In a few hours from now, Barak Obama will take the oath to preserve, protect and defend the constitution of the US.  We all know that putting such a huge responsibility on one person’s shoulders is most probably going to lead us all to disappointment but then like Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope.”

Right now, that is exactly all of us Americans feel.   Hopeful.  Heck, that is how most of the people all over the world feel about Obama’s rise to Presidency.  This is an amazing moment in our country’s history!    We certainly have come a long way from the day Martin Luther King, Jr. gave the “I Have a Dream” address on August 28th, 1963, but there is still a long way to go.

But with leaders like Obama, who can motivate and inspire others to do the right thing, there is a hope that most people will come together to keeping America strong and proud. In the video below, you can see how some of the very famous celebrities have come together and made pledges to Barack Obama, supporting his call for change. We ALL can do the same. Make a Pledge today to make that change happen, however small it might be.

The Presidential Pledge

Because, together we will be the change that we seek.

Ask Not What Your Country Can Do For You… is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

What a charismatic moment we just had in America with Barack Obama’s victory tonight. Included below is President Obama’s (getting used to saying that) victory speech that he gave in Chicago just less than an hour ago. Watch it and notice the height of emotions felt across people of ALL colors, ages and social classes.

It was truly a very proud and emotionally thrilling moment as in times like these, you forget the differences and divide and stand united, for each other, not just for ourselves. Very inspirational as greatness and intelligence is once again rewarded tonight. Here’s to the new beginnings and much needed change..

President Obama gives America a night to remember forever! is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

I hesitate a bit to say that I’ve felt many times that my sixth sense is pretty developed and that I can often feel things to a great accuracy.  No, I am not talking about psychic abilities but just general intuitive hunches about many of my situations.  (Although I read somewhere that people born under the signs of Scorpio and Pisces are born with extra sensory perceptions, so may be it has to do with that I am a Scorpio).  And every time I have ignored my instincts, I have ended up hurting or regretting afterwards.   This inner voice is within all of us and most of us hear it but do not pay much attention to it.

In the online world, we are meeting new people and developing connections on a daily basis so it is all the more important to use discretion, stay alert and trust our instincts.  On the Internet, all we know about some stranger is what he or she tells us and have no way of knowing if they are genuine, telling the truth or just trying to con us.  I don’t mean to say we need to be paranoid about trusting others, but keeping our ears and eyes open, watching for the gaps in the information they provide can save everyone tons of misery, time, energy, heartache and many times even money! This is true whether you are dealing with someone on a personal level, in the Internet marketing arena, shopping or anything else you are doing on the Internet.

To reiterate why it is important to trust our gut and intuitions, I want to share with you a post that one of my very good blogging friends teeni wrote on how Appearances can be deceiving, in which teeni has provided links to stories and other people’s posts when some good intentioned and otherwise intelligent, compassionate people fell pray to online frauds.  Teeni’s post stirred up some of my own emotions from a recent online experience in which I forced myself to trust someone despite having a very strong feeling that everything this person was telling me was a lie of some sort.

I am pretty careful in giving out my personal information to someone I have doubts about but upon finding this person was on a different continent,  I sort of relaxed and gave out some information I shouldn’t have.  Over time though, I couldn’t deal with deceiving, and clever conversations any more and stopped all contact.  Now, this person didn’t do any harm to me and I doubt they are out to harm anyone but who knows?   Pretending to be what you are not, you are playing with other people’s emotions and that is not forgivable.  I was on guard most of the time and that did not sit well with this person as they showed frustration that I wouldn’t ‘open up’ with them but it goes to show how many of us are vulnerable and readily trust the outside world than our own selves.  Like teeni points out in her post, a lot of people have self-esteem issues and this is their only avenue to get attention, by trapping innocent folk for their own benefit.    So Be Careful.

Here are some more resources to check out on Internet Fraud

Would love to hear your take on this issue and if you know of any such incidents.

photo: Neil Phillips

Your Instincts and gut feelings are mostly true – Trust them is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

This question has been on my mind for a few days.

I went to a restaurant the other day with a few of my colleagues from work.  It was lunch time and this restaurant offers buffet for lunch. We have gone to this place many times before but recently there seems to be a new management and new crew.

At buffets, as you know, everyone gets their own servings and we all did.  The waiter came and filled our glasses with water but then after his first appearance, the waiter couldn’t be seen anywhere the entire time.  At one point we ran out of water and the food being very spicy and hot, we really needed it, the only thing that was not on the buffet table otherwise we would have gotten the refills ourselves.  This particular restaurant is quite famous in my town and gets filled beyond capacity during lunch so I understand that the staff usually gets busy (with what? I’m not sure) and cannot attend every customer individually.

The hot and spicy food was getting to us and in the absence of water,  we decided we were not going to tip them. (blame it on dehydration).

We finished our meal somehow and after paying at the front desk, headed to our cars while talking about how once this place used to be a very nice but the service was going downhill lately.   All of a sudden we heard someone calling us from behind: “Miss… excuse me ma’am..”  All four of us turned around and found that one of the waiters was walking towards us, with a smirk on his face.   Not understanding what his problem was, we stood there waiting to hear what was his problem. The guy walked up to us and told us that we had forgotten to pay him the tip.

Huh?  We were stunned and furious at his audacity.  How could he follow us in the parking lot asking for money?   All he did was fill our glasses with water one time at the beginning.   We wondered what that smirk was for… did he really think we were going to feel embarrassed and end up paying the tips in the parking lot?   Not to mention how suspiciously stupid the scene would have looked to someone – each of us handing over some money to a strange guy!

This is the first time in my life I’ve come across such behavior. No waiter in the world should be chasing customers in the parking lots to demand tips! We of course refused politely and said we didn’t think a gratuity was warranted as no service was provided, the guy insisted a couple of times but we just walked away!  Phew!   What has the world come to?

As ridiculous as it sounds, we recently also started noticing that this place has started to include the tip in the check when it’s first given to you so if you do not notice it, and end up giving 15% to 20% on top of that, it’s your fault and they will gladly take the money, knowing fully well that you didn’t notice the tip had already been added.  Not to mention, some restaurants charge you tip on the take-outs too!

So, here are my questions:

Do you always pay tips even when they don’t provide any service?

I mostly do but this one time we collectively decided not to and the waiter came after us!

How would you have handled this?  If you are not from United States, I’d love to know the custom and expectations in your country.

photo: Digital Plus Art & Photo

To Tip or Not to Tip the Nutty Waiter? is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

How would you do that?

Okay, here’s the constraint, try to describe yourself in just 2 or 3 words. Don’t think about your whole life because that gets confusing. Just concentrate on your state of mind at this very moment, NOW, and see what you come up with.

And of course let us know in the comments what you thought of, or else we’ll never know :-)

Above is a picture of Michael’s daughter from Flickr. I do not know Michael but when I came across this picture on Flickr while browsing, I instantly added him as a ‘contact’. Michael’s entire collection is great and there are tons of inspirational shots in his sets but this one touched me the most because of his explanation below this picture. It took me back to my childhood.

And I instantly felt sad, happy and calm at the same time.

I was sad because every time I think of my dad, I yearn to see him, talk to him and sometimes I listen to his messages on my cell phone voice mail.

I felt happy that he gave me a very enriched childhood, loved us all very dearly and supported us in everything we ever wanted to do.

I felt calm knowing that my mom is doing better. I was talking to a friend the other day who works in a public utilities company. She gets to hear from a lot of the clients on a daily basis about their problems. It was sad to know that so many of the older folk ( the ones in their late 70s or early 80s even) suffer because their water and/or electricity was shut off because they hadn’t been able to pay their bills. It’s really sad but that gave me a weird sense of calmness about my mother ‘coz things could have been much worse than they really are.

If you were to describe yourself in few words, is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

Can you read these right the first time?

The bandage was wound around the wound.
The farm was used to produce produce.
The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
We must polish the Polish furniture.
He could lead if he would get the lead out.
The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.
A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
I did not object to the object.
The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.
They were too close to the door to close it.
The buck does funny things when the does are present.
A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.
To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
Upon seeing the tear in the painting, I shed a tear.
I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

Let's face it, English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England nor French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat.

We take English for granted, but if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital, ship by truck and send cargo by ship, have noses that run and feet that smell?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out, and in which an alarm goes off by going on.

English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.

PS. – Why doesn't Buick rhyme with quick?

You lovers of the English language might enjoy this:

There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is UP.

It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or toward the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP? At a meeting, why does a topic come UP? Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report?

We call UP our friends. We use something to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver, warm UP the leftovers, and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car. At other times the little word has real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses. To be dressed is one thing but to be dressed UP is special.

And this UP is confusing: A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP. We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night.

When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP. When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP
When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP
When it doesn't rain for awhile, things dry UP

We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP! To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions. If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more.

We could go on, but I'll wrap it UP, for now my time is UP; so: Time to shut UP!

Oh… one more thing: What are the first thing you do in the morning and the last thing you do at night? U-P

PS: BTW I found this message in my inbox this morning and it gave me a chuckle, thought I'd share it with you. hope it brought smiles to you too..

Did you think English was an easy language? is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

February 2nd was Groundhog Day in North America. And as Punxsutawney Phil, the one and the only official Weather Forcasting Groundhog declared that there will be six more weeks of winter, I had started to lose hope to get back in the swing of writing. But then, came this guest post by Paul Hannam, the author of The Magic of Groundhog Day, the book that is based on the movie Groundhog Day.

Author Paul Hannam believes that watching the movie, Groundhog Day, will teach you more about life and work than anything else you can do in less than two hours! He has taught thousands of people on personal development, and taught management and organizational psychology at Oxford University and in his new book, The Magic of Groundhog Day, he explains why the movie is so inspirational and life-changing.

I have found the movie so invaluable because it helps me see each day as a unique opportunity to improve the way I think, feel and act. We all feel stuck at times in our life. The difference is that, in the movie, Phil Connors is literally stuck in the exact same, repeating day. The town never changes; the events and the people never change. Only he can change. It is impossible for Phil to have any control over his outer world, so he is forced to change himself.

Groundhog Day brilliantly dramatizes one of the greatest spiritual and psychological lessons – that change comes from within, and that only we can create meaning and happiness in our lives. Every form of therapy and every self-help technique supports this wisdom, and nothing illustrates it better than the movie.

Phil has to find a meaning and purpose for his life to survive and prosper. It is the only way out of the time loop, and it is our only way out of a rut. He transforms his life by experimenting each day with new thoughts, attitudes and behaviors. He changes his life day by day and transforms the worst day of his life into the best day of his life. I find this idea very inspiring.

All that changes is his perspective on life, and we can emulate this in our own lives to turn a miserable day into a magical day. We all share this remarkable gift, the capacity to make today better than yesterday – and tomorrow better than today.

An Experiment for Transforming your Life Day by Day

Try this experiment. Tomorrow, when you wake up, imagine how you would feel if you too were stuck in time, about to re-live yesterday in the same place, doing the same activities, repeating the same conversations with the same people. What would you do differently?

How would you have made yesterday better?

Maybe you would have been less harsh with your partner, or listened more attentively to a colleague who needed your help or perhaps you would have phoned a friend to tell them how much they meant to you. And what about work?

Would you have spent more time on that important project that could boost your career – and less time lost in thought about how you dislike your boss, or what you are going to do at the weekend?

Well, you can’t change yesterday but the good news is that you can change today. You can press your personal reset button and forget about yesterday. You don’t need to carry yesterday’s mood into today. Like Phil, you can choose to make this day terrible or great.

How do you transform a Miserable Day into a Great Day?

The first step is to stop living on automatic pilot, and return your awareness to the present moment. I call this the Magic of Paying Attention. In the movie, when Phil first arrives in Punxsutawney he is oblivious to the town and its people. He is sleepwalking through his life, completely self-absorbed. By the end of the movie he is awake, and absorbed not in his own ruminations but in the rich drama of the community he has learn to love and serve.

How about you? How much of what you do is the same as yesterday? How much of your day did you spend lost in thought, unconscious to life around you?

I believe that we largely re-live the same day again and again in our heads. We tend to have the same thoughts, the same emotions, the same hopes and anxieties and the same moods. We are not trapped by a time loop. We are trapped instead by our conditioning that is like a gravity that holds us down, keeping us stuck in old patterns and habits going back to our childhood. Every day can seem the same if we experience it through our past conditioning, rather than in the present moment.

The good news is that we can break free of our conditioning. It all starts by paying attention as soon as you wake up. Start by altering your routine when you get out of bed. Do some yoga stretches instead of watching the TV news, eat something different for breakfast and travel a different way to work. Then during the day catch yourself slipping back into conditioned responses.

Stop yourself falling back on the old patterns of seeking approval, being in control or avoiding conflict. These patterns are not you, and you can get out of your rut and experience the magic of everyday life when you are mindful and shift back to the present moment.

Experiment with a new response. When your partner looks at you in that annoying, disapproving manner don’t fall for it. Break your patterned response, and just smile. This is your greatest gift. You can choose to let your partner control your mood, or take back charge yourself and not let anyone or anything disturb your balance and peace of mind.

The genius of the movie is that it intensifies all the focus on us to change ourselves, because everything else is fixed. Every day, Phil can try a new behavior and then measure and evaluate the results. He learns to realize that he cannot seduce Rita, he cannot manipulate her to fall in love with him. It is only when he becomes genuinely loving that she falls in love with him. If you do the same as Phil, if you experiment and evaluate the results in your journal you will make subtle changes in just one day. Then over a week and a month this new self-awareness will lead to a significant transformation.

By practicing moment to moment awareness we come alive and experience a world of hope and possibility. This is the first, crucial step in leading the life you choose to live, not the life you were conditioned to live. This is the Magic of Groundhog Day!

Paul Hannam, author of the Magic of Groundhog Day

How the movie Groundhog Day can lead to a happier and more productive life is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

Now that I have found my niche, it should really be a piece of cake for me to churn out some wonderful posts, right? Well, as it turns out, I am still feeling overwhelming sadness and no matter how hard I try, I can't get it out of my mind.

What I am feeling these days is, I am sure, a very common feeling and many of you might be able to relate to. Losing someone can do this to anyone.

Sure I have laughed and even been to a couple of movies since my friend passed away just before Christmas, but I have felt bouts of sadness and depression in the last few weeks, off and on and as I struggled to come out of it, I felt a strange uneasiness and realized there was no need to try to come OUT of a feeling of sadness when someone is taken away from your life suddenly. Rather I was going to try and take this as an opportunity to reflect upon what my life is all about and truly try to enjoy it as if I had only a short time to live.

And as I traveled the web in the past few weeks, I kept coming across posts that had the same message, of living each day as if it were your last, all reminding us how trivial our everyday issues or complaints are. Simonne's post till death do us part, this may come sooner than expected, reminded how important it is to "never to go to sleep with unspoken things on your mind", Mig wrote about her friend's mother passing away, heard about Ashley Spencer, known on twitter as @ashPEAmama, a young mother who died in a car crash.

And then I came across a beautiful meme that I had not heard about before and it is called The Bucket List 2008 Meme, and on following the blog where this meme originated, I found Jeff of Pulver Blog saying this:

In the movie "The Bucket List", Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman decide to make the most out of what time they think they have left. In the movie they compile a list of things they still wish to accomplish, giving them some much-needed motivation and a desire to still stay young at heart.

In the spirit of the movie, and in the spirit of trying to make 2008 be the year that we all start to do some of the things we would like to accomplish one day, I thought it would be fun to reach out to friends across the blogosphere and ask them to share some of the things on their "Bucket List" they hope to remove during 2008. For some of us, these are not necessarily our "New Year's Resolutions", but rather things we have been meaning to do for some time that we WILL get done in 2008

And that was it.

The meme and the concept is a good reminder to all of us that talking about death shouldn't be a taboo, its a reality that we all are going to have to face one day. So, instead of denying it and ignoring it, we need to take time to evaluate what our dreams were and where our current life situations and routines are taking us, and then do everything to go after those goals and dreams before it is too late.

So, here is what I would like to do if I knew I had only a few months to live! And of course this could change if I REALLY knew I had a few months to live, who knows! But at my first hearing the news, I would

• start writing thank you letters to all the people who have influenced me in a positive way
• write letters to those who have hurt me (I'd email these on one last day though)
• quit my job and go for sky diving lessons
• paint, sing, smile and laugh more often
• visit Greece, England, Norway, India
• go hot air ballooning over some of the best cities
• put a letter in a bottle and throw it in the Ocean
• go for a safari in Africa

Of course I couldn't list some of the more personal wishes but these are all things that are achievable and I hope to work towards attaining them.

How about you?

The Bucket List – Live, Love, Laugh is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

WOW! Here is a real cool article I want to share with you tonite. I first thought it cannot be true but reading the following lines in the article amazed me!

Click on the link to read the article: ‘Kryptonite’ discovered in mine

Kryptonite is no longer just the stuff of fiction feared by caped superheroes.

A new mineral matching its unique chemistry – as described in the film Superman Returns – has been identified in a mine in Serbia.

“Finding out that the chemical composition of a material was an exact match to an invented formula for the fictitious kryptonite “was the coincidence of a lifetime,” he added.

Reality is NOT Stranger than Fiction Anymore is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

I haven't had the right state of mind to do my most popular or my favorite posts of 2007  from my blog and from other blogs,  although I am sure I have them linked in various bookmarking sites but I do want to thank all of my readers for sticking up with me and supporting this blog by subscribing to the RSS , commenting and emailing me this week with their supportive messages.  

I also want to apologize to all of the friends who have been asking for digg /stumble or Mixx their articles or whose emails I couldn't respond to,  I promise to do better in the coming weeks and months. 

In keeping up with my goals for 2008,  I am looking for ideas to add some quality content to this blog, so if you have suggestions, please let me know.   One of the things I did a couple of times in the past and a lot of the bloggers do is the Interesting weekly links,  which I will be starting again.   So, please check often to find some great reads that I'll be sharing from around the web.

There will be a Mega Group Writing Project in the month of January on Social Media Sites, hosted by multiple bloggers, lead by Vivien of InspirationBit.   Check out InspirationBit for bloggers hosting your favorite social media site group writing project and be sure to get your entries in. 

And if there is still something left that hasn't been grabbed and you would like to participate in hosting,  there might still be time to get in,  just ask Vivien.  I will be hosting the project on Mixx, Netscape (which is now Propeller) as well as Squidoo,  so get thinking about writing your articles on these sites.  I will write what you need to do in another post soon. 

So, here is wishing you all a very Happy, Healthy, Successful and Prosperous New Year. 

Wishing You a Happy 2008 is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

Can you guess whats missing in the blank space between Alexa and dealdotcom widgets in my right side bar?

Well, there used to be a widget called Blogrush! Today I got an email from them telling me that my BlogRush Account has been made INACTIVE because this blog did not pass their Quality Review criteria. Huh?? It sure surprised me but also gave me a good chuckle ^_^

The email continues: “We determined that your blog did not meet our strict quality guidelines. Please do not take this personally but realize that we must abide by a very strict set of quality guidelines. (They are listed below.) If you feel you have made the necessary changes to your blog(s) to meet our guidelines, you can resubmit your blog(s) for review after this date: Wednesday, November 21, 2007.

Below is a complete list of our quality guidelines…

BlogRush Quality Guidelines:

- The blog contains unique, quality content that provides opinions, insights, and/or recommended resources that provide value to readers of the blog. Articles, videos, public domain works, press releases, and content written by others are okay to be used on the blog, but the ratio of unique content should far outweigh content from other sources.

- The blog should be updated on a regular basis (at least several times a month) and should not just go a few months between posts.

- The blog should already contain at least 10-12 quality posts. New blogs with very little content will not be accepted.

- The blog’s primary contain must be in English. BlogRush is currently not available for non-English blogs.

- The blog should not contain an excessive amount of advertising and links and very little actual content. The focus of the blog should be quality content.

- The primary content of the blog should not be “scraped” content from other sources and/or script-generated pages for the sole purpose of search engine rank manipulation. The focus of the blog should be quality content.

- The blog’s content (or advertising) should not contain any of the following types of content: hate, anti-racial, terrorism, drug-related, hacking, phishing, fraud, pornographic, nudity, warez, gambling, copyright infringement, obscene or disgusting material of any kind, or anything considered illegal.

Best Regards,
The BlogRush Team”

Wow!! this blog I thought was in English, gets updated way more than 10 times a month, its not scraped content (as a matter of fact I am completely at a loss myself how to stop those blogs from scrapping content), and there is nothing about terrorism or hate etc in here! So I wonder how they decided to make my account inactive!

Could it be because I never blogged about them to promote them? I signed up and added their widget and didn’t have the time to first write that I had come across this system, then that I had included the widget, and then a week later how the widget was doing or how bad the colors were, how most of the links appearing on it didn’t even have the widget installed etc! Everyone else was doing that and I didn’t feel the need. Same was the case with DealDotCom widget which was talked about by everyone but I just didn’t have the time!

Anyways, goodbye blogrush! I am also glad to let you go since now I can add some shopping ads in that place ;)

Did any of you get dropped by blogrush? And more importantly, what are you going to use that empty space for?

How would you use the empty space with blogrush gone? is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

Today’s video is good 20 minutes long but its really worth every second.

Sergey Brin and Larry Page co-founded Google in 1998, and redefined the way people use the web. Now two of the world’s richest people, they still play an active role in the company, encouraging fresh approaches to Google’s unique culture and its expanding suite of services.

In this video they offer a peek inside the Google machine, sharing tidbits about international search patterns and the philanthropic Google Foundation project (which soon became Google.org). They talk about how their shared Montessori background led to the company’s “20 Percent Time” policy, which is directly responsible for success stories such as Google News and AdSense. Google’s dedication to innovative thinking and employee happiness is behind everything from the offices’ specially soundproofed projectors (which make it much easier to follow what’s being said in meetings) to the company’s thematically rotating logo.

via TED talks

Inside the Google Machine – from the founders is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

I was just reading Chris Garrette's blog and saw he used this tool to find how addicted he is to blogging, and of course my addiction has gone beyond his, only time will tell whats gonna happen to me or my blog!!

78%

How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

Mingle² – Dating Site

How addicted are you to blogging?

How addicted to blogging are you? is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

Do you have that lightheartedness to your personality or take everything very seriously? I have a lot of friends who say that they are set in their ways, take just about everything very seriously! Why do we have to be set in our ways? What ways?

I spent the weekend at the beach and noticed that some people were there physically but not in mind. At least so it seemed! And that was really sad. A woman and a man along with their three small children were parked right next to us and the couple could not relax even for a few minutes. Kids wanted to play close to the water but the couple were busy talking as if about some serious stuff and would not allow the kids to go have fun! So the children kept whining! What I couldn’t fathom was the fact that the weather was beautiful, the sound of the waves and seagulls made the ambiance so beautiful, one could easily get lost in it for hours, but these two could not put the discussion to rest for sometime and just enjoy the moment.

So I wondered! What is it that happens to human beings as they get older? Why do we lose that childishness? and When do we lose it? That playfulness, spontaneity, unstoppable giggles that we used to have when we were younger? Why do we lose that enthusiasm as we age?

I am sure there are a million answers to all of these questions I have. I only know one simple answer to all of these. And that is, that we need to do anything and everything to keep that child alive in ourselves. Children’s minds are continuously learning and growing because children do not have egos. Kids are curious about everything around them. They are adaptable and they laugh easily and genuinely. We need to shed our egos (at least sometimes) that get offended so easily and allow ourselves to be like little children who are completely unaware of time and place.

Immersing ourselves in playful laughter and not taking everything so seriously that we lose part of our spirit and become dull and lifeless, is the only way to live a happy and fulfilled life! After all, life is short and cannot be taken for granted, can it?

Technorati Tags: fun, life

Are you the serious type or playful? is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

I found a website Free Webmaster Tools
where you can check possible google page rank for your site… I am not sure how accurate these tools are but for the time being its brought quite a joy to me…

click on the picture to see iwebtool predicts my site might get a PR of 5 ?? thats a shocking but pleasant surprise because I don’t think I even know how the page rank works yet! And if what they say comes true, that would really be something to celebrate!

Here you can also check to see what they predict your Google Page Rank ‘might be’ …. Just type in your site url and hit Check button.

Powered by iWEBTOOL

Google Page Rank Predictor – Free Webmaster Tools is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

I won this Art Work at Laketrees Contest today!  Kim is the award winning portrait artist living in Australia! 

Kim over at Laketrees held a small contest that ran for four days and this is what she announced

I am giving away a framed print of one of these artworks to the reader who can guess the subject of my latest drawing……
I will be posting the drawing in 4 sections next week and the first reader who can put the sections together and guess what the subject of the work is will receive a free framed print…(postage included to anywhere in the world)

I had completely forgotten about the contest and not seeing Kim over here for a few days,  went to her blog to see what she was up to and noticed today was the last day of contest!  and I quickly started putting pieces of the puzzle together…:) 

I cannot wait to see the painting!  

… The drawing is mixed media on Arches paper approximately 1 meter square…without frame….

Thank you Kim.. this was a lot of fun!

Kim is planning to hold many more competitions in the near future so do not forget to check out her blog….. 

Creative Contests Are Much More Fun is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

I know I've got to finish my About page but I've been thinking of this post for sometime and haven't had the time to write it and I really want to bring your attention to a brilliantly funny site that I was introduced to by Chee Kui of Dirty Little Secrets the other day! Take a look at this beautiful image

This blog is a mix of funny and informative stuff and it does exactly what it says – rocks your world with really mad tips and tricks while keeping you entertained for hours. Michelle, the author of the blog has a unique writing style. I would recommend you definitely read her post The Three Little Blogs, a Cautionary Tale that reflects how talented she is! I guarantee you will have a good laugh and end up loving the article and her site! I also want to mention that Michelle is running a contest called Cow Patty Bingo [that ends tonight @ midnight ;)] and after midnight tonight, she plans to have a strip poker party. :-) The randomly drawn winner will be given $50, and will enjoy a permanent spot of recognition on her Contest page. Isn't that a great deal? Now that I have had that off my chest, I am ready to follow Darren's 31 days to Building a Better Blog Challenge! Darren being in Australia, has already posted his second day's blogging tip and I haven't even done the first one…:) I hope to follow along with the month long project with problogger. I am sure it will be difficult but lets all try and make our blogs better. So tonight after making this post, I will be going through this blog's emails and see if I can personally thank some of my readers. I think I always contact people who come to the site here, if I know their emails, but if there is someone who hasn't heard from me, rest assured I will be contacting you. So, two things, go to Bloggrrl's website, read that marvelous article, and then head over to Problogger and get some more blog juice!

UPDATE:

Michelle reports that for this contest she received 109 entries …. So, out of those, my post entry got picked as one of the five runners up!! That ain't bad now is it? Considering I entered the contest at the last minute? ;)

Tags: contest, group writing project

Bloggrrl Plays Strip Poker at Midnight Tonight is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

WOW…

Allow me to share with you guys a bit of fun I had this morning… I visited Adnan’s site via my feed, blogtrepreneur and found he has a post up wishing Ray from FreshBlogger a warm Happy Birthday! and had a small contest going on where he asked people to guess Ray’s age. And the first person guessing Ray’s age was going to win a text link (FREE) in blogtrepreneur’s side bar for a MONTH… YES… and voila… How difficult it can be?

I went on Ray’s About page and there, he has his age listed … and off I go to shoot a comment on Adnan’s site… only to come back after lunch to see that I have WON…

The hilarious thing is that even when in my comment I wrote where I saw Ray’s age, the person who commented just below mine has a different number … and the one below him has another number ….DUH… lol I mean how can you not read a little into what the conversation is and what someone else said before you? Do you read what other people are talking about in the same conversation? Or you just write whatever comes to your mind?

This is a very good news for me because Blogtrpreneur is a PR5 Blog and this might be the last week before Google updates their Page Ranks and I do need that link … Thank you so much Adnan!

Anyways, many many happy returns of the day Ray!!

Why don’t you go over to the freshblogger and wish Ray a happy birthday too!!

A Very Happy Birthday Ray!! is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

Debunking third-world myths with the best stats – Hans Rosling

Effective and Powerful Presentations is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

Look closely at the ad from Auction Ads that appeared here just now

It is about the google adsense websites and something about the PR5 and PR6… I cannot make out what it is all about

and the interesting thing was that it was right above the adsense ads

What I couldn’t comprehend was her attire!! What does that have to do with google adsense software? or even the Page Rank?

I need a real fresh perspective on this one! Anyone?

A Real Interesting Observation I think! is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

I am almost blushing with embarrassment revealing that I was one of the chosen few to get the Master Schmoozer award from not one, but two bloggers this week! Gosh, I never thought of myself as being a schmoozer though…

I have mentioned on my blog before about the esteemed artist at Laketrees – Kim… She is an award winning portrait artist! You can see her work on her blog.. Laketrees. And an award coming from her?

Kim says she awards the schmoozer award to Pearl because:

Pearl at Interesting Observations is the sweetest…most unnaffected …..’princess’…….(who btw …happens to think that Prince William is a better catch than Leonardo Di Caprio)………Pearl writes interesting …thoughtful articles with a fresh…and open point of view…..and always responds to her readers in the same manner…..

The other blogger who thinks I am worthy of this award is Markeff – yes, you got it, our French Connection ;) .. he can be found blogging at the speed of light here . Mark calls me one of his A-List of much-esteemed bloggers/pen-pals ..

And Saboma from Maryannville – the kindest lady on earth confirms “Congratulations Pearl! You are every bit worth two awards and then some, Dahlink! Take your bow, Girlfriend”

What can I say really? Now those are some really kind and interesting words for yours truly! I am truly humbled and I thank you all for your generosity. And like any good girl, I take a bow =).

Honestly, I participate in the blogosphere not just for schmoozing though, I feel I am learning a great deal from all of your experience, and I enjoy if I can share something with you all. I feel we all need each other in one way or another. So if someone is helping me in some way, my efforts will be to be able to return the favor in some way shape or form.

I read a lot of blogs daily and feel there are a lot of newbies who start writing posts that do not give you a feel as if they are ‘talking’ to you. Why are we all blogging btw? I sit in front of the computer ‘box’, not because I like staring at the screen. I really love to talk to people, and I want to hear from them. I actually feel I am making a connection with you when I am writing on my blog. I hope I can reach out to more and more interesting people and make life long friends.

Taking a Bow is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

Okay I’ve got a great news and I couldn’t ignore it!

David Culpepper over at PureBlogging is holding two contests for $200 total.

1) In the first contest, he is giving away $100 CASH to whoever posts 1000th comment on his blog

I just found out about the contest from 2brothers blogging According to pureblogging site, two days ago on June 20th, they were around 800th comment already!! So if you want to test your luck, hurry up now and participate!

2) In the second part of the contest, David is giving away another $100 CASH to anyone who writes the post about the contest :) how difficult could that be?

It is 2 am at this time in my part of the world but hey, its worth $200…

You can read the contest rules here!

Good Luck…

Free Money at PureBlogging is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

Today I want to share a little something very interesting I found on the web. Below is a picture of a new site called Sk*rt

Yes, Sk*rt. Look up Sk*rt on the net and you’ll find there is already quite a buzz about it!

Sk*rt is a new Digg for women! But of course, men can go there too if they want to get into women’s heads(according to the site). But you’ll mostly find stuff that interests women. Fashion and Parenting are showing as the biggest tags in their tag cloud, as you can see below. I’m sure parenting, entertainment, food and other issues will be of interest to a lot of the men too. I don’t particularly care for segregation of women and women, but I have to confess that Digg can become a bit intimidating for some of us.

This new site became pretty popular in just a few seconds of launch which was I believe a few days ago and they made the first page of Digg, according to their blog!

Now the Good stuff:

They are offering $500 worth of prize loot for simply posting this botton with a link back!

The Prize packages are sponsored by some hip companies owned and run bu women too, according to the site blog!

And you could win:

•Two four-color silkscreen prints from Jaime Zollars Studio. Limited-edition prints. Signed and dated.

• A vintage print “cupcake” apron and “green blossom” tablecloth from Funktion Home.

• A 10th anniversary edition of The New Intercourses, an aphrodisiac cookbook. In hardcover, of course.

• A honeycomb truckette bag and a retrolite darlydove pendant on a sterling-plated chain from Darlybird.

• A large rectangle serving platter and 6 interchangeable minis from Nora Fleming.

• A custom birth necklace from Little Jules — the perfect baby gift for you or a friend.

And the winner will be picked at random and announced on July 16th, 2007.

All you have to do is link back to their site and display one of their badges!!

sk*rt – a new Digg for Women is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

I normally don’t really post about the news and rumors but couldn’t ignore this one :) this is something not every one is going to come across so thought I might as well share it with my readers! So here is something I found this morning!

Is this possible?

“We found four footprints of Bigfoot. In one, the footprint of the adult male measures 29 inches and the female size is 26 inches. Even the young one’s foot size is 8.5 inches,” said Krishnaswamy on Monday. Going by the size of the footmarks, the anthropologists say Indian Bigfoot would have been far bigger than his Australian and Malaysian counterparts, estimated to be about 8 feet tall and weighing a hefty 350 kg.

“The Bigfoot found in these parts would be diametrically opposite to his counterparts in size, weight and eating habits. Stone tools that lie strewn around testify he used to prey on wild animals”, said Krishnaswamy. He added that while the male’s impressions were found near the lofty spot from where he probably planned his hunting expeditions, the female and child impressions were found near the mouth of the shelter.

Eminent anthropologist L K Balaratnam said in Coimbatore that the site is virgin and could throw up unknown facts. Balaratnam, who along with his father co-authored India’s first book on anthropology, ‘Anthropology in India’, said the finding should be “interesting.” He added that reports of Bigfoot sightings or impressions have not been reported from anywhere else in the country. However, it’s still too early to say for sure that there was indeed an Indian Bigfoot. Carbon dating and detailed scientific analyses will have to be carried out before it can be truly accepted that Bigfoot indeed once roamed parts of Kerala. Till then, we’ll just have to be content with mythological references to giants who straddled the earth and vaulted across oceans.

Link: Times of India News Article

Giant footprints prove Bigfoot’s existence is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

If you are on the Internet trying to figure out ways to make money online, you’ve got to meet the girl in pretty pink – Kumiko.

See here? :) She is rolling in money

Bloggers use many ways to attract traffic to their sites, but Kumiko always comes up with enjoyable and fun ways to bring people to her site.. Her site’s color schemes and her Avatars stand out amongst thousands on MyBlogLog . I have seen her run some contests before and every time her techniques is unique – this time she is inviting visitors by holding a Cash Quest Competition , in which she is giving out $100 Plus many other valuable prizes! Cool way to win some money and get a review from an experienced and talented (and of course beautiful) blogger!

Go to her site before she closes the competition!!

Make Money Online with Kumiko’s Cash Quest is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

leon Ho the techie guy over at Lifehack lists a number of nice things you can do with Google.

I guess even he didn’t think of doing this. Type in New York, NY to Paris, France in Google Maps and Look at the directions in the picture and Note #24 carefully

Click on the picture to enlarge..

:)

Google Guys Rock is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

Being in the swing of reading Top 5s for the last two days, and going through 100s of entries, I had a lot of coffee and consumed too many bars of chocolate only to then feel guilty! That's when I thought of crushing my guilt (like all intelligent people do ;)) and searched if I had benefited from this activity and found this:

Top 5 reasons why dark chocolate is healthier:

One study found that eating 3.5 ounces of chocolate daily lowers of blood pressure considerably;

It contains 95% of the flavoniods (a type of anti-oxidants) that are essential in lowering your risks of developing cancer

Dark chocolate is also excellent for our teeth in that the substance found in the cocoa destroys the bacteria in the mouth.

Italian researchers have found that women who eat chocolate regularly have higher levels of sexual desires than the ones who don’t; this is because the dark chocolate contains phenylthylamine which is known to act as an aphrodisiac

Last but not the least, some studies have shown that the flavoniods found in the dark chocolate improves the blood flow through our arteries and blood vessels and keeps the inflammation down

So if you cannot decide what to give your mom for Mother's Day, a dark chocolate cake will definitely be delicious as well as good for her health.

Dark Chocolate for Mother’s Day is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

BusinessWeek
has an interesting story about google planning to provide free wireless service to public in Washington DC!

Google goes wireless is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.

Marianne Kolbasuk McGee over at Information Week has posted an article on her blog “The IT Pay-Check Battle of The Sexes” highlighting that women in IT are still managing to make a bit more than women in many other fields – although they still continue to make LESS than their counterparts – men. It is interesting that the struggle to rise higher in salaries is getting better for women in this male dominated society, but nonetheless, it stays a battle, a struggle.

IT pays women a bit more than other professions! is a post from: Interesting Observations - On blogging, social media and self improvement! the original blog written by Pearl.

©2010 Interesting Observations. All Rights Reserved.