July 3, 2008

Help Flood Victims: Tzuchi Fundraiser Sunday July 6th

Posted by vikysview under others | Tags: , , , , , |
[2] Comments 

Updates:

Dear all,

Thanks to all your inputs, we collected $578.94 direction donation at the donation desk this Sunday. All of them will be sent sent through Tzu Chi immediately for relief effort including distributing blankets, shelters and cash aid.

Follwing are some of pictures on Sunday.

Passing our love and compassion to Midwest

Passing our love and compassion to Midwest

Distributing the flyers

Distributing the flyers

Time
Sunday, July 6, 2008
10:00am - 6:00pm

Location:
Sam’s Club Tampa, Main Exit
15835 N. Dale Mabry Ave, Tampa, FL

My dear friends,

The Tzu Chi foundation USA is running a fundraiser this coming Sunday for recent Midwest flooding victims . You can support this meaningful event in many different ways including being a volunteer for fund collecting in Sam’s Club for one hour, donating online or simply forwarding this message to people around you. The details about the flooding and Tzu Chi foundation can be found below and its website of www.us.tzuchi.org.
Feel free to contact me through my blog. Thank you and have a nice long weekend!

Viky

Heavy rain coupled with the overflowing Mississippi River has brought severe flooding to Midwest U.S.A., including Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin, leaving homes submerged and tens of thousands of people homeless. In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, for example, 25,000 residents were forced to evacuate the area. The farm fields were also hit hard: over two million acres of farmland were destroyed.

Many flood victims left their homes with little cash on them, so Tzu Chi is providing Emergency cash aid of $500 per household in the form of debit cards, plus blankets and other daily necessities. Over 6,000 households will benefit from the distribution of the relief funds and goods.

From Hurricane Katrina in 2005 to the California wild fires in 2007 and this year’s tornados across Midwest and South, disasters are becoming more frequent and greater in their destructive power. Through it all, Tzu Chi volunteers are always there from beginning to end, helping those in need. We who are not affected by disasters should cherish our blessings and seize this moment to extend a helping hand, as everyone’s kindness is needed to respond to the devastating floods in Midwest U.S. Let us pray with sincerity for disasters to cease and for the well-being of the earth and all people.

 

June 18, 2008

The service sector in China: some training opportunities inside

Posted by vikysview under Business thoughts, service in China | Tags: , , |
No Comments 

When walking out the Shanghai airport last month, I felt the folks in the airport didn’t have enough smile and eye contact. For example, when I talked to the receptionists in the check-in desk with smiling, their facial expression is still very “stable” (hope that’s not due to my not-good-looking face); no “thank you”, not even “extended thank you” (the “thank you” of looking to other people’s eyes and mentioning thank you for what at the same time). Fortunately, this is not every case in China; folks in some other airports, restaurants, and hotels are better trained. However, generally, I think people in service business in China need some further training of how to service people better.

 

June 18, 2008

Reading Notes: “Micro Trend” by Mark. J. Penn #1

Posted by vikysview under Business thoughts, US Watch, book review, dating | Tags: , , , |
No Comments 

Online dating, making sense

I was surprised by the numbers listed in the Mark Penn’s top selling “Micro Trend” about the online dating: according to a survey in 2006, 61% of Americans didn’t consider online dating as “desperate” and 25% single Americans looked for their partners using the online dating sites. If you think the two numbers above are not convincing enough and having the stereotype of “losers using online dating”, here is one more survey: 3 million American adult online daters have turned into long-term relationship. As stated in the book, this is the same number of couples in America who say they met in the church: the traditional #1 place to meet partners in America. By those figures, it’s well explainable why we can see the commercials of eHarmony, Match.com everyday on TV and Facebook and why many new dating sites in China are popping up recently.

Next micro trend makes money: commuter marriages?

The shift of view on online dating has created the boom for Internet dating sites. Can other trends make income sources for business innovators? In the first chapter of Penn’s book, he also mentioned the increase of single women vs. single men, older women dating younger men, and commuter marriages (couples in long distance). The last trend will keep growing due to the globalization and I am also part of the “commuter family”. Any solution can alleviate the suffering due to long distance will definitely hit a huge success.

 

March 26, 2008

Quick dating tips

Posted by vikysview under book review, dating | Tags: , , , , , , |
[2] Comments 

The book of dating for dummies is not only for dummies, it offers lots of social and psychological knowledge, as well as some dating basics, which are easily neglected by people all the time. I have to say: I learn something new and useful in the book. (A humble indication that I’m still kind of dummy in datingJ) And I’ll give it a score of 4 out of 5.

 Moreover, I also want to share two of my most important dating ideas in the guy’s standpoint. (The author for the book is a lady):

1.      Never hesitate to ask your prospective date’s numberDon’t think this a “win-or-die” thing! Remember, ladies love people love them. You are really offering your interest to the lady when you are asking. If you don’t give, that’s her lose. The strategy can be simple and straightforward, like “you are really beautiful, can I know you phone number? Here’s mine. (give your name card to her)” Don’t forget to stand straight, smile and eye contact.

2.      No topic? Get prepared!Another common fear about dating is the your date may get bored if you have little to talk. To solve it? Prepare & Practice yourself to have lots more to talk. If you are in college age, topics in school, basic ideas and news on different majors, recent movies, restaurants nearby and local activities will help. Also Google “college jokes” to make your talk funny. There is also a common topic-generator: the ABCDE scheme: when you are worried about topics, pick an English letter and start the story with that letter. Say when you picking up “A”, then you say: “did you see the recent art show in town?”.

Go for your date! Have fun!

 

March 13, 2008

How American churches attract the non-believers

Posted by vikysview under US Watch | Tags: , , , , , |
No Comments 

Churches play an important role in American people’s lives. More amazing, they can attract lots of non-believers, some of them from other non-Christianity countries, join their worship and even believe in God. How can they make it?

First, help. Churches offer lots of helping program to their community. They will give away toys to kids, offer lunch/dinner occasionally and provide free classes for English and other living skills. People benefit from it will definitely be graceful and become more interested in joining the churches’ family.

Second, various events. Churches are also organizing lots of events- not all of them are religious, and non-believers are generally welcomed. You can easily fit in for some specific activities and make new friends. Guys from the church are nice and playing with them has lots of fun. Churches become a crucial social place, since in America, it’s hard to know more people and build your network without joining different groups and events.

Third, fun at the worship. In their weekly service, they are also adapting many cool techniques, like using podcast for online worship , and play worship song on the big screen with fancy animation that people can sing together. It makes worship easier to understand and more interesting, which is vital for attracting new people to their religion.

 

March 12, 2008

Entrepreneur never dies

Posted by vikysview under Business thoughts, book review | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , |
No Comments 

True, America is experiencing recession. But opportunities are still around.For example, Florida seems a place not affected much by the market meltdown. Many of its residence are retired people (who don’t need to worry about generating new cash flow) and people from South America (who have their money tank at their home). If you still have the great entrepreneur spirit, you can make lots of extra cash by working for those guys for home&garden improvement, vacation home cleaning, baby-sitting, math tutor or party arrangement.The book of “202 things you can make and sell ” and “weekend entrepreneur” also provide us some ideas on how to make service business part time and they suggest a list of goods that you can make and sell. Most of them, like older people caring, cannot be outsourced to China or India. Imagine, if you can get $15/hour for those self-employed working, you can get 15X40X52=$31200/year, enough for your survival during this bad time. The American dream of “Working hard and getting rich” won’t vanish during this economic turmoil.

 

March 11, 2008

Comics make easy – 2

Posted by vikysview under presentation | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , |
No Comments 

The second way is easier and funnier: make it yourself!Do you still remember your childhood dream for being an artist? Do you remember how you learn drawing in kid garden? Drawing comics yourself is not that hard! Grab one of your local paper and go the comics section, mimics what they draw,(one trick is to place a piece of thin paper on top of the original comics then follow the comics) pick up one to two figures, write their stage lines. And that’s it!!I’m glad to show you my first try:img_7211.jpg

 

March 9, 2008

Comics make easy – 1

Posted by vikysview under presentation | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , |
1 Comment 

In the Ocean Science conference last week, I was impressed by the talk of Mr. Jerry Schubel. His talk is about how scientists communicate with general public and policy makers. The coolest part is that he used lots of comics to illustrate his ideas. Imagine in a day when everyone is dried by the boring and similar talks, such funny show definitely gave us big boost!
The good news for us is: making such comics in your presentation is fairly easy. We have two mighty tools to work it out: Photoshop and our hand. Today I will show you how to make it in Photoshop:
The key to “comicsize” photo in Photoshop is to use its filters. For example, the following photo is used to illustrate students in USF don’t want to stay there. The background photo is selected from a random campus album and filtered by “Colored Pencil” in Photoshop. Then you can Google USF’s mascot bull and use “magic wand” to cut it out and paste on the top of the background. Then filter it by Colored Pencil. Finally write something for the bull. Isn’t it cool? (I used this in my project proposal and won lots of laugh)

bull.jpg

 

January 11, 2008

Two good news about my blog:)

Posted by vikysview under others | Tags: , , , |
No Comments 

Have two good news to share with you:  My first post in this blog: “Toys’ Hazards - Facts And Tips To Know Before Outsourcing Toys Manufacturing In China” (http://vikysview.wordpress.com/2008/01/03/hazards-to-know-facts-and-tips-for-american-entrepreneurs-who-want-to-outsource-toys-manufacturing-in-china/) was accepted as featured article in EzineArticles.com and I was rewarded an expert author status. 

The second is: this blog’s traffic increased a lot recently. More importantly, nearly 50% of new traffic was attracted by search engine. I tried search term like “top industry outsource” or “tips on china import” and found my blog placed in the first page of Google’s search result! Looks like the recent strategies to improve search result pay off! I’m considering working more on such Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques and start providing service locally.

Finally and most importantly, thank you all who are reading my blog^^! I’ll keep working to provide more unique, helpful and (if possible) entertaining articles!!

 

January 8, 2008

Omarosa in US vs Sister Fu Rong in China: “the law of leadership” works!

Posted by vikysview under Business thoughts | Tags: , , , , , , , , , |
No Comments 

After seeing Omarosa’s first appearance on the first season of Donald Trump’s The Apprentice, I didn’t expect this nasty figure showing up in TV again. However, during these 3 years after The Apprentice’s debut, we can still watch Omarosa in lots of shows like The Surreal Life, Fear Factor and even Trump’s latest The Apprentice: Celebrity Edition, and her harsh personality never changed. Another interesting example is “Sister Fu Rong”, an average-looking lady who aggressively posts her photos on the Internet while telling people she feel she’s very beautiful. (Although few people ever think so) Surprisingly she becomes more and more popular in China and some shows also invite her to host or act. Companies who want to ask her for advertisement need to pay the amount equivalent to a nationally recognized film star!

Omarosa (from Film.com) Siste Fu Rong (from Soso.com)

How these two ladies can make profile from their not-that-welcome characteristics? Textbook in marketing gave us the answer: it’s the “law of leadership”. What people interest most is the #1 in your category. Here, Omarosa define a niche of “famous lady with bad personality” and Sister Fu Rong has her niche of “not beautiful woman, but love to show off”. No matter how nasty the niche is, it still has customers who want to buy them: people need to see some not-so-good characters on TV instead of all super heros. Leading in their niches, Omarosa and Sister Fu Rong can make their happy money.

 

Next Page »