Newbie to PPP

Posted on March 20, 2007 by The Giddy Tigress

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to explore money-making on the internet with PayPerPost (or fondly referred to by bloggers as PPP).  Since I know my blog is not matured enough yet (an approved blog needs to be at least 90 days old), I decided to click on the Get Paid to Review My Post link on a blog to write a review instead of writing a paid post.

When I clicked on the Get Paid to Review My Post link on any blog that has it, it will bring me to a PPP registration page, where I need to register as a PPP member.  An opportunity will then be created for me to review the blog where I clicked the link from.  Unfortunately I could not take this opportunity yet (there was no button/link available) because I had no approved blogs.  So I registered my blog and waited for the approval.

Unfortunately, today I received an email telling me that my blog had not met the 90-day old requirement and hence, PPP has rejected my blog (for now).  I’ll have to wait till it achieves the grand old age of 90 days before I can resubmit my blog for approval.

However, since I am already a PPP member, I am also now known as an affiliate member of PPP.  This means that I can place the Get Paid to Review My Post link on my blog (as you can see).  Visitors to my blog can simply click on the link and register themselves as a PPP member and review my blog.  Make sure your blog is at least 90 days old though.  And what do you get to write about my blog?  USD7.50, no questions asked.  All you need to do is write a post in your blog about my blog, submit the link to PPP and you get paid.  Good reviews or bad reviews, USD7.50 also.  And in return for receiving compliments and/or brickbats from my blog reviewers, I will also get USD7.50.  Good deal, yeah?

I’m just hoping that WHEN my blog gets approved, I still qualify to write a review about another blog…

Posted in Blogging | 1 Comment

Income Tax e-Filing: Attempt #1

Posted on March 20, 2007 by The Giddy Tigress

Last weekend I decided to try out the e-filing business for filing my income tax returns.  Hey, beats going to the Inland Revenue office, queueing up and wasting time, no?

I logged in to the IRB e-filing site, keyed in my PIN and IC No. and hit Enter.  Guess what?  I got a message telling me my identification number is incorrect.  Huh?  I double-checked and double-typed, still same error.  Then I found out that the IRB server had some problems (crashed?) the day earlier and so maybe they had some intermittent problems with the system.  So I decided to wait a few days.

Today, I tried going into the site again, but couldn’t even get the page to load up.  Hmmm…..I’ll get there yet.  And when I do and successfully submit my tax returns online, I’ll do a step-by-step thingy here.

Posted in Thoughts & Scribblings | Leave a comment

How to ensure rice is “koo”-free

Posted on March 19, 2007 by The Giddy Tigress

You know those small irritating black bug creatures that lurk in the rice bucket? The ones we Hokkiens not-so-fondly refer to as “koo”? These things have been plaguing me for as long as I can remember.

You see, since I only most of the time cook during weekends, or every other weekend, it is inevitable that one 5 kilo pack of rice can last us months on end. So these “koo” will invade our rice bucket especially towards the last bit of the rice.

What to do? I’ve heard from my Mom that the “koo” will not breed if rice is cooked and used frequently, like every day. Since I don’t do that, I put my rice in an air-tight container in the hope that the “koo” will not breed. But still the “koo”s will appear eventually. Why? Apparently the eggs from the “koo” are already present in the rice. So there’s virtually nothing one can do about it and leaving the eggs there with the rice will well…. cause them to breed.

So still a problem until NOW….I am proud to say that there is a solution! Place the rice in the FREEZER for 2 days. This will prevent the eggs from hatching and thus prevent “koo” from breeding. We tried this out during the recent CNY – we put the rice in the freezer and have been using it “koo”-free since. So far so good – let’s hope it stays that way 😉

Posted in Close to Heart & Home, Drooling & Cooking | 7 Comments

Customer Service “experienced”

Posted on March 19, 2007 by The Giddy Tigress

Several years ago, there was a nationwide campaign for (I think) the customer service personnel in this country, especially in the government departments. If my memory serves me correctly, the campaign was named “Service with A Smile”. Essentially, it encouraged everyone in the service industry to provide services to their customers while displaying their pearly whites. So if you’re making someone angry, just remember to smile… you might piss the fella off, but what the heck…Service with A Smile, right?

Anyways, I don’t think that campaign has been all that successful. Customer service here is fast on the decline… I was out shopping last Saturday in Jaya Jusco Queensbay Mall and purchased some skincare products amounting close to RM300. I don’t carry that much cash around with me, so I pay with a credit card. As luck would have it, the credit card system was down! I was ushered to a nearby cashier who claimed his credit card machine was working. So he swiped my card, waited for AGES…the transaction was no successful. He swiped my card again. Same thing. So I offered him another card to try. Still the same problem. He wanted to swipe the card yet again, and I was already getting frustrated. I told him that there is a limit to the number of times he could swipe the card, then the bank would just reject all the transactions from that card: a security measure from the credit card company. Finally, after standing at the cashier’s for close to 30 minutes, someone brought the old-fashioned zigzag credit card machine. Transaction done in less than 5 minutes and I was outta there. The salesperson I bought the skincare products from apologized profusely for the delay but the cashier in mentioned did not say a single word of sorry. Well, so much for making the customer happy.

Yesterday, we were at Gurney Plaza. I went to the shop I had bought my new sequined dress from to have the dress altered. I left it there and told the lady I would collect it before I left the mall. Two and a half hours later, I came back to collect the dress. The lady was nowhere to be seen, but there was a man on the phone behind the counter. I stood in front of him and he didn’t so much as acknowledge my presence. I saw my dress in a bag beside him, and I gestured for him to pass me the bag. He did so but still continued yakking on the phone. For goodness’ sake, he was the only person in the store, and he kept hanging on the phone still. Finally he hung up. We asked him (in English) where the lady was, and he replied in Mandarin (which I could not understand). In the end, he spoke in Hokkien and said sorry. I think the reason he apologized was because Pete looked angry.

Such blatant customer disrespect. Tsk tsk tsk…

On the other end of the spectrum, there are *dense* customer service personnel who perhaps try too hard to please…Case in point: we walk into a store which is on sale. There are sale placards everywhere: 20%, 50%, 70%. A sales personnel approaches us as we browse through a rack of clothes.

Salesperson: This one got 50% discount, miss.

I like Pete’s classic right-on response:

Pete: Yes, I am able to read that.

At the end of the day, we want customer service we can be proud of. The customer must feel satisfied to part with his money for the product/service he is purchasing and the sales person must be happy to provide that service. Only a handful of customer service personnel are able to do this. And even fewer can provide service with a smile.

Posted in Thoughts & Scribblings | 4 Comments

T.G.I.F.

Posted on March 16, 2007 by The Giddy Tigress

It was LOOOOOooooooOOOOOOOOoooooooong week for me and I am so glad it is Friday today. After the chaos and stress of managing 2 major application upgrades at work, I am so relieved that I can finally kiss the workweek buh-bye! So…as a prequel to the weekend ahead, I random-surfed and found some a few interesting sites to help kill time:

That’s it folks. Time for me to call it a night. Have a good weekend, y’all!

Posted in Relax & Celebrate | 2 Comments