You are what you eat

They say that you are what you eat. In that case, I am a big BBQ chicken with salad on the side. :-) I have had too many of those in the last while. They are so easy to pick up and are reasonably priced (AUD8.45 for a regular size chicken, and AUD10.90 for a family-sized one). They are even easier to prepare. Just walk over to the grocery store, pay and serve. :-)

I need to start eating some beef as I can feel that my body is low on iron. I have been so lethargic over the last few days that I really think it is due to low iron. I can't remember the last time I had red meat, so it might actually be time to eat a burger or a steak.

I am off to watch another Wipeout episode on TV, live. FUN!!!

Wipeout

I started watching a new TV shows here in Australia. It is called Wipeout Australia and I guess there is a US version, titled Wipeout. The show reminds me of this silly TV program that I used to watch in Europe long time ago, called "Games Without Frontiers", where teams from different countries would compete on a water course. The show was hillarious.

The show Wipeout is similar but simpler, and FUNNIER!!! You end up watching interesting characters compete on the course with lots of obstacles, water and mud. The title of the show is Wipeout, because you see a lot of wipeouts. If you are the type of person that breaks out laughing when you see someone slip and fall on America's Funnies Videos, then you will love this show!

Competitors have to jump over big bouncy balls (99% of them fail and fall spectacularly into the water - a MUST see!), stand on top of a 12 foot platform above water and try to avoid a rubber baton going at them, and many other make-you-fall-in-the-water obstacles and challenges.

I am using YouTube to catch up on the old episodes of the show plus to see episodes from the US show. Me being a nice guy, I figured I should save you all a lot of typing and post the links to the appropriate material on YouTube:
Wipeout USA - lots of episodes
Wipeout Australia - Ep 1
Wipeout Australia - Ep 2

You know you miss your wife when ...

I have to share this because it is going to make you laugh. Few nights ago, I woke up in the middle of the night, confused. There was something different about the room and I could not remember where I was. It took me a few seconds to realize that I was hugging a pillow, thinking that it was Carla and that we were in Ottawa. :-) Sigh! Yes, I do miss her!!!!

Luckily, we will be meeting in Malaysia in less then a month. That should be a fun experience. From my research so far, I have noticed that there are a lot of NICE beaches in that area (Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines). You are probably thinking "Dude, you are in AUSTRALIA! Do you need more beaches?" The answer is yes, as I don't seem to get bored of sun, beaches and the ocean.

Now I need to start planning all the spots that we should visit while in Southeast Asia. So many places, so little time!

Daily/weekly questions

How do you know that you've had a good day? Or that you've used your day wisely? That is exactly what I was asking myself tonight. As an answer to my question, I came up with a list of questions that I can ask myself at the end of a day (or week, depending on how ambitious you are) and figure out if the day was productive or not. Another benefit of having a list like this is the fact that you can use it to figure out WHAT you could be doing now.

Daily/weekly questions:

Have I helped someone
Have I had fun
Have I learned something new
Have I accomplished something
Have I loved
Have I been grateful
Have I eaten something that is good for me
Have I taken care of my body
Have I been active
Have I contributed to my financial well-being
Have I been a friend
Have I improved at least one thing about me

I think I am going to use these questions as a guide on what to accomplish in a day or a week. In a day, you should be happy if you can check off five of those questions. If you are looking over your past week, your goal may be to be able to check off all of the questions, with some checked off multiple times!

TIP: Egg timer on your computer

Have you ever been in a situation where you said to yourself, "Ok, 30 more minutes of browsing/gaming and then I have to get away from the computer" only to find yourself STILL sitting at the computer two hours later? Well, me neither, but for you honest types out there :-) here is a handy URL that you can use to remind yourself.

http://e.ggtimer.com/30minutes

The beauty of this web site is that you can put in any length of time you want and will work. For example, if you put in

http://e.ggtimer.com/30

the timer will count down 30 seconds. You can also use hours, or mix minutes, seconds and hours all together.

http://e.ggtimer.com/1hour14minutes35seconds

I guess you could use this URL as a real egg timer, too!

Providing unsolicited advice ...

This morning, as I was working out by the beach (I know, life IS tough) I noticed a young couple sitting on the beach. The woman's body language was giving serious "I AM TICKED OFF AT YOU!" signs without saying a word or even looking at her boyfriend. The poor guy did not know what to do.

First, he was looking for shells on the beach. Next, he sat close to her but not quite within striking distance (as in - she won't be able to wack me from there). Then, he sat down really close to her but made sure not to touch her. Throughout all this time, she kept looking away from him and not saying a single word.

I thought to myself, I've got to say something to them, because this is just not healthy. By the time I finished my workout, the poor guy had walked away, looking back at her and hoping that she would follow him. No such luck.

So, I approached her and said "Look, you've been sitting here, mad at your "friend" for the last 30 minutes, you might want to clue him in why you are mad." "Oh, he KNOWS why I am mad," comes a snappy reply from the ticked-off lady. O-k, I don't think she's open to advice right now. Oh well, I'll share my wisdom anyways. "Look, let me share an insight from my 10 years of marriage. There is not point in being mad at him. It won't teach him anything. Tell him what you want and see if he is ok with it. If not, so be it. And stop brooding. It won't help you nor him. Look, you are on a beach and it is a beautiful day. Go and enjoy life," I said and walked away.

It did not appear that she go the message. Kids these days, they just won't listen to wise words from us elders. :-) I hope that some of my message kicks in for her at some point in her life. You never know how something you say can help someone else's life.

This afternoon, it was so hot that I decide to finally go to the beach. Yes, it took me a month to actually go to the beach! I went there carrying Edith's "Hello Kitty" beach towel. I was the coolest guy there, NOT!

Last time I checked the water here, it was pretty cold. So I went in with trepidation but was pleasantly surprised that water was just cool, not cold. In I went and it felt so GOOD! I really should have done this sooner but you can't do it all. Apply for jobs, cook, clean, talk to my Honey, workout, and there goes the day.

Temperatures are going down over the next few days, to a high of 17 C on Monday, which is higher than what Ottawa is getting these days but remember, it is summer here, and I want my 25+ temperatures. :-)

Letting off some steam

Last few days were busy and it looks like the rest of the week will be pretty busy with the job search. I had only 5 hours of sleep last night since I had to submit a job application before going to bed, and then had to get up early to get ready for a meeting with a recruiter.

It's all good, but 5 hours of sleep makes me cranky. The meeting with the recruiter went well, now they know what I am looking for. They seemed very professional and very competent, so I would not be surprised if over the next few months I get a job through them.

Anyways, the whole evening/morning thing was a lot of work and little sleep so I figured I had to do something fun to let off some steam. So, I went shooting! At a shooting range, that is. $75 will get you 30 shots with a 9 mm and 24 shots with a Magnum .357. Nice! It was kind of therapeutic, all this noise and gun smoke. The guys next to me were firing Magnum 44. Those things are LOUD even with the earmuffs on.

The following picture is of a target that I shot at from 15 meters with a Magnum .357, 12 rounds. You don't mess with Ivan!

Warren Buffet's Letter to Shareholders

I just finished reading an Warren Buffet's letter to shareholders that is issued in the Annual report of Berkshire Hathaway, the company which is majority owned by Warren Buffet.

It was a very enlightening read, especially when you are trying to learn how and where to invest. The great thing about Buffet's letters is that you get to see how he thinks, so that you can use that thinking for your own investments. The letter was a great read, and you too can read it here.

Buffet did have quite a few interesting comments that I wanted to showcase, just so you don't think he is a boring, financial guy.


"As we view GEICO’s current opportunities, Tony and I feel like two hungry mosquitoes in a nudist camp. Juicy targets are everywhere." -- GEICO is owned by Berkshire Hathaway

"Ben Franklin once said, “It’s difficult for an empty sack to stand upright.” That’s no worry for General Re clients." -- General Re is owned by Berkshire Hathaway

"Ajit came to Berkshire in 1986. Very quickly, I realized that we had acquired an extraordinary talent. So I did the logical thing: I wrote his parents in New Delhi and asked if they had another one like him at home." - commenting on a manager of one of his companies

"... the need for meaningful down payments was frequently ignored. Sometimes fakery was involved. (“That certainly looks like a $2,000 cat to me” says the salesman who will receive a $3,000 commission if the loan goes through.)" -- Buffet commenting on the pre-fab housing bubble in the 90s

"Lenders happily made loans that borrowers couldn’t repay out of their incomes, and borrowers just as happily signed up to meet those payments. Both parties counted on “house-price appreciation” to make this otherwise impossible arrangement work. It was Scarlett O’Hara all over again: “I’ll think about it tomorrow.” -- comment on the current real estate problems in the US

"Home ownership is a wonderful thing. My family and I have enjoyed my present home for 50 years, with more to come. But enjoyment and utility should be the primary motives for purchase, not profit or refinancing possibilities. And the home purchased ought to fit the income of the purchaser."

"Putting people into homes, though a desirable goal, shouldn’t be our country’s primary objective. Keeping them in their homes should be the ambition." -- Amen!

"... we are one of only seven AAA corporations in the country – our cost of borrowing is now far higher than competitors with shaky balance sheets but government backing. At the moment, it is much better to be a financial cripple with a government guarantee than a Gibraltar without one."

"The tennis crowd would call my mistakes “unforced errors.” -- commenting on his purchase of two Irish banks that lost over 90% of their value

"We never want to count on the kindness of strangers in order to meet tomorrow’s obligations. When forced to choose, I will not trade even a night’s sleep for the chance of extra profits."

"... our feelings about [derivatives] mirrored a line in a country song: “I liked you better before I got to know you so well.”

"From this irritating reality comes The First Law of Corporate Survival for ambitious CEOs who pile on leverage and run large and unfathomable derivatives books: Modest incompetence simply won’t do; it’s mindboggling screw-ups that are required." -- when you mess up, mess up badly enough, so the government HAS to help you

Keep on sending those resumes

Man, is it ever exhausting to look for a new job. Call this person, send that resume, apply to that posting. Oh well, if I wanted it easy I would have stayed where I was! :-)

I can tell that I am in a country with primarily British population when I talk to Mr. Brown right after I finished my conversation with Mr. gray. Funny! Well, when you're looking for jobs (my LEAST favourite activity in the world) you look for anything to cheer you up.

The weather for the past week has been pretty bad. It actually reached 13 C. I know, the Canadian readers are already throwing tomatos (that's how they spell it here) at me. It was also extremely windy, the kind that turns the ships upside down.

I just found out that Monday is a holiday here. Oh well, more time to research our trip to Malaysia. I know, I know. I cannot stay in one place for too long. But why would I if I have the opportunity to travel. Traveling to Asia is so cheap from here. A round trip to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia is AUD$380 (~CAD$300). Who would not go for that kind of price? Damir says: "ME!" he he

OK, I have to go work out now. All this trip planning and job applying has delayed my 8 am workout to 4 pm. At least the wind has died down and the temperature is 21 C. BEAUTIFUL! Here's another reason to be mad at me, next week the temperatures are going up to 33 C. Woohoo!

VOIP, VOIP, everywhere

Using a telephone in Australia is an expensive endeavour. If you use your cell phone (or mobile as they call it here) you are often paying 90 cents per minute plus a 35 cent connection fee. I know, it's a rip-off. It is not any better with your landline (home phone). Each local call will cost you a 30 cent connection fee with no charge for additional minutes, while calls to other cities will incur a connection charge AND a long distance charge. Don't even think about calling a cell phone as that will cost you arm and a leg.

Never being one who likes paying too much for anything (aka 'cheap'), I looked for a cheaper alternative. I have been using a VOIP solution in Canada since 2005 (Primus TalkBroadband) and have loved it (plus it saved us a LOT of money). I was amazed by the number of companies offering cheap VOIP service in Australi. Seeing that there are over 20 VOIP companies here I was sure to find something I liked. And I did! I actually found several companies that have great rates and provide all the services that a normal phone provides.

We (my brother-in-law and I) are currently testing one provider that gives us a ton of local, long distance and mobile calls for $15 a month. That is a great deal, but I've found another provider with more features and excellent rates to most countries. I will be trying it out soon! The coolest feature is the ability to make calls from your computer and have it look like you are calling from your home phone number (also called a softphone). Really COOL!

I know, I know, I just can't stop finding these new services. Not that VOIP is new, but the way it's implemented, priced and enabled here is very advanced. I'll let you know when I finalize on a VOIP provider that's worth the money.

I know that you can do a lot of these things with Skype, but with the VOIP setup that I am describing, you can wire up the house to use the same phones that you were using before, which makes it easy for the rest of the household to use all the benefits of the inexpensive/full-featured phone service. Try that with Skype!

I drove and lived to tell about it!

Today was the first day that I took my brother-in-law's car out for a drive. He and his wife are away so I figured that I might as well try driving sooner rather than later.

My first trip was only going to be a drive to a shopping centre, as it is time to replenish the fridge with fresh groceries. I first scoped out the route using Google Maps. The way my mind works, it helps me to actually SEE the route in advance. As backup, I brought my GPS phone, just to have all bases covered.

Getting out of the parkade at home was a bit tricky but not too bad. As I got out on the street, I kept repeating to myself "Keep LEFT, keep LEFT!" That worked! Except, when you're focusing on keeping on the left side of the road, you occasionally miss a turn. :-(

I got to the mall safely, no traffic incidents and no police chasing me. I had to keep paying attention to the speedometer as the police here are REALLY strict about speeding. If you are going 3 km/h over the speed limit you will get pulled over or will get a nice picture taken by a speed camera.

There was only one thing that I kept messing up as I drove. I kept turning on the windshield wipers every time I wanted to turn! LOL I did it so many times that even I started to laugh at myself. The windshield wiper is on the left side of the steering wheel (opposite of what it is in Europe/North America), so I think I hit the wipers instead of the turn signal about 75% of the time. My goal for the next drive is to get that percentage down to at most 50% of the time. :-)