Laingan.com

Today is the last day of September and it marks the ending of the third quarter of this year. In other words, close to 75% of year 2009 has passed. So, is today a good day to end the month of September? Well, the answer is a yes and a no.

I would say 30 September is a good day to me because I have finally shipped out the equipment to the customer and it makes me feel relief. So, I can glue myself to the chair and stay inside the office to do my work quietly.

On the other hand, I would say today is not a good day because the sky was full of haze in the daytime and this makes the last day of the month very gloomy. The scenario is as if telling people that you cannot see your future clearly. Oh no! 🙁

Furthermore, there was a very powerful earthquake of magnitude 7.6 hitting Sumatra, Indonesia, this evening. My colleague could even feel the building was moving before I went back to the office. But I just didn’t feel anything was shaking at all when she was telling me about the tremors.

Anyway, we cannot stop natural disasters from happening and there is no use for worrying too much. Think positively and the situation shall become better. So, personally, I still feel that the last day of September 2009 is generally a good day to me 😛

My Favourites :

I have had taken a few video clips using my mobile phone when I was watching the F1 night race on Sunday. I was quite excited to upload it to the server but I cannot get it to work on my Blog initially.

The WordPress control panel only allows the user to click and add either video or media if you wanted to display it on your website or Blog. What it will display is only the video URL that will bring the viewer to a new tab to watch the video clip but this is not what I want.

As the video file format is a MPEG-4 (MP4), I cannot get it to work with Macromedia Flash which is used by YouTube to embed video clips.

I did a Google search and managed to find some HTML codes that support MP4 file. The video-embedding codes work with Apple QuickTime media player and you need to download a plugin if you don’t have one already installed to your PC.

Here is how the HTML code that embedded with the MP4 video looks like :

<object classid=”clsid:02BF25D5-8C17-4B23-BC80-D3488ABDDC6B” codebase=”http://www.apple.com/qtactivex/qtplugin.cab” width=”320″ height=”195″><param name=”src” value=”yourfile.mp4″><param name=”autoplay” value=”true”><param name=”controller” value=”true”><embed height=”195″ pluginspage=”http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/” src=”yourfile.mp4″ type=”video/quicktime” width=”320″ controller=”true” autoplay=”true”></object>

Finally, I was successful in making the embedded code to work with MP4 file format and let the video clip play on my Blog. So far, I’m satisfied with the result. 🙂

My Favourites :

A colleague of mine had decided to quit his job two weeks ago and today is his last day of service with the company that he has been working for 9 years.

Besides money, the next utmost reason for him to quit the job was due to the overwhelming workloads that he has had since half a year ago. The work pressure was more than what he could take so probably the only way out is to accept a job that is being offered to him out of nowhere. Furthermore, it is a comparatively good offer.

I think it takes a lot of courage for a person who has been working in a company for a substantially long period of time to make a job change especially if it is your first job. It may not be easy as you have to get out of your comfort zone and start things all over again in a new company.

It may be tough for him to make that kind of decision although he was very excited at first for finding a better job. Then, he was in a dilemma and could not make up his mind to leave the place that was so familiar to him when the last day was drawing near.

I told him that he got to ask himself why he wanted to quit in the first place. If one of his reasons was to get out of where he was and to free himself from certain situations, then he got to follow his heart and move on. Since he has chosen the path, there shall be no regrets and no turning back.

Although the grass might not be greener on the other side of the fence, I believe a determined person could explore further and find ways to make the grass over there even greener and healthier than where he came from.

My Favourites :

This is the second time that the Formula One (F1) Singtel Grand Prix Night Race is held in Singapore. Both Singaporean and foreigners feel really excited about this event which is held from 25 to 27 September 2009 as this is the one and only one street night race in the world so far.

F1 Racing Car Displaying at Marina Square :

This is also a great time to go to Suntec City and Marina Square shopping centres for shopping because the Land Transport Authority (LTA) did a series of road closure in the Marina Centre area from 23 to 29 September. So, both Suntec City and Marina Square will be less crowded as compared with the usual days.

My family and I seized the opportunity and went to these two shopping centres for shopping this afternoon. Our intention was also to look out for the best spot and take a glimpse of the F1 Night Race in the evening.

We went high and low to hunt for the best spot and fortunately we found one.

This is the first time that I had watched F1 Grand Prix Night Race live and I really felt excited when watching the sportscars were racing in the street track. The thunderous noise made by the racing cars was so loud and ear-deafening that I had to cover my ears with my hands at times.

Click on “Play” to watch :

My Favourites :

I just came to know that there is a Blog Action Day even though I have been blogging for two years 🙂 The date of this special blogging event falls on 15 October.

So, what is Blog Action Day all about? Well, this is an event where bloggers from all over the world get together and discuss an important issue. The tagline of this blogging event is : “One issue, one day, thousands of voices.”

This is the third year that BlogActionDay.org has been running the event. This annual blogging event is targeting to get bloggers to post about the same issue on the same day on their own blogs. The topic for this year is on climate change. The aim is to spark discussion around global warming.

This Blog Action Day 2009 event implies that Blogs and new media are getting important. They can help spread the message of an important global issue concerning you and me.

Click to register your Blog to participate => BlogActionDay.org

My Favourites :

I stumbled upon a website that was embedded with video clips and happened to listening to Susan Boyle sing a few songs recorded in 1999. Wow, I must say that she had sung the songs so well.

She recorded the songs at her own expense after she was rejected by several record companies, TV and radio talent competitions. It seems like those record companies were judging a book by its cover rather than going deeper to discover the real talent of a person. Thanks goodness, we have got Britain’s Got Talent.

Susan Boyle distributed the audio tapes to only a handful of her closest friends in the village of Blackburn ten years ago. She told her friends to take good care of the audio tapes which had cost her all her savings to record the songs. If I were Susan Boyle’s friends, I will feel honored to receiving her precious gift.

The songs that Susan Boyle has had recorded include “Cry Me a River” and “Killing Me Softly with His Song“. After listening to her songs recorded in 1999, I must say that Susan Boyle was born with an amazingly good voice. How come nobody has discovered her earlier?

My Favourites :

This seems to be a very simple question but I bet not many people would know how to make themselves happy. So, how to be happy?

Some people may find that by doing those things that they like to do will make them very happy. If this is the case, their happiness is obviously coming from their interests. Perhaps, this is their source of motivation that keeps them going in a high-spirited mood all day long.

On the other hand, some people may find that it is a big question as to how to make themselves happy. Yet, we never know that happiness can come so easily sometimes. Only if you know how to find happiness…….

How to be happy? To me, this is a simple as well as a tough question. I have had no clues how to be happy in the past. But now I’m glad to say that I’m happier than before.

Perhaps, the secret is to expect less and live simply. And always think positively!

My Favourites :

My work is getting busier than before and I have been working long hours too. I just realise that it has come to an extend that I’m unable to clear some of my daily routine jobs. I think this is scary because it means that the tasks are just piling up and soon forming a hill 🙂

It makes me feel restless and feel stressed out mentally especially when you are working on more than one project at one time. While you are doing your trouble-shooting on Project A, the unfinished tasks for Project B are there waiting for you to clear .

I don’t usually check emails relating to work at home as I’m already occupied with my personal activities after office hours. However, I find that I’m checking corporate emails quite frequently and even staying up late to reply emails recently. This happened too when I was having my holiday at a chalet a few weeks ago 🙁

There were a few times that I stayed up very late to write emails and the customer who received my emails in the US was shocked. He showed me his concerns by advising me not to work too long hours.

Well, if I have a choice, I would rather choose to go to my bed and sleep like a pig 😛

My Favourites :

Susan Boyle has disappeared for quite some time since the May finale of Britain’s Got Talent this year. I’m glad to see that she is back on stage again to perform on the season finale of America’s Got Talent 2009.

Susan Boyle is the greatest YouTube sensation and her angelic voice has stunned the world within a short period of time. I know that many people were touched by her performance when she sang “I Dreamed A Dream” and can’t help but to watch her video clip over and over again.

I often feel that Susan Boyle deserve success and she should make a comeback despite losing the first prize to Diversity during the season finale of Britain’s Got Talent in May. Her clean voice is much more powerful and pleasant to the ears than many professional singers.

The song that Susan Boyle sang at the finale of America’s Got Talent was “Wild Horses“. Again, she proves to the world that she has a terribly good voice. I believe she will soon become one of the greatest and most well-respected singers of our time.

My Favourites :

Almost three quarters of 2009 have passed and it is already the mid of September. Time is really passing very very fast, at least to me. It is so fast until I don’t really have the time to sit down quietly and think of what I have and have not done.

I remember I did set a target of reading 12 books within this year. So, on average, I have to read one book per month. I think this target is reasonable as I don’t want to be too harsh on myself by forcing myself to read 36 books within 12 months.

I know some people who do speed-reading can read up to 65 books a year or 5-6 books per month. This is only possible after mastering the speed-reading skill. So, I doubt most people can do that especially when you are having a full-time job.

Even if you are a housewife, student or unemployed person, you might have the time but you might not want to commit to yourself by reading 5 books within a month and consecutively every month, right?

Maybe there are people who read a lot of books but I seldom come across people who set themselve a target to finish reading how many books within a year even though they might love to read. I think I don’t have any bookworm friends either 🙂

As for myself, I have finished reading 3 books so far and 3 books are half-way through 😛 One of the unfinished books is on stock investing, one on eBay selling and the third one on public speaking. And I have started a new book on NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) just 3 days ago 😉

You see, my interests are very broad and I’m hunger for knowledge of different fields. If I’m diligent enough, I think I shall be able to meet my target of reading 12 books by the end of this year. Hmm…..we shall see.

My Favourites :