Find the right roommate

If you are a single guy or girl and moving to a new place, finding a place to stay can be a tough process, especially if it's in a big city. Unless money is of no concern, you would most probably prefer to stay with someone who has a free room. However, you don't want to end up staying with someone who, you are not compatible with. I am sure you have heard of several horror stories.

One lady friend was telling us about her flatmate whose boyfriend started coming over almost everyday and in the end, literally moved in to their house. In another case, one of my friends who doesn't smoke had to endure several months of living with a guy who was a chain smoker and used to smoke everywhere in the house. In the end he couldn't stand it anymore and moved out, even though he was the one who go the flat first. Differences of preference in music, food and even decor can cause clashes among people residing in a house.

One way to avoid such problems is to find someone with similar preferences. Of course there is no guarantee that personality clashes will not occur but the chances are reduced. Roomster.net, an advanced housing rental site serving all the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom has obviously thought about this. The company was founded in 2003 by John S. Shriber (CEO of Roomster) and Roman Zaks in New York. They expanded to include UK listings early this year.

If you are searching for a roommate, you can of course check by location and type of residence, but Roomster allows you to check by gender, age and even zodiac. Other features that can further help you select the right roommates are their instant messenger service, interest, hot lists and profile flagging services. I found it interesting to learn that they have integrated Google maps into their search results. that is something that I feel would be really useful in house/ apartment hunting.

Considering the features, it is no wonder they have become so popular in such a short duration. They are now said to be the leading online apartment and roommate matching site in the US. When I last checked they had 943,697 available listings.

My first Green Thumb Sunday post

As most of my close friends are aware, I have taken to my new hobby - gardening like a slug to beer. Only thing is that unlike in the later case, it will probably help me lead a healthier lifestyle. I read somewhere that 30 minutes of gardening a day can help protect you against heart disease.

Anyway, I recently joined another blogroll started by Tricia called Green Thumb Sunday.


Join

Here's are y first contributions:

While clearing the garden when we initially moved in, I noticed this plant near the fence and decided to leave it. I am glad I did because it started to flower recently. It's quite unique with pinkish flowers.



Does anyone know the name of this plant?

My several months of effort in the garden are also starting to pay off. I harvested one potato plant today.







Think that I might have been too hasty as they are still small.

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

Here's the blogroll:

What women really mean

One of my old friends sent me this forwarded mail. It's another version of the old "What women really mean when they say ...."

Words Women Use

1. Fine: This is the word women use to end an argument when they are right and you need to shut up.

2. Five Minutes: If she is getting dressed, this means a half an hour. However, Five minutes is only five minutes if you have just been given five more minutes to watch the game before helping around the house.

3. Nothing: This is the calm before the storm. This means something, and you should be on your toes. Arguments that begin with nothing usually end in fine.

4. Go Ahead: This is a dare, not permission. Don't Do It!

5. Loud Sigh: This is actually a word, but is a non-verbal statement often misunderstood by men. A loud sigh means she thinks you are an idiot and wonders why she is wasting her time standing here and arguing with you about nothing. (Refer back to #3 for the meaning of nothing.)

6. That's Okay: This is one of the most dangerous statements a woman can make to a man. That's okay means she wants to think long and hard before deciding how and when you will pay for your mistake.

7. Thanks: A woman is thanking you, do not question, or Faint. Just say "you're welcome".

8. Whatever: Is a women's way of saying "Go to Hell".

9. Don't worry about it, I got it: Another dangerous statement, meaning this is something that a woman has told a man to do several times, but is now doing it herself. This will later result in a man asking "What's wrong?" For the woman's response refer to #3.

Another small step in understanding how women think and operate.

Sing your troubles away

If anyone told you that the had no problems in their life, they are either lying or there's something wrong with them. Of course it varies from person to person. While some have really big problems, others on the other hand only have some quite minor one. The fact is totally free from problems.

Is that too philosophical?

Anyway, I was going through the GotTrouble.com directory, and realise that my problems might not be a big deal after all, looking at what some people have to go through. This directory gives solutions to common problems that people go through everyday.

I guess my problem comes under employment. And I even wrote a song about it:

Walking down the road,
searching for a job.
degrees coming out of my ears,
doesn't mean a thing.

It's terrible, I know. If you feel that you are more talented, check out GotTrouble.com’s Video Promotion. Put your pain into music, create a commercial for them and share it with the World on YouTube and you stand a chance to earn US$5,000.00 as a cash prize.

My old phone line has been taken back

This is to inform all my friends who have been unsuccessfully trying to contact me using my old Celcom number, that it has been cancelled.

I was using their Xpax prepaid line and I had activated the global roaming service before I left Malaysia. The reason I retained it was because our Maybank TAC pin numbers were sent to it.

One day I noticed that my phone was showing a "SIM not found" warning. I realized that I had forgotten to top up the airtime and asked my dad to help put some airtime in. My father put in RM30 but the SIM was still deactivated.

Check the validity periods as given below:


This means that even if you don't use a single sen, you still have to top up when the validity period ends.

Wrote an email to the Celcom careline but didn't receive any reply. I only found out that they had canceled my number after my dad went to their local office in Kota Bahru and inquired. I know it's my fault but am annoyed and sad as well because I have had that number for nearly 6 years now and the fact that there was still more than RM100 credit.

I learnt that they recycle old numbers, which means that the number is back in the market and someone is probably using it now. So don't be surprised if you get a "Hello! Is this Adam?" on your phone. It means that you got my old number.

British Gas goes green

Zero Carbon is one of the two new green energy tariffs to be launched by British Gas and according to a press release, is said to be the greenest energy tariff in the UK. With this initiative, British Gas shows that they are pro-actively tackling the issues of climate change and demands for environmentally products from their customers.

For just a few extra pounds a month (estimated at around £7), you can now do your little bit for the Environment. The other tariff introduced by them is called Future Energy.

Read the full press release below:

BRITISH GAS LAUNCHES GREENEST ENERGY TARIFF

9 August 2007: British Gas has announced it is launching two new green energy tariffs, Zero Carbon, which will be the greenest tariff available on the domestic market and Future Energy. British Gas has launched the tariffs, in response to the increasing demand for green energy products.

Householders signing up to the Zero Carbon tariff will:
• reduce their household energy carbon emissions to zero through Kyoto compliant offset schemes which will meet the new Defra requirements
• help fund a direct increase in investment in renewable energy generated in the UK
• contribute to the new British Gas green fund which will:
o invest in developing new renewable technologies such as wave power
o oversee a programme to help schools in the UK reduce their CO2 emissions

Gearóid Lane, Managing Director British Gas New Energy said,”Our new tariff responds to consumer demand for truly green energy solutions. It is essential that customers have confidence in green energy tariffs and that their credibility is not damaged by tariffs that claim to be green but in reality do not deliver any incremental environmental benefits. Green tariffs are moving from niche to mainstream products and we’re leading the industry by offering a tariff that will do more for the environment than any other product currently available.”

Under the government’s Renewables Obligation (RO), electricity suppliers in the UK are already required to produce an increasing percentage of their electricity through methods such as wind farms which, unlike traditional power plants, produce zero carbon emissions. For 2007/2008 this figure is set at 7.9%.

In a recent report, the National Consumer Council (NCC) raised concerns that some energy suppliers are packaging electricity which is produced under the RO scheme as “green”, yet it delivers no additional environmental benefits. The NCC called on energy suppliers to take steps beyond their legal requirements and offer green energy tariffs that provide genuine additional environmental benefits, in particular CO2 emissions reduction.

British Gas worked with Global Action Plan and The Climate Group’s “We’re in this Together” campaign to develop Zero Carbon which goes further than any other green tariff in meeting these requirements offering consumers the only zero carbon option on the market.

The tariff carries a premium of £84 per year, reflecting the higher cost of producing energy through lower carbon emission schemes.

Virginia Graham, Chair of Global Action Plan, said, “The British Gas Zero Carbon tariff delivers on all three of the essential requirements of a green tariff which are: additionality, transparency and verifiability. As such it is a very welcome new offering in the market. Consumers signing up to the tariff can be confident that they are getting 12 per cent more renewable energy than they would otherwise have got. The carbon emissions from their electricity and gas will also be offset with emissions reductions from projects accredited by the United Nations.”

Zero Carbon is one of the first initiatives launched through the ‘We’re in this Together’ campaign, which was launched in April 07 as an alliance of some of the UK’s biggest brands who are all working to help their customers reduce their impact on the climate.

Dr Steve Howard, CEO of The Climate Group and founder of ‘We’re in this Together’ said, “We’re committed to offering people ways to make a real impact on climate change through Together.com. We’ve worked with British Gas to ensure that Zero Carbon is a genuine step forward in delivering more environmental benefits than any other tariff currently available.”

British Gas’s second green energy tariff, Future Energy, offers an alternative green electricity tariff at a premium of just £20 per year. Customers signing up to this tariff will contribute to a green fund which will provide solar panels and other renewable energy technologies to UK schools. Money from the fund will also be invested in development of future renewable technologies and sources.

To sign up customers can call British Gas on 0845 604 0055 or visit www.britishgas.co.uk

Do follow ah ok lah

After putting it off for several months, I finally updated my blog template from the old classic Blogger to the new Blogger.

Came across this free template called Adsense Tech Template by by Charm Skins. Spent several hours yesterday tweaking and modifying the template to look like my previous template and it was finally done around 2 am in the morning.

So what do you think?

One of the major advantages is that this template now allows me to remove the 'nofollow' tag from the comment module. So I am officially part of the Do follow movement. For more information, read my post "I do follow" on my SEO Expert blog.

I have also joined the "Do Follow Blogroll" that was started by my online pal, Tricia. Don't forget to leave your comments.



Please refer to the 'Do Follow Bloggers' post on Trica's blog for more information if you want to join in as well.