8 Smart Strategies to Make Your Home Dust-Proof
1. Keep closet floors clear for easy cleaning.
2. Upgrade your furnace filter.
3. Rotate bedding weekly.
4. Capture dust — don’t just spread it around.
5. Beat and shake area rugs.
6. Take cushions out for a beating.
7. Clean the air while you clean house.
8. Match the vacuum to the flooring.
How To Detect Bed Bugs?
They have brownish flat bodies. Their physical features are comparable with roaches and ticks. They scoot rapidly across floors and furniture. The eggs are so tiny that they may look like dust. Their fecal matter resembles pepper spray. Eggs can be seen in hidden spots.
Developing bed bugs periodically sheds their skin. So their presence can be detected by the dead skin dropping on the sheets or places where they reside. These are nocturnal insects and bites humans in the early morning hours. They probe into the skin with the help of the beak present on their head. They inject an anesthetic. They suck human blood with the beak.
After having their dinner of course they saunter off to rest to digest their meal properly. Naturally bed bugs are of flat shape. They dine on blood for 5-10 minutes approximately. It increases its size by three folds and becomes rounded shape.
How to detect bed bugs by simple means?
- Make use of very bright light to find the bed bugs because they like to hide in cracks and crevices in mattress seams and furniture.
- Bed bug’s abandoned skins, their feces are the clues to detect them. Feces are smaller than mouse droppings.
- Look for the black and obnoxious smelling black gland secretion by the bed bugs.
- There can be tiny blood spots on your bed sheet showing bed bug presence.
- Check your body for the rashes or red welts to detect the presence of bed bugs in your house. You have to check your body because bed bug irritation is frequently not felt immediately after the bite has occurred.
Drinking scalding tea increases the risk of throat cancer
Now you better think twice when you want to gulp down that steaming hot coffee or tea.
Research carried out on the tea drinking habits of 300 people with throat cancer and 571 people without cancer, found compared with drinking tea at 65 degrees or less, drinking tea between 65 degrees and 69 degrees was associated with a doubling in the risk of cancer and drinking even hotter tea was linked to an eight fold risk.
S’pore-M’sia World Cup tickets sell out in 6 hours
Looks like the Kallang Spirit is still burning hot and heavy!
ALL 4,000 tickets for the July 23 Singapore-Malaysia 2014 World Cup Qualifier (Round Two) first-leg match have been sold out.
This, after just six hours following the start of ticket sales on Saturday morning at 8am at Jalan Besar Stadium.
With a queue already forming at around 10.30pm on Friday night, the ticketing booth at the South Gate of Jalan Besar Stadium had the ‘Sold Out’ sign displayed at 2.20pm on Saturday afternoon.
Professional Gamers: A Day in the Life
Wonder what the life of a professional gamer is like?
PC World interviewed three StarCraft 2 players to find out.
Adrian “KawaiiRice” Kwong is a member of team FnaticMSI, an international pro gaming team that fields players in several different games, including StarCraft 2, Quake Live, Counter-Strike, Call of Duty, and Halo.
Paulo “CatZ” Vizcarra is the cofounder of Team ROOT Gaming, a newly established StarCraft 2 team that is home to a handful of high-level players like Kevin “qxc” Riley and Andrew “Drewbie” Moysey. Unlike Fnatic and Evil Geniuses, ROOT Gaming currently is not sponsored–meaning that its members have to fund their occupation by coaching others and winning tournaments.
Greg “IdrA” Fields is one of the best-known StarCraft players out there. Not only is he is one of the few U.S. players who is good enough to hang with the Korean professional players (though he recently concluded his three-year-long stint playing in Korean leagues to return to the United States and participate in the growing U.S.-based eSports scene), but he also has the attitude to match.
COE supply for 1,600cc cars & motorcycles to be bigger
If you are looking to purchase a vehicle in Singapore, these 2 months is the best time to go for it!
THOSE shopping for a 1,600cc car or a motorcycle in the next six months can breathe a bit easier – COE supplies for the two vehicle categories are bigger for the August-January period.
The Problem With Silicon Valley Is Itself
Awesome read. Pretty true.
Groupon clone after Groupon clone, yawn… yet another social media dashboard, a cloud-based enterprise solution or, worse still, another photo sharing app; I’ve heard pitch after pitch of the same technology and keep wondering why all these highly intelligent, well educated youngsters, many of whom have been educated in the best universities in the world (Stanford, Yale and Harvard) are not putting their brains to good use by solving real-world problems. Instead they’re building technology to solve trivial issues – like apps that show where to spot your nearest tofu cupcake and share it with your friends.
Tablets Continue to Dent PC Sales
Thinking of blowing your pay-check on the iPad2? Perhaps these numbers will convince you, after all, more people are switching to tablet computing!
“Given the hype around media tablets such as the iPad, retailers were very conservative in placing orders for PCs,” Mikako Kitagawa, a Gartner analyst, said in a statement. “Instead, they wanted to secure space for media tablets. Some PC vendors had to lower their inventory through promotions, while others slimmed their product lines at retailers.”
RWS holding job fairs in heartlands
For those who dreamed of working in a Casino or in Sentosa, here’s your chance once again!
RESORTS World Sentosa (RWS) is seeking to fill more than 700 vacancies for its second phase of development.
This will include a maritime museum and aquarium, and two hotels, the Equarius Hotel and Spa Villas. These are scheduled to open progressively from the second half of this year. To help fill the vacancies, the integrated resort will be recruiting in the heartlands over the next two months, with the help of the National Trades Union Congress’ (NTUC) Employment and Employability Institute (e2i).
Three recruitment fairs will be held in Bukit Batok, Bedok and Kallang, with the first job fair to be held at the HomeTeamNS@Bukit Batok building today and tomorrow.
Previous RWS recruitments held by e2i have been held at the e2i campus in Redhill, since 2009.
The e2i was set up by the NTUC to help job seekers find jobs and get training, and also help employers looking to hire or train workers.
The institute said yesterday that the job fairs are shifting to the heartlands, after it received feedback from previous applicants who said they could not travel far for job interviews because of family or work commitments. Subsequent job fairs will take place at Bedok Community Centre and Kallang Community Centre on July 28 and 29, and on Aug16 and 17, respectively.
via Straits Times
How Does Peanut Butter Remove Gum From Hair?
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Chemistry of Gum
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It’s an old home remedy that really works: getting chewing gum out of someone’s hair using peanut butter. To understand how peanut butter works on chewing gum in hair, it’s important to learn what each is made of and how they react when mixed together. Gum is made up of a natural gum base, usually from trees, mixed with sugars, syrups, food coloring and flavorings. The gum base molecules will cling tightly to the proteins in the dry hair. However, the gum base is hydrophobic, or “afraid of water” in Greek. This means that the gum doesn’t dissolve in water. If you attempt to wash the gum out of the hair, the water will have no effect on the gum. Interestingly, because gum is hydrophobic, you can’t get gum stuck in already wet hair. Dry hair, however, becomes a sticky mess with chewing gum.
Chemistry of Peanut Butter
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Peanut butter is a paste made from ground and roasted peanuts. Peanuts produce a lot of oil during the process of becoming peanut butter, and some manufacturers even add some extra peanut oil into the formula for extra creaminess and enhanced taste. In other words, peanut butter contains lots of oils and fats. These are also hydrophobic substances. When gum is stuck in dry hair, take a generous slab of peanut butter and rub it all around the chewing gum. Work it into the gummy hair as much as possible.
Peanut Butter Meets Gum
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The oils in the peanut butter attract the gum base in the chewing gum. That means the hydrophobic materials in both substances find it easier to stick to each other than the proteins of the dry hair. The oils in the peanut butter get in between the hair and the gum and makes the gum stiffer and less sticky. Keep working the peanut butter around the gum and you’ll soon find you can pull out big chunks of gum. Make sure the peanut butter coats all the gum surface, and keep massaging it in until all the gum has been removed. Wash hair as normal and nobody will ever be able to tell there was once chewing gum in the hair. Salad oil and mayonnaise will also work the same way with chewing gum and hair because they too are oils.
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Healthy Dieting
I’m trying to start a healthy regime lately. I’ve filled the fridge up with packs of mix fruit juices, milk and a few types of cereal.
I’m a lazy person and personally hate cutting up fruits to eat. But I don’t mind drinking it!
What I do is instead of waking up and drink coffee, I drink a glass of fruit juice instead. Coffee can wait till mid-day.
Roller Coaster month
Its been a tough month of May trying to raise funds for my new startup.
We’ve been lining meetings back to back in order to have an option to choose the best offers from investors.
So far so good, no one said we were crazy yet so we know we are on the right track!
Harry Potter spoofs
Great Harry Potter spoofs, parodies, mashups and comedy songs created by both fans and critics alike.
via Mashable: http://mashable.com/2011/06/17/harry-potter-spoof-videos/
It flooded again today
PUB explains flash floods
SINGAPORE: National water agency PUB explained that the flash floods on Sunday morning were caused by two bouts of heavy rainfall.
It said this at a news conference on Sunday afternoon, which was also attended by Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Vivian Balakrishnan.
The first bout of rainfall started slightly past 6am, and second downpour, which was more intense, occurred at about 10.30am.
About 65mm of rainfall was recorded within 30 minutes.
This was worse than the one on June 16 last year, which had 100mm of rainfall within two hours.
PUB said it had mobilised staff and contractors to the flooded sites once it received alerts of heavy rain.
PUB also deployed tankers to affected areas to pump out the water from carparks located in basements of buildings.
PUB chief executive Khoo Teng Chye said he is studying some possible solutions to prevent future occurrences.
“These include, possibly, building a big retention pond near where we can then trap some of the peak flows,” Mr Khoo said.
“The other alternative is to really create a diversion canal from where this pond is to the Singapore River.
“But given Singapore’s built-up situation, these are very, very expensive schemes.”
Meanwhile, Dr Balakrishnan outlined five key areas that he would focus on, in dealing with floods in Singapore.
Speaking after inspecting the flood areas at Tanglin Mall, Dr Balakrishnan said one of his priorities now is to ensure safety is maintained along drains.
Dr Balakrishnan stressed there’s no compromising safety.
He said railings will be installed where needed, and drains covered in the short term so that no one gets hurt.
On Wednesday, a 15-year-old teenager died when he fell into an uncovered drain swollen with rainwater.
“Personally, I think our weather has changed. I’m actually psychologically prepared for it to get worse,” Dr Balakrishnan said.
“You’re dealing with nature, and you’re dealing with the weather; you have to be prepared that there is a limit to human engineering and what we can deliver.
“But having said that, let us make sure we have done the best we can and within those limits, then cope with whatever else that nature throws at us.”
Dr Balakrishnan said because of the changing weather conditions, his ministry will need to review planning norms, which includes designing of drainage systems.
He added another priority is to ensure roads are passable even during heavy rainfall.
He said he intends to ensure buildings are better prepared to cope with the occurrence of floods.
During heavy rainfall last year, the basement of Tessarina condominium was flooded.
The management there has since made improvements such as installing a flood barrier.
When the Bukit Timah canal flooded its banks on Sunday morning, the siren was activated and residents were alerted to drive their cars out of the basement, and the flood barrier was closed.
Tessarina Condominium management committee chairman Leonard Yip said: “The primary strategy for us was to lobby for improvements to the Bukit Timah canal and also for raising of Wilby Road.
“So, we believe that most of the problems will be solved”.
At Bukit Timah Road, flash floods occurred at the stretch from Blackmore to Maplewood Road, making some lanes impassable to traffic earlier Sunday morning.
PUB is currently making drainage improvement works to the Bukit Timah canal.
Works to deepen the canal will start by the end of this year.
The project is expected to be fully completed by November 2012.
Modern Family
Modern Family is a new comedy sitcom from US which I am downloading and watching now.
It’s awesome. Everyone should watch this.
Judgement Day passed
Yesterday was supposed to be Judgement Day or Rapture Day where Christains are supposed go to Heaven and the non-believers will suffer in Hell. It was set at 6pm in every region.
But nothing happened at 6pm, to my disappointment.
I guess it got delayed 
iPad 2 Craze
The iPad 2 has been released since the end of April in Singapore and consumers all flock to purchase it online via the Apple Store online.
Should I get one for myself? Perhaps not. Here’s 3 reasons why.
1) Thinner and lighter is really not a sweetener, since the iPad 1 is already light enough to be carried around.
2) Dual core processor will not be utilized anyway since most of our work does not require high processing apps, the only way you will utilize the dual core chips often are playing games.
3) The multi tasking is still not properly fixed on iOS platform.
Friday the 13th
Today is Friday the 13th, so I search the internet looking for the origin for the fun of it. Here some information to share with you.
Friday the 13th occurs when the thirteenth day of a month falls on a Friday, whichsuperstition holds to be a day of bad luck. In the Gregorian calendar, this day occurs at least once, but at most three times a year. Any month’s 13th day will fall on a Friday if the month starts on a Sunday.
More information here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_the_13th
Singapore General Elections
There will be no blog entry about the General Elections in this blog.
Cheers.
Make donations via SMS
You can now send donation via SMS as long as you own a mobile phone and mobile account registered with Singtel, StarHub or M1.
Here is the list:
All you have to do is send an SMS to 78888, whether you are on SingTel, StarHub or M1, to make S$5, S$10 or S$20 donations to the Singapore Red Cross to aid the cause.
- For a $5 donation, SMS RC5 to 78888
- For a $10 donation, SMS RC10 to 78888
- For a $20 donation, SMS RC20 to 78888
The amount will be reflected on your next month’s phone bill.
This donation drive will run from now till April 11th, 2011.
Go go!
How to be a Professional Gamer?
I’ve been working on this blog entry for a while now, crafting the article that helps the typical competitive gamer get a clue about having a gaming career.
In my work in SCOGA, a cybersports association in Singapore I’ve co-founded, I’ve come across many gamers who would ask me passionately, “how do I become a pro-gamer?”, I can say a large percentage of them weren’t happy with my answers.
Here are some of my answers about building your gaming career, these remain as my personal opinions and are not related to SCOGA in any sort.
1. Choose the right game
Let’s face it, you’re not going to get famous if you ranked top in Bejeweled among your Facebook friends or beat your mum in Wii golf. Look at the current trends and games that are used in local and international tournaments. Find out what games have the most chances to appear in tournaments that you can participate.
Do some analysis on yourself to find out what games suit you best. There are games that you may like and will spend countless hours playing them, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you will excel in that game. Try out different genres of games (RTS, MOBA, FPS, Racing or Sports related) and short list the type of genres that fits you best. You might be a FPS fanatic with good hand-eye coordination but you might realize your brain cells functions faster on a RTS battle.
2. Mastering the game
If you are preparing yourself for a tournament by playing with hard-mode computer generated opponents, chances are that you will turn up in the tournament waiting to lose your first round. Most semi-pro/pro players I have met and dealt with spend less time than what a typical hardcore gamer spends in-game. Finding and sparring with a real live human-being opponent brings training up to a whole new level and is a key factor to your self-improvement.
Scout the local community forums or leaderboards and find someone equal or slightly better than you in the game, and invite him/her to be your training partner. This way, both parties can exchange pointers and compose different strategies to counter each other in training sessions. Winning 20 rounds against an amateur player daily will not heighten your skills.
Perfecting your moves and execution is the part that you will have to grind through. Training is NOT a fun activity. I’ve known many old school counter-strike gamers who would rather spend an entire week trying to 2-step jump up a crate pile than to go frag it out on the public servers. The difference between a winner and a loser is how efficient the gamer can execute his/her strategies.
3. Maintain an online profile
Create a simple blog and start to log down your trainings and tournament participations. No one is going to know about it if you don’t write about it yourself. Log down the hours you spent on training and any notable achievements you have gained in your training. Forget all those fancy web designs or interactive flash designs, these can come later when you actually become a competitive gamer of some standings.
Get your friends to read and support your blog, always start with friends and family since you can convince them to come read and comment on your blog entries. Your fans will come later if you made it to become a professional gamer. Don’t worry about the traffic hits, later part of your career if you ever get into a position to negotiate with a sponsor, you have a well recorded blog to show your dedication to win.
Maintain a clean profile of yourself, no company is going to sponsor you if you have pictures of yourself in some drunken stupor plastered all over Facebook or some scandal site. Put yourself in the sponsor’s shoes and ask yourself if you would spend money on an ambassador who does not have a decent public image to represent your company’s products.
4. Understanding the sponsorship business, what happens when you start winning…
No one is going to pay u a salary for winning a tournament, remember this. Do not expect sponsors to come knocking your door and handing you money just because you won in a big tournament. It doesn’t matter if you are the best player in a particular game for your country. The world does not work this way.
Sponsors, which are basically companies, usually have a quarterly or yearly marketing budget where they can spend some dollars creating awareness for their products. A typical sponsor that might be interested in you will be a company who sells products directly to consumers with a target demographic of young adults. Sponsoring a professional gamer would allow them to reach out to the mass crowd who attended the tournaments either as participants or fans or just basically a public netizen who visits your online blog.
Device a marketing plan before you meet up with a sponsor. Here are some things for your consideration. You will need most of these to convince the sponsor to sign you up.
- convince them that you are good at playing the game you chose and can last long enough in a tournament, there’s no point sponsoring someone who gets knocked out in the first round (show them leaderboards, forum rankings or past winning records)
- convince them that you have a training plan to constantly improve (show them your training logs in your blog)
- explain to them which tournament you intend to go and what your chances of winning are
- tell them how they stand to benefit from sponsoring you (offer to write reviews on their products in your blog, wear apparel with their branding, use their products when you go for tournaments etc)
These are just some guidelines to help you start off an in-depth discussion with your sponsor-to-be.
There you go, 4 good points for you to ponder. Professional gaming might not sound so interesting after all, right? This is not a guaranteed formula for success; there are many other stuffs that you need to know before you can actually be a pro-gamer.
So before you go off quitting school or your day job to start on your gaming career, think carefully and ask yourself if you really want to be a pro-gamer.
Cheers and good luck!
List of Organizations accepting donations for relief efforts
I’ve made a small list of ways to donate to the Japan earthquake victims. (thanks to @VRZone Forums)
I absolutely hate people campaigning in Facebook or Twitter with totally no intention to help these poor people and are just out there to get “followers” or “likes”. I do admire and respect organizations who tries to donate their business proceeds to support the cause, even if you don’t have a lot of money to donate/giveaway, you’ve committed a part of your profit margin to help.
Here you go:
Japanese Red Cross
World Vision USA
Crunchyroll – Matching donations, organization undecided
Salvation Army USA
American Red Cross – Alternatively, text REDCROSS to 90999 to give $10 or donate from iTunes
Save the Children
Global Giving
International Medical Corps
CARE
AmeriCares
UNICEF USA
Doctors Without Borders USA
For Singaporeans who’d rather see their money go to a LOCAL organization to manage the donation, here you go. Yeah, I do understand if you are skeptical in donating your money over the internet or to a foreign organization.
World Vision Singapore
Mercy Relief
Groupon Singapore [Goes to Singapore Red Cross]
There you go, every dollar counts and these earthquake victims do need our help. 1 less Coke a day wouldn’t kill us, would it? 
Japan Earthquake
If you haven’t heard, Japan got a massive earthquake and quite alot of people died and many casualties.
I’m going to put up a list of donation sites later to connect those who want to donate.
Cheers.
Qian Hu Fish Farm
Visited Qian Hu Fish Farm with Winnie and saw ALOT of Golden Arowanas today. I never got a chance to see that many types of Arowana in Qian Hu, usually when I go I don’t even see any expensive ones.
Today a $2088 Golden CrossBack Arowana caught my eye, unfortunately I’m not in the financial stability to bag it home.
Wish my lottery luck comes back and I can bag a nice Golden Arowana the next time I go to Qian Hu.
