The Thinking Blog - Self Improvement

2008 Elections

nospam@example.com (Albert Yang) — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 16:10:00 -0500

This election, who did you vote for? Well, if you voted for either Obama or McCain, then you've voted for big government, tax enslavement, and are basically unAmerican.

McCain is an angry and bitter old man with an enlarged prostate.

Obama is a wishy washy Muslim in disguise that over promises.

The only person in congress that has voted against taxes every single time is Ron Paul. he is the man with the plan, and NONE OF YOU GUYS want a plan. Who's the winner of this election? McBama. It doesn't matter who wins because both are tax and spend people.

So next time you see your son die in the middle east, or you see your paycheck crater from the taxes, just remember, you did this to yourself by not voting Ron Paul.

Talk Like a Pirate Today!

nospam@example.com (Albert Yang) — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 23:17:00 -0500

Ahoy! Today is International Talk Like a Pirate Day. I love these guys. I love Cap'n Slappy the best. So if it's still Sept 19th where you live, it's not too late to talk like a pirate! It's the only day you can call a chick a wench and mean it!

Arrrg you land lovers!!

The Richest Man in Babylon

nospam@example.com (Albert Yang) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 11:38:00 -0500

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I listen to this book all the time. It covers a few basic items, such as saving a portion of your earnings, not less than 1/10th. Doing the math, the "magic" happens somewhere around saving 24% of your income. You should save a percentage, not an amount so as your income grows, so do your savings. Most people just suck at math, I mean if you work from 20~55 years of age, that's 35 years. If you then need to live until you are 90, that's also 35 years. So you basically need to save the same as you earn right now! But you have the advantage of time, and so you can make your money grow. Rule of 72 says divide 72 by the percentage you are getting to see how long before it doubles. So if you are making 6% a year, it will take you 12 years to double that... If you do the math, and say you start working at 19 and retire at 55, and you are getting 6% ROI, then you can get 8x your money in 36 years. This book is a great starter for people who are clueless about money.

It is told in parables, and very easy reading. I recommend getting the audiobook like I have, and listening to it over and over again.. Remember, repetition is the teacher of teachers. If you don't have this book in your library, you don't really have a worthwhile library.

Jim Rohn was the first to recommend this book to me, and I have to say a big thank you to him. Jim is the MAN.

GTD ~ Getting Things Done (Fast!)

nospam@example.com (Albert Yang) — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 02:27:00 -0500

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I alluded to this book before, when I talked about my PDA applications. David Allen has a goal, and that is to be the laziest guy on earth, while at the same time, being one of the most productive men on earth. Paradoxical?? Probably, but he does it and he teaches you how to do it as well. Do you not have enough time in the day? Are you forgetful? Then buy this book and a PDA!!

Things I learned from this book + the apMemo program as well as the list maker, has allowed me to not worry so much about forgetting something, and that in and of itself is worth its weight in gold..

Tim Ferriss ~ The Four Hour Work Week (FHWW)

nospam@example.com (Albert Yang) — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 02:24:00 -0500

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This book has inspired me to "Risk it All" to start my own business; and I have. Has it cut my work week to 4 hours?? Absolutely. My workweek now is right around 4 hours. Am I making 2x as much as I use to? Yes I am! I now teach 80/20 as well as Parkinson's Law to my students as well. Amazing book.

As a Man Thinketh

nospam@example.com (Albert Yang) — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 10:58:00 -0500

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I will introduce books that I think will change your life..

This is one of them. The basic premise of this book is that Thoughts are things, and thoughts control your entire life. You are what you think about. It's not "Law of Attraction" only, it's more like "Law of Definition". Your thoughts define who and what you are, as well as who and what you will become.

The good news is you control your thoughts, and you control your own destiny.

This book is very short, and super inspirational. Highly Highly Highly Recommended.

Kombucha, the cheap healthy drink

nospam@example.com (Albert Yang) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 11:31:00 -0500

I don't particularly like soda; I do like drinking that German malt stuff, but for me, drinking soda is horrible. It's just sugar water. I prefer tea. On one of the boards talking about saving money, this guy said that he switched his entire family over to something called "Kombucha", which I had never heard of. But reading about it online, I went on a hunt, and finally found someone who had it in Taiwan. Fast forward two years, I'm drinking some kombucha as I write this entry. I prefer it in the winter over the summer, when it is hot, it ferments too quickly and gets sour a bit too quickly. In the winter, that doesn't happen all that fast, and so you get a lot of fizzy bubbles and it takes like slightly more astringent coke. It tastes great!

Health benefits aside, I just think that it's a much cheaper (and healthier) alternative to soda.

Breakdown of costs:

1 Large back of loose tea ~ $1.50.

1 Large bag of sugar ~ $3.00

Total cost, $4.50. Number of cups, probably 200.

The cost of a cup is probably close to 4 cents. Use the cheapest tea possible because the tea is just for flavoring, all the kombucha cares about is the sugar water. Try different teas and different flavors. Enjoy the money savings.

Must have PDA software, GTD, and an organized life

nospam@example.com (Albert Yang) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 21:57:00 -0500

If you don't know what David Allen and GTD are, you can pretty much bet that you are an unproductive person.. David Allen wrote the book "Getting Things Done" (GTD for short) and I have been a big fan ever since!

So this is so right up my alley! Efficiency Efficiency Efficiency!

So let's talk about you and your PDA phone.. Or me and my HTC Touch Cruise, same thing.

A PDA Phone should be used for the following:

1) Phone calls!
2) Contact Management
3) Calendar Management
4) JTD ~ Jotting Things Down
5) Making Lists

I am going to address each one of these.

1) Phone calls. Basically using it as a phone. Not much more than that needs to be said.

2) Contact Management ~ A lot can be said about this but basically, you need to be able to find info about a person be it a family member, friend, or client. I have purchased a business card scanner, mainly because I have a billion business cards, and so I will talk more about this in the future.. I REALLY hope the business card scanner works well and easily.. If it does, in the ideal world, this will allow me to keep my contacts organized.

3) Calendar Management ~ appointments basically..

4) JTD ~ Jotting Things Down. If you don't know what "Psychic Ram" is and you feel stressed all the time, you really should buy David's book. Basically, he talks about the fact that we stress because our brain doesn't trust that we have a system to remember or a system to remember that our brain trusts. And ideas are fleeting and so you need to jot it down as soon as you get it. When you do this, you will feel a sense of peace.. I swear it's true. My last PDA was a Palm Z22, which I loved to death but it died on me. In between when it died and when I bought my HTC, was about a 2 month period, and during that time, the amount of stress I had was incredible, simply because I had nothing to write things down with when I had a thought.

The app I used on the palm was called "Diddlebug" which is great.

The app I use on the Pocket PC is like Diddlebug++, it is called

apMemo

I seldom pay for software, but this is one that I paid for. It's that useful, and I would say that it dominates the majority of my PDA use.

Why something like diddlebug and apMemo and not something that types? Well, first, hand writing is faster. 2nd, you can hand it to someone to write something (which I often do) and they can just write with it, no need to teach them. 3rd, the context of the writing helps you remember the item.

Both of these programs allow for an alarm to be set on it. apMemo allows for different color backgrounds and pen colors. Also, this mimicry of pad and pencil allows for internationalization without the need for internationalization. It's really great.

Whenever you have a thought, you just write it down. My PDA is next to my bed and I often wake up in the middle of the night to write something down I just thought of or dreamed about. This allow will foster creativity and reduce stress, I kid you not! apMemo is on v2.3 as of this writing, but 1.0 is free. I highly recommend you pay for it though to encourage the continuation of good software.

5) Making lists ~ I had used Bonsai on the palm, which I didn't find all that easy to use, but on the pocket PC, the program I am using is called Check List Tree.

It's just a super simple tree listing. That's it. But it's powerful, because you can list things and collapse and expand the tree. I love this program and have donated to the author, and hope you do the same if you use it and like it. I hope auto-save and view/unview completed tasks are an option as well as nodal movement. When this is added, this will be the ultimate list making program.

So that's basically it, this is what I require from my PDA.

Email?? sure, I'd love to, but it's not that important, the occasional email yes, but it's not a substitute for my 22" monitor.

GPS? Yep, this is another item I wanted a PDA phone for.. With a GPS option, I can mark the locations of my favorite restaurants as well as drive around.. Exciting..

Just remember in the world of complexity, "Less is More" but only if you know what is the part you should keep and what are the parts you should cut.

When it's all said and done, I have to say that apMemo is the high high high recommendation here. I also recommend you quick button a button to it. You will after a while, discover it's a piece of software you can't live without..