YouTube Partner

I tried to apply once for monetization (Settings > Monetization) in YouTube. If you don't find the Monetization panel after clicking Settings in your YouTube account toolbar, your country is probably where YouTube Partner Program is not available, that's why I chose Singapore as Country in my channel setting. However I put Penang, Malaysia as Location, proving that I didn't forget my root.

Despite that, I failed and was told that my channel has insufficient viewership. I guess it was at the point of time when I haven't even uploaded a single instrumental cover videos. In the meantime when I go back to Monetization, there was no option for me to enable monetization but just a sentences saying Monetization is available in your country, which is just crap because even when I changed to Japan, it doesn't work. Then I found out that there is a 2-month period which I can't apply from the date of the unsuccessful application. Nothing has changed even in October and I am sure that that was already more than two months counting from the day I first applied.
Until yesterday, when I went to Monetization and there's a button to enable monetization. I clicked on it and received the following email:

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Congratulations javintham, 

Your account is now enabled for monetization. To help you get started, we created the following resource to guide you through your account, our policies, and provide tips to growing your audience.

You can manage your videos and opt them into monetization from your Video Manager. Also, visit the Creator Hub to learn about the latest creator news and resources.

Have fun and good luck,


The YouTube Team

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Well, it seems to be easy, so I'm not sure whether anyone can do that right now, you might want to try if you have a YouTube account with videos.

I went to my Video Manager and I noticed the difference - the extra green monetization buttons.

Apparently those videos that Matched third party content are not eligible to be monetized.

Whether I am a YouTube Partner or not, I wondered, when I found no way to customize my username above my video, and the extra 150px apace on top of my channel. But I remember the phrase I saw on YouTUbe after enabling monetization - You will become a YouTube Partner when you have at least one of your video monetized. Having a few videos of mine currently monetized, I guess I can declare now that I am officially a YouTube Partner!
Well, I better don't yell too loud, as becoming a YouTube Partner easily could become a norm. About the customizable stuffs, I guess the YouTube Partner has to be prominent enough to be like a "Business Partner" of YouTube.

Being able to monetize videos is not the end of the story yet, to get paid, I have to associate my AdSense account to YouTube. I don't really expect to get paid by the way, as my viewership is way too far from presentability.

Oh dear, talking about AdSense, I have a longer story to tell, where some unknown factors lead to the disapproval of my AdSense account. I called Google Singapore this afternoon, without having a chance to even speak to the operator, I was told by the 'automated answering officer' that issue about AdSense is currently not possible to be solved through phone call and I was asked to send email to adsense-support@google.com. This is actually not bad, as you won't be able to reach Google easily because they encourage you to post questions in their Google Product Forum, claiming that their Google Team will take a look at those queries. Right, I did so a few months ago and I didn't get a single reply.

So this is what I sent to adsense-support@google.com:

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Dear Sir/Madam,

Hi, I called Google Singapore this afternoon to seek for assistance for my AdSense account and was asked to send this email because issues about AdSense is currently not able to be sought assistance for through phone.

Issue 1: Blogger
Quite some time ago (more than a year ago), I applied for AdSense for my blog in Blogger (javintham.blogspot.com) by using the URL of my blog and always being rejected because of domain ownership (which I don't really understand why because Google Ads are supposed to be able to display in Blogger), and even after I tried to create a page in Blogger and obtain new URL like javintham.blogspot.com/p/domain-ownership, I still didn't get approved.

And ever since Blogger has an updated layout I've never tried to reapply, until last few months.
In Blogger, I went to Earning, and click on "Get Started", at the Link your AdSense account panel, I was shown "Your AdSense account has been disapproved for a Terms and Conditions violation. View the AdSense Terms of Service." I honestly do not know what Terms and Conditions have I violated.

So I try to reapply through my disapproved AdSense account. When I tried to resubmit, it brings me to a new page with:
Step 1: Review your content
Step 2: Resubmit your AdSense application
and by using javintham.blogspot.com in the field "I will show ads on", I couldn't proceed and was asked to "Please register for AdSense directly from blogger.com.".
Fine, then in Blogger, I go to "Earnings" and select "Get Started", the same thing happens again as explained above.

Few months ago I actually posted this issue onto the Google Product Forum (http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!mydiscussions/adsense/OEjQJAYAP-0) but no one has replied.

Issue 2: YouTube monetization
Recently I am able to monetize my videos on YouTube and when asked to associate an AdSense account, I have two options:
Create a new AdSense account
Use an existing AdSense account
The 1st one does not work because it says that "The specified email address is already in use. If you own this AdSense account, please go back and choose 'Use Existing Account' instead." I supposed it means that the email address for my YouTube account is the same as my AdSense account, as well as my Blogger account. Hence, I have to go with the 2nd one.
For the 2nd one, when I type my email in, it says "The AdSense account for this publisher has been disapproved. We do not allow requests on a disapproved AdSense account."

In short, I need an approved AdSense account. Finally, I hereby seek for your assistance regarding this issue. I cannot reapply as I cannot use my website from Blogger to apply as it will direct me back to Blogger.
I hope that Google can reset my AdSense account so that I do not have to apply an AdSense account by having my own website but able to apply directly from Blogger or YouTube, because I do not think I have violated any Terms and Regulations for AdSense except for maybe using the Blogger URL (javintham.blogspot.com) that I used to apply for Adsense that made Google think that I am using a domain that does not belong to me, as previously Blogger did not have the function of applying AdSense directly through Blogger itself.

I deeply appreciate for understanding my current situation. Hope to hear from you soon.
Thank you very much!

Regards

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I hope the relatively long email above sort of summarizes the problem I faced with AdSense. And ya I have a cool email signature, haha!

To sum it up, if I am one of the few YouTubers that are recently eligible to monetize videos, I would like to thank YouTube for recognizing my effort.

If you haven't, please subscribe to my channel! ^^

Southern Ridges, Singapore

It's just another random outing on a Saturday where Emilia, Wei Jian and I walked some of the parks and gardens in the Southern Ridges of Singapore.

Henderson Waves

If you've ever passed by Henderson Road, you probably have seen a wavy bridge hanging at 36m above the road, and that's Henderson Waves.

We first alighted at the nearest bus stop along Henderson Road and took the staircase at the opposite side, up to the bridge.

It's nothing but a normal bridge, with the fanciness of the sine wave when view from the road.

Telok Blangah Hill Park

It's a forest-looking park with paths leading to some other parts of the Southern Ridges. We took some wrong convoluted paths there before getting into our right path as the way they position the signs is somewhat misleading.

Oh, and I actually brought my ukulele along fortunately, and we sang like no one else was there. However we sang almost everything in C major, you know my chord dictionary is not filled up yet for ukulele. Nevertheless, that definitely kills boredom and numbs tiredness pretty effectively.

Alexandra Arch

After an hour of walk, we reached Alexandra Arch, an 80m long opened-leaf-looking bridge across Alexandra Road that connects to HortPark at its base.

The bridge is lit up by LED lights at night and the lights change colour at intervals from 7pm to 12am daily. Too bad it was 6:30pm when we took the photo without knowing the fact that there's LED lighting starting from 7pm daily.

HortPark

I like the long stretch of road leading to the horizon of sunset (although blocked by hills at the end).

I brought my tripod along as well, so this broad and long stretch of road is perfect for camwhoring, it could be better without the people in the defocused background.

Kent Ridge Park
HortPark connects to Kent Ridge Park via the Canopy Walk. No photos for Kent Ridge Park, as sky has turned dark.

Finishing the walk brought us to the exit at DSO National Laboratories at Science Park Drive, which for once I thought was the one in the Kent Ridge Campus.

And so we called it a day after having dinner at the National University Hospital (NUH).


For more photos, please check out my photo album Southern Ridges on Facebook.

Bruno Mars - It Will Rain (Cover by Cynthia Ng)

Cynthia Ng Yi Xyann, the name one always heard in primary school (Penang Chinese Girls' Primary School), owing to her title of the 'flower of the school' (校花), whom I have not been keeping in contact with for 11 years!!! ever since Primary 6, whoolala. We're in the same class for 2 years (4H, 5H) anyway.

I guess after watching my Happy Birthday A Cappella, she intended to do a cover with me when I got back to Penang, and thankfully when I flew back to Penang from Singapore during my recess week, we managed to make one cover in one night at her house. It's a cover for Bruno Mars - It Will Rain.

Can you imagine how insane Bruno Mars is? The key I played for Cynthia (D major) is the original key Bruno Mars sang in, without her realization. He's just totally singing a female's key. I bet none of his songs is probably comfortably singable by normal guys, except The Lazy Song, I supposed.

Recording the audio was quite an impromptu. Luckily the clavinova at her house which she hasn't been touching for ages is a Yamaha clavinova, I know how to record the playback. Well, the reason of recording the playback is basically, the keys are making too much noise, it could've been louder than the musical notes produced by the keys.

The next fortunate and unforeseen thing was, she has a karaoke system at home. So having no mixer and stuffs, the smart way (or rather unprofessional) is to record her voice with my iPhone, by placing my phone in front of the one of the speakers. But sadly she has no pop filter, and it took me a while to bring down the volume of the 'p' and 'k' air.

Editing the video transition was another pain in the ass, as she kept having different postures (of the way her hands were holding the mic stand) when I was shooting her lip syncing with our first successful recording.

Well, I love collaboration, when you get to halve your effort for publicity.

And I have to say that she has a very voice, which she utilizes well. That's why I didn't even want to harmonize, because my voice just won't fit hers in any way.

So please do check out our cover for It Will Rain!

The More We Get Together (Piano & Harmonica Cover)

There's a Chinese phrase that I've been hearing since young, 「吃飽沒事做」, lit. eat full nothing do. Wow, they rhyme.

So this time it's the retarded me playing instruments in the unusual way.

I just need to play the harmonica by biting without moving it horizontally because this nursery rhyme (a British folk song actually) uses only two chords. So I just blow for a C chord and draw for a G chord (although it's actually a G^7add9 without G itself).

I crossed my arms and faced away from the piano to play and that's really obstructive to my movements, but if you noticed, my right hand was still on the side where is should be and so did my left hand, so it's still not too challenging, unlike those performed by professional entertaining pianists who're able to switch their hands' role.

But still, it's not easy for mine. You can try and see.

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[The More We Get Together]
The more we get together, together, together,
the more we get together, the happier we shall be.
For your friends are my friends,
and my friends are your friends.
The more we get together, the happier we shall be.

【當我們同在一起】
當我們同在一起，在一起，在一起，
當我們同在一起，其快樂無比。
你對著我笑嘻嘻，我對著你笑哈哈。
當我們同在一起，其快樂無比。

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iPhone 5

On the very 1st day (21st Sep 2012) of iPhone 5 launch in Singapore, we managed to rush to Paragon at 3:20pm, with the funny us queuing and thinking "oh, the queue isn't really as long as expected at all", without realizing that we're in the first 'section' of the queue (ya, it's so long that it's 'sectioned').

Let's make things clear before proceeding:

1) Why Paragon?
My SingTel 2-year-contract has ended 1 year ago and I'm signing a contract with M1 to get an iPhone 5 32GB at $580.
I'm also able to port my number from SingTel to M1 to retain the same mobile number since it's from postpaid plan to postpaid plan.

2) Why M1?
Currently only M1 offers Multi-Line Saver and 3 of us (Isaac's cousin, Eugene and me) are signing under a main line holder (Isaac's cousin) and each of us will enjoy 25% off our respective monthly bills.

3) Why bother to buy on the 1st day and queue like crazy?
Well, I didn't really want to but the key point here is, the main line holder has to be a Singaporean or PR and Isaac's cousin is a Singaporean and she wanted to recontract as soon as possible. Unfortunately, I'm flying back to Penang on the next day so I have to get it done on that only possible day to be a sub line holder.
Besides, since the main line holder must be a Singaporean or PR, we don't have to pay the $800 deposit.

4) Must you get iPhone 5?
OH YESSS!!!! A lot of people have been criticizing iPhone 5 for not being a much improved phone compared to iPhone 4S. But hello, I was using an iPhone 3GS ever since I signed contract with SingTel, and I waited so long for iPhone 5 since my contract with SingTel ended. 3GS to 5 is at least a big leap.

5) How long did you queue for?
The first part of queuing is just to get a queue number, which took 2 hours.
We're told that we need to wait for perhaps 2-3 hours after we got our queue number (5317). At that time, the number served was 5198, means around 120 more people before us.
The truth: we waited for 7 FREAKING HOURS!!! Eugene and I bought each a drink from Starbucks (oh ya, I topped up $80 to my Starbucks Card and got a free 8GB thumbdrive) and studied, until they're closed.

The next day at Penang International Airport

Thankfully the contract was signed smoothly and we got our phones and tablet (Eugene signed for a Samsung tablet, so not mainstream) at around 12:30am.

I think they also expected that they had to work overtime, because they have to serve until the last customer whom they gave the queue number to.

For your info, I didn't have data plan during my SingTel contract, I'm now more survivable, and it's 4G some more. But I only have 2GB of free data to use, have to be thrifty.

Sometimes when I use my 3GS again, I feel that 3GS is so short and fat. Oh, and finally I got a functioning home button, unlike my stupid 3GS's broken home button which you have to press so hard to get back to the menu page (that's why I used AssistiveTouch).

Apart from that, the loading speed is so much faster now compared to my stupid 3GS (fat, short and slow).

The camera hor, forget about it, photo quality is still to lousy, I'll just use my Lumix GF3.

Nothing really too fancy about iPhone 5, but it's elegant to me (thin and tall), love it so much. I can play Scramble With Friends anywhere anytime now. :)

Unlocked iPhone 5 in white and black are now available at Amazon for only US$709 and US$690!