http://www.alexjong.com To A New Path In Life Sat, 28 Jan 2012 06:53:45 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://www.alexjong.com/2010/04/19/business-is-bad/ http://www.alexjong.com/2010/04/19/business-is-bad/#comments Mon, 19 Apr 2010 05:37:00 +0000
I have started to question myself whether my decision has been right in going full time... It seemed so right 2 months ago when I was on a roll!!! Now, things have slowed down and I am starting to feel the financial pinch... All the savings and earnings that I managed to gain in the past few months have started to dry up... Why??? Because I still have bills to pay... No matter whether I am earning or not, I still have to pay for my insurance, petrol, childcare etc etc... And these can come up to a lot of money....

Luckily hubby is covering for the major expenses like our housing loan, utilities and all other household expenses... Otherwise, I will file for bankruptcy already :)

It just takes 2 bad months to wipe out all the good work... Sigh... and it is very demotivating... :(

And so... what do I do? First, pray about it... ask for help from a higher force... :)

Then, now, I need to see what else I can do.. I will probably open up another eBay store in AU site.... AU's exchange rate is getting stronger against the RM.... but I need $$$ also to open up the store... and now I really need to be prudent.... $$$ is limited... I really need to prioritize...

So pray for me that I am able to pull through this rough patch... hopefully without any permanent damage...

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Recently, I found this and took the quiz... and through selling on eBay to many countries that I have never heard before, I managed to get a score of.... 53/195... which beats or equals 50.1% of test takers (according to the site)... but still way below the average score which is 61....

So, how many can countries can you name?

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So head on here at aNGie Consultations to find out more!

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Previously he refused to come home as he is so used to going over to the nanny's as he has a friend there to play with as opposed to coming home where he is alone...

But since I am starting him off on piano lessons (starting this week), he will already be home once a week.... hmmm... I might be "kiam-siap"... but then I think it makes more sense for him to come home instead of going to the nanny... can save on household expenses some more mah... since I am no longer working and my online business income is quite erractic.... sometimes good, sometimes bad...  so have to save up loh...

So, I started asking him whether he wants to come home for the past month and he has come home for quite a number of occasions and I think he is getting used to the idea... and thus when I ask him... "Jo-ah, next month you come home everyday after school OK? No need to go auntie there already OK?" He was quite open and agreeable!

Hehe... perhaps it is because I bribe him with arts and crafts time at home... he just love messing around with paints and paper and glue... and I found this awesome site one day.... crafty-crafted.com... So I am now using ideas in this site with Joel.... on the days he is home...  good mother son bonding time also...

To tell the truth, I am nervous also with the fact that he will be home... because this means I will have to manage my time better... and not sit around daydreaming.... or maybe I can get him to sit around to daydream together with me... haha....

Just so that I can visualise my time after Joel is home everyday, I even went as far as drawing up a simple time-table to show what he and I are doing.... well, just as a guide for me until I adjusted... Am I too organized???

Hehe... but then I also took the cowards way out... I secretly bincang with the nanny first... that if I am busy (or most likely needed a break.. haha), can I put Joel at her place and I pay her daily instead of monthly? She said OK... so, let's see how things turn out...

Stay tuned for more anecdotes when Joel starts coming home... I am sure I will have lots to tell....

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I have finally made the move to shift my blog to blogger.... not because blogger is a superior blogging... but because of a few reasons....

First: I have other blogs... and all of them are on blogspot.... Blogspot has improved a lot since when I started out blogging 3 years ago (I deleted my old blog in blogspot before moving to wordpress).. but then, maybe I did not have much experience then... so maybe that's why my old blogspot blog looks so darn crappy....

Second: I am thinking maybe it is time to monetize my blogs... meaning put in some ads... and since I am using the free wordpress, I can't do that... but free blogspot allows it.... Aiyah... I write nonsense... but is nice to think maybe I can be paid for writing nonsense?

Third: The template in Blogger is fully customisable... And there are more free Blogger template in the WWW... that I can use....

Fourth: It loads way faster than Wordpress...
And while googling on a painless way to move my blog, I discover that most people are moving from Blogger to Wordpress and not the other way round... I am one of the rare ones... haha....

And anyway, I decided to just leave my old worpress blog the way it is... and not delete it... Main reason being the pictures in the duplicated posts(with Wordpress) in this new Blogspot Blog is still linked from Wordpress and not hosted over here...

But I did spent many hours trying to get a template that I like and also going post by post to make sure that the alignment is OK after the transfer.... Hubby say I "siao"... might as well spend the time on my online business instead of blogging.... but then when the blogging bug bites me, I just had to get it right loh....
So, hopefully this is the right move... but whatever it is, Snakes & Ladders is here to stay... hopefully for a long time....

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It is now so simple to create a signature for your blog posts... Just head over to mylivesignature.com and follow the instructions there! So simple! And best of all it is free! Who does not like freebies? :)

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Anyway, I went to LHDN this morning... To those who does not know what is LHDN... it means Lembaga Hasil Dalam Negeri... which translates to the Income Revenue Board... aiyoh... income tax la... apa lagi!!!!

What they say is true... in this world nothing is certain but death and taxes... and this morning's excursion to LHDN is to deal with both. My brother passed away last year and of course, his taxes were not filed. Many people say that I am stupid to go and pay tax some more when he is no longer around.... but then, me being me, I want to close things up proper. I don't want this to come back and bite me in my ass 5 years later on which I am sure I would not be able to dig up whatever documentation they need. And my parent are old and they would not know how to deal with this. So, better now than later... for you see.... nothing is certain but death and taxes... they will sure dig it up if I don't deal with it now...

So, the reason I went there is because I want to find out how do I go about filing my deceased brother's taxes properly and also make sure that the status in their database is updated... Sure enough, the status of his file is still active although my sister had already visited the LHDN last year to close his file. Now they demand for letter and copy death certificate... again... so, I will deal with it some time next week...

Anyway, my concern is this... I just tell them the story that my brother pass away n blah blah blah... and they did not even ask to see the death cert or any kind of identification!!! And since I got no idea on what password my brother used for e-filing (that is filing of taxes online), they just reset his password for me... ALL WITHOUT PROPER IDENTIFICATION!!! And then instructed me to go to a room where there are a lot of computers setup for the public to file their taxes online. There are a few officers there to assist. And since I am unfamiliar with the screen and do not know the password that they have reset, one of the officers assisted me to logon... and this officer did not ask for any identification either!!!



So, do you see the lack of security now??? All a person needs to know is your IC number, present it to the officer in charge, create a cock-and-bull story about being related to you but you are now deceased and they can now access your tax file.... online... scary thought???

OK OK ... now I really have to go and pack up... otherwise, I will never be ready in time!

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And so, without hesitating, I bought the book... hoping to recapture that little piece of childhood fantasy.... I have not read it yet (again I mean.. .. as I have read it many times already during my childhood)



If you have a secret garden, what does it look like?

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We meant to start him off in the beginning of the year but well, you know what they say about good intentions... we procrastinated... and procrastinated... and then comes CNY in February... so we said after CNY... and well, to cut the story short, I finally contacted Teacher Lisa beginning this week. Want to know more about Teacher Lisa? Here is her blog, Touching Lives Through Music, which I plagarized and use it am the title of this blog entry.... hehe.. not that this blog entry has got anything to do with Touching Lives...



Anyway, Teacher Lisa was an engineer and she has also just resigned from her job last year (around the same time as me) and decided to teach music full time. I have conveyed to her my wishes for Joel as if Joel shows an interest in music, I want him to enjoy music and not stress him out unnecessarily with exams. I went through the stressful time with my piano exams when I was a child and I definitely do not want that for my children. Hubby is of the same mind as me (Thank God!)... And you know what is the worse thing??? After laboring over the piano and theory for more than 8 years, I suck big time at sight reading and aural... And not only that, I never grasp the basics of music playing... meaning, I could never play without notes in front of me... and even with notes, I need a lot of time to practice to get it right (remember, I suck at sight reading??)... Until about 5 years ago, I took up a Play By Ear course, only then I discover how to improvise and play music without notes... all by using chords only... and when you know the secret, it is not difficult... it is so liberating!!! Really... I did teach a few students but then the workload from teaching part time and working full time plus I just had Joel was too stressful... I stopped teaching as I could not cope... but now, since I am full time selling online, I got more time on my hands and have started to tinkle on the ivory keys again :).. no not teaching but just playing for my own enjoyment :) Will I teach again? Hmm... not sure, depends on what God has in store for me... hehe... I would love to teach again but then, we will see...

So, some of you might be wondering why am I not teaching Joel myself then? I guess that it is easier that I let other people teach my son while I guide him at home... It is just like you are a teacher in school... but you don't home school your child right? I think the theory is something like that la... although that is not a good analogy... since kids go to school to socialize too! Anyway, we shall see how it goes... if Joel absolutely abhors music, then I guess we will then just stop his lessons....

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