What Simply Works!

I noticed how my (blog) posting/writing has turned from bad to worse.  I remember how diligent I was when I started blogging, always using MS Word and its Thesaurus and spell check functions.  But as years went by and especially now that I seldom sit in front of my computer for more than 20 minutes straight, I felt more and more impatient and careless about what I publish on the Internet.

I was so conscious with my grammar, spelling and tenses before but lately, I just don’t care anymore.  But the guilt is still there.  Like I think, what if my little girl reads all the ‘garbage’ I’ve been posting on the net?  What if she turns to me and say, “Mum, you can’t correct my English because yours is just as wrong?” Sigh.

Constructing my blog entries straight on Wordpress is just too convenient for me to go back to MS Word.  And the circumstances I’m in now don’t make it encouraging for me to sit long hours just to write an entry with 3-4 sentences! Sad.

Another promotional gimmick gaining popularity these days is mobile marketing.  Notice how some shops or food stores launch contests where customers are required to leave their business cards to win prizes?  And you’d think that they’ll discard your information as soon as their done with the contest?  No siree.  It is a form of database marketing where the company makes use of the patron’s details for further marketing or promotional plans.  Some companies though are more sincere letting their customers make a conscious decision to join their database.

Mobile advertising lets the company send ongoing promotion to customers.  For example, a burger chain sends out their weekly promotion advise to those who “opted-in” to join.  This is a win-win situation in some cases, especially if the patron is too busy to think of what he/she’ll have for lunch.

For me, so long as the customer doesn’t get charged for receiving these advertising text messages and can opt-in or out any time, it is a good way to market products.

With the weather still pretty much”summer-like” in this Autumn month of March, people still hie off to the beaches to escape the heat.  There’s no stopping these beach lovers from enjoying the waters despite the high-alert on shark appearances on the big and popular beaches here in Sydney.  Just today, a roaming chopper on Bondi beach sent an alarm to the lifesavers when they saw two sharks getting near the beach shoreline.  The lifesavers did a good job clearing the beach but thirty minutes after the sharks were chased away, the beach’s patrons went running back to the waters.  What an adventure for them, huh?   If anything, having people stay out of their homes especially during the weekends means business for many retailers.  I’m sure restaurants, bars and specialty stores owners (like those selling women’s swimwear) are just happy that peeople go out and spend.  But, it will only be a few weeks and temperatures will soon drop and before we all know it, winter is here.

If only I have the interest to pursue it, a good work from home opportunity is in stock trading since work is primarily done online. One just needs to join an online brokerage firm, know the basics, get some training and voila, you can be an online broker. Like what my friend did, she started with her own money and a small amount at that. She made sure that she gets the feel of the whole workflow first before she sunk her teeth into it. After a few weeks, she found the results to be encouraging, she started investing more. Now, she’s a lot more confident and is ready to be a real broker.  However, as she has shared, time and patience are key elements to be successful in that business.  She reads a lot of business news and since she lives in Asia, she’s up at night to work on US time.  No matter how enticing her story is, unfortunately for me, I don’t have an inkling to make online trading a career. But it’s true that sometimes, it pays to be a bit more daring.

Egad! I think I’m going to give in and get a Flickr pro account! Sigh. I want a ’sacred’ place for my personal (not necessarily family/friends/group photos) and favorite photographs and i.just.might.sign.up soon. Having that pro account might inspire me to capture more photos. I miss going out with my dslr!

I admit I was once intimidated with Flickr because there are tons of really cool photos published there and mine are just like.. oh well. But now I’m a bit more daring and I’d probably join Flickr groups as well! Nu-ni-nu-ninu.

I was busy doing the dishes one morning when I chanced upon my two-year old keeping herself busy beside the office chair.  She was sitting right next to it as if retrieving something under it.  I then looked away but my inner gut tells me to check on her, so I did.  To my surprise, she was holding the chair’s spring plungers which must have fallen on its own and she was trying to put it back!  That made me smile for a while thinking how can a 2 yr old think of ‘fixing’ the chair like that?  How did she know that the tiny metal belongs to the chair?  Ah kids.

As I’m trying to pace myself with all the tasks I have and want to do, I find that I’m becoming more impatient.  I’ve set out a couple of personal projects, which I think will be on the shelf again for I don’t know how long.  Oh, those boxes of photos that I want to organize in a nice album.  The photos I want to put in digital scrapbook layouts and my online photo albums that need sorting, etc. etc. etc.  Maybe in three years’ time, I’d get the chance to do all these.  Hmm.

I have posted on this blog earlier about my liking for the show The View.  During the height of the US elections, the hosts covered the most controversial issues that surrounded the four candidates.  The good part is that the five hosts were able to voice their opinions openly but with tact and sensibility.  On the world wide web, there’s a space dedicated for sharing views and takes on political discussions.  It’s intriguing to say the least, and I’m going to hop over it now to find out.

When I was deciding on the specs for “Makoy” (my imac), I promised myself that I will not upgrade the memory or hard disk. I didn’t plan on topping-up the husband’s gift budget. But lo and behold, we came out of the store with an extra 2GB memory and that entailed a slice off my p&S camera budget!

I have no regrets about my decision though. I know that having a 4GB memory will benefit me in the long run. It’s just that I now have to save up again for my p&s.

There’s something wrong with Bloglines.  I cleared a number of blogs on my list this morning and was surprised to see random changes like 200 (or 30 or 350) unread entries on some of the links.  Weird!  Anyway,  I’m down to reading through my fave photographer’s blogs and I’ll see if this ‘glitch’ will continue.  I still heart Bloglines!

After a long time of not promptly approving/rejecting the Entrecard droppers on my accounts, I noticed that they are all automatically approved and are showing on all my blogs! How’s that? Hmm.

Edited:  The auto-approving thingy stopped.  I can finally approve/reject manually.  I still haven’t decided on what to do with my EC points though… Sigh.

It’s been a while since my husband played with his game consoles. We got really busy months leading to the holidays last year that playing computer games is the last thing on our minds. Just like most gaming gadgets, I’m sure the last one we bought eight months ago will soon be obsolete. I won’t be surprised if the husband will soon fancy to get a Playstation 3.

I have been neglecting my Entrecard accounts now and I feel guilty. I admit that EC has served its purpose well for all my sites. So, to be fair to the active EC droppers/members, I will soon remove my EC banners from all my “working” blogs. I can’t commit myself to returning the blog visits and the “drops” anymore. Heck, I can’t even come up with decent posts these days!

The only problem I have now is how to make use of the 8k points I have earned. They should be useful to somebody out there. Maybe I should hold a blog contest perhaps?

I was finally able to log in to my pa!d advertising accounts the evening we arrived Sydney.  I am pleasantly surprised that I have quite a number of opportunities on queue despite my month-long absence.  Although I have a lot of things to clear up and clean up at home, I’m slowly picking-up each ad assignment and hopefully I’ll finish them all by this week.

And oh, thanks to the G0ogle angels, they gave back this site’s old ranking.  I don’t know how long I will have it but thanks anyway!  That’s a nice and unexpected New Year’s gift.

I wrote on this blog earlier that I pulled out my online order of a Photoshop software package. I thought I had to wait until next year to get one. But a good friend sent an email this week and to my surprise, she found someone who is willing to help me get a cheaper, student license instead! Yipee!

As soon as my other Internet tasks are done, I will finalize my order. I can’t wait to get my hands dirty on Photoshop! Hee hee.

We moved our first batch of belongings to the new rented property this morning.  So far, we’re not feeling any tension yet during the move.  I hope everything goes smoothly especially tomorrow, when the movers arrive to bring over bulk of our appliances and furniture.

I’m having problems settling the cleaners.  I only have one contact so far and each time they promise to call back, they won’t.  I guess that says so much about their customer service.  More updates on the move in the coming posts.  For now, it’s pa1d blogging break for me. Ha!

When I started to blog actively again this year, I noticed that my writing has gone from bad to worse.  It’s not just the usual sentence construction and grammatical errors that I notice to be very obvious in each of my posts but I also lost spontaneity in my writing. I struggled to put my thoughts together before and I struggle more now.

Back then, I wasn’t so conscious thinking that not many people view my blogs but now that Google, Yahoo and other search robots frequently caches any article posted on the web, I realized that any one can stumble upon my blog and discover my poor writing skills!  Bleh.

Anyway, the few bucks that I get from sp0nsored p0sts and the joy that I get in sharing my love for photography in my other blog are enough reasons for me to keep enjoying what I do.

At this point, I still don’t know when I will join the workforce again. Unlike before where I find myself getting anxious thinking over it, now I rest my cares and know that it’ll happen in God’s time. In fact, I’m pretty excited on what the coming year holds for me. Will I continue my career in IT? Will I have my own business? How about the many franchise opportunities out there? The possibilities are endless. And like a child, I’m waiting for things to unfold with much anticipation.

The first few months of being a stay at home mom, I thought of taking advantage of small business opportunities to keep me occupied. But true to what many moms have shared to me, that once my daughter becomes a toddler, my days will be insanely busy. And it’s true. So I thought of things to do other than chores and child-caring duties. Now I’m thankful that I found happiness in photography, blogging and digital scrap-booking – the three hobbies I’m passionate about.

As expected, we didn’t get the apartment unit we viewed last weekend. We were about 50 people (no exaggeration) that day and the odds of getting it were pretty slim. And as we planned, we went again for one viewing today, this time for a landed property. There were about 5 or 6 who went and I tell you, we were all serious applicants!

It is actually a villa that’s one level with a small garden at the back of the house. It was just about the size we want and the location is pretty good, too. We’ll know the owner’s decision by Monday. The rental property market here is very, very aggressive!