Search This Blog

Monday, November 30, 2009

Towards Archiving and Managing Community Formation in Web 2.0

As 20 vacancies are available for LAS member, I just take an afternoon off to attend the talk by Dr Paul Wu Horng-Jyh, Senior Fellow (Wee Kim Wee School of Comm & Info), NTU


Topic : Towards Archiving and Managing Community Formation in Web 2.0 environment

Speaker : Dr Paul Wu Horng-Jyh

Date : Monday, 30 November 2009

Time : 3.30pm - 5.30pm

Venue : Toa Payoh Public Library / Agatha Room (level 3)

6 Toa Payoh Central

Singapore 319191


LAS Professional Development Scheme (PDS):

Participant can earn 46 points under Industry Knowledge Development – Participate in library related talks, forums, discussion sessions and business meetings organized by LAS or other libraries (category ID1)


Outline of Talk

In this talk, Dr Paul Wu Horng-Jyh, Senior Fellow (Wee Kim Wee School of Comm & Info), NTU present a case study on the formation of learning community.

He first explained the functioning of the learning community as an activity system constituted by spirals of offline as well as online SECI (socializing, Externalizing, Combining and Internalizing) knowledge creation activities. The online activities are supported by a cascade of Web 2.0 tools consisting of blog, forum and wiki to reflect distinct SECI cycles.
About the Speaker

Dr. Paul Wu Horng-Jyh is a Senior Fellow with the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information at Nanyang Technological University (NTU).

Presently, he researches and directs the academic areas of Digital Preservation and Archival Informatics, particularly in the e-Learning and e-Social Science domains.

Before joining NTU in 2004, he had been involved in technology start-ups for almost a decade and was a co-founder and CEO of Mustard Technology, which specializes in multilingual search and data quality technologies for businesses and government agencies in the region and beyond.

After obtaining PhD in Artificial Intelligence from University of Michigan, he served as a Senior R&D Member of Kent Ridge Digital Labs in the 90’s, during which he invented two US Patents on search and language processing technologies.

He has two decades of experiences in theoretical and practical consultancy in information science and technology. The most recent project he consulted was the Web Archives of Singapore (WAS) project – a collaborative effort between National Library Board (NLB) and NTU, which created the first Web Archives in this region.

Currently, he is conducting a general study on Website Preservation and a case study on preserving e-Learning records, under the InterPARES 3 framework.

Source of information: email dated 25 Nov 2009 from lassec@las.org.sg

Saturday, November 28, 2009

How to Write a Memoir

Just attended the talk: "How to Write a Memoir"

Saturday, 28 November, 2.00 - 4.00pm (Registration starts at 1.50pm)

Visitor's Briefing Room, Level 1, National Library Building

The session is conducted by Mr Wong Chai Kee. The talk walks through the four-year writing journey of a first-time author – of how the difficulty in getting out the first 1,000 words and other experience related to writing.

A Melbourne University-trained psychologist, Wong Chai Kee has run his own management consultancy firm, with a 190-strong client list of multinational, government-linked and mainboard-listed companies, for twenty-two years. He loves writing, and has written numerous articles on psychology and on Christianity. A voracious reader, especially of memoirs and history, he has an insatiable urge to buy books, despite reading at least a page of every book bought.

Here is the title of the book by the speaker available from National Library Online Catalogue:

Title
Even when she forgot my name : love, life and my mother's Alzheimer's / Wong Chai Kee.

Author
Wong, Chai Kee, 1952-

Publisher
Singapore : Epigram, c2009.

Physical Description
182 p. : ports. ; 22 cm.

Notes
Some pages contain repetition of words, words crossed out, words jarred together or no words at all, to represent the state of an Alzheimer's mind.

Friday, November 27, 2009

Graphic Organizers

When I teach mind mapping using the Software "Inspirations", Graphic Organizers http://www.graphic.org/goindex.html is a site that I use to explain and expand the concept of mind map.

The Graphic organizer, a mind mapping software similar to "Inspirations" illustrates concept mapping, and mind mapping with good examples.

Some resources you might find useful for teaching mind mapping and concept mapping can be found on the "References and Links" page at"

http://www.graphic.org/links.html

You can use the rich resources to help motivate the students to organize their thoughts. After they understand the use of mind map, they can apply and it to increase recall and assist understanding.

Teaching mind mapping this way can create interest and combat boredom!

Thursday, November 26, 2009

NLB Professional Talks: Driver or Passenger - Responding to Changes

Here is some backgroup of the Professional Talk series and brief information on the talk:

Source of information: 28 Sept 2009 email from Petrina_ANG@nlb.gov.sg
===============

NLB's Professional and International Relations (PIR) is expanding their Professional Talks to include prominent local library and information professionals in addition to the current overseas speakers.

The speakers will share with us best practices and their respective areas of expertise and specialisation.

We seek to engage the various libraries across Singapore through these sharing sessions which will serve as excellent platforms for networking and bonding within the local library community.

In addition, NLB staff and LAS members will benefit from the sharing and imparting of knowledge during the talks.

PROFESSIONAL TALKS

Topic : Driver or Passenger - Responding to Changes - NTU Library

Speaker : Mr Choy Fatt Cheong, University Librarian, Nanyang Technological University Library

Date : 22 October 2009 (Thursday)

Time : 4.00pm - 5.30pm

Venue : Imagination Room, Level 5, National Library Building


LAS Professional Development Scheme (PDS) Points:

46 (Applicable only to librarians who are participants of PDS)


Summary of the talk by the speaker:

"Libraries today exist in an environment that is bubbling with rapid and often disruptive changes in the technological, social and cultural dimensions.

These changes have and will continue to alter the nature of many of the core functions of libraries and perhaps create new roles for librarians.

The biggest challenge for libraries is to find ways to respond to these disruptive changes, which by definition cannot be predicted or anticipated.

I believe the key lies in how we prepare our staff and how we organize our libraries to meet these challenges successfully as and when they come.

These thoughts were very much on our mind when NTU Library reorganized itself four years ago. This talk reflects on some of the major initiatives we undertook and discuss some problems and issues we encountered in our attempt to respond successfully to the challenging environment. "


About the speaker:

Choy Fatt Cheong is University Librarian at Nanyang Technological University.

He started his career in librarianship at NUS Library in 1984. Since then he has worked in MINDEF to set up the SAFTI Military Institute Library, at Temasek Polytechnic to set up two diploma courses as Course Manager and Principal Lecturer and finally ran his own consultancy company for four years before joining NTU in 2004.

He had served as the President of the Library Association of Singapore (LAS) from 1997 to 2005 and also as Board member of the National Library Board for six years until 2003. He contributes actively to the profession and recently helped to initiate the LAS Professional Development Scheme as Chairman of the Working Committee.

Currently, he is also a Board member of the International Association of Scientific & Technological University Libraries (IATUL).

Source of information: 28 Sept 2009 email from Petrina_ANG@nlb.gov.sg

IFLA Journal

For your reading pleasure, if you are a librarian or like the subject...


IFLA Journal Volume 35, No. 3 (September 2009) available at: http://www.ifla.org/files/hq/publications/ifla-journal/ifla-journal-35-3_2009.pdf

Contents:

Editorial: Reading, Information Literacy and Professional Development Stephen Parker 211

Letters to the Editor: Nunavut and the Inuit Peoples Stephen Salaff 213

The President’s Page
Claudia Lux, President of IFLA, 2007–2009 214

Reading Sources and Reading Spaces in Honduras Denice Adkins 215

Information Literacy and Scholarly Investigation: a British perspective Andrew K. Shenton 226

Our Space: professional development for new graduates and professionals in Australia Fiona Bradley, Alyson Dalby and Andrew Spencer 232

Open Access Repositories in Computer Science and Information Technology: an evaluation Mohammad Hanief Bhat 243

The Library Services to People with Special Needs Section of IFLA: an historical overview Nancy Panella 258

REPORTS
Indian Library Association International Conference 2008: a report N. K. Swain and Satish Kumar 272

NEWS (with separate Table of Contents) 274

INTERNATIONAL CALENDAR 283

SOMMAIRES 285--ZUSAMMENFASSUNGEN 286--RESÚMENES 288--Pефераты статей 289

Notes for Contributors 291

----

Each issue covers news of current IFLA activities and articles, selected to reflect the variety of the international information profession, ranging from freedom of information, preservation, services to the visually impaired and intellectual property.

Sign up for Email Alerts from Sage! (http://ifl.sagepub.com/cgi/alerts)

• Editor: J. Stephen Parker (zest@bart.nl) • Frequency: Quarterly • ISSN: 0340-0352 • eISSN: 1745-2651 • List of previous issues (http://www.ifla.org/en/publications/ifla-journal)

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Supporting Faculty Knowledge Production

This morning I went up to NTU and attended the following talk:

Supporting Faculty Knowledge Production:
Challenges and opportunities for information professionals in a digitally connected world

Speaker: Mary Lee Kennedy
Executive Director, Knowledge and Library Services,
Harvard Business School

Date: Wednesday 25 November 2009

Time: 10.30am – 11.30am

Venue: Lecture Theatre 5, Nanyang Technological University


About the speaker:

Mary Lee Kennedy is responsible for Harvard Business School’s knowledge and information management strategy and its implementation.

Prior to Harvard, Mary Lee held knowledge management positions with global responsibility for Microsoft Corporation and Digital Equipment Corporation.

In this talk, Mary Lee Kennedy shares about:

1.Primary shifts in digital scholarship and the related changes in the nature of the information profession

2.Challenges in a time of transition

3.Opportunities to create significant value for constituents

4.The work at Harvard Business School

5.New opportunities for Global Knowledge Exchange via GKEN


Source of information: 11 Nov 2009 email from lassec@las.org.sg

As I like to know more about the speaker, I run a search on youtube and found the following clip:

Interview with Mary Lee Kennedy on Information Types



I also found the following article "The knowledge: Mary Lee Kennedy" posted on 18 Jan 2006 in Volume 9 Issue 5, Inside Knowledge.

http://www.ikmagazine.com/xq/asp/txtSearch.competitive+intelligence/exactphrase.1/sid.0/articleid.737ADABC-1138-455B-8F1C-FDD3943C699C/qx/display.htm

Here is what I like to quote:

"Today we realise we can’t document everything. By understanding the nature of human discussion, conversation, collaboration and communities, we can create environments for knowledge sharing that may not be accessible to large numbers of people.”

"We can now do things we hadn’t even dreamed about. It has changed what we do and has made things more complicated as we accommodate how different people choose to use and share information.”

Some interesting facts and background of her are listed at the end of the article:

======================
Name: Mary Lee Kennedy

Place of birth: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Education: B.A. Social Psychology, MLS

Employment history: Universidad Autonoma de Yucatan, Mexico; Sherritt Inc., Canada; Digital Equipment Corporation, USA; Microsoft Corporation, USA; The Kennedy Group, Harvard Business School, USA

Personal strengths: Determination, a sense of humour, critical thinking

Must improve: patience

Biggest inspiration: People who think and do things a lot bigger than themselves

What I do to relax: Talk to my kids

Favourite film: Shakespeare in Love or The Mission

Must read: Anything by Shakespeare or, for professional reading, "When Sparks Fly" by Dorothy Leonard

======================

I enjoyed her sharing at NTU and I think her success in her information work is not because she can uses IT well, but have her main focus on users.

"My career has focused on understanding how different people use and share information, expertise and ideas, and what motivates them to do so to create a free-flowing exchange of knowledge.”

I think it is this core focus that make her do her work differently and win the heart of the people around her!

The Paradox of our Age!

The paradox of our time in history is that...

We have taller buildings, but shorter tempers.

Wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints.

We spend more, but have less. We buy more, but enjoy it less.

We have bigger houses and smaller families.

More conveniences, but less time.

We have more degrees, but less sense.

More knowledge, but less judgment.

More experts, but more problems.

More medicine, but less wellness.

We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly,

laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry too quickly,

stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little,

watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values.

We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.

We've learned how to make a living, but not a life;

We've added years to life, not life to years.

We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbor.

We've conquered outer space, but not inner space;

We've done larger things, but not better things.

We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul.

We've split the atom, but not our prejudice.

We write more, but learn less;

We plan more, but accomplish less;

We've learned to rush, but not to wait;

We have higher incomes, but lower morals;

We have more food, but less appeasement;

We build more computers to hold more information to produce more copies than ever, but have less communication.

We've become long on quantity, but short on quality.

These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion;

tall men, and short character;

steep profits, and shallow relationships.

These are the times of world peace, but domestic warfare;

more leisure,but less fun;

more kinds of food, but less nutrition.

These are days of two incomes, but more divorce;

of fancier houses, but broken homes.

These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throw away morality, one-night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill.

It is a time when there is much in the show window and nothing in the stockroom; a time when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to make a difference, or to just hit delete...

Dr. Bob Moorehead

The essay appeared under the title "The Paradox of Our Age" in Words Aptly Spoken, Dr. Moorehead's 1995 collection of prayers, homilies, and monologues used in his sermons and radio broadcasts.

Read the Urban legend about the essay

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Stinking thinking

Just found some good reading on "Stinking thinking" and here it is:

Our own reality is created by our thinking.

"Stinking thinking" generate thoughts that cause us pain. The more we pay attention to our own stinking thinking, the more we increase our inner pain.

=========================
How to Get Rid of Stinking Thinking
By Jeff Herring
http://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Get-Rid-of-Stinking-Thinking&id=60091

"Have you ever tried to drive your car looking only through the rear-view mirror? It's a silly notion, but it's how we live our lives when we get caught up" in Stinking thinking!

"When you catch yourself using this particular brand of self-defeating thinking, stop and ask yourself some better questions, such as: "What can I learn from this situation?" "What mistakes did I make that I never want to make again?" "How can I use what I've experienced and learned to live better the next time I face a similar situation?

... Then you are able to live in such a way as to create few, if any, future regrets."

To read the article, visit:

http://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Get-Rid-of-Stinking-Thinking&id=60091


=============================
The Top 10 Types of “Stinkin’g Thinking”
by David Burns, M.D.
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/showthread.php?t=1787


"As you learn to better identify them, you can then learn how to start answering them back with rational arguments.

In this manner, you can work to turn your internal conversation back to being a positive in your life, instead of a running negative commentary.

1. All-or-nothing thinking - You see things in black-or-white categories...

2. Overgeneralization - You see a single negative event, such as a romantic rejection or a career reversal, as a never-ending pattern of defeat by using words such as “always” or “never” when you think about it...

3. Mental Filter - You pick out a single negative detail and dwell on it exclusively, so that your vision of reality becomes darkened, like the drop of ink that discolors a beaker of water...

4. Discounting the positive - You reject positive experiences by insisting that they “don’t count.” If you do a good job, you may tell yourself that it wasn’t good enough or that anyone could have done as well...

5. Jumping to conclusions - You interpret things negatively when there are no facts to support your conclusion...

6. Magnification - You exaggerate the importance of your problems and shortcomings, or you minimize the importance of your desirable qualities...

7. Emotional Reasoning - You assume that your negative emotions necessarily reflect the way things really are: “I feel terrified about going on airplanes. It must be very dangerous to fly.” ...

8. “Should” statements -You tell yourself that things should be the way you hoped or expected them to be...

9. Labeling - Labeling is an extreme form of all-or-nothing thinking. Instead of saying “I made a mistake,” you attach a negative label to yourself: “I’m a loser.”...

10. Personalization and Blame - Personalization comes when you hold yourself personally responsible for an event that isn’t entirely under your control...

To read the article, visit:
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/showthread.php?t=1787

Friday, November 13, 2009

Beauty in everything

Everything has its beauty but not everyone sees it.


--Confucius

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Freedom

Neither my life of luxury in the palace nor my life as an ascetic in the forest is the way to freedom.

-- Buddha

What is Freedom?

Here is the definition from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom

"Freedom may refer to:

Freedom (philosophy), the idea of being free.

Freedom (political), the absence of interference with the sovereignty of an individual

Four freedoms, Roosevelt's freedoms of (1) speech and (2) belief, along with the freedom from (3) fear and (4) want.

Liberty, the condition in which an individual has the ability to act according to his or her own will

Economic freedom, a term in economic research and policy debates

Free content, freedom of an artist's work to be redistributed, modified, and studied by others

Freedom of the City, an award made by municipalities

Systolic freedom, a concept in mathematics

Individual freedom, the moral stance, political philosophy, or social outlook that stresses
independence and self-reliance

Statue of Freedom, on top of the U.S. Capitol dome in Washington, D.C. "


It is interesting to note that "Freedom" is also a first name and the names of many places in the world etc...

To learn more on "Freedom" being used as name of many things and objects, just read the entry at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom


What attracted me is the first definition "Freedom (philosophy), the idea of being free." at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_(philosophy)

I think the "Inner autonomy" is the one that I find it closed to my heart.

"Freedom can also signify inner autonomy, or mastery over one's inner condition. This has several possible significances:[1]

the ability to act in accordance with the dictates of reason;

the ability to act in accordance with one's own true self or values;

the ability to act in accordance with universal values (such as the True and the Good);

and the ability to act independently of both the dictates of reason and the urges of desires, i.e. a arbitrarily (autonomously)."

Thursday, November 05, 2009

Dealing with the Digital Deluge

Today, I attended the following talk organized by Professional and International Relations (PIR) of NLB.

NLB PROFESSIONAL TALKS (20 vacancies are available for LAS members)

Topic of today's talk:

Dealing with the Digital Deluge: NLNZ's Role in Shaping the Strategy and Delivery for New Zealanders

Speaker: Ms Sue Sutherland,
Deputy Chief Executive, National Library of New Zealand (NLNZ)
Director, National Digital Library, National Library of New Zealand

Time: 3.00pm - 4.30pm

Venue: Possibility Room, Level 5, National Library Building

Ms Sue Sutherland, Deputy Chief Executive of National Library of New Zealand (NLNZ), is also the Director at the National Digital Library, NLNZ.

With immense experience in the library and information profession, Ms Sutherland outlined in her talk the digital content framework NLNZ is working on and describe some of the initiatives that are addressing the challenges we all face in living and working in the digital age.

Here is the website cited in her presentation:

DigitalNZ
http://www.digitalnz.org/

================

DigitalNZ is an initiative that aims to make New Zealand digital content easy to find, share and use. This includes content from government departments, publicly funded organisations, the private sector, and community groups.

DigitalNZ is a collaborative initiative led by the National Library of New Zealand and work with a wide range of contributing institutions and organisations. The tasks of DigitalNZ is to test and develop approaches that increase the amount of New Zealand content flowing through the Digital Content Life Cycle.

It sees the need to create and digitise more New Zealand content to stay digitally connected to national stories, creations, knowledge and culture.

DigitalNZ does not have a copy of the items in the collection. Instead, it holds metadata about items in other collections, together with a pointer to the content object.

DigitalNZ therefore behaves much like a search engine, except that the metadata is highly structured.

================

From a librarian's point of view, it is a national union catalogue of digital contents. The union catalogue is just a catalogue which helps users/searchers to locate items available from various sources. It serves as a pointer for searchers. It does not provide the actual ditigal content, yet link the content or content providers with the users.

The first step to build the database and make DigitalNZ conprehensive is to source for contents contributor.

Here are some information extracted from http://www.digitalnz.org/contributor:

================

Participation in DigitalNZ is free, and potentially means:

* your content will be easier for people to find, through the DigitalNZ search engine

* people can build their own mini search engine to find your content - you could make one too!

* new tools and applications created by other developers (using the API) bring more people to your website

* options to share content through other DigitalNZ projects are available to you, such as the remix campaign we ran last year.

================

To learn more about the development of DigitalNZ, visit the blog at:

http://www.digitalnz.org/blog

================

To understand how the interface works, visit:
http://www.digitalnz.org/developer

Here is some information extracted from the page:

================

About the API (Application Programming Interface)

The metadata available through DigitalNZ comes from content providers across the New Zealand cultural and heritage, broadcasting, education, and government sectors; as well as local community sources and individuals. Geospatial and commercial content is coming soon.

Our goal is to uncover hidden or buried New Zealand content such as images, audio, video, interactives, and documents, and make them available for discovery and use.

We only collect metadata for the content, so these APIs will point you to the online items made available by our fantastic content contributors.

We hope you'll use this metadata to do good and wonderful things, create new experiences, and demonstrate the value of sharing data.

================

After listening to the talk, I have a question

What’s an API (Application Programming Interface) ?

I search the blog and found some entries in the search result page that provide more information:

http://www.digitalnz.org/search/contributor?q=API

"In short, it’s a way for software applications to ‘talk to’ each other, and a way for developers to ‘talk to’ applications. We use an API to share data with other applications."

"The Indicommons website summarises it like this:

"Open APIs allow services and collections to become interconnected, the experience of outside developers to be engaged, and new tools and spaces to be fashioned to benefit the community at large."

Over the past couple of weeks we’ve seen two new examples that really demonstrate the joy of a ‘joined up’ web of data. Both Te Papa and Auckland City Libraries have recently launched systems that draw links to content from other organisations into their local search experiences. Take a look below to see the DigitalNZ API in action.

Via the API you can submit a query to our search index and it will return information about the various NZ images, audio, video, magazines, documents, and web pages that we're aggregating. We're working with a wide range of content providers from across the New Zealand cultural and heritage, broadcasting, education, and government sectors; as well as local community sources and individuals."

About the speaker:
=============

Ms Sue Sutherland is highly regarded by the library and information profession both within New Zealand and internationally.

In April 2007 she was awarded a Leadership Development Centre Fellowship that recognised her as one of New Zealand's leading public servants. In her professional life, Sue was President of the Library and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa (LIANZA) in 1991 and in 1997 she was awarded a Fellowship of the Association.

She was also involved for seven years in a group of international librarians sponsored by the Bertelsmann Foundation. In addition, she had led the development of the draft New Zealand Digital Content Strategy and also organised the first New Zealand Public Libraries Summit in 2007.

With her rich experience, the talk is informative and insightful. I think those who attended will find her message valuable!


Interesting point about the talk
======================

This talk is made possible by Ms Ngian Lek Choh, Director, National Library of Singapore who learnt about Ms Sue Sutherland's transit at Changi Airport and invited her to visit NLB. She is having her holiday now and being a librarian, her holiday before home ended with a visit to a National Library overseas and a talk to share her experience in "Dealing with the Digital Deluge".

Even though the talk is a brief one, it is informative and insightful. I think those who attended the talk like me, will find her message valuable!

If you missed the talk, you may view the following ppt I found on SlidesShare which have some info on DigitalNZ

http://www.slideshare.net/nextlibrary/sue-sutherland


Notes:
LAS Professional Development Scheme (PDS) Points: 46
(Applicable only to librarians who are participants of PDS)

Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Learn to make do with less

Lately, I start to look at what I have collected and I think one major message I get from packing and re-locating items is how to make good use of what I have in stock, and how to make do with less.

We tend to worry about having limited resources, and we like to acquire things for our future needs and wants. If we sense that we do not have things others have, we cannot have the comfort that we will be just fine.

A lot of things in our present possession are the needs and wants that we preceived in the past.

When I examine the things in my cupboards and books on my shelves, there may not be my needs now.

Nevertheless, the desire to have them are still there. Hence, to keep them in my "Wants" list, I have to spend money to create new storage and spend time going through them.

To be with them and feel their present, I need to clear them. To enjoy the present view of my collection, I need to give them special attention and decrorate them in some new ways from time to time.

Having the company of the wants is both enjoyable and exhausting. That is life!

So, if possible, learn to make do with less!


Dexterine Ho





e, and more wants are Even if a new edict of economy comes down from above, you can hold your ground and hang on to what belongs to you and your peers.

Be an editor at heart

The role of editor is to weed and select good articles for publication. Rewrite some of the articles and make it flows better. Source for new contacts for the next cycle and keep the publication work continue.

It is very similar when we handle our heart issues.

When we are dealing with our own emotion and thought, be an editor at heart. Communication of all types your received is your source and you need to edit it and select those that suit your life at the present moment.

A lot of issues will become clearer and the most important thing(s)to your heart will stand out if you adopt the approach of an editor.

But, first you need to have an objective in mind. It is good to use that objective to guide you whereable it applied.

When you change your objective, you need to look at issues at hand from another angle and your editorial process will be very different.

Just re-look at how you experience in your daily life in the past and you will understand how editing affect your life even if you are not aware that you did something to it at that point,

When time change and your objective is changed, you will likely to handle the same issue differently.

There is no right or wrong answer. It is how you feel at your heart that count and make you do it that way to suit your choice.

"If you are pained by external things, it is not they that disturb you, but your own judgment of them. And it is in your power to wipe out that judgment now." -- Marcus Aurelius

So just be aware that you have a choice and exercise it!


Dexterine Ho

Be mindful and to be a better person to compose them carefully and express exactly what you mean every time.

《轉載》香港名DJ 梁繼璋給兒子的信

<作者介紹> 梁繼璋(1955年8月17日-),英文名Michael, 前香港電台第二台節目主持人,也是一位名DJ、作家, 曾從事廣告、電視台等媒體創作。因其柔和、磁性的聲線,令他讀文章時更有氣氛、更容易令聽眾投入。


香港名DJ 梁繼璋給兒子的信

我兒: 寫這備忘錄給你,基於三個原則:

(一)人生福禍無常,誰也不知可以活多久, 有些事情還是早一點說好。

(二)我是你的父親,我不跟你說,沒有人會跟你說。

(三)這備忘錄裏記載的,都是我經過慘痛失敗得回來的體驗, 可以為你的成長省回不少冤枉路。

*****************

以下,便是你在人生中要好好記住的事:

(一)對你不好的人,你不要太介懷,在你一生中, 沒有人有義務要對你好,除了我和你媽媽。 至於那些對你好的人,你除了要珍惜、感恩外,也請多防備一點, 因為,每個人做每件事,總有一個原因,他對你好,未必真的是因為喜歡你,請你必須搞清楚, 而不必太快將對方看作真朋友。

(二)沒有人是不可代替,沒有東西是必須擁有。看透了這一點, 將來你身邊的人不再要你,或許失去了世間上最愛的一切時, 也應該明白,這並不是甚麼大不了的事。

(三)生命是短暫的,今日你還在浪費著生命, 明日會發覺生命已遠離你了。因此,愈早珍惜生命, 你享受生命的日子也愈多,與其盼望長壽,倒不如早點享受。

(四)世界上並沒有最愛這回事,愛情只是一種霎時的感覺, 而這感覺絕對會隨時日、心境而改變。如果你的所謂最愛離開你,請耐心地等候一下,讓時日慢慢沖洗,讓心靈慢慢沉澱, 你的苦就會慢慢淡化。不要過分憧憬愛情的美, 不要過分誇大失戀的悲。

(五)雖然,很多有成就的人士都有受過很多教育, 但並不等如不用功讀書,就一定可以成功。你學到的知識, 就是你擁有的武器。人,可以白手興家,但不可以手無寸鐵,緊記!

(六)我不會要求你供養我下半輩子, 同樣地我也不會供養你的下半輩子,當你長大到可以獨立的時候, 我的責任已經完結。以後,你要坐巴士還是Benz, 吃魚翅還是粉絲,都要自己負責。

(七)你可以要求自己守信,但不能要求別人守信, 你可以要求自己對人好,但不能期待人家對你好。你怎樣對人,並不代表人家就會怎樣對你,如果看不透這一點, 你只會徒添不必要的煩惱。

(八)我買了十多二十年六合彩,還是一窮二白,連三獎也沒有中, 這證明人要發達,還是要努力工作才可以,世界上並沒有免費午餐。

(九)親人只有一次的緣份,無論這輩子我和你會相處多久, 也請好好珍惜共聚的時光,下輩子,無論愛與不愛,都不會再見。


你的爸爸

梁繼璋

*****************

Primary source: unknown

Secondary source: from an email forwarded by a friend, additional information from http://www.wretch.cc/blog/lisa56731/21133435

Monday, November 02, 2009

Courage

"Often the difference between a successful man and a failure is not one's better abilities or ideas, but the courage that one has to bet on his ideas, to take a calculated risk and to act."

- Dr. Maxwell Maltz


"Courage is nine-tenths context. What is courageous in one setting can be foolhardy in another and even cowardly in a third."

- Joseph Epstein


"Never grow a wishbone, daughter, where your backbone ought to be."

- Clementine Paddelford


"Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear -- not absence of fear."

- Mark Twain

Sunday, November 01, 2009

Character

"Character is not a commodity that can be purchased. It is built by the decisions you permanently chisel on your heart. Strive for a reputation that will cause people to say, 'He means what he says.'"

- Neil Eskelin"

A character is like an acrostic or Alexandrian stanza; read it forward, backward, or across, it still spells the same thing."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson


"Our own heart, and not other men's opinion, forms our true honor."

- Samuel Taylor Coleridge


"Circumstances do not make the man or woman, they merely reveal them."

- Brian Tracy

Thought is the seed

Thought is the seed that may grow to a tree.

If you know that it is your thinking that determines your reality, you can be in control of your feeling and emotion.

If you blame your frustration on others, you pass your control of your own emotion to others. When you are defeated, your will feel very helpless psychologically and act like a victim.

With that kind of mind set, you will be a slave of your emotion. With the same experience repeated in your life and your social cycle, you conditioned yourself to be a person with negative thought. With that, you attract all the negative reaction inside you!

Remember that we are the gardener of our own head and mind.

A good mind gardener weeds away unwanted plants regularly. That keeps the bad away from the good.

To glow something new, a seed or a new plant need to be nurture with constant care. Having enough sunlight, yet not over exposed at the beginning. Water it regularly and use pot with holes that allow excess to be drained. Trim it so that it will branch naturally. Pass what you have trim to others, so that it will grow in their own garden. That allows the good to grow and multiply.

Blooming beautiful flowers in our head and mind is like gardening a "Botanic garden".

What is blooming inside is planted and nurtured by our thought and habit.

Fixing physically unhealthy bodies is relatively easy. Mending unhealthy minds on the other hand, may not be so easy.

Nevertheless, once we realised that we are the gardener of our thought, caring for our mind is like growing plants in our garden, we can find a way to weed the bad thought and tender to good one slowly!

Fixing negative thought is not easy, it is only easy when we realized that we can think differently, choose differently and behave differently and we start to swift the focus on ourselves instead of blaming it on others.

We that kind of mindset, we will experience life in a different perspective.

Learn to think differently!

Remember that everything begin with a thought. With a new thought, you create a new reality!

So start and create a different garden for your mind, once you have a beautiful garden that you enjoy yourselves, you will attack like minded people.

Beautiful mind is contagious too!

Saturday, October 31, 2009

Concentration and focus

"Determine what specific goal you want to achieve. Then dedicate yourself to its attainment with unswerving singleness of purpose, the trenchant zeal of a crusader."

- Paul J. Meyer


"On the way to work, concentrate on the way ? not the work."

- Jim Rohn


"When you work, work all the time you work; put more of yourself into what you do."

- Brian Tracy


"When every physical and mental resource is focused, one's power to solve a problem multiplies tremendously."

- Norman Vincent Peale

Friday, October 30, 2009

Communication

"Outside of the privacy of your own home, all speaking is 'public speaking'. There is no such thing as 'private speaking'."

-- Patricia Fripp


"Speak softly. If you really want to be heard, lower your voice."

-- Terri Levine


"Think before you speak, and then speak clearly and distinctly. Face the customer directly, lean forward, smile and relax."

-- Brian Tracy


"I have to laugh when I hear the term 'soft skills'. There is nothing soft about learning how to communicate, how to give constructive feedback, or how to negotiate with a union, employees or customers." ?

--Peggy Klaus

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Improve Your Life

I like the following quotations from Jeffrey J. Mayer. You can register to receive a weekly newsletter from SucceedingInBusiness.com and read some of his quotes and other business tips.



Improve Your Life:
=====================================

The road to success is based on the choices you make.

There will be many challenges. Face them one at a time, and you'll go further and farther than you ever dreamed.

Learn to see the invisible opportunities where other people only see visible limitations.

You grow by building on your strengths. By getting better at the things you're already good at. Become good enough and you become an expert.

Experts stand head and shoulders above everybody else.

Say YES to your big dreams, and your whole world changes.

You succeed when you do what it is you know.

Take action, and the purpose will be revealed.

Expect and demand the best from yourself and those around you.

You can be good, pretty good... or GREAT.

Acknowledge the people who have helped you. Nobody goes through life alone. Your successes are an accumulation of the things you have learned and the ideas you have gathered from the people you've met along the way.

As you grow and develop in your business, industry, community and family, your growth comes from those who came before you.

Remember: You're standing on the shoulders of giants.


The Power Of Enthusiasm:
=====================================

Put enthusiasm into your work. Look forward - with excitement - to each new day.

Be energetic. Enthusiasm is contagious. It effects your colleagues, your customers, your family and your friends. You'll feel better when you put energy and enthusiasm into your life.


Vision And Values:
=====================================

Think of your vision as a lighthouse. It's a beacon that lights the way and shows you the direction you want to go.

It shows you your path to success while illuminating the obstacles to be avoided.

When you know what your vision is you make better choices and build better relationships.
You are in control of your destiny. It's your life.

If you're not having the best year of your life, you're a fool to think it will get better if you don't make some changes.

Remember: Relevance is something we earn by the importance others place on what we do for them.


Building Relationships:
=====================================

You are paid for your wisdom.

Knowledge is the information you get from reading books.

Wisdom is what you've learned from your experiences.

#1 Sales Secret:

Find out what the other person wants, then help him find the best way to get it. The best way to find out what someone wants it to ask. Learn how to ask brilliant questions and you'll be a huge success.

Remember: It's not about you. It's about them!
Think in reverse. Ask yourself these four questions:

1. What does the customer want?

2. What does the customer need?

3. What does the customer value?

4. What does the customer expect?

#1 Motivation Secret:

You can't make anybody do anything. The only way you can get anybody to do anything is to make the other person WANT to do it.

Remember: Logic makes people think. Emotion makes people buy.

People don't buy what they don't understand.


Add Humor - Laughter - To Your Life:

When something embarrassing happens, remind yourself that 'someday you'll look back on this...' and laugh.

Don't take everything so seriously. Since you're going to look back on this and laugh about it later. Then try to laugh about it now.

As you go through life, be flexible instead of rigid.

Expect that things won't go as planned. Plan for the unexpected. If something happens, you're prepared. And if it doesn't, you're better off.

See the humor in your life. Many events are funny, if you can take a step back and look at what's happened.

Take a deep breath and relax. Chill out, and laugh... in spite of life.

Remember: Everything becomes a wonderful story you can tell.

Changes and Choices

"There are two ways of meeting difficulties: you alter the difficulties, or you alter yourself to meet them."

-- Phyllis Bottome


"To those who have confidence in themselves, change is a stimulus because they believe one person can make a difference and influence what goes on around them. These people are the doers and the motivators."

-- Buck Rogers


"Nature gives to every time and season some beauties of its own; and from morning to night, as from the cradle to the grave, it is but a succession of changes so gentle and easy that we can scarcely mark their progress."

-- Charles Dickens


"The main dangers in this life are the people who want to change everything or nothing."

-- Lady Nancy Astor

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Top 15 ReferDesk pages

I like to use ReferDesk and set it as my home page.

Bob Drudge, the Webmaster of ReferDesk, ranged the top 15 ReferDesk pages and have it at:

Top 15 ReferDesk pages
http://www.refdesk.com/topref10.html

I had recommended it to my Students in DLS (SM 2 & 3 from NIE) and here are the first five sites listed on the page:

Newspapers - USA and Worldwide
- over 3,500 U.S. papers listed by state and over 1,500 international papers listed by continent/country.

Crosswords Resources
- over 75 links to top crossword puzzle sites and resources.

My Search Engines
- over 260 search engines in 19 subject categories.

Site of the Day Archives
- locate your favorite 'Site of the Day' in this archive dating back to August 1999.

First Things First
- start your day with easy access to top wire services, newspapers, comics, sports, weather, and much more.

If you like to see the rest, just visit:

Top 15 ReferDesk pages:
http://www.refdesk.com/topref10.html

On planning

"People waste most of their waking hours every day going through the motions, chatting idly, shuffling paper, putting off decisions, reacting, majoring in minors and concentrating on trivia.

They spend their time in low priority tension relieving, rather than high priority goal-achieving activities."

-- Denis Waitley


"Planning is a real waste of time....for those who waste time."

-- Doug Firebaugh


"Every evening, write down the six most important things that you must do the next day.

Then while you sleep your subconscious will work on the best ways for you to accomplish them. Your next day will go much more smoothly."

-- Tom Hopkins


"Failing to plan means planning to fail. What are your goals?"

-- Brian Tracy

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Attachment

People become attached to their burdens sometimes more than the burdens are attached to them.

-- George Bernard Shaw


When I spent many long nights reposting my NIE 2003- 2005 SM 2 and 3 student name lists on my blog, I somehow do felt that I am doing something to fulfil my attachment and it is a burden that I self-imposed.

I think the memory I have in 2001 to 2007 teaching "Digital Literacy Skills" NTU students who are SM 2 and 3 scholars from PRC is something I treasured. At the beginning, we only have Microsoft Office Skills and Library Database Searching Techniques to impart to students. After web became a common communication interface, we introduced it in the course and started to use Geocities to compose web pages in 2002.

I have all the 2003 -2005 students' web sites log on my web pages for assessment purposes and it was a nice place for me to revisit it when I shown new students the work done by their seniors.
Thoughout the years, I have increased my teaching load from 4 classes to 7 classes per year.

Going retrospectively, it is a burden to do the list again now as some of the text were in html codes and have to be re-edited into normal text.

Having the list in the past years and building slowly is less stressful than converting it within a few days before 26 Oct 2009.

I just cannot bear having the list disappear forever when I know that Geocities is closing the free web hosting websites. That is why I think I am attached to my burden.

I do not think others will find my job worthwhile, yet somehow, I think if my ex-students found the listing in the future, they may appreciate it.

Well, I do it to keep my teaching memory in my treasure troll. It is something that is self-fulfiling for me. Hence, I echo what the quotation say, "People become attached to their burdens sometimes more than the burdens are attached to them."

Do you do something like that once in a while?

If you do, you know what I mean and how I feel!

Cheers!


Dexterine Ho

GeoCities free web hosting is

GeoCitiesfree web hosting was closed on 26 Oct 2009!

Yahoo! will delete all GeoCities websites due to the closure of its free hosting service.

Yahoo! is closing not only GeoCities but also such services as Yahoo! Briefcase, Farechase, My Web, as well as Yahoo Pets, Yahoo Live, Kickstart and Yahoo For Teachers.

Here are some useful links that I had on my Geocities teaching webpages http://www.geocities.com/dexterine from 2003 to 2005:

Useful links:
3 D Textmaker Fun to experience! Animate your text and save it as animated GIF file!

Free Buttons Allow you to modify the colour of the buttons and add button text

Quotation sites List quotation sites for you to search for quotable quotes by subjects or keywords

Flash buttons Creating one or a panel of flashbuttons without tears

Anfy Homepage

Microsoft Top tips for PowerPoint

Presentationzen.com/

Searching Guide 1

Searching Guide 2


Learn PPT Onlline
Power Point Presentation:

* Presentation Scenario

* Presentation Exponents (A slide-to-slide guide)

New teaching web site at dexterine.tripod.com From 2006 June

Student's Home Work: Example

2005 teaching page

2004 teaching page

2003 teaching page

As most of the above teaching pages at Geocities (http://www.geocities.com/dexterine) are not accessible now, I just spent one whole day recreating my 2003- 2005's student name list on the blog.

The NIE SM 2 & 3 students' web project after 2006 are posted on Tripod: http://dexterine.tripod.com/ under the tab "DLS in NIE"

if you like to have direct access to the NIE teaching page, just visit http://dexterine.tripod.com/id40.html

MY 2005 Student name list: SM 3 Group 1

MY 2005 Student name list

SM 3 Group 1

(All the links of the Geocities web pages created by them are now not available as Yahoo closed the free web hosting on 26 Oct 2009)

1 CHENG SHAN
2 DING GUOQIANG
3 GUO AIFEN
4 HE HONG
5 LI HONG

6 LI QING
7 LI XIAO
8 LIANG XINYU
9 SHENG XIAOGENG
10 SONG QINLONG

11 WANG YI
12 XIA BIN
13 XIONG YUANTING
14 YAN LINA
15 YANG LIFENG

16 YUAN XIANLI
17 ZHANG CHENG
18 ZHANG YI
19 ZHAO LU
20 ZHOU DAPENG

MY 2005 Student name list: SM 3 Group 4

MY 2005 Student name list

SM 3 Group 4

(All the links of the Geocities web pages created by them are now not available as Yahoo closed the free web hosting on 26 Oct 2009)

1 AN WEI
2 BAI YONGCHAO
3 CHEN SHU
4 FU YECHAO
5 HUANG DEZHAO

6 LIN YAYING
7 LIU JIA
8 LU JIAO
9 LUO YINDI
10 MO WEI

11 NIU CHANGLEI
12 QI LIHUA
13 TIAN HUI
14 WU QIANG
15 ZHANG HONGZHOU

16 ZHANG YAO
17 ZHANG YU
18 ZHAO GUANGLEI
19 ZHENG YANJUN
20 ZHOU HONGMING

MY 2005 Student name list: SM 2 Group 9

MY 2005 Student name list

SM 2 Group 9

(All the links of the Geocities web pages created by them are now not available as Yahoo closed the free web hosting on 26 Oct 2009)

1 Chen Qin
2 Ding Zejun
3 Fang Zhefei
4 Gao Zhiming
5 Huang Yuli

6 Lang Shuang
7 Li Guoliang
8 Li Hui
9 Li Yize
10 Liu Jiannan

11 Ma Ji
12 Sun Zhe
13 Wang Fei
14 Wang Tiantian
15 Weng Yao

16 Xia Yu
17 Yang Qian
18 Yang Shuai
19 Yang Yang
20 Zhu Wenchao

MY 2005 Student name list: SM 2 Group 10

MY 2005 Student name list

SM 2 Group 10

(All the links of the Geocities web pages created by them are now not available as Yahoo closed the free web hosting on 26 Oct 2009)

1 Cui Yifang
2 Feng Xueying
3 Gu Yangshuo
4 Han Xiaohan
5 Huang Yingying

6 Li Sujie
7 Shu Haojiang
8 Su Le
9 Sun Zhongyinan
10 Wang Kaiwen

11 Wang Mengxi
12 Wang Xiang
13 Wang Xiao
14 Wu Jiawen
15 Xia Bingxing

16 Xiao Dezhong
17 Zhang Simin
18 Zhao Xumin
19 Zheng Yanchao
20 Zhong Hua

MY 2005 Student name list: SM 2 Group 11

MY 2005 Student name list

SM 2 Group 11

(All the links of the Geocities web pages created by them are now not available as Yahoo closed the free web hosting on 26 Oct 2009)

1 Chen Mengli
2 Dong Feng
3 Guo Meng
4 Han Ling
5 He Shu

6 Huang Min
7 Ji Xiang
8 Li Chao
9 Li Shengjin
10 Luan Qianqian

11 Meng Lei
12 Wang Fang
13 Wang Liyong
14 Wang Renzhe
15 Wang Xiaole

16 Xie Yin
17 Zhang Chunyan
18 Zhang Hao
19 Zhang Xuan
20 Zhong Yuan

MY 2005 Student name list: SM 2 Group 12

MY 2005 Student name list

SM 2 Group 12

(All the links of the Geocities web pages created by them are now not available as Yahoo closed the free web hosting on 26 Oct 2009)

1 Cao Luyan
2 Chen Yanhong
3 Cheng Xikai
4 Cui Min
5 Deng Chunhui

6 Gui Lin
7 Huang Qingyin
8 Ji Tuo
9 Li Yancheng
10 Li Yongmei

11 Ouyang Lili
12 Teng Lei
13 Wang Laohu
14 Wei Yazhe
15 Xie Wei

16 Xu Zhengji
17 Zhang Xiaoyue
18 Zhuo Jiali

MY 2005 Student name list: SM 2 Group 13

MY 2005 Student name list

SM 2 Group 13

(All the links of the Geocities web pages created by them are now not available as Yahoo closed the free web hosting on 26 Oct 2009)

1 Chen Xi
2 Deng Lu
3 Huang Ruixiang
4 Jin Mengyi
5 Luo Danlin

6 Luo Jiayu
7 Nie Zhenzhi
8 Wang Lu
9 Wang Yawen
10 Xuan Zhiyang

11 Yang Xiao
12 Yang Xiaolu
13 Ye Shuqin
14 Zhang Jixin
15 Zhang Wentao

16 Zhang Yi
17 Zhao Wen
18 Zheng Encen
19 Zhong Hua
20 Zhou Yanyan

SM 2 and 3: optional web topics 2004

Interesting Places in Singapore and Memory of Singapore

Students' Choice in 2004 (Published on their Geocities Web Page which is not available now)

Great World Cities at Kim Seng Road
What to see: 9-12 Toilets with Thematic Deco

Parkview Square near Bugis Junctions
What to see: Statutes of famous personalites like Plato, Newton & Danty etc...

Orchid Garden at Botanic Garden
What to see: Orchid in four "seasons?"

National Institute of Education in NTU Campus
What to see: Library, Building of different Schools etc

Nanyang Technological University
What to see: Yunnan Garden, Chinese Heritage Centre, Nantah Lake, Canteen 1 and Lee Wei Nan Library


Singapore Memory and Singapore from the perspective of Chinese Scholars, 2004

A Colourful Singapore

Singapore and Everyone

Different Places Introduced in Students' Pages
*Sentosa *Singapore River *Life in NIE

MY 2004 Student name list: SM 3 Group 2

MY 2004 Student name list

SM 3 Group 2

(All the links of the Geocities web pages created by them are now not available as Yahoo closed the free web hosting on 26 Oct 2009)

1 Cao Min
2 Chen Ye
3 Fu Chunmiao
4 Ge Bin
5 Hu Yueping

6 Huang Guangpu
7 Li Chong
8 Li Rui
9 Liang Kun
10 Liu Tong

11 Liu Wenhu
12 Pang Caiji
13 Qing Songlin
14 Qiu Ningyi
15 Sun Yuan

16 Tao Qian
17 Wang Fei
18 Wang Xiu
19 Zhang Li
20 Zhu Ling

MY 2004 Student name list: SM 3 Group 3

My 2004 Student name list

SM 3 Group 3

(All the links of the Geocities web pages created by them are now not available as Yahoo closed the free web hosting on 26 Oct 2009)

1 Bai Yunfei
2 Cai Yi
3 Fu Haitao
4 Fu Kangkang
5 Gao Jing

6 Guo Min
7 Li Baihong
8 Li Xiaohui
9 Liang Peiyuan
10 Lin Lin

11 Ning Zeyu
12 Sun Zhuoxin
13 Yang Fan
14 Yang Mingfei
15 Yang Yizhou

16 Yu Hangying
17 Zhang Kuan
18 Zhang Guowei
19 Zhong Yuan

MY 2004 Student name list: SM 3 Group 4

MY 2004 Student name list

SM 3 Group 4

(All the links of the Geocities web pages created by them are now not available as Yahoo closed the free web hosting on 26 Oct 2009)

1 Bei Junjun
2 Chen Yaqi
3 Guo Wei
4 Guo Xinqing
5 Jiang Mingxuan

6 Jin Xu
7 Lin Zhe
8 Liu Ting
9 Liu Xiao
10 Shan Wenming

11 Shao Jun
12 Si Guanglin
13 Suo Yujing
14 Wang Wei
15 Xu Mingming

16 Yao Yujin
17 Yu Liguo
18 Zhang Huiyuan
19 Zhang Juntao
20 Zhou Zheng

MY 2004 Student name list: SM 3 Group 5

MY 2004 Student name list

SM 3 Group 5

(All the links of the Geocities web pages created by them are now not available as Yahoo closed the free web hosting on 26 Oct 2009)

1 Bo Juyi
2 Chai Yu
3 Chen Xi
4 Dong Tongtong
5 Guan Xiaochong

6 He Mingguang
7 Hou Wanyi
8 Liang Dayang
9 Liang Yuanxi
10 Liu Hui

11 Luo Xiaodong
12 Ma Qian
13 Ren Ye
14 Shi Wenqian
15 Tang Haitao

16 Xiong Beili
17 Zhang Meng
18 Zhang Fan
19 Zhang Lei
20 Zhao Xiaolin

Monday, October 26, 2009

MY 2003 Student name list: SM 3 Group 1

MY 2003 Student name list

SM 3 Group 1

(All the links of the Geocities web pages created by them are now not available as Yahoo closed the free web hosting on 26 Oct 2009)

1 Chen Qitian
2 Chen Ziliang
3 Chu Hong Gang
4 Huang Wei
5 Jin Guoqing

6 Li Qiao Yang
7 Liu chang hui
8 Peng Li
9 Shen Yuan
10 Shi Xia Qing

11 Sun Hong Mei
12 Wang Haixia
13 Wang Ji Hai
14 Wang Jing
15 Wang Kai

16 Wang Zhi Yuan
17 Wang Zhilin
18 Yang Yuanguang
19 Yu Yue
20 Zhou Yong

MY 2003 Student name list: SM 3 Group 2

MY 2003 Student name list

SM 3 Group 2

(All the links of the Geocities web pages created by them are now not available as Yahoo closed the free web hosting on 26 Oct 2009)

1 Dai Xiaoming, Robbie
2 Fan qu, Flint
3 Hu Nan
4 Hu Xing
5 Liao Jie

6 Liu Yang
7 Ning Rong Rong
8 Shi Jing Sheng
9 Tian Ya Fei
10 Wei Lei

11 Wei Xiao Hong
12 Wu Bo, Jack
13 Wu Zhengning
14 Wu Zhi Hao
15 Xu Zhenyu

16 Zhang juan juan
17 Zhang Jun Bin
18 Zhao Hui
19 Zhou Iiting
20 Zhu Guo Jun

MY 2003 Student name list: SM 3 Group 4

MY 2003 Student name list

SM 3 Group 4

(All the links of the Geocities web pages created by them are now not available as Yahoo closed the free web hosting on 26 Oct 2009)


1. Dong Kaika
2. Fei Wei
3. Guo Jian
4. He Jianpeng
5 Huang weiping

6. Li Dongwei
7.Li Fei
8. Liang Yuxi
9.LinYu
10. Ni Wei

11 Pan Tan
12. Pei Yiyang
13. Shao Zaiming
14. Wang Yinjie
15. Wu Liang

16. Wu Xia
17.Yang Site
18.Yi Suhuang
19. Zheng Shichun
20. Zhou yuan

MY 2003 Student name list: SM 2 Group 14

MY 2003 Student name list

SM 2 Group 14

(All the links of the Geocities web pages created by them are now not available as Yahoo closed the free web hosting on 26 Oct 2009)

1. Chen lin, Cynthia ***
2. Chen Taotao
3. Hua Xia
4. Li Hao *
5. Li Haoyang ****

6. Liu Junlian .
7. Tang Lin
8. Tu Xiaoying
9. Wang Xueqian **
10. Xie Boya

11. Yu hang.
12. Zhang Heliang
13. Zhang Qiushi
14. Zhang Yi *****
15. Zhang Ying

16. Zhang Yu xiang, Chris
17. Zhong Tian
18. ZhuWei

On personal responsibilty

"You are responsible, or it won't get done. There's a fine line between taking it personally, and handling it personally. Individual responsibility leads to happy customers. Do you take responsibility or try to pass it off?"

-- Jeffrey Gitomer


"You can't change what you don't acknowledge."

-- Phil McGraw


"We are taught you must blame your father, your sisters, your brothers, the school, the teachers - you can blame anyone but never blame yourself. It's never your fault. But it's always your fault, because if you wanted to change, you're the one who has got to change. It's as simple as that, isn't it?"

-- Katherine Hepburn


"Refuse to make excuses or blame others. The leader always says, 'If it's to be, it's up to me.' "

-- Brian Tracy

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Preparation

"Preparation is the mark of the professional. Do your homework before the negotiations."

-- Brian Tracy


"Nothing is more powerful for your future than being a gatherer of good ideas and information. That's called doing your homework."

-- Jim Rohn


"From product knowledge springs the expertise to work with clients in the effective and professional manner that earns high income. Invest ten minutes daily reviewing your product information or using your product so you know it inside and out."

- Tom Hopkins

Friday, October 23, 2009

Chinese electronic resources

Today, I attend the following LAS talk:

Topic: Introduction to and comparison and analysis of Chinese electronic resources (in Mandarin) 大陆中文电子资源介绍与比较分析

Speaker : Mr Zhang Hongyuan
Assistant to the Director, Head of Acquisition Department, Wuhan University Library, China

Date : 23 October 2009

Time : 3.30 pm - 5.30 pm

Venue : Toa Payoh Public library

As the organiser think that the group attending the talk will be small, we only register at the venue on day of talk.

About the speaker:

Mr Zhang Hongyuan is Assistant to the Director and Head of Acquisitions Department of Wuhan University Library.

He started his career in librarianship in library of Wuhan Hydraulic and Electrical College, the former Wuhan Hydraulic and Electrical University (WUHEE), in 1986.

Prior to that he majored in library science at School of Library & Information Science of the Wuhan University and graduated with BSc degree.

In 1991, he obtained his MSc (Information Management) degree from Graduate School of the Wuhan University.

He has served in the library of WUHEE for nearly 12 years. Since WUHEE combined with other 3 universities and the new Wuhan University established in 2000, he served in the new university’s library until now.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Driver or Passenger

Attended the following talk at National Library today:

PROFESSIONAL TALKS

Topic : Driver or Passenger - Responding to Changes - NTU Library

Speaker : Mr Choy Fatt Cheong, University Librarian, Nanyang Technological University Library

Date : 22 October 2009 (Thursday)

Time : 4.00pm - 5.30pm

Venue : Imagination Room, Level 5, National Library Building

LAS Professional Development Scheme (PDS) Points:
46 (Applicable only to librarians who are participants of PDS)


This talk highlighted some of the major initiatives undertook and discuss some problems and issues encountered in respond to the challenging environment.

The Current Time, Around the World

Like to know the international time for all the country at the present moment?

Or

If you are in Singapore and like to know which countries share the same time zone as ours, then

http://www.timeticker.com/

is a good site for you!

The web page created by Martin Zwernemann (http://www.zwernemann.com/) help to tell the Current Time, Around the World

When you open the page, the default time zone is GMT.

You can set the time zone you like to view by choosing the name of the countries listed on the window on the right.

If you like to know which countries follow the same time zone, just view the window on the left.

It also come with a ticking sound to make you feel that time is constantly running.

You may mute the ticking with a click on "Mute Ticking" and let the system read you the time using real audio.

It is fun and handy!

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

別讓靈魂跟不上

人不可能在一天內做完所有的事!

你只要將一天中最很重要的事情做完就已足夠了。

這並不是不求上進,恰恰在於懂得放下的,才最終會贏;
而整日忙碌不休的人,收穫的往往只是焦慮和疲憊。

我看到了這樣一個故事:

有一支西方的考察隊深入非洲腹地考察,
請了當地部落的土著人做背伕和嚮導,由於時間緊,需趕路,
而這些土著人很吃苦耐勞,背著幾十公斤的裝備物資依然健步如飛,
一連三天考察隊都很順利地按計劃行進,大家都很開心。

可是第四天早上,考察隊準備出發的時候,
土著人們都在休息不走了,好說歹說就是不願出發。
隊員們很奇怪,這幾天大家相處得很好啊,
是不小心觸犯了他們還是要坐地加錢?

這時,土著人的頭領解釋道,
按照他們的傳統,如果連續三天趕路,第四天必須停下來休息一天,
以免我們的靈魂趕不上我們的腳步。

這個現代人也許看來很難理解的解釋,讓我很受觸動。

我們的生活太忙碌了,工作和生活的壓力讓我們日復一日地在趕路,
以至於我們很少停下來思考一下,就不斷地被很多東西推著走,
或者追逐著眼前的東西而去,
而我們的靈魂早已落後在我們匆匆趕路的身影後面無影無蹤。

沒有了自己我們的生活就交給了外物去控制。

又到了一周,我們是不是也放緩腳步,等一等我們的靈魂?

~~~忙~~~

如同… ”心” 己 “亡”

也如同…. 一個人沒了靈魂!

Story and message edited from an email forwarded to me by a friend, May Kong.
(Thanks May!)

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

為什麼您的狗叫'放下'?

有這樣一個故事:

一個著名的寺院裡住著一位非常有道行的道長。他每天都要在傍晚6時去餵他的狗。

狗的名字很奇怪,叫做"放下"。

每到日落時分, 靜修道長就為"放下"送飯了,嘴一邊呼喚著 : "放下!放下!"

小弟子覺得很奇怪,就問道長:

"為什麼要給狗起這個奇怪的名字,人家的狗都叫阿黃、來福什麼的,為什麼您的狗叫'放下?"

靜修道長不語,讓他們自己去悟。

小弟子就觀察老道長,終於發現:

每天當道長餵完狗後,就不再讀經書,到院中打打太極拳,散散步。

小弟子到道長面前,訴說了他們觀察的收穫,

老道長微笑地點點頭說:"你們終於明白了。

其實我在叫狗的時候,其實也是叫自己'放下',讓自己放下許多事情。

因為人們不可能在一天內做完所有的事情,你只要將一天中最很重要的事情做完就已足夠了。

在人們越來越習慣動輒高呼殘酷競爭時,其實學會"放下"的意義就越大。

正仿佛當你自覺遭遇滅頂挫折時,不妨手搭涼棚,

你一定會發現:天並不會塌下來。

這並不是不求上進,恰恰在於懂得放下的,才最終會贏;

而整日忙碌不休的人,收穫的往往只是焦慮和疲憊。

Story and message edited from an email forwarded to me by a friend, May Kong.(Thanks May!)

Monday, October 19, 2009

Life without regrets

Who am I?

I am who I say I am and tomorrow someone else entirely.

--- White Oleander


It is hard to say that we live life without any regret. Why?

I am sure that you, like me have more than one regret in life?

Though we like to have a life full of joys and happiness, yet it is so easy to do something that make our life the other way round!

We like to put off something that brings us joy!

We fail to see the opportunity to experience joy!

We tend to use excuses like we have not thought about it!

Though joys is in our life seeking list, we do not have it on our busy schedule!

We sometime know it was coming, yet we were too rigid to depart from our routine to experience it!

We like to cram so much stuff into our life and keep joy out of our calendar!

We tend to schedule our headaches first and let our fresh mind doing the fire fighting all the time. We just leave no room for joys.

We live to fulfil our promises to others and not keeping the promises we have for ourselves.

When all the conditions are perfect for joys, we are too tire to enjoy it!

If you add one decade to your life, and compare your energy level you have with that a decade ago, you will understand that life has a way of accelerating as we get older.

Our days will get shorter, and the list of promises we have made gets longer.

Do you have clothes that you bought years ago and have no time to wear? Do you have shoes that you pay a lot for it and have never find a change to put your feet into it?

Do have gifts that you kept for others or yourself and it is, until today, remained as an unopened gift?

Do you thrown away expensive food that you kept in your fridge as it was too costly to eat without any reasons or occasions?

Even though we do not run life like a race, yet we treat our life (from birth to the grave) with so much hurry!

We have the tendency to find the quickest way to to get from one place to other!

Why not have some time in between to look at the sky and things around you!

Steal some moments in life to feel the wind blow!

Have some time to hear the music and song of life before it is over.

Just reflect and look at life in retrospect, 5 years from now, or 10, 15, 20 etc., would you be happy with things you have done today or at this very moment? Or would you be disappointed or regret that you did it now?

It is so easy to correct them when we look at the mistakes we made in the years just passed us.

With that kind of mind set, when we explore, dream or discover any new thing now, we could make a wiser choice!

Some statements of life, like "if I know, I could have, might have, and should have" may has less occurence in our description in retrospect.

Just remember, it takes us less effort in the future if we have less worry and regret about life. So we choose to make it it right at the time you do it! The choice is yours at the moment of your action!

Just remmember, If we hurry through our days and make choices that we are going to regret or feel disappointed, we are wasting our life!

Do you still want to hurry so much and lost so much in time!

Life without regrets is not easy, yet, you may create it slowly now with all your remaining life!


Dexterine Ho