Cha-Ching Cha-Ching – Work From Home and Make Extra Income

An advertisement occasionally turns up on the side of my Facebook home page, it is about working from home and make extra income ($40/hour). Above the text, sometimes it has a flag of Canada, sometimes it has an Amazon.com logo. Well, I have some free time and I’m always short of cash, so I signed up to see what it is about.

A sales person called today and walked me through the program. Basically, you pay a start-up fee (from $150 to $450) to enroll yourself to be part of one to four affiliate programs – Amazon.com, Sony, unbeatablesale.com, and sorry I forgot the name of the last one. After that, you pay $30 hosting fee per month. The company “builds” you a website. From the demo, it looks like any other blog platform, such as WordPress or Typepad. Then the products from the selected program(s) will be embedded to your website. Your income is based on the number of purchases referred from your site.

I think it is a good way of making money if 1) I didn’t need to pay for the start-up fee, 2) I could find a topic that I feel passionate enough to continuously blog about, and enough people are attracted to read upon my articles, and these articles are related to the products I choose to sell. Here is a good news, the start-up fee can be omitted. Just search “Amazon affiliate program” or “eBay affiliate program”, you will find these programs are free to join and there are step by step tutorials on how to get started – pretty straightforward. I am not a regular blogger myself, I blog randomly whenever I feel like, the topics are random as well. I don’t have many readers either. I can probably count all my readers by one hand. However, if you are a regular blogger, you focus on a specific topic, and you don’t mind the advertisements (they don’t look very pretty and they may actually drive your readers away because the site may look like a spam if not designed well), it is a cool way to collect money. Cha-Ching, Cha-Ching!

2013 New Year Resolutions

Hello 2013. This year I will:

1. Check facebook no more than once a day.

2. Spend less than half hour browsing the internet daily.

3. Read Austin a story every day.

4. Take a portrait of a family member every day.

5. Read a non-fiction book every month.

6. Find something or someone to compliment every day.

7. Quit criticizing.

8. Document my progress and review this list every day!

Can’t believe that it was more than half a year ago  we  visited Paris. I highlighted on the map the places where we wanted to go. Now I’m hanging it on top of my night table, hoping I’d be there again in my dreams.

世界末日之乱想

玛雅语言的世界末日就要到來，不知道人類會以怎樣的方式滅亡？我猜想著有兩種。一種像是有顆碩大的隕石衝著地球飛撞而來，引發火山爆發、地震、海嘯、氣溫骤然升高、氧氣缺乏而有害氣體增加。人類或燙死、或淹死、或窒息而死。這一切結束的非常快，沒有鼎沸的人聲，因為叫喊還沒從胸腔滑出喉嚨，就永遠的湮沒了。另外一種像是發生大雪災，電停了、水沒了、交通癱瘓了、石油無法供給了。開始醫院商店圖書館政府機關這些有自備發電機的機構還可以運行，但漸漸的，世界上最後一盞燈絞盡最後一絲掙扎，也無法逃脫命運的安排，暗淡了下去。在這個漫長的過程里，人類經歷著漫不經心、充滿希望、憂心忡忡、不安、憤怒、失望、放棄、漫不經心一個輪迴，最後油盡燈枯。

如果有選擇，我希望是第一種死法，比較有尊嚴。其實在這樣的情況下，死，變得並不可怕。死了之後或上天堂或下地獄或遊蕩人間或輪迴超度，因為“人”多勢眾，性格開朗的找同途的作伴當朋友，性格內向的默默觀察借鑒經驗，和活著的時候有甚麼分別呢？

可怕的是第二種。在這遙遙等死的過程里，有人自始至終地善、有人自始至終地惡、有人先善後惡。到後來，往往人的肉體還在，靈魂卻已經走了。

Fun Feeding a Squirrel

The squirrel was playing with two other friends around a tree. When we walked closer, she very bravely approached us. Mom and I searched our pockets for any food that we could offer her. Luckily we found a cereal bar. I placed a bit on my finger tip. She grabbed it, sat down, and started to enjoy an afternoon snack like a lady.

A note: squirrels, as well as most of animals, cannot eat chocolate. They will eat it, but it will cause harm to their health. So if you’d like to feed them, ensure the food doesn’t contain chocolate.

Making New Year Resolutions in December

Ever considered making new year resolutions in early December instead of at the night of December 31st? There are four good reasons why it is a great idea!

1. It gives time to thoroughly review your accomplishments of the current year. If there are things on your previous resolutions list and you have not marked it “mission accomplished”, don’t feel too bad, you still have 1/12 of the year left. Not so bad, eh?

2. It gives you time to think and prioritize your goals and even have time to come up action plans.

3. Once your draft actions plans are made, you have time to give them test-drives and see how realistic they are, then make adjustments accordingly. You have a higher chance to excel  in the coming year, and you will feel exceptional when the next year end comes.

4. When January approaches, you probably have already actioned on the new resolutions, so you are ahead of your schedule. What an awesome start!

Hence, off I go, making my resolutions now!

These two beautiful items came to my possession. They are adorable and practical.

 

Found this adorable sofa chair. Sitting on it makes me feel like a princess. The fabric is in warm peach colour. The four hardwood legs provide sturdy support.

 

English Lessons for Ma & Pa

I remember the first morning I went to school at grade 1. Mom and dad dropped me off together. While all grade 1 children lined up in the school yard, most of the parents stayed and watched attentively outside of the school gate.  Mom called after me, she realized I didn’t take my lunch box. I left it behind on purpose because the lunch box was too ugly to be seen, I’d rather starve. It was made of aluminum, bigger than two of my palms put together, the edges were dented, and it was rusty. I pretended that I didn’t hear her, she called my name again louder, and soon dad ran in and pushed it in my hands. Tears filled my eyes. I turned and blinked them away. They’d hurt mom and dad’s feelings, but I wished they’d bought me a plastic one with cartoon prints.

While the memory of my first school day still fresh, mom and dad had their first day of school last Thursday. The Eastridge church in Stouffville offers free ESL programs. We’ve been doing quick reviews of their course material at night. To help them remember the vocabularies, we sing songs together – the same ones I sing to my son. Today, we sang this one with sign language – “one little, two little, three little cats; four little, five little, six little cats; seven little, eight little, nine little cats; ten little cats, fall asleep.”

We found this piece  yesterday morning. Its colour matches our flower vase perfectly. I’m not sure if is antique, but it definitely has the look! I love the colours of the hands as well. The orange second hand pops out from the background, the navy blue hour and minute hands create harmony between the brown and the orange.