Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving in United States, where it is the beginning of the traditional Christmas shopping season. Since Thanksgiving falls on the fourth Thursday in November in the United States, Black Friday may be as early as the 23rd and as late as the 29th of November. Black Friday is not an official holiday, but many employers give the day off, increasing the number of potential shoppers. Retailers often decorate for the Christmas season weeks beforehand. Many retailers open very early (typically 5 am or even earlier) and offer doorbuster deals and loss leaders to draw people to their stores.
When I was studying in US last time, I used to go shopping during black Friday with my friends. I was eyeing one particular leather jacket that can burn a hole in my pocket. Thanks to Black Friday shopping I could get it cheaper, although lots of efforts went into it (including kicking, elbowing, cursing, etc).
Now, you don’t have to go through all those. This site let people purchase thanksgiving deals online without the hassle of having to stand in line at the store at 5am. This site also offers email alerts that let you know when new black friday ads have been posted.
I see a lot of things that I want to grab this year, specially from BabiesRUs. I need to buy a lot of baby things for my new born.
Black Friday
Caesarean or Normal Delivery?
I just delivered my second daughter. This time by normal birth. I tell you that I prefer C-Section method. The first baby, actually I want to try normal delivery, however since her position was faced up and I could not dillated fully for 12 hours, finally my gynea decided to do C-section.
The after-math, both are as painful. The different is, normal delivery, sitting is painful. Because I have stitches in my perinium. And because of the pushing during delivery, all my bone now is aching.
Survey: A Quest for Health Care Excellence 2007
DDI is looking to increase response rate to a survey targeted at executives in health care. At the end of the survey, participants will be asked to provide their e-mail address and contact information. DDI will randomly select one winner from the participants who complete the survey.
As DDI begins its annual business planning, they appreciate having your ideas and opinions to help keep them focused on your needs. This survey should take about 10 minutes. All information is kept confidential. If you would like to go into their drawing for an iPod nano, please provide your name, organization and email. The survey closes, Sunday, June 22, 2008. The drawing will be held on Monday, June 23, 2008.
To take the survey, click here.
Thank you for your participation in annual "Quest for Health Care Excellence" survey.
**This is a paid post**
Chili
I like to eat rice with chili. In fact I can't have good appetite to eat if I don't put chili on my rice. I think this is the habit that start since I was small.
I still remember when I was small, my grandmother always put chili on my rice when I didn't have any appetite to eat. Then later, I can't eat without one.
Research in humans found that "after adding chili to the diet, the LDL, or bad cholesterol, actually resisted oxidation for a longer period of time, (delaying) the development of a major risk for cardiovascular disease".
Police Gear
L.A. Police Gear, Inc. was founded by Los Angeles area Police Officers. The business has grown and changed greatly over the years and now serves the general public, military personnel, security professionals, and of course police officers (or anyone else who would like to buy from them)
5.11 Tactical Series creates superior products that enhance the safety, accuracy, speed and performance of law enforcement, military and firefighting professionals. Built on a foundation of durability, quality and value, 5.11 Tactical gear leads the industry by delivering functionally innovative gear, head to toe.
**This is a paid post**
Price Increase
Now everything is gone up in price. A few months ago I still managed to buy milk for Lauri for RM 60 something per can, now already RM 70 something. However, salary no increase at all. What to do? I think we must cut out our spending. Reduce eat out, reduce unnecessary cost. If possible I also want to increase my income, since in another week or so, I will have another family member. Yes! my baby girl is due in 10 more days!
Dangerous Feeding Bottle?
I hear this from my friend. It seems that a lot of feeding bottle for baby that is made from plastic is not safe for baby. The reason is because it contained BPA or Bisphenol A.
Researchers tested 19 baby bottles purchased in nine U.S. states and Canada. Bottle brands included Avent, Dr. Brown, Evenflo, Disney, Gerber and Playtex. When the bottles were heated to 175 degrees F (80 degrees C), every one of them leached bisphenol A at about 5 to 7 parts per billion. The report also suggested that because of the chemical makeup of bisphenol A, it may leach more in fatty or acidic liquids, such as milk or apple juice, than in water.
Three URLs below has great info on BPA.
http://www.nurturepure.com/assets/docs/Toxic-Baby-Bottles.pdf http://www.avent.philips.com/en_US/products/philips_avent_on_BPA.asp http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1711398,00.html?imw=Y
I think it is best to use glass milk bottle.
The New Media Expo: Brings Together Podcasters and Bloggers
Have you attending an EXPO before? I did. Many times. Today I found out that there is EXPO for online audio and video creators that brings together podcasters and bloggers from around the USA and the World!
The approx. 3,000 attendees that come to the Expo each year consist of four main groups:
1. Individual media creators who are producing content for the web for their own ventures, as freelancers or as hobbyists - and are coming to learn how to create better blogs, podcasts and online video.
2. Corporate content creators and marketers attend to learn how to create audio and video content for marketing or internal training and get educated on strategies for advertising within online content that will resonate with their customers and prospects.
3. Media buyers, public relations firms and advertising agencies attend to learn about the latest trends and develop partnerships with groups 1 and 2.
4. Educators, universities and institutions attend to learn how to best extend the classroom and use audio and video as an e-learning tool.
This Expo is a hands-on, exciting, "how-to" event with practical conference sessions about how to produce high-quality online content, grow a loyal audience, and market or monetize that content in creative ways.
*This is a paid post*
Gold
I love gold. I always like to buy gold jewelry.
When I started to work and earned my own money, after pay-day, I always went shopping to buy gold bracelet, or necklace, or ring.
My parent always encourage this hobby of mine. They always said that buying gold is a good habit. Better than spend the money to buy clothes or bag or shoes. If you need money, you can always sell your gold.
Now, gold price is crazy. See table below. How I wish that I bought more gold.
Buying House in Penang
Buying house is always my obsession. I don't like to rent house. I prefer my own house. My logic is rather than pay the rent better use the money to pay the installment. If you rent, in the end of the day, you ended up with nothing.
However, I find that landed property in Penang is very very expensive. I think it's because Penang is a small island, so land is limited. I also notice that the price of landed property here is always increase and never decrease. It's a good investment if you can afford it.
Here, I found some interesting discussion about penang property.
My New Camera
In the end, I got Sony Alpha DSLR-A350 camera. Not Canon. The reason is because hubby got Minolta SLR camera, and we still can use his old lens. I still haven't read the manual yet, and hubby still busy playing with it the whole day. Thus, I have to wait my turn to learn to use it.
If you want to see the review, here it is.
Active Toddler
My daughter is a very active toddler. When my parent come to visit me, they were amazed to see the different between me when I was a toddler and her. According to my mother in law, my husband also a very good toddler last time. So, why my daughter is totally different from us?
I always thought that children nowadays very active compares with the children in my generation (possibly because the milk, food and the environment), until my daughter went to pre-kindergarden. I can see that not all children very naughty like my daughter. Most of them is very good. She is among the hyper-active one. The one that can not sit still and always like to run around. In the class, she also can not pay attention very long. Her mind is always wandering somewhere after sometimes, or she play with something.
Then what makes her so active? Somebody please tell me. Is it because both me and my husband very good, now our daughter become hyper-active just to balance it? Hahahahaha!
Can a family with income RM3,000 survive in Malaysia????
I got this email from my husband. It's quite funny and yet very true.
Let's do some simple calculations here.
In Malaysia, the average family income is RM3,000 /month (where father works, mother doesn't). I understand there are many families whose monthly income does not reach RM3,000, but, to make things simple, let's take RM3,000 as the figure. Ok lah, right? Okay, let's start rolling with a family which has Papa, Mama, 1 daughter and 1 son. Ngam-ngam .... Calculation starts.
Electricity and water bill: RM100 (No air-con, No home theatre, No water heater ... ok?)
Phone bill ( Telekom): RM100
Meals for a happy family: RM775 (3 meals on RM25/day, RM25 for 4 persons...?)
Papa makan / teh-tarik during working hrs: RM155 (RM5/day, RM5 ... can eat what?)
Car repayment: RM400 (A proton saga aeroback, 7 yrs repayment)
Petrol (living in city, traffic-jam): RM300 (go to work, bring son to school, only can afford one car running)
Insurance: RM650 (kids, wife and myself)
House repayment: RM750 (low cost housing repayment for 30 yrs, retired still have to work to pay!)
Tuition: RM80 (got that cheap meh? i don't think so)
Older children pocket money @ school: RM20 (RM1/day, eat bread?)
School fees: RM30 (enough ah?)
School books and etc: RM100 (always got extra to pay in school)
Younger children milk powder: RM50 (cannot have the DHA, BHA, PHA one, expensive)
Miscellaneous: RM100 (shampoo, rice, sauce, toilet paper)
Oh wait!!! I have to stop here, so... No Astro, no movie @ cinema, no DVD, no CD, no online, cannot KFC, cannot McDonald, cannot go Park walk during weekend (petrol expensive), no chit chat on phone with grandparents, and etc... Let's use a calculator to total up... WALAO EH! Shit! RM3,610 already... EPF belum potong, income tax lagi........oledi RM3,610 ... How to survive!!
Get Your Priority Straight
The other day I watch Oprah show. It’s about couples that have a lot of debt. Their spending is more than their income. Most of the time they paid using credit card, but by the time the due date to pay, they can not afford to pay. The balance keep increasing so does the interests.
I think that is the disadvantage of using credit card. Sure you don’t have to pay right away when you go shopping, that is why you don’t feel that you spend your money. However, in the end of the month you still have to pay, and that is when you can feel it.
When you don’t use credit card, and only bring cash, you can reduce the impulse buying. You will think for a moment, whether your cash is enough or not. If your cash is not enough, then you won’t buy it and probably think to get it the next day. However, the next day, it’s another different story, and in the end you ended up not buying it.
Cost
I am trying to calculate the expenses of my daughter every months:
Milk, she drinks Enfagrow milk. She can finish 1 can (1.8 kg) in 10 days. Thus in a month I have to spend about RM 70 x 3 can = RM 210,-
Diaper. Yup, she still wear diaper at night. I use Mami Poko, which is about RM 1/diaper. Thus in 30 days costs me RM 30,-
Her pre-kindy costs me RM 175/month.
Thus total is about RM 415,-
Pneumococcal Vaccine
This is new vaccine that recently being introduced in here. My daughter had already vaccinated by this. It’s very expensive. I guessed because it’s new.
What is Pneumococcal Vaccine?
The pneumococcal vaccine (or pneumo vaccine for short) protects against pneumococcal infection.
This infection can cause diseases such as pneumonia,septicaemia and meningitis.
Children are offered pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) at two, four and 13 months, with people who are 65 and over being routinely offered pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine (PPV) to protect against pneumococcal disease.
However, the other day, my friend, who is a Doctor just told me that there is a speculation that this vaccine can caused Autism. Not sure whether that is true or not.
Internet
My Internet connection not very good today, in fact, yesterday also not very good. I am not sure that I can post this. Cross my finger.
Nowadays, people (read: me) depend on the internet too much. If one day without internet, I will feel restless. I need to check my email. I need to blog. I need to surf the internet. It's an addiction I tell you. It's like a fish need water.
I am also thinking to do business online. I must survey the market first whether there is a demand. I will talk about that in detail later.
Baby Name
My due date is on 26 May, but until now I still haven't a clue what I should name my baby. I want a name that is not too common or too plain. However, also not too difficult to pronaunce. Must start with alphabet that is somewhere in the middle, so next time when she is in the list, she won't be called the first or the last. At first I want it started with J (my husband initial), but I can't find interesting name started with J.
My first baby, since my name start with L, I also want her name to start with L, then I look up in dictionary and find one that interest me, so I used it. But, now, I can't find one started with J that interest me. I guess I have to start with different alphabet.
QSTR Home Based Business System
One of my friends asking me about QSTR Home Based Business System.
She asked me whether I have heard it before and whether it is real or scam. Since I never heard it before, so I googled it. I wanted to know what other people experience with them.
Then I found this blog. He wrote about his experiences.
Probably it works on some people, but I don’t like this kind of system. Not for me.
Uphamol vs Panadol Suspension for Children
I always give DD Uphamol 250 everytime she got fever. However yesterday I run out of it although normally I keep stock at least 1 bottle. It seems I used all of it already. Somehow the pharmacy where I use to buy medicine didn’t carry that medicine anymore. They offers the substitute Panadol suspension. Since DD is only 3 years old, I choose the one that for 1 to 6 years.
However, at home, when I read the instruction, I just realized that I need to give more than I used to give if I use Uphamol.
You see, normally I gives DD 5 ml (her pediatrician prescribes this), but when I read the instruction in Panadol for 1 – 6 years, I need to give 6 ml to 10 ml.
It’s very difficult to give 5 ml to DD somemore now I have to give more?
Furthermore the opening of the bottle is so small that I can’t insert my syringe in (I use syringe to feed the medicine to DD).
I asked my DH to look for Uphamol in another pharmacy, but he also could not find it. This time he bought Panadol for 6 years and above. This time, I can give the same amount (5 ml), but the solution is so thick that I can’t pour it out.
I think I have to really hunt for Uphamol 250. Panadol is not my type.
