I am going to start taking my driver's licence in May. Yes, you heard it here first. The family decided that now I'm a Mom, it would be useful if I got over my driving phobia and learnt how to drive.

So I decided to get myself excited by pondering over which car I might be able to buy. Despite having a Jeep fetish (but it's not very environmentally-friendly), I've always been a Toyota girl so the hubby and decided to look at some Used Cars For Sale and check out the Toyota Camry, which would be perfect for our extended family with more of Jack's toys being flung everywhere at back.

The effervescent LemonFree, a cool new and used car and truck website, efficiently produced 881701 listings of the Camry. It was a great and very usable user interface and a very fast search engine. There were comprehensive details and most importantly, a photo of the car. I like the red one.

Still, I won't be buying a car till I pass, which could be anytime this year, but in the meantime, I'll enjoy browsing LemonTree for our next family car. :)

This post was kindly sponsored by LemonFree, New and Used Cars and Trucks.

Technorati: cars, driving, personal

Thanks to your many clicks and referrals, Jack's pic retires in the comfortable spot of 39 out of 50 in the TopMomma's Hall of Fame. He remained on the TopMomma home page for 612,616 seconds and received 90 clicks and 51 referals. Yay!

Cheers and thanks! :D

Technorati: shameless self promotion, Jack

"Who would you rather have beside you when you're defending the nation? The son nurtured by his parent who believes that he mattered enough for him/her to put career on hold, or the son who was served hand and foot by a domestic helper?"

~ Sangeetha Bysheim in Today.

Technorati: quote, parenting

When I was 12, I was in a car accident at a traffic junction. A rogue car had sped past and hit our car. I was sitting in the front seat and remember my mother had held me tightly from the back seat to keep me from being smashed through the windscreen. We were all okay but I had a nasty headache for days after.

Who is liable for the damage to the car then? What if one of us was seriously injured? If you live in Washington, it makes sense to hire a seattle personal injury attorney who specialises in personal injury claims. There are no charges for them to review your case and usually fees do not have to be paid till there is a settlement or verdict.

Until then, take good care of yourself and your family. Drive carefully, wear your seatbelts, and regularly send your car for servicing. It is for your own safety.

This post is sponsored by Paglialunga & Harris, whom you can contact via their website to give you a guide on what to do if you were involved in a serious accident.

Technorati: car accident, family

I have an affinity for the sea.

I know, I know. I am paper-white and friends laugh at how much sunblock I put on my face before I venture out, but I am absolutely in love with the sea. There is something to primal about it, perhaps some genetic memory of how we first crawled out of the sea and how much we crave to go back into it.

I spent 5 days in Perhentian Island, off Malaysia in Kelantan two years ago. It was originally supposed to be a diving trip but I decided to go snorkelling in its clear waters to look for turtles instead. I spent hours diving down to spend time with several turtles and it was the quiet serenity of swimming beside them or simply watching them from the surface that brought me most peace.

My aunt Lucy lives in Mexico and we're to visit her some time soon. I've been looking at beach front properties that we can rent to stay for a few days.

There are a few lovely places at Rocky Point condo rentals by the sea. I particularly like the La Paloma at Hacienda del Mar but I know my Mom will love the Paradise Villas instead. We might just stay at both. I'll keep you posted when we do visit. I can't wait to return to the sea.

This post was sponsored by the Rocky Point Real Estate, which has just won over a new customer.

Technorati: vacation, Mexico, sea, beach, holiday

It is critical that you back up your data now. Computer crashes tend to happen when you least expect it and all your baby's photos, the articles you wrote, the loving emails hubby sent you... all gone. So here's the guide to backing up your stuff. And do it now.

1. Portable hard drive

Get one that is within your budget. I have one 40GB one which I paid $250 some years ago and there's still ample space. Back up weekly.

2. Store them on your SD or CF cards

Storage has become so cheap that it is worthwhile keeping one copy on the cards they were written on. I just bought a 1GB Kingston Mini-SD at Giant for $24 for my phone so I don't have to erase all the cats' and Jack's pics and videos from the phone. This is 6 months worth, so your card does go a long way.

3. Store them online

There's a ton of free storage online, from 2GB (and growing) in a single email box, to exclusive storage companies offering storage for free. Back up daily or whenever online.

4. Burn them on DVD

DVD burners are very cheap now so get one (you can watch DVDs on them too) and burn a copy of your precious files monthly. I usually burn whole images and store them in versions and their dates. File in good quality folders.

5. Store on secondary hard drive

Buy a second hard drive and schedule it to store your stuff there daily.

Keep in mind, this should be ideally all done in tandem. There is no single fail-safe solution but with 5 methods, even with fire, one should survive. :)

Technorati: storage, backup, DVD, SD card, hard drive, online storage, technology

Credit cards have their place in personal finance and it is not in stretching your credit limit. Here are pointers on how to maximise the value of credit cards (and the not):

A) Their value is in:

• Receiving 21 days credit free on the purchases you make;
• The starter gift most banks offer you;
• Consolidating your monthly spending;
• Maximising the discounts credit cards offer on shops, restaurants, and gas stations you patronise; and
• Enjoying 0% interest on purchases you make (although most have an addendum that you cannot cancel the card until the period is over, e.g. 24 months so read the fine print carefully.

B) Their value is not in:

• Buying that big ticket item, car, downpayment on house you can't afford;
• Rolling over every month and paying only the minimum sum;
• Not paying off the full amount every month.

Should you already find yourself in B, your aim should be:

1. Pay off as much as you owe every month.
2. Transfer as much if not all to a lower or even better, 0% interest rate account.
3. And then, go to 1.

If you live in the UK and wish to shop for the best deals on credit cards, check out the Credit Card Store. There, you can compare credit cards, review the reward credit cards and cash back credit cards, and if you're already in dire straits, consider switching to one of the 0% balance transfer credit cards.

This post was kindly sponsored by the Credit Card Store, which has done all the work for you already. :)

Technorati: personal finance, credit cards, finance

With computers growing more vulnerable to attacks as well as the inherent fallibility of hardware, it is now ever more critically essential to back up your data both offline and online for all home and business users.

IBackup offers an interactive and automated integrated online backup and storage solution for the Windows user, Linux, and Unix user, including support for MS SQL Server and Exchange Server.

Here's a quick review of its offerings:

IBackup for Windows provides incremental and compressed secure updates with 128-bit SSL encryption on transmission you can schedule for Windows desktops, laptops, and servers.

Its familiar Microsoft Windows Explorer helps the user easily navigate and locate critical files like Microsoft Outlook, My Documents, and Microsoft Office documents.

You can also backup Microsoft SQL Server databases running on your computer without any disruption to your MS SQL Server services.

Similarly, with IBackup, you can backup your MS Exchange Server databases without any interruption to your MS Exchange Server services. In addition, you can backup individual mailboxes with the Exchange Brick-Level Mailbox Backup method to a Personal Folder (.PST) file.

The best thing about IBackup is that it supports backups for UNIX and Linux computers with rsync, which with Stunnel, provides 128-bit SSL encryption for data during transmission and the data is stored on RAID-protected storage and mirrored onto another set of devices for added protection.

For AES 256-bit encryption backups, there is the IBackup Professional for which data is transmitted using industry standard 128-bit SSL and a restoration capability of up to 30 versions.

Overall, IBackup is a comprehensive and most importantly, intuitive and easy to use Online Backup solution great 24/7 support via email and live chat. It is a solution worth looking at for your online storage needs.

This post is kindly sponsored by IBackup.

Technorati: storage, IBackup, Windows, Linux, Unix, encrypted storage

It's great to be able to make money online so when I came across YourWebRewards, I just had to check it out. Although they're open only to people living in the US now, it's in the works to open it global so do bookmark it for now if you live outside the US.

So how do they work? Basically they are paid by advertisers to provide leads for a 25% commission and give you 25% of that commission. For marketers, getting people to try out their products and services is the toughest hurdle. But once they're there, their offerings speak for themselves.

There are several ways to make money on Your WebRewards and the beauty of it is you can simply choose the ones you like. Here are some examples.

1. Take free surveys which you can logon and take right away.

2. Try out True.com for 7 days and get paid $23.

3. If you buy a case of wine from Four Season's Wine, you get paid $30. Now the case costs $60 + shipping and handling, so if you're a wine lover, you're effectively paying only $2.50 per bottle. Great for me! :D

4. Refer your friend to join and earn a referral fee.

You'll get paid within every 15-20th of the month via cheque or Paypal. It's a great business model that's a win-win solution for everyone and it's free to join. Sign up today! :)

This advertorial was kindly sponsored by YourWebRewards.

Pornography is so prevalent today and with the Internet, accessible to everyone. The average age of children exposed to Internet porn is 11 years old, the largest consumer group for Internet pornography is 12-17 year olds, 90% of 8-16 year olds have viewed porn online mostly accidentally while doing their homework online.

While we can install Net Nanny at home, who knows what sites children can visit while at school, at their friend's house, or in public libraries. We need to enlist the help of adult site webmasters to make the Internet safer for our children. Install password protection for their sites.

This is an open letter to all adult site webmasters from the mother of a young boy.

Dear webmasters,

We understand that selling porn is your business and we respect your right to make a legal living. But please understand our legitimate concerns and work with us.

You already have the “warning adult content” on your websites. Yet kids, who are not legal customers of your product, may simply ignore the warning.

So to prevent them from having direct access to explicit images, texts and sounds, the simplest way is to have a password-protected login. No more "free tours" before a visitor supplies basic information.

Please let our children have a chance to be children. And thank you for understanding our need to protect them.

For more information, visit Blogger Power: Safeguard the Web for Children.

(Source: The Thinking Blog)

Technorati: Blogger Power, Internet safety, children