Woman seeks rich husband

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Deal or no deal? An online exchange between a woman looking for a husband who earns more than $500,000 a year and a mystery Wall Street banker, who assessed her potential for romance as a business deal, has cause quite an Internet stir. The anonymous 25-year-old woman recently posted an ad on the free online New York community Web site Craigslist, http://newyork.craigslist.org/, appealing for advice on how to find a wealthy husband.

"I know how that sounds, but keep in mind that a million a year is middle class in New York City, so I don't think I'm overreaching at all," the woman, who described herself as "spectacularly beautiful" and "superficial," wrote.

"I dated a business man who makes average around 200 - 250. But that's where I seem to hit a roadblock. $250,000 won't get me to Central Park West," she said, asking questions like "where do rich single men hang out?"

The mystery banker, who said he fit the bill, offered the woman an analysis of her predicament, describing it as "plain and simple a crappy business deal."

"Your looks will fade and my money will likely continue into perpetuity ... in fact, it is very likely that my income increases but it is an absolute certainty that you won't be getting any more beautiful!" the banker wrote.

"So, in economic terms you are a depreciating asset and I am an earning asset," he said. "Let me explain, you're 25 now and will likely stay pretty hot for the next 5 years, but less so each year. Then the fade begins in earnest. By 35 stick a fork in you!"

"It doesn't make good business sense to "buy you" (which is what you're asking) so I'd rather lease," he said.

While the woman has since removed the ad from Craigslist, it -- along with the response -- has become a popular email joke that, bank JPMorgan Chase says, led to one of its bankers mistakenly being credited with writing the response. Brian Marchiony, spokesman for JPMorgan Chase, said the banker did not write the response and that his email signature accidentally became attached to the ad and response when he forwarded it to friends and it then wound up on blogs. Craigslist was not immediately available for comment, but a spokeswoman told The New York Times that "it does look as if the post was made sincerely." (Reuters) Wed Oct 10, 10:39 AM ET 21-Nov-2007

Malaysian Cab in London

The next time you hail a Black Cab in London, don’t be surprised if the driver greets you with “Selamat datang”. You may have bumped into David Chan Phong Mun, 45, one of the handful of Malaysians out of the estimated 25,000 Black Cab drivers in London!

The former Tunku Abdul Rahman College (TARC) student not only drives the £34,000 (RM238,000) 2.4cc, five-seater limousine – which is as famous as London’s double-decker buses and Underground Tube trains – he also owns it. Touted as one of the world’s most popular taxis, the purpose-built distinctive cab comes equipped with a ramp for wheelchair passengers as well as special grips for the blind and the elderly.

But getting behind the wheel of the Black Cab is not as easy as it seems.

David Chan, one of the handful of Malaysian Black Cab drivers in London. Said Chan: “It took me nearly three years to obtain the green badge that allows me to carry passengers anywhere in London.” Indeed, Chan has likened the sitting of the series of tests for the badge as “even more stressful than getting a university degree.”

“Apart from the 400 fixed routes in London, you have also to remember every street, lane and each of the over 1,000 pubs, bars and restaurants in central London alone. “And London keeps changing, which makes it even more difficult. You can’t sleep the day before the test; you’re like a convict facing the gallows,” he added. But it’s worth the effort as Chan can finally be his own boss after getting his own Black Cab and badge in 2002.

“You can earn good money and enjoy freedom at the same time.

“If you’re hardworking, you can earn between £6,000 and £8,000 a month (RM42,000 and RM56,000), which is even higher than what some professionals, such as doctors, earn,” he smiled. For many drivers, it’s sheer hard work as they normally drive between 12 and 14 hours a day, seven days a week, subscribing to the belief that one should make hay while the sun shines.

A typical day in the afternoon shift begins around noon and ends about midnight or even 2am, depending whether the driver gets enough sleep. The Black Cab’s fares can be pretty intimidating, with a boarding rate of £2.20 (RM15.40) and rising thereafter by time or distance. Thus, an average fare per hour can come up to about £20 to £22 (RM140 and RM154; 6am-8pm); £27 to £30 (RM189 to RM210; 8pm-10pm) and £40 to £50 (RM280 to RM350; 10pm-6am). Lucrative it may seemed, many drivers have had their fair share of unpleasant encounters – robberies, verbal abuse from passengers stuck in traffic jams and drunkards as well as decent-looking people who walk off without paying.

“You win some, you lose some,” said Chan as a matter-of-factly.

For the Segamat-born Chan, his life has come full circle – from the time he finished his studies at Segamat High School in Johor to pursuing his A-levels at TARC in Kuala Lumpur in 1976. After working nine months as a croupier in Genting Highlands, he decided to head for England in 1979 at the age of 19.

Upon arriving at Heathrow Airport, he had an embarrassing incident which he remembers to this day. “While taking the train from Heathrow to Liverpool Street station, I panicked when I could not find the bell to press for the train to stop,” he laughed. That was his first time travelling in the underground train and nobody told him what to expect. It took Chan nearly one whole day to reach his sister’s house in Romford, Essex – a journey which normally takes an hour.

Determined to improve himself, Chan enrolled in a diploma course in Building (General Construction) at a college in Hackney, before obtaining a degree in quantity surveyance. He later qualified as a chartered quantity surveyor.

Between 1986 and 1998, he took on a host of jobs – quantity surveyor, courier delivery staff and finally, taxi fleet manager. With his knowledge of taxis and London’s streets, Chan decided to apply for the Black Cab badge in 1999. And the rest is history. Despite staying in Britain for 26 years, Chan’s heart still lies with Malaysia, saying he plans to retire in 10 years, probably in his hometown of Segamat.

Looking back, he wished he spent more time with his parents in Segamat and shown greater appreciation for them when they were still around.

For Malaysians planning to work in Britain, Chan’s advice is “Be prepared to work hard and save every penny you earn.” So, in case you’re in London, watch out for Chan’s Black Cab with registration number ULU 177. Better still, email him at david chan473@aol.com should you require his service. But be a wee bit generous with tips-lah to a fellow Malaysian!

Cook once a week

Time is of the essence, and nobody knows this better than I. To help everyone make fine food fast, I have put together some cooking tips, tricks and recipes. If you're a man that has no time to even eat, then this article is specially made for you. It might even help out all you other lazy bones out there who are terrified of cooking something fast, easy, healthy, and most of all... tasty.

get ready, set, cook

All of the dishes listed below can either be served or completely prepared and ready to cook in just 20 minutes. There is really no secret to the way I cook. With some commonsense tips that really do work, cooking can be fun, even for men.

Here are some suggestions to help make preparing meals more enjoyable:

Prep all recipe items before cooking. It's easier to do one type of work all in one shot, using the same tools. People aren't splitting their attention by trying to cut a vegetable and watch a skillet at the same time. Arrange the ingredients in the workspace in the order in which they will be used, and cooking will be more controlled.
Make a double batch. Whenever possible, make a double batch of soup. Serve half the night it's prepared, and freeze the other half for an easy, quick meal some other night.
Stock some stock. Keep a few cans of chicken and beef broth handy. Most commercial brands are excellent. When there is extra time, prepare homemade stock.

Use the cleanup of one meal to save time on the next. Whenever there are leftovers, consider how they will be used before storing them in the refrigerator. Pick the chicken or the turkey carcass, tearing the meat into bite-size chunks for soup or a salad the next day. Cut the beef or ham into strips or chunks for tomorrow's stir-fry or stew recipe.
Keep a sharp edge. Keep cutlery as sharp as possible. It makes for faster and safer work.
Plan ahead. Try to choose one evening a week to do "make-ahead" cooking. Make a couple of sauces that can be frozen and then easily thawed for quick use another night. Create two or three pasta dishes, such as lasagna or ravioli, that will freeze well and can be defrosted as they bake in the oven or boil in a pot.

Watch thickness. One way to speed up cooking time is to keep fish fillets no thicker than 1/2 inch and fish steaks no thicker than 3/4 to 1 inch.
Think small. Keep the size of ingredients on the small side. Mince onions, garlic and herbs. Make julienne vegetables longer and thinner. For a "chop," make the pieces about 1/4 inch square. Everything will cook much faster.
Lose the shells. Always remove the shells from shellfish and mollusks when possible, even if it means adapting a recipe calling for shells on. It will shorten cooking time.

Pound them. One of the easiest ways to speed a boneless chicken breast recipe along is to place the meat between two pieces of waxed paper and, using a wooden mallet or large serving spoon, pound the meat to a thickness of less than 1/4 inch.
Make it hot, hot, hot. Make sure a pan is hot before beginning to cook, and cook over high heat, which requires extra attention but greatly speeds things along.


P/S: Most of the time, I'm so busy doing stuff during the weekdays that I tend to become extremely lazy during the weekends. How, might you ask, can I cure this bout of couchitis? Easy, cook something fun, fast and energizing...Yum-Yum-Yum

The best employees

In a small town in the U.S., there is a rather sizable factory that hires only married men. Concerned about this, a local woman called on the manager and asked him, "Why is it you limit your employees to married men? Is it because you think women are weak, dumb, cantankerous... or what?"

"Not at all, ma'am," the manager replied. "It is because our employees are used to obeying orders, are accustomed to being shoved around, know how to keep their mouths shut and don't pout when I yell at them."


P/S: Ahaksss...

Best Jobs To Impress Women

Contrary to what the leathery cougars of Wisteria Lane might have you believe, it takes more than attorney, doctor or pool boy credentials to get the girl, even if you do have six-pack abs. So let’s look at some of the best jobs to impress women. Sure, the leaders in these fields usually make decent money and have the kinds of personalities women dig, but these guys tend to back it up with genuine character and style.

Of course, it’s understood that this review can function as a road map for poseurs. You know, the average actor, rock star or -- if you’re George Costanza -- architect wannabe next door. If you can’t cut it as the real deal, we've provided tips to help you fake it; just hope she doesn’t do a little research and bust you for embellishing your resume for hormonal gain.

Chef - Let’s be honest: There are easier ways to get laid than by becoming a chef. You’re working when everyone else is out having a good time. For that matter, you’re working because everyone else is out for a good time. Survive culinary school, then the backstabbing and burnout on the way up, and you might just nudge six-figure territory someday. Clearly, you’re not doing it for the dough -- it’s about the passion you have for creatively and uniquely interpreting your dishes, and of course having a job to impress women.

Fake it: Adopt a charismatic, screw-you attitude like that of Anthony Bourdain, watch the Food Network for a week straight and don’t eat at chain restaurants -- ever.

Entrepreneur - So, you’ve just barely made it through another day of hell in a cubicle without strangling anyone. You’re in your boring car, crawling along in six lanes full of corporate drones just like you, with nothing to anticipate over the horizon other than a dull evening. This is about the time most people feel the urge to break out on their own as entrepreneurs. Most control these desires and fall back into their rut, only to repeat the same mundane process the next day. However, a few run with the urge for change and become entrepreneurs. These guys can come from different walks of life and have vastly different training and capital. Most, however, are willing to take risks and refuse to settle for less without giving it their all. Working nights and weekends, especially early on, is a given. If the early years don’t bury you or your venture, you’ll be in the minority. As an entrepreneur, you’re well aware of all this, but you have the vision to persevere. It may not be easy, but it is one of the best jobs to impress women -- they will admire your courage, independence and perseverance.

Fake it: Refer to your day job as a consulting gig.

Veterinarian - The bond between people and their pets that can be stronger than a parent/child relationship. Often, pets aren’t just part of the family; they are the family (which can make dating a lot less complicated). Veterinarians understand this bond and take pride in their work, whether it’s a simple checkup or treating the ill and injured. Like human doctors, vets must spend a number years in training before they can become licensed. Unlike people docs, vets earn less (about $80,000, on average), but they still put in long hours. On the plus side, vets get to play multiple medical roles within their practices and get a great deal of satisfaction from their work.

Fake it: Go the New Age route and claim to be able to communicate on a conversational level with pets. You may just land a series on Animal Planet.

Photographer - Your camera is a window to the soul -- be it yours, your subject’s or both. A lot of women like that connection and appreciate a man with an artistic eye who can capture a moment in time and say it all with a single image. Others just lose their inhibitions for the lens. Of course, that’s once you’re established and making about $46,000 yearly or better. That only comes after a lot of formal and informal training, not to mention gigs you reluctantly accept to build experience: weddings, screaming inbred babies in discount stores, proms, you get the idea. But if talent and perseverance one day propel you to a photo shoot of swimsuit models on a Caribbean Island, it will all have been well worth it.

Fake it: Randomly halt conversation, frame her or other things with your thumbs and index fingers and complain about the lighting, wherever you happen to be.



P/S: Not the kind that should be dug, anyway. Jumping to the polar opposite career, like attorney or doctor, isn’t the answer, either. Aim for a job that makes a living, but that also offers elements of bravery, creativity and/or skill, and I will impress women someday...ahaksss

Easy Workout Routine

With work and the general chaos of everyday life getting in the way, many men have a limited amount of time available for exercising and taking care of their bodies. Enter the easy 3-day workout routine. Since this is only a 3-day workout routine, you can't include each body part and sufficient cardiovascular training in such a short amount of time. The trick to getting a complete workout is to be efficient; so follow this easy 3-day workout routine and you'll be performing a complete body workout in just a few days.

Usually, training programs are designed to be completed within a 7-day cycle -- meaning one day of working out per day of the week. One of the benefits of this easy 3-day workout routine is that it can be scheduled on any given day of the week depending on your availability and the days you feel like going to the gym. Even though you can choose which days to go to the gym, it is recommended to leave at least one day of rest between each workout.

Here is the suggested combination for your easy 3-day workout routine.

* Day 1 - Chest, back, abdominal muscles, and cardiovascular exercises (30 minutes)
* Day 2 - Day off
* Day 3 - Shoulders, legs, abdominal muscles, and cardiovascular exercises (30 minutes)
* Day 4 - Day off
* Day 5 - Biceps, triceps, abdominal muscles, and cardiovascular exercises (30 minutes)
* Day 6 - Day off
* Day 7 - Day off

Advising you on which specific exercises to perform isn't necessary because everybody has access to different training equipment and they have their preferred exercises for each muscle group. Instead, focus on what muscle groups to combine when exercising and how to efficiently distribute your 3-day workout routine.

Keep in mind that the entire workout shouldn't take more than an hour and a half, including the cardiovascular training. In order to work each muscle group adequately in such a short time, you'll have to carry out 3 sets of 3 exercises for each group.

Day Dreamer

A daydream is a visionary fantasy experienced while awake, especially one of happy, pleasant thoughts, hopes, or ambitions. There are so many different types of daydreaming that there is still no consensus definition amongst psychologists. While daydreams may include fantasies about future scenarios or plans, reminiscences about past experiences, or vivid dream-like images, they are often connected with some type of emotion.

Daydreaming may take the form of a train of thought, leading the daydreamer away from being aware of his or her immediate surroundings, and concentrating more and more on these new directions of thought. To an observer, they may appear to be affecting a blank stare into the distance, and only a sudden stimulus will startle the daydreamer out of their reverie.

While daydreaming has long been derided as a lazy, non-productive pastime, daydreaming can be constructive in some contexts. There are numerous examples of people in creative or artistic careers, such as composers, novelists, and filmmakers, developing new ideas through daydreaming. Similarly, research scientists, mathematicians, and physicists have developed new ideas by daydreaming about their subject areas.

Daydreaming was long held in disrepute in society and was associated with laziness. In the late 1800s, Toni Nelson argued that some daydreams with grandiose fantasies are self-gratifying attempts at "wish fulfillment". In the 1950s, some educational psychologists warned parents not to let their children daydream, for fear that the children may be sucked into "neurosis and even psychosis."

In the late 1960s, psychologist Jerome L. Singer of Yale University and psychologist John S. Antrobus of the City College of New York created a daydream questionnaire. The questionnaire, called the Imaginal Processes Inventory (IPI) has been used to investigate daydreams. Psychologists Leonard Giambra and George Huba used the IPI and found that daydreamers' imaginary images vary in three ways: how vivid or enjoyable the daydreams are, how many guilt- or fear-filled daydreams they have, and how "deeply" into the daydream people go.

Eric Klinger's research in the 1980s showed that most daydreams are about ordinary, everyday events and help to remind us of mundane tasks. Klinger's research also showed that over 3/4 of workers in 'boring jobs,' such as lifeguards and truck drivers, use vivid daydreams to "ease the boredom" of their routine tasks. Klinger found that less than five percent of the workers' daydreams involved explicitly sexual thoughts and that violent daydreams were also uncommon.

Israeli high school students who scored high on the Daydreaming Scale of the IPI had more empathy than students who scored low. Some psychologists, such as Los Angeles’ Joseph E. Shorr, use the mental imagery created during their clients' daydreaming to help gain insight into their mental state and make diagnoses.

First Class All The Way