Inspirational Quotes from Steve Jobs

This post is in continuation with my post Maverick Of Digital Age . Unquestionably, Steve Jobs will be remembered for ushering in fundamental changes in the way people interact with technology, he has also been known for his ability to turn a phrase – and a knack for taking complicated ideas and making them easy to understand. Below, a compendium of some of the best Steve Jobs quotes.

1. Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.
2. Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me. Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful, that’s what matters to me.
3. Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things.  – My personal Favorite
4. Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.
5. My favorite things in life don’t cost any money. It’s really clear that the most precious resource we all have is time.
6.  That’s been one of my mantras – focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.
7. Design is the fundamental soul of a man-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service. The iMac is not just the color or translucence or the shape of the shell. The essence of the iMac is to be the finest possible consumer computer in which each element plays together.
8. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith.
9.  To sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through.
10.  Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.
11.  Our goal is to make the best devices in the world, not to be the biggest.
12.  Technology is nothing. What’s important is that you have a faith in people, that they’re basically good and smart, and if you give them tools, they’ll do wonderful things with them.

A walk surely to remember

I was just exploring e book folder in my flash drive and I came across an e book – “A walk to Remember – by Nicolas Spark”. As always I crave for romantic novels. I couldn’t abide myself from reading this book. I would say this is a book with the promise first you will smile then you will cry. Needless to say, a book that keeps you engaged with till the last page. By the time it was scrolling down, my intriguing level was increasing to know what happen next. This book which will enforce you to drown into the feeling of the lovers and you will feel like you are actually into the character. The words, phrases are used so perfectly to describe the characters so that readers can identify feeling in their hearts.

“Love is like the wind, you can’t see it but you can feel it.” 

A walk to remember story is about a young man and woman in 1958 on the coast in Morehead City in Beaufort, North Carolina.  Basically, this is the story of their first love.  Morehead City is the type of town where the kids walk around barefoot from April through October and the town’s people wave hello from their cars whether they know the person or not.  Landon Carter is a seventeen-year-old high school senior whose father is a United States congressman.  He and his father are strangers — his father is on the road quite a bit of the time and he spends the majority of time being raised by his mother.  His father insists that he needs to run for student body president to increase his chances of getting into a good college.  His father believes that “We Carters always win” and he wants to mold Landon into a miniature version of himself.

Landon wins the election and one of his responsibilities is attending the homecoming dance.  Due to the fact he has just broken up with his girlfriend, he doesn’t have a date and in a panic, he pulls out his yearbook and scans the pages for someone available.  He finally decides on Jamie Sullivan, a junior, who is the minister’s daughter, knowing that nobody else will ask her to the dance. Jamie was shy, sweet, mysterious sensual and very religious. Jamie wears old sweaters, plaid skirts and her hair up in a bun.  She carries the Bible wherever she goes and believes that whatever happens in life is according to the Lord’s plan.  She is obviously not his typical high school student and not someone in whom Landon or his friends would be interested. She wasn’t scared of people thought’s about her.

Both Landon and Jamie star in the school Christmas play that Jamie’s father has written.  The play details the personal story of his life after his wife’s death and his search for love and the meaning of life within his daughter.  Jamie plays the angel and Landon, the lead male role.  Over time, in rehearsals and occasional talks together on her front porch, Landon starts liking Jamie.  As a result, he becomes a better person, helping her do good deeds and accompanying her to the orphanage.  The opening night of the play, he is amazed when he first sees her walk on the stage dressed as an angel, with her hair loose and flowing down her back. Landon kisses Jamie on stage. She glitters onstage and he falls for her true beauty.

After that plot twists and turns and an untold secret (which I think it should also keep as a secret as there will no fun in reading that) that change their lives forever, Landon and Jamie fall in love.  Pain and sorrow lie ahead but the story lets you believe in the power of love and that dreams do come true.  Their story is unforgettable and as you wipe your tears away, you come to an unbelievable end.

This book deeply captivates the romance, sensitivity which we all have inside. And will stab at your heart if you really got into it.

“Love is always patient and kind. It is never jealous. Loves is never boastful or conceited. It is never rude or selfish. It does not take offense and is not resentful. Love takes no pleasure in others people’s sins, but delights in the truth. It is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope, and to endure whatever comes.”  – Nicolas Spark.

At the end I deeply recommend this book, in case you haven’t read.

National Week Vacation Part 2 – Macau

When I was in 7-8^th Standard, I used to discuss with friends and cousins how many money you have seen together, some say one Lakh, two lakhs. Now today I can say confidently I have seen nearly 10 million in real. Thanks to Venetian Casino Macau to privilege me to witness such a huge amount.

Macau is second Special Administrative Region of China after Hong Kong. When it comes to Gambling we always remember of Las Vegas – The Gambling capital of the World. Many still don’t know about the Asian counterpart, Macau. Tourism and gambling are like driving force of Macau’s economy. Macau is also known as Asia’s Las Vegas.

After completing Hong Kong, we started for Macau. Macau is one and half an hour from Hong Kong by Ferry. Sometimes it takes more time depends on the sea conditions. Ferries run from the Central Point on Hong Kong Island. It was around 12 pm, we started for Macau from central.  After buying ferry tickets we popped over on the ferry.  It was nice, very comfortable journey. In ferry, also you will find different classes as economy, super class just like airlines. When we were approaching Macau, we gazed the Sai Van Bridge also called as Ponte de Sai Van. This features a double-deck design, with an enclosed lower deck to be used in the event of strong typhoons. Needless to say, it was magnificent panoramic view.

After completing immigration check, we were at terminal only when we were approached by local guides for 3 hours trip or 6 hours trip. Once we thought of hiring a guide and have a round across the Macau downtown, before entering into casinos. But their rates were too high even though we tried to bargain but all in vain. So we exchanges first currency, for the very first time I was carrying five currencies in my wallet; i.e. Hong Kong Dollar, US Dollar, Indian Rupee, Chinese Yuan  and Macanese Pataca MOP (Macau currency and name sounds funny). You can use HK Dollar in Macau and many places it is still accepted but Macau currency is little cheaper than HK Dollar. So if you use HK Dollar, you will only deplete. After foreign exchange we approached to Macau Tourism Board officer, whose cabin was just after immigration, he gave us Macau City Map and tell us all the places which are worth to roam. Even though, we did thorough research as well, what all we need to cover. As Macau is famous for casinos so every casino provides free shuttle service from ferry terminal directly to their resorts. We thought to cover downtown first. So we asked about one or two famous places. He guided as to catch a bus from outside,

We took a bus for Macau downtown. And we got down at Historic Centre of Macau. The area was fully jam packed with foreigners as it was holiday for Chinese as well as for Hong Kong Citizens. It was feeling like all the crowd has been aggregated at this point only. We started with St. Joseph’s Seminary and Church. It was my debut visit to a Church. As Macau before becoming SAR of china was a Portuguese Colony. So the city has become hodgepodge of Portuguese buildings, Chinese architecture and flashy casinos, which adds to uniqueness of Macau.

 

Me @ Historic Center Of Macau

After covering the historic Center of Macau and lunch, we start roaming around the market. The shops consist majorly of watches, phones and gold. IPhone 5 was also in black 9000 HK Dollar. And I come to know about 3-D gold; so far I have heard and watched 3-D movies.

Later, I discovered 3-D gold is a retail jewelry brand owned by Hong Kong Resources Holding Company limited, it has established a great network in Hong Kong, Macau and some part in China. 3-D gold is active in the design, development of gold ornaments and corporate gifts. After completing the shopping, we started for Galaxy Casino – Macau, via free shuttle provided by Galaxy itself. All the casinos are in Taipa Island so we also crossed the Macau Bridge which we saw while entering Macau. We also saw Macau tower on the way. Macau tower also offers bungee jumping but little expensive. And all of us are not adventurous either. After half an hour we reached Galaxy Casino. By the time we reached there it was around 7 PM it was little dark, but the lighting and all the paraphernalia of Galaxy Resort was making the evening so brighter and exciting.  We were astonished to know that the cupolas of the resort are covered in 24 carat gold. The resort was very huge. We could cover only shopping area and casino lounge. The casino lounge was so huge. First we started with poker black face minimum table was 300 MOP. We lost around 500 MOP each. Then we started with dice game. In this we need to guess it will be 1-7, 8-10, and even, odd etc. different set of combinations. Lucky favors to all of us in this guess but we couldn’t recover the whole amount. Then we rushed to shopping area there were had lip smacking Aloo Prantha with lots of other Indian dishes.

After completing the Galaxy Resort only shopping area and casino lounge. We came out and took another shuttle bus for Venetian. Venetian which is also located in Las Vegas and in Macau also it is owned by Las Vegas Sands Corporation. However from outside it was looking like just a normal resort and lounge. Not much lighting at that time. Galaxy was more astounding in terms of Outer View.  But when saw casino lounge i found it is almost doubles the size of gambling area offered by Galaxy. If we go by the facts the casino in Venetian offers 550,000 square feet of gambling area.

The ambiance itself was so fascinating and alluring. Also I saw 10 million preserved in glass case. Actually it was 14 lakh MOP which is equal to 98-99 Lakhs (nearly 10 million). Due to security photography is prohibited inside casino. Otherwise, I would have shown to everyone. We were not able to recover our previous loss. So we thought let’s explore the other areas, then we will decide on which game we need to invest. Then we moved to shopping area. I thought it will be just like a normal shopping mall like galaxy. I was bewildered after watching the shopping area, it was themed on Venice. Then I got the mystery behind the name Venetian.

Inside the shopping area, they have also created San Luca Canal which also offered boat ride And both the sides of canal constitutes different showrooms covered almost every world known brands. We covered almost the full Venetian or small Venice. The roof of the whole shopping area is actualized in such a way that you won’t feel it is night or evening and everything around is so affable. You won’t feel like coming back from that particular area.

When we returned back to Gambling area, we watched Salsa dance. Then, again we tried our luck on the same dice game. This time it was like one game winning one game losing. So No Profit No Loss.

 Around 4 AM, when we were like totally enervated. We took Taxi for the Ferry Terminal and started for Hong Kong. Again same immigration process and the same turbojet ride. And around 6 30 we reached Hong Kong Hotel. We didn’t book any accommodation in Macau. As it was so exorbitant, around 20k INR so we preferred to come back on the same day. So in all we cover Macau’s major attractions. Needless, to say Macau was disparate experience.

For bachelors, if you are not looking for so elegant places to stay you can visit http://hostels.com/ . They offer accommodation at very minimal rates and cover all major places across the globe.

National Week Vacation – Part 1 (Hong Kong)

Back after a much deserved break nearly after 10 days, thanks to National week in China. I seriously liked the Funda of National week in China. Basically, there are two week holidays in China. One week in October of every year. Some people called it Golden week, some called National week. These national holidays were first started by the government for the Public Republic of China’s National Day in 1999 and are primarily intended to help expand the domestic tourism market and improve the national standard of living, as well as allowing people to make long-distance family visits. And another one week off is during Chinese New Year which is around January and February of every year. Last year also I was in China during National week, but due to some work I couldn’t make any trip to utilize it. So this year I want to make most of it. So I planned to visit Hong Kong, Macau and Shenzhen with my other two friends.

I started from Shanghai to Shenzhen; as Shenzhen is located on the border with the Hong Kong (which is also known as Special Administrative Region – SAR of China). From Shenzhen you can go to Hong Kong, via bus, ferry and metro. As long as I landed to Hong Kong; a bus was ready to depart for Hong Kong after 10 minutes. So without any hassle, we three boarded the bus and reached Hong Kong Border. Immigration process seems to be so funny you exited from one country and after few steps you are entering into another country. Hong Kong provides on arrival visa and as I already have china visa so there was no problem during immigration check. As we were not carrying anything extra so problem happened also during custom checks. After completing the immigration process we again took the same bus and reached Hong Kong within one hour. Hong Kong, I would say deeply populated area as compared to China. You will find so many people on roads, metro, malls etc. Even though it SAR of china, still I feel it is much advanced as compared to China. China is communist on the other hand Hong Kong is democratic country. Hong Kong I found mostly surrounded by foreigners/expats mainly Indian, Russian. During my stay in Hong Kong I didn’t feel I am out of India. It was so good to see so many Indian after so much time. After reaching there we checked in hotel and start exploring nearby area. The nearby area was surrounded by so many pubs, bars. And we got a chance to enjoy Indian Pakistan match. I enjoyed a cricket match and Heineken after ages. After dinner we came back to hotel.

Next morning, as planned we started for Disney Land. It took around 40 minutes to reach Disney Land.  The Disney Land Park consists of six themed areas: Main Street, U.S.A, Fantasy Land, Adventure Land, Tomorrow Land, Grizzly Gulch and Toy Story Land. Main Street, U.S.A, is the first “themed land” inside the main entrance of the many ‘Disneyland’; it has a train station above the entrance which covers the aerial view of whole Disney Land. We also tried this and it was seriously an amazing experience. Main Street also cover markets to buy souvenir from Disney Land.  Fantasy Land features Sleeping Beauty Castle, as well as the Fantasy Gardens where costumed Disney characters can be met. Hong Kong Disneyland’s Adventure land is the biggest among all Disney parks.  It is themed to resemble the remote jungles in Africa, Asia, South America, and the South Pacific. Tomorrow land at Hong Kong Disneyland features an emphasis on metallic trim, dominated by blue and purple hues. Each version of the land is different and features numerous attractions that depict views of the future. Toy story land is the first new themed land implemented in Hong Kong Disney Land; it is themed using bamboo to act as giant blades of grass surrounding the area, toy story land uses the characters from Toy Story Movies. Grizzly Gulch is the new concept in Hong Kong Disney Land. This themed land reminisce an abandoned mining town called “Grizzly Gulch”, set a midst mountains and woods. We covered almost every part of the land. You can find Mickey Mouse everywhere in Disney land starting from metro to Disney land to clothes to food to flip flops.

We also tried Big Grizzly Mountain Mine Car basically a roller coaster ride in Grizzly Gulch. There was also one more roller coaster ride in the completed dark. It was horrible yet adventurous. The best part is the moment you are out of the rides. Your pictures will already be waiting to show your expressions during rides. J At the end of day, around 19:30 PM we also witnessed nightly frameworks performance at the Hong Kong and event is known as “Disney in Stars”.

 

It was nice experience to visit Disney land but I feel the kids and girls will be more enticed with Disney Land as compared to Guys like me. So we were done with Disney Land by the end of the day.

To all who come to this happy place, welcome. Many years ago, Walt Disney introduced the world to enchanted realms of fantasy and adventure, yesterday and tomorrow, in a magical place called Disneyland. Today that spirit of imagination and discovery comes to life in Hong Kong. Hong Kong Disneyland is dedicated to the young and the young at heart – with the hope that it will be a source of joy and inspiration, and an enduring symbol of the cooperation, friendship and understanding between the people of Hong Kong and the United States of America. – Message from Walt Disney

Hong Kong is also characterized by low taxation and free trade, so there is huge difference in prices of clothes, perfumes and electronic goods. Next morning we went to Apple store to check IPhone 5 price. It is around 39k which is less than India and in China is yet to be launched. But to buy IPhone 5 you have to register on Apple Site if you get mail in response. You can go to store and buy IPhone 5. Basically it is lottery system and the store manager was saying you will be very lucky if you get mail within same day. And probability is one in thousands. In China, I have seen people crazy for IPhone and may be same scene with Hong Kong Residents.  After Apple Store, we visited IFC mall to do little bit of shopping and trust me perfumes were really cheap in Hong Kong. I also believe – Make Hay whiles the Sun Shines. So I also took the advantage of the opportunity being in Hong Kong.

After shopping we planned to visit Victoria Harbor. Victoria Harbor is a natural land form harbor situated between Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula in Hong Kong. It is famous for its stunning panoramic night view and skyline, particularly in the direction towards Hong Kong Land where the skyline of skyscrapers is superimposed over the ridges behind. And it is major attraction for the tourists. It was worth visit to Victoria Harbor.

Another attraction point for tourist in Hong Kong is Victoria Peak. Victoria Peak is a mountain in Hong Kong from where you can see 360 view of Hong Kong and offers spectacular views of the city and its harbors.. We visited there via Peak Tram which is funicular railway. It runs from Central District to Victoria Peak via Mid – Levels.

When the sun goes down, the traders have already laid out their wares and the opera singers and fortune tellers begin to emerge. Welcome to the Temple Street Night Market, a popular street bazaar, named after a Tin Hau temple located in the center of its main drag, and a place so steeped in local atmosphere that it has served as the backdrop to many a memorable movie.
Yes, the last destination for us in Hong Kong was The Night Market. It started from 7 pm and last whole night. Trinkets, tea ware, electronics, watches, menswear, jade and antiques are scrutinized and haggled over, while clay pot rice, seafood, noodles and other treats are consumed with gusto. Temple Street Night Market is an enduring example of the theatre and festivity of a Chinese market. So this was my Hong Kong Trip. It was nice and mesmerizing experience.

I will cover the Macau, Shenzhen in the next blog.This is my first blog under Travel category. Hope you all will like.