What Simply Works!

I hurriedly dismissed a telemarketer’s call yesterday after she introduced herself calling from a phone company. I waited until she finished her introduction and told her that I was busy in the kitchen and that I was not interested with her offer. Instead of letting go, she quipped, “Why not?”

Not liking the sound of her follow-up question, I just quickly put down the phone. That left me feeling a bit irritated for the lack of respect she showed. If only we have phone number reporting then I would have avoided the call.

I tried to sell my health and food blog domain to a few blogger friends last week. But no one was seriously interested to buy it (hee). So I took the advice of a friend and enrolled it to a few pa1d sites and just wait until the Big G takes away the blog’s PR and stop pa1d blogging all together. It sounds like a good plan.

These days, the media is helping out with the credit crisis by campaigning against bad credit credit cards. One news feature reported that even the elderly are lured by the “buy now, worry about payments later” message that these credit card companies promote over and over.

An old lady, who receives pension a little over 200 dollars per week, is paying about 200 dollars a month for credit card dues. A big chunk of the installment payment is for the interest alone. How horrible is that? What’s an old lady to do with a portion of her meager pension going to these huge credit card companies?

As they say, education is the key. There are websites that give information on interest rates, rankings and other data related to major credit card issuers. Check out badcreditoffers.com to find out more.

My current favorite show is The View. This ABC show is hosted by Barbara Walters, Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Sherri Shepherd. They are all witty, funny and intelligent. I look forward to 12 noon each day to catch these ladies on TV.

What I find interesting is how they put across varying opinions without being rude to each other. They discuss (and dissect) issues that matter most. Today’s episode had Whoopi on a roll when she said her piece about AIG. She was so upset yet she made funny anecdotes about the big wigs of the company. This will probably be a hot topic of the show for a long period of time.

After our house viewing over the weekend, we realized that we might end up renting an apartment again. The process of looking for the “right” house is tedious. We had to check every nook and cranny, floors, fixtures, lighting and its overall “look”. Of course, we try as much to be practical given that we’re just renting but we can’t give up some things that we want in order to make the place “livable”.

It goes without saying that buying your own house will be triple the effort if not more than that. Imagine deciding for the paint, flooring and even the roofing just to make everything “perfect”. But thanks to the Internet, we can easily surf for possible options on a whole gamut of home building and decoration items available these days.

Let’s take lighting as an example. There are tons of fine art lamps that suit any type of home or theme. Look at this forecast lighting, isn’t it pretty? It’s an indoor lamp that’s perfect for a living room or the receiving area of the house.  The options never end.

No wonder some homes take years to be built.  Probably the owners are that meticulous when it comes to details.  Anyway, it’s the little things that matter.

For the health conscious, the upcoming holidays present a challenge. It’s a time to reunite with friends and loved ones and that spells “PARTY”. And what’s a party without food? I have heard from friends that it is at this time that they forget about their diet, enjoy the celebrations and cut down on food again after the New Year’s. It may not be a good health/diet plan, but it is understandable to say the least.

And for some who resort to diet pills, my advice is to be very careful in choosing which brand to buy. There are websites out there which provide diet pills review such as hoodia. The brand itself is rated and reviewed along with the other top diet pills. The site includes health benefits and consumer rating for consumers to be made aware before buying. Hoodia has been featured in popular shows like 60 Minutes and The Today Show and that may have some bearing on the company’s reputation.

I’ve finally decided on a theme for my daughter’s birthday party in November. It’s The Wiggles! My daughter’s “favorite” of late. I have prepared a checklist for guests, things to buy and other tasks to do. It will held be at a park and I still have to ask some friends on how to reserve tables, if required.

The food will be prepared with the help of friends. With my lack of talent in the kitchen, I need all the help I can get. The menu includes easy simple appetizers, main courses and desserts, fit for a children’s party. We will start shopping for party supplies this weekend.

Today we officially started our house/apartment hunting.  We liked two out of the four places we checked out but we haven’t decided yet whether we’ll make an offer or not.  This is an important decision for us that requires a lot of prayers and analysis.

We don’t have a lot of time to ponder on this though.  The rental market is still very aggressive these days and so we are left to decide in the next 24 hours.  Ho-hum.

More often than not, I appreciate receiving newsletters about my favorite products. Especially the ones related to baby care. I would keep them in my inbox for as long as I need to because of the tips and discount deals which I find really helpful.  But then there’s the terrible spam emails, which anyone who has email address receive every single day. Aside from it being a nuisance, I find that many companies continue to abuse the benefits of email marketing. As if they encourage people to know more about what they’re selling.  It’s not fair for those legit companies who use this marketing tool to keep their loyal customers.

A new company in Australia called bigresponse.com.au offers hosted Email marketing and auto responder service. Their goal is to service small businesses, help boost their sales through automated sales promotion and announcement emails or newsletters. Let’s face it, flyers and brochures are still effective yet an expensive means to market goods or services. If majority of the customer base has Internet access, then this company can do the work for you.

I’m quite happy with the change I made with my personal blog. I’ve been planning to change it to a photo blog for the longest time but never got around to, until I started to attend the photography workshop.

I just came to a point that I’m no longer eager to share so much stuff about my private life online. So I thought that my blog will be a better outlet for me to share about my journey in learning photography instead. Of course, it will not be without photos of my two charms.

So I hope that I’d have more opportunities to practice taking pictures and share the beauty that I see through the lens.

My classmates back home are organizing a major high school reunion in 2010. I’m glad that they are doing a lot of leg work in terms of reaching out to our batch mates whom we haven’t had contact with for years. Thankfully, one of our classmates in the US volunteered to help search for contact information through phone book resource.

It’s an online facility that lets you search a phone number whether mobile, residential or commercial. Aside from the number, the contact details of the listed number can be pulled up from the database as well. The records are categorized by state and the corresponding area codes are provided, too. I’m sure my classmate will not have a hard time with his research because this site can provide exactly what he needs.

After six months of active pa1d blogging on this site, I’m happy to report that I’m able to earn enough to meet the requirements for tax filing. Ha ha. I was able to buy a few gadgets with my moolah making raket and it’s encouraging!

I’ve started to slowdown a bit due to health reasons, so the earnings won’t be that much in the coming months. But I’m not complaining, after all, I never imagined that I can get a few bucks with my writing skills! Hee hee.

Let’s see if I’ll reach the first year milestone in April 2009.

I earlier wrote about telemarketers who incessantly make calls at any time of day. I can’t say it enough but they can be a real pain. It happened more than once when my daughter and I are napping and we’ll be awakened by their calls. I wish our phone service has a function that reports annoying callers and at the same time blocks those phone numbers.

It’s getting really hot these days.  Today’s max temperature is at 35degC. Whew!  It’s time to hit the beach and enjoy the sun!  Tomorrow, we plan to go to Bondi beach, which we’re thinking might be pretty crowded.  We better think of a plan B (or an alternative beach to go to) just in case.

My cousin and his fiancé who started preparing for their wedding last year have spent reasonable time sourcing for the right suppliers. Because they are strictly working on a budget, they had to make sure that the vendors they get are in close proximity to the wedding venue. Good thing there is a website that allowed them to get phone book information that they needed.

We are pretty excited with the three day weekend ahead of us.  Our little girl will go to the beach tomorrow, attend a birthday party on Sunday and best of all, she’ll get new Wiggles DVDs!  She loves the nursery rhymes as sang by the group and I’m amazed at how she now manages to mumble a few lines the songs.  I highly recommend moms/dads to get their kiddos a copy.

Up to now, I still haven’t decided whether to purchase a new Dell or a MacBook Pro. I think that it’s better for me to save and be able to afford what I really need and want rather than buy in haste and regret later. But at the same time, I want to be practical! Gee.

Unlike other laptop brands where you go to a Comparison website and compare prices, brands like Dell or Apple have standard pricing across countries. No matter which website I go to, it is unlikely that I’ll get a difference in pricing unless a particular store is offering a promotion or is on sale. Although price comparison sites are pretty good for canvassing cheap laptops and accessories.

A friend suggested that I buy a desktop or an iMac instead, which is almost half the price as the laptop version. I guess it’s the flexibility of having a mobile computer that beats the price advantage. I once had a desktop and aside from mobility, its size takes up so much space. Although the screen and CPU are lighter and slimmer compared to the ones produced eons of years ago, I still feel that a desktop computer is very limiting, to say the least.

I have many things planned for our trip back home and one of my priorities is to see my dentist. We had a pre-arranged appointment from December last year (yes, that long) and we discussed then that I just might wear braces again. I’m not happy with it, just thinking of the last time I wore them make me cringe, but I’d do anything to save my teeth.

I also enquired with the dentist about veneers. It sounds vain, I know, but it helps to know more hence I asked. But she advised that before I can go ahead with dental veneers, I need the braces first.

So there, cosmetic dentistry would have to wait for me. I hope that I can get everything done before we go back here next year. Imagine spending days of your precious vacation on a dentist’s chair? Not my idea of a good break but I have no other choice.

A new friend suggested to me that I use candles with fragrance oil while taking a bath. She said that it is an effective method to de-stress at the end of a long day. I do love nice scents and before we had a baby, I always used air fresheners at home.

I think I will take up her idea. Many stores these days sell candles in various shapes, shades and colors that are nicely placed in cute jars. If only I have the knack in making them myself.

I know that candle making supplies are sold everywhere now but unfortunately, aside from not having the artistic talent to make them, I also don’t have the patience. I just might come up with ludicrous looking candles in odd shapes.

Cranberry Marmalade is a popular fragrance oil scent.

Finally, after changing wordpress templates several times for my four active blogs, I can finally say that I’m happy with them.  I won’t be tinkering with them for a long time and that’s a relief knowing how tedious it can be to change themes frequently.

Although I’m still eyeing to use a customized template for my personal blog.  As it is now more of a photo blog, I would like the theme to be personalized, fitting for the concept I have in mind.  Hmm, this is another item on my personal projects!