Top Entrecard droppers October 2009

Here is the list of the top Entrecard droppers on my blog for the past month.

• Rants, Thoughts, and Other Things
• Mumblings
• Turn-u-Off
• Photojournalist
• Mariuca's Perfume Gallery
• Walk Of Life
• From The House On The Hill
• Man Over Board
• Carl Vine's 40th Parallel Universe

Thank You

Birthday party in London

Just some pics....

J

Savings with discount vouchers

Yesterday morning we went grocery shopping to Tesco at the Arena park near our house here in Coventry. I had recently received my Tesco clubcard vouchers as well as other discount vouchers as well and thought that it might be a good idea to use them before they expired.

Anyway, we ended up with a car boot full of groceries, all organic, as well as other household stuff. My wife was pleasantly surprised when it all came to less than £50. Normally our weekend grocery shopping would cost us around £100.

All the discounts do add up in the end and in these gloomy economic times, we need all the help we can get.

Anyway, I have entered into a partnership with Voucher Alerts - a leading online UK discount code directory, to give my readers the best deals on buying gifts and gadgets online. This includes voucher codes for over 2500 leading online stores including Amazon, HMV, Play.com, Tesco, GAME, Currys, Debenhams and many more. With Christmas around the corner, I am sure you could do with discounts on your online Christmas shopping.

If you are like me and looking to buy electronics online, they have exclusive discount vouchers for the top electrical stores including Currys, Dixons, Pixmania, PC World, Dell, Comet and Play.com. Go through the full list of gift and gadget voucher codes for all your favourite stores here.

You can also sign up for exclusive Voucher Alerts - a free voucher code service. All you have to do is pick what stores you want to be notified for and you will receive custom emails with the latest voucher codes. As most vouchers are short term, this is a great way to make sure you never miss a deal.

Two birthdays in London

My daughter turned 6 last week but we were busy with a training session and we decided to have it this weekend instead. She was joined by her mother - my amazing wife, who celebrates her birthday today.

Happy Birthday darling.

Here's looking forward to many, many, many more happy returns of this day, celebrating together. .

We had a small (only us) but fabulous party at our sis-in-law's place in London and we had two lovely cakes from Maison Blanc. They were really delicious (will put up the pics later).

Climate change: 10 things you can do

Today is Blog Action Day and this year's theme is Climate change - an issue that impacts us all.



Here is a list of 10 things ALL of us can do to help.

1. Recycle as much as you can,
2. Grow your own vegetables,
3. Switch to energy saving devices - for example, low power bulbs,
   
4. Take public transport whenever possible or walk or cycle,
5. Adopt renewable energy sources- solar, wind, wind-up,
   
6. Bring you own bag to the market (Thanks Lara),
7. Switch off lights and electrical equipment when not in use,
8. Donate to environment protection groups,
9. Write to the politicians,
10. Blog and Tweet about it - like I am doing now.

Post-it note love story

I was thinking, "sweet but what a waste of paper".

Hari Raya 2009

A long overdue post.

This was our 4th Raya here in the UK. It was more fun as we had family around - my sis-in-law and her family.





What is raya without the food?


Cooked by the Mrs and her sister.

Visiting people:


First house


Another house




Yet another house


Finally the obligatory family photo:

Crossed 2K followers on Twitter

Last night was a landmark for me. The number of my followers on Twitter crossed the 2000 mark. I know some of you guys reading this are laughing. 2K followers is nothing. However, for me it is astounding that a little more than 2000 people find my tweets interesting.

BTW, I am also the 6th top Twitter user or Twitterer or Tweep in Coventry according to Twittergrader. If you think that's impressive, you will be surprised to learn that up until a few months ago I was #1.

If you are one of those guys going, "What the hell is Twitter?", I am afraid this means that you are definitely out of the loop.


Unfortunately the Mrs is not impressed. "If you worked as hard on your research, you would probably have completed it by now", she says.  Of course, I have no comments or I won't be eating dinner at night.

Anyway, follow me on Twitter @admutum

Garden Update and Creepy Crawlies

My roses - the pride of my garden, even though I only have three bushes.



My tomato is getting bigger and bigger but I am afraid that it shows no sign of ripening. Worried that it might be too late as the weather is getting colder and the leaves are showing signs of wither.


And as Halloween is nearby, here are pics of some creepy crawlies in my garden:





And not so creepy: A ladybird - sign of a healthy environment:


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chubskulit

Malaysia Boleh

A funny mail that was forwarded to me today:



After having dug to a depth of 1000 meters last year, Swedish scientists found traces of copper wire dating back 1000 years and came to the conclusion that their ancestors already had a telephone network more than 1000 years ago.

Not to be outdone by the Swedes, in the weeks that followed, English scientists dug to a depth of 2000 meters and shortly after headlines in the UK newspapers read; English archaeologists have found traces of 2000 year old fibber-optic cable and have concluded that their ancestors already had an advanced high-tech digital communications network a thousand years earlier than the Swedes.

One week later, Malaysian newspapers reported the following:

"After digging as deep as 5000 meters in paddy fields in Kedah, Malaysian scientists have found absolutely nothing. They, therefore, have concluded that 5000 years ago, Malaysian's inhabitants were already using wireless technology."

MALAYSIA CAN!!!!!

Big Thank You for spreading the word

It's sometimes amazing how kind some people can be, going out of their way to help other people.

I am really thankful to have made so great friends through my blog and social networks, most of whom I have never met in person. Many of them helped spread the word about my research survey on their blogs, Facebook and on Twitter.

The most I can do for them is say a huge Thank You! and give back some link love.

My blogger friends who blogged about the survey on their blogs: Elizabeth, Emila, Mariuca and Nana.

Ela and Amrul who helped spread the word on their Facebook profiles.

Last but not the least, are my Tweeps: Angelopoulos, Chen Helen, Ecoexplorer and Lorraine Siew.

I also found out later that a few other guys had blogged about it as well. Made some new friends in the process. Thanks Fida.

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Mariuca

Update to my last post - Prizes and Charity

In my last post "My Research Methodology", I forgot to mention that there is a £100 cash prize as well as Amazon vouchers involved and you can do your bit for charity as well.

I have pledged to donate 50p for every completed questionnaire to the Cancer Research UK.

Please click the link to take part in the survey.

First Commentator
Julie

My Research Methodology

Just met my second supervisor yesterday and he approved my final research questionnaire with some minor changes. It's now live online at www.surveymk.com//blogs.

With this I am now at the halfway stage of my PhD research work at the Warwick Business School, University of Warwick.

I am actually quite relieved because the first stage is actually the toughest. It took me quite some time to get here because getting the questionnaire right the first time is crucial. A lot of people rush trough their questionnaire development phase of their research and suffer the consequences later.

The first step in starting a research is to have a broad idea of which area you want to research in. For me it was a no-brainer - I wanted to do something related to blogs. However, as I have a marketing background and I am in the business school, I was interested in the marketing aspect of blogs. More specifically on the consumer behaviour related to blog.

Carried out an extensive review of literature and found out that very little research has been carried out on blogs and even less on the marketing aspect of blogs. This was both good and bad news for me. Good because almost anything I do will be new contribution but bad because I had negligible literature to base my research on.

If you are new to research, the first thing you should be aware of is that review of previous literature is absolutely essential. This would allow you to identify the gaps and your potential contribution. You also need previous research to support some of your assumptions and hypotheses.

I had decided from day One that my research should be quantitative in nature and based on a survey questionnaire. Learnt that I fell under the positivist philosophy camp. Most of my friends research here are qualitative in nature. There has been an ongoing battle between the different sides on the best approach to research but I firmly believe that quantitative research is the best. This may be due to my educational background in the biological sciences.

My research looks at the consumer's perception of blogs and as I am looking at consumer attitudes, I rely a lot on several human psychology theories - as are in fact, a lot of marketing studies.

Several conceptual models with various constructs came up and went until we (myself and my supervisor) finally agreed upon one.

This was a really frustrating phase and I did wonder whether it was worth all the mental and financial cost.

These constructs are measured by various statements and are derived from previous studies published in leading marketing and psychology journals. I guess that's why we call it "re-search".

I also conducted some interviews followed by a pilot test. Based on the comments and exploratory factor analysis, I had to drop several statements used to measure the constructs and even drop one completely because I found out that it was actually had wrong measurements and was not reliable. I had taken the scale from a research conducted by some Professors in a top US University. This actually proves that experts do get it wrong sometimes.

Anyway, I am finally here and ready to enter the second stage. If you read blogs regularly, please spend a few minutes to complete my survey.

First Commentator
Daddy Papersurfer

Discount store lilies

Some months back, I bought some lily bulbs from a discount store in Coventry city centre. I was not even sure whether they would live or what the flowers would look like if they did survive. So I planted them around my garden and today morning I got the first bloom.

It looks lovely and I now regret not buying more.





Have no idea about the name of these lilies. Help anyone?

UPDATE:
A friend of Facebook informed me that it is not (scientifically) a Lily but an Iris.

Did some Googling and found out that it's common name is Blue Flag and belong to the Iridaceae (iris) family. It is also known as Blue Iris, Liver Lily, Wild Iris, Flag, Poison Flag, Snake Lily, Water Flag, Dragon Flower, Dagger Flower and Fleur-de-Lis.


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6th Blogoversary

I totally forgot about it until I saw a comment by Teena today. My oldest blog turned 6 yesterday.

Can't believe that I have been blogging this long. Thanks to all my loyal readers and friends who have motivated me to continue this adventure in the Blogosphere.

BTW, my post 'Blogger and I' even received a mention on Blogger buzz sometime back.

Mango Lassi recipe

Here's the recipe of my home made mango lassi. This drink is very popular in the North Indian states especially Punjab and I developed a love for this drink during my undergraduate days in Himachal Pradesh.

It's really easy to make. Normally it is made using fresh dahi (whole milk yogurt with live culture). Unfortunately as I don't have dahi, I have to make do with yogurt sold in Tesco in packs.

Ingredients (for 4 people)

• 1 mango chopped
• 100ml Mango juice
• 250 g yogurt ( I have used Tesco Light Greek Style Yogurt)
  
• 1 tbsp Sugar

Add all the ingredients together and mix



I added the mango juice as using only yogurt makes the lassi too thick.



Finally we have delicious Mango Lassi ready to be gulped down.

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Babypink

A plant to brighten up the bathroom

Our bathroom was looking a bit dull and as I was cleaning it up this Friday, I decided that maybe I should introduce a plant to the room, just to brighten it up a little.

This is Flaming Katy, a Kalanchoe. This succulent needs little care and is long-flowering. Just ideal for the bathroom and it cost me only 98p from B & Q.



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BMW's new marketing direction

BMW TV is today launching it's expanded IPTV offering online globally following the successful two-year beta-phase at http://bmw-web.tv/. According to a report I received, their German webpage and its international site registered a total of more than 70 million video views.

They plan to roll out thirteen other local-language websites shortly.

In case you were not aware, they also have an official BMW YouTube Channel. This is all part of their move to attract online consumers.

Check out this "teaser" clip of their new concept car featuring what they call BMW EfficientDynamics technology. I put teaser inside quotes because it's kind of funny. You only get to see the tail lights for a few seconds.

Ikea the supermarket

Last week I was leaving the office when I met a friend. He was so surprised when I told him that I was going to the Ikea Coventry store to have lunch with my wife and son. "Are you sure?" he asked.

He is looking forward to visiting the restaurant on his first ever trip soon.


My son fell asleep in the shopping trolley during a recent trip to the Coventry store.


Anyway, most people still see Ikea as a furniture store but strangely we rarely buy furniture though we are regulars at the store. Most of the time, we usually go to eat there but we do end up buying something or the other - a picture frame, candles, rugs or even plants. This may be de to the fact that we don't change furniture that often.

They have also started selling luggage, books, electrical equipment and even soap. In the future we may actually see Ikea transformed into something like Marks and Spencer (another favourite store of ours) selling everything from food and clothes to furniture and electrical equipment.

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Lynne

Visit to the Falkirk Wheel

More pictures from our trip to Edinburgh some time back.

One of our friends recommended that we visit the Falkirk wheel near Edinburgh. Driving, it took us nearly 50 minutes to get there from Edinburgh. It is a great engineering feat connecting the Forth and Clyde Canal with the Union Canal and is named after the nearby town.


View of the wheel





We got into the boat which was then moved to the docking-pit. We were then slowly lifted to the union canal on the top.



Celtic inspired design




Inside the boat


The wheel was built by Butterly engineering which have now sadly gone out of business like so many companies in the UK.





It was a short ride on the canal and back down again to the basin and my daughter thought it was boring. She was more excited playing at the small playground near the wheel.