I had to chuckle at some of Gaspirtz's cartoons. They're fun, irreverent, and will probably offend someone out there. But for peeps with an open mind, they're a delight to look at and will definitely send a cheer to your day.

Of the ones I looked at, this is my favourite: Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Enjoy! :D


Technorati: cartoons

This is my first post via mobile phone through the neat Opera Mini browser. I usually check Gmail with my phone but this is my first time blogging with it. Will add tags and hyperlinks later.

In other news, huge congrats to my friend Fred on the birth of his second child Alyssa.

UPDATE: Although there was an error message on my phone after I submitted, the post appears to have gone through! :)

Tags: mobile blogging, Opera Mini, Gmail

The Blank Slate theory has been disproved and there's growing evidence supporting the gender differentiation theory (okay, I made that title up but you know what I mean). It basically means boys will be boys and girls will be girls.

Jack is definitely a boy's boy. He loves being swung around, run with while carried (discovered today), thrown up in the air, barely flinches when he falls, tears things, and pummels things. He screeches delightfully with any of that physical activity, even more when his Dad does it.

His first favourite stuffed toy is Mr Pterodactyl, an orange and yellow pterodactyl. He gnawed on Mr Pterodactyl's wings, arms, legs, beak, and the stuffed fella never minded. They were best friends. He's still around but now Tigger and another chappie mentioned below are his BFFs.

The first non-plush toy he chose for himself out of a bucket of toys my brother passed to me was a small rubber footfall. It entertained him for days. That was months ago. Interestingly enough, today he picked that same toy out from his toy basket and played with it for a while.

He loves his cousin's cars, tractors, trains, anything with wheels. And he adores her plastic golf club. Purple please, no green and yellow. And his favourite activity is swinging it around, narrowly missing my face several times.

The first toy he chose for himself in a store (actually a pushcart) was a small stuffed Jack from A Nightmare Before Christmas. We call him Mr Skeletor to avoid confusion. He loves opening his mouth wide and munching down on Mr Skeletor's face. It's strange but cute. :)

Here are some cool books on the topic:

The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature by Steven Pinker
Brain Child by Tony Buzan
Raising Boys by Steve Biddulph

Tags: baby 9 months, Jack, The Blank Slate, baby toys, motherhood, parenting

"The only way you can truly get more out of life for yourself is to give part of yourself away."

This powerful message in the movie The Ultimate Gift has already inspired numerous individuals and groups to help others, including a teen philantrophic moment called Show of Hands and many schools in the US. You can also support your favourite charity on the "Weekend Of Giving" promotion on the The Ultimate Gift website.

The story is about a young man (Drew Fuller) expecting to inherit a fortune from his grandfather when he dies but is sent on a 12 task challenge instead. Along the journey, he learns that he has to determine for himself what is more important - happiness or money.

The movie also stars Oscar^TM Nominee Abigail Breslin (for Little Miss Sunshine), James Garner, Brian Dennehey, Ali Hills, and Bill Cobbs. Catch the preview on YouTube.

This is the official site of the movie "The Ultimate Gift" and the grass-roots movement its starting to help charities and give to others. It opens March 9 in US and Canadian theatres.

This post is sponsored by The Ultimate Gift. Indeed it is a wonderful gift. Go catch the movie today. I know I will.

Tags: The Ultimate Gift, movie

After a positive review from my BFF Shen, I decided to try out blog marketing site PayPerPost (PPP) where we're paid for our honest opinions on various products and services. To date I have made $224.53 which is a great tiny sum for doing what I love to do anyway. It helps pay my electricity and Internet bills.

For copywriters, the critical part is usually getting paid, so for me, I am happy to take up any writing jobs that are guaranteed to pay. After all, for writers, time is money. And now with Jack in my life, my time is even more precious to me, so I gladly sacrifice sleep time for writing time that I know will pay.

I'd never thought of blogging for money before encountering PPP. Previously all my blogs had been personal or about my cats (they have their own blog). But since I began writing for PPP, I began thinking seriously about what direction I wanted my blog to go, and the opportunities I selected reflected that.

I've always felt strongly about keeping myself educated on the important things in my life: managing personal and family finances, health issues that might affect my loved ones, and (okay, not important, but they light my fire) my passion for apps and gadgets and widgets, which I've begun writing about more recently so much so I decided to resurrect an old tech blog I had started a while ago and place my tech posts there. Those are the only ones that feel a little out of place here.

In addition, I've taken a greater interest in learning how to drive traffic to my blog, improve my page ratings, and optimising my hit rate through search engines. I have also been networking more with other bloggers and learning even more. It's an excellent way to learn online entrepreneurship.

So to the people running PPP, thanks for giving us regular folk a great way to earn money and helping us, in the process, learn about blog marketing and improving our blogs overall. Cheers!


PayPerPost, blog marketing

I've always had a yen for making my own music videos since I was a google-eyed kid watching MTV. With some clunky video software, I came close but my computer crashed while attempting to render it. This was back in 2000.

Perfect for weddings, gifts, or simply a cool way to store your fave photos, here's a neat new way of mixing music with images. I had an idea to mix some of my cartoons with some music to make my very own music video, a la Aha's Take On Me, which still awes me till today.

Fliptrack has a zillion music tracks for you to choose from. They're legal and have a wide range enough for everyone. I will be picking the '80s, '90s, and pop rock for sure. :) Dang did I just reveal my age?

Tags: fliptrack, music videos, MTV

I am a secret admirer of Seigey, having lurked on his blog site for quite a while now. He recently posted an update on adding tags to Blogdrive, which although I find to be one of the best blog providers around, does not have a tagging system!

A good compromise is ZoomClouds, a neat tagging system that anyone can use on their site. It's pretty, very very easy to use, friendly, and very customisable. I installed it within 10 minutes with some tweaking.

Like Seigey, I was going to make my own if I couldn't find one but this one (see left of page) seems to work well for now. Ideally I'd like it to tag the whole blog and link directly within my site (which Blogger does) but it is cool for now.

According to their FAQ, it starts by reading the recent RSS feeds and then compiles the content added as time goes by. Definitely worth a test run. Get yours today. :)

Tags: technology, Blogdrive, tagcloud, Zoomcloud, tag, blog

BREAKING NEWS! A colossal squid has been caught in the Ross Sea by New Zealand fishmen. It weighed in at about 450kg and was 10m long. The giant squid is longer, but the colossal squid is heavier. They are not related.

It was hauled to the surface while munching on one of its favourite foods, a Patagonian toothfish which the fishermen had hooked on a longline.

"The decision was taken that the chances of survival were not good, and in the interests of science it should be taken on board," Geoff Dolan, an observer with New Zealand's Ministry of Fisheries said.

(Source: Colossal squid hooked with rings the size of tractor tyres)

Colossal squid, known by the scientific name Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni, are estimated to grow up to 46 feet long and have long been one of the most mysterious creatures of the deep ocean.

"I can assure you that this is going to draw phenomenal interest. It is truly amazing," said Dr. Steve O'Shea, a squid expert at the Auckland University of Technology. If calamari rings were made from the squid they would be the size of tractor tires, he added.

Colossal squid can descend to 6,500 feet and are extremely active, aggressive hunters, he said.

(Source: Colossal Squid Caught Off Antarctica)

(Blog Source: xenogere)

Tags: science news, colossal squid

Having worked as a webmaster for a large corporate intranet three years ago and running my own sites since 1996, it's refreshing to encounter a free open source (this is key!) content management system (CMS) available now for content publishing on the net as well as the intranet.

Joomla! allows webmasters to utilise popular features like RSS feeds, blogs, polls, search, printable pages, page caching, and language internationalisation to create neat templates for our websites.

I have to confess with blogging software so easy to use now, I've been lazy and also busy with work and baby to learn how to use the new hip stuff (yeah the AJAX DVD is still sitting here next to me since I got it while I was pregnant).

It would be great to pick up a book again to learn how to make my own Joomla Templates. The ClubTVK Joomla Template Kit's a cool e-book (download to PDA to read while breastfeeding Jack at night) that shows noobs - yes that's me in this case - how to create a template in 5 easy steps.

The pack includes 2 PDF e-books, 6 templates with full instructions (essential as a starting off point), 44 extra templates, 1 button set, and 1 Tag Cloud Module.

It's always important to keep up with technology. I better learn this quickly before my skills get obsolete.

While this is a sponsored post, the author acknowledges that the time to upgrade her technical skills is much overdue.

Tags: Joomla templates

There are two types of debt: good debt and bad debt. Most families, mine included, have a combination of good and bad debt. Our home, car, and sometimes useless stuff we buy everyday contributes to this.

Good debt is debt that helps you secure an asset. A prime example is property which you live in (capital appreciation) or rent out (capital appreciation plus rental income). Most of us won't be able to purchase such things in cash and hence, we will need to borrow this money.

Bad debt is debt that does not secure you anything (intrinsic joy unfortunately doesn't count). Examples are credit card debt, purchasing a car (yes, cars are not assets), and almost every retail purchase.

How do we reduce debt then? The principle is to reduce the effective interest rate you are paying. Look for opportunities from Debt Consolidation Services, which give you a better interest rate overall as well as advice on how to pay off your loans quickly.

Act now. Every day your interest is compounding.

This post is sponsored by CreditLoan.com.

Technorati: good debt, bad debt, loan consolidation