INSIGHT CRIZ

Don’t you hate it when you have a tight deadline and you would need to call your client to clarify on certain things before you could come out with a proposal but suddenly your mobile phone decided to die right in the grasp of your hand? I had that experience barely few days back. Luckily there was the office phone or the whole deal would have gone down the drain with all the efforts I had put in. Phew! Thank goodness!

Since I required only a simple phone without any built-in camera or complicated features, I purchased the LG KP110 at an amazing low price. The music phone is the latest version of LG’s bullet series, which constitutes one of the low priced GPRS enabled handset. There were a few enhanced features of the budget phone such as the FM Radio with the headset as the antenna and a MP3 playback where songs can be stored in the given 1GB micro sd card as in the bundled deal.

There were also the WAP connectivity, hands-free speaker, inbuilt anti-theft mobile tracker, vibration alert system, ability to store 500 phone numbers and 500 messages. The battery of the LG KP 110 is sufficient for 4 hrs talk time and 400 hours of standby time.

So far, I’m happy with the simplicity of the functions and also the elegant outlook of its design. Even the SMS function is using the T9 dictionary assist feature which made messaging rather easy. As for the MP3 playback, the sound is crystal clear. You can even change the player’s skin and set your equalizer to your music genre plus setting your music play list to shuffle or repeat mode. I would say it’s a great bargain for users like me.

How many of you realized that almost any objects that are lying idle in you car could be a deadly weapon? Most of us would go on with our daily lives, thinking that accidents will not happen to us as long as we have our safety belts on. On top of that, tens of millions of autos on the road today have crash tested well and feature air bags and antilock brakes, giving the driver a sense of safety on the road.

You are totally wrong as there are still many more hidden objects that you would not even consider as deadly weapons in case of accidents. Who would realize that with higher speed limits permitted in most countries, unsecured cargoes within the car can cause major impact on the driver as well as the passengers? People are largely unaware of what can happen in collisions. The forces are extreme. After the collision outside, there are always collisions inside. Both can wreak havoc.

In a crash, any object with an edge can become a blade while blunt objects can become sledgehammers. Do you know that a plastic card lying loosely on your dashboard could slash through your neck during high impact? Even a half finished bottle of mineral water could give out such an impact on the head to cause brain damage. What about golf clubs, tennis racquets or even an uncapped ball pen? In a crash, any of these objects could turn into a deadly projectile.

It’s easily said than done as most of us have the habit of throwing practically anything at our back seats. Just look at the number of cars you have been into with no secured cargoes. I’m quite sure the answers to your little survey would be rather scary only a minority of car owners would leave their car spotlessly clean with no loose objects. No matter what, get a car insurance quote from your nearest insurance agency as you may not know what would happen when you least expected.

Who would be the most important members in your life other than your own family? The answer is none. Most of the loves you had received and given were within your own family members. If there were any unforeseen misfortune, what would become of your family members if you were the sole bread earner? You won’t want to see them suffer for the rest of their lives without any compensation right?

It has become quite a norm for many people to steer away when someone approached them for some insurance coverage. I would understand if the person is fully insured and does not require more policies. What about a big majority of those who had just came into the working world? Did they know that the earlier age they get themselves some insurance policies, the lesser the premium is?

Here is a case scenario of a person who kept postponing his buying of a life insurance even after he got married. After a year or so, he finally had a child. Although his business had blossomed, he still refused to be committed, thinking that whatever he had earned through his working life would be sufficient for the welfare of his unemployed wife and child. Eventually, the economy crisis struck unexpectedly and business was not doing so well. He was struggling to maintain his monthly family expenses. Before the child even reached the age of 4 years old, he was struck with a terminal illness and eventually passed away. There were nothing much left to help his family pull through with life, except a skeleton company and a mortgage house. What a pity case!

What I do not understand here is why most people prefer to look at short term profits rather than looking at long term financial planning which could benefit everybody within the family. There are so many types of term life insurance rates that would be available to suit everybody’s budget. Moreover, you can upgrade your policies anytime to a higher coverage when you have met your financial stability. Would you not think about the benefits your loved ones would gain by you making the wise move to be insured right now?

An English philosopher by the name of Sir Francis Bacon once said, “Natural abilities are like natural plants, they need pruning by study. How right he was that without reading up more books or getting more information through the easily accessible internet, you would not gain much knowledge and abilities to excel better in life.

I have the tendency of creating things out from the norm, making me a step more successful than most people. Being creative is surely not an in-born thing as many would have presume as it took me years of reading up and learning through trials and errors to get to that perfection I have instilled within me now. One thing I have learned was to break out of the boundaries that had enclosed my creativity and think out of the box.

I often asked myself. Is that the best I can do for what I’m doing now? Is that the standards I have set for myself or should I have higher aims? Did I manage my time and manpower well to get a task done without any hiccups? Am I working in the right establishment or environment to have the peak in creativity? Am I self motivated? Am I the master or worker to my trade? Do I have goals? Am I getting enough of feedbacks for whatever proposals I have in hand to make the project successful? Have I proven myself to be the cream of the crowd to gain respect? What are the values in my life? These 10 points as I put it as the Ten Commandments of My Life have been circling my head for ages, making me a Thinker all the time to get the best of what I have been doing.

The won’t be any solutions in life if you were not well read to understand the way of life and how to counter them if certain situations were to appear. It may just well be a day old newspapers, magazines, novels or even your old textbooks, there will always be rooms in your head to absorb more knowledge. Everyday is a learning process and you would not be too old to learn up something new. What’s holding you back when a journey of a thousand miles will only need your initiative and motivation to begin with the first step?

Life can be quite complicated at times whether you are in a situation, over a situation or caught in between a situation. Situations may look as that in your eyes but they were not always the way they seemed to be in another person’s eyes or mind. No matter what, keep on finding out about the truth before even assuming that another person or situation is bad. It takes time to understand a person or situation to be firmed on your verdict. Even the planet earth wasn’t created overnight, so how could you just judge a person or situation by the surface?

Assumption is a bad word in my personal dictionary as it comes from the word “ASSUME”, meaning having the thought or action on a situation or a person deemed to be true. Thus, you should know by now why I hate mingling with people with that attitude. I have always practice NOT TO ASS/U/ME as it would always end up making an “ASS” out of “U” and “ME”.

I’m sure some of you might have heard about the story of the two angels who were on a learning expedition? During one night, they had decided to call on a wealthy man’s house for some food and lodging. Instead of letting them stay in the guestrooms, they were led into a dark and cold basement. Stale bread and water were served to them. As they were about to sleep on the hard cold floor, the older angel saw a hole on the wall and repaired it. The older angel saw the confused look on the younger angel’s face and smilingly told him, “Things aren’t always what they seem.”

During another night, both angels decided to put up in a poor couple’s house. They were served like kings with the best hospitality they had experienced through their expedition. The couples shared not only whatever food they had but also allowed their bed to be used by the angels. Upon sunrise, both angels were woken by loud cries. The couple’s cow lay dead in the field. They had lost their sole income.

The younger angel was stunned at the outcome and stared furiously at the older angel. The older angel replied, “Things aren’t always what they seem.” He later explained that he had to close the hole in the wealthy man’s house as he saw some gold hidden in that hole. Since the owner was so obsessed with greed and unwilling to share his good fortune, he had sealed the wall so that he would not find them. He further explained that he had to give up the cow instead as the Angel of Death was by the poor man’s wife the previous night.

Sometimes that is exactly what happens when things don’t turn out the way they should. If you have faith, you just need to trust that every outcome is always to your advantage. You might not know it until some time later.

That’s why it’s bad to make any assumptions without finding out about the truth. A life might be at stake even during the most difficult time to decide on our fates. That’s life… even the most precious person on earth could not escape his fate as shown below in the video…

What would you do if you are forced to attend your best friend’s birthday party when you are on a diet? There would surely be lots of food served but would you dare to break the rules of dieting? Don’t tell me you are really planning to bring some cucumbers and carrots to munch when there would be a wide spread of juicy steaks, delicious stuffed BBQ chicken, creamy rich double chocolate cheese cake and so on being displayed right in front of your eyes?

I had that dreadful experience just a few days back as I have to reduce 20lbs for some health reasons. My friend who underwent the same program as I did freaked out. He could not resist the temptation from all the delicious food on the table. I tried to resist with all my effort but in the end I was defeated. Well, if you can’t fight the crowd, join them. LOL!

In my mind, I was thinking that just a few bites for that day won’t really affect my weight problem. I was so wrong. From one tiny bite on the juicy steak, I ended up with plates after plates of all the fatty meat available at the party, not forgetting a triple helping of that delicious cheese cake. Before I realize it, I had already stuffed myself to the fullest.

I thought I could just get away with what I did that night but the more I thought about it the more food I gobble down my tummy. I ended up gaining 10lbs with acnes popping out on my face now. I almost gave up on the diet program but I felt guilty breaking the rules when I’m supposed to be a well self-discipline person. I guessed I better hunt around for the best diet pill to reduce some weight fast before my next appointment with my doctor.  He would surely scream looking at my size now.

With traffic jams in and out of the city all the time, I would sometimes travel out on a motorcycle to run some of my errands. There was this time when the sky suddenly turned gloomy without any warning while I was a few miles away from my office. Being aware of the situation then, I quickly finished whatever urgent that needed to be done and rushed back to my office.

As I was on my way back, strong wind began to gather and dust was all over the road. The trees were swaying angrily and the loose leaves were forming little twisters all the way. Suddenly, I had an impact on my face and almost skidded onto the rows of cars along the road. Being a careful and alert driver, I managed to control my motorcycle and stopped by the roadside to inspect on the damage. My face was injured with blood oozing out thickly.

I realized that a twig had fallen down from the swaying trees and collided onto my face. I was lucky to be wearing a pair of eyeglasses then. If not, I would be blinded for the rest of my life. The impact was so great that it even cracked my eyeglasses. Thanks God I am one who would wear protective eyeglasses whenever I am on a motorcycle. It just saved my eye sight!

Nowadays the prices of consumable items had hiked up so drastically that it had burnt a deep hole in my pocket. With the normal household expenditure budget previously, I could hardly get many things to stock up in my fridge. I guessed I would have to tie up my waist more and get myself to eat less. But then, how could I do that as a food blogger? It’s not that I eat to live but rather live to eat. Haha!

I must find alternate ways to stretch that budget of mine. Moreover, my cats would also need to eat too, although the price for their cat food had also increased tremendously over the pass few weeks. Hmm… What else could I save then? Should I control my phone calls to save some on the bills? Should I minimize my internet usage or off with some lights to cut down the electricity usage?

Oops! I just remembered that the year end is coming and my auto insurance is about to expire. Here I am trying to find ways to cut down on my expenses and there it is another bill popping up that needed my immediate attention. Moreover I heard that there’s a huge percentage increase in insurance premiums for vehicles over a certain of years. This is giving me such a headache as I would really need cheap auto insurance now.

Staying in an environmental friendly housing estate with a small park just a stone’s throw away can be real nice and convenient. At least you would not have to travel so far away for your regular morning exercise. Neither will you have to go through the hassle of dressing up to take your children out as there would be a children playground easily accessible right at your doorsteps.

In this nice and beautiful atmosphere, you could hear the sounds of birds chirping early each morning. What a great place to be in away from the hustle and bustle of the city life without any sound pollution. Even during the night, only the cricking sounds of the insects could be heard. Isn’t that wonderful?

This could be the ideal place for many but I had a bad experience in getting a good night of sleep some time back. It’s not because of the peace and silence of the night but the squeaking sounds coming from some of the noisy playground equipments. Luckily, I managed to get the property management guy to rectify the problem. It seemed some of the equipment bearings were rusty and required some lubricants. Phew! Now I can sleep well without any more annoying disturbances.

I love vacations, especially a visit to those beautiful country sites where I can just laze around on the green grass and watch the lambs running about. Sounds familiar? You got it right. I love New Zealand – the Land of the Kiwis. One day, I wished I could stay in New Zealand for a longer period of time rather than just a few days of vacation. There are lots of wools to keep me warm, lots of meat available for my lamb chop crave, lots of fresh fruits for my breakfast and not forgetting their endless flow of melamine free fresh diary products for my consumption. Well, that was just my dream for the moment. What I can do now is to make frequent visits there for a stress free vacation.

New Zealand consists of the northern and the southern islands. Auckland on the north island remains the metropolitan area of the country with more than one million residents. It is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with a warm temperate climate that would suit most sun lovers. Auckland is popularly known as the “City of Sails” with around 135,000 yachts harbored along the coastline. The most in the whole world I guessed. Some of the main attractions in Auckland include the Auckland Town Hall, Aotea Centre, Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland War Memorial Museum, the National Maritime Museum, Auckland Zoo, Kelly Tarlton’s Underwater World, Auckland Domain, Albert Park, Myers Park, Western Park and Victoria Park.

One of my most frequent cities on the south island is Christchurch, the second largest urban city in New Zealand and has a temperate climate. The city was also named The Garden City as it has a large number of public parks and well-developed residential gardens. Hagley Park, Christchurch Botanic Gardens, Mona Vale, Riccarton House and Bush are the few most notable ones. Sightseeing in Christchurch can be real tiring as there are just too many beautiful sights all over the city, the Canterbury Museum, Ferrymead Heritage Park, Orana Wildlife Park, Willowbank Wildlife Reserve, Air Force Museum, Southern Encounter Aquarium and Kiwi House, International Antarctic Centre, Christ Church Anglican Cathedral, the Roman Catholic Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, Christchurch Art Gallery, Christchurch Arts Centre, and many more.

Visiting Christchurch brought back many sweet and bitter memories. The worst being my luggage lock malfunctioned and I had to force open it. My advice to those travelers, you can go on budget traveling but do not get cheap luggage like I did. Get one that of quality such as my Samsonite luggage which I had used for years. I never need to fear for more hiccups during my vacation again.