by Penny on February 5, 2010
For the past few months I’ve been browsing around for good sales books. I definitely found many, and it was quite amusing that each author of these sales books were labelled as THE best salesperson there ever was. I suppose they need to say that about themselves, otherwise how will they sell their books, right?
So far I’ve bought some of these sales books from just 2 authors, namely Zig Ziglar and Brian Tracy. I’ve listened to both their audio programs too and I must say I do like and enjoy their materials very much.
I was reading one of Ziglar’s book and I really enjoy some of the funny anecdotes he used, about how being an effective sales person means you can sell just about anything to anyone, being able to convince people to buy an extravagant set of pots and pans or expensive fine china, and even get people to pay for future funeral costs! Wouldn’t you agree that it takes an amazing sales person to do that?!
So do you know of any other mentors in this area who can impart their skills and knowledge on how you get so good at persuading others to do what you are there to offer? It’s simply amazing, isn’t it?
by Penny on February 4, 2010
I can’t believe that I’m so behind in shopping for Chinese New Year and Valentine’s Day this year. To date, I haven’t even gotten a single item for Chinese New Year! It’s not like we buy a lot every year, but at least there’ll be some food items, some clothes for my little one and a little of this and that related to the festivities. But as of today, we are at ground zero!
How about you? What have you shopped for this new year? Got all that yummy snacks and cookies, beautiful and red clothes, new electronics items to replace faulty ones, decorative items, etc?
I don’t know why I don’t feel very festive this time around. Maybe that’s what’s affecting my shopping mood. But I shall get started soon and I think the easiest to start with is to shop for clothes and shoes for my little boy. Followed by all the snacks and mandarin oranges. We don’t really go for the deco, so I can leave that out again.
Since I’m so far behind in CNY shopping, you can also imagine that I’m slacking in my Valentine’s Day shopping too. In fact, this year I don’t even have time to write the gift idea series for Valentine’s Day shopping 
I hope to do this series again next year. We’ll see about that then, alright?
Enjoy shopping for the new year everyone!
by Penny on January 29, 2010
About 2 months ago I bought my first laptop bag. At the point when I was shopping for one, I was specifically looking for a shoulder sling type of laptop bag because I felt that it’s easier to reach into the bag to fish out my purse, car keys, phone, etc instead of those backpack type of laptop bag. You can read my earlier post about the Checker Plate bag that I bought.
But after using it for 2 months, I found that the bag isn’t that practical anymore. Maybe it’s the way it is designed with thin long straps that make carrying it around a very heavy task on the shoulder. Plus carrying all that weight on just one shoulder is seriously no laughing matter.
When I was taking a flight, I took the chance to have my laptop bag weighed at the check-in counter and it weighed 8.5kg. So that’s the weight I’m carrying on one side of my shoulder day-in and day-out when I’m out there working! Can you imagine the injuries I could easily succumb to?
Although I got plenty of compliments for the nice and unique bag, the pain from the strains I felt in my ankle when walking with the heavy bag finally made me realise that it’s not worth the battle with the bag anymore.
These kinds of bags are definitely more practical and comfortable to carry around!
So I shopped for another laptop bag. This time I made sure it’s a backpack type where the weight can be equally distributed onto both shoulders. I also made sure that the straps of the bags are sturdy and strong, and padded for comfort. It’s actually not as inconvenient as I thought to fish out the items I need. I guess it’s just a matter of getting used to it.
Now I feel a lot more comfortable going about my day carrying that 8.5kg worth of work stuff in a bag similar to the ones pictured above. Although I’m in my heels, the walk is a lot easier and I don’t feel the kind of strain anymore.
The other day I was randomly watching some TV programs about a bunch of lawyers and there’s this lady, an Oklahoma attorney who’s forever walking around with a heavy bag stuffed with huge files and I suddenly saw myself being like that with my heavy laptop bag. So pathetic! Thank God I’ve changed bags now 
So if you’re considering buying a laptop bag that’s shoulder-bag style, do consider carefully before you make the same mistake I did. If you’re not going to be carrying heavy things in it for long periods on end, maybe it’s not too bad. But you’ve been warned…so think carefully!
by Penny on January 23, 2010
A quick post to share something…Just recently I was talking about looking for family vacation packages because I was itching for a family holiday for this year. So I’ve been randomly surfing about, following one link after another and came across Branson vacation packages. At first I thought it was related to Richard Branson and that it was a brand name.
But when I went in to the website to check it out, it turns out that Branson is a destination, and it is a place suitable for family vacations, from bringing children to grandparents!
It’s amazing how many options you find when you are in tune to your goals and somehow end up finding things that fit
by Penny on January 23, 2010
Since this blog of mine reviews quite a number of things, I thought I’d do one for online education too. I used to work in a company that was providing online education to various groups of people, from children to adult learning. So I’m a big advocate of online learning. However, at that time we were a little too early in bringing such services to the market as the people and infrastructure were not yet ready for such a change.
Now, it’s a different story. Not only are companies adopting online training courses and children actively learning online even at schools, people can also can get an online degree. And these facilities are a lot more acceptable by the market now than before. It’s deemed as a convenient way to achieve the means of getting a qualification, especially for those who have time and financial constraints in attending a physical university to achieve what they desire.
One of the online universitites that I’ve come across is a non-profit online university called Western Governors University. It offers a suite of courses to pick from and it is amongst one of the more affordable ones. From training to be in the teaching profession to being a professional in business and even in information technology as well as the health industry, you can find these diverse offerings at this online university. Not bad, huh?
What is your perception of getting a degree without having to step into a campus? You know, seeing how things have evolved, it won’t be surprising to see that this will be the norm in our society come 2 to 3 generations down the road. You reckon?
