Thursday, May 20, 2010

Show Me The Money!



How important is money to me? I'd say quite important. I don't know, I think each and every one of us has grown accustomed to live with money. We literally can't imagine living without money, unless we imagine everyone is dead broke too.

I've seen people who couldn't care less whether they have money or not, they live a simple life. You go to the farm when you want to eat. A drink is always available at the well. You want fish? go fish. I've never been to the remote parts of Africa, all of this is happening right here in the interiors of Sabah, Malaysia.

Should we help them? why? They're living a happy life. Who are we to judge and say they're backwards just because they don't have our progress and problems?

Thats how colonization starts.

I'm not going to lie. Money is essential to me because all around me everything requires money. I can't name you one thing that doesn't require money. But I try to be content, I spend according to what my wallet allows. I don't have to tell you that they are people who spend way above what they can afford. They have their reasons. Too used to luxury, want to impress friends, or they just think they can.



I've had a few part-time odd jobs, the first official one I had was when I just finished SPM. I worked as a store boy for a branded sportswear company, or at least I thought I was. They just wanted me to clean up a store room because they're moving offices. They paid me RM50 for a two-day gig. Wasn't worth it, I cut my wrist in an accident with a poster. I never had any other jobs since.

work ethics is uber important. I go by the policy of you work as hard as you want to have fun. And I'm all about having fun, so that means I'm all about strong work ethics too, I guess?

Before, I found rather peculiar ways to make money. I used to do freelance T-Shirt designs (Yes, people pay me to design shirts), became a tuition teacher for little annoying kids, did other people's SPM kerja kursus for big bucks, set up a vigilante stall selling drinks at a talent competition, etc.


The vigilante team. We don't know the meaning of "You need special permission to set up a stall here!"

Strange, I never really needed the money but I love it when they flow in.

I'm rarely ever compelled to look for a job except when I'm really desperate, like the time I was stuck in KL because I missed my flight to go back home. Mainly because I'm perfectly happy with whatever I have. My parents should really stop giving me money.

Okay, no. I didn't mean that.


Here's the process if I want something really really bad.



  1. Find a cheaper version of what I wanted to buy.
  2. If found, find the cheapest cheaper version of what I wanted to buy.
  3. Tell my parents I want something, I just give them a rough idea.
  4. Slowly seep an idea into their minds that I actually want something specific and show them I need that something, not just simply wanting it. Process takes about  month or two.
  5. After much negotiation, they give me the money for what I want, with certain clauses. When I wanted a phone, they asked me to score a 3.8. Yeah like that's gonna happen. By the time finals came, they forgotten all about the deal. Timing baby, timing.
I like my parent's reward-before-effort system.

I can't really comment on the recent economic climate really, my family seems to be unaffected. If anything, we got better financially as a family I dare say. The state I'm living in is booming with new development projects and aggressively promoting tourism. I guess my dad's side involvement in tourism helped to cushion the impact the economic downturn. Or maybe the increased spending is just their way to help with the economy? Did you know that not using money (i.e saving) does not help, money needs to be liquid and used people! it gets into the market and multiplies.

Since we're in the topic of liquid flow of money, here are my picks of...

the three coolest jobs and three reasons why they're cool!

Being a prince of a rich kingdom
- All you have to worry about is etiquette and when is your time to take the throne. Worrying about  important matters are in daddy's hand.
- Money is never a problem.
- You get to marry only the finest girls, unless you have weird taste. If that's the case, whatever makes you happy then.

A famous food critic
- You can eat all you want for free, and still be mean and grumpy when you write the review.
- You get to be friends with important food people, that equals to more food!
- The best seats in a restaurant is always reserved for you.

An author with unlimited ideas
- I actually chose this because this is what I wanted to be when I was in high school.
- Royalties, royalties, royalties.
- Flexible working hours. How good does anytime sounds?

And the three worst jobs ever and why they're horrible!

A hazardous material cleaner
- All the risks of radiation, with a cleaner's pay.
- The amount of co-workers you have is proportional to how many hazmat suits you (or your company) have.
- Irregular working hours. Not everyday does a hazardous chemical spillage occur.

A highly dedicated shoe salesperson
- the smell of feet all day. Need I say more?
- You rarely get to have a vision of going up. You gotta look down at feet all day.
- After being so nice to people's feet, they could always reject you. Oops, the shoe, I mean.

A Motivational Poster Producer/Writer
- Who buys them anyway? Most of us just look at them, be motivated and walk away.
- The world is overpopulated with creative one-liners. And thanks to the Internet, nobody knows what's original and what's not.
- On a bad day, a motivational poster is just annoying.

Every job is noble, as long as it's not against any law. Whether you're sweeping floors or cutting brains. That's why there's a lot of adjective to the list above. There's no one exact perfect or horrible job with just one simple word or description. All jobs and profession has their ups, downs, curves, turns, and whatever hurdle. we all go through it. The most important thing is not to lose our heads when we're forced to face them.

More important than the phrase "people gotta live" is that "people gotta live right."

1 comment:

  1. famous food critic?cool job ever! i mean u get to eat delicious cuisines for free and all u gt to do is CRITIC them!im gonna try this man. lol

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