iPhone APP Maybe

currenly listening to Gym Class Heroes

I am working like a dog now but still try to work out on daily basis so guess life is balance out at some point.  Recently, I started using iPhone, nothing particular, there are some negative and positive feedbacks about HTC one, which looks amazing to me. However, I want to check out iPhone and see what its apps offer here.

Apps are the most interesting things in tech and I found it intriguing.  No matter what, it will be a promising industry for the next few years. Here are some apps I downloaded this week. Hope it is helpful for you, my friends.

Find My iPhone
-locate your phone on a map physically and show where it is.

Flipboard
-assimilates all kinds of things from magazine, news, social updates

Mint.com
-itemizes all your transactions and geo-tags where you spend your money
-link to your bank directly

Onavo
-reduce data usage

WebMD
-diagnosis app for healthcare professionals and pharmacies

360 Panorama
-feature 360 degree panoramic camera

Foodspotting
-visual guide to good food and where to find it

ShopSavvy
-tell you whether there's a better deal online or in another store
-barcode reader

Shazam
-like soundhound

Atomic
- web browser with full screen browsing, private browsing, ad blocker

StumbleUpon
-search random cool stuff on the internet

Instapaper
-bookmarklet the articles at anytime

Cor.kz Wine Info
-search vintage and wine dictionary

Chicago for weekend. I need lots of happy hours to reward my hours at work.

peace,

Executive Education: Assertiveness

currently listening to "remember the name" by Fort Minor
this is a small research I have worked recently. DC is fun and NYC is the next.

Summary:

Being assertive means that one can respect the rights of other people to express their ideas, feelings and needs, and meanwhile one can recognize and state his/her side of the issues rather defend or bully himself/herself. Assertiveness can be learned through effective communication approaches.

Ideas of Assertiveness:

·        There are three steps that can help become more assertive

o   Step1: listen carefully to what others said and show them that you understand

o   Step 2: state how you truly feel

o   Step 3: say what you want to happen

·        A better way to say No

o   I would prefer not to… / I would rather…/I am not willing to…

·        Use “I” messages structure that includes “I feel…”  “…when…” “I want…”

o   I feel sad when you change the plan at the last minute. I want you to let me know in advance next time.

·        Being assertive in business setting  (with clients)

o   remember to gather information from the clients

o   practice what you will be talking in the meeting

o   cope with criticism in a rational manner

Assertive Techniques:

·        Broken Record – Be persistent and keep saying what you want over and over again without getting angry, irritated, or loud. Stick to your point.

·        Free Information – Learn to listen to the other person and follow-up on free information people offer about themselves. This free information gives you something to talk about.

·        Self-Disclosure – Assertively disclose information about yourself - how you think, feel, and react to the other person's information. This gives the other person information about you.

·        Fogging – An assertive coping skill is dealing with criticism. Do not deny any criticism and do not counter-attack with criticism of your own.

·        Agree with the truth – Find a statement in the criticism that is truthful and agree with that statement.

·        Agree with the odds – Agree with any possible truth in the critical statement.

·        Agree in principle – Agree with the general truth in a logical statement such as, "That makes sense."

·        Negative Assertion – Assertively accepting those things that are negative about yourself. Coping with your errors.

·        Workable Compromise – When your self-respect is not in question offer a workable compromise.

hunger-game

Summary of the day

BI
1. Ross Fubini, an investor at Kapor Capital described his life as real venture capitalist--meeting with hundreds of startups, working with portfolio compaines, going over operations and finance and scouting for companies to invest in. This is more than just "meet with startups and hang out money".

2. "22 executives share the best advice they ever received" and my favoriate piece "I don't mind what you do, as long as you don't do what we've done before" by Peter Swinburn, CEO of Molson Coors.

3. Chipotle's business model ad-free works out pretty good itself--only $ 6 million on advertising last compared to $650 million of McDonald's.  As long as it is profitably sustainable, why bothers ad?

DatAversity--a website for IT on data management
1.Netflix would separate DVD portion of its operation into another business called "Qwikster". This new business strategy creates not only an inconvenience for customers but also a difficuty for data management.


currently listening to Feel by Robbie Williams

I just wanna feel, feel the intensity of life, feel the passion of the life, feel sleepless nights, and feel the complication of beauty. I guess now is another moment for me to do nothing but think about life again. My mom called this morning concerning about my job search,  educating and pressuring my life and future. It is really hard to understand someone's situation unless you are in his shoes, whatever.

Finding a job is not an easy thing but finding a right job is difficult. enough said.


hunger-game? It is certainly not about the movie but the desire, we are hungry for fullfil the urge or drive that keeps us alive-either sex or meaning of life. It is a game that we stay strong and expose our weakness.

"Never Eat Alone"

Well, it's been awhile--almost two years--to get back on blogging here; nothing particularly about travellings, especially international travellings this time, even I have been traveling around in States for work and fun, not to mention that Boston is still my favorite city.

I recently finished up reading a book named "Never Eat Alone" by Keith Ferrazzi, which is about building relationships in business-there are a few chapters discussing about how to establish and maintain a healthy relationship in today's market, including follow-ups, small talk, conferences, mutual interests, etc. I have to say that the book itself is a bit common-sense but it does a good job to lay out what matters the most in relationship-building.  What gets me excited is that I value relationship-buidling the siginificant in my life so there are so many mutual understanding and sparkling while reading this book.

Anyway,  the secret of being an author is to write--that's where gets me back here again. I might not be an author one day but writing does help me keep track of my learning experiences from now on. I guess I need to clear my mind and calm the fuck down for the job search--my passion for consulting never lower down a bit.

I am going to track down some business articles from nytimes, WSJ, BI, etc and also add some new finding about website, food lover, wine-tasting, travelling and other interesting stuff.

summary of the day:\

Business Insider:

1. Greg Smith's New York Times op-ed critizing firm's predatory culture--it seems that Goldman Sachs is experiencing some culture transformation to a not-so-seemingly-good direction. Greg Smith, a former GS banker, described the workplace as "toxic and destructive". Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan, warned its employees never seek advantage of competitors.

2. Top 10 apps that you must have: "Slice (e-receipts)", "Tripit (for frequent travelers)", "Box (cloud storage)", "1Password (passwords management)", "Instapaper (online articles saver)", "Quickoffice (Microsoft office)",  "Sparrow (email alternative for Mac)", "Clear (to-do-list app)", "Evernote", "Dropbox"
For Andriod Apps
"Rdio (music service)",  "Norton Safety Minder (parental control)", "Miscrosoft OneNote (Evernote)" "Readability (Instapaper)", "TED", "Vonage (free calls)", "Chrome"

New York Times

1. GT Nexus, a cloud-based information company has helped company (e.g., Adidas, Plfizer) deliver and share large data regarding supply chain process. It forecast the impacts of technology on future economy.

Just cut it here. gotta have some sleep since it's been a long day for job applications. St. Patrick is on the corner, you know what that means.

Let's play safe in Belgium

currently listening to billionaire by Travie McCoy

"there are only 15 minutes left before we rush into december 2010 and i was trying to calm myself down scracthin some words in the memory of november or belgium. unfinished. "

when it comes to the days left in london, i start to panic having a feeling of insecurity and waking up from my dream sooner or later. London is just not enough, 3 days, 3 months, or even the lifetime, just not enough. Belgium is about saturday night--shit face, tons of beers, smoking without limit, kisses with strangers, random sex. thats why i say: lets play safe.  enough said.

a week ago, belgium; a month ago, begium again. different city, same coutry and familiar taste of beers and chocolate. when i was standing in the middle of brussels square, i was bored and not a mood for anything, nothing special but its just like when you travel a lot, wandering in many different cities and countries without any concrete intention, they look just the same. i have to say that i liked belgium because the first night i was passed out and carried home by my buddy and this time i was chocolate toxicated.

Iper, Brussels, Brudge. i forgot to say that brussel is such an artistic town, walking around and sneaking into several private art galleries. some emotion just poured into my heart and i know this time how much i missed art that companied me for like past sixteen years and i decided not to keep it for life. almost cried when seeing some astonishing pieces and losing my mind for seconds. cheers, brussels.

perfectly failed on my graduate school exam. never mind. take again. i need some sort of motivation in my life for a bigger and further achievement. i just have some weird feelings about my life in london, for one hand, it is absolutely indescrible and crazy; for another hand, i was looking into myself how many things i could possibly experience and fullfil my greedy desires, and at the same time i was still looking for what i really want in life. maybe i am too rushing and i must cool down and rethink the value of life. too much thinking to deal with.

"there are three sides of a story-your side, my side and the truth, and the truth always comes out in the end" yesterday i was watching the new wall street movie-i dont understand why people criticizes its over-emphasis on relationship instead inside information of bank industry. its all the relationship among people, money is just an excuse, catalyst and invisible monster. therefore, there is no truth. people innocently keep seeking the truth side of every single story and failed in many ways but i like how the story is presented by its appearance-whoever told has its own reasons and why bothers.

belgium is another story which gets my friendship better with my friend here. got tons of sleep this week and dont want to do anything at all. then i just chill and time kills me in many ways.

its like 5pm and just woke up. oh, london, how much i like you.

Scotland: 50p of rainboots

currently listening to Love the way you lie by Eminem

my favorite quotes
"you are too cool for school"--MA
"you are special. you are just beautiful in every single way."--DB

many times i almost cry when i am walking in the middle of london having a feeling of lost, or when i am climbing the mountains with some sort of loneliness or when im falling asleep next to someone i like or i imagine i like. moments are to be remembered or made people moved--tears in the eyes, just running.

fort william-glenfinann-edinburgh. scotland reminds me of two places that i have been to and i hope to go back again--interlaken and cape town. interlaken, a small and beautiful mountain-view town, is situated in switzerland-so peaceful and astonishing just by chilling around. cape town, at the south of africa, owns mountains and oceans. scotland, in my image, is surrounded by these natural gifts with its unique colors.  still in shock about the multi-layers design of edinburgh, i thought it was mysterious that you could always see another lower level layer at where you are standing.

i used to write a lot of journals, short stories and poetry to keep track of my life, to have something in memory or to feel occupied. later on, when my life is becoming complicated, there is no time for me to narrate what my life consist of. it is moving on without any sort of clues or hints. so i wonder what the point of writing journals, dairy, or even blogs--i mean if all the writings are about what exactly i did--these will be boring, who cares? rather, i would like to have these days to be forgotten or to be none--just having the moment of myself and doing nothing at all.

some major words.
napping-whisky-rejection-scotish dance-walking in the rain-"things i love about Roy"-Empty-hiking-being stupid-cat-7 beers and 2 shots-stay loneliness-being cool-reindeer

make yourself dirty. im telling you that 50p is worth every single penny . last word, maybe you can leave yourself some time and some space to figure out another side of you but i decide not to like you any more. i love the way you lie.

scots. we need to spend some time with ourselves,at least, i do. when the sun rises, i should say good bye and good night to myself.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM.

Amsterdam--smoking is legal

currently listenting to Ignition by R.Kelly

what a night with all the craps going on with my life, somehow i cannot hold my breath or even let the air in for a second. what i am doing right now is what i want to do and dream to do, so what is the goddamn problem here? why am i not enjoying being crazily and absurdly busy in real life? you know why--i just want to be perfect and why is that a problem?

amsterdam is the place to be--be high, be happy and be free. i like amsterdam because i dont even want to be a tourist by giving those bullshit brochures about the places of interests and all i want to do is being happy, that is to say, being high from smoking. i cannot recall how i come over all the difficuties and get back to London but i had a blast in amsterdam, spirtually and physically. however, this month is not my month--its just things are going towards the way you hope to be, reversely, going agaist it. this sucks balls. unfortunately, it happened  A LOT recently.

went to van gogh museum, i still never thought i would be so moved and impacted by all the paintings and drawings, they are astonishing, especially you are looking at them with some inspiration of arts.

im literally stressed out by this damn internship application--cover letter, resume and email--i know exactly how i should format and everything is in my mind but i just cant compose a sentence and put all the words together. maybe im tired. maybe life itself is not easy to live up.

all i need is love.  work-out is a must. classes and work are required. travelling is necessary. exam is priority. but life is a crap.

to=do=list:
1. G space space Mt.
2. In ter n space space
3. Reading.
4. Brussel, Bacelona or Copenhagen?

good night, im going to crash in bed and dream the hell out of reality.