Archive for November, 2007

I’ve often heard of retail therapy. Got a tiff with your spouse? Go for retail therapy. Bored with daily routine? Go for retail therapy. Stressed out? Go for retail therapy. (Retail therapy = shopping=Yahoo! Yippee!)

But then retail therapy is expensive. It’ll burn a hole in your pocket. The angrier or the more upset or stressed up you are, the bigger hole it will burn. Besides for a SAHM like me, I can’t afford retail therapy so I do packing therapy instead? Whats that?

Packing therapy is packing and throwing. First you have to find the time to do it because once you get going and you build up the momentum, its hard to stop. Pack anything you like. Clear up old cupboards and drawers. Pack and give away old books, CDs, clothes, toys. Throw away old underwear (don’t give away those for goodness sakes). Remember when people were asked to donate for the Tsunami victims, they found lots of old underwear among the items, not just old but torn ones, with holes in them! Tsk! Tsk!

Yes, packing therapy is certainly much cheaper. Besides, once you’re done packing, you can sit back, relax, feel much happier about saying goodbye to clutter (for a time), and…….. pave the way for some real retail therapy. Hehe. So anyone want to join me in a cleaning and packing spree?

Saya hanya seekor Pelanduk, lagi pun Pelanduk betina pula, jadi apabila Gajah (Google) sama Gajah (PPP etc) berjuang, saya pun mati lah di tengah-tengah. Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. Kesiannya Pelanduk betina ni. Literally translated, this Malay idiom means that when Elephants wage war against each other, Deers die in the midst.

Enuf said. Thats my view of the World Wide Web World War going on right now. Google the big brother on the internet, in its action to slap all sites with paid links by taking away their PR has declared war. In response, PPP is charging on ahead with its first frontline defense, ie. RealRank and later on SocialSpark, come January.

Amidst this great war, the poor “Pelanduk” (Deer=Small time blogger trying to earn some moolahs) dies a quick death (if you surrender) or a slow death (due to lack of jobs). Take your pick. Neither sounds like a good choice. Even if you choose to sit back and do nothing but watch the war (as I have chosen to do), there is still the dark cloud of King Google removing you completely from its index handing over your head. (Horror of horrors!) Then you are kaput for good.

Well, my PR is gone now and I’ve just got my RealRank so now I sit back and see what’ll happen next. Will PPP be able to convince advertisers that RealRank is the real thing? Will Google take the next step that is feared by all ie removal of sites with paid links from its index? Will I get more jobs, assignments, campaigns or whatever it is you want to call it again?

Izea has this to say about its RealRank.

“Your numbers may change from increased participation and competition, however your numbers aren’t going to change because we decide we don’t like the content on your blog or the ad units you are serving from a competitor.”

Taking a stab at Google perhaps?

We don’t really know what Google’s real intention is. Are they really trying to maintain their search relevancy or are they just taking out ad units served by competitors? Maybe both but dear Google you are hurting a lot of real people like my goodself here. I work really hard at trying to become a WAHM from a SAHM (meaning housewife trying to earn some little pocket money to supplement her one income family). I work really hard at keeping my blog content fresh and original. Even my paid links content are original, fresh and new. That deserves a good PR.

If you want to go after sites, go after those that have nothing accept paid links within their content. Go after the content stealers, those that steal my blog posts just as soon as it is published. Those are the ones with duplicate postings that hurt your search engine results with duplicate content and are nothing but spam. But who am I to say anything. I am just a small “pelanduk betina” and you are the big “Gajah” so I just sit here and blog as usual and wait for things to improve or die a slow death.

BTW, my RealRank for my blogs is around 1-2k. These numbers will change daily as it is calculated daily. What does this mean? At the moment RealRank is open only to PPP registered users but it will be open to the public eventually. So if 50,000 PPP users have real rank installed, that means I am doing fine but if say only 3,000 has RealRank then I am somewhere near the bottom, something like that. What is your RealRank?

If you’re the kind who hates to go to a salon, you’ll love this online skincare store . Its great for busy mums on the go. When you have to look after little ones, who has time for the salon? DIY at home is the answer. And this is where you can find the products for a DIY facial makeover.

You can get all you need here for a home facial including professional skincare brands. From acne solutions to anti-wrinkle creams, from facial to bodycare products, everything is available in natural and organic form.

The skincare products available are not limited to women. You can find those for baby and men as well. If you want to relax while doing your home DIY facials, you can stock up on some lifestyle products like herbal teas, candles and aromatheraphy rejuvenating oils as well. So who says you need to go to a salon to get a beauty treatment?

Yesterday I was amused to receive a leaflet from a beauty salon. “School Holiday Promotion” it said. Lol! I wonder who its targetted for. I guess the mummy as usual. Perhaps during school holidays the mum will have more time. Time away from fetching kids to and from their activities. I really don’t know. I’m not there yet.

Only $150 for a full body whitening mask, it said. Wuah. These days, whitening the face is not good enough. Need to whiten the body as well. Hmm… I guess that makes sense. A white face on a darker body would look rather odd. Hahaha. I don’t know. I’m not into those whitening products. I’m white enough. White to the point of pale. I need more sunshine.

Ah… women. When they’re dark, they want to be fairer. When they’re fair, they want to have a tan. They will never be satisfied. Lol!

The other day when I was shopping, I walked passed the electrical appliances section and I stopped to look at my mirrored reflection on one of the refrigerators displayed there. I jokingly told my husband that it would be nice to have one of those in our kitchen. A refrigerator with built in mirrors for doors. It would certainly be useful on those days when I need to make a dash. I could apply my make-up in the kitchen. Lol!

It would seem as though my refrigerator is seriously outdated. There are so many new technologies these days. The compressor in newer models are more lasting and these days the freezer is usually found at the bottom instead. Hmmm….

When shopping for refrigerators and other big ticket items it is best to search the net for info and then find a store near you. You can do just that at Krillion which offers local search results for Amana Refrigerators and other major appliances for your home.