A must book for all bloggers out there ....

How my Yahoo Avator looks like ....

I got this from an e-mail


THIS SAYS IT ALL

Time passes. Life happens. Distance separates. Children grow up. Jobs come and go. Love waxes and wanes. Men don't call when they say they will. Hearts break. Colleagues forget favours. Careers end.

BUT...........Girlfriends are there, no matter how much time and how many miles arebetween you. A girlfriend is never farther away than needing her can reach.

When you have to walk that lonesome valley and you have to walk it byyourself,your girlfriends will be on the valley's rim,cheering you on, praying for you,pulling for you, intervening on your behalf, and waiting with open arms at the valley's end. Sometimes, they will even break the rules and walk beside you. Or come in and carry you out.

Girlfriends, daughters, daughter-in-laws, sisters, sisters-in-law,mother, mother-in-law, aunties, nieces, cousins, and extended family,bless our life!

The world wouldn't be the same without them, and neither would I.

When we began this adventure called womanhood,we had no idea of the incredible joys or sorrows that lay ahead. Nor did we know how much we would need each other.

Every day, we need each other still.Pass this on to the women who help make your life work. I just did.

A'sha ... latest pics

How to land a job By: PT Staff

Summary: Claims that most job seekers suffer more from poor job-hunting skills than from lack of opportunity and offers advice from Terry Mullins, Ph.D. on landing a job. Discover your strengths; Plan your interview story; Don't limit your search to larger firms; Be flexible; Don't give up.

Find a therapistnear you.
Enter your City or Zip:
SEARCH SKILLS
STOP WHINING ABOUT CORPORATE DOWNSIZING, THE RECENT RECESSION, AND THE "JOBLESS RECOVERY" FROM IT. SURE ALL OF THE ABOVE HAVE MADE GOOD JOBS DIFFICULT TO FIND. BUT MOST JOB SEEKERS SUFFER MORE FROM POOR JOB-HUNTING SKILLS THAN FROM LACK OF OPPORTUNITY, ACCORDING TO TERRY MULLINS, PH.D., DEAN OF THE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION AT THE UNIVERSITY OF EVANSVILLE IN INDIANA. HERE ARE HIS 10 TIPS FOR IMPROVING YOUR ODDS OF FINDING A JOB QUICKLY.

1. Discover your strengths and learn to talk about them. Since employers estimate future successes by past accomplishments, learn to think of your experience in terms of goals achieved, abilities developed, lessons learned. A cares study of your accomplishments will reveal the best of your skills.
Most people are uncomfortable promoting themselves or revealing their ambitions because as children many of us are taught not to brag. But though self-congratulating may be rude at a dinner party, it's expected at an interview. So get comfortable telling your "story" by sharing it with a sympathetic friend, because overcoming an ingrained reluctance to speak highly of yourself is essential if you hope to convince an employer to hire you.

2. Prepare a resume that is compatible with electronic data bases. Many firms rely on computerized resume data bases to generate potential job applicants. Instead of being screened by a person, your resume may be scanned into an electronic data base. The data base uses applicant-tracking software to match key words from a job description with key words in the resume.
To make your resume compatible, you should use a common typeface, such as Courier, which is readily recognized by optical scanning programs. Since some scanning programs have trouble reading italic and boldface type, use these sparingly.

3. Plan your interview story carefully. Most successful interviews follow a three-scene script. Cooperate with the script and you increase your chances of being hired. Fight it or ignore it and your interview may run aground.
Scene One: Lasting about three minutes, this scene consists of small talk and is really a compatibility contest. As you shake hands, make eye contact and smile. Show that you are courteous, friendly, and at ease with yourself and the situation. These "small" points are not trivial.
Scene Two: Lasting about 15 minutes to an hour or more, this scene is mainly you telling your story. You need to explain your skills, abilities, accomplishments, and ambitions. Emphasize your ability to add value to the employer. If you can claim credit for increasing sales, reducing costs, or improving quality, now is the time to do so. If you have any holes in your experience or blemishes on your record, handle them now. As you conclude this scene, stress your ability and willingness to perform at a high level.
Scene Three: Lasting only a minute or two, this scene closes the interview and sets up the next steps. Do not allow the interviewer to close with the usual, "We'll be in touch with you when we decide something." This statement leaves you powerless to influence the decision. Instead, you should end the interview by saying, "I'll keep you posted about developments in my job search." This comment keeps you in control, allowing you to follow up with additional information that may improve your chance of being hired.

4. Create a network of friendly contacts who can hire you or recommend you to others who can. Developing a network of contacts is the single most important task of a job seeker. You need to tell your story to people who have the power to hire you. In other words, you want a network filled with potential bosses. This contact can be made in a letter detailing your interest in the field and your respect for the person's stature within it. Follow up with a phone call.
When you go in for the appointment, don't ask for a job. If you do, the person you are networking with may feel tricked. The visit is a chance to learn from his or her expertise and make an ally in your job search. If impressed you might end up with some interviews. Remember, before you leave, ask for the names of others who might be able to help you out.
Forty or 50 networking interviews should produce several job offers. If not, you should polish your interviewing skills and begin the process again.
Don't limit your search to larger firms. Today, small- and medium-sized firms create the most new jobs. With a small company, it is easier to get hired and you are likely to receive greater responsibility sooner. True, small firms traditionally pay less and provide fewer benefits, but not always. Finally, solid accomplishments at a small firm can translate into a better job at a larger company.

6. Make job hunting a full-time commitment. Stories abound of well-qualified people who have been unemployed for a year or more. Is the problem a poor economy or something else? Frequently, it is something else--minimal job-hunting efforts, perhaps. Surveys have shown that most people who have been unemployed for lengthy periods spend fewer than five hours a week actively searching for work. They manage to land only one or two interviews each month. If you are unemployed, you should spend a minimum of 40 hours a week actively searching for work. As a full-time job seeker, your goal should be at least one interview a day with someone who has the power to hire you. For lower-level jobs, even more interviews a day are possible. You've heard the saying, "Looking for a job is a full-time job," Consider putting in some overtime as well.

7. Be willing to move. Many people limit their prospects by refusing to look for jobs outside their hometown. Unemployment remains high in the Northeast and in California, in part, because many job seekers will not move to find a job. In many companies, and in some occupations, moving is the only way to advance.

8. Be flexible. You should know your skills and seek jobs consistent with those skills. However, in today's economy, you need to be responsive to employers' needs. Most of us will hold many jobs in several careers during our working life. The nimble and flexible survive.

9. Do not forget the government. For the past 25 years, the growth of government jobs has outpaced the growth of private-sector jobs. State and local employment has grown even more rapidly than federal employment. Many government jobs demand high skill and offer high pay. Although being employed by the government may create some frustration, many people have found meaningful and rewarding careers as public employees.

10. Don't give up. Job hunting is psychologically challenging. You will face obstacles, setbacks, and rejections. Some people you encounter in your search will be unfeeling; a few will be cruel. You will get discouraged and you will be tempted to quit looking. However, the economy is creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs every month. General Motors, for example, will likely hire another 200,000 workers by the turn of the century. Many jobs being created are challenging and pay well. One can be yours, but only if you don't give up wanting it.

something to ponder upon .....

Why "Click here" is bad linking practice

Web pages often contain links like "Click here" or just "here". This document explains why such usage is bad practice, especially for accessibility reasons. For general information on accessibility, click... no, wait, I mean: There is general information on accessibility on the pages of the Web Accessibility Initiative, WAI.
"Click here" just looks stupid.
"Click here" looks especially stupid when printed on paper.
"Click here" is useless in a list of links or when in "links reading" mode, or whenever a link text is considered as isolated from its textual and visual context. The problems of link texts out of context will be discussed in more detail below.
"Click here" is bad food for search engines. If you say "For information on pneumonia, click here", search engines won't know that your document contains a link to a document about pneumonia. Some important search engines use the link text in estimating the relevance of a link. Using descriptive link texts thus helps users in finding documents they're interested in, potentially including your document due to a link text with some key word.
There's usually a fairly simple way to do things better. Instead of the text "For information on pneumonia, click here", you could simply write "pneumonia information".
"Click here" is device-dependent. There are several ways to follow a link, with or without a mouse. Users probably recognize what you mean, but you are still conveying the message that you think in a device-dependent way.
Section Link text in HTML Techniques for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 says, among other things:
Good link text should not be overly general; don't use "click here." Not only is this phrase device-dependent (it implies a pointing device) it says nothing about what is to be found if the link if followed. Instead of "click here", link text should indicate the nature of the link target, as in "more information about sea lions" or "text-only version of this page". - -
"Auditory users" -- people who are blind, have difficulty seeing, or who are using devices with small or no displays -- are unable to scan the page quickly with their eyes. To get an overview of a page or to quickly find a link, these users will often tab from one link to the next or review a list of available links on a page.
But isn't "click here" a useful hint of what to do?
In the early days of the Web, the use of "click here" was defended on the grounds that users wouldn't otherwise know what to do. That is, authors thought that users needed hints on the elementary use of their browsers. Do you wish to get associated with that, with the presumptions of the era when Web browsers were something exotic?
Mental exercise: Imagine that pages generally contained phrases like "whistle to follow link", in a world where voice-controlled browsers are common (as they might be in the future). If you were using such a browser, the phrase would hardly do any good, since you most probably already knew how to follow links; it would just irritate to some extent. If you were using a different browser, well, you might find yourself alienated.
But of course it is relevant to users to recognize links as links. The mistake of using "click here" is often made as an attempt to reduce the harm caused by a different mistake: preventing links from looking like links. For example, if you use an image as a link and try and prevent the browser from drawing a border around it, or if you use style sheets to prevent from being underlined and/or not appearing in a distinctive color, then you might think you need to say "click here". But it's much better to fix the original mistake. For a lot more about such issues, refer to the treatise Links Want To Be Links.
Link texts out of context
On a Web page, links appear in contexts, such as in a list of links, or as adjacent to an image, or some text around. In fact, "click here" as link text presumes that there is some textual context that explains what the link refers to. The basic reason for avoiding "click here" is that there is no need to make such assumptions, which are often false in different modes of use.
Web pages are very often designed so that reading a page sequentially from the start till the end is rather uncomfortable. A user who wants to get a quick idea of the content can usually skim over the headings, emphasized phrases, links, and other prominent parts, then perhaps follow a link that points to a page he really needs. But such use is impossible to people who cannot see, or are otherwise using the page in non-visual mode, or are confused with the structure or the presentation of a complex page. Hence, various tools for the blind, for example, need to give users options for doing something that corresponds to "skimming over", e.g. to get a list all headings or the list of all links.
Several browsers and other programs can automatically generate a list of links on a page, based on the markup for links and on the link texts. The list might be displayed on screen, printed on paper (perhaps as "references" at the end of the output), or read aloud. A browser could also have a "links reading mode" where the user can tab from one link to another and have the links read for him. Even for browsers that have no such features built in, you could install one, provided that you a willing to allow JavaScript execution; in Ian's favelets at the Accessify.com site, there is a utility that you can easily install so that it can be used via a browser menu whenever you wish to get a list of links on any page.
A list of links might or might not be accompanied with the presentation of the address (URL) that the link refers to or with the value of an eventual title attribute in the element. It is safest to assume that it is not, i.e. that the link text needs to "stand alone". The list could in alphabetic order, or in the order in which the links appear in the document.
Apparently, "click here" does not work at all when isolated from its context. If you have several links with that text, the list looks very silly and is not of much use.
Citations of statements against using "Click here"
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 say, in guideline 13: Provide clear navigation mechanisms:
Link text should be meaningful enough to make sense when read out of context -- either on its own or as part of a sequence of links. Link text should also be terse.
For example, in HTML, write "Information about version 4.3" instead of "click here". - -
Tim Berners-Lee, now the director of the World Wide Web Consortium, wrote, in his classical Style Guide for online hypertext, section Printable Hypertext:
Try to avoid references in the text to online aspects. "See the section on device independence" is better than "For more on device independence, click here.". In fact we are talking about a form of device independence.
The document Don't use "click here" as link text, which is part of Quality Tips for Webmasters by the W3C, says:
When calling the user to action, use brief but meaningful link text that:
provides some information when read out of context
explains what the link offers
doesn't talk about mechanics
is not a verb phrase
Jakob Nielsen, the usability expert, has written, in his alertbox Accessible Design for Users With Disabilities:
Users with dyslexia may have problems reading long pages - -. Selecting words with high information content as hypertext anchors will help these users, as well as blind users, scan for interesting links (no "click here", please).

Children Learn What They Live With ...

If they live with criticism, they learn to condemn;
If they live with hostility, they learn to fight;
If they live with ridicule; they will feel shy;
If they live with shame; they will feel guilty;
If they live with tolerance; they learn to be patient;
If they learn with encouragement, they learn to be confident;
If they live with praise, they learn to appreciate;
If they live with fairness, they learn with justice;
If they live with security, they learn to have faith;
If they live with approval, they learn to like themselves;
If they live with acceptance and friendship, they learn to find love in the world


I get these from writing on the wall of KC Chu Orthoptic Center, at Jalan Ipoh

Do You Have What it Takes to SOHO ?

Working from home might sound fantastic for some especially for mums, aint it so ? no need to be stuck in the traffic, able to spend more time with your kids, more time to get your groceries, no fixed schedules, no late appointments, flexibility, you earn what you made, dont have to worry abour retrenchment, no office politics, dont have to buy expensive dress to show off to your co workers, dont have to make-up is this what you are thinking ?
If its so then I would really hope you think more than twice before you jump onto this SOHO thingy. Its not as easy as you perceive to be a succesful self employed.
Even tough these are all indisputably strong benefits of running your own SOHO business, all these are attainable provided you put enough efforts into it. There is a lot of sacrifices to be made before you would even arrive at a point where you will consider all the above mentioned quality will be a benefits to you. There are factors influencing whether a person is suitable to run their own SOHO business or otherwise.

These factors are :
a.] Personal

b.] Financial

c.] Enviromental

Lets look at all the Personal elements that would be influencing your decision on whether you are suitable to become self employed or else.

Commitment – You must be totally committed to ensure the success of your business. You will also have to make sure that you can tell the differences between a commitment and a hobby/interest. Interest will dies off over time but commitment will grow and be even stronger as time goes by. You must have the “FIRE” in you to achieve the success you have been dreaming of.

Risk-Taker – Its not like you are still working for someone else, if you screws up you will hafta bear the losses, its your own money! So, if you aren’t really a risk taker perhaps a paid employment is a better option.

Self Motivation – No more motivational seminar where peoples holds hand and sings motivational song unless, you are paying for it yourself. So now you gotta be able to motivate yourself to do even the most annoying task as long as it puts money into your bank.

Self Discipline – Working from home does have a lot of disadvantages, even more if you are a mum and you kids are constantly bugging you for attention. There will be no end to the distractions you will get. So the key here is Discipline, you need a lotsa discipline to make sure you stays on the track.

Patience - starting a home-business is one thing; turning a profit is quite another. You will not make a profit overnight. Be prepared to be patient and frugal during the first few months of your new venture. Make every cents count!

Flexibility and Adaptability – before you started your own SOHO, you may have a lot of staffs working for you, you may even have your own secretary or PA to assist and to take care daily routine work, but now you are on your own and you must prepare to be able to play all those roles youself. At least in the early stage of your SOHO, you have to learn new skills and to adapt as soon as you can. Its definitely not a bed of roses.

Willingness to Sacrifice – especially in the early stages of your business, be prepared to make sacrifices in terms of time and money to get your business off the ground. You will need to be prepared to put in long hours and, more likely than not, get by on less money than you were bringing home from your paid job.

Stress Management - the burden of your SOHO success or failure will rest solely on your shoulders. That’s a lot of responsibility. Can you cope with the stress ? do you have a good stress management program ? Judge your own level of stress management and the level of stress you can absorb, if it’s not high, you either look for a way to increase it or you will be better off working for others.

Sony Playstation 3 is Out ?

The PS3 will feature IBM's new "Cell" processor, which will run at 3.2 GHz and give the system two teraflops of overall performance. This processor vaults the PS3 to the top of the list for most powerful, next-gen consoles -- rumor has it that the PS3 is two times more powerful than the Xbox 360 and 15 times more powerful than Nintendo.It seems awful suspicious that Sony’s PlayStation 3—with its sketchy release timeframe, malleable specs, and yet unannounced price—would show up willy nilly with an official MSRP on Amazon—but it has. Kind of. It’s a little tricky though, because Amazon often has resellers and used listings; yet this one appears semi-legit. Then again, it is marked for the same price as Microsoft’s Xbox 360 (as announced earlier today), $299, which aside from being a remarkable coincidence seems pretty low given some of the estimates we’ve heard about the PS3. You know, with Amazon sometimes anything goes.

Features:
Built-in Wi-Fi access for easy connection to gaming services and the Internet
Sony PlayStation 3 is slated for release in Spring 2006
Games will use Blu-Ray discs as media format
Features a powerful Cell processor and a dynamic RSX graphics chip
Completely backward compatible, all the way to the original Sony PlayStation

One of the key questions about the PS3 was what kind of media it would use. Sony has announced that the PS3 will use Blu-Ray discs as its media format, which can hold six times as much data as current DVDs. The PS3 will also support CR-ROM, CD-RW, DVD, DVD-ROM, DVD-R, DVD+R formats.Sony has confirmed that the machine will be backward compatible all the way to the original PlayStation -- you'll be able to play all your favorite games without keeping all the old systems. The console will have slots for Memory Stick Duo, an SD slot and a compact flash memory slot. It will also sport a slot for a detachable 2.5-inch hard disc drive, somewhat similar to the Xbox 360's. Whether or not this drive will come standard still remains a mystery.