1. Get local time
   E.g. time chicago, time tokyo

2. Check weather + temperature
   E.g. temp hong kong, temp new york

3. Find the meaning of a word
   Add define before the search term

4. Currency conversion
   E.g. 20 usd in euro

5. Unit Conversion
   E.g.
   50 f to c
   30 c to f
   10 miles to km
   half cup to ml
   30 oz to ml
   900 square feet to square meter
   8cm to inch

6. Do calculations
   E.g. 14*28, 23.53+42.56+25.36, tan(50)/cos(60)

7. Track parcels
   Enter the tracking number for USPS, UPS or FedEx without having to login to the respective websites

8. Get flight details
   Enter the carrier’s name + flight number to find out the ETD + ETA

9. Free proxy
   Type cache:example.com to view a webpage blocked from your computer (replace example with the correct domain name)

10. Search specific photo images
    When searching for a photo of a person named Rose, add &imgtype=face to the end of your image search so that only images of faces will be shown (and not the flower)

11. Search certain file formats
    Add filetype:pdf (or ppt or doc) after the search term

I use # 2-6 and 11 the most.

Non-woven polypropylene reusable bags are everywhere these days which anyone can buy at a cost next to nothing. But I’ve never bought any from any chain/shop nor shop in a shop that hands them out as shopping bags.

Since these bags are also used as goody + marketing bags for tradeshows/conventions, I was patiently waiting to get one free from any of such events. And it has been quite a long wait…

Last Friday evening, hub came back with this big one from an air-con seminar. The wait is now over.

Just last week, hub attended the “Train the Trainer” 5-day seminar by T. Harv Eker so I asked him the other day what was something non-trainers (like me) could also learn. He said Eker and his team employ and teach the accelerated learning technique to help participants remember more and achieve retention by 70%.

The technique is 10/24/7.

Seminar participants were given worksheets at the end of each session to review what has just been said [within 10 mins], then on the next day, pages from the flip chart used the day before were pasted all around the room for everyone to review [within 24 hrs] and the final part is that everyone do their own revision within that same week after the seminar [within 7 days].

That one’s more way to keep new data from slipping away. :-)

(The seminar trainers also have this to remind about 10/24/7: Be at level 10 (ie your best), 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.)

Emily at Shinning Egg is hosting a green week
and I’m joining in to share some of the greenery found within the house.

Chlorella

Brown rice

Beverage box.

I learnt this trick from a Taiwanese program on smart tips and shortcuts for daily living. I think that was in 2005. It was such a fantastic tv show! Afterwhich I’ve spotted the same instructions posted at Instructables and Truveo. Well, for my personal use, I take 3 extra steps to complete the procedure which I’ll explain why further down.

Steps:

1. Align the papers. Here I’m using 5 sheets of letter-size.

2. Fold a triangle on the left-hand corner and crease. The fold (the longest part) is about 5.2cm long, however measuring is not necessary.

3. Make a 1cm-long slit, about 2cm from the edge, then cut another about 1cm away from the first one.

4. Fold and crease the flap as shown.

You could stop at Step 4, which is officially the end. The next 3 steps seek to hold the flap down.

5. Lift up the flap from Step 4 and create that little hollow space.

6. At the top of the flap, press it down to flatten.

7. Fold down the 2 halves.

Finished!

This is how it looks after you’ve completed all the steps, except for the triangle (Step 2), which has been folded over to the back of the stack instead of forward.

Tips:
The heavier the paper, the bigger the triangle fold and the deeper the slits.

The maximum I’ve gone is 15 sheets.

[UPDATE: Don't miss an easier trick in part 4!]