Essential readings on Customs administration

There are a number of readings on international trade.  However, there are not many readings on Customs administration.  Even they are not well organized either.  Professionals who study Customs administration are a few.  They have difficulty in locating good readings on Customs administration.  Here  I am going to list good readings regarding Customs administration from my perspective.  Some are just short blogs or newspaper articles and some are journal articles and books.  Some are recommended by my colleagues and some are located by me.

• Who profits from trade facilitation initiatives?
  www.voxeu.org/article/who-profits-trade-facilitation-initiatives

Alternative image editors to Adobe Photoshop

My job is not related to photos.  I barely use Adobe Photoshop.  I use Photoshop only a couple of times a year to help my kids' school assignments.  I am not likely to be able to use Adobe Photoshop any more because Adobe decided to have users be able to use its Creative Suite online.  I don't want to pay about 20 euro to use Photoshop one time a month.  Of course, I still can use the old-version of Photoshop.  Nonetheless, since hearing Adobe's sales policy change, I have sought to find out alternative image editors to Photoshop and noticed many people having this concern.  They advise that we can use GIMP and Paint.Net for free.

GIMP: www.gimp.org

Paint.Net: www.getpaint.net

Everything I own

"Everything I own" has been sung by many singers in different styles.  I think that Vanessa Hudgens's version is best.  This is a really masterpiece.

You sheltered me from harm
Kept me warm, kept me warm
You gave my life to me
Set me free, set me free
The finest years I ever knew
Were all the years I had with you
And...

I would give anything I own
Give up my life, my heart, my home
I would give everything I own
Just to have you back again

You taught me how to love
What it's of, what it's of
You never said too much
But still you showed the way
And I knew from watching you
Nobody else could ever know
The part of me that can't let go
And...

I would give anything I own
Give up my life, my heart, my home
I would give everything I own
Just to have you back again

Is there someone you know
You're loving them so
But taking them all for granted?
You may lose them one day
Someone takes them away
And they don't hear
The words you long to say
I would give anything I own
Give up my life, my heart, my home
I would give everything I own

Give up my life, my heart, my home
I would give everything I own

Just to have you back again
Just to touch you once again

Travelers' web guides

I think that we all know of "tripadvisor".  Sometimes, we need complement information to convince ourselves of our preliminary itineraries.  If such complement information is provided by professional travellers in an organized manner, the information would make us feel comfortable before leaving for unfamiliar places.  Fodor seems to play such role.

www.fodors.com

Searching for cheap airplane tickets

A couple of weeks ago, my colleague in the UK visited Brussels.  We had a good time of discussing our work and drinking.  I let hime know my knowhow of camping in Europe and in return, he let me know how to search for cheap airplane tickets.  This website looks bettern than Expedia or Kayak.

http://www.skyscanner.net/

Free College Level Online Courses: More

It it very glad to know that more and more college level courses are provided online for free.  I have not examine the websites seriously.  I cannot say which one is better than others.  Nonetheless, edx seems to provide more maths and statistics classes that I have wanted to take than other sites.

https://www.coursera.org/

https://www.edx.org/

Kayaking in Ghent

My dream in the near future is to sail a canal or river in Belgium with my family without making any trouble with transporting and sailing kayaks and returning an starting point.  Considering the concerns, I have searched out a number of web pages and I found out an interesting website.  And, I made a tentative conclusion that Flanders is better than Wallonia in paddling with my own kayaks.  This summer, I will try paddling in Ghent. 

http://www.kajaktourtochten.be/