My experience with free online counselling

 

Stupid me, accidentally deleted this post and now I must rewrite it... Honestly, I kinda feel it could be a good thing because I feel I can explain myself better now.

Note: This is my personal experience and opinion, and obviously not professional advise!

Firstly, I got into counselling because of:

1) I feel I am stuck in a rut

2) I am extremely afraid to get into a job 

3) I hate my life

I have ranted on SGWhisper and some other anonymous rant sites and I sometimes get comments like, "get professional help" or "got for counselling".

I am quite tight on money so I actually thought about going to family service centers but while I was searching online, I actually stumble upon free online counselling on the CPH website.

I decided to try it and filled up the form and was surprised that I got a respond within 2 or 3 days. The counsellor enquired about a few things and then asked me how I want to conduct the session.

I could choose to have the sessions via:

1) Phone

2) Face to face 

3) Whatsapp

4) email

I opted for email because I didn't want to provide too much of my personal information. She is respectful of my choice and we started a session.

She did some background check about my past and values. We quickly got into some of my problems/issues.

I told her about my anxiety with my looks, my fear of social interactions and how I fear commitments and relationships.

I just have a believe that people will start to hate on each other as they interact more and more. And this is linked to me having this "automatic hypocrite mode" whereby I try to sound correct and hide my honest opinions. I am not the most lovable person and can be quite argumentative (for the sake of it), so that will make me kinda irritating.

Anyways, I was struggling to get a job at that time. I tried JOD (jobs on demand) but I kept getting rejected. (like 5 in a row!) I guess it has got to do with my previous job with them. 

I applied and got a position as waitress back in October last year. I have 0 experience (they didn't ask for someone with experience) but I decided to try out since it's just 4 or 5 hours.

I received 10 minutes of training and started the job. I must say it's way too fast pace for me and I didn't have time to adapt and settle in. My social anxiety just make things worst. The manager told me that he didn't feel like paying me towards the last hour of my job.

I stayed and completed the final hour and then left feeling like shit. I guess the manager must have feedback to the platform because after that, I wasn't able to get selected for any job on JOD.

At first I thought it's because I wasn't a "frequent" user and I just apply once in a while but it seems like that's not the case. I have been trying for a few weeks already and still nothing!

Anyways, out of the issues we discussed, the counsellor seems to pick up more on my anxieties, especially about expectations. 

I don't know how to put it across. I do think the counsellor is very professional and eloquent but ... how do I put it across ... I don't feel close with her.

Maybe because she is too professional to the point that she discusses issues more than trying to address/validating my feelings. I don't feel better after talking to her sometimes.

I know counselling is never an easy process, it's about digging deep into yourself to find the (most probably) decades old "root cause" of the problems you're facing now. It can be painful and sometimes draining. I kinda grew tired of it. 

Sometimes, I just put off replying to the email till I was more ready and positive. Because there are times I wrote a long email about what I feel and my problems and she came back with a short respond with explanations that I knew already.

I really don't know what the sessions will lead to. I mean we have been exchanging emails for a month now ... I don't feel more motivated or better. Perhaps, I do understand myself a little better and then?

I am not saying that counselling is bad or that counselling should solve all problems. But perhaps I have the impression that counselling should make things better (from my personal believe and the comments I get online). 

Honestly, I am disappointed. But maybe it's because counselling is better when face to face? IDK...

I bought Compatible refillable Ink cartridges for my Canon printer and ... I regretted!

 

Not surprising that the ink cartridges are the most expensive part of getting a printer. I mean a printer cost around $70+ - way over $1K, depending on what you're getting. And the perishable ink cartridges (XL size) can cost up to $50 for one. You need at least 2 to print.

I have been using a Canon PIXMA TS5170 printer for almost 3(?) years now. I think it's a good printer if you have the correct paper else, it just prints bad on normal A4/matte paper. 

The ink usage is quite reasonable - the Black ink can usually last over a 9 months (depending on usage) - I do print 1-2 pieces of text/b&w/musical scores about once a week. Sometimes much more.

For colour ink wise, it tend to run out much faster. I do print some stickers/labels once in awhile especially for festive seasons so I guess that's why. Colour ink usually runs out in 6-7 months. And it's almost always because 1 colour ran out!

This printer doesn't comes with individual colour cartridges which means if one colour ran out, the cartridge will have to be replaced, even if say the other colours still have more than 50% left. This kind of "single" colour cartridge are usually cheaper (~$40-50 for XL version) compared to individual colours costing $15-30 each. Some printers needs 4 colours cartridges.

I find it quite wasteful tbh. And the problem with printers is (at least this printer) that it refuse to function when it's out of ink. I can't even use the scanner function! When the colour ink ran out, I can't even print in black and white.

So I thought, "Why not get a compatible refillable ink cartridge? I mean this would solve the wasteful problem and stop myself from getting frustrated over a non-function printer.

I got one from Shopee for about half the price of the original that comes with ink refills. 

I let it sit around for a few weeks because my current cartridge is still not emptied. Just today I start to use it and realised that the nozzle/alignment is just  bleh!

 

There are lines and gaps everywhere and this image printing I showed above is one of the better printed ones already. I tried aligning the print head, deep cleaning, restart the machine etc. it just cannot get to the quality that the original printer can produce. And the problem always seems to be on the red colour!!

I am glad I only bought the colour cartridge to try. It's totally not worth the money!!

Edited (31 Oct): I found a way to get the compatible ink cartridges to work!

When the Canon printer ink error message indicating that your ink is low or empty. You can bypass these error messages by holding down your printer's RESUME, STOP/RESET, or COLOR START button for 5 to 15 sec.

The ink level will still be empty but then you can print as per normal. I tried that and then did many deep cleaning (3 times) and now the quality is MUCH better. Not perfect but passable!

Majority of the jobs advertisements on Facebook are Job Scams!!

 

I have been on Facebook recently and realised that there have been a lot of WFH jobs advertisements!

I decided to apply for one of them. It's advertised as "Simple packing job".

I Whatsapp the number provided and quickly got a respond. Turned out that it's just another job scam like the one I talked about in this post >>> I got contacted by a job scam scammer! And 'scammed' them of $11!

To test my theory, I decided to try out a few more other WFH jobs advertising on Facebook.

Basically, whether it's virtual assistant/sales assistant/shop assistant/packer or whatever from Goggle/Amazon/Shopback etc, they're all the same - you'll end up being asked to signup and do "marketing".

The rest is the same - you do reviews/submit orders (just some stupid boring clicking work) and get paid initially then you're asked to top-up to continue reviewing to get paid. 

Edited: They no longer pay you anymore until you deposit first! Meaning ... they will ask you to topup and complete the 60/30/20 (up to them) tasks before you can withdraw. But we all know, you can never get that deposit back because it will just continue to have "bundle orders/lucky jackpots" which make your balance negative! And then you have to topup again to continue. But hell are they so cheap to think someone will be so desperate to topup $200 for the $15 they have earned previously, which they aren't even sure if it can be withdrawn... 

 

I have noticed a "trend" while communicating with all these scammers, that they'll usually reply you in Mandarin even if you texted them in English. They'll respond in translate English if you request for them to communicate in English. 

Also most of their website have no authentication - you can enter 99999999 as your mobile number or XXX@tsdffsmail.com and it still works.