Dear readers,

I’m finally debt free after fully repaying my education loan to the bank. No more monthly deductions and no more stress over working for the sake of money.

Here’s my story…

When I started my part-time degree course two years ago, I made up my mind not to take up any loans and pay cash every semester by prudent saving my salary. This was not a problem for me as I made careful calculations and budgeting before I signed up the course.

So why did I eventually take up an education loan? Did I miscalculate? Was I wrong?

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After four weeks of fermenting and slightly more than a week of aging in the bottles, I’ve finally opened my first bottle of homebrew beer.

Palett Taste: 7/10
The taste was definitely better than than the usual Tiger, Carlsberg, Tsingdao, etc. It’s also more bitter. Carbonation was good. Have bubbles coming up consistently like what we see in commercial beers.

After Taste: 3/10
After taste was not very good. The beer taste remained, but there was the wierd after taste that comes with young red wine. I am guessing that with age, the after taste should improve.

Initial Head: 5/10
It’s probably similar to Carlsbergs, but nowhere near the head we see in Erdingers though. Rated 5 because this is my first homebrew and I want to use this beer to benchmark future homebrews.

Head Retention: 5/10
The head disappeared within 10 minutes (okay I wasn’t timing). I want to use this to benchmark future homebrews as well.

Clarity: 7/10
Could easily be an 8 but I want to keep some ratings for future homebrews (rate too high later must rate above 10…). It’s clear like a lager, considering that I did not do any filtering. What’s more, the bottle that I opened was from the bottom of the fermenter.

Chris Rating: 6/10
Though the beer is definitely drinkable, I’m leaving more ratings for future homebrews, benchmarking with this beer.

Dear readers,

During my trip to Australia a few months back, I purchased a Cooper Microbrewery Kit after being inspired by Solidghost when he shared his home brewing experience. In many countries, home brewing is very common. Singapore however, has a small community of home brewers, probably because of the higher temperature that makes it a challenge to home brew.

Being a beer lover trapped in a country where alcohol is heavily taxed. Home brewing seemed like the perfect solution. In Singapore, individuals are allowed to brew any form of “fermentable” alcohol such as beer, alcohol, cider, sake, etc. legally for home consumption. The limit is 23 litres per month for beer, and another 23 litres for other forms of alcohol.

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Hi everyone,

It’s that time of the year where friends and family gather together and have a glorious spread of turkey and ham. It’s also a spirit of giving and sharing. Remember to make some donations while on your way to the party!

How are you celebrating this Christmas?

I’m going to be have a potluck party at one of my classmate’s place. There’s going to be lots of food and drinks to go around while we party our way through the night.

Here’s wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and lots of joy in the year to come.

Dear readers,

Barack Obama is officially elected the 44th president of United States!

When two political powers clash in a contest to be the most powerful man in the nation, it takes a huge amount of effort to come up top.

Marketers around the world has got to give credit to Obama and his team for the brilliant use of the Internet to give themselves to promote their campaign. This is probably the best case study ever, demostrating the power of the Internet in international marketing.

Here are some examples of how Obama used the Internet to propel himself into presidency, reinventing the way campaigns are run with modern tools.

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Dear readers,

In recent months, we have seen huge moves of the volatile market in these troubled times. Even commodities such as gold which is considered defensive, have been moving in difference of US$20-50 in many occasions.

The question in the minds of most investors are, how is this crisis going to fare as compared to the previous crash and depression.

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Dear readers,

Let’s face it. Nobody is indispensible to companies!

In such times of uncertainty where even giant corporations suffer in a sea of red in the stock market and dark clouds cover the economy, one has to make contingency plans and create escape routes.

So what are you going to do, should your company collapse or if the top management decides that you are redundant and gives you the sack?

Instead of looking at making money for the short-term, I always advocate to aim at sustainability. That is, having long-term money making plans.

Here’s what I may do for the next three months if I get retrenched.

Expanding clientel in my Webhosting Business
I’ve been running a webhosting business for the past two years and revenue has been consistent. It’s high time that I focus on expanding my clientel to generate more revenue for the business.

Make more money online
My approach to internet marketing has always been passive. Build well-designed websites with good ad placements, that are more or less self-generating in terms of content and visitors. With little or no work needed, passive amounts of income would pay for my bills. With more time in, I could take on a more active approach.

Turn my hobbies into cash cows
Having always been interested in photography, I’ve always been thinking of taking up a full-time photographer role. Having little flair for designing, I’ve also been accepting long-term content management jobs for both static and flash websites.

Yup, so that’s pretty much me. What are your plans?

Dear readers,

With the current financial crisis at hand, the last thing Internet Marketers around the world would like to see is a decline in their online profits.

Yesterday, I logged in to my Adsense account to check the amount paid for the clicks generated last month only to realise that the exchange rate between USD and SGD was stated 1.000 : 1!

I googled to check if I was the only ‘victim’ and it seems that other Adsense account holders are also experiencing the similiar problems. Could you imagine the look on the faces of Adsense account holders in India where USD$1 is paid as INR 1 Rs!

I do hope that this is truly a bug and that Google could clarify on this as soon as possible.

Dear readers,

I haven’t been posting lately as I have been busy reading up on the movements of the global economy. The ups and downs of corporate giants are so exciting that it’s like watch Batman! We’re not just experiencing a stock market crash or anything like that. It’s apparent that the world is going to be hit by a financial crisis and it won’t get better unless an ocean of money is printed to support the market.

In times of crisis mentioned above, where will you put your money? Under your bed? In the bank? Invest in stocks and bonds? Insurance? Commodities?

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I just got back from this month’s Subscribers Night, the first in 2008 by the way. Having networked with many people from different backgrounds is sure fun.

If you’re at Subscribers Night and noticed that I was carrying two copies of Secrets of Ebay Millionaires, I’d probably have mentioned to you that I’m trying to get them autographed by Ben and Stuart and giving a copy away on my blog as a contest prize.

Feel free to give me a holler by leaving a comment at the end of this blog and I’ll check out your websites and see if there’s anything I can help.

Cheers!