It seems like 2003 is a pretty bad year for Hong Kong's entertainment industry. Just earlier today, another super star passed away after losing the battle to cancer. Her name is Anita Mui, age 40. She is the Queen of pop music in HK. She became famous in the 1980s. She also won many award in films. I remembered I read a article on Time magazine several years ago, she was called the Madonna of Asia. Anita was also featured in CNN in 1992 which compared her singing career with Diana Ross and Madonna. And in April 18, 1992, the Mayor of San Francisco declared that day as "Anita Mui Day" in recognition of her charity work in San Francisco. Personally, I really enjoy listen to her music, especially during my teenage years. It's a tragic loss to those who love her. You can learn more about this news at http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Entertainment/ap20031230_1705.html.
Another Hong Kong super star passed away this year is Leslie Cheung. He committed suicide by leaping from a building. If you like to learn more about them, just search their names on Google.
Anyway, year 2003 is a bad year and believe it or not, it is supposed to be a bad year according to the Chinese ancient art of prediction and Feng Shui. Let's hope that 2004 will be a great year for everyone!

Do you like to buy or sell on eBay? I certainly do. That's why I posted a few things on eBay for sell. You can view them here:
View SOHOSOS.COM Auctions @ eBay
If you are an eBayer, here is a tip to protect your account. I have always been very careful when responding to emails requesting personal information. A few minutes ago, I received an email from "eBay" saying my account could be suspended and wants me to confirm by clicking on the submit button. It looks like this (without the eBay picture and the submit button):

"Dear customer,
We regret to inform you that your eBay account will be suspended due to the violation of our site policy below:
* Misrepresentation of Identity (User) - Representing yourself as another eBay user or registering using the identity of another.
Due to the suspension of this account, please be advised you are prohibited from using eBay in any way. This includes the registering of a new account.
Please note that this suspension does not relieve you of your agreed-upon obligation to pay any fees you may owe to eBay.
According to our site policy you will have to confirm that you are the real owner of the eBay account by completing a form or else your account will be deleted.
We regret to inform you that your eBay account could be suspended if you don't resolve your problems. To resolve this problems please click the link below and login to your account in order to resolve your account problems. "

I did click on the submit button and it leads to the "eBay" sign up page. For some reason, some of the graphics on the page didn't show up properly and I quickly became suspicious. Even the URL looks funny: "http://hostingprod.com/@confirm-info-half.com/confirm.html?mailformURL=eBay.com&submit=Submit".
So, I entered the eBay website using www.ebay.com and click on help and then the Security Center, and forward the suspicious email to spoof@ebay.com. And after a few minutes later, an reply email from eBay confirming the fake email. Boy! Am I glad I didn't enter my user name and the password on that fake sign in page! eBay is doing a pretty good job at spotting fake email automatically, but it won't be much a help if you are not careful.
I like to share this with you so you won't fall prey of the schemes. Happy selling & buying on eBay where you will find lots of bargains.

As I mentioned earlier, I just become a certified loan officer now working for Global One Lending in Sacramento, CA. Just like being a real estate agent, the job of loan officer is not easy, especially if you are on commission only. Getting more customers is a constant challenge. The good news is that I just find out a great website through Value Link exchange and I believe The Sink Or swim Loan Closing System can help newbie loan officers like me and the professional loan officers, brokers as well. I am very excited to share this resource with you if you are in the loan, mortgage field.

The Sink or Swim Loan Closing System is a set of mortgage loan pricing and processing worksheets developed over many years in the mortgage industry. The sheets cover both types of loans: purchases and refinances; and will work for conforming, sub-prime loans, second mortgages, home equity lines of credit (HELOC), FHA loans, VA loans, and commercial properties. 

This system is perfect for loan officers, loan processors, mortgage processors, mortgage brokers, mortgage bankers, local bank representatives, real estate agents, real estate investors, title companies, financial planners, CPAs, accountants or anyone else involved in the mortgage industry who wants to close more loans more quickly and make more money. 

No matter if you're new to the industry or already are a seasoned veteran, this is the perfect training to help sharpen your skills!

These worksheets are guaranteed to help you streamline your business and close more loans in less time and make more money. Learn more at http://www.loanclosingsystem.com.

To celebrate Christmas, many families decorate their houses to a various extend. As you have seen on TV, some of the Christmas decorations are very impressive. I decided to take a few pictures of the Christmas decorations around the neighborhood myself. Well, I didn't really go all out to find the best and the most impressive, but you can still get a glimpse of what our neighbors have done to celebrate Christmas. Click Here to view the pictures. Enjoy!

I like to share something funny with you today. Well, may be you have already heard it. Anyway, last night I listened to a radio talk show while I was driving back home. By the way, I am not a regular listener of evening AM radio talk shows.
There was a guy called in and said the "Air Force One" should be renamed to "Broom Stick One" if Hillary Clinton was elected as the President of the United States. The radio talk show host was cracked up and then the high pitch of witch-like laughter was blasting out the speakers. I was cracked up too. I am not very much into politics, and I am not against Hillary Clinton. It's just too hilarious. Sorry, Hillary.

I hate to do it, but I have no choice I guess. I am talking about the Bravenet Daily Cartoon. Actually I like it a lot. It adds fun to the website and may be able to get you back to visit again. But I just found out that since it's a free version, the cartoon comes with pop up ads. It's annoying but not so bad, I can take a few pop-ups. But, today, I am pretty upset to find out a pop up ad is actually some kind of virus and/or spyware. The pop up ad covers the entire screen and says: "Press Enter To Continue", but it won't go away after pressing the Enter key. And another pop up window asks for permission to install some shopping service program. At this point I decided I have had enough, so say good bye to the daily cartoon, even though I think it might not be Bravenet's fault. They should have screened their advertisers more carefully. It's fortunate that I have a virus protection software installed and was able to catch the nuisance.
Personally, I have a few pop-up ads set up on my website too, to be honest, but I can guarantee you that I won't install any annoying virus-like JavaScript and spyware. So you can feel 100% safe when visiting my website. Make sure you refresh your browser if you still see the Bravenet Daily Cartoon icons.

HSN.com has some great deals going! Their newest offer (beginning today) is $10.00 off anything in the Clearance store over $25.00 (excludes items with free S&H). Coupon code HSN4276 is good for all customers and is valid until 12/31/03.

They also have thousands of products, including many clearance items, that will be available with Free Shipping and Handling for a limited time.





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Buy.com and CNET bring you a 24 Hour Only Sale! Tuesday, December 22nd! Exclusive one day Price Drops and Rebates!

Give the perfect Gift, a Buy.com Gift Certificate! Now get a $5 Coupon when you buy a $100 GC!

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Enjoy The Savings & Happy Holidays!

I just add a cool Merry Christmas flash on the About page. It's about 1.5mb in size, so be patient if you have a dialup connection. I think you will like it. You might need to do Refresh in order to see it. I will take it off after Christmas. Enjoy!

I just received a chain letter, it's a good kind of chain letter. Personally I am annoyed by the usual good luck, bad luck statement at the end, and so I will chop off the letter and just post the good part of it. I think it's a good read and inspirational for those of you who haven't read it before. Here it goes:

His name was Fleming, and he was a poor Scottish farmer. One day, while trying to make a living for his family, he heard a cry for help coming from a nearby bog. He dropped his tools
and ran to the bog. There, mired to his waist in black muck, was a terrified boy, screaming and struggling to free himself. Farmer Fleming saved the lad from what could have been a slow and terrifying death.

The next day, a fancy carriage pulled up to the Scotsman's sparse surroundings. An elegantly dressed nobleman stepped out and introduced himself as the father of the boy Farmer Fleming had saved.

"I want to repay you," said the nobleman. "You saved my son's life."

"No, I can't accept payment for what I did," the Scottish farmer replied waving off the offer. At that moment, the farmer's own son came to the door of the family hovel.

"Is that your son?" the nobleman asked.

"Yes," the farmer replied proudly.

"I'll make you a deal. Let me provide him with the level of education my own son will enjoy. If the lad is anything like his father, he'll no doubt grow to be a man we both will be proud of." And that he did. Farmer Fleming's son attended the very best schools and in time, graduated from St. Mary's Hospital Medical School in London, and went on to become known throughout the world as the noted Sir Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of Penicillin.

Years afterward, the same nobleman's son who was saved from the bog was stricken with pneumonia.

What saved his life this time? Penicillin.

The name of the nobleman? Lord Randolph Churchill. His son's name?

Sir Winston Churchill.

Someone once said: What goes around comes around.

Work like you don't need the money.

Love like you've never been hurt.

Dance like nobody's watching.

Sing like nobody's listening.

Live like it's Heaven on Earth.

Did you notice I have just added several merchants on the website? Click on the banners to check them out:

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Do you know General Vitamin has been in the business since 1963? I wasn't even borne at that time yet! I have just purchased some vitamin from them and I am looking forward to receive my vitamins. Acutally the delivery person came and I missed him. I will go pick them up myself tomorrow.
Right now they have a great promotion going on:
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This limited time offer is a terrific way to bring in the new year!

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After another day of intensive studying, I finally finished the loan officer training also called the "Ferrari" and "Hummer" training after the cars of the two trainers drive respectively and who are also the owner-partners of the company. I will take the final exam sometime this week to become a certified loan officer.
Today, I learned how to use the loan application software Calyx Point. I was told it is the best software to make a loan officer's job a lot more efficient and easier and because of this, it will speed up the loan application process. I also learned how to use the Qualifier Plus IIx - Residential Real Estate Finance Calculator. It has a "Buyer Qualifying" capabilities built in. It offers functions like payments, terms, interest rates, balloon payments, APR, total finance charges and rent vs buy comparisons... just to name a few.
Oh Boy, believe it or not, I fell into asleep in the middle of typing this post. I guess I am really tired after a long day of learning... I have to go to bed early tonight. Good night!

I got off bed at 6 am this morning which is very unusual for me, not to mention today is Saturday. What was I so excited about? Well, I am attending the advanced loan officer training this weekend, I have already finished the basic training in November. I will be a certified loan officer upon the conclusion of the training tomorrow. I must say that I have learned a lot from the training. Now I understand how loan programs work and how to match them to the needs of the borrowers.
Another thing I really like about the training is that we are trained by the best: the two owner-partners of the company. It is very rare that you will get training directly from the boss(es).
Today, there were about 200 people attending the training. We played the loan matching games in teams and competed to make the best loan for clients in different scenarios. In all, the training today is very productive and fun. I can't wait for tomorrow to finish the training and start helping people who need loans. Yes, I am a rookie loan officer, but with the solid support of the company and the experienced, talented people backing me up, I am confident I will be a great loan officer who can find the best loan to suit the needs of my clients. I will post the loan service and the company info. on my website in the near future. Please check back often.
The training today ended with a high note with the celebration of one of the bosses' birthday and everybody had a piece of his birthday cake, and it's my favorite: the pineapple banana fruit cake! :-)

As I mentioned before, I passed my RE salesperson exam earlier this month, and I received the license application the following week. Yesterday, I spent the whole afternoon filling out the application forms. I wanted to mail the application right away so I can get my license sooner. DRE said it would take about 7 weeks for them to process license applications.

After filling out the forms and figuring what went where, I put all the forms in a big brown envelope, including my official college transcript from Sacramento State University. Since I have already satisfied the 18-month statutory courses requirement, I pay $20 less for the application fee. Now the last thing I needed to do was to have my finger printing done. I chose to have it done at the police station on Bond Road, Elk Grove which is not too far from where I live. It was my first time going to that police station and I got there without much hassle. There was nobody inside except two officers. One is a handsome young man, the other is a lady about 40 years old. After telling the young officer who is tending the service counter my purpose for the visit, I quickly found out they only accept money order or cashier's check for the service.

I should had figured that out first. I had to drive almost all the way back close to my home where the post office I know is located. Although it's not really far away, but still takes about 10 minutes. Anyway, when I got to the post office, there was a line of people waiting there. Most of them wanting to mail some packages, I realized it must be the holiday rush for sending out Christmas gifts. Fortunately, the line moved fairly quickly, I purchased the money order and headed back to the police station. Boy, was I glad that there was only one person waiting there and she was being taking care of. I was directed to a computerized scanner to have my fingers printed. That didn't take long. I put a copy of the receipt in the big brown envelop and headed back to the post office. This time the line was even longer! But I was in a pretty good mood, so the wait wasn't that bad at all. I just hope that I will get my license soon.

So, what's the next step should I take? I don't know yet, I am planning either to be a real estate agent or just do referrals. In any event, you will find out soon. By the way, did I mention I am also training to be a loan officer? I figure that by getting my real estate license and being a loan officer, I can offer the greatest service & help that I can offer to visitors of sohosos.com. Buying a home is probably the biggest purchase most of us ever make in our lives, and we need all the help and advice we can get before making that major decision. I know how frustrating and scary this can be because when I bought my first home I wished I knew more about the home buying process and loans which could have saved me a lot of grief. This is however, what motivated me to study for the real estate license and to become a loan officer. Anyway, I am really looking forward to use what I learn to help whoever needs help in buying and selling a home.

Again, for those of you who is also aspired to explore real estate as a career option, I suggest you to go visit the Soho Opportunities page and find out how you can be on the fast track to be a real estate agent. Good luck.

Have you tried any of the website language translation service such as Babel Fish from Alta Vista? If you are fluent in one of the languages in their list you know the accuracy is not very good. I would say it's about 70-80%. You can even get some good laugh out of it. I know, because I am pretty fluent in Chinese. I took out the phase "business leasing is available" in my online PC store advertisement, because when the sentence is translated into Chinese, it literally means "corporate lies can be used". It was very funny to me at first, but then I realized how seriously misleading it can be. Other mis-translations are just plain funny to read and I don't want to elaborate too much on it. Anyway, the translation tool is still pretty cool and useful, at least visitors who speak other languages can roughly figure out what the website is about. If you need more accurate language translation service, you should try worldlingo.com. They provide a full list of language translation service, even professional human translation is available. It is just one of the useful resources you can find on the Marketing tools page. Click Here to visit that page now.

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Happy Holidays!!

Here is an inspiring story for you -

"I Did It All By Myself"

I heard an amazing story about an interesting conversation between a self-made millionaire and his pastor.

The self-made millionaire said, "I started out with nothing. My parents were broke and didn't give me a thing. I put myself through school. And from the time I was a kid till now, nobody's ever given me anything."

The pastor asked, "You did it all by yourself?" The man said, "That's right." The pastor asked, "And nobody's ever given you a thing?" The man replied, "Not a thing."

Well, let me ask you this," said the pastor. "Who gave you life? Who gave you your marvelous brain, your talents, your natural abilities? Who changed your diapers and put food on your table as a child? Who taught you how to read and write? Who spent hours, weeks, and years educating you?"

The pastor continued, "Who gave you your first job? Who mentored you in business? Who lent you money to start your own business? Who raised a little girl and nutured her into a woman who could give you herself, her love, and your children?"

Still the pastor questioned him, "Who buys your products?
Who takes care of your customers and manages your offices?"
Who gave you your health? Who cleans your home, your office buildings, and the toilets?"

The pastor finished by saying, "If you can still look me in the eye and tell me you've done it all by yourself and that nobody has ever given you anything, then my last question is: Who has blinded your eyes and given you such a foolish, arrogant, and ungrateful heart?"

The self-made millionaire was silet for a few moments. It was one of those eureka moments.

He said, "What do I have that I haven't been given?"

Footnote: This self-made million started a letter writing campaign. He wrote to everyone who had influenced his life and said, "Thank you!"

This man's name is John Marks Templton and he said in his autobiography, "For more than 30 years my family sent Thanksgiving cards rather than Christmas cards to our friends, desiring to spread our gratitude for the many gifts of life."

Who do you need to write and thank today? :)

-------------------------------------------------
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Yesterday I went to San Fransicsco to visit my family and friends. I stopped at Davis for Sushi. Davis is basically a college town where UC Davis is located. It's about 20 minutes drive from Sacramento. There is a Janpanese food restaurant called Fuji. It's well known for its luch buffet. For less than $10 you can eat all you want. Anyway, as usual, I stuffed myself up with great tasting sushi before getting back on the freeway to SF. It rained all way from Sacramento to San Francisco. It's been a while for a good rain like that, so I am kind of enjoyed the not so "dry" weather. I ended up spending quite some time in San Francisco. It was already passed midnight by the time I got back to Sacramento. Haven lived in both cities, to me, San Francisco is a great city for visiting, but I prefer to live in Sacramento, which is only about one and half an hour drive. The housing is much more affordable than in San Francisco, althogh the prices are always on the rise.
Anyway, enough chitchatting, what I really like to tell you today is the promotion & discounts going on at Sharper Image. Sharper Image is my favorite high-tech gadget store. I believe their headquater is based in San Francisco. Now they have over 100 hundred stores all over the states. So, if there isn't one close to you, you can still shop their online store: sharperimage.com, even if you live in the following countries: The European Union, UK, Deutschland, Australia, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singarpore and Taiwan. Here are just some of the hot discounts from Sharper Image to save money on your holiday gifts shopping:


Please note: offer may not be combined with any other promotion and is valid only when using the corresponding affiliate link(one of the reasons you should visit sohosos.com to check for promotions and discounts before you go straight to you favorite online stores :-) ) Offer good through 12/31/03. Happy Holidays!

Yea... I passed the California Real Estate Salesperson license exam! I must say DRE is pretty efficient in grading the exam and posting the results on their website. I took the exam on Monday 12/01 and I got the result today which is Wednesday 12/03. And guess what? Today is my birthday! Well, congratulations and happy birthday to myself!
Anyway, I know, it's not a very big deal. Many people passed the exam the first time. But let me tell you, while I am taking the exam, I wasn't 100% sure I would pass the exam. And it would be really a drag to fail the exam. I just don't know how long it will take to be my turn again. I sent in the application for the exam in September and the actual exam date is more than two months away. So, I am very happy that I passed it the first time. The next step in getting the license is taking finger prints and turn in the application for the license. If everything go smoothly, I should have the license at the end of the month.
excitement aside, I know it's not easy to be a real estate agent, especially for me. I guess my personality is the biggest road block. I have been known as the "quiet" one at work. But I decided to get the license anyway, because I want to learn about real estate. I realized how little I know about buying a house when I purchased my house. And I will try to share what I learn on sohosos.com and possibly create another website only devoted to real estate :-).
In case you are also interested in a career in real estate, I suggest you get started right away. It will take a minimum of four months before you can get your license. I strongly suggest you take the Real Estate Principle class online as I did. To learn more about getting a real estate salesperson or broker license, you can visit my Soho Opportunities page. I also have a page on links to real estate resources. Good Luck!