Now for some laughs

I was forwarded by an acquaintance a commercial (in mpeg) for a Dutch insurance company which read: For you to smile a bit....well that was what the person who sent it to her said, anyway. She probably did and thought that she should spread the joy a little.

The commercial was brilliant, albeit thought provoking and both with little and at the same time a lot to do with insurance. You probably have been forwarded this already. Moving on....as my computer generated a small screen to view the attachment, I decided to search for it in You Tube, as is my wont, and in doing so stumbled upon these other hilarious commercials that are actually banned (yep, the same with the above)! Now, I don't know squat about the criteria for banning commercials or the liabilities for showing (making public) banned commercials....but since it was in youtube anyway (ergo, public access), I thought....why not.

Not only do I think them hilarious but effective as well. I also don't see anything wrong with them...or is it just me? I sure would remember (not necessarily patronize) the companies that came up with them if I've seen them myself on TV.

This has been posted in youtube a year ago and therefore not new.

Why, oh why?

I sometimes, out of curiosity, check out the search words people use that land them on my blog and some results are:

1. Funny
2. Real needs seeking information
3. Real problems seeking advise
4. Travel information

5. Unbelievably scary - although very few (thank god), I am still reminded that perverts do abound on the internet, lest I forget (which I do sometimes).

The #5 people don't stay long in my blog (1 page view / 0:0), immediately figuring out that my content serves them no purpose AT ALL. That I have chosen to make this blog public for the convenience of my family, friends and people who might actually benefit from the information here (travel, cost of living), of course doesn't help. It's a choice I've made and like all choices carries with it some consequences.

When checking search words, one is presented with other 'results' that sometimes make an 'information seeking' search funny enough to write about. Take for instance search words used for 'seeking a BETTER half coming from a specific industrialized country by someone who currently is residing in a country with a weaker economic performance' (or probably seeking information on how it is to be married to these men) ok, you have to read between the lines and convert all that into just 3 search words.

What was funny were 2 other search results:

When the day comes that words (and homecooked meals...and globetrotting) aren't enough to profess my undying love for my viking any longer, I (sigh) may be forced to shell out $25 for this:

And if that doesn't work, I still have this as an additional option (and additional $16)....If I really, really need to protest it:

If in dire need, you can order them here and here, respectively....no kidding.

Retro look, anyone?

Have you ever wondered how you would have looked if you followed all hair trends during different eras? I only did it once (frizzy) and learned early on that I looked ridiculous in anything NOT straight (the last trend to catch on) short and more than 2 shades lighter than my own. That lone incident in my teens took a lot of heartache, tears and patience to rectify - had to wait for my hair to grow back...the more I waited, the longer, of course, it took.

Now, wonder no more as yearbookyourself.com gives you a chance to get a glimpse of how it could have been without the heartache!

Not only did I get a good laugh out of this, it also took care of my spare morning time!

---1966------1968-------1972------1978---

---1996------1998-------2000

Try it, who knows, you might find a style that might even surprisingly suit you. If retro applies in clothes, why not with hairstyles.

Inventions, Innovations and the lot

What is it they say about inventions (?)....that they are borne out of 'great' necessity....or not. In some cases the desire to redesign 'something' just for fun or to make it more fun just goes to show that an idle mind is NOT always the devil's workshop.

Are you the type who needs at LEAST one hand to gesticulate in order to confidently drive your point across? Have you ever found yourself in a situation wiping off hors d'ouevre off your colleague's shirt (deliberate not included)? Then this product is for YOU!

Fair warning: Just make sure you don't use it on the same hand that wears your watch!

Click here for more innovative ideas.

Brilliant Commercial

They say it's a nice commercial, I say it's great:

Celebrity Look-alikes

I obviously have plenty of time on my hands...again. While surfing (I think I surfed the entire net), I came across this website from where I arrived on this interesting site, My Heritage's Celebrity Look-alikes (click on face recognition, then celebrity collage). No registration needed, just fun and easy upload. Why I have so many examples, besides getting carried away, is that they suggested to upload more than 1 photo and the celebrity who keeps appearing must be the closest one you resemble.

Each photo would have about 10 suggested look-alikes from about 80% down to 60% of similarity in....dog knows what benchmarks they use. Mine, ran a gamut of women of various nationalities, including (unbelievably) Madonna, Naomi Campbell, Hillary Duff, Whitney Houston, some Miss Universe (I wish) and even Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (now, I've lost faith on the site), without presumably the mole. But Queen Latifah!!! Wow, not in a million years would it have crossed my mind!

With regards to the 'reappearance'...I guess my closest 'twin' is Lisa Ling (I have to google her) and that's if I remember to pull my hair really, really, really tight...upwards(!) and Matsu...something, (whom I have to google too). I honestly don't know most of those that the sight says I resemble and why they are celebrities but what the heck, it beats watching the soaps.

Anyhoo, try it, it's fun (I was on that site for hours, I think), not that it serves me any purpose at all but I did pass the time without pulling my hair out.

How much is your blog worth

In my desperate attempt to make my blog look like......I have no idea (talk about a cat chasing its own tail), I stumbled upon interesting sites via my favorite tutorials and widget source sites, in particular Amanda's Blog, Blogger Buster. This site has provided me easy-to-follow instructions on how to enhance my blog, via some simple tweaks and useful widgets specially designed for the Blogger platform (am not sure I have the right terms, but yeah, whatever.... maybe 2 years from now I'll be talking like a real blogger (sigh)).

Not to digress further (as usual), I came across an interesting link in Amanda's blog to an applet over at Dane Carlson's blog, Business Opportunities Weblog, that calculates how much your blog might be worth. Before any hostile take-over rears its ugly head, it helps to know how much your rants, musings, misadventures, manifestations of mood swings and PMS related writings are worth (okay, I'm specifically talking about MY blog). Apparently, my rants, musings, misadventures, etc. are worth (drumroll):

My blog is worth $0.00.
How much is your blog worth?

Nothing.

I can't say I was surprised but optimism took over so I tried again....and again....and again. All of a sudden, realization hit me...the applet wasn't working! That could only be it! I do put in my 2 cents worth for each post and multiply that by the number of posts - in my own, ah, um, uhrrm calculation, well, um, it should be worth something huh.

I typed in the URL address of a friends' blog.... Whoa $55,324.92!!! Just to be sure, I typed in another friends' URL ad...$11,084.38...hmmm.

Alright, maybe AOL wouldn't give a rat's as* about my blog and neither would Microsoft (sigh).

The applet was designed based on Tristan Louis' research of the variables (networks and links) involved in the 2005 acquisition of Weblogs, Inc. by AOL, assigned monetary values and created using Technocrati's API (application programming interface). It's disputed by some who believes that blog traffic should be the primary consideration in valuing a blog but doesn't traffic and link go hand-in-hand? The bigger your network, with more blogs / websites linking to you, the more traffic is driven to your site. Anyway, don't listen to me, I tend to blabber about things I barely know about (sometimes...like now), just head on to this site for a much, much, much better explanation.

You see, I didn't take it personally and neither should you - unless you seriously plan to monetize your blog, then I suggest you heed the numbers. Depending on what comes up, you may want to implement plan B (like ummm regular employment? for instance) first while rethinking plan A.

There's really no harm in knowing.....that no buy-out looms on the horizon. Try it, you might be pleasantly surprised. At the very least, Dane Carlson's Blog provides a wealth of information in regards to home-based businesses for stay-at-home moms, new entrepreneurs, helpful links, tips and success stories.

Happy browsing.

Phew!

I think I'm done redesigning the blog for the moment. I'd like it cleaner but I'm kind of 'blidget' (blog widgets) crazy at the moment....at least I now have the space for them. In reality, I only really added another column (on the right), did away with the 'harbor background' for a much clearer slate and added one more widget: the Recent Comment widget (not that I get many of them) courtesy of Amanda. Oh and a new signature too. It's easy enough on my eyes and I hope it is too on yours.

Now let's see if this new layout will create the magic I need to post regularly (I highly doubt though).




Edit: I reverted to my old signature...I thought it is more, well, me.

What were they thinking while naming....

WARNING: Adult content. Swear word to some but apparently a place to live for others.

I believe M (who happens to be a Brit) outdid himself this time in forwarding us this hilarious piece:

It appears that in Austria lies a town called....

where the Brits and the Germans often agree to disagree:

Please don't miss reading this article as this is the 'heart' of the post! Click to view enlarged version.

This trivializes a town called 'Middelfart' in Denmark...
and this restaurant in Bornholm:

where we did not eat, by the way.

This is the post that had me in stitches while working on it. Before I can even upload these images, I first had to download (they were sent via email) and save them...how the h*ll else can I identify the images but by naming them:

F**k*ng map
F**k*ng sign
F**k*ng article

A good marketing (or spamming) ploy

In checking my spam folder, an email preview caught my eye as forwarded jokes. Although the person who sent it is not anyone I know, I opened it anyway (it wasn't an executable file) and manage to read up to the bottom...and of course, there, not only did it say 'forward' (we do like to forward jokes when we think they're funny), I also saw the ad. It's the first time I have encountered this kind of spam where you yourself could even be a party to it. Best is each line is infused with words that when clicked redirects you to an advertiser...clever huh.

Interesting nonetheless (sans the links):

Hey, have you ever wondered why:

If corn oil is made from corn and vegetable oil is made from vegetables, what is baby oil made from (baby oil will of course redirect you to the Johnson's baby oil site, etc)?

Why is bra singular and panties plural?

If money doesn't grow on trees, why do banks have branches?

How important does a person have to be before they are considered assassinated instead of just murdered.

Why do you have to put your 2 cents in when it's just a penny for your thoughts. Where's that extra penny going to?

Why does a round pizza come in a square box?

What disease did cured ham originally have.

Why is it that people say they slept like a baby when babies wake up every 2 hours.

If a deaf person has to go to court, is it still called a hearing?

Why are you IN a movie but you're ON tv?

If electricity comes from electrons, does morality come from morons?

If Wile E. Coyote had money to buy all that ACME crap, why doesn't he just buy himself dinner?

Can you cry underwater?

Do the Alphabet song and Twinkle, twinkle little star have the same tune? (wow, I've never thought of that before - I actually started humming...and YES, they do!)

Why did you just try singing the 2 songs above? (guilty)

Do you ever wonder why you gave your email address in the first place? I emphatically disagree with this one but I too wonder how they get my address to send to...one of the sites that claim 'we don't store your data...etc, etc', must have!

The villainess in all of us

Through a link from my fave fashion blog, Marbella Style, I found out what my villainess name is or are...I tried with both my married and maiden name. At the very least, I found out that I was better off married than single:

MR (maiden) = Soulless Spider
MH (married) = Heartless Siren

I'd go for the latter anytime.

Would you like to know yours?

My Inkblot Test Result

Tickle's Original Inkblot Test

My Result: Love

Your instinct to love and be loved is rooted very deeply in your subconscious and affects most of the decisions you make in life — whether you are aware of it or not.

You inspire people to experience their true feelings of love and act kindly towards others. You also value your personal relationships more than most people.


Your unique capacity to love may be greater than those around you, which means you may have more to give in relationships than your friends or romantic partners do.


Your psyche is very rich; the more you learn about it, the more you will understand who you really are.

What are you?
http://web.tickle.com/jumpto?test=inkblotogt&c=50652

Yup, am still at it.

Browsing Martha day

Although we entertained before expatriation, it was not as often as when living abroad. Entertaining opens doors to get to know like-minded people which makes for an easier more pleasant and fun posting experience. Half the time, it is work-related and therefore obligatory.

It is cheap to entertain in the Philippines. There you can have every occasion catered (in our case up to over 100 sometimes) even the simplest ones, or invite people for a private function in a public restaurant for a third of what it will cost you elsewhere. So there was really no need for advices, solicited or otherwise, except from your caterer, of course. The type of entertaining we did in the Philippines did not apply to Denmark, Kenya and even here in Nicaragua, it is just prohibitively expensive.

In asking my domestic diva friends, I found out that there's so many money-saving tips I can get from Martha's site without compromising the quality of entertaining. Prior to my moving abroad, I didn't know Martha Stewart except probably for her infamous incarceration or house arrest at the very least and her spat with Donald the tower guy. Now, I'm hooked.

Today, while visiting Martha Stewart's Site, I checked out 'The Martha Stewart Blog' and there stumbled into the 'Hostess (with the mostess)' blog site. Under 'get inspired' are some of the cutest things I have seen. I came across these adorable and unbelievably cute cup cakes, for instance.

More photos of Hello Naomi's adorable cupcakes can be found here.

On the same blog, check out the review of 'Colin Cowie Chic: The Guide to Life As It Should Be'. Looks good to buy to me but I'm a sucker for good advice and good deals (about $20) and if my table can look this good, why not.

You'd think that between Martha, Emily, the hostess herself and maybe in future, with Colin's help too, I'd be able to host a chic party? Given the number of years I've been doing this...I've a loooong way to go. But then I pick up good things a long the way. Poco a poco.