You take 2 steps forward, I take 2 steps back

And that's the way the Paula Abdul song goes.

First he wanted me to look forward. Now he wants me to look back. Gawsh. The iPort's not invented yet so it's really tiring, you know. Make up your mind, will ya? *grin*

*** INSTRUCTIONS: ***
1. Post 5 links to 5 of your previously written posts. The posts have to relate to the 5 key words given below.
2. Tag 5 other friends to do this meme. Try to tag at least 2 new acquaintances (if not, your current blog buddies will do) so that you get to know them each a little bit better.
3. Don't forget to read the archived post and leave comments.
********************

Link 1 must be about FAMILY: There's a hole here where you left...
Link 2 must be about FRIEND: Rrrrrrrrrrr...... (what is that?)
Link 3 must be about YOURSELF: Ding dong bell...
Link 4 must be about YOUR LOVE: Hello world!
Link 5 can be ANYTHING YOU LIKE: Blogging and me

Five lucky duckies to tag:
Doreen
Mistipurple
KYH
May
Zewt

Hyppy Hoppy Tag!

Maybe it's because he's currently staying Down Under, but our dear sai loh Ehon seems to have gotten things the other way round. House warming means that guests bring tags gifts, not receive tags gifts. Anyway, I shouldn't rain on his parade so I shall do this tag like the good girl I am. Lawl!

LIST OUT THE TOP 5 PRESENTS YOU WISH FOR
1. Black 8GB iPod Nano
2. Something sparkly that comes in a Tiffany-blue box
3. A terror-byte storage device
4. A pair of Nine West or Aldo shoes
5. A DSLR camera

THE PERSON WHO TAGG-ED YOU IS
Sampat Lovable Ehon

YOUR 5 IMPRESSIONS OF HIM / HER
1. Funny boy
2. Kind-hearted (check out his dream of sponsoring a child!)
3. Close to genius
4. Lots of compassion (why else would he be a Youth Ambassador?)
5. Hyppy! (a word he invented, btw)

MOST MEMORABLE THINGS HE / SHE HAS DONE FOR YOU
Uh, he cheers me up when I'm depressed?

THE MOST MEMORABLE WORDS HE / SHE HAS SAID TO YOU
"Pom chak chak" "Money money come"

IF HE / SHE BECOMES YOUR LOVER, YOU WILL
Get hauled in for soliciting a minor? He claims he's only sixteen or fourteen, depending on which blog you read. Lawls!

IF HE / SHE BECOMES YOUR LOVER, THEY HAVE TO IMPROVE ON
His age, naturally. *grin*

IF HE / SHE BECOME YOUR ENEMY, YOU WILL
Be sad cos he's a good friend to have.

IF HE / SHE BECOME YOUR ENEMY, THE REASON WILL BE
Most probably because he wrote one too many funny posts like this one? J/k!

PASS THIS QUIZ TO 1O PEOPLE THAT YOU WISH TO KNOW HOW THEY FEEL ABOUT YOU
This is a pretty hard quiz to answer, so I'm *gasp* not tagging anyone!

I don't think you're ready for it

That was more or less the type of feeling I got from the people at the MBA fair I attended today. Exactly like any other student fair, just that they concentrate solely on MBAs and the like. Maybe it was my baby face, but I found that the school reps didn't really want to layan me. I could be standing in front of their table, looking all interested (I really was!) and reading their brochures and they couldn't even be bothered to even look my way. Maybe they had bigger fish to fry lor. The one or two reps I managed to talk to gave me polite variations of:

- This is a very challenging program (I don't think you can do it)
- It's a life-changing decision (You're probably going to get married and have kids in a year's time, so don't waste your time and ours)
- We set very high standards (You're probably not going to make the cut)
- You have to pay for a quality education (You can't afford it)

Funny how they never mentioned any of the above to other people enquiring about the same program (I listen la while waiting for them to be free to layan me) but said that to me. Granted, all the other people were in the ideal MBA candidate mould - male (majority Chinese I saw today), early thirties, holding a managerial post, money to burn on an MBA in the name of advancement.

It made me feel discriminated against for being female, younger, not rich enough and not qualified (managerial work experience wise) enough to even dream of furthering my education. :o(

When the huffing and puffing is over

I D I D I T.
Yatta!!! *rinnah does a virtual jump of joy*

I completed the Pantai Medical Hospital charity walkathon for breast cancer this morning without injury. Whew! And while I wasn't exactly among the forerunners, I didn't end up last either (although a lot of people overtook me along the way. LOL!). But I digress... because the walk wasn't 5km after all. Hurhurhur. I guess the organizers realized that there would be a great deal of unfit corporate participants so they shortened it to half the route - or roughly 2.5km. But even though it was 2.5km, it wasn't exactly a walk in the park leh. More than half of the route was uphill and THAT was the killing part for me.

Oh! Seldom used calf muscles were close to screaming in protest as I trudged up slopes, inclines and hills adamantly ignoring my legs' pleas for "just a 5 minute rest" because I knew if I stopped then, I probably couldn't summon the willpower to move on again. LOL! All I allowed myself to focus on was the music from my mobile phone (I later realized the irony of walking while listening to Maroon 5's Harder To Breathe) and kept repeating to myself "Left, right, left, right (from mudpie), add oil, just a little bit more, I can see the top of the hill - it'll be all downhill after that (I was wrong, incidentally!), if that aunty over there can do it so can I" and remembering mistipurple's virtual buntut pushes. Heh.

Did you know that Bangsar is full of hilly inclines that go up and up and up? The route they chose when up, then dipped down for a short bit before another even steeper incline loomed ahead. Really challenging for someone who rarely exercises like me. And then there were the superfit people who chose to run. Amazing, aitelyu. *pengsan*

It's a wonderful feeling to know that I made it, but the aftermath was... one knackered rinnah who came home and collapsed into bed, lapsing into a semi-conscious fog for the next four hours feeling as though her feet were going to drop off from the ankles. Funny how the ache has moved up from the ankles now to the thighs. LOL.)

Right. Now can I possibly get an MC for tomorrow? *grin*

Being wiser is cramping my style

After today, I figure that I'm too 'wise' at the moment and that it's potentially going to cramp my style. Why?

Yesterday I went to see the dentist. Just a regular check-up and cleaning but you know how some things are best left unknown till you really need to know about them? Yeah, it was one of those things. Apparently I'm one of those lucky unique people whose wisdom teeth decide to make a concerted appearance. That means all four of my wisdom teeth are slowly starting to stretch and grow and invade their molar neighbors space. Grrrr. It's gonna get awfully cramped inside my mouth when it happens. Thankfully, I haven't had it bad at all because I've only experienced a wee bit of soreness in my lower left gum on occasion, which as my dentist explained, was caused by my upper left wisdom tooth (which has a hole in it!) chomping down on the gum below each time I chewed. Oh, and the lower left wisdom tooth is slated to come out horizontally, pushing against the molar next to it (like the picture above - which is not my x-ray, btw). Double grrrr.

She (the dentist) merrily asked me if I wanted to extract my upper left wisdom tooth right there and then since it had a hole and was causing the gum soreness. I was like, "What?" You see, I've never had to extract any of my teeth before and while I have no fear of cleaning, scaling and drilling for fillings, the thought of yanking out my tooth is like, well, pulling the tusk from an elephant! So I said no lah (but have an appointment in two weeks' time to go pull my tooth out. Gives me time to prepare myself. LOL.). *makes face* Ya, and more news... the lower left wisdom tooth will require surgery in the future. Not right now since it hasn't made a full appearance yet, but when it does eventually, my dentist says I should have it removed so it doesn't push the rest of my teeth out of alignment (that means braces. Gawd!). *makes another face* Some more she had to go scare me by saying that surgery would take 1 1/2 hours and require me to have 3 days of MC! *pengsan*

Maybe prevention is better than cure and one part of me is glad I know these things before any pain sets in but the other (scaredy cat) part of me is admonishing myself for having gone for the check-up. (Cantonese saying: Chi kei loh lei sui! LOL.)

Saving the world, one blogpost at a time

I was quite aghast when I read in my Bloglines feedreader today that Pelf was *this* close to selling her other domain - The Giving Hands - this week. Oh no!

I do understand Pelf's consideration that she can't devote as much time as she would like on the site but I have to say it again - I've never met another blogger as passionate about causes, be it environmental, charity, or just simply making the world a better place as Pelf. (And please don't be modest about it, m'dear!) Rather than let a site with such good intentions and potential just die a death of neglect, she was actually thinking of selling it off to someone who would be able to put in their time and energy into The Giving Hands.

Thankfully, another blogger has managed to persuade Pelf to give it another go but she needs our help and support. How to help? Read on below (copy 'n paste from Pelf's post)...

So right now, I am looking for guest bloggers who can commit one post per week to The Giving Hands. As a guest blogger, you may write about anything at all, pertaining to the environment, or charity, or health, or nature. Your posts can be in the form of a blog post, or poem, or an image with some description, or a list of tips, or a list of links. So you see, it is really very flexible.

If you can’t commit to one post per week, what about 2 posts per month? You could send me your write-ups, and I would publish them, with full credits back to you, of course.

However, as a guest blogger, you will not be paid a dime because I can’t afford to pay you. I wished I could, but I can’t. However, you could be proud to be doing something that your son/daughter would come across one day many years down the road, and they would be proud that their Mum/Dad championed for the environment/charity.

I've been meaning to put in a post or two towards The Giving Hands but somehow or other, I'd find my attention distracted and wind up doing other blogposts (like tags and rants. LOL!) for my other blogs. Nope, not any more! I do hope that I'll be able to contribute at least one or two posts a month to The Giving Hands, and I'm starting right now with this public commitment. (Dear readers, do feel free to terrorize remind me when I haven't posted there!) If you could spare the time, would you consider doing the same for Pelf? Even if you can't commit to a series of regular posts, I would love for you guys to spread the news on your blogs and let more people know about this really good site. It would be a shame to let all of Pelf's hard work go to naught.

So whatcha waitin' for? Let's go save the Cheerleader! Oops. I meant Save the World. Hehehe.

This is a community blogpost brought to you by rinnah (and nope, I'm not being paid a dime for it because Pelf doesn't know yet that I've written this! *grin*)

Don't Work Long Hours!

Zewt commented in my last post that all my posts of late have been either PPP posts (although this has decreased greatly of late) or tags. *grin* Well, the flow of sponsored opps have slowed to a merest trickle while the tag list is growing ever longer, but I interrupt the flow of PPP and tag-related posts to bring you a funny post. A first, I believe, on It's all about the spin...

Those following me on my other blog will be familiar with the fact that I *hate* working long hours unless it's absolutely necessary. I have a life outside of work, you know. (Okay, okay so my life is me and my laptop and the Internet and my blog. lawls.) And you're so going to *hate* me for saying this again, but I love my new job's hours! Hurhurhur. Okay okay, I shall shut up about it now. :-D

But anyway, I found this YouTube video on a blog and thought it was too priceless not to share. So, enjoy... and remember... Don't Work Too Late! You might never be able to leave. Muahahahaha.

What to eat in the mornings

I'm gonna do something unlike me with this post. I wanna kill two birds with one stone two tags with one post. Muahahaha. Nope, never been done before, but since the topic is the same - FOOD! - I thought it would flow very nicely together. Both tags are from my favorite tag-mistress, the Giddy Tigress. First, she wants to know what I eat for breakfast and also what tip I have for healthy living.

Let's start with brekker, shall we? Now boys and girls, breakfast is the most important meal of the day so you should never, ever skip breakfast. In fact, some dieticians even advise that you 'eat like a king' for your morning meals. After a whole night of fasting with no food, you need to 'break your fast' with something nice and yummy and hopefully healthy! Most weekdays mornings I have a slice or two of bread or cake with chocolate milk. Nothing too fancy, huh? But on the weekends...

Saturday - Four slices of kaya toast with two soft-boiled Omega eggs at any coffeeshop (but the nicest is from Deli Cafe in Kota Damansara)

Sunday - Spinach noodles (the best ever from Setapak!)

Yes, I eat like a queen on weekends, and like a normal citizen on weekdays. Hehe.

On to the next tag! What's my healthy tip?

**********

Copy the whole thing, skim the list and put a * star beside those that you like. (Check out especially the * starred ones.) Share one of your own health tips (tip on how to be more healthy) with others. Try to make your tip short but informative. Tag at least 2 persons.

1. Be happy - Everyday health and beauty
2. Everything in moderation - Giddy Tigers
3. Eat a good breakfast everyday! - rinnah

**********

Healthy people to tag:
kyh - Kena both tags! Muahahahaha! Consider it a semester break gift. LOL!
ehon - I know you've done the brekkie tag before, so yours is only the healthy living tip. *grin*

Logo up!

First impressions really count, and businesses should really put some thought into their corporate Logo Design. After all, if people don't come to your shop but see a signage or a flyer or a letter, probably one of the first things they'll see is your logo. And with people's minds the way they are, you can never been too careful how your logo looks like. I can never forget Kenny Sia's parody of the Al Rajhi Bank logo. Look at it closely and *ahem* you'll get what I mean. I wonder if the designers of the logo ever thought of it that way when they designed it? I think not.

Okay, so I've tried to Design a Logo Myself but I'm no great artist and I can't draw very well, save for stick figures. Even my blog doesn't have a fanciful header like Ehon does and I have L B to thank for my blog logo in the sidebar. But this website promises that even n00bs like me can come up with a Do It Yourself Logo Design that doesn't have to suck or look like kids drew it in art class. Imagine, in 5 easy steps, you could have a logo that's the envy of those who see it and the talk of the town! (Or I could just be nice and bribe L B with promises of all the lormaikai he can possibly eat in one sitting when he next comes back to Malaysia. LOL.) Or I could go with a stick figure logo like The Saint. That's forever classic, right? Right? Hurhurhur.

This is a sponsored post

A hill to climb ahead of me

The scale is no longer my friend. Humph. It insists on telling me that I've gained 1kg in the past month. *rolls eyes* Yeah yeah yeah.

Anyway, that and the fact that my new company is participating in a walkathon for Pantai Medical means that come Sunday morning, one less than fit rinnah will be waking up at the crack of dawn (the walk starts at 7am), donning her brand-new (only used twice!) sport shoes, free pink t-shirt, sunblock, toting her camera and trudging along 5km worth of road in Bangsar. Oh, this is going to be such a walk in the park. Not! If my memory serves me right, the circuitous road shown on the map of the walk will be going uphill / downhill in spots. Argh. I can do the distance, but I fear the inclines will do me in. But if Pink Elle can survive two action packed days in one weekend, surely I can survive a little walkathon?

*prays for strength to finish the course and not embarass herself in the process*

Time to set up shop?

Since it's no longer viable to rely solely upon writing sponsored posts to make my money online, I've been doing a bit of thinking on what I should do next. Ebay-ing is one alternative that I started off with early this year but had little success with. (Actually I only managed to sell one item. Hahaha.) Therefore it was easy for me to lose interest in Ebay once I discovered sponsored posts. Affiliate programs are another avenue I might explore further since it seems that the big money bloggers reap much from this stream of income. (If you're feeling nice, you can click on the Smorty ad in the sidebar and sign-up. Double hahaha.)

But right now I am thinking of setting up shop online to sell some stuff. With this in mind, I am looking around for the right shopping cart software that will make shopping online a breeze for potential customers. It's pretty important to have a good navigable system and the ability to accept credit cards as most people would use this method to make payment. And if I'm going to be selling internationally, I need software that is able to deal with the intricacies of shipping calculation as well as tax, if any. Ashop Commerce seems to be able to offer all that I'm looking for (their list of features seems endless!), with a free ten day trial to boot. Yup, this is definitely something I want to look into.

Looking forward to X'mas!

It's time for me to start my annual countdown!

What am I talking about?

It's getting close to Christmas time, y'all! Woot!

Time to dig out the old tree and deck its boughs with artificial cherries, strings of twinkling lights and festoon it with red velvet ribbons. Oh wait. I don't do that every year. Mum does. LOL! What I do is drag out all my favorite Christmas songs and begin to play them in an endless loop that drives everyone else nuts. Kakakaka. You'd be driven to distraction too, because I like to start the Christmas affair early. Like say, the first of November onwards. Teeheehee!

Now, let's segue to a feelgood story. From the annals of 'How Rinnah Began To Blog'. LOL!

'Twas very near to last year's X'mas when one day Rinnah went bloghopping. Actually, she was looking for reviews about that Just Dessert place in The Curve, and somehow or other clicked her way over to the site of a blogger called... Little Miss May. How intriguing, rinnah thought. Little Miss May. She liked the way the name sounded and thought it was fate when lo and behold, the song of the week in the rightbar was none other than Mariah Carey's All I Want For Christmas Is You. Which happened to be the very same song that rinnah was listening to that very day. (Of course, it also helped that rinnah enjoyed visiting Little Miss May's blog for the pretty pictures and light-hearted blog writing.) And that, my friends, is how I stumbled upon the first of THHC blogs and met all of you wunnerful people. *grin*

Why am I recounting this tale of yesteryear? Because of L B lah. He wants to know: What am I looking forward to at the end of 2007?

I am looking forward to these things...

~ One more year of good blogging ahead of me
~ Making more new blogfriends
~ Christmas season!
~ Kisses under mistletoe Carolling
~ Shopping mall X'mas decorations
~ Pressies and cards
~ Christmas visitations
~ Snow for a White Christmas That it won't rain Liu-cats and AhBoys-dogs when I wanna go out during the Christmas season
~ Turkey!
~ Firework displays
~ New Year's Eve signalling a new year

Now, may I find out what the Giddy Tigress is looking forward to? *wink*

It's not just a game of PR

*sigh* In the wake of my recent PR cut-down, I've been forced to re-examine myself on the true motives of why I blog. PabloPabla wrote a very compelling post here about how he feels about blogging after the PR cuts and asks in another post here, why do you blog?

He invites all bloggers to answer three simple yet telling questions:

1. Why do you blog?
2. What do you hope to achieve by blogging?
3. How much time do you spend a day doing blogging related work (as described above)?

I figure that this is as good a time as any to look inwardly and really, truthfully lay it out in the open about my relationship with blogging, so here goes nothing! *takes a deep breath*

Why do you blog?
I started blogging because I kinda liked the thought of having an online diary of sorts. I've always kept diaries since I could scribble and blogging just seemed to be a natural extension of what I did back then. But then, blogging became more than just a diary thing. When you meet with wonderful people online who take their time to read your inane scribblings and leave a comment, a constructive one, an encouraging one or just simply a hello, how are you comment... it really makes your day. I began to blog as if thru their eyes, viewing each post critically with a thought as to how they might like my latest take on things. Then came the siren call of blogging for money. It seemed so incredibly easy at first, to be able to pop in a post here and there and see the USD start to roll in. I do hope that I've not alienated my readers by blogging for money, but I've always endeavoured to put a little something into even the most soulless sponsored post that would reveal a bit of how I think, the person I am. But along the way, I think I've been focusing too much on the money. *grin*

What do you hope to achieve by blogging?
I'd really like to make a name for myself in blogging. I don't hope to be as famous as John Chow or Darren Rowse for example, but I would love to be seen as a responsible blogger - like JD from Get Rich Slowly or Trent from The Simple Dollar. Leo Babauta from Zen Habits would be cool too. Closer to home, there is always the inspiration that is Pelf Nyok. These are people who (I think!) blog about what truly matters to them and they are darn good at it.

I still love to blog about anything and everything and no, I don't think I'll get tired of blogging all that quickly. I hope that by the time I quit blogging (if ever?) maybe the name rinnah will mean something to those who read me.

How much time do you spend a day doing blogging related work (as described above)?
Lots. I spend most nearly every single bit of free time I have with my computer. And the lure to check just one more blog is very, very tempting. I have to say that if you're asking about how much time I spend building up my blogs, the minimum time spent in a day would be on average about two (2) hours. And that's the barest minimum. If I'm not out and about during the weekends, I could verily spend my whole day with my broadband connection and my laptop. (I really should get a life, hor?) And yes, I know that I'm addicted. *grin*

So, PabloPabla, these are my honest answers. And thank you for making me think about why I blog. I shall revert to the basics of blogging - giving my best in ensuring that my readers get good content from my blogs.

**********
If any blogger out there reading this post would like to participate in this unofficial poll of sorts, please write a post on your blog answering the three questions above and submit it to PabloPabla's site here. Deadline for entries is on 30 November 2007.

Stay and no go holiday

Just about two weeks back I was trying to plan for a family holiday since I would be on leave for this period of time and was relatively free. It would have to be a short quickie trip because of Kelly (our dog), we couldn't well leave her at home alone for more than three days la. I don't want to be accused of cruelty to animals! Hahaha.

Anyway, we were all geared up to visit the Pearl of the Orient - where else but Penang? A chance to revisit the island (it's been 6 years? since I last went there) and also to meet up with friends. You know what? We didn't even need Hotel Reservations because friends of my parents would generously put us up in their home so all we had to do was just get there. I was planning on meeting Penang lang like Chen and Giddy Tiger and visiting Queensbay Mall, maybe trek up the Penang Hill, soak in some rays at Batu Ferringhi. But most importantly of all, the foodie tour to chow down at places like the Penang Duck Egg Char Kuay Teow, the famous Longkang Assam Laksa, some ice-cold Cendol, or spicy hot Indian food, etc etc etc.

Unfortunately for me, plans fell through when my Dad couldn't get his leave approved. The management *claimed* that some big project coming up needed his supervision, other senior colleagues were going overseas / outstation on work, bla bla bla, so his boss basically said no. Sheesh! *thinks about getting a hammer and whacking the boss' head* First time in donkey years my Dad has applied for holiday leave (three days only some more!) and they say no? I'm more frustrated than he is about the whole issue.

Oh well. Looks like I'll have to shelve my Penang plans until the next time when I can get leave (not sure when that will be because I'm starting a new job). But you can be sure all those things above are still on my list for the next time around!

Double eight = 88

These two lovely mommies, Everydayhealy and the Giddy Tigress gave me this tag on eights. Kena tagged twice on eights equals 88. That looks like the Asian culture symbol for Double Happiness right? So by looking at the numerical formation, can I be superstitious and presume that Double Happiness is in my future? *peers into the glass ball* Uhm. Too murky to make out anything. *grin*

8 THINGS I'M PASSIONATE ABOUT:
1. Blogging for my seven (or is it eight?) blogs
2. Photography with my digital camera
3. Driving around in my little car
4. Shopping, every woman's favorite pasttime
5. Reading new books by new authors
6. Becoming a better person
7. My little routines, quirks and foibles
8. Things that I love

8 THINGS I WANT TO DO BEFORE I DIE:
1. Get married lor
2. Be a mommy
3. Read thru my Bible again? Hehe.
4. Go around the world
5. Get my life (physical and spiritual) in order
6. Provide for loved ones left behind
7. Write a book
8. Leave a legacy to be proud of

8 THINGS I SAY OFTEN:
1. I dunno
2. Whatever la
3. Can also
4. What's for lunch / dinner?
5. Okay-la
6. Sure or not?
7. Stupid idiot (referring to law-breaking and rude Malaysian drivers)
8. Mad ah?

8 BOOKS I'VE RECENTLY READ:
As you can see I've been reading within the chick-lit and self-help areas lately
1. The Other Boleyn Girl (Philippa Gregory)
2. The Boleyn Inheritance (Philippa Gregory)
3. Match Me A Match (author forgot liao)
4. Perfect Strangers (Robyn Sisman)
5. Never Eat Alone (Keith Ferrazzi)
6. Simplify Your Work Life (Elaine St. James)
7. Star Wars: Revenge Of The Sith (author forgot liao)
8. When Calls The Heart (Janette Oke)

8 SONGS THAT I COULD LISTEN TO OVER AND OVER:
Right now these songs are being played to death on my laptop / mp3 player / car
1. Word Of God Speak (Mercy Me)
2. Breeze On By (Donny Osmond)
3. Game Of Love (Michelle Branch featuring Santana)
4. Kiss Goodbye (Wang Lee Hom)
5. The Change Inside Of Me (Mercy Me)
6. Tea And Sympathy (Jars Of Clay)
7. Call Me Irresponsible (Michael Buble)
8. Lost Without You (Robin Thicke)

8 THINGS THAT ATTRACT ME TO MY BEST FRIENDS:
1. A great sense of humour
2. Common interests
3. Generousity
4. Knowing I can count on them
5. A non-judgemental listening ear
6. We move in the same circles
7. Intellectual discussions
8. I can be at ease around them

8 THINGS I'VE LEARNED THIS PAST YEAR:
1. That my patience has a limit
2. Blogging is incredibly rewarding
3. I can move on from the past
4. The gruffest exterior can hide a tender heart
5. I have a pretty good eye for photography
6. I can regress in age (thru my looks. LOL!)
7. People come and go it's whether you choose to keep in contact or not
8. Life is short, cherish it

8 PEOPLE I THINK SHOULD DO CRAZY EIGHT MEME:
1. L B
2. Little Miss May
3. Paris Beaverbanks
4. Ehon Chan
5. Chen
6. Leonard
7. Narrowband
8. Mistipurple

What Google giveth, Google taketh away

I'd read all over the blogosphere about the major bloodbath that Google unleashed upon the unsuspecting blogging world as they reinvented their famed PageRank algorithm. Blogs with previously high PR (PageRank for the uninitiated) saw their PR tumble faster than a tsunami wave or an avalanche from the snowy mountain tops. Naively, I thought I was safe because in the early stages of the blood-letting, I checked and rechecked and found that my blog(s) still had their PR intact. Very, very naive lor. If even the big names like 5xMom and John Chow can be affected, why wouldn't Google turn its eyes on my little blog(s)?

Then today, I read about Wuching's wanting to hang himself because his blogs have dropped to PR0 which means your blog is like so insignificant you might as well 'close shop' for the sponsored opportunities because they all depend on Google's PR to determine whether or not you are 'worthy' enough to post for them. I got nervous. What about my blogs? Off I rushed to check at PRChecker.info. The bad news stared me right back in the face. 0/10. It couldn't be! I then hopped onto CheckPageRank.com. The answer was the same. 0/10. Noooooooooo!

No wonder I haven't been getting any good sponsored opps lately. And I thought it was because I wasn't seeing them at the right time.

I want my PR4 back! Bad bad Google!

*rinnah bawls, pouts and cries like a baby whose candy has been stolen from her mouth*

I'm declaring RSS bankruptcy!

Wokay. The Internet's back. Sorry I've been away for a while (not that I intended to!) but now that it's back it's going to take me some time to catch up with my RSS feeds again. Can you imagine... 720 new items to read? I'm not gonna finish it in a long, long while. So, I'm declaring RSS bankruptcy and forthwith will only comment on new posts, k? I read every single word you guys wrote out there, but I just don't have the time to click thru and leave a comment (as much as I would love to!).

Busy busy busy. Be right back!

Should we redo the floor?

The old house is in need of some sprucing up. Especially with Christmas and later the Chinese New Year around the corner. On the perennial to do list: the windows, the curtains, the grilles, the gate, the walls and the cement floor of the porch. On the top of the list should be the gate and the floor. I didn't know that it'll cost RM2,000 to make just a simple gate to replace the current one. Heck, even the whole house grilles didn't cost that much! And we really should dig up and replace the cement flooring. I like the sound of the garage flooring at CarGuyGarage.com. They do a nice concrete flooring finish with professional grade epoxy and I wonder whether that would hold up under our tropical weather?

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Withdrawal symptoms because of Internet woes

Argh! I’ve been without my Internet connection for three days now and it’s driving me crazy. Life without the Internet sucks. You know my Blogivitis syndrome? It’s gone into overdrive because…

~ I can’t check my email for new spam / junk mail.

~ I can’t log into FaceBook to see who has poked me or added me as a friend or whether I need to make new moves in Scrabulous or challenge the next person to RPS.

~ I can’t log into Bloglines, my online RSS feedreader to see if there are updated posts that I can comment on.

~ I can’t check for new sponsored post opps. I think two opps that I reserved right before disaster struck have expired by now. Shoot!

~ I can’t check to see who has left a comment on my blogs.

~ Worst of all, I can’t update my blogs!

It feels strangely like there’s a whole world going on out there without me and man… I can’t stand it! I never knew that the Internet was so… addictive.

The whole saga started out on Saturday evening when we decided to update the security settings on our wireless modem / router. Up till then it had been unsecured and we were kind of worried that unscrupulous people might be leeching off it since it’s on nearly 24/7. Update went well until Sunday evening. For no reason at all, five different wireless devices simply couldn’t detect the router’s Internet connection – two laptops, one computer, one PDA and one mobile phone. The router seemed to be working fine – steady connection, no dreaded blinking lights, etc. We could see the router on the wireless networks available, and successfully connect to the router but not to the Internet connection. A hard reset of the router meant that now we could detect and connect to the router, but there was still no line! Placing calls to Screamyx’s technical assistance didn’t help either… they said that there was no problem with the account and with the line, so it must be the router problem. Cheh! Better yet, my laptop decided to go on the fritz at that very moment too by refusing to start up. It showed not the blue screen of death, but the very close to it black screen of MSDOS. Grrrrr….

I went around the Digital Mall looking at the prices of wireless modem cum routers on Monday and still didn’t know which model to get without consulting my IT guru, i.e. my Dad. So I just got a number of price quotes for him to see. Monday evening passed by without the Internet connection. By then, my Mum was heartily sick of me moaning that life is so empty and meaningless without the Internet that she was ready to pack me off to the nearest place with WiFi connectivity just so I can get my Internet fix. LOL! But I made do with a quickie check of my emails using the horribly slow dial-up.

Come Tuesday, I was champing at the bit and decided to go get a new wireless modem router if that would solve all my problems. So armed with my price lists and having a model or so in my mind, I went router shopping. Where I got sweet-talked by the salesman into buying a slightly more expensive model (Linksys) than the one I originally intended to buy (ProLink). Oh well, it did come with a 3 year warranty and his assurances that no one had yet returned any model for repairs, etc etc etc. Lugged home my new purchase, happily set it up and waited for restored connection, but….. pffffft! Still no connection! Grrrrrrrr…

Today, yet another call to Screamyx to lodge a report and I get put on hold for 20 minutes just so that they can open a report and tell me that, “It’ll take up to 2 working days for our technicians to get back to you. If you don’t hear from them after 2 working days, please call us again and quote your report number.” *bangs head on table*

Will someone please, please, please restore my life Internet connection to me?

My sweet sixteen... all over again

Okay, so I got a sudden urge to undergo an image makeover today. My feet took me by themselves to a new hair salon (I didn't like the last one I went to because the female hairstylist didn't give me the kind of cut that I wanted) and before I knew it, I was sitting in the chair saying I wanted a look like this, this and this. My new stylist (who happens to be a guy called Cherry btw... o.0) snipped here and there and my hair ended up in a huge pile on the floor... the end result? If I thought I had babyface woes before, well, this seals the deal. *grin*

I now have a fringe do (inspired in part by this post from Sheylara... she's so pretty and chio! If only I was as pretty...) and hey presto! from a college student look I now look like I'm still in high school - a 16 year old, to be exact. A good match for my high school blog, yea?

psst... Those curious can check out ze new look on Facebook. LOL!

Some high school required...

Okay, I'm not some hoity toity snobby blog but neither is my blog down in the gutter with the tramps. I hope guess most of my readers have attained some level of high school? Thankfully they didn't label my blog elementary school reading level, or else...

But then again, look at what Rinnah's Spin Daily got! So I guess this means that the rant-ier I get, the more high-faultin' and verbose I am? Hmm...

But this is the shocker...

Rinnah's Marketplace is only for geniuses? *faint*

Bloggity blog blog

Hello? You there. Yes you. No, not the blogger. The other person. The non-blogger. Yeah you. Now that I've gotten your attention... (like any non-bloggers are reading this. LOL!)

Whoever said that blogging was a waste of time has evidently never met the close-knit community of bloggers that I am incredibly lucky to have gotten to know. People like...

~ Giddy Tiger who has become one of my closest blogpals. I think of her like the jie jie I don't have in real life.
~ Simple American my blogging Jedi mentor from across the sea. *big bear hugs*
~ Mistipurple who is always there to make me laugh when I'm down in the dumps and leaves the most encouraging comments in my other blog.
~ L B who also cracks me up with his never-ending pursuit for non-existent chups! And for all the witty one-liners that make him so uniquely LB.
~ Ehon the sampat student do-gooder blogger in Aussie-land who is flying back soon!

There are so many others that I wanna name... but I have to restrict myself or I'll name the whole blogroll! So, to all those I've named above... this award is for you from me. With love. *muacks*

When I'm old and grey

Come next week, it will be the 100th day of my uncle's passing. My aunt has decided to hold a gathering to mark the occasion and as a dutiful niece, I of course will be there to lend her some support. The loss of her life partner has really been a great blow to her and even though she tries hard not to show it, it's there. She's lonely, lost and depressed. I'm sure in the back of her mind she wonders what life will be like in her later years. Who will be there for her, who will live with her. She's still lucky enough that she has five children who will most likely take her in when the time comes but the younger generation of today prefers to live their own life.

Ha, it might sound morbid but I hope that when the time comes, I'm not a burden to my children that they have to find options for senior care like a nursing home for me.

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Pretty beautiful

Isn't that just the sweetest thing ever? No thanks to itchy hands, last night I spent like 3 hours tweaking a new blog theme for my rinnah.com site. It's pretty beautiful, I think, but it was only after I set up my widgets that I discovered the author had done it completely in Italian! *smacks forehead* So I've been doing a crash course in editing the .php files for the theme, trying to find out all the Italian words and replacing it with English. Name was Nome, Comments was Commenti, bla bla bla bla bla... but I quite like the theme because I think it's so me! Hahaha. If you check it out and still see some weird Italian here and there, do let me know so I can go tweak it, ok?

Warning! Long-winded tag ahead...

My favorite tagger Giddy Tiger sent this double barrelled tag my way and because she did it twice, so will I! (Cannot lose out mah... I'm kiasu. LOL!)

The tag is simple and yet hard at the same time because you have to answer all 21 questions using a word or phrase beginning with the letter of your name. Oh, and you can't use back your own name to answer question 8 or 9...

This set of questions I'll answer with 'R' as that's my blogging nickname - rinnah.

1. Famous Singer: Ricky Martin
*shakes bon bon*

2. Four Letter Word: Rock
*shows LB a rock on RPS*

3. Street: Raleigh Street
I'm sure that a Raleigh Street exists somewhere in this world!

4. Colour: Red
Is Rum considered a color?

5. Gifts/Present: Really cool 8GB black iPod nano
*hint hint* X'mas is around the corner...

6. Vehicle: Range Rover
For the strong, silent type...

7. Things in Souvenir Shop: Receipt
Hey, you need a receipt for your souvenir purchases what...

8. Boy Name: Ryan
GT, you know why, right? *wink*

9. Girl Name: Rhiannon
Welsh for goddess, almost chose this as my nickname... Which one do you like better?

10. Movie title: Ratatouille!
Which I watched last weekend...

11. Drink: Ribena
Yum!

12. Occupation: Race car driver
*ala Kimi Raikonnen*

13. Celebrity: Robert DeNiro
The first name I could think of...

14. Magazine: Revival
I couldn't think of anything else, so this is a Christian mag la...

15. U.S. City: Rochester
Again, I'm sure that a Rochester exists somewhere in the US!

16. Pro Sports: Rowing
*thinks of handsome English oarsmen*

17. Fruit: Rambutan
*holds up Visit Malaysia Year 2007 placard*

18. Reason for Being Late to work: Rain
Which has been happening all too frequently lately...

19. Something you throw away: Rubbish
Ha, a variation of GT's answer...

20. Something you shout: Raid!!!! Polis mari!
No, I don't actually shout it. LOL!

21. Cartoon Character: Road Runner
*beep beep*


And when my name starts with 'P' for my real name...

1. Famous Singer: Pink
Who may or may not be on the brink of divorcing, depending on which gossip rag you read...

2. Four Letter Word: Pork
Which is literally a four letter word for my tummy... :o(

3. Street: Park Avenue
Where the swanky shops congregate...

4. Colour: Pink Purple
Not my favorite color, but mistipurple's!

5. Gifts/Present: Precious gemstone jewellery
*hint hint* X'mas is around the corner...

6. Vehicle: Popemobile
Hey, don't laugh, it's a vehicle, all right!

7. Things in Souvenir Shop: Pewter ware
Which Malaysia is famous for...

8. Boy Name: Patrick
*thinking of St Patrick's Day*

9. Girl Name: Priscilla
One of my friends is named Pris...

10. Movie title: Platoon
I didn't watch it though...

11. Drink: Punch
Will be drinking this at X'mas time!

12. Occupation: Programmer
Programmer = robot human with little or no life...

13. Celebrity: Pamela Anderson
Eh, again, this was the first name I could think of...

14. Magazine: Penthouse
Kakaka...

15. U.S. City: Peyton
At least, I think there's a city by that name...

16. Pro Sports: Pinball?
I'm a champion computer pinball player leh...

17. Fruit: Papaya
*holds up Visit Malaysia 2007 placard again*

18. Reason for Being Late to work: Period
Only women can use this excuse, k?

19. Something you throw away: Paper
Way too much sometimes... gotta recycle more!

20. Something you shout: Par-tee!
Wheeeee!

21. Cartoon Character: Popeye the Sailorman
*toot toot*


I should tag one or more people, but I don't have the heart to do so... (actually I wanna tag Zewt cos 'Z' is such a hard alphabet to do, but he doesn't do tags...) can I tag Misha instead? *grin*

Taking a chance?

I've been reading with interest the ongoing battle of the sexes between the readers of Kenny Sia and NicoleKiss' blogs. They (Kenny and Nicole) have been running a contest via their blogs giving away bottles of Hugo's latest fragrance for both sexes and of course the whole he said / she said drama has been dragged into the commenting ground. Kenny says females need to inflate the male's ego. Nicole says guys should make the first move. Bla bla bla. And a very random thought of mine is that finding someone you really like is like gambling, really. There are times when you like someone but there's always the chance that that someone may not like you back. So we're all playing a game of chance, no? What are the odds of finding that one true love? Hmm. I think I fancy my odds at the casino online more. *grin*

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Sing me a song...

Excited! Yes, even though I only can claim third-hand proximity to the event. I mau tumpang spotlight mah. *preens* LOL! You see, my good galpal Giddy Tiger's brother, is one of the nine finalist songwriters for this year's Malaysian Revival Songwriting Competition (MRSC) 2007. Woohoo! Way to go, GT's bro!

The following is cut-n-pasted from GT's blogpost here. (I'm too lazy to retype it, beyond making sure that the links are intact. LOL!)

**********
The concert will be held on Dec 2nd 2007 (Sunday) at the Matrade Hall in Jalan Duta, Kuala Lumpur. This charity event is held to raise funds for the National Kidney Foundation of Malaysia, Real Love Ministries (RLM - a counseling program to help the homosexual community) and NIE Asia (helping to build wells in Cambodia). Thus, invitation and/or tickets to this event is by donation only:

GREEN TICKETS
Donation below RM 50 (Minimum RM 10)

BLUE TICKETS (entitled to a CD as token of appreciation)
Donation above RM 50

PINK TICKETS (entitled to a CD as token of appreciation) - VIP
Donation above RM 200

Note: The CD above would either be Carbon (Compilation of Finalists from MRSC 2005) or Rizuan the Musical (Compilation of Finalists from MRSC 2006)

If you are interested to get the tickets, please contact Giddy Tiger or check out her brother’s blog for details. For more information about this spectacular event, visit the organizer’s website here.

**********

You can listen to the finalists' composition here and vote too, if you're so inclined.

I will be going to support GT's brother, anyone coming with me? *grin*

This is a community post brought to you by rinnah

Gotta ensure that insurance

I'm seriously wondering if I should sock it to my life insurance policy. I know everyone says you should get one when you're young (and I got mine when I was 18!) because the premiums are lower then, but it's like watching money flow down the drain every month. Plus, my policy's not superhuge either, just about average and even now I find the monthly premium to be a bane of existence on my bank account. Then let's not talk about my Car insurance which will be due again in a few months time. Thankfully, this is one premium that goes down each year as the car depreciates in value, so I'm not too chuffed about that. Whoops, gotta remind Dad about reviewing the Home insurance too. Yup, as you can see, I'm the defacto insurance agent in the family. *grin*

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Superpower Me!

I saw this in LB's site and his results said he had Super Strength... since I was very EFNTD, I also go try this out la! You know I can't resist quizzes, right? Right? Hehehe. So, this is what I got...

Your Superpower Should Be Super Speed

You're quick witted and fast to act. You're mind works at warp speed. From your perspective, everyone else is living in slow motion. You get so much done, people have accused you of not sleeping. Definitely not a couch potato, you feel a bit crazy if you're not busy doing something. Why you would be a good superhero: You're be the first on the scene... and likely to finish the job before anyone else shows up Your biggest problem as a superhero: Being bored by everyone else. Including other superheroes!

What Should Your Superpower Be?

But hor, I love my sleep too much and some have said that I'm so slow to move... so how to be accurate?

Of This, Proud I Am

My Padawan Ehon har, he no need to do assignments and study for exams wan very free and got nothing better to do (EFNTD) he go and start tags. What la this ah boy... (No, Ah Boy, I'm not referring to you. *grin*) But since he is my Padawan and since he called me beautiful, I shall oblige him la.

~ Start copy ~
It's pretty easy. All you gotta do is tell us your proudest moment, and then copy the following, and put your name, and your proudest moment below the previous person's name and paste it in your blog, and then tag another 5 people! :) Too easy, right?

1. Ehon's proudest moment is when he swept 5 out of 6 trophies at a State First Aid Competition.

2. Rinnah's proudest moment was when she graduated with a higher diploma from Cambridge University.

~ End copy ~

Peeps I wanna tag:
LB
May
Chen
Angel
Adrian

Note: In case you're wondering, I am prouder of my diploma than I am of my degree because Cambridge is more prestigious than the university my degree came from. LOL! But I like the tassel and mortarboard from my recent degree convocation ceremony better. Hahaha.

Bad credit debt the next wave?

You know that subprime mortgage crisis in the US right now? Well, word on the street there is that folks with credit card debt in US are the next big bubble waiting to happen. If that bubble pops before the US recovers from the subprime mortgage mess... well, let's just say that the US economy is gonna take a big hit. And if that happens, the rest of the world will be badly affected. Anyone remember the 1997/98 Asian crisis? I do. It's been ten years since that happened, and they say a crisis of some sort will come around every ten years.

I do hope that the folks with bad credit in US will try to do something to get out of the mess they're in before the rest of the world gets affected. They can see BadCreditOffers.com for ways to make their credit better (they offer bad credit loans) and even though there's a list of credit cards for those with bad credit, let's just say that more debt is evurl and should be avoided at all cost. Heh.

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Breaking news about my blog(s)

Folks, we are officially into November and I have two happy things to announce about my blog(s)...

This blog, It's all about the spin... has officially passed 50 readers on feedreader. (Information for stats by Feedburner website - ignore the button in the sidebar; it's not updated. *grin*)

Whoopee!!! I love you guys... all of ya (including the silent readers)! *muacks* Actually I'd already seen the stats last week, but it spiked to 54 then dipped back down to 48 or 49 before shooting up again this week. The stats have hit an all time high of 57 so far, but it's been holding steady at 52 for now. I know it's nothing compared to the hordes of amazing fans of LB's or May's or SA's or Zewt's blogs, but I'm am so touched and honoured that 52 people find my spin interesting enough to subscribe to my feed and read me. I promise you all I'll keep up the good work!

And secondly...

My other blog, Rinnah's Marketplace is now at Google PageRank 1 and has been monetized today.

Okay, so it's not particularly bombastic news, but I've already got a sponsored post or two lined up for it already. Heh. This means a new additional stream of online income for me and that's something I'm happy about. LOL!

Gotta build up more blogging steam, eh? *revs engine*

Shake, Rattle & Roll

That's what I've seen punters do to dice when they're playing craps, a casino game which mystifies me. All I know is that you're supposed to roll certain numbers to win big money, but I always feel that all of this is a game of chance. I mean, like how can you throw dice in such a manner so that you can predict that the numbers will fall the right way up? Gimme the laidback sophistication of blackjack or poker any day. You know... guys in tuxedos and ladies in evening gowns... jewels dripping all over... liqour flowing on tap... cigars alit... all images inbred through the watching of one too many God of Gamblers or James Bond movies. Hehe. I guess the closest I'll ever get to that scene is at Genting Highlands casino or maybe a trip to our neighbor Down South once the Sentosa Island on is complete. Or maybe some punting at some online casinos. Heh.

Why the sudden thought about gambling and casinos? Because she who cannot be named is bragging about her upcoming Las Vegas trip lor. Let's hope she does doesn't meet the Las Vegas CSI or the folks from the Montecito Casino. LOL!

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The Amazing THHC points round-up for October

Well, it looks like I posted less in October than I did in September and I foresee that I'll be posting even lesser for the months of November and December! But, of course, you know me... this ain't no guarantee of whether I do post or not. I do a number of posts normally each day, but it's spread out amongst my blogs so unless you're following me there then it'll seem like I'm not posting very much at all. *grin* But this isn't what you've come to see, now is it? On with the show!

Because Season 2 of The Amazing Race Asia (TARA) premieres tonight on Astro's AXN, let's show off the amazing racers for the month of October at this resort of THHC...

1st - L B
2nd - May
3rd - Angel

Other racers who got eliminated from the competition left behind in their wake were...

4th - Giddy Tiger
5th - Ehon
6th - Wennnn
7th - KYH
8th - Doreen
9th - Chen
10th - Mistipurple
11th - Lydia, Narrowband and Winn
12th - Zewt, Simple American and Adrian

And last but not least, a hearty welcome to new racers Doreen and Adrian! *waves*

Competition begins again with this post and racers may find their copy of the rules and regulations here. If you'd like to have your blog be a pitstop on the worldwide hunt for chups, contact RaceMaster LB, k?

Tara, tara! (Bad pun. Heh.)