Freelance Jobs

This post is for those wishing to make extra pocket money for themselves. If you have a full-time job but want to moonlight,and if you want to do this all in the comfort of your own home, you may want to consider becoming a freelancer.

Many years ago, as a teenager, my impression of a freelancer was someone who took random pictures for newspapers and magazines. I had no idea what does it mean to be a freelancer until I came across this option as a young working adult. It turns out that the Internet houses a network of people who wishes to hire anyone who can do some of the most menial tasks to complicated tasks that require certain expertise and experience. These are the people who want you to build websites for them, write articles, design logos or even be their virtual assistant.

You could land a full-time free-lance job as a virtual assistant. I am reiterating this because I had no idea you could have a full-time job being someone else's personal assistant without actually being there with them. All you need to do is be available to them by phone or email and be sure to do your job.

Everything, however, comes down to how well you sell yourself and how cheap is your labor. Look around at other proposals by your peers to find out what sort of skills or requirements that those you intend to work for are looking for. While providing cheap labor may be a good way of starting out, you still want to make sure you are getting your dues. If you sell yourself short, the quality of your work may come into question.

Anyway, if you are interested in becoming a freelancer, these are the two sites I have been using that I think are great. Both websites are up-to-date and jobs are constantly being added by the minute. Both sites provide a desktop app that tracks your working hours. This lets potential employers to know how much freelance work you have been doing.


Upwork (formerly Elance or oDesk)

Formerly known as Elance or oDesk, the two freelancing websites have merged to give us Upwork. You could still login through the old oDesk or Elance site but I recommend going through the oDesk platform for new freelancers. People hiring on oDesk are more forgiving of newcomers and they are generally more likely to hire you if you do not have any experience.

I like that the website allows you to indicate your availability, your previous freelancing experience (even if it was accepted on another site), and your average rate per hour. You are given 60 connect points as a free or basic user. These connect points are used to make bids or submit proposals for jobs; each proposal uses between 1 to 5 points. This means you do not have an unlimited amount of bids to make. The points however are renewed at the start of every billing cycle (monthly); so you will get 60 connect points per month. If you wish to pay for their services, you will be able to bid for more projects. It is not a bad idea if you plan to be a full-time freelancer.

They also have free tests you can take to let people know the level of your skill. You can upload other certifications you may have gotten in order to indicate your level of proficiency at your said skill.


Freelancer

Freelancer literally has new job postings every other minute. They have a pop-up notification at the bottom left of the window to tell you when new jobs are posted. You are allowed to make up to 100 bids per month with the Plus membership. Otherwise, the free membership allows only 8 bids per month.

The way Freelancer works is basically the same as Upwork with the exception that you need to be able to link a payment account (usually PayPal) in order to start using it. The tests they provide cost USD 5 per test. So if you want to use this website, you might have to consider investing in it to get more jobs. It will cost you nothing to use their bare minimum services. However, if you are serious about freelancing, you might want to invest a little in their services to be able to promote or sell yourself better.


Happy job-hunting. :)

Boingo Free WiFi

It turns out, Boingo is a great service for using free WiFi near train stations and other public places with lots of WiFi services.

I couldn't use it at school because there were no public WiFi services nearby. We have a private school WiFi that's free to students anyway so that's not a problem.

I couldn't use the service at home for the same reason.

In my last trip to Beijing, there was no need to use the service at all in the hotel considering free WiFi was provided by the hotel.  McDonald's also provides free WiFi but you can only use it if you have a working mobile contact number. That works in Beijing.

In Japan, Boingo provides me online access as long as my phone can connect to any of the public WiFi hotspot provided by Japanese network providers (DoCoMo, Softbank, etc). These public WiFi services often require you to register with a working Japanese mobile phone or phone mail (not the same as email). Or they require that you own a password that you have to pay for first. But with Boingo, you can connect to them for free as long as Boingo recognizes them as a Boingo affiliated service.

Just register for an account with Boingo and you're good to go. They also provide a premium service if you're willing to pay for it. It's probably worth it if you're going to be travelling every month or at least frequently enough to need it. It's cheaper than getting a portable WiFi device but be reminded that it only works best in public places.

Portable WiFi devices on the other hand works like a mobile phone that lets you connect multiple devices to that one WiFi service. Kind of like a portable router. Its versatility is worth the money you pay for it.

Mendeley Desktop now has a "Recently Read" tab!

This very short post is a few weeks late. Maybe months. Anyway.

I am very happy that Mendeley has a "recently read" tab now. At least I can track my reading history per session. If they kept a history log of when I read each article last that would be great too.

FireChat

This app will be so useful for your next trip with your buddies! It lets you stay connected without having to be online. 

The app utilizes your Bluetooth and wifi connections to send messages to people within 200 feet from your phone, without using the Internet or cell reception. 

It's available on both android and iOS platforms. Go check it out! 

FireChat by Open Garden Inc

https://appsto.re/jp/OL75Q.i

File request by Dropbox

I just found out that Dropbox has introduced file requests.

You can now get people to drop off files in your Dropbox folder even if they are not members of Dropbox. This is definitely the kind of versatility I like in any service I use. It gives room for expansion, improvement and most of all, it has a sense of freedom.

Google Inbox

So Google made a new email app. Inbox. You can either download the new app from the AppStore or you can access the PC version through inbox.google.com. Provided you're invited to try it out. 

I'm assuming it's not available for everyone yet. 

The great thing about Inbox is that it allows you to sort your mail based on importance. And by importance, I don't mean just by labeling an email important. 

Inbox lets you add a reminder to your emails and have the emails reappear in your inbox at the time you will be ready to deal with it. It lets you deal with important tasks first (tasks, not emails) and you can either snooze or set reminders on the rest for a later date. Once you're done with the task you can simply archive the email by selecting "done". 

Inbox allows you to handle emails as a to-do list. Which is great because I am sure most emails are just that. Something you have to deal with when you have the time. 

What I don't quite like about this system is the way it handles labels and incoming messages. On my mobile app, I no longer know which account has the new email. A notification will be apparent on the app icon but once you've opened the app, you can't tell which account that notification is for without checking everything. 

Next, I label all my emails because it's just easier to browse through them when I'm looking for information or things I need to do. I do not enjoy having to double check if every email is labelled. This is important to me because I have people coming to me asking about when certain emails were sent or received or if certain documents have been sent out. 

If these two issues can be fixed I'll be very happy with the new changes (that may replace gmail). 

Anime Schedule

Where to watch anime online in Japan?
無料動画GYAO!|アニメ：配信スケジュール

Grammarly

Have you ever heard of Grammarly?

It's an online grammar checker that does more than just look for strange grammar. It points out grammatical and spelling errors; it gives suggestions for what it thinks is correct. Highlighting words also brings up a list of synonyms. Of course, if the human thinks they are correct, they may override that correction. It's not obnoxious like Microsoft's autocorrect, which insists it is right regardless of what you say.

Anyway, I recently found out about their chrome extension and decided to give it a go. It's fairly accurate and mostly free. If you are not confident in your choice of words or sentence structures, it is a great free app.

However, for more advanced users, if you have advanced issues (such as choice of words, colloquialism, or other less common grammatical errors secondary language learners rarely have the chance to make, having not learned them) they require an upgrade which you have to purchase.

While I say why waste money on a free service, I feel that this particular service is worthwhile. It's like having an English teacher watching over your shoulder, telling you where you're wrong and why.

It's a fairly straightforward app and I think most people could benefit from its free services. Do check it out at grammarly.com.

Sarah J. Maas

Sarah J. Maas is now an author on Goodreads and I am truly inspired by her success. I have followed her work on fictionpress from high school and to finally see her published and a successful author is nothing but inspiring and amazing. I am in awe!

The story she initially posted as "Queen of Glass" is now published as "Throne of Glass". I still remembered the what she wrote at the end before it was taken down (I suppose in preparation for her book). The story was inspired from the scene when Cinderella was running out of the castle at the stroke of midnight. She asked the question "what if Cinderella was running away because of something she did". Her list of what ifs led to the thrilling adventure that is Queen of Glass.

Old English Books

On one Sunday evening I found myself meandering through the streets of a quaint shopping district in Kawasaki. The weekend crowd was nowhere to be seen, which was strange. But it gave me courage and peace enough to walk through streets at my own pace. My walk brought me to a Book Off bookstore that sells second-hand books.

This was a very fortunate find for me, for I have been dying for a good English book to read. Modern literature can be interesting at times but I needed a proper English book that wouldn't be finished within hours. Second hand books would mean books written in proper old English that hasn't yet known the changes introduced by modern English. It would mean words written to be savored and experienced and not sped through just to past time. (I still can't believe it took me less than 8 hours to finish Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. For the record, I hated all the characters in that book.)

English books in Japan are relatively expensive for me. Although, it'll probably cost the same in Malaysia, variety in Japan is to be desired. I've started a small collection of Japanese books but my reading speed is still too slow for me to truly enjoy them. So, for the price of one new foreign book in Japan, I bought three old English books. One is a whodunnit and the other two are series to a fantasy.

The Other Side of Midnight by Sidney Sheldon proved to be just what I needed. It took me three nights to get through the prologue because the characters were so colorful and there were too many to remember. Just the way books were to me when I was 10. It took me three nights to gain momentum because it's been so long since I've read a well-researched book! Each character was carefully thought out, the semblance of historically accurate details set the scene for each unfolding event. The characters were alive!

The one thing I found annoying though was the way Sidney Sheldon tells you of a crime in trial but then he takes an entire book to tell you how it happened (or who were actually involved) before delivering justice in the end. It was a long, drawn-out suspenseful book. I don't think I can go through that again any time soon. (Matthew Reilly has ruined slow-paced books for me.)

I've just started on the other books and if they bring out the need to write in me, I'll blog again.

For those interested in the book: goodreads.com.

耳から覚える日本語能力試験

I finally found out where my previous Japanese language school got their material from. The material was straightforward. It explained the sentence structure and grammar rules and had example sentences to support them.

「耳から覚える日本語能力試験」はその本のタイトルです。

Loosely translated, I suppose the title would be "Learning by Ear, Japanese Language Proficiency Test".

Guess this will be what I'll use to study~~

Waffles

The thing about being abroad isn't that you're exposed to the land overseas. It's also about how connected you are to the land you came from. 

I keep getting news feeds on facebook from Malaysia and this link sticks out and rubs itself in my face knowing I can't go back just yet. 

http://www.foodadvisor.my/best-waffle-subang-jaya/

What would I do for a good waffle right about now...

Mendeley Collections

Mendeley is an awesome reference manager. It works across various platforms and is able to sync your library over different machines. Even if the machine you're using doesn't have Mendeley, you can still easily access your references through Mendeley web. 

Adding references to Mendeley is easy and pain free. The problem with Mendeley though is if you want to bring your library with you everywhere. 

I can't seem to get the software to load fast on my school's workstation because every time I load Mendeley, it's the "first time" it loads. That means it automatically starts importing all the pdf files I have uploaded to the web. 

At first I thought I'd work around that by keeping my pdf collection on dropbox and manage them through Mendeley. That worked but the problem is, the program still tries to download the entire  database of PDFs even when they are already in my computer. 

That just sucks. 

So, I've decided not to load any PDFs at all. I turned the function off. Now Mendeley works just fine for me. 

I use it to manage references and when I need my PDFs I can simply click "add pdf" and it'll be where I expect it to be. No harm done. Would be nice if it's automatic but I guess nothing in this world is perfect. 

How to Split Tables in Google Docs

I recently made an attempt at video-making. If you'd like to see the video version of this very simple tutorial, click here.

(Edited April 23, 2016.)
*****

I have recently started to seriously use Google Drive for my job and was quite upset at first when I found out that making tables in Google Docs isn't as easy or straightforward as in Microsoft Word.

One of the problems I had was with splitting tables. Especially across pages. I finally found out how to do it.

All you have to do is to highlight the part of the table you want to split and drag it to an empty space above or below the original table. Drag and drop! By doing a simple drag and drop, you can finally split a table in Google Docs easily!

Step 1: Highlight all cells from the point you want to split. (I.e., if you want to split the bottom half of a table from the top half of a 2x4 table, highlight the bottom 4 cells.)

Step 2: Click and hold on the cells you have highlighted and drag to an empty space at the bottom of the table. (Use the "enter" key to create the empty space. A minimum space of 3 empty lines will result in an effective split.)

Step 3: Observe that your table has miraculously split!

Power Sleep App

Your phone probably has a good deal of processing power and when you're not awake, its idle state may be put to good use.

Read about the power sleep app here: Quartz on Now your phone can fight cancer!

It only applies to Android phones (not the iOS) and only works when your phone is plugged in and on WiFi. (So there's apparently nothing to worry about extra data transfer costs.) What you're doing with this app is to "donate" your phone's processing power to research programs while it's idle. Think of it as one part of a million processors that is working for a super computer.

Not a bad idea on the part of the researchers. I might be tempted to assist if android phones didn't require so much battery power during the day.

If you're interested, here's a link to the download site: Power Sleep App

Warm Up Activities for ESL Learners

I've been browsing the internet for English lessons today and realize that there are a lot of free materials available out there! Here's a few that I like:

English Club
+ for learners and teachers of English +
+ free materials +
+ free registration required pending approval +

Busy Teacher
+ free worksheets +
+ free registration required +

English Current
+ seems a little dodgy +
+ too many ads in one page +
+ seems legit +
+ no registration required +

ESL Kid Stuff
+ for kids! +
+ paid membership required +

---

Other sites I found:

Better Language Teaching
+ package available for immediate download after payment +

Free, Certified Courses from the World's Top Publishers

Englipedia

Warm Up Lesson Plans by About.com

Flow English

ESL Library

---

Worksheets for Business English Lessons

Business English Online

Using English

ESL on About.com

One Stop English
+ paid subscription to download materials +

English Grammar Secrets

Lingua Press

Online Jobs for the International Student Living in Japan

As an international student with a college visa and a work permit, you can only work up to 8 hours a day during vacation or 28 hours a week at any other time (that's 4 hours a day). If you're like me, a graduate student who works from 9.30am to 7pm in a laboratory (usually interpreted as 9am to 7.30pm), you won't be able to take up normal part time jobs available to most people living in Japan. So, that sorts of narrows down your options to midnight jobs, online jobs, or tutoring jobs. Now, I can't work as a tutor in Japan since I have no knowledge of Japanese schools or their education system. (I can't teach English very well unless people don't mind me drilling the language into their heads.) Midnight jobs are quite acceptable actually but I have reached a point in life when I can't seem to go without sleep anymore. So! That leaves me with online jobs. I managed to snag one and I hope it'll pay well. I've also considered other jobs but have not started on them. (Perhaps the lack of motivation is what's driving me to the point of 'cashlessness'.)

These are some sites that may be of interest to you (whether you're living in or outside of Japan). They're online jobs so you can do them as long as you own a computer (and since you're reading this blog, I'm assuming you own one).

Translation jobs
The following sites are for translators. They're mostly Japanese-English jobs but there's quite a few other language pairs. (Chinese-English for starters, something I'm considering if there aren't enough Japanese-English jobs to do.)

+ Minna no Hon'yaku +
You start off as a Level 1 translator paid 0.9 yen per character translated but after 2500 characters you get evaluated to see if you're qualified to level up. Prices and bonuses paid increases with each level. The type of translations you will be doing are mainly product descriptions but as you level up and are more confident with your skills there are news articles, blog entries, and other more challenging texts.

+ Gengo +
Basic pay begins at USD0.03 per character so it pays rather well. But the tests you have to pass are quite difficult. The articles you have to translate on this site are usually of a certain level of difficulty so you need to be confident in your skills to work here.

+ Translator Base +
A paid, out-sourcing website for freelancing translators. Not exactly a steady source of income. You have to bid for jobs here and you actually pay for a subscription to this website to get better jobs.

Freelancers: Online Projects
Project based work paid hourly or per project for freelancers.

+ oDesk +

+ elance +

Tutoring
Yeah, I know I said I can't tutor but I decided to try anyway.

+ A Power Academy +
Long term teachers only.

Teacher-Student Matching Service
These sites are basically for teachers to advertise themselves and for students to look for teachers. They're mostly promoting language tutors so... who knows.

+ Hello Sensei! +

+ Find Students +

+ My Sensei +

+ International Language Academy +

Jobs for Foreigners
Now these sites are mostly for full time jobs but they also have contract, part-time and freelance jobs on occasion.

+ GaijinPot +
The good thing about this site is that it's in English so you know they're looking for people who knows English.

+ A Power Now +
Jobs aimed at foreigners in Japan. There's also a link for international students who wish to work part time.

+ Baitoru Dot Com +
As the name suggests in Japanese, it's a job site for part-timers.

+ Job Sense +
Another job site that has a special foreigner category.

+ Town Work +
Mostly actual work but you can search for part-time jobs aimed at foreigners too.

+ Baito College +
Part time jobs for the college student.

+ Work in Japan +
A free site for employers to post jobs.

+ Craigslist: Tokyo Classifieds +
Not sure if this is a reliable source but like any other online site, just be careful and wary. Don't give out your personal information or anything compromising and you should be fine. This site doesn't just advertise jobs but it's basically for people to buy and sell stuff too.

Sushi Shops I want to Visit

元祖寿司
+ was here before but forgot where it was +
+ will visit again~ +

寿司折鶴
+ always wanted to visit but could not find the place +
+ the place is now starred on google maps! +
+ they provide delivery service! +

10 Ramen Shops in Tokyo Worth Visting

Just read an article with this title. Was quite impressed with the list. Then I realized, they're all nearby! I can hop on one train and stop at all the stations where these shops are.

Yay!

::2014-02-06 Thursday: 1.21 PM::
+ found a comprehensive site:Ramen Adventures +
+ trip advisor came up with this +

Children See, Children Do

What are we doing for our future generation?
What have we learned from our parents?
What are our children going to be?
What will you be?

Your choice...

"These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates." [Deuteronomy 6:6-9]