Monthly Archives: October 2011

The Best Super Nintendo Games

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Games

10. TMNT 4: Turtles in Time

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time is a video game produced by Konami. A sequel to the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) arcade game, it is a scrolling beat ‘em up based mainly on the 1987 TMNT animated series. Originally an arcade game, Turtles in Time was ported to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time in 1992. That same year, a similar game, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Hyperstone Heist was released for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis.

Years later, the arcade version of Turtles in Time was revisited on newer consoles. A slightly altered version of the arcade game was included as an unlockable bonus in the 2005 game Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3: Mutant Nightmare. In August 2009, Ubisoft released a 3D remake of the game, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time Re-Shelled, for Xbox Live Arcade. The remake was released onto PlayStation Network on September 10, 2009. -Wikipedia.org

9. Street Fighter 2

Street Fighter II is a sub-series in Capcom’s Street Fighter franchise of competitive fighting games, originally released as coin-operated arcade games. The Street Fighter II series started with the original Street Fighter II game itself, released in 1991 as a sequel to Capcom’s 1987 fighting game Street Fighter. Street Fighter II improved upon the many concepts introduced in the first game, including the use of command-based special moves and a six-button configuration, while offering players a selection of multiple playable characters, each with their own unique fighting style and special moves.

Street Fighter II is credited for starting the fighting game boom during the 1990s. Its success led to the production of a series of updated versions, each offering additional features and characters over previous versions, as well as several home versions. Some of the home versions of the Street Fighter II games have sold millions of copies, with the SNES port of the first Street Fighter II being Capcom’s best-selling consumer game of all time as of 2008. -Wikipedia.org

8. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island, originally released as Super Mario: Yossy Island in Japan, is a platform video game developed and published by Nintendo for the SNES console. Despite its title, this game serves as a prequel to all other games within the established Mario Bros timeline. While featuring Nintendo’s trademark Mario character, the game’s graphics and gameplay differed from all previous Mario games in that players control various Yoshi dinosaurs rather than Mario himself, who appears as a helpless infant.

Yoshi’s Island was released on August 5, 1995 in Japan, October 4, 1995 in North America and October 6, 1995 in Europe. A port was made for the Game Boy Advance as Yoshi’s Island: Super Mario Advance 3. The game has yet to be announced to be ported for the Wii’s Virtual Console, however the game is slated for possible re-release on the Nintendo 3DS. A sequel for the Nintendo DS, Yoshi’s Island DS, was released in 2006. -Wikipedia.org

7. Donkey Kong Country

Donkey Kong Country is a 2-D side scrolling platform video game developed by Rare, featuring the character Donkey Kong. It was released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) in 1994. Following an intense marketing campaign, the original SNES version sold over 8 million copies worldwide, making it the best-selling non-bundled SNES game of all time. It was the first Donkey Kong game not to be produced or directed by Shigeru Miyamoto. Instead, it was produced by Tim Stamper. The game was ported to Nintendo’s Virtual Console service on 7 December 2006 in Australia, 8 December 2006 in Europe and 19 February 2007 in North America. -Wikipedia.org

6. Super Metroid

Super Metroid​, also known as Metroid 3, is an action-platform video game and the third game in the Metroid series. It was designed by Nintendo Research & Development 1, programmed by Intelligent Systems, and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System video game console. The game was released in Japan in March 1994, in North America in April 1994, and in Europe in July 1994. It was released for the Wii Virtual Console in 2007. Under development for 18 months, Super Metroid was directed by Yoshio Sakamoto and produced by Makoto Kano with Gunpei Yokoi serving as general manager. The game’s story follows Samus Aran as she attempts to retrieve a stolen Metroid from the Space Pirates.

The game was given near-universal acclaim, receiving an aggregated score of 96% from Game Rankings, making it the website’s 19th highest-rated game. Electronic Gaming Monthly named it the Game of the Month for May 1994, gave it an Editor’s Choice Award, awarded it as the Best Action Game of 1994, and named it the Best Game of All Time in 2003. In 2007, IGN ranked Super Metroid 7th in its list of Top 100 Games of All Time. Despite a positive critical reaction, the game sold poorly in Japan, but fared better in North America and Europe. Nevertheless, due to the game’s critical success, Nintendo placed it on their Player’s Choice marketing label. -Wikipedia.org

5. Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, known as Zelda no Densetsu: Kamigami no Triforce in Japan, is an action-adventure video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System video game console, and the third installment in The Legend of Zelda series. It was first released in Japan in 1991, and was later released in North America and Europe in 1992. Shigeru Miyamoto and his team were solely responsible for this game’s development.

A Link to the Past’s plot focuses on Link as he travels on a journey to save Hyrule, defeat Ganon and rescue the seven descendants of the Sages. A Link to the Past uses a top-down perspective similar to that of the original The Legend of Zelda. It added mechanics and concepts to the series that have become commonplace, including multi-level dungeons and new equipment (such as the hookshot and the Pegasus Boots), as well as establishing the concept of an alternate, parallel (and sometimes far more dangerous) world.

It was well-received since its release, and has been listed by GameSpot as one of the best installments of the series. Also many other gaming publications class it as one of the greatest video games of all time. To date, A Link to the Past has sold more than four million copies, and has been re-released for the Game Boy Advance and the Wii’s Virtual Console. -Wikipedia.org

4. Super Mario Kart

Super Mario Kart is a go-kart racing video game developed by Nintendo EAD for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). The first game of the Mario Kart series, it was launched in Japan on August 27, 1992, in North America on September 1, 1992, and in Europe on January 21, 1993. Selling eight million copies worldwide, the game went on to become the third best selling SNES game of all time. Super Mario Kart was re-released on the Wii’s Virtual Console in Japan on June 9, 2009, North America on November 23, 2009, and in Europe on April 2, 2010.

In Super Mario Kart the player takes control of one of eight Mario series characters, each with differing capabilities. In single player mode players can race against computer controlled characters in multi-race cups over three difficulty levels. During the races, offensive and speed boosting power-ups can be used to gain an advantage. Alternatively players can race against the clock in a Time Trial mode. In multi-player mode two players can simultaneously take part in the cups or can race against each other one-on-one in Match Race mode. In a third multiplayer mode – Battle Mode – the aim is to defeat the other players by attacking them with power-ups, destroying balloons which surround each kart. -Wikipedia.org

3. Earthbound

EarthBound, known in Japan as Mother, is a role-playing game series created by Shigesato Itoi for Nintendo. The series started in 1989 with the Japan-only release of Mother (known unofficially in North America as EarthBound Zero) for the Famicom, and was then followed up by a sequel, released in North America as EarthBound for the Super NES in 1995, and followed up again 12 years later with the Japan only release of Mother 3 for the Game Boy Advance in 2006. Itoi stated in an interview that the name “Mother” was greatly influenced by the John Lennon song “Mother”.

In stark contrast to the sword-and-sorcery settings of many Japanese role-playing games, the EarthBound series takes place in more modern America-esque settings, although their stories are told from a Japanese perspective. Mother is set in suburban America, EarthBound is set in Eagleland (an allusion to the United States), and Mother 3 is set on the Nowhere Islands (with some Western overtones). Enemies can be a variety of quirky and strange people, creatures and inanimate objects, such as aliens, possessed guitars, or evil hippies. Weapons include unconventional household items, from yo-yos to frying pans, with swords being rarely used. The series became extremely popular in Japan, but not in other countries such as America where it has a small but strong fanbase. Merchandise for the game was produced, including shirts, handbooks, and even a fully-orchestrated, arranged soundtrack. -Wikipedia.org

2. Chrono Trigger

Chrono Trigger is a role-playing video game developed and published by Square (now Square Enix) for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1995. Chrono Trigger’s development team included three designers

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Does Discount Web Hosting Compromise Web Hosting?

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web hosting

When somebody intends to launch a website, there are many things that are kept under consideration. One of these very important and sought for considerations is the cost of the hosting account. That is the reason why there are made a lot of searches for the both free and the discount hosting. services The number of searches are extensive that assume the power of lust for the discount. There are many websites that are offering the discount web hosting but the problem is encountered when we come to have very few features of the basic web hosting. There are a lot of companies that are exploiting the novice consumers for their searches. The demerits associated with the discount web hosting are quite fewer as related to the number of merits you can enjoy. The only benefit that might go good is the saving and the cost efficiency.

The web hosting companies are also promoting to enhance their numbers of customers with the help of making discount web hosting offers. These are offers that really sound attractive but do they really possess any sorts of attraction? All what you would come to know is that you cannot have the same quality of services and the features that a particular web hosting can. You are going to save some of your bucks at the sake of the success of your websites.

There are many problems that a discount hosting can create as these services are offered only by such companies that are new to the market and do not have sound bases of business. Moreover, the services offered do not include the main hosting services. You are only given some space and bandwidth for usage. Your work remains restricted. You cannot enjoy the benefits of a real sturdy hosting service by saving just some dollars. The discount hosting services, mostly, do not include the hosting as no company would be prepared to offer such services that costs it more than the benefits delivered. It is better going for the free web hosting than buying the discount web hosting. Although, there are some reputed and really working companies that can make good offers but you need to have an extensive research in case you are looking to find the best within the budget.

Overall you need to note that these kind of options are only possible by companies which are new to the business or which have a long term strategy with a plan to offer discounts initially to gain more customers quickly. If there is a new start up offering these services then its better to not opt for them. You can make a quick search in Search Engines for discounted services and find out many service providers which are legit and in business from a long time.

Top Five Chicago White Sox Home Run Leaders

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The Chicago White Sox have been in existence since the turn of the 20th century. With more than a hundred years of history, there have been 17 players to hit at least 100 home runs while playing for the White Sox. The top five home run hitters in Chicago White Sox history are led by the team’s top sluggers from each of the last two decades, Frank Thomas and Paul Konerko.

1. Frank Thomas: 448 home runs

The face of the franchise during the 1990s, Frank Thomas is the Chicago White Sox’s all-time home run leader. Thomas was nicknamed “The Big Hurt” as one of the biggest power threats and most feared hitters in baseball. Frank Thomas clubbed 40-plus home runs five times, topping out at 43 in the 2000 season. He won back-to-back AL MVP Awards in 1993 and 1994, slugging .729 in the latter season. It marks the seventh highest slugging percentage ever posted by a right-handed hitter. Near the end of his career, Thomas left the White Sox and eventually reached the 500 home run milestone.

2. Paul Konerko: 336 home runs

Paul Konerko has been a strong power-hitting first baseman for the White Sox since 1999 and he has climbed up to second on the White Sox’s all-time home run leaders list. Konerko hit 24 jacks in his first full season and has been hitting for above-average power in virtually every season since. In 2004 and 2005, he hit 41 and 40 home runs respectively, good for two of the eight highest single-season home run totals in White Sox history. Konerko played a major role on the White Sox’s 2005 championship team, placing sixth in AL MVP voting on the organization’s only World Series winner in the last 90 years.

3. Harold Baines: 221 home runs

All roads lead to Chicago for Harold Baines who ranks third among White Sox all-time home run leaders. Harold Baines had three stints with the White Sox as a player and now serves as the team’s bench coach. He was originally drafted by Chicago in 1977 and spent his first ten Major League seasons with the team, hitting 192 home runs in that time. Baines had a streak of six straight 20-home run years from 1982 to 1987, maxing out at 29 in 1984 when he led the American League in slugging percentage.

4. Carlton Fisk: 214 home runs

Carlton Fisk is the fourth leading home-run hitter in Chicago White Sox history. Pudge split his 24-year Hall of Fame career between Boston and Chicago, cranking 162 home runs with the Red Sox before joining the White Sox. Fisk rarely put up huge power numbers, but he was reliably in double-figures in home runs for ten straight years in Chicago. His power peaked in 1985 when he slammed a career-high 37 home runs and 107 RBI.

5. Magglio Ordonez: 187 home runs

Ranking fifth among Chicago White Sox all-time home run leaders is outfielder Magglio Ordonez. He spent the first eight of his 14-year (and counting) Major League career in Chicago, making four All-Star appearances with the team. In 1999, his third season, Magglio Ordonez developed into a major power threat, hitting 30 home runs for the first time, a feat he accomplished for four consecutive seasons. Ordonez’s career best came in 2002 when he cranked 38 home runs. Now playing for the Detroit Tigers, Ordonez is approaching 300 career home runs.

How to Get Free Food, Drinks and More From QuikTrip Gas Stations

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Food & Drink

What you will need to accomplish this how to:

A Computer
An Internet Connection
A Printer
A QuikTrip Nearby
Transportation

Step One: Access the Quiktrip homepage by typing in http://www.quiktrip.com/ in your web browser’s Internet address bar.

Step Two: On the homepage, locate the text that reads: Sign Up Now for the QT Web Group. You should see this text near the top of the page and on the right-hand side of the page. Click on it.

Step Three: On the new page, look to the left of the webpage and click on the text that reads: Sign Up.

Step Four: Simply fill out the form on the new page honestly and accurately. Once you submit the information, they will send a confirmation e-mail to the e-mail address that you registered with. In that e-mail will be a code that you must type in to a box when you first attempt to log-in to your account. You can log-in by simply returning to the previous page where you clicked on the Sign-Up link, but instead click on the Log In button. You need to fill out accurate information because your name will appear on the coupons.

Step Five: Once you log in using your e-mail address, you will see a page that displays any and all available promotions as well as the following information: the promotion name, the fill out survey link (if the promotion is a survey), the print coupon link (if the promotion is a coupon), a find out more link (if they have one) and a date for when each promotion ends.

Note: Be sure you take notice of when each promotion ends. Every promotion, survey, coupon and so on has an end date in which it will no longer be available. Also, be sure to pay attention to the expiration date on the coupon or offer that you print.

Note Two: Once you click a link to print a coupon or offer, you must print out the coupon or offer at that time. The reason is the coupon or offer will disappear after you load the coupon or offer page once. You will not get a second chance without having to contact the company over e-mail and explain to them why you did not print the coupon or offer the first time. Whenever you take a survey or open a coupon link, make sure you are able to print at that time!

Tips For a Stress-Free IT Job Search

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Job Vacancy

The best source to look for jobs related to Information Technology (most commonly known as IT) is, obviously, the Internet.

Various sites offer listings of job openings for specific fields.  The key for a fruitful search is to know how and where to look for the best possible jobs available.

To have access on a certain site’s listing, an individual must first accomplish the following:

1. Register at the chosen site

2. After registration confirmation (via an email from the moderator of the site), the individual may now have access to the list

3. In searching for the preferred or suitable job vacancy, you may be asked to fill out a form (online) that states an individual’s profile.

This is usually used for easier browsing of related work since IT has various fields of specialties.  Other sites automatically match an individual’s profile with the available or suited vacancy based on the information given by the person.

4. The applicant has the option to choose from contractual, full-time, part-time, trainee or temporary jobs category.

5. If the individual prefers work that is currently not listed on the site, he or she may have the option of posting his or her resume, from which prospective employers may browse through at some other time.

To avoid frustration while browsing through the numerous listings of IT openings on the Internet, take into consideration the following pointers:

1. Determine the following:

1.1 Organize your career portfolio in soft and hard copies.  While most employers will ask for a copy of you resume through the net (email), there are some that still require hard copies for submission at their respective offices.

1.2 Determine preferred location of work.  Is the individual willing to be relocated should a good position be offered in another city or state? Does he or she prefer work within commuting distance?

1.3 Salary.  Though it would not be wise to make demands on one’s salary especially during the interview process, an individual must have a predetermined range of salary that he or she would be willing to accept, whoever the employer would be or wherever it may be located.

2. Rank the items listed above based on one’s priority.

3. Search the Internet for various sites with listings of IT job openings.

4. Register on a number of sites for a wider access to various lists.

5. Submit resume based on the predetermined priorities.

Ultimate Farmville Game Strategy Guide: Tips, Tricks and Cheats

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Tips & Trick

Farmville on Facebook is the most popular Facebook game out there. Here are several tips, tricks, and cheats to help guide you through Farmville.

Do I need to use real money to buy land expansions?
No.  Farmville offers two options for each land expansion available. The land expansion screen can be a bit confusing, but if you look closely, you’ll see that you can use coins or real money for each option.

I want a big farm! Can I upgrade to the largest expansion without purchasing the smaller farms first?
No. The bigger farms will not be available to you until you buy the smaller farms first.

Should I bother with earning ribbons?
Yes! For each ribbon you earn, you earn lots of experience points (it depends on the ribbon & level, but you can earn experience points in the hundreds and thousands!), allowing you to level up quicker.

The gifts aren’t very great (hay bales, butter churns, etc) as they are all things you can purchase in the Farmville market for coins.

Are trees worth planting?
It depends on your goal. If you play Farmville because you enjoy decorating your farm, then yes! Adding trees makes your farm realistic. If you play Farmville to level up, trees will not give any experience points for a harvest. You only receive experience points from trees when initially planted. Trees take up space on your farm, albeit not much.

If you’re new to Farmville, hold off on purchasing trees until you’ve built up a nice stash of coins. Trees are quite pricey for the new Farmville player, and don’t provide many coins upon harvest.

There is a Tree Harvesting ribbon to earn, so if leveling up is important to you, it doesn’t hurt to have a few trees on your farm to earn these ribbons for the experience points.

Some trees like the Banana Tree aren’t available for purchase. Why?
Some trees are only available as gifts from your Farmville neighbors. This increases the “social” aspect of the game. If you want more of these gift-only trees, ask your friends to give them to you from the gifting screen.

Is the Acai tree required to earn the Tree Hugger ribbon?
No.

I received a notice asking if I wanted to help a black sheep that wandered on to my farm. How does this work?
When you receive this notice and click “Help”, Farmville will ask if permission to publish the “help an animal” (could be a black sheep, brown cow, etc) information on your wall. If you don’t publish this to your wall, nothing happens and the stray animal remains on the loose.

If you do publish it, your friends have the option to adopt the animal. When someone clicks it, they get the animal.

But I want a black sheep or a brown cow! How do I get it?
Watch your Facebook newsfeed for any animal requests. Be the first to click the “adopt” button on your friend’s request and you will receive the animal. Beware! If you do receive a black sheep (or any other feral farm animal) it will not stay on your farm forever. Eventually, the vagabond cow will leave and wander onto someone else’s farm. You will not be notified when this happens; it will simply disappear.

How do I earn Farm Cash?
Farm Cash is different than Farm Coins, in that Farm Cash is generally purchased using real money or by filling out special promotional offers. You can spend Farm Cash on unique items for your farm, more Farm coins, or land expansions and tractor fuel.

You receive 1 Farm Cash dollar every time you level up. The Farm Cash feature was not available when Farmville was initially released, so might notice that if you only have 4 Farm Cash dollars, but you’re at Level 25. Farmville did not grandfather in the cash to reflect levels you’ve already completed.

Can I convert Farm Coins into Farm Cash?
No.

Do the buildings serve any purpose other than decoration?
At this time, no. Farmville buildings are just for looks.

Any tips for leveling up quickly?
Dedicate every space on your farm for crops. Plant the entire field with 4-hour crops, such as strawberries. Be diligent on harvesting and replanting the crops!
Before you go to bed, plant an 8 or 12 hour crop, such as pumpkins or rice.
If you’re close to leveling up, buy the biggest building you can afford. This will earn you experience points without having to wait for a harvest. Then, sell the building to free up space for more crops.

Why does this game run so slowly?
Farmville is a graphics-intensive game built in Flash. Depending on your computer or internet connection, the game can run slowly, especially if you have your entire field planted and taken up with decorations and animals. If the game is running slowly, here are a few things to check:
Check your browser: Farmville runs slower for some people in Internet Explorer. Try using another browser, such as Firefox instead.
Your computer might not have enough RAM: Try closing any other applications you are using to free up some resources.

Toggle the graphics button: Click on the “eye” icon in the top left screen in Farmville. This toggles the graphics from high to low.

How long to crops last before they wilt?
Crops take the same time to wither as they do to harvest. For example, it takes Corn 3 days to harvest, so it would die 3 days after it is ready.

When you click on a wilted crop, the land is immediately plowed. It does not turn into fallow land and is ready to be re-planted.

My friend mentioned something about Super Berries. How do I get this crop?
Super Berries is a special crop only available when Farmville decides. Sometimes, Farmville will offer Super Berries for a weekend. Super Berries are strawberries on steroids – they harvest within 2 hours, give you +1 experience point, and give you a decent amount of cash.

Do tractors, seeders, and plows use the same fuel?
Yes.

I’m apprehensive about buying a vehicle. Fuel can only be purchased with Farm Cash?
Correct, fuel can only be purchased using Farm Cash. However, your vehicle will refuel on its own over a period of a few hours. If you can wait, you won’t need to buy anything!

Headphones Electronics

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Electronic

Headphones electronics have gained immense importance in current world because of their increased usage and needs throughout the world. You might have noticed that the use of headphones electronics is not only common among youngsters in fact people belonging to all ages are well aware of its uses and makes its use an essential item of the daily routine life.

What is meant by headphones electronics?

Headphones electronics are not a latest years innovation in fact they have been in use since many years but its usage has increased in recent years and moreover the impact of technology on headphones electronics have made it really worthwhile for usage. Headphones electronics can be used with computers, your radio system, with tape recorders, with mobile phones with television and DVD player and with everything and anything which is used for listening.

Headphones electronics are widely adopted for IPod uses.

Types of headphones electronics

There are many types of headphones electronics ranging from varied sizes to shapes and prices. You can find headphones electronics of any style you want, there are few headphones electronics which are made for inserting in the ear.
Few of the types are as follows: full size headphones, earphones, portable headphones, wireless headphones, audiophile headphones, noise cancelling headphones, home studio headphones, over the ears closed, over the ears open, on ear, insert style headphones, hanging over ear headphones, sports style headphones, wireless headphones, headphones for smart phones, and active voice reduction headphones.

Uses of headphones Electronics

If you want to get lost in the music by avoiding the sounds around you, then headphones electronics can be best served for this purpose, the sound of the headphones is very much rich, smooth, soft and cozy. Headphones electronics are used while watching television when your partner is sleeping by your side and you want to listen to the television or radio. You can listen to audio books through headphones like story books or rhyming books especially for the kids.

Headphones electronics can be used by individual sin offices for recording of meeting in order to note the time of the meeting and duration of the meetings. There on it can be widely used for professional purposes apart from personal reasons. Headphones electronics can be used with iPods in order to store as many songs as you want and then enjoy the songs at whatever time of the day you want to, Most of the people use s headphones while jogging, running in short during working out

Graduates And Jobs in Malaysia do Not Match

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Job Vacancy

This

is a draft of essay Graduates and Jobs in Malaysia do not Match. This paper is prepared for the course of BEL311 during study at UiTM Pulau Pinang,  Permatang Pauh.

Graduates lack personal qualities
Staggeringly high unemployment rate of public universities’ grads; low quality academic achievers pursuing only academic excellence
Change of economic structure from manufacturing sector to services sector; requires strong soft skills which grads are lacking.
Lacking initiative; doesn’t take chances provided by government.
Market forces provide strict employment
Needs minimum working experience, own transport.
Gender-biased recruitment, esp. engineers and labor jobs.
Limited availability of job vacancies; not publicly and widely known.
Employers’ requirement arises; degrees have become too common, where Master or PhD holders are preferred.
Heavy dependencies on foreign worker.
Local universities’ grads in high competition
Market-relevant courses for grads; review curriculum and area for improvement.
Competition with foreign students and private colleges.
Lack of guidance and exposure; gap exists between education and employment.
Family and society trends encourage unemployment.
Coming from middle class families, grads become complacent and choosy; expectation is too high.
Parents don’t contribute assistance to fresh grads.
Parents refuse to let the grads do menial jobs.
Prefer glamorous jobs; wants communities to look them up.

We have thousands of unemployed in the country, yet some sectors of the economy are demanding for workers. Report by government proves that this issue is a worrying trend. For many years, government has put a lot of effort and spent huge resources to solve this problem, and improvement is yet to be seen. This is due to some underlying factors that contribute to this issue, which are graduates lacking personal qualities, demanding employers, uncompetitive local graduates, and discouraging trends of unemployment.

First of all, graduate lacking personal qualities is one of the obvious reasons why they are less competitive with the available jobs. Students of local universities mostly focus on the academic qualification while they rarely have social interaction and actively involve in extra co-curricular activities such as clubs and organization, special interest groups, or sports. As a result, grads will not be able to learn things like leadership, teamwork, and time management, which are important when they are going to apply for a job. Additionally, the change of economic structure from manufacturing sector to services sector requires strong soft skills in order to establish understanding in all sort of communication.  Speaking of which, most grads possess little or no soft skills, and this weakness is a threat not only to them but also to economic stability of our country. To add the matter worse, these grads are lacking enthusiasm regarding their own future. Feeling complacent, most grads do not take necessary measures to improve themselves to suit the market demands. Without any motivation to move forward, our young grads will never impress the boss to get their dream job.

The demanding employers are the next reason why grads and jobs do not match. In local newspapers, grads reportedly need to have minimum amount of working experience as well as their own transport before they can get hired. In some cases, employment is also gender-biased especially in engineering field and physically demanding jobs. Sometimes, employers limit the job vacancies only to certain people or by special invitation rather than advertising them publicly in local newspapers. Today, the employment’s trend has also changed, where the degree is no longer enough and grads with Masters or PhDs are more sought after. This situation gives a hard time for grads to find matching jobs when they do not have the qualification the employers want. Not only that, employers’ heavy dependency on foreign workers provides a direct competition to local grads. Most factories and industries as well as contractors favor these cheap labors compared to our local young grads.

Moreover, uncompetitive local universities grads are also one of the reasons that separate grads and jobs. Our local universities find it hard to compete with international universities, much less with the foreign students studying locally in private colleges. In fact, many local grads lacks guidance and exposure to the real working world, making them in a tad disadvantage. There also exists a gap between the education and employment. In university, students seldom receive information about work and job-related issues after they finish their studies. There are only a few programs that involve students and employees around the campuses. Beside that, the programs offered at local universities are less relevant with jobs and current market demand.

In summary, the mismatch of grads and jobs in Malaysia has proved an urgent need for young grads to prepare themselves thoroughly before applying for a job interview. This issue needs to be taken care if grads want to live their future, just like they have been dreaming of.

Chinese Food & Drink

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Food & Drink

“Food” has a special meaning to the Chinese people.  The ‘waste not, want not’s ethos means that a surprising range and variety of plants and animals, and every part of a plant or animal is used.  This has given rise to a remarkable diversity in the regional cuisine, but to Westerners it can be overwhelming – surprising, fantastic, delicious, horrifying or disgusting-and above all, different.  Travelers are often surprised that it is not like the Chinese take-away in their home town.

However, China is also a gourmet’s paradise, and the food can be outstanding, if you know what to order. It includes a lot of fresh vegetables, meat, noodles, rice, fish, dumplings and regional specialties, with an amazing number of ways to prepare, spice, serve, pickle or preserve the food. Chinese Food

Most restaurants provide tea free of charge.  This is normally green tea, or similar.
Cutlery can be ordered if wished.
Tipping is not expected, although service charges may be included in the more expensive restaurants.
Street food can be excellent – and cooked as you wait.  However, you should be aware that sometimes that noodle broth may include horse meat or other creatures that are not usually eaten where you come from.
Chinese Drink

Bottled water: Bottled water for drinking is available for purchase everywhere.  It is not advisable to drink tap water, as you will not be used to the local flora. 

Soft drinks and beer: Soft drinks and beer along with tea and rice wine, are the most common drinks in local restaurants.  There are many local and imported beers available. 

wine: The Chinese have been making wine for 4000 years, and the grape wine industry is currently expanding, with “Great Wall” and “‘Dynasty” being two of the more successful local brands.  Imported spirits, wine or beer will cost more than local products.  Some of the local spirits are extremely alcoholic, and bottles of wine which contain snakes, scorpions or other animals may startle you.

Tea: Chinese Tea is usually green tea, often scented with jasmine.  Black teas may also have a stronger flavor than you are used to.  Some China hotels may provide tea bags, but be prepared for tea to taste different to you.  Chinese Tea

Coffee: Coffee is becoming more popular, and chains such as Starbucks are opening up in major cities (along with Kentucky Fried Chicken and MacDonalds).  

Milk: Milk is more often soymilk than cow’s milk, but the latter is served in hotels which cater to westerners, and fresh, dry or long-life milk is available from convenience stores, as is yoghurt, and delicious yoghurt drinks.

7 Steps to Set Financial Goals For Your Online Business

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Business & Finance

Every internet marketer wants to make as money as possible.
But how much money do you really need? What are the financial goals you want to achieve with your online business? These are the fundamental questions you have to answer when you start an online business.

Like many others you probably stumbled into the demanding task of managing an online business by accident. You bought some ebooks, signed up for multiple affiliate programs, set up your own website, subscribed to several membership sites and at the end of the day you realized that this all costs a lot of money.

You are in desperate need of more income from your business. Common sense tells you that you need to advertise for your business. So you go out there and buy any kind of advertising. This leaves you with even more expenses and like many others not much to show for.

Now you are at the turning point. You have substantial expenses, but not enough earnings to support these expenses. The foolish continue what they are doing and hope for the best. There’s a better way to get your business finances under control. The following 7 steps should give you an idea how to straighten out your business finances and how you can prevent a financial Waterloo for your business.

1. Create a business plan.
This sounds like a broken record, but without a clear business plan you are setting yourself up for disaster. A business plan can be as simple as a few pages describing what you want to do, how you want to do it, how much profit you plan to make, how much money you have to begin with and how long you can survive before you run out of money or you break even with income and expenses.

The idea of a business plan is not to predict the future, but to create a roadmap for yourself, in case you get lost on your journey and need directions to save your business.

2. Separate your finances
It doesn’t matter if you operate your online business as a real incorporated business or if you just want to test the waters. Mixing your business finances with your personal finances is a bad idea period. Create a separate checking account. Use it to deposit the checks you will receive and as the linked account for your business PayPal account.
Yes, a separate PayPal account is necessary to track your business finances and to provide a more polished, professional image for your business.

If you don’t have a separate credit card for your business, use one of your personal credit cards and use it for your business expenses only. This way you can easily track your expenses. Knowing the exact financial situation of your business is vital for your survival. If you’re loosing money you need to know right away to make necessary adjustments and if you’re making money you don’t want to wait until tax time to get a rude awakening.

3. Reinvest
A rule of thumb is to reinvest 75% of your earnings back into advertising for your business. In the beginning it can be as high as 100%, because you need to get the word out.
Without customers you are not making any money. You do know that an online business is by definition a sales business?
You are selling either a product or a service. If you don’t, you don’t have an online business.

Of course a startup online business has no income to be reinvested. However the same rules apply to the startup capital that every new business needs to get started. A new computer and a fancy new car won’t get you any new customers, but good advertising will.

4. Keep track
You need to know where you spend your money at all times.
In order to do this, a simple spreadsheet will get you started. Later you need a little bit more help from a professional finance program. Either way this will keep you
on track with your spending and you will know how well you’re doing at all times.

Keep track of your advertising. You need to know if your advertising is working or not. Like a real store you need to know why a visitor entered your store and if they don’t buy get at least their contact information. Hardly anybody sells to first time visitors. Repeat business from visitors and customers are the bread and butter for any online business.

5. Organize
This is not only for tax purposes, but you need to organize everything you’re doing with your business. Nothing kills your business faster than not knowing what pays your bills and to whom you owe money. Imagine you forget to renew your domain name registration. A few bucks could cost you a million dollar business. So do yourself a big favor and get organized with your business.

6. Repeat
Readjust non working advertising immediately. If it is not working, dump it. On the other hand repeat a profitable advertising campaign. Rule of thumb, if it brings in more money than it costs to run, keep doing it. This seems to be a simple rule, but many online business owners simply ignore this rule. Instead they are chasing the white elephant and end up with nothing to show for.

If you have a successful advertising campaign, keep it running and build a new campaign next to it. Never drop a profitable campaign, always expand. This is your safety net. In case the new campaign fails. In marketing there’s never a guarantee. Be creative, track and repeat. That’s the only way to get something going.

7. Expand
If your business is not growing your business is dieing.
Unfortunately this is reality in today’s business world. This means that you need to adjust your financial goals for your business to allow for expansion. Consult your business plan to determine what went well and what went wrong.
Whatever you do, always aim higher.

There you have it, 7 steps to set the financial goals of your online business. I know that it takes more than filling out a membership application to run a successful online business, but you can do it if you keep these steps in mind.