What me worry?

It occurred to me a while ago that I don't like to worry. I doubt anyone does, but everybody does it. Worry shortens our life, makes us unhappy and generally no fun to be around. Considering it also occurred to me that worry of some kind is innevitable, I decided that I would try to minimise things that I worry about. My thoughts weren't revolutionary, but they made sense, and still do.

Don't worry about things you can do nothing about.

If you can do something, then stop procrastinating and do it. Most people create their own worry. The more you see you are making progress, the less stress you will have.

I'm not saying that not worrying is as simple as snapping your fingers, I know from experience that it is not. The difference is that every time I begin to worry about something, I ask myself "can I do anything to effect what I'm worried about?". If the answer is no, then I tell myself "well bloody well stop worrying, you are only making yourself unhappy!"

It may take a bit of practice, and a fair slice of logical thinking from you, but it does help. There are good elements to almost every bad situation, so try to think of those.

As an example: Last week I drove an hour up the coast with glee as I was on my way to catch a flight to my girlfriend's place for the weekend after another lengthy period apart. Understand that I invest a lot emotionally in these trips, as anyone in a long distance relationship would know. Now, I found out after a lengthy evening wait that my flight had been cancelled and I had to see the staff to make other arrangements, I was understandably stressed to hell, and quite frustrated. I do my absolute best to extract every possible hour out of these trips, so to find out that I may not make it as planned was awful. ANZAC day was also the very next day, and I loathe missing the dawn service (which I had planned to observe at the national War Memorial).

While waiting in the trip reassignment line with a lot of other distressed people for hours, I found myself hopping from one foot to the other in irritation. I stopped. I said to myself (not aloud as that would make me crazy) "I know this is not an ideal situation, but is there actually anything I can do about it? No? Then I'm going to force myself to calm down and just relax." And so I did, I actually smiled a few times and struck up some light-hearted conversations with fellow would-be passengers.

In the end, my flight was rearranged for early the next morning from another airport (which they bussed me to), had my money refunded, and the airline put me up at a nice hotel for the night. All in all I missed the dawn service, but at least I got there the next morning, and didn't lose that much time. I saved myself a few gray hairs by making the best of a bad situation, and letting things I could not affect play out as the gods wished.

Now that I think of it, all time spent worrying is a waste of time. It gets you nowhere and makes you incredibly unhappy. It's not simple to stop worrying, and it happens to everybody, but you can reduce the effect it has upon you. Don't ignore what you're worrying about, but work through it, or accept things the way they are.

We all like to be in control, though sometimes we must accept that we are not in control of anything but ourselves.

Aim high!

Take The Guesswork Out Of Investing

Have you ever dithered around for hours on a regular basis trying to decide what this unpredictable little devil called the stock market will do next? "Oh no! What if I invest now, and it goes down, or what if I don't and it goes up and I miss out?"

If you have done any investing in the past, of course you have. I'm about to give you an investing tip which will help you to make the right decision at the right time, every time. What's more, it takes next to no work from you to achieve, and you can spend all that wasted time relaxing or looking for other opportunities.

It is a fairly well known and accepted technique called "Dollar-Cost Averaging".

How does it work? Well the basic idea is that you invest a certain regular amount of money into a particular investment. That's it. Seriously.

It goes like this. Say I invested $100 a month in a product of my choice that I thought would do ok. The first month, the price was $1 per share, so I bought 100 shares. The second month, SHOCK HORROR (!!), the value of the product has fallen by 25%, and the units are now worth $0.75 each! Your first reaction would be one closely resembling a heart attack. Justifiably so, as the value of your investment is now $75. Instead of cutting and running though, you stick to your guns, and purchase another $100 worth of shares, being around 133 shares. You continue like this for a few months, and gradually the price of your product begins to rise again. Eventually, YAY, the value has reached $1.25 per unit. As this is the highest you have ever seen this share rise to, you usually would not buy, right? Well let's just say that you once again stick to your guns, and buy another $100 worth of shares, equating to 80 shares.

Can you see where this is heading? You have effectively bought more units when they were cheap, and less when they were relatively expensive. Congratulations, you have successfully predicted the moves of the market, and invested accordingly.

The fact is that it is very difficult for even investment professionals to predict what a particular fund is going to do, as there are so many variables. Those that do know will often keep this information close to their breast with a greedy little glint in their eye. The best most of us can do is to simply be lucky. If you don't want to leave it down to luck, then Dollar-Cost Averaging is the way to go.

Here is a table showing the benefits of this technique:

Thus, if you had invested a lump sum of $1200 initially at $20 dollars per share, that's exactly what it would be worth 12 months down the track. However, with dollar-cost averaging at work,

you would have made 399 dollars profit even though the share never got above the initial purchase price again. Nice huh?

The down side:

If you invested a lump sum of $1200 initially, and the share price just went straight up from there without dropping below your initial purchase price, you would never make the same profit through dollar-cost averaging (DCA). Sound risky though? It is. How often have you predicted movements like this? At least if your investment went down in value, you would have invested less money in the high period with DCA.

The logical side:

If you are investing any reasonable amount of money, you would catch on to something. How often do you have a large lump-sum just laying around doing nothing? Not very often indeed. Often DCA is the best solution simply because it enables you to begin investing sooner. It will certainly benefit you if you cant afford to make an initial outlay equal to the amount you could have invested through DCA.

The requirements of DCA? A regular income from which you can reliably make that same investment per period, and a lot of discipline. Also, it would be beneficial if you found a product with low/no fees for additional investment.

One last thought, as you can see from the above, DCA will work best for volatile products: those that are especially unpredictable and often violent in their movements.

In my mind, making use of DCA would take a lot of the stress out of investing, which means that you would live longer to enjoy the proceeds!

Take it easy.

In the news today

"Teen inflates 213 balloons with his nose"

No...I couldn't do it, but to quote a popular JJJ radio presenter, "THAT'S NOT NEWS!"

"Japan's whaling fleet returned to port as authorities prepared to launch an investigation into forceful harassment by activists in Antarctic waters."

Ok, but what about the fleet's "forceful harassment" of the whales?

"Nelson confident of leadership"

As if he'd say "well no, I'm not that confident really...", but come on, the man has a 9% approval rating, how confident can we expect him to be? John Howard has offered to help him out a bit, but considering the condition in which he left office, I don't see how much help he is going to be.

"Lonely Planet Guide "Made Up"

So what else is new?

"No results two weeks after Zimbabwe poll"

I don't think anyone's really surprised by this one.

Until next time...

What I'm Listening To: Frou Frou "Details" (2002)

So I was checking out some music on my girlfriend's computer a while ago when I heard something that was oddly enigmatic. The chocolaty sub-rhythms and melodic highs caught me up and thrust me into my own imagination. A smooth, gender ambiguous voice thrummed through my eardrums:

"So, let go

Jump in

Oh well, what you waiting for?

It's all right

'Cause there's beauty in the breakdown

So, let go

Just get in

Oh, it's so amazing here

It's all right

'Cause there's beauty in the breakdown"

And hell yeah, for that moment, I did let go.

I forgot about it for a while then, until I watched the movie "The Holiday" (quite enjoyable). When the song came on rather unexpectedly, I blurted "hey I know this, it's cool!." I had forgotten the name of the band, but gradually everything came back to me as I talked to my girlfriend later. I got the album the next day.

The song above is "Let go" off the 2002 Album "Details" by a rather obscure duo with an odd name: Frou Frou. Pronounced "Froo Froo", it is apparently French onomatopoeia (words that stand for sounds, like "bang" and "swish") for the sound made by the skirts of dancing women...cooool.

I would describe it as electronic music, but I'm not too comfortable with this label, as for many people it implies thumping bass-lines and zippity highs that belong in a dance club. Not this album no no. This music is for chilling around the home Cafe Del Mar style, or to freshen up the blood first thing in the morning. The lyrics often have a real conversational quality about them that pulls you along with the song. It's a real experience, and I am hard pressed to think of another band I've heard recently which has such a depth and complexity of sound with the impressive production quality and lyrics of this album.

For your information, the song "Let Go" also featured in the Hollywood film "Garden State", for which it is most famous.

Anyway, listen to it yourself for a bit here, just press the play button. It's awfully groovy.

Enjoy!

Just in case you didn't know.

I added a feed for SBS World News to the right sidebar of my blog, so you can read quality headlines while reading Adrift! Also note the Google search facility there as well, which you can use to search Google just like from Google.com, or there's the option to search Adrift instead. All for your convenience. The Google ads, despite being ads, also provide links to other interesting information not necessarily about buying things. Have a look for yourself!

Be aware!

Jetsam

How to subscribe to my blog.

Ok, there is an option at the very bottom of the last post on this page, which reads "Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)". On other websites, you may often see a little icon like this, which is essentially the same thing:

What is this you ask? Well the link above is called an Atom feed, and the icon is an RSS feed. Need more info? This is from Wikipedia:

"RSS is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines, and podcasts. An RSS document (which is called a "feed" or "web feed" or "channel") contains either a summary of content from an associated web site or the full text. RSS makes it possible for people to keep up with web sites in an automated manner that can be piped into special programs or filtered displays."

So essentially, you download a program through which you can "subscribe" to as many feeds as you want, and each time any of those sites are updated, it is sent straight to that program. This removes the need for constant checking of websites, and allows you to receive the latest news from various sources instantly and all in one place.

I am currently subscribed to the Bangkok Post, SBS World News, The Barefoot Investor's articles, and The Elders RSS feeds.

So how to subscribe? You first need to download a program to syndicate the feeds. I use Sharpreader, and I'm pretty happy with it. It runs in the background and anytime something new comes in, it flashes up a little unobtrusive alert so you know. To install it, go here to download the "installer" (see top of page). Once you have installed it and opened it, it will look like this without any of the feeds you can see there:

Now, to subscribe to a feed, you must first right-click on the RSS icon, or the Atom link as they are shown above, and choose "copy shortcut" or "copy link location" (whichever your browser throws at you).

Then, in Sharpreader, click File, and choose the top option "Open RSS Feeds". Then it will ask you to "type the internet address" of the feed into a box. You right click into the box, and paste the link you copied earlier. Ensure that the "subscribe to feed" box is ticked, then press ok.

Voila! You are now subscribed! You can do the same thing with my Atom link at the bottom of the page, or by copying the links to any of the feeds I mentioned I subscribed to earlier, or in fact any RSS or Atom link you see anywhere on the web! How cool!

You don't have to use sharpreader, I just demonstrated with it because it works for me and is easy to use. Most programs will be much the same.

To check your feeds when you start your computer, just open Sharpreader like any other program, and it will then be open in your taskbar just next to where you see the time on your desktop. Double click this icon to open it again if it tells you there are new feeds, it will stay running and checking in the background! You get the latest headlines and what not delivered straight to you.

One thing about sharpreader, if you just click on the new feeds as they are shown in the image above, it will give you a summary of the content in the window below. To open the actual webpage in Sharpreader, just double click the feed. This way you can see the new info in context.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to leave a comment or email me.

Enjoy the wealth of new information at your beck and call!

Jetsam

PS: If you have a suggestion for a computer tips article, just let me know and I will see what I can do ;)

To boycott, or not to boycott?

Regarding the various people proposing a boycott of the Beijing Olympics; my view is that any kind of boycott would be counter-productive. There is no point in punishing the athletes who have made the games their life's ambition and put everything they had in getting there. Allow them their moment in the sun.

Also, regarding the current protests around the torch relay, come on people... Look, protest all you like, but please don't get aggressive and try to extinguish the torch or disrupt its passage. Please also refrain from booing and what not as it goes past. Imagine how the athletes who you so revere feel carrying the torch that you are directing all your hatred towards. These are people you love, who view this as one of the great honours of their lives. Don't take that away from them. Sure it makes the news, but for all the wrong reasons.

Chant slogans for sure and wave your banners proudly, as I would do the same if I hadn't already booked my flight to Canberra for the day AFTER the relay *palm to head smack*. I understand the feeling that has built around this. But...for the majority of the people showing up to protest, where have you been for the last 50 or so years? These issues are not new, nor should your reaction to them be. Will your passion fade away with the media attention, like what has happened to the whole Burma campaign?

The picture: so many white faces...who are they, and will they be seen again?

It can be argued that peaceful protest has been tried all along, and it hasn't worked. The great thing about this though, is that it has been peaceful. Someone who had a way with words said once "fighting for peace is like f***ing for celibacy", and they're right. As an example, the Karen in Burma are a minority that have been fighting the Junta for years, and as a result, things have actually become worse for their people, and their cause fractured from within. Am I belittling their attempt? No, just saying that it may not be the best way to proceed.

It is very difficult for anyone in the western world to have any legitimacy in attacking China over her treatment of ethnic minorities, they have all been guilty of similar abuse in the last century.

Am I making excuses for China? No, definitely not. Don't just jump on the bandwagon now though, and jump off when the games are over.

There is only so much of an effect a boycott can have. If people boycott the games, then the athletes are punished. If heads of state boycott the opening ceremony and games (like England's Brown and Prince Charlie), then China will shrug, and say "so what?" It seems like a PR stunt for these leaders, as they will continue kissing China's arse politically and economically.

My hat goes off to good ol' Kevin Rudd, Australian PM, who has ruled out a boycott, and has actually gone to China and spoken in front of University students and Chinese dignitaries about the Tibet issue among others...in Mandarin! This shows guts and a true commitment to putting Australia and her values first, despite his friendship and affinity with China. It is this kind of thing that will make the real difference. He is going about this the right way, at least at the present, unlike any other heads of state. Good on ya Kev!

About the fools criticising him for his casual salute to Bush, watch the video yourself! How can you be an Ozzie and criticise that? Nutters...

On a side note, I agree with focusing a little less on our relations with Western nations, and a lot more on relations with Asian nations WHICH IS WHERE WE LIVE! We are a part of this area, and we need to act more like it, and less like a little outpost of Britain or America. Kev, I salute you. (^_^)\

New Leadership? Hell yeah! Loving it!

That's it!

Un-muzzle the dragon.

So we all know about China's abysmal human rights record, but is everyone aware of just how censored the average Chinese citizen's access to information is?

A new campaign has been launched by Amnesty International recently to actively combat these issues in a public forum. It works to inform about human rights and censorship issues occurring in China right now. This is especially important in the lead-up to the Beijing Olympics, as China must be on their best behaviour, and present its best face. If we help to bring these issues to light, they will have much less of a chance of being ignored now rather than after the games when this leverage will disappear.

The campaign is called Uncensor. This is from the web page:

About the Uncensor China campaign

"There are many abuses taking place in China today. Our campaign focuses on these four key areas:
- Unwarranted Internet and media censorship
- The death penalty
- Repression of human rights defenders, and
- Torture and detention without trial"

The website has a cool function where you can enter in censored search terms like "SARS" and "Tienanmen" in Chinese, in Chinese Google and Yahoo search engines to see what comes up in comparison with entering the same in English over here. I further tested this censorship by copying and pasting the Chinese characters into the outside-China engines to see what the differences in results were. Try it out yourself, it's interesting (find this function on the right hand sidebar of the Uncensor homepage).

When it is back online (it is currently undergoing maintenance), http://www.greatfirewallofchina.org/ is another great site which tests websites that are blocked through Chinese servers.

What can you do? Inform yourself first, then spread the word however you can, and sign the pledge on Uncensor. Help to flood the Chinese servers with censored search terms.

Personally I have great hopes for China's future in the world, so I am doing my bit to encourage the land of the dragon to discard the chains that hold it back in the eyes of the developed world. Am I being ethnocentric? I don't think so, being Chinese has nothing to do with being restricted in the information you can access. This is a relatively modern phenomenon in a culture that has been around for thousands of years. China was once arguably the most knowledgeable and well-informed culture on Earth; I would like to see it be so again.

The Chinese government loves its people, and sees this censorship as protecting them from destructive elements. This isolation will not work forever though, as it is like a bamboo cage that flexes. The people can glimpse through the bars at the world as it really is, and as they become aware, the less confident they will be that their government's love is protecting them instead of limiting them.

Yours with hope,

Jetsam

How to easily reduce the size of pictures.

I am often asked by friends and family how to reduce the file size of digital photos in order to send them over the Internet. It seems a pretty common request so I hope detailing my method here might help some other people too.

The problem: You have a number of photos to send to a friend, but your funky new 12 megapixel digital camera has taken all the photos at such a huge resolution that it takes forever to send them as email attachments. The issue is the filesize. Pixels are the individual tiny dots that together make up your picture. This is why when you zoom in too far on a picture, it begins to look grainy as the distance between each pixel is increased. A megapixel=a million pixels, and the more pixels in a picture, the better it looks as more dots means more detail.

Our problem is that the more pixels a picture has, the bigger its file size. To find the file size of a picture (measured in bytes, kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes etc), right click on it (in Microsoft Windows) and select "properties" from the menu that comes up.

It should look like this:
The "size on disk" is the file size of the file you right clicked on (in this case 136 kilobytes (KB)).

The bigger this number is, the longer it will take to send over the Internet. Most peoples' email account will only allow a certain sized attachment to be sent each time. If it is taking too long to send your email, it is time to reduce the file size.

To do this we need a program that will let us reduce the file size easily. The one I recommend for sheer compatibility and user-friendliness is Irfanview. Download it here. If you "open the file from current location", just follow the instructions. If you "save file to disk", find where you saved it when it has finished downloading and open the file, then follow the instructions.

After you have installed Irfanview, find the pictures you want to reduce. Right-click on the picture, and click "open with". In that menu should now be Irfanview. Click it. Your pic should now be opened in Irfanview, and look something like this (your pic is where the black is):


Now, to reduce the filesize of the image we have to go into the "Image" menu which is along the top bar to the right of "Edit". Click it. From the drop-down menu, select "resize/resample".
You should now see this:

Now, the idea here is to reduce the picture size so as to find a balance between file size and quality that suits you. To do this, click the circle that says "set new size as percentage of original" and enter a percentage. For example, if you want the new size to be 50% of the current, enter in 50. It doesn't matter which box you type it in as the other will change to compensate.

When you are done, click OK.

FAQ:
Q: "shock, horror! My picture is too small!"
A: simply reopen your picture in Irfanview, you haven't saved it so it will be unchanged.

Q: "what the...my picture is the same size! Silly Jetsam!"
A: It's not actually, you just have Irfanview set to display the image within the window you have open so you can see it all. To change this and see the real size of your image, select the "view" menu, click "display options", and click "Fit window to image (1:1)".

Q: "Gee, now I see. But my picture is still far too big! I can't see it all!"
A: go through the same resize process again until you are happy.

Q: "OK, I'm happy with the size, what now?"
A: Now all you have to do is save it. To keep your original high quality image, do NOT just click "save". This will overwrite your original. Preferably click "File" "Save As" then save it to somewhere where you will find it (If you want to save it into the same place the original is, you will have to change the name of the smaller image to differentiate).

If you have done as I have described, you should now have an identical image with a smaller file size. Right click it the new reduced picture and select "properties" to check the new file size.

At this stage it should be a good size to email, just don't try to send too many at once. If it still takes too long, reduce it some more, or if you don't want to, write them to a CD and send it in the mail :P

If you have any questions about the method I have described, leave a comment! Feedback will help me to modify this and future posts to make them easier to understand.

Yours in geekiness,
Jetsam