| From: | that frolicsome kid |
| To: | Whom this may concern |
| Date: | 4 January 2007, 22:39 |
| Subject: | Resolutions: Missions Failed |
It is only the fourth day of the year, and I have failed to stick to my resolutions. Here's how I broke each one of them:
1. Yesterday, I was supposed to spend my some of my time refreshing my mind on previous German lessons and doing my music theory. Unfortunately, I was too caught up with eBay that I completely put them aside. I never did them both yesterday. I had to wake up early today and try to cram German into my brain (I've failed miserably). Thank goodness my teacher taught me new things and did some light revision with me.
And I never did my music theory. I was happily practicing a few songs by Richard Clayderman. Hehehe. I was hoping that my teacher would tell me to play these songs just now, but we concentrated instead on polishing my ABRSM exam pieces.
Oh yeah, not to mention doing my school holiday homework. *rolls eyes* I wish my school wouldn't undergo renovations this year. Seriously, I'm so going to stress a lot later in February to November; having classes and extra classes and Science practical lessons from Mondays to Saturdays with 3 more extra-curricular activities I have signed up for... Even typing that out is stressful! =P
2. Patience, hmmm. Yeah, I remember I was pretty annoyed with my mom when she was complaining about the dinner she had in a restaurant with her relatives and us. Inefficiency of services, that's what she was mainly fussing about. I felt really embarrassed. I mean, does she have to make a mountain out of a molehill? Their service wasn't so bad. Oh, and her relatives couldn't find the restaurant and she wasn't too happy to give them the directions. Guess she was in a bad mood. I got into a bad mood too. I tried to tell myself, it's okay, but in the end, I think I sulked in front of them. *shrug*
3. I never did sports these past few days. Consider resolution void. =P
I broke my resolutions! Does this mean I can continue living without them? No, of course not! Trying to stick my resolution will help me in my life, ignoring them means that my bad habit (the procrastination one) will stay.
I have tried to attend to things I have to do early these past few days, and it definitely helps a lot to not procrastinate. If not, I wouldn't be even typing out this blog post, as I will be calling up post office, settling a problem with my eBay buyer, making reservations at a Japanese restaurant and booking tickets to the cinema for an outing with my best friend tomorrow, sprucing up my room and replying to emails.
I have dealt with most of them, and now I am feeling so "free" from tasks at the moment, if you know what I mean! I got to keep up with this good work.
I don't think I really need to bother about the second resolution. I don't think I am patient enough to deal with my patience patiently! =D But I definitely need to do some sports (third resolution). It's no good letting my bum kiss the chair and my eyes glue to the monitor screen! =P
Okay, so currently my mom's relatives are in my house, watching a recording of my dad's 60th birthday downstairs. I should be joining them and accompanying them and all (you know, family obligations? =S), but instead I'm up here. Why?
Well, I don't know. I feel pretty much uncomfortable with them. I don't know why. I don't even understand most of the Hokkien thrown from one person to another. I'm not really close to them either. It's terrible. I'm not close to any of my relatives at all! I guess that is a really bad thing. I don't even know most of my paternal relatives (10 aunts and uncles), especially my cousins. I don't even talk to them, and I don't even know most of their names.
This is terrible, yet I can't really do anything about it. I don't even dare to talk to them. I know they won't bite of course, but that's just me. I feel shy and intimidated especially when HORDES of them come over for Chinese New Year.
Just thinking about that gives me the shivers. *is shivering*
And about the eBay PayPal problem (it's actually PayPal). I realise that PayPal doesn't fully support my country, i.e. I can buy, but I cannot sell. In other words, I can only send money, not receive money. So that really complicates my whole sale. I didn't know about it until this Canadian buyer told me that he is unable to pay via PayPal because my account cannot receive his payment at all. Great! So now, I tried contacting eBay (and the answer I received wasn't really that helpful) and am trying to resolve the problem with him and giving him alternative payment methods.
I admit, I am NOT supposed to even open an eBay account because I'm under 18. But then again, I really want to sell some books I don't read and are taking up bookshelf space, plus clothings and my mom's unwanted stuffs. And I got my mother's consent anyway. I really half-regretted to even begin selling, I didn't expect such complicated problems to arise. Oh well, wish me lots of luck in settling the problem!
There was another problem actually that precedes that, and that is the exorbitant shipping costs set by my local Post Office. I cannot believe it costs US$24 just to send one book from here to Canada. It's so expensive! UPS (a courier serve) offers to ship the book for US$25, and it is much more reliable despite the $1 difference. I was worried my buyer couldn't accept it, but fortunately he expected for that to happen to.
Unfortunately, he couldn't pay!
*shrugs*
So that was what kept me busy these past few days. It is indeed a great experience to learn from, I must say, but before that, I have got to deal with this professionally and ask my mom for advice on how a cheque/money order can be cashed into her account. This is so frustrating, I have forgotten most of the Commercial Studies I have learned in Year 7 - 9.
Guess that's all for the time being. I'll keep you guys updated through this blog. See you guys soon!
/ (
Comments (13):
Date:4/1/07 23:20
About family, I'm not close to mine either. A lot of it isn't your fault, because you haven't (I'm assuming) been encouraged to spend a lot of time or interact with them. I have a terrible time being around my mother's family, but only because I DO know them, and we have nothing in common.
About the eBay/PayPal thing, that's a little weird, if you ask me. I started an eBay account a couple years ago with my mother's name, but when I was looking for a computer, I only stuck to Canadian sellers, and those who accepted money order (a good thing, because this was done without permission, and it would've added insult to injury to also use her credit card).
Things will smooth out eventually :)
Date:4/1/07 23:44
Hey katelyn! Fortunately, it's the holidays for me, and my best friend helped me to put things into perspective. If I didn't discuss this problem with someone, I think I will still panic till now, not knowing what to do!
You're sort of right. I wasn't encouraged much to talk to them or anything, even though I do see my mom's relatives most of the time, and we do make occasional small talks, but that's about it.
I can't deal with local buyers, there aren't any potential ones and their numbers are small.
I really hope things will be alright in the end. =)
Date:5/1/07 02:35
I haven't fulfilled mine from last year. At least I can blame the back pains and that I'm OLD ;-)
*giggles*
Regarding family or relatives I know the feeling, though for me it was in another sense: they don't speak Swedish like me since my mother is from Finland and I never learned to speak Finnish! We went there for several weeks every summer and I had no one to talk to during that stay. I hated it. So when I was 12 I refused to go there anymore. My father stayed at home too, so I escaped it finally :-) It truly felt like being released from a prison...
Sorry to say that I've no advice when it comes to Paypal or other payment methods. I hope you can solve it. It sounds very frustrating! Ugh.
Date:5/1/07 10:53
Date:5/1/07 16:11
Hey mrs. lifecruiser, no excuses =P! Hahaha, poor you, having to bear with your relatives but then, you're lucky that you don't have to dread going there again!
I think the PayPal problem is coming to an end. Once the buyer pays me by money order, I can send him the book and complete the sale asap.
Hey happy and blue 2! I definitely will work at it, despite the failures. =)
Date:5/1/07 18:01
1. Give yourself a break - you're only just back after Christmas/ New Year... you just need time to gather momentum again (laughed at the idea your teacher might ask you to play the Richard Clayderman songs :-) )
Stop worrying about all your extra classes - you're not going to do them all at once... they'll be just one at the time, and you can deal with that!
2. Wonder if your mum was worrying about something else, like your relatives thinking she hadn't organised the meal very well, or taken them to the wrong restaurant or something. Usually, when mums are stressing about something silly, it's not that they're really worrying about! Chances are, she's just as worked up about all your rellies as you are, but being an adult she's not supposed to show this... Hold that in your mind when you see her giving off about something which doesn't appear to matter...
It's totally and utterly normal for a teenager to hide away from hoardes of rellies! Really! They can be a bit overwhelming at your age (they can be at mine too, but you learn ways of dealing with them :-)) One day, take up genealogy, and trace your family tree - that sure helps to put everyone in their place!
3. Sports - have to build up to that one. Bit more at the time. Definately a good goal (though it sounds like you do a fair bit already?)
4. Procrastinating - well, you seem to be getting a bit of a grip on that one, eh?
Not even going to go into the ebay/ paypal thing - still smarting over the problems I had with them before Christmas, which prevented me from giving my son his present on time (it's still sitting under the tree :-( )
Date:5/1/07 18:24
Date:5/1/07 23:53
Oh! I still remember your dad telling you about how plans are made to be broken! =P
Hmm, guess there is no need to worry about school just yet! But then, school is dragging closer and closer...25 days! Zoinks! =O
I think my mom's worried about the whole dinner going wrong. She's like me, or I'm like her. Hmmmm... ;)
Thanks for the reassurance! At least I know I'm normal! =P
Definitely need to work on my sports. So this evening, I "was forced to" cycle around my house. Done that in a few minutes time! So much for the exercise regime *chuckle*
Yep, I realised that these couple of days, I'm more in control of procrastination. Unfortunately, this bad habit of mind isn't completely eradicated. Right now, I'm procrastinating sleeping! Hahahaa!
Did you leave any negative/neutral feedback to them? Hey, at least your son will have a present to look forward to when he comes back! =)
Oh, my friend, or none of my friends, is not involved in eBay. He was there to listen to me ranting to him about my problems. =P That sort of helped as the more I rant, the more I can see how I have over-exaggerated the whole problem. For me, I find it easier to solve after getting that out of my system. =)
Date:10/1/07 07:10
I don't know if you saw on my post, but you know I wrote to the 'company' (or maybe 'person running under company name'?) about my son's psp, and all the problems related to it? Well, he/they've offered a partial refund, which will pay for the adaptor etc - In a way I'd like to 'take the guy down', but in another way, I think that's actually not unreasonable (though it shouldn't have happened in the first place) so maybe I'll just accept that's the best that can be done in the circumstances (It'll hurt them a bit to have to give up some of their profits....I should be satisfied with that!) So, just goes to show, you should try and sort it first, then if they don't do anything, write negative feedback. If I'd done that to start with, I'd have got nothing back!
Besides which, I won't leave any feedback until it's sorted to my satisfaction.
Date:10/1/07 13:43
Nope! The school is going to reopen on February 1st. It is currently carrying out heavy renovations. And that's not very long! *sigh* I won't be blogging that often from that time onwards. My final year at secondary/high school is going to be really hectic.
It's great to know that he gave you a partial refund. It really is better than him trying to makes things hard for you two!
I definitely keep your advice in mind. Yea, I think you won't get your refund back either if you wrote the negative feedback first.
Guess what? My feedback score went up to two! Horray! (Due to me buying some stuffs.) I have yet to settle with my first sales. Still waiting for the money order. =P
Date:19/11/14 08:33
Date:19/11/14 08:44
Date:19/11/14 08:44
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