Book Summary: The Art of Happiness At Work

What does the Dali Lama
 have to do with work anyways? You may ask that or you may wonder what is the wisdom waiting for you to be uncovered in this book so you can work happily ever after.

The truth is really between the two statements. The Dali Lama has the wisdom to guide you with more than few tips but don’t expect a cosmic change. In this book at least.

The book is really a conversation with the Dali Lama where Howard Cutler, a writer and psychologist handles the questions and answers sessions. Howard is long time devotee to the Dali and met with him on few occasions before so don’t expect challenging questions, just a conversation.

Note on the audio version, the conversation is not narrated by the Dali Lama but by someone who is mimicking the way the Dali speaks. Howard read however, his part.

I do wish that Howard speak less than he did. He does have good and fresh ideas but the book is primarily to know more from the Dali lama’s perspective.

Below are few pointers from the book I find useful and/or interesting, followed by my ratings summary:

How to pass the PMP test and get certified in 2 months or less, an easy guide.

When I got my PMP in less than 2 months

many of my friends and colleagues were surprised. Some of them had spent many months if not years taking courses and trying for the exam.

This is my experience and suggestions for anyone wishes to be PMP certified in very short period of time. I have also a spreadsheet that I can share with anyone interested which covers most of the major items in the PMBOK, please message me and I will be more than happy to email it to you.

Book Review: Dying To Be Me

Sometimes you have to believe in synchronicity, or if I had read this book before, I would change the word "sometimes" to "always".

As my credit at audible was coming to renewal I started looking at my wish list. But instead I noticed that a friend of mine just posted on Facebook recommending this title.

In quick glimpse, It looks as it is another NDE which we all heard and read about.

But come to think of it, few people have written good detailed book documenting their experiences. I decided to take the plunge.

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tmforum vs ITIL Historical Comparisons and Summary

In This Article:

1) Side by side comparisons of the history that made tmforum and ITIL
2) tmforum main Points and Summary
3) ITIL Summary main Points and Summary

Read This Before Our Next Meeting: Book Review and Summary

Based on personal experience, meetings I held or chaired in the Corporate world or in personal volunteering efforts such as President of the Board for a Condominium, I get a kick out of having short and intensive meetings. Meetings that leave you empowered, refreshed and ready for more. This is why when this title was proposed as a read in Allstream, I jumped to it.

The book has its followers, being number 1 in kindle during its release, #4 as part of best business book of 2011 and selected by many companies such as IBM in 2012.
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Book Review: The Five Love Languages

 The Five Love Languages: The Secret to Love That Lasts

While at the clinic with my friend the Naturopath discussing diet related issues, he recommended this title. We have a nice relation and exchange points of views and new findings; our meeting is not one of a regular patient-doctor meeting but more of a friendship built on common interests.

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The title sounded cheesy, but I promised him to take a look. When my monthly credit at audible became available I researched quickly the title and found that the book is best seller with over 8 million copies and translated into 38 languages. Being a sucker for stats I went for it.

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What does it take to be a Relations Manager

hint; you are already doing it!

Almost couple of years ago when I was offered the job as Relations Manager I asked myself this question. Before that I had worked as Team Lead for complex, non-standard solutions and enjoyed tremendously the job.  I liked meeting with different teams from Sales, Marketing, Business Economics, Fields operations and many others. Each one spoke a different language but all working toward a common goal. When we won a deal, everyone celebrated, it was team work defined. That is why, when I was offered the Relations Management job I accepted without any hesitations.

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Book Review: The Alchemist:

The Alchemist: A Fable About Following Your Dream

I finished this book many 

months ago and was hesitant to do a review since then. The reason being I really didn’t know how to start, would I be able to give a fair review, would I be able to provide a good look without giving too much of the story, so many questions and very few answers...

Eventually, I caved in and on this beautiful early morning of August 2016 with a nice cup of espresso I trusted my inner self just like what Paulo would have us do and without any idea of what I am going to write, went for it. 

Book Review: To Kill a Mockingbird

 

As one of the world greatest novels, with sales of over 30 million copies, winning the Pulitzer Prize, and a classic of modern American literature. I had planned for this book for many years and finally got to it.

I am usually not big fan of novels made of primarily literature material, but rather toward more scientific, non-fiction, poetry and spiritual books. What changed my minds to reconsider was another book by Paulo Coelho titled The Alchemist, where I will write a review about soon.

Samsung Note 7 Launch & Preview

Today I had the chance to preview the official launch of Note 7. The highlight in my opinion is the water resistant profile. The pen and the phone both are water resistant, this is consistent with Samsung drive for water resistant for many years now driving the competition everywhere toward this direction. Off course there are a lot of other software and hardware updates such as the Iris detection while the look of the phone itself has not changed drastically. What I want to highlight here is the presentation itself. While the videos and sounds were done professionally and obviously with great care and details, the presenter themselves lacked the luster you would expect with a great product launch. When they made a statement they looked around for acceptance and eventually they got the claps needed, but this should happen more organically and much more often through out the launch. Samsung has done great job in driving innovation and still continues, whether the new innovations will be valuable or not will be tested in the next year. Mounir

Kefir Grains

Kefir grains are one of the best kept secret that world has ever known.
These grains ferment milk and solidify the milk into yogurt like substance except it much higher in potency than normal milk or other culture products sold in the market place.

I could explain a lot but the best way is to direct you to the site I learned all this from, here it is:

Click here to buy the best course on how to make Kefir or the Kefir grains themselves


Kefir Benefits:

• http://www.timelesshealth.net/kefir/allaboutkefir.html
• http://www.timelesshealth.net/kefir/whyyoushoulddrinkhtml2.html
• http://www.kefir.net/benefits.htm
• http://www.yourkefirsource.com/kefir-benefits/health-benefits-kefir
• http://ezinearticles.com/?Kefir-Health-Benefits---The-Complete-Body-Booster&id=3817669
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kefir

The truth and the heart - Osho

"The heart knows nothing of the past,

nothing of the future; it knows only of the
present. The heart has no time concept."

"Truth cannot be defined, although it
can certainly be experienced. But
experience is not a definition. A
definition is made by the mind, experience
comes through participating. If somebody
asks, "What is a dance?" how can you
define it? But you can dance and you
can know the inner feel of it. God is
the ultimate dance."

Osho

Thank you sun

I had the privilege of meeting a man they called here in the west "HRM" and host his stay for one day in my home when he was in Toronto area. His real name is "Hira Ratan Manek" and he utilizes sun gazing to obtain his energy and heal his body. The energy he gets from sun gazing made up also for all the food he needs! He has eaten very little of solid food for the last 8 years, and lives primarily on fluid such as water and occasional tea or coffee.

Mr. Riha also indicates the importance of sun gazing (early in the morning or an hour prior to sun dawn) to achieve both spiritual growth and physical growth.



I think depriving our bodies of sun is absolutely a certificate of disease and death. Our planet's life depends on the light of the sun and couldn't sustain life without it. We should all be grateful for this element of life.

I will be updating this blog and writing here some reviews of the benefit of sun in general and other updated info regarding sun gazing in specific.

Meditation- The Fly story

This is an animated story (few minutes) about how our thoughts change our experience in life..very well done

The Doberman

I love this breed. I saw it once it once with its owner at a pet store and I was fond by its beauty, alertness and smart look. I wanted to come and ask the owner about it, and it sensed I was coming so it froze in its place and gave me this ice cold looks with no barking or any noise whatsoever, but once I said Hi and the owner responded back, it relaxed and started brushing between the owner's legs.

This short movie shows a bit of that but also the video clip has beautiful music and the clips put together nicely.

From the producer of this short movie:

"The film is about a Doberman who is taunted by a little boy. He later chases down the trouble maker for his chips once he sees his owner come home he quickly stops pursuit to join her. During the video you can see how the people playing basketball stop to get out of his way, the little girl drops the ball and the slow motion shot where the lady is just watching him. I was trying to convey the power and beauty of the breed."

What it is all about..

When I wrote my previous post regarding money, I didn't mean that money is the only thing we need to care about. In fact the care for money only is addiction of the worst kind!

I went running this morning, beautiful, it was actually snowing, but when you run things happen, you feel better for some reason. Something kicks in your physical and changes your state that makes you wanna raise your hand in victory for every by-passer and smile to everyone.

So, after I was done, I sat there in front of the house, it was early in the morning, it is Good Friday today, no one was there, very peaceful, I can only hear my breath and my iPod synchronizing in a strange way. The land was white, and there was this beautiful bird who passed in front of me saluting me for completing my morning mission...The whole thing was magical.

So what is it we want from life after all, isn't it simply the enjoyment of it and the peace of mind? Coin and paper money maybe a mean to give you the chance to experience that by Not worrying about your finance in addition to other things like your physical state, relationships, and others..and if we can reach the stage where we can remain in that state of mind despite any circumstances, wouldn't that be all we would ever need here on earth?

Saudi form of skiing

Hey folks, don't try this on your next highway trip!!!

It is Natrual to love MONEY

Does it sound awkward? It is because you have been accustomed all your freaking life to relate money to greed, violence and selfishness. We are raised to ask for the beautiful life after death, in Heaven the castles, the wine, the virgins and all the pleasures you want..not now later...What you should do is spend your time worshiping until you erase all your bad deeds/Karma and replace them with something better...that is it..forget now, it is later..What a scam!
It is that concept that kept so many people from achieving greatness here on earth...no real incentives!

Money like any other commodity, it can be used for the good of humanity or for total destruction of humanity. If we are to enjoy life, Money is how you exchange things around here. When you want to help dying children in Africa you need Money. When you need roof on top of your head you need Money. When you want pants to cover your naked ass you need Money. If God/Universe wants to give you a gift He will furnish the way for you to make more Money. The Mercedes will not drop from the sky..but another job or deal will pop up...

Hard n Fast, Nice n Slow

So, I really haven't been too distinct when it comes to posting blogs. I created 2 for the intent of keeping one for hard / fast stuff and the other for slower pace stuff.
I will try from now on, to post more the slow stuff on the other blog, while keeping this one for more hyper or I don't know.. faster blogs...
Here are the new links again: Nice and Slow and Hard and Fast

Metallica- M for Medicine for you

Try this if you feel little down, little lazy, little anything, it s guaranteed to knock your socks off:

1- iPod shuffle,
2- Load it with Metallica Black Album with touch of Master of Puppet and one spoon of Seek and Destroy
3- Put on your running shoes
4- Run until you can't, increase volume as symptom required

Ingredient: Fast Guitars, Awesome drums and Best vocal
For best results: Preferably on empty stomach..
Warnings: Not for the weak hearted


For all you lazy asses, the one and only...MMMMMetallica!

Old Computers Rescued, and Donated to the Poor

This s really cool...

A computer geek named Oso came up with an elegant solution to the problems of too many old computers piling up — and where do you put them — and, low-income families being left behind in the digital age. It is a brilliant concept: Oso and his cool-geeky friends in Portland collect the old ones, refurbish them and give them to those who need them, even offering training for building computers. The idea has spread to other cities too.

The Game- The continuous search for perfection

As a prelude to my previous post, i should have mentioned where the idea came from.

During my very young years when I was 17 years old, I was obsessed with martial arts. Not to fight on the street, in fact I never did, I always found a way to talk things out and that was more enjoyable than to break into a fight (or sometimes the guys were too big :), in fact all my injuries were in the practice hall, never in a competition nor in a fight.

Nevertheless I was obssessed with finding the best technique in the world, thus kept flipping between karate, Kung-fu, Tai-Chi, free-form and lastly Russian Combat Sambo.
But I always doubted what is the best technique.

It took me 20 years to lately figure out that the real technique is a mixed and very personal to each one. There is in fact no perfect technique for everyone But this realization itself was an awakening one for me. I can put the martial art thing (hopefully) to rest now.

So there is some kind of knowledge to get the best of every situation. It could be the best coffee you drink at that specific shop or the best tennis player in the world. They all figured out the best way.

This is actually the difference between a successful person and a looser. The looser just can't figure it out. Doesn't know what to do, thus he/she would rather flip the TV-remote control forever in search of something.

Therefore, you find people like tony Robins, David Bach, Aaron Raymond all have figure out that modeling the most successful people is one way to achieve that. And that is also why mentoring is such a hot thing right now, and I think it does pay off.

So the next time you don't know what to do, just hang on, and try to figure it out, there is a way somewhere and if you just hang on there, and don't give up, you will be awarded a very neat surprise...I promise you that :)

The Game

Life is a game. Really, I am serious, life is a big game. The biggest game you can ever imagine. In that prospect you can almost compare it to a dream. In a dream everything you think and do becomes true. It is almost as good here.

However, here there are rules to this game. What I want to share with you my ideas about the techniques. There are techniques or ways to everything you need.
If you know the techniques you will play this game with joy. If you don't, it is going to be a tough, rough and will be "Game Over" before you know it.

The good part you don't need to know and figure out all the techniques out there, it is enough to figure out the techniques of the things you like and to firmly believe there is a technique for anything else

If you want to study something, first you need to know how to study, it s a technique of organizing yourself, of focus, and desire to be successful. Then it is the technique to find out how to understand a subject, could be by looking it up more in the library, or with a help of a friend.. Do you need to have a better romantic life, it starts with you, the technique here is to truly accept yourself first, then feeling the joy that romance can bring to your life, then the physical move by perhaps being more sociable in certain events you like so you can find someone with same hobbies; for example, if you like to dance register in a salsa club, if you like to hike there are plenty of clubs like that..

In summary, if there is something in your life now that you can't get to, it is because you haven't figured out the technique yet... if you pause and reconsider, it could mean either you are not meant for it, or you are going the wrong way and utilizing the wrong technique...

Happy gaming, you got as many lifetimes as you like to figure this one out :)

Life

Try not to cry little one

..remembering you
My children,
My brothers and sisters,
Dying for pure greed of others,
For money,
For land,
What other
.
When will everyone know
When one kills everyone dies
When one steels everyone suffers
When one rapes no one recovers
There is plenty of everything
No need to fight forever
No need to harm anyone ever
.
Stop your fighting thoughts
Take a deep breath and know
In your breath
Your own existence stands
You are your first creation
and last
.
Let me shed
one more tear for you
Not enough helped stop wars
Why then do I feel guilty
for not shedding more
.
You are in my heart
I never left you
When I stray and forget
Another song comes along
Reminding me of you
.

Evanescence My Immortal

Canada and Japan has best image in Global Survey, Israel US and Iran Worst

Interesting, after I read this article on MSNBC's headlines it was removed (from the headlines) within an hour...

Israel, Iran and the United States were the countries with the most negative image in a globe-spanning survey of attitudes toward 12 major nations. Canada and Japan came out best in the poll, released Tuesday.

The survey for the British Broadcasting Corp.'s World Service asked more than 28,000 people to rate 12 countries — Britain, Canada, China, France, India, Iran, Israel, Japan, North Korea, Russia, the United States and Venezuela — as having a positive or negative influence on the world.

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