The Secret Synopsis

The Secret has existed throughout the history of humankind. It has been discovered, coveted, suppressed, hidden, lost and recovered. It has been hunted down, stolen, and bought for vast sums of money. Now for the first time in history, The Secret is being revealed to the world over two breathtaking hours.

A number of exceptional men and women discovered The Secret, and went on to become known as the greatest people who ever lived. Among them: Plato, Leonardo, Galileo, Napoleon, Hugo, Beethoven, Lincoln, Edison, Einstein and Carnegie, to name but a few.

Fragments of The Secret have been found in the oral traditions, in literature, in religions and philosophies throughout the centuries. For the first time, all the pieces of The Secret come together in an incredible revelation which will be life transforming for all who experience it.

Some of today's greatest teachers will be presented in The Secret and will impart this special wisdom that has been known by so few. They include some of the world's leaders in the fields of business, economics, medicine, psychology, history, theology and science. Each of these teachers is living proof of The Secret; each of them a walking marvel of achievement and success...

Included are; 'Miracle Man' Morris Goodman, who tells his awe inspiring story of how he recovered from paralysis by using The Secret. Dr. Denis Waitley, who used various aspects of The Secret in training Olympic athletes and Apollo astronauts to reach new heights of human endeavour. Best selling authors and philosophers including Bob Proctor, John Assaraf, James Ray and Joe Vitale, explain how they have created lives of phenomenal success utilising The Secret. Doctors in the fields of medicine and quantum physics explain the science behind The Secret.

The Secret reveals amazing real life stories and testimonials of regular people who have changed their lives in profound ways. By applying The Secret they present instances of eradicating disease, acquiring massive wealth, overcoming obstacles and achieving what many would regard as impossible.

The Secret reveals how to apply this powerful knowledge to your life in every area from health to wealth, to success and relationships.

The Secret is everything you have dreamed of... and is beyond your wildest dreams.

http://www.thesecret.tv/home.html

Friends...forever!

tEstiMonY

He is someone whom I know from another person...in short, we are all related in friendship. He is quiet and needed time to warm up to conversations though not necessary in this order but none too far from it as well. Someone rather good in the area of food and wine, honest opinions abounds from him and in a way, always looking to improve himself big and small. He advises you from his own experience. Certainly a person worth to know and understand better...just as in wine, the older the better it gets and taste (I don't think I will do the tasting part).

When I first saw him with his girlfriend, I thought to myself

"Is he Malay?" .dotz.

Yup, that is precisely my first question that came into my mind. And where did I first meet him? Chinese New Year...goodness, I thought I have come into the wrong house. No offense to our beloved Malay communities or other races, but I think I don't have many Malay friends who will want to come over to celebrate Chinese New Year...perhaps next door neighbours or around the vicinity but to come from one place to another...I don't think so.

Anyway, to recover from my initial "shock", I became somewhat curious about this new inclusion. Very quickly, I came to know that he is more Chinese than Malay. At least all of us sighed our relief after that news. I guess we are pretty concerned with his girlfriend who is more closer to us then (I'll save the details).

Time flies. Though in reality we don't meet up as often, if we do meet up in a group, it is usually an awesome gathering. Life for him and his girlfriend changed during these times. I can safely say that it can only get better for them, be it personally or in business...right? Ha! (Do we get to hear wedding bells this year? Hope I don't have to ask this Q next year :p)

I write on this so that I will not forget because when I do forget, someone else, hopefully, will remind me of this friend whom I have acknowledged through the years.

He is none other than Joe (C.).

Beautiful Beaches of Maldives

 

PARADISE! I wish to be there...

Thanks Linda! CHEERS!

Apple reinvents the phone

 
iPhone combines three products — a revolutionary mobile phone, a widescreen iPod with touch controls, and a breakthrough Internet communications device with desktop-class email, web browsing, maps, and searching — into one small and lightweight handheld device. iPhone also introduces an entirely new user interface based on a large multi-touch display and pioneering new software, letting you control everything with just your fingers. So it ushers in an era of software power and sophistication never before seen in a mobile device, completely redefining what you can do on a mobile phone.

Watch the Keynote

Matcha Opera Cake - GREEN TEA!

Matcha Opera Cake, with layers of green tea genoise, chocolate ganache, and green tea buttercream. I believe Sadaharu Aoki's version also has coffee buttercream, but I preferred an emphasis on the clean, sharp taste of green tea with the rich, bittersweet chocolate to round it out. Making opera cake is both therapeutic and nervewracking for me: the components are not particularly difficult to make, but it's the skill in assembling the layers that determine whether you'll have nice parallel stripes of color or wavy layers. When it comes out well, it's always a heady rush of pleasure. Yum yum!

Let's Start!

For Green Tea sponge cake
4 tablespoons cake flour (not self-rising), sifted after measuring, plus additional for dusting pan
2 whole large eggs at room temperature for 30 minutes
1/4 cup green tea powder
1/2 cup confectioners sugar, sifted after measuring
2 large egg whites at room temperature for 30 minutes
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, foam discarded, and butter cooled

For green tea syrup
2 teaspoon green tea powder
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon water
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup Cognac or other brandy

For green tea buttercream
2 teaspoons green tea powder
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon water
6 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 large egg yolks
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes and softened

For chocolate glaze
3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter
7 oz fine-quality bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened; preferably 70 to 71% cacao), coarsely chopped

Special equipment: a 15- by 10-inch shallow baking pan; an offset metal spatula; a candy thermometer; a small sealable plastic bag

Make sponge cake:
Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 425°F. Butter baking pan, then line bottom with a sheet of parchment or wax paper, leaving a 1-inch overhang on short sides, and generously butter paper. Dust pan with cake flour, knocking out excess.
Beat whole eggs in a large bowl with a handheld electric mixer at high speed until eggs have tripled in volume and form a ribbon when beaters are lifted, 2 to 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low, then add green tea powder and confectioners sugar and mix until just combined. Resift cake flour over batter and gently fold in.

Beat egg whites in a bowl with cleaned beaters at medium speed until foamy. Add cream of tartar and salt and beat until whites just hold soft peaks. Add granulated sugar, then increase speed to high and beat until whites just hold stiff peaks.

Fold one third of whites into green tea mixture to lighten, then fold in remaining whites gently but thoroughly. Fold in butter, then pour batter evenly into baking pan, spreading gently and evenly with offset spatula and being careful not to deflate (batter will be about 1/4 inch thick).

Bake until very pale golden, 8 to 10 minutes, then cool in pan on a rack 10 minutes.

Loosen edges of cake with spatula, then transfer cake (on paper) to a cutting board. Cut cake into strips and squares. Trim outside edges slightly, then carefully peel paper from strips and squares and set back on paper.

Make green tea syrup:
Stir together green tea powder and 1 tablespoon water until powder is dissolved. Bring sugar and remaining 1/2 cup water to a boil in a 1- to 2-quart heavy saucepan, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Reduce heat and simmer syrup, without stirring, 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in Cognac and coffee mixture.

Make green tea buttercream:
Stir together green tea powder and 1 tablespoon water until powder is dissolved. Bring sugar and remaining 1/4 cup water to a boil in a very small heavy saucepan, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Boil, without stirring, washing down any sugar crystals on side of pan with a pastry brush dipped in cold water, until syrup registers 238°F on thermometer (soft-ball stage; see cooks' note, below).

While syrup boils, beat yolks in a large bowl with cleaned beaters at medium speed 1 minute.

Add hot syrup to yolks in a slow stream (try to avoid beaters and side of bowl), beating, then add green tea mixture and beat until completely cool, 3 to 5 minutes. Beat in butter, 1 piece at a time, and beat until thickened and smooth.

Make glaze:
Melt butter and all but 2 tablespoons chopped chocolate in a double boiler or in a metal bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water, stirring occasionally, until smooth. Remove top of double boiler and stir in remaining 2 tablespoons chocolate until smooth, then cool glaze until room temperature but still liquid.

Assemble cake:
Put 1 cake square on a plate, then brush generously with one third of green tea syrup. Spread half of buttercream evenly over top with cleaned offset spatula, spreading to edges.

Arrange both cake strips side by side on top of first layer (any seam will be hidden by next layer), then brush with half of remaining green tea syrup. Spread half of glaze evenly over top, spreading just to edges.

Top with remaining cake square and brush with remaining green tea syrup. Spread remaining buttercream evenly over top, spreading just to edges. Chill cake until buttercream is firm, about 30 minutes.

Reheat remaining glaze over barely simmering water just until shiny and spreadable (but not warm to the touch), about 1 minute. Pour all but 1 tablespoon glaze over top layer of cake and spread evenly just to edges. Scrape remaining tablespoon glaze into sealable plastic bag and twist bag so glaze is in 1 corner. Snip a tiny hole in corner and decorate cake (leave a 1/2-inch border around edges). Chill cake until glaze is set, about 30 minutes, then trim edges slightly with a sharp serrated knife.

Tips:
1. Buy a good and expensive Green Tea Powder (Matcha)

Heavenly TIRAMISU

 
Tiramisu is an Italian dessert typically made from Lady Fingers, espresso coffee, mascarpone cheese, eggs, cream, sugar, marsala wine, cocoa, and rum. The Italian name tiramisù means "pick-me-up" (metaphorically, "cheer me up"), referring to the two caffeine-containing ingredients, espresso and cocoa.

The Lady Fingers are sprinkled with or briefly soaked in a mixture of the coffee, rum, and sugar. They are then layered with a mixture of mascarpone cheese and a custard made from egg yolks, marsala, and sugar, known as zabaglione. Cocoa powder is then sprinkled on top.
The dessert has become one of the most popular types of dessert served in upscale restaurants of all types, not just Italian restaurants. The recipe has been adapted into cakes, puddings and other varieties of dessert. Other flavours are often used now in place of coffee, including strawberry, lemon or chocolate.

Classic Tiramisu Recipe

Ingredients:

6 eggs

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup rum

1/4 cup coffee liqueur

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

16 ounces Mascarpone

1 1/2 - 7 ounce packages ladyfingers

2 cups brewed strong coffee

Directions:

1• With an electric mixer, beat the egg yolks with 1/2 cup of sugar until thick and very light, about 3 minutes. Add the rum and coffee liqueur and beat until smooth. Split the vanilla bean and scrape the seeds into the egg yolk mixture. Add the Mascarpone and cinnamon and beat until evenly combined. Reserve this mixture.

2• In a clean mixer bowl, beat the egg whites until frothy. With the mixer running, gradually add the remaining 1/2 cup of sugar and beat to stiff peaks. Gently fold the beaten egg whites into the reserved egg yolk mixture until evenly combined.

3• Cover the bottom of a 9 x 13-inch pan with a single layer of ladyfingers. Brush the ladyfingers with coffee lightly. Spread half of the mascarpone filling over the ladyfingers. Repeat with another layer of ladyfinger, soaked with coffee, and mascarpone filling.

4• Sprinkle the surface of the tiramisu with unsweetened cocoa powder and chill for at least 2 hours before serving.

Slimming down or just good diet habits?

Have you ever wondered how it is to eat all those glorious food BUT never wanting to gain those extra extras? Well, let's go the french way. Click either on the link for a short video (french way to lose weight) or below for a read up on the book.

Video
http://video.msn.com/v/us/v.htm?g=D2E2D506-6888-411E-98DF-8C76CF1BD340&t=m17&f=06/64&p=Source_Today%20show%20health&fg=&GT1=8921
Book
http://www.mireilleguiliano.com/frenchwomen.htm

I quote from the video:

"If you have 3 meals everyday, you don't need snacking" &

"...eating 3 meals but less of it..."

Hmmm, I don't think I can survive simply because I need to gain rather than lose weight.

Anyhow...Bon Appétit!

Post your Pets!

 
Taking digital pictures of your pets can be a challenge, but worth it in the long run. While this how-to assumes you want to take a picture of your dog or cat, most of what is described below can be applied to other types of pets as well.

Steps
1.Find a time when your pet is most relaxed. If you know your cat is hyper right after eating, then it is best not to take the picture at that time. The hardest part about taking pictures of dogs or cats is getting them to sit still long enough to take the picture.

2.Get down on your knees or in the prone position. A good picture of pets will be from the pet's eye level, not yours with the pet looking up at you. (This also applies to small children.)

3.If your camera has a "sports" mode, turn it on. This might be needed for a happy-go-lucky pet that wants to keep moving around. Setting your camera to sports mode does two things. 1. It uses a faster shutter speed to "freeze" the subject. If your pet is moving around, a slow shutter speed might leave you with a blurry picture. 2. It will use a special focusing system that constantly adjust the focus of the camera. Without this, the camera focuses once and locks that way. If your focus is locked on your pet and he/she moves, you might end up with out of focus pictures.

4.Once you have your digital picture, you need a print to hang up on the wall. If you have a inkjet printer, then you can easily make the prints yourself using the digital cameras software. Otherwise use an online photo service such as Mpix, shutterfly, Snapfish or oFoto to buy prints of your digital pictures. Follow the instructions on the websites for uploading and ordering prints. Online photo labs like www.mpix.comare pretty cheap, with prices starting at .29 cents for 4x6 prints. They also offer different types of paper such as matte, glossy, and metallic.

Tips
*Take pictures of your pet in his/her natural surroundings. If your cat spends all his/her time sitting on the couch, then that is the best place to take the photo. If your dog spends all his/her time in the yard, then that is the best place to take the photo.

Things You'll Need
*A digital camera. ANY camera will work. It doesn't matter if it's a cheap, $99 Barbie digital camera, or a $1500 Digital Nikon. Obviously the better the camera, the better the image.
*A way to make prints. This could be a inkjet printer or an online print service.
*A pet!

Polar Bear at Risk of Extinction - GW

  
Perfectly at home in one of the world's most forbidding environments, polar bears spend their summers roaming the Arctic on large chunks of floating ice. They drift for hundreds of miles, finding mates, hunting for seals and fattening themselves up for the winter. Without these thick rafts of sea ice, the world's largest bear could not survive. Yet at this moment, the polar bear's Arctic habitat is literally melting away beneath it due to global warming.

Over the past three decades, more than a million square miles of sea ice -- an area the size of Norway, Denmark and Sweden combined -- has disappeared. Scientists predict that, if the current rate of global warming continues, most, if not all, of the bears' summer sea ice will be gone by 2100. As a result, the world's polar bears could face global extinction by the end of this century.

In May 2006, the threat of global warming to polar bears prompted the IUCN-World Conservation Union, one of the world's leading environmental bodies, to add the bears to its "Red List" of threatened wildlife. Classified as "vulnerable," which is defined by the IUCN as a species facing a "high risk of extinction in the wild," the worldwide population of roughly 20,000 polar bears could decline more than 30 percent over the next 45 years.

Already, the ice on the southern edge of the polar bear's range is melting about three weeks earlier than in the past. The loss of those critical weeks leaves the bears less time to hunt, eat and store up fat. As a result of early melting, there has been a 14 percent decline in the western Hudson Bay polar bear population over the past ten years -- a decline clearly caused by global warming.

In addition, a growing number of polar bears may be drowning as they are forced to swim more often, and for longer distances, in search of ice sheets. According to a report by the U.S. Minerals Management Service, researchers observed four dead polar bears floating 60 miles off Alaska in September 2004 and said it was likely that many other bears swimming far offshore also drowned.

Under pressure from an NRDC lawsuit, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has agreed to consider protecting the polar bear as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act –- and announced it will make a preliminary decision in December 2006. If the agency proposes federal protection, NRDC will rapidly mobilize millions of Americans during the public comment period on behalf of a final decision that protects the polar bear. But if these crucial safeguards are denied, we will immediately challenge the agency's decision in federal court.

To help protect the polar bear, please revisit this page in early January, when the newly elected Congress takes office, and send a message urging your senators and representative to save the polar bear's Arctic habitat. In the meantime, you can support our ongoing campaign of public pressure to save these majestic bears by making a gift to NRDC's BioGems Initiative.

http://www.savebiogems.org/polar/

A September 2005 report revealed that the polar ice cap has shrunk by more than 20 percent since 1979, losing an area the size of Colorado in the preceding year alone.

Too much rain - Weather Pattern Change!

Peoples lost their homes, property, their life and more then that - their future! The Global Warming has show their mighty. We can feel it coming. More nature event coming up everyday. What can we do? We destroy our own world? That what happen to the ice-edge? Our world renewing itself. Let's stop this. We are human. We can think the way! CHEERS!

This pic taken at the west Malaysia town called Kota Tinggi. I used to stop at this town for breakfast during my fishing trip at Pulau Dayang. I can't imagine the flood is so serious!

Best mobile phones of 2006 - none mine

This is my favourite! N93 cool!

The Nokia N93 is equipped with a 3.2-megapixel camera with video-recording capabilities, and it features a cool, swivel design. This Symbian smart phone includes Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, a music player and FM radio, and e-mail capabilities.

Though it won't replace your digital camcorder or camera, the powerful Nokia N93 does a respectable job of integrating quality multimedia capabilities into a cell phone. That said, it's a bulky handset and is best suited for convergence fanatics and gadget hounds.

Xiaxue - asia blog QUEEN

  
Congratulation Xiaxue! You make asia proud. Better luck this year! Design a bigger trophy for her!

Xiaxue (Simplified Chinese: 下雪, real name Wendy Cheng) is one of the most prominent bloggers in Singapore. She started her blog in 2003. Her blog attracts about 20,000 readers every day with her take on current events and her life. She blogs about various topics, ranging from methods of measuring penises to dumb starfish and MRT irritants. She has been criticised, however, for the use of expletives in her entries, controversial statements that she has made on certain issues in which some consider to be bordering on racism and xenophobia, and her unrepentance despite strong criticism of her offensive writings. She is also known to be rather defensive towards criticism.[1][2]
She is frequently featured in the Singaporean media. On 20 July 2005, her blog was hacked into, and deleted; the act attracted a lot of attention in the local Internet community, with people weighing in on the morality of the hacking. On 15 January 2006, she was accused and proven of impersonating a rival blogger.[2]
Cheng has worked as a columnist for The New Paper (a Singapore tabloid), Maxim magazine and Snag magazine. Her pseudonym, Xiaxue, means "snowing" in Chinese.
On 10 November 2005, Xiaxue was ranked as the 5th most powerful woman in the blogosphere by Jack of all Blogs, placing her amongst the ranks of Xeni Jardin of Boing Boing and Heather Armstrong of Dooce. December 2006 saw the debut of Girls Out Loud, a reality television show hosted by her and DJ Rosalyn Lee.
Xiaxue's blog has won several online awards, mostly for popularity: Best Singapore Blog 2003, Best Asian Blog 2004, and 2005 Weblog Best Asian Weblog.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia