Get your products notice @ the airport. I was roaming Changi International Airport today in transit to LA. After an hour of so loitering and occasional emailing standing up @ the internet kioks, my legs begin to ache. To my amazement, I found free foot massage machine by Oto, and best of all, its free. It started ticklish, then slight pain, and bearing through the first 3 minutes, the rest of the 7 minutes were relaxing, and nice. The short 10 minutes massage leaves me rejuvenated and the feat felt light as I walk on.

During the 10 minutes of massage, I reflected on the opportunity companies have in getting their products noticed at busy airports. Millions of travelers transit @ Changi Airport each month and to have them try the product, its almost a free advert. I wonder of Changi Management charge these companies to place their device @ the airport. I would see this as a win win win, Changi management can provide comfort and services to the customer, at the expense of the product supplier, while the product supplier wins on the adverts, the consumer wins on the free service or comfort they receive.

Rock band My Chemical Romance first got notice and popular by giving their music free online, now they sells more CD’s & Concert tickets the could ever dream of. Is Oto trying to do the same @ Changi? Nevertheless, I for one now knows how good of a product the foot massager is, in just 10 minutes, I am refreshed. I have seen it in malls all over Malaysia, and never tried any of them. Now, if I see one on sale I wouldn’t mind buying one. The downside to this is Oto is doing marketing not only for themselves, but also for their competitors. Imagine, I see this product, I use it, and I loved it. Then when I get back to my country, I see similar product of different brand, I buys them.

So, while this model is win win win, there are risk involved. With a strong branding, and brand affirmation at these free kiosks, this risk can be mitigated. When I was in Changi Airport 2 years ago, there was free back massage by professional masseurs. I suggest the next time, you are in Changi, check out relaxing massagers.

As obsessed over the series as damdirtyangel, I follow the series weekly through the nbc.com official site. This week somehow, episode 17 were not shown over the US, and thus no updated on the NBC.com site. Fortunately for me, the show was aired over in Canada and the TV addict have the perfect spoiler to feed this junkie. In short, this episode was more exciting over #16. This episode also centralized to only one storyline, instead of jumping here and there like usual. Many flashbacks reveal more mysteries on the storyline. Seams like Hiro father is connected to all this. Mr. Bennet as I have suspected is not the bad guy like how he was depicted early on. Could this be the end of Mr. Bennet? Somehow, Mr. Bennet powers are still not shown, if he had any at all. There are more questions than answers as usual, and can’t wait till next week. In the mean time, check out the Episode 17 spoilers over at the TVaddict.

Sometime back, I blog about fat nation, about how my group of friends are becoming bigger horizontally one by one. How once a skinny little lidi could become a Shrek in 20 years. There were many research done in the US and also other parts of the world on the growing nation, I am giving my two cents here.

Drop in body movement, is one of the major cause of my fatness. During the student days, what ever I eat, I could maintain a steady body weight, and I never grew. Once I started working, my body grew exponentially. The major difference is that back in the days I walk almost everywhere. Once I started working, I got my own transport, and walking is beginning to become a chore. The less I walk, the more I grow.

I see walking as a major contributor to the nation’s weight problem. How many overweight people do you see who needs to walk more than 10k steps a day? Not many. How many overweight people do you see who walk less than 2k steps a day? Everywhere. Remember Jerry, for those who knows him, he lost weight by having a balance diet with Subway, and walking everyday. He lost 245lb by just doing this, walk a lot (1.5 miles a day) and a balance diet.

I myself lost 4kg in a month by increasing the steps I take, and having a diet trending towards ‘life food’. ‘Life Food’ is a concept introduced by Harvey Diamond in his book ‘Fit for Life’. The concept is easy, raw food such as fruits and vege and even meat is life food and cooked food is dead food. The body needs energy to process dead food, but do not need energy to process life food. Energy saved from processing food will be spent on burning away excess fat. So, by eating more life food, one will feel more energy and automatically grow thinner as the fat burns away. He explains all the theory and scientific justification all in his book. He has also laid down a diet formula that is most effective. I did not follow that and just follow his general rule, which is to have more life food than dead food, and have them with each meal.

So, basically what I want to share here is that walk more (if you don’t exercise like me) and eat more fresh vegetables / fruits. You can easily loose weight like this like I do. A small change in lifestyle can contribute a big change in weight.

Blink!, the book first caught my eye with its interesting cover design. Thought I don’t judge the book by it’s cover, I do get attracted to interestingly designed books. I guess if the publisher manage to get me pick the book up from the display shelf of the bookshop, the book is half sold. I was intrigue by the title, Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking. Wow, how could I learn that? Well, duh, our sub-conscious mind works 24hrs a day, and this book is talking about the power of our sub-conscious. the author manage to keep my interest in the entire book. Stories after stories on how the sub-conscious mind works in helping the great to be great. Those who have become great, doesn’t get there by just reading the book, but through years and years of training. What the book lacks, is the everyday how-to, that is practical to the average Joe. Because it lacks in that, I am truly amaze on how many copies it was sold. I guess it must be the interesting stories that kept me going through out the entire book. I have nevertheless learn a few more things from this book, foremost, face reading, by looking at the tiny muscle in the face, one can tell what the person is thinking of. This is truly a remarkable skill to acquire, and it is not easy, and it is certainly fascinating. It is also why I am recommending this book, as though it lacks on how-to harness the power of our Sub-Conscious mind, it is rich in stories and also researches that do benefit you on one way or another.

Its the end of my week long holiday. It was only like yesterday I started the holiday with a high note, and now, feeling like I need another holiday to rest from this week long holiday. Its also the end of the year, beginning next year, I will be moving job, I was told to relocate my work to Kulim a couple of weeks back, and currently trying to adjust to this change. I will miss going to work and coming back together with my wife, I will have to spend more on fuel, and endure the hour long journey and I will have to wake up much earlier than usual. Fortunately I have a few months to make these adjustments, anyhow, this is the end for a way of live that I have got used to. I see this is a good jolt for me to get out of this comfort zone of mine, but what hard for me to let go is going to work and coming back home together with my wife. I guess I am too attached to this comfort zone. Anyway, the extra 2 hours for me will do me good, as I can catch up with my reading, podcast or even blogging.