My first big purchase online was in 2000 when I purchased the Acer TravelMate 508T laptop for RM5000+. Having a laptop with a 12.1 TFT screen with a 500 MHz processor was kind of exciting back then.

For a while the laptop served me well but it wasn’t long before problems started to crop up. I had to repair the hinges twice; which cost me around RM300 each time. While the laptop is still working today, I’ve stopped using it a couple of years back when the hinges broke again for the third time.

If you were expecting posts from me during the weekdays, I should inform you that I was deprived of an Internet connection when the net access for my town went kaput for 5 days.

I contacted Streamyx support for an update of a report I lodged earlier and later contacted the local TM exchange to find out what took them so long to fix the problem only to be given a conflicting information where one party basically blamed the other.

To be fair to them, I felt that someone somewhere did try to do something (after several follow-ups), just not as fast or perhaps not as competent as they should had been.

Two days ago a packet from Canada was delivered to my P.O. Box. I wasn’t expecting a delivery and thought it might be a bonus from PPCClassroom.com, an online course by Jeremy Palmer and Anik Singal that I am a member with.

I ripped open the packet wondering what it was and lo and behold it was a gift from MaxBounty. I’ve been receiving Christmas gifts from MaxBounty all these years, and how nice of them to continue the practice.

December is the time of the year when I usually take a break from working. While I am not totally away from the computer most of the time, it’s hard to get into my normal working routine when my mood dictates that I should be doing something else!

December is the time for shopping, getting ready for Christmas, balik kampung, barbeque and Aramai Tii! The last phrase is a typical expression used by Sabahan when they are having a jolly good time.

Some of you may recall that in January this year I’ve shared my top ten new year’s business resolutions in this blog. I think it’s a good time to review whether I’ve achieved any of the resolutions or on track of achieving them.

Telling everyone about my goals reminds me that there’ll be more people to prod me along if I fall behind. Therefore I’ll be more likely to stick with them. Ok lets review them one by one.

1. Managing my affiliate programs more effectively

Technical problem that is… I suspect this happens to everyone who’s trying to leave a comment here. When you tried to leave a comment, did you experience longer than normal delay before your comment appeared?

Or perhaps the post didn’t load properly after posting your comment and you had to manually refresh it.

This question is for those commentators who are pre-approved, and don’t go into moderation process.

Please leave your comment below and tell me if you encounter any problem. I suspect this might have to do with my server security setting which checks for any attempt to compromise the server security.

Some bloggers may have the natural ability to write posts faster than their readers could read them. I guess I am somewhere in the middle, I might be able type a tad faster than the average person but when it comes to completing a post, I usually need a few hours to do so.

Short posts that require no research usually take me less than 15 minutes. But I prefer to take my time when writing long posts that require a good deal of research. My problem is I often know what to write but deciding how to write it can consume most of my time.

I’ve seen bloggers showing off their desktop so I thought it would be fun to show mine here :). I am a multi-monitor user and wouldn’t have it any other way. With such setup, I have more screen estate to work with.

My two 17 inch LCD screens provide me with 2560 x 1024 resolutions which is plenty of space for multitasking. It eliminates the intermediate click when switching between two windows because I can have them opened simultaneously side by side.

Yesterday I noticed a trackback from Raymond.cc, one of the most popular Tech Blogs in Malaysia . Curious to know what he had written about Sabahan.com, I clicked the link to find a post where Raymond lists 10 of his most read blogs.

Apparently, Sabahan.com is one of the blogs that he read daily. I am honored to be on the list and am glad to know he finds Sabahan.com useful

While I don’t usually participate in a tagging meme I thought this one is worth tagging along with. In addition to helping us discover interesting blogs from other people, I would also like to return the favour and thank Raymond for including Sabahan.com on his list.

Revealing your income can be a good way to generate buzz to your blog if you are making good money from it.

After revealing my income the other day, the post was mentioned in several blogs, many of which were new to me. It’s a good way to attract other bloggers to link to you.

As I wrote earlier some bloggers may prefer to keep quiet about their income for fear of being copied by others, or they don’t want to be perceived as bragging.