Intelligence is Value

Using a paint sprayer to paint certain areas in your home can make the paint job appear to be more smooth and uniform. They go beyond the ordinary paintbrush and open up more options that you can blaze through with ease.

However, using a paint sprayer can be intimidating if you don’t use it often. Here are a few tips you can follow to make yourself familiar with the equipment:

1. Always wear proper protective gear.

Don’t just wear a dust mask when spraying any surface. Because you will be exposed to droplets of paint, be sure to wear a respirator as well as goggles and an apron, and keep your work area properly ventilated.  

2. Prime your pump before using it.

Most paint sprayers have a valve with two or more options. Dial the switch to prime and press the “on” switch before slowly turning the pressure valve up. Be sure to allow it to run for about thirty seconds to remove any air bubbles.

Don’t forget to clean the pump after use! The biggest reason why paint sprayers stop working is because the paint is left to dry without cleaning. However, avoid touching the nozzle with your bare hands – it could inject paint into your skin.

3. Always test your paint sprayer on a piece of scrap material with the same surface as your project.

Spray a few test shots onto the material to see the spray pattern before moving on to your project. This will give you a feel on how the paint sprayer works and minimizes any chances of slipping up or possibly undoing any progress.

This also works when you’re testing out new techniques or nozzles.

4. Test your paint sprayer with different accessories.

While paint sprayers are designed to make painting large surface areas (i.e. ceilings, walls, floors) much easier and faster, there are also accessories that can help you accomplish the task much faster.

Depending on your project, you may need different hoses to keep your paint sprayer versatile, filters to ensure a smooth finish, conditioners to keep corrosion and sticking to a minimum, and different tips to let you work with paints of varying thicknesses.

5. Don’t spray the surface up close.

This can cause the paint to be runny and would result in a less even finish, as well as splash on your eyes or nose if you’re not wearing protective gear. What you want is for the paint to be as evenly distributed throughout the surface as possible.

Depending on the type of nozzle or paint sprayer that you have, always place enough distance between the surface and the nozzle to achieve the best results.

The lack of quality sleep at night can have certain detrimental effects during the day, and when they can build up, you will find that you don’t function as well as when you’ve had enough sleep.

This especially happens when you find yourself waking up in during odd hours more often than you would like. While it doesn’t necessarily indicate anything, having this happen to you too many times means that something could be wrong with the way you get your precious shut-eye.

Here are a few steps you can take to start getting quality sleep again:

1. Wind down and relax.
It’s highly likely that the reason why you wake up in the middle of the night and find it hard to go back to sleep is because you’re taking your stress to bed without a chance to relax. Whether you are aware of this or not, this can affect the quality of your sleep.

To keep this from happening, there’s a good number of things you can do to wind down before you close your eyes, from reading, to meditating, to practicing some deep breathing exercises.

2. Establish a pre-sleep routine.
Your brain loves routine, and establishing a pre-sleep routine is a great way to let your brain know that it’s time to unwind and get ready for sleep. Whatever routine you choose, make it a point to stop all work and transition towards your bedtime.

Be sure to do this for a few weeks to establish the routine and stick with it. Eventually, you will find that your sleep will improve and you will wake up in the morning feeling more refreshed.

3. Avoid eating before sleep.
Eating or drinking certain foods or beverages shortly before sleep can get you an upset stomach and is another way for you to wake up in the middle of the night, and in turn affect the quality of your sleep.

These are the following foods and beverages that can disrupt your sleep:

• Foods rich in trans-fats – Highly processed fat sources can cause cortisol to increase, which can disrupt your sleep cycle. Desserts, such as cookies, donuts, and even cakes are rich in trans fats.

• Vegetable oils – Safflower, palm, and canola oil can also give you the same problem by increasing cortisol levels in your body.

• Alcohols – While it’s common to drink alcohol after a long day to wind down and sleep more comfortably, it actually increases wakefulness during the second half of the sleep cycle.

Be sure to avoid taking these types of foods and beverages at least an hour or two before bed, and dimming the lights can also help your melatonin levels (the hormone responsible for tiredness), which signal your brain that it’s time for sleep.

Singapore’s diverse culture extends from its language, to its art, and especially to its cuisine, which includes the many desserts that have come to the country from all over the world to become beloved by locals and tourists alike.

And if you hate feeling left out, here are a few of them that you probably haven’t tried out (that you really should right now):

1. Tissue prata
Tissue prata is the Singaporean counterpart to Indian roti prata that’s sweet and paper-thin, and needs a skilled cook to be just the right amount of crisp and oiliness without tearing up the prata, or flatbread.

You can choose to have your prata served with toppings such as ice cream, a drizzle of sugar, chocolate sauce, or even coconut jam for a truly local twist.

2. Grass jelly
Chin chow is more than just an ingredient for drinks – it can be just as refreshing when enjoyed as a jelly.
This dessert is made from aged mint stalks and boiled with starch until it results in a jelly-like consistency, and served cold over ice (and with your choice of honey or syrup on the side) for a surprisingly refreshing treat.

3. Pineapple tart
Because it usually comes around during the holiday seasons, from Hari Raya to Chinese New Year, pineapple tarts are definitely a dessert that should feel more familiar to tourists and frequent visitors to Singapore.

But if you haven’t, then you’re definitely missing out on this piece of butter pastry either generously smeared or filled with pineapple jam, lightly spiced for an extra kick.

4. Tau Huay
One of the most ubiquitous desserts that you’ll find basically everywhere is tau huay, or soya bean curd, which is made with soybean milk boiled with sugar and cooled until it forms a pudding.

There are a lot of ways that tau huay is prepared, whether it’s hot or cold, traditionally or modern, and everyone has a stall that makes their tau huay just the way they want it.

5. Durian Pengat
If you fancy yourself some durian but find it sad that they’re not in season, then fret not. You’re sure to love a serving of this amazing durian mousse to sate your durian cravings any time of the year, as this particular treat is available all year round.

You can even choose to add a scoop of your choice of ice cream, such as durian or coconut, to fully and thoroughly spoil yourself.

Finding amazing local delicacies doesn’t always mean you have to really go out of your way to find them – in Singapore, they’re practically everywhere and not that hard to miss – and to top it all off, they’re really cheap.

What are you waiting for? Go to your nearest hawker center and try them out now!

Cargo handling can be a tedious process, but thankfully, a trusted freight forwarding company in Singapore can help make the process easier. Before you book an appointment, however, make sure that you read up on these basic terms and requirements vital for the step-by-step procedure.

• Permits and Certificates. Your freight forwarder will take care of the documentation, representation and negotiation as part of the logistics service. These include the completion of permits and certificates necessary to import and export goods. Your logistics services company from Singapore will handle your bill of laden, which is a document that includes the details, destination and quantity of the goods that have been agreed upon by the shipper and receiver.

• Freighting Process. Movement of good from the origin warehouse to the destination warehouse follows the following steps: export haulage or the transportation of merchandise from the point of origin to the logistics company that is responsible for picking the transportation carrier; export customs clearance or the submission of details about the cargo and the agreements between the sender and receiver; origin handling or the booking of the carrier or liner for international freight; import customs clearance for submission of other requirements; destination handling or the receipt of documents from the freight forwarder at the point of origin; import haulage or the collection of the cargo by the consignee; and the distribution of goods.

• Types of Freight. The freight forwarder is responsible for choosing the cheapest, fastest, and safest method to move the merchandise. This requires that the company help to organise shipment before transporting it to the airline carrier, trucking services or the ocean liner. Air freight has different requirements from that of sea freight. Air freight is usually faster and is ideal for goods that are time-sensitive. But it is expensive and has a limited cargo space and weight. Sea freight is the best choice for most types of goods and is also cheap. However, delays are very common because it can be affected by weather and demand. Negotiations and booking are part of the freight forwarding services.

• Duties and Taxes. As coordinator for shipping of goods, your freight broker will be the one responsible for the transport of your items to and from Singapore. When opting for a sea freight, your logistics company will always ensure that taxes and legal documents are ready and complied, so your shipment docks to its destination safely in terms of its legalities.

• Customs Clearance. Perhaps the most important role of the freight forwarding company for the transportation of shipments is to help the sender and consignee with completing the requirements for export and import customs clearance. Importing goods in the country for example requires a customs permit and a detailed knowledge of the prohibited/controlled goods, depositing of the merchandise, unstuffing/sealing of goods, and the duties and taxes.

How you work, serve, and support your customers will not just impact your customer relationships, but will also open you up to new opportunities with more clients, which is what makes customer relationship management so important.

Thanks to cloud storage, CRM software now makes this easier, and cloud CRM is now a standard in most businesses in Singapore to make sure that data on sales reports and clients’ contacts stays updated.

To get you started, here are seven reasons why you should use CRM software for your business:

1. You need to manage long-term accounts.
You will come across different types of clients in your business, and when it comes your biggest clients, you want to make sure you can communicate constantly and improve your client relations.

2. Customer data will be much easier to find.
While your company is still small, using spreadsheets and email inboxes can work for storing data for the short-term. But not having a proper lead management software can make it harder for you to keep track of transactions, as you will have to dig through them regularly.

With CRM software, you can systemise your sales work flow and make account management easier for your business in Singapore. All your consumer contacts, as well as the details for prospect sales, are stored in one place. Everything is easy to access, and they are backed up for whenever you need them.

3. It lets you stay on top of the lead flow.
You will need to invest in a CRM system as soon as possible if you find yourself struggling to keep up with the new influx of new clients and customers for your business, since this lets you sort, prioritize, and manage prospects easily.

4. Sending and prioritizing reports becomes much faster and more efficient.
A huge part of account management includes prospect data handling and consumer info organization, which you and your employees can access later as a reference for future sales, as well as sort them by priority. This is made possible with the right ERP software at your disposal.

5. It gives you real-time updates on your sales.
Effective sales tracking is now something you can do by taking a close look at your sales reports with the help of sales management tools. These let you see where you should best allocate your resources and predict future sales based on patterns.

6. CRM lets you effectively plan for future growth.
If you think you don’t have the processes and the tools to handle the new growth that’s coming to your business here in Singapore, then you need to invest in quality software that can help you come up with useful sales coaching tips to leverage your business operations. A sales tracking software that can give you a bird’s eye view of your company’s production will help you become an effective coach for your sales team and provide you with relevant information to help streamline your operations, which in return will guarantee better productivity of your sales team.

It’s time to take the next step for your business in Singapore with clientele information software. By choosing the right software to invest in, you not only win more deals and keep your customers satisfied, but you also prime your business for bigger and better growth.

According to the World Health Organization, hepatitis viruses are the leading cause of the disease in the world, but others were acquired as autoimmune disease, or through infections and toxic substances. Given how complex hepatitis is, it’s important to know the five types of the virus to prevent its spread.

All the five types of hepatitis infection are characterized by the inflammation of the liver, but the causes and the progression of the disease are different. Common symptoms may include the following: fever, loss of appetite, fatigue, nausea and vomiting, joint pain, jaundice, gray-colored feces, and abdominal pain.

Let’s look at each hepatitis virus.

Hepatitis A
Hepatitis A virus is transmitted either through the feces of infected people that contaminate sources of food or water, or through intimate contact with an infected person. There are vaccines for HAV, but most of the cases of this type of hepatitis are found in parts of the world with poor sanitation. The incubation period of the virus lasts for 15 to 50 days, but recovery is fast with no damage to the liver if the person gets immediate treatment.

Hepatitis B
Hepatitis B virus is transmitted through contact with infected body fluids such as blood, semen, and mother’s milk. Vaccines against HBV are also available, but care must be taken during blood transfusions, the use of injections, and unprotected sexual practices. The incubation period lasts for 45 to 160 days, but the recovery is fast if it’s not an acute form of the illness. HBV chronic infections, however, can lead to liver cancer or liver failure.

Hepatitis C
Hepatitis C virus is also transmitted through infected blood and blood products, that is why precautions against infection must be taken during blood transfusions, the use of injections, and sexual practices. Unlike HAV and HBV, there is no vaccine against HCV to date. Incubation period lasts from 14 to 180 days, but acute infection will leave no lasting liver damage. Only those with chronic HCV infections are likely to develop liver diseases.

Hepatitis D
Contracting hepatitis D virus is only possible if the person is already infected with HBV, which means that HDV is a dual infection. In some cases, however, the virus can also be transmitted through contact with infected blood. The symptoms of this infection are more serious, but vaccines against HBV will also protect you from HDV. Treatment can be tricky because HDV is dependent on HBV, so the patient is treated for symptoms of the latter and the liver function is closely monitored.

Hepatitis E
Hepatitis E virus is the most common cause of outbreaks in some parts of the world. HEV is transmitted through contaminated food and water, but there are vaccines against it. The good news is, HEV goes away even without treatment as long as the person gets enough rest and clean food and water.