Due to some commitments at home, I have not be able to get out of the house for the past few months but thanks to the internet, I could still keep in touch with the outside world cheaply and I could still get ready Christmas gifts for friends and family. All my gifts are bought online and the good thing is that I don’t even have to wrap these gifts myself.

These few days, I have been looking for an appropriate gift for my pen-pal. Although we have never met, our friendship spans 18 years and we never failed to exchange gifts during birthdays and Christmases. This Christmas will be the same.

Mark told me that this winter he has taken up snowboarding. He said that with global warming, there may not be enough snow for it in the future. The first thing that crossed my mind when I think of snowboarding is Von Zipper Sunglasses. I think a pair of Von Zipper Burnout sunglasses would make a great gift for him this Christmas. I am sure he already has a pair of sunglasses but Von Zipper is said to be very popular among snowboarders so it would be a most appropriate gift. Most importantly, I could buy it online!

At first, I thought that I want to move to the capital city and enroll in college there. I long for the change of environment and going to college is a valid reason for me to live in the capital city for long periods of time. But after much discussion with family and friends, I realize that taking up online college courses would be more practical.

However, studying online requires tremendous discipline, something that I am unsure that I have frankly. I would probably be distracted by Facebook and the 1001 addictive game applications there but I then discovered many of my young friends who are still in college accessing Facebook via their netbooks while in class!

So what difference will that make attending conventional college classes or studying in the comfort of home at my own convenience? I probably could pay better attention to my lessons without the distraction from fellow students.

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Facebook is one of the most popular online social networks now the fact that we are able to interact with friends, family, associates and even friends of all these people easily, plus all the interesting Facebook games, make the site one of the stickiest too. Even when at first I did not like the fact that I could make friends with friends of friends, I find myself spending more time on Facebook, only because of the games, or better known as applications.

At the same time, all these also make Facebook vulnerable to spam, malware attacks, phishing and other security threats. I know that there are many people who would expose their Facebook profile to strangers because they need more friends, more crew, a larger house or mob, to level up in the various games but this also puts us at risk to phishing attacks or identity thefts.

I came across an article this morning on a French website, SecuObs.com, thankfully the article is in English, which listed out ten Don’ts using Facebook. I think everyone who is registered with Facebook, whether an active user or not, should give this article a read and then take a fresh look at how we use Facebook and the information, contact details and photos we share on Facebook, and other similar social networks like MySpace, Friendster and even Twitter.

Many people have written in to me via my blogs to ask how to check the status of their Maxis IPO applications. Well, as mentioned in a previous post, you can check it online at http://www.mih.com.my with your old IC number or MyKad number. If you are using your MyKad number to check, do make sure that the format to use is xxxx-xx-xx with dashes.

Even though my application for Maxis IPO has been successful, I have not received any notification via mail. I have to say that there has been too much work, too little time for the people at Malaysian Issuing House, hence the delay.

A reader asked me for alternate ways to check the status of his Maxis IPO application since the website of MIH returned a negative result and he did not receive anything in the mail. If he had been unsuccessful, I gather he would have received his bounced application in the mail already, just like my aunt.

I told him that besides checking the status of his Maxis IPO online at http://www.mih.com.my and waiting for the postman to bring the news, he could also call up his remisier or dealer’s representative to ask or just call up the stock brokerage firm and provide them with his CDS account number.

Maxis will be listed on KLSE tomorrow at 9am so if you are planning to make a quick buck on opening day itself, you should find out the status of your Maxis IPO first thing tomorrow morning, if you haven’t go any news until now.

My friend told me that she’s doing fairly well investing in gold. She checks for the price of gold online first thing in the morning and she said that when she sees the price go up, she will be in a better mood the whole day!

Buying gold for investment is so easy nowadays, I feel like I have missed the boat. Did you check the price of gold today? It’s already more than US$1140 per ounce. I feel it’s wasted because I have been looking out for it when it was still US$800+ per ounce. It’s too bad that I failed to take action then, just a few short months ago.

Anyway, the price of gold is too high now that I am unable to go into the market anymore. However, I am eying silver now; though not as valuable as gold but there’s money to be made there since the price of silver still hasn’t sky-rocket yet.

My friend, Sara, lost her job a few months ago and until today, has not found a suitable job yet. She said that she is not fussy and would work for a lower position and lower pay but sometimes, she is told that she is overqualified; sometimes she is told that she doesn’t fit the bill.

Whatever it is, Sara is quite dejected and said that perhaps it is time to reconsider taking up a course. Sara doesn’t want to ‘study’ but to pick up a skill. She said that she may enroll in a Cosmetology School since she has interest in the beauty industry. However, she is worried that she may be too old to start a new career.

Whether she is too old, I cannot say but then sometimes it is good to take a different path in life if one has reached a dead end for the time being. Didn’t we hear too often that we should take a step back to move two steps forward?

It’s balloting day today for Maxis IPO and if you have applied, especially if you have applied for Maxis shares with the blue form, or better yet, green form, which is reserved for Maxis One Club members, let’s not talk about the red form with is for bumiputeras, then I am sure you are pretty excited about the outcome.

My friend, who is totally new to buying shares, let alone applying for IPOs, registered for a CDS account especially to apply for Maxis IPO which was offered to him, a Maxis customer, for restricted balloting. He asked me how he would be informed if he was successful. Would Maxis send him a text message?

Well, I don’t know about the text message since I have never received any text messages for all my successful IPO applications but then I have never applied for any IPOs from telecommunications companies. As far as I know, successful applicants will receive a notice via post from the Malaysian Issuing House (MIH).

But the web savvy people like us could check the status of our Maxis IPO applications, whether we are successful in the balloting or not, via the website of Malaysian Issuing House (MIH) at http://www.mih.com.my/ Click on IPO Results Enquiry and submit your old or new IC number or company registration number, if you are applying as a company. Then select the IPO that you have applied for from the drop down menu.

Of course, although Maxis IPO balloting is today, we wouldn’t be getting instant results. Just wait a few days before checking since we may be on the reserve list. Good luck!