Leahs Cafe » buzz

Malnutrition even with plenty to eat?

Leahs — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 02:01:09 +0000

All over the world, poor people who live in poverty-stricken areas are at the greatest risk for hunger and malnutrition. In poor countries, wars and natural disasters such as droughts and earthquakes may also contribute to hunger and malnutrition by disrupting normal food production and distribution.

But, in the land that has so many fat people, it’s hard to believe that malnutrition happens. :-) But someone can become malnourished for reasons that have nothing to do with hunger. Even people who have plenty to eat may be malnourished if they don’t eat food that provides the right nutrients, vitamins, and minerals. Parents who are raising picky eater for instance worry the child isn’t getting the nutrients necessary for proper growth and development, and will give supplement like pediasure to the child.

Malnutrition can affect people of every age, although infants, children, and adolescents may suffer the most because many nutrients are critical for growth and development. Older people may develop malnutrition because aging, illness, and other factors can lead to a poor appetite, so they may not eat enough.

Pay cash for your holiday shopping

Leahs — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 03:43:41 +0000

We have decided earlier to get rid of credit cards, we do have a debit card that can be used in emergency situation, but we pay cash for everything else. What we find helpful is to have a written household budget that assigned a name to every dollar of incoming fund. That ensure we first pay ourselves (saving for future) before we spend on anything else.

In December, we would put aside an amount of money for gifts and holiday shopping. Paying cash does help to keep you from getting carried away. If you plan to do most of your holiday shopping online and do not want to pay with credit cards, you may want to check out ebillme. Ebillme is a secure payment option that does not require a credit card, you pay for your purchase through your bank’s online bill pay portal!

Ebillme.com currently runs a contest in which you can tell your Shop and Confess story and win prizes of $500, $300 and $200.

Please mention the URL of this blog if you decide to enter the contest, so I could win and shop till I drop this Christmas!

Turn talk into typing with a voice recognition software

Leahs — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 06:42:33 +0000

All my previous teaching jobs required a lot of typing. I have never learned typing and do not know “touch typing” . Though I survived years with my two fingers typing skills, it took too much time to get all the notes and exam questions typed out. Have you not secretly hoped that someone would invent a voice activated typing program, which you just have to speak and the words will be typed out for you? I have.

Guess what, looks like there is such a product in the market right now! It is the world’s first and foremost software product that recognizes and creates general text from normal speech.

Base on the assumption that most people can speak three times more words per minute than typing them out, that mean you can create documents and e-mails three times faster with Dragon Naturally Speaking!

Supposedly with my result of Dragon’s typing speed test at 41 WPM, it could improve to be more than 120 words per minute, and that’s lightning speed when typing is concerned, isn’t that?

Does the software recognize voices of people who speak with different accents? According to the following video, it does! As a non native speaker, I do wonder does it include people who speak with a foreign accent!

Left behind the contact lenses

Leahs — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 18:00:54 +0000

Forgot to pack the contact lenses which were together with the toiletries, they were left at my parents’ place. Decided last minute not to pack the the toiletries bag because the luggage was going to exceed the baggage limit, but didn’t realize the contact lenses were inside until it’s too late!

Fortunately my trusted eyeglasses are with me, or else I won’t be able to see clearly and will be in big trouble. Since most places here required prescription to purchase contact lenses, may have to go to an optician to get prescription for new contact lenses!

Used to wear contact lenses for long hours in the past 10 years. But after numerous warnings from the opticians about my eyes condition as a result of wearing them for long hours, I have reduced the wearing of contact lenses in the past two years. Now, if I do not change into contact lenses in the morning, I will be too lazy to change later of the day. It ended up that I have been wearing eyeglasses most of the time. The wear and tear are expected from this constant wearing.

It’s not cheap to get a pair of replacement for my “powerful” eyeglasses. The current pair bought from a normal optical shop, come with multi-coated high indexed lenses and a super light frame cost me an arm and half a leg!

Well, you can imagine the excitement of finding a n online store that sells stylish prescription glasses from $8! You can read more about the reviews and comments of customers who bought from Zenni Optical. Must check out Zenni Optical, when it’s time to get a replacement, or may be should get a second pair as spare?

Internet banking and order checks online

Leahs — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 15:33:54 +0000

After being separated and living 6000 miles apart for close to two years, we are finally going to be reunited in IL next week. Since the visa was approved three weeks ago, have been very busy with shopping, packing and farewells with friends and family. There are so many more things to do than initially thought.

Mom was nagging me today, told me not to leave things till the eleventh hours. She thought we have to leave instructions for dad to pay the mortgage or take care of all the other banking matters. Told her not to worry because we have already setup standing instruction and have that taken care of.

Compare to 10 years ago when internet banking is still at its infancy, today, most of the financial matters i.e. mortgage payments and fund transfers can be pre-arranged and taken care of remotely. Could even Order checks online and have them delivered to the doorstep though internet. We rarely use checks, so we only order a small box each time, but they’re still a necessity when some small businesses do not accept debit or credit cards, as we do not carry much cash with us.

We have been ordering checks through the bank, which is convenient, since they deduct the payment right from the bank account…but they’re not very cheap! Furthermore, the bank only offers ONE design while they are several different designs to choose at VistaPrint. We can even get 25% off by using the coupon code Checks25 during check out!

Basics on hosting your blog

Leahs — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 08:10:05 +0000

Many of my friends have expressed interest to start a blog. They asked me many questions, from how to get a domain to how much they have to pay for a hosting plan. However, none of them took up blogging after all the detailed explanations. Guess they were overwhelmed and did not know where to start!

Maybe next time could just point them to a site that has articles and tutorials, so they could read up and follow step by step, from domain name strategies, how to choose a web hosting plan to DNS name server as they need it, to avoid information overload. :-)

Famous Footwear coupons to expand your shoes collection

Leahs — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 05:34:36 +0000

On the BBC’s website, I read that the world’s best-known shoe collector, former Philippine First Lady Imelda Marcos, has opened a museum in which most of the exhibits are her own footwear. The Footwear Museum in Manila contains hundreds of pairs of shoes, many of them found in the presidential palace when Imelda and her husband, President Ferdinand Marcos, fled the Philippines in 1986.

During her time as first lady, Mrs Marcos was famed for traveling the world to buy new shoes at a time when millions of Filipinos were living in extreme poverty. The exhibits include shoes made by such world-famous names as Ferragamo, Givenchy, Chanel and Christian Dior, all size eight-and-a-half.

We ordinary folks might not have the financial mean nor the level of shoes fetishism to start a shoes museum like Mrs Marcos, but this Famous Footwear coupons will certainly go far in expanding your shoes collections! Many of us women folks are borderline addicts who indulge in buying shoes. Most of us probably have more shoes than we ever need. In fact, very few women can resist the temptation of adding another pairs to their shoes collections whenever they go shopping. But, are you the financially smart women who know how to use coupon codes to stretch the dollars in this weak economy? My mantra for shopping is : never pay retail prices, always ask for discount or look for discount coupons before you purchase anything, yes, anything. :-)

Find a web host for your blog

Leahs — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 01:32:13 +0000

When it comes to starting a blog, your biggest decision will be whether you want to host the blog yourself, or use a free blogging service that is hosted for you.

Yes, you can host your blog for free, but nothing is really free. When you start a blog with a free blogging service, you don’t get your own domain and you don’t actually own the blog. If you ever do decide to move to your own domain, you may find it difficult to take your readers with you, because you have no control over the site.

Paying for a hosting plan will offer much more flexibility and freedom to do what you want. You will have your own domain name and have access to the root directory. By far, the easiest way to get a website is to go with a hosting company that offers “1 click installs”, or instant installations for blogging and forum software. If you are not sure which web host to choose or what kind of options you have out there, you can always check out webhostinggeeks.com to read about the reviews of different hosting providers and feedbacks from their customers.

Joint checking account

Leahs — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:21:56 +0000

One of the proofs of bona fide marriage we are required to show to the consular during immigrant visa interview is the co-mingling of our finances. It can be joint ownership of property or lease, life insurance with the other party as beneficiary, name on spouse’s health insurance, joint saving or checking account.

The only document we have right now is a letter from insurance company that shows my name on his health insurance plan. Though we have been married for three years but we do not have a joint bank account. You will be surprised, opening a bank account can be a rather complex attempt without proper paper. We have been separated in two countries for the past one and half years, we couldn’t add each other to our bank accounts because the bank required us to be present physically to produce the relevant identity!

The big boy has a checking account that comes with a debit card, he gives me the debit card to withdraw money in Malaysia. His bank statements showed all the withdrawals on ATM machines in Malaysia and with the ATM withdrawal slips, may be they can be used as proof.

The debit card works out quite well, the only setback is: it charges a fee for every ATM withdrawal. It actually added up to be quite a bit over the past one year. We could have save some money if we know WaMu has a Free checking account that allows free ATM cash withdrawals worldwide.

Academic writing is a different cup of tea

Leahs — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 23:06:11 +0000

Writing thesis or academic papers may be natural for some, but it can be a real torture for the rest of us. When I was studying for a masters degree, it took me quite a while to put all the thoughts together on paper and came out with a dissertation. If you teach in the university, you are also expected to publish in peers reviewed journals, it is one of the criteria for career advancement and job promotion.

If you have just enrolled into a post graduate program or about to start your final year dissertation. You may want to be prepared for the kind of writing you have to do, check out the Capellaís Online Writing Center that include various topics i.e. Annotated Bibliography Guide, Grammar, Business and Technical Writing, APA Style and Formatting, Undergraduate Writing Resources, How to Get Your Work Published and Academic Integrity.

Capella University is an online university that offers many online courses in many specialization. If you are thinking of pursuing an online university degree, you may check out the university for more information.

**This blog post was is based on information provided by Blogitive. For more information, please visit Blogitive.com.

Get your favorite tickets online

Leahs — Sat, 03 May 2008 02:00:02 +0000

If you are a sporty fan, you will know watching the games in front of TV is different from watching it live, nothing beats the kick of watching the games live! But, it is not always easy to get tickets for sport events especially for popular sport events i.e. Miami Heat tickets are usually sell like hot cakes.

Are you frustrated because you cannot seem to get the hot tickets for your favorite NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL games or an amazing concert? Have you ever tried getting it online? With the Internet, it is possible to get your tickets without camping outside the ticket sale counter. :-)