Monday, December 5, 2011

Another day out another 30 cents

Its good that even during a shopping trip to get gifts that we find gifts lying around too :) she found 20 cents at the counter of a supermarket in town and I found 10 cents while we were walking back to the car.

Started with $214.60

Ended with $214.90
$0.20 from her
$0.10 from him

Wish us Luck
M$Penguin

Sunday, December 4, 2011

How to Earn a Million Dollars in a Year

Insomnia brings out the best and worst out of me... been looking at the seemingly increasing number of young upstarts that have successfully drawn up a business model and implemented them to perfection. From Blogshops to knick knacks, all these businesses have one thing in common - they have achieved their first million dollars in revenue.

The formula seems rather easy, sell something that you can make a dollar profit on 2,740 times a day for a year and "ta-dah" you've made your first million dollars in a year! Or sell something that makes you $10 profit and you can reduce that number to 274 a day or halve or quarter the number by increasing the amount of profit you take from each sale. As the profit margins go up the less of an item you'll have to sell.

Seems simple right?

But having to play the devil's advocate as well, I've realised that where a dollar profit seems simple to achieve, the number per day seems like an absurd amount. 2740 sales per day, that's 1 sale every 31.5 seconds none stop for 365 days a year(not including overheads of course).

So fine if a dollar profit per sale seems alittle too low then lets ramp it up to $10 profit per sale. That means 274 sales a day, which translates to a sale every 5.25Mins or every 5 Mins 15 Secs none stop for 365 days a year.

Still an absurd number of sales? then how about ramping it up higher still? $100 profit per sale.
That just means 27.4 sales a day, which then translates to only needing a sale roughly every hour of the day for a whole year.

So after seeing this, how do you feel about earning a Million Dollars through sales? Even at a profit of $100 per sale, it'll still take you a whole year of round the clock sales for an entire year to achieve.

But yes, some might say that with the current age of internet commerce, its no longer about the location or even about having to stay awake for others to purchase stuff from you. The interweb has become the 24/7 marketplace for everyone. Very true. That is why and how the new age entrepreneurs are succeeding in their ventures.

My question is this: "if they can do it, why not me? Why not you?"

I personally am a financial consultant in Singapore. Doing sales is what comes naturally to me, so why can't I translate this knowledge elsewhere? I can and should use this most basic skill of being a salesperson to earn that first million.

With the fund now at such a slow pace, I feel it is time to put some more brain power into it and start doing what the original double up plan states - "To Bring Value To Others".

As it is the only way of achieving the great heights that we set for ourselves in embarking on this adventure.

As I continue to work on this mantra, I shall do my best to accumulate as much as I can with the surveys and keeping a vigilant eye out for loose change.

I Believe I Can Do It.
I Believe I Must Achieve It.
I Believe In Myself And My Partner's Abilities.

Wish us Luck and Enlightenment
M$Penguin

A day out is 30 cents more in the bank

Today was a nice day to head out, so we went for lunch at West Coast Community Centre's Kim's Family Restaurant, which we had a few years back and were hoping for the same great standard and service but then not this time... Standard of service and food have gone down, I've heard from others that its been getting from bad to worse ever since the family expanded the business.

Anyway found a nickel while I was with talking business with a client. She found 20 cents on the floor below a drinks vending machine at West Coast Community Centre and another nickel at a supermarket nearby.

Started with $214.30

Ended with $214.60
$0.25 from her
$0.05 from him

Wish us Luck
M$Penguin

Friday, December 2, 2011

Redemption Time

Finally accumulated another 1000 pts for my G survey account to redeem 50 USD! Too bad the current exchange rate for the US Dollar isn't great... stupid economy....
O well I can only hope that when they do the exchange for me it'll be slightly favourable.... I say slightly because we can only pray and hope but know it'll never happen that banks won't screw us over...

Wish us Luck
M$Penguin

Monday, November 28, 2011

Why do banks charge for depositing coins?

This has always bugged me that banks charge when you deposit coins into your savings account. I mean why? The banks readily accept money in note form no matter how much the amount so why not coins? Its still currency right? Then why??

Over here in Singapore, our banks charge us $0.0075 per coin. That means if you deposit 100 coins you'll be charged $0.75... Why? This goes to withdrawing coins as well, we're charged for that too but why?

When all coins and notes are minted and printed by the Singapore Mint, why the hell do the banks get to charge us for it?

I understand that in the United States of America, coins are legal tender at any denomination and is by law acceptable as payment for any amount of money owed, but here there is a currency act that limits the use of smaller denominations to pay up to a certain amount.

This also puts a strain and un-needed cost on businesses that operate mostly in coins
like vending machine operators or the neighbourhood mini-mart.

Again I ask, why? Why put a limit on the amounts that people can pay in and penalise those who just wanna deposit their hard saved/hard earned cash?

-
M$Penguin

Finally broke my drought

Its been a long time since I found anything myself, mostly I think its because I've lost my peripheral vision or have just been distracted in my thoughts while I walk around and not scan the floor for stuff. So anyway found a dime at the cashier of the supermarket and she found a trolley with a dollar in it.

Started with $213.20

Ended with $214.30
$1.00 from her
$0.10 from him

Wish us Luck
M$Penguin

Friday, November 18, 2011

Survey Stagnation

Not been in the mood lately to actually sit down and do all the surveys that came in.... mainly cause of work and how both my parents' health are in the toilet right now... Just praying that they get well soon.

Wish us Luck
M$Penguin

Strange

She heard a coin drop and started looking around, the guy behind her (who she thinks dropped it) picked it up and gave it to her... Strange but hey who's saying anything :P

Started with $213.10

Ended with $213.20
$0.10 from her

Wish us Luck
M$Penguin

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Halloween Party Pickings and the Flea market after

She was really great to look out for coins while clubbing on halloween and managed to find a total of $1.90! A dollar coin, a $0.50 coin and 2 $0.20 coins. And the way she described how she picked them up was really great, she danced her way down to pick them up!

I do so adore her :)

And the very next morning(today) she had a stall at a Flea market in her neighbourhood so she crawled off bed after only 3 hours of sleep for it! I was able to sell off the comic book that I bought for the fund so another $1 to the fund with $0.50 of it as profit!

Started with $210.20

Ended with $213.10
$1.00 from sale of comic book
$1.90 from her

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

seriously crappy month

This month has been one of the crappiest in my life... firstly the army payment centre screwed up my reservist pay and deducted everything and then some of what I was supposed to get for my 3 week stint, then my mom fell and suffered a slipped disc and is now hospitalised and is unable to leave the hospital for another week or so due to the amount of pain she is in... Work isn't great, with more and more of my co-workers slacking off. Leaving the whole campaign that we are trying to push, right in dead water.
On the plus side is that we picked out a nice engagement ring for her and because of her I won a hundred bucks for just attending an event! Won't be placing that $100 here because its a contest thingy and not part of this. Been trying to get her to blog about her exploits with contests, mainly because she is so lucky at them! Just a few months ago she won me $400 just by entering my name in some online thingy too, she's great at this. Will paste a link once she gets to it...

O and found a $0.50 coin at the vending machine at the hospital today while I was visiting my mom.

Started with $210.20

Ended with $210.70
$0.50 from him

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Updates

Need to record some stuff that she got over the week, she got $0.15 while working at the hospital, $0.10 in the school library and $0.20 when she heard it drop at the train station but had to double back out of the station and spent $0.75 just to get it...

Started with $209.75

Ended with $210.20
$0.45 from her

Wish us Luck
M$Penguin

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

bugger it all...

sometimes you just want to shut off and disappear but things happen and things get good or bad but we live and continue then its time to wake up and carry on.
She got $0.20 from a trolley, yes i know someone was actually able to use $0.20 instead of a dollar...
I found a nickle somewhere.. forgot where...

Started with $209.50

Ended with $209.75
$0.20 from her
$0.05 from him

Wish us Luck
M$Penguin

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Little stuff

Things the past week hasn't been very good but thankfully not bad either, its kinda just like one of those weeks that just coast by without you knowing it..
She found 1 Thai baht at the university bus stop for some reason but hey i guess that's why we're a cosmopolitan country.

1 Thai Baht for her

Wish us luck and wish us well
M$Penguin

Friday, September 9, 2011

update

small finds here and there over the week, kinda snatched a find away from her due to being in front. Anyway it gives a little drop of sunshine everytime we find something regardless who or how small.

Started with $209.15

Ended with $209.50
$0.05 from her
$0.30 from him

Wish us Luck and Wish us Well
M$Penguin

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

O how when it rains it pours...

Shit really starting to hit the fan of late, things not going smoothly and recovery and sales being very slow. Not too sure what the world's sentiment is right now with regards to the economy but where i stand it sucks... everything just is going downhill with no feel of when it'll turn, just have to slowly inch my way across i suppose...

Wish us Luck
M$Penguin

Monday, August 22, 2011

Update Update

Been really busy the past week, brought dad home from the hospital over the weekend and we're now trying to convience him to stay over at my brother's place as its more conveient. Anyway managed to pick some loose change, she found a $0.20 coin in the library and I found a lonely $0.10 coin in the return slot of a vending machine, guess some people really don't want their money back...

Started with $208.85

Ended with $209.15
$0.20 from her
$0.10 from him

Wish us Luck and Wish us Well
M$Penguin

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Update on Stage 13

With everything that's been happening in the world today(the global market spiral and London's insane riots) and at home its sometimes really a pick-me-up when you find stuff laying around. Especially when it just so happens to be right next to you when you park the car! That's what happened today, after dance class(yes we're taking dance lessons) she spotted a dollar coin on the empty lot beside my car, then after dropping off her shoes to use the ATM nearby, I found a dollar coin under the checkout counter of the supermarket.

And earlier in the day when she was at the library she found a dime.

Guess today was kinda good in terms of finding loose change.

And to add a little, she found a dime and a nickle under the vending machine when we were visiting my dad on Saturday.

Guess we just gotta find our little pieces of happiness whenever we can.

Really hope the global situation and my dad's health picks up soon.

Started with $206.60

Ended with $208.85
$1.25 from her
$1.00 from him

Wish us Luck
M$Penguin

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Eagle Eyed Girl

She really was... she spotted a $0.10 coin right at a corner while walking towards the food centre for dinner.

1 up for her

Started with $206.50

Ended with $206.60
$0.10 from her

Wish us Luck
M$Penguin

Monday, August 1, 2011

what to do now?

Been wondering what I can do with the fund's money, it seems a little stagnant to be just doing surveys and picking coins off the ground and trolleys.
What methods would be deemed more likely to succed? From trade there is the fear of not being able to sell the item at hand so in the end it'll just end up like my comic book, stashed at the corner and with its value stuck in limbo... not too sure how to proceed, should I wait till I get over $1,000 before I start in higher end trade? or should I get her to try her hand at online sales of clothes via Ebay or a blogshop? It looks like a pretty good market with so many local blogshops being able to sustain and even grow into a successful enterprise. But I guess that's just the successful ones we see and not the many number that crash and burn into oblivion...

What do you think? Drop an idea at the comments.

Wish us Luck
M$Penguin

A bit of smiles

Had lunch with her family on sunday at a country club and found $0.40 in the vending machine at the golf range, she spotted it too so its gonna be a 50/50 split on this one.

Started with $206.10

Ended with $206.50
$0.20 from him
$0.20 from her

Wish us Luck
M$Penguin

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Tough few weeks

Its been really hard on my family the past 2 weeks, firstly my dad had a stroke last monday which is resulting in him being hospitalised for the next 3-4 weeks, then my pet chinchilla gave birth to twins and subsequently died a day later leaving me and her to hand feed and take care of the baby chinchillas but alas after 2 days of round the clock care they didn't make it.
I've not had a good nights rest for the past 2 weeks because of these things and have really altogether glazed over my surveys and hardly traveled out besides going to work then to the hospital then home then rinse and repeat having to have meals at whatever juncture i can. Having to ferry my mom to and fro the hospital is also taxing as it means getting up earlier and then leaving for work right after. And hearing how our fellow doubler X is also having alot of problems with his health is also distressing, it seems that our lives are really shit now but i know its worse for X and i wish him all the best with his bladder cancer.
I guess all we can do is just bite the bullet and push on, as the saying goes tough times don't last but tough people do.

Wish us Luck
M$Penguin

Monday, July 18, 2011

updates

Finally broke the dry spell after such a long while, acutally she broke it, anyway she found a $0.20 coin while at the carpark on saturday when we were getting our groceries. Nice to have something brighten up your day after such a long spell of nothing. It almost seems as if everyone just got really careful with their coins or that more people are picking up coins than ever.. I personally blame the economy.. and the weather.. and the government.. I'd blame everyone if I could... bah!!!

Started with $205.90

Ended with $206.10
$0.20 from her

anyway wish us luck

M$Penguin

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Unexpected and a little guilty..

was at takashimaya with her yesterday for dinner, saw a trolley that was in the trolley bay outside cold storage with the coin slot still unopened so i was trying to put the key back to retrieve the dollar coin but with no luck, then out of a sudden the manager at cold storage turned around and called for the trolley guy to help me get the coin out, after trying for awhile without success he just told the trolley guy to give me a dollar. That kinda made me feel a little guilty so i just froze there after accepting the coin.... still feeling a little guilty right now... and just as i was saying to her that i was in a drought... this happens... o well...

Started with $204.90

Ended with $205.90
$1.00 from him

Wish me Luck
M$Penguin

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Overseas Loot

Really proud of my girl, she went for a holiday for 2 weeks in the U.K and came back a few days ago, she kept this project in mind and was diligently looking out for coins while she was there too and managed to come back with quite a nice bag of loot.

Will post the breakdown on how she found it once she tells me in detail but the total is really impressive.
1 Two Cent Euro coin, 11 Pennys,1 Two Pence,2 Five Pence,2 Twenty Pence and a Pound!

I guess this means i'll have to seperate the different currencies instead of lumping them together.

Started with $205.10
Minus foreign currency - 5 Thai Baht $0.20
Ended with $204.90

Wish us Luck
M$Penguin

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Dry spell after the redemptions

Its been a long while since finding a physical coin... found 5 thai baht(roughly SG$0.20) at the airport while sending her off on her long holiday... gonna miss her.

Started with $204.90

Ended with $205.10
5 Thai Baht(roughly $0.20) from him

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Error Rectified - Step 12 Cleared! Hello Step 13!

Figured out why my calculations were off.. and by $20!
It was the $30 in vouchers that came in for one of my surveys... forgot to add a commentary on it thats why...

So with this I officially step into Step 13!!!
Gotta rectify a few things thou.. because the $0.10 found was technically after I got to step 13, it should have been Step 13's first find.

Started with $188.95
Minus credit error $0.10
New Started with $188.85
Credit $20 from survey vouchers
Ended with $208.85
Minus Profit Taken by completing Step ($208.85-$204.80) = $4.05
Ended Step with $204.80
Time taken to complete Step 12 - 4 Months and 6 Days (126 Days)
$20.00 from him (vouchers)


Start of Step 13

Started with $204.80

Ended with $204.90
$0.10 from him

Wish us Luck
M$Penguin

Been Awhile...

Its been over 2 weeks since i last had an entry.. mainly because its been that long since i last found anything out there or claimed any vouchers, but today I finally found a coin! Its was while I was at the supermarket, right below the check out counter. It may only be $0.10 but its still something.
And my cheque for the surveys came too! But what an exchange rate I was given.... For US$50 I only got $60.24.... that is pathetic!
O well the US economy is going to the dumps so what can I do... start planning for a holiday over there maybe..

Started with $148.85

Ended with $188.95
$40.10 from him ($0.10 from the floor, $40 from survey redemption)
seems there is a miscalculation somewhere... not tallying with the counter on the right.. will sort it out as soon as possible...

Wish me Luck
M$Penguin

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Almost forgot..

Forgot to add the money from the vouchers received on the 7th of May...
So its $12 more to the fund from the $20 voucher.

She did an amazing job today, after work at her attachment, she found a trolley and pushed it all the way back to get the dollar!

She's really starting to contribute a fair bit into this project, thank you hon.

Started with $135.85

Ended with $148.85
$12.00 from him (Vouchers)
$1.00
from her

Wish us Luck
M$Penguin

Monday, May 2, 2011

Election Fever

The amount of people talking about politics right now in Singapore is extraordinary, the amount of people attending the rallies of the worker's party are insane! Averaging 20,000 people at each of them! Comparatively the Peoples Action Party's Rallies are considerably mild with only 2,000 - 3,000 people attending. Being from the hottest contested spot in Singapore right now, Aljunied GRC, its really hard to guess the outcome of it all...

This evening after we were done shopping for groceries, she spotted an abandoned trolley at the side of the road while we were driving out of the carpark and immediately called to stop, she checked it and saw that the dollar was still in it and so she pushed it all the way back while I drove around to pick her up. So a dollar to her count.

A little after we went to the east coast park arcade to see if we could finish up the remainder of our Toami-Gyo tokens but there was just too many people at the machine to play at a good pace so we decided to leave it to another day, we did check with the arcade attendant about the token exchange again and he clarified that only winning amounts of over 500 will be converted into 50% tickets and 50% tokens.

Started with $134.85

Ended with $135.85
$1.00 from her

Wish me Luck
M$Penguin

Saturday, April 30, 2011

Step 12 Update

Went to the movies today to watch a remake of "A Chinese Ghost Story" and tadah... it sucked.. but the nice thing that happened was a trolley find on the way to the theater at the carpark.

Started with $133.85

Ended with $134.85
$1.00 from him

Wish me Luck
M$Penguin

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Excerpts from articles on being rich

Lately yahoo has been posting a few articles on how to save and being rich.
Below are a few things that I've learnt:

"Wealth Is What You Save, Not What You Spend"

"Wealth is more often the result of a lifestyle of hard work, perseverance, planning, and, most of all, self discipline"

"Income alone does not make one rich"

"Don't look to debt to fund your lifestyle"

"Live below your means:People with high incomes who spend all that money are not rich; they're just stupid."

"credit-card debt for luxury purchases or extravagant vacations will never pave a road to riches"

"Have access to Cash: While the rich keep much of their wealth invested, they can get cash when they need it."

hope these bits help

Wish me Luck
M$Penguin

Monday, April 11, 2011

Update on Step 12

Today was good found some coins,a 10 cents and a 20 cents coin, lying under the counter of the supermarket when we went there for some grocery shopping after dinner.
Looks like the radiation in japan is starting to affect some businesses here, as we had japanese food and some items were not available due to the checks by our local authority for food the AVA....
Missed out on my japanese curry... dang it.. o well.. hope things start to go well over in japan.

Started with $133.55

Ended with $133.85
$0.10 from him
$0.20 from her

Wish me Luck
M$Penguin

Friday, April 8, 2011

Paradox.. Toami-Gyo@ECP

Went back to play our remanding 100 tokens today, had really good fun. Spent an unexpected 4 hours there with that 100 tokens, she got a 1000 token jackpot and lasted all the 4 hours.
I on the other hand lost my 50 tokens in about an hour after going all the way up to 200. Joined her in her game and swapped with her because she got tired after like 2 hours.. we ended up sharing the job of shooting and aiming, she shot and i aimed.
And for the next 2 hours we tried to either get the jackpot again or to lose it all because from what we knew we couldn't cash out to tokens anymore so we just went with it... and after the 2 hours we finally got another gem to get the 500 jackpot.....
I don't think I'm supposed to say this but the guy actually changed put 1/2 our stake of 900 credits back to tokens! So i guess they loop-holed it? So now we have 450 in tokens and 450 in tickets to exchange for prizes...
Hope this doesn't get them into trouble...

Wish me Luck
M$Penguin

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Update on Step 12

Been a really interesting step, with it being too little to actually do something sizable and not worth the risk of trading small time due to the size of the local market, its really too small to be trying to sell small nick nacks unless you can make nice jewllery, that being said I cannot...

Been a really surprising day, while we were heading for dinner, she spotted a trolley that was so close to the supermarket that I'd thought it couldn't have had a dollar in it but it did. So we took a minute to push it back to the trolley bay and got the dollar.

Kinda disturbing how something with real value, a dollar can be just chucked to a side like that when to retrieve that dollar is just a minute or less away... The people that abandoned it must be some philiantrophist or something because they might as well be just giving money away... but I am grateful, because without these abadoners I won't have it so easy with the fund.

Started with $132.55

Ended with $133.55
$1.00 from her

Wish me Luck
M$Penguin

Monday, March 28, 2011

A nickel at a time

Found a nickel near the driveway to her place, seems the people around her neighbourhood drop a fair bit of coinage while getting out of their cars... here to hoping they drop more and bigger denominations :P

Started with $132.50

Ended with $132.55
$0.05 from him

Wish me Luck
M$Penguin

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Great Day for pickings

Today was great, had a few good leads for work at the job fair and spotted an abandoned trolley while finding a parking lot so another $1 into the fund.
Then after dinner while hunting for desserts, we were walking pass a kid that came out of a store and dropped a coin and accidently kicked it under the nut cart, he looked around for a bit and just walked off so she started to look for it and found it at the corner of the cart, she said she was gonna give it back to the kid but then shoved me into cold storage saying jokingly it was "to avoid seeing the kid"... haha but in truth was just to do some grocery shopping :P

So today its $1 each for us! Woop!

Started with $130.50

Ended with $132.50
$1 from her
$1 from him

Wish me Luck
M$Penguin

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Sucker Punch Movie Night

Saw Sucker Punch just now, great graphics but only ok story plot... she managed to find $0.20 as soon as I pointed out that the floor was carpeted.. she has all the bunny luck now...

Started with $130.30

Ended with $130.50
$0.20 from her

Wish me Luck
M$Penguin

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Time and Its Relative Nature

Over a belated birthday dinner with my friends, the topic of time came up and we were talking about how much time has passed since we've known each other, its been 7 years since I first got to know the birthday boy and he's like the youngest to my group of friends.
We got into the nature of how time seems to fly now and the idea of why it seems that way, rather than before when we all had school or some form of measure of the year.
It seems now that we all kinda have work or are looking for work, everything just seems so... mundane?
But maybe its just me?
Not too sure why, maybe its with work being so slow and all that's why I feel this way... I'm not complaining about anything, but it isn't amazing either anyway.
O well.. ranting is therapeutic.

Wish me Luck
M$Penguin

Thursday, March 17, 2011

More from the bunny

Today has been really tiresome, first my dad tells me that the home phone line has not been working for the past week... so I had to call the telephone people and booked a timing for their technician to come down. They said 2-6 but those idiots didn't even call up to tell us they were here or to check if the line was ok on our end, it wasn't... called them again to give them a piece of my mind because I waited for them! Now their gonna come by again tomorrow morning to fix the damned thing, hopefully they get it done... the weird thing is that even though the line is dead, my ADSL is still working perfectly fine..

Went to pick her up after her class and go look for some office supplies, she found another $0.10 outside the Pet Safari at Vivocity. It was tucked right at a corner and I was surprised that she even saw it. Guess the bunny is treating her better now.

Started with $128.20$130.20

Ended with $128.30$130.30
$0.10 from her

Wish me Luck
M$Penguin

Updates for the past 10 days

Been in china for the past 10 days for a business meeting, had the scare of the Japan quake and Tsunami hit when I was there. Really scary stuff especially when the nuclear reactors exploded...

Good news for the fund thou, found more money in the form of a cash card when I was at the airport before I was leaving for china, checked and it has $6.75 in it so in it goes.*edit* it seems that there is a $2 deposit on the card so I'm just gonna refund it and get it as well! So an extra $2!

She found thirty cents more before I left and messaged while I was in China to let me know that she found more money in the school library while checking out some books, a dollar coin and a five cent coin.

I guess the metal rabbit is really starting to shake its bob-tail(according to her) and money keeps coming out.

Started with $120.10

Ended with $128.20$130.20
$1.35 from her
$6.75$8.75 from him

Wish me Luck and pray for those in Japan right now.
M$Penguin

Monday, March 7, 2011

A little drop of hope

She managed to find $0.20 in the school library today, when she found it she was so happy because its been so long since she found anything.

Yeah! More More!

Started with $119.90

Ended with $120.10
$0.20 from her

Wish me Luck
M$Penguin

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Toami-Gyo No More Tokens!

Its confirmed.. right now every arcade in Singapore is not allowed to issue tokens as a cash out option and from now on are only able to issue tickets for exchange of prizes.

No luck in searching for cash... Metal rabbit really starting to bug me.. keeps attracting the coins away.. zzzz

Wish me Luck
M$Penguin

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Drought over!

Thank you O Fortuna! Hehe guess it works!
Found a trolley with the dollar still in it just as we left the car park, it was abandoned as soon as we went outside because we saw the people take their stuff from the trolley and boarded their friend's car. Lucky us :)

$1 from trolley credited to her because she pushed it most of the way back to the trolley point.

Started with $118.90

Ended with $119.90
$1 from her

Wish me luck
M$Penguin

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Attack of the Super Drought

Wow its been really a really poor 2 weeks since the rabbit year hopped in.. not a since coin, not a since trolley... must break through this horrible drought!
Shall call upon fortuna again to help.


Wish me Luck
M$Penguin

Monday, February 14, 2011

Local Police Notice on Toami-Gyo / Fishing Season

Been to a few amusement centers recently and to my horror have seen the bigger places starting to put up notices from the Singapore Police Force about the Toami-Gyo , Fishing Season type of games that dish out tokens.

Now with the notice from the SPF, all token payout machines will have to be converted to ticket payouts. This mainly means that they will not be able to reuse the tokens to play for bigger prizes but will have to cash out in the form of tickets to exchange for prizes like stuffed toys and stuff at the redemption counters.

I suppose this is to discourage the sense of gambling that the public will no doubt associate with these type of machines.

I guess this step by the SPF will no doubt discourage the few that wish to make a profit by playing these games but from what I've seen today while going window shopping in my neighborhood shopping mall is that it hasn't really dampened the level of enthusiasm that the people playing still exude.

But really...when it comes down to it, people just want something fun to play, be it a token driven fishing game or otherwise. If people like it, they'll play it.

Hope this measure helps to reduce the incidents of gambling through gaming but just make it a purely entertaining game that you'll be able to exchange for simple prizes at the end to just make the trip to the amusement center that little bit sweeter.

I'm inclined to side with our police force on this measure because after seeing the number of little kids that spend hundreds of dollars a month gambling it away at these machines its about time something was done to curb the gamblers and leave those who truly just enjoy the game for what it is, a game, to play on and YES! get that little extra sweetener at the end.

Wish me Luck
M$Penguin

Experimenting with Clickbank

Been hearing a lot of stuff regarding this clickbank thing so just decided to dive in and see what its really about, just put up a link at the bottom of the archives to see how it goes. Hopefully it will yield some results...

Wish me Luck
M$Penguin

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Reap what you sow...

Its been a crappy day, kinda lost all our tokens at the arcade today.... left with only 100 tokens.. and to add to that I kinda went a little nuts and spent $35 trying to get an iPhone 4 from the poking machine...

O and she found another token so it goes into the fund.

I guess its because its been really depressing with work the past few days with the added rubbish my agents are throwing my way...

Sigh..

Wish me Luck... kinda need it now...
M$Penguin

Friday, February 11, 2011

Toami-Gyo Ocean Spirit Jackpot!

Today we went again to Marine Cove's Prize Station arcade to play Toami-Gyo again and this time I exchanged $100 for 1000 tokens and got 50 tokens more instead of the stuffed toy, you've gotta ask the staff there for the extra tokens instead of the stuffed toy because their actually not supposed to give you more but be nice and ask and they'll give it to you, you'll need to get a card too to store the tokens and that typically costs $3 but again ASK for it and if you're nice about it they'll give it to you too!

Remember, ASK and you will usually receive. We sometimes take things for granted and assume that we will just get things because we've paid for it and deserve it, but they don't understand that we just need to respect others and be nice to them to get that little extra stuff.

After playing for a good 2 1/2 hours I finally hit a bonus and a jackpot! And while there she found 2 tokens too but we used them instantly instead of keeping them because we were constantly playing and it didn't make sense to just keep the 2 tokens there. But the next time we're there I'll make sure to keep the found tokens.

For this version, after collecting 5 gems you get a spin at the wheel and the bonuses are 300, 500, 800 and the super jackpot where you get to kill the skeleton fishes and a skeleton shark and the payoff is at 1,000 , 2,000 and the maximum 5,000!

The significant difference between this version and the normal Toami-Gyo is at the jackpot stage, EVERYONE playing at the time can earn a bonus by killing the skeleton fishes! And at the time of my jackpot there were 4 other people playing so they all got bonuses too! And there is no time limit and unlimited ammo!

The skeleton shark can only be hit by the one that triggered the jackpot and ends when you kill it, so the trick is to have a partner playing at the same time too and shoot the skeleton fishes to gain additional bonuses, sadly she wasn't playing at that time because we've been playing for over 2 hours and she was really tired and hungry.

Sadly the bonus and jackpot that I hit were both the minimum.. so I got a 300 bonus and a 1,000 jackpot. I spent a really long time and a lot of tokens to hit the jackpot, so the end result is that I got back what I've spent on the game plus 200 more. She enjoyed the game too when she was able to sustain and kill faster by using the double cannons. It was really unfortunate that she wasn't able to hit any jackpot but the important thing is that we had fun playing the game.

Now with the card loaded, the question will be when do we return? :)

Wish me Luck
M$Penguin

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Managing Finances

Wow.. got my credit card bill yesterday.. and it really seems like I spent a lot during the holiday season from December and January... Its killed like half of my pay cheque for this month and its really got me thinking... how much of what I spend is really necessary? Think I'll really have to keep track of my spending if I'm to better manage my money...
Its not how much you earn but how much you save that make you rich.

O well trudging along a dime at a time.

Wish me Luck
M$Penguin

Monday, February 7, 2011

CNY Ang Baos and Life Plans

This Chinese New Year has been to a rather crappy start, I've been sick from the first day with a totally frozen shoulder and a flu that followed me from CNY eve... that's why I didn't really go visiting on the first day and spent the whole day at home...
Well and as I get older it seems that the amount of money that I get from red packets gets lower and lower but that really doesn't get to me as much as before I started work mainly because I don't care as much as I used to when it was my main windfall in the year.

This year's tally is at $190, just to let myself keep track of things.

A new year also gives a new realisation to what I want to do with my life in the year and years to come. I mean I'm 27 this year and to be honest I really don't know what in the bigger picture of life I am wanting to achieve. I'm penning down my goals of what I want in my life here starting with family, career, education, savings, investment and anything else I think of.
I think the S.M.A.R.T goal setting system should be used for this and broken down as in this plan into many steps so as to keep track and not lose sight of what and where I am.

Wish me Luck and Happpy Chinese New Year
M$Penguin

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Lucky Chinese New Year Eve

Today is good, found $0.20 at the supermarket near the cashier then found another $0.10 at the carpark right next to my car!
Guess its going to be a great year ahead :)

Started with $118.60

Ended with $118.90
$0.30 from him

Wish me Luck
M$Penguin

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Return to Toami-Gyo @Marine Cove

Its been a long time since the urge to shoot fish has struck, so when it did it really did to the both of us.

As Timezone will only be having their dollar for dollar promotion on 2 dates, the 6th and 13th of Feb 2011, we decided against playing there and headed for Marine Cove's Prize Station instead.

The Prize Station there had a better promotion but only if you are willing to part with $100 or $200, then you'd be able to get each token at $0.10 instead of $0.20 and an added big soft toy or a mp3 player respectively.

This offer really pinched at me but my cooler headed other half said NO, so we ended up just changing $20 to start but I added another $20 after losing all my share... she even had to cash out her 200+ tokens so that I could take some... I sux at this...

But anyway we played on the new double screen machine and what I can say is that for this machine, you gotta aim for the big fish! That being said, you will kinda need to load up before hand for it, recommend to put in at least 100 tokens so you can take advantage of the double shot which in my opinion is the better weapon for taking out dolphins and sharks.

I managed to kill around 8-10 biggies there and got over 10 jackpot spins but no matter how I tried, the final gem eluded me and I was stuck sitting there with just 4 gems... I guess that's how they get you, they lure you in by giving you the first 4 then hold out the final gem.... But I may just be eating sour grapes because while we were there 2 other people got to the final gem and hit their jackpot for 300 tokens each.

One thing about this machine is that you can't cash out directly for some reason.. had to call the attendant to credit your tokens every time you wanna cash out, that kinda slows things down for the player because you can't do the usual cash out and restart with a lower number of tokens by yourself thereby making the process more tedious and less appealing to the player, I suppose it could be a ploy so you'll just keep playing and not care about cashing out.

But the best tactic is still to do so! I must remember that myself and cash out while I'm ahead so as to not dwindle down again... I know I am flawed that way so gotta change..
MUST CASH OUT WHEN I GET OVER 150 TOKENS!
150 is a good number because you'll be able to pocket 50 and play with the 100 again.

ho hum. For this session, Arcade centre $40 - Players Nil.

Wish me Luck
M$Penguin

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

An Orchard Central Afternoon

Had a great day out today with her, went to Orchard Central to get myself a new watch, one of those that you can see the cogs work. They had a promotion where you get a $10 voucher to a stationary shop just for taking pictures with a friend at 4 spots around the shopping mall, so we walked around with our trusty camera and took the 4 pictures of us.
It was easy enough to claim, just show the pictures to the concierge with your IC and ta-dah! We each registered and got a $10 voucher each, the easiest $20 voucher ever!

We had lunch at a place she read a review about called Long Xia Zou Zhuang which in mandarin means Lobster Porridge House and that was exactly what we had, LOBSTER PORRIDGE! Thank goodness it was 1 for 1 because hell if I was gonna pay $30+ for a bowl of porridge, even if it was with lobster... but no regrets it was delicious! Each of us had a lobster claw and another part of the lobster in our porridge, well to call it porridge is kinda a long shot.. it was more like rice in soup but hey it was lovely.

After lunch, we headed back to the concierge to submit our receipts for the weekly lucky draw that is going on and were pleasantly surprised when we saw that we had spent enough to get a free 500g packet of "Bak Kwa" (sliced BBQ pork), and to boot redeem a free hour's of parking! It was a real haul from our little afternoon and we were really happy.

Anyway found $0.05 at the end of the day while we were leaving a supermarket near her place.

Started with $118.55

Ended with $118.60
$0.05 from him

Wish me Luck
M$Penguin

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Her Luck

Its weird because when she's down and feeling unhappy because she hasn't found anything in a while, then she suddenly goes "I wanna find a coin" and yes its happened again.
She found a $0.10 in the supermarket after we had our dinner nearby.

Started with $118.45

Ended with $118.55
$0.10 from her

Wish me Luck
M$Penguin

Monday, January 24, 2011

Slow slow week

Been rather busy the entire week beside tuesday and friday due to the roadshow.. horrible location, horrible response and not enough team spirit... sigh..

Anyway found $0.10 on saturday's stint at the roadshow.

Started with $118.35

Ended with $118.45
$0.10 from him

Wish me Luck
M$Penguin

Friday, January 21, 2011

Pulau Ubin

Went to Pulau Ubin with her niece and nephews to cycle today, lucky we had good weather not too sunny and no rain, been awhile since either of us cycled there almost a year if I'm not mistaken. Really out of shape, especially with the slipped disc and all...
Found $0.10 at a drinks shop but she made me leave it behind because I found it in the shop and because the owner was an old man... Then on the way back I found another $0.05 below the bench at the jetty. So at least I got something today :)

Started with $118.30

Ended with $118.35
$0.05 from him

Wish me Luck
M$Penguin

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Rough few days / Cheque Recieved / Step 10 & 11 Complete

Been slow these past 5 days, only managed to find $0.10 today while working at a roadshow.

Finally got my cheque from the surveys today, bastard bank gave such a rubbish rate USD1 to SGD1.259 which is more than 0.041 off the normal rate....

Gonna count the survey money as I do with my coupons so its 1.5 : 1.0, total for the survey would be $83.91

Started with $34.29

Ended Step 10 & 11 with $118.30
Time taken to complete 10 & 11 - 37 Days
$84.01 from him
Profit Taken $41.99

Wish me Luck
M$Penguin

Friday, January 14, 2011

Rocky Horror Show, Beach Stroll and Unappreciative cats

Caught The Rocky Horror Show with her today, gotta say that its one of the weirdest theatre shows I've seen before. The show is way out there with a really buff transvestite alien/mad scientist that created a hunky boy toy Frankenstein style, the songs were fun but hard to catch the words as they sang really fast at some bits. Then there was this irritating ang-moh(Caucasian) heckler sitting right at the front row that kept making fun of Hossan Leong for having no neck but Hossan held his own and ribbed the heckler back on several occasions. Another interesting thing was the audience, some were really flamboyant in dress with guys wearing really really Out and Proud fashion, there was this 1 guy in front of us who had on this extremely colourful rainbow sequin jacket and at the back was a male ang-moh who was topless except for a big red bra and a huge feather boa around his neck.

There were many other ang-mohs who dressed up for the show as well and during the show some of them did stuff that was part of the show, like splashing water over our heads when there was a raining effect on stage, shone flashlights when there was a song about searching for the light and throwing rice when there was a wedding scene on stage, wasn't really sure if they were part of the crew or not but learnt after the show that they were really just part of the audience but were just given instructions to do certain things at certain moments of the show so as to help with the atmosphere.

Enjoyed the show with all that song and dance. Truly Rocking, but not for the faint hearted contains really sexual messages.

So after the show, we decided to head to the beach for a walk down the jetty, haven't had the time in the past few months to take a stroll so just decided to go. The weather was good with the moon partially covered by dark clouds it was nice and cool. We usually walk down the jetty and along the way will pick any small dried fish that was left behind by the many casual fishermen that visit the area. We'd collect them to feed to the many cats that were along the beach, this time was no different. When we reached the end of the jetty, we happened upon a few guys that were fishing for sotong(squid), using a kerosene lamp they would lure the squid near and scoop them up with nets on long poles. While we were there we witnessed 2 such squid being caught, its a true waiting game that they play with the sotongs. On our way back, we started picking the dried fish that were around the place and headed to feed the stray cats around the area but to our disappointment, the cats not only didn't eat our fish but completely snubbed them...just took a whiff and walked off... truly ungrateful cats.. but anyway after washing our hands at the public toilet nearby I saw a vending machine and by habit checked the coin return and found a $0.20 coin.
Nice end to the night dispite the obnoxious cats...

Started with $34.09

Ended with $34.29
$0.20 from him

Wish me Luck
M$Penguin

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Sigh.....

Sadly, after 3 days of hard work for the contest.... it came out to naught.. zilch.. nothing... really irritated that they didn't even have a consolation prize for all the hard work the other finalists put in... then just like that it was over without anything.. c'est la vie...

Wish me Luck
M$Penguin

Saturday, January 8, 2011

We got into the finals!

Today has been really great, with the difficult challenge of putting making-up on her and the stage game behind us, onward we go into the finals.

Its been really tiring with all the things that we've had to do but it has been fun.

Tomorrow will be the finals and hopefully we get to walk away with either of the 3 prizes. Fingers crossed.
The only thing that I'm really miffed at is that the guys get tossed aside in the finals, it becomes all about the girls and their gowns.
They've not set aside even a single article of clothing for the guys, just told us to bring our own jacket and tie...
Wedding companies really need to level the playing field here, can't just treat us like 2nd class citizens... It would be our wedding too you know...

In the midst of all the hectic running around, I managed to find an abandoned trolley and brought it back for the dollar. O how I love trolley money!

Started with $33.09

Ended with $34.09
$1.00 from him

Wish us Luck for the finals!
M$Penguin

Today is her day

Today really belongs to her, she found a total of $1.05 today including a dollar from a trolley we found abandoned within the shopping mall at Kallang Leisure Park.

Also we entered a couple's contest a week back and today at the preliminary round, we got through! That means a chance at over $3,000 in cash and prizes! 2 more days of competition left, wish us luck!

Started with $32.04

Ended with $33.09
$1.05 from her

Wish Us Luck
M$Penguin

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Good day with pickings everywhere!

Took an early day from work to spend some time with her after her class ended. Work was crappy because of a stupid audit that I didn't fair very well at. She wanted to go cycling but the weather wasn't cooperating again...

Went to Tampines for a walk instead and found $0.20 in a vending machine at Tampines Mall, while we were visiting the arcade, TimeZone, she found $0.10 in front of the cashier and met her good friend's parents, they must be wondering what we were doing in the arcade at that time.. anyway we walked through the arcade because we were looking to see what movie was available, sadly no good movies were showing.

Disappointed we proceeded back down the mall and headed to the other mall next door, Century Square. Again we headed upstairs to the cinema level and still nothing good, so the next best thing was to take a look at the arcade there too.

This one was run by Star Factory, the thing I don't understand is why they choose to purchase the ugly looking china knock offs of Toami-Gyo / Fishing Season, but amazingly the machines, all 3 of them, were almost fully occupied. While there she found a token hidden behind a racing machine that was not near the "Toami-Gyo" machines and decided to risk that token on a double or nothing shot. Needless to say, she got nothing back.

We started to feel hungry and thus left to look for some good tasting fish soup, on our way back to the car-park, she found $0.05 and I found $0.10.

Not bad a day I thought, a total of $0.45 between us today and even before we had dinner.

But the surprising thing is that during dinner, just as she asked "so see any coins?" I replied "actually..." and then went to the table next to us and picked up a $0.20 coin.
After we had dinner, while buying bread for the next day, she found our last coin of the day at the bakery, a $0.05 coin.

So our total for the day was a not so shabby $0.70.

Started with $31.34

Ended with $32.04
$0.20 From her
$0.50 From him

Wish me Luck
M$Penguin

Toami-Gyo / Fishing Season New Discovery @Marine Cove

Just as I was thinking that the version of Toami-Gyo / Fishing Season couldn't get anymore interesting... And yes this post will be all about the arcade game.

While we were taking a walk along east coast park after work today, we couldn't help it but just pop in to take a look at what prizes were available and if we were able to chance upon any tokens or even better still $1 coins that were left behind, but it seems that we were there too early as there was hardly anyone at the arcade at Marine Cove at around 6 there was only this family there playing the Mario jackpot coin feeder. Looked around to no avail for coins and tokens but saw that they have imported a new china version of the game Toami-Gyo / Fishing Season.
It was a huge machine as it combined 2 normal machines side by side into 1 so a total of 10 people could be playing at the same time, the screens were also connected so if you shot 1 bullet from 1 end it would travel all the way through to the other screen, making for a more worth while shot if you span the 2 screens because you'd more than likely hit something and not waste a shot.
This new machine was a rip off from the original Toami-Gyo in that the graphics were the same but the instructions were in chinese and they added a few new species of shark and dolphin so as to not infringe on copyright outright I suppose... It looked alot better than the original knock-offs of Toami-Gyo but only because they used the same graphics, another feature they changed and in my opinion made better was the increase in power animations. The original had a slower traveling cannon when you increased the firepower upwards from 2 to 5, this only was able to increase the cannon till 3 but the 2 coin shot looked a lot cooler because they made it into a double cannon instead of a single and the 3 coin shot's animation was a sort of explosion and was faster than the original. This I gotta give kudos to the chinese as it was one thing I didn't really like in the original was the speed at which the more expensive shots traveled, and they made an improvement not just rip off the original wholesale.

They also added a "fish racing" feature during the change of location, in which you could choose between the 6 fish who was gonna win and put a bet on them, kinda like horse racing but in this case with the fishes from game. It would most certainly be rigged to the advantage of the game but hey its an interesting idea and since it was now 2 screens instead of the 1 they had more space to be creative. Leave it to the chinese to make it a betting thing huh...
We can bet on anything!

Anyway after our walk we returned to the arcade to take a 2nd look and there were people playing the new machine, it seems that they've changed the bonus stage system and reduced the amount of gems you'd need to reach it to just 5 gems but in order to get a gem you'd have to hit a mini jackpot which had a prize ranging from the gem to 0-50 coins in multiples of 10, and yes you can actually not win anything at this mini jackpot... you get a :( emocon face instead.

So after you've got the 5 gems and get to the bonus stage, which has also been changed to just a jackpot style spinning of a wheel,instead of the cool boss shark, while the game continues.

To me this kinda kills it because you end up just constantly shooting without a clear goal, like the original of reaching the boss shark, but I guess they needed to make it this way because imagine if all 10 spots had people playing and someone got to the bonus stage, the other 9 would just have to wait while you cleared the boss shark.... that would really put a lot of people off.... anyway while we were there someone hit the bonus and it ranges from 200-1000 coins.

Really got my hands itchy watching this new version, but because the rates at Marine Cove are really expensive and we both kinda stopped each other from playing so maybe some other time... Or till they get this machine at Marina Square :P Much prefer this than the horrible graphics of the knock 0ffs...

Wish me Luck
M$Penguin

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Happy New Year! Toami-Gyo Revisited Again

To one and all a very happy new year!

This evening was fun, we had dinner at Asia Grand and proceeded to play Toami-Gyo at the arcade in Marina Square.

It seems that the machines there have been modified and are cheaper to play, at $0.10 per shot they have raised the reward for killing bigger prey too like the turtle,puffer fish and other bigger fish previously higher than 3 coins.

Now the big jelly fish are 10 coins each! The turtles are 50 from the previous 20, that's a huge difference!

It seems that the kill rate for them is still the same so it really is more profitable.

But we didn't end up winning as there was this couple playing there for the entire day and they were really monopolizing the game by spraying shots all over the screen....

Anyway while we were at the arcade, she found 1 token and I found a token.

She half joked that we could actually just start collecting the tokens so we could play a free game of Toami-Gyo with like 40 found tokens.

Hehe I guess that is possible as we've been able to find something everytime we've visited these big league arcades...

O well after that while we were walking around, she found $0.05 when we took a detour into HMV at citylink because the floors were carpeted. She had learned this trick from me and managed to find the $0.05 coin near the cashier counter.

So its a good start for the year, may 2011 be at least 50% better than 2010 and that everyone be safe and healthy.

Started with $31.29

Ended with $31.34
$0.05 From her

Wishing Everyone A Happy New Year, still awaiting my cheque for the USD100... hope it comes soon the USD seems to be taking a beating recently...

Wish me Luck
M$Penguin