In the first story, Steve dropped out of colledge in the first 6 months because of money issue. He kept as a drop-in for another 18 month, living an extemly humble life. At that time, it was very scary. During that period, Steve took a calligraphy class. The knowledge learned from the class eventually appeared on Macintosh computer, and later, was copied into Windows by Microsoft. Without the drop-out, Steve would never bring beautiful typography into the PC world.

The second story is about being fired at his 30, which forced Steve to restart. “The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything.” Within 5 years, Steve had two successful companies, NeXT and Pixar. More importantly, he met his current wife and got married.

The third and the last story is about death. Steve fighted cancer in 2004 and lived through it. The experience tought him that “almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.”

Particularly, I like the following two paragraphs from his speach:

Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

Life always has ups and downs. The only thing matters is whether one has the life that one love to live. Surely, Steve has followed his own intuition and has made enormous achievements because of that.

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This is just the basic setup. Add some exotic greens, such as flat-leaf parsley, or radicchio. Add carrot, radishes, caramelized onions or celery roots. Consider sliced apples, sliced pears, or dried cranberries as fruit. Replace pine nuts with pumpkin seeds, or shaved almonds. Walnut is also a good choice. Meat people could add chicken, fish, or cocktail shrimp to complement the dish.

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There are two major reasons for stores to have sales.

• Inventory Control: Seasonal sales belong to this category. Stores in small cities are more likely to offer good deals since they have smaller customer base.
• Costumer Attraction: There were not so many customers for Fry’s during most of 2006. In last Thanksgiving, it offered deep discounts on softwares to attract customers.

The practices below are useful for catching good deals:

1. Locate stores near where you live/travel and understand the game code. For example, there are Macy’s, ROSS, Big 5 Sporting Goods, Sears, Kohl’s, Fry’s, and Staples near Sunnyvale, CA. Further, Macy’s credit card provides 10% discount, and Kohl’s card offers card holders 15% off 4 times a year plus holiday savings. Local folks could help you out if you are on a trip.
2. Understand what you want. Good deals are normally “now or never”. You have to act quickly when you see them. For example, if you know the brand Kenneth Cole, you will know that $10 for a pair of Kenneth Cole Reaction dress pants is a very good deal. COSTCO had a pair of Perry Ellis dress pants on sale for $10 for one day. The next day, the price was changed to $16.99.
3. Work hard. It is worth reading categories and visiting online sales sites often. It is important to visit stores frequently and to be there early. More importantly, spend enough time in the store so that you don’t miss any good deals. For example, the $10 Kenneth Cole deal mentioned before was a hidden deal. You had to talk to cashier to get it.

Back to myself, my latest success story is a pair of high-quality Rockport dress shoes from ROSS. I paid ~$24 plus tax while its original price was $100. I cannot be happier. Hey, readers, do you have some good stories to share?

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Whenever I look back, I realize that how these two things helped me move forward during the past several years. It is important to keep growing oneself whenever there is a chance. It is equally important to do the right things and to work hard to do the right things. It is like climbing mountains. Before reaching the top, there seem to be endless small mountains ahead of us. Further, we need to choose the right path.

At the beginning of the year, I was like at the bottom of mountains and I haven’t climbed mountains before. There was a lot of uncertainty and there were plenty of situations that I was sure that I didn’t know how to handle. Along the way, I struggled, I fell, and I made tons of mistakes. (See my previous posts about food, crunch time, and fighting stress.) Now, I am like at the middle of mountains, and I start to be used to mountain climbing.

There are always issues in the life. Donald Trump suggests the following in the December issue of Business 2.0: Obsess about solutions, not problems. The image of success is important, but even more important is the ability to focus on solutions instead of on problems.

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Everything has been working perfectly for human beings until the information new era when people are using brain, instead of physical body, to solve issues. In that case, the amount of hormones pumped into the human body seems to be too much and makes people stressful even when stressors no longer exist, which is called stress overload.

How to fight it? Here are some tips:

1. Music
2. Laughters
3. Food/Snack: Try healthy food. Don’t staff yourself up, which worsen the situation.
4. Try a repeat performance
5. Regular exercise works best. Try yoda, jogging, hiking, bicycling, etc.
6. Focus on one’s breath to reduce heartrate variability. This is more like meditation.
7. Avoid interruption: emails, IM, etc.
8. Wash hands
9. Have an exercise when possible

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Since crunch time is unavoidable, how could we deal with it? I would like to share some personal experiences here:

1. Get up early. It keeps one’s body clock right enjoying the sunshine. It helps maintain a positive attitude during the long day.
2. Take a morning shower to help the body wake up.
3. Prepare extra clothing for early morning or late evening if one lives in an area with large temperature diference between day and night. Cold will at least cause headache.
4. Take a nap from time to time whenever one feels sleepy.
5. Have enough exercise to keep the blood flow. However, don’t over-exercise to exhaust oneself.
6. Keep energy bars or snacks handy in the working place. Don’t have energy crisis!
7. Have good quality food!

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Eye

1. Lutein: Various research studies have shown that a direct relationship exists between lutein intake and pigmentation in eye. Several studies also show that an increase in macula pigmentation decreases the risk for eye diseases. That’s why spinach, kale, and other greens are good for human beings.
2. Zeaxanthin: It lowers the risk of cataract development and the risk of developing age-related macular degeneration. It is the pigment that gives corn, saffron, and other many other plants their characeristic color.
3. Omega-3 fatty acids: It helps keep eyes hydrated while it reduces the risk of coronary heart diseases. One could fine it in coldwater fish like tuna, salmon and sardines, as well as walnuts.

Immune System

1. Zinc: Studies show that significant dietary intake of zinc has also recently been shown to impede the onset of flu. Zinc salts are effective against pathogens in direct application. Both red meat and oyster are full of zinc.
2. Vitamin C: One can find it in orange juice, SoBe, or green vegitables.
3. Galic: It can also help fight off infection, thanks to its healthy dose of the antimicrobial agent allicin. The well-known phenomenon of “galic breath” is alleged to be alleviated by eating fresh parsley. Of course, it is a temporary fix since one cannot keep eating parsley. This is the major medicine when my life becomes hectic and I am lack of sleep due to hardwork.

Memory

1. Blueberry: Blueberry contains vitaberry that shows promise in slowing and reversing brain aging. Further, blueberry helps reduce the risks of some cancers.
2. Egg: Egg yolk is rich in choline, which is vital for building strong brains in womb, and is also important in keeping brain cells functioning throughout life.
3. Water: Human brain is 75-85% water. When dehydrated, one’s attention and concentration can decrease by 13% and short term memory by 7%.

Nerve System

1. B Vitamins: This vitamin family increases serotonin levels in the brain and in turn helps to reaulate reactions to stress. They are essential for healthy nerves, skin, eyes and hair, and for a healthy liver. One can find them in asparagus, broccoli, kale, and spinach, potatoes, bananas, cereal, lentils, chili peppers, tempeh, liver, turkey, and tuna.
2. Peppermint: It calms the muscles of the stomach and improves the flow of bile. Peppermint tea is a generally safe way to soothe an upset stomach. Personally, I like white peppermint mocha.

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Year by year since 1995, we are seeing house prices keep soaring. Even 2000 stock bubble bust didn’t stop its steps. However, I have noticed two interesting news from BizJournals, talking about the rising foreclosure rate in California and in Sancramento. There are another series of two articles from Economist.com: one in 2005, and one in this year. We’ve experience the peak of housing market. We might go further high, or might experience a double peak. But, the knife is definitely falling.

Everything has its limit. For example, if the gas price reaches 10 dollars per gallon, most of people would stop driving cars, which leave zero profit for oil companies. If people cannot afford the house, they would rather rent. Eventually, the price will be driven down because of lack of demand. Low demand will either increase the cost of doing mortgage or reduce the number of mortgage companies.

When and how that will happen also depends on inflation, due to the fact that a lof of families have bought their houses based on ARM (adjustable-rate mortgage). Higher inflation will result in higher interest rate.

The effect of the combined two is fatal: it will become extreme costly to lock down to a low fixed mortgage rate while the flexible rate will result in an instant bankruptcy. Either way, people will be broken. Thus, they might simply return the key to the bank, which will drive the cost even higher for mortgage bank and will cause the panic of the whole real estate market.

Please keep a close eye on both US housing market conditions and US Inflation Rate!

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Before the donation, make sure that one keeps records of all the items, and one has correctly calculated fair market values. In the Internet age, one could leverage popular on-line sites. For example, Amazon is a good place for books, and Ebay is a good place for both clothing and computer related stuffs.

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