Book Title: Dancing on the Glass Ceiling - Tap into your true strengths, Activate your vision and Get what you really want out of your career
Author: Candy Deemer and Nancy Fredricks
Year written/published: 2003
Book Source: Google Books, Library
Summary: Feminine Leaderhip at wor
Some extracts:

I love this entry form XKCD!!!!!

Book Title: Nice Girls don’t get the corner Office - 101 unconscious mistakes women make that sabotage their careers
Author: Lois P. Frankel
Year written/published: 2004
Book Source: Google Books, Library
Some extracts:

what’s a girl to do?

• give yourself permission to move from girlhood to womanhood
• visualise yourself as you want to be
• talk back to the fearful voice inside your head
• Surround yourself with a Plexiglas shield
• Create the word on the street
• recognise resistance and put a name to it
• ask for feedback
• don’t aim for perfection

Some mistakes: How you play the game

• working hard
• being naive
• waiting to be given what you want
• avoiding office politics - Work through political situations in a way that allows others to see you as a problem solver, not a problem
• protecting jerks - distance yourself from jerks. Don’t be found guilty by association
• not understanding the needs of your constituents

• acting like a man
• sharing too much personal information
• decorating your office like your own living room - Yes, your office or work space can be a reflection of who you are and what’s important to you… By emphasising your feminity, you diminish your credibility
• being financially insecured

• putting work ahead of your personal life
• prematurely abondoning your career goals - Success breeds success. Eleanor Roosevelt said, You game courage and confidence from doing the things you think you cannot do.” The problem encountered by many women is that they often allow others to sidetrack them form their early dreams and career goals.
• ignoring the importance of network relationships: your team leader’s colleagues, senior management, your team leader, clients/customers, vendors, your staff
• striving for perfection

Book Title: The Last Lecture
Author: Randy Pausch
Year written/published: 2008
Book Source: Google Books
Summary: Life stories… head fakes from Randy Pausch
My Comments: I loved Randy’s funky funny wise words. He’s an inspiration… 
Some extracts:

For his kids…

These lectures are routinely videotaped. I knew what I was doing that day. Under the ruse of giving an academic lecture, I was trying to put myself in a bottle that would one day wash up on beach for my children. Ir I wer a painter, I would have painted for them. If I were a musician, I would have composed music. But I am lecturer. So I lectured.

painting the bedrooms…

Anybody out there who is a parent, if your kids want to paint their bedrooms, as a favour to me, let them do it. It’ll be OK. Don’t worry about the resale value on the house. I don’t know how many more time I will get to visit my childhood home. But it is a gift every time I go there. I still sleep in that bunk bed my father built, I look at those crazy walls, I think about my parents allowing me to paint, and I fall asleep feeling lucky and pleased.

self esteem for kids…

There’s a lot of talk these days about giving children self-esteem. It’s not something you can give, it’s something they have to build. Coach Graham worked on a no-coddling zone. Self-esteem? He knew there was really only one way to teach kids how to develop it: You give them something they can’t do, theywork hard until they find they can do it, and you just keep repeating the process.

head fake…

The second kind of head fake is the really important one - the one that teaches people things they don’t realise they’re learning until well into the process. If you’re a head fake specialist, your hidden objective is to get them to learn something you want them to learn. That kind of head fake learning is absolutely vital.

Detection of cancer…

Leaving the doctor’s office, I thought about what I;d said to Jai in the water park in the after glow of the speed slide. “Even if the scan results are bad tomorrow,” I had told her, “I just want you to know that it feels great to be alive, and to be here today, alive with you. Whatever news we get about the scans, I’m not going to die when we hear it. I won’t die the next next day, or the day after that, or the day after that. So today, right now, well this is a wonderful day. And I want you to know how much I’m enjoying it. ”

I thought about that, and about Jai’s smile. I knew then. THat’s the way the rest of my life would need to be lived.

the bricks of life…

The walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people… Brick walls are there for a reason. They give us a chance to show how badly we want something.

managing time…

• Time must be explicitly managed, like money.
• You cna always change your pan, but only if you have one.
• Ask yourself: Are you spending your time on the right things?
• Develop a good filing system.
• Rethink the telelphone
• delegate
• take a time out

I understand the arguments about how billions of dolalrs spent to put men on the moon could have bene used to fight poverty on Earth. But, look, I’m a scientist who sees inspiration as the ultimate took for doing good.

When you use money to fight poverty, i can be of a great value, but too often you’re working at the margins. When you are putting people on the moon, you’re inspiring all of us to achive the max human potential, which is how out greatest problems will eventually be solved. Give yourself permission to dream. 

Book Title: 168 Feng Shui Ways to Energise your Life
Author: Lillian Too
Year written/published: 2007
Book Source: Library
My Comments: My first reading on Feng Shui… very interesting take on objects and surroundings and how they affect the chi (energy) around us.
Some extracts:

Killing cycle of the elements:

• wood kills earth
• earth kills water
• water kills fire
• fire kills metal
• metal kills wood

Having sad or hostile images on the walls of your home or office can bring misfortune. … These emanate hostile chi very quickly.

Watching Moujan in Popsiren for this episode reminds me of another Guide for Women - Good Wife’s Guide from the 1950s. How times have changed! The extract goes something like this… 

Have dinner ready: 

Plan ahead, even the night before, to have a delicious meal ready for your husband. This is a way of letting him know that you have been thinking about him and are concerned about his needs. Most men are hungry when they come home, and the prospect of a good meal is part of this warm welcome needed.

Prepare yourself:

Take 15 minutes to rest so that you’ll be refreshed when he arrives. Touch up your makeup, put a ribbon in your hair and be fresh-looking. He has just been with a lot of work-weary people. Be a little gay and a little more interesting. His boring day may need a lift.

Clear away the clutter:

Make one last trip through the main part of the house just before your husband arrives gathering up school books, toys, paper, etc. Then run a dust cloth over the tables. Light a candle. Your husband will feel he has reached a haven of rest and order, and it will give you a lift, too.

Prepare the children:

Take a few minutes to wash the children’s hands and faces (if they are small), comb their hair, and if necessary, change their clothes. They are little treasures and he would like to see them playing the part.

Minimise all noise:

At the time of his arrival, eliminate all noise of the washer, dryer, dishwasher or vacuum. Try to encourage the children to be quiet. Better yet, have them in bed.

Don’t Complain:

Don’t greet him with problems or complaints or complain if he’s late for dinner. Just count this as minor compared to what he might have gone through that day. Speak in a low, soft soothing and pleasant voice.

Listen to him:

You may have a dozen things to tell him - the moment of his arrival is not the time. Let him talk first.

Make the evening his:

Have him lean back in a comfortable chair or suggest he lie down in the bedroom.

Have a cool or warm drink ready for him. Arrange his pillow and offer to take off his shoes. Never complain if he does not take you out to dinner or to other places of entertainment. Instead, try to understand his world of strain and pressure, his need to be home and relax.

Modern lenses use a standard f-stop scale, which is an approximate of the powers of square-root 2:

f/1, f/1.4, f/2, f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, f/8, f/11,f/16, f/22, f/32, f/45, f/64, f/90, f/128, etc.

typical one-half-stop f-number scale

• f/1.0
• f/1.2
• f/1.4
• f /1.7
• f/2
• f/2.4
• f/2.8
• f/3.3
• f/4
• f/4.8
• f/5.6
• f/6.7
• f/8
• f/9.5
• f/11
• f/13
• f/16
• f/19
• f/22

Typical one-third-stop f-number scale

• f/1.0
• f/1.1
• f/1.2
• f/1.4
• f/1.6
• f/1.8
• f/2
• f/2.2
• f/2.5
• f/2.8
• f/3.3
• f/3.5
• f/4
• f/4.5
• f/5.0
• f/5.6
• f/6.3
• f/7.1
• f/8
• f/9
• f/10
• f/11
• f/13
• f/14
• f/16
• f/18
• f/20
• f/22

Book Title: The 4-hour workweek- Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere and Join the New Rich
Author: Timothy Ferriss
Year written/published: 2007
Book Source: Google Books, Library
Contents page:

1. First and Foremost
2. Step 1: D is for Definition
3. Step 2: E is for Elimination
4. Step 3: A is for Automation
5. Step 4: L is for Liberation

Some quotations:

Whenever you find yourself on the side on the amjority, it is time to pause and reflect
~Mark Twain

Anyone who lives within their means suffers form a lack of imagination
~ Oscar WIlde

Anexpert is a person who has made all the msitakes that can be made in a very narrow filed
~Niels Bohr

Reality is merely an Illusion, albeit a very persistent one
~Albert Einstein

Everything popular is wrong
~Oscar Wilde, THe Importance of being Earnest

Many a false step was made by standing still
~Fortune Cookie

Named must your fear be before banish it you can
~Yoda, Star Wars

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
~George Bernard Shaw

perfection is not when there is no more to add, but no more to take away
~Antione de Saint-Exupery

There are many things of which a wise man wish to be ignorant.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

A man is rich in proportion ot the number of things he can afford to let alone
~Henry David Thoreau 

Some extracts:

Top 13 New Rich mistakes…

1. Losing sight of dreams and falling into work for work’s sake
2. micromanaging and emailing to fill time
3. handling problems your outsourcers or co-workers can handle
4. Helping outsourcers or co-workers with the same problem more than once, or with non-crisis problems.
5. Chasing customers, particularly unqualified or international prospects, when you have sufficient cash flow to finance your non-financial pursuits
6. answering email that willnot result in a sale or that cna be answered by a FAW/auto-responder
7. working where you live, sleep, or should relax
8. Not performing a thorough 80/20 analysis every 2 - 4 weeks for your business and personal life
9. Striving for endless perfection rather than great or simply good enogh, whether in your personal or professional life
10. blowing a minutiae and small problems out of proportion as an excuse to work
11. Making non-time-sensitive issues urgent in order to justify work
12. Viewing one product, job, or project as the end-all and be-all of your existence.
13. Ignoring the social rewards of life

Book Title: Understanding Exposure - How to shoot great photographs with a film or digital camera
Author: Bryan Peterson
Year written/published: 2004
Book Source: Google Books, Library
Summary: 
My Comments: being armed with a new digital camera, i have found the greatest pleasure comes in the ultimate control of the exposure for each photo we take… Bryan Peterson has been really clear in his explanation. It has been an enjoyable read. I would recommend this book to anyone with a DSLR!
Contents page: 

1. Defining Exposure
2. Aperture
3. Shutter Speed
4. Light
5. Special Techniques and filters
6. film vs digital

Some extracts:

heart of exposure…

aperture, shutter speed and ISO (film/digital sensor) is the heart of every exposure.

6 possible correct exposures vs one creative exposure…

That’s 6 possible correct exposures for the scene - 6 possible combinations of aperture and shutter speed that will all result in exactly the same exposure. … Clearly a picture of crashing surf taken at f/4 and 1/500 sec would capture action stopping detail of the surf as it hits the rocks; a correct exposure using f/22 at 1/15 sec would capture less action stopping detail and show the surf as a far more fluid and wispy, somewhat angelic element.

The creative appraoch toward exposure will reap countless rewards if you get the habit of looking at a scene and determining of aperture and shutter speed will render the most dynamic and creative exposure for that subject.

depth of field and aperture…

… at wide open aperture of f/4, the sunflower is isolated - in effect, it’s all alone - but at f/16, due to increase in the dpeth of field, it has quite a lot of (background) company.

story-telling composition… focusing all objects from near to far…

… relies on maximum depth of field, you would first choose to set your aperture to f/22 and then align distance above your distane-setting mark on the lens. 

“who cares?” apertures..

apertures from f/8 to f/11 are often the sharpest and offer the greatest contrast in exposure. 

shutter priority…

there are 2 situations in which you should make the shutter speed your first priority: when you find the scene offers motion or action opportunities, or when you find yourself shooting in low light wihtout tripod.

freezing any moving object…

when you want to freeze any moving object, you need to consider 3 factors: the distance between you and the subject, the direction in which the subject is moving and your lens of choice.

panning….

panning is a technique photographers use in which they deliberately move the camera parallel to - and at the same speed as the action.Most often, slow shutter speeds are called for panning, i.e. form 1/60 sec. down to 1/8 sec.

backlight…

3 preliminary lighting conditions - front lighting, side lighting and back-lighting.

Backlight is favoured by experienced landscape shooters, as they seek out subjects that by their very nature are somewhat transparent: leaves, seed heads, dew drops, spider webs to name a few. Backlight always provides a few exposure options: you can either silhoutte the subject against the strong backlight, or meter for the light that’s usually on the opposite side of the backlight, or meter for the light that’s illuminating the somewhat transparent subject.

Book Title: The Art of War for women - Sun Tzu’s ancient strategies and wisdom for winning at work
Author: Ching-Ning Chu
Year written/published:
Book Source: Google Books, Library
My Comments: I liked this book… short and to-the-point! Very applicable!
Contents page:

1. Ji (Planning): The elements of Strategy
2. Doing Battle: Speedy Victory
3. Strategy: Know thyself and Others
4. Disposition: Win First, Then Fight
5. Momentum: Using timing to generate momentum
6. Real and Unreal: Illusion is the Other side of Reality
7. Conflict: Don’t show you hand
8. Imagination: See things no one has seen
9. Managing the troops: The principles of management
10. Terrain: Move according to your environment
11. 9 Battlegrounds: Be more competitive by doing less
12. Attack by Fire: Fireproofing yourself
13. Espionage

Book Title: Awaken the Giant WIthin: How to take immediate control of your mental, emotional, physical and financial destiny
Author: Anthony Robbins
Year written/published: 1991
Book Source: Google Books, Library
Some quotations:

Man is born to live and not to prepare to live
 ~Boris Pasternak

I am not discouraged because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward
~Thomas Edison 

We are what and where we are because we have first imagined it
~Donald Curtis 

When written in Chinese, the word ‘crisis’ is composed of 2 characters - one represents danger and the other represents opportunity
~John F. Kennedy 

Some extracts:

5 mastery:

1. Emotional mastery
2. physical amsteru
3. relationship mastery
4. financial mastery
5. time mastery

3 decisiosn that contorl your destiny are:

1. your decisions about what to focus on
2. your decisions about what things mean to you
3. you decisions about what to do to create the results you desire

Book Title: The art of war
Author: Sun Tzu
Year written: 5th BC
Book Source: Google Books, Library
Summary: Millitary strategies
My Comments: Excellent book. I love books that transcend time and generations to hold deep meaning and significance even till today and this is definitely one of them. Although i am not enagaged in any millitary executions, I have read the ‘enemy’ as my own hidden devils and it gave me even more powerful insights. At the end of the day, the most ferocious enemies lay only within ourselves. This book has relevance in todays’ modern era in the fields of business, parenting, personal and of course millitary.
Contents page:

1. Laying Plans
2. Waging War
3. Attacks by Stratagem
4. Tactical Dispositions
5. Energy
6. Weak Points and Strong
7. Manoevering
8. Variation of Tactics
9. The army on the march
10. Terrain
11. The nine situations
12. The Attack by Fire
13. The use of Spies

Some Quotations:

The supreme act of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting

Know your enemy, know yourself and you can fight a hundred battles without disaster

The purpose of war is peace.

In peace prepare for war, in war prepare for peace.

He who wishes to fight must first count the cost

He who only sees the obvious, wins his battles with difficulty; he who looks below the surface of things, wins with ease.

Humble words and increased preperations are signs that the enemy is about to advance. Violent language and driving forward as if to attack are signs that he will retreat.

Some extracts:

The art of war is governed by 5 constant factors:

1. Moral Law
2. heaven
3. Earth
4. The Commander
5. Method and Discipline

Only one who knows the disastrous effects of a long war can realise the supreme importance of rapidity in bringing it to a close.

It if the rule in war, if our forces are 10 tk the enemy’s 1, to surround him; if 5 to 1, to attack him; if twice as numerous, to divide our army into 2. If equally matched, we can offer battle with the generals; if slightly inferioir, we can void the enemy; if quite unequal in every way, we can flee from him.

A kingdom should not be governed from without, an army should not be directed from within

Find and Replace function is a powerful tool. It can cut down many repeated replacement processes in word processing. Some replacements need not be character. For example, New Line Breaks or Spaces can also be replace.

In MS Word, I found this useful:

Edit -> Replace -> More -> Special -> Paragraph Mark -> Replace With: <space>

I have been wanting to experiment with web designs et al and it is better to expriment on our desktop first before putting it up in the internet. Setting up a local server is really easy. This post shows how to set up a local server with wordpress engine with xampp.

So, while the local folders/roots folder will be in C:\xampplite\htdocs, when the internet browser is opened, the address will be C:\localhost\. E.g. C:\xampplite\htdocs\wordpress and in the browser: C:\localhost\wordpress.

I found this really funny and strangely truely…

In the wide world of dating, there are many options. Do you go for the flashy guy with the smooth smile, or the dude in the corner typing away on his laptop? The following are reasons why I think my fellow females should pay more attention to the quiet geeks and nerds, and less attention to the flashy boys. 

1.) While geeks and nerds may be awkward, they’re well-meaning 9 out of 10 times. That smooth dude with the sly grin and the spider hands? Wonder what HIS intentions are… plus, I’ve never had a geek guy not call me when he said he would. Score major points THERE. 

2.) They’re useful. In this tech-savvy world, it’s great to have a b/f who can make your laptop, desktop, and just about anything else that plugs into a wall behave itself. 

3.) They’re more romantic than they’re given credit for. Ok true, their idea of romance might be to make up a spiffy web-page with all the reasons why they love you, with links to pics of you and sonnets and such… but hey. It lasts longer than flowers, plus you can show your friends. 

4.) Due to their neglected status, there are plenty to choose from. You like ‘em tall and slender? There are plenty of geeks/nerds who are. You like ‘em smaller with more meat on their bones? Got that too. 

5.) They’ve got brains. Come on now, how can intelligence be a bad thing? 

6.) Most are quite good at remembering dates. Like birthdates and such, especially if they know it’ll make you happy. Due again to their neglected status, they’re more attentive than guys who “have more options”. Plus, with all that down time without a steady girlfriend, they’ll likely have mental lists of all the things they’d love to do once they GOT a girlfriend. 

7.) Sex. Yep. Sex. I’m not really familiar with this myself, but I’ve friends who’ve been intimate with geek guys and it’s raves all around. They say a virgin wrote the Kama Sutra… all that time thinking about sex, imagining sex, dreaming about sex, (they are male after all) coupled with a desire to make you happy? Use your imagination. 

8.) They’re relatively low-maintenance. Most can be fueled on pizza, Twinkies and Mt Dew. No complicated dinners needed here, so if you’re not the best cook, eh. Can you order a pizza? 

9.) Most frequent bars as often as slugs frequent salt mines. You won’t have to worry much about your geek guy getting his “groove” on with club hotties because, frankly, he’ll be too busy rooting around under his computer wondering where that spare cable went. You won’t have to worry about him flirting with other women because, 9 out of 10 times, he’ll zip right by them in a perfect b-line towards the nearest electronics store. I’ve seen this happen. 

Me: “Eww. Victoria Secret’s Models… They’re so skinny. How is that feminine? You can see her ribs!” 
Geek Guy: “ooooooo…” 
Me: “Hey!” *notices he is staring lustfully towards the computer store* 
Geek Guy: “What?” 
Me: “Never mind…” 

10.) Although he may not want to go to every outing with you, you can arrange swaps, as in, you’ll go to his Gamer Con dressed as an elf princess if he’ll take you to the ballet. Plus, if he doesn’t want to go someplace with you, you won’t have to worry much about what he’s up to. You’ll probably come home to find him asleep on his keyboard in a sea of Mt. Dew cans with code blinking from the screen. It’s ok. He’s used to this. Just toss a blanket over him and turn out the light. 

11.) His friends aren’t jerks. I can’t stress this enough. You’ll more likely get “Omg! A GIRL!! Can I see?!” than “Hey hot stuff back that ass up here and let me get some grub on…” They’re awkward geeks too and will, 9 times out of 10, treat you with the utmost respect and, more than likely, a note of awe. A cute girl picked one of their clan to date? It could happen to them! Hope! Drag some of your single girlfriends over, open up a pack of Mt. Dew, crack open the DnD set and get working. Nothing impresses geek guys more than a girl who can hack-n-slash (well ok maybe if she can code… a geek can dream). 

12.) They’re rarely if ever possessive. They trust you, so you can be yourself around them. You like to walk around the house in a ratty t-shirt for comfort? He won’t care. He does too! They won’t get pissy if you don’t wear make-up or don’t want to bother primping your hair. If you gain a few pounds, they won’t try their best to make you feel like crap. 

13.) They’re usually very well educated. Physics majors and the like. See #5. You won’t have to listen to him blathering on about his car (ok maybe a little), he’ll have loads of other interesting things to talk about. Politics, world events, how much the chicken burgers down at the local place rock, so long as you douse them in hot sauce… 

14.) You’ll almost never have to hear, “Yaw dawg whazzap!!” plop out of their mouths. Unless it’s in jest. They spell properly, use correct punctuation, and are able to tell the difference between the toilet and the floor. They almost never get “wasted”, so you won’t have to worry about coming home to find him and his friends passed out on the floor amidst a pile of beer bottles. Mt. Dew cans, perhaps… 

15.) And the final reason why geeks and nerds make great boyfriends: They actually give a damn about you. Not how you look (though that’s a plus), not how skinny you are, not how much make-up you primp yourself up with, but they like you for you. That kind of thing lasts longer than “DaMN baby you got a fine ass!!!” Believe me.

How should we tackle sentences with the following structure: “If X, then Y”

This simple logic statement can be seen as 2 parts:

1. X is the hypothesis/premise/evidence
2. Y is the conclusion

Little People -  A tiny street art project.

I just love art works that doesn’t look lke the conventional type all wrapped up and put up for display. Little People by Slinkachu is one such project! How cute is that!

In Grammar, Parallelism is a balance of 2 or more similar words, phrases and structures. For example : 

• Unbalanced - The hurricane not only destroyed the fishing fleet but also the homes of the fishermen.
• Parallel - The hurricane destroyed not only the fishing fleet but also the homes of the fishermen.

Common connectors to use with parallel structures include:

• and
• or
• both … and …
• either… or
• neither… nor
• not only… but also
• not only for… but also for…
• from… to….
• prefer… to ….
• … not the same as …
• … is same as …

I just downloaded the Google Chrome - the web browser from Google. The immediately observation was its SPEED and minimalist clean interface! I’m waiting for more plugins and features… till then, enjoy the Google Chrome story.

Book Title: Creative Utopia - 12 ways to realise total creativity
Author: Theo Stephan Williams
Year written/published: 2002
Book Source: Google Books, Library
Contents page:

1. Setting Goals for Success
2. Keeping a Journal
3. Becoming wireless in a wireful society
4. Feng Shui
5. Making you own Mandala
6. Thinking out of the Proverbial Box
7. Seeing COlour differently
8. Putting the storm into Brainstorm
9. Fateful Encounters
10. Meditation
11. Intuitive Thinking as a Creative Pathway
12. Playing the Instruments

Some extracts:

Fundamental applications of Feng shui:

1. Clear away all clutter
2. Never face a corner or a wall
3. Add plants, grouping them in 3s whenever possible
4. Arrange the furniture in your space so that the flow is free, you can walk around everything
5. Use wind chimes outdoors where you can hear them occasionally attract strong, healthful chi
6. Choose artwork accessories for your office that appeal to you personally
7. Fish, bird, fountains

thinking out of the proverbial box

Take off your watch for a day. Listen to classical music if you’re used to alternative rock. Read the newspaper if you ever don’t. Go hear live jazz if you don’t like it. … …  Free yourself u[ for one day this month and don’t tell anybody

becoming wireless…

if you haven’t a clue as to your wireful versus wireless tendencies it’s probably because you have become completely accustomed to being reactive.

Journalling…

Journalling can and should take a multitude of shapes and colours, literally. Expriment with unique ways of archiving your thoughts. Your reward will become opportunities quite frequently, openings of mind and insight that you had never perceived before.