A mama life with a 4-years old boy !

When you have an active 4-years old boy who has lots of imagination, your bunny will be hiding underneath the dinning table.

Check this out. Why is the bunny hiding under the table ?

23 things about me

I was tagged 3 times and I have written 23 things about me :).

They are :

1. Top 8 secrets about me !

2. 8 random facts about me !

3. 7 random things about me !

I think you might be interested , so head over to my new kopitiam

My new kopitiam

My dear readers, I have started a new kopitiam franchise :)-.
You might like to go to my new kopitiam to read my postings :)-.
But, you can always drop by to this old kopitiam, it is always open and I will still use this site to post articles :)-

A woman you love to hate !

The local Sunday newspaper magazine's headline caught my attention and I cannot help myself blogging about this topics.

A woman you love to hate, she has everything a woman wanted to have. Rich, sexy and married to Micheal Douglas, Catherine Zeta-Jones. A woman you'd love to hate, an article by Jeanne Wolf.

Do you believe in perfect live in this planet called earth ? I don't ! According to this article, Catherine Zeta-Jones said that she never expected this life. She said she is living beyond her wildest-dreams. She is happy and is crazy in love with his husband who she has married for seven years.

I am very happy for her !



I personally think she is one of the most beautiful women on earth.

Wow, who can say that is not a perfect figure !

I have been married with my husband for seven years and I love my husband more and more each passing day ! But, it is not a perfect world, we give and take and there are sunny days and raining days :)-. I am thankful for every blessed day that the good lord has given me the last 45years !

How about this : rich , intelligent and married to John Sr :)-

Forest Gump story !

In my life, there are a number of people, events, directors, movies, authors , books etc that have a lot of impact in my life, they shaped my thoughts and indirectly shaped my behaviors.

One of the movies that have a lot of impacts on my thinking/perception about people is none other than the movie "Forest Gump". In a circular world, Forest Gump is stupid, slow but if you read it deeper, you know that Forest Gump in fact has many talents that not many people have :). I think the thing that attracted me most about Forest Gump was his honesty and true to himself. He is what you see !

Well in real life, I married a Forest Gump, in fact, I am also quite a Forest Gump. Let me tell you why !

My husband is a very honest men, he is one of the few men whom I knew behave exactly the same at home as he is at church. Sometimes, I got mad at him for being so honest. I asked him why can't we cut a little bit corner, just a little bit... but he won't. And he is kind too. When I came to America to check him out (just to make sure he was not some serial killer :):) ), I wanted so much to get some juicy tales from his friends in his church, his cell group and his group of single friends. The only famous joke I got out of them were he once gave away a whole lot of money from his ATM to a homeless fellow. I would not want to disclose any figure here because I do not want some busy body who read my blog to go around asking people how much is the maximum money a person can withdraw from an ATM and smear my name on the internet.

Well, if you ever hear the saying, same feather flock together ? Well, I am one kind of Forest Gump too :). Today, I got my 1st payment notice from Payperpost (apparently, they pay you 30days after they approve your post) and guess what I read, thank you for your charity to Red Cross Society. Ya, all these while while I was writing for Payperpost, I donated all my payment to RedCross :) because I click every box on the form, not because I am generous :)-. You probably laughed your head off :) but that is just me, Forest Gump :).

It is not a big deal because I had been fooled by a lot of people with a lot more money than that. Put it that way, I was underwater for RM$500,000. Yes, it was pretty stupid of me to let out credit when there were no collateral.

But, you know one thing which I believe with all my heart is karma. Please don't tell me Christianity does not teach karma, what about heap coal on ice ?

At this stage of my life, I look at life with a very different perspective and with very different angle than when I was younger. Back then when I was younger, fame, money, success were no. 1 list, there were all very important to me. Now the most important thing in life for me is how my life can impact other people and how I live now affect the life after my physical death (eternal life).

When you have tasted being millionaire at 35 and near bankruptcy at 37, recovered completely from hemiparalysis, conceived a son after 6 weeks of open-heart surgery were all signs to me that I was given a second chance. I need to live a life that is fulfilling. I need is to live for today, not tomorrow or yesterday. To live a life that can impact others.

I look at life like a life bank, credit and debit. When you give , you are extending a credit line, when you take (cheat, lie etc...) , you are actually taking a loan from your life bank . Don't worry, life will always comes back in a circle.

I think I come to this conclusion in life because of many happenings in my life. I experienced a lot of loses in my life and yet they were only physical lost. Physical lost is the easiest things to deal with. But eternal gain and lost are something that you really have to seriously consider.

There are few things that I enjoy the most in life now. I can name one : make friends who have similar likings and values with you.

Tell you the truth, I don't know much about internet or blog. Though I had a Master degree in Computer Science in the mid 80's from none other than Australia's most prestige University - Sydney University. However, after I left Australia for Malaysia, I under utilized my technical skill . I was very much into management and business world. When I first took over the directorship of a franchise computer school in Brunei, I hardly used any of my computer technical skill. In fact, I was so intimidated by the internet world. I knew zero about about search engine or email servers. The only thing I knew about personal computer is a software called Word Stars (I think most of my young readers might not even heard of the dianosor software , it is a old version of MS words). But, being someone who is going to steer a franchise computer school to its greater height and wider horizon, I knew I got to do something to rectify the owner situation for he was pretty " Forest Gump" to employ a non technical gal to direct a computer school :):). So, I invited the Philippino guy who was my school's computer technician to have lunch with me. Of course, I made it in such a way that I knew the internet well. I wanted him to show me his level of technical competency. I told him I wanted to know where he stood among his peer group (all the technical staffs who reported to me).In order to do that , I told him to give me a review on his knowledge on all the SE/WS that he knew for 30minutes every day. While in the process, I asked technical questions on areas I wanted to know and took note on every question he had given. It did not take me long to have a bird-eye view of SE and WS. I became quite savvy on how to use my web browser, email services, and search engines :):).

I started embarking on my blogging journey a few months back.The greatest thing I found in blogging is making valuable friends such as Kuanhoong, Ken, Bee Ean, J.T, JennyHow and many others. I think the person who help me the most technically is Kuanhoong.When I started blogging a couple month ago, I had no clue on how to measure web or blog traffic. I also did not know what was page rank . Why is page rank so important on monetizing blog and how to increase page rank Well, when I started putting Alex'sa ranking system in my page, it was like 1,850,000. In the beginning, I did not really know if big number was good or not but as I read more and more, I come to a humble understanding that big number is not good, it means your blog is of no interest to people, it means you blog sucks :). It means you better take down your statistics because it is quite 'malu' (an embarasement to yourself :).

Then I get to know Kuanhoong a bit better through blog's comments and some emails' insight correspondences and I started digging his brain (I have the tendency of digging smart people's brain). I found out he's so willing to teach me on technical stuff such as SEO and WS. He would give me little tips here and there to help me to increase my blog traffic. I was amazed that within a few weeks or so, my Alexa page rank has increased from 1,850,000 to 570,000. In a few weeks, I have at least a bird eye view on SEO or a minimum jargon language to make me look like a blog experts in my social circle :)- Of course, compare to all the wiz kids on the internet block, my ranking is no where near them and it is not even worthwhile to mention. But, just imagine how little I knew when I first blogged, you really have to believe the power of FRIENDSHIP, networking and win win strategy. Friends who are willing to help you to be successful in whatever you are doing. And of course not forgetting Wuching whose blog was the first blog I read that got me noticed about making money from paidpost :)-. He is such a funny guy, I love to read his blog.

Beside friends who are tech inclined , I always found out there're a few girlie's kind of blog which I enjoy very much. Women who write from the bottom of their heart (or butt depend on what angle you look :):).. I only discoverd Cirnelle recently but ever since I discovered her blog, I am addicted to her blog's style. I sincerely believe a person's blog style reflects his/her personality !!

And one of the things about blogging that really cheered my heart is knowing a lot of younger bloggers like Ken, Mayank etc... who called me Aunty. It really warms my heart that these young men look up to me as their aunty. In our Asian culture, aunty is a sign of respect :):). I just want to pray that they would not dream of me when they place their shoes underneath their pillows on Friday 13th :):):) !.

So, at this Sunday morning at 1am, my dear readers, I am blogging about things in life that count more than money !

How do you capture a niche market ?

I have read many 'How to make $ on the internet', 'How to increase traffic on the blog?' and many 'How to...'. I thought I also follow the trend to write a 'How to ...' topic.

This is the topic I want to talk about tonight. How do you capture a niche market ?

However, before we even answer this questions, we probably want to ask ourselves : What kind of niche market do we want to capture ? Only after we answer this question , can we have our bearing on finding the How's resources.

How many of you who are reading my blog know that "The elderly are the fastest growing segment of the population and thus have contributed to the "greying" (aging) of the American population." ? Quote from Encyclopedia of the Nations :: Americas

I work with elderly people a lot and a lot of my friends are in the 50's and 60's, the golden girls and golden boys :). Many of them know very little about internet but they are very interested in internet as well.

If you have read one of my post earlier about this , you know that the younger the age, the more tech savvy they are. Do you think there is an inverse equation here : + age = -tech; -age = +tech

Might be I like to challenge my readers to do a simple Math equation for me.
The 2 defined variables :
1. Age:
Age in term of numeric from 1 to 10, 1 being baby to 10 years old, 2 being 11 to 20 years old and so forth.

2. Tech :
The number of bloggers in term of age in America.

Say you find 300,000 bloggers in their 30's . Then it 3Age=300,000tech and so forth and forth.

Do you think you can quickly come out with a a simple graphic presentation of age VS tech ?

Do you see this is a very lucrative under reach niche market ?

Well, this is a topic where I like to challenge my readers to give me your inputs and might be we all can partnered in this niche market ?

Friday 13th news and gossips !

What do you do on Friday 13th evening ?

Any interesting news ?

I am not supertistious about Friday 13th and did not hear much about it in my Asian culture. But, we are very supertistious about the seventh month of the lunar calender for that is the month the hunger ghosts are being dispersed in the world to gather their food before they are sent to hell. Chinese people who are supertistious do not want to plan any event on the seventh month of the Chinese calender. But, 8 is a auspicious number for the Chinese. Heard of Alfa Romeo 168 ?

When I first went to Australia for my high school, I stayed with an Australian elderly lady. My land lady had a daughter who lived near by. She often stopped by my land lady house to check if she needed any grocery from the store.

I had my 1st encounter of Friday 13th culture. Before that, I did not pay much attention to Friday 13th. I remembered she asked me if there's anything special I was going to do for that evening. I said nothing special. She asked me if I was going to hide my shoe underneath my pillow that night. I laughed and asked her why. She said it's a common practice for young people to do that on Friday 13th night, put a pair of shoes underneath the pillow to dream of future wife/husband. I thought that was interesting but I told her I was not going to do it.

But guess what, I did :):):). Yes, I did and you guess who I dreamt of that night ? My boyfriend in Canada :):):). He was my high school classmate from Kuching whom I knew for many years. I left for Australia for my high school , he left for Canada for his high school. We corresponded for more than 2 years and we got engaged on my 21st birthday. We broke off after we were engaged for 1 year.

I personally think long distant relationship is very difficult to maintain, it takes a lot of trust and commitment to make it a successful one. I am not saying it does not work, my husband and I did survive in our 3 years or so long distance relationship.

So, those of you who are single, are you going to try putting a pair of your shoes under your pillow tonight so you can dream who will be your wife or husband ?

Before I sign off this Friday 13th night, these are some juicy news for you tonight !

I thought this is a cool piece of news, the 50best websites picks by Time magazine ?
This is the list ...

The site name I'm Too Young For This attract my attention.

No body is too old to live or too old to have cancer. It was still a shock to all of us when we heard that my dad was diagnosed with brain cancer. Though he is in his 70's but he is still too young to have cancer.

Wow, Kuanhoong's Twitter comes on 46th place !

Another attack on America soil ? Gee , this crazy people ! Why don't these al Qaeda and Taliban people learn to blog and write more "How to make $ on the internet", don't you think the world will be more peaceful ?

Happy Friday 13th night !

Please do not dream of me, it will be disaster :):):)

I have a bad hair day !

I have a bad hair day with my word press learning process. Well, it might take me a bit longer than I have thought. But, my bad hair day was quickly rectified by the increased jump on my gold portfolio !

Gold closed at 5weeks high, my portfolio went up 7.6% ! $US has been tanked lately.
If we are not the end of the nearly 6months correction cycle, we are very near the end, I guess.

Gold we have lift-off by By Alf Field.

Announcement

I am moving all my gold related articles to my investment blog.
If you want to read them, please go ahead and go to my investment blog.
Thank you
Jamy

The internet is getting younger

It has never amazed me to discover the age of people who blog and make it big on the net world is getting younger and younger.

1.15 years old - Blogging Kenneth (Philippines).

2.21 years old - Ken (Indonesia).

3.22 years old - Desibaba (Bengali-American)

Might be one day they might become like Kevin Ham :The man who owns the Internet. (total assets 300million @ age 37).

My 4 years old son has been playing on the internet for 3-4hours a day now if I don't stop him. He said he wanted to start his own blog. I asked him what do you want to name your blog , he said " JJ Jump !" :)- .
















Add on blogger list from ReviewSaurus suggestion:

4. 22 years old Review Saurus

A confused woman in love ! (part I)

As she walked out of the airport,





she realized it was extremely hot and humid from where she just few in from.
The custom officers gave her some rough time. In her head, she was thinking how on earth would anyone possibly think she wanted to be an illegal alien in a place where communist ruled ! (7 years to be exact), but she kept herself calm and not made a scene.

It was a Friday afternoon but she went ahead and paid her client's site a visit, introduced herself to the account manager and of course the computer personnel. After a short visit, she checked into the apartment that her office

had rented for her. She thought it's a good size and pleasant location.

She slept well and went to work on Saturday morning refresh. She thought it would be good if she talked to a few end-users to find out what the old system was and what they expect on the new system. In between doing that, she sat herself on a computer at the end corner of the account department office. As she was trying to figure out the logistics of the software team she managed, she saw a male shadow reflection on the window. She turned around and said "Hello." It was a Saturday and it's a casual wear day. The guy had a white polo shirt and a blue jean. He said "Hello, busy with your programming.". She said "Nap, just trying to figure out the logistics of it.". She gave him the sweetest smile and asked if he wanted a chair to sit down. He pull out a chair nearby and sat with her for at least 30minutes while watching her doing things on the computer. She showed him some of the things she was doing and was so engrossed in her work that she forget to ask him which department he was from. She remembered him introducing himself as Che or something but she forgot. After about 1/2 hours she realized he was gone...

When she left her chair to go to the bathroom, she heard some giggles and some girls gave her grins . She heard them talking among themselves with Cantonese which she guessed was gossips on her.

After experiencing a few weeks of stressful Hong Kong life style, she wished she could only take a day off on Saturday or Sunday off. Yes, she worked every single day of the week and without fail she took the last underground train home every night. She wished she could just go out on the concrete jungle for a day ! This guy who worked with her in the computer room was really friendly with her. He bought her lunch and dinner when she could not squeeze in some time for her lunch and dinner. He brought her some warm sweaters when she forgot to bring any. As days went by, she started to notice his kind gestures. Sometimes, she wished she was not in such a high management position and 15years younger. She sighed and groped down her black espresso coffee. While watching the steel skyraper of H.K's sky, she casually asked him if there's any monk near by ? He looked at him and said 'Sure, you want me to bring you to a temple ?'. She said :'Sure, when ?'. He said 'How about taking a day off next Saturday'. She said "Hmmm..., let me think."

To be continue...

SAY AHH

If I write one more time about how nice my husband is , how I love America, I think I would expect a rotten egg flying over my way :)-.

But, when my husband saw this car plate, he rushed me to quickly take out my digital camera to share the picture with my blog readers - a doctor car "SAY AHH" :):):).

Sydney,New Year Eve and Hotels !

You do not want to miss the New Year eve celebration on Sydney Darling Harbor's, its fire work is one of the most spectacular scene you could ever encounter in your life.

It had never failed to amaze me how beautiful the Sydney's fire works was during New Year Eve.

There will be around 1.2 million people gathered around Sydney Darling Harbor to witness the magnificent firework with 12 hours of countdown and celebration. I remembered one year, there was this really crazy guy who run naked cross Sydney Darling Harbor Bridge and it was sure broadcast all over TV :)-

On December 21, Sydney will definitely becomes the New Year's Eve capital of the world. Do you know there will be a billion eyes focus on the Sydney Darling Harbor. On the stroke of midnight, you will witness a firework that has no predecense !

Make sure you book yourself into one of the Sydney Hotels where you can get the best views of the fire works. Sydney Hotels near Darling Harbor areas., Rose bay, or even the Rocks areas. Might be you wanted to look at all of them, you can go to the drop menu of this page and click on any of the Sydney hotels that you can stay for this speculate New Year Eve Night.

You can your evening, including transport details, maps and tips for a great night by visiting this site. sydneynewyearseve.com

This site will help you to find all the iinformations that you need for that grand night ! http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/WhatsOn/html/custom/2234-event-details.asp?EventID=25943

U pick I pot !

When it comes to marketing, no one can beat the American :), bet it online or off line.

You pick I pot :)-. What do you think ? Good concept or not ?

Such a nice nursery :)-

Some interesting blogging resources that I found

Blogging Toolbox: 120+ Resources for Bloggers.

I wonder if I can apply the job of a commenter :) :Buy Blog Comments Lets You Buy Spam. So Not Cool.

10 Most Beautiful Social Networks; I wonder the Malaysian one I used to visit is there or not, :):):)

In a nutshell, the internet is full information. It is a big job to sort through those information to get the ones that are beneficial to you.

I wonder if there is a one stop center where you can gather the information that you really need ?

Anyone care to comment on that thought ?

Win USD$100 Review Me Contest at kuanhoong dot com

I don't know how I stumble into kuanhoong dot com but ever since I stumble into it, it is like a net that trap me in, I cannot go out, help !!!! It is too good not to treat it like your morning coffee if you are like me who love coffee in the morning, his blog is like a good brew coffee :)-.

Seriously, I learn a lot of good technical stuff from his blog. Even though I have a master degree in computer science 22 years ago but I am very new to the blog world.I learn a lot of stuff from his blog. His blog lead me to a whole new concept of blogging. To say, I have learn a lot from his blog is an under statement. In fact, I am quite embarrassed to even think of how messy my blog was before meeting kuanghoong on his blog. His pointers of a neater blog have been put into practice now :)-. [thank you]

His recent post on 10 Basic SEO steps by using Google Webmaster tools is very good for newbie like me. I have no clue about this before I read it. His recent 2 posts on 5 Important tools that allow you to understand your blog more and 3 simple ways to drive more traffics from Flickr were way too cool to miss !

I not only like kuanhoong technical skill and the willingness to help bloggers to make money, I like his attitude and values a lot. He is a very humble man. I know he is a very smart guy but he is very unpretentious and down to earth; all these values make him a very valuable man in the business world. In this era, there are tons of skilled technical people out there but it is difficult to come by with the kind of attitude and values that Kuanhoong possess. I was at an entrepreneur bootcamp last year @ Saint Antonio , Texas, that was exactly the issue we talked about : integrity, sincerity, humility and hardworking. The Bootcamp was not some fly by night kind of bootcamps, it was hosted by the son of the last America president candidate (Howard Philips) - Doug Philips. And all the speakers on the camp were reputable business men of America.

If you look at all the scandals we have in America, Enron etc..., you know it is not smart people we lack in America, it is people with integrity. If anytime my husband and I want a business partner, Kuanhoong would be first on our list.

Read more about what he has to say about this review from his blog.

kuanhoong.com is a blog where you learn more about Make Money at Home. Currently, kuanhoong.com is celebrating its 2nd month landmark with a review me contest and if you review his blog, you can stand to win USD100 of cold hard cash!.

From kuanhoong dot com

Dear readers, as part of the celebration for my 2-month old landmark for my blog, I am going to start a review my blog contest vis-a-vis John Chow style. It is simple to win. All you have to do is to write a short review about kuanhoong.com, and at the end of the review period, I will choose the best review from the pool of reviews received. The winner will stand to win USD100 from me. The winning money will be transferred from my Paypal account.

More info :

Duration:
# 3rd July - 2nd August 2007

Rules of Review:

* Write a 100 - 150 words review of kuanhoong.com on your blog or website. You can write whatever you want, it is totally up to you. Non-English reviews are welcome too!.
* Your review should be a blog post in HTML format. Please do not use any flash or images.
* Please use one the following anchor text “Make Money” or “Money Online” or “Make Money at Home” to link back to http://www.kuanhoong.com
* Please also link back to this page to show the rules of the review.
* Completed review with the URL of your review, your targeted keyword and your website URL should be trackbacked to this post, or you can leave a comment with your website URL on this post.

Not accepted sites:

* Porn / adult content blogs / gambling blogs
* Illegal sites
* Spam blogs / syndicated blogs
* Any blogs that are deemed to be not suitable by me

So far these are the people who had done the review. Why not you ?

• Dirty Little Secrets - view review
• ShaMoneyMaker - view review
• Mysites Advisor Dot com - view review
• Listening.. Learning.. Living - view review
• Tracy’s site, Money Online - view review
• WahSeh!, Money Online - view review
• Turn one pound into one million - view review

Double your money

I wrote about the stock seabridge on Januaray 29th. At that time, I did not buy it but I did buy it later : This is cut and paste from my Ameritrade account.

01/30/2007 10:12:03

Bought 50 SA @ 11.15

-567.49

This is the post I posted 6months back.

Wouldn't you love it if you have bought this stock ?

Then it looked like this :





















Now it looks like this

5ways to travel comfortably and not break your bank account !

I think many of you have realized I have a passion for finding bargain and that include travel too. By the way, this is not a pay post, I am sharing with you my many years of traveling experiences.

I think every family should at least take a week off for a short vacation every now and then. It is very beneficial to take a break from your daily routine. It will refresh you physically and mentally. I am very sure the kids will enjoy the times with papa and mama and that will leave them with a lasting sweet memory !

Many people think it takes a lot of money to go somewhere for holiday. I personally do not think so unless you want to go to some luxury holiday destinations which your boss goes to or your next door neighbor or you insist on staying in porch hotels etc. And on other hand, there are many people who say they are too busy to go anywhere but they have all the times in the world to play golf every Saturday and Sunday without their families ?

I think it takes conviction, priority to decide if you want to go holiday with your family. The $1million question of who is more important ? your family or golf balls ? When you have the answer, the rest is not an issue at all.

These are 5ways on how you can travel comfortably and not break your bank account.

1. Budget. Find out what are the 5 things that you buy which are not 'needy' items. Use that money for your family vacation's budget.

2. Time. Find out the time of the year where everyone in the family are more likely to go for a week vacation together. Make that time, your family vacation schedule.

3. Transport.Find out the choice of transport, land, air or sea. It is always cheaper to book ahead with airlines or cruise. If you are going by car, make sure you get your family mechanics to check out your car before you take off, is your oil-change about due ? AC/heater in tact ?

A check list of what you need to take on the trip.
A check list of house / pet sitter plan.

4. Room. Then comes the accommodation issue. If you are like us, we love to stay in motels which are appropriate to our budget but they need to be clean and in safe location We love Motel 6. It is by far one of the cheapest franchise motel we have found. Location, location, location. Don't compromise your family safety with cheap price.

5. Food. When I first came to the US, I was very conscious of the exchange rate for I was not working then. Everything seems so expensive when I convert back to Malaysian Ringgit. I used to bring my own rice cooker to the motel we stayed. I used to bring can food such as cane tuna or cane chicken. We would normally ate out for lunch and had dinner in the motel with rice and chicken. But now that I am making money with my gold investment and also work here in the US, I don't do that anymore :). We dinned outside for all our meals.

Some cheaper motel chains like Motel 6 does not provide refrigerator or microwave. Some motels do, for eg. Day Inn provide refrigerator and microwave oven. Some of these motel offer continental breakfast, some don't.

If you travel by car, you can always plan some simple meals to eat on the first day on rest stops. Stock some packet / bottle drinks , snack bars , fruits for the family. It will help you to cut down a lot of unnecessary unplanned expenses.

When my son was younger, we used to request baby crib and most motel provide the facility, but it would be nice if you request them upon the time of booking.

Some hotel offer cheaper rate on internet booking and some offer discount for AAA members.

We are not extremely rich but we, as a family have traveled a lot together during the last 7years of marriage. My son has traveled with us as young as 8 months old. We believe family members traveling together have a stronger family bond, my 2cents observation only.

We stayed at Motel6 in Chattanooga, TN and Asheville, NC.

There was a waffle house (a fast food chain kind of restaurant) next to the Motel6 we stayed in Chattanooga, TN. (which is quite common for most motel, I think it is a very good business idea, synergy !). In fact, I have never eaten in waffle house in my town. I always thought it only offers waffle but I was wrong. It has quite a good breakfast menu. These were what we got for our breakfast, 2 set of $5.99 meal :)-















Some of the motels that we have stayed over the years are Motel6, DayInn, Knight Inn, BestWestern etc. (these are some of the more common franchises ones and there are a lot out there; and there are also a lot of local motels that are not franchise). I personally prefer franchise motel because they tend to have the same kind of standard all over every state you go. However, in some tourist spots, some local bed and breakfast are good, for eg. the Victoria House bed and breakfast we stayed for our honey moon at St.Augustine was excellent.

No matter where you go, it is best that you book a week before your trip because you are able to get better rate than walk in especially in busy season such as summer or spring break. These are one of the booklets you often see on rest stops' booklet stand or tourist information center : roomsaver - http://www.roomsaver.com/. You might like to check the site.

A lot of the rest stop's tourist information centers offer good information. It is alway worth while to stop by and pick up some brochures; and you might also want to ask if there are any discounts that you are not aware of. I remembered we picked up a good bargain last summer (06) while we were at Louisiana tourist information center. In fact, we did not intend to stop over at New Orleans but the lady in the information counter gave us a bargain which we could not turn down. After Katrina Hurricane, a lot of hotels were giving big discount to attract tourist. There was this hotel @ French Quarter that was normally in the price range of $350-400's was offering $39. and on top of that if offered free valet parking (if you know French Quarter in New Orleans well enough, you know it is very expensive and difficult to park because all the streets were very narrow and hardly any parking room for cars, so most hotels have their underground). We thought wow, that was incredible and we graped the opportunity right away. Even Motel6 was more expensive than that and there was no way Motel6 can be found in French Quarter. And it is not a franchise motel but a French style hotel : Place d'Armes @ French squares. I mean even the name you smell French.

Look at how Frenchy the room's furniture and decor is ?




















And of course not forgetting the Frenchy court yard :)-
















And of course the French style breakfast ? croissant anyone ?

That is what I call Money

The picture is a courtesy of gulf.news.

I am going to have a golden year !!
I love gold. I collect gold. I buy gold stock and I am a golden girl :):):).
Gold is best hedge for inflation and it is real money.

"How Do You Make Money in Gold Stocks?" By David Vaughn.

Saudi Arabia, Egypt drive Dubai gold sales up 34 per cent in June.

Gold Stocks vs. Oil Stocks By Greg Silberman.

Do you have the quality of a millionaire ?

If you are my frequent reader, you would have noticed I have added a "books you must read" side bar.

All the book are about millionaires. One of the book I like very much is "The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy (1996, ISBN 0-671-01520-6) is by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko."

I like this book because I can identify with this book. The more I read this book, the more it reminded me of my dad, who is a self-make millionaire. In fact, not many people knew my dad is a millionaire for he sure does not looks/acts like one or talks like one. We did not realize how much his portfolio worth until recently when he was taken ill. My siblings take care of the financial matter and updated me now and then. Only then did I realized the old man's net worth. We have never lived like rich kids growing up. We worked as waiter/waitress/kitchen hand/factory workers while going to school in Australia. Money did not come easy to us. My dad shaped us to be very independent financially and none of us live on hand-out.

It has never ceased to amaze me on how frequently bloggers talk (brag ? :) about their wealth. Apparently, it seems to me 'bragging' or 'boasting' is one of their means of attracting readers to their blogs. Also, it has never stop to amaze me that people care more about the end than the means of getting there. To me the old world of honest , down to earth kind of working / business ethics is a rare find in this modern age or e-age. It is sad !!!

The 4 major hallmarks of a millionaire next door :

1. Spend Less Than You Earn

2. Avoid Buying Status Objects or Leading a Status Lifestyle

3. PAWs Are Willing to Take Financial Risk if it is Worth the Reward

4. Economic Outpatient Care

Do you got the quality of a millionaire next door ?

When do you start investing with the money you earn ?
What are your portfolio consist of ?
Are you happy with your present portfolio make up ? If not, what are you going to do about it ?
Do you know how much you will have in our portfolio in say 5 years, 10 years and 20 years time ?
The next 2 questions are the bottom line.
How long can you live without your present job or the job of your spouse ?
How much are you worth in terms of your portfolio ?

If you are interested to read some of the millionaires books I have listed, you can go to my store.

Hawaii

What are on your mind when you read Hawaii ?
Honeymoon ? Romantic ? Summer vacation ? Relax ? Getaway ? ...
Whenever I think of Hawaii, I think of white sandy beaches, clear blue sea and clear blue sky, Hawaii music and Aloha, of course :). I was in Hawaii in1990.

I flew from Auckland , New Zealand all the way to Hawaii. I did not realized about time change when I crossed the international time zone from New Zealand to Hawaii.

I left New Zealand on Sunday evening. I reached Hawaii in the morning after a long flight. When I checked into the hotel in Hawaii, I saw a notice on the lobby about a church service. I thought to myself, how strange it was to have a church service on Monday morning. Only after talking to the hotel receptionist, did I realized it was Sunday morning !

In fact, I was quite surprised that Hawaii did not feel very 'America' at all. It has so much of an 'island' feel :):). I thought I was in some topical islands like where I came from - Borneo Island. I People were extremely friendly on the shuttle bus from the airport to the hotel, everywhere you were greeted with Aloha :).

I was there around June, the weather was very pleasant and very breezy.

Maui is one of the islands of Hawaii. The second largest island of Hawaii.

If you plan to visit Maui, I recommend you this web site. :http://www.hawaiianbeachrentals.com/Hawaii/Maui/condos1.htm

It has one of the most comprehensive information about Hawaii vacations. There are different kind of condo rental packages, car rentals, and a comprehensive airfare booking system.

From my personal travel experience, I cannot stress the importance of planing ahead. Planing ahead is the key factor of an enjoyable holiday/vacation.

In this site, you can find 1241 Hawaii condos and 1050 Hawaii hotels; 375 Hawaii Vacation Deals ; 1165 Hawaii reviews .

Yes, that was me in Hawaii many years back :)-

What more can I say ? If Maui is on your list of holiday destination, you need to visit this site.

Obsession !

After my post about how many blogs you read everyday, I knew for sure that blogging obsession is brewing globally.

Are you blogging for success ? or you are blogging for blogging ?

I know Kenxu of mysiteadvisor blogs for success. This fellow is really passionate about blogging. He wakes up 4:30am everyday to do his blog and he has a full time job !!!. If you want to catch his fever, you need to visit his blog everyday !

Some people hope to blog so they can get out of their rat race ? like this guy in Malaysia, he called himself Zewt., which I have no clue of what Zewt mean !

I start off blogging because I am fed up with some forums that I have joined. So I started blogging with VENGANCE passion. I wanted to prove that my blog can be more popular than the forums that I visited. With the increased traffic in my blog, I knew I am making it :)-.

Also over times, I have started to read certain blogs like my morning coffee :), an addiction :). In fact, coffee has been proven (medically) beneficial to women who might have depression issue (an alternative prevention than cure). I read somewhere that my president Bush drinks 2-3 cups of coffee in the morning :). I must have read it from one of the news on CNBC business news :)-.

These are a few blogs that are my addictions. One of the reasons they have become my addictions is because these blogs contain a lot of useful material for new blogger like me and they have a positive impact on my blogging habit.

These are the 3 AsianTech Know How blogs that I read daily :
Kuanhoong.com - http://www.kuanhoong.com/
Ken Xu - http://blogs.mysites-advisor.com/
JennyHow - http://www.jennyhow.com/

Do you like to share with me what are you daily read blogs ?

It FINALLY happen ! After all these 5years !

Newmont Clips Its Hedges by David Bogoslaw. This is an incredible news for us gold investors, knowing that the biggest gold producer takes such step , we know something is brewing in the global economy, especially America !!! It is like Noah and the great flood...

Quote from the above article "It took five years of sustained increases in the price of gold, but Newmont Mining Corp. (NEM) has finally decided to call a halt to its bets that gold prices won't continue to rise."

I could not believe it even when I read it but it FINALLY happen !!! It took 5 long years of continuous increase in the price of gold before the giant gold company throw the towel.

We should see gold moves towards US$1000 very soon !!! Be prepare for the rocket launch !!!!

With me blogging on my personal blog heavily recently, I have neglected my gold investment but boy something is brewing ! Even with gold down, $HUI is up. $HUI is the gold stock index. Yes, I am making money on my gold investment. I can only sincerely tell you nothing will beat gold in the next 10 years in term of investment.

What is $10 or $20 of paid post where you can gain 300-400% profit within 1-2 months ?

I wrote this article on March 12th, look at how much this gold stock has gone up ?
http://investmentwiseresource.blogspot.com/2007/03/golden-tips-2.html
This research is done by a geologist friend of mine. A Kuching girl who resides in New Zealand now. I did not buy any share at the time of writing but I did buy some after I consulted my investment guru. He said my girlfriend article was one of the best he has read and he recommended highly on the stock. If you have bought it around March or April, you could easily turn US$1k to US$3k now. You probably has to write a lot of paid post to get that kind of $ :). I am not saying paid post is bad but DIVERSIFY, DIVERSIFY, DIVERSIFY !!!!!!!!!

A picture worth a thousand words !

BWLRF

Vienna of America

OK, ok, ok, I might sound like a man for I talk about investment, about making $ all the times but deep down I am a little bit romantic lah :):).

If there is a place on this earth which I vote for the world most romantic place, it has to be Vienna. Vienna is very a very arty farty kind of place, a lot of outdoor cafes, a lot of art galleries, a lot of museums; and the summer nights seem to be longer than anywhere else because you see people sitting around outdoor cafes until very late. It is a city that lovers meet :):)

Anyway, there is a Hokkien saying :" Bo hoo hey a hoh ". Literally translate, if you cannot have fish, shrimp will do :), go for 2nd best :):). Asheville, North Carolina reminded me so much of Vienna. Now that I am a mommy, Asheville will do lah :):).

If these pictures cannot convince you, I don't know what else my friends :)-.

Thai outdoor restaurant.















Chinese outdoor restaurant.















The rest are Angmo outdoor cafe or restaurants :).

























































Street artist - A magician.















Arts display.




















Art and craft shops and art galleries.
















Scuptures












































So, did I sell Asheville, North Carolina well ? Do you think I convince you that it is as romantic as Vienna :):). This is not a paid post. It is written from the bottom of my heart :)

And if that is not enough :) , ok, here lah... the princess and the prince live happily ever after , the end :):). Habis cerita !
















** This post is dedicated to my best e-friend Bee Ean who could not visit my blog now because she is in the process of moving to her new apartment and her apartment's internet is not up yet. But I pray that her internet will be up very soon. BE, I miss your post :)-

The place where Cinderalla and Robin Hood live !

Don't you think this place looks just like the place that comes right out of your story book ?

These photos were taken at lookout mountain @ Chattanooga, Tennessee. A place where my husband spend a lot of his childhood times. A place full of sweet memories with grandpa and grandma.

I fall in love with this place and might be someday we will pack and move from Florida to here :)-





























Ok. I know it is not clear, but look closely, you might be able to read Red Robin Hood ?

How to motivate yourself ?

I was inspired to write this article because I have read negative people blog and positive people blog.

Negative people blamed everyone, everything, every circumstances on earth except themselves. Positive people do not know let any excuses hinder them from achieving what they have set for !

It was very interesting to read people blamed their life destination on American's immigration policy. It is as if the only country to have a comfortable life or make it big is in America. They forget that there is a Lee Ka Shing ? It is very interesting to read people blaming their career mishaps on their employers.

But, the world is a wonderful place because there are more positive people than negative people. Blogs like these truly put a smile on my face.

A diabetics earning US$40k a year by blogging.
His blog : Battle Diabetes Blog.
And you ? A healthy person ? You complain ?

And why ? Are these stopping points stop you from moving ?

Your 15 BIGGEST Stopping Points by Jenny How

Blaming on others, on circumstances, on things is a coward behavior and bad attitude. The attitude will get you nowhere. Think again before you blame others, policies, circumstances the next time you want to do it !!!!!!!!!!

Can you tell yourself from today onwards to think positively. Give thanks to God for everyday HE has given you breath !!!

Summer Holiday 2007 (1)

We have a wonderful holiday. We went to Chattanooga, TN for 2 days then we stopped by Knoxville, TN to visit University of Tennessee @ Knoxville where the VOLS (the university football team) was located.

We then droved to Pigeon Fort (where Dollywood was located) and Gatlinburg. However, we gave up on going to Pigeon Fort and Gatlinburg(heart of the smoky mountain) because the traffic was horrible. It must be the Fourth of July's traveling bug. It is a pity that we did not make it this time because that area has the best scene of Smoky mountain.

After our U-turn back, we drove to Asheville, NC. A city where the outdoor cafers never sleep. The next day we went to Black Mountain, NC for a day trip. Areas around Black mountain are beautiful and a lot of quaint little towns. If you are into Billy Gram the evangelist, you know he lives in Montreat, N. C, which is in Black Mountain area.
When we got back to Asheville, we walked around the downtown area. Asheville though is not a big city but it has this cosmopolitian feel of a big city, lot of open cafes, lot of art galleries, lot of funky kind of shops.

At the Georgia rest area. See how we love race car ?















Going through Atlanta city , Georgia. Do you know CNN headquarter is in Atlanta ?
















To the mountain we go :)
















Tennessee, here we are !















Tennessee's river front.















The Rage music and life band.














The SouthernBelle playing country music while sailing along.














And I am enjoying this good time with my monkyet :)