Jesshosy's Notes

Sometimes I felt that the used car showrooms are just another avenue to make things looks good and in return, companies can charge a little extra to customers who want to buy and sell their used cars. This is particularly true and it happens exactly to me when I sold my car a couple of years while ago.

I had a Kancil that was about 10 years of age. When I contacted the used car dealers, they told me that RM3000 is the best they can give, given that they do not find any other problems with the car upon inspection. I was feeling really not good because I know that they normally sell the same model of used car for about RM6000 after minimal refurbishing done to the car. So, I decided to try my luck by selling the car BY MYSELF. Guest what? I sold it for RM4500 within 2 days. Well, those were the days when we only have 1 or 2 non-specific rojak website where people sell everything under one roof.

After coming across CarSifu, i was so happy to learn that I have a new SPECIFIC avenue to sell and perhaps buy my future cars. Personally, I feel that this website is still new in terms of appearance, but the functionality itself is definitely good enough for sellers and buyers. List of different types of cars are categorized according to brands allows users to search for the available cars easily. The brands of cars were also very comprehensive: from Proton to Mercedes-Benz and Ferrari. Car specifications were also given in detail. Potential shoppers need not to ask more questions about the model that they are interested at. Cool!

Here are some of my personal recommendations to make the portal look better though:

1)      Further categorize the site to USED and NEW cars

2)      Perhaps inserting a FORUM for cars discussion would be nice.

Came across this news from TheStar.com (20 May, 2011):

“On loan recovery…mere RM600mil was recovered from “blacklisted” loan defaulters…The defaulters were barred from leaving the country, adding there were still 228,000 defaulters who stubbornly refused to settle a whopping RM2.5bil in loans.”

Perhaps just stopping the defaulters to leave the country will not be sufficient. I was thinking, tagging the defaulting loan too CRIS/CTOS to freeze/blacklist future borrowing will be good. These people are loan defaulters anyway.

But please, those who have gotten the opportunity to study using these monies, be a little considerate. Time to return the favour. Think about those who to be denied the chance because of insufficient funds…RM2.5billion is a lot of money for a lot of students.

The availability of commercial property in KL is definitely undeniably a little oversupplied at the moment. Riding on this slight oversupply trend, commercial businesses can now take advantage to find cheap or at least affordable offices available for rent in around KL city centre.

Business owners can always browse through various property websites for rental availability information. One of the relevant sites that recently come across is PropWall KL Office Rentals. Although this site looks barely simple, it offers a quite straight forward comparison on all available commercial offices for rent. Here are some of the things that made browsing easy for users:

* Search According to Area* : User can search by prominent areas such as Jalan Tun Razak, Jalan Sultan Ismail, and etc.

*Listing of Latest and Most Happening Office Buildings*: Newly built commercial office buildings such as The Icon and G-Tower at Jalan Tun Razak has also been made available.

*Transparent Rental Pricing*: Transparent rental pricing made available by agents enable users to compare and find the best from the all available options.

*Clear Category for Types of Commercial Buildings*: Available commercial offices are catagorized according to type of commercial buildings, e. g. Office, Shop, Factory and Land.

Given these special characteristics of the site, checking out the above mentioned website prior to deciding on renting a specific office lot could help you save a lot of time and money.

Since Christmas and New Year is around the corner, I felt that it’s time for some home improvements. After browsing around for some ideas,  I stumble upon a great websites offering affordable deals, i.e. become.com. In addition to that, I also discovered some important points while shopping for some items such as wallpaper, bookshelf and storage bench.

Wallpapers are essential to add a touch of finishing to a plain wall. For any wallpapers, finding a matching pair wallpaper and adhesive wall borders is very important. First in the list, wallpaper and wall borders should be matching in colors. Buyers having difficulty finding complementary colors can always refer to color wheels available in search engine. Wall borders would also have to be match with the overall theme of the room. For example, if you are using a very earthy color theme for your room, a standing winter theme will match perfectly.

Wooden furnitures normally cuts a big chuck out of our overall home improvement budget. Purchasing high quality bookcases, bed frame, bench mirror, garden benches, dining tables and many other types of wooden furnitures can be a hassle if we fail to identify the appropriate type of wood for our home. The various types of wood used for bookcases include softwood such as pine, or hardwood such as oak and mahogany, or even manufactured wood such as plywood and particle board. Softwood and manufactured wood are often cheaper, however they can be easily damaged. Hardwood is therefore highly recommended.

Travelling is definitely one of my most enjoyable times with friends and family. But when I travel, one of my main concerns has always been…Where can I find a clean nice place, which is not too expensive to stay over? For avid travelers like me who do not want to spend a bomb on hotels, which I eventually spend less than 8 hours sleeping, B&B (Bed & Breakfast) is often my best friend.

Unfortunately,  it is seriously not easy to find a website where all decent B&Bs are centrally listed. Normally these B&B are listed independently or at times not listed at all. Well FOLKs, I definitely have a fantastic news for you!!! Guess what I found at google today:

Malaysia now has its very own Malaysia Bed & Breakfast one-stop website!!!

I personally think that this is one of the most convenient website to browse for almost any available short term place to stop over. Listing in the site is clean and easy to browse. Details and pictures of the available rooms were also clearly provided. Some responsible owners have even listed the location map, closest public amenities, price range, conditions, and even availability calendar.

I have a strong feeling that the rooms are really renting out fast too. Reason being, there were more than 1,000 average visitors per listed rooms. Even newly listed rooms that are less than 2 weeks old is already hitting 500 visitors. My instinct is telling me that this website is a perfect directory for B&B providers too.

Thumbs-up to the website owner for doing such a great service to the community. By the way, wouldn’t you want to check-in to the place (picture below) for a few nights?

Fruits are essentially imperative for our daily nutrients, but how many of us actually made it a part of our daily diets?

Check out some of the most common fruits that are not only easily obtainable and is very much appreciated by our body:

These ranking is based on the fruits nutrients (vitamin C, fiber, carotenoids (beta-carotene), calcium, and folic acid). The aspects of availabiliy, safety and versatility of each fruit is also taken into consideration.

1. Avocado
2. Papaya
3. Guava
4. Cantaloupe
5. Orange
6. Apricots (dried, unsulfured)
7. Mango
8. Strawberries (organic)
9. Kiwi
10. Grapefruit (pink or red)

Source: http://www.askdrsears.com/html/4/T042600.asp

I’ve received this piece of information from a forwarded email by a colleague of mine, which I think is really worth sharing.

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“With the constant fear of H1N1 symptoms, the following measures can be practiced by one and all. This is an information which I just received from my father  who is a Consultant General Surgeon & Gastoenterologist, based in India and I do hope it could be beneficial to the students and their families alike.

Tamiflu does not kill but prevents H1N1 from further proliferation till the virus limits itself in about 1-2 weeks (its natural cycle). H1N1, like other Influenza A viruses, only infects the upper respiratory tract and proliferates (only) there. The only portals of entry are the nostrils and mouth/ throat. In a global epidemic of this nature, it’s almost impossible not coming into contact with H1N1 in spite of all precautions. Contact with H1N1 is not so much of a problem as proliferation is.

While you are still healthy and not showing any symptoms of H1N1 infection, in order to prevent proliferation, aggravation of symptoms and development of secondary infections, some very simple steps – not fully highlighted in most official communications – can be practiced (instead of focusing on how to stock N95 or Tamiflu):

1. Frequent hand-washing (well highlighted in all official communications).

2. “Hands-off-the-face” approach. Resist all temptations to touch any part of face (unless
you want to eat, bathe or slap).

3. Gargle twice a day with warm salt water (use Listerine if you don’t trust salt). H1N1 takes 2-3 days after initial infection in the throat/ nasal cavity to proliferate and show characteristic symptoms. Simple gargling prevents proliferation. In a way, gargling with salt water has the same effect on a healthy individual that Tamiflu has on an infected one. Don’t underestimate this simple, inexpensive and powerful preventative method.

4. Similar to 3 above, clean your nostrils at least once every day with warm salt water. Not everybody may be good at Jala Neti or Sutra Neti (very good Yoga asanas to clean nasal cavities), but blowing the nose hard once a day and swabbing both nostrils with cotton buds dipped in warm salt water is very effective in bringing down viral population.

5. Boost your natural immunity with foods that are rich in Vitamin C (Amla and other citrus fruits). If you have to supplement with Vitamin C tablets, make sure that it also has Zinc/bioflavonoids to boost absorption.

6. Drink as much of warm liquids as you can. Drinking warm liquids has the same effect as gargling, but in the reverse direction. They wash off  proliferating viruses from the throat into the stomach where they cannot survive, proliferate or do any harm.

All these are simple ways to prevent, within means of most households, and certainly much less painful than to wait in long queues outside public hospitals.

I do hope, this information could be passed on to one and all, for a healthy and H1N1 free environment.

With regards
Dr. Snigdha Misra”

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Here are some of my newly read books. These are truly inspiring autobiographies: Amazingly illustrated, Soul Touching, Strongly Recommended!

My personal preference in descending order…

I recently got this book from one of the warehouse sales around. I would say it is one of the best and most realistic book that I’ve ever came across. Definitely worth a read. Most importantly it has opened-up my mind on many perspectives on various global slavery issues we thought could not have happenned in the 21st century, but unfortunately it still EXIST. The stories actually gets your heart pounding- imagining the severity of the victims’ situations, especially when the survivors tell shares their stories of non-stop tortures, rapes, close-to-death experiences, escapes, and finally FREEDOM.

Authored by David Batstone (a professor of ethics at the University of San Francisco), the book shared a few real life stories about survivors of slavery including:

• How girls at young age ended up in sex parlours and brothels in Cambodia and Thailand?
• How South Asians ended up being a bonded labourer for generations?
• How children at young age were abducted and trained to kill as a child soldier in Uganda?
• How Eastern European women were transported by the European sex syndicates from one country to another and end up in US, Middle East or Asia Pacific?
• How Peruvian children ended up in the sex market and controlled by pimps?
• How slavery take place in the modern-day America?

More info:

“Not For Sale is a campaign of students, entrepreneurs, artists, people of faith, athletes, law enforcement officers, politicians, social workers, skilled professionals, and all justice seekers, united to fight the global slave trade,” find out more about this campaign at http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/

You can also read more on global slavery updates from the Not for Sale website, i.e: Human Trafficking by US military subcontractor in Baghdad, UK Unveils Plan for Sex Trade Crackdown,FBI: Local child-prostitution roundup snares more than 100 in Bay Area, Project Censored: Not For Sale Featured in Top 25 Censored Stories of 2009,How China has created a new slave empire in Africa,Uganda: Churches, bars cited in human trafficking, and many more.

In line with the fight against global warming, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has called on Malaysians to switch off all non-used lights for an hour, from 8.30pm-9.30pm on March 28 (Earth Hour).

This campaign was initiated in 2007, Australia. In 2008, many countries including 35 official flagship cities and also 400 supporting cities have participated in this campaign.

As for Malaysia, I believe it would be the first to be held in big scale. As off today, many iconic landmarks such as KLTower, Angkasapuri, Sunway Pyramid, MidValley Megamall, etc., in Malaysia have pledged their commitments for the ‘Earth Hour’ campaign.

The benefits of this campaign is obvious – energy saving -> reduces CO2 released -> reduces global warming. The amount of energy saved just in 1 hour by switching the lights and non-used electricity off, is quite alarming. Here are some figures from various countries which have participated in this campaign before:

• “Toronto saved 900 megawatt-hours of electricity. 8.7% was saved if measured against a typical March.”
• “Ireland, as a whole, had a reduction in electricity use of about 1.5% for the evening.In the three-hour period between 18:30 and 21:30, there was a reduction of 50 megawatts, saving 150 megawatt-hours, or approximately 6 tonnes of carbon dioxide.”
• “In Dubai, where external lighting on several major city landmarks was turned off and street lighting in selected areas was dimmed by 50%, the Electricity and Water Authority reported savings of 100 megawatt-hours of electricity.”
• “The best result was from Christchurch, New Zealand. The city reported a drop of 13% in electricity demand.”
• “Melbourne, Australia saved 10.1% of electricity. Sydney, being the city that participated both 2007 and 2008 Earth Hour, cut 8.4% electricity consumption.”

So friends, what are you waiting for, let’s switch off our lights too.

For more info about Earth Hour:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Hour
http://www.earthhour.org/
http://thestar.com.my/