Claire's Random Thoughts

If I can’t live the “perfect” day, I might as well at least philosophize during my sleepless night alone and dream it.

I shall refrain from describing an “ideal” day as “perfect” simply because I avoid using absolutes whenever possible. There are exceptions to virtually (notice I’m avoiding the absolute again) everything in reality, so I almost always qualify my absolutes to make them acceptable in as many situations as possible.

You wake up relatively early (preferably between 8:00 to 9:00 am) with a full night’s sleep and refreshed body ready for a full day of excitement and enrichment. Previous night insomnia was definitely not an issue.
I just dragged myself out of beds a few moments ago after hours of unsuccessful attempts to fall asleep. Hence, I’m writing this instead of sleeping.

You eat a quality and healthy but also tasteful breakfast. For example, smoked salmon and cream cheese on a bagel. Coffee is unnecessary, as you had previously gotten a great night’s sleep, but perhaps an orange juice would complement the meal.
My normal breakfast, unfortunately, typically consists of leftovers, microwavable meals, or other instant food products.

You get dressed in athletic attire, stretch, and leave for the gym. On the way to the gym, it is neither too hot nor too cold. The temperature is perfect, around 70 degrees fahrenheit and sunny but not so intense that you have to squint without sunglasses. When you arrive at the gym, you are fully pumped and ready to maximize your time there. You push yourself to run for about half an hour but do not get tired with a heart rate beyond 180 beats per minute. You also lift weights exercising each muscle group with a little extra emphasis on the abs. In addition to all this, your mp3 player never failed to accurately anticipate the song you were thinking of while in shuffle mode.
It’s freeeeezing when I go to the gym here. The weather deters me from going, and I wish it didn’t. I also tend to pick the worst times to go and fail to do everything I planned to most of the time.

You take a leisurely walk back to your room in the ravishing weather previously described above with the mp3 player that never fails to accurately play the song you want. You may see a few friends and acquaintances to whom you wave, smile, and have delightful short conversations.
If only I weather were always so nice and I were always in such a good mood.

You remind yourself that although this day is ideal, you still sweat at the gym and need a regular shower. So, you get in the shower for a reasonable period of time, use your cucumber melon shower gel, and use your cucumber melon lotion after you get out and dry yourself. Hair drying and styling today comes naturally. You also have a surprisingly steady hand in doing makeup. Hair and makeup are done flawlessly and look alluring for the remainder of the day.
Those of you who know me should know how much time I waste in the bathroom with little progress.

It’s time for a brief glimpse of the news, either the NY Times or some news on TV. A day does not feel complete to me without the acquisition of new knowledge. You head off to lunch, but it is definitely not Montgoris (dining hall) food. Something from the chicken and rice food stand should be nice, because you’re still a poor college student and can’t afford fine cuisine on a regular basis. Or, maybe you had the privilege of hanging out and cooking a nice meal with friends (like on Sarah’s birthday).
A day feels more completely when I know what is going on in the outside world. Food is important too, but lunch is meant to be quicker and not fancy. That will come when I get to dinner.

After lunch and some news, you take the afternoon to complete miscellaneous tasks. I hesitated in including this in an ideal day, but some degree of productivity tends to enhance my day. You watch the stock market close. If the market was bearish, the good news is you were short anyway, so you still benefit personally. Or better yet, you were long and the market was bullish with great forecast for future potential economic growth. After the market closes, you head off to an enjoyable class (again, the for knowledge acquisition purposes). You sit in a new spot for spontaneity and meet a few new great people in this class. The material today is especially interesting and practical for future use.
I sound like a nerd, don’t I? Well, I was productive, I learned material I was truly interested in, and I made a profit. Not bad for a day’s work, right? I was debating between going to class or a job, but I don’t have a job at the moment, so I stuck a class in this spot.

After feeling a sense of accomplishment for this day’s tasks, you go back to your room and start getting ready for your date with the ideal man tonight. Because you decided to sit in a new seat in class today, you met the most amazing guy who you never even knew existed before this day and with whom there was mutual attraction at first sight. The climax of the day was him suggesting taking you out tonight. You already look great today, but you apply some slightly more makeup for the night, find a suitable outfit effortlessly, and look even more stunning. This guy has a car too, so he picks you up allowing you to avoid public transportation. Your dinner together consists of fine cuisine, deep conversation, and you are both left wanting more at the end of the night. His kisses are indefectible, and the feeling you get when he touches you is almost too good to be true. You wonder whether you are dreaming, but he playfully pinches you, and you realize you are still living in the real world.
Ok, I’m getting a little dreamy here, but this is my ideal day, so I can do whatever I want with it.

It is not too late at night when you leave the restaurant, so you decide to bring your date with you to meet up with some friends for yet another activity, only this one consists of a larger group of close friends. To me, what matters is not what you do, but with whom your time is spent with. Maybe a little bit of alcohol will help lighten the mood and intensify the enjoyment, but it shouldn’t be an absolute necessity if I can already have as much fun as envisioned.Since you scored big in the stock market today, you decide to treat your friends to the cover charge. The happiness the next several hours add to your day really put it over the top. On the way home, you and your group of friends engage in profound but delightful conversations, but unfortunately, humans need to sleep, so the fun ends when you return home.
I deserve to go out once in a while, right?

You go to bed, get a great night’s sleep, and repeat the cycle the next day.

That’s it? Well, I guess it doesn’t surprise me too much. I’ve had a lot of white friends, and I do like some things white people like too, but this quiz still shows that there’s some element of Asian in me.
The quiz can be found here for anyone interested.

This post was inspired by Tony H’s “Everything I Know About Business I Learned From Poker” article.

When I first started using the internet regularly, my favorite site was neopets. According to the records I just looked up, I first started playing on September 24, 2000, when I was not even 12 years old. Little did I know, “business” in the Neopian world was actually very similar to online business, and my “wasted” hours on neopets may have actually inspired me to start my online business I have been conducting since I turned 18 and was legally allowed to sell on the internet. My online business is quite simple, I simply sell things (profitably of course) on ebay, amazon, half.com, or in some cases, craigslist

By the way, my username on neopets was the least creative possible: claire_chiang

When I first signed up for neopets, I just explored the site and their neopian world. After a certain point, I became so obsessed that I often dreamt about it as if it were real. I think my interest in becoming rich in neopoints, the currency in neopets, sparked my continual interest in the game. The main reason I wanted to play was because getting rich in neopoints, even though that meant nothing in real life, gave me the upmost satisfaction a kid could feel.

What I learned:

1. Buy things on sale, sell them in your shop for more
Simple, isn’t it? I constantly looked for items in the shops that the neopets site put items in, and I bought merchandise cheaply and sold it in my small personal shop for more.
Now, I look for big discounts online that I find on forums specifically designated for users to post good deals, and I buy stuff, receive it, and sell it for more on ebay/amazon/half.com

2. Discount cards (or coupons) are your friends
Neopets used to have a system with discount cards, but I think it was discontinued a few years ago. They would simply give the user a certain flat percentage off all merchandise bought at in site-generated shops. The less I pay for merchandise, the more of a profit I make selling it, right?
Now I use online coupon codes heavily to make good deals even slicker.

3. Sometimes it’s appropriate and in your best interest to haggle
In the neopets shops, you were allowed to haggle to get better prices, which again meant higher profits (or just simply lower prices if I actually wanted the items I was purchasing)
Of course I wouldn’t do this at a major retailer, but haggling is a must with street vendors or in some cases, small privately owned stores. Ok, maybe this isn’t really that relevant to my online buying/selling business, but it’s still a good example in how to save money applied from neopets.

4. When selling things in the marketplace, price your goods to be slightly cheaper than the next lowest price so that your items sell right away
In neopets, I learned that items in my shop would sell almost instantly if I priced everything 1 neopoint cheaper than the next cheapest in the shop wizard. The shop wizard is basically a search function to search all the user-operated shops to compare prices and list them in ascending order. Making everything 1NP cheaper is a great strategy, unless the next lowest price is significantly lower than all the other prices. If that’s the case, then buy the significantly lower priced one and sell both of them for 1NP lower than the next price.
In real online business on Amazon or Half.com, I basically do the same thing, except I list everything for 1 cent cheaper instead of 1 NP. That way my inventory typically turns over at a very high speed, and I don’t have to worry about running out of space to keep my stock, nor do I have to worry about items that depreciate over time.

5. Don’t just make money from operating, also invest your money properly or find a high interest liquid bank account.
In neopets, there was a stock market as well as different types of bank accounts. I always made sure to open the bank account with the best interest possible and to collect my interest every day. I also did a little day trading or short term stock investing, but that’s optional for the risk averse.
When I run my online business with high cash flow, I make sure to never let money sit in a low or zero yield checking account. Instead, I signed up for the paypal money market fund to earn interest while money is in my paypal account, and I always have my sales deposited into high yield money market checking accounts or higher rate savings accounts. I might do another post on my banking structure later, so if you are interested, keep posted.
In our current economic state, investing is probably optional. However, it will be an option I will definitely go for in the future if and when the economy stabilizes.

6. When you get ahold of a limited edition or rare item, hold onto it. It will probably appreciate more than cash at its current value will.
Some items in neopets were issued at one point and never given out or sold again, so they naturally appreciated in value over time. When these items were issued and I held onto them for several months, they typically became very valuable. Examples include paintbrushes and job coupons.

7. You can sell stuff that you got for free
That’s right. There were a few daily opportunities to get free stuff just by visiting a place and clicking, such as omelettes, jelly, and the tombola. If I was lucky, I sometimes got valuable items from the daily freebies that I was then able to turn around and sell for a good amount of neopoints.
Opportunities like this may be harder to find in real life, but when one presents itself, I never refuse. Some argue that it’s unethical to sell things that one obtains for free, but I respectfully disagree. If a transaction can be agreed upon, it means both parties involved are satisfied and feel as if they will have more to gain from completing the transaction than not completing it. So, as long as there is somebody willing to buy the item you are selling, it doesn’t matter how much you paid for it.

So there I have it. Neopets was not a complete waste of my life during my middle school and early high school years. Although it was a highly addictive and arguably unhealthy hobby, it was a good model of the real online business world that inspired me to start trying to make a profit online.

My resolutions:
1. Stop buying chocolate
The idea behind this one is simple. If I don’t buy it attempting and failing miserably to stock up, then I won’t eat it so much. This will make maintaining my weight significantly easier.

2. Truly study and focus when I plan to study, and have a set schedule for actuarial exam preparation
Otherwise, I just end up wasting time and not even having fun when I set aside time to study. If I plan to, then why not do so? This also leads into the next item on my list.

3. Pass exam P and exam FM by the end of the year
Getting an internship has been perpetually getting more competitive. Two exams complete definitely wouldn’t hurt at this point.

4. Improve my relationships with family/friends
Maybe I spend too much time online and not enough with real people, and that requires some change. I need some balance in the way I spend my extra time.

5. Have a small conversation with at least one stranger per day
This is also related to item 4 on my list, and it seems like a good way to expand the small list of people I know and talk to

6. Get my first real job/internship
Only essential for career advancement

7. Stop using bad weather as an excuse for not going to the gym
I should really go

8. Get under 118 lbs. again
I understand why people gain weight in college now, because it’s happened to me. This should be fairly easy if I can keep #1 and #7

Now for some New Year’s Resolutions Statistics:
That’s right, I’m going to be an actuary, so I can’t help but assign numbers to everything.

There is a strong negative correlation between happiness and the likelihood of setting resolutions. That is, the less happy you are, the more likely you are to set resolutions.
I wouldn’t consider myself as too happy relative to the general population, so I’m setting resolutions

Only 8% of people are always successful in achieving their resolutions. 19% achieve their resolutions every other year. 49% have infrequent success. 24% (one in four people) NEVER succeed and have failed on every resolution every year. That means that 3 out of 4 people almost never succeed.
So, why do we bother setting resolutions if we’re so likely to break them? Maybe this year will be different for me now that I have this on my blog. Yes, I will share about how these go, so that will be another incentive for me to keep my resolutions.

It appears that the younger you are, the more likely you are to achieve your resolutions
39% of those in their twenties achieve their resolutions every year or every other year
Less than 15% of those over 50 achieve their resolutions every year or every other year
Maybe that’s good news for me, because I am only 20 years old, so this works in my favor.

Now, let’s take a look at the top 10 most popular New Year’s Resolutions:
1. Spend more time with family and friends
Hmm…why does this seem to resemble one of mine?
2. Fit in Fitness
Yet again, related to one on my list
3. Tame the Bulge (aka lose weight)
Again?
4. Quit smoking
This probably would be on mine too if I smoked
5. Enjoy life more
Well, the things I put on mine are designed to help me enjoy my future life more
6. Quit drinking
If I were of age and an alcoholic, this would probably be on mine too. But, when you’re in college, you might as well take advantage of the things you can get away with
7. Get out of debt
I’m too careful financially at this point in life to have to worry about that, thankfully
8. Learn something new
Well, that’s sort of on my list. I wanted to study more, which means learning more material.
9. Help others
Maybe I’m just too selfish
10. Get organized
I need to do that too, or rather, stay organized.

Really, I didn’t look at the list before making my own. It’s interesting to see the resemblance.

Now, are you ready for the biggest, most astounding statistic?
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There is no correlation between happiness and resolution setting/success. In other words, achieving resolutions does not make the resolution setter any happier than he/she would be if he/she failed at keeping the resolution.
Considering that fact, why am I even setting resolutions that should not make me happy if I keep? I don’t really know, but part of me thinks that I’ll have an improved lifestyle whether I realize or not, if I can keep the resolutions. This sounds bleak, but maybe some people are just born happier than others are. So, something as insignificant as resolution setting/achieving tends to have a minuscule effect on happiness, because happiness is largely ingrained in our personalities and is extremely difficult to change. So, I’m setting my resolutions for the sake of proving myself to myself and lifestyle improvement whether achieving them will make me happy or not.

When I see a deal good enough for me to profit from, I simply can’t resist. This mess started with this thread.

Seems like a good deal, right? Buy the Canon SD1100 camera which is a very popular and easily resellable model for $89.99 plus shipping and ebay it for $150+, even a better deal if you buy two, because shipping is the same price. So guess what? I bought two.

A few days later, I got a call from Chase (I used my Chase card to pay for this purchase) with a potential fraud alert. They had me verify a charge from “an electronics store”, so since I remembered that I ordered my two Canon SD1100 cameras, I verified the charge. Obviously, a company should be held suspicious if even credit card companies know that they may be fraudulent. I briefly considered this when I got the phone call, but I still wanted to trust Conns and hoped to received my package soon.

For those of you who don’t know, I buy and sell a lot of things on the internet to make a little money that I treat as my allowance. I ordered two Canon SD1100 cameras online about a week ago for a great price and have been waiting on them for over a week so I could have inventory to sell. Today, a FedEx package that I had been anticipating for about a week arrived on my front porch. I was momentarily excited when it came, because I was running low on inventory, and it would be a great replenishment.

I was expecting two Canon SD1100’s, because they were what I ordered. Simple, isn’t it? To my dismay, I opened the package to find two unfamiliar looking boxes (yes, I know how Canon boxes look like by now). It turns out that I somehow received two worthless Samsung BL1050 cameras. Obviously, the initial excitement quickly faded away. You know what was even more ridiculous? The enclosed note it came with. So, they finally admitted that they didn’t send me the products I ordered. If you’re out of the damn item I ordered, let me know and give me the opportunity to cancel my order before you substitute whatever piece of shit you could find! I find it almost hilarious how they tried to convince me that their replacement could possibly be better than the camera I ordered. If so, then why is the retail price only half of that of the Canon SD1100? Maybe because there is absolutely no contest in image quality? One’s a well known camera brand name while the other’s just some regular electronics manufacturer? Seriously, Conns. If you don’t want to honor your sale price for the product you were advertising as “on sale” for $89.99, the right thing for you to do would be to simply cancel the order. You clearly had no intentions of selling me the camera I ordered if you just baited and switched. Calling the Samsung BL1050 an “upgrade” from a Canon SD1100 is just absolutely ludicrous. It’s like buying a Ferrari and receiving a Mustang as an “upgrade”.

On top of everything else, I’m personally insulted that someone would think I’m stupid enough to accept the evidently inferior cameras as an “upgrade”.

Maybe if a company names itself “Conns” it should hint that they’re con-artists. I have officially first-handedly experience the bait and switch scam. I guess when you buy and sell as many things as I do on the internet, it’s only inevitable that you will get scammed every once in a while. That’s what credit card buyer protection is for, I guess.

I’m really tempted to send some crappier $30 digital camera and write a note saying “Sorry, but the camera you sent me was not the one I wanted, so I’m returning one that’s an upgrade over the one you sent me.” Unfortunately, I still value my refund, so this plan will not take effect.

Anyway, as the note instructed me to do if I didn’t want to accept my “upgrade”, I sent the cameras back using the provided shipping label. Honestly, it wouldn’t surprise me if later they pretend that they didn’t receive the cameras I sent back, in which I will have to dispute the charge with the credit card company. Maybe it won’t be so difficult, considering they already recognized the charge as potentially fraudulent earlier and even had to call me about it. Obviously, this company’s already somewhat blacklisted in Chase’s database of merchants.

Bottom line: Don’t order from Conns when they have anything “on sale”. In fact, boycott their B&M stores too, because a company like them doesn’t deserve your business.