My Desktop View

This easy tag comes from Lemonjude, asking to show my my desktop view. Well, since I am working at the moment, so I'll show all of you my desktop view at my workplace hehehe....

As you can see, it is rather blant. Sigh... what to do. It's an office PC and we are not allow to change anything to the desktop picture. In the middle of my office desktop is the company E-Telephone directory. And all the icons you see at the left side are my working documents and some are my personal documents. Below there, at the task bar there are a few programmes running. I am very particular of how those programme is arranged on my task bar. All the time I will open my Microsoft Outlook e-mail programme first (so that it is always on the left most place), then the second one after my Outlook is mrStudio programme where I do all my programming work. After that would be a few Internet Explorer which I open for browsing other website like PPP or friend's blog (in no particular order). Occasionally there would be some msn pop up window chatting with friends or colleagues while working hehehe....

Now do share with me what you desktop looks like...
Da Wheel of Life, Everlyn, YL, rin-en, David

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My Desktop Free View Instruction:

A. Upon receiving this tag, immediately perform a screen capture of your desktop.It is best that no icons be deleted before the screen capture so as to add to the element of fun. You can do a screen capture by:

[1] Going to your desktop and pressing the Print Scrn key (located on the right side of the F12 key).
[2] Open a graphics program (like Picture Manager, Paint, or Photoshop) and do a Paste (CTRL + V).
[3] If you wish, you can “edit” the image, before saving it.

B. Post the picture in your blog. You can also give a short explanation on the look of your desktop just below it if you want. You can explain why you preferred such look or why is it full of icons. Things like that.

C. Tag five of your friends and ask them to give you a Free View of their desktop as well.

D. Add your name to this list of Free Viewers with a link pointing directly to your Desktop Free View post to promote it to succeeding participants.

People who have already pimped their desktop:
iRonnie - I Set No Corner Thess - Thesserie Rebecca - Skippy Heart Knoizki - A Dialogue With K, Beng - Kauderwelch, Vanidosa Marie, , Vanidosa at blogspot , MyGoodFinds with KK, Dom Lawrence, Rebecca, BluePanjeet, ROSE , KNOIZKI, SARDONICNELL, Girlie the hipncoolmomma, Happy Family with Jacelyn, Snoopy and Woodstock with Lemonjude, Work desktop with Amidrin,

Ski Holiday in Europe

Watching English movies especially during Christmas time has always been a great amusement for me because I can usually see nice holiday scenery with white snow covering a picturesque movie backdrop. I also enjoys watching characters in the movie where people played with snow or go skiing as a holiday retreat. We do not have snow in our country but it is a nice feeling imagining how it is like. I have heard of the amount of fun you will get by going for ski holiday in Europe countries. There are places like Courchevel, France or St Anton, Austria or Verbier, Switzerland among others that you can choose from. It would be nice if can go for Luxury Skiing holidays with family and friends. Searching through the internet, you can find many website offering luxury ski chalets for your stay in your favourite skiing destinations. If you plan to go to Meribel, France for holiday, you can easily find a nice luxury ski chalets in Meribel at the SuperTravel website.

Disclosure Policy

Discrimations!!!

I know there are discriminations practically everywhere in the world. Since in my childhood years, I have always avoid being discriminated whenever I could. During schooling years, we usually will experience or witness any form of discriminations in school. It is the place where we most probably learn what it means to be discriminated. In Malaysia, Malay teachers favours Malay students, Chinese teachers favours Chinese students and Indian teachers favours Indian students hence theachers may give a better grades for students in their same race and the rest got discriminated just because they are in a different race. This is usually the case. If it is not severe, we might not notice it that much because it happens all the time. When we were young and innocent, we tend to accept the fact of what's happening although we know discriminations is not right.

I think most of us had our own experience of being discriminated if not in adult life, then it must be from our childhood life whether we can still remember it or not. Sad to say, it has become a part and parcel of life. Discrimating society exist when we were young and it was being brought up when we were older. It happens in school and it happens at the work place. Once my mom told me about her colleague who is a non-malay top senior management staff at her office got pulled out from whatever ideas he gave during their meetings. He is the one who always gave all those brilliant ideas in the meeting until one day, the CEO called him to his office. The CEO told him that he do not have to say all his ideas out during meetings because he is a non-malay and no one will listen or take any action to consider implementing his ideas even though it is good and relevant. That's what the CEO told the senior top management level personel who is my mom's colleague. Although my mom's colleague is highly qualified in his field of specialties and has the right accademic qualifications, the position he held there at the public company is always limited. This is DISCRIMINATION!!! If you are a Malaysian, I think you would have guessed what race the CEO of the company is by now.

I remember when I was in primary school, some of my friends who are smarter will somehow discriminate those students who are less intelligent in the "last grade class" by not being friends with them and calling them names. And those rich or famous group of friends will always group up together and if they have any activities, they will exclude out those not in their "group". As childred learns from their surroundings and follow the example of the adult people, do we want to instill this kind of discriminating ways of living into our children's mind? The worst thing is sometimes discrimination even happens in our own home. If you, as a parent portray an act of discrimination to your own children, what a shame.... and it's truly a sad, sad thing to know. If you discriminates others, one day you'll be discriminated too. What goes around usually comes around.

Online Bidding Game

Long, long time ago people goes to auction event to buy or sell goods by offering them up through bidding process. The winning bidder (which bid the highest price) will be the one able to purchase the bided item from the seller who put the item on auction. It is believed that auction event has already started since 500 B.C.

Bidding for items has already long evolved from the old fashion ways of going to the auction house to bidding for items online. No matter which one you goes to, all of them requires you to be the highest bidder to win. And if you win, you'll have to pay the exact amount of money that you have bided.

For those who can't afford any of those normal bidding rule where highest bider wins, here's a good news for you. There's a website called Bid4Prizes who hosted an online bidding site where the lowest unique bider will win. Yes, it works the other way round. Not the highest bid wins but the lowest unique bid wins. It is text based reverse-auction game and it is very user-friendly. You can bid for any prizes that you like and if you win, you do not need to pay for anything. They will also ship it over to you free. It's like getting free gifts. Prizes range from, Apple I-Phone’s, HDTV’s, Designer Bags, SCION XB’s to Cash Prize. If you like Sweepstake, then you'll surely like this bidding game much more because it's easy, simple and fun.

The Age That I Wish To Go Back To

I wish to go back to the time where I am just 22 years old. Why I choose this age? Well, because at this age, I would not be too young and not too old to do anything I want. At this age is were I had already finished all the horrible exams and it is the year that I do not need to go for anymore schooling because I have just gotten my Degree (not intend to do any further studies anymore). I love the feeling of freedom and care-free feeling I felt back then.

Another reason why I choose to be at age 22 again is because during that time it was the time where I have just started venturing into working adult world. It was scary and I wish I had more confidence in myself to choose a good career back then. I had a good career now but I wish I have started it earlier so maybe I could have found a much better pay job by now.

At age 22 is also where I have started doing a lot of mistakes in life, in terms of career choice, relationship and spiritual walk with God. There are a lot of wrong turn started coming into my life at that age. Most people choose to go back to their most happy times of their life. But for me, I choose to go back to the time where is the starting point of things went wrong in my life because I wish to be able to change the way it was. Anyhow, I believe everything are God's sovereign plan and He has a reason for everything happen the way it is. Without trial and errors, how can we become a better person eh?

Now I would like my friends to share theirs:
Judy
rin-en
Colleen
First Love
In His Time

******************Start copy************************
Instructions:
Title: The Age That I Wish To Go Back To
Requirement: Write about the one age that you wish to go back to and why?
Tag Mode: 5 blogger
1st - You leave their blog and post link and add to the list below.
2nd - Let the blogger you want to tag know they been tagged by comment in their blog or etc.

The Age that they Wish to Go Back to:
Amidrin wish to go back to age 22 to correct back some mistakes in life.
Emila wish to go back to the age of 7 to live that precious moments again .
Mariuca wish to go back to age 14 to forget her current sorrows.

Tequila - The new Vodka!!!

Tequila is one of the many favourite alcoholic drinks around the world. As I know, it is also known to be a very versatile drink where you can mix around with any other beverages to create your own special cocktail drinks. Have you ever heard of Voodoo Tiki Tequila? This is also something new that I've heard of. Sometimes it is called Voodoo Martiki. It's the "in" crowd sipping. There are 10 flavours to choose from. If you like to collect nice designed bottle, this 10 nicely designed bottles are what you need to add into your collections. There are many fun things to read and contest happening by looking through at their website. Come find it out yourself at voodotiki.com

Food for health problem prevention

Here are a list of useful tips and information for your reference on how you can prevent certain common health problems:-

Headaches: FISH (PROTEIN)
Eat lots of fish as fish oil helps to prevent headaches. So does ginger which reduces inflammation and pain.

Hayfever: YOGHURT
Eat lots of yoghurt before pollen season

Strokes: TEA
Prevents build-up of fatty deposit on artery walls with regular doses of tea.

Insomnia: HONEY
Use honey as a tranquilizer and as a sedative.

Asthma: ONIONS (RED)
Eating onions helps ease constriction of bronchial tubes.

Arthritis: FISH
Salmon, tuna, mackerel and sardines actually prevent arthritis.

Upset stomoch: BANANAS, GINGER
Bananas will settle an upset stomach. ginger cures morning sickness and nausea.

Bladder infections: CRANBERRY JUICE
High-acid cranberry juice controls harmful bacteria.

Bones problems: PINEAPPLE
Bones fractures and osteoporosis can be prevented by te manganese in pineapple.

PMS: CORNFLAKES
Women can ward off the effects of PMS with cornflakes, which help reduce depression, anxiety & fatigue.

Memory problems: OYSTERS
Oysters help increase your mental functioning by supplying much needed zinc.

Cough: RED PEPPER
A substance similar to that found in cough syrup is found in hot red pepper.

Breast cancer: WHEAT BRAN, CABBAGE
Wheat bran and cabbage help maintain estrogen at healthy levels.

Lung cancer: ORANGE, GREEN VEGETABLES
A good antidote is beta-carotene, a form of Vitamin A found in orange & green vegetables.

Ulcers: CABBAGE
Cabbage contains chemical that help heal both type of ulcers.

Diarrea: APPLES
Crate an apple with its skin. Let it turn brown and eat it to this condition.

Clogged arteries: AVOCADOS
Mono-unsaturated fat in avocados lower cholesterol.

High blood pressure: OLIVE OIL, CELERY
Olive oil has been shown to lower blood pressure. Celery contains a chemical that lowers blood pressure too.

Blood sugar imbalance: BROCCOLI, PEANUTS
The chromium in broccoli and peanuts helps regulate insulin and blood sugar.

Shopping Cart Software

Recently, I have known many peole having their own online business. It is a normal thing now a days, people who holds a full-time working job also has their own business selling things online. Selling your items online is a very easy thing to do compare to selling it using the old conventional ways. If you already have your business website being set up, the last thing you might need to add on is a shopping cart.

A shopping cart on your online business website is an ecommerce software where buyers who wanted to purchase items on sellers website will be able to view and keep track of the list of items sellected during the particular 'shopping online' moment. It's like adding an item into your shopping cart and bring it to the cashier when you were shopping in the suppermarket.

Ashop Commerce is a leading US provider of hosted shopping cart software, that provides a complete solutions for merchants to sell online. They are the award winning shopping cart software provider because they provide good customer service and technical support to their customers. Their software is easy to implement with customizable design without restrictions. Their price are affordable and you will get a total solution on your account and get found on search engines worldwide. You can get a free 10 day trial at Ashop Commerce.

Dinner with Grandma ~ 21-07-07

Last Friday we went out for dinner together with my Grandma (Dad's side). She is here in KL, visiting my aunties and uncles. After work, my brother came and fetch me from Mid Valley and we went to Damansara (to my aunty's house) from there. Both me and my brother wasn't sure of the way and we got lost. With much hassle calling my dad for directions, at last my brother found the condo by himself.

My aunty and uncle was not home yet, so my dad brought us out for dinner at a chinese restaurant somewhere in PJ. There were six of us including my cousins. I've forgotten the name of the restaurant. It serves very nice chinese food. Apparently, Adrienne (we all call her Apple) wanted to have the 'Curry phai kuat' that's why we went to that restaurant in the first place. But the dish were out of stock when we made our order. Hmm... Apple was kind of disappointed. I've never tried 'Curry phai kuat' before and it's one of the restaurant's famous dish.

After dinner, we went back to my aunty's house to play chor tai di and have some fruits for dissert and some delicious soup. When we were about to leave, my anuty and uncle just came home hence we stay there a while longer as my dad and sister were busy chatting there with my aunt. Overall, I enjoyed my evening with my cousins there.

Pictures taken with phone camera, sorry it's a little blurry.

(Left to right) Me, Lydia, Apple, Grandma, Florentina, Yung Han (sitting on the floor)

Me, my dad, grandma, my brother, and Apple

Home Renovation

It is the norm these days when people buy house, they will try to renovate their house here and there to suites their individual taste and needs. If it's not a big renovation, then they would have small renovation like changing their windows or doors for better security. For those people who has the money, they would definately do a big renovation no matter if the house they bought is old or new. If you have alot of money, your home improvements ideas could be the sky's limit.

With a big house area, you can have your own conservatory. A nice little garden room for your family perhaps? Finding a good company to renovate your house is not that easy. If you are looking for the right people to built your conservatory, go to Anglian Home Improvement for a start. They ofer quite an extensive range of things and great ideas for you to renovate you home. They also offers a 10-year guarantee for their customers.

Weired, eerie dream

I had my flu medicine taken before sleep yesterday night. And it really make me groggy this morning. But the good thing is, after taking the medicine I had a really deep sleep at night. I can't even hear my handphone receive a message. I think if a thief breaks in also I won't know. Haha...

Right before my alarm clock sounded, I had a very weired and eerie dream. I dreamt that I was being invited to have dinner at someone's house. Seems like I know the house owner also. There's only a couple living in that house. I was there sitting in their dining table together with another girl which I sort of know her also. So, there's four of us on the dining table. It was a rectangle table with white table top, four plates, four sets of fork & knife, a small varse with flower.

Suddently, out of now where the male house owner brought a few months old baby and put it on the centre on the table. And he was holding a big chopping knife on his right hand. I was stunned~ The baby was so cute lying down there cooing. Then the male house owner slowly cut open the baby's chest and then the baby stated crying and a short seconds later, there were cry no more. I was sitting there watching it happening right in front of me...evern more stunned~ Then my alarm clock rang and it's time for me to wake up for work. Yucks!!! That baby was supposed to be our dinner for that night. Very weired dream I had this morning.

Smorty here I come

Hehehe... I was so happy this morning when I login to my mail box and found the reply from Smorty on my blog approval. I send them for apporval again after being rejected the first time last month because of not having enough Google indexed page to qualified for approval. Yay! My blog is now being approved and I can start earning more extra pocket money for writing sponsored post. A sure add on to my get paid to blog quest!

Well, I am really very eager to join Smorty because they have advertisers who offer quite a good pay for bloggers, so I heard. And mind you, it's quite hard to get approval (especially for new bloggers) from Smorty because of the high quality standard they set. This high quality standard is also good because it will ensure they have good quality bloggers to gain more advertiser's trust and confidence on Smorty. If advertisers are happy, they will give more opportunity to Smorty bloggers and we, as bloggers can have more opportunities to earn some pocket money on top of our own personal interest on having our own blog of course.

Almost luck

Yesterday was really the first day that I really glued on PPP (one of the paid post website) to try my hands on grabbing those high pay opportunity because it was a "special Tuesday opportunity". I started in the morning, there wasn't any when I check, then I started to keep on refreshing the open opportunity page and then only I keep on seeing those $50 per post appearing but it was in grey colour - meaning fully reserved. Sigh... my browser is definately not fast enough to fight for those fast clickers who successfully grabed those special opportunities.

There're not only one $50 post, but I saw at least three yesterday morning. All also I didn't manage to grab any of it. But in between those $50 opportunities, I manage to grab a $5 one. Better than none eh? Mind you, $5 looks like a little but when convert it to MYR, it's not that little anymore. Then later yesterday night, I loging back to PPP and try my luck again on grabbing some oppurtunities and my luck is pretty close... I keep on doing those refresh page and suddently I saw a $50 oppurtunity in white colour!!! Wah... I was so exited and I quickly click in and try to reserve the opportunity. When I click submit reserve, damn browser is so slow... hence I missed on reserving it because others was faster. It has already turned to grey colour - fully reserved! Phew... I was consider quite lucky to at least be able to try it out when those it was available. Well, high pay opportunities is hard to grab, but when I have a higher PR, I would have more higher pay opportunities available for me to write on. "PR, PR faster go up"!!! hehehe.... I've gone crazy...

Being famous

Have you ever dream to be rich and famous like your favorite celebrities? When I was a teenager, young and ambitious, full of spirit and energies, I did admire those young celebrities who have achieved a tremendous lots in such a very young age. When you do have the desire and you Like To Be Famous, it's really no harm at all trying it out. I know a place which can get you started. It's at this website called LikeToBeFamous.com If you don't mind posting your picture there, then go try it out. If talent scout didn't find you, then maybe a rich man finds you there and...... Well, if you are famous, anything could happen.

Prayer answered

In a life full of people surrounding you in your work place, in a shopping mall, in a family gatherings, at public palces or at home, have you ever feel "abandon" or "alone"? I believe everyone had that feeling at least once in their life. No matter how popular or famous you are, or how successfully accomplished your life is, there exist that time of your life where everything shuts out from you, and you feel that you are being left alone by yourself with no one worthy to offer you any comfort that can 'cure' your inner sickness which you suddently felt that way. It's a period of void and varse darkness. Sometimes you do not know what's the cause of all this discomfort you are feeling. Could it possibly be your ranting of ownself because you think you could have done much better while everyone thinks you did great? Could it be your own measure of perfection which are unrealistic that you are trying to impose on yourself or others? Or could it be even not your fault at all because it's your raging hormon level that makes you have an unstable state of mind? Whatever it may be, the best solution to it is to put everything in prayer.

You may be surprised on what a simple thing as a prayer could do. Best still, you will unknowingly realise that your prayer had made changes to your life. Hence, you have already forgotten what is it that had put you through those darkness and lonely feelings you had earlier on. I, myself had experience that of prayers being answered at some point in my life. But just how ungrateful human mind could be, I have forgotten most of it. We all do tend to forget the good things but easily remembered the bad things. This shouldn't be the case if we want to live a happy fruitful life. I personally thinks prayer is the best solution to every problem because we, as human are not perfect. We do not have the right wisdom or the perfect state of mind where we can truly see whatever danger or possible success a head of us. We got to rely on an upper hand to guide and lead us. The best guidance and problem solver that ever live is I believe, is still God the creator.

A few days ago, someone I knew for 5 years just asked me what is the thing that is the most unpleasant about me. Without hesitation, I said my bad temper. And that person ask again "really"? Without hesitation again, I said "yes". We paused for a moment, and that person said "Yeah, you were. Last time when we first known each other, we really gets on each other nerves with your bad temper." I said back, "Well, you are bad tempered too. That's why I was bad tempered to you!" My quick denial... something I should work on changing too. We all have to change it. Anyway, my point is, my bad temper has somehow gone but not completely I think. But it is anyhow very much better than what I was back then. This, I only realise when someone else pointed it out for me, saying that I am a very much better person now, not with my bad temperamental attitude where I used to be. And I started thinking how did I managed to change whereas I had tried countless times but failed in my past. I realised that my bad temper had couses me and other many unpleasant moments and created many other problems in my life. I've got to change it for good. The answer is in my prayer that I had not long ago. I was sincerely praying that God will take away my 'illness' that is aching in my soul so that I could be a better person in His sight. Now I once realise again that my prayer had been answered. I truly thank Him for his unfailing love and He is the only one who does not abandon me when I was in darkness.

Ask, Seek, Knock

7"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door
will be opened to you. 8For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and
to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

Matthew 7:7-8

Another way to increase your website traffic

I fould out there is 7 place where you can add your URL to top 7 search engines to help you increase your website traffic.

Google
Yahoo Site Explorer
MSN Live Search
Alexa
DMOZ
Entire Web
Scrub The Web

Good luck!

How to Increase Google Page Rank

Recently I am really concern about my Google page ranking (most people called it PR). I found that my PR status is really not good at all. Hence, come my search on this topic. I found a lot of website providing explainations on Understanding and Building Google Page Rank, and How to Check, Predict & Increase Google PageRank (PR).

The best tips I found out about to increase Google PR is by this 5 steps:

1. Join forums
2. Submit to search engine directories.
3. Using ezine ads (or newsletters).
4. Creating and publishing articles.
5. Links from related websites.

Read more on the above 5 steps click here.

As a blogger myself, it also useful to know that blogs can have high PR too. And why blogs can have high PR. Also great to know what problems you might have with blogs and PR. All this information I found it here at Global PR Blog Week 1.0

Sigh...I really hope that my PR rank will improve soon.

Blogs Do Make Money Community

This is my official first time joining a blog community. As simple as it may be, I am really noob at setting it up right at the beginning. Haha.... Well, I do not which to explain what silly thing I did, anyway this community I just joined is called "Blogs Do Make Money Community". As the title says, you already know what it means. Everyone is welcome to join if they like.

Click here to join

I love PPP

In another few days time it would be one month since I started on blogging for PPP. By the way, if you don't know what PPP means, it stands for PayPerPost a wonderful place where you can start earning money just by blogging the things you love. There are many sites like PPP, but what I like most about PPP is you get to choose which post/advertisement you like to write about. Unlike many others "pay you to blog" site, PPP has a wide range of advertisers who a willing to pay a lot for you to blog about their offers/items. In another description, PPP provide you the opportunity to write sponsored content.

In just 2 weeks time, I easily earn about US$ 70 and I actually didn't spend much time blogging it. And I only did eight post all together so far. If you are hardworking, you can earn double or triple times more than me. And the post I took is just paying a normal range. They also offers above US$ 100 range paid per post you wrote. So it is definitely a good grab. Another thing I like about PPP is they have special offer each Tuesday. The offer can be a lot of money for just one post you can earn US$ 1000. So far, I wasn't fast enough to grab those fantastic good offers. I hope God will bless me with it soon.

Updated post

Today I have updated the "Benefits of fruits & vegies" post.
This updates is a more complete A-Z list.
Come check it out at http://amidrin.blogspot.com/2007/08/benefits-of-fruits-vegies.html

Tea's benefits are color-blind.

The below article is taken from msn health & fitness. Written by Andrew Weil, MD, is a pioneer in the field of holistic health and founder and director of the Program in Integrative Medicine at the College of Medicine, University of Arizona. He received his medical training at Harvard University.

All colors of true tea—which only comes from the Camellia sinensis plant—make especially healthful beverages. The lightest leaves, green and white, are minimally processed and, in general, retain more disease-protective polyphenols and other antioxidants. But darker teas contain healthy theaflavins, which form when their polyphenols ferment and turn orange red. (Teas brewed from herbs, such as peppermint or ginger, aren't considered true teas, but they may contain antioxidant properties.)

Research finds that regular tea drinkers are at lower risk of cancer, coronary heart disease, stroke, osteoporosis—and even bacterial and viral infections. Experiment with different teas and try to drink 4 cups a day. You can cut back on caffeine by pouring boiling water over tea leaves and letting the mixture stand for 30 to 45 seconds. Then drain the water and brew normally. This removes much of the caffeine, which is very water soluble, but leaves the more durable polyphenols.

Black
The color refers to the leaves; the beverage is deep amber. Black tea varieties include Darjeeling and Earl Grey; flavors range from spicy to flowery.

Benefits: May lower risk of heart disease and colon cancer; inhibits bacteria that cause cavities and bad breath.

Green
If you find the flavor too "grassy," try jewel green matcha, and Japanese sencha.

Benefits: Has been shown in numerous studies to help prevent many kinds of cancer, lower cholesterol, and boost immunity.

Oolong
Midway between green and black tea in color, flavor, and antioxidant action, oolong has a fresh floral or fruity aroma.

Benefits: Drinking 3 cups a day can help relieve itchy skin rashes.

Pu-Erh (poo-air)
This dark red tea has an earthy flavor that reminds me of coffee and tobacco. It's considered a delicacy in China (you can purchase it online), where its processing is a highly guarded secret. The most oxidized of teas, pu-erh is said to mellow and improve with age, like wine.

Benefits: May reduce cholesterol.

White
Rare and expensive, this least processed tea has a flavor that's quite subtle.

Benefits: Contains more antioxidants than other teas. Test-tube studies show that it blocks DNA mutations (which trigger tumor formation); a study on rats discovered it prevented precancerous colon tumors.

Perfect Brewing
Dark Teas: Heat water to a vigorous boil.

Light Teas: Heat water just to boiling. Pour over leaves in a tea ball or strainer, 1 teaspoon (or tea bag) per cup. Steep just long enough to develop color and flavor, but not long enough to become bitter: 4 to 5 minutes for white; 2 to 5 minutes for pu-erh, black, and oolong; and 1 to 3 minutes for green. One pound of tea yields about 180 cups of beverage.

Is both coffee and tea really good for your health? Does it matter which one you drink?
Evidence for the health benefits of tea greatly outweighs that for coffee. Tea, especially green and white tea, is the source of some of the most powerful antioxidants known.

Japanese researchers have learned that women who drink at least 5 cups of green tea each day cut their risk of dying from heart disease by about a third. Their study followed 40,000 healthy adults for 11 years and was reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association last September.

Black-tea drinkers also appear to enjoy similar protection. Researchers from University College London subjected a group of volunteers to stressful situations over 6 weeks. Those who regularly drank black tea over that time period reported feeling calmer than those asked to drink a placebo beverage with the same amount of caffeine. Tea drinkers also had lower levels of cortisol, the stress hormone that is thought to play an important role in heart disease. Be aware that adding milk to tea interferes with its antioxidant activity.

As for coffee, a 20-year study of more than 100,000 people reported in the journal Circulation found only modest benefits to the heart. My advice: If you are a coffee drinker, try substituting good-quality tea for some of the coffee you now consume.

Everything goes with Yogurt

I grew up not liking to eat yogurt in my yourger years. It was only until about 5 years ago that I started to really indulge in eating yogurt (low fat ones of course). As for now, I love having yogurt as my breakfast or snack. Sometimes, even supper because it is low in calories. It is packed with lots of calcium, vitamins and mineral benefits. Like Vitagen, yogurt is good for you digestive system too.

Do you know that yogurt can goes with everything? You do not need to eat it just by it own, but you can use yogurt to have a lot of mix combination of healthy food. Here I found out a few creative ways that you can try out. It's yummy!

Fruit smoothie: Combine 1/2 cup nonfat yogurt with 1/2 cup diced ripe fruit, add one or two ice cubes, and puree in a blender.

Yogurt shake: Blend 1/2 cup fruit-flavored frozen nonfat yogurt with 1/2 cup low-fat milk until creamy.

Cucumber dip: Peel, seed, and dice a large cucumber and combine with 1 cup plain nonfat yogurt, salt, pepper, and chopped fresh herbs. Serve as a dip for vegetables, a dressing for salad, or a sauce for fish.

Mild salsa: Mix 1/2 cup plain nonfat yogurt with 1 mashed ripe avocado, 1 diced tomato, and chili powder to taste. Serve as a dip with tortilla chips and a sauce for enchiladas or hamburgers. Vegetable sauce: Mix plain nonfat yogurt with minced fresh dill and chopped cashews.

Garnish: Top cold cucumber soup or vichyssoise with plain nonfat yogurt and minced chives.

Things come in FIVE

FIVE thingy tag comes from LemonJude.

INSTRUCTIONS:
Remove the blog in the top spot from the following list and bump everyone up one place. Then add your blog to the bottom slot, like so:
1. Ehon’s Rojak’d Life
2. Rinnah
3. Giddy Tiger
4. Leah
5. Kiasumum
6. LemonJude
7. Amidrin

Choose 5 people to tag:
rin-en
firethorn
YL
Amy
louisphotography

What were you doing 10 years ago?
Started studying in Stamford College in collaboration with USM.

What were you doing 1 year ago?
Working like crazy

Five snacks you enjoy
Double Decker's Prawn crackers
Twistees
Dried Guava
Potato chips
Cheezel

Five songs that you know all the lyrics to
Unfortunately, none that I can recall.

Five things you would do if you were a millionaire
Stop being employed
Investment (money grow money)
Charity
Go holiday once a year
Shop till I drop

Five bad habits
Hard to wake up early in the morning
Don't like to drink plain water
Sleep too much sometimes
Forgetful
Lazy to eat dinner

Five favourite toys
Computer
Handphone
Zigsaw Puzzle
Cube
Cards

Five things you like doing
Playing computer games
Reading
Spending time with my love ones and Jojo
Shopping
Blogging

Five things you would never wear again
Hot pants
Uggly floral printed blouse
Checked pants
Cardigan
Large flower printed dress

Home Improvements

Many people likes to go to Ikea store which sell a wide range of housing ideas and needs. I, myself also likes to go there sometimes just to view the many beautifully displayed and demo ideas for your home. With the many variety, you can mix and match to cater for your wildest imagination of how you want your home to look like. For those who are thinking of having home improvements ideas, it would be great to be able to look for a high quality home improvement service company to help you model your home instead of having to go through the traffic jams and crowed in those housing store by yourself.

If you are residing in the UK, you can obtain the high quality home improvement service through Anglian Home Improvements. They have Double glazing, uPVC Windows, uPVC Doors, Conservatories, Rooftrim, Driveways, Garage Doors, Garage Conversions, and the one you can't missed, Kitchens home improvements.

Dear God, Please Make Me Rich

I was watching The Oprah Winfrey Show on the Hallmark Channel last Saturday. Well, the synopsis advertisement the day earlier cought my attention about the featured star Matthew McConaughey, Eva Longoria and Bon Jovi. Hence, I did not miss out the opportunity to watch the talk show.

Last Saturday topic was about how these three celebrities go the extra mile to help the Hurricane Katrina victims rebuild their lives which their homes has been wrecked by the disaster late 2005. This happened in New Orleans, Louisiana.


Matthew McConaughey gave up his lovely 1971 Chevy Stingray Corvette by putting it up for auction on eBay to raise money for Oprah's Angel Network. The money he raised was being put to used by building a playground for the evacuees whom they were relocated. Eva Longoria helped out by volenteering for yard duty. In the show, I saw her helped a lady plant her garden in a freshly new lawn in the lady's new home. Bon Jovi with his band donated US$ 1 million to Oprah's Angel Network for building a new neighbourhood for the victims. The new neighbourhood was called Bon Jovi Boulevard. To make the new home recepient (which were the Hurricane Katrina's victims) feel even happier, he personally deliver their new house keys to them. Those houses were fully furnished and customised according to the receipient's number of family members. For a family of two with a mother and a son, their new home will have a master beedroom, and a bedroom designed for a male child - with study desk, school supplies and all. They might have done it out of the reason for publicity or such, but anyhow what they did is already very much better than the many rich rich people out there. But I think their effort is mostly sincere and true because they don't need this kind of publicity as they are already very famous. Ever seen Paris Hilton or Britney Spears do such charity? Nope, I don't think so...

If you missed out watching this on The Oprah Winfrey Show, you can check out this link http://www.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/200609/tows_past_20060920.jhtml

Following their footsteps, I really wish I am rich. Not just rich, but extremely rich to make the big difference in helping those in need. Just like what Oprah is doing. Ok, I know this dream is a bit extreme and it won't going to happen. I want to be able to help out financially and contribute in making the fund well spend by putting in the sweat and tears of building/ rebuilding what is needed. I want not just going to be able to help out physically but also financially. What a big dream I have here... haha... Don't worry, I am not crazy. I know it is impossible for me. Dear God, please make me rich so that I can donate more to the needy. I want to feel this sense of satisfaction which I have never felt before in my life. Well, maybe I can start with something small like donating a small sum monthy to support the WWF ?

My National Day Holiday

Want to know what I do during our 50th Malaysia National Day holiday? Well, there is nothing much difference than my other normal weekends. Just feel happy that I got one day off on Friday because of the public holiday. Ok, without further ado, here's my this year National Holiday summarized journal starting from 30th Aug - 2nd Sep.

30th Aug (Thu): It's Merdeka eve... I am working as usual. My company social committee organized a Traditional Costume Compertition. We were all encouraged to wear any traditional clothing to work but I did not show the enthusiasm to it. As a matter of fact, there is only one or two out of the 20 staff in my department who actually participated in it. It would seem kind of weired thing to do in this situation... Anyway, I never even thought of participating. So, why bother. I was extremely busy with my work. While most left the office early after working hours for the celebration, I was left alone working like crazy in the office. I was the last to leave at 10:15pm and have to lock the office door. Reach home have my dinner (or should I say supper) at 11.15pm. Feeling tired and goggy but could not sleep yet because stomoch full so, watch a Japanese series drama on VCD until about 2am. Body really don't feel well. Had some tingling sensation on my hands, face and head. Just like the time I was sick after taking the penicilin type antibiotic. After 2 months still feel like that sometimes. Probably I took the milk tea during lunch time it triggers back the symtoms. I tried to sleep that night but just couldn't because of my health condition that time. 3am wake my mom up to ask her borrow the blood pressure monitor. Found that my blood pressure is normal but I feel not well. Hold on going back to the hospital and see how is my morning condition.

31st Aug (Fri): Wake up 7.30am... Body feel ok. Just tried to sleep longer but couldn't. So wake up at 8am, brush teeth, have breakfast and watch the Merdeka day parade on the TV. It has been ages long since I last watch the Merdeka day parade. I don't usually wake up early to watch it. This time was unplaned for. While I was watching the show, my memories of my participation on the Merdeka day celebration came back to me. I remember I was in Form 4 that time. My school was chosen to participate on the formation of the 38th Merdeka day logo on the field at Dataran Merdeka. Only 2 clases 4Sc1 & 4Sc2 were allowed and compulsory to join it. I was in 4Sc2 class. We had hard time practicing everyday and best thing is we got to skip classes with apporvals. Dispite having to stand in the hot sun, it was a very memorable event for me to be able to participate in the 38th Merdeka celebration. Well, that's my thoughts the whole morning on last Friday. This year 50th Merdeka celebration was a much bigger event compare to the many previous years. After my lunch that day, I had a nap from 3.30pm - 6pm. After that, went to Pasar Malam near my house to buy dinner with Ald. At night, watch TV and go to sleep.

1st Sep (Sat): Wake up 10.45am. The whole day just stay home watch Astro and a Chinese movie on DVD. The Chinese movie is quite nice to watch. But I forgot the title. New movie not on cinema yet... hehe... I also spent some time checking e-mails and blogs. I have a lot of time that day but don't feel like blogging anything. Time just pass by so quickly while I enjoy myself laze around the house the whole day.

2nd Sep (Sun): Just spent my day just like any other Sundays. Watched Ho Chiak at 6pm and that day's episode is about nice place to eat crabs. I was mentioning about where I had nice crabs before and after the show finished, Ald surprise me with crabs for dinner. Yummy.... Though we spent more than we should, but it's really a wonderful thing he does for me this way onec in a while. But of course, I don't expect him to do this for the rest of the month. Just once a while will do to make me happy.

Well, that's how I spent my 3 days off last weekend. I am sure most of you people had a much more interesting and hip and happening thing to do on your National day holiday. You might think mine is boring, but suprisingly I do not feel bored at all. I feel rested.....

One Word/Sentence

I got another tag from Judy. It's about "One word/sentence". Yeah, why not take this as my first Monday post?
Ok, here it goes....

Where is your cell phone? Charging on the floor of my bedroom.
Relationship? Single but not available.
Your hair? A little wavy now.
Work? Yes, working like crazy.
Your sister? My sister (younger than me) just got married 2 months ago.
Your favorite thing? Watching movies/ tv, reading, travelling, shopping, playing computer game, blogging.
Your dream last night? Having a war in the jungle.
Your favorite drink? Thick Milo 'kosong'.
Your dream car? Mercedees.
The room you’re in? My bedroom.
Your shoes? NYC brand.
Your fears? Snake.
What do you want to be in 10 years? Out of debts and happier.
Who did you hang out with this weekend? My darling.
What are you not good at? Communication and caring.
Muffin? Yes, I like chocolate flavour.
One of your wish list items? Wisdom.
Where you grew up? Klang Valley.
Last thing you did? Read newspaper a moment ago.
What are you wearing? T-shirt and shorts.
What aren’t you wearing? My contact lense.
Your pet? Jojo, my beloved doggie.
Your computer? Acer.
Your life? Lots of trials and tribulations.
Your mood? Sleepy.
Missing? Spiritual life.
What are you thinking about right now? How can I earn more money.
Your car? None.
Your kitchen? Looks fine.
Your summer? Don't really bother everyday the same.
Your favorite color? Purple.
Last time you laughed? 5 hours ago.
Last time you cried? Last year.
School? Primary, secondary, college/uni.
Love? Yes, I am contented with it right now.

Although usually when I pass tag on to some and they don't usually do it, anyhow I would like to pass this on to:-
Amy
firethorn
rin-en
YL