Caramel Toffee //

It seems that Advertlets is not the only one in failing to pay bills in time. The oh-so-famous FBI does too. I was reading the news over at MSN Live and cracked up at one of the headlines: FBI wiretaps dropped due to unpaid bills.

Telephone companies have cut off FBI wiretaps used to eavesdrop on suspected criminals because of the bureau’s repeated failures to pay phone bills on time.

A Justice Department audit released Thursday blamed the lost connections on the FBI’s lax oversight of money used in undercover investigations. Poor supervision of the program also allowed one agent to steal $25,000, the audit said.

Advertlets is just a small fry compared to this. Just proves how twisted this world is. Many crime investigators and authorities worldwide commit crimes behind our backs and play nice in front of us.

Anyways, I’ve been caught up in work and real life this past couple of days. And I’ve been commissioned~ One is an ongoing project of copywriting. It’s a very small project, $1.5 per 200-400 words but I have to do around 5 to 10 per day. For a lazy student like me, $10 - $15 per day is already okay. I get paid on the spot everytime I submit my work. I so love being a part-time freelancer at GetAFreelancer.Com! What I did was the past few days were:

- Sunday: Installed, configured and test-run a Joomla site with Virtuemart
- Monday: Fix scripting on one Arabics football news website
- Tuesday: Write 5 lengthy articles on language and technology
- Wednesday: Made a custom Wordpress template for a maid agency

I guess I can take a break now.

The title itself is self explanatory. I went on a designing frenzy for two days, which resulted in me forgetting to update all of my blogs when I really should. I’m trying to get my online store project up as soon as I can. It’s not much, actually. Just a small store offering print-on-demand and high quality silkscreen-printed t-shirts, custom-design service, mugs, caps and other small stuff. There are many similar store like these, but almost 95% of them are US-based or international-based. I thought it would be more convenient to set up a Malaysian-based store for us Malaysians. I hope to be able to launch the shop before the term starts.

Which reminds me… I have to add extra $2 to my monthly hosting bill for a dedicated IP. Else, I won’t be able to properly install my SSL certificate. The Visa credit/debit card payment gateway via Siteheart is settled and the payment gateway is secure (encrypted, 128 bit). I just thought it would be nicer for the whole store to run in secure https mode. Go me! Work harder!

I made a few t-shirt designs yesterday, and my personal favourite is this:

Wait, I love these too…

Click on those pictures to get a better view of them. I really want to get them printed and wear them around!

I also played around a bit with Stylish Geeks. You can go play around with the ‘Skin Me!‘ module. I added a new theme to the site to those who are fond of cheerful colours.

Okay. I think I better go and work on my store project… And finish uploading Junjou Romantica scans to Junjou.info. Uploaded Volume 5 - 9. I need to upload Volume 1 - 4.

The first Kelantan branch of Tesco is now open. It was initially scheduled to open 2 weeks ago, but the recent flood had caused a delay in the actual launch date. So, this morning, it was officially launched. The complex is big, but not as big as KB Mall. I have to say that the interior is very impressive. The food court is situated just right - you’ll reach the food court once you get into the complex from the parking area. I’d say the placement is convenient. You can can choose to either eat first and then shop or the other way around.

There are a few other shops in the complex. Reject Perfume Shop, Nagoya Textile, InfoMusic, Beauty & Slimming Center and more.Customers rushed to apply for free Tesco clubcard. You can say that the place was really crowded up until this evening before I left.

Bought a few stuff from the complex. I think the complex is off to a good start. Spent around RM150 at Nagoya, and another RM70 at Tesco. I’m thinking of going back to the complex later to buy some discounted perfume. Well, it’s only discounted because we don’t get the perfume box with our purchase. There’s a reason it’s called ‘Reject’ perfume shop. Box or no box, RM150 for 100ml Eau de Parfum that normally costs around RM185 - RM250 is a great deal. Afterwards, I treated Mom and Dad to some ice-cream on the way back.

I don’t think this will be a competition to KB Mall’s Pacific or Kota Sri Mutiara’s Billion. The products available in this new complex differed in quality and brand name. For people who are on tight budget, I’d say this is a blessing for them. We don’t have Carrefour, but at least we now have Tesco. The fact that it’s situated along Sultan Yahya Petra’s bridge which connects the main road to the heart of Kota Bharu is sure to attract customers too.

Nevertheless, Kelantanese should rejoice not because they now has Tesco. Kelantanese around the state should be glad because new store means more job opportunities. Cheers!

�Clips: Federer vs Sampras Exhb Match in Malaysia

I watched the whole coverage of the exhibition match earlier tonight (Clashes of Time), and I have to say I am very impressed. It may be just an exhibition match, but it was wonderful. I did not expect the match to be an easy one for either parties. It seemed like before the match started, many thought that Roger was going to win easy over Pete. I’m glad I never agreed on the opinion.I love you Roger~ You rock!
And you too, Sampras

My holiday is coming to an end. Tomorrow will be my last day at home, and I don’t know how to describe my feelings now. Well, given, I’ve been at home since November 5. It seemed like a long holiday then, but now I can’t help but think about how short it feels. It will be about a year until I’ll have college break this long. And in 2008, I will have to fly overseas. Not sure how I feel about that too. I’ve never been overseas for more than 2 weeks. Just five to ten days, at most.

In case I will not be able to write tomorrow, I’ll just go on with my New Year Resolution today.

My hopes for 2007 are:

• To grab as many As as possible in my subjects.
• To finish all the psychology books in the library.
• To always be ahead of the lecturers so I won’t be left out.
• To create my very own PHP scripts
• To finish my very own CMS script projects
• To finish my ASP scripts that I started
• To not sleep and laze around too much
• To polish my interpersonal skills - to assure myself that I can be a good teacher
• To lose some weight (Haha… yeah, right. As if.)
• To polish my writing skills, make them shine more
• To be able to control my shopaholic instinct so I can save money (though quite unlikely…)
• To blog as often as possible
• To start the new year without thinking about previous problems (money, guys, pretentious friendship, etc)
• To make more money online (Really, I do).
• To be able to remember my New Year Resolutions

That’s all I can think about right now. I might add some more later. The last hope is the one I wish I could remember because I usually forget about them halfway through the year. Too much fun makes Adlina a careless girl.To all my Muslim friends (and all Muslims out there), happy Eid-ul-adha! My Allah bless each and everyone of us, and remember not to eat too much. And happy new year to everyone! May the new year brings light, prosperity, harmony and happiness to us all.