The winds and the wide beaches of Tanjung Aru Beach is perfect for kite-flying.  Just let your kite go and it will effortless fly up.

Even beginners can do it, like so:

BadCreditOffers.com aims to help those with not so good or even bad credit ratings to look for companies offering credit cards, loans and other resources. In other words, it’s a review site for financial companies lenient on low credit ratings.

Best of all, it is free to use.

They continuously monitor the credit marketplace to show the best offers available, then display each day’s best offers on its website.

For example, in the credit card category, the top ranked card is First Premier Bank Gold Mastercard.

Once you get the best offer for your needs, all you have to do is to ensure you’re paying it off on time. This exercise in rebuilding one’s credit is the way to improve one’s financial future.

Ashop Commerce is a US based company offering a total solution for you to begin selling online. Their products include hosted shopping cart software.

There are of course many other companies offering similar services, so Ashop Commerce listed several ways in which they stand out from the rest:

Firstly, some of the other vendors offer “shop in a box” facilities. Ashop claims that you have to bear in mind that there could be hidden costs in things like upgrades, security, support, hosting, bugs, feature upgrades, advice, gateway fees as well as the software purchase. The whole thing can end up costing you more than you expected, as well as being not beginner-friendly to set up.

Secondly, vendors offer development of web stores from scratch. However this entails time and money: both precious commodities. There are also monthly fees which can turn out to be similar in amount to Ashop’s fees.

Lastly, Ashop claims that they are specialists in online shopping cart software development, and that most other companies can only give you a portion, and an inferior one at that, of what Ashop can do. In fact, most shopping cart providers are in reality, companies that simply resell existing ecommerce software, not one that they developed themselves.

Ashop’s software can do the whole range: stock control, customer relations, search engine promotions, sales reports and invoicing.

That, as well as the following:
- free technical support services by e-mail, web chat and phone
- fully customizable design. This is done from the web-based administration panel
- free upgrades as technology improves
- free SSL security
- search engine optimization
- affordable monthly payments. The cost starts at less than USD40 per month.

Perhaps the best is this: you can sign up for a full-function 10 day free trial, without even the need to give out your credit card details.

It is located at Taman Tun Fuad Stephens, Bukit Padang. The tagline is “Sabah’s Premier Water Theme Park.” Don’t expect anything like Sunway Lagoon though.

Recommended to go on weekdays - costs only RM5 per person, as opposed to RM15 per person on weekends. Those below 3 feet tall are entitled to free admission.

Err… I thought all the items listed there, with the exception of the 3rd item is also strictly forbidden anywhere else?

But Sunway Lagoon standard or not, kids don’t really mind do they, as long as there’s plenty of water: Read the rest of this entry »

For those into online gambling, you are spoilt for choice. Apparently there are currently almost 3,000 online casinos to choose from.

A staggering number, but which online casino is the best?

Those making their first foray, and even seasoned campaigners, would do well to have a shortlist of sites to check out before settling on one. In other words, it’s a timesaver.

pro360.com reviews these and so far has done so for hundreds of them. Important factors determining your final selection such as game experience, trust score and bonuses offered for online poker, craps, slots and roulette are examined in detail.

According to pro360.com, the best online casino overall is fulltiltpoker.com, with a maximum bonus of USD600, an Editor Rating of 9.5 and Player Rating of 8.

Having said that, not all players are the same - each has their own preferences in things like features, bonus structures and even graphics. Therefore it’s worth reading as much reviews as possible.

As an additional incentive, there is the casino signup bonus on every review page, whose amount are usually bigger than what the online casions offer directly.

Perhaps the biggest amount spent in anybody’s lifetime would be a house purchase. Homeowner loan comes to mind.

Some would argue that paying for the kids’ education, especially if it’s the fully-overseas type would prove to be even more expensive.

Next, the car. Of course this depends on what car and how many cars.

And next, probably the wedding.

After that, gadgets like PCs and stuff.

But don’t forget about personal loans, also known as unsecured loans, this one is tricky. It can start small, then become the biggest thing ever!

Therefore, it’s important to ensure you don’t take loans from dodgy people and to shop around first.

It would seem to be a good idea to pay for everything in cash, no Loans. Of course this would only be practical if you’re in a position to do so.

Some people have something to “run away from,” so paying for something via a loan could be the way to go.

Hoot Gibson became an instant celebrity in Malaysia when he is prominently being featured on local media as everybody in Malaysia becomes astronaut-crazy.

He even did a little tour of the country sharing his experiences. Recently he was in Sabah.

This is my brother taking a photo with Mr Gibson. Sigh… I wish I was there too.

The major holiday season of the year is coming up: Halloween, Thanksgiving, and finally the greatest wallet-buster of them all: Christmas.

Parents might be thinking of a four letter word now: HELP.

Well, everybody over 8 years old knows that help definitely will not come from Santa Claus, but it could come from Coupon Chief, that one stop online coupon deal and discount resource.

You could utilise the coupons offered to get gift items which might be difficult to get in this country.

My younger brother Bon’s eyes would light up if he finds out that he could get USD20 off when he purchases luggage on ebags.

My mom would also be delighted to know that she’s entitled to free shipping when purchasing bags at zappos.com.

As for myself, I’m going to check out some of Dell’s coupons.

To use the coupons, just key in the specified promo codes in the relevant boxes, and you’re done.

I got the following photo of apparently the recent halo phenomenon via MMS.

Photoshop, pareidolia or true miracle?

MV Doulos, the world’s oldest active passenger ship (built more than 90 years ago), and one of the world’s premier floating bookshops is in town 13 - 25th October. She arrived from Hong Kong, having spent about about a month there. Apparently Sabah is the only Malaysian state it will visit this year. Its last visit to Malaysia was in December when it berthed at Pasir Gudang, Johor.

It’s open 10am - 10pm, except on some dates where the hours are 2pm - 10pm.

We visited it on the first day at almost noon. The following photo was taken about 12pm as we’re about to board the ship. It seemed to be a popular photo spot, but dangerous because there are no fences. When we left the ship about an hour later, the entrance to this spot has been blocked. So I consider myself lucky…

It is 130m long, 16m wide. Apparently it has a crew of 300, from 30 different countries. They even offer you to join as crew on their website. This is a good opportunity to gain experience and see the world.

Kids and the disabled might have difficulty in ascending / descending the non conventional steps (sorry I forgot to take photos to show what it actually looked like).

Kids can get free hand paintings of butterflies:

The fences on the ship are not childproof, so keep an eye on your kids at all times!
Click here for more pics