General

Boot Camps For Troubled Teens

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A friend read my blog post on troubled teens and confessed that her son is getting too difficult for her and her husband to handle. She asked me if I know of a solution. Well, I am no counselor and I feel bad that I do not know her true situation because I do not have children of my own, what I can do is to only recommend to her what I know from other friends who also have difficult teenage children.

A colleague of mine was so desperate trying to right the life and behavior of her son that she sent him off to one of those Troubled Teen Boot Camps that she came across on the internet.

According to her, there are many boot camps for troubled teens and it is important to find the right one for the teenager. In her case, she selected one that specializes in behavior modification.

Her initial fear was that her son will be worse off being with people his own age and suffering from similar angst but she found out that being together and getting through the program was in fact more beneficial than she had thought.

Besides selecting the right boot camp, one also has to take into account the cost and length of stay. That’s why it is important to talk to people in the know like Boot Camps For Troubled Teens and they will recommend the best boot camp for the struggling teen.

In The News

Few Malaysians Satisfied With Their Sex Life

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I read with amusement on the Durex Sexual Wellbeing Global Survey 2007/08 report that fewer than two in five (38%) Malaysians are satisfied with their sex life.

I know Durex conducts this survey, or a variation of it annually. However, doing a survey like this, I wonder how many respondents will actually answer the questionnaire truthfully. What is the margin of error that is factored in? How accurate can a survey be when data was only collected from 26,000 respondents across 26 countries, where only 1,026 were Malaysians?

I am not sure if any of my friends participated in this survey but if they did, I know they surely will 9394 and give replies far off from the truth, maybe they are too shy to tell the truth, maybe for fun or maybe just to stand a chance of winning a prize in the lucky draw.

Perhaps Durex should take a look at how they collect their data. I would suggest giving a survey a six-month period for people to respond and only conduct a survery every three years or so. I think this will better show the trend of people’s sex lives.

News source: The Star

Finances

Why I Don’t Own A Credit Card

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I have owned a couple of credit cards previously but I have cancelled them due to the many problems I faced. However, that bad experience did not put me off credit cards for life. I am currently looking for one of the 0% credit cards where I can use the card without interest for the first six months. This is a good deal for me provided I remember when my six-month free interest period will be up!

When I had my first credit card, my card was cloned and I only found out from my bill that I have a whole list of unauthorized purchases. Somehow, the bank thought that I was the one who bought all those items. I was mad that they never called me up to verify.

I heard that there are cards offering 0% balance transfers so I switched cards.

I do not know what is wrong with me, with my name or with my credit cards. My PIN of my credit card was hacked and once again, I faced the same problem. I decided that enough is enough and I cancelled my card, AGAIN.

Hopefully, I will have better luck with my third credit card.

Blogging

Blogging Code of Conduct

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Following the recent threats that were targeted at a prominent female tech blogger, Kathy Sierra, many people have called for a b Blogging Code of Conduct. Yet, there are people who are against the very idea of a “Code of Conduct”. As with everything in life, there is a group who is FOR, another who is AGAINST.

I personally would like to know, is there a need to for a Code of Conduct to keep us bloggers in line, much like primary school children. I mean, most of the bloggers are legally adults. However, staying behind the screen, one tends to think that “anything goes”.

I would rather we have self-discipline and stay within our own space blogging our own thang, rather than be keep in line by a Code of Conduct. Don’t you think so?

For a more in depth write up on the Blogging Code of Conduct, please refer to Monsters and Critics.

Finances

The Ease Of Applying For Loans

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There used to be a time when it was a big deal to qualify for a loan but nowadays, it is so easy to apply for loans and approval is usually within minutes, without even the need for a credit check or to append any supporting documents like a pay slip to proof one has the ability to repay the loan.

I have friends who have so many credit cards and they can take out a credit card loan for each card. Naturally, they are financially not able to repay all their loans since they do not even earn that much.

There is a friend, Marc, who has such a bad credit rating and yet he needed a loan. Most financial institutions turned his application down, of course, but there was still a handful of lenders who were more than happy to approve his bad credit loan. I do not know if they are helping him or putting him in a worse financial situation.

People like Marc usually opt for an unsecured loan so that should they fail to repay their loan, their fixed assets will not be repossessed.

I did tell them to learn to consolidate debt for easier debt management but the way I see it, they are still leading a lavish lifestyle, rather than living within their means.

Computing & Internet

Template, Template, Where Art Thou?

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I think I finally found a friend who may be willing to help me set up a website. I am not even asking anybody to help me design one from scratch. I just need some modification done to one of the free layouts that I will be scouring the internet for that is up to my taste.

Nobody was willing to help me and they claim to be my friend? And here I was thinking that I will be paying for their services and helping them earn some side income. Cheh, what was I thinking?

Now that I have someone who partially agreed to help me with customizing my template, placing my contents where they should go, help me to upload it to the right place and teach me to maintain my site in the future, I am going to search for a nice personal web page template.

So far all I see are business templates that require lots of text on the homepage. They aren’t suitable for my purpose and I don’t even think they are nice.

I have to continue with my search, oh dear, when will it end?

Charity

Roman Greenberg Boxing Shorts Auction For Charity

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After my post on BackgammonMaster’s number one online backgammon player, I was told that BackgammonMasters.com will auction off the famous shorts of heavyweight boxer, Roman Greenberg, for $100,000 in an effort to help him make it to the World Boxing Championship.

This is the pair of shorts that people will be bidding for. All proceeds from this auction will be channeled to charities supporting Arab and Jewish youth in distress.

This pair of shorts was actually purchased by BackgammonMasters.com, the company that lets people play backgammon online, for a hefty sum which goes towards the training expenses of Roman Greenberg, effectively sponsoring his World Boxing Championship title bid.

If you have been wondering what the link between boxing and backgammon is, well, both are actually skilled sports. Moreover, BackgammonMasters.com, by supporting Arab and Jew causes, hopes to see unity and peace between them. Besides, backgammon is an immensely popular game in Arab countries, where it is known as Tavla.

It makes sense to bring peace to these people who have been at each other’s throat since forever, because Roman Greenberg, the current IBO Intercontinental heavyweight champion, is a Russian-born Jew.

Hopefully, fans of Roman Greenberg will support BackgammonMaster’s auction and make it a success! I personally love collecting celebrity and sports memorabilia but the price tag of this is surely out of my reach!

Random Thoughts Off My Mind