More than Numbers

Compact Calendar

I absolutely love David Seah's Compact Calendar. It is printable in PDF and to me is a very innovative way of visualizing the year at quick glance. In addition to this great calendar I just recently noticed that he has also created a very beautiful gantt chart template in Excel that I can't wait to try out.

Larger than life

Wall sized YouTube
Originally uploaded by jonnaro

Was hanging out at a friend's place last night to hang out. Whereas most people are getting HDTVs and flat screens, he opted for the projector setup. Luckily he was blessed with a huge white wall so didn't even need to get a screen. I was pretty impressed with the quality. After watching this very entertaining clip of the Beckham's being interviewed by Ali G, we decided to watch Superbad. Always a classic. I have to admit it was probably one of the bigger personal screens I've watched on. I'm guessing the picture was somewhere between 10' and 12' wide.

BTW, what I loved about this interview was how much of a good sport (and funny) Victoria Beckham was. And she was smiling! And laughing! When's the last time you saw that?

50 on top.

I love how 50 Cent made over $100 M last year, partially (but likely a very big part) due to his stake in Glacéau (the parent company of Vitamin Water and smartwater, among other brands). Glacéau was bought by Coca Cola for $4.1 B about three months ago. Funny because I just recently read an article about J. Darius Bikoff, who was the founder of Glacéau. He was talking about the way he initially marketed Vitamin Water by pushing it on celebrities (including 50 Cent and Paris Hilton) along with the incentives of cash and equity in the company. Of course Glacéau wasn't the only cash cow for 50 -- he does have G-Unit, music, movies, video games, and endorsements. I am curious how much he might take in next year though as he is rumored to have a partnership in the works with Partrice Motsepe, the great South African mining entrepreneur. It's all about diversification.

Is ecobill a trick?

I received an interesting email from comcast today promoting their ecobill prodct. Ecobill is promoted as "an environmentally friendly way to view and pay your bill online that takes less time and uses less paper." Who could argue with that? I usually pay my comcast bill online anyway and have been wondering why comcast has been so slow to adapt to the industry standard paperless statements.

Don't be so quick to jump to conclusions. In order to sign up for the ecobill program you must also enable automatic payments. I'm fine doing this with some companies, but not comcast. I've  had issues in the past with being invoiced twice in the same payment period and being charged the wrong amount. Why is it that you can't choose to go paperless and pay manually?

It's not an unheard of concept. Email or SMS the customer when the statement is ready and ask them to pay online. Is that seriously so hard? When eco-friendly initiatives are tied together with things like automatic payments it seems like comcast is really only running the program for it's own benefit and not just for the sake of saving the planet.

While I'm talking about it, I also wish utility companies like comcast would push more incentives to be eco-friendly. Like how Whole Foods gives you a small credit for not using a reusable shopping bag.

19.30s

I guess I was onto something. As I predicted, Usain did incredibly well in the 200m, breaking the world by 0.02 seconds against the wind! I love this quote from the NY Times quoting Bolt after he watched the replay of himself running:

“I was saying, ‘I look cool,’ ” Bolt said. “I was just happy. I was just looking at myself and I was like, ‘That guy’s fast.’ I’m just proud of myself. It’s just a great feeling. You can’t really explain it.”

Insane. Can't wait to see what he'll do next.

Lightning quick

The other day, Usain Bolt (Jamaica) broke the world record in the men's 100m with a time of 9.69 seconds. This time broke the world record by 0.05 seconds with absolutely no wind assistance. At only 21 years old, Bolt is definitely someone to watch. Obvious to anyone who witnessed this race, what made it even more incredible is how he shot so far ahead from the pack that he actually slowed down to celebrate before he crossed the finish line. And his show was evidently untied as well. When asked how fast he could have ran, Bolt blew off the question saying who cares. And he's supposedly even better at the 200m.

Another interesting tidbit about Bolt is that he turned down multiple scholarships from US universities because he wanted to stay in Jamaica.

I think you can tell he's a pretty mellow guy who just loves to run fast (insanely fast). I'm a fan.

Today, Bolt blew past the competition once again jogging to the finish in all of his 200m heats. Can't wait to see how well he'll do in the final.

Puto

Ever since I first tried puto, I have been a fan. Puto is a steamed rice cake popular in the Philippines. It is sometimes flavored with ube, although there are many variations. Tried making the basic version at home today and it was pretty simple. Instead of baking it, you steam it for 30 minutes and voila. Sweet, airy goodness. It's sweet (thanks to all the sugar, I now know). I think next time I will try experimenting with adding some flavors like vanilla. We used our mini muffin pan to make tiny puto so I don't feel nearly as guilty when popping a couple.

What am I waiting for?

It's an important realization when you realize that success is not just going to happen to you randomly. Well, sure it might but in most cases it won't. You usually have to make them happen. If you want to change your status in life, greatly affect your disposable income, or become happier you have to bring it upon yourself.

Procrastination is the nemesis of success.

In my opinion, waiting for someone to tell you to do something is a sign of immaturity. Stop sitting on your ideas and your dreams. Start making them happen.

I need to stay strong

My local Mercedes dealership called me the other day asking if I wanted to "upgrade" my car to an AMG C32. They asked because they remembered when I bought my C320 that I was originally looking for a C32. Clever. It's 2 years older than my car but with about the same miles. The price they quoted was above blue book (big surprise). It would almost be an even trade. I'm thinking the price of the C32 was hit a bit harder recently due to rising gas prices. Very tempting, but I think I'm going to pass. I need something smaller.

Fresh hamachi

The other day we had a strong sushi craving but didn't really feel like going out. The answer was some last minute sushi at home. We stopped by Nijiya market in Japantown and picked up some fresh hamachi flown in from Japan. Hamachi (or yellowtail) is one of my favorite fish to eat raw. In no time we had some great sashimi at home.