Trying to be debt free for a long time

I haven't been in debt (money-wise) when I was still single. Being married for almost 2 years, I'm quite happy that we are still debt-free. My wife and I are both employed and we were able to have savings that could last us for some months without working. Aside from that we also have some rainy day fund for emergencies. We pay bills and credit card debt on time. It's really quite a blessing not needing any debt relief.

Of course we are just starting out. We still don't have kids, so no college education plans yet. We still haven't got our own home which I think would be the first debt that we would incur (housing loan). There's also the thought of buying our own car which would be another debt. Being this early in our married life, I should come up with a plan for debt consolidation so that we won't fall into the pit where it would be hard for us to be debt-free in the shortest amount of time.

I took this BillsIQ test and scored an overall IQ of 92% A. Does this mean that when financial trouble appears, I can easily keep us out from it? I'm not quite sure yet but I'm ready to take on that challenge. There's always good people out there who would offer us debt help and advise just in case.

You Suck at Photoshop

Nah, I'm not implying you as in you my reader. But if you do suck at it just like me, check out Donnie Hoyle's series of Photoshop tutorials aptly titled You Suck at Photoshop. I assure you that you will learn and be entertained at the same time. When I viewed the first tutorial, I can't help but also view all 10 episodes in the 1st series. It's that funny!

Donnie Hoyle is a figment of someone's imagination and he teaches Photoshop while at the same time bashes his wife, hates his life and is always pestered by his WoW guildmates. The tutorial series actually even won the 2008 Webby People's Choice Awards for the Comedy category.

Here's the first one to get you started.

To check out the rest of the episodes, head on to their user site in My Damn Channel. If you want to learn more about the series, here's an interview with its creators.

My free file-hosting service of choice, Ziddu

If you're looking for a FREE file-hosting service to store your files, can I suggest Ziddu? In Ziddu, your storage space is virtually UNLIMITED. There's no limit on how many files you can upload, the only limit is the 200MB cap per file which is ok. I mean how often do you upload something more than 200MB right?

Uploading is pretty easy and you can create separate folders/albums for your files. Then you can easily share those links to your friends using the share button. If you uploaded any audio, video or photos, your friends can view them without having to download the files. The only feature I find lacking is that just like any file storage site, you can't have a direct link to the files in case you want to embed a certain photo onto your site.

Here's the clincher, you can actually EARN from this site. Everytime somebody downloads a file from your account, Ziddu will pay you $0.01 and when you refer a friend, you'll get $0.1. That's not a lot when you think about it but as far as I know, people loves to download free stuff.

Charice sang with Bocelli on his birthday concert in Italy

Our very own Charice recently sang a duet with no other than operatic pop tenor, Andrea Bocelli, on his birthday concert Il Teatro del Silenzio last July 20 in Italy. Il Teatro del Silenzio is a concert that is held only once a year which is Bocelli's gift to the lands that gave him birth. Being invited to take part of this special occasion is really an honor for Charice and us Filipinos.

She really did our country proud as she shared her singing talent to Bocelli's countrymen in an open air at a natural amphitheater in Lajatico. She first did her solo performance "I Have Nothing" and "I Will Always Love You" where she received a standing ovation from the crowd.

But it was not over for her yet. After completing the affair, Charice and Bocelli performed a duet, "The Prayer", and received another standing ovation that gave warmth to the cold hills of Tuscany. On an interview afterwards, Bocelli exclaimed that Charice was "sorprendente" (amazing)!

Charice is really making it big in the international music scene and we can only be proud of her. Way to go Charice!

I signed up for PPP!

Yup! I signed up on PayPerPost as another way to earn extra income. You've probably seen a lot of PPP badges on different blogs so it's a sign that many people are really earning from it. I actually signed up months ago but completely forgotten about it. So I added this blog and was promptly approved and here I am now writing my first paid post for PPP.

PayPerPost is another one of those get-paid-to-review site where you could earn some money writing for blog advertisers. What's good about PPP from other similar services is that your blog's chance of getting a high paying opportunity is not solely based on your Google Page Rank. They have their own way of tracking how popular your site is based on the script that they ask you to put on your blog. This is one of the leading sites with this service and many advertisers are posting here so there are tons of opportunities. They also have a friendly and helpful community to help you build up your blog. Oh yeah, you need a blog that would allow you to insert scripts on your page to join so keep that in mind.

Just to give you an idea on how much you could make from doing paid reviews, I'll earn $20 for this intro to PPP post if it gets approved. Ka-ching!

Achieving One Hundred Pushups

Want to take on a physical challenge? Think you can do one hundred continuous push ups? What are the benefits of doing push ups anyway?

Well aside from boosting your upper body strength, it is great for defining your chest, abs, triceps and shoulders. You don't need to go to the gym or buy equipments to perform push ups. You just need the drive and discipline to accomplish this feat.

Check out Hundredpushups.com. They will provide you with an easy to follow guideline to achieve one hundred continuous push ups. Everybody can do it, men, women, young and old. You just have to stick to the plan and devote 30 minutes a week. Your plan will be based on your initial strength and you have to follow it weekly. It's not that hard at first but it's important that you don't cheat on those push ups. Check out the different good-form push ups on their site that you can do.

Lots of people are taking the challenge and I think I also want to give it a try. Hmmm.

Earn some money with Matched.co.uk

You have a blog and you already installed Google Adsense. After a couple of months, you still need a lot to reach the $100 payout needed for Google Adsense. So you begin looking for other ways to monetize your blog.

I recommend you try joining Matched.co.uk. Here's how it works, you add your website/s and pick 5 pages from it. They would then try to match an ad for each of those pages. You insert the ad code that they would provide and after each month, you get paid £3 for each of those page with an ad. Yup, they pay you in pounds through your PayPal. If you have 2 web sites registered and each has 4 pages with their ad, you'll get £24 per month doing nothing. Moreso, they are not particular with those page rank nonsense.

So if it's that good then there must be a catch right? Well, signing up is free and registering your sites and pages is easy. But it takes a while (I waited 2 months!) to have a page approved. Here's a tip on what type of pages or posts that most likely gets approved:

• Finance, Investing, Debt, Credit Cards, Insurance
• Dating
• Health
• Legal
• Real Estate
  

Doesn't sound the type of posts your blog have? Well, just submit your most popular pages and see what happens. Once approved, the code given to you will track how many hits that page is getting. If the advertisers aren't satisfied, they will not renew the ad.

This is legit folks! I know someone who already got paid twice already. Oh yeah, the code that they use for their ads is not supported by Wordpress.com so free Wordpress users need not apply.

Secured Loans Compare 100s of secured loans with Accepted.co.uk. www.accepted.co.uk

Walk for a cause, Join the Memory Walk 2008

Memories, such a nice thing to have as you grow old. When you get old, you will have plenty of time reminiscing the past, remembering those special events. Having Alzheimer's will rob you of those things. Every 71 seconds, someone is diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. It's sad when your children or grandchildren visit you someday but your mind becomes blank when you try to put a name to the face.

Help promote Alzheimer awareness and funds for its care by joining Alzheimer's Memory Walk. Volunteers of all ages can join this 2 to 3 mile walk held usually in the fall. There are walks in more than 600 communities all over US so be sure to check your city's events for updates.

So before you or any more of your loved ones becomes afflicted with Alzheimer's, do something about it. Join Memory Walk 2008 and help combat Alzheimer's. Walking is good for your health anyway so it's a win-win situation.

Using Windows Live Writer for Blogging

How often do blog? Daily? Thrice a week? How many blogs do you maintain? Blogging can sometimes be quite addicting but it's hard to maintain multiple blogs. Signing out and signing in again on another account can take the fun away from blogging. Or you might encounter uploading an image only to find out that it's not the one you want or it needs more editing so you have to re-upload again.

 I'm using Windows Live Writer to write this post 

Good thing there's Windows Live Writer. This is an old blogging tool that I use a lot but found out that many of my blogger friends still doesn't know about it. Think of it as a Macromedia Dreamweaver or an MS Word that's used mainly for blogging.

Here are some key features of Windows Live Writer:

• It supports most major blog services. I have no problems using it on my Wordpress and Blogger accounts.
• You can create different profiles for each of your blogs so publishing is as easy as choosing the blog and clicking Publish. Live Writer will login to your account for you and upload all the images.
• Live Writer pulls down the CSS you are using for each of your blog so you can get a real preview of your post before you publish it.
• No more pop-up windows for inserting links and images.
• You can easily add images from your local drive or from a URL and style it with margins, alignments, size, etc.
• You can easily include a table (check out my archive page) in your post if you need one.
• There are lots of plugins being developed that can make your blogging easier. One is Insert Code which is pretty helpful if you're posting HTML or programming codes.

There are many other stuff that you would appreciate when you being using Windows Live Writer so I highly recommend this software for all bloggers out there.

The Ultimate Search Engine for Torrents

Are you a fan of downloading torrents? If you are then you might have experienced going to different torrent sites to search for the thing you want to download that also has the highest seeder.

You don't have to do that now with Speckly around. Speckly searches multiple torrent sites and shows the top results from them. It can also filter the results by category (TV, movie, games, book, etc.). Speckly also shows the number of complete sources so you have no problem looking for the site with the highest number of seeders.

It's really a great site to start searching for the file that you want but don't know where to begin.

The Unhealthiest Drink in the Planet

Ever wondered what is the unhealthiest drink ever concocted by man? I'm not talking about gross or exotic drinks with animal testicles or insects included. Men's Health recently exposed the 20 unhealthiest drinks in America and the worst drink in the planet might have to be Baskin Robbin's Large Heath Bar Shake (32. oz).

Here's how much calorie, sugar and fat you would get from a single serving:

• 2,310 calories
• 266 g sugar
• 108 g fat (64 g saturated)

That's a whopping 2.3k calories!! It's like eating 12 Krispy Kreme doughnuts. The amount of sugar you would get from drinking this is the same as consuming 13 Haagen Dazs Vanilla and Almond ice cream bars. The 108 grams of saturated fat is equivalent to 60 slices of bacon. Ouch... my heart.

The drink is part of Baskin Robbins “candy-bar madness” promotion but it's a good thing that they discontinued it last May. Hmmm, this might be a get-fat-quick scheme for skinny people. Say goodbye to your heart though. Hehehe.

This is how science should be taught in school

Ever heard of Steve Spengler, the science teacher? I've seen him a couple of times in the Ellen show and I always enjoy the science experiments he performed on the show.

So I searched the web and found his site which is full of those cool science experiments. I mean this should be how science should be taught in school, with fun experiments that allows you to remember the theory behind it.  Heck I didn't know that humans can conduct electricity safely until Ellen touched a bulb charged with 50,000 volts to light a fluorescent bulb on her other hand.

The site has a huge list of cool experiments ranging from topics such as matter, chemistry, force and motion, electricity and a whole lot more. The experiments have a demo video, easy to use instructions and explanation in case you want to use it to teach students.

Man, I wish he was my teacher back in school. Seeing these experiments makes me want to be a science teacher, a cool one at that.

Earn while you search with Scour

How many internet search queries do you do per day? Won't it be nice if you could earn while you use a search engine? Won't it be nicer if you're also helping the search engine give more accurate and relevant results while you earn?

With Scour, you can search and earn at the same time. Don't worry about the search results since Scour aggregates results from Google, Yahoo and MSN so you're not missing out on anything even if you're used to having Google as your default search engine. Not only that, you can earn while helping Scour provide relevant search results by the use of their voting and comment system.

So what's the payout?

First, sign up for free then simply start using Scour. If you accumulated a total of 6,500 points, you'll be sent a $25 Visa gift card.

6,500 points?? Are you crazy??

Well, it might seem a lot but you won't notice it if you always use Scour as your default search engine. You can also refer your friends and you would earn 25% of their total points. Here's the point system:

• Search - 1 point each
• Vote - 2 points each
• Comment - 3 points each

Besides, you're also using Google when you search with Scour so don't think about the 6,500 points. I suggest you install the browser plugins so that the Scour searchbox will always be on your browser.

Life Explained... On Film

I recently stumbled upon this great free video site called VideoJug where you can learn lots of really useful stuff. If you have plenty of time in your hand and a fast internet connection, you could easily lose track of time viewing the videos here.

The videos in this site are the how-to types for different subjects like Food and Drink, Health, Pets and my personal favorite, DIY & Home. Here's a small sampling of what the popular videos are:

• Remove chewing gum from clothes
• Iron a shirt
• Clean your microwave with a lemon
• Remove cigarette odor from your car

Oh yeah, you could also learn lots of cool magic tricks on this site and I highly recommend David Zanthor's series.

Glenn Beck the Blogger

Glenn Beck is a comedian who has his own radio program and also appears on TV on Headline News. If you can't catch him on either radio or TV, you should definitely check out his blog. It is full of his own brand of witty cynicisms on serious issues regarding politics, economics, environment, etc. I really dig his videos.

From his site, You can see popular video clips on his TV show, featured audio clips from his radio program and other happenings going in his life. One of which is his Summer Political Comedy Tour on July 17th in Dallas. If you can't experience the real Glenn Beck, better head to selected theaters where his live act will also be shown.

Inside Pixar Animation Studios

Have you ever been inside an office that was designed really well that you don't mind staying there even after office hours? Or a workplace that you would be proud showing to a visitor? Most of the offices I've seen here are so cramped with cubicles that can really make you feel sad while working.

Check out the new Pixar Animation Studios, in Emeryville, California that can house over 1,000 employees on its 15 acre site. Tech Blog just did a feature of the place along with a video tour. I suggest you go see it. Makes you want to dream to work in such a place. Even just as a maintenance man. Hehehe.

Actually, I've been inside such a place while I was in the US for a short while. It has large grounds, high ceiling, big windows to let the warm sun fill its cool hallways. The cubicles are spacious and the cafeteria looked like a high class food court. Ahh... wish I'd get a chance to go back there.

How to Add Speech Bubbles to Your Images Easily

If you want to add speech bubbles to your images but don't have the graphics skills to do them, check out Kyolo.

Kyolo is a free web service that does only one thing... add speech bubbles to your images and easily use them on your blog, forum or send them to your friends. It's quite simple to use as well, upload your photo and start adding speech bubbles.

You can use choose between an ordinary speech bubble or a thinking bubble. You can resize and rotate your bubble. The only thing I find disappointing is you can only use one font. Comics Sans. Sigh. I wish you could choose from a variety of comic fonts. But still, this is a pretty darn simple and straight-forward web application.

Glenn Beck is Unelectable

If you love stand-up comedies then you should check out Glenn Beck's Summer Comedy Tour. Don't worry, it's not the typical shallow, racist humor that most stand-up comics do. Glenn Beck deals with real, important and pressing issues in a really funny way.

With a lot of depressing news today such as climate change, skyrocketing fuel prices and increase price of goods, all we can really do is laugh about it and just continue living. Good thing Glenn Beck is here to do just that with his political satire. It's much easier to hear and take the bad news if it's brought in a funny, yet intellectual way.

Catch him live on his Summer Comedy Tour called Glenn Beck Unelectable at Dallas on the 17th of July or you can watch the simulcast in select theaters nationwide.

Dress up your iPhone

So you bought the new iPhone already and of course you paid top dollar for it. Why not couple it with a very sleek casing to keep it looking pristine for a long time? But don't give it just any casing, go for the good ones.

Gina Hughes, tech blogger for Yahoo!, has a list of the best and luxurious cases out there for your iPhone. Vaja Leather Products tops her list. An Argentinean company that offers cases that are handcrafted and made with real full grain cowhide leather. A little pricier than most, but all are under $85.

Read the rest of the article here.

Looking for a Cheap High Speed Internet Service

Having a slow internet connection is such a headache if you're a download addict like me. Can't play online games and download at the same time without experiencing lag. What more if you're on a wireless network and have to share the bandwidth with other people in the house?

Good thing Charter internet is offering a cheap high speed internet service. It's so dirt cheap that it's the lowest at only $14.99/month for a max of 5Mbps speed. That's 90 times faster if you're still on dial-up.

You can also try their service for 30 days for free! If you're not satisfied, you can cancel the subscription without any risk. So what have you got to lose? Nothing really so go try them out.

Put Meebo on your desktop

Here in our office, people often use Meebo for instant messaging. For some technical or security reason, we can't use our Yahoo Messenger or MSN without getting disconnected all the time or receiving delayed messages. It's really weird since we can use Meebo without any problems.

Oops, sorry to be rude. If you don't know what Meebo is, it's simply a web service that allows you to login to different Instant Messaging services using your web browser. The problem with Meebo though is that it belongs to only one window so you can't minimize one chat window without minimizing all.

Now you can put Meebo right in your desktop with Meebone. This Adobe AIR application will trick Meebo that it is still running in your web browser so you can still enjoy the same experience without being limited to your browser's window. Excellent!

Meebone is a free download but requires the Adobe AIR platform to run.

Over 1,000 iPod for auction starting at $1

There's an ongoing iPod Auction in uBid where you can get an iPod Touch, iPod Video, or an iPod Nano starting at $1 bids. Evidently, uBid has a partner with tons of excess iPod in their inventory and they need to liquidate them so they came up with this promotion.

uBid.com is an auction site that is very different from eBay. In eBay, you deal mostly with other consumers. In uBid, you buy something from real businesses so it's 100% guaranteed fraud free. They also have a customer service that will help you if you ever encounter any problems with a deal.

I checked the site and some people were able to purchase iPod Touch 16GB for $75, iPod Video 30GB for $40 and iPod Nano 8GB for $55. I don't know how many iPods are left but there are still a lot of them out there. You just have to constantly check the going price when an auction is about to end then bid at the last minute.

Top 10 Best Cities in the US to live in

Kiplinger, the Personal Finance magazine, recently published (July 2008) an article talking about the best cities in the US to live, work and play. The selection is based on strong economies, abundance of jobs, living costs and fun things to do.

In Houston, the skyline towers over Discovery Green Park and Treehouse, a roof deck bar. (From Kiplinger Magazine)

Based on their research, Houston, Texas topped the list. Today, Houston has a really great city infrastructure with its pedestrian tunnels that you could use during really hot days, light rail transit, an expanded convention center, a 12-acre park and a new stadium among others.

Also, they boast of a below national average cost of living and a healthy market of affordable houses. There are plenty of jobs available (more than 100,000 jobs generated in 2007) as Fortune 500 companies are starting to set up shop out there.

As for the other cities who made up the Top 10 list, here they are:

• Raleigh, North Carolina
• Omaha, Nebraska
• Boise, Idaho
• Colorado Springs, Colorado
• Austin, Texas
• Fayetteville, Arkansas
• Sacramento, California
• Des Moines, Iowa
• Provo Utah

Hmmm, seems like most of the cities are out west. If you want to read the article, it is also available online here.

Move to Windows Vista with Confidence

If you' own a small business, you know that you have to adapt to our ever-changing world. This concept also applies to the technology that you are using, particularly the operating system on your PC.

If you're still using Windows XP for your business, you're certainly losing some key features that you can benefit from switching to Windows Vista. One of which is the increased security that makes your machine less vulnerable from being infected by spyware or malware.

Of course, switching to the newer Windows Vista SP1 doesn't come without any risks. You may encounter problems you never did with your old OS. Maybe you'll find yourself having difficulty finding a particular feature. Or maybe your software would start to act up, not working correctly, getting sluggish maybe. Don't you just hate it if that started happening when a deadline is drawing near.

But don't get fazed using that new PC that came with Vista. If you purchased that PC after July 1, you are entitled to the Windows Vista Small Business Assurance that can provide you free support, compatibility assistance and one-on-one coaching to help you get the most out of your purchase.

The Windows Vista Small Business Assurance is completely free but will only be available until October 31, 2008 so don't miss out on that chance. Switching to Windows Vista should not be a risk to your business.

Reflexive Arcade Games Galore

With today's top PC Games requiring better machines, those who can't keep up can still enjoy addictive games that doesn't require a $1000 desktop PC.

Reflexive Arcade offers gamers a huge selection of downloadable games that can be tried for a limited amount of time. Highly addictive games such as Match-3, Seek-and-Find, Diner Dash types and their incarnates are available for download from their web site. My all-time favorite is Bookworm Adventures Deluxe.

Fortunately, there's a way to disable the time trial from these games so you can play it without any limits. Pay for the it. Hehehe. Or you can apply a crack, unwrapper or game patch such as:

FFF-ReflexV2 universal Reflexive unwrapper/cracker

If that doesn't work, patch the game using:

Reflexorator v1.2 universal Reflexive patcher.

It's easy to crack or patch the game. Just install the game, run the crack and point it to the game's .exe file. Enjoy the full version!

A Greener Search Engine

With talks of global warming or climate change bringing floods, intense heat waves, hurricanes and tsunamis all over the world, one must think hard on how he can contribute to alleviate this situation that's destroying our environment.

One of the major causes for climate change is carbon dioxide emission, with US being the number one contributor followed by China. On a very smaller scale, do you know that as an individual using the Internet, you're already contributing to carbon emission? A single query emits approximately a fraction of a gram of carbon dioxide and combined with the use of computer, it's roughly 17g per user.

So how could you help? Well instead of using Google or Yahoo for your search queries, you can use the Carbon Neutral search engine. Huh? Don’t get me wrong, using this search engine doesn’t directly reduce carbon dioxide emission. But they do offset each query via offsetter companies like Climate Care and Carbon Fund.

You would probably ask, how in the world can you offset carbon emission? What offsetters do is for a set amount of carbon dioxide emitted, they invest in renewable technology, energy efficiency and reforestation projects. That’s how you offset carbon emission.

So use the Carbon Neutral search engine for your search queries to help save the planet. They even have a toolbar that you can install on your browser and it’s powered by Google as well!

Where to Get No CD Patch for PC Games

If you have a PC Game installed that requires a CD/DVD but somehow lost it, the only convenient thing to do is to apply a patch so that the game won't look for your disc anymore. Or maybe you don't want to use the disc over and over again after installing your game to prevent damaging it.

GameCopyWorld is a site where you can download No-CD patches for virtually all PC games that came in a box. The files you download there are relatively safe. I tried downloading a few times and never did get any spyware or virus from their files.

Aside from game patches, they also have trainers or game hacks if you're having a great deal of difficulty finishing your game. Unlimited money for Command & Conquer 3? No problem. It's really a great site to bookmark if you're an avid PC gamer.

So sometimes it is best to do a full install with the cinematics and all just in case you misplaced your CD.

Faulty laptops with Nvidia graphics chip

If you own a laptop with an old Nvidia graphics chip, be prepared to encounter having your screen go dark without notice.

Nvidia recently found out that there was a flaw on some of their graphics chips that were shipped with a huge number of laptops. Users suddenly experience their screen going black, but some claim that dimming the screen or placing it near the AC can temporarily solve the problem.

The actual flaw hasn't been revealed yet because Nvidia still cannot pinpoint what's causing the problem. They're suspecting it has something to do with the packaging materials used on some of the chips that causes it to overheat quickly. They are planning to release a software driver that will allow the system fan to operate sooner to alleviate the "thermal stress" on the chips soon.

They still don't have the list of all laptop models affected but I'll be posting it here once they're made available.

Whew, good thing that my laptop is running on ATI graphics.

Best Book About CSS That I've Read

For those who don't know, CSS means Cascading Style Sheets and is widely used by web designers. The design or the theme of your blog or Multiply relies greatly on CSS.

Here's a book I always tell about to others who are interested in honing their CSS design skills or wants to tweak the CSS on their site. The Art & Science of CSS is a very well written book by five of the biggest name in CSS design that aims to teach practical and beautiful implementation of CSS. Here are just some of the things you can learn from this book.

• Format calendars, menus and table of contents using CSS
• Create horizontal, vertical and tab-based navigation systems using CSS
• Create rounded corners using CSS
• Design stylish Website headings
• Put together funky & artistic Website backgrounds
• Use CSS to render blockquotes, dates and lists in a visually appealing manner

It is quite easy to read and understand with its full color layout, making it feel like you're reading a magazine. The designs on the book are visually appealing and inspiring. The code CSS code used to create each of the components is provided and is guaranteed to be simple, efficient and cross-browser compatible.

Download the full PDF version of The Art & Science of CSS here.

Run multiple Yahoo Messengers at the same time

I'm not sure why some people needs to have multiple instances of Yahoo! Messengers on at the same time. Maybe they have a separate ID for friends and business contacts that they don't want to mix up.

Well here's a simple registry hack that can help you login to your different accounts in Yahoo! Messenger. Close your YM first before editing your registry.

• Go to Start > Run then type regedit and hit Enter
• Navigate down to HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Software > yahoo > pager > Test
• Click on the right pane, and go to Edit > New > DWORD value

• Enter Plural as the name and set its value to 1

That's it! I tried this on Yahoo Messenger 8 running Windows XP and it works perfectly. I'm not sure if it also works with Vista but just delete the New Value that you created to revert your registry back.

If you're afraid of manually editing your registry, you can download this registry patch instead. Just extract the .reg file, double-click on it and click yes to apply the patch.

Moms make good bloggers

I think moms make the best kind of blogger, especially those full-time moms who are always at home taking care of the kids. When the kids are away at school or asleep, they usually spend most of their time online.

Coupled with their motherly style of writing and attitude, here are some of the advantages they have over pro bloggers.

• Mommy bloggers have a very big community and they really take care of each other, visiting daily, leaving comments, posting about different blogs, ensuring a healthy dose of daily traffic.
• They have a wide range of interests that they can post about. These can be about technology, politics, making money online, practical living or cooking tips that almost every person can relate to.
• They sometimes talk about their babies. Who doesn't want to look at cute lil babies.
• Posts about parenting tips can induce a healthy discussion among mommy bloggers and a sign of a good blog are lively discussion on their posts.

So where am I going with this? To all moms out there who have lots of free time online, I encourage you to start your own blog. If you already have one, you should think about making a lil bit of cash on the side for that special day at the parlor, or that piece of home decoration that your husband won't buy for you.

I would suggest trying SocialSpark. It's a site where advertisers are looking for bloggers to write about their products or services and they offer more and better opportunities for mommy bloggers.

So go ahead and check it out. Even if you don't wanna accept the opportunities, there are lots of mommy bloggers there that you can be friends with.

6 features that I wish Blogger has

I've been blogging for more than half a year now using Blogger and Wordpress exclusively. Each has its pros and cons but Blogger has more room for improvement.

It was great for Blogger to finally listen to our whims about improving the comment box so that it would be easier for us to post comments. Here are 6 more features that I wish Blogger would implement for us to have a better blogging experience.

• Better Dashboard. I wish they would take a page from Wordpress with their dashboard. It would be really nice to see your blog stats without relying on Google Analytics or Sitemeter.
• Better comment control. Built-in spam control would be appreciated. This includes the ability to block a spammer's IP. Oh and allowing the owner to modify comments would be good to have too.
• Improve Post Creation form. I love the new improvements we're going to have here. Not having to re-upload an image when you accidentally deleted it from the post is a big help. I just wish they would give us the option to remove the auto link on the images without having to edit the HTML. Oh and a built-in Word Count please.
• Read more feature. To give your post a summarized version when in the front page and have a "read more" link to redirect your reader to the post's page. I want Wordpress' More button very badly for Blogger. No more external javascripts please.
• Recent Comments widget. This is one of the most sought after widget by bloggers and I'm surprised that Blogger doesn't have them built in. I wish there's a way to easily add a non-feed based Recent Comments widget without relying on javascripts hosted on a different site.
• Top Posts widget. This is the second most sought after blog widget in my opinion. Is Feedjit the only legitimate choice for Top Posts?

That's my list. How about you, what do you think are the areas where Blogger could still improve on? Oh yeah this post is an entry to Blogger Buster's competition where you could win the Ultimate Blogging Package.

Bring in the Bling Gnomes

If you enjoy playing Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games, you might wanna check out Dungeon Runners. It is the latest game from NCsoft, the makers of Guild Wars, City of Heroes, City of Villains and other awesome MMORPG titles.

In Dungeon Runners, you get to play either a Fighter, Mage or a Ranger with a set of skills to start with. Then you can learn additional skills as you progress in the game to create your own custom hero. You get to explore richly detailed dungeons, battle ferocious, wacky monsters and collect tons of cool and crazy equipments and loot.

Err... so what's with the Bling Gnomes?

Ahh the Bling Gnome! This is the only MMORPG (that I know at least) that has gnomes to collect your loot and convert it into gold. Remember how much time you have to waste just to go back to town to sell off those crap items? In Dungeon Runners, you get to have a gangsta gnome that eats those unwanted drops, digest and convert them to gold (or an uber item from time to time). Yup! They're not your average gnomes.

These Bling Gnomes are only available if you buy the retail box which also includes 6 months worth of premium membership. If you want to try this game first, you can play it for FREE by downloading the game client from their site. Then you can decide if you want to upgrade to a premium membership to enjoy even sweeter loot, rarer items and better exp gain or continue playing for FREE.

Dungeon Runners is a cool and wacky MMO game that doesn't suck so why don't you give it a try?

Jo Koy on Michael Jackson

Just found out (courtesty of FilAmPride) that funny man Jo Koy is Half American and Half Filipino. I've heard of this dude years ago when I saw his terrific impersonation of Michael Jackson.

Here's the video that I'm talking about.

If you can't see the video or want to download it, the link is here (Jokoy17.wmv 4.04MB).

Born Joseph Glenn Herbert, this 37-year old comedian is part of VH1's "I love the 90's Part Deux" and Comedy Central's Premium Blend.