Extract from The Straits Times CATS RECRUIT , 21 Jul 07
"The secret to a successful pitch or meeting - simply set an agenda..."
Before the meeting
Phone ahead
Contact your potential new client and confirm the meeting time, location, and the number of people attending. Also list your power and information technology requirements. This allows you to have sufficient copies of material, if required.
Decision makers
As part of your confirmation phone call, find out the names and titles of all people attending the meeting. This will assist you to prepare and may give an indication of who the decision maker is.
During the meeting
Write up an agenda
Before you open your laptop or launch into your presentation, take a few minutes to write up an agenda everyone can see. Use a whiteboard or blank piece of paper to capture agenda items.
Ask everyone at the meeting: "What is on your agenda for our meeting today?" Some people may be surprised that you asked the question, so take time to allow people to think about their response.
If you have a whiteboard or flipchart, use different colours for each person. If you are using a piece of paper, use colours if you have them. This allows you to quickly identify what is important to each person.
Check the duration
Confirm with the attendees: "Do we have until 1pm today?" This will allow all participants to agree or provide you information if they have to leave earlier to attend to another matter. This can be critical when pitching a new product or ideas, as you want to ensure the decision makers are available for the important components of your discussion.
Identify global (strategic) and local (specific) agenda items. When reviewing the agenda, look for the distinction between the two types of agenda items and make note of whom they belong to. This will help you address them throughout the meeting.
Get opinions
It is important to find out how people are feeling about the meeting. This can include investment in time they are making, anticipation of what you have to offer and concerns about the product or company.
In business, we do not always take time to acknowledge feelings that enter a meeting, but feelings affect our decision-making.
Keep asking for agenda items
You may need to continue asking: "Is there anything else?" If everyone says no, you may need to ask again, "If there was something else, what would it be?" This allows everyone time to declare every agenda on their mind.
Check for hidden agendas
In most meetings there is also a hidden agenda. It is simple to find out what this is - just ask the question - "What other agendas are there for this meeting? Alternatively you might state: "There always seems to be another agenda with most meetings I attend, is there another agenda today?"
It is important to find out if there are other drivers, decision-making criteria or other concerns before you begin the meeting.
This may seem like a long process but it is a valuable one. Setting agendas for a meeting shows your potential (or existing) client you value their time, you want to cover information or content that is relevant to them, you haven't come in to just "sell" your services or product. When you invest in setting agendas, you can speed up the meeting by addressing each item, focus your presentation on the aspects most important to your potential client, demonstrate respect for their investment in time and their concerns or feelings about the meeting.
Shared by my company HR
Have you watch the TV program on this show?
Thrilling right?
Why not try your luck on the software version?
Simpson Deal or No Deal
Hi fren,
Take a look at the following requirement:
"The durian must be 70% bitter and 30% sweet in total quality"
Can you all inteprete this requirement?
Is this requirement good enough?
How can you ensure this requirement can be met by the user?
I find it diffcult to define test requirement to ensure that the requirement is fulfill. If I need to test the durian to ensure 70% bitter and 30% sweet, then I would have need to eat it. But if I ate it, then how to deliver an eaten durian? Also it is subjective to each individual definition of sweet and bitter. Just like the saying: One man's meat is the other man's poision.
The above was one of the requirements stated in the tender requirement specification doc shared at Mr Brown web site.
Click here to see what's the intepretation of the requirements stated in the document from Mr Brown's view?
CONCLUSION: Requirement writing is an art which needs to be learnt and cannot be acheive just be having a tool.
I do not understand why... the company I am in is full of politics! I guess most company will have it, but cannot be so BAD as mine one right?
Tomorrow I am tasked to present on a topics which will suppose to "dig out" under which boss leadership what have been done and what have not been done. Well, me lowest rank of the food-chin kenna this type of dirty job. But what to do tasked or rather "arrowed" to present. So what if it had not been done, the boss still got his promotion what, except those under him lor.
If you have watched the JUST FOLLOW LAW show, you will see a scene whereby the bosses in the room busy typing emails to "shoot" one and another. Then a WHOLE LOTS of arrows would be flying across the office and then lastly landed on the office attendant who is in-charge of moving the stuffs.
Also from what i learnt is that it is very important as to who you lunch with each day. There was once a softerware engineer in my company, he only lunches with those in the rooms, within 3-4 years he was a director of my company subsidary. He didn't even follow through one software lifecycle, what makes him able to manage a project and understand project issues? Guess that's the ugly side of life. Note, I am not complaining about my lunch kakis, in fact these days i lunches only with admin staffs or my teammates. I prefers to lunch in my comfort zone.
I pray for my safety and not to be "shooted" down by those having the bird-eye view people. Instead let them shot among themseleves, while me watch the show :P
This is what i found on the web, I think i need this type of water health aid which do not require much of my energy one.
The Natural Remedy for a Good Night's Sleep
Did you know that a soak in a Jacuzzi spa can help you get a good night's sleep? According to the National Sleep Foundation, approximately 132 million Americans suffer from sleep disorders. They found that 48% of women and 38% of men suffer from insomnia more than one night a week. Sleep researchers believe that many cases of insomnia are the result of the hectic, stressful lifestyles of otherwise healthy people.
A recent study in the scientific periodical Sleep, a drop in body temperature can help to ease your body into a deeper, more relaxing sleep.
They suggest that if you soak in very hot water (103° F) approximately 90 minutes before bedtime, you will fall sleep easier, naturally. So our recommendation for a good night's sleep is to soak in a Jacuzzi spa before bedtime.
Soak Away Stress
A number of studies are now suggesting that stress is as great a threat to health as smoking or not exercising. Learning to control stress is our life-long objective. Some of us are lucky to be stressed only occasionally. Many of us find stress a constant companion.
Soaking in a Jacuzzi spa is the perfect solution to control stress. Feel calmer, loosen tight muscles, and relax after a hard day of work or play. Soaking away your stress will help you enjoy life and will not only contribute to better health, but a greater ability to succeed in your own agenda.
Time files, i can't recall when is my 1st cry nor how i look when i was born.
How many cakes i had so far in my life.
Guess the children these days are indeed very lucky to have all these information captured since the time he/she was conceived by the mummy.
As far as my photos record had, it was taken when i was 1 years old together with my elder bother. So not even a single photo. In the past photography is an expensive/luxurious thing. With the invention of digital camera, I now can take endless of photos happily and print only as and when i like. Those i do not like it i can delete off..saved money on printing. Me still having a 5 years old camera with 2 Mega pixel. Wonder when can i have an upgrade on it.
Can eat or not?
That's what most of my collegues questioned.
Anyway it was now OVER. It was just a 1 day event to be interviewed by the auditors.
And guess what only on Moday afternoon we are told who are the interviewee so you can see what type of BIG WOO HA we had in the offices. Some people are glad that they were not on the list while others are Cursing and Swearing.
The auditors i find are quite smart, they didn't select the the interviewee from the recommended list instead proposed their our choice. Well-done...quite a fair one i think.
I was glad that I am not selected, else how can my brain hold so much information, what vision, mission, 4E's , cares...all these to be stored into my 125M RAM. :P
But I was arrowed to do logistic support which is to call up the inerviewee to request them to be on standby prior to the actual interview just in case those cate leaders wanna to conduct last last min crash course. The best part of my support role is that the organiser did not even provide a full list of the interviewee's contact no. So you see how good the planning and information works. Also one thing i learnt there is the higher the position, the more diffcult it is to get the person to be RESPONSIBLE and PUNTUAL for this event. In fact the operators are the good patience workers who would arrive 1.5 hrs - 2 hrs before the actual inteview and waiting patiently there for their turn.
Outcome of the whole thing would only knows in SEPT. All the best!
A mouth ulcer is an open sore inside the oral cavity. Two common mouth ulcer types are aphthous ulcers (canker sores) and cold sores (caused by the herpes simplex virus).
The types of oral ulcers are diverse, with a multitude of associated causes including: physical or chemical trauma, infection from microorganisms or viruses, medical conditions or medications, cancerous and sometimes nonspecific processes. Once formed, the ulcer may be maintained by inflammation and/or secondary infection.
Symptoms
The symptoms preceding the ulcer may vary according to the cause of the ulcerative process.
Some oral ulcers may begin with a sharp stinging or burning sensation at the site of the future mouth ulcer. In a few days, they often progress to form a red spot or bump, followed by an open ulcer. Sometimes this takes a little bit longer, depending on the cause of the ulcer.
The oral ulcer appears as a white or yellow oval with an inflamed red border. Sometimes a white circle or halo around the lesion can be observed. The grey, white, or yellow coloured area within the red boundary is due to the formation of layers of fibrin, a protein involved in the clotting of blood. The ulcer, which itself is often extremely painful, especially when agitated, may be accompanied by a painful swelling of the lymph nodes below the jaw, which can be mistaken for toothache.
Causes
There are many processes which can lead to ulceration of the oral tissues. In some cases they are caused by an overreaction by the body's own immune system.
Factors that appear to provoke mouth ulcers include stress, fatigue, illness, injury from accidental biting, hormonal changes, menstruation, sudden weight loss, food allergies and deficiencies in vitamin B12, iron and folic acid.
Treatment
Treatments based on antibiotics and steroids are reserved for severe cases, and should be used only under medical supervision.
Some doctors may also prescribe a local anaesthetic, such as lidocaine, for cases of multiple or severe oral ulcers.
Some people benefit from using the over-the-counter topical gel Bonjela, which contains choline salicylate -- choline salicylate is a local analgesic that helps to reduce the pain and inflammation associated with oral ulcers.
(Extracted from th web)
My ucler is due to the cut on my lips when I had a fall last week. Now it is getting BIGGER & BIGGER....more pain also. Sob sob
Facing Dog—a pose performed by standing on the hands and feet with the hips lifted to the sky—is one of the most popular yoga postures today. It is taught in many classes and is part of many styles of yoga. But why is it such an important posture? The simple answer is that it's great for your health!
Down Dog calms the brain and helps relieve stress and mild depression; it helps relieve the symptoms of menopause; it relieves menstrual discomfort when done with the head supported; it helps prevent osteoporosis; it improves digestion; it relieves headaches, insomnia, back pain, and fatigue; and it is therapeutic for high blood pressure, asthma, flat feet, sciatica, and sinusitis. 
STEP 1: Start on your hands and knees. Position your hands directly beneath your shoulders and your knees directly beneath the hips. Have your fingers fully spread with the middle fingers pointing straight ahead. Make your back horizontal and flat. Gaze at the floor. This is your "neutral" position. When your pelvis is in neutral, your spine will be at full extension, with both the front and back sides equally long. 
STEP 2: As you wait for the inner cue, do not sag into your shoulders. Instead, create a line of energy through each arm by pressing downward into your hands and lifting your shoulders. Go back and forth like this several times to make sure you understand the movement. 
STEP 3: When you are ready to begin, breathe in deeply. As you exhale, turn your hips into "Cat Tilt". Do this by gently pulling the abdominal muscles backward toward the spine, tucking the tailbone (coccyx) down and under, and gently contracting the buttocks. Press firmly downward with your hands in order to stay lifted out of the shoulders, and lift the middle of your back toward the ceiling, rounding your spine upward. Curl your head inward. Gaze at the floor between your knees.
STEP 4: As you inhale, turn your hips into Dog Tilt. Do this by releasing the grip of the buttocks, reversing the tilt of your pelvis, and curving your spine into a smoothly arched backbend.
(Extracted from Yoga-ABC & Yoga Journal)
Hi,
Early this month, my friend Joyce was sharing with me her new bread making book from her sister. She highly recommended it with her few rounds of success. Yesterday I found it at the library and so today I tried it. So easy!
This is what my Farmhouse White Loaf looks like:
The top did not turn of to be very dark in colour though I and set it to be MEDIUM.
I wonder why also, but nevertheless it was nice. :)
This book still have a few others recipe which require me just measure and pour things into the pan. Guess it is simple as long as I follow the recipe steps well.
Last week I had been eating the 3 types of cakes. Guess no more this week.. but bread.
