hasn't been writing for this week. busy busy busy BUSY BUSY!!!!! B U S Y!! was reading this email by my friend. pretty interesting. it was fascinating when researchers came out with results of their findings. more fascinating when you knew about their objectives of their research. like the one mentioned below. but then again, happiness for sale?

By Marina Krakovsky
Summary: Why we find material goods less fulfilling.

Choosing between a new sweater and a pair of concert tickets? Buy the tickets, suggests a new study on whether our spending habits are likely to make us happy.

Philosophers since Aristotle have claimed that experiences fulfill us more than material goods. To test this claim, a pair of psychology professors examined discretionary spending on material purchases (such as jewelry or clothing) and experiential ones (such as vacations or tickets to a concert). In a nationwide phone survey of 1,279 adults, respondents were much more likely to claim that a prior experiential purchase made them happier than a material one-57 percent versus 34 percent-even after accounting for differences in price.

Of course, some items-such as books or sports gear-are both material and experiential. And one person's splurge may be another's must-have. So the researchers simply asked respondents to think of purchases they'd made "with the intention of advancing their own happiness."

The researchers, Leaf Van Boven of the University of Colorado at Boulder, and Thomas Gilovich of Cornell University, found some demographic differences in strength of preference: A higher percentage of women, for example, were happier with experiences than
were men. Individuals with higher incomes and more education especially tended to prefer experiential spending-perhaps because the less discretionary income you have, the more any purchase will improve your quality of life. Even so, not a single segment reported being happier with their material buys.

Unlike possessions, our experiences get better with time. "We redefine and reconstrue them as we retell them, and they continue to be a part of who we are," says Van Boven. The research is scheduled to appear in the December issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

this is a chain mail. a chain mail. CHAIN MAIL!!!!!

Nobody is perfect until you fall in love with them. Love starts with a smile, grows with a kiss, and ends with a tear. Don't cry over anyone who won't cry over you. What do you do when the only person who can make you stop crying is the person who made you cry? If love isn't a game, why are there so many players? Good friends are hard to find, harder to leave, and impossible to forget. You can only go as far as you push! Actions speak louder than words. The hardest thing to do is watch the one you love, love somebody else. Don't let the past hold you back, you're missing the good stuff. Life's short. If you don't look around once in a while you might miss it. A best friend is like a four leaf clover, hard to find and lucky to have.

Some people make the world special by just being in it. Best friends are the siblings God forgot to give us. When it hurts to look back, and you're scared to look ahead, you can look beside you and your best friend will be there. True friendship never ends. Friends are forever. Good friends are like stars....you don't always see them, but you know they are always there. Don't frown, you never know who is falling in love with your smile. Everything is okay in the end. If it's not okay, then it's not the end. Most people walk in and out of your life, but only friends leave footprints in your heart.

If u love something...let it go.
If it comes back to you its yours....
If it doesn't then it never was.
A kiss is just a kiss until u find the one you love.
A hug is just a hug,
until its from the one ur thinking of.
A dream is just a dream until u make it come true.
LOVE is just a word until its proven 2 u.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Another Column of Mr Brown - Ah bengs, heirlooms and aphrodisiacs

strap strap strap

I think Singapore may have found a solution to our low national sex drive and low birth rate. Yes, Singaporeans need to follow the example of our northern neighbours, specifically Kelantan, and swallow. Swallow live mudskippers, I mean. And it shouldn't be the women who do it.

That's right, men, you can improve your flagging libido, your missing mojo, your ... er ... poor blood circulation by swallowing live mudskippers from Kelantan as an aphrodisiac. And you have to swallow them LIVE, Fear Factor-style. The men from the villages there swear by this fish's potency. Many of them eat four or five of the critters a day, which they catch in nearby mangrove swamps. I can imagine their wives' reactions when these men get home from work after taking side trips to the mangrove swamp. With their men full of eastern promise, like corks about to pop, their wives probably say: "Oh that fish smell on your breath! You've been eating that fish again! Too bad I have a headache!"

The report fails to mention whether the fish help the women in any way. I doubt it. Fish breath is never listed as a turn-on in women's magazines. Not in the issues I read, anyway ("Better Sex: Getting your man to share his inner fish") Next they'll be telling us that smearing live mudskippers on your face improves your complexion and gives you bigger breasts.

In Japan, Hideto Tomabechi claims to have developed a ringtone that can increase the breast size of those who listen to it. He is working on other ringtones that will improve your memory, increase your attractiveness to the opposite sex, cure hair loss and help you quit cigarettes. I am not making this up. His breast ringtone is a runaway success, as breast-challenged Japanese women (and their boyfriends and husbands) download the tune to upsize their chests.

No word on what effect it has on men's chests though. I'd put that phone on silent mode, men, if I were you. We don't want this ringtone enlarging stuff we don't want enlarged, do we? Speaking of family heirlooms, a few Hong Kongers had their family heirlooms crushed recently. Before you wince and say ouch, I meant the non-biological kind of heirloom. Not the other kind of family jewels.

Apparently, due to human error, a DBS bank in Hong Kong took 83 security deposit boxes full of valuables to a scrap yard, where they were destroyed. The contractors were supposed to dump the empty ones, but took the full ones from the bank vault instead. Haven't those guys heard of the advanced safety deposit box verification technique known as "Opening the Safe to Look Inside First"? And didn't anyone notice that the full deposit boxes seemed a little heavier than they should have?

I can feel the pain of those people as they try to explain to the bank what was in their boxes in order to claim compensation.

"Yes, that's the 25th Anniversary special edition Playboy magazine, commemorating the handover of Hong Kong. It is rare and priceless."

But how do you put a price tag on the Secret Kung Fu No-Shadow Kick manual that your ancestors passed down to you? Or the handkerchief Andy Lau blew his nose into when you attended his concert in 1991? Or the missing books of the Kama Sutra that your grandfather told you keep for the next generation ("The Missing 26th Position: Back to Back"). Without those missing books, you'd probably have to rely on some kind of course to learn how to do it. Which is why my helpful colleague, Ah Beng, sent out an email inviting friends and co-workers to a "Free talk on the Art of Love". The email said that a Love Coach would cover topics such as "Romancing the Beloved and Integral Tantra" in the free talk.

I don't think Ah Beng expected the overwhelming response to his message.

From Leonard: "I am quite concerned that you sent me this ... but if you insist, you and I must go, then you'll have to pay for me."

From me: "I feel you are trying to say something to me with this email. I know our relationship has not been that good lately, honey. We will work things out. I will take you out more often and buy you flowers, okay? Right after I get back from my vacation with my wife."

From a lady colleague: "Is this one of those tantric things that Sting does? Will there be a demo?"

From Michelle: "What's wrong with your sex life?"

From Charles: "Please take me off this list."

Ah Beng will probably think twice before he sends another email invitation ("Free talk on Live Mudskippers as Aphrodisiac"). That's what you get when you try to help others with their love lives. Wait until you lose your Ancient Chinese Love Manual in a crushed safety deposit box. Ah Beng won't be there to help salvage your love life.

mr brown is the accidental author of a popular website that has been documenting the dysfunctional side of Singapore life since 1997. He is working on a ringtone that will help banks remember to check their safety deposit boxes before crushing them.