Category Archives: Uncategorized

At the French (conversational) meet-up last night, one participant stood out from the crowd (even outshone me if that was possible at all).   He was very enthusiastic and tried to make the language as interesting as possible for memorization.  For example, the word for “spokesperson” in French is “porte-parole”. “Porter” means to carry and “parole” […]

My weekend experience in Frankfurt reminded me of my 2 nieces’ favorite TV series called Once Upon A Time. The basic plot is the characters in children’s story books came alive in reality. I had a bit of that feeling during my weekend trip (Yes, I am still talking about it). I have heard my German […]

Last weekend I visited a good friend and his family in Frankfurt whom I have known for 15 years since my “golden” days in New York (“golden” not in terms of age but personal development). Despite our different views in the area of personal development, he has supported my book though outright promotion is out […]

During my weekend trip to Frankfurt, I only brought one copy of my book with me for a couple of reasons. One reason is that most of the guests at the party are of an intellectual group armed with doctoral degree in Mathematics. I was not sure they would be interested in my book. However, […]

This weekend I am going to Frankfurt to attend the first holy communion celebration of the son of two good friends of mine. As it is a weekend trip and 99% of the people are German speakers, I am not sure if I should carry some copies of my book there for potentials buyers. My […]

I have been telling people that I am going through a “metamorphosis” to build up a more corporate image in public. As part of this effort, I am in the process of clipping my wings of “eccentricity” which includes no off-the-chart outrageous jokes and comments. It is not to change myself into a completely different […]

I was actually impressed by the broadcast of the final of The Voice France on 25-Apr-2015.  They invited one of the finalists from a previous year (but she did not win in her year of competition) as a guest.  After the competition, she went onto become a successful singer in her own right.  The program producers wanted […]

By sheer chance I was in France to watch the final of The Voice France on TV. The winner Lilian Renaud was the one whose coach/judge Zaziesaid Lilian is an amateur in her concluding and final pitch for her protégée. Actually what she meant was Lilian’s passion for music. There were four established professional singers as […]

Patience is actually more than a virtue in my opinion. In fact, it is a key element for success. First of all, let me clarify that patience does not mean helplessly and passively waiting for something to happen. For me, the latter is a mixture of laziness, wishful thinking and the like, but it is […]

Early this week on BBC Radio 2, Chris Evans reminded  listeners the importance of laying down a solid foundation through hard work and then reaping the fruit later. He said boredom before fun. It echoes with some of the key points of my book: “Hard work” (p.33-34) and “Invest the time to work on the […]