As they say "time and tides wait for no man".
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Saturday, January 24, 2009
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Learn, Save and ShopWiki
While not a shopoholic, I do love to shop. I especially love shopping (particularly the window variety) when I travel. But with the economy in crisis and the retail industry struggling to keep afloat, everybody is cutting back. My way of dealing with it is to comparison shop online. My research led me to discover a fabulous shopping search engine: ShopWiki, which crawls more than 200,000 online stores. At ShopWiki you don't actually shop but you find products, the stores that sell the products and their prices. When I checked them out today they had 223,963,832 products in their database.
What sets Shopwiki apart however is that they are also one huge shopping guide. For example if you want to purchase a washing machine, you can visit their Housewares and Home Maintenance section. When you select washing machine you will discover quite a bit of useful information to assist in choosing the right washing machine for you. If you want a space saver, there are several options. They offer recommendations and the pros and cons for the standard top loader, the front loader and the top loading high efficiency types. They even let you in on the latest in washing machine technology.
I spent a good half hour on their Home and Garden section examining their garden guides and other goodies. Of course they have guides for all regions from the dry tropical south to the wet pacific northwest. The outdoor accents got my attention too, as I always wished for a water fountain approached by stepping stones. Maybe one day. Right now I'm heading to explore the warming drawers.
Friday, January 16, 2009
College Interview
Despite my incredibly busy schedule which even involves starting a new website, I have decided to share some suggestions I gave to my son who had a college interview yesterday.
• Firstly I stressed that he was not to be late. Get there early.
• In terms of dress I reminded him to dress neatly. Since his school dress includes shirt, tie and blazer I told him to go in class dress.
• I reminded him to address the interviewer politely. Greet with a good solid handshake and smile and call him by his/her name. Also avoid expressions such as "you know", "like" and hmm hmm.
With respect to answering the questions. I suggested that there were two main considerations:
1. What do you have to offer the school - Here is where stock is taken of your character, your academic achievements/interests, your extra curricular and co curricular activities.
2. What does the school have to offer you - This involves why you want to go to that school and can it meet your academic and extra curricular needs?
To me it is best to avoid studying interview questions and practising answers as you may sound too programmed. This is not to say that kids should not be prepared. My advice though is to know yourself and be yourself. So if you have a resume, take a look at it to remind you of your talents and accomplishments (nerves can be the greatest memory extinguisher).
Finally the interviewer can and most likely will come up with questions or discussions from way out of left field. My son told me that for a good part of the interview he was engaged in a discussion of Usain Bolt's world record sprint in the Beijing Olympics. So get ready to talk.
• Firstly I stressed that he was not to be late. Get there early.
• In terms of dress I reminded him to dress neatly. Since his school dress includes shirt, tie and blazer I told him to go in class dress.
• I reminded him to address the interviewer politely. Greet with a good solid handshake and smile and call him by his/her name. Also avoid expressions such as "you know", "like" and hmm hmm.
With respect to answering the questions. I suggested that there were two main considerations:
1. What do you have to offer the school - Here is where stock is taken of your character, your academic achievements/interests, your extra curricular and co curricular activities.
2. What does the school have to offer you - This involves why you want to go to that school and can it meet your academic and extra curricular needs?
To me it is best to avoid studying interview questions and practising answers as you may sound too programmed. This is not to say that kids should not be prepared. My advice though is to know yourself and be yourself. So if you have a resume, take a look at it to remind you of your talents and accomplishments (nerves can be the greatest memory extinguisher).
Finally the interviewer can and most likely will come up with questions or discussions from way out of left field. My son told me that for a good part of the interview he was engaged in a discussion of Usain Bolt's world record sprint in the Beijing Olympics. So get ready to talk.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Monday, January 12, 2009
Welcome Back
Wow it seems like ages since I've been here but the truth is I've been visiting family and then had to regroup on my return. During my absence I learned that my mother who is retired is fitter than ever I. How depressing! We went walking in the mornings and she left me in the dust. Then when my son entered the fray he took off like a jet leaving us behind in his wake. the consumption of rum soaked fruit cake, ham and sorrel didn't help. What is sorrel you ask? A drink of course. It is made from the sorrel flower, steeped in boiling water to which is added ginger and sugar. Though typically served in the Caribbean at Christmas it was very much present in the Asian store I visited in New York.
Life is good. School and work are back in session and blogging will continue.
Life is good. School and work are back in session and blogging will continue.
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