Financial Meltdown

Since late last year, we have been bombarded with a slew of news of job cuts, credit crunch, lay-offs and financial meltdown of big institutions like banks that have been around for more than 100 years. Millions will be jobless this year as more and more companies retrench their staffs especially in USA, Europe, China, Singapore, etc. Malaysia is not spared from this punishing economic woes though the government refuse to admit that recession has come to our shores. Every day, as I read the newspapers in business section, I see more job cuts everywhere and people are getting desperate. Families with young children to feed are turning to the parish priest of our local cathedral of the Holy Spirit to share their stories in the hope of securing new employment. According to Pastor Joseph Prince, prosperous economies previously will be awakened while developing nations will rise up.

Happy Chinese New Year 2009!

This Chinese New Year, I will be in Haadyai with my family for 4 days 3 nights. My second sister came out from Suchou in China to be with us this CNY and to celebrate as a family doing things together. We plan to do some shopping for clothes and go for massages which are so affordable. The three of us will treat our parents sumptuous dinner, one for each night during this occasion. A chartered van will come pick us up from our home in Penang and drive up north to the same hotel that we have stayed last year, also for CNY. I would like to take this opportunity to wish all my Chinese readers, "A Happy Chinese New Year 2009"!

Health is more Important than Making Money

When you are over the age of 50, go for blood pressure check up to see the systolic and diastolic figures. It should be 120/80 which is normal. Anything above and much higher than this figures spells CVA (cardiovascular accident) which may lead to stroke or heart attack. Life is too precious to take chances and the risks are increased if you are a smoker, above 50 years of age, drink alcohol or have high cholesterol levels. You should also go for complete blood test to check for cancer, blood glucose, liver function, etc. As we age, we need daily medication to keep us going and to keep the engine in good condition.

Wrote 2 Short Articles Today

I have just submitted my 2 shorts articles for a blog of 300 words each. It only pays USD 1 cent per word, so you can calculate how much 300 words will bring in. Christmas is just over but the Yuletide spirit still lingers on. And I was in bed almost the whole day to recuperate from my stubborn flu after taking 2 rounds of anti-biotics for the last 1 month. As I felt better today, I decided to work a little by writing articles for income. My mind is clearer now and no longer drowsy from the medication and cough mixture. And Belated Christmas to my readers!

Merry Christmas 2008 & Happy New Year 2009

I would like to take this opportunity to wish my readers a very Merry Christmas 2008 and a Happy New Year 2009. As I am currently down with flu and taking medication that makes me drowsy, this blog will take a 1 week break. I will be off to somewhere later today and then to a mountain resort for the holidays for 3 days 2 nights. After that, it will be a busy week with many calendars to send out for 2009. Wish me journey mercies for the trip and speedy recovery for my flu. Till then, have a good holiday!

PayPal December Payment

This is my December PayPal payment for work done in November 2008. Today I got paid USD 201.71 and another smaller payment of USD11.90 for writing articles for a US company. It is one of my highest so far and this month I am not sure if I can match the payment for December as everyday, there will be articles to write. Sometimes revisions are required and I have written about 70 articles with 3 rejects so far. The USD30 was paid out to a company for the cost of express post to send a sample to my boss. I managed to find online the company that sells the material that he needed which was Velcro. Sometimes I just wish I have higher traffic to earn more from my blogs but there there is the trade off of working by the computer almost all the time to get people to visit your blogs and to have many supportive comments.

I don't have the time unlike some blogger housewife to update my blogs every day as I still have to work in the home office attending to quotations, drawings with Autocad, etc. Hence the USD549.71 earned within a month calculates to exactly RM2,000 at 3.64 exchange rate. If only I can earn RM2,000 part time every month from the internet, it will be a bonus for me.

Wrote 6 Articles Today

I guess I am in a marathon to write articles today as there were many opportunities to choose from. Each article is about 300 words at the minimum and 500 words on average. I think not many people can write so much in a day but I took breaks in between now and then. As I am a 4-star writer, my rates are USD1.4 cents per word. For 500 words, this works out to be USD7. This is much better than writing for only USD2 for 500 words which is the market rate for most freelancers web sites. Some even pay a measly USD1 for 500 words! I won't work for less than my current rate and prefer to relax and watch telly than to write so much for peanuts.