Recently, I was stressing about my credit card debts. I had this fear that it will take me at least another year to keep it below RM500. To make myself feel better, I started googling tips on how I can save money while settling my debt.

One of the articles I found suggested paying a fixed amount to the credit card(s) on a weekly basis.

I thought it was a pretty good advice. After all, if I save RM1 a day, I can get RM30 by the end of the month. To save RM50, I would need to save about RM7/day. The author suggested paying RM50 a week to steadily pay off RM200 a month to a card.

So that was what I did yesterday, as soon as I got my mid-month pay.

It was a painful experience because I am one of those people who would avoid parting with my hard-earned money so that I have cash in hand for things like food or petrol or online shopping (LOL).

But I knew it was the right thing to do. So yesterday, RM50 went to my Visa and another RM50 to my MasterCard. And that is just Week 1. So far so good. At least I made the first step.

I was also thinking that I could try saving RM20 a week. Nothing too ambitious. By the end of the week, I’d have saved RM80 that could go towards paying one of the cards, maybe. I think that’s manageable.

Okay, enough talking about paying bills because that is just depressing. Later!

It has been a fast-paced and trying week for me. But one thing I can be proud of – I accomplished a lot of things that I had set out to do.

Still, it wasn’t a perfect week.

I had a lot of problems with the piece that I was writing. It was straight-forward but there were too many details to mention, so it got confusing. When you’re confused, you tend to make mistakes. It happens even to the best of us

Finishing that job by Wednesday was doubly hard when I had to an appointment I couldn’t miss 15km away on the same day. Yet I managed.

I can honestly say I did my best with the amount of time that I had. The result was not as great as I had wanted it to be but I’m happy because I did what I could with what I had.

If anyone has a problem with it, then it’s theirs — not mine.

As far as I’m concerned, everyday is a battle so naturally, you win some and you lose some. You can’t win them all so you have to choose your battle. The piece was probably a battle I wasn’t meant to conquer.

If I could do it all over again, I probably would but I can’t… so I won’t. And we all just have to deal with it.

Now that I have that out of my system, I can move on to other more important things in life, like family.

I just spent more than an hour tying little ribbons to sandalwood fans which will be wedding favours at my cousin-in-law’s wedding in Dec. Arts and crafts is not my forte, so I struggled to do it. I’m not completely happy with a lot of the ribbons I tied but if I concentrated on making them look pretty and up to standard, I will be spending 15 minutes on one fan. Not such a good idea, is it? So again, you have to put things into perspective. Perfection or getting the job done on time?

Most of the time, it’s unrealistic to aim for perfection. Personal best is the next closest thing to perfection. Personal best is not perfect but it’s good enough for me, by my standard. And I’m really down with that.

Tomorrow, I’m going to continue with that for a bit before I leave for my hometown. I need my mom or brother to help me sew my baju kurung for the wedding or rather the solemnisation ceremony. I’m going to drive back home again the following weekend to pick up the baju.

I still need to find a red/black baju for the reception. I might beg, steal or borrow that :)

On another (random) note, I’m still pleased with Acne.org and how it is controlling my acne problem. My acne is really under control and I dare say that my skin is in its best “shape” ever.

As I’ve mentioned before, the product has not entirely stopped zits from forming on my face. But the severity has decreased. They are few in number and considerably smaller in size, to the point that they are hardly noticeable.

If you’d like to know more about the product or regimen, visit Acne.org. You have an option of practising the regimen using your product of choice — mild facial cleanser, 2.5% benzoyl peroxide and moisturiser with SPF15. Although I use my own cleanser and moisturiser (instead of the ones sold on the website), I highly recommend purchasing the Acne.org 2.5% bp. It’s the key product in my regimen.

My skin isn’t perfect but it’s the best that it has ever been in a long time. And I don’t think it’s wrong to celebrate my personal best instead of perfection.

There are days when you woke up on the wrong side of the bed. You leave your bed with little motivation and enthusiasm to go about your day that although nothing bad happens, (your day) just lacks that umph.

Other days, you wake up the moment that alarm clock rings and you immediately hop off the bed, sing or dance in the shower and proceed to have a mini-adventure of your own later that day.

I think I just had one of those days where I felt alive and chatty.

I had all reasons to be grouchy because I had to wake up at 5am just to make sure that I finish my work before 7am and have it ready for the boss to go over at 10am.

Plus, I had to rush all the way to Bandar Baru Sg Buloh to meet a class or Fifth formers who published a book, which is now in its second print. I’ll blog more about that some other day.

And then, I had to take the komuter to go back to the office and finish another piece of writing to be submitted before my sub leaves the office and takes the day off tomorrow.

But today, I also have a lot to be thankful for.

I work up at 5am and managed to finish my work within two hours  –  just like how I had planned. Normally, I would set the alarm at 5am and would hit the alarm and go back to sleep.

Then, my husband was free to send me to Bdr Baru Sg Buloh, so I didn’t have to take the train because I was running late anyway. We got to the school without any problems because I could find the school in the GPS and it took us right to it, right on time.

I had a blast talking to the students and some of the teachers who treated me to lunch. And then, one teacher — who was on the way home — was very kind to give me a lift to the komuter station.

I had to wait for only 15 minutes for the train to arrive and had a good chat with a Sixth former who was going back to her boarding school in Seremban. Before I alighted the train at KL Sentral, she actually salam-cium my hand as a sign of respect because earlier I had told her I was older than she thought. She thought I was a college student. Haha! That made my day :)

I got back to the office just in time to write the piece and still managed to leave the office at 6pm.

And when I got home, my mom-in-law had cooked yummilicious nasi ayam and I had that for dinner.

My day couldn’t be any better, really!

So I wonder what kind of day is in store for me tomorrow? Whatever tomorrow lies for me, I’ll start the day with a prayer and a rock-out session with my Disney princesses Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez.

I love my manufactured pop and rock songs :)

Oh looky… Sesame Street turns 40 this week!

That means the SS gang is not that much older than me. (For the record, I’m 31) Yikes! But I love SS. I learned English watching the show.

Anyway, I felt like blogging again today but I’m going to do it real quick because I do have a deadline to meet tomorrow.

Now I haven’t forgotten what I wrote in yesterday’s post. That I’d prefer to wake up early to meet a deadline than do work at night.

But I think I have to make an exception tonight.

I’ll just spend an hour on it tonight — promise! I really must do as much as I can because I have an appointment at 1130 hours in Bandar Baru Sungai Buloh. So I had better make sure the copy is ready by the time I reach the office. I really hate missing deadlines.

Which reminds me; I forgot to pass the cover photo to the graphic artist. I forgot to do it because it wasn’t on my Ta Da list — figures! But then again I didn’t see him today either. Oh well. I’ll just consult the boss and let her choose which one she likes.

Because this is a super quick story, we would have to settle with what we have. When we’re not so pressed for time, we normally go for illustrations. But we can’t be perfect all the time, now can we?

Initially, I was really nervous about completing this story because of its pretty rushed. But thanks to some extra information the organisers emailed me today, I’m much calmer now. I just need to focus. And for an added boost, I’ll need some kick-ass soundtrack playing in the background :)

Ok. Blogging time is up. Next: hot shower. to wash the day away.

Till next time!

This is Week 2 of my journey towards taking control of my time, money and life in general. How has it been? So far so good I guess.

Well, at least my horoscope says so. And you know how you’re more inclined to believe your horoscope when it says that nice things are in store for you, don’t you? LOL.

Anyway, I now officially cannot function without my To Do note book. I don’t know what I’m going to do if I misplace it!

For example this morning, I got a bit derailed — chatting too much and surfing the Internet when I should be working. And then I remembered to check my To Do list, or as Get Organised Now calls it “the Ta Da list” (because when you get a chore done, it vanishes like magic, you say Ta Da! Get it?). Just like that, I was doing all the things that I needed to do and managed to tick off a lot of things on the list. f I hadn’t done peeked at my Ta-da List, I think I would’ve forgotten to do many things.

What I like about my Ta Da list is that it also keeps me focused. I keep my phone on Vibrate mode when I’m at work. I let calls go into my Voice Mail. I check my emails and return calls between 11am and 12pm and 4pm and 5pm. And at night, I basically do whatever I want and they are not work-related. If I have a deadline and need to finish some work, I just make sure that I sleep early to wake up early the next day to get the job done.

Now, daytime for me is for work and evenings are strictly for me, family and friends.

I have also been using my Google Calendar religiously. I like that I can sync between my Google Calendar and my BB one. Doing this also keeps me focused because I know exactly what I need to do when.

On another note, I’m really happy with the Acne.org 2.5% benzoyl peroxide treatment that I bought over the Internet. It arrived in the mail about two weeks ago. And it took about two weeks for me to see a real difference to my skin.

The areas which are acne-free look very clear. The areas where I do have zits are getting very small. I used to get zits all over but for some reason, they are now almost exclusively on my neck area, just under my jaw.

But the number is really small, just one or two compared to four or five at once before. New zits still appear around that area and I find this really strange because I know the treatment really works, otherwise.

Although it annoys me that new zits still pop up, I am not about to write off this product just yet. After all, I’m not even a quarter way through the 8 oz tube that I bought. I think it can last me easily two months but I suspect that I’ll only finish it closer to Month 4. I think it’s really value for money. I spent about RM80 on it (plus postage).

It was recommended that I increase the amount of the product that I apply after Week 6. I have about a month more to go to do that.

I would not advise anyone to start too much, too soon. Just follow Dan’s recommendations on the website and you’ll see results. It took me 2 weeks, it might take less time for some and maybe more for others. It all depends on the severity of your acne, I guess.

I used to think that benzoyl peroxide doesn’t work for my kind of acne but Acne.org’s treatment proves otherwise. My skin has responded very well to the product and I’m really pleased with the results — despite still getting a zit or two on my jawline.

As I said before, it’s really annoying because it feels like I’m taking two steps backwards after making such great progress.

But I have to say that my skin looks better than ever now. The most noticeable improvement would be my nose. I do not have blackheads there, I kid you not! That and the fact that my skin is less oily now. And my skin looks fairer now.

However, I still can’t go without makeup. I still look dead tired without a trace of makeup and my skin still looks blotchy from old acne scars and my chicken pox scars that are still healing. But the skin surface is much smoother, that is for sure.

So if you’re interested to try the product, visit Acne.org. You don’t have to get the entire set of products offered there — which can be expensive especially when you are ordering outside of the US. I use the Acne.org treatment with Neutrogena’s pure mild facial cleanser and Olay moisturiser. It has worked great for me so far.

So that’s what’s happening with my life lately. Till next time!

I can’t remember exactly when it was. But I do remember how awful I felt.

I was working on a freelance assignment that required me to trawl the Internet for a list of websites. I was to look for certain features and take note of them.

It sounded easy enough when it was proposed to me, and that was the reason I agreed.

Soon, I discovered that the task was tedious, time consuming and no fun at all. I found myself slaving over it at any free time that I had — in the mornings before I went to work, after work and even on weekends. This was on top of the workload of my day job that I already had.

Thinking back, I don’t know how I managed.

But one day, the stress caught up with me. I was doing juggling my work and freelance job at a Starbucks near a college. I parked myself there hoping to get some unsuspecting college students to interview (for an assignment that I had). When there were no students in sight, I was back searching the Internet.

I remember suddenly stopping what I was doing and feeling absolutely depressed. I was on the verge of tears. I thought to myself, “Is the torture of doing something I totally hate really worth the money? I should really be doing what I want and enjoy. It’s the weekend for goodness’ sake!”

The payment I got for that job was honestly not worth the effort I had put into it. But funnily enough, that painful experience didn’t stop me from accepting more freelance jobs after that. No matter how much or little I got paid in return, regardless of how I enjoyed or hated the jobs.

It took me only a few months ago to realise that when I already had enough on my plate, I should just refuse any “extra” work. Things got so busy that I missed my freelance deadlines and I felt awful about it.

So in the end, I just told the people who hired me that I couldn’t commit anymore. I don’t think they were too happy about it. I haven’t heard from them since. And I also didn’t mention the payment for the amount of work that I had done.

I’m not about to ask for it because I feel that I don’t deserve it. I can’t take the money, I would feel really bad about it.

So it has been a couple of months since I am “free” of freelance jobs. And guess what? I’m so much more happier because of it.

Sure, I could use the extra money to support my online shopping addiction :P and I do have more free time now. I spend my nights reading books for pleasure or watching DVDs or my favourite TV shows (downloaded/on tv).

If I’m on the computer at night, I’m not working on an article (unless I WANT to) or a freelance job. I’m surfing the Internet for whatever topic that interests me.

My nights are purely ME and family time. If I NEED to meet a deadline, I’d rather turn in early and wake up at 4.30am to do it. Daytime is for work and night time is for rest, which is the way it should be. But don’t be surprised, I used to work day and night, whenever I felt like it. Very bad habit, really.

Now I’m training myself to be disciplined. To be as productive and efficient in the day and to enjoy myself at night. So far, so good. The fact that I’m blogging now (during my well-deserved down time) means I am doing something right, right?

I have to give credit where it is due. The 4-hour Work Week has inspired me to make changes to my re-balance my work/life. The book has a lot of useful tips but I have benefited most from the ones that suggest that I eliminate distractions, weed out the time-consuming and boring and delegate where possible.

I’ll talk about the book some other time — what I like and dislike about it — WHEN I am actually done with it.

I just purchased an 8 oz tube of benzoyl peroxide treatment (gel form) from Acne.org. When I had my chicken pox, I was reading up on tips to prevent permanent scars from cp and stumbled upon the website (again).

I used to go to the website to read about tips to cure acne. But it’s only just recently that I decided to try the Regimen “for real” as promoted by Acne.org’s founder Dan.

While I wait for my BP product to come in the mail within the next three weeks or so, I’m going to start the Regimen using Oxy’s 5% BP combined with a gentle cleanser and my trusted moisturiser.

I’m supposed to apply BP to acne prone areas on my face and body in a quantity that’s slightly more than what I’d usually put. From the youtube video as demonstrated by Dan himself, the amount of BP that I’m supposed to apply on my fave, at least eventually, is almost as much as, if not more, the amount of moisturiser I use on my face.

Traditionally, people would just dot BP on their zits and not slather it on like some moisturiser or sunscreen.

But Dan found 10 years ago — by accident — that applying more BP, in his case 2.5%, than normal was the secret to clearer skin. Dan was also an acne-sufferer who has since developed his own regimen as well as skin care line.

Since I’m just starting out, I’ve been advised to apply just a little more than I normally would — squeezing a straight line of BP about the length of my pinky.

There is a technique to applying the BP. My fingers are supposed to glide all over my face, hardly applying any pressure to my skin. It’s the same when I apply my moisturiser. Light fingers messaging the cream into my skin.

I don’t want to put a lot of hope on this regimen because some people have done it without success. Some people’s acne problem actually became worst. But I have to note that there are more success stories than there are failures.

When the Regimen works for you, your skin is so clear it’s like you’ve never battled with acne your whole life!

I honestly don’t have anything to lose except the chance to have clear skin if I don’t try this and discover that it works for me.

I’ll check back in a few weeks.

Getting ready for work in the morning is pretty stress-free for me and my husband. He takes about 5 minutes to shower and another 5 minutes to get dressed before he is ready to step out of the door.

I take slightly longer but I normally have everything prepared the night before to cut our morning routine shorter.

Because we have our breakfast at the office, I don’t need to cook or make a hot drink or anything like that before we leave.

But I’m sure my… our … routine will change once we have children. I have heard the daily drama that my colleagues have had to face to get their children ready for school etc.

So I salute the ladies featured in this article who have found the formula to make their mornings manageable. I actually like the idea of using timers to make sure everyone gets ready on time sans nagging. I think I’ll give it a try tomorrow :)

Morning madness can be avoided with a little strategy and discipline.

Try these quick tips from Real Simple readers. For the full article, click here.

If a bikini hanging on the door knob can get you off your butt, go for it!

Last year, a few days after my birthday — on Feb 29 to be precise — I blogged about Jennifer Love Hewitt and how unflattering photos of her were circulated around the Internet.

What baffled me was that Jen was a “size 2″ and called “fat”.

Jennifer from behind

I remember the picture vivildy. She was standing with the sea water around her thighs calf, and wearing a black bikini. She was photographed from behind. Her hip looked unnaturally wide against her tiny (probably 24-inch) waist.

IF she was a size 2 on top — which, on hindsight is ridiculous considering how busty she is. She should at least be a size 8 — she looked like a size 8 on the bottom.

Later, I saw another photograph from the same beach vacation. It appeared that Jennifer had the dreaded cellulite that, believe it or not, even perennially skinny Paris Hilton has — and the paps have pictures to prove it!

At the end of that post, I wrote that I won’t be surprised if the next time we see Jennifer on a magazine, she’d look shapelier than before.

It took almost two years for that to happen but lo and behold, Jennifer on the cover of Shape magazine looking as skinny as she was in Sister Act 2 — back when she was 14!!

A young Jennifer

You can call me jealous but I think she lost too much weight. I don’t know about you but I find it very disturbing that the 30-year-old Jen looks (and probably weighs the same when she was) 14.

Look at the cover! I think she looks emaciated — the face, the collar-bone right to the bony shoulders.

Jennifer's new bod

On the Internet, people are already commenting on her cover story. Some said that they felt cheated because Jen said she was happy with herself and then she went and lose the weight. Others were supportive of her decision and said that as long as she lost the weight the healthy way, it was find.

Me? Well, normally I’m supportive of anyone who aims to be healthier and fitter but I didn’t react positively to Jen “looking like that” on the cover of one of my favourite magazines.

Right now, I’m thinking she sold out. Well, I kinda-sorta predicted that she would do so almost 2 years ago.

I need to get my hands on that magazine to assess the situation fairly LOL. But I won’t lie. My initial reaction went from “She lost the weight?” and “Good for her she lost the weight” to “I think she lost too much weight. She looks sick”.

So right now, I’m not taking her weight loss so positively, especially since I think she didn’t really need to lose the weight. What she needed was only to tone up her arms and her thighs.

But now, it seems that she has lost even the meat on her cheeks and she looks (almost) beyond recognition. Ask me another day…

P/S: If you’re interested in the article, click here.