For those of you who are wondering, Singapore's Corporate Tax Rate for 2011 is 17%.

This skit may appear to just be about religion, but it's true about everything else in life as well. Parents have differently coloured perceptions, and they teach their children accordingly.

For those who have grown up in poverty, their world-view is that money solves all their problems. For those who have grown up in wealth, their world-view might be that the personal touch is more important than money.

Of course, it doesn't mean that one world-view is better than the other. It's just that parents try to be better than their own parents, and hence have different priorities.

Let's understand how parents think, and forgive them for whatever you might resent them for. They're probably doing their best.

(This was an email to a friend when I was bouncing ideas back with forth with her. Pardon the somewhat messy writing style.)

As for our topic, I believe that a person’s greatest investment isn’t a stock, share, company, or house. I believe that a person’s greatest investment is his children. And I hope more parents understand that fact.

God-fearing, loving. It portrays the idea, but perhaps not the actions required?

Like I’ve shared before, I’m more of an action kind of guy. The spirit of the idea, I’ll understand, but I also want the steps to take.

So some of the things I would want to do as a parent:

• Drop everything I’m doing to listen to my child when he/she says “I want to talk.”
• Even though it might be a minor matter (compared to the horrors of the adult world), I must listen and understand the confusion my child is going through.
• Not judge their responses by my standards, but rather their own.
• Smile brightly every time my child walks into a room.
• Never get emotional while scolding my child.
• Never get emotional while caning my child.
• Be honest with my children about everything that they can understand.
• Teach them about Christ, and the intricacies of religion.

I do believe that sometimes parents cannot change their strategies mid-stride. For example, when you’re 5, your survival depends on your ability to follow your parents’ instructions. However, when you’re 15, there’s no life-threatening situation that you cannot physically handle, hence the ability to rebel against your parents!

But in the mind of the parents, they used to have someone that they would be able to control, until the child becomes a teenager. Then they still try the “stick” method against their children when the “carrot” method might be more effective.

Perspective. Always a funny thing.

Just for fun, I wanted to write a book for teenagers, for them to understand their parents. LOL! Enough had been written to parents for them to handle their kids. But not enough for the kids to understand the parents. I’ve got the skeleton laid out in a mind map, but not enough flesh to make a book!

I firmly believe that some children grow up in poverty, and then swearing that their own kids will not live the same lives they did, they push aside their children to build a career, so that the children would never be in want. However, that backfires, and the children just grow up spoilt and attention-seeking.

Someone should change the world’s perception of parents. Parents should not be “the sperm donor” or “the egg donor”. They should be “the character shapers”.

Actually, none of us can speak objectively about the subject. We’re all biased due to our own perception of parents. But if you could, what else would you want your kids to be?

Time for a change in lifestyle then!

A year ago, I was in Yoshinoya with a couple of friends, when we saw and heard a mother yelling at her son for not understanding how to solve a math problem. The boy appeared to be about 9-10 yrs old? Definitely Primary school. That poor boy just sat there and couldn’t run away. I could tell he was just damn embarrassed.

The mom however, was genuinely frustrated. And you could hear it in her tone of voice to her kid.

At that point, I had this conversation with my friends about parenting. You know the recent parenting seminar, whereby their radio commercials bring up parents who must score high so that they can be qualified parents? I had this thought experiment with these guys, and we talked about it openly.

(I’m not sure if the mother heard me, but I honestly didn’t care.)

Let’s assume that people who want to become parents have to go through an exam before acquiring a license to raise children. What would be required? What would need to be taught within the syllabus? But most of all how would this affect the world around us?

Certainly, because of the vast variation of children that are produced, there are just too many strategies to raise children. However, certain core skills still are required. Soft skills, so to speak. Patience, Understanding, Offering a listening ear, putting aside your work to listen to your child’s day, etc. These are soft skills that if implemented, would produce lovely, well-adjusted children with wonderful self-esteem. Also, schoolteachers are taught that certain children are averse to certain learning methods. Some children prefer working with their hands, others learn visually, and others learn aurally. But parents don’t all know this. Some keep forcing their children to perform academically the same way they’ve learned to learn, by writing and copying and writing and copying. Isn’t that terrible?

Imagine a world with no rude people. Whereby everyone is gracious and well-loved. No more drug abusers. No more gangs. No more people who sleep around just to feel connected to another human being. Everyone respects each other’s properties, boundaries, opinions. Children would respect their parents’ wishes; Parents would respect their children’s free spirit, etc.

This wouldn’t be accomplished in our generation. It would take at least 3 generations of constant implementation before the old system of raising children is completely eradicated. But it is a lovely dream. One that can be achieved.

After having had some time to think about how I would spend time making the world a better place, I’ve decided that I will indeed start working on a book.

However, it will be written as a fictional book, as I do not have the formal background or training to be any type of authority on the matter. Much like the way God’s Debris by Scott Adams was written.

This isn’t about the money. Not really anyway. I want to find a way to spread ideas, and if they catch on, I know the world will become a better place. It’s not so much about solving all the world’s problems, but it’s about people. It’s about improving the lives of the people around you without concern for yourself, and hopefully the people around you want to improve your life as well.

Let’s start working on a few chapters.

The title of this book is “Understanding Parents”. The objective is to show the teenagers of today why it is so difficult for them to communicate with their parents. most of the time, it’s simply that the children don’t know enough about what’s going on in their parents’ lives, and that’s why some decisions that they’ve made just don’t make much sense.

Being a parent is undoubtedly a tricky affair. I have no kids myself, but I’ve been around many young parents and many more young teenagers in my lifetime.

But Sebby, do you think that you’re qualified to write about something as sensitive as parenting? You really have no experience parenting!

Have you ever been in a restaurant and complained about their service? If the answer is yes, do you have any experience running a restaurant? If not, what makes you qualified to speak on restaurant matters?

If you’ve answered that you know how you should be treated as a customer, you are exactly right! And in that same respect, I’m sharing my opinions on how parenting should be done. As a youth, I’ve been the listening ear to many confused teenagers whose parents cannot relate to them, and are forced to look outside the home for help. But how confident are you that your children are speaking to the right people?

That’s how Singaporean children end up in gangs. No one to talk to at home.

The fact is that there is no minimum requirement to become a parent. Oh wait. Yes there is. Both parties contributing to the child need to have gone through puberty.

Yup. That’s it. Puberty.

But what about things like marriage, love, family planning, financial stability?

Yup, those are important too, but no one’s teaching a class on it. Wait. I’m mistaken. I believe that it’s because no one HAS TO ATTEND IT!

So let's see if we can change the world with this book.

http://www.segway-singapore.com/product/i2commuter.htm

Yes, I am a lazy ass. And yes, I want one.

As I continued reading on the subject of the Segway, I discovered that someone did indeed build a cheaper alternative!

http://tlb.org/scooter.html

However, he did share a valid concern, that commercially produced equipment like the Segway has all the safety checks and redundancies that are not included in any home-made standing scooter. So, we're back to the purchasing of the Segway.

========================================

Also, I've spent this week thinking about bicycle generators. Everyone that cares about me have told me to go jog or cycle. I personally find it a weird way to expend energy without having any direct benefits from it.

Let's look at the pros and cons:

Pros:

• It encourages weightloss
• Improve cardio
• Strengthens the slow-twitch muscles which encourage endurance

Cons:

• I have to pull out 30 mins of my day to do it
• No mental stimuli is introduced
• It hurts like hell with no immediate benefits

Yes, yes, this is far from comprehensive. But that's how my brain works. I will never always be this young, or at this stage of physical fitness, but I'm sure that my mental capacity can only get stronger. I don't know how it will get stronger if I keep going out hoping that I won't kill myself jogging.

So anyway, I got myself to thinking about electricity. How can we improve our current usage of electricity, and perhaps produce some of our own when we do physical activity?

Look at that! Isn't it awesome?

Now, my plan is to get the Bicycle Generator and the Segway. I'll cycle long enough on the Bicycle to power the Segway, and then take the Segway out to run my errands.

But Sebby, why don't you just cycle out there to run your errands?

That's because I would rather keep my perspiration and panting in the comfort of my own home. Not to mention the effect perspiration has on clothes.

Also, the generated power can be used to power up other items. I just need a DC/AC converter, and I'm all ready for the apocalypse.

1. Microsoft Office 2007
2. Adobe Creative Suite 4
3. Snagit
4. Beyond Compare
5. AI Roboform
6. Avast Antivirus
7. Acronis TrueHome Image
8. Camtasia Studio
9. iTunes
10. Ashampoo WinOptimizer
11. VLC Media Player
12. Mozilla Firefox & Google Chrome
13. VMware Workstation
14. Windows Live
15. Dropbox
16. SMSCaster
17. CCleaner
18. eSword Bible
19. MagicDisc (Virtual Disk Drive)
20. Filezilla

Certainly, plenty of people have made millions over the internet. I hope to count myself amongst them in the years to come. But in the meantime, the blog hasn't been growing, my readers haven't been growing, and neither have I.

So today, I'm changing the way this blog works. A business blog no longer, it shall be the blog of my mind. Lessons I've learned, and things that have touched my life. Hopefully, with the continued input into the blog, I'd be able to really grow and engage. After all, in a business blog, you would want eyeballs. Not me. No longer. Now, I want minds.

P.S. I think the reason I'm pushed to do this is because I keep getting emailed about people (or bots) have been signing up to join the blog. I'm pretty sure it's cause they want to post comments that link back to their site. Gosh. Can't people stop trying to push their own agendas everywhere?

Selamat Hari Raya to all my readers!

I'll be reworking this blog, so that it really can be about what rocks "The Sebby"'s mind! Keep a lookout for it!

Certainly, I haven't given up on Internet Marketing. In fact, I'm making a case study out of Amazing Glaze and stating clearly how we're using social media and Internet Marketing to boost sales!

I'm gonna be posting more details soon! Look out for it!

I hope all my readers have had a great month of March! Happy April Fools!

This is harder than it looks! I'll come up with my next 25 soon. Wish me luck!

i don't know how, i don't know where, but it shall be done.

wish me luck! woo~~

alright, this picture is a little too "futuristically-dark" for me, but it holds the essence of what could possibly be a best seller.

we've been hearing about green cars, electric cars, etc, but we haven't really heard about the kind of applications this could be used for!

my idea (which i'm almost certain isn't original) is a smaller version of the mobile home, and maybe a tricked-out humvee, with a queen sized bed in the back, a tv, and a tabletop for a laptop. in singapore, we have a wireless modem attachment thingy that will allow us to get unlimited internet access for less than $30 a month. i'd say this is built for us!

a sunroof and a pocket fan would be extremely important as well. or perhaps an air-filter to replace the sunroof.

and this car must be electric! speed will probably never be an issue, as a mobile home isn't meant to win any street races. but if someone were to live inside it, it has to be at least cost-effective.

and why a small car instead of a real mobile home? well, cos we're space deficient in singapore. and it'll be hell trying to find a parking space for a bus (which is exactly what a mobile home is like).

applications: working too late in the office. too tired to drive back. too drunk to sleep at home. got kicked out of ur bed by ur wife. and well, other stuff.

is anyone gonna build something like this?

today, i would like to share with u a resource created by seth godin. u gotta love how he spreads his message. anyway, SAMBA is the six month mba course that seth started, and u can read more about it here.

one of the best posts i've seen there is Hamster Burial Kits & 998 Other Business Ideas. it's really a pretty cool idea, to have some minds sit down together and come up with their own 100 business ideas each and then compile it into one huge list!

i'll think of my own 100 for now. will post it soon! and if u've got ur own to share, please drop me an email so that i can link to u as well!

This is one of the few Youtube videos that I would recommend spending 76 mins to watch. Randy Pausch gave this lecture at Carnegie Melon University on 18th September 2007, and passed on 25th July 2008.

(Read more about Randy Pausch.)

Watching the lecture, I realised that facing death really brings a person back into focus on the things that really matter. Have you ever read "Tuesdays with Morrie" by Mitch Albom? It's a fantastic example of the lessons learnt from dying people. Facing death gives people a fresh perspective, a clearer view of what  really matters in life.

And actually, it's all about personal fulfillment! Making sure that you have fulfilled your life's goals or at least made a valid attempt at them, having absolutely no regrets left before passing on.

Yes, I'm only 26. Dying of old age will probably take quite a while, but hey, there are so many other things that can kill you! So why wait for it?

Enjoy the video clip! Make your life count for something now!

This is an awesome article! It'll really make you think about how we advance technologically, and if we can have a money-making structure out of it.

Too many things are now heading towards the free zone. Without any kind of control in check, how will anyone make any money?

Alternatively, if we push technology to work together, for a common goal, we can reach a point whereby we do not need to work for money!

I know I've shared this before, but I just have to mention it again: We need to start moving ahead as a race. We need to push forward with the common goal of improving technology so that no one has to labour their lives away just to enjoy the golden years. We need to stop being selfish.

Gosh, I love the Internet! I love the spreading of ideas!

Author: Dan Roam

Title: The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures

This book illustrates (pardon the pun) the effectiveness of presenting with images. Of course, we already do that all the time! When you want to present some numbers, a bar chart appears! If you want to present growth, a multiple variable point graph would suffice! You get the idea.

The real challenge though, is to make it second nature to yourself. Bar and pie charts can be done with computers and software, but what about everything else? Would you be able to solve your problems by laying out all the information without getting confused? Would you be able to present your business model with a pen and a napkin?

Simplify, and make it easy for people to understand!

I think the concept is pretty interesting, and it's a fast read. First portion is a little draggy though, cos it speaks of how eyes work and how we perceive things without getting confused despite the huge amount of information being absorbed all the time.

But later on, some very real concept tools are given, and with a little bit of practice, I'm sure I'll be a master of visual thinking in no time!