/* Magenet Universal Plugin code */ Small Office Home Office: 2019

Sunday, December 29, 2019

Post Christmas and Year-End Party at Quayside Condominium 2019



Last night, we had a year-end and post Christmas beach party 2019 at Quayside Condominium. Just click on the > button on the right side of the Instagram picture above to swipe to the left for more photos taken by me. There were many food counters like the main dishes, dessert, ice-cream, turkey, satay, drinks, and fried 'koay-teow.' I took the liberty to snap many photos and recorded videos to mark this yearly occasion. You will notice that the tablecloths were in red and green, a Christmas theme colors. There were many expatriates and locals there. However, some of the residents did not attend as they don't really like crowds and the very long queues for food. Before the start, there was a short fashion show dance with many white feathers. After dinner, there were sounds of firecrackers followed by singing and dancing. Thereafter, it was prize-giving to the lucky winners.

Thereafter, we went back while the party still continues. Next year, there will be Chinese New Year celebration party at Quayside Condo as well.

Friday, December 27, 2019

My very First Video on Instagram - a Short Vacation to Genting Highlands


Above is a 1-minute video of my 3 days 2 nights short vacation in Genting Highlands recently from 24th to 26th December 2019. We drove there in the morning and reached at around 3:00 pm. Using the automated check-in machine, I chose near the lift for an extra $10. The video above was taken using InShot where the rendering was pretty fast with a list of free music to choose from like Christmas, among others. I can also add text, videos and still pictures, plus some funky animated gifs pictures for uniqueness.

I can also choose more stunning upbeat music from Sound Cloud which is a paid app. I really don't take note how much I spend on my blogging hobby and Instagram pictures or customized videos. On Instagram, the most you can add is a 1-minute video and more than that will be trimmed. Unlike YouTube, you can add more than 10-minute video for longer viewership to hit the minimum target of 4,000 hours of watching and 1,000 subscribers in 1 years to leverage and earn from your hard work.

Sunday, December 22, 2019

Awesome Winter Decorations in Queensbay Mall, Penang



I was in Queensbay Mall recently and took the liberty to capture lovely winter theme decorations with furry lifelike reindeers, soft toy penguins, a giant Christmas tree with white flakes, and more. The 4th picture captured was a giant balloon with other hand-assembled colorful balloons for posterity. I also posted the pictures on Toluna, a survey app, and a website to earn a little moolah. The ambiance was cool with the winter environment and many patrons and visitors like myself took the splendid pictures.

They are so lovely and any decorations by Capital Mall owned by Singapore will surely be unrivaled anywhere. Except it is on a smaller scale here in Penang as compare to prosperous Singapore. Anyway, I would like to wish you all Merry Christmas for there is a Reason for this Season. And that is the birth of Jesus Christ as a Saviour to the whole world, born in Bethlehem. Enjoy your Christmas holidays, whatever your plans may be, and I shall go to a mountaintop resort in Malaysia for my short break.

Sunday, December 15, 2019

Video Jaguar


I was given the 3 individual LicenseKeys to Video Jaguar Frontend for Square Video Maker, Story Video Maker, and Ad Video Maker to test out the cloud software online. The above square video was created using the Square Jaguar Video Maker where I added my recent photos of Quantum of the Seas cruise from 27th to 30th November 2019, which is a part of the Royal Caribbean cruise line from Florida, the US. Hence, I took the liberty to add some sumptuous food photos and a photo of myself against a backdrop of the swimming pool deck.

Video Jaguar was easy to use with the wizard to guide you through and how to add the text and choose colors, plus a repertoire soothing music for videos to select. And if you have an online presence or business, you can add your logo too and the URL or website address.

However, the rendering took some time to create a stunning video that you like and customized to your photos and choices. You also have the opportunity to select free photos stock from Pixabay or select your own photos from your computer. Take note that you can only use Video Jaguar on a laptop or computer. Therefore, all photos taken from your iPhone or other smartphones have to be transferred to your hard disc first of the laptop or desktop.

For instance, I resized the photos to 800 pixels x 800 pixels to fit into my Instagram photos and videos. The rendering will be faster as well, compared to raw photos in the megabytes sizes. Hence, for optimum viewing, it is advisable to resize your photos and choose the font colors accordingly for clarity.

As readers of this blog of mine, you can go to >> HERE or copy and paste the website address https://dealspotr.com/getcode/Rp3eC to your browser and use my referral code, PHILIN so that you will save a whopping 80% on yearly subscription. Simply click on the link to be directed to the website and save more than half for the annual subscription of Video Jaguar.
Moreover, you can also check out the pricing of Video Jaguar >> HERE, by clicking on the link given.

Sunday, December 8, 2019

Cruising onboard Quantum of the Seas from the US



Here is are some of the colorful children's pools onboard the Quantum of the Seas by The Royal Caribbean from Florida, the US. There was also a jacuzzi for the adults and children alike to get water massage. The view taken was from the outside and inside the ship as you swipe to the left or rather click on the button on the right side. The cruise was enjoyable and memorable. It was the first time we took this cruise from Matta Fair in Penang as it made its maiden voyage to stop by Penang's Swettenham Pier. There were about 15 decks or so if I can recall and this is the swimming pool deck. There are 5 free restaurants and 5 paid restaurants in Quantum of the Seas.

The complimentary restaurants are:
1. Windjammer Marketplace on Deck 14
2. Solarium Bistro on Deck 14
3. Cafe Two70 on Deck 5
4. Main Dining Rooms of Chic - Buffet, and Grande - A la Carte on Deck 3
5. My Time Dining on Deck 4

The paid specialty restaurants serving dinner only are as below. All on Deck 5:
1. Chef's Table
2. Chops Grille
3. Jamies Italian
4. Izumi Japanese Cuisine
5. Wonderland

We tried all the complimentary restaurants which were enough to cover our 4 days 3 nights cruise starting from 27th November 2019 till 30th November 2019.

Wednesday, December 4, 2019

Splendid Orange Orchids at Gardens by the Bay Flower Dome




The above photo was snapped by me while on a short trip to Singapore. We visited Gardens by the Bay flower dome and I took the liberty to take these awesome orange orchids for posterity. I find it strange that they are nicknamed 'Duh's crown!' These orange orchids are genuine and carefully tended to with green fingers of the gardeners in the flower dome, a complete air-con building built of study glass where sunlight can penetrate through for photosynthesis - a process where plants make its own food out of oxygen, sunlight, and water. We need more greenery such as those planted in Singapore where there are no mountains except small Bukit Timah to run to in case of war! I just love the large repertoire of plants and flowers here. The flora and fauna make the ecosystem stable and sustainable.

Sunday, November 24, 2019

Cool Vermilion Lamborghini Marque



Above is vermillion or bright orange-red colored marque of Lamborghini, a sleek sports car on display as a dangling carrot of lucky draw prize for anyone who buys a condo in Penang. I forgot who the developer was but it was displayed next to Ideal Property, selling affordable homes like Havana 'a and Queen Residences. If you click on the right button of the top picture, you will see more details of the premier sports car. Though I love the look and its chic design, I am a little worried of those who won this car accidentally know their heads on the low roof of the car, that is typical in all sports car with a higher center of gravity to move fast and turn at corners.

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Cozy Ambiance at Coffee Signature



Last night, the 3 of us, mom, spouse and myself had dinner at Coffee Signature - a restaurant for fine dining at an affordable price, or so as it was claimed. If you click on the right button in the middle of the picture, you will see the dishes we had: salmon with mango sauce, paired with asparagus and other veggies. My spouse had baked chicken with mushroom sauce topped with sliced Shitake mushrooms. Mom ordered the same dish as I did and the 3 of us have ginger lemon tea each. The ambiance was cozy with chandeliers and curtains embellishing the eatery. The owner was Dato Chew who used to open 8 Square Steamboat restaurant in Penang Times Square that was closed some time back since MBI wanted to use the space. 8 Square was nostalgic for me since my late dad used to love this place, absorbing the flower lights and kinetic lights, a beautiful view from his favorite table. Next month, will be dad's first death anniversary as he departed to be with Jesus on 17th December 2018 due to 5th cardiac arrest.

Now, mum is left and I want to make her life as pleasing as possible by bringing her out for dinners and giving her some allowance to spend. All women love shopping, don't they? Regardless of age.

Thursday, October 31, 2019

Requested for 2 Rejected Housing Loans

After discussing with my family about the landed terrace house, my family is strongly against it, as the bank interests alone cost half a million dollars if paid in 20 years. Hence, I asked for bank rejection letters in order to get back my earnest deposit for 10 Denai Pinang 16 which cost $1.75M and another at 2A Denai Pinang 8, Phase 1 of Azira. It is located opposite Quayside and Straits Quay. It is a 2.5 storeys terrace house with a big garden or greenery behind but the porch can only accommodate 2 small cars. The owner of the first house, Mr. Lim, was elated when I decided to buy and promptly bought a $60k house for his daughter in Singapore. Now he is short of cash and I don't know what to do with him. I have requested 2 loan rejection letters and will get back my earnest deposit. The second one was the owner of Converse, apparently downgrading to sustain his struggling business with 4 outlets in Prangin Mall, Gurney Plaza, and Queensbay Mall, and another in Butterworth.

Monday, October 21, 2019

Sunway Cassia is a landed Semi-D house

I am contemplating buying a landed terrace house in Straits Quay, Tanjung Toking for 1.84 M after bargaining hard from 1.88 M. It is a 2.5 storeys high terrace house in a gated community in Phase 1. I also went house hunting in Sunway Cassia and IOI Stramaz Residences in Sungai Ara, but those places are a bit off for me since Sunway Cassia was facing a low-cost Malay apartment on the way to the gated guardhouse. Although the interior designing was superbly done and supposedly cost $250 k, the disadvantage was I saw a Malay vagabond hanging around the low-cost Malay apartment, which is a big no-no.

Tuesday, October 8, 2019

Sold off my 4 Umbrellas

I think it was a steal to sell 3 Golf umbrellas and 1 normal umbrella for $28. Well, I had to get rid of too many umbrellas given free especially by banks like the long golf umbrellas. They take up too much space and lie doing nothing as I have my own usual umbrellas that I put in the car for rainy days. With too many things, the place looks cluttered and now it is time I sell my stamps and first day covers collected since childhood. These will bring a premium if you have the time to do some research. There are the professional stamp sellers that will queue for first-day covers and mint sheets to sell at the right time whenever they are available at the post office.

Sunday, October 6, 2019

Flew Back from Johor Bahru

I was in Johor Bahru yesterday, waking up as early at 4:20am to blog a little and then get ready to have breakfast and thereafter to the airport to catch the 7:00 am flight by Air Asia, which flies direct from Penang to Johor Bahru. We went there to collect a down payment cheque for sports courts to be completed in a timely manner. The boss also bought up the franchise of DoubleTree by Hilton in JB and also owned the next block which is a health specialist center. The meeting was fruitful and we spent hours at the site. I love the hospitality and the lunch treat of Hakka food consisting of all vegetables, tomato omelet and ginger steamed fish. Boy, it was filling and it seems that I ate for 2 meals! - lunch and dinner. We came back a little tired as the flight was delayed for 1 hour at the JB Senai International Airport.

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

Ezoic - a Platform for Publishers

A Platform For Publishers

Ezoic provides web publishers with automated website intelligence for their ads, content, layouts, and more.

Ezoic leverages machine learning to better understand website visitor behavior. This includes the ability to collect important data and automate decisions that improve visitor experiences, SEO, and website earnings.

How Does Ezoic Work?

Ezoic allows website owners, brands, publishers, and bloggers to easily add and improve parts of their websites. This includes the ability to increase revenue and improve visitor experiences by using artificial intelligence to automate important decisions.

Publishers can use Ezoic to perform automated visitor segmentation, make their websites faster, improve security, implement the web’s latest mobile technologies, and much more.

Ezoic puts the power of Big Data in the hands of web publishers and gives them the ability to easily automate smart actions that can help them deliver their audiences better experiences.

Starting With Ad Tester®

Most Ezoic publishers start out using Ad Tester. Ad Tester is an application available on the Ezoic platform that lets publishers test thousands of potential ad locations at once.

Ezoic learns which ad combinations improve UX metrics and increase website revenue, then customizes every web visit to how past visitors have responded to different ad combinations.

Publishers can use all of their existing ad partners (AdSense, etc.), leverage the thousands of partners already inside Ezoic, or a combination of both when using Ezoic.

Wednesday, September 11, 2019

Pexels.com - to get FREE images




Do you know that you can get FREE graphics without copyright from Pexels.com? There are vector graphics that can scale to the maximum size and there are so many choices where one is spoilt for a variety of various graphics categories. Yes, you can use them freely in your blogs, banners, etc. The above image or a rather abstract picture was taken from pexels.com. They are high quality, good resolution for maximum viewing size and with smaller sizes to choose from. Another interesting image editing software that is free to use online is Canva.com. Personally, I have yet to experiment with it but it seems Canva is good for adding text to promote your products or as an eye-candy. 

Sunday, September 8, 2019

Don Moen - God is Good



Have you heard of Don Moen? Well, he's a famous Gospel singer, well-known for his song, "God is Good, All the Time." Grace is unmerited favor from God and what we don't deserve, we receive. This is certainly good news to all of God's children. We need encouragement daily in this every day grind of life of hustle and bustle to survive and pay the bills, put food on the table, etc. As we cannot depend on others too much, we have to be independent financially and save up towards retirement which, to me, is just a few years away. Today is a Sunday, I shall take the liberty to update my blogs aross different platforms.

Saturday, September 7, 2019

MySimplyAgenda.com - Agenda partagé pour docteur en ligne à votre disposition



A l'aide d'une recherche simple, disponible 24h/24, vos patients peuvent réserver rapidement et facilement leurs rendez-vous médicaux et, quant aux médecins cela permettre de limiter les coups de file et d'améliorer la vie du centre médical tout en gardant le contrôle de son planning. Mysimplyagenda.com s'inscrit dans le nouveau mode de vie avec comme prérogative un gain de temps!

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Préalablement à la mise en place de la solution de planning partagé en ligne, ils vous guideront pour définir vos réels besoins afin de vous proposer une offre parfaitement adaptée aux spécificités de votre organisation. Au moment du déploiement, ils vous aideront dans les réglages et vous formeront aux différentes fonctionnalités. prise de rendez vous pour docteur par internet

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Friday, September 6, 2019

Ruby Programming Learning



I bought a book on Ruby and it was designed by a Japanese to make coding fun and easier, with shorter codes as compared to Java. Ruby is useful for Shopify stores and you don't need to create icons, etc as in website development. The game is more competitive with siblings where one of them is a professional graphic designer, while the other is a professional coder with backend database experience. Ruby on Rails is pretty popular and I shall take my own sweet time to digest the many codes and syntax of Ruby. Eventually, I hope to be good enough to work on Freelancer or Upwork and earn much more.

Thursday, September 5, 2019

I love moonlighting

I may have a full-time job to work in a home office, but nevertheless, I still moonlight part-time by blogging, completing surveys and doing micro-jobs. These are within my area of expertise and easy peasy. But don't ask me to do coding or debugging and such. You see, I am a very confused programmer and will create bugs and cannot link the logic. It is all unfamiliar territory for me. Today, I gave mum RM 900 for the household expenditure; RM 500 for her own expenses while RM 400 is to help the youngest sis to pay for the utilities, petrol, Astro, etc. Being the only parent left where I inherited my DNA, I should honor my mum, regardless of what happened in the past. As the Bible states, 'Honor your parents, then your life will be prolonged.'

Sunday, September 1, 2019

Join a Good Survey for Cash through my Link

I have earned a part-time income from Toluna and if you would like to join, here is my referral link >> https://enmy.toluna.com/referral/philin135 It is not much, but about RM 20 a month, which to me, something is better than nothing at all. You also need to be active and participate in surveys. This is the most paying survey for me as compared to others which will take a very long time to hit the minimum benchmark to withdraw. And if you are lucky, you will get the 1,000,000 points daily lottery which amounts to slightly more than RM 1,200.00 It pays to be diligent and post interesting pictures, encouragements, etc.

Thursday, August 29, 2019

Ruby for Kids

I am taking my leisurely time to learn Ruby programming for Kids or rather for dummies like me. You see, I am a very confused programmer and my codes will surely have bugs that need debugging with help. I chose the simplest and basic programming language that's obscure in uni, and that's FORTRAN. My knowledge of arrays, loops, do...while etc are next to nothing. Hence, I got myself a book to hopefully relearn and unlearn what I know and start from scratch again. After all, a man learned how to code using a 3D printer to print out prosthetics for the disabled. When he was asked which uni he graduated from, he replied to the University of Google.

Sunday, August 18, 2019

Quayside Condo Pictures



Above are awesome pictures of the lifestyle condominium at Quayside in Tanjung Tokong. The swimming pool was the best I had swum. Plenty of greenery lined the edge of the pool giving one a feel of being in an exotic resort. The maintenance bill is a whopping $1,600 per month. There's also a children's playground and wading pool designed like a mini beach with sundeck chairs surrounding the area. The library is also opened long hours and there are many novels to read and exercise the mind. The facilities at Quayside is certainly top-class and unrivaled in Penang. My aunt certainly has good taste and choose the unit with the best view and almost private lift. There are only 5 units with access to 4 lifts for each floor. We had stayed here for 2 months+ already for mum to recuperate fast and able to be independent again. She is 81 this year.

Thursday, August 15, 2019

Make $90 profit today

I am pleased that I managed to sell my free Condotti cabin luggage bag from Ambank for a premium at $90 instead of a mere $60, due to a last-minute message from Mudah.com.my. I sold it to Nurul, who is a student, just finished her STPM and waiting to be a prisons officer through training. We met up at Tesco food court at Tanjung Tokong which is less than 5 minutes drive from Quayside Condo. The Condotti luggage bag is an extra bag that I received it free from Ambank since I subscribed to monthly insurance payment of $300 per month per policy. I have 2 similar policies here. Tomorrow, the hired maid is leaving and it is a big relief since so many things were destroyed due to her itchy fingers. As she does not take care of people's property, we better let her go earlier than usual. Mum is 90% recovered.

Monday, August 12, 2019

Good Riddance to Bad Rubbish

I hired a maid on 15th June 2019 from Medan, Indonesia. On the first day, she asked if my mother has an extra green jade bangle for her!!! The reason I hired her was to take care of mum who had a fall and suffered compressed disc of the spine, etc. She also had diarrhea and it comes out almost non stop. Youngest sis, wanted to send mum to a nursing home since she sent granny and dad to nursing homes and refuse to let them come back. It was not karma as I intervened and said mum is to recuperate in Quayside Condo and immediately hired a maid from a 'joker factory' for her. The maid was Yati, I call her yeti, the beast. She had the audacity to break the glass door with so many lines of cracks to show her dissatisfaction when mum asked that youngest one help distribute my late father's estate to me and youngest sis, bypassing the second sis, since she did not contribute a cent for 5 years while doing her Ph.D. which took from 3 years to 5 years.

Yeti even used mum's handphone to download 25-30 apps of Dangdut music with baby laughing so loudly being played. I had the impression, yeti was using her own handphone since she secretly found her handphone in the drawer that I kept away from her. Well, her itchy hands just love to open and discover new things and perhaps look for loose cash here and there!

Mum's bone's density has more or less recovered at age 80 from osteoporosis to osteopenia. This means that the Forteo injection that costs RM 1,600 a month using dad's pension was helping her bone density. In the first 3 days, she even wanted to borrow RM 500 from mum, then me and then sis. It was all youngest sis' fault; spoiling her to bits by giving her 3 nightgowns, and more than 10 pieces of her branded t-shirts that she could no longer wear for the last 10 years. Yeti became bold and brazen, disobeyed orders and finished up my Ensure milk even though she has her own cheaper milk that we gave to her! I only drank 3 cups and the RM 84 Ensure milk tin was finished.

She also ate out 'bak kua' without permission. She will cut them into pieces and fry with rice for her dinner and other meals. There were 12 pieces of 'bak kua', where I had 4, mum 1, my spouse 1 and there rest, she just 'hau kor' away. Well for being disobedient, too brazen and bold, I decided to shorten her stay from 3 months to 2 months and that very day, she slammed the door showing her anger. The agent seems to inform her what's happening or rather the agent's other maid seems to inform yeti of her early dismissal. Well, good riddance to bad rubbish this 15th August 2019, her last day. Also mum's RM 10 is missing and we cannot let yeti stay at home in Island Park since mum's cash is kept all over the house including her costly jewelry.

Saturday, August 3, 2019

Looking for Opportunities

It is 2:15am here and I am now blogging for opportunities while updating this blog. I am a night owl, as they say, but sometimes, I feel very tired at these early hours of dawn. Well, in the US, it is noontime. This is the time where they are actively working or having lunch for the employees. My spouse is fast asleep, but being the workaholic that I am, I am writing this blog to update it. I don't like to neglect any blogs that I maintain if I have the time. As you might know by now, blogging takes effort and don't be an ordinary blogger.