August 12, 2001: Snail's Car, Puzzle, $20 Bill

Hi,

I hope your week went well. As I mentioned last week, I went hiking along
the MacRitchie reservoir and Bukit Timah summit. At Bukit Timah, there
were many monkeys all over the area. Here are some pictures of the hike.

MacRitchie & Bukit Timah Hike
http://community.webshots.com/album/19175154ZpqrjhxBLM

This past week, I went to Manila to visit paper distributors and current
customers. Manila is interesting because it is different in many ways from
the other cities in Southeast Asia that I visited, but similar in other
ways. As we drove through certain neighborhoods, it reminded me of the
U.S. The road was wide, there were only a few cars parked along the
street, the signs were in English, and the houses looked fairly nice.
Those streets could have been streets in the suburbs of LA. However, there
were many other streets that were more congested and unclean, like parts of
other ASEAN countries. Traffic was also very bad here, like the other
countries.

One interesting thing was that just about all of the paper merchants or
printing companies that we visited were family owned businesses. They
operate on the ground floor of their apartment building, usually in a very
residential area. In fact, for several of them, there are no signs that
there is a business there. Inside, the office is very cramped, and several
people work at desks right next to each other. For many of these family
businesses, everyone in the family gets involved. The husband, wife, sons,
daughters, daughter-in-law, etc. all work for the family business.

So here is a hypothetical question for you. If you work in business, would
you want to own a business and have most of your family members work with
you every day? Also, would you want to work right below where you live,
and have your employees come to your house/apartment to work?

This weekend, I also had an opportunity to do some sightseeing in Singapore
with some friends from my church in LA who were visiting. We walked around
Chinatown, ate at Clarke Quay, and took a brief cruise on the Singapore
River. Here are some pictures:

Singapore River Cruise
http://community.webshots.com/album/19175603OMnAFTiyGD

I think the best thing to see in Singapore is the Night Safari.
Unfortunately, they don't allow flash photography, so I have no pictures of
the animals to show you. But many of the animals, especially deer, come up
right to the tram. I think my favorite was the tigers that were prowling
around. We also looked at bats up close.

This week, I'll be in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. After this, I should be in
Singapore for a while.

This week's thought provoking question is: "If you could have been the
first person to discover any part of the world, what place would you want
to have found?"

This week's humor and inspirational pieces were forwarded by Anna Man and
Elaine Wong, respectively.

Enjoy!

-Josh.
_________________________________

Snail's Car

There was once a snail that was sick and tired of his reputation for being
so slow. He decided to get some fast wheels to make up the difference.
After shopping around a while, he decided that the Datson 240-Z was the car
to get. So the snail goes to the nearest Datsun dealer and says he wants to
buy the 240-Z,
but he wants it repainted "240-S".

The dealer asks, "Why 'S'?"

The snail replies, "'S' stands for snail. I want everybody who sees me
roaring past to know who's driving."
Well, the dealer doesn't want to lose the unique opportunity to sell a car
to a snail, so he agrees to have the car repainted for a small fee.

The snail gets his new car and spent the rest of his days roaring happily
down the highway at top speed. And whenever anyone would see him zooming
by, they'd say "Wow! Look at that S-car go!"
_________________________________

Puzzle

Here are the solutions to the three remaining items from the previous
puzzle.

16) 100 C in a R = 100 cents in a rand
19) 13=UFS = 13 is unlucky for some
31) 6 B to an O in C = 6 balls to an over in cricket

Here a similar puzzle that I sent out a while ago.

1. 26 = L of the A
2. 7 = W of the A W
3. 1001 = A N
4. 12 = S of the Z
5. 54 = C in a D (with the J)
6. 9 = P in the S S
7. 88 = P K
8. 13 = S on the A F
9. 18 = H on a G C
10. 32 = D F at which W F
11. 8 = S on a S S
12.200 = D for P G in M
13. 3 = B M (S H T R)
14. 90 = D in a R A
15. 4 = Q in a G
16. 24 = H in a D
17. 1 = W on a U
18. 5 = D in a Z C
19. 57 = H V
20. 11 = P on a F T
21.1000 = W that a P is W
22. 29 = D in F in a L Y
23. 64 = S on a C
24. 40 = D and N of G F
25. 80 = D to G A the W
26. 2 = # it T to T
27. 6 = P on the S of D
28. 50 = W to L Your L
29. 31 = F of B R
30. 40 = H in a W W

I used to have all the answers, but now, I can't remember the answers for #
6, 12 and 19. Please let me know if you figure them out.
_________________________________

THE TWENTY DOLLAR BILL

A well known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a $20 bill. In
the room of 200, he asked,
"Who would like this $20 bill?" Hands started going up. He said, "I am
going to give this $20 to one of
you but first, let me do this." He proceeded to crumple the bill up. He
then asked, "Who still wants it?" Still the hands were up in the air.

"Well," he replied, "what if I do this?" And he dropped it on the ground
and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe. He picked it up, now
crumpled and dirty. "Now who still wants it?" Still the hands went into the
air.

"My friends, you have all learned a very valuable lesson. No matter what I
did to the money, you still
wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth $20.
Many times in our lives, we are
dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make and
the circumstances that come
our way. We feel as though we are worthless. But no matter what has
happened or what will happen, you
will never lose your value in God's eyes. To Him, dirty or clean, crumpled
or finely creased, you are
still priceless.

The worth of our lives comes not in what we do or who we know but by WHO WE
ARE! You are special -
Don't ever forget it!