Positive Thinking - 10 Delightful Tips to Make You Happy

Are you feeling down most of the time? Are you bombarded by all the bad news in the papers? Is your mind filled with negative thoughts? Here are 10 positive tips to cheer you up:

1. Look after your health: When you are in good health you are full of energy and you will attract positive thoughts. Exercise is the right thing to do especially when you feel bad about yourself. I do. When I am feeling out of place I go for a good jog. At the end of a jog, I sweat it out and I feel good inside out. Remember to get enough sleep as well.

2. When your negative thoughts flash through your mind: Quickly replace the negative ideas with positive ones. Do not allow the negative feelings to sink into your mind. It zaps your energy.

3. Happy company: Hang around with happy people. It’s contagious. Positive thinking people will influence your mindset and you will eventually behave just like them.

4. A list of the things that make you happy: Write down a list of those happy occasions. When your energy is low on any day take a look at the list to get rid of those sad feelings.

5. Live in the present: The past is dead and gone and the future is not here yet. Enjoy daily life and find happiness in it. Look for the tiny little happiness every now and then. For all you know a big celebration may never come. No more wishful thinking like I’ll be happy when…..

6. Be happy with what you have: Don't try and keep up with the Joneses. Enjoy life with what you have while you pursue to get the things you want in life. Count your blessings instead of your troubles.

7. Something to look forward to: Indulge in activities that you enjoy doing on a regular basis. For instance, I love blogging. I post an article every day. I look at my Traffic Rank every few days. I receive encouraging comments every now and then. These little things cheer me up.

8. Help Others: Even a small gesture of complementing another person will put a sparkle in the eyes and it lifts your mood as well. It vitalizes your positive energy when you know you are capable of helping others.

9. Be yourself: Accept yourself as what you are. You are one unique individual with your strengths and weaknesses. Be yourself and carry on living.

10. Don’t worry, be happy: There goes the title of the song. Most of the time the things that you worry about never happen. So why think about it. Instead, use the time to do some creative thinking on how to be happier in life.

I hope this article is able to cheer you up, lift your spirits, and make you as happy as can be.

Executive - 7 Good Habits to Cultivate

Executive

Image source:https://www.ivey.uwo.ca/academy/blog/2018/04/executive-presence-what-it-is-and-why-its-important/

“No man can be successful unless he first loves his work.” - David Sarnoff, CEO of RCA

A capable executive is one who is able to plan, organize, and monitor performance. He is able to focus on doing the right things to add the most value to the company. He also possesses influential people skills. Here are the 7 good habits to develop: 

 1. Maintaining a high standard of discipline and work: An effective executive is ambitious. He is able to set challenging goals and a high standard of performance so that the work is challenging and meaningful. Productivity is boosted by a team of satisfied and committed subordinates.

 2. Prioritizes his work: An effective executive is result-oriented. He focuses on the important issues to achieve the best results and ignores minor tasks. He is creative and resourceful to bring about changes – more efficient work procedures, better productivity, and higher yields.

 3. Motivates the employees: He treats all employees with respect. He delegates challenging tasks so that the employees will become more motivated, more committed to the organization, more productive, and more satisfied with their job. He shows appreciation whenever a job is done. 

 4. Treats all the staff fairly and equally: He is impartial and honest. He rewards his staff based on work performance. He creates high staff morale and fosters teamwork among them. 

 5. Open-minded: He is receptive to employees’ ideas and suggestions. When you listen and adopt suggestions given by the staff, they are more committed to the company and further improvement will take place as better ideas will be created by the staff. 

 6. Praises in public and criticizes in private: He knows human psychology very well. Staff morale is lifted by public recognition. The staff is further motivated to be more committed to the company.

 7. Development of managerial knowledge and as a mentor to his subordinates: A smart executive will always take advantage of education opportunities to up-date himself on knowledge relating to his area of expertise and other managerial skills. At the same time, he shares his knowledge with his subordinates and helps them in their personal development and career goals.

Executive - 7 Bad Habits to Avoid

Executive

Image source:https://proswrite.com/2017/03/17/executive-summary/

As an executive you should take note of the following bad habits and avoid them at all costs:

1. Without challenging goals and a high standard of performance: Without challenging goals and a high-performance standard, the staff will underperform and do shoddy work. Productivity nosedives. The staff does not find interest at work and they enjoy very little satisfaction in their job.

2. Ignoring feedback: He fails to accept constructive criticism and workable suggestions by the subordinates. He assumes he is right and he knows everything.

3. Criticizing staff in public: By belittling employees in public, an executive kills their enthusiasm and demoralizes them.

4. Does not value the staff: He shows no appreciation of the staff. He takes good staff for granted without a pat on their shoulders when a job is done. He shows no respect for staff and takes advantage of them for personal gain.

5. Does not prioritize the work: He fails to do the right things at the right time. Valuable time is wasted and productivity is curtailed in putting out a fire. As an example, a manager fails to initiate regular preventive maintenance and incurs losses of valuable time to cope with an expensive repair.

6. Intimidation: Instead of motivating the staff, an executive creates fear among the staff, For example, he uses the annual staff appraisal to threaten them instead of doing a proper review to highlight their strengths and weaknesses and reward their performance accordingly.

7. Playing favoritism: Not only he creates jealousy and resentment among the staff, but there is also no teamwork at all. Productivity suffers in the end.

Creativity - 7 Sparking Tips to Get It

Creativity

Image source: https://qz.com/work/1929629/how-to-prepare-for-a-future-where-creativity-is-a-survival-skill/

Creativity is what you get when you strongly desire to solve a problem. Here are the 7 sparking tips:

 1. Casual Conversation: A new idea emerges when you talk to colleagues during a coffee break or it happens when you talk to your family members, Ideas develop when you indulge in a free association of thoughts, wishful thinking, and daydreaming. 

 2. Sharing Information: A free flow of information between people and departments is an essential means of capturing, reinforcing, and disseminating ideas by the imaginative use of information.

 3. A broader perspective: Go beyond your own area of work. Expose yourself to non-related issues such as politics, fashion, and religion. 

 4. Intuitive action: According to research by the International Institute of Management Development (IMD) in Lausanne, Switzerland intuition plays a vital role in how people reach effective decisions. Allow your “gut feeling” to work wonders. 

 5. Avoid pressure: Working long hours and under pressure inhibits creativity. There is no chance for you to learn and enrich your life outside of your work. 

 6. Sleep Over it: One effective way of getting new ideas is to sleep over them. You think very hard about a problem at hand and then you go to sleep and forget about it. Before you know when you wake up in the morning a new idea is already in your mind. 

 7. A conducive environment: Nurture the free flow of your creative juice in a situation that works best for you. For me a quiet room without the distractions of outside noise at a tidy desk suits me. Avoid interruptions. 

 According to Thomas Edison Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.

Google's Orkut - A Social Networking Site

Orkut

Orkut was voted one of the best social networking sites by PC.com (a magazine published in Malaysia) with a score of 8/10 in their April 08 issue. Joining Orkut is easy. You can sign up and log in using your Gmail e-mail address the same way you access your Blogger account. One of its features is that you can post short comments along with photos and videos in your Scrapbook. The other cool thing is that you can add your favorite applications such as Chat Rooms, IQ Test, and carrom. It has over 600 applications from its Application Directory. I have just added Mr. Bean to my home page (watch video on YouTube). However, it is reported that 60% of the users are between the age group of 18 to 25, and 60% of them are looking for friendship. It is also highlighted that Orkut is very popular in Brazil, India, and the United States. It looks like there are not many senior citizens using this platform. Anyway, I have joined and I will look for people sharing the same interest as mine. Here are the other social networking sites voted by PC.com: Facebook: 9/10 Myspace.com: 8/10 Hi5: 7/10 Bebo 7/10 Friendster 6/10

Twitterfeed and OpenID

Twitterfeed

How often do you bookmark your articles on Twitter? You don’t have to do it every time when you have new articles posted on your site. You can go to twitterfeed.com to submit your feed to Twitter. First of all your login to twitterfeed using your OpenID and provide your blog's RSS feed (e.g. http://yourblogname.blogspot/feeds/posts/full) and also tell them how often you want them to post to Twitter.

OpenID

When you have a Google account you can use your Blogger URL as your OpenID, e.g. http:// yourblogname.blogspot.com. According to Wikipedia, OpenID is an open, decentralized single sign-on standard, allowing users to log onto many services with the same digital identity. An OpenID is in the form of a URL and is unique in that the user is authenticated by their OpenID provider (that is, the entity hosting their OpenID URL).

TRCB.com -The Red Carpet Blog

TRCB.com The Red Carpet Broadcast

TRCB.com is an article directory. It is established on July 4, 2008. Over a short period of fewer than six months, it has already recorded an impressive Traffic Rank of 238503 (as of December 19, 2008) and a PageRank of 2/10 (as of December 19, 2008). The successful and seamless execution of this blog is the teamwork of Siddique, Tcat, and Gudrun. They are able to work together while living far apart is really remarkable.

When you join as a member you are given more than a red carpet welcome. Your articles are exposed to wide audiences because according to Alexa this blog is very popular in the United States, India, United Kingdom, Sweden, and Australia. TRCB is able to give you detailed statistics of your published articles such as a total article published and total article views. It also provides you with a list of your popular articles published and a listing of your articles in the popular articles of a particular topic. In short, your articles receive extensive publicity.

However, that is only part of the story. The other good thing is that you can collect earnings from AdSense when your articles are approved and published. Just check any one of the articles featured at TRCB you will notice that it is surrounded by ads from AdSense. You have to supply your AdSense codes to them and the earnings go straight to your AdSense account. Effectively, you are collecting earnings from two websites, your own as well as from TRCB.com.

I have well over 100 articles published by TRCB.com and close to 3000 views. Why don't you make it a New Year’s resolution for 2009 to submit your compelling articles to TRCB for fame and fortune?

Malaysia and Singapore Google Zeitgeist 2008

Google zeitgeist

"Fastest rising" means Google looked at the most popular searches conducted for 11 months of 2008 (they compile this list by early December) and then ranked them based on how much their popularity increased compared to 2007. "Most popular" searches are ranked in order of the queries with the largest volume of searches for 2008. 

 MALAYSIA Fastest Rising 1. Malaysiakini 2. Facebook 3. harakah 4. tv3 5. Malaysia today 6. RapidShare 7. Blogspot 8. youtube 9. Malaysian insider 10. Beijing 2008 

 Most Popular 1. youtube 2. yahoo 3. Friendster 4. Utusan 5. mp3 6. google 7. games 8. map 9. lyrics 10. myspace 

 Google News local searches 1. ibiden Asia 2. Anwar Ibrahim 3. Datuk Seri 4. Olympic badminton results 5. Chua soi lek 6. Malaysian election results 7. Malaysia budget 2009 8. Malaysia new cabinet 9. Permatang pauh election 10. gamuda bhd 

 Local celebrities 1. Anwar Ibrahim 2. Barack Obama 3. lim kit siang 4. Chua soi lek 5. Mahathir Mohamad 6. Miley Cyrus 7. lee Chong Wei 8. tony pua 9. Hannah Montana 10. Siti Nurhaliza

 Local travel destinations 1. terengganu 2. pulau tioman 3. genting highland 4. port dickson 5. melaka 6. penang 7. pulau perhentian 8. bukit tinggi 9. sunway lagoon 10. selangor 

 Car brands 1. perodua nautica 2. toyota rush 3. proton mpv 4. proton blm 5. honda city 6. proton saga 7. grand livina 8. honda accord 9. myvi 10. honda civic 

 SINGAPORE Fastest Rising 1. Edison Chen 2. Olympics 3. Facebook 4. iPhone 5. f1 6. google map 7. htc 8. maps 9. wiki 10. Beijing Olympics

 Most Popular 1. lyrics 2. youtube 3. yahoo 4. map 5. google 6. games 7. wiki 8. Facebook 9. blog 10. video 

 Google News local searches 1. Singapore Olympics 2. singapore table tennis 3. singapore terrorist 4. youth Olympics 5. 3g iPhone 6. Philips electronics singapore 7. f1 night race 8. singapore recession 9. mas Selamat 10. Feng tianwei 

 Hawker Centres 1. maxwell hawker centre 2. newton hawker centre 3. Chinatown hawker centre 4. adam road hawker centre 5. east coast park hawker centre 6. Whampoa hawker centre 7. changi village hawker centre 8. lagoon hawker centre 9. holland village hawker centre 10. tekka market 

 Local foods 1. chicken rice 2. punggol crab noodle 3. drunk prawn 4. kaya toast 5. popiah 6. bak kwa 7. laksa 8. muah chee 9. hokkien mee 10. nasi padang 

 Olympics 1. Beijing Olympics 2. table tennis Olympics 3. Olympic medal 4. tao li 5. Usain bolt 6. Michael Phelps 7. gymnastics 8. li jiawei 9. Liu Xiang 10. Stephanie rice 

 According to Wikipedia Zeitgeist is a German word. It means the spirit of the age and its society. 

Source: http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/zeitgeist2008

Article Writing - 5 Essential Steps for Bloggers

Article Writing

Image source:https://www.henryharvin.com/blog/online-english-article/

Writing is not like speaking. Your writing is permanently there but your spoken words disappear. Mistakes can be located easily in writing than in speech. It pays to write correctly the first time. Here are the 5 important steps:

1. Content, goals, and your audience: Decide on a subject that is in line with the theme of your blog. The purpose of writing the article will also affect your style of presentation. Bear in mind the audience that you are addressing and decide on the tone of the article.

2. Relevancy, style, and organization: Is your content able to deliver in accordance with the article title? Do not over promise and under deliver. Write in the appropriate style to deliver the article to your readers. Organize your article seamlessly from one topic to another and from one paragraph to another. Do not write in large blocks of text. Use bullet points more often. Highlight the main words.

3. Spelling, choice of words, and grammar: As English is not my first language and unlike Chinese, I have to pay attention to tenses, singular, plural, and agreement. Spelling is another thorny issue. Spelling checkers cannot really discover all the mistakes. You just need to go through the whole text slowly yourself. The choice of words is also important. The right words will create an impact on your readers. The wrong choice of words will discount the value of your article. When you have done with the article, let it simmer for a while. When you come back later to take a look at it again you never know, perhaps, you can improve the quality further.

4. Someone to edit the article: When you have completed your article ask someone else to edit it for you. Two heads are better than one and errors that you have overlooked can be discovered by another person.

5. Final proofreading: Before going live read the whole article again, because glaring mistakes could have escaped you and the person who edited the article. Check the spelling one more time before posting it.

Citizenship - Obtained after 40 Years

It was front-page news in the local Chinese newspaper about a man by the name of Lim Seong Choon, 61, from Kuantan, Malaysia, a town where I am from. He finally got his citizenship status after 40 years. He made his first application for citizenship when he was 21. He was successful on his sixth attempt and after four oral tests. He was born and raised in Kuala Lumpur but he could not get his citizenship confirmed because his name was different from the one on his birth certificate. He was considered a permanent resident since his temporary identification document bore a different name. He stopped schooling and took up a course in tailoring. With his tailoring skills, he was able to secure a job at a leading tailor in Kuala Lumpur. He was only paid half the rate because of his status and he dared not complain. He married twice and has four children. He moved to Kuantan in the 1980s and worked behind the scenes for several leading tailors here. Because of his expertise and active involvement, he was nominated to represent the Kuantan Tailors Association in international competitions for master tailors overseas, but he could not go due to his permanent resident status. Now, as a Malaysian, he is over the moon because he can travel the world like any other citizens to participate in competitions.

Bed - 7 Feng Shui Tips for Better Health and Fortune

Bed

Image source:https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/small-bedroom-ideas

The time that you spend in bed is more or less one-third of your life. The location of your bed will affect your health, career, marriage, and fortune auspiciously or inauspiciously. Here are the 7 tips to improve the situation: 

 1. Your bed is facing a poison arrow from outside the window: The sharp corner of a building or a billboard will affect your health negatively and you will succumb to illnesses easily. You should always cover your window with a curtain. 

 2. Avoid a protruding bean above your bed: With something hanging over your bed you will have more nightmares during your sleep. Your work pressure will increase. You are easily tired and your energy will sap. Your career and business will not prosper and your health and fortune will go from bad to worse. Change the location of your bed or renovate the ceiling so that it is flat.

 3. Proper support for the bedhead: Make sure that your bed is against the wall. If it doesn’t you will lack support from important people. You will have a lot of problems in the workspace. Fill up the vacant space by building a cabinet behind it. 

 4. Your bed is facing the door or the toilet door: You will encounter relationship problems, legal issues, accidents, and …Always keep the door closed or place a screen in between. 

 5. A mirror is facing your bed: It will adversely affect the relationship of the couple living in the room. The man will have affairs and the lady will find another man outside. Cover the mirror at night or relocate the mirror.

 6. Lights above the bed: Avoid having lights right above your bed, it is bad for your health in the long run. Move the location of the lights. 

 7. Your bed is facing the main door: When you can see the main door from your bed you will not be able to hold your wealth and you will easily attract illnesses. Hang blessed ancient Chinese coins above the bedroom door and the main door to neutralize the ill effect.

Bedroom - 7 Feng Shui Tips for Your Health, Fortune and Marriage

You spend one third of your life sleeping, therefore the color scheme and the arrangement of furniture in your room will affect your health, fortune and marriage immensely. Here are the Feng Shui tips you should take note to gain robust health, attract more fortune and fortify your marriage:

1. Color scheme: The color of the room should give you a calming effect. The color should create an ambience of softness and tenderness. Go for light colors.

2. Avoid turning your bedroom into a storage area: Remove all unnecessary items from your bedroom. When your room is tidy and clean it will attract positive energy. Don’t place an aquarium and water-based plants inside the room.

3. Lighting: Your room should not be too bright or too dim. Suitable lighting will boost your energy and you will not get sick easily.

4. A perfect shape: Your room should be a perfect square or rectangle. When the room is in odd shape your fortune will suffer and misfortune will befall. Apply partition or install wall cabinets to the corners so that the room is in perfect shape.

5. Foul odor: When your room is facing the toilet or the kitchen, the air is filled with dampness and there is awful smell lingering. It affects your health and wellbeing, Install an exhaust fan or improve the ventilation in your room.

6. Direct sunlight: Glaring sunlight penetrates into your room and bed will cause dizziness and make you restless. Always use the curtain to shade your room and bed from the sun’s rays.

7. Insufficient natural light: Your room is in between two tall buildings and you don’t get enough sunlight. The situation depresses you and you are always feeling down. To overcome the situation put on extra lights in the room.

Opera 10.0 Alpha 1 and Acid3

Opera 10.0 Alpha 1 

 According to the latest news from opera.com they have released their latest browser, Opera 10 alpha, showcasing their new Opera Presto 2.2 rendering engine. It reports that it is 30% faster on the real web. Opera 10 alpha also underlines any misspelled words while you are writing on your Facebook walls, blogs, or webmail. The beta version will be released in 2009 and the final release will be in the latter part of 2009. It is the only browser in the market with an Acid3 100/1000 score. 

 Acid3

Acid3, according to Wikipedia, is a test page from the Web Standards Project that checks how well a web browser follows certain web standards, especially relating to the Document Object Model and JavaScript. When successful, the Acid3 test displays a gradually increasing percentage counter with colored rectangles in the background. The percentage displayed is based on the number of sub-test passed. It is created by Ian Hickson and launched on March 3, 2008. 

 Here are the score of the major browsers: IE 8.0 Beta 2: 21/100 Firefox 3.1 Beta 2: 93/100 Safari 3.2.1: 75/100 Google Chrome 1: 79/100

XML and HTML

XML 

XML stands for eXtensible Markup Language. It was designed to carry data, not to display data. XML is not a replacement for HTML. XML does not do anything. It was created to structure, store, and transport information. XML tags are not predefined. It allows the author to define his own tags and his own document structure. Here is a very simple example of XML:

HTML 

HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language. Like XML, it is a markup language. A markup language is a set of makeup tags. The markup tags describe how text should be displayed. An HTML file is a text file with HTML tags. When a browser displays a web page, it will not show the markup tags. HTML has over 100 pre-defined tags. As for blogging, one of the common HTML tags is a hyperlink: A hyperlink is a link that takes you to another page or web site. As an example when I want to direct you to go to my son's website I insert the following hyperlink: When you want to bold a word, say, love, you do it this way: You can see a typical HTML page at a site by right-clicking your mouse and go to View Source.

://URLFAN - Ranking with a Difference

://urlfan

You have heard of Alexa Rank and Google’s PageRank. How about your ranking based just on RSS feeds? ://URLFAN is the website doing just that. According to them, their system parses millions of blog posts that are generated every day. They filter out spam, broken links, and other various materials to determine how many times your website was mentioned on a daily basis. They refer this against every other website and determine where you rank among them. Currently, they are ranking the popularity of more than three million websites by parsing more than 124 million blog posts from more than 2 million blog feeds. When you are at their website you can read about their All-Time Top 100 Ranked websites. It is a listing of the most-mentioned websites by bloggers. You can also check out the top active words of the day at Real-Time Buzz Rader. You can also go to Zeitgeist: The top buzz-worthy posts of the year to read the articles. If you have not submitted your feed, do it now because according to ://URLFAN your blog posts will be exposed to a lot of unique visitors every day. When you add a Bumper Icon to your site ://URLFAN will promote your most active posts to a wide audience at Buzz Rader. They can also provide your website profile in real-time.

Cancer Prevention - Acidic and Alkaline Food

Cancer

According to research cancer thrives in an acidic environment and not in a normal, more alkaline environment. When you have cancer, your pH levels are low and your body is too acidic.

pH (potential of hydrogen) Balance

The pH range is from 0 to 14, with 7 being neutral. Anything below 7 is acidic (low on oxygen) and anything above 7 is alkaline. The blood, lymph and cerebral spinal fluid in the human body are designed to be slightly alkaline at a pH of 7.4. Cancer cells become dormant at a pH slightly above 7.4 and will die at pH8.5 while healthy cells will live.

Mild alkaline foods:

Fruits:

Apricot
Berries
Grapes (purple and red)
Pineapple
Tomato

Vegetables:

Beets
Broccoli
Carrot
Cauliflower
Garlic
Mushrooms
Spinach

Others:

Plain yogurt
Curry
Bee pollen
Green tea
Fresh fruit juice
Green algae
Soup made from water chestnuts with shell

Strongly acid foods (food to avoid):

Meat
Dairy products
Beef
Ham
Egg yolk
Soft drinks
Sugar
Alcohol (except red wine)
Drugs and chemicals
Tobacco

Acidic foods cause sickness, diseases and aging. Alkaline foods keep your body healthy and functioning correctly, preventing cancer.

Better Time Management in the Workplace - 7 Effective Tips

Time Management in the Workplace

Image source:https://www.cmgtraining.com/blog/2019/6/12/time-management-in-the-workplace

Time management is essentially doing the right thing at the right time. Here are the 7 tips to manage your time effectively: 

 1. Be organized: Organize your files, schedules, desk, and notes in an orderly way so that you don’t waste time looking for things. When you spend some time setting up your repetitive procedures and routine work you eventually save a lot of time on a daily basis.

 2. Planning ahead: With proper planning, you stimulate your brain with a better and more efficient way of doing things. Planning also helps to identify possible conflicts and crises and reduces the chances of emergency tasks. 

 3. Set priorities: Remember the rule of 80:20. 80 % of your results come from 20% of your effort. Do the most important things first. 

 4. A to-do list: Organize your daily to-do list according to your priorities. A to-do list helps you to focus on the right things to do. The other plus point is that when you check off these things that you have completed it gives you a sense of accomplishment. Preferably prepare a to-do list in the evening for the following day. When you go to bed you know you have already organized your work well for the following day. 

 5. Delegation: Delegate more routine job so that you have more time to do what is important for your long term success. The time saved also allows you to handle interruptions such as emergencies. 

 6. Eliminate procrastination: There is a tendency to clear small tasks before doing big things. Do the opposite by forcing yourself to take on the major issues first, this will help eliminate procrastination. 

 7. Get rid of time wasters: Here are some of them: 

 * You waste time by doing the less important work first 

* Doing things that can be delegated 

* Conducting unnecessary meetings, visits, or phone calls.

 * Start a job without proper planning.

 * Handling paperwork more than once. The moment you pick up a document decide what you want to do with it and do it once and for all and move on to the next. 

 When you have managed your time well you work under less pressure and you will be happier at work.

XML Sitemap and Your Blogger Blog

XML Sitemap

Image source;https://yoast.com/what-is-an-xml-sitemap-and-why-should-you-have-one/

Topics in this article: 

 

What is a Sitemap? 

What are the uses of a Sitemap? 

How to create a Sitemap? 

How to submit a Sitemap to Google?

 Resubmit Sitemap to Google Errors with your Sitemap 

 What is a Sitemap? There is a type of sitemap in HTML form which lists the pages of your site and is meant to help users find the information they need. Here we are talking about XML Sitemaps (with a capital S). 

 What are the uses of a Sitemap? A sitemap is a way of providing Google information about your site. By submitting a Sitemap Google will know about all the pages on your site including URLs that may not be discoverable by Google's normal crawling process. 

 How to submit a Sitemap to Google When you have created and verified a site using Google Sites, they have already created a Sitemap for you. When you have a blog with an RSS or Atom feed, you submit the feed’s URL as a sitemap. Here are the steps to do it: Add your site to your Google Webmaster Tools account. Sign in to Google Webmaster Tools with your Google Account. On the Dashboard, click Verify next to the site you want. In the Choose verification method list, select add a Meta tag. Copy the meta tag that appears on the page. In Google Sites, open the site you want to verify. In the top-right comer, click Site Settings. Click Other Stuff. In the Google Webmaster Tools verification box, paste the meta tag you copied from Webmaster Tools and click Save changes. Type the URL to your sitemap location in the provided field. Click Submit Sitemap. As an example, this is my Sitemap URL: http://allaboutlivingwithlife.blogspot.com/atom.xml 

 Resubmit your Sitemap to Google When your Sitemap changes, you can resubmit it to Google to let them know. You can resubmit your sitemap by using Webmaster Tools. 

 Errors with your Sitemap When you submit your Sitemap for the first time the Sitemap Status will display Pending. Once Google processes the Sitemap, that status will change to either OK or to ERROR, followed by the number of errors the Sitemap contains. To view additional information on the Sitemap errors, click ERRORS. 

You can go to http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35738 to see a list of the errors.

Attending Job Interviews - Answering the Frequently Asked Questions

Attending Job Interviews

Image source:https://www.slideshare.net/bungacengkih77/attending-job-interviews

Here are the frequently asked questions during interviews and suggested answers: 

 1. Why are you looking for a job: A better answer would be: I think I can contribute more than my present job. Or I can take on more responsibilities. Don't ever mention that you have a poor relationship with your boss or you want more money.

 2. What are your strengths? Your strong points should be relating to the job that you are applying for. For example, you are applying for the position of Accounts Executive. Your expertise will be that you are able to analyze figures, see trends, and forecast fairly accurately about the future. 

 3. What are your weaknesses? A good answer is that your strength is perceived to be seen as a weakness. For example, you give your staff tight deadlines and you also demand 100% accuracy in their work. Another point you can mention is that you are able to evaluate yourself and improve upon your weaknesses. 

 4. Which is the best Manager that you have ever worked with? A good answer is that my manager sets broad goals for me and I take the imitative to discharge my duties and responsibilities. A bad answer would be that the boss is always not around to bother me. 

 5. How about the worst manager? I don’t like a manager who is supervising me too closely. I am self-motivated to do my work. A bad answer is that you have complained about being given too much work to do. 

 6. What are the problems you face in your current job and how are you solving them? You should mention that you are able to identify problems and come up with workable solutions. Do not tell the interviewer that there is no problem in the workplace.

 7. What are your most significant accomplishments? Mention your achievements relating to the job that you are applying for. The most important thing is that you are able to reduce expenses, increase revenue, or improve the image of the company. 

 8. What can you do for us? Here you have to impress the interviewer that you have researched the company well and tell him how you can fit yourself into the organization. 

 9. What is your expected salary? You should do research about the market rate of the post that you are applying for. The other thing that you can do is to ask for an offer and see if you can accept it. If the company is able to give you a position that fits into your career goals, it’s OK to accept slightly lower pay. 

 10. What do you know about the company? When you have done your homework well you will have no problem to talk about the company. You can talk about its past, present, and also its future plans and its mission statement. Mention their products and services. Highlight the outstanding achievements of the company.

Attending Job Interviews - 12 Vital tips

Interview Preparation

Image source:https://resources.workable.com/tutorial/preparing-conduct-interview

Congratulations! You have been invited to a job interview. How do you prepare yourself for that interview so that you have a better chance of being selected as an employee? Here are the 12 vital tips: Before the interview: 

  1. Find out more about the company: The more you know the better it is for you as it tells the interviewer that you are interested and enthusiastic about the company. 

  2. Identify the location: find out the place of the interview so that you don’t waste valuable time looking for it on an actual day. 

  3. Be prepared for the following frequently asked questions: 1. Why are you looking for a job? 2. What are your strengths? 3. What are your weaknesses? 4. Which is the best manager that you have ever worked with? 5. How about the worst manager? 6. What are the problems you face in your current job and how are you solving them. 7. What are your most significant accomplishments? 8. What can you do for us? 9. What is your expected salary? 10. What do you know about our company? 

Attending Job Interviews - Answering the Frequently Asked Questions

 

4. Prepare a list of questions to ask: You can enquire about training and development opportunities, workplace culture, and major challenges of the job. 

  5. Practice: Rehearse with a friend especially when the interview involves you for a presentation. On the day of the interview: 

  6. Documents: Check and make sure that all necessary certificates are in one file. 

  7. Dress appropriately: When you dress smartly and correctly for the occasion you create a good visual impact.

  8. Arrive in sufficient time: Be there 15 to 30 minutes earlier so that you can relax and compose yourself. During the Interview: 

  9. Behavior: Smile and make eye contact with the interviewer. Sit upright and do not cross and uncross your legs.

  10. Answering questions: Listen carefully and answer fully and directly. Do it in a friendly and positive tone and provide examples. Always tell the truth. 

  11. Ask the right question: Remember you have prepared some questions to ask, now is the time to do it. 

 After the interview: 

  12. Send a thank-you letter: In the letter, you should repeat your interest in the position you have applied for.

Google's Search Engine Optimization Guide

Google's Search Engine Optimization Guide

It is good to know straight from the horse’s mouth about SEO especially it is from the No 1 search engine, Google, itself. Recently Google has come out with a starter guide for SEO. I take the opportunity to make a hard copy for myself so that I can refer to it from time to time. 

 These are the subjects covered in the Starter Guide: 

 · The title of the homepage and the title for each page 

· Meta tag

 · Structure of your URL

 · Site Navigation

 · Quality content and services

 · Anchor text 

· Heading tags

 · Images

 · Robots.txt

 · Rel=”nofollow” 

· Website promotion 

· Webmaster tools 

· Google Analytics 

· A list of helpful resources

 It is stated in the guide that creating compelling and useful content will likely influence your website more than any of the other factors discussed here. Users know good content when they see it and will likely want to direct other users to it. This could be through blog posts, social media services, email, forums, or other means. Organic or word-of-mouth buzz is what helps build your site's reputation with both users and Google, and it rarely comes without quality content.

The big challenge here is to come up with quality content on a regular and consistent basis to attract users. You can read the full text at: http://search.conduit.com/ResultsExt.aspx?ctid=CT1723776&SearchSource=2&q=search+engine+optimization+guide

Raisins - Health Benefits

Raisins

We always keep a canister of Sun-Maid raisins in our fridge. Raisins are sun-dried grapes. It is a snack that is sweet and full of healthy goodness. Raisins are about 60% sugars by weight and most of which is fructose. I would like to share with you the health benefits of raisins:

 • A Source of energy: Natural sugars are a great source of energy. They are ideal for either athletes or bodybuilders who need a lot of energy naturally.

 • Weight gain: Raisins are good food for those who want to put on weight without accumulating cholesterol. . 

• Heart-healthy food: Raisins are high in potassium and low in sodium. It is an ideal food to maintain normal blood pressure. 

 • Fiber and tartaric acid: The fiber in raisins together with tartaric acid helps to regulates intestinal functions and promotes elimination and keeps the colon healthy. 

 • Antioxidants: The phenolic compounds in raisins are powerful protective antioxidants. Eating raisins boost protection against heart disease and cancer. 

 • Acidosis: Acidosis is a state of increased acidity of the blood (which is bad for health). Raisins are a good source of potassium and magnesium which are very effective in reducing acidity. 

 • Anemia: Raisins are a good source of iron which enriches the blood and helps treat anemia. 

 • Sexual vigor: Due to the presence of an amino acid called arginine raisins are known to stimulate libido, induce arousal, and treat problems in erection.

 • Bones: While calcium is present in raisins, it is one of the best sources of boron, a micronutrient that is helpful in preventing osteoporosis and is very beneficial for bones and joints. 

 • Ocular health: The presence of polyphenolic phytonutrients in raisins helps protect eyes from damages caused by free radicals. It is also a good source of vitamin A which is essential for ocular health. 

 • Oral health: Oleanolic acid, one of the antimicrobial phytochemicals which presents in raisins helps to protect teeth against tooth decay, cavities and in addition, the presence of calcium also promotes dental health. Furthermore, boron helps in checking the growth of germ in the mouth as well as maintains the health of bone and teeth. 

 When you go shopping for grocery remember to buy a packet of raisins to boost the health of the whole family.

Keep Your Job - 7 Career Advancement Tips

Keep Your Job

We are at a turbulent time. The byword nowadays is retrenchment. So, it is crucial now to take a good hard look at your career and consolidate your position in the company. Here are the 7 career advancement tips:

1. Update yourself: Constantly expose yourself to new ideas. Take the opportunity to accept managerial training when it is offered to you. Keep yourself up-to-date is the very basis and foundation of personal and career growth. The other thing that you can do is to read other magazines that you don’t normally read. Go out and meet more people, go to unfamiliar places, and do things differently.

2. Do more than your scope of work: Go beyond your area of expertise. Ask for more responsibility. Make your career more interesting and more challenging. The more you do, the more capable you are to manage complicated and intricate issues.

Related post:

Office Politics - 5 Smart Tips

3. Delegation: When you allow your employees to take over the details, you gain their respect because you have indicated to them that you have faith in their ability to do the job. Another thing is that it frees you to do the more important work you need to do. As an example, planning and implementing your plan are some of the important aspects of your job as a leader and executive.

4. Set a high standard of performance: Do not be complacent. Do not think that your current performance is the best. Do some brainstorming and try out new ideas.

5. Chart your own career path: Put your long-term goals in writing. Assess your own strength and weaknesses. Capitalize on your strong points and move ahead. Be in control of your career path. Don’t let the personnel department to decide your future. Promote yourself and move up the corporate ladder.

6. Be resilient: In the unfortunate eventuality of a retrenchment, fortify yourself with bounce-back ability. How you respond to what happens to you is more important than what happens to you. Don’t keep it to yourself, let it out. Talk to your good friend and purge yourself of the emotion you feel over the setback. Learn a lesson from it. Think about your past successes and nourish yourself. Plan ahead and take action, your career is a lifelong journey.

7. Look after your health: Your health is your greatest asset. Keep your body in shape and your mind sharp and you will be more than capable of going the extra mile to do what you need to do to reach your career goals.

Congratulate yourself when others are retrenched and you are still able to keep your job and move ahead.

Image source:https://masisstaffing.com/keep-your-job/

Malaysian Children - Their Education, Health, Safety and Stress

Children

According to a local newspaper, it is reported that whether we have our priorities right. Children are paying too much attention to excel in their education at the expense of their health and safety. It’s quite normal nowadays that parents wish to enroll their children in the best primary school in town and hope that they can have a head start in their education. But now you even have to book in advance a place with your tutor for your tuition for next year. Seeking educational excellence is going to the extreme. 

 On the other hand, the health of children in Malaysia is deteriorating at an alarming rate. Children as young as 7 are developing Type 2 diabetes.11 percent of Peninsular Malaysia children between 6 and 12 were overweight and 6 percent were obese (2000UKM study). This has to do with their eating habit and couch-potato lifestyle. Parents are giving in to their children and pampering them by allowing them to frequent fast food outlets. The unhealthy eating habit contributes to the growing trend of Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol level. 

 In addition, the safety of children is at stake. 8,000 children were missing in the last 5 years and three out of four missing children are girls, four of 10 children go missing after running away with peers or lovers. More than500 children were reported missing between January and May this year.

 In the meanwhile, Malaysian children are under tremendous stress. They have to do well academically and they have less time to spend outdoor to develop a healthy lifestyle. On top of that their safety is vulnerable. No wonder 130,000 children suffer from mental illnesses and 53 children under 11 and 1837 above 12 attempted suicides in 2000. One reason is that both the parents are working and they have no time for their children. They have not only neglected their children but their lives are equally stressful. 

Just spend some quality time on a regular basis with your children and it will make a world of difference.

Image source:https://mcc.gse.harvard.edu/reports/children-mean-raise

Retain Good Employees - 5 Top Tips

Good Employee

Valued employees leave the company for many reasons. They may leave the job because of higher pay elsewhere but more often than not the push factors within the company compel them to leave for greener pasture. They are no longer happy to work in the same company. Here are some of the reasons:

 • Lack of appreciation for excellent performance: Top performers, like any other staff, need a pat on their shoulders from time to time to keep them motivated. 

 • Insufficient meaningful and challenging work: The work may not be as varied and interesting as expected. Moreover, there isn’t enough work and responsibility to keep them meaningfully occupied. • 

Little autonomy: Every now and then they have to refer to you to get a job done. It frustrates and demoralizes them to carry out their duties and responsibilities. 

 • Limited career advancement: Positions at the top are limited or virtually nonexistent. 

 • Poor communication: Top performers are result-oriented. They want to know the visions and goals of the company. They may leave when the future outlook of the company is a blur. 

10 Tips to be a Good Employer

 Here are the top tips to retain valued people: 

 1. Create opportunities for them to excel and develop.  

2. Appreciate and reward more of the top performers.

 3. Allow good people to make their own decisions and encourage them to take on more initiative. 

 4. Create rooms at the top for top performers. 

 5. Open up more communication channels. 

 It is a good practice to do an exit interview. When someone leaves the company there is always a reason. Find out why.

Image source:https://clockit.io/2016/06/30/good-employees-leaving-company/

Welcoming New Employees - Orientation Tips

Welcome New Employee

There is a Chinese saying: When you start well, you are 50% successful. The same goes for the receiving of your new staff on the first day. Building a good relationship from the very beginning with new staff will ensure that they stay with the company for a long time. 

  Before their arrival: Make sure that their workplaces are organized, comfortable, secure, and ready for their arrival.

  Upon their arrival: These are the things to do by the human resources staff (general) and head of the department (departmental) for the new staff on their first day of arrival:

  General · Introduce the new staff to the company: Talk about its history, where it is now and where it is going and its mission and goals.

 · Company policies and procedures: Inform them about the rules and regulations that they must follow.

 · A review of benefits: Brief them about their pay package, and other fringe benefits. Inform them about their working hours, lunch hours, and safety considerations 

  Departmental:

 · Introduction to departmental staff: Introduce to the co-workers of their department and other staff that they have on-the-job contact frequently. 

 · Tour of the department: Show them around the workplace and the facilities. 

 · Their Job: Talk to them about their duties and responsibilities and their day-to-day tasks and highlight the important aspect of their jobs. 

  Key issues The most important thing is that you must be available on the first day. Your personal attention shows that you care about them. The other thing is to make sure that they are given enough work to do as they are full of energy and enthusiasm for their new job. Pay close attention to them for the first few days and congratulate the new employees when they have successfully completed a piece of work. First impressions are important. You are evaluating the new employees and the new employees are also evaluating the company.

Retain Good Employees - 5 Top Tips

Image source:https://www.alliedps.com/blog/first-90-days-helping-new-hires-start-off-right-foot/

Phishing, Password and Fraud Prevention

Phishing

According to Wikipedia, phishing is the crime of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details by masquerading as a trusted entity in online communication. Phishing is a nice word. It sounds like fishing. When you go fishing you put bait on a hook and you just wait patiently for a fish to bite the bait and you get the fish. Likewise, someone may use a fraudulent site, and hopefully, an innocent victim will visit the site thinking that it is genuine and proceed as instructed to provide the phisher with vital and secretive information.

Internet Crimes - Hacking, Phishing, Pharming, Worms, and Viruses

 In order to protect users, banks design strong passwords to control access to sensitive sites. There is a local bank that I log in to every day, the password is really strong. Here are the combinations of the password: at least one lower case letter at least one upper case letter at least one numeric character at least one upper case non-alphanumeric character at least one lower case non-alphanumeric character at least one spacing minimum 8 characters including spacing If you think that is all, you are wrong. Your password is not permanent. It is time-sensitive. You are required to change the password from time to time. Keeping track of the password is a real pain for me. It makes attackers even more difficult to guess the password. 

 Here are some of the tips that experts recommended for the prevention of fraud: Install a trustworthy anti-virus system and firewall on your computer and keep them up to date. Do not click on any link in an e-mail. If in doubt, contact your bank. Do not allow anyone to know your pins and passwords. Avoid using weak passwords like your name and your date of birth. Do transactions at secured websites that begin with ‘HTTPS"

Image source:https://blog.malwarebytes.com/101/2018/09/6-sure-signs-someone-is-phishing-you-besides-email/

Barley - Health Benefits

Barley

Barley or Hordeum vulgare in Latin is a cereal grain and a member of the grass family. It is mainly used as animal feed and also for malting and is a key ingredient in beer and whisky production. It has half the fat and 50% more fiber than oats. It is a rich source of beta-glucan soluble fiber. It contains vitamins and minerals such as vitamin B, calcium, niacin, iron magnesium, and zinc.

 Here are the health benefits of barley: 

  Promote healthy blood sugar: The fiber content in barley will prevent blood sugar levels from rising too high. Those suffering from Type 2 diabetes should consume more barley.

  Reduce cholesterol: Beta-glucan from barley’s soluble fiber is responsible for lowering cholesterol.

  Lower the risk of some types of cancer: Barley is rich in selenium and together with the fiber it helps prevent colon cancer and breast cancer.

  Heart friendly: Regular consumption of barley reduces heart disease. In 2005 the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that whole grain barley and barley–containing products are allowed to claim that they reduce the risk of coronary heart disease. It is a good source of niacin, a B vitamin that provides numerous protective actions against cardiovascular risk factors. 

Raisins - Health Benefits

  Weight management: Barley is good for the control of weight and obesity as it is rich in beta-glucan soluble fiber. Eating fiber-rich foods may help increase satiety or a feeling of fullness. 

  Protection against childhood asthma: Consumption of barley could help reduce the risk of childhood asthma by about 50%. According to the religion of Islam, the Prophet Muhammad prescribed barley, known as “At-Talbina” in Arabic, for seven diseases: high cholesterol heart disease cancer diabetes hypertension soothing and calming effects for the bowel Slowing of age 

 We often boil barley in water as a refreshing drink. It reduces heatiness and after drinking, it stimulates urination. The other healthy dessert among Chinese in Malaysia and Singapore is a mixture of 薏米, 腐竹, 白果 (yimi, fuzhu, baiguo) barley, beancurd skin, and ginkgo nuts.

Image source:https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/295268#nutrition