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Imagine if Haagen-Dazs (which, btw, is a made up word intended to sound Scandinavian) or Ben & Jerry’s made ice cream that had half the carbs, saturated fat, and calories of that of a normal tub of ice cream. Would you buy it?

I would.

Most of the decadent food items seem to be either low carb (but high in fat and artificial stuff), or low in fat (but high in carbs). Instead of using artificial sweeteners, why can’t they just put half the sugar they normally use? Then slowly, we can train our palates to enjoy foods that are healthier in content, without all the artificial fuss.

Have you ever wondered why weather is the preferred topic of conversation providing ultimate protection from uncomfortable silences? It’s the perfect topic, IMO, because the weather is never constant and well, there’s almost no chance of it offending anyone, unlike politics or religion. Nowadays, it seems as if weather has been displaced by gas as the number one topic. Whether it be work or at the checkout line at the supermarket (heard it the last two times I went to the supermarket), it’s definitely the hot topic. Why is that? Well, i suppose it’s because everyone ‘feels’ the pinch caused by rising gas prices and so everyone can relate. It’s on everyone’s minds as well (most of us have to fill-up once a week). The rising gas prices is the kind of calculus that even a high school dropout could comprehend (the same can’t be said about the whole sub-prime mess).

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A perfect design for klutzes like me, who need all the help they can get when it comes to preventing spills and barbeque sauce painted shirts (still haven’t found a remedy for this). I bought a new leak and spill-proof mug, the Contigo West Loop Mug: Silver to . What got my attention was the blue button on the side, that when pressed, will open up the small hole at the top of the mug, allowing the drink. When it’s not being pressed, your favorite beverage won’t leak or spill (vacuum-sealed). And it’s also the best-looking thermos/mug out there, in my opinion. This mug can hold about 2 cups worth. It reportedly can keep your hot beverages warm for 4 hours, and cold beverages cool for 12 hours (my guess is that it’s no different than laptop batteries, whatever the advertised battery life divided by 2).

Only wished that it didn’t squeak every time you pressed down on the button to drink.

4 out of 5 stars.

New York Giants over New England Patriots: 27-24

I’m very bad at deciphering words in songs (i wonder if this is related to my poor ability to read lips too). So I don’t even bother to try singing songs usually. Although you probably wouldn’t me too even if I did know the lyrics. Anyway, there’s a Sing that iTune! Mac widget that’s available now that’ll load the lyrics to a song automatically (pulls from the web) as the song is being played in iTunes.

Another neat feature is that it can save the lyrics to your iTunes automatically. So I’ll leave my computer on and let it play many songs overnight and save the lyrics to iTunes.

Oh, it can also grab Chinese lyrics for Chinese songs.

From the looks of it, I won’t be able to put together my application for UCLA Anderson in time for Round 2’s deadline. The 4 essays still need a lot of work, I’ve realized. Here’s another setback, thanks to my own procrastination. The odds of getting into Round 3 for most schools is slim, but oh well.

I think the biggest adjustment I’ll have to make is to somehow get myself excited about the idea of going to bschool. Or at least feign it. Here are the schools and deadlines that I can still make.

USC Marshall (Round 2 - Jan 15)
Berkeley Haas (Round 3 - Jan 31)
UCLA Anderson (Round 3 - February 20th)
University of Chicago (Round 3 - March 12)
Maybe one other school (Round 3 - early march)

Although I haven’t been able to keep my New Year’s Resolutions for three straight years, that doesn’t mean you should ignore this post. It just means that I’m more motivated than ever to get it right this time around. Whatever your New Year’s Resolution is, consider doing the following:

1. First, unsubscribe to as many email promotions and newsletters. Do you really care that Borders has a 20% off in-store coupon when you can get a better deal buying the book online anyway? And why do retailers have to send this junk every week or every month? Intrusive emails can be a real distraction so unsubscribing to these can save you a lot of time in the long run. If you don’t mind receiving these types of emails, at the very least you’ll want to turn off email notifiers.

2. Sign up for RSS feeds (instead of receiving email promotions) for deals and news instead. I personally like Google Reader because it allows me to data mine for trends and it’s easy to use. Reading RSS feeds can be quite addictive, so schedule to view RSS feeds once or twice a day at most. In my system, I’ll spend half an hour each morning reading articles, and after work, I’ll spend 15 minutes or so looking for new deals.

3. Spend an hour at regular intervals (weekly and/or monthly) to review your New Year’s Resolution progress. Focus on getting the top priority items done. Don’t sweat the details. Make adjustments where it makes sense to.

4. Keep things simple. Declutter your calendar and inbox. Most of us tend to get lazy and we’ll use everything as an excuse for not getting things done. When things are disorganized, it’s a bad sign. Only track the most important items and try to check emails only a few times a day (borrowed from David Allen’s Getting Things Done). I would recommend using a task management tool too.

So what is my New Year’s Resolution? Not very original, but exercising 4-5 times a week (3x per week if i’m really busy), and eating healthier (smaller portions and reducing sweets).

I can’t believe that there are people who sign up for this.

Don’t these people have jobs or attend school somewhere? Unbelievable.

Last night, I went with my family to this Szechuan-style restaurant that my folks have been raving about for weeks now. Way overrated, IMHO. Towards the end of the dinner, the owner’s wife came out and started to point out which one of us looked more like our mom and which looked more like our dad. As you could imagine, this was followed by silly debates and petty talk on facial features, and not to mention, some unwanted stares.

I now fully understand why many restaurants have a [reasonably attractive] hostess welcome its patrons.

For serial procrastinators like me, web-based task management tools are a real godsend. Managing tasks in Microsoft Outlook was ok, except that you needed to be on that machine to access your tasks (i’ve since gotten rid of Microsoft Outlook). I wanted something that I can access from anywhere (just don’t put anything too sensitive on there). Remember The Milk (RTM) is probably the most user-friendly, task management tool that I’ve used and it integrates nicely with Gmail and Google Calendar, better than Todoist et al. You can have the RTM widget on your iGoogle or NetVibes page and/or view all your tasks in Gmail and Google Calendar.

There seem to be too many new web-tools out there that do the same thing. What we need is more integration, not more widgets all vying to do the same thing, but better. Btw, the above screenshot is from here.

Here’s an interesting article on the effect of relative income on one’s well-being. Below is an excerpt that highlights some points that probably aren’t too obvious to most:

* Relative income, rather than any certain level of income, affects well-being. If you get richer than your peers, you may feel you’re better off than they are. But soon you’ll make richer new friends, so your relative wealth won’t be greater than it was before.
* People quickly get used to all the new stuff their money can buy.
* The amount of money people say they need rises along with their income.
* When you start making more money, you spend more time making money — and have less leisure time — than you did before. “The activities that higher-income individuals spend relatively more of their time engaged in are associated with no greater happiness, but with slightly higher tension and stressstress,” Kahneman and colleagues note.

Here’s a pretty sad thought: Suppose that 100 people read this article, how many do you think will turn down the higher paying job that comes with longer hours, more stress, a longer commute, etc?

Now that I’ve discovered the time-saving and convenience of audiobooks, I’m resolved to devising a strategy for decluttering. Since I’m trying to go paperless (i’m a horrible note-taker; i’d prefer to do my notetaking with my senses), it makes sense to not buy any more books (except for audiobooks and ebooks)–unless it is a book that I must have and it’s not available in ebook or audiobook format. And while paperback and hardcover books in general tend to be cheaper (at least for now) than audiobooks and ebooks, I don’t mind paying a little extra for the the added convenience and space-saving dimension of ebooks and audiobooks.

Why do people still buy books in non-digital format? Is it because holding a book in your hand makes people feel more powerful? Is it because people can’t sleep on an ebook so that ‘osmosis’ won’t work to save them from failing an exam (they confuse osmosis which involves water, with the more general, “diffusion”, so hence they deserve to fail)?

Buying paperback and hardback books to read is akin to consuming junk food to store (more) fat. Yeah, it’s cheaper, but it’ll cost you more in the long run.

My next residence will have close to nothing inside. Maybe a nice, portable chair, a light and sturdy, fold-able table/desk. And my laptop computer, and digital piano. Aside from a mattress, everything should be able to fit in my car.

I attended a Christmas dinner event at my parent’s church today where I sat and ate with college students who were home for the holidays. Some of them kinda knew me as so-and-so’s brother or could probably tell I was older than them. Many of these college students attend ‘elite’ schools and sound rather ambitious. It was interesting hearing their experiences at school, the conversations mostly revolving around academics, and their post-graduation plans. They seemed like they were in a rush to fulfill some unattainable goal (i don’t mean this in a bad way, but it reminded me of how I was when I was their age) and perhaps are thinking too much about the future than they really need to. Some were aspiring engineers or doctors. One even admitted that her goal was to ‘marry rich’. And while I wanted to impart some older brotherly advice to them, I realized that it would’ve been pointless b/c by telling them, it would only hinder their self-discovery process.

In June, I got on a small cruise ship and played poker with a table full of senior citizens. This old guy at the table, sum up the cruel game of self-discovery: “You spend all your youth and adult years screwing up….and at the moment you think you’ve figured it out, it’s time to check-out.”

For certain subject matters (think multi-variable calculus), it helps to have an actual book to go by. However, I’ve found that for most business books (non-quantitative areas), it’s better to get them in audiobook format so that you can listen and learn while you drive, exercise, work, etc. And plus, it’s hard to actually sit down and read a book on leadership all the way through. I’d much prefer to download it to my ipod and listen to it while I exercise.

That’s right. 10% of every purchase made through the “Shop Now! Amazon” link at the top of this page) will go towards Challenge for Charity. If you purchase stuff on Amazon quite regularly, it may be a good idea to bookmark the link/page.

Spread the word and help a good cause.