Top Ten Ways To Make Extra Money When There Are Two More Weeks To Payday

Payday is not for another 2 weeks, and I'm already broke. Blame it on PC Fair. Some more school holidays coming. What to do, what to do? Ever thought of some stopgap measures to make a few bucks...?

Top Ten Ways To Make Extra Money When There Are Two More Weeks To Payday

• Collect the old newspapers from your office and sell them when the old newspaper van comes to your house. Hey, every dollar goes a long way.



• You know how you never watch again all those hundreds of old DVDs and CDs you have around the house? Sell them. Open a wooden table outside the mamak at night and recoup some serious money. But watch out for cops.



• Raid your parent’s storeroom for old vinyl records and 60’s paraphernalia. Then sell them off eBay. Don’t tell them about it, or you’ll never hear the end of it.



• “Uncle, uncle, job week. Want me to cut your grass for RM15? Very cheap!”



• Don't shower or shave or shampoo until payday. You'll save lots of money. Besides people will give you lots of personal space too.



• Make a jug of lemonade and open a stall by the roadside. 10sen per glass. Just like in Peanut or Calvin & Hobbes. Just don’t drink it up all yourself.



• Start an Internet chain mail scam. Send an e-mail with a message like ‘Send RM10 to me (give address) and you will be happy. Send this to 10 of your friends.” See? Nothing illegal, unlike those African scams you get everyday. There’s a sucker born every minute, so you’ll stand a good chance to receive a few facts.



• This one sure make money one. Very simple. Buy face masks by bulk and sell them to passers-by and bikers at a busy intersection. The haze will make sure you sell bucketloads.



• Set up a table, umbrella and typewriter outside the government department and charge old uncles and aunties RM2 to fill out their forms for them. Just like in the old days.



• “Eh, boss. How much you want to bet that I can swallow that dead mosquito? RM20? Bet la...”

Great 90's TV Sitcoms

With the advent of file-sharing and Bittorent, i guess less and less young people are watching TV. I myself get impatient at the first sight of advertisement breaks, not to mention waiting one week for the next episode to be shown, or in the case the Hong Kong TV serials, the next day.

Astro has introduced their AstroMAX device, although i haven't seen it, it sounds a bit like a TiVo but with much less features. Anyway, broadband internet connectivity really just took off here in Malaysia in the last few years (although one can argue Screamyx isn't really giving you 'broad'-band all the time...).

So in that sense i suppose the 90' s was the last great decade for the traditional medium of television. As most of you know, i am a fervent child of the 80's (proof is here and here...), with that decade coincidentally being the golden decade of American (and consequently, local) TV, the highwater mark that indelibly influenced the children of that generation. look at all the TV shows from that era that have been made into Hollywood movies.

TV producers make shows that they feel the audience can connect with, what better way than to make a series (most of the time it'll be a comedy) that is straight right out the biggest demagogue's growing up years? Case in point - in the 70's there was a hit series about life in the 50's ([tag]Happy Days[/tag]). Then in the 80's there was another successful show about life two decades before in the [tag]60's[/tag] (The Wonder Years). In the recent 90's, it was another show (That 70's Show) with the same pattern. Okay, you can argue that Ashton Kutcher and that Fez kid shouting about isn't really a hit show.

Just that now in the new millennium there hasn't been an out and out hit about life in the 80's, and 'That 80's Show' doesn't count.

Which brings me to the topic of what i wanted initially to blog about - great TV shows in the 90's. Specifically, the sitcoms. As much as i love the 80's, i'll have to say the 90's ones were absolutely killer ones. In the 80's it was always happy families with the canned laughter (The Cosby Show, Family Ties, Growing Pains, etc), memorable, but kind of in a non-threatening way. All very nice and good. Then the networks up the ante to capitalize of viewer's increasing sophistication.

Off the cuff, i'm thinking the 2 greatest comedies that truly defined the 90's were, of course, Friends and Seinfeld. Friends was a more traditional set-up of a comedy, although in its inception, it broached a few subjects that in its day was considered less than acceptable. Seinfeld, well, i can hardly disagree when people mention it as the greatest television series of all time. It's a different kind of show - a mixture of sharp verbal gags and physical comedy (mostly by Kramer), interwining storylines that strangely yet nicely collide at the end, and basically a show 'about nothing' (as cliched as that sounds...!)

With the end of the 2 shows, the US networks never really found a replacement for them, signally what is called the slow death of sitcoms on [tag]TV[/tag] recently.

But of course there were other good sitcoms - let me see... Frasier was alright, but i never really found his brand of uptight humor all that appealing. His brother was way funnier, but Kelsey Grammer really raked in the millions on this spin-off. Tim Allen's 'Home Improvement' had this rivalry thing going on in the beginning, but now in retrospect it's all too easy to see who's the big winner and who isn't. Watching reruns of that show is always painful for me, it passes off as one-dimensional and repetitive. Besides, which one of us can't see his Al Borland gag coming from a mile off? but in its defence, there was Pamela Anderson...

What else is there? There was Wings, which i kinda like, Carol in the City (bleargh...), not forgetting the Simpsons (still going strong today, a fav of mine...), The Nanny (my God! that voice!), Third Rock from the Sun...

What else? hmmm...

Up the Gunners!

As all of you know i have been a huge Arsenal fan for the last 27 years, ever since the days Kenny Samson and Pat Jennings. I've dreamt about visiting their hallowed grounds, Highbury since i was a kid, but i suppose that is not possible now, since the grounds has been re-developed.

But i can still dream of going to their new stadium, the Emirates Stadium at Ashburton Gorve. Now since i am working, it's a real possibility for me to visit London and see the place, there are great options for getting an affordable London Hotel. CheaperthanHotels.co.uk offer great deals from as low as GBP45 per night.

CheaperthanHotels offers great choices a bargain prices for the travelling football fan to stay while catching their favorite team play. They have deals for many cities across the United States and the United Kingdom, and in UK alone they have literally hundreds of hotels in most major cities and towns. Other London teams are Chelsea, Fulham and Tottenham Hotspurs, and if you are traveling to support them at their home turf, you can surf onto CheaperthanHotels to find the lodging that is suitable for you.

For those travelling to Manchester to supported Manchester United, the biggest club in the world, or their local rivals Manchester City, you can also find a Manchester hotel that is suitable for you.

For the Red Devils' rivals, Liverpool, a visit to the city is not complete without a tour of Anfield and their famous Kop stand. A Liverpool hotel is easy to find, and there are many within you budget.

Many other smaller teams have worldwide fans, too like Newcastle and Blackburn, and even if you can't get tickets to watch their home games, you can still tour their grounds to soak in the atmosphere of your favourite team.

Safety Tips You Should Heed

Recently there was a front page incident which a person was killed by a falling piece of steel mould from a highrise construction site (you can read our posting here). There are construction sites all over the country, and with a heavy concentration in the city, and sometimes they pose a hazard to members of the public.

While the pointers below are not related to the incident highlighted above, members of the public are encouraged to note them for safety.

Avoid parking you car next to a construction site. Especially if it is a high-rise construction site, near to the road. There are usually warning signs posted around the hoarding, but due to the scarcity of parking, people usually ignore them. Any falling materials or debris will damage your vehicle. And construction sites constantly have heavy vehicles like concrete trucks, dump trucks and trailers going in and out, increasing the chances of your vehicle being hit by them.

Do not enter a construction. It is a regulation that those without a green card by CIDB or a pass from NIOSH cannot enter a construction site. If a raid takes place, you be apprehended. While most of the time (and at most sites) this ruling is not always strictly enforced, it is also for your own safety to stay outside the hoarding. For property sales launches where you need to enter the site to view their show unit, there is a legal grey area here. In these cases, it is best to be careful and follow the signs set up by the developer. Do NOT enter any restricted areas.

If you have to enter an actual construction site for a particular reason (for example if you are a reporter), insist the contractor provide you with basic Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) – which, in this case, means a safety helmet, safety boots and safety vest (if necessary). Also insist a qualified personal follows you wherever you go, and as far as possible, stay on ground level and do NOT go up the building under construction. And keep your visit as short as possible.

A note on safety helmets – they actually have a warranty period (usually 10 years). Always insist on a new one. It basically protects you from falling small objects, like pebbles and stones. It does NOT protect you from anything bigger. If say a hammer or a brick falls from the 10th floor on you, it will most likely still kill you.

Watch out for the second part of this series coming soon.