Jewelle Tan Personally

Because we did a little work in our living room in Lumut home, I actually plan to scout around for table lamps now that I am in Sabah.

However, I have been here for nearly a month and I have yet to step into any lighting stores - and you can blame that on the busy roads as there is nothing that I hated more in KK (and its surrounding suburbs) than the jam and the heat.

How I wish that there are online lighting shops like the Farrey’s for their huge range of lamps and lightings of all kinds - table lamps, floor lamps, desk lamps and etc!

How easy it will be to shop for the perfect lamp when all I need to do is switch the computer (even in my pyjamas), browse through their collections, choose one that I like, pay for it and wait for it to arrive!

By the way, after a bit of feng shui reading last night, I now needed to get not only a couple of table lamps for the living room, but I also need to “invest” in a red lamp for the coming Chinese New Year!

Popularity: 5% [?]

How many of you have heard of this kind of home security technology that uses your fingerprints as key?

That’s right. Doors that use keyless lock!

I am not much into these kind of smart-home technology where you clap (for example) to switch certain electrical appliances or set the room temperature automatically because to me it makes us too dependent on electricity. Not a good idea in regions where power is not very stable - like here.

But I thought this technology of using only the owner’s fingerprint to open and lock doors is very useful. Imagine having less keys to carry around. And remember the moment when you forgot to bring the house keys only to find that nobody is home?

Or in my case, staying late at night to open the door for my husband when he has to work late.

Another cool feature of this keyless lock is that you could program the lock to give access to certain people during certain times only - which means that you don’t have to worry about outsiders holding a key to your home to be used for unauthorized entry at other times.

Price-wise, I am actually surprised that this technology is quite reasonably priced. From this particular site, they offer the cheapest keyless lock for less than $200 (with free shipping to the USA too). Not bad, don’t you think?

And just like some movies, there are also locks that use fingerprints and PIN code for added security.

Anyway, I am not comfortable enough to use this for my main door yet, but I would certainly consider using this for internal doors like the bedroom.

What about you?

Popularity: 6% [?]

I was once told to get into the stock market on a free lance basis since I have access to the internet the whole day and can therefore monitor the movement myself.

The problem is, I have no interest in learning about stock market and I know nil.

This is a pity as we do have some relatives (retired uncles) and friends who dabble in this on a free lance basis and have made some money and it is enviable when they announce that they have made some killings - perhaps not in the last several weeks I’m sure.

But there are any of out who happened to read this post, here is a useful site called Better Trades which might help you understand more on the stocks and options market. Based on the explanation of the kind of service that BetterTrades offers, even the most ignorant or sceptic may pick up some knowledge or even the confidence to try trading stocks and options.

This site offers various educational materials from DVDs to live internet coaching to seminar as well as giving access to the latest market information.

So check out the stock market basics and go through their options glossary to get the idea of the kind of tips and tricks you can get from this site.

Popularity: 16% [?]

When I visited my local public library last week, I saw a poster on the website of the “Brunei Library Association”.

However, while the idea is commendable, the result is far from inspiring. Perhaps it is still under development and hopefully it will be continually updated to live up to its tagline : “Ultimate Resources For The Aspiring Librarians”.

When that happens, I will be pleased to help spread the word around.

Speaking of librarianship, I have an ex-colleague who was offered the opportunity to work in the technical side of cataloguing (making materials easier to find and sort) which she is not so keen on. For the benefit of non-librarians, it takes a certain personality to excel in this area and even I will not willingly go into it.

However, I encouraged her to go for this post and then later find ways to seek transfer to departments that suit her strength more. Besides she plans to join this career networking site where she might find openings that interest her more.

In fact, if you did not know it, Climber is actually a useful career networking site which works by connecting professionals from any industry to potential employers. And obviously, the advantage of being headhunted through career networking site like this is that the pay is usually higher than if one were to applied for a job (as much as 15% on average). Membership is free.

Popularity: 20% [?]

Last week in the capital city, there was a briefing session on an American MBA program specially designed for managers and high level executives.

While many other MBA programs can also claim to cater for top executives, this one no doubt is definitely meant for company CEOs and those with equal power and authority.

Because the fees itself is already a cool $1++K. In US Dollars!

And this is not including the cost of traveling to various campuses around the world every few months which the stunned-to-silence-audience was told can work up to B$100K per year.

On top of that, you’d need to take one week leave to attend a study session every 5 weeks.

From the brochures, this program is definitely great and hugely beneficial. But it is by far the most expensive MBA programs that I have come across.

Even if you can afford the monetary side, I cannot imagine your boss will be too thrilled to have you take study leave for around 3 months in a year. Unless of course, you ARE the boss.

But those who have the time but not the money, you can perhaps try to look for student loans.

This particular loan provider seemed to offer really good service such as student loan consolidation where students can combine their study loans and pay lower interest rates. However, I am not sure if their private student loans service covers non-American students or most importantly, this kind of amount.

Anyway this particular MBA program did sounded like a wonderful program to join but unfortunately, the cost is simply too high.

Popularity: 23% [?]