To The Moon And Back

I so wanted to get away last weekend but due to unexpected circumstances, we weren’t able to go anywhere. Well, we did go to the mall on Saturday but it doesn’t count. I feel bad that we spent a lot of money on restaurant food and other junk when we should be spending that same amount on cheap bed and breakfasts outside the city. I badly needed a break you know. I’m so tired of malls but staying at home is not an option because of the freaking heat even with the air conditioner on. Plus my daughter and husband seem to have itchy feet all the time that they are always raring to go out.

When Sunday came, my husband told me to get ready because we’ll go to the malls (again!). To which I replied in my most stern voice that I can manage, “only if we go to Serendra”. At least that place has a huge grassy area so I can pretend that we’re somewhere far instead of being stuck in a mall. Expensive shops and equally pricey restaurants aside, Serendra is a great place to hang out with the kids. The little tykes can run around and ride bikes or fly kites if they want to. The only thing missing are families sitting on plaid blankets with a picnic basket filled with yummy goodies. It’s a surprise no one has thought of that yet given how expensive it is to eat out there every weekend.

I learn something new everyday in the Internet. Just this morning, I came across this investment blog and read about a very interesting article titled Navigenics: A Good Investment In Your Future? It talks about the power of Navigenics and how you can detect and treat health conditions via genetic testing. They collect your sample (saliva) and then conduct several tests to determine your risk for different kinds of diseases. The author couldn’t be more right about it being a genetic crystal ball. You can see the future of your health and hopefully find a treatment or prevention as early as possible. I’m sure this will cost you not just an arm and leg but I could see a lot of people who’d be willing to undergo these tests just to secure their future.

Aside from the article about Navigenics, there are also a few posts about GARP money management and investing that you might want to check out. The blog is fairly new but the articles look promising enough to be added to my bookmarked sites.

A tag from Litzie

Litzie wants to see my little corner so here it is. Three years ago, my little corner was a comfortable sofa beside the bed with matching floor lamp and pillows. Now, this is where you will find my 18-20 hrs a day if I can help it.

The top shelf on my work area

My laptop and LCD monitor (can’t design without this). Plus random junk like memory card reader, cellphone, leftover breakfast, coffee. My computer keyboard tray is being used to hold my DELL laptop. The DELL laptop was originally placed beside my LCD monitor but the table is getting overcrowded already so I had to move it.

Full view

Looks neat huh? That’s because my daughter was in school when I took this photo. She has this habit of putting her stuff beside mine so my table is usually filled with her mini books, a projector, barbies, comb, cellphones, lipstick, sunglasses, etc.

The greatest dream a parent could have is to see his kid finish college. Unfortunately, with the continuous rise in college tuition, many people are finding it hard to reach this dream.

NextStudent.com believes that education is the best investment anyone could make. With this in mind, they want to help parents and students find the money that they need so they can pursue higher education. This site has one of the largest scholarship databases which are updated daily and free of charge to anyone. Aside from providing student loans, the site provides helpful resources to aid you in finding the perfect educational funding solution. There are online calculators, loan comparisons, financial aid glossary and various frequently asked questions and guides to get you started.

I believe the most useful service here is student loan consolidation. Loan consolidations have long been helping people cope with their never-ending debts. The benefit of consolidating your loans is the low and fixed interest rates so you can guarantee that you will receive the lowest possible monthly payments. Aside from locked in low monthly payments, NextStudent gives you longer payment terms of up to 20 years max, enough to pay all your college loans.

So you see, everything is possible if you know where to find help.

That last post was the most popular to date. I guess I need to blog about Hot Men that often.

All these talk of Hot Men just made my dreams more Hollywood material. I’d make sure to write them down when I wake up so I won’t forget them. Who knows, I might stumble upon a great script and be able to sell it for a million dollars.

Not. In my dreams, maybe.

Because of my weird dream here and Twittering, Aggie came up with this tag.

And since this is not a mommy blog, I’m going to use the original title.

So here. My list of men that I’d love to sleep with (do I need to mention if I’m single?). Everybody has a list. I know you have one, be honest!  

The next three have one thing in common. They’re all grungy, dirty, hot men.

Gavin Rossdale - I’ve wanted him to be my husband. Promise. Went to his concert, touched his sweaty naked waist. Didn’t wash my hands for one week.


His wedding day. Still hot.

Todd Sparrow (Sean Patrick Flannery’s role in About a Girl) - I always fall for rockstars / musicians. It’s actually one of the many reasons why I fell for The Husband bwahahaha.

Barry Watson - yes, same one from the 7th Heaven tv show. Long hair, unshaved face and all that.

Now, to the clean, boy-next-door types. I tell you, they can get dirty too if they want to. ROFL

Tj Trinidad - Loved him eversince I was 10 or 11 years old. Yes, I’d sleep with him in a heartbeat hahaha

Josh Duhamel - From the movie Win a date with Tad Hamilton

Imagine someone like him looking at you like that. Yummy!

And the number one spot goes to - no contest here.
The other love of my life, Gong Yoo. [Drool here]

God, he’s so hot. And he’s not even naked here hahahaha. Sigh. (literally)

{begin copy}
It’s up to you how narrate your stories but there are two rules: 1.Post pictures (I want to see what is all the hotness about), 2. Keep the linky linky alive (Tip, highlight the text which has links, right click and choose View Selection Source and just copy the HTML). Link the post where you wrote about the topic so women can find more drool-worthy men. (You might need to publish and then edit the entry first)

List:
1. Aggie 2. Thea 3. Litzie 4. Joy

Tag all the people you want!

{end copy}

Tagging these ladies. I’m really interested to know who you’d like to sleep with bwahahahaha

 Mich, Jane, Jen, Kelly, Peachy, Jody

From Yen’s QOTW

1. Were you named after anyone?
Nope. My name was supposed to be longer though but my father cut it short because he was afraid I might have a hard time writing it.

2. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off?
Nah, I’m too lazy. I just loosen them up a bit so I can remove them

3. What is your shoe size?
6.5 to 7

4. If you were a flower, What flower would you be?
Sunflower just because it reminds me of Baguio

5. What is your fave smell?
My husbands armpits haha. I feel safe whenever I smell it.

6. Which do your prefer scary movies Or happy endings?
Happy endings. I try not watch scary movies anymore because I still have nightmares from the Sixth Sense. And that was like, what, five years ago?

7. Last movie you watched?
Kingdom of Heaven. Thumbs up!!! Orlando Bloom was so good in this movie.

8. Do you prefer hugs Or kisses?
Both.

9. Favorite Dessert?
German chocolate cheesecakes, Triple choco mousse

10. Look to your right, do you see a yellow color?
Winnie the Pooh pillow

In the old days, before I can publish my artworks online, I do the following:

1. Make light sketches using a pencil

2. Scan using 200 or 300 DPI

3. Trace the artwork in Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash

4. Color using any graphics softwares above.

The artworks below were done exactly that way. The tracing was done using an old Wacom graphic tablet, which was a gift from my previous boss. Although tasking, it works and it’s cheap.

If I have $999 though, I would love to have a direct pen-on-screen tool like Wacom’s Cintiq 12WX. Using the outdated graphics tablet is alright, but it gets a bit confusing when you can’t see your hand while drawing. With Cintiq, it will be exactly like drawing on paper, except you’re doodling on a monitor.

At only 4.4 pounds, it has the advantage of a wide-format LCD monitor and can be rorated however you want. I can draw on my lap, on my desktop or upright. It workes on multi-monitor laptops and desktops but can also be used as a stand-alone display too.

The Cintiq 12WX delivers a highly sensitive pen-on-screen experience so you can work directly on your images and applications in the most natural way possible. With “pen-point” accuracy, fast cursor control, and 1,024 levels of pressure-sensitivity on the pen tip and eraser, the Cintiq 12WX gives you increased control, comfort, and productivity.

One cool gadget. Definitely a must for illustrators and manga artists. I know a Filipino webdesigner from Singapore who bought one recently and just can’t stop raving about it. I’m green with envy of course.

Have a question in mind? Before bugging the nearest person near you or posting that question in a forum, do the following.

You already probably know all this but just in case you’re like my friend who prefers to disturb people with questions like, “what is web 2.0″, “what is css”, “when is Labor day”, etc. when it’s more convenient to search online, then read below.

Goggle it. It’s free. Let’s say you need to research what carbonless forms are. Just type the keywords http://google.com on your browser, enter the keywords on the text field, press Enter and voila!  You’d know that carbonless form / paper is the modern evolution of carbon copies and most commonly used for blank invoices. You can even go as far as finding websites selling paper supplies or companies that provide printing services on carbonless paper. As easy as that - get thousands of detailed answers and articles which I’m sure will be more helpful compared to vague information from a busy co-worker.

Still can’t find an answer?

Try Yahoo.com. This site has been helping millions of people find what they need for the longest time. It was actually the first site that my professor asked us to visit on the start of our Internet class.

Want something faster?

WikiAnswers. Whatis.com. HowStuffWorks.com.

There’s always a way. Trust me, you’d feel better and smarter because you figured it out on your own.

If you have exhausted all the possibilities and still didn’t get any answer or solution, then that’s the time you should start calling a friend.

Of course, there are questions like only a few people can answer like your friend’s mother’s name, etc. Just learn to draw the line. I know sometimes we’re just too busy or too lazy to do a search. But if you do find the strength to open up your browser, you’d see that you will not only get the information that you need, but will learn three or more new facts.

Exactly June 12, 2007 when I received an email from my boss telling me that Safari is now available on Windows. Since I don’t have a mac, (see previous posts), I immediately downloaded the beta version with the hopes of being able to test my designs on Safari. To my disappointment, the browser crashed and won’t load anything else aside from apple.com. After that incident, I’ve totally forgotten about Safari.

After writing my post on how I want a MAC, I realized two things. One, there’s no possibility that I can get one in a couple of months and two, I can just search the net to see if there’s a tool that allows you to remotely browse on a mac platform. While searching for that tool, I came across the keywords ‘Safari on Windows‘. So I was like, WTF? Could this be true? I clicked the link and voila! I got a nice page with the headline Safari 3 Public Beta - The world’s best browser. Now on Windows too. Don’t you just love their taglines, btw?

I realized at that exact moment that I’ve already tried to download Safari before and it didn’t work. Still, with the needs of a poor designer who can’t afford a MAC just yet, I downloaded it again to see if something has changed.

Tons have changed. It’s fast, it’s wicked. The interface is very apple-ish, simple but full of punch. Even the starter page is amazing, full of javascripts and div coding to show you how efficient the browser is. I checked all my website designs and surpise, surprise, (well, not really) most of them are not working as it should. I’m not exactly pissed, I’m just bummed because I know I’d have to re-do and fix all of them. I mean, how great can you be if your coding will not work on the world’s best browser? Not very much, I’m afraid.