That’s it.  No further explanation needed.

Yet Another Online Contest Entry is an article originally published at Blogging Frenzy. For news and updates on fashion, beauty and lifestyle visit Get Prettified!.

I just love my notebook planner and my desktop planner!  Because I took time to buy both last year, I am now able to keep track of my activities, appointments, tasks, errands, and even my expenses.

I scanned the entries in my planners earlier and I was all smiles because I was reminded of all the things I did in the past 20 days- the movies I watched, the places I’ve been to, the books I read, and even my mood when I wrote the entries.  It’s like reliving the experiences all over again.

Here are the highlights of  my life for the first 20 days of 2010:

• Blog Updates.  I have updates at Han Mania, this blog (obviously!), Losing 30 Pounds, and Ward Class.  I also wrote a couple of articles for Lyle’s nursing blog,  Pinoy R.N.
• New Blogs. Finally, the blogging projects have materialized.  I have added Asian Fashion Trends and Get Prettified! to my growing list of blogs.
• Blogging-related meetings.  Davao Bloggers and Avatar Media have started the ball rolling.  2010 will definitely be a fun year.
• Failed Purchase. I purchased the Torque DL85, something I regret doing.
• New pet.  I will never forget the day Babbit, my dwaejji-tokki (Pig Rabbit) finally arrived.  But I wonder if my pet rock, Peeball,  is the least bit happy.
• Movie marathons.  Thanks to Lyle, I watched Bride Wars, Frequency, Rounders, and 17 again.  At home, I watched He’s Just Not That Into You and Spread and have replayed a couple of scenes more than twenty times.  I really need more of Justin Long, Matt Damon, and Ashton Kutcher!  Also, throw in Zac Efron…wait, is he even  legal?
• American Idol Season 9.  Finally, the show’s on again.  I love the fact that I’ll have my weekly dose of Simon Cowell.
• Ebooks and Audiobooks.  I finished reading Harvard Lampoon’s Nightlight and found it quite entertaining.  It is a parody of Meyer’s Twilight so I don’t think you’ll enjoy the read if you haven’t read the cheesiest vampire novel ever written. I also started on Skinny Bitch but for some reason, I fall asleep after a few pages.
• Health & Fitness pact.  A couple of days ago, I forged a badminton pact with blogger friends.  We promised to play badminton 1 to 2 times per week.  We already had our first 2-hour badminton session last January 19 and so far, we are loving it.  I am also sticking to a personal No Red Meat policy because I really want to be healthier this year.

In a nutshell, it has been a good start for me.  There were significant lows these past 20 days but I refuse to mope or wallow in dejection.  I know there are times when people thrive on drama and all the emo stuff and I have done that. But for this year, I choose to be happy, proactive, and optimistic despite the setbacks.

The First 20 Days of 2010 is an article originally published at Blogging Frenzy. For news and updates on fashion, beauty and lifestyle visit Get Prettified!.

Update as of January 10, 2009: I think that I wasted Php3590 on the Torque DL85.  The phone won’t let me make calls using my Sun Cellular line even if I have loads of credit left.  And this is on top of the problems I have experienced with the Torque DL85 as mentioned below.

Like most of you, I have a number of gadgets that I can’t live without.  So whenever I leave the house, these gadgets are in my bag:  a netbook, a point-and-shoot camera, an iPod Touch, and two Nokia mobile phones.

My Nokia mobile phones have served me well but bringing both with me whenever I go out can be quite troublesome.  So I decided to get myself an inexpensive dual-sim phone when the time came that I really NEED to buy one.

And the need to buy a new phone came sooner than expected.   So with a budget of less than 4k, Lyle and I headed to the mall in search of a durable, budget-friendly, easy-to-use dual-sim phone.

Since my budget is very limited, I had to choose between a Cherry Mobile phone, the MyPhone MS28, and the Torque DL85.  Navigating the Cherry phone  was a pain in the neck so it was immediately stricken off my list.  I was close to buying the MyPhone MS28 because of its fun colors but the build quality is quite poor that it reminded me of my mouse.  So I went home with a Torque DL 85, still a dual-sim slider phone but with a better build quality.

The Torque DL85 is  an affordable, easy-to use, dual-sim phone with a nice design and good build quality.  But despite what’s written in the box, it is still a basic phone so don’t expect state-of-the-art features.   I just use my mobile phones to call and send text messages so I think the Php3,590 I paid for it is still money well spent.

I have to warn Sun Cellular subscribers, though, that I experience slight   problems when making Sun-to-Sun calls as the phone won’t let me make calls using my Sun sim card.  Also, when receiving calls through my Sun number, the person on the other end of the line hears a continuous buzzing sound and complains of poor reception.  I even had my unit changed but the buzzing is still there.  So I guess the buzzing sound  is a constant thing between the Torque DL85 and my Sun Cellular sim.

And so this ends my Torque DL85 story.  Let’s just hope that my new mobile phone is durable enough to serve me well for at least two years.

Thanks to Lyle Santos for the image used in this post.

My Torque DL85 Dual-sim Phone is an article originally published at Blogging Frenzy. For news and updates on fashion, beauty and lifestyle visit Get Prettified!.

My best buy for 2009

The year is almost over so I decided to devote another blog post to what I consider my best buy for 2009.  Last year, it was the  iPod Touch but for this year, the Wise Buy Award goes to my netbook, the HP 2140.

I bought the HP 2140 last April and I have been enjoying it immensely.  Of course, despite my fascination with it and netbooks in general, I am still able to objectively point out what I think needs improvement.  I may be a netbook aficionado (ahem!) but I am not blinded by this netbook love.

In a blog post I have written months ago, I mentioned that the HP 2140′s native screen resolution of 1024 X 576 is a bit of a problem and that the rather chunky adapter (along with Lyle’s ribbing) is kinda irritating.  But all things considered, the brushed aluminum finish and durable build quality more than makes up for my HP 2140′s shortcomings.

For the past 8 months, I have made a couple of netbook-related purchases and as a result I now have 2 netbook sleeves, one I purchased from Human and another I ordered online at Punchdrunk Panda.  I also have a Tech Tote Mini in Grape Fizz.  I also plan to purchase an external hard drive next year as I have used up more than 70% of the netbook’s disk space.

Punchdrunk Panda: cute laptop sleeves and charger bags

Tech Tote Mini: The nifty little gadget bag

Although the HP 2140 is no longer the best value-for-money netbook in the market, I don’t think I will be replacing it anytime soon.  The Asus EEE PC 1005 may have an enviable battery life, the Samsung Go may come in the funkiest colors, and the Toshiba NB205 may be the most professional-looking netbook out there but the HP 2140 is The Netbook for me.

My HP 2140 saw me through the best and worst of 2009 so until it gives up on me, I’ll continue to love all 2.6 lbs. of it!

Thanks to Punchdrunk Panda and Tech Tote for some of the images used in this post.

Netbook Love is an article originally published at Blogging Frenzy. For news and updates on fashion, beauty and lifestyle visit Get Prettified!.

Plurking with the HP 2140

If I were Korean and the HP 2140 is my boyfriend, then last July 29 would’ve been our baek-il or our 100 days of being together.

I bought the HP 2140 last April 20, 2009 and now, more than  100 days of using it, I feel that I need to blog about it from a non-techie user’s point of view.

I wanted to buy a netbook ever since Asus released the earliest Eee PC models. And like a moth drawn to light, I searched for the most suitable netbook in the market and after months of online research, I decided to purchase the HP 2140.

The main reasons why I chose the HP 2140 over other netbooks is that it has a sleek metal alloy body and has a better keyboard size.  Although it is heavier than most netbooks on the market, I think the HP 2140 is still light considering it weighs only 2.6 lbs.  I am also satisfied with its battery life even if my netbook runs on a 3-cell lithium-ion battery.

If there is something I don’t like about the HP 2140 is its 1024 x 576 native screen resolution.  It is not even the standard screen resolution for netbooks and as a result, I can’t run  one of the language softwares I use on my previous laptop.  Also, it would’ve been better if the AC adapter that came with the HP 2140 is a little smaller.

Still, I say that the HP 2140 is still worth every centavo of the Php23,990.00 I paid for it.  Even with its limitatons, I am happy with the HP 2140 because it is one sturdy  little machine which enables me to blog and do a  slew of various computing activities offline and online.

More Than 100 Days with the HP 2140 is an article originally published at Blogging Frenzy. For news and updates on fashion, beauty and lifestyle visit Get Prettified!.

The Timex IRONMAN Triathlon Sleek 50-lap is designed for the weekend warrior who enjoys sports and outdoorsy activities.  Not that I have an active lifestyle but I have plans of going to the gym so Timex IRONMAN Triathlon will be put to good use.

Timex IRONMAN Triathlon Sleek

Aside from the brightly-colored resin strap, additional features of the Timex IRONMAN Triathlon Sleek 50-Lap include:  Indiglo night-light, 50 lap recall, 99-lap counter, timer, and dual time zones.

The Timex IRONMAN Triathlon Sleek 50-Lap is also water resistant up to 100 meters.  I don’t think I’ll be swimming anytime soon but the water-resistant feature will be useful in case I fall into a pool or step right into a quicksand.

The Timex IRONMAN Triathlon Sleek 50-Lap is an article originally published at Blogging Frenzy. For news and updates on fashion, beauty and lifestyle visit Get Prettified!.

Stanza

I have Stanza on my iPod Touch and for the past few days, I have been expanding my Stanza library. And this experience of building, organizing, and accessing a growing electronic book library is pure bliss for a quasi-bibliophile like me.

For those who haven’t heard about this wonderful, wonderful application for the iPhone/iPod Touch, Stanza is a revolutionary ebook reader that allows users to customize font sizes and colors, background colors, hyphenation, page orientation, line spacing, justification, and even page turn effects. Customizing Stanza for a hassle-free eading experience is so easy, imagine changing your reader’s settings by simply tapping the Settings icon. I have tried experimenting with different fonts, font sizes, and font and background colors and it was fun.

Since Stanza has cover flow, browsing through my ebook library is like browsing through songs in my music library. And adding/editing a cover image is as no-sweat as adding album art. I also love the fact that it allows sorting of books according to author, title, date added, and subject and lets me build collections within my library and create reading lists. It also allows bookmarking and automatically loads the last book I read each time I launch the app. Intuitive, huh?

This app allows users to download ebooks from a built-in online catalog. While not all downloads are free, I can still choose from a vast collection of free ebooks from Project Gutenberg, Feedbooks, Munseys, Harlequin, and Random House Free Library. I have downloaded a number of classics and collections for free– complete with book covers!

Furthermore, since I have an existing collection of ebooks in my laptop, I can share them with my iPod Touch library using a free application called Stanza Desktop. However, I need to have wireless connection to enable sharing but once the ebooks are in my iPod Touch Stanza library, I can access them wirelessly 24/7.

Stanza Desktop supports most file formats and allows users to export ebooks to a range of formats. Most of my ebooks are in PDF format so what I do is export them to eReader format before adding them to my Stanza library. Stanza supports PDF but I prefer the “look and feel” of eReader.

I now have 28 book titles in my Stanza library and although I can add dozens more, I have decided to take it slow lest I be overhelmed. I will be adding more books by Jude Deveraux, Julie Garwood, and Johanna Lindsey but in the meantime, it will be a collection of Nancy Drew Mystery Stories for me.

Expanding My Ebook Library with Stanza is an article originally published at Blogging Frenzy. For news and updates on fashion, beauty and lifestyle visit Get Prettified!.

I have a copy of the first two volumes of the Hana Yori Dango manga because its strong cult following really heightened my curiosity. I am not really into this manga thing so after downloading it, I didn’t really know what to do with it.

I learned from the site where I downloaded the manga that I need to have a manga reader  to be able to read the comics so I installed a comic book reader . And then I decided that I didn’t really want to read comics on my laptop so I uninstalled the manga reader altogether (might have changed my mind if it’s a netbook I had).

I searched for an iPhone/iPod manga converter and I found a couple of converters with good reviews but I didn’t want to install another application on my iPod Touch. And then, in one of the manga forums I joined somebody mentioned that you can actually read manga on an iPhone or iPod Touch by simply adding the manga as pictures.

And it worked. That simple. I can now read the Hana Yori Dango manga on my iPod Touch. Sure, the screen is small but with Apple’s pinch technology, that’s not much of a problem.

I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of my iPod Touch. It has become a very reliable source of entertainment for me. It recues me from the most boring and most unbearable situations. It lulls me to sleep and I don’t leave the house without it. It has become a security blanket. Almost a sanctuary, really.

Hana Yori Dango Manga on my iPod Touch is an article originally published at Blogging Frenzy. For news and updates on fashion, beauty and lifestyle visit Get Prettified!.

I have a 1st Gen iPod Touch last February and I can’t seem to get enough of it. It went through a series of upgrades and now, with version 2.1, I realized that my iPod Touch is waaay cooler than I thought it was.

My iPod Touch is the perfect anti-boredom gadget for me. I bring it with me wherever I go. Frankly, it has so many potential uses that I can’t say I have truly mastered it after using it for more than a year. And since this blog entry is devoted solely to this super-gadget, here are 10 reasons why I love my iPod Touch.

1. I can surf the internet without using my laptop.
2. I can watch YouTube videos without a computer.
3. I get timely email alerts.
4. I can get my hands on lots of free apps from App Store.
5. I can do IM with my contacts.
6. I can listen to podcasts during a long commute.
7. I can read  ebooks and listen to audiobooks anywhere and anytime.
8. I can listen to my favorite songs and watch my favorite videos in bed.
9. It has Cover Flow.
10. I can use it as a pocket dictionary, notepad, and calendar.

I shelled out $299 for my iPod Touch and since it has so many uses and has bailed me out of the most boring situations, I say it was money well spent. Even if I am not a gadget freak I consider the iPod Touch my best buy for this year.

Honestly, it has been quite some time since it’s unboxing and yet, the iPod Touch never  ceases to amaze me.

10 Reasons Why I Love My iPod Touch is an article originally published at Blogging Frenzy. For news and updates on fashion, beauty and lifestyle visit Get Prettified!.

I am now a proud owner of a Nikon Coolpix P50! Lyle gifted me with an 8.1MP, 3.6X Optical Zoom Nikon Coolpix P50 for Christmas.

After spending a lot of time of researching on the best value-for-money point and shoot for a newbie like me, it was a tough battle between Kodak Easyshare C813 and Nikon Coolpix P50. Eventually the Nikon P50 won him over. He then brought me to Funtronics (at 3/F Gaisano Mall) so I can see the camera first before buying it.

Since I had a self-imposed “it has to be under 5k” price limit when it comes to point and shoot cameras, I balked at the Nikon P50′s tag price (sells for PhP7,280). Although it was a whopping five thousand pesos off the regular price, it was waaaay too expensive for me so I considered having the cheaper Nikon Coolpix L14 instead. But after meticulously testing both cameras (Lyle even brought his laptop with him as he says one can’t really tell the quality of the images by merely looking at the LCD display), I was also won over by Nikon Coolpix P50. And so, last December 15, I happily went home with my Nikon Coolpix P50.

A week spent with my Nikon Coolpix P50 is enough for me to say that this is really the point and shoot camera for me. Don’t get me wrong, I am so new at this that I’m still a greenhorn in the beginner’s level of the supernoob shutterbug-wannabe Nikon Coolpix P50 imaginary camera club. My battlecry is “Nosebleed!” when I hear technical terms. So go figure.

But I do love my Nikon Coolpix P50. The hand grip makes it easy to hold with one hand and is perfect for my butter fingers. I can now take what I’d like to think are decent pics. And of course, it will come in handy when it comes to improving my blog posts and help in generating more blogging ideas.

Actually, the Nikon Coolpix P50 is the second point and shoot camera Lyle bought for me; the first one a Brica Digiart F70. My family isn’t into taking pictures (except for my big sis, that is) so he wanted me to have my own digital camera for me to take pictures of my mom during her remaining days.

Although that Brica digital camera served its purpose, we didn’t give much thought to its features when we bought it. After four months of occasional use, we decided to sell the Brica Digiart F70 at a ridiculously low price.

I am currently reading the Nikon Coolpix P50′s user’s manual. And I always bring the camera with me. And it is always on Auto mode. I know I still have a long way to go when it comes to taking really good pictures and in the meantime, I have decided to just point…and shoot.

My Nikon Coolpix P50 is an article originally published at Blogging Frenzy. For news and updates on fashion, beauty and lifestyle visit Get Prettified!.