To The Moon And Back

Do you love playing tennis for fun or already a pro? Whether you’re the next Roger Federer or just play tennis to be fit, TennisPlaza.com can provide all the equipment that you need. It’s a one stop shop for all tennis-related items such as racquets, shoes, apparel, strings, bags and other gears. This site offers only the best products from the most popular brands. Add their excellent customer service and you will never go wrong.

For newbies like me, I find their gear guide very helpful. The racquet guide was very detailed on explaining various racquet technologies like aerobeam, dual woofer, flexpoint, intellifiber, string dampener, etc. You’d definitely find no problem choosing between Wilson tennis racquets and Head Racquets after reading this guide.

The options for tennis shoes and apparel are huge. There are Nike, Adidas, K-Swiss, Babolat, Prince, Wilson and New Balance tennis shoes, both for men and women. The apparels are categorized per type so you can easily find a jacket, hat, pants and even undergarments for your next match. Personally, I don’t really need to be a tennis player to enjoy wearing those cute little tennis dresses and skirts that make Sharapova looks gorgeous as ever. Those pleats will do wonders to your legs when worn during hot weathers.

Aside from the products mentioned above, the site also offers DVD and books about Tennis, racquet accessories, shock dampeners and other personal accessories. Tennis Plaza also offers gift cards so you can be sure that your friends will love your gift, having chosen them themselves.

I unexpectedly received some extra moolah from a past project that surfaced recently. And since all my outfits are so outdated, I’m going to treat myself crazy with new clothes. Now, all I have to do is check the Internet on the latest trends. Thanks to Shopwiki.com, my favorite shopping buddy, I can find what I’m looking for easily. This site not only offers links to online shops but also tons of information about the latest trend in women’s apparel, among other things. I really like this site the way you can navigate through various sections using links.

I immediately found this sexy but comfy looking wide sleeve blouse which is just right for weekend outings and can double as breastfeeding blouse because of the wide neck opening.

It’s too expensive for me at $230, though.

After a quick search for flirty tops, I found this hot number in black.

Still a bit on the expensive side but too hot to resist so I’m definitely adding it to my wish list.

The good thing about this site is you can compare different prices from different stores where the item is being sold. Aside from that, you can also read product reviews from customers who bought it. It’s like browsing through several sites from one website. This is the reason why I always make sure to drop by ShopWiki before I shop online. It’s the equivalent of me, personally hopping from one mall to another searching for the cheapest but cutest outfit.

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.

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.

One of my hobbies when I’m not busy is browse through beautiful houses on the web. When I’m in a good mood, it inspire me to work harder so I can buy one and when I’m not, which is almost all the time, I get pissed off and hate the owners of the house for being rich and all. I find that what I like the most are houses with a huge garden wherein you can place a huge swimming pool yet still have tons of space for a playground or even a conservatory for entertaining or hanging out. There are also houses with landscaped gardens that can rival those from TruGreen brochures. And don’t forget Martha’s properties. Yesterday, I saw her farm on TV and was amazed on how huge it is.

So huge that it resembles a small jungle already. She commissioned someone to put up birdcages on her forest-like property to invite birds and other animals to live there. Must be wonderful to at least have one of her houses.

I’ve been a constant visitor of iVillage.co.uk since 2003. It started when we were moving to my mother-in-law’s house and needed to upgrade the other master bedroom for our own use. It was only my husband and I back then. No little girl to mess up the decors and furniture yet so I have full rein on giving the room a total makeover. I daily check websites about interior designs, makeover TV shows, paints, furniture, cheap deals, etc. This was when I got addicted to iVillage. The Home & Garden section is a wonderful resource for homemakers who are always on the budget like myself. It features DIY stuff, gardening tips, remodeling areas of the house, handling pets, pest control (though I have to say that issues like this should be left with professionals like Terminix), cooking, cleaning and maintenance, and my favorite - a huge photo gallery of design ideas. I noticed that DIY is all the rage now making me wonder if people in the States either have super powers or they don’t have much to do. I for one can’t even juggle my work from home gig and parenting my now 2.5-year-old toddler.

With the help of Internet, future homeowners can easily find their dream house simply by browsing through real estate websites. The real estate industry is taking advantage of technology to showcase their properties and receive numerous leads all over the world. Real estate companies and agents are now populating the Internet with their company websites and individual landing pages. Sites like Denver real estate lets you buy, sell, find a home without leaving the comforts of your house or office. The price for the properties are upfront, including detailed descriptions such as number of rooms, total size, year the property was built, amenities. Most sites use a photo gallery to showcase the areas like kitchen, bedroom, porch, and exterior design while some goes as far as providing a 360-degree virtual tour. Once you narrow your list, you can schedule a visit by filling out an online form or receive detailed proposals from live agents who are usually online 24/7.

Everyone’s going online now. I actually applied before for a company (with 150 employees) who specializes in real estate websites alone. They have web designers, programmers, seo experts, content writers to ensure that the website will reach their target audience and be able to convert leads into sales.

Everytime I see / talk to an old friend, colleague or even someone I used to know from high school, the topic about me not having a facebook always comes up. The answer is always the same, WTH is Facebook? The last social networking site I’ve visited was Friendster and that was like what, 6 months ago? After being asked for the Nth time, I’ve decided to check it out. No, I’m not a member yet but it’s definitely worth something looking into. Why? One, 3 out of 5 great webdesigners I know have a Facebook account. Two, and this is the most important reason, a prospect for a website upgrade project asked about my Facebook account so he can look at what I have to offer. Now, isn’t having a portfolio enough? I guess not. Putting up your own website is one way of making yourself visible but if you’re serious in selling your services, you have to be seen everywhere.