Bonus and Taxes

The excitement came and went...yup, i'm talking about my bonu$...I'm quite content actually that I'm entitled to a little share of the $$ even for my 4 months' job.

Well...after all the tax deductions and all sorts of bills payment...the amount doesn't look that good anymore haha. I've also just received my EA form, so it's time to do some annual calculator-poking exercise to see how "rich" am I...

The gov is encouraging e-filling, but with the recent reports of system crash and can't cope with high volume lah..I am thinking should i really go "e" or stick to trusty paper forms instead? Anyone using the online system yet? Drop a note here and share you comments k?

Birthdate branding

Your Birthdate: December 17

You tend to find yourself lucky - both in business and in life. And while being wealthy is nice, you enjoy sharing your abundance with others. You put your luck to good use: you are very ambitious and goal oriented. Often times, you get over excited and take on more than you can manage. Your strength: Your ability to make your own luck Your weakness: Thinking you can do it all Your power color: Bronze Your power symbol: Half Moon Your power month: August

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

Building your own image branding

Did you know that people do actually subconciously portray their own image branding? Take Jay Chow for example, what would you think of him when you think of him as a "brand"? Creative, quiet, playboy maybe... so you see that's the image branding that are subconciously in you.

I learnt about this image branding just last week when I attended a workshop session organised in conjunction with the International Women's Day on 8th March. There are many ways how people interpret "brand", ie. image, recognition, popular, unique, identity etc.

Just like what marketing people will do a for product or service, they would put in effort to build the branding for it. This is exactly how you would apply the same concept in building your own "brand" to stand out from your peers in an organisation on the way to the top.

So what's the key elements in building a brand?
1. Who's your target?
2. What's the offer?
3. Reasons to believe (RTB) in your offer ?
4. What's the personality associated with this brand?

By incorporating these 4 elements, your brand would be more relevant and convincing. By the way, a brand can be summed up with the following description: all tangible and intangible elements, which together make it unique.

Have you identified what's your brand?

Am I ever going to be a good first aider?

I had minimal knowledge/experience in first aid during primary school's extracurricular activities. But no actual first aid experience. And I've forgotten all what I've learnt, save for the endless marching under the hot sun. I couldn't understand what marching has to do with first aid. Even now.

Once upon a time, I was eager to acquire first aid skill. Then I threw the notion out of the window long ago. I thought it was interesting and useful to learn that then. It still does now.

This time I caught it in the wind, and volunteered for the first aid training offered that was being offered. This was weird, exciting, anxious...what if I don't know how to save a person? What if I faint at the sight of blood? And most important of all, do I really want to do mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to a foul-mouthed "ah pek"? Eueekk... :S

I counted with my ten fingers and ten toes, and it seemed to me chances of those happening are quite slim. So I threw caution into the wind, and asked to be nominated. So, the timid me is erm..going to be the FEARLESS & HELPFUL first aider! :P Emails were circulated to introduce the nominated first aiders, and suddenly I feel ... "POWERFUL" and "FAMOUS"...

But first will need to come the 2 days training. No worries, I won't faint at the sight of blood. Needles? No problem...maybe injecting into others may pose a teeny weeny problem. And lots of bandages, medicines, first aid kit...Oh, of course, there should be a dummy. For the infamous mouth-to-mouth resuscitation practice of course! What else did you think it was for?