Success

I was intrigued when I first read that how the last name of a person can affect your chance of success. People with last names starting with letters in the front of the alphabet tends to be more successful, and those starting with letters towards the back of the alphabet tends to be less successful.

This phenomena is due to the fact that many things are arranged according to alphabetical order, and the 'A's are used to being at the top of the list, and the 'Z's at the bottom. Priorities are given to the 'A's.

This explains why the Ang, Chua, Cheng and let's not forget Choy, Chan and Chiw all making it big in life.

However, there are always exceptions. Two clear examples are Yeo and Zhuang who are both very successful. Why is this so?

This could be attributed to the fact that they are taller and taller people also enjoys more success as they are more noticeable and used to people 'looking up' at them giving them higher self-esteem. Perhaps that's how the word 'headstart' comes about.

Looking deeper into this two attributes of success, which do you think is more influential? From the examples given, I speculate that being tall is more vital to be successful, but this doesn't concern me, does it? The only thing I need to know is that I'm unknowingly being dealt a psychological blow early on in life.


Source:
Quirkology by Richard Wiseman

Personality Interpretor

There are so many personality interpretor readily available online. After asking you a few questions, they magically tell you more about yourself and wow, they're really true.

Do you think the personality interpretor are accurate, or it is you who after reading what is described of you that becomes what they described?

Welcome

It's the new welcome ceremony at grand-aunt's house:

Another cat

After being snubbed by a cat a few days ago, I decided to make a second attempt.

I walked towards the friendly neighbourhood cat that loves to loiter around my house's void deck while it was having its afternoon nap.

"Meeeoow.."

It awoke, purred, stood up, and stretch once, stretch twice, and slowly walked towards me.

"What is it gonna do? Is it gonna attack me for disturbing its sleep?" I thought, as I stood there motionless awaiting its next move.

It just walked closer and closer, and finally brushed its body against my leg, and walked around me. I'm glad it's not hostile, and gave its head a light pat.

When I heard someone approaching, I decided to walk away, as i felt a little awkward.

The moral of the story: When in Rome, do what the Romans do. Towards a cat, purr instead of smile.

See, no evil

It's been so long since I've decided to go for a run after being down with a flu. But I've decided to try a new route since running the same route so many times is so boring.

This time instead of making a U-turn, I've decided to take the big round route. A bad choice indeed. Already breathless after completing half the route.

Labouring through the other half, I reached the cross-junction of cck road and cck ave 1. Looking around, I saw a construction worker in a yellow vest crossing the road ahead of me. He turned towards ave 1, and walk off while I was approaching in the same direction 50 metres behind.

I was already so tired that I was almost walking already. Then the LRT on the right went past me, and I turned my head to see if I can see any pretty girls on it. Disappointed, I turned back to look in the direction I was running.

"Hey, didn't I just see a construction worker walking this way a moment ago?!" Looking left, looking right, looking straight, and finally looking into the drain as I ran passed it. Nope, nowhere to be found.

What have I saw? I could care less, as I found renewed energy to continue the run.

Well of Knowledge

Sometimes, the answer is just right in front of you, but you don't notice.
A visit to the library would help you see clearer.

Smile Singapore

I saw a cat today.
Walking up to it,
it didn't seemed to care.
Coming to a halt,
i caught eye contact with it,
and gave it a smile.
It ran.

ESP

Empathy + Sincerity = Persuasion

How many people have you successfully moved from a point A to a desired point B? This is the idea of persuasion, and looking at the equation above, it seems a very simple task, yet, it's so difficult even to get my friends to agree with me.

"Empathy is the ability to identify and understand the other person's feelings, ideas and situation."

In other words, putting yourself into the other person's shoes. Something like reading other people's mind and know how they feel. Knowing how they feel, then try to reduce the resistance of the person towards your idea.

Sincerity is the trust between people. Quoting from the book, Persuasion:

"Some people are more trusting that others and some people are inherently more trustworthy; but it's the conveying of it to the other person that's more important." And this truly is the difficult thing to do: to show your sincerity.

The IT World

So many people like to dream of making the world an IT world.
Home schooling via internet,
a weekly visit to the doctor through webcam.
Matching clothes and jeweleries by clicking on a button and the clothes and jeweleries magically appear on you.
All these seemed quite lame and I don't understand why people want to make such a world come true.

Listening

Close your eyes, feel the blood flow.
What's responsible for the blood flow?
Your heart.
Working 365/24/7, but not gaining recognition for his hard work.
In fact, much have been done to make him suffer.
The oily food, the polluted air, the unhealthy lifestyle.
The thinking you do with your heart.
The emotions. The positive makes your heart feels good;
The negative breaks your heart.
Yet, both must co-exist.
It's the principle of non-duality.
Take a moment, be mindful to your heart and hear what he says.
Know what you want.
Be mindful to people around you, don't take them for granted.
It hurts when people don't recognise you.

Bull-dozer

Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, A, B, select, start... The Bulldozer is unlocked.

No twisting, no turning, no dribbling, no faking, cause he's unstoppable.

Catch, bounce, shoot. That's the rhythm to follow and no one would bother to offer any resistance. After four years, the next big thing is finally back in action, with his straightforward style of play, and the old legs of the once energetic youths are no longer fast enough to cut the supply to the big thing.

But there's still one chance to balance the game, if only Mr. Godlike is around..

Call back again

Hello, this is calling from the ................, can you come down to our office to collect the free gifts later today?

Hmm, actually I'm not interested, why don't you give the chance to someone else.

...................... It's won't take a lot of your time.

Eh, I'm not free.

How bout next week, if you don't mind, I'll call back next week.

Sure...