Valen’s Vanity Square

If I could have different hats for different moods, I definitely would have been wearing a happy hat today.

Today marks the first day of my ‘freedom’. This is the second time I go on a ‘jobless’ stint, haha! However, this time there will be more exciting projects to anticipate besides just taking on freelance writing assignments. Currently, hubby and I are still in the stage of ‘trying to conceive’ the project. Hehe, sorry for the pun.

Am also in a good mood today because I had a wonderful lunch and a great chat with a friend, and learned a lot from him as well. Someone whom I thought I would never be able to talk to again in this way. Well, actually we had never talked this way in the past…

Often, when the type of the relationship changes, the way two person talk changes, and the topics of their conversation are different as well. It’s comforting that things have changed for the better.

Perhaps what happened in the past is a blessing in disguise after all.

We must get it started this year, and get money rolling into our future!

Hubby and I have been cracking our heads but we haven’t gotten any good business ideas to start with. Perhaps this is one of our biggest and shared resolutions for this year (apart from our baby-making project). ^.^

Although I did attempt to sell clothes and simple handmade jewelry online before, the so-called business was started without much research and planning. So of course it didn’t really become a long-term money-making source. No matter what business it is - be it selling baby strollers, or vehicle parts, or medication carts, a business plan is essential.

Therefore, both of us have lots more of cracking to do in the coming weeks. May be we can do this while having our new year break at a beach hotel.

Darn, there is so much to accomplish in the first quarter of 2012!

Oh shoot, this month I have to pay my annual insurance fees. Together with my iPhone purchase last month, I have four over thousands to pay for my credit card. =(

Luckily, it’s a yearly thing, only happens once a year. So no matter how expensive the insurance gets over the years, I will still pay for it. It’s a protection. In order to ‘enjoy’ the so-called life-long protection of a life insurance, one must continue to pay the premium until it reaches maturity.

So it’s wise to start young. Getting a life insurance is much more expensive as one gets older, but it is still possible to find affordable life insurance for senior citizens if you are willing to spend some time looking for one. Or, you can consult one or two trustworthy, reliable insurance agents, get some recommendations, and make a comparison before signing up.

For me, my best, personal insurance plan advisor is, of course, hubby!

Went out for breakfast this morning and on the way home, I saw one of the corner houses in my neighborhood have painted with bright colors - a big patch of purple on the side wall, bright yellow and green on the facade!

Well, this combination of colors certainly look overly colorful (and of a weird sense of style) for a normal house, but of course that house is not just a normal house, it’s a kindergarten!

More and more of this sort of terrace house-based childcare centres and kindergartens have emerged in residential areas, particularly those located at the outskirts. The number of children in each of these centres are small, which is an advantage because the caretakers (probably 2-3 people) are able to spend more time on each of the children.

The down side is that there is not much of space for outdoor activities. Although it is easy to get swings and seesaws from commercial playground equipment suppliers, the front yard area of a terrace house is too small to fit in a couple of playground equipments.

Unless there is a park or playground nearby, most of the children’s activities will be limited to indoor games.

At the end of the day, it’s really up to the parents to take their children out for some outdoor sports and activities in the weekends, to encourage them to be more physically active and healthy.

Didn’t know an online shop selling industrial equipment and supplies can be so tidy and neat, well-organized, clean and that is not just colored in plain white, black or silver! Well, I was casually browsing (and wasting time!) on the internet, clicking here and there, just to see what people are doing with their websites, be it blogs or online stores. I would like to get some topic ideas and design inspiration for, emm, building more blogs for myself? (Blog-creation addiction, that is, haha!)

If you have not noticed the new image in the sidebar, which is a link to a new sub-blog of this, then just go ahead and take a look. It’s a blog all about acne. I think this site is being dumped with to big a variety of issues and non-sense, haha, so I’m opening up a sub-blog just to focus on the acne treatment and acne skin care topics. If you have not visited, here’s the link -> http://valensvanitysquare.com/acnetreatmentsolutions

Due to my crazy shopping spree last week, plus a delayed project payment, once again my bank account is on the verge of being empty. Now I have to refrain myself from buying anything for at least a month.

And it’s time to start thinking how I can make more money besides relying solely on my freelance paychecks.

I wonder how some bloggers can make lots of money by just blogging alone. I have read that one blogger made so much money that she actually bought herself laptopssss, a plasma TV, and a bike for her husband (plus a lot more items that I won’t know, of course).

I don’t know how many people are reading my blog, but I suppose there are ways to at least first drive traffic to a website before the readership builds up. Apparently, I did not apply any of those methods. (Otherwise my blogging income would have reached sky high, eh?)

Anyway, I just learned that it is very important to submit our website link to web directories, so that our websites/blogs will receive more exposure. If you have a new blog or website, you should look up for a list of internet web directory and submit your site to as many web directories as you could.

I don’t know how many of the web directories I will submit my blog link to. Even by submitting one a day, I would have submitted to 365 web directories in 1 year! But, are there so many web directories out there?

I sort of took a break from my usual internet activities today and immersed myself into an almost 8 hours of non-stop DVD session, hehe. I was watching a mixture of DVDs, including a traveling program on Vegas vacations, an old movie, as well as a new drama series from Singapore.

Saw myself in the mirror just now, and realized that 8-hours of ‘inactivity’, i.e. TV watching, can make one look so tired and haggard. Must be some kind of radiation emitted from the TV, it’s worse than working on the laptop for 24 hours! I can also feel that thousands of cellulite cells have been formed on my butt and thighs over the past several hours.

Jeez, I think I can use a facial mask. My skin is really in need of rejuvenation! And tomorrow, I better do some housework to burn off some fat!

Have you ever wondered what does the barcode on product labels mean? Do you know how to read a barcode?

While we can always leave it to the barcode scanners to check the price of a product in the supermarket, knowing how to read barcode while shopping for groceries can actually be fun and educational. And you can use this skill to impress your friends. Haha!

If you want to learn how to read barcodes, i.e. how numbers are derived from a series of thin and thick whie and black lines, you can read this article “Read 12 digit UPC barcodes” on Wikihow.

There is a rumour saying that the first three digits of any UPC barcode represents the country where the item was made. Apparently this is not true. So, what do the numbers on a barcode really mean? You can find out the answers here.

Now, I’m going to immerse myself in the world of black and white lines…

Remember about the cancer, mesothelioma (see some information below), that I mentioned in my previous post? I found out that in the US, if one is diagnosed with mesothelioma, he or she may actually file a legal claim so that he or she can be compensated for this form of health injuries. The compensation can be of great help to address the medical and financial problems arisen from this asbestos-related disease.

The legal claim can be directed to the manufacturers, sellers and installers of asbestos products. Of course, before you take any legal action, you would first need to consult one of the professional Mesothelioma lawyers to investigate your case and handle your mesothelioma lawsuit if it is a valid case.

What is mesothelioma?

• A form of cancer of the mesothelium (membrane that forms the lining of several body cavities), in which cells of the mesothelium divide abnormally
• Occurs in individual exposed to asbestos
• Starts most commonly in the pleura (membrane the surrounds and protects the lungs), next common site of mesothelioma is the abdominal area of the body
• Cancer cells can spread from their original site to other nearby tissues and organs

If you want to learn more about filing legal claims on asbestos-related illnesses, you can find lots of information on MesotheliomaHelp.net.