Jottings straight from the heart — about life, blogging, travel, career, money, happiness, entrepreneurship, choices, and life's fundamentals.

Money habits you should not be ashamed of

by Yin on March 17, 2012

In the February issue of the Female magazine (Malaysian edition), there is a snippnet of 12 Money habits you should not be ashamed of. I’ve plucked some that I find resonates with me and added my own 2 cents:

1. Not eating your money’s worth at a buffet; it costs more to pay for slimming program- for me, it would take much more effort to have to exercise and reduce food intake as I don’t want to buy new sets of bigger clothes

2. Sneaking snacks into the cinema- well, I sneak mine to the plane when flying

3. Putting off buying a house or a car even though you can well afford it. They’re liabilities, girls! – yes, for those who do not wish to be tied down- they may not choose to buy a new car. And a house, it is a heavy commitment that would tie a person down to a working job for the next 30 years.

4. Maxing out your card to take your parents on a dream holiday; they’re not going to be around forever but the banks will (so you can pay them back later) - this is perhaps a little overated. Parents usually would not make such demands and would be sad to know what they have put us thru. A year on, that dream holiday would be just another speck of the past. It would not matter to anyone. The albums, be it in Facebook or physical albums would not be looked at much. If we want them to be happy, then spend more quality time, respect and appreciate them. After all, they would not be around forever. It’s the daily little stuff that matters.

[click to continue…]

Tagged as: lessons, money, parents

Blackberry: Unable to upload videos to YouTube?

by Yin on March 15, 2012

Over the net, many Blackberry users are facing problems uploading videos recording with the handheld mobile into YouTube.

Usually, the upload would carry on just fine and as you excitedly wait for the 100% upload to be done, it would suddenly come out with this message: “401 error and Connection to YouTube Server cannot be established”. You may try many times and yet the same error may occurr.

When I first attempted to upload my recorded videos via YouTube using my Blackberry Torch, I face hours of frustration to upload and reupload the videos- only to be met with the same message. And I thought, if I cannot upload the video, then the device had not much use for me.

After checking through various forums and websites offering the advice, I still find that the upload failed. But I refused to give up since I’ve spent good money on the thing- and if I am able to upload videos, then I could express a lot more things in videos that sometimes words cannot express effectively.

Finally, the next day after trying and trying, I’ve figured out the solution. As you can see in my YouTube account, most of these are videos I’ve recorded myself.

How to upload a video recorded with your Blackberry Device directly to YouTube (you need Wifi connection):

1. When you upload, you must have logged out from your gmail accounts or your YouTube account in your device.

2. TURN OFF YOUR MOBILE SERVICE PROVIDER and the BIS- to do that, select Mobile Network and uncheck the network connection. That would remove your mobile network and the BIS from your phone. Then turn off your phone and turn it on again. This is the very important point- I could not upload the video until I turned the mobile coverage off.

3. Upload must be done using Wifi connection- with your mobile coverage turned off.

4. Access via Media> Video instead of via the icon YouTube> Upload a Video. That means, you need to go into the Media folder of your BB and select the video. It will auto play but you use the back arrow- so that the video you want is selected. Then select “Send”> “Upload to YouTube”. Login with your YouTube user name and password and UNCHECK the box that states “stay signed in”.

5. Make whatever amendments you want to like the video title, tags, etc and press “Publish”. Then the video would upload and gets completed. Usually, I login to my netbook after the video is uploaded and then edit the title from my netbook as it is easier to type more text.

Try it and see- hope it works for you

Tagged as: Blogging, mobile

Smartphone for the blogger’s soul

by Yin on March 10, 2012

Well, it should mean “Chicken Soup for the Blogger’s Soul” – is the Smartphone sort of a Chicken Soup for the blogger?

Days after publishing the blog post Is your Smartphone robbing you of a real life? and an earlier article of Smartphone Addiction and how it ruins families in my Health Blog, I contradicted myself and ended up buying myself a Smartphone…. a Blackberry to be precise. This is after about a few months of deliberation as well as deciding which type of phones- ie iPhone, Andriod, Windows, Blackberry, Galaxy Note, Galaxy Tab, iPad….the choices are so many but budget is so limited.

Well I figured there is no point of wondering about the “what ifs” – silence the nudgings, buy the fella and get it over and be done with.

I chose a shop where I feel the sales assistant is experienced enough to know what’s the best. Months ago he was selling the Samsung Galaxy phones and when I wanted to buy, he was selling more Blackberrys.

One of the first questions he asked me was my budget and what is the features that I’ve placed importance on. I told him I need to use the phone to type a lot and also the camera must be of reasonable good quality. Then he said for the purpose of typing and email, the best would be a Blackberry- because nothing beats a real keypad (even though it is so minute). This was what my Smartphone user friends shared with me- that a physical keypad makes a difference if you are typing often.

The camera was to help me to take pictures- and with a Smartphone, you can immediately upload photos in Facebook, send via email or load in your WordPress blog (you need to download the WordPress for Blackberry in order to do that).

[click to continue…]

Tagged as: Blogging, mobile, money, wordpress

Documents to bring when renewing your Malaysian passport

by Yin on March 7, 2012

The immigration department or Jabatan Imegresen Malaysia had earned a lot of praise from the public through introduction of effective passport renewal using the KIPPAS system.
I recently went to have my passport renewed and was amazed at the efficiency.

To renew your Malaysian passport, you need to bring the following:
1. 2 recent passport sized photos- please bring recent photos as they may want you to retake the photos if you look a bit different from the photo.

2. Your original passport- the one you want to renew

3. RM300 if you are renewing for 5 years

4. Your original Malaysian identification card or NRIC. Bring along a photocopy of your NRIC just in case- even though I did not use it.

If your MyKad chip is working and if your passport at least have the biometric function, ie you are able to use it at the autogate at the Malaysian immigration, then you can use the machine to renew- there would be an officer stationed at the machine to do everything for you.

[click to continue…]

Tagged as: passport, Travel

Should you work for a company with questionable principles?

by Yin on March 1, 2012

This is a continuation of the previous article, “Should you accept donation from bad people for a good cause?”

In terms of corporate life, a leader is often paid to sometimes implement changes that are more for the shareholders interest instead of the staff and customers. Should a leader continue to work for such an organisation?

If the leader leaves and join another organisation, it would probably be the same. Business are build in a way to be able to maximize profits and minimize costs. The way of achieving that objective sometimes are less ethical. The profit earned goes to the pockets of the shareholders and top management whereas demotivated staff find themselves not rewarded for the hard work done.

To stay and continue may imply that the leader agrees with the principles. And thus the dilemma.

Even if one goes to NGO, the situation is the same. Most NGOs are cannot pay well but people work there for a cause and not for the pay. Sometimes people go back to the corporate world when they find the practice did not differ much from the corproate world.

We would again come back to the point: what is your personal objective and goal in life?

If you want to inspire and help others to realise their potential, then you can do it anywhere or in any company. For example, the company may be too profit orientated and have bad management, and you may feel you want to quit and go to a better company.

But if you look around the staff below you or around you who seemed to be suffering and demotivated, instead of joining the bandwagon and leaving, perhaps you can ask yourself, “what can I go to make a difference?”.

[click to continue…]

Tagged as: ambition, stress, work

Is it wrong to take money from bad people for a good cause?

by Yin on February 27, 2012

This moral dilemma often arise in situation such as:

should a non profit or religious organisation accept donations from known criminals or from people who had been known to cause harm to many others….just to survive?
should a leader work for a organisation that no longer agrees with his/her principles- thus continue to earn the salary or leave?

Most non profit and religious organisations do not receive generous funding from the government. They need to find the ways and means to continue to exist in order to achieve their mission of helping others.

If you find yourself in this situation and is in a dilemma, perhaps the book written by Ruma Bose called “Mother Teresa, CEO” would change your whole perspective on this.

It is said that Mother Teresa had accepted money from those who have been known to commit crimes. This raised an ethical issue and many people had questioned her practice. At the same time, she was also questioned with what she had done with all the donations that she had received- why instead of improving facilities and the hospice service, she had instead set up branches.

You would know that Mother Teresa devoted her entire life to service. She did not just sit on a throne and dictate out orders for her nuns to do. She herself inspire others through her own example- she practiced what she preached.

Her mission is simple, to serve the poorest of the poor- offering dignity and hope to those who had never received it before. To allow the dying to die with dignity instead of dying on the street- all alone in the world.

[click to continue…]

Tagged as: choices, money

Fame is no gurantee of happiness

by Yin on February 19, 2012

Whitney Houston was really a very talented singer and entertainer. Her songs has been truly inspirational. Her death has been a real shock. An entertainer is able to uplift others with her heart warming songs and performance. But one wonders who is going to be there to uplift her when she needed someone the most?

Her songs have uplifted millions. Even when she is no longer around, her legacy stays.

Tagged as: life, money

Mobile Blogging for those on the go

by Yin on February 18, 2012

When we are attempting to blog via mobile it is slower but
t we need not carry our laptop with us wherever we go. We can snap a picture, write a few sentence and viola, blig post is published. Therefore after some thoughts on this- a few weeks of deliberation, I’ve decided well, what the heck, I’ll just get myself the Smartphone. This is the first post that I am publishing using my BlackBerry. And the virtual keyboard is not hard to use for speed typers.

Tagged as: Blogging, mobile, time

Is your Smartphone robbing you of a real life?

by Yin on February 15, 2012

This is a question I keep pondering back and forth as I contemplate in getting either a Smartphone (like the Galaxy Note) or a tablet that my friends have been recommending me to use. Most people I know already own a Smartphone.

I’ve thought of owning it mainly to help me to be able to post more blog posts while on the go- like snap a photo and then write a short sentence and publish the post. Then I would not need to come back and spend time in front of my netbook, or rewrite drafts that I’ve written on my physical notebook.

At the same time, I am aware of how much the iPhone, iPad, Adriod and Blackberry smart applicances are taking over people’s lives. As it is, I often have to chide myself for spending too much of time surfing the net instead of blogging (of course, I’ve minimized my TV watching time- in fact I usually don’t watch TV except that I happened to be following the 1 hour show of Journey to the West in 8TV. After the show is over, I have no problem switching off the TV).

If the Smartphone had been so popular a few years ago, I would have bought it because those days I could not stand being idle. When in the train commuting to and fro from work, I always had a book with me- and have finished a number of books that way. I could hardly stand being idle- sitting down to wait and doing nothing.

But it had also made me very exhausted- a day job then that was quite pressured, and then in the between where I was either reading or doing something. It caused my mind to be scattered and distracted. Easily agitated, and I was constantly tired- because my brain was active all the time that it probably never quite ‘shut down’ probably.

[click to continue…]

Tagged as: Blogging, choices, facebook, friends, life, money, work

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →