Now in Kuala Lumpur

Someone claimed that I have the 'best job' in the region. I beg to differ. The best job is when you call the shots all the time and are your own boss. I am just a business partner who still have to take instructions and carry out those tasks. The only consolation is that I work in a home office either in Penang or Kuala Lumpur. Right now I am in KL and will return to Penang tomorrow.

Yesterday, visited 3 places using the GPS to guide us; otherwise we will not be able to visit 3 different places that are far away from each other. Samsung S4 also comes with a voice navigated GPS which we just discovered by accident. Technology certainly makes our lives so much easier.

Working at Home Means the World to Me

Working at home certainly means the world to me. As I cannot work outside in a normal environment, much less in a team, God has found an ideal dream job for me to in a home office. In between work, I get to take power naps, read the papers and magazines like Reader's Digest and Personal Money. Sometimes I buy the Edge magazine for $5 per week for financial news. As of today, my Maybank dividends were disbursed at 22.50 cents a share. Since I bought 200 shares, I get $45 with a net of about $40 after minus the charges. I am very pleased with the status quo to work at home and to earn a little from my shares and fixed deposits.

The Facts of Life : Are You Covered?

quinndirectinsurance.net

Having an insurance policy to cover your life is important. In case of accidents or discovery of dreaded diseases like cancer, heart disease, diabetes, stroke, Alzheimer's disease and such, the insurance company will pay your hospital bill, medical consultation and medication. This will surely prevent your finances from depleting too much all of a sudden.

A lot of money is pooled from the crowd and the collected money is then channeled to pay for such expenses should any of the policy holders be inflicted with critical illness or a motor accident. An estimated 22% of vehicle operators in Alabama do not have auto insurance. Not only that, an estimated 28% of driver in Mississippi do not have auto insurance. From statistics, 7 out of 10 people that lack health insurance live in California, New York, Texas or Florida.

To share my personal life, I have been awarded a lump sum payment from my insurance company for a medical condition that renders me jobless for my entire life. I received in the sum of more than $80,000.00 and it was a blessing in disguise that I decided to purchase the insurance premium that was automatically deducted from my Central Provident Fund (CPF) account in Singapore.

As of today, I have 2 insurance policies to cover me; one up to age 65 and another up to a lifetime as long as I pay the $100 that is auto debited from my bank account. My dad used to sell insurance policies on a part time basis and he got the Million Dollar Round Table Award for selling premiums worth more than 1 million in his career. Having come from such background, I know it is pertinent to get at least one insurance policy for your health or motor accident, just in case.

You can read more about insurance from the links given below:

1) Wiki on Insurance
2) Quinn Direct Insurance

I Love My Job

For most people a JOB is 'Just Over Broke'. But for me, well, I can say that I enjoy my dream job very much because I get to work from a home office. It is true. They pay you just enough that you won't leave and Not more! If they can get away with paying the least and have you do the most work, they will certainly do it. This is how companies cut costs - by having you perform the most work at the minimum pay to keep you there. Well, if you are enterprising, then it might be time to start considering working for yourself in a home office just like me.

Blogging in 2011

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In February of 2011, 156 million public blogs were in existence on the internet. This is a whopping figure, taking into consideration the number of people who actually owns a computer, laptop and subscribe to internet connectivity. For myself, I remember I started blogging in August 2006 until today and my blogs have stayed active for all these years. Visitors come and go and some come back for more information and entertainment.

You can read more about it in Wiki Blog or educational Wikis of 2011. I plan to continue blogging for as long as possible as I simply love it. Having the power of the world's attention at my fingertips feels good. This is a win-win basis for me as I also get to monetize my blogs as I update my online journal.

To Get Money Out of CPF

I have long written to Singapore's CPF to request for my funds to be released earlier, due to my condition. I have to depend on myself and the help of a friend to see lawyers and get the letters certified by a notary public before sending them to Singapore. As of today, I only have exactly 13 days to get this done. Deadline on 1st October. Luckily I have the help of a close friend to run errands for matters such as this. Now I know who I can count on for help. This person is a God-sent.

The History of Blogging

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A 'Blog' is short for 'Web Log' and is an informal, discussion page posted on the internet. The emergence and growth of blogs started in the late 1990s and from there it has grown exponentially ever since. Hundreds of blogs are created every second worldwide.

In December of 1997, the term weblog was coined by John Barger. Now there are many free platforms to create your first blog: Blogger, Wordpress, etc. You can read more about the History of Blogging by Wikipedia by clicking on the link given or check out here >> Webopedia History of Blogging

I am pleased that there are free platforms for you to start your first blog and possibly monetize it. You need to know some HTML basics which can be found online and information is everywhere for your search. Thank God for my blessings to continue to work efficiently from a home office that is equipped with broadband internet connectivity, multi-functional printer, fax machine, scanner, copier and a digital camera.

I have to Work Hard

I have to work hard for my money. Just cannot afford to laze around doing nothing as it is not my nature to be idle. I am always on the lookout for more work online since I work in a home office as of February 2004. Oh yes, I just received a call from Astro for special channel viewing of WWE Night of Champions live on Monday at 8:00am, repeats 3:30pm, 8:00pm on Monday and 7:00pm on Tuesday. It will cost additional $19.95 for this special seasonal viewing. I am a true blue Chinese and all Chinese are very hardworking, motivated and diligent. If you live in Hong Kong, it is common to find people working at 2 jobs: one in the day time and another one at night.

The History of RSS Feeds

Graphic Citation

RSS is an acronym for Really Simple Syndication. It uses a family of standard web feed formats to publish frequently updated information: blog entries, news headlines, audio, video. An RSS document, called "feed", includes full or summarized text, and metadata, like publishing date and authors name. You can read more about it in RSS Feed Definition on Wikipedia and What is RSS?

The first RSS feed was published in March of 1999, and was used on Netscape. In 2002, a new RSS feed application was published removing the type attribute of RSS 0.94. This new software was called RSS 2.0 and after Google Reader shuts down, RSS feeds became extremely popular.

I have used RSS feed before to automatically update my blog with news without me having to update it on a daily basis. It is very simple: just add the feed to the HTML page and voila! I have updated new every day and the page appears fresh and new with the latest news without me having to lift a finger!

Still a bit Drowsy

Have I been sleeping too much? I don't think so. But nevertheless, I am feeling rather drowsy now and writing is a bit slower. My brain is still on sleeping mode and my body just hopes to go back and sleep. But the book of Proverbs says that is you sleep too much, you will surely come to poverty, refusing to lift a finger to work. And literally here, I have to lift a finger to type, no one but 10 fingers. Oh well, after this, I will reward myself and go back to snooze for a while so that my mind will be more alert. Now I am in half awake state. Not a good thing to be in but sleep again, I must

Blogs were First Used as an Online Diary

blogskinny.com

When I first started out, my blogs were meant to be a personal online journal or diary to share with close friends and family. From there, they evolved to money making ventures where I can take sponsored posts and earn some revenue. After a while of getting started, you will get regular traffic and this is where you can start to monetize them. This is a win-win situation for me. On top of that, I can also earn advertisement space on all my blogs and this gives me the motivation to continue blogging as a hobby.

You can check out Wiki blogs or watch a video on blogging at Youtube Video on Blogs. These links are interesting and informative. I still recall the year 2006 August which I started my first blog on free Blogger platform and never looked back since then. If you can type well, think on the spot, then anyone can be a blogger. It does not take rocket science to figure out how to be a blogger and what to write.

To get started, you can use your first blogs as an online diary and pen down your thoughts which is easy peasy. Any Tom, Dick or Harry can do this, so can you. With that said, why won't you start your blogs and see how they evolve? Who knows? You might be invited for important functions and blog about events for sponsors to create buzz. This will surely make your blogs stand out from the rest and attract lots of visitors.

My Housing Loan is Just Approved

My second housing loan is just approved after about 2 weeks of application by RHB Bank. I love this bank as it offers lots of free goodies and Chinese new year gifts. I got myself a mug and a notebook when my loan got approved. I plan to pay only 40% of the condo price as I have my fixed deposits to pay the rest. Don't intend to take up too much loan so that I pay less interests rates. The offered rate is BLR - 2.35% as compared to Hong Leong bank which only offered me BLR - 2.25%. So, now I can celebrate and as of signing the Sale & Purchase Agreement, my property went up another 10% due to petrol hike increase.

Blogging Careers

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Do you know that you can make blogging as a career? Well, there are three types of bloggers - self-employed bloggers, part time bloggers and corporate bloggers. I guess I fall into the second category as a part time blogger since I have a full time job to work in a home office as an Information Technology executive. For the record, I love to blog and blogging is one of my hobbies currently, besides getting to monetize it.

There are professional bloggers out there who are self-employed. These are serious bloggers who will attend any formal functions, take lots of photos to create buzz and then go home to blog about it to create awareness of the products or the services of the companies. You will see lots and lots of photos that these self-employed bloggers will painstakingly edit on their computer using Photoshop as an example, and then post into their blog. Blogging is their full time job which keeps them very busy besides traveling around for more content on their blog.

Then there's part time bloggers like yours truly who will blog when there is free time. In the meantime, full concentration is given to my full time job at home. Most of these part time bloggers are also talented and get to leverage on their blogs for a win-win basis between bloggers and sponsors. Even if we don't have any sponsored posts to do, we will still continue to blog and maintain one or several blogs just for the fun of it. We love telling the world about our life, thus keeping an online journal for all to see.

The third category is the corporate bloggers which work for companies or businesses and draw a salary from them. They are the internal staff and their job function is to blog about the corporate products, services and any events. Some staff are hired specially to just blog and create more buzz and awareness of the corporations. With the 3 categories of bloggers, now you can see why blogging careers are possible if you have a computer, basic editing software, digital camera and a blogging platform.

Art is Appealing

Art is certainly appealing. It makes our life more colorful and interesting. Without art, our daily grind of life will be boring with all the busy office work, taking care of kids and attending to your spouse will certainly wear one out. By immersing ourselves in art, we get to appreciate man-made beauty. That is why we have the classics, photography, museum, opera, orchestra, etc.

Art is very much a part of my life when I was small. I used to go for weekly Art tuition, having to eat dinner in the car while my parents rush me to the tutor's house in a rather old small town house near 'Tan kongsi'. In my working life, I get to enjoy Philharmonic Orchestra in Petronas tower in Kuala Lumpur now and then. These are professional musicians playing individual music instrument such as the violin, piano, bass, trombone, flute, drums, etc following the conductor to create harmonious music. You don't see this in Penang other than at E & O hotel when it is advertised in The Star at the end of the year.

I also get to watch ballroom dancing in PISA and marvel at the extravagance of ballroom dance costumes of the women. There's plenty of sequins, feathers, satin, silk, organza of a wide magnitude of vibrant colors. Whenever, there is a chance, I will take the opportunity to purchase ballroom dancing tickets.

MOMA - Museum of Modern Art

coolartwork.org

MOMA is an acronym for Museum of Modern Art. I would love to visit this place someday if given the chance. From an initial gift of 8 prints and 1 drawing, the collection has grown to include over 150,000 paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, photographs, architectural models and drawings, and design objects. The success of its impressive growth speaks volumes of MOMA. Visitors come and patronize the premise to enjoy art that is collected over time. Art enthusiasts will certainly enjoy their visit to MOMA and slowly absorb the beauty of each art piece.

The Museum of Modern Art is located in Midtown Manhattan on 53rd Street in New York City. Well, I have never been to New York, but my second sister who is pursuing her PhD in South Hampton, UK has been here once to see the various art works during her stint in Singapore. She is the most well-traveled amongst us and gained rich experience.

Well, art is not just a still object, but as an art enthusiast, you will be able to appreciate the beauty and labor of the artist in creating any object of art for the public to admire. For the record, I have won poster drawing prizes before during my school holidays and I recall the time and work taken to create a masterpiece that is appreciate by my classmates! It was pinned up in an obvious place for all students to admire as they pass through the school area every day.

One also need to appreciate the time and effort taken to take a beautiful photo shot by the patient photographer. This is especially so when you are shooting nature and animals in the wild. You must know how to set up the zoom lens, focal point, white light intensity, etc on your manual SLR camera.