All posts by The Artist

General

Preparing For Mortgage Lending Exams

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I wrote in a post on another blog of mine recently about being introduced to a mortgage lender. Well, this guy told me that it is not easy to qualify to be a mortgage lender he had to sit for exams in order to qualify to be one. I have heard of this Mortgage Exam before but I don’t know what mortgage lending will be tested on.

I was told to check out the website of Exam-prep.com which has products to help potential real estate agents prepare for this exam and embark on a successful career in real estate. To have preparation material, it sure looks like this is a very serious and important exam!

Apart from the book, Mortgage Lending Principles & Practices, Exam-Prep.com also offers two softwares for people who intend to sit for the Mortgage Lending Exam and Ohio Loan Officer Exam. I think it’s great that they have the preparation material in software format because some people study better using software! I know I will.

These three items are actually downloadable products which we can download to our computer and use straightway. The two softwares even come with free trials where we can use for a certain period of time and then upgrade or licenses, or not.

I think that these are must-haves for people seriously thinking of embarking in a career in mortgage lending.

Charity

Bloggers Unite: Blogging For Hope

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I got to know of this BlogCatalog initiated Bloggers Unite charity blogging where bloggers are encouraged to set aside one particular day to do an act of kindness and then blog about it, submit pictures to prove their charitable act and to win prizes, including an iPod touch.

You know, I always believed that we do charity because we want to not because a blogging company asked us to and dangle and iPod in front of us. And to tell about our charitable deed, well, it just cancels whatever brownie points we have garnered.

To me, acts of kindness is usually random and not pre-planned unless it’s done during one of the many annual festivities.

If you have done an act of kindness, will you blog about it? I won’t. But then maybe it is just me *shrug*

General

Subscribe To Discount Magazines Online

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My sister told me that she just received her year end gift from her boss who took out a magazine subscription for her. According to my sister, these are very popular gifts especially to people whom we know love to read books and magazines.

I decided to check out websites that offer magazine subscriptions online and came upon this site at http://www.magazine-agent.com. There are so many titles available here that there is bound to be just the right magazine for any interest. What actually surprised me was the wide difference between the cover price and the price being offered by Magazine-Agent.com. From what I could see, we are able to save up to 80% off cover price.

If you think that these discount magazines are magazines that nobody wants to read then you should check out the site. They have O: The Oprah Magazine, Men’s Health, Reader’s Digest, Maxim, Sports Illustrated and many more widely read magazine titles, even Spanish language ones.

I have been thinking of a new gift for Christmas and this idea just came in time. In fact, besides giving it as a gift, it would be great to subscribe for myself as well and I get to save so much compared to my current magazine subscriptions!

*** This post was brought to you by Magazine Agent ***

Charity

Donate Rice With Your Vocab

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I got to know of FreeRice.com this morning while blog hopping. Am sorry I do not know which blog it was anymore as I visited too many blogs, so I could not link up to the blog here.

Anyway, this is a very nice concept of donating rice. The amount we donate will depend on how good our vocabulary is! The website says that with every word we get right, they will donate twenty grains of rice on our behalf through the United Nations to help end world hunger.

I played this game for a little while to get a feel of it before writing this post and managed to “donate” a little rice. I love this concept because we get to test our vocabulary. They do have very tricky questions and most of the words here are words that we do not use on a regular basis. I believe that if we play this often enough, we can even improve on our vocabulary. Also, it does not cost us anything to “donate” rice except for a little time.

I thought that I would continue playing after a nap but my computer restarted by itself while I was napping and I lost my thirty something vocab level and grains of rice and had to start all over again. If you plan to play this, it’s best to set the option to remember your computer so that you can continue from where you left off. I believe people who love words will want to come and play regularly since it is rather addictive!

I think that the administrators could make this game even more challenging by DEDUCTING our rice donation, besides lowering our vocab level, each time we get a word wrong! And the higher our level of vocabulary, the higher the stakes become.

Finances

Big Dog’s Top Picks

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As a new investor in stocks and options, I welcome any, preferably accurate, information, tips and advice. I was told of Big Dog Stock Picks which releases a top pick daily. I think this is a very good concept. With top penny stock picks backed by solid research on these American and international companies, investors, new or seasoned, would be able to decide if they want to follow Big Dog’s pick.

I think it’s a pretty neat concept of Big Dog not to release the tip like that but to give us teasers by scratching the card and we can make our guess before the time is up to reveal the top pick. This will also test how well we know about the market and the stocks that are currently hot.

It’s an exciting time for people who like to “ride the wave” but when it comes to investment, only invest what we can spare.

Computing & Internet

AIM on Gmail

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This would have been good news for me IF I like to chat on Gmail. BUT I don’t even sign in. Although I only have one “buddy” on my AIM, I would rather log in and use AIM’s application to chat whenever “he” feels like chatting.

However, this would be good news for people who love to chat online but do not want to handle that many windows. LOL I remember when I was first introduced to the internet, I was chatting to more than ten people AT ONCE.

For chronic chatters, it would be great if Gmail could handle a wider selection of instant messengers like the ever popular Yahoo! Messenger and Windows Live Messenger.

Although I do not normally sign into Gmail’s chat system, I may try this one out for once and see if I like it.

Travel

A Career In The Travel Industry

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Just now, I had a chat with my friend who just returned from a vacation to Langkawi where he flew on Air Asia and he told me that the air stewardesses were meticulous and very polite to the guests.

My friend who flew in many airline before in the course of work and holiday told me that it is on an off chance that he gets to meet a fumbling, nervous flight attendant and it looks like all of them, no matter what airlines they work for, have a high standard to uphold.

I used to think it is a dream job to be an air stewardess but according to friends who have a flight attendant career, they said that it may be glamorous and exciting but it’s grueling as well!

I know that to embark on a career as an air stewardess, I would have to enroll in a flight attendant school first and go through various training programs but I am too short, unfortunately. I think the minimum height during my time was 5ft 4in and I am one inch short *sigh*

Just now, I stumbled upon the website of the International Air and Hospitality Academy where people STUDY to be flight attendants and other careers in the travel industry and I can’t help but lament at my own missed chances due to that missing inch in height!