A New Year With New Toys

Happy New Year! My mobile has been abuzz with New Year Greetings from family and friends. Modern technology has made it easy for us to send greetings to loved ones at the tip of our fingers.

Mobile phone companies must look forward to these special occasions when their SMS sales shoot up the roof. We may moan the way technology has made things so impersonal but I for one welcome the convenience of that little mobile phone. I am able to stay in touch with my family who are frequent travelers. If they are overseas, a message can be sent at the cost of RM1!

This new year will see me enjoying more of today's fancy gadgets. After all my son gave me an iPod shuffle for Christmas. If you happen to see me with ear phones on you know why,lol. I can see why many young people have their ears tuned out to the outside world and tuned in to their iPods.

Importance Of A Good Introdution

The introduction of a blog post or a Squidoo lens is important as it will decide if your reader will stay on to read the rest of what you have written or leave the page. People's attention span is short. So in those first few sentences you need to attract your reader' attention s that he wants to stay and read the rest of your article.

A good introduction also will mean that it might attract the attention of search engines. If you intend to earn some income for your writing, your introduction will make a lot of difference to the traffic to your article.

Squidoo recently came up with a list of The Best Squidoo Intros Ever!. Here you will find different topics being written by various Squidoo lensmasters. Read some of these lenses to get a better glimpse of how you can improve on your introductions.

My lens Top 10 Places To Visit In Kuala Lumpur has been included in this list too. So do drop by and let me know what you think.

Making Money With RocketMoms Session 11

The holiday season is here. With the month of December, schools are out, many are planning a vacation or already on one. Christmas is just a few weeks away and the malls are already putting up the decorations to entice shoppers. The RocketMoms are here to help shopping easier with their holiday lists.

The RocketMoms have holiday lenses to build as part of Challenge 11.

These are the "Hot 100 Lists" from books, gifts for pets, gifts under $10, toys for toddlers, family games, holiday desserts, best holiday vacations, holiday songs, Christmas decorating ideas and gifts for moms.

So far I have completed 5 of the lenses. We have to create 8 different types of lenses if we want to graduate from session 11. So why do I participate in this challenge?

I find that as I try to complete a different type of lens I learn to stretch myself and in so doing improve on my lens building skills. Of course along the way i make some sales when folks buy something through my lens.

With these 5 lenses I have made two sales so far- from my holiday song lens, Mary's Boy Child. That is what I like about Squidoo. I can earn from my lenses too.

Are you on Squiddo yet? If you are not part of Squidoo yet, you can Join Squidoo Now. It's free! You can Visit me at Squidoo.

Reward The Law Abiding Citizen With A Discount!

I read in the Star paper this morning about the big rush at many police stations of traffic offenders to pay their summonses. This is because of the 50% discount offered to those served with a summons if they pay up within the next 2 weeks.

This is good news for many but there were also some grumblings from some who were prompt in paying their summons. They had to pay the full amount. I can understand their grievance. It would seem that it does not pay to pay your fine on time! ( No pun intended )

Why not reward those who make an effort to settle their summons promptly? Give a discount based on how promptly a person settles the fine. This would encourage many not to delay in paying.

Holidays Are Here Again But It Is Time to Study!

Image via Wikipedia

It is the end of November. Schools are closed for the year and those sitting for their major exams like the SPM and STPM are of course hard at work. Some of my friends who have children sitting for these exams are going through some tough times. They are more anxious than their kids about the exams.

Parents are so keen for their children to do well in school that there are now programs available to prepare them for the coming year. Is it really necessary for the kids to start preparations now or do we allow them to have a good break and just enjoy the holidays?

Purple Star Award

According to Megan Casey, editor in chief of Squidoo, Purple Stars are awarded to any lensmaster who creates a stellar lens. They can be lenses with incredible content, trying out of new ideas, for running conversations on your lenses or just plain standing out from the crowd.

"Purple Stars are fairy dust. They're magic. They're surprises. You'll never know when or where they'll arrive."

In order to receive a Purple Star you have to be nominated by a fellow lensmaster. This would then have to be scrutinized by Squidoo HQ to see if it really was worth a Purple Star. Well you can guess my excitement when I received my first Purple Star for my lens, Unique Dragon Gifts. Just a few weeks later I received another Purple Star. This time it was for Top 10 Places To Visit In Kuala Lumpur

Making new friends on Myspace

Myspace is a good social networking site to meet new people which you normally may not meet. It is good to write up a bit on yourself so that people browsing through your profile can know a bit about you and your interests. You can write as much or as little as you can.


Adding some photos of yourself is good so that they can see what you look like. I always like to include some photos of my family as well since they are very much part of who I am.


Myspace has a browse button where you can view profiles of other Myspace members. Click to add them as friend and if they approve then you would have added a new friend.


I usually try to avoid adding any male friends as I am not looking for any serious man/woman relationship. I like to keep things simple and uncomplicated. 

My mobile phone boo-boos

I don't know about you but I need time to send a text message. My fingers are not so agile to speed text. I actually thought I was quite good until my son asked my why I was taking so long. Well I don't like to use too much short forms as I am afraid the other person may not understand what I am saying. When I first used my mobile I couldn't understand half of the messages I received. I have now worked out the phonetics way of text messages. All those intentional mis-spellings! No wonder people these days can't write proper English! They are so used to using text words.

Do you know what these words mean?
btw, omg, dun wan, ( adding more to this list!)

I finally learned why my mobile won't allow me to type certain words no matter how many times I try in various contexts. It was very frustrating when it keeps deleting the word you want to use.The dictionary was on and it had no such word in its vocabulary! Well I have now switched it off though they tell me that with the dictionary on it is way faster to type a text message.

Me and my mobile phone!

When the mobile phone was still quite new I didn't see what the fuss was all about. I even commented that people were so crazy about talking to their friends all the time on their mobile.I was quite vehement that I would never be using one.

Well I have to eat my words now because I have joined the thousands, no millions of mobile users. Not for me the iPhone or Blackberry. Just a simple Nokia phone will do.

Why I love my mobile so much is that it allows me to be in contact with my family and friends even when I am out of the house. Gone are the days when you are not contactable once you were out. The few public phones that were available were often out of order or there were just none around. Now there is no need to worry about where I am as long as I have my mobile with me.

I love the text messaging since you can still communicate with someone even though they are not able to make or take a phone call. My children can let me know they are not back for dinner. I can text a message to those working in the office knowing it will not create an interruption with the ringing of the phone. The mobile is great for emergencies when the car breaks down somewhere and I can call the AAM. Life is certainly so much better with having a mobile phone.

Earning money on Squidoo

When I first started on Squidoo I never thought I would earn money from it. So I never bothered with registering a Paypal account. Since I am a Malaysian the procedure seemed a bit tedious. To my surprise in my first month I earned an incredible US 20 cents!

I finally decided to register for a Paypal account. You will need to register a credit card with the account. Paypal have recently allowed Malaysians to have their payment to be deposited into their local bank account which is fantastic.

My first shopping lens was on Unique Pill Boxes As Gifts as a project for the Rocket Moms. There I highlighted several unusual pill boxes from Amazon and to my surprise people have bought some of these items. Each time a purchase is made I will earn a commission from it.

Van Gogh Pill Box For The Artist 

Van Gogh states: Crazy things happen when you forget to take your meds!

Van Gogh Crazy Things Happen If You Forget Your Meds Pill Box

Amazon Price: $11.75 (as of 03/22/2010)

A fine chrome box to keep your meds safely inside. Comes with 3 internal compartments.

I was so excited by that! So if you are thinking of trying your hand at Squidoo, Sign up for a Paypal acoount.

Making online friends

They say you can never have too many friends. How very true. It is indeed a small world these days with everyone connected by the internet. Social networking sites have made it easy for anyone to make friends online.It is not just for the young to be part of the online community.

I join Myspace and also Facebook, two very popular social networking sites. Of course as with everything there are those who use it for unsavory purposes. So I am always cautious not to reveal direct contact information. I have come to meet many new friends from all over the world which otherwise I would never have the chance to do so.

My motto is "Be friendly and you will make friends".

At my age, why bother learning to use the internet?

If you had asked me that question some years back, I  would have said I am not interested to learn. Back then, computers and the internet were still at its infant stage and everything looked too technical for me.

As I explore more of the online resources, a whole new world opens up before me. When I was young, books were the main source of  information. Encyclopedia Britannica was one of the best investments as it had a wealth of knowledge on practically every topic. Now at the tips of my fingertips I can research on any topic and several pages of information is available with current news published, videos, comments by anyone and everyone.

The internet is more than just being able to research on any topic under the sun. I am part of a global community where I can be an active participant. It is not just for the young but also for older folks like me.

After all it is not that hard to learn!

For The Dishwasher's Sake, Go Easy On The Detergent!

I read an interesting article today on how we often use our washing machine and dish washer wrongly. Most of us learn to use one through our parents or when we bought our first machine. Through the years, new technology has improved the efficiency of these machines as well as the detergent used but we still continue to apply the same methods more suitable to the older machines.

I know that I often don't follow the amounts stated in the box. Well, my brand new washing machine has its own laundry indicator but I readily add in more thinking it will be cleaner. According to this article, using more may in fact shorten the life of the machine and even damage the clothes. Laundry detergent has so improved that not much soap action is now visible. When you see suds you may be using too much detergent!

So go back and read the label on the detergent box and your washing machine manual and follow the recommended amounts. You will not only prolong the life of your machine and your clothes but save on costs as well. In these tough economic times a small bit of savings can go a long way.

For more on this article read For The Dishwasher's Sake, Go Easy On The Detergent

Getting started with Squidoo

If you are not sure where to start, read this lens on How to get started with Squidoo and you will be on the way to creating your first lens.

Squidoo was founded by the Original Squid, Seth Godin who is an acclaimed public speaker, author and blogger. Seth introduced the concept of "Permission Marketing" which is the privilege (not the right) of delivering anticipated, personal and relevant messages to people who actually want to get them.

As in anything, taking that initial step is the hardest. You are always looking for that perfect topic or trying to figure out what you can write about your pet topic.

The easiest way to start is to write on something familiar.You always have the option of not publishing it or even if you do publish it, you can always go back and edit it again. In fact regular editing of a lens is encouraged to keep it fresh.

It is only in the doing, that you will think of new ideas to improve on your lens.

Create your own lens now

How did our grandmothers manage without a washing machine?

Last week my washing machine finally gave up and became a useless metal box! It had been hinting it was in its last days with the wash cycles going haywire. Well, it finally died on me and that was when I had to really respect  my grandmother and the generations before her who never knew the convenience of the washing machine.

It is hard, backbreaking work washing by hand. Now the full laundry basket was more noticeable. Washing with the modern convenience was such a breeze. Just throw in the dirty laundry, switch to the right mode of washing, fill up the tub with water , add in the detergent and Voila! Forty-five minutes later out comes a clean, well-spun load of washing ready to dry in the sun.

Off I went to buy a new machine, a eco-friendly, power saving machine. Alas, I had to wait another 3 days before it could be delivered. So for the next dew days I washed the way my grandmother did. No wonder they were so fit and healthy with a work-out like that everyday.My husband laughed at my loud cheer when the wonderful machine finally arrived. You know, for the price I paid, I got a good deal on my "toy" because it was BIG compared to his tiny hand phone which cost much more!

He can laugh all he likes. I am going to play with my "toy" now! If he laughs too loud he can wash his own dirty laundry - BY HAND!


Thank you to whoever invented the washing machine!

Why I like Squidoo

Being new on Squidoo I discovered it was really user friendly especially for someone who was clueless about HTML codes and other stuff like that. Even with my limited knowledge I was able to create my first Squidoo page.

My very first lens was on my pet topic which was Remedies For A Runny Nose as I was constantly having a runny nose myself. It took me some time to complete it but not bad for a first attempt!

Another reason why I like Squidoo is the way I can add in money making modules like Amazon, Cafe Press, eBay, etc. I do not even need to be an affiliate member to add this module and introduce products related to my lens. If anyone does buy anything I can earn a commission from Amazon.

My Squidoo Journey

The first time I heard about Squidoo I thought it was something to do with photography as they kept using the word "lens". Since I was no good at taking photos I did not accept the invitation. Later I found out that lens had nothing to do with photography and with caution I decided to join Squidoo.

Boy, am I glad I did.

So, what is Squidoo?

Squidoo is a free platform where you can write about anything that you care about. Each page is called a lens and you are called the lenmaster. You can even earn a royalty for charity or yourself!

Join Squidoo! It's free.