An Intriguing Tale Of Being An Owner

As I read the blog about the mission team that went up to Haiti to help build schools but were caught in the middle of the most devastating earthquake – i cannot help but wanna cry.  I salute these brave and unselfish volunteers who are in Haiti right now and wonder what we at the store can do to help besides donating money?  Getting them a seo software so that they can get better coverage..??   or donating computer equipments..??  How can we help them..?? and how can we make awareness.. to people in this town.

Beautiful beaches and holiday resorts is what i remember of Haiti – for those who don’t know where Haiti is – it’s pretty close to the Dominican Republic and less than 200 miles away from the Caribbean Islands.   Been there – done it was what i usually tell people when you are using cross country moving companies like taking taxis once upon a time.

But this morning on the local news – it wasn’t a pleasant news or anything i wanted to wake up in the morning – more so – i know that there are a group of volunteers from this town who are up there doing good for the ppl of Haiti.  Haiti is very slowly but surely trying to help their own economy and an almost God forsaken place -   you would think that God would spare them.  Poverty is huge there – one can see it as soon as you are out in the local town and local ppl.  Sure the beaches are beautiful and so are many places by the sand and the sea – but mostly you can see how poor the ppl are there.  I cannot tell you how heavy-hearted i am right now and hoping that the death toll would stop right now as i continue following the news and already 100,000 feared dead.  I continue to hope here – hope for a safe return for the people from here and glad that my g/f who went to the Caribbeans to escape the cold is already back home.

I’ve seen many reports of scams in Asia.. about elderly being scammed after receiving calls that their kids are in trouble … and they needed money for hospital bills and so forth.  I can fully understand why these elderly are easily scammed because in our culture and society where our kids are so important.. and the parents think nothing about helping out.. and withdrawing money from the bank and giving them to a complete stranger it is hard to believe that ppl would fall for scams like using apatrim and claiming to this elderly folks that they are miracle pills.  It is unfortunate that there are skunks who tries to scam these elderly ppl and if they were ever caught i hope would get a stiff sentence but I am guessing in the West, ppl donch fall for frauds like in Asian countries..?

The Yarmouth RCMP are alerting residents about a fraud scam taking place in other parts of Nova Scotia.

The scam involves a male calling an elderly person indicating that he is with internal security with the bank and he is conducting an internal investigation on a bank employee and he needs their help. He asks the person he’s called to withdraw large sums of money from their account and meet him in a parking lot, where the money is given to him.

The man tells the victim to go home and to not discuss this with anyone for the next 72 hours as it would hurt the investigation. After that period, he tells them they should stop into the bank so they can discuss the file.

The RCMP says bank investigators do not solicit assistance from their clients to withdraw money and give it to them. If anyone has been approached in this manner they are asked to call Phone Busters (an RCMP fraud/scam division) at 1-888-495-8501 or call their local police.

Come August 20th, the store will be celebrating its 10th anniversary.  To say that we are not tired of running our own business would be a lie.  But then, if you work for someone.. you still pretty much have to take all sorts of nonsense from your co-worker.. or your bosses.  Yes.. some are really no so nice.. i wished they would go get some acne treatments for the pain they are causing others.  But running your own business.. you also get a different kinda headache.  So there is really a no win-win situataion. So the solution is to be happy and don’t sweat the small stuff.

It gets really cold here in Canada.. and one place i would loved to go for a vacation if we could close for Christmas is to be in Las Vegas.  Sure it is cold there too.. but nothing beats the lights and all the cool stuff you can do in Vegas.  Of course, I would never missed the Las Vegas Shows and there are just too much to choose from.

But one can also book your tickets online depending on who you are going with.  If it is only for you and your spouse .. and you are leaving the children behind, I would recommend David Spade show.  But if I was going with my girlfriends.. the Mama Mia show is a must.  Getting your tickets at good price from www.showlasvegas.com is your best bet in getting good tickets at good prices.

While I do not agree with hanging a 20 yrs old for 47gm of heroin he had on him or he claimed was delivering for his boss, I cannot helped but feel that here in Canada.. the law is too slacked.  So much so that people are not afraid to commit crime and to sell drugs openingly.  If and when they get caught here for trafficking.. all they will get is a year or two in jail (nice housing with free food and tv and even console games) .. and they are out again.

Many Canadians here commit petty crimes.. and do not work.. or go on welfare .. because the law does not come down hard enough on them.  If they ever lived in Singapore… they will know that being in jail is not something that you want to be in ever again.  Trust me.. !! i know what i am talking about.

Remember a few months ago, we won air tickets to Montreal..??  Yup..!! the donation ticket that we didn’t buy ourselves.. but a customer turned good friend .. Sherri who had bought it for us as part of her Christmas present to us.  Nah.. we didn’t get to go.. because it’s hard .. to shut down the store for week.. and leave.  But if it was tickets to Las Vegas.. well.. you know who would be on the first plan outta here eh.  The las vegas strip is definitely a place to revisit.. especially if this time. .was with my spouse and not with my ex-bosses and ex-engineers.. it would definitely had been a great trip.

Gem of Life Episode 10 will be something i will be watching while at work and eating my breakfast at the store.  But for those who wants to watch it .. you can just hop over to my entertainment blog.  And a very Happy Halloween to all our friends from all over the world.. and our customers.. in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.

Tell me about it..!  Office space negotiation can be a real hassle and for someone who worked for representative offices moving from one country to another, it can get really stressful.  Reason being because you don’t really know what is the actual market price and the different landlords you are dealing with.  But if you trust the professionals like Don Cox and company for Austin Office Space, you eliminate all the above problems I had mentioned, all at no extra cost to you.  Why not eh? Find the right office/warehouse for leasing and subleasing in a jiffy.  Any smart office manager would take advantage of their expertise.

You would think that owning your own business deserves you a spot to park right outside your own store without having to pay and without having to worry about vandalism on your car, right? Nope. The town has other ideas.  In fact come Christmas, if you so much as think about parking on Main Street in front of your own business, you will be berated in the downtown flyers that they distribute every couple of weeks.

In big cities like London, they have London Garages to look for when it comes to parking safely and making sure that your car is still there when you are done work.  To think that they are even more affordable than parking in my small town, and a lot more efficient when it comes to renting a space for your car, now that has got to be the coolest thing ever.  Apply for your parking space online and have everything taken care of for you online. No hassle, no stress, no more having to drive round and round from one car park to another before 7am just to get a parking space.  For ladies like me, no more having to worry about going to a quiet car park after 9pm and worry about getting robbed or worse .. raped..!  Plus they have an extensive location for your convenience, no compromises, just the place you want your car to be.

It is very interesting owning your own business, of course we do have bad days encountering not so great customers.. but we have more amusing days to thank for, like when a long time customer came in to ask me to help him interpret an email sent by his Asian fiancee.

Many a times, I do get a customer or two asking me about how they can find Asian friends and they don’t want to be on a site that might scam them.   Asian Chat is a free website where lots of Asians from all over Asia are gathered to chat, exchange ideas and make friends with others. Plus if you are one who loves to see your Asian friend, this is the place you want to be for your free Asian video chat line.  Sign up for free and start making friends with Asians.

I read in today’s news that the 18 yrs old actor of the Harry Potter film got stabbed and died during a bar brawl in London on Saturday. It is really sad.. and really not called for. The kid was only 18 yrs old.. with a bright future .. and he died..!

Recently, something similar happened in this town.. the victim didn’t die..but he was bashed up badly too.. the reason unknown till now.. how the fight began. Why do ppl resort to violence so quickly..?? Who is going to be the next victim of senseless beating up and accidental killing..??

It came as no surprise to me.. to learn that the Ruling party lost control of 3 states, Kedah, Penang and Kelantan. In fact, I heard blogger Jeff Ooi won Penang over and I’m certainly happy for him. Malaysians do need hope.. and a big change.. and i am happy .. that the oppositions did win some seats.

Malaysians had been questioning the ruling party .. for the things they had been doing for the last 5 decades and had been discontented for a long time.  A change was needed and i know of some who traveled afar just to vote and make sure that their vote counted.

You all know that we owned both a movie store and a computer store. Recently our competition was shut down by Microsoft because of software piracy, it came as a surprised to us of course because we lived in a very small town and for Microsoft to be able to hunt them down, it is quite amazing to me.

I became more aware after this software piracy incident and today i learned that Hollywood is suing some Chinese website for piracy and despite so many warnings, they permitted users of its file sharing service. So donch play, play .. when you are downloading movies from the net because just one day, someone might come knocking at your door.

I was thinking of making more money by joining the Reverse Funnel Scheme but the man thinks that the Reverse Funnel is a scam. If you remember the pyramid scheme, you will understand why he is going on about it. He thinks it is the new hype and a new bullshit money making scam that is going around, a glorified pyramid scam ..he calls it.

I remembered many years ago, my neighbour.. who was also my god-daughter’s father.. asking me to join in something like the Reverse Funnel. He had said to me.. that he had nothing to lose.. except for the $200 for his initial investment… and if he doesn’t get anything outta it.. it’s alright.. afterall $200 is very little to pay for an investment. So if everyone thinks like my neighbor.. the person who invented the scheme would definitely benefit no..?

This Reverse Funnel scam is all automated now.. using websites instead of making calls to ppl and having meetings to con people outta their hard earned money. Sure the ppl on the top will be making all the money immediately, as soon as you join their scheme but what about those at the bottom..?? Is there really a way where every single person doing this can make money outta it..??

“The person who creates the scam is at the very top. The first person he cons into buying in pays him money and then goes out to convince other people to buy in and so on. A reverse funnel is an upside down funnel. What does an upside down funnel represent? That’s right, a pyramid, and last I heard, pyramid schemes are still illegal. Don’t waste your money people, if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck… you get the picture. Until someone can prove to me otherwise, the Reverse Funnel System is something that should be avoided at all costs. I do find it worth mentioning however that a search on scambusters.org doesn’t find any results, could it be too new that people haven’t caught on yet?”

Anyone had real experienced with the Reverse Funnel..?? The website is really convincing.. and I wished i knew if it was genuine.

Source: AP Photo

It certainly shocked me.. when I read this, this morning. I donch know the former Prime Minister personally but had the honor of shaking hands with her when she stayed in one of our hotel properties in Asia. Her death is one of the saddest moment of my life… because this quashes hope of many supporters including myself.. that she can bring Pakistan’s fight against the Taliban and al-Qaida militants after the election. I have been following her campaign and her outreach religiously and cannot believe that a suicide bomber got to her.

Inland ice seen from a helicopter. Arctic ice melted at record levels in 2007, alarming scientists and raising alarm bells around the world. 

No. 1 Weather story in Canada.  So what does it all means to us.. the layman..??  Should we be very worried..and frightened right now..?? what can we do.. to stop it from happening..?? or slow it down.  I know that the thinning and shrinking is largely because of the warm years but am not really sure about it besides that.  I really think it is everyone’s duty not to be ignorant about stuff like that.  One or two group of people fighting for a cause like that.. wouldn’t make a difference… so we should be educated about it.