The Island Get-Away (Part 2)

This is the continuation of my post from my other blog entitled: The Island Get-Away (Part 1).

The entire trip going to the Island Garden of Samal, Kaputian Resort was a total pain in the a$$. But we were all laughing like little kids and we had the best adventure of our lives! We took a short stop when we saw Pearl Farm’s view from the top of the mountain. I recalled this is where my friend Twerlyn and hubby Andy spent their honeymoon, hehe!

The Habal-Habal Experience

Top View of Pearl Farm

We cried out a huge sigh of relief when finally we reached Kaputian after an hour of agonizing trek because of the rough roads we hurdled. My Prince called me up late in the afternoon and asked how was everything. My exhaustion from the trip vanished in an instant, hahaha!

While trying to fix our belongings, I have been telling the group we will massage each other’s back before going to bed, hehehe! But the next day, they were all laughing at me and my cousin because the two of us went to bed at 9PM! That was very unsual!

Upon arrival, I can't help but get a pose, hehe!

With my two younger brothers

3rd Day

I woke up before the sun rose. When my brother next to me felt someone was up and about, he immediately went to the seashore and brought his camera with him and took some magnificent shots of the island. When everyone was awake, we immediately changed to our own swimwears and we were very excited and immediately headed for the beach. The salty water felt so cool! Of course, we can't help but take umpteen of photos and we posed like true but frustrated models, hahaha! We satisfied ourselves playing with the cool and calm water of the beach.

With my brother

With my cousin Allena and Ate Nimfa

With Allena and my brother Jay Son

My companions also tried their best teaching me even just to float but all their efforts were futile. Sorry to disappoint you, guys! After I had neardrowning in 1995 and almost died, I still really haven't learned how to swim!

After spending our day at the beach, we were set to leaving the island at 4PM. This time, we took the right route going back to the city. We took the barge instead of the "habal-habal" . The trip lasted for an hour. We all felt the exhaustion from the day's "photoshoot" (hehe!) but the day didn't end just like that. We all still need to prepare ourselves for church. It was a Thursday and we took the last hour for our worship service at 7:45PM.

TO BE CONTINUED...

The Survey That Says It All

I owe Ivy for this one. I love tags especially if it's a question and answer type. I feel like I am joining an international pageant, hahahaha!

1. Where have you lived for most of your life? I lived my entire life here in GenSan. I have never been away from my family ever.
2. What was the last compliment you received, and when? Everyday, my Prince would always refer to me as Mrs. Lainy Mae McCrea and that he will be the proudest husband when we are married.
3. Do you prefer to call or text? I prefer text if the recipient is living in the Philippines. With my Prince, I prefer to call ;-)
4. How many people do you trust 100%? My Prince, my family and a few chosen friends. Is that many?
5. What type of shirt are you wearing right now? Just a plain and simple shirt.
6. What’s the last movie you saw in the theatre? Gosh! I can't even remember!
7. Can you live without the computer? I think not.
8. Ever got so drunk you couldn’t remember the entire night? Never!
9. Favorite flower? Anthurium, for a change, hehe!
10. What was your first thought when you woke up this morning? Thank God for this new day!
11. Have you memorized your social security number/sss number? Oh no!
12. Who was the last person to make you cry? My co-worker.
13. What happened at 10:00 am today? It's still 6AM so I practically have no idea what will happen later.
14. Did you know that Nick Cannon and Mariah Carey got married? No! Who's Nick? Hahaha!
15. What are your plans for tomorrow? Stay at home because it's a holiday or if I could get to change my mind, go out and choose from a wide variety of air tools that my brother wants me to purchase.

Now I hope the following people will have fun answering the same survey because I did: Lollii, Baby Noela, Bregie, and Tricia of Proud Mommy blog.

Advance Birthday Gift from a Special Friend

Last night. I was a little busy writing and accomplishing a form that needs to be submitted at work today when suddenly, out of the blue, Ivy messaged me at YM and asked innocently, as if she was in shock, what happened with my blog? I got a little confused and worried because the other night, my other blog had a little problem in the loading speed. I stopped doing what I was doing and instantly opened my blog right then and there. I got the shock of my life when I saw that someone did some tweaking of my template. The design is so uniquely Ivy!. I recalled we were talking about the gift that she would love to give me for my birthday and she wouldn't want to give me any hint. I immediately concluded that it's what she meant, haha!

I was in total amazement! She did it with so much ease and in a lightning speed! Uncle Che is right! He said too many good things about Ivy and I am all the more convinced. He once told me that all the headers Ivy made for all my blogs would tell many things about Ivy. I would like to quote him as saying:

"Art says a lot about the people who create them. For Ivy's case, I will say calm, gentle, well composed, smart and organised, appreciates life the way it is but always tries to give everything a more poositive look. Someone who does not believe very much on love, unity and peace won't put up an art like that. When you look at the header, it gives many universal pictures- clouds, flowers, lights, green grass, unity, love, anti sex discrimination, beauty...."

Do I need to convince you any further? If you want to see more of her creations, do visit Designer's Chick blog.

I am so lucky I've found a friend in Ivy. I owe her a lot. Even the contest I am putting up, she voluntarily offered her services for the give-away lay out, all for free! I truly appreciated the gesture and I appreciate her all the more! I can't ever repay her kindness and the time she invested for overhauling my blog's theme yet again. I am so much grateful for the gift of friendship.

Cheers!

SEE ALSO RELATED ARTICLE:

• Featured BFF: Ivy of My So Called Life

I Am Joining MBS2 in GenSan!

General Santos City will be hosting the Second Mindanao Bloggers Summit on October 25-26, 2008. When I've heard about this, I was a little hesitant. The event sounded like for pro-bloggers only and not for the noobs like me. But when I was able to personally speak with the Bariles Republic's blog owner, in the person of Mr. Avel Manansala, all my doubts and apprehensions vanished. He was able to convince me that this event is going to be the grandest eyeball for all Mindanaoan bloggers.

After it's success last year when all Mindanaoan bloggers convened at Davao City, GenSan is up to the huge challenge this time. The Tuna Capital shall be hosting this grand event and it shall be held at the Family Country Hotel and Convention Center. Past and present bloggers are being enjoined to participate. One must have a blog that are published in the following platforms:

• Wordpress
• Blogger
• Livejournal
• I.ph
• Multiply
• Friendster
• Imeem
• Any social networking site with BLOGGING Capabilities

Regardless of age, anyone can join as long as you meet the requirements set for registration.

I am especially encouraging my blogger friends' participation in the event because they are from GenSan and I want to personally meet them. They are Twinks, Lynn, and Lollii and also Bregie from Kidapawan City.

CO-PRESENTERS:
NOKIA (Philippines), Inc.
Mayor Pedro B. Acharon, Jr.
Congresswoman Darlene Antonino-Custodio
ABS-CBN Regional Network Group
Mindanao Bloggers
Bariles Republic

GOLD SPONSORS:
ACLC-Skeptron Ventures, Inc.

SILVER SPONSORS:
Asia United Bank
NoKiAHOST.COM
Family Country Hotel & Convention Center
East Asia Royale Hotel

BRONZE SPONSORS:
Digital Filipino
Pacific Seas Seafood Market
Shalom-Crest Wizard Academy
Generals Logimark Exponent
< Prints and You
Sta. Cruz Seafood, Inc.
Dellosa Design Builders, Inc.

My EntreCard Dropping Techniques Unleashed (Part II)

This post shall answer the million dollar question how I was able to manage dropping 900 cards like a mad girl without fail and how fast I can get to finish the task. When I am in my notorious self dropping cards, the dropping task goes like thunder and finishes in a whiplash.

If my internet connection cooperates with me, I can drop 300 cards in an hour. That is, if I do the drop and run method to which I rarely do. Normally, it would take me 2 and a half to 3 hours at the most. Is it fast enough for you? I think not. It takes a lot of patience. And I can tell you I have lots of it.

DROPPING OF CARDS IS NO LONGER A PAIN IN THE NECK

You now have the tips on where to drop your cards. But the problem on the speed struck you. If it’s just a normal speed, I am telling you, it will take you forever! If you have only one blog, 300 cards to drop is very easy to handle.

THE FIREFOX NO SCRIPT ADD-ON FEATURE

I recommend you don’t do drops using Internet Explorer. Dropping of cards works better and faster with Mozilla Firefox. If it’s the first time you’ve heard of No Script or Whitescript, well it’s high time you know that it makes dropping of cards smoother and quicker more than ever. It is a Firefox Ad-On which enables you to disable the scripts. You can opt to enable only the EntreCard widget and all those other annoying scripts shall be blocked from showing up.

And here’s more.

You can disable the images. We all know it slows down the loading of page. Fret no more. When you do the dropping of cards and the images are disabled, you will go at a lightning speed.

NO-SCRIPT DISADVANTAGES

When No Script Ad On feature is enabled, it isn’t possible to make comments with word verifications/ captcha. It takes away the experience of appreciating the blog themes as well. What I do is open blogs of my fancy at Internet Explorer if I want to interact with the blog owner by commenting. In that way, I can make my presence felt and at the same time appreciate the blog’s over-all theme.

I am still on the hunt though for finding the quickest way to drop without sacrificing website quality.

THE ENTRECARD TOOLBAR

The effort of the EntreCard admin in always coming up with ways to improve the system is commendable. It’s very hard to come up with yet another system which could equal EntreCard’s accomplishments thus far.

When Entrebar was launched a couple of months ago, I was very adamant in downloading it. But since I am using an old version of Firefox, I had to update it to Firefox 3. I did all that but I encountered some difficulties. I did all the same process again with Uncle Che patiently guiding me this time around. I was able to download it successfully. EntreBar works very well and it sped up my dropping chores.

ENTREBAR DISADVANTAGES

I was able to utilize EntreBar Friday night and Saturday morning. But personally, I think it doesn’t work to my advantage. Please don’t get me wrong. When we speak of speed and features, everything seems perfect with EntreBar.

But I guess the problem is with me.

I am more familiar with the 125 X 125 avatars of each blogs to which I regularly drop my cards on. I always drop cards from my drop inbox and that’s all the avatars are located. I know each of them even when my eyes are closed.

With EntreBar, the 125 x 125 avatars won’t be of use. It’s very hard to drop on all of them using EntreBar because I need to choose which of the blogs I should drop my cards on.

As mentioned in my previous post, I get an average of more than 400 return drops; the highest is more than 500. I need to make a sound judgment and drop on blogs that I am 100% sure would return my drops because every drop counts. I don’t just drop my cards anywhere. I have to make sure that dropping 900 cards to 900 blogs is never a wasted effort.

If you want to download the No Script Ad-On feature, you can go HERE.

If you want to utilize the EntreBar, download it from HERE.

SEE ALSO RELATED ARTICLES:

• My EntreCard Dropping Techniques Unleashed (Part 1)
• Too Many Things To Do, But Too Little Time

Save Energy

We want to get the most out of our products at home especially the energy efficients like appliances, water conservation products, energy saving building materials as well as a variety of products that could help in greening our own homes like the flourescent bulbs.

One that would be very valuable in my own home is the energy efficient heating and ventilation system. We don't regularly use aircondition because of the electricity bill. But when heat recovery ventilation is done with our aircon, I am sure we could save up enough in our next month's electricity bill.

Deviating from My Usual Sunday Routine

I always start out my Sunday very early waking up as early as 3:30 am to prepare myself for church. At 4:45 am, I am inside the church premises, specifically at the Finance Office and is doing my weekly obligations. Worship service starts at 6am. I go home at 9:30 am after taking brunch (breakfast and lunch) with churchmates.

At Church with churchmates

I feel very drowsy everytime I get home but I always take the time to sit infront of my PC to finish my dropping chores before cut-off time (12NN). But today is very different from the previous Sundays. When I got home at 10am, I've immediately changed my church uniform and prepared my ingredients for the Thanksgiving recipes I and my cousin Allena have bought the day before. It's my cousin's birthday (Allena's youngest bro) and we celebrated here at home. It was just a small celebration but it's very rare that we spend this day altogether.

Sunday is family day for most of us. And the thought of having not spent quality time with my family for ages has made me feel so guilty each time. I vowed to spend this day with my family and I haven't thought of anything about blogging and dropping cards; only a little, hehe! It felt good having to spend this day with my family and relatives!

It was a long and tiring day!

I was practically standing on my legs for half a day and I burnt some parts of my hands, ouchh! I finished cooking at 5pm and I was rushing infront of my PC because my Prince has been waiting for me already. We haven't got all the time because my cousin and my brother spoke with him, too. My brother was very happy because my Prince promised him he will send his recording software on October 29 for Kuerdas to use (hmm, what's with October 29, huh?!) or sometime in December when our little sister Meggy come home for a month long vacation.

We were able to send my Prince some songs we've recorded earlier today while we were singing on videoke, hehe! My cousin Allena has a very nice voice and he thought it was me, hahaha!

I wish!!!

But he thinks I have a good singing voice, too. Nice consolation, Lainy, hahaha! ;-)

Ceaseless Quarrels Over Toys

When my brothers were still toddlers, my parents would always buy toys for the two of them. I always find myself acting as the mediator whenever they quarrel over some stuffs like the remote control helicopters. My father bought this toy for our youngest brother and the brother next to me had the middle child syndrome wanting to get that toy for himself. It was always that way not until they grew up and ceased playing with toys and so is the ceaseless quarrels as well.

What Kind of Blogger Are You?

To answer the question on what kind of blogger I am, I deemed it best to collect the comments and citations I got from other blogs. That is to play safe and to do away from speaking biased, hehe!

The comments posted on the article Too Many Things To Do, But Too Little Time could very well speak as to what kind of blogger I am. These comments were very much valued. Some of the comments posted made me re-think my priorities.

I would like to especially quote four of the commenters because they have somehow influenced me to alter my blogging perspectives at some point. Now this doesn't mean I am playing favorites here for selecting only 4 of them. It doesn't mean I value less those who weren't quoted. I might just link them up in the next posts I am thinking of posting.

FOONGPC:

" I understand what you are going through. I also cannot find enough time in a day to write new post and drop Entrecards. I think dropping 900 blogs is crazy! I won't be able to achieve that and I don't think I want to. There is more to life than blogging and dropping cards. And if the reason we want to drop so many cards is to increase our page ranking in Google, then I think it's the wrong way to do so. Many bloggers who are earning big bucks don't join Entrecard and don't do any dropping of cards. We need to learn their methods instead of relying solely on Entrecard. I also learnt that some bloggers don't write new post for more than a month, and they are still earning huge money and getting lots of traffic, so my conclusion is updating your blog has no effect on the traffic to your blog. I don't have the answers but I'm learning. I love to blog but I don't want it to take over my life."

ERIC:

"How much extra time would you have if you concentrated on writing a couple extra posts rather than dropping 900 blogs? You have good content - you could have a lot more! "

ROBIN:

"I only started blogging within the past couple of weeks and already I'm beginning to feel the addiction. I can't imagine how you could possibly do that many drops in a day! When it comes to writing, I'm making every attempt to post daily but I don't want to get in the habit of posting just for the sake of it. At the moment, my writing is more for myself and in that way I can keep it honest. I don't want to fall into the trap of "writing for an audience" because I think doing so affects your perspective."

LILLY'S LIFE:

"Blogging is addictive and its hard to get that balance. I wonder how it's physically possible to even do what you are doing so my hat is off to you - you are dOing incredibly well fitting in 48hrs in 24hrs. Family is the most important things though and content is king. You write inredibly well though so seems like you have that covered. Hope you strike the balance that keeps you happy. But never feel guilty for not dropping, don't even go down that path..."

BLOGGING BOTH FOR FUN AND FOR MONEY

Has blogging took over my life?

I can say yes, it sometimes has. I tend to set aside some activities in favor of blogging and I spend more hours blogging than I usually intend to. Contrary to what FoongPc have said, I am not after for high PR. This blog is PR 1 but I am sure in the next Google update, I will be slapped with a zero yet again because I am into doing paid reviews. But I am not after of earning B I G bucks here. I do not dream to be like John Chow, hehe. Blogging is only my second priority next to my work and I have fun dropping cards to different blogs. I just wish there's more time for me to be able to drop more and more cards to even more blogs in a day.

Let me just emphasize here that I do the dropping of cards not for the SOLE purpose of earning money but because I do ENJOY it. Updating my blog is something that I always try my best to accomplish, 2 posts at least in a week. It's because I do not want my visitors to get disappointed by coming here and there's nothing they could see but all the same posts that's been up and running for a month! And I have all the time in the world to drop cards and not update my blog, huh! I think it's ridiculous! It hasn't happened for this blog as of yet. And again, it's NOT all about money. But who doesn't love added revenue? It only comes as a BONUS for me though.

BLOG FOR QUALITY NOT QUANTITY

There's more to blogging than just writing and hitting the publish button.

Quality is still king and mere quantity is nothing. Better to have one article that's well-written and properly laid out than to have written a lot but of poor quality. When I say quality, I mean it in MY own standards, not yours, hehe! Further, we need to go out of our respective niches sometimes to socialize and meet other bloggers from different parts of the world. We do not just confine ourselves in our own blogs.

BLOGGING FOR PASSION

I am very passionate about blogging because it's the only hobby and past time I know. Blogging have enabled me to come across wonderful blogs and beautiful people. I am using all these to my own advantage.

To finally end this post, AZ BLOGGING has this to say about me and my blogs:

"I can’t really explain how much I love blogs that mix up personal diaries and ramblings. Lainy’s Blogs (Lainy’s Musings and Our Journey to Forever) are very good examples of such. On her blogs, she talks about her work, her prince, her country, and also gives us an update of the things she does. She puts them down in a plain manner, free of sugarcoating and one can really learn quite a lot from them."

I took the blogging test for the question what kind of blogger I am and the result of the test is:

You Are a Life Blogger!

Your blog is the story of your life - a living diary. If it happens, you blog it. And you make it as entertaining as possible. You may be guilty of over-sharing a bit on your blog, but you can't help it. Your life is truly an open book. Or in this case, an open blog!

What about you? Would you want to know what kind of blogger you are?

Did You Know?

Today, my friends at church were casually discussing the topic on blood mismatch as the cause of some problems to a newborn baby. Unknown to us many Filipinos, determining ones blood type is crucial for us to understand if our blood group would match that of our future partner. I then recalled that in my MT classes in the past, human blood groups were comprehensively discussed.

There are over 30 common red blood cell antigens. The most vigorous transfusion reactions are caused by ABO and Rh blood group antigens. Based on the presence or absence of two antigens: Type A and Type B. The lack of these antigens is called Type O. The presence of both A and B is called Type AB. The presence of either A or B is Type AB, respectively.

Rh BLOOD GROUPS

Named because of the presence or absence of one of eight Rh antigens. It is important to note that most Ameicans are Rh+. Problems can occur in mixing Rh+ blood into a body with Rh- blood. The danger is when the mother is Rh- and the father is Rh+ , and the child inherits the Rh+. The mismatch of an Rh- mother carrying an Rh+ baby can cause problems for the unborn child. The first pregnancy usually proceeds without problems. The immune system is sensitized after the first pregnancy. In a second pregnancy, the mother's immune system produces antibodies to attack the Rh+ blood (hemolytic disease of the newborn).

Blood type and Rh How many people have it? O + 40 % O - 7 % A + 34 % A - 6 % B + 8 % B - 1 % AB + 3 % AB - 1 %

MOST IMPORTANT INFO NOW:

You Can Receive
If Your Type Is	O-	O+	B-	B+	A-	A+	AB-	AB+
AB+	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES
AB-	YES		YES		YES	YES
A+	YES	YES			YES	YES
A-	YES				YES
B+	YES	YES	YES	YES
B-	YES		YES
O+	YES	YES
O-	YES

Rebuild Your Life

When I was in college, my bestfriend and I were having a hard time thinking of what topic we will write for our thesis. We were incessantly anxious until a close friend told us that a topic on people trying to rebuild their lives after getting hook on drugs would be great.

So one day. we went off to visit a drug rehabilitation that is too remote. It's a rural barangay and we had to ride a "habal-habal" (single motorcycle) just to get to the place. We were able to speak with the rehab's administrator and he told us that most of their clients are men in uniform who were found out to have been into drugs for a long time. They were relieved from duty because they need to seek rehabilitation first before they could get back to their respective designations.

Of Awards and Taggies Part 2

I apologize to all my friends who made the effort of including me in their list of recipients for lovely awards and taggies. I appreciate them all and I appreciate you all the more for thinking of me.

I LOVE YOUR BLOG AWARD

Believe it or not, but they actually heart my blog! I feel elated, honored, humbled because not one, not two, not three, not four but FIVE blogger friends awarded me this beautiful award. Big thanks goes to Uncle Che, Polly, Wendy, Lora and my cousin Allena for this lovely award. I will treasure this award forever!

Now I am passing it over to 7 blogs that I love and sticking to the following rules to make the process smooth.

1. The winner can put the logo on his/her blog
2. Link the person you received your award from
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs;4. Put links of those blogs on yours; and
4. Leave a message on the blogs that you’ve nominated.

Now, who are those deserving 7? They are as follows:

1. Paula
2. Ivy
3. Jemi
4. Twinks
5. Rosemarie
6. Babette
7. Joy

PROPAGATING FRIENDSHIP AWARD

I would like to thank Arlene for this beautiful friendship award.

I love the blogs of these people and I'm glad to pass this award onto them! All they need to do is to leave the following message on their post when they pass the award on to their chosen eight bloggers.

They all are charmed with the blogs, where in the majority of its aims are to show the marvels and to do friendship; there are persons who are not interested when we give them a prize and then they help to cut these bows; do we want that they are cut or that they propagate? Then let's try to give more attention to them! So with this prize we must deliver it to 8 bloggers that in turn must make the same thing and put this text.

1. Beth
2. Wendy
3. Nancy
4. Michelle
5. Lynn
6. Honey
7. Twerlyn
8. Bregie

AWESOME SITE AWARD

Thanks Lynn and Michelle for this another great award.

I am passing this awesome award to Polly, Uncle Che, Tina and Bonoriau.

WHY DO WE NEED FRIENDS?

Thanks Honey Dearie and Nova for this great meme! I love it!

We need friends for many reasons,all throughout the season.

We need Friends to comfort us when we are sad,

and to have fun with us when we are glad.

We need Friends to give us good advice,

We need someone we can count on,and treat us nice.

We need Friends to remember us one we have passed sharing memories that will always last.

Spread the Poem of Friendship.

1. Everyday Life 2. Words of Love 3. Sheng's Simple Thoughts . . . 4. good thoughts, good trades 5. Ours and Our Kids 6. Jengspeaks 7. Jacque 8. Snippets of My Mind 9.Melisse's Domain 10.Seize The Day 11. Living A' La Mode 12. The Real Deal The Real Me 13. My Virtual Closet 14. My Views On My So Called Life 15. Honey's Inlove 16.Hon-connect 17. LAINY'S MUSINGS 18. OUR JOURNEY TO FOREVER 19. KUERDAS 20. THE CERTIFIED FASHIONABLE CHIC 21. YOU!

Passing this on to Thira, Shawie, and Mommy Ruby.

SEE ALSO RELATED LINK:

• Of Awards and Taggies/ Memes

Too Many Things To Do, But Too Little Time

Many of you might have wondered where have I got all the zest much more the time in doing all the blogging chores everyday of my life. I myself, do not know how I have managed to do so much in 24 hours. You see, I work for a living on a 8-5 basis. We do not have internet connection at work. I can only accomplish some of the online tasks when I get home for lunch and when I get home after 5PM. I stay up late until 11PM dropping cards to 900 blogs like a mad girl. I can't go to bed without having to accomplish dropping 900 cards. It has been a habit that's so hard to break.

Now, you might be wondering why I am telling you all these.

It's because I have been asking myself lately if it's all worth it. I am sometimes feeling a little guilty for not being able to help around the house because I am always infront of the computer every chance I get. And all the chances are given to me. Nobody can interrupt me when I am infront of my PC.

As of this writing, I am having a bad flu. I haven't been feeling too well since yesterday. But that didn't prevented me from coming online. Seven days of the entire week, I wake up as early as 4AM just to make sure that I drop a few cards before going to work for 2 more blogs aside from my 3 personal blogs. That makes it more than a thousand cards dropped daily! And updating my blogs is a must for me because it has long been monetized. Doing paid reviews and filler posts has taken its toll on me. I don't even know what quality articles mean. It's because of the deadlines to beat that I seemed to be rushing things up. After writing the assigned tasks, hitting the "Publish" button abruptly always gives me a sigh of relief. Not only that, I feel like it's a crime for me not to write anything new especially since I got myself an Entrecard account.

Come to think of it.

When we drop, we encourage Entrecarders to reciprocate our drops. And when they get to our site, what do we want? Just the number of drops we get or for them to keep coming back because of our blog's content?

It's hard to accomplish all these things because I am no superwoman. As much as I wanted to do everything in one day, that is not just possible. I haven't been to the mall in ages. I want to enjoy the company of my friends more often. I want to spend more quality time with my family. I don't want my vision to deteriorate more and more everyday.

Please don't get me wrong. I am not complaining. How could I when I enjoy doing what I have been doing? Blogging is fun for a lot of reasons. You and I are very well aware of it. I need not make a run down of them.

I just wish there's 48 hours in a day so that I could do more things aside from blogging.

SEE ALSO RELATED ARTICLE:

• Lainy a.k.a. Scotty's Princess is Sick
• I'm Dead Tired As Hell!

Rome Hotels at its Finest

Have you been in Rome? If not, but you are planning to visit Rome, make your reservation right ahead of time. Everything is done online now. That makes it very easy and smooth for you. And while you are at it, try a look out for Rome Hotels and Hotel Florence. They offer the best available services in Rome with Bed and breakfast paris. Sounds great, is it not?

When you are on vacation, you want a little privacy of sorts especially on credit card acocunt informations. That is guaranteed at FreeReservation.com. They also boast that their hotel rooms and apartments are thoroughly inspected so there is absoulutely no harm because security is also guaranteed. You may do the reservation online and you may even request a proposal and free estimates, and it is all for free! This will give you the opportunity to make the best out of your vacation in Rome with a truly interesting deals on hotels in Rome. It will be very easy to go with the deal because they have the best customer service.They are very friendly and accommodating. Prior to confirming your booking, they will give you the complete details of the deal. Now that makes it very exciting ;-)

Wanna Bet On Horses?

My friend's mother do gamble and he plays horse racing betting as well. He travels from town to town where bet on horse racing are. He had won huge amounts in the past for simply putting his bet on his desired horse.

I wanted him to make it big time. So I introduced him to BetAmerica.com. Now he can have the chance to still place his bets on the horses of his choice but everything shall be done via the internet. I want him to earn 3% of cash rewards by simply having fun putting bets to his favorite horses.

BetAmerica.com is a US based, legally licensed horse racing website. This is the only leading horse racing website in the US that offers its customers racing, and unique exciting contests and competitions. Better if one could open an account and exhaust all the advantages of playing at BetAmerica.

My Entrecard Dropping Techniques Unleashed (Part I)

I just do not know if I am actually the right person to be writing this post. I do not consider myself an "expert" in the "ins" and "outs" of Entrecard-dropping. I have been getting quite a number of messages from my Entrecard inbox asking me where have I learnt so much. Some were asking me to share some SECRETS for my "success" at Entrecard and requesting me to do a post that could help newbie Entrecarders. I couldn't just disregard those messages and shrug my shoulders off. It would be lovely if I could get to share some things I know and I hope some people could derive huge advantage from it.

First off, one must understand what Entrecard did for me. It did wonders for my blogs- Our Journey to Forever and Kuerdas (please try to swing by those blogs). It gave me more than 300 hits a day and more than the hits, I came across wonderful blogs and made friends with beautiful people. I couldn't have done it if not for Entrecard.

When I began taking dropping cards seriously, it's taking me forever finishing my dropping chores. I read and read blogger's articles because that's how amazed I was in encountering these beautiful blogs. That's where I learned some of the tricks and that's when I've started experimenting changing my techniques.

WHERE TO DROP YOUR CARDS?

I'm telling you, when I first joined here, I do not know Popular blogs existed! I didn't aimed for my blog's popularity. My concern is only to drop my cards to fellow Entrecarders with the hope that they would reciprocate. But to my dismay, for about a month of hurdling to drop 300 cards daily, my efforts were for naught. Only about 30% were returning my drops and most of the blogs I was dropping my cards on have long been dead!

What an absolute waste of time!

When we see an EC widget, we would usually click "drop" on impulse. That's how it is for novice. But let me emphasize here that every cards dropped counts. We need to be sure if the blogs we have just dropped our cards on would return our drops. It's OK to drop on friends no matter what rankings they have at Entrecard. They would always reciprocate because they are friends!

DROP FROM THE POPULAR BLOGS

You may ask me, WHAT RANKINGS? In case you still don't know it, I've slowly learned that every blog is ranked at Entrecard. ALL blogs are ranked according to POPULARITY. There are 52 categories and each blog is ranked according to popularity in each categories.

Here's how you can get to know your blog's rank:

• Go to the CAMPAIGN TAB in your Dashboard
• Choose POPULAR
• Select ALL CATEGORIES
• Order should be by MOST POPULAR
• Choose NO MAXIMUM for Maximum Price.
• Choose 24 rows per page (Top 120 Popular blogs will show on the first page).

YOUR 125 X 125 ENTRECARD WIDGET PLAYS A VITAL ROLE

Out of more than 15, 000 Entrecard members, it will now be very easy to recognize the Popular blogs if you get yourself familiarized with their avatars. Once you see them anywhere, you will get to know they are those blogs who have been doing crazy drops, day in and day out! I know these blogs even when my eyes are closed, haha! Now, I would dissuade anyone from changing avatars every now and then. You wouldn't want to lose your regular droppers, right?

COLOR CODING

One thing important to know is the COLOR CODING at Entrecard. These are as follows:

• Gold = Featured
• Rose = Favorite
• Blue = Ad purchased
• Green = Dropped
• Dark = Recently rejected
• Black= Not yet dropped

I want you to take careful notice of these colors if you drop from the POPULAR BLOGS. If you have made a drop on a particular blog, the color will turn to GREEN, so there's no need to go to the site. That would save you ample time. If the color is black, and you want to drop on that site, that's the time you can visit the site and drop your card.

HOW IMPORTANT IS YOUR DROP INBOX?

Very important. The drop inbox will help you keep track who made drops on your blog everyday. If you have made drops from the Popular Blogs category, you will know from who among them have returned your drops.

It should be noted here that most of the popular blogs get more than 300 drops daily. That's way over the 300 limit. It only means that NOT all the drops they get they could return immediately. The TIP here is to keep coming back.

MAKE YOUR PRESENCE FELT. DROP. READ. If you think the topic is engaging, you can take part by commenting.

In my case, once I see new EC widgets that made drops on me, I don't usually return the drops made. If I am that bad, I am sorry. But please understand that I need to prioritize those blogs who have been frequenting my blogs and keeps dropping those cards. I can't miss returning their drops in favor of a new one which I am not even sure if they could still come back. After a couple of days of persistent dropping, that's when you will be included in my favorites.

I do not know if blogs in the Popular category have been doing the same technique as I do. You can well ask them, too. These techniques worked well across my three (3) blogs: this blog, Our Journey to Forever and Kuerdas. I will be doing the sharing of techniques in parts since it wouldn't be possible to do it in one shot.

I will be very glad if this post could help you understand Entrecard more. If you have a better way of doing your drops, please feel free to share it in my comment section.

SEE ALSO RELATED ARTICLES:

• Thank you and My Apologies
• My 125X125 Entrecard Avatar
• How Much Credits Are You Willing to Spend for Entrecard Adverts?
• On the Purchase of Entrecard Ads
• The Power of Purchasing Slots for Entrecard Ads
• Hear Ye! Hear Ye!
• Entrecard Outage
• Entrecard + SezWho= Blog Success
• Our Journey to Forever is No. 2 in Romance Category at Entrecard
• Top 10 Entrecard Droppers for the Month of July (OJTF)
• Top 10 Entrecard Droppers for the Month of July (Lainy's Musings)
• Top 10 Entrecard Droppers for the Month of June
• Top 10 Entrecard Droppers for the Month of May
• Knowing Drop Messages and Your Drop Rank at Entrecard
• Drive Traffic to Your Site Fast, It's All for Free at Entrecard
• Link More Blogs at Entrecard
• Warning by Entrecard to Quick Drop Pages or Power Drop Pages
• Traffic Report for Our Journey to Forever
• My Entrecard Dropping Addiction

Reunited With my All-Time Buddies

Sharing friendship for almost 18 years is a rare ocassion. I have always been a person who values human attachment more than anything else. I acquired my best buddies from high school and I think they are the longest running friends I ever have thus far.

We have tread different lives over the years. Some have married and have children in tow, some have been very successful in their own chosen career paths and some are still conquering their dreams. Sure we have lived different lives. We have different destinies. But we never ceased to celebrate friendship at its best.

Yesterday, I was once again reunited with two of my best buddies. It was those very rare ocassions where we could get to update each other's lives after so many years of long absence.

Wanna meet me and the friends I was talking about? Take a closer look at our pics.