Tatoru Yuki's Rantings: March 2019

10 Expectations versus Reality Fact Checks as a Freelance Writer

March 25, 2019
By Tatoru Yuki
0 Comments

15 Paid Survey Opportunities in Malaysia 2019

March 21, 2019
By Tatoru Yuki
2 Comments

Paid survey opportunities. Sounds good, doesn't it? Some of the websites pay really slow, or maybe you just don't really fit the demographics they want. If you are staying in Malaysia, can speak, write or read Bahasa Melayu and English at least, then these survey sites will be good for you.

Of course, if you're a Chinese-speaking Malaysian, most surveys also give you the choice of answering the surveys in Chinese as well. You can get paid to do surveys on some websites in Malaysia, but you need to be diligent about it.

Before we start, it's important to note the following details:

Paid surveys is not a way for you to get rich in a few days. It may take a few months before you can get even USD5.
It is advisable for you to have a PayPal account. Most survey sites listed here pays out via PayPal, or through vouchers for AEON, KFC etc. If you want cash, then it's good to have a PayPal account ready.
You need to update your detailed profile. The more info you input into your profile, the easier it is for the survey sites to find surveys that match your demographics. You can then get more surveys to answer.
Some websites give you surveys everyday, and some only once or twice in a week. Be patient. As mentioned in point 1, paid surveys is not a way for you to get quick cash.
Check your inbox frequently, or switch on the email notifications for desktop. This way, you get notified immediately once there is a survey available for you on any of these survey sites.
Sometimes, when you open a survey, it immediately tells you that you are not a good fit for the demographics that the survey is looking for. It happens. Just make sure that your profile is updated.

Last but not least,

If you are signing up for these websites, please do so from the links on the website names below :)

It's for my own referral bonus, and if you share a post like this of your own, you can also gain some bonus from people who signs up from your link.

Get Paid to Complete Surveys in Malaysia from these 15 Websites

YouGov

What I get when you use the link above to sign up:

Update: I have stopped receiving survey invites ever since I'm one survey away from my payout :( There were usually steadily one or two surveys every week, but I have not received any invitations since two full weeks ago. I guess there isn't a proper payout for this one :(

When you sign up for a YouGov account and complete 6 surveys, I gain an additional 200 points.

I have had the account for: 7 Days

I now have: 590 Points from 5 surveys

Payouts: 5000 points required for :

RM70 via PayPal
RM60 Mobile Credit Top Up
2500 Air Asia Big Loyalty Points
UNICEF Donation

There is an app available for YouGov. I love this platform the most, simply because the surveys are very clean and easy to understand compared to other platforms.

Rakuten Insights

What I get when you use the link above to sign up:

Bonus epoints for both the new user and myself after completing some surveys, but I am not sure how many. There is no referral link for this, but I can send you an invitation e-mail from Rakuten Insights if I have your email address.

Leave your email address in the comments section below if you want me to send you an invitation.

I have had the account for: 16 Days

I now have: 720 Points from 16 surveys

Payouts: 2000 points required for :

RM20 Voucher for KFC, McDonalds
RM20 Voucher for Giant, AEON/Jusco, Guardian, Watsons
RM20 Prepaid Reload for Hotlink, Xpax, Digi
RM50 Petronas Prepaid card (need 5000 points for this one)

There is no cash payouts for this survey platform, but 2000 points is a relatively low threshold for the vouchers that I can get. The platform looks a lot more professional that some other survey paltforms that I will introduce here. There is also a clear disclaimer of how my information will and will not be used at the end of each survey.

MOBROG

What I get when you use the link above to sign up:

Once you complete 3 surveys that fits your demographics successfully, I will get USD1.00 in my account.

I have had the account for: 17 Days

I now have: USD2.10 from 2 surveys

Payouts: USD6.25 Balance required for cashout

There's no point system on this survey platform. They will directly credit USD currencies into your account until you have completed enough surveys for a cash out. If there are no surveys suitable for you, it usually recommends other platforms where you can get more paid surveys done as well.

However, the interface is a little wacky. The interface to update or fill in your profile information is not very convenient, and may require you to update it again when there are new spaces to fill in or if it failed to save.

Toluna Influencers

What I get when you use the link above to sign up:

I will receive 500 points for each successful registrations, but only up to 10 referrals a month.

I have had the account for: 19 Days

I now have: 8700 Points from 15 surveys

Payouts: 11000 Points Onwards

11,000 Points - 250 AirAsia BIG Points
16,320 Points - RM20 via PayPal
16,800 Points - RM20 Voucher for AEON / Giant

You receive 500 points once you sign up. Each profile completion surveys can get you an additional 100 points, and external surveys can even get you up to 5000 points! For each of these surveys you complete, you get a ticket for the Toluna Daily Lottery.

Even if you don't qualify for some of the surveys halfway through filling it up, you might still get a ticket for the Toluna Daily Lottery. The interface has better aesthetics than some other platforms - a nice bonus! The survey fill-up interface is also very neat and tidy.

PrizeRebel

What I get when you use the link above to sign up:

I will get 15% of your point earnings for every successful referral. There is no limit to the number of referrals I can get.

I have had the account for: 9 Days

I now have: 164 Points from 3 surveys

Payouts: from 200 points onwards.

200 Points - USD2 Amazon Gift Card
500 Points - USD5 via PayPal/ Amazon Gift Card/ Visa Prepaid Card. Incremental amount.
5000 Points - Lobster Grams Gift Card
Points in Varying amounts for in-game credits, including League of Legends, Steam Wallet, Nintendo e-Shop etc.

The experience so far has been good. PrizeRebel has links directly on its website where you can earn points for successfully completing surveys from other sites such as PeanutLabs, YourSurveys etc. I haven't tried all of these other sites yet, since there are many offers and tasks available. It looks promising though, with the payout being very valuable and reasonable.

The more points you earn on this platform, the higher your rank is. You would then be eligible for prize discounts, special bonuses, and an incremental rate of points earnings from referrals. Looks good!

GlobalTestMarket

What I get when you use the link above to sign up:

Nothing, but I can extend you an e-mail invitation from the platform to get a few points.

I have had the account for: 17 Days

I now have: 770 Points from 30+ surveys (including those that I don't qualify for)

Payouts: 4931 Points - USD10 Payout + several other merchants including 11 Street & Zalora

The best part about GlobalTestMarket is that you will still get 5 points for participating in a survey even if it turns out that you don't qualify for it later on. There interface is simple and it's easy to answer the questions, although a little tedious sometimes. But there is a steady stream of survey invitations, from which you can always get 5 LifePoints minimum.

However, be sure to log your log-in details somewhere. I keep confusing the password for this site for another one, and after several attempts, you can't log in until probably a day later or so. Because of that I currently can't update you about my current points and what payouts there are. I'll update this section soon!

SurveyOn

What I get when you use the link about to sign up:

Nothing. There is no referral program for this platform as of now. the FAQ section shows that a referral program is in the works.

I have had the account for: 7 Days

I now have: 9404 Points from 51 surveys + 4 Polls

Payouts: 20,000 Points for USD2

You can get up to 6,500 points from just updating your profile. External surveys from their clients can get you anywhere from 200 to 4000 points, which is great too. You can get 3 points from answering 3 polls a day, and you can get twice that amount on the 2nd, 12th and 22nd every month.

The only payout available here us the USD2, but it should be achievable in perhaps 2 to 3 months max if you are eligible for the surveys. Quite a small payout in comparison to the other platforms.

Triaba

What I get when you use the link about to sign up:

Nothing. There doesn't seem to be a referral program here.

I have had the account for: 17 Days

I now have: USD1 for 1 survey

Payouts: USD6.25 for PayPal cashout

Triaba has stated that users can expect to receive between 1-7 survey invitations per month. Most surveys I receive, I turned out to be not qualified for, so there are no rewards. Updating the profile on this site is more of a pain compared to other platforms I suggested here, and there are no ways to check your past surveys or anything.

However, like MOBROG, you get credited with USD instead of points right off the bait, which is cool too :)

Viewfruit

What I get when you use the link above to sign up:

If you have completed filling in all the personal details required on this platform, I will get 10% of the points for every survey you successfully complete. If you don't fill up all the required details, I will not get anything.

I have had the account for: 7 Days

I now have: 995 Points from 8 surveys

Payouts: 2500 points required for :

USD5 Payout. Multiplies for subsequent values:

5000 points for USD10
10000 points for USD20
15000 points for USD30
25000 points for USD50
50000 points for USD100

It's difficult to understand what the platform is trying to say. Even when filling in the profile information, the Malay and English language interface of this website is bad to say the least. It looks like someone directly translated it from Google Translate. Even when you switch to English language, some phrases are still in Malay because it wasn't translated properly.

However, some surveys that you successfully complete will give you 1 chance at spinning the wheel for bonus points. From the 5 times that I spin the wheel, I managed to get 10 bonus points twice. The other times it landed at 'Thank you for your participation' and I didn't get anything. Most surveys also clearly indicated that it is for men, but it will not be excluded from your recommended surveys even if your profile clearly states that you're a female.

The Panel Station

What I get when you use the link above to sign up:

If you sign up with my referral code UG3MUI both you and I will get 500 points.

I have had the account for: 1 Day

I now have: 300 Points from 1 Survey

Payouts: 3000 Minimum for RM30 Equivalent

This site is based in India. It's still quite rough, honestly. You can't even view the things that you can redeem or from what value. All that I can find is their information of how much the points are equivalent to in each participating country's currency. They did show that you can redeem from PayPal and Amazon among some others, but no value is given. When I tried to click the 'redeem' button, it only says that I need another 50 points to redeem.

YourVoice

What I get when you use the link above to sign up:

Nothing. This survey site is very bare and has no indication of having a referral program in its plans.

I have had the account for: 17 Days

I now have: 40 Points from 3 surveys

Payouts: from 100 points onwards.

RM10 for 100 points - A-cash, Run Up Runs Card,
RM20 for 200 points - 11Street, Lazada, RazerGold, Zalora
RM25 for 250 points - Cubicard,
RM50 for 500 points - GoPlayPlay Game Points
RM100 for 1000 points - Metrojaya, Parkson, Robinsons, Starbucks
RM200 for 2000 points - Popular
$7 for 285 points - MyCard
$10 for 425 points - Skype Credits
£5 for 270 pts - Spafinder Wellness 365
€10 for 465 points - Forzieri.com

So there's plenty of redemption choices as you can see above. Perhaps 25% of them are relevant to me personally. The surveys are rare in between, but at least the points have more value compared to other platforms. The threshold is not too high, but with the time between each survey, you might need at least 6 months to get something that you want.

FeaturePoints

What I get when you use the link above to sign up:

When you use the link above or my referral code 8XXYW6, you will get 50 points straight after you successfully register. I will earn 25% of the points you earn, and after 3 successful referrals, I will earn 50% of the points that you earn.

I have had the account for: 6 Days

I now have: 60 Points from 2 surveys

Payouts: 600 Points for USD1 via PayPal

I haven't actually received any e-mails for survey invites from FeaturePoints for the past 6 days. I almost forgot about this platform! They don't ask for a lot of information here, but they do show survey opportunities at the home page once you log in. So far, I haven't qualify for any. The payouts can be anywhere between USD1 to 1000, but it's going to take a long while if you're also not getting any surveys like I am.

ClixSense

What I get when you use the link above to sign up:

Each successful referral and active member on ClixSense will earn me anywhere from $0.10 to $0.30. Once my referral hits $5, I can get a $20.00 bonus. Sounds good!

I have had the account for: 6 Days

I now have: USD0.00 from 0 surveys

Payouts: USD10.00 via Skrill or USD20.00 via Payoneer minimum.

This platform is still relatively new for me and I haven't qualified for any surveys here yet. However, the referral program does look promising. The interface definitely isn't the best though, with it appearing like a very old-school website. Like MOBROG and Triaba Panel, ClixSense directly pays for surveys.

ClixSense encourages participation in Figure8 Tasks, but I have not looked into that yet.

ClixSense Research

What I get when you use the link above to sign up:

Nothing, but I can get $0.50 for each survey you successfully complete.

I have had the account for: 1 Day

I now have: USD0.00 from 0 surveys

Payouts: USD10.00 via Payoneer for cashout.

Based on my understanding, this is a partner of ClixSense. I am still very new at this and will need more time to review.

Bonus: Vase.com

What I can get when you use the link above to sign up:

I'll get RM1.00 for the first 5 referrals, and then RM0.20 for each subsequent ones afterwards.

I have had the account for: 1 Day

I now have: RM1 for 1 Survey

Payouts: From RM1 onwards straight to your bank account.

After sharing this blog post with my friend, she suggested this platform to me. You can get RM1 right after you register by completing your profile! That's a really good start, I think. Surveys that you can get from this site will go straight into cash - no pesky points or anything, which I think is kinda cool. Direct transfer to your bank too. Truly a Malaysian survey experience *claps*

If you have other platforms that is applicable to Malaysian users as well, please don't hesitate to let me know in the comments section below! :D

Book Review

Book Review: Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King

March 19, 2019
By Tatoru Yuki
0 Comments

Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King - General Information

Author: Stephen King
Published in: 2014
Genre: Crime Fiction
Pages: 436
ISBN: 978-1-4767-5445-1
Additional Details: Book 1 in the Bill Hodges Trilogy, followed up by:

Finders Keepers (2015)
End of Watch (2016)

Awards Received:

2014 Goodreads Choice Awards in the "Mystery and Thriller" category
2015 Edgar Award for Best Novel from the Mystery Writers of America

My Reviews of Mr. Mercedes

My Rating: 5/5

I have always been a fan of Stephen King, but for the horror genre rather than crime or mystery. I mean, when we think of this author, we immediately relate him with the horrendous clown in the gutters from his book It, the young girl with telekinesis abilities, drenched in blood during her own prom night from his first book Carrie, and the dead animals that returned to life but not quite in Pet Sematary.

We don't think of crime or detective stories when we think of Stephen King. Not really. That was how it stayed until I finished Mr. Mercedes.

This is the first book that I read from Stephen King that was not about supernatural beings or other undead thingies. Just like his other works that I enjoyed, this book did not disappoint.

The story started a little slow, and I was a little lost at where it was going for the first few pages, but as I became more familiar with the characters and who the perpetrator was, it was just a matter of hours before I flipped through the remaining pages.

There were parts where you can guess what would happen next. There were also parts where you would want to scream at the characters, "You're going the wrong way!" and there was a roller coaster of emotions involved in the entire book as the characters try to find out who Mr. Mercedes is.

I loved it.

If you are curious about what happens in the story, you can take a look at summary that I have written below. It's still quite lengthy though.

Contains spoilers from this point onwards

A Summary of Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King

This novel focuses on three main characters - Bill Hodges, a retired police detective, a black teenage boy Jerome, and a neurotic woman Holly. These three characters form an unlikely team to stop the antagonist known simply as Mr. Mercedes from committing his second massacre after the infamous City Center Massacre.

The first few chapters of the novel focused on the bleak economy, when thousands of job applicants gathered for a chance to get interviewed and land a job. Amidst the long queue, there is also a mother with her baby, who she carried around because she was not able to get a babysitter for the day. As the mother laid inside a sleeping bag with her baby cuddled together for warmth, a Mercedes crashed through the crowd, killing 8 - including the mom, the baby and a man trying to protect them from the impact.

Mr. Bill Hodges was on the case, but not for long.

After his retirement, Mr. Bill Hodges spends most of his day in front of the TV, contemplating using his gun on himself. On one of those days, he received a letter from someone who claimed to be Mr. Mercedes.

The letter detailed how he felt when he drove through the crowd and what he did to prevent his DNA from getting all over the car. He stole the car from Olivia Trelawney, a rich woman staying in a prestigious area called Sugar Heights, and made sure that the retired cop knew that he is being watched. The words were not very clear, but the intention was there - the villain wants to push Bill Hodges, the lead detective for his case, to his suicide.

Bill Hodges did not take the bait.

He found a renewed interest in the case, and wanted to catch the villain despite Mr. Mercedes claiming that he is not interested to do the same massacre again.

Bill remembers the interviews he had with the owner of the car of interest - the Mercedes that Olivia Trelawney forgot her keys in. She seemed appalled at the idea that she left her keys in the ignition - leading to the lives killed.

The more Olivia denied the possibilities, the harder Bill Hodges and his cop buddy Pete Huntley pressed on. Eventually, the two cops started to put less faith in Olivia. Eventually, she committed suicide.

Olivia's death pushed Bill Hodges to take extra care of the case once more. He started by questioning several individuals, one of whom included Janelle Patterson, known better as "Janey" in the book.

Janey showed Bill a letter that she believed was from Mr. Mercedes, having taken a liking to this retired cop. Soon, they were caught in a romantic relationship together, although Bill Hodges did not reveal this to anyone.

Meanwhile, Mr. Mercedes, known as Brady Hartsfield to the readers, have been paying attention to what was going on. He worked two jobs - one as an IT specialist that visits customers' homes to fix their PC issues, and the other as an ice-cream man right in the neighbourhood where Bill Hodges and Jeremy stayed.

On one of his rounds, Brady noticed Bill's car parked outside Janey's apartment, which was a turning point to make him become more impatient to take action - any form of action to show that he was a real threat.

Bill Hodges looped Jerome in on Debbie's Blue Umbrella, the website that Brady Hartsfield invited both Olivia and Bill to so that they can talk in private.

Soon, Bill was sending taunting messages to Brady on the site, cleverly provoking him in a way that he knew Brady would not be able to handle. He denied the possibilities of Brady being Mr. Mercedes, using another convicted serial killer that was recently acquitted.

Brady was riled up, and had one of his bad headaches that happen whenever he's stressed or thinking about his dead younger brother - the first murder he committed with his mother. Here, it was revealed that Brady was involved in some sort of incest with his mother.

He prepared a burger with poisoned meat that was meant to be given to Jerome's pet dog. The intention was to show Bill Hodges that he was the real deal, and that Bill should give him the credits and attention that he sought.

The plan failed when Brady's mother had one of her good days out of her alcohol fever. She found the hamburger packed in the fridge and ate it. Brady ignored her pleas for help when he found her, sad that she had to go that way but unwilling to help due to the fact that he would be caught if he did.

His mother's death drove Brady almost mad. He told the cop only one thing - that he would kill him.

Brady used a device that he made to break into other people's cars - a device that steals a car remote's signals and mimics it to unlock the car without a key. He planted a bomb in Hodges' car during Olivia's funeral, which was attended by Olivia's relatives, Janey and Bill Hodges himself.

Bill would have been killed at that point, but Brady mistook Janey for the cop when she wore the hat that she gave him and drove away in his car.

Janey was killed in the explosion.

The explosion brought Holly - Janey's cousin - closer to Bill Hodges and her own sanity. Together with Jerome and Bill, the three started to uncover more and more of Mr. Mercedes' identity.

They checked past car burglary logs and several other crime records. When they managed to open Olivia's computer, the truth started to unravel. Things moved fast once the trio connected Olivia's computer to the tech store that Brady worked at thanks to a security guard in Sugar Heights.

Jerome immediately knew who Mr. Mercedes was when he saw Brady's familiar face listed on the tech company's website - the ice-cream man that his sister and himself often visited for their snack.

They managed to find Brady's address, from which they also found his mother's dead body and her record of the passcodes for Brady's basement area. Upon unlocking Brady's computers and e-mails, they found what they feared - Brady was going to kill even more people in a concert that was going to happen that very evening. There would be more than 4000 people in that stadium, including Jerome's sister and mother.

Brady had disguised himself well, entering through the handicapped area in a wheelchair, carrying his younger brother's picture in his lap to hide the blinking lights of the bomb he planned to detonate. While Bill had alerted his friend working in the security area of the concert, the retired cop also did not suspect Brady of being the culprit.

Bill, Jerome and Holly later arrived at the concert hall when the music was just starting. While Bill succumbed to signs of a heart attack, Holly and Jerome went ahead to find and subdue Brady. Holly, who had gained much more confidence throughout the ordeal with Bill and Jerome, spotted Brady and knocked him out with the handmade weapon that Bill always carried around - the Happy Slapper.

Brady fell unconscious immediately, and Holly pulled the batteries off the electronic detonation device. The concert and its 4000 attendees were saved.

In the epilogue, Jerome and Holly were awarded as heroes of the city. Holly moved out from her family home, away from her eccentric and overbearing mother. Bill was questioned upon recovery from his heart attack, but he was still a free man.

Meanwhile, in a hospital, Brady woke up from a coma and asked for his mother, saying that he had a headache.

Game Review

Game Review: Devotion by Red Candle Games

March 18, 2019
By Tatoru Yuki
0 Comments

A review of Devotion by Red Candle Games

A bit of Google searching told me that Devotion is a game made by Red Candle Games, a company based in Taiwan.

This game was apparently taken down from Steam after some China players noticed insults about their government inside the game.

Well, I managed to get the game, and I played it twice. First on a blind run just to see if I can get through the game, and a second time 30 minutes later to record the no commentary playthrough. If you're interested, you can view the playthroughs here: Part 1 - Part 2

So, review of the game, right?

If You Have a Copy of Devotion by Red Candle Games, Play It

My ratings - 5/5

Gameplay Difficulty: Easy, Beginner level

Game Genre: Atmospheric Horror, Adventure, Exploration

If you are categorized as a noob game player like me - I can't survive survival games, FPS games or anything that requires me not to panic and have control over which buttons I'm pressing - then this game is for you.

Devotion is more like an exploration game that you can get through without even searching for 'Devotion Game Walkthrough' on Google. I managed to get past it in the first run just fine, and it's the first time in a few months that I have actually completed a game - much less in just a couple of hours.

If you like horror games that gives you the creeps - good atmosphere, good sound effects, barely relying on jumpscares, then once more, Devotion is a game that you NEED to try. I loved the music choices, the atmospheric horror of the entire game scenes and everything else. Even the credits. Everything.

There could be game spoilers from this point onwards.

I won't classify this game as a survival game, simply because there's no way that you can die in this game. Even if you do at ONE single point of the game, you get to try again immediately because the game auto-saves at each door entrance and some cutscenes.

As a Chinese person playing this game, it's super refreshing to play an atmospheric horror game that has Chinese audio. It feels like home.

I suppose that is the entire point of this game. It feels just like home if you are from this cultural background. From the moment you open the game, the traditional Chinese music vibe brings you back to the 80's or so.

Kudos to the game developers who paid so much detail to the surroundings of the game. There isn't that many rooms or scenarios to create - most of the game occurs inside an apartment unit with 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom (ah, the goddamn bathroom), a living room and a kitchen area.

However, the living room was so... forgive the bare descriptions, but it was so Chinese.

Devotion Stuck Close to the Chinese Cultural Background

So I said it was super 'Chinese' because I look at every single furnishing pieces and I think of my grandparents' place. The glass coffee table, that specific wooden clock, the TV program they aired on the TV, how they furnished Mei Shin's study table... Everything felt like home.

Hey, I'm Chinese okay, spare me the ridicule.

Even the apartment entrances are like... I look at it and I go, "Yep that's how some of my more religious relatives decorate their home entrances. You enter the house and the praying altar is right there, its red light glowing luminously even in the dark.

I remember being scared of that same glowing red light when I had to go downstairs and pee in the middle of the night when I was still a little kid.

And look, there's a tank with an Arowana in it. Absolutely Chinese.

The Chinese Religion Cult Obsessions

Buddhist, Taoist, whatever religion some of these Chinese people might be, you can be sure that there are some people who would rather visit their sifu (in this game, Mentor Hu) than to visit the doctor.

You can present them with any sorts of problems - baby crying too much in the middle of the night, child being very mischievous, teenager getting too rebellious, someone keeps getting sick in the family or suddenly appear tired all the time etc. The list is endless. These religious people will ask you to go to the temple and pray.

I even remember going to one of those temples myself. They had amulets, prayers and blessings for everything. I didn't believe in it then, and now I'm still filled with disbelief about how some people can take it too far like how the main character in the game did.

The mention of afterlife was also realistic. If you have been to the Chin Swee Temple near Genting Highlands, you might have seen the representations of various levels of Chinese hell. You can take a look at Luna's blog post here to see what the display is all about.

In one of these levels, the sinners are punished to support heavy rocks and pillars for their sins. That refers to the Chamber of Rocks. The sinners that you are looking at in the game are supposedly those who kill or abandon their babies.

Traditional Chinese Families' Taboo of Mental Illnesses

Oh, this game definitely hit this point just right. Many parents would rather think that their children is just lazy or have been possessed by demons rather than the simple, medical fact that there are some messed up brain chemicals in their child's minds.

When Mei Shin explained about her shortness of breath, thinking that she was going to die in her sleep, or expect the worst to happen when she's out with her friends, it was clear that she was suffering from anxiety and panic attacks.

The main character's reaction to seeing the medical report suggesting him to refer Mei Shin to a psychiatrist could seem exaggerated, but even in the modern Chinese family now, this report will still wield almost no power in front of conservative parents.

Lady of the Pier

Mei Shin's song at the credits only made the game sadder. The game endings revealed that in pursue of his obsession with the Cigu Guanyin cult, he actually ended up with his wife leaving him, having been accused of being possessed by a demon.

Sadder still, although LiFang was supposed to come back after her movie to bring her daughter with her, she did not do it in time. When Mei Shin's conditions worsened due to her mother's sudden absence, the main character resorted to bring her to Mentor Hu - for the last time.

Mei Shin had drowned in the bath tub, soaked in snake wine.

Hearing Mei Shin's singing the very song that brought her to her fame - but not to the finals - knowing that she passed on due to her father's obsession left a sad feeling to say the least.

At the end of the game, Mei Shin turned around from a sandbox area in the playground and said, "Let's go home, dad."

Perhaps the father already came to realization about what truly happened, since the final cutscene showed him sitting in the living room in the dark, TV static buzzing on. This is further supported by him finding the recorded audio clips of other clients' complaints when he 'woke up' from the ritual to save his daughter.

Extra: Lady of The Pier Chinese & English Lyrics

大海滿是波浪不見船入港
Ocean full of waves, no ships in sight at port
她站在碼頭遙望著北方
Standing on the pier, she gazes far north
青絲飛上白霜心還惦著他
Hair dyed by time, the heart still missing him
信裡沒說的那句回答
The answer owed in my letter to you
傻傻的姑娘戴一朵花等著他回來啊
A flower in her hair, waiting for his return
小小的嘴兒藏不住話都唱成情歌啊
Her voice overflowing with words, she sings a love song
青山依舊歲月如常也不見她悲傷
Mountains last, years pass, yet her sadness remains hidden
有情的人別問她你還願意嗎？
For the one who's full of love, don't ask if she's still willing
(repeat)
若有來世你還願意嗎？
If there's an afterlife, are you still willing?

Freelancing

Platform Review: Why I Will No Longer Use Freelancer.com

March 18, 2019
By Tatoru Yuki
0 Comments

Update: 3 days after this post is uploaded, Freelancer.com support team has reached out to me with the following response. It looks like their staff do try to clear disputes with dissatisfied users like me or other freelancers. This message clearly entails what users should be looking out for before they bid on projects or how they can communicate with the buyer more before they accept that job and get charged either $5 or 10%, whichever is higher. You can refer to their response below. I have censored the staff name, ticket URL and my own name for privacy purposes.

*********

Now that you have read their response, take my reviews and content with a bit of salt if you will. Just know that this is my personal experience and I am basing my reviews on my experience using this website to work as a freelancer.

If you have been following my blog for a bit, you might have seen some other blog posts about scams at Freelancer.com and other issues.

I also have a blog that was made just to single out some of the scammers that are using Freelancer.com. You can find the blog here if you are interested.

Freelancer.com Is Not Worth It :(

I have tried several freelancing platforms, including Fiverr, PeoplePerHour and Guru.com. Freelancer.com was probably the first one that I tried, simply because the name was easy to find.

I was happily using the 1-month pro-account free trial and bidding on all sorts of projects, but I can assure you that at least 50% of the bids I placed were gone to waste.

Reasons to Say No to Freelancer.com No. 1: High Project Cost

There was one project that I managed to get around the first few days that I was on the site. It was a transcription project, I remember that much. I bid SGD155 for that project, and the client was happy with that price.

We talked a little, and I chose to accept the project.

Of course I was thrilled to have that project. It was barely a week in and I already managed to get a high-price one.

Then, the moment I clicked the 'Accept' button, I got charged.

My cash wallet took a negative dive even before I managed to earn a single cent.

My balance was a whooping -SGD15.50.

Freelancer.com Took a 10% Project Fee from Me

Well that was really shitty, isn't it? 10%? For real?

As it turns out, the client who couldn't speak or understand Mandarin or other dialects misinformed me about the audio clip. While I was told that the audio clip is mostly English and Chinese with a bit of Hokkien, the entire audio clip was 90% angry, cursing Hokkien that was too fast to comprehend.

So I told him that I couldn't do it, and canceled the assignment.

There was No Refund After Project Cancellation

I had to use the earnings that I gained from the next few projects to get my wallet back to positive and earning values.

There was no refund of project fee even after the project has been canceled. That had me wondering. What if there were clients who were scamming freelancers? If we later on noticed that the project didn't make sense or we wanted to stop the collaborations, we as the freelancers would still be charged the non-refundable project fee.

Not very fair, is it?

That brings me to my second point.

Reasons to Say No to Freelancer.com No. 2: Plenty of Scam Jobs

Here's a tip if you're looking to find money at Freelancer.com. Don't apply for jobs that look sketchy. I'm talking about tasks like 'need to type PDF into word', 'copy typing job' and generally jobs that look like this:

I just logged in to the platform and checked the most recent uploaded project, and there's one right there. It's so easy to find and spot the scam jobs once you have been there for a few days!

Note that the employer has 0 verification. They are not a verified member, no payment verification, no email, phone number or any other form of verification at all.

The project profit looks absolutely delicious. I would love to type images into words and get paid anywhere in between USD250 - USD750.

But come on. Let's be real.

There's no way you can earn that much by just copytyping, foreign language or not. Find me one single job with payment receipts where you have earned USD250 from if you want to prove me wrong.

Scammers are everywhere on this site. Spammy projects that keep getting reposted every 10 minutes by different new profiles, clients who start chatting with you only to start with something that goes like the screenshots below:

Hi writer,

Thank you for applying for my job, Please connect me on skype at jmark2222

I learnt my lessons very quickly. Clients looking to work externally from the platform are almost always scammers. I did have a few clients who turned out to be decent humans who don't scam us freelancers of our hard work, but the majority of them are pure piece of shits.

Hi.Thanks for applying to my job. So it works like this. I hire you and when we start, I send a topic and you do within 2hrs max and send back and I give you another . So it's like that until we do 5 articles daily, 5-6 days a week. okay? As you work , you track your time with time tracker for secured payment. Can you work like that? If so add me on skype at seowriterneeded so I hire you and we start. Thanks

The person from the second screenshot is still actively scamming people with the same Skype handle. I wrote almost USD200 worth of work and did not receive any payments.

Looks like the Secure Payments and Payment Verifications Can Be Removed

Here's what happened. When you track your work hourly, the payments are logged on Freelancer platform. You then get paid according to the hourly rates you agreed on.

The money will get released automatically from the client's side at certain days of the week.

Sounds secure, doesn't it?

That's what I thought too. I mean, I had projects afterwards that actually really worked that way and I got my money like clockwork. But for this scam client...

The client later blocked me on Freelancer.com and removed his credit card verification status so that his payments no longer go through automatically.

I immediately contacted the client of course, only to find out that he already blocked me in advance. I talked to the Freelancer.com support team about this issue immediately.

That's what the support team is for, right?

Less Than Optimal Help & Protection for Freelancers

"Please help me get my money. The client actually blocked me and my secure payments were canceled. How did that happen? Does you website actually protect freelancers? If clients can just remove their secure payments and credit card verifications, then our clients can just run away scot-free without paying us isn't it? All they have to do is to remove their credit card details, block us, and that's it!"

Their responses were something along the lines of , "We're sorry this happened. Please be careful when choosing a client to work with in the future. We have closed the client's account to avoid them from scamming other freelancers."

Well, great. They just removed the only way I can get my money from the client - by deleting the profile. Niiiiiiice. Awesome.

Not only did they enable the client to get away with removing what is supposed to be our safeguarded payments, they also remove the client from their platform so that nothing can be done. They didn't try to contact the client for me or anything. Just removed the account.

Reasons to Say No to Freelancer.com No. 3: Other Project Fees

On PeoplePerHour.com, users who invite clients to hire them on that platform will not get any project fees or anything. You can get away with 0 project fee if they hire you first!

That is not the case for Freelancer.com

Even for my hourly project tracking assignments, they still take 10%/

Every assignment milestone, every hourly bid projects will take 10% away from you.

Essentially, when you are giving your bidding prices to your clients, you will need to charge them a little extra.

I usually charge USD20 for every 1000 words. But because I want to get this same amount once I get paid, I need to charge at least USD22. Freelancer.com even made it more convenient for you to charge them extra by automatically adding the 10% into each milestone, hourly rates and project bids you put on the project that you are interested in.

Not exactly the best for the client either, isn't it?

Even when clients directly go to my profile and offer me a project, I look at the price and go, "Hmm.. Cool, cool. USD20 for 1000 words. That's exactly my current rate! I can deal with this."

I accepted the project, and I was charged USD5.42.

Do we actually get charged a little more when we get approached directly?

Here's the best part. The amount was automatically deducted straight from my PayPal account. I only knew that I actually had my balances (that was just the exact amount I saved for a monthly recurring payment) directly deducted when I received an email about it. There's even a nice little invoice from Freelancer.com!

So quick to automatically charge my PayPal account for project fees, yet unable to secure a scammer client's credit card payments?

Interesting. Indeed, interesting.

There isn't even an incremental system thing that decreases the project fees taken from you once you reached a certain seller level. Even if there is, I can guarantee you that it's going to be a form of paid membership.

You pay to get paid more. Hah.

What I Suggest:

Create your own blog or one-pager portfolio on any of those free blogging websites. Write about the services you provide over there and promote it on Facebook or something.

Fiverr, PeoplePerHour etc are a lot better in terms of how they charge freelancers and how they protect them as well.

Don't make the same mistakes I did!

Love & Relationships

I Think I Just Found the Best Wedding Vows

March 18, 2019
By Tatoru Yuki
0 Comments

Wedding vows are beautiful.

If I only have enough budget to prioritize ONE thing in a wedding ceremony, it would be a stream of beautiful words from my husband-to-be. If he's too shy to say it out loud, that's fine. I can read it from a note with his handwritings, and I'd still be just as happy!

The Best Wedding Vow from my Childhood - Until Today

My personal favourite was actually the one featured in Corpse Bride by Tim Burton. I fell in love with it after seeing it in the movie, but my young mind was not able to grasp it fully yet.

A few years later, I did grow to appreciate it. Honestly, I still wouldn't mind if this were to be my own wedding vows.

Corpse Bride Wedding Vows

It goes like this:

With this hand,
I will lift your sorrows.
Your cup will never empty,
For I will be your wine.
With this candle,
I will light your way in darkness.
With this ring,
I ask you to be mine.

And then, I came to learn about the traditional Celtic Wedding Vows today, which is an epitome of awesome and beauty that I did not know existed.

Beautiful Traditional Celtic Wedding Vows

Here it goes:

Ye are Blood of my Blood, and Bone of my Bone.
I give ye my Body, that we Two might be One.
I give ye my Spirit, 'til our Life shall be Done.

You cannot possess me for I belong to myself
But while we both wish it, I give you that which is mine to give
You cannon command me, for I am a free person
But I shall serve you in those ways you require
and the honeycomb will taste sweeter coming from my hand.

I vow you the first cut of my meat, the first sip of my wine,
from this day it shall only your name I cry out in the night
and into your eyes that I smile each morning;
I shall be a shield for you back as you are for mine,
no shall a grievous word be spoken about us,
for our marriage is sacred between us and no stranger shall hear my grievance.
Above and beyond this, I will cherish and honor you through this life
and into the next.

Supposedly, there are other versions of these wedding vows. It also comes in different parts and phrases, but the ones I shared above are the ones that I love the most.

Do you know of other beautiful wedding vows? You'll absolutely have to let me know if you do! Just click on the comment section below and share the beauty of weddings with us here.