Belated birthday gifts

I received a very pleasant surprise this morning. Was getting ready to send my daughter to school when the doorbell rang. There was a delivery lady with a parcel. I could make out the words Amazon on the side of the box and the first thing that came into my head was "I didn't order anything!"

Then I guessed that it must be a birthday gift and I was right. It was from my two sisters (Juliana & Diana) and Fred down in Australia and consisted of a book - "The Age of Kali: Travel and Encounters in India" by William Dalrymple, Two volumes of Herge's "The Adventures of Tintin" and 3 DVDs of "An Inconvenient Truth".

Thanks a lot guys. You really made my day.

Tags: birthday books comics gifts personal

Online bookmarking service

I am sure you faced the problem whereby you had visited a great website but couldn't recall the url when you wanted to access it again. Now, whenever I find a website or blog I particularly like, I would immediately bookmark it on my browser.

Just learned about this online bookmarking service provided by
www.BookmarkAll.com. Some of you might ask why one would need an online bookmarking service.

As opposed to bookmarking on a browser, bookmarking it online has several advantages:

first of all, as is mentioned on their site, you can now access your bookmarks from anywhere, anytime or any computer in the World.

Security is another reason you may want to have your bookmarks online. For example, your boss won't be able to view your favourite sites.


Of course some of you techno-savvy guys will be pointing out that there are similar tools already available. However, the difference is that Bookmarkall provides both online and social bookmark. A user can share research or information on a specific topic and even publish your bookmarks on your blog via an RSS feed

In order to do that, you have to sign up and create a "User Profile". This user profile is accessible to the public.

You can install BookmarkAll’s Tool Bar in internet explorer/Firefox browsers, which enables users to quickly access their online bookmarks.

TV is bad for your kids

Was watching some parenting programme on the idiot box some time back and the expert on the show mentioned that too much TV can result in a host of behavioral problems in children. This include short attention span and hyperactivity among others.

I felt a bit guilty because I had been letting the TV babysit my daughter - putting on the cartoons for her while I did my thing.

My wife and I recently decided to cut down on her TV viewing and substitute it with some other activities.

Last Sunday, we were able to get some great bargains and our purchases included 3 boxes of Jigsaw puzzles (almost brand new with their original boxes). You will be surprised when you hear the price - 10p each. 2 of the jigsaws were for me (500 pieces each) and another for my daughter.

We had lots of fun. And before we knew it, we had spent hours without no TV at all. That day we only put on the TV at night after the kids had gone to sleep.

When it gets warmer, I plan to have some outdoor activities for her.

Tags: games jigsaw kids

Dealing with hair loss

Almost all the males in my father's side of the family suffer from baldness. Of course, the degree of severity varies but when we have a family gathering and we are outside and it happens to be sunny, you can see a lot of shining patches, especially on top of those 40+ guys. It is clearly genetic and I am going to find out soon whether I by some freak of nature, happen to be one of those guys who didn't have that particular gene.

I am happy that I still have luxuriant hair growth and in fact I have to go to the barber quite regularly, but it is still worrying. There are many ways to deal with hair loss and on way is to just genetics and/or old age take it's natural path. However, if there is an easy solution, I would definitely take it. A comb over is a definite no no. Sorry Samy.

Procerin is a relatively new all-natural supplement produced by Speedwinds Nutrition Inc. As you might have guessed, it is targeted at people suffering from hair loss.

Procerin comes in both a tablet form and topical solution. The manufacturers claim that it is specially effective in reversing hair loss in men caused by androgenetic alopecia, the most common cause of male hair loss. Guys with androgenetic alopecia have elevated levels of a chemical called dihydrotestosterone (DHT) in their scalp and it is the main cause of thinning hair and receding hairline in men. Procerin is a DHT inhibitor (blocks the production). The company actually offers a 90 Day money back guarantee.

It is an available without a prescription. However, I would suggest that you discuss it with your doctor before starting on a course.
Tags: hair loss procerin supplement

Blog with all the wacky news

I read hundred of blog posts everyday, blog hopping from one to the another.

It's not often that I find a blog interesting enough to stay for a while and browse through past posts. Well, Rebecca's Snark the News Blog kept me occupied for nearly 20 minutes, which in Blogosphere terms, is a very long time to spend on a blog. It has a simple layout but has loads of crazy and unusual news like "Burglar Calls Police to Help Break In Church", which I initially thought, was made up but later confirmed to be true.

Just proves that you don't need to have fancy graphics and hi-fi layouts to attract visitors.

She even has a weekly contest on her blog. Go over there to find out more about it.

Working from home blog

There is nothing new with running a business from home. However, running a Global business from home is something altogether. go get global news & views is a blog that "a bird’s eye view on running your global business from home". The blogger doesn't identify himself/ herself on the blog but he/ she has a lot of great tips for those working from home.

As a "working from home" father, this blog post on "Balancing work and play" was quite relevant to me. I totally agree with what the blogger has to say:

If you’re feeling like something is missing from your work at home life, like you were meant for more than this, maybe all you need is a break from your online life!

Help for startup launches

Launching a startup is not easy and definitely not cheap. A major part of the launch budget usually goes to advertising and editorial coverage, even when you have the right contacts. You do this to introduce your company to your potential customers and more imprtant, to your potential investors.

With hundreds of startups getting launched everyday, the question is "how do you get noticed among the crowd?"

I found one of the best solutions around for launching startups. StartUpCrunch provides an online opportunity for startups to pitch their company, services and/ or products.

So how does StartUpCrunch operate?

1. Well, if you are a startup, you put up your pitch here. The Pitches can either be in traditional video formats or or the Filmation system and must be no longer than 6 minutes long.

2. You are then ranked by peers.

3. Your StartUp is listed according to its CrunchRank and sector.


For your information, the CrunchRank is the ranking system (scale from 1 (lowest) to 100) that they use and was developed to rank startups according to their challenges and potential for success.

I like their system whereby, those pitches with higher page ranks and have received wider editorial coverage will go down and make way for the newcomers.

Finally the question that everyone has in mind is how much it's going to cost you. Well, they charge a one-off flat fee of 100€ (approximately US$131.16). That's really cheap for the exposure you are going to get.