The 6 Benefits of Working at Home

This is an old article written by me years ago for a client to showcase my writing abilities. It was not used anywhere, hopefully, by the client who later hired me for a while to write for him on a part-time basis. Well, I am still on the learning curve when it comes to English, spellings, grammar, etc. I am not perfect in my writing, but nevertheless, it has allowed me to at least earn a little allowance here and there for the hirers who are not so stringent.

For proper journalism, I have to edit a few times, as required by my editors in Singapore. Hence, I have had experience writing for the professionals whose English is impeccable with writing that attracts repeat visitors. All credits will go to the online publisher. My 2 younger sisters have better English than me, with better grades in school. They scored 'A's while I got 'B' for English 1119 many years back. They are avid readers of novels written by Americans and British authors. While late granny made sure I spent my time studying text books, depriving me of improving my English since mum bought the books and grandma didn't want me to read those books.

Anyway, with software and constant reading, my writing has improved a little, not to say by leaps and bounds. Therefore, it is imperative that you read a lot and become a voracious reader. Consuming knowledge is better than consuming alcohol, don't you agree? Being able to write sufficiently well, it is one of my few streams of income now and then. But you have to work hard and be able to revise a few times to satisfaction.

Sometimes, people may also take advantage and get you to write for free, editing so many versions for them. But then again, this is part and parcel of life, learning from your own working experience. Working at home certainly has its many benefits. Just listen to the video above carefully, and you may get some tips on why we should now take advantage of technology to work at home, especially in this Covid-19 pandemic that has ravaged the world economy, causing mayhem globally.

It behooves me that people are still searching around for their calling and vocation in life, the honest way. Of course, we should be cautious of the quacks and scams that abound in the internet fraternity. I, for one, do not like to depend on a fixed salary from 1 source of income. You should always have multiple sources of income to retire comfortably with excess to donate to charity, or pass to your siblings, as in my case, should I pass on.

So, blogging, writing, microjobs and surveys have kept me very busy these few days, not counting being a content creator for YouTube. Everyday is a learning curve for me and the internet is full of information, if you are hardworking and search for it. Do implement what you have learnt, as action speaks louder than words. Finally, some final words: "Stay safe at home and always wear a mask whenever you are in a public place."

Dinner at Mizi Bistro

I went to Mizi Bistro recently and ordered my favorite which is, "Fish My Dream," consisting of poached Dory fish on top of braised spinach and drizzled with a special secret sauce. My friend had "Monte Carlo" fish, which has similar ingredients except without the braised spinach and topped with sliced sausages. The set dinner for 2 consists of mushroom soup, drinks of ice peach tea, lemon tea, hot green tea or coffee. There is unlimited ice cream with 6 flavors after the main course. The ambience is cozy with dark wood decorations for that rustic feel and porcelain pictures.

As you can see from the video above, the 6 flavors of ice-cream are chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, green mint chocolate chip, peanut butter cup, etc. You have a choice of strawberry or chocolate sauce to drizzle over the ice-cream and sprinkle with colorful beads or chocolate beads. They certainly look tempting in the video.

There are several Mizi Bistro outlets in Penang, but the one in town is closed. This was at Straits Quay Tesco, Tanjung Pinang. Anyway, I came back from KL yesterday after staying overnight in our rented condo in USJ 19 Mall, Subang Jaya. Since my partner drove down, he needs a break from the long distance driving of 400 km one way. There were several changes in USJ 19 Mall with more improvements for the better. Da:Men certainly looks much better now with many restaurants move in and lots of high-level tenants. But the condo at that time for an empty one was half a million at the cheapest, which was beyond my budget.

Any, in this Covid-19 pandemic, stay safe and stay at home as much as possible.

My Birthday Celebration at Foong Wei Heong Chinese Restaurant Recently

Above dinner was treated by yours truly for her 50th birthday anniversary at Foong Wei Heong Restaurant. Only immediate family members attended. Mum, youngest sis, spouse and myself. Dad had gone to heaven while second sis has settled down in the UK. The video was done using an app in my iPhone X, converted from MOV to MP4 file format that is compressed and then uploaded to YouTube for further sharing.

The food ordered were sumptuous dishes of seafood soup, pomfret fish cooked in 2 styles, spinach soup with egg yolk, spring rolls in 2 styles, seafood yam basket and birthday 'lam mee' or noodles. Someone commented, the food was enough for a party of 7, but there were 4 of us; hence there was leftovers of birthday noodles and seafood yam basket.

The seafood soup cost $40 a bowl for 5-6 of us and it was certainly delicious! There were real crab meat, crab sticks, fish maw, sliced mushrooms, plus other ingredients that thicken the soup for that thick and smooth texture. The seafood yam basket also costs the same and needs to be ordered in advanced for the preparation. If you order this dish on the go, it won't be available for serving.

You will notice that for each movie that I make, I will choose a different creative commons music to go along with the video. The music comes with the app and for some, you may need to add credits to the music composer, for their creative work done for free. I wore a string of peach-colored pearls, a gold bangle and rings to complement my light blue embroidered blouse.

You will notice the boss and his friend stood nearby while the waiter served us birthday noodles with a spoon and fork. I received $100 from youngest sis and I brought $200, more than enough to pay for the set meal. So, I am 50 years young now on the 6th of July 2020. It is an irony that I have discovered to become a YouTuber at this 'young' age where most of the YouTubers are in their twenties. Anyway, this is my new hobby that is keeping me very preoccupied, learning how to use new software like Adobe Premiere Pro, Filmora 9, Lumen5, Camtasia and InShot App.

In the meantime, stay safe at home in this Covid-19 pandemic that has ravaged the world economy and we should brace ourselves for a global recession now.

Seafood Buffet Dinner in Mosaic Restaurant, Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Kuala Lumpur

This is a complimentary buffet dinner for 4 pax using the Elite voucher app, but we decided to just dine for the 2 of us for more privacy. We also redeemed 2 bottles of complimentary red wine and a box of 10 handmade praline chocolates. We also paid for 50% of the citrus green tea powder-covered cake, retailing at $158 at full price. Our 3 days 2 nights stay in Mandarin Oriental (MO) was a business cum leisure trip. We met up with a few clients, attended an interview, and decided to use up the vouchers during the Restricted Movement Control Order (RMCO) in June recently.

Otherwise, we had to stay up cooped in our condo for 3-4 months during the Covid-19 pandemic causing global recession and mayhem around the world. Now in the video above, you can see me in an orange cheongsam blouse eating seafood, namely succulent slipper lobster meat, prawns, and scallops.

I also had some bites of 'satay' or marinated barbequed chicken on skewer sticks with peanut sauce and paired with cut cucumbers and onions. Furthermore, I ate some fruits and small bites here and there, so as not to put on weight unnecessarily. These are raw videos that I added into InShot App using my 3- year old iPhone 10.

Everything was done in the car on the way back to Penang from Kuala Lumpur, as I was the front passenger in our Benz. Well, this YouTubing is a steep learning curve for me, having paid USD 399 for an online course by Matt Par. He is a youngster, in his early twenties and is crushing it with $30k monthly from his 8-9 YouTube channels. Not bad for someone who is young without a degree but he is very motivated and learned. So, why go to college when you can start earning as soon as possible, once you learned the tricks of the trade?

So many hotels in Penang, KL and Ipoh were closed permanently due to no tourists and the hospitality sector was badly affected by the pandemic. Well-known hotels like Jazz, Tanjung Bungah Hotel, Holiday Inn Hotel, G Hotel, and more were either closed indefinitely or put up for sale at this point in time.

Hence, in the meantime, stay safe at home and practice social distancing.

Stay in Mandarin Oriental for a Business Trip

We saved a lot of money using this Elite membership that offers a 50% discount stay in Mandarin Oriental room with up to 3 vouchers of upgrade, 2 free bottles of red or white wine, a free buffet dinner for 4 at Mosaic Restaurant, 50% voucher for a 1 kg cake (choices include green citrus, pink lady, chocolate, cheese and durian cheesecake - that is the most popular)

Here, in this video, you can see the cozy ambience of the room with double views of the Petronas twin towers and a partial view of the gardens in KLCC. We celebrated our anniversary of being together since 2004, till now. A feat that is not easy to accomplish, what more with work commitments and being available to type round the clock at times.

Well, there are pros and cons. Sometimes you have to bear with the tantrums too. So, it is not all rosy as you might think working in a home office with your spouse who is your boss too. When it comes to work, there is No Grace and strictly commitment to get the job done in a timely manner. Clients can be demanding too, expecting the quotation immediately.

Hence it is good to take a breather from all these stress of life. Anyway, the above is a working trip and I took the rate opportunity to shoot this video for posterity. We were away from the room most of the time, travelling to clients' sites and attending an interview. Okay, I won't divulge further and will take a break here. Good night.

Unto Thee O Lord - Gospel Song

The above is a refreshing song entitled, "Unto Thee O Lord." The lyrics are as below: It is good to listen to songs of praise or Christian Gospel to overcome the evil one and the treachery of this journey called life. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God - Matthew 4:4

Lyrics

Unto Thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul
Unto Thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul
Oh my God, I trust in Thee,
Let me not be ashamed
Let not mine enemies triumph over me

Yea, let none that wait on Thee be ashamed
Yea, let none that wait on Thee be ashamed
Oh my God, I trust in Thee
Let me not be ashamed
Let not mine enemies triumph over me

Show me Thy ways, Thy ways Oh Lord
Teach me Thy paths, Thy paths Oh Lord
Oh my God, I trust in Thee,
Let me not be ashamed
Let not mine enemies triumph over me

Remember not the sins of my youth
Remember not the sins of my youth
Oh my God, I trust in Thee
Let me not be ashamed
Let not mine enemies triumph over me

Unto Thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul
Unto Thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul
Oh my God, I trust in Thee
Let me not be ashamed
Let not mine enemies triumph over me

Oh my God, I trust in Thee
Let me not be ashamed
Let not mine enemies triumph over me

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: Charles Monroe

[Video] Leia the Pomeranian, doing Tricks for her Treat

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A post shared by DTan (@philin135) on May 21, 2020 at 10:58am PDT

In this 1-minute Instagram video, Leia the golden Pomeranian is doing tricks for her treat. She scuttles round and round in excitement and offers her paws to "shake hands" while begging for food. She is so cute, but my spouse is the real owner as he cleans her poo and pee in her tray box. So hence, she follows him like a faithful loyal friends. Sometimes, she playfully bites my foot too as a puppy. Well, puppies love to bites things that they see, and shreds tissue rolls into pieces of paper everywhere.

I used InShot video maker to create this short video adding music and cutting the unwanted clip. It is a paid version and will increase in price after 1 year of usage on my iPhone 10. Leia is so cute and is full splendor of her long fur glory. That's because, during the MCO, no pet shops were open for grooming to cut her paw nails that are now 1+ cm long and trim her fur.

Above is Leia, at 2+ years, and had its menses last week. She was born on 20th April 2018. And today is 23rd May 2020. We might send her for spaying to prevent the mess whenever the menses come.

Below is a rare picture of Leia when she was a puppy with her pink toy. This photo won the first prize in The Star for the Dog Picture Contest which was taken by yours truly and Leia won several food treats, anti-ticks vial, and pet shampoo, amongst others.

So, there you have it. My pet Pomeranian Leia. My second sis gave her the name Leia instead of Princess which I had originally planned to call her. Hence, you can see there is a Star Wars theme to all these monikers.