers of a company have to do is say this is business as usual, but practice better personal hygiene," says Richard De Lotto, principal analyst in Gartner's Banking and Investment Industries Advisory Services Group. "Other people will pick up on the examples set by executives."

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

‘Faces’ of disrespect here, there, all over
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 05:33:00 04/22/2009
http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/letterstotheeditor/view/20090422-200741/Faces-of-disrespect-here-there-all-over

When someone shows up late for an appointment on “Filipino time,” that means he has no respect for your time.

When the sidewalks are reserved for vendors and parked cars, that means they have no respect for pedestrians.

When a rich person sees a long line and simply skips it and goes straight to the front, that means he has little regard for you.

When a jeepney stops in the middle of the road to load and unload passengers, that means the driver has no respect for the other motorists.

Corruption in the Philippines is learned behavior, we watch our parents. The fault lies not in our stars but in us.

—KAISER SOSA,
530 Don Juico Ave.,
Balibago, Angeles City

The Story We Long For

Sometimes we don't realize what we need to hear, again and again.

Gordon MacDonald | posted 4/20/2009

There is a wonderful organization that invites me to speak every April to men and women who are enrolled in their leadership development program. Every year their invitation makes it clear that they want me to say the same things I said the previous year.

So I try to do what they ask. I use the same introduction, employ the same outline, tell the same stories, and even repeat the same joke or two in the warm-up phase of the talk.

I did this for the eleventh time just a week ago.

My presentation is about how a leader handles his occasional moments of failure. Sometimes I start by saying that I feel as if I have an earned-doctorate in this subject because there have been more than a few failure-moments over my seven decades of life. Most of them are the simple, everyday failures that don't even deserve a mention in my journal. But I go on to admit to the audience that there have been some bad experiences of seismic magnitude.

Friday, April 17, 2009

Your Hidden Curriculum

What do people learn from you about the Christian life? Sometimes it's what you never intended to teach.

John Ortberg | posted 4/09/2009

A newsletter from the editors of Leadership Journal
Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Hi, friend:

An elder statesman once told me: "If you try to imitate someone who's really good at something, you'll probably imitate the wrong thing." His example:

students of a powerful New York preacher tended to preach with their pulpit robes open, just as their mentor did. But an open pulpit robe was certainly not what made that urban preacher's sermons so powerful. The students were imitating the wrong thing.

John Ortberg points out that all of us who lead, whether teachers or preachers or leaders of any sort, have both a formal curriculum (what we intend to communicate) and a hidden curriculum (what we don't realize we're communicating). Sometimes our hidden curriculum reinforces our formal curriculum, but other times it undermines what we intend to get across. You'll recognize more of the larger picture in Ortberg's article, Your Hidden Curriculum.

Read more at LeadershipJournal.net

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

10 symptoms you should not ignore
AN APPLE A DAY By TYRONE M. REYES, M.D. Updated March 17, 2009 12:00 AM

If you met an accident and were bleeding heavily, you probably wouldn’t think twice about seeking immediate medical care. The same goes if you suddenly doubled over with stomach pain or felt severe pressure or pain in your chest that wouldn’t go away. But what happens when you experience symptoms that don’t seem quite so alarming or are just a bit out of the ordinary?

While you don’t need to rush to the doctor with every unexplained muscle twinge or upset stomach, you also don’t want to ignore symptoms that could lead to early treatment before a condition becomes life-threatening. You’re going to have better outcomes if you seek early treatment. You can’t sit back and assume everything will get better on its own.

Read more at Philstar.com Health and Family

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Earn 500 Bucks a Month
from http://www.earn500bucksamonth.blogspot.com/

This is one of the biggest secret I have to revealed about my freelance work. So get ready!

Earning 500 bucks through freelance work is as easy as 1-2-3. Yes, all you need to do is have the skill, have a client and do the work equals dollars!

Read more at this blog with another review at istorya.net

Monday, February 16, 2009

Romantic Ideas
from All Pro Dad

Call to see if you can pick up anything on the way home from work.

Send a dozen roses: 11 red roses and 1 white one. The note: "You're the only one for me."

On cold mornings warm up her car.

Trace "I love you" on a stick of butter or margarine.

When window shopping, secretly note what she likes, then return later to pick up that something special.

Put a new piece of jewelry in her jewelry box and wait for her to notice it.

Leave written clues that lead her to a restaurant where you are waiting for her.

Give her your jacket when she is chilly.

Always pull out her chair at dinner.

Get tickets for an event and keep it a secret until the day arrives.

Hide a greeting card under her pillow.

Slip a little love note into her wallet.

Serve breakfast in bed using your finest china and crystal.

While you are both out, have a friend deliver a gourmet dinner to your home.

Place a rose under the car's windshield wiper.

Take a hot air balloon ride.

On a frosty winter morning, scrape the ice off her car windshield.

Bake homemade cookies together.

Plan a three-day weekend together.

Monday, February 09, 2009

100+ Effective ways for Family members to save Money
Posted by Angel Cuala in Monday, September 8th 2008

There are a lot of ways to save money for the whole family, and most of them are practical and easy to follow. However, it is within ourselves who will make decisions if we will follow them or not. Below is a good list according to applicable categories such as Food, Education, Shopping and others, which I have compiled for easier reading. Most of them are now being practiced by my family.

Just remember that these were created to save money, and not to sacrifice the necessities of the family.

General

1 Make a strict budget and stick with it. Discipline your self.
2 Save time in everything you do. The time you save can be spent to earn more money.
3 Plan your family according to your income and status.
4 Manage your debt. Do not add loan in payment of another loan.
5 Learn the do-it-yourself activities like washing your car, cutting your hair, and minor troubleshooting of appliances.
6 Do not be excited with insurance programs. Have enough time to choose them before joining.
7 Do not join the lottery. Do not take chances on luck and work harder instead.
8 Save at least 10% of your earning no matter what happens. Cut it off it automatically every payday and consider it as part of your tax.
9 Coins are heavy on the pocket, so keep them at home and let them grow.
10 Make a list of your daily expenses, make a graph and analyze it during weekends. You will know which one you should cut off.
11 Learn the art of banking, and how to choose the best bank for you.
12 Watch out for identity thieves. Protect your ATM cards, and memorize your PIN instead of writing it.
13 To avoid transaction fees, do not withdraw money using ATM card to machines that do not belong to your network group.
14 Train your children to save energy which can be converted to money.
15 Teach your children all that you have learned. The earlier you do it, the better.
16 Live a simple life. Do not spend more than what you earn.
17 Identify your NEEDS and separate your WANTS. They are the two different things at home.

Wednesday, January 07, 2009

Look to the Ant
by Gary Klingsporn

Ants busy themselves with tiny tasks to accomplish big jobs. They plan ahead. They store food all summer. They prepare for winter long before winter arrives. To the would-be loafer or procrastinator, the ancient Wisdom teachers said, "Look to the daily diligence and persistence of the ant!"

These proverbs speak to my lifelong struggle with procrastination. I'm not lazy; I'm a perfectionist. I delay tasks, especially creative ones, to think through every detail, carefully consider every option. When I finally sit down to a project or decision, I want to feel that it's my best work.

Tuesday, January 06, 2009

Encryption top IT security initiative in 2009
Jan 06, 2009
By Ellen Messmer

IT security budgets are increasing in 2009 to consume 12.6% of the entire IT operating budget, up from 11.7% in 2008, according to Forrester Research's survey of 942 IT and security managers in North America and Europe.

Read more at Network World Asia

DIY Tuesday: Make bad audio sound better with Audacity
by Ralph HogaboomOctober 9th, 2007

Audacity is a free, Mac/Windows/Linux audio editor. It does a great job cleaning up bad audio sounds in a relatively straightforward manner. It’s certainly worth having around and knowing a few tricks with it. And it can help your media projects sound better. Here’s how.

Read more at youmakemedia.com

Benjie's Collection