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Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Full Time Writer/Researcher Needed in Malaysia
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I RECEIVED AN EMAIL YESTERDAY FROM A MALAYSIAN GENTLEMAN WHO SAID HE IS LOOKING FOR EXTRAPRIATES TO WORK AS FULL-TIME WRITERS/RESEARCHERS. The email read: "Researcher and writer is needed full time to research on:
"Report will be published as columns /articles/special report in Malaysian newspapers and Blog." (For more details about this job, click here.) Monday, January 16, 2012 Cattle Station Hopping, in Cape York Peninsula, Queensland
 I WAS PRIVILEGED TO VISIT CAPE YORK PENINSULA, ONE OF THE WORLD'S LAST GREAT WILDERNESS AREAS AT THE VERY NORTHERN TIP OF AUSTRALIA, IN SEPTEMBER LAST YEAR. I travelled there with my Dad, a keen birder who was on the hunt for some of the Cape's rare and endangered species, such as the golden-shouldered parrot and the red goshawk. I just went there because I thought it was a good place to explore, and because my Dad was footing the bill. My dad got to see his parrots and his goshawk, and got to experience a vestige of the (Ab)Original Australia. One of the first things you notice driving up the deteriorating road from Cairns, into the wild savannahs, is the peculiar pattern of land use here. In other parts of the world there are farms, forests, villages and cities; in Cape York there are cattle stations, Aboriginal reservations, national parks, and mines. In that order of frequency, with the odd tiny town or two thrown in, hundreds of kilometres apart... (For the full story, click here.)
Wednesday, January 11, 2012 New Home Delivery Service Launched in Ho Chi Minh City
A FRIEND OF MINE HAS LAUNCHED A COOL WEBSITE FOR ORDERING FOOD FOR HOME DELIVERY IN HO CHI MINH CITY. While many restaurants do home deliveries, EatVn is the first service I know of which groups them all together, giving you access to multiple cuisines. On EatVn you don't need to make a single call, which is attractive to people like me who feel shy telephoning restaurants in foreign countries, wondering if we will get an English speaker on the other end. You don't even need to enter your credit card details either, just make your selection and wait for the goodies to arrive. When he launched the website last April, Swedish-born Palm Anders claimed to have about 20 restaurants signed up, with another 100 expected before the end of the year... (For the full story, click here.)
Sunday, December 11, 2011
7 Online Dating Mistakes That Could Break Your
CINDY McDONALD FROM BEST CHRISTIAN DATING SITES KINDLY WROTE A GUEST POST FOR ME ON THE PITFALLS OF ONLINE DATING. "If you’re single and looking for love or companionship online in this day in age... it’s no secret that it can be tough out there," the article reads. "And because of the dangers hiding behind every '.com,' not only do you have to protect your fragile heart from being broken, but you also have to protect your wallet from being robbed. So before you take to the dating scene on the web, it is essential to educate yourself on the various mistakes that could leave you loveless and penniless. Check out the following financial pitfalls in online dating and tips for avoiding them in your quest for a cyber-relationship:... (For the full 7 Online Dating Mistakes That Could Break Your Sunday, December 4, 2011 Feedback: From an Expat Living in Phuket
I GOT SOME EMAILS RECENTLY FROM AN EXPAT LIVING IN PHUKET, AND IT SEEMS FROM THE TONE OF HIS WRITING THAT NOT ALL RESIDENTS OF THE RESORT ARE APPRECIATIVE OF THE RECENT RUSSIAN INVASION. "Most of us retired here do not liked being swamped by Russian or for that matter any tourist group that comes here that sticks to together in groups and overwhelms beaches, hotels or specific tours," wrote the expat. "At times you might thing you are in Odessa at some Phuket beaches surrounded on all sides by boisterous and uncommunicative Russian, (their English or other language skills minimal?")... (For the full Feedback from an Expat story, click here.) Sunday, November 20, 2011Yoh Yoh (Earning Rupees Online)I GOT AN INVITATION FROM A CERTAIN N. BHAVE TO JOIN A SITE CALLED YOH YOH. Yoh Yoh promises Rupee payments (by postal cheque) for reading health articles, and other stuff like that. This is not particularly helpful for me, as I am an Australian living in Australia, and the banks here won't cash Indian cheques (although I might be wrong). But I am planning to live in India for a year in 2016/17 or so, I thought it would be good if I had some local sources of income when I arrive there. So I decided to join Yoh Yoh... (For the full Yoh Yoh story, click here.)Monday, November 15, 2011Safe DatingI READ AN ARTICLE ON THE INTERNET RECENTLY (NOVEMBER 2011) CLAIMING THAT WOMEN CAN TELL IF YOU ARE UGLY OR ATTRACTIVE, MERELY BY READING YOUR PROFILE ONLINE. They say women are more intuitive than men; maybe they can pick up on clues, like your choice of words. As Australia's Herald Sun rereported yesterday (November 14): "A study to be released by psychologist Rebecca Brand from the Villanova University in Philadelphia found more attractive men were able to portray their level of sex-appeal in their self-description." Which makes sense to me; sexy guys are more likely to be confident in everything they do, including their online banter. And nine-tenths of sex appeal is confidence. Confidence is one thing, however, con artistry is another; it would be foolish to believe everything you read on the Internet. Best Black Dating Sites is an African-American organisation committed to safe dating on the Internet, and regularly reviews hundreds of online black dating sites to help readers quickly find the best deals, coupons and dating sites that do not compromise on safety. "You might think you know a person after a few emails, but the truth of the matter is that it could be anyone sitting on the other side of the internet," the Best Black Dating Sites warns on its homepage... (For the full safe dating story, click here.)Monday, October 10, 2011Google +: (Real Life Sharing Rethought for the Web)JUST ABOUT EVERY DAY NOW I GET AN INVITE TO JOIN A SOCIAL MEDIA NETWORK. 2011 seems to be the year of social media, and the proliferation of social networks is truly mindboggling. I have read on Smedio that it took radio 38 years to attract its first 50 million users, and TV 13 years to build up an audience of the same size. Facebook, on the other hand, reached that critical mass in just six months. The king or queen of the social media, Facebook now has 34 million users in India, and that number is growing all the time. It is almost like a little Internet in itself, with its own economy and ecosystem. In some places, you are not a real person anymore unless you have a Facebook page. It is certainly a great place to go if you want to make new friends, consolidate your existing links, or look up old relationships. If you have a smartphone you should have a look at Foursquare, which allows you to find likeminded people in realspace (for example, a cafe, a train), realtime (ie now), all around you. do whatever the both of you want to do. It is the closest thing to a universal Gaydar that I have yet encountered, a Gaydar for straights (if only I had the guts to use it that way!)... (For the full Google + story, click here.)Friday, September 30, 2011Anphabe (Connecting Leaders in Vietnam)I GOT AN EMAIL TODAY FROM THE DIRECTOR OF MARKETING AND OPERATIONS AT A CERTAIN VIETNAMESE RECRUITMENT COMPANY, INVITING ME TO JOIN ANPHABE. "26 letters of the Alphabet create the world of languages," reads the spiel on Anphabe, "26 connections on ANPHABE create the world of opportunities." Actually, there are 29 letters in the Vietnamese alphabet not counting all the squiggles and accents, but I can see where they are coming from. As networks like LinkedIn know, there are just a few degrees of seperation between you and your dream job. The hardest part is bridging that divide. You need to be part of a network to do that. Even though I am no longer looking for a job in Vietnam, I took up the marketing and operations director's offer. I joined Anphabe... (For the full Amphabe story, click here.)Sunday, September 25, 2011North Vietnam's Soldier-Painter and Living Legend (Pham Luc)I GOT AN EMAIL YESTERDAY FROM A CERTAIN MR PHUC (OF VIETNAM PATHFINDER TRAVEL IN HANOI) WHICH READ: "I found your website and contact at Crowded World, and would like to sell some paintings of Pham Luc Artists in my collection (at attached files). Pham Luc artist live in Hanoi, Vietnam. He is around 70years old now and some of my paintings bought from him that was painted during Vietnam war time (60-70)."
 In a land which reveres patriots, Pham Luc occupies a particularly hallowed position: he served in the North Vietnamese army as a painter, using art as a witness and a weapon. While the Americans and other forces he confronted were using cameras to record the war, Pham relied on paint, brush and canvas. When canvas became scarce, he painted on burlap rice sacks, as one foreigner who visited his home in Hanoi remarked... (For the full story on Pham Luc, click here.) Saturday, September 17, 2011Cape York Peninsula: One Last Refuge of the Classic AustralianI just got back from a six-day jaunt through Cape York peninsula in far north Queensland, and was amazed to discover a refuge where the traditional Australian still lived on. Going up there is like taking a trip back in time, to the pioneer days of the 1800s, where nature and man lived side by side. Granted, the inhabitants of the Cape have satellite phones and high-powered cars, but in many ways they live the oldfashioned way. The Nanny State hasn't reached that far north, and probably never will. White folk there will scoff at concepts like racism and multiculturalism, yet they have more Aboriginal friends than any "politically correct" southerner does. Spending time in the Cape confirmed my suspicions that political correctness was just another, more ultimate form of racism. One won't talk about the disappearance of the Aborigine from modern life, to absolve oneself of guilt for his extermination - that for me is political correctness. Cape York offers a glimpse of Australia when black and white lived together, not exactly in harmony but at least in daily contact. The way both races interact reveals how the modern white Australian evolved, away from his British/Irish roots. (To read the full Cape York peninsula story, click here.)
 Monday, August 8, 2011WAYN: A New Place to Make FriendsI got an email from a guy called Poolidurai Poolipandi today inviting me to join him on WAYN, a social media site. WAYN stands for "Where Are You Now?", and (at last count) claims to have about 18 million members. Specifically, it promotes itself as a place where you can "share your Travel and Lifestyle Interests and meet other people who have things in common with you." As I am ever on the look out for new social media sites, I took Poolidurai Poolipandi up on his offer. As I joined up, it was revealed that I already had nine friends on WAYN... including a certain U.Bhandari, a Nepali I used to work with in Tokyo, and a girl I went to college with in Australia. It is a small world after all, and it is funny how your contacts can follow you through your life now (around the world), courtesy of information technology! Monday, August 1, 2011Contemporary Art in Vietnam: Cactus Art Gallery I got an email today from the managment of the Cactus Art Gallery in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. They wanted me to include a mention of their facility on my Buying Vietnamese Modern Art, which is gradually taking shape. I am hoping one day that Vietnamese artists and buyers will be able to come together on the page and negotiate their own deals, create networks and alliances and promote their wares. In short, I hope the site will become a gallery in its own right! To read the full Cactus Art Gallery story, click here. The flight was due to depart Narita Airport on March 19 and fly to Sydney via Cairns. I was scheduled to spend a few hours here, in this popular North Queensland resort, from 5am to around 9am the following morn. I might have caught the sunrise if I was lucky. However, the aftershocks and nuclear meltdown fears in Japan necessitated a change to the flight plan, and I received an even luckier break. On the way home we dumped our cabin crew at Kansai Airport, safe from the crisis in eastern Japan, and picked up a new crew. It was my first visit to Kansai and I thought it looked kind of cool from the air, built as it is on an artifical island off the shore of Kobe and Osaka and connected to the mainland by causeway. We had to wait about two hours on the tarmac while a new crew came on board, but I was just happy to be away from Tokyo... at least there weren't any aftershocks here! Eventually we were off on the long leg south, but all this mucking about had put us four hours behind schedule. By the time we sailed down into Cairns International Airport it was about 8.30am. The sun was already up and doing its thing, burning through the humidity. The view on landing, suffice to say, was amazing. It was the perfect balm to a week spent in disaster-stricken Japan. I didn't care how late I was.
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