LWW Quotes: Inertia

If you are gonna gamble online anyway, at least check out www.pro360.com

Before I continue, let me just say that I am not encouraging any of you to gamble. Especially if you are below 16, 18, 21 or whatever the "adult age" is where you are located, gambling is high-risk and you may lose more than your pants. But if you *have to* gamble anyway, here's a casino review website you may wish to check out first. After all, it may be that you are the God of Fortune incarnate and we don't want you to win and not get paid. Pro360.com has been reviewing online casinos since 1997. I will not touch on brick and mortar casinos in this post since they are "safely" under the jurisdiction of law. Not that online casinos aren't but... you know... online ones are more gray than their solid counterparts. So before you head off to an online casino, run through Pro360.com first. And I still like to stress that you should be gambling with money you can well afford to lose without sacrificing your house, spouse or life. At Pro360.com, I like the comparison available between Editor and Player ratings. Common sense dictates that your best shot would be where both scores are high. Also, the site gives a short review on each online casino, accompanied by "reasons to play". Through some private arrangements or whatsoever, it seems that you can get some bonus dollars (up to the tune of $600 and 50%) if you sign up through them. So drop by and make wise decisions. May the force be with you. :P * This is a sponsored post.

Visit Kdice for a dose of risk

Recently, I have been moderately hooked on a "new" game - Kdice. It is modified somewhat from Dicewars which utilizes the concepts found in the popular board game Risk. I have been a great fan of Risk so it did not take me too long to warm to Kdice. You play this game via your browser and no program installation is required. For the basic instructions, check out the left panel of the site. Somehow, I missed this portion totally when I first signed up and I had quite a time figuring out how the game worked. The primary objective remains the same though - kill everyone else and proclaim yourself King. :P The main difference between Kdice and Dicewars is the multi-player aspect. Dicewars is a single-player game and you play against the AI. It is still quite fun nevertheless but after a while, you may hunger for the company of fellow humans. Kdice pits you against human players - though it is quite a chore (a minor one but still a chore) to find a table where you qualifies for and where you can sit in. One thing that gets on my nerve sometimes is the element of luck. I feel that luck is given too much a sway over the game. I don't want to spoil it for you so you can just try the game out and decide for yourself. If you like the original Risk, I think you will spend at least several hours on Kdice. And maybe even come back for more. :P PS.: Here's a useful guide - http://kdice.wikispaces.com .

Magic Loans for Britons

Are you in need of some money? (Who isn't?) Do you stay in the United Kingdom? (And dreaming of Harry Potter perhaps?) Do you need a loan but can't decide who to approach? (Please read on.) Check out Magic Loans at http://www.magicloans.co.uk . This company prides itself on two creeds which I agree to be very important - listening carefully to what customers really want and keeping things simple. We know or hear of the number of times how banks and financial advisers try to push financial products to us that we have absolutely no interest in. We may join the queue to deposit a wad of cash but end up having to endure half an hour of "recommendations" for "our own good" before we got to do what we went there for. And so, listening *carefully* to what we customers really want is very important. Especially when it comes to loans, things are unfortunately not fuss-free. There are times when we need to fill up tons of forms and let them xero our identifications again and again. It could be something as simple as: Customer: You wanna lend me money? Bank: Ok. Customer: Thanks. But things are often not that in real life. Magic loans promises to keep things simple so it is at least a good start. The one thing I don't like though is the name of the company. "Magic Loans" sounds a bit... frivolous. That said though, a name is just a name and it doesn't mean more than an itch. If you intend to take out Secured Loans with them, please do your due diligence and give them a rough interrogation. All the best. =) * This is a sponsored post.

Are you even in the race?

Yesterday, I went for a midnight run. It was the first after a long hiatus and forcing myself to go for it took more than a little determination. But I succeeded. Despite being cut short by an unexpected downpour, the run was satisfying. The feeling came not because of the distance covered but of the fact that I did run. Most of you would have exercised at one point or another in your lives. Just look at the mirror and it would be obvious whether you enjoyed it or not - and enjoyed it enough to make it a habit. I once exercised regularly when I served in the army. After all, it was not as if the choice was really there. :P After I was liberated, I did try to sustain exercising as a routine in my life. But you know Murphy's Law - things simply happened and the habit of exercising was broken. I did go through a cycle of (1) Routine broken (2) Re-establish routine blah-blah but it is somewhat like an infinite loop. So yesterday was part 2 all over again. As I bounced off in my jogging shoes, I psyched myself that running was fun and keeping fit was great. It worked well enough (partly because the run was cut short by the rain lol). As I was running, it occurred to me that at least I was running. It did not matter how far or fast I went but that I was running. Every little bit counts and who knows - my run last night might just had made my heart that weeny bit stronger and given me an extra minute of lifespan. Not all that bad right? So if we look at life and its challenges from the perspective of running, are you even in the race? We may lament, we may gripe, we may whine about endless things. But are we truly even in the race sometimes? Many situations in life resemble that of a black box. If you are not even truly inside, how can you change anything? I know it is so very easy to simply *observe* from the outside. But when you are just outside and staring at a black box, it's hard (not impossible but hard) to change anything inside. So, are you even in the race to begin with?

Check out CarGuyGarage.com for storage solutions

What clutter do you have that needs a storage solution? One of my friends once asked me if I wanted to buy a Tupperware container from her. I painted a bewildered look on my face and informed her that mine was an established household. If we have been around for decades already, we would have got pretty much every household item we need. With hindsight, I wasn't being fair. True, we have been around for a long time but we are always evolving, always changing, always moving forward. New things will be bought, old things will be thrown away and furniture will be changed. Especially if the household expands (either the house gets bigger or the members get more), more of everything will be required. If you are living in the Chicago area in the United States, you can check out garage cabinets at CarGuyGarage.com. They carry over 1,000 products to make the garage another room in your house. Remember - the bigger your family and your house, the more things you will accumulate and the more storage solutions you will need. You will need to store everyday items like clothes, once-in-a-blue-moon tools like drills and even almost-forgotten treasures like stuffed toys. Unless you are an incorrigible and messy person by nature (and darn well proud of it), you will want to keep your place neat and organized. You will want to know where to find things when they are needed. So if you have a garage, you can make it into another room in your house - with the right storage solutions. The product range carried by CarGuyGarage.com is rather impressive and you can request for a catalog here. Payment is a breeze as you can use VISA, MasterCard or AMEX. They work Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm CST and you can give them a ring at 800-736-9308 if you have any query. Even if you do not live in the area or even in the USA, they ship worldwide on a case by case basis. So if you spot something you fancy and like the price too (^^), drop them an email at sales@carguygarage.com to sort things out. Enjoy your shopping. =) * This is a sponsored post.

How cold is cold?

I was at McDonald's that day for brunch. I needed to spend some time somewhere so I figured the fast food restaurant was as good a place as any. After all, I am not all that fussy - I just wanted a place to rest my legs. So when I reached there, it was about 11am. From what I recall, that happens to be the time when breakfast menu transits into lunch. The board still showed hotcakes and muffins so I asked the staff if lunch items were available already. A pair of them was at the counter - an elderly lady and a teenage boy. I was quite impressed by the level of friendliness displayed. Across all the establishments in Singapore, I personally feel that Macs is one of those most consistent in their level of service. In addition, I always felt humbled when those elderly folks were serving me with such politeness (mostly). I ordered a Double McSpicy set (when checking the spelling for this menu item, I realize it is now known as just McSpicy - did the burger shrink as well? *gasp*) then found a table. That boy brought me my burger and fries soon after. I asked him where I can get a straw (don't ask me why I couldn't find it) and he nicely volunteered to get it for me. He returned with that and some serviettes, and informed me of the availability of chili and ketchup at the corner too. Even though I didn't know him, I felt a swell of pride that he was learning his way around the "adult world". Since I intended to kill some time, I brought along a book. I decided to finish my burger then attack the fries while reading. I was taking my own sweet time. When the burger was finally gone (actually just 5 minutes), the initially piping hot fries were actually cold. There can only be one culprit - the aircon. How cold is cold, really? Shouldn't the thermostat be at least doing its appointed task? If the temperature is low enough to turn a packet of hot fries cold within 5 minutes, surely the place is *too* cold! Instead of gauging the optimum temperature using our inaccurate human thermometer, perhaps the floor manager at Macs could have used a packet of fries instead. If you only need 5 minutes to "freeze" the fries, it is definitely too cold. A hidden agenda may be to chase lingering customers away but if the price to pay is a drop in the perceived quality of your food, I think perhaps the price is too high. If a customer is determined to stay on - for the space, wifi access, whatever - he is likely to do so whether you encase the place in ice or not. :P So how cold is cold? Let the litmus test be a packet of adorable french fries. =)

Win free prizes at Bid4Prizes!

Own up, people - who wants to win a prize? 1, 3, 5, 20... ok I lost count. Most of you want to win a prize... who wouldn't? :P I like you to check out Bid4Prizes at www.bid4prizes.com. There are free gifts to be won and the best part is you do not even have to fork out a dime. They include Apple i-Phone's, HDTV's, designer bags, SCION XB's and cash prizes and you do not need to pay for shipping too. If you think it sounds ridiculous, I would be hard-pressed not to concur. Yet after turning the website upside down, I confirmed that all you need is your mobile number. As long as you don't mind viewing some ads, bidding remains free. My take is that the worst that can happen is that your mobile number will be misused and you will receive some sms spam. You are already receiving spam in your email and I know I am receiving sms spam from my legitimate mobile provider. I can't see how trying Bid4Prizes will make me any worse. And so the verdict is if you have some time on your hands, why not check out Bid4Prizes? The site works on the basis of text-based reverse auction. In a typical auction, the person with the highest bid wins. In the case of Bid4Prizes Auction Sweepstakes, the person with the lowest bid wins. For those familiar with how bidding of COEs works in Singapore, both are essentially similar. A new winner is thus born everyday - the person with the lowest unique bid. If you need more details, view the video above and browse through their website. PS.: Please do your own due diligence. * This is a sponsored post.

Backup your blogs with BlogBackupOnline

Many people in the Internet community are bloggers. They may or may not admit it but most would have at least one blog. Additionally, many in this majority have more than one blog. A quick look at my blog will tell you that it is hosted by Blogger that is now owned by Google. I cannot for the mind of me understand why a blog backup service has not yet been implemented. With the expertise and resources available to this cyber-juggernaut, it is strange why something so essential is not available. Perhaps Google trusts its servers so much that they feel a backup service is simply redundant. I sure hope that the reality is indeed the case and so far, this seeming complacency is not exactly unwarranted. However, what if someone hacks in and ruins a particular blog? For the average blogger, it may be rather hard to recover his accumulated labor. I don't know for sure since nothing untoward has happened to my blog before (thank God) and I am not exactly keen to find out. But the what-if just can't help nagging at me. There are many ways to backup a blog - some tedious, some less-tedious; some useful; some less-useful. Google's official stance on backup is this . You can read the steps yourself but suffice to say that someone less geeky or dedicated to his blog (or lazy) would be likely put off. After roaming the web for a more ideal solution (this topic is not a new one after all), I found BlogBackupOnline at www.blogbackuponline.com . I was pleased with what I read and I signed up for an account myself. It is currently in beta and consequently free. The one drawback is the 50 MB limit - and there is no option of paid plans as yet. One way to get around this is to backup your text content only - minus the multimedia items like images and videos. If you are already hosting them on e.g. DivShare, Flickr, etc, then it is no issue at all. After you signed up for your account, you can opt to do a full backup followed by automatic daily ones for your new entries. The initial full backup is done behind the scene and run using BlogBackupOnline's own resources. There are only two things we need to do - (1) Sign up for the free account and (2) Agree to the default settings. It is that simple and something I would love to see included in Blogger. If you are uncomfortable with relying on BlogBackupOnline's servers, you can choose to export the data to your own hard drive as an xml file. The beauty of this solution is that it also allows you to restore your blog when need be with the click of a button. I have not experimented with this function yet but I read that it would require you to provide authentication details then (which is understandable). If you don't want to give away your login password, just change it before restoring your blog; then change it back when done. An alternative solution I quite like is to save your entire blog as a mht file. You will need Internet Explorer or a suitable intermediary for your non-IE browser. To get your entire blog on one page, first check your dashboard (if you are using Blogger) for your total number of posts. For my blog, there are current 90+ entries so I will just type e.g. http://lordwarwizard.blogspot.com/search?max-results=100 into my browser address bar. That would bring up all of my 90+ entries on one page for easy saving. Just replace the 100 in the link with a number larger or equal to your total post count. Also, remember to replace my blog address with yours. The catch is that when you have to restore your blog, you will need to do it manually. Just repost each entry one by one (ouch). So for now, I would recommend BlogBackupOnline - at least till it is no longer free or it closes down (God forbids). If you have other better solutions, please let me know. Till then. =)

Check out Terry's blog at http://bentobjects.blogspot.com

I came across this interesting blog on bent objects - those interesting creations made by twisting wires and what-have-you's. Though I love to launch into a more detailed description about Terry and his ingenious works, it seems that the Inquirer has already done a far better job than I could have. Check out Terry's blog titled "Bent Objects" at http://bentobjects.blogspot.com as well as Inquirer's article here. We all know a picture is worth a thousand words so I am just going to spam you with 5,000 words. Enjoy and if you like them, do check out Terry's blog. =)

LWW Quotes: Wealth

Worried about your afterlife? Here's the perfect solution...

Are you concerned about what happens after you die? For those steadfast in your religious beliefs, I envy you if the picture painted for you is a rosy one. Otherwise, you might want to start doing whatever you can to ameliorate your situation - if it is at all possible. A large number of people in this world belongs to one religion or another. Yet in my opinion, it is not sufficient to merely claim. Someone may claim to be e.g. Christian but in fact has no more love for Christ than the average man. If your faith is not strong enough, I have my reservations that whatever fanciful dreams of afterlife you have concocted will come true. But of course, I am just speculating ignorantly on things far beyond my limited understanding and knowledge. Last night though, I came upon a perfect solution. One reason many people fear dying is that they fret over what will happen to them after. Are there polarized extremes like heaven and hell? Is there reincarnation - what manner of man, woman or beast will they be reborn into? Are they doomed to wander forever as spirits either here or... somewhere? Or is there really no afterlife at all - that they simply reach the end of their mortal journeys and just slip into sweet velvet sleep? I am sure there are more uncertainties about the afterlife that I have not managed to list above. No one is going to point a pistol at you and force you to admit if you fear dying. Only you yourself truly know, and why. So instead of leaving what happens after to circumstances you have no control over, why not take control of your after by not meeting it? I am not suggesting that you run away from the issue somehow. Rather, the solution is to simply make sure that you will never encounter it. Let's assume that technology and resources allow and you voluntarily choose to suspend your life. Before you breathe your last, you arrange to begin a permanent sleep. Medical equipment will be hooked to your body to sustain it forever - much like how the life of a brain-dead person is sustained. Granted that the human body is still subject to normal wear and tear, but I am positive technology will soon evolve such that even if immortality of the soul is not possible, that of the flesh will be. So when this happens, you are effectively in a situation where you are just sleeping forever, and alive. It is true that you will never wake up again but we are not trying to fight death here. We are dealing with the possibility of afterlife and sleeping forever means that you will never reach this crossroad of life and death. So it does not matter at all what the afterlife holds - or if there is one at all - because it will never happen to you! Hence this is the beauty of this solution - no more uncertainty about what happens after and you may perhaps even find the motivation to make this one and only life a meaningful and well-lived one. Have fun dreaming, my friends. Meanwhile, try to fill up your pockets so that you can take advantage of this solution when the situation arises. =)

Saving the sharks with pigs

Saving the sharks with pigs. Well actually, the original title is "Fake Shark Fins Made From Pork" but I find the one I chose more appropriate. Check out the original article from Discovery News here. Alternatively, I have uploaded a backup here. From the news report, it seems that Nikko Yuba Seizo Co., a Japanese company, has created fake shark fins with pork and is currently marketing it to China. I am not sure how many gourmets we have with us here but do shark fins and pork really taste the same? I have not the chance to taste this new creation myself so I am in no position to award any thumb ups or downs to it. The rational part of me thinks that it is quite a culinary feat to create a dish with pork that tastes like or close to shark fin. If this idea settles well with the masses in China and the world, this company is going to be rich. I say the "masses" because the rich will likely scoff at the idea of eating fake shark fins. After all, most of them probably eat shark fins because they are expensive - not because of anything else. To the shark lovers and those in support of NO SHARK FINS campaigns, this is very good news. It is a nudge in the "right" direction for reduced consumption of shark fins. We have not seen any NO PORK campaigns yet (I know Muslims do not eat pork but I have not come across any overly passionate ones threatening to snuff out my life flame if I dare munch a hamburger) so these fake shark fins seem to be a boon to many parties. I quite pity the pigs though. They are already being bred for the pork they can contribute to our dinner tables. So if this idea takes off, even more of them will be spawned into existence to pander to our new "taste". It seems... barbaric. Whichever, the choice to try this new "delicacy" remains with you. Most of us already eat pork anyway so I wouldn't think this decision is any monumental one. But if you are now bothered about even eating pork after reading what I wrote, I guess you should contemplate switching to vegetarian or vegan. :P Live well. Eat to live or live to eat. It's cliche but I have to say it - the choice is yours. =)

Leaving words after you pass on

Imagine this - you are now lying on your deathbed and you have a thousand and one things you want to say. No, this is not about you wanting to give the pink flowerpot to Auntie Rosia or save the purple shawl for niece Maria. All these would have been covered in your will. I am talking about those heartfelt words that have nothing to do with items of tangible value. You know, phrases like "I love you" or those long passages that convey your secret admiration for that xxx someone. It is easy for me to suggest that if you have such intense emotions bottled up, you should let them out at the earliest appropriate opportunity. Life is short. Sooner than you know it, you will be aging and calling your clutch your best friend. Yet as straightforward and rational as it sounds, there are words that are just so very hard to say face-to-face to someone. Perhaps you might have the courage to fire off an email when you are drunk. Just perhaps. I know it is hard because there are words I want to say to people around me but I have not done so. An popular alternative would be to leave these words with your will. Your will will deal with the mundane assets of your mortal life. The accompanying letters will take care of the rest. This is not ideal of course since if you can find the courage, the words might be better said when you are alive (maybe, and for most circumstances). But if you can't, then these letters written with your quill with tears brimming in your eyes would have to suffice. I came upon an electronic alternative just now - MailFreezr at www.mailfreezr.com . It provides the facility for you to send emails years into the future. You can "freeze" your emails and then have them sent out at your chosen dates. Since the minimum period you can freeze is 1 year, I can't really test it out (lol). Neither do I have the patience to wait 1 year and see if it really works without a glitch. The maximum period is 100 years but this is not really an issue since it is rare for someone you know to live that much longer than you. There are limitations to MailFreezr though since e.g. you do not know how secure it is and if the site will still be around when your email is due to be sent. This site is a slight twist of a concept already around for some time so I am not exactly recommending it - it's more like just another passing remark. :P If you have words you want to leave, there are 2 main approaches. The first is to just say them when all parties concerned are still alive. The second is to leave letters accompanying your will. But I can think of a third actually. Life is short... so why even bother and fuss about all this in the first place? =)

Don't stop till you are done

When we talk about public speaking, we count the pause as one of the most powerful tools in a speaker's arsenal. Beginners are cool to the "art of the pause" because most do not even know it exists. The experienced are not exactly zealous about teaching it too because one can never be sure that he has mastered it 100%. But hey, you know that digressing is a skill that I abuse regularly so there... this article has nothing to do with public speaking (lol). :P Instead, it has to do with why this blog has lain barren for quite a while. You see, I received a few queries from concerned friends if my brains have gotten lost somewhere. I had to retort vehemently that it was nothing of that sort and that I just ran out of ideas of what to write. Well actually, I more like stammered in pitiful self-defence. It is not so much a lack of what to write than a lack of motivation to write. The last "real" entry was before I was called back for reservist training. After I got back, I penned one on AMD and that's that. Things seem to have come to a standstill thereafter and my blog basically took a month-long break (it wasn't really that long, was it? :P). Anyway, the morale of the story is to not stop till you are done. Remember inertia? Once you stop, you become heavier than a barrel of beer that has grown a beer belly. Yes, beat that! If you are handling a project currently, push yourself through all the way. Make sure you jump past all the hurdles in your way and attend that celebratory dinner before you consider it done. You have fun, yea. Enjoy. =)