Favorite foods

Royal Asia Spicy Noodles with Shrimp

Found these at Costco in frozen section.  200 calories per 10oz bowl.  Has noodles, vegetables, wide noodles.  very yummy and healthy.


Ba-wan
Taiwanese meatball.  hard to find.  Available at Chou Mama's in Newark, CA.  A bit pricy.










http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ba-wan

UGGs!

Ahh the world famous UGGs haha.  They're unisex sheepskin boots, though I usually see women wearing them.  One of the common styles in winter is Uggs with leggings.

On UggAustralia.com, you can customize your Uggs, and they also have stain and water repellent products for your boots.  They also have insoles and liners.  Though most of the Uggs I see are brown, they do have a variety of colors like black and gray.  

Wow they've even expanded to home products like area rugs, pillows, and throws.  

ULTA Beauty

As a guy I don't know too much about it, but I've heard friends and coworkers mention ulta.com.  It looks like they have a pretty broad cross section of products, like cosmetics, fragrance, haircare, skincare, bath and body products and salon styling tools.  

It's a $5 billion market cap company headquartered in Illinois. Its stores have a salon area that offers  hair cuts, hair coloring and permanent texture, facials, and waxing. ULTA looks like it is growing strongly, with revenue growing from $1.8 billion to $2.2 billion in its latest fiscal year.  

Verizon Broadband

I recently learned that Verizon.com offers broadband service to the home.  I had primarily thought of them as a wireless carrier.

Internet
Verizon offers high speed internet that beats the average cable provider, according to a 2008 PC Magazine survey.

Fiber Optics Internet
Verizon offers even faster internet by providing fiber optics straight to your home.  The service is called FiOS Internet.

TV
348 digital channels and 100 HD channels.

Verizon also has bundles combining the above at a discount.  Verizon is a $140 billion market cap company and is ranked #1 in the telecom industry in Fortune's 2013 list of the World's Most admired companies.  Nice!

ThinkGeek

ThinkGeek.com has some pretty cool stuff.  They have shoes with LED lights, shower caddies with the Dr. Who theme, mugs with designs from rainbow unicorns to Breaking Bad to Star Wars.

ThinkGeek has free shipping on orders $75 and above.

Some of their bestsellers are a special pen from the the Dr. Who show, and Firefly the board game.  Wow they even have a pivoting power strip for only $10!  When i saw these elsewhere they were usually a lot more expensive.  Haha they even have Star Trek: The Next Generation pajamas.

It looks like a lot of their bestsellers are from the Dr. Who TV show.  They also have a ring replica from the Lord of the Rings movie series.  Haha wow, they even have an ice mold that makes ice cubes in the shape of the Death Star from Star Wars!  Pretty creative.  And of course, they have Star Wars light sabers.

They also have this thing called the useless box, where when you flip the switch, the box opens slightly and this arm comes out and unflips the switch.  haha weird.  Another pretty cool thing is this electronic butterfly in a jar.  Looks like a real butterfly but it's electronic.

My favorite tire store: Tire Rack!

Ever since I've owned my own car, I've bought my tires from TireRack.com.  They have a really wide selection of products and they also do unbiased testing of tires.  The first set of tires I got from Tire Rack were Kumho Ecstas for my 2003 Nissan Altima.  The second set were for my 2011 Toyota Camry, also Kumho Ecstas.

The Kumho tires did quite well on the wet traction tests, and have a traction rating of AA, versus the A rating I saw on the original tires that came with the cars.  There's also a lot of education material on Tire Rack about when to replace your tires and other important things.  In addition to the scientific tire testing, there are also customer reviews for things like how comfortable the tires feel.

I had my tires delivered to my office, and it was really funny to see these 4 big tires sitting there at the office reception.  My coworkers had a good laugh too.

I've compared the tire prices and they're cheaper than any other places I saw.

Under Armour

Underarmour.com is one of the most popular clothing brands.  A lot of mixed martial artists in the Ultimate Fighting Championships and other organizations wear Under Armour, like George St. Pierre and Gina Carano.

For tops, Under Armour has
Hoodies & Sweatshirts
Long Sleeves
Short Sleeves
Polos
Graphic T's
Sleeveless & Tanks
Baselayer Tops
Undershirts

For bottoms, they offer
Pants
Shorts
Leggings & Tights
Baselayer Bottoms
Underwear

Under Armour also has running shoes, cross-training shoes, basketball shoes, cleats, hiking boots, and sandals.  It also has clothing specially designed for hot seasons and cold seasons.

Urban Outfitters

Urban Outfitters is one of my favorite stores.  Many of my colleagues swear by one of its subsidiaries, Anthropologie.  Urban Outfitters has over 200 stores worldwide.

Urban Outfitters has dresses, rompers, sweaters, cardigans, hoodies, sweatshirts, shirts, blouses, tops, tees, jackets, jeans, pants, leggings, skirts, shorts, swimwear, lingerie, underwear, tights, and socks.

It also has lots of vintage clothing and accessories like shoes, jewelry, watches, bags, and wallets.  I remember visiting urban outfitters a few years ago and having a good experience.  Its stores are pretty large and spacious and laid out well.

Oh yeah, I remember they also have a lot of household decoration stuff like wall art, bedding, furniture, rugs, pillows, lighting, kitchen products, and stuff for the bathroom.  It has a lot of popular brands like Converse, New Balance, Timberland, and Vans.

Verizon Wireless

Verizon Wireless is the biggest mobile service provider in the US.  Wow it has over 100 million subscribers. That's like 1/3 of the population of the US!

You can get phones from Apple, LG, Motorola, Samsung, HTC, Nokia, Blackberry, Pantech, Kyocera and more.  It looks like their website has all the latest most popular phones.  You can also manage your account and billing online, saving time and postage.

The Verizon website also has accessories like cases, chargers, batteries, and ringtones.  Verizon also provides residential and business phone service.  You can also backup your data to Verizon Cloud.  My friends who have Verizon have had very good things to say about the service.

Verizon also offers V Cast, that offers high speed audio, video on demand, and entertainment delivery.

Virgin Mobile USA

Virgin Mobile USA is one of the top mobile service providers in the US.  It was founded by Sir Richard Branson.  Ah I just learned it's a subsidiary of Sprint.

Virgin Mobile USA offers mobile phones and wireless broadband devices.


Service plans:
payLo
$40 Per Month - Unlimited Minutes, Unlimited Text, 50MB of Web Access.
$30 Per Month - 1500 Minutes, 1500 Text, 30MB of Web Access.
$20 Per Month - 400 Minutes, 15¢/Text, $1.50/MB for Web Access.

Beyond Talk
$35/mo. - 300 Anytime Minutes, Unlimited Messaging and Data.
$45/mo. - 1200 Anytime Minutes, Unlimited Messaging and Data.
$55/mo. - Unlimited Anytime Minutes, Unlimited Messaging and Data.

Broadband2Go
Data-only "Broadband2Go" plans are compatible with Virgin Mobile USA's mobile broadband modems. Users may purchase access to Broadband2Go services by the day or by the month. Two different monthly plans are offered:
2 GB of 3G access and 10 GB of 4G access
5 GB of 3G access and 10 GB of 4G access

Vistaprint

Vistaprint.com is a website that let's you print customized business cards, invitations, stationery, clothing, signs, banners, and more.  It's a global company with a market cap of about $1.7 billion headquartered in the Netherlands.

Vistaprint serves over 120 countries, from the USA, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Spain, France, and more.

Vistaprint is a Better Business Bureau accredited business and a Google Trusted Store.  It has over 5 million transactions as a Google Trusted Store and 99% on-time shipping.  wow.

They have a really wide product offering, from calendars to banners, brochures, holiday cards, address labels, and marketing materials.  You can make your business cards stand out with raised print, a glossy finish, or metallic finish.  You can also make custom magnets to help your customers remember you.

Walgreens

Walgreens is one of the largest online drug retailers.  It also has over 8500 locations in all 50 states.  When I lived closer to a Walgreens before, I got my prescription medications there.  I also get miscellaneous over the counter medications like cough suppressant at Walgreens.

Last time I went to Walgreens, my wife and I got our flu shots there.  All my experience at Walgreens has been great, with no issues.  They even have drive-through pharmacies, which is pretty cool and convenient.

Walgreens also has many other products and services like photo, beauty products, vitamins and supplements, groceries, baby and kid products, toys, household products, and more.

They carry top brands like Neutrogena, Nature Made, Dove, Seventh Generation, and more.

I recently learned that its subsidiaries include Duane Reade and drugstore.com.  Wow Walgreens is a $56 billion market cap company!

Wayfair

Wayfair.com is one of the largest online retailers.  It started in 2002 and sells products like bedroom furniture, living room furniture, area rugs, bedding, cookware, and health & fitness products.

It offers fast and free shipping on orders over $49.  Orders under that cost $4.99 to ship.

It has over 1 million likes on Facebook!  It's also a Google Trusted Store.  It has an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau, and an "Excellent" rating from Stella Service.

Wayfair also offers gift cards and gift registries.  It is headquartered in Boston, MA and has locations elsewhere in the US, UK, Germany, and Australia.  The company was ranked #19 by glassdoor for best place to work.

Wayfair offers many of the top brands like Herman Miller, Steelcase, Philippe Starck, Kohler, Weber, and others.  Wayfair's goal is to become the favorite place to buy anything for the home.

Yahoo!

Yahoo.com is a great company that offers a lot of products for free.  The one I use most is My Yahoo, which you can get free at http://my.yahoo.com .

The main benefit of My Yahoo, and I think it's a big one, is that as an RSS aggregator, you can show only headlines that are from the last 24 hours, last 2 days, etc.  This way, your page isn't clogged up by old headlines you've seen many times.  I haven't seen this feature available in other aggregators like Google Reader.

What's an RSS aggregator?  basically it allows you to put news headlines from many sources on one page, instead of going to each website individually to see if there are articles you want to read.  For example, on my My Yahoo page I have news from Yahoo News, Wall Street Journal, Wired Magazine, New York Times, gaming websites, shopping deals websites, DesiringGod.org, Techmeme.com, Techcrunch.com, and others.

You can also add sections like weather info, stock prices, and others.  I also use Yahoo mail and you can see a preview of your email in My Yahoo.

Yahoo also offers other services like web hosting, merchant solutions, finding a new or used car, a browser toolbar, Yahoo messenger, and Flickr, a place that can host your pictures.

Spreadsheet tips: Microsoft Excel and Google Docs

Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Excel is one of the most important tools for any type of analytical or quantitative work.

One of the best ways to get quicker at Excel or any process is after using it for awhile, notice what steps take you a while, and see if there are faster ways to execute it.  This way, you don't have to memorize a ton of shortcuts that you rarely use.

Some sites with useful Excel shortcuts:
http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2292786/10-Quick-Time-Saving-Excel-Shortcuts-Mouse-Tricks-for-Marketers

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/excel-shortcut-and-function-keys-HP010073848.aspx


Google Docs Spreadsheet

Good, free, alternative to Microsoft Excel.  Excel also has a free ad-supported starter edition that you can download at http://www.techspot.com/downloads/6255-microsoft-office-starter-2010.html

One of the best things about Google docs is that it's online, meaning you can access it from a computer anywhere.  Plus it's constantly backed up so you don't have to worry about your computer crashing and losing your work.  It has most of the basic features needed for spreadsheets.

You can access Google Docs at http://drive.google.com

Microwave tips

How to keep your microwave clean:
*Make sure to cover everything you microwave!*  I just use a paper plate to cover the food and reuse it until it's too dirty.  This is by far the best tip to keeping your microwave clean.  If you do this, you will rarely ever have to clean your microwave.  This is by far the best thing I've done to my microwaving process in a while.


How to reduce microwaving time:
Most microwaves have a heavy glass plate that rests on a plastic wheel mechanism that rotates.  You can remove the heavy glass plate and simply put the plate you're microwaving on top of the wheel mechanism.

This saves a lot of microwaving time and energy because energy is not wasted going into the heavy glass plate and heating it up.  I think it saves about 25% of microwaving time or so at least.  It has worked well for me for 7+ years.  The only time it has issues is with microwave popcorn... I guess without the glass plate, the popcorn cooks so fast that it burns.


How to clean microwave without harsh chemicals and reduce scrubbing effort:
Slice some type of citrus fruit, orange, lemon, lime, grapefruit, etc in half, put it in a bowl and cover half the fruit with water.  Microwave for about 2 minutes.  The steam inside helps loosen the junk stuck to your microwave walls and makes your microwave smell better.

Zappos.com Shoes and Clothing

Zappos.com is one of the best online shoes retailers.  It was acquired by Amazon a few years ago.  Zappos also sells clothing now.  The company is based in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Zappos has free shipping both ways, 365 day return policy, 24/7 customer service, and over 1000 brands.

Some of the products you can find at Zappos:
Women's Shoes
Men's Shoes
Boots
Women's Clothing
Men's Clothing
Kids Shoes

Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh has shared many of his thoughts in his book Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose.  He talks about how a different kind of company culture can make a big difference in delivering excellent results.

Some of the key ideas from the book include:
* Pay brand-new employees $2,000 to quit
* Apply research from the science of happiness to running a business
* Make customer service the responsibility of the entire company-not just a department

The book has 4.5 out of 5 stars with over 400 reviews on Amazon.  Zappos.com has a 5 out of 5 star seller rating on Google with over 27,000 reviews!

According to StellaService, Zappos has over 95% on-time delivery, over 98% accurate and undamaged orders, 3-6 hour email support response time, 45-90 seconds phone support response time, and customers rate ease of returns and phone support as good.  Average delivery time is 3-5 days.

Paul Fredrick

A recent clothing company I learned about is Paul Fredrick.  They do men's business apparel like dress shirts, pants, ties, sportcoats, suits, formalwear.   They also have accessories like shoes, pocket squares, belts, cuff links, hats, skin care products, and suspenders.

paufredrick.com

Tips for running a website

I've worked in the Internet industry for the last 10+ years.  Hopefully I can share some of the favorite marketing tools and tips I've learned that might be useful to you!

Of first importance is this quote:

Almost any questions can be answered, cheaply, quickly and finally, by a test campaign. And that's the way to answer them – not by arguments around a table. Go to the court of last resort – the buyers of your product.
– Claude Hopkins, Scientific Advertising (1923)

Let's say you're trying to design an ad, and some people suggest a blue background, others suggest a green background, others suggest a multi-colored background.  Instead of debating the merits of each color, go to the most important judge: the consumers.  Do a test where 1/3 of the ads are green, 1/3 are blue, and 1/3 are multi-colored, and see which one brings the most profit for your company (often highest click through rate, though not always the case).

The opinion of the consumer is more important the opinion of the VP of design, or whoever, because the consumer is the one bringing revenue to the site.

Other TV shows and Entertainment!

In previous posts, I’ve mentioned some of my favorite TV shows to watch while exercising (walking).  Here are some more!

UFC:  ultimate fighting championships.  I’ve been watching this for many years.  Got introduced to it because my roommate in college watched it.  And he also shared this brazilian jiu jitsu (BJJ) book with me that I really liked.

The BJJ book talked about how a weaker man can defeat a stronger man through leverage.  For example, a weaker man cannot fight punch for punch or kick for kick with a stronger man, because the stronger man is stronger.  However, brazilian jiu jitsu teaches you how to apply the strength of both your arms plus your legs to just one arm of your opponent.  so the sum of the strength of your 4 limbs is greater than your stronger opponent’s one limb.

And this was proven out in the early UFCs which were won by Royce Gracie, who was much smaller than a lot of his opponents.  He would take the other fighter to the ground and force the other fighter to submit, or tap the mat 3 times to signal that he was giving up.  If the other fighter didn’t, he would go unconscious or his arm would be broken.

So the UFC used to have about one event per month, but now it has multiple events per month.  I’m thankful because it provides material to keep me entertained while i exercise.  Dear Lord, please help me to eat less so that I don’t have to exercise as much.

Other than walking I’ve played ping pong (table tennis) for exercise.  The last place I played, the players were a lot better than me, which discouraged me from going back.  But maybe I shouldn’t let it discourage me.  I guess there isn’t enough new tv to keep up with the amount of exercise i’m doing.

———-

Besides TV shows and movies, I also read about 3 chapters of the Bible to start each walk.  I use an easy english version of the Bible: http://www.easyenglish.info/bible-commentary/index.htm Even though I’m fluent in English, I find it easier to read.

I also listen to sermons sometimes, mainly from http://www.desiringgod.org/.  I’ve studied the sermons of the main pastor, John Piper, for about 15 years.  The main things I like about him:

* His sermons are very Bible-based.  He makes his arguments based on Bible verses, rather than what sounds right.  And his arguments are very logical.

* He treats money correctly.  He’s written over 50 books, and most of them are available for free on the website as PDF!  Also, if you want a print copy of one of his books but can’t afford it, you can simply ask the organization and they will send it to you for free.  His charity is one of the ones I’ve donated to the most in the last 10 years.  And he drives an old used car and doesn’t live in a big house.  Also, the royalties from his books don’t go to him, but rather to a charitable foundation, so that he can avoid the temptations of having a lot of money.

* He signposts in his sermons.  Like “today i’m going to discuss X and why X is true, with reasons A, B, C.  So it’s clear where he is and where he is going.  

—-

Ok, back to some of my favorite TV shows for a bit.

Two and a half men

Pretty funny comedy about a billionaire playboy and a guy who kind of sponges off him and some other people.

—–

Scandal

One of the few non-action dramas that I watch.  and it’s a political drama too, which makes it even rarer.  It has a lot of interesting twists and turns I guess.  It’s about this woman who has a company to solve problems.  In first season, she and some others help a person win the Presidency through cheating.

More favorite TV shows

All the TV shows and movies I mention on the blog can be bought on amazon.com.  The TV shows are usually $2 per episode.  Some older stuff is free if you have Amazon Prime.

The Tonight Show with Jay Leno

If you haven’t seen it, he starts out with jokes about current events for about 15 minutes.  Then there’s about another 15 minutes or so that varies depending on the day.  Some days it’s funny headlines.  Some days, it’s funny videos.  Some days, it’s weird stuff they found on ebay.  Or funny 911 calls.  Or funny animals.

Then it’s about 20 minutes of interviewing some celebrities, who usually have something to promote, like a new tv show or movie or book.  My favorite recurring guests are Wanda Sykes and… Terry Bradshaw because they are funny.  If the celebrity is funny, i’ll watch the celebrity part. If not, i skip it.  then it finishes off with a musical performance from various artists, which I usually skip.

—-

Homeland

A very popular and highly rated series.  It’s about CIA officers that try to catch terrorists.  It has interesting surprises and things that don’t happen on other TV shows.  In the first season, a marine who was forced to stay in the Middle East returns after 8 years as a prisoner returns to the US secretly as an agent of a terrorist group trying to harm the US.

—–

Shark Tank

Ah probably one of my top 5 favorite shows. Each week, small startups pitch a bunch of funny millionaires and billionaires.  The most famous ones are Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, and Daymond John, founder of FUBU, a fashion brand.

Main thing I like it is because it’s funny.  For example, after one person pitched… creating these artificial tornadoes over the ocean to gather gold dust, one of the billionaires, Kevin O’Leary, says “How long are you staying on Planet Earth for?”

There are demonstrations of new products, and negotiation of the terms of an investment, like $100k for 10% of the company.  There are also other arrangements, like 10% company for a $1 royalty on each product for forever.  The royalty is the favorite structure of Kevin O’Leary as it’s a way to insure he gets his money back.

Favorite books!

I buy most of my books in electronic form now, through Amazon Kindle.  Takes less space, easier to search and organize.  And you don’t necessarily have to buy a physical kindle.  Kindle software is available on PC and mobile, and there’s also a cloud reader where you can access your books on the web at https://read.amazon.com/ .

5 Love Languages

This book talks about 5 different ways that people show love and receive love, and how it’s important to give the types that your lover enjoys most.  

Gifts:  Some people like being given things of value most.  Can be valuable things like jewelry or handmade things.

Quality time: Some people like time together with the other person.  I like this one, and preferably one where we can interact, i.e. not at a movie or a play where you have to be quiet.

Words of Affirmation: Saying things like “I love you”, “You’re beautiful”, “I love you because..”, “Nobody on earth loves me like you do”, etc.

Service: Some people like to be served… like washing dishes, chores around the house, taking care of the kids, cleaning the gutters, vacuuming, etc.

Physical touch: Some people like to be touched as an expression of love.

Winning by Jack Welch

Our CEO asked managers to read this book.  Gives managerial advice from Jack Welch, previous CEO of General Electric.  I think the main thing I remember from the book is what Welch said was the most important interview question to ask: “Why did you leave your previous company?”

Love Walked Among Us: Learning To Love Like Jesus by Paul Miller

This book really moved me.  It examines HOW Jesus loved in the Bible.  Some quotes I like:

“Loving means losing control of our schedule, our money, and our time. When we love we cease to be the master and become a servant. “

“We instinctively know that love leads to commitment, so we look away when we see a beggar. We might have to pay if we look too closely and care too deeply. “

“In other words, how can we even think of using our eyes—which are meant to fill our hearts with love—for degrading people into sex objects? “

“In my study of Jesus, I’ve learned that love is not efficient.”

Particularly the last one moved me because I try most of my life to be efficient.  Like you know how most microwaves have a plastic rotating piece then a heavy glass plate?  I take the glass plate out, and food microwaves faster, because energy does not get absorbed by the heavy glass plate in making it warm/hot.  Rather, the energy goes into heating the food.