Two months experience in "using" the Aductions platform

Aductions has grown since my first review on it. There are more messages in the forum, a couple more reviews done up by bloggers, and two new features, namely "The Lowest Effective CPM Watchlist", and "The Automated Media Planning and Buying Tool".

However, these new features are mainly for advertisers, which I am not. May be, I'll buy some ad spaces next month to experience first hand these Aductions' features.

In terms of using it as a publisher ... How did I find their services? , I didn't really need to use it after I put up my ad spaces. The rest are quite automated. Yes, I login more than necessary to look at how my earnings is increasing, and check out who else are putting up their ad spaces. Basically, there isn't much "work" I need to perform when using Aductions.

I just checked that my ad spaces that have been sold in their platform have been fully materialized. That is to say, my gross balance is now equal to my available funds for withdrawal.

Oh, I almost forget! I did use the Withdraw Funds interface this month for the prize money of US$25 I won in the January Review Competition. It was easy and smooth. I just keyed in the amount, followed a few simple and standard instructions, and very soon after that I saw the money in my PayPal balance :) However, I'm a bit sad that they charge a fee for the payment.

Another thing worth mentioning is their responsiveness. They replied promptly to my questions through emails. Also, as you might have noticed, they left comments about my first review on them.

Nevertheless, I have to be frank that I do feel the progress is slower than my expectation. I am looking forward to my 3rd month with Aductions in getting more sales of my ad spaces, and also hopefully seeing more trades happening on their platform.

Finally, may I put my link here in case any interested readers would like to let me earning some credits by joining Aductions through me :)

Live naturally

Quoted from the article, Expert: obesity, global warming could be fought together

“We need to build the phys­i­cal ac­ti­vity back in­to our lives,” he said. “It’s not simply about bike paths, it’s about de­vel­op­ing an ur­ban hab­i­tat that en­ables peo­ple to live healthy lives: en­sur­ing that peo­ple can meet most of their daily needs with­in walk­ing and cy­cling dis­tance of where they live.”

It was quite a long time since I've found something closely match with my blog title. We are smart to invent many things. However, the smartest invention is what we have been feeding all these years... still our own biological body, by our creator/designer.

For me, I find gyms very strange. We invent many different gym equipment to train different muscle systems, that have become too loose and slag due to the use of our other inventions such as cars, escalators, lifts, remote control, etc.

Even in using bicycle, which has been my main mode of transport for many years, my leg has become much weaker in walking tasks. Mind you, cyclists walk much lesser distances than drivers because we can conveniently park our bicycle very near to our destination.

Another real advertisment

My previous mention of a real advertisment at emailcashpro was real only during the festive season last Dec.

This one should be real. It is an advertisement for Mosaic, Music Festival Singapore. There, you can find a very impressive ebook about the concert. An ebook is not just a book, it is electronic! This ebook has video clips in it! There is even a button that bring you to the booking page! Check it out!

A little history

Stumbled on this two sentences while searching for something else:

When Michael Manley took over the government of Jamaica in l972, Jamaica's economy was one of the fastest growing in the world, and Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore was adopting our programmes. Now we're killing each other and selling cigarettes by the side of the road, while Singapore has become a First World country.

This is from the article, Unspeakable treachery, about Barack Obama by Dawn Ritch in the Jamaica Gleaner.

As a Singaporean, it feels good to know such history.

PS: I find a collection of such info might be interesting. So I copied this to a new blog that will focus on these little packets of information on Singpore.

The Vacuum Law

I attended the talk on 22 Feb, "HINDUISM REDISCOVERED: A Religion in Vogue" by Vivekacharya Pavan Choudary, CEO, Vygon India.

It was interesting during the Q&A session, where he shared his wisdom in answering the questions. I would like to share some of them here.

Wisdoms from a talk by Vivekacharya Pavan Choudary -- Part 2

This is another meaningful story he told. As I can't remember every words, I am retelling it from the story I think I heard.

A farmer prayed to God and asked to be made wealthy. God agreed and assure him that his house will never be lack of grains. Indeed, he was happy to find that every morning he finds a full bag of grain no matter how much he has used up the day before.

However, he didn't feel that God has granted his wish, which was to be wealthy. He was actually a little angry that God is so stingy only making his bag of grain full at the beginning of each day. Year after year, as his family enjoyed the never empty bag of grain, deep in his heart he was always wondering why is God so stingy?

Finally, he passed away and met God. He asked about this life long question he had. God explains, I am not stingy, but rather, it was you who is stingy. ... How is this so? If you were to share most of your grains to others, just imagine only a mere 2% of them return you something, wouldn't you become very wealthy? Instead, you kept this blessing I gave you to yourself. Thus, the blessing didn't grow into bigger blessings.

He then brought up a recent case in real life. Somewhere in Canada a corn farmer has been winning awards for producing very good quality corns. When reporters ask him for his secrets recipe, his recipe is not any secret. He has always shared all his knowledge and know how about farming good quality corns to other farmers. Then, as everyone produces good corn, he is more motivated to do more research and study how to improve. As a result, he has been able to keep winning.

Below is an excerpt from a speech by Rev. Sun Myung Moon, God's Hope for Man given on October 20, 1973 in Washington, D.C.

---
Jesus came as a savior, but his teaching was, "... the Son of man came not to be served but to serve ..." ( Matt 20:28 ) Jesus taught that the greatest love in this universe is to give one's life for his enemy. The teaching of the Bible is contrary to the common rule of our worldly society. It is exactly the opposite of the way of this self-centered world. The Bible teaches complete giving and total sacrifice. "He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it." (Matt 10:39 ) It seems almost foolish to think seriously about living this way in man's evil society. But once you know God's principle, you discover that there is actually no wisdom greater than this.

Jesus Christ's teachings hit the very core of this fundamental truth. The more you give the more you receive. God rewards total giving with total love, and total sacrifice with total life. Giving creates room for God's love to enter The more room and the greater the vacuum created by your giving, the faster you will be filled by the flow of God's love.
---

Thus, share, what we've already been given, because the reason we were given these things is for us to share it out.

I would like to call this The Vacuum Law.

Part 1
Part 3

One handed Judo

I attended the talk, "HINDUISM REDISCOVERED: A Religion in Vogue" by Vivekacharya Pavan Choudary, CEO, Vygon India last night.

It was interesting during the Q&A session, where he shared his wisdom in answering the questions. I would like to share some of them here.

Wisdoms from a talk by Vivekacharya Pavan Choudary -- Part 1
(He mentioned Karatae instead.)

I've heard this story before. It is about a handicapped person without an arm learning Judo from his master. The master asks him to master only one technique. Although he doesn't really understand why is it so, he eventually master this technique almost perfectly. During a competition, everyone was surprised to see all his opponents lost to him one after another. ... Why did he win? Later, the master explained the reason. The technique he mastered is not a foolproof one, but there is only one way to counter it, which is to grab on to his arm that he doesn't have.

The speaker was emphasizing the importance to find the right adviser. The right adviser will understand your strengths and weaknesses and give advices that will optimize your achievements.

Making best use of one's strengths is usually more obvious than dealing with weaknesses. Another sentence he made was "When people throw stones at you, build a castle." I think this is similar to what I perceived from his new book title, "When You are Sinking Become A Submarine: Winning Through Wisdom & Creativity". When one is a hand less than others, or under attack, or in an undesirable state, how to recognize advantages and opportunities is even more important and beneficial.

Part 2

Singapore, winner of Youth Olympics 2010

In the report FACTBOX-Facts about Singapore, winner of Youth Olympics, there is this point mentioned:

"* Singapore is famous for its tight social controls and restrictions on the sale of chewing gum. Homosexuality is illegal and pornography is banned. Demonstrations are illegal, while public speaking and gatherings of more than four people require a permit. Reporters Without Borders' 2007 press freedom index ranked Singapore 141st out of 169 countries ... So what?, after Azerbajian and Sudan, reflecting restrictions on the media and arts."

These are what I would like Singapore to retain, which is something rightfully described by the slogan Uniquely Singapore! Majority of the media and arts is not doing service to the world. Restricting them is actually not enough. More need to be done to channel them in the better direction.

I find FACTBOX does not have a neutral stand about Singapore. Doesn't matter, since the fact is, Singapore has won the competition to host the first Youth Olympic in 2010! Congratulations! Also read about it in these reports, Olympics-IOC awards 2010 Youth Games to Singapore, and Singapore ecstatic at winning Youth Olympics bid.

What is your generation?

In Taiwan, they used the decade to classify people into generations of the 60's, 70's, 80's, and so on. There are also the descriptive names such as hippies, gypsies, punkies quite some years back. Anyway, I like the name of this ministry, Generations of Virtue.

Check out Generations of Virtue's clearance page and you'll find handfuls of great books at low prices. Choose from titles such as Preparing Your Son for Every Man's Battle and "Setting a Paradigm for Purity".

Do we need to see a tumor to recognize danger?

Just minutes after reading an advertisment on getting mobile line for your child, I open up a scientific article "Study links heavy cell phone use to cancer". What a coincident! ...

When I first started using mobile phone, I consciously keep my phone away from kids, whomever kids. However, as I notice more and more parents letting their children play games on their phones, I have not been so cautious on this. Nevertheless, I always put my phone away from me whenever possible.

Just about a month ago, my colleague besides me highlighted to me a scientist, who were hired by the phone companies to prove the safety of mobile phone, has actually proven otherwise, or failed repeatedly to find supporting evidence years ago, but only recently managed to get funding to further the research in the opposite objective than the earlier study. Also, the colleague has since started putting callers on hold while attaching the hands free gadget.

Although there are studies showing no significant relations between tumors and mobile phone usage, the above article's author only suggests that "Chil­dren may be more sus­cep­ti­ble," and a single study is usually insufficient to draw good conclusion, it is still better to act safely than to subject to risks unnecessarily.

I wonder, does it help to use VoIP phones, or using applications such as Fring through wifi enabled phones such as my Nokia N80? I think so as the signal strength should be much lesser since wifi range is smaller than GSM.

Be truthful first

There have been much emphasis on speaking positive and encouraging words to children, or anybody, rather than negative ones. Our words are either blessing or curse. Yet, some may over do it by ignoring the need to be truthful, and just say positive words that paint a false picture. Especially when the facts are, sort of, "negative". For example, what should we say to a kid who had scored badly, say 10%, in a test? ... What would you say?

Should we tell him that he hadn't done badly, and should be thankful that he still managed to scored 10%? Is this better than telling him how stupid/lazy he is that he failed badly and scored only 10%? The former is "positive" but to say he hadn't done badly is falsehood. The latter is obviously negative, but rightly state that he failed badly.

In a post a few years back, I mentioned about an article I read that stresses on the importance of consistency in raising up children. Once we started speaking words that are not true, children will notice our inconsistence, and eventually treat our words as unimportant.

Another article I read more recently talks about when parents praise their kids, they need to do it in alignment with the facts. When parents over praise their kids, like the above "positive" statement, kids will be less willing to strive harder for better results.

I think the first pre-requisite in speaking is to be truthful. Then, we choose to speak it in a positive way. In the above example, we should let the child know he has failed badly in the test. Try to substantially work with him on how can we, together, make it better next time. When a plan has been worked out, we can positively emphasize that we appreciate his willingness to want to improve. Thus, there is no falsehood, there is encouragement, and there isn't condemnation.

This is not only about kids. In general, being truthful is so much more important than speaking positively.

Who do you call?

The other day my wife called telling me that a bamboo pole with bedsheet had been blown off the holder and fallen down. However, it did not drop all the way to ground level, but hanging at 8th level by the bedsheet in an unsafe manner. Accordingly, it is not quite possible to be retrieved by the neighbor at the 8th level. Since she has a 2 month old baby to care for, it wasn't convenience for her to go to the neighbor, who is stranger to us.

Thus, we decided to call for help. I called the neighborhood police post. After briefly describing to the policeman who answered my call, he tried to explain to me that they do not typically help residents to pick up their fallen off items. WHAT!!! I almost shouted at him ... What did I shout?, "I AM NOT INTERESTED IN GETTING BACK MY BEDSHEET NOR THE BAMBOO POLE!" I explained, "I'm not calling to seek your help to retrieve my stuffs. I called because I want to alert you of a potentially dangerous situation that need to be attended to." However, I didn't feel that he agreed. He briefly asked for some details like my name and address, but happy with just my last name and didn't mention to me his name nor any reference number if I would like to follow-up.

May be I should have called the Civil Defence. If so, he could have suggested that to me. Nevertheless, to suggest that it isn't their job to retrieve items for residents indicates:
1) He is not sensitive to dangerous situation;
2) He seems to be interested in reasons of why they need not act;
3) His listening skills need training as his first concern is from his point of view, rather than that of the other party.

Eventually, I don't know what actually happened. According to my wife, it is still hanging there after an hour, and later both items were not being seen. I presume nobody is hurt by the accident.

Not only on Valentine Day

I do not really celebrate Valentine Day, and now I'm already the father of my first son for almost three months. People like me loves phrases such as "everyday is Valentine Day", "I love you everyday rather than only on special days", etc.

So does Coupon Chief that provides one stop resources of online coupons everyday. Thus, although today is already Valentine Day, you might still find a good coupon here and possibly in time for delivery. Otherwise, there is the other saying -- better late than never.

Just make a quick "trip" there now! Or you can go directly to these merchants, Zappos coupons and New York & Company, who are giving 50% off on shoes and pants!

Even the devil can cite Scripture

Shakespeare said it this way: "Even the devil can cite Scripture for his purpose."

I think it happens in this research: A function for "gay genes" after all?

Just because gay men do not have their own family to take care of, and therefore ... are available to offer more time and care for their nieces/nephews, the researchers suggested this as an evolutionary support for gay way of life.

Rather than suggesting an obvious common sense that children with more adults who, regardless of sexuality, are available to take care of them are better than those with only their own parents, the researchers seem to have preset what their conclusion should be and designed a limited research for their purpose.

Furthermore, this is done with the knowledge of many other similar failed research attempts to make such conclusion in modern societies. Instead, they argue, or rather blame and accuse that, it is due to "an­ti-gay bi­ases", gay men couldn't do the same as in the selected "relatively un-westernized land", Samoa. By the same logic, I say it is because the modern societies lack "tra­di­tion­al, tribally-based cul­tures, that of­ten have tighter-knit fam­i­lies," such that little support for adults, regardless of sexuality, to take care of their nieces/nephews.

It is not "anti-gay biases," but "family and marriage unfriendliness" in modern societies that we should focus on!

Exceeded 200!!

Not long after I moved into 2nd gear, my earnings from blogging exceeded USD100!

That took me slightly more than 4 months at 1st gear.

Today, just slightly over a month at 2nd gear, my earnings from blogging in my PayPal account exceeded US$200 yesterday!! Actually, my earnings had exceeded US$200 on the 8 Feb, the date after which I am able to withdraw the US$25 I have won in the Aductions Review Competition in January.

I shall remain at 2nd gear before I figure out how to move on to 3rd gear.

A strike that have affected world viewers

Finally, Writers' union backs deal to end Hollywood strike. Hopefully that will means shorter no-show time between consecutive drama series.

Hopefully Lost season 4 will be complete, Heroes season 3 and C.S.I. LV season 8 wouldn't be that short. By the way, was Bionic Woman also affected by their strike?

The first time I have won a contest!

I submitted my post, Ad + Auctions = Aductions, to the January 2008 Review Competition by the new advertisement space marketplace, Aductions. That was 30th January, and mine is the only entry. The forum is so quiet. There must be many like me wondering has Aductions died? ... Has it?

I am glad to tell you that they are alive and kicking! As promised, they announced the winner here. Yes, that's me! I am Winner # 10! Although I am not the first, I am still the first because, afaik, this contest has only one contestant :)

That probably explain my prize:
Since you have read this, don't be shy, go and participate in this contest and win while the winning chance is very high right now!

Another not so lucky day

Early morning I found my bicycle kick stand was vandalized. On closer examination, it seems like an attempt to steal it had failed and the thief angrily tried to damage it. Luckily, quite easily I bent it back to a usable state.

Needed to buy two items this morning, vegetable and bread. Went over to the cheaper market ... (the Lorong 4 Toa Payoh market), but couldn't recall or find any shop that sells bread. Thus, I went to another market (the Lorong 7 market), passing by my place to get the bread.

It is a groceries shop, and time was already after 8.30 a.m., for an $1.40 item that I was paying using a $2 note, the person lazily not willing to thoroughly search for coins before telling me he didn't have no change. Luckily, within seconds he miraculously found 3 x 20-cents coins for the change. I wonder was it because I looked fierce at that instance as I felt like he was showing the attitude that I was giving him trouble by not having 40 cents coins.

On my way back from outside in the afternoon, as usual, people standing just outside the MRT door and started trying to squeeze in before passengers inside have come out. Normally I will just walk straight out knocking on whoever in my way out of the door. Today, I thought may be it would be nice to say a word of warning. I said "siam!", which means give way in Hokkien. Sadly, the two men who was blocking my way seems to be mainland Chinese, who probably don't know Hokkien well. Thus, there was a light shoulder knock after I gave the warning.

However, the second time I needed to come out of the train, the person blocking me is handicapped. Luckily, I realized it soon enough and gave way to him. Shockingly, the man behind him shouted and scolded me. I was too slow to explain or argue back before the door closes. I felt I was being wrongly accused. Firstly, I couldn't have known the person is handicapped from inside the train. Secondly, I gave way. Thirdly, even for handicapped person, I think they still should give way to alighting passengers.

Anyway, I thought I heard he used the phrase "geenna" (kids in Hokkien). I wonder may be it wasn't directed at me. Otherwise, I'll take it as a compliment that I look young :)

Later in the evening, when taking the lift down from level 10 with my baby and wife, the lift stopped at level 5 then 4. At level 5 a couple entered, and at level 4, two men entered. Noticing one of the men holding a lighted cigarette, and with some anger in me from my not so lucky day, I spoke the words "hello, no smoking hor." The poor guy just inhaled a breath of smoke when I said those words, and obediently hold it without puffing it out till level 1. Then my wife asked me, "didn't you notice their tattoo?" Luckily I wasn't beaten up, and I guess they are reasonable people with tattoos :)

Update: This morning (11 Feb) I found the rear passenger seat of my bicycle missing! It probably had been stolen yesterday. Actually, leaving my bicycle outside, I'm all ready for parts to go missing. However, I'm angry that the thief/thieves don't understand bicycle well. After removing the rear seat, they do not need to take away all my nuts for securing the saddle and the rear wheel! Whatever bicycle they would want to attach the stollen seat to will have those stuffs! Luckily, I noticed that before riding on it, and probably would end up injuring myself.

Less crowded, PLEASE!

Singapore should not be as crowded as Hong Kong -Lee

Yes! Yes! Yes!

Economic growth is for better living. To sacrifice living condition for economic growth doesn't seem right.

How about ... better arrangements be made for profits of country A's company made in country B be fed into the economy of country A? In this way, we can still have growth without restricting our best brains and entrepreneurs within the country. Isn't this a "fairer" system? Just as the writers and composers are paid for usage of their works. Shouldn't nations or institutes be paid for the workforce that they nurtured?

Purpose of rules

When each rule is being formalized, it has clear purpose during the time that they were being set. However, circumstances change, and usually more rules are added, or rules are being enhanced to tackle these changes. Similarly, some rules may become obsolete, or doesn't correctly achieve the original purpose. However, due to less urgency to look into obsolete rules, many of these remain and create unnecessary restrictions.

E.g. the 1955 rules about no cycling on pedestrian paths here. Firstly, 1955 is more than half a century ago. Secondly, this nation was underdeveloped then and has been a developed nation for about a decade. Thirdly, the meaning of pedestrian path in 1955 is different from now in many new towns where pedestrian paths are much wider.

Many a times, ... in order not to have these restrictions, the regulatory bodies ignore such obsolete rules, but this gives the wrong impression that the regulatory bodies are powerless or all rules can be ignored.

Actually, the reason that triggered me to write this post is a recent interaction with PayPerPost. My post, Yummy citrus-marinated flame-grilled chicken, was first rejected due to their suspicion that the post before it, Accountable advertising is a sponsored post. Later, they give me the benefit of doubt on my statement that the latter post is not a sponsored post. However, I re-dated the post, which was a remedy action I queried about together in my statement to them, and they didn't warn me that it was not allowed. Sadly, that yummy post was rejected due to this.

I respect their rules, and their need to enforce it by rejecting my post. However, I believe it is clear that I do not have any intention to try to do something that the rule is there to prevent, which I've yet to figure out. I also believe that there isn't any harm done to anyone during the short period when my post was re-dated and again re-dated back to the original date.

This post is triggered by the above incident, but it is not directed to PayPerPost. Rules are good because there are clear and many of them can be enforced by computer. Yet, we are humans. We create rules for us to have guidelines, but not to absolutely follow them. When applying rules, we need to exercise our wisdom, which the computer still lack behind us a lot, to decide if an act is rightfully against the purpose of a certain rule.

PS: A realisation from this. PayPerPost's Customer Love really loves their customers, and bloggers/posties are not their customers, but suppliers.

You can't hear it, but ultrasound is calling for you.

This site, Medical Career Training reminds of the drama series Heroes, where the lead character, Peter Petrelli is a nurse. It is getting more common to find male nurse. Indeed, it is not only in the nursing profession, but the in the field of medical careers, which is one of the fastest growing areas of employment today.

Medical career is not restricted only to physicians and nurses, but also consists of many other roles since a number of sophisticated medical instruments, such as Computed Tomography (CT) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), require a team of qualified people to operate them. Of these, one interesting career is to be a Sonographer, by getting trained in an ultrasound technician school.

Sonographers use special equipment to direct sound waves into areas of a patient's body. Ultrasonographers properly operate the ultrasound equipment, which forms an image that may be videotaped, transmitted, or photographed for diagnosis and/or interpretation by a physician. Sonography is becoming increasingly attractive as patients seek safer treatment options, and sonography provides an alternative to radiology procedures.

I am also in the medical industry, as a technical researcher, mainly dealing with CT and MRI images. Ultrasound is a much easier, safer and faster way of medical imaging than CT and MRI.

You can check out where are these ultrasound tech schools from the site and other details. They categorize them according to which state there are in, and also a list of online schools.

Can I say that to have intimacy is to infect each other?

In an excerpt, Homosexuals Squelch Facts About MRSA Outbreak, of an article in CNSNews.com:

But the media are now obscuring that fact, according to Matt Barber, director of cultural policy for Concerned Women for America (CWA).
“The real story here is the way that the media have whitewashed this outbreak,” Barber told Cybercast News Service. “It is amazing to see what they’ve done with this.”…

and ...

Medically speaking, any break in the skin that is exposed to the organism can then set off an infection, which can destroy “a lot of tissue” before it’s brought under control, [Internationally known infectious disease specialist Dr. John] Diggs said.

Since the main media have whitewashed such news due to concerns about political correctness, let the side media like bloggers who do not have political correctness concerns spread these important information out.

Looking at the medical perspective on infection, it seems like most intimacy behaviors are acts of infecting the other party. Thus, having only one partner in one's lifetime is a smart choice!

Unless your identity is worth much more than $1M

Identity theft is not new. In a 1 Feb 2008 article on Herald-Mail, Identity theft puts ugly face on your good name:
"According to the FBI, more than 10 million people in the U.S. experienced identity theft in 2005" and "The Federal Trade Commission reports that 54 percent of the victims of identity theft uncover the theft while monitoring their own accounts. Twenty-six percent are alerted by companies they previously have done business with, and 8 percent learned of the theft when they applied for credit and were refused."

I just learned much about it from LifeLock's, that guarantee your good name. Before reading more in this blog about it, you might want to sign up first using LifeLock promotion codes to get yourself protected first!

OK, most people would like to consider how to DIY first. The above article mentioned a few ways of reducing the risk of identity theft, such as memorize your Social Security number, add a photo ID to credit and debit cards, remove personal information and identification from a purse or pockets in clothing before donating them to second-hand shops, and such. Note that these can only reduce, not eliminate.

So, what do you think? For me, I doubt I am able to do all those tasks, just to reduce the risk. If you think likewise, can stop reading now and check out LifeLock promo code!

Have you returned after clicking on the above link? Or you still don't feel like utilizing the LifeLock Code for them to guarantee your good name at a discount? They are offering 30 days free and $21 saving a year! Mind you, $21 is actually quite a high percentage discount.

Still haven't visited their site? OK, let me state the best feature: their guarantee is up to One Million Dollars! Thus, unless your identity is worth much more than that (which I am delighted to have someone like you reading my humble blog), you should seriously consider subscribing to their service. I will have to check out their plans of going international.