MBA Program at Pepperdine

A few years ago, before I started college, I was thinking about a double major of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and then an MBA from somewhere else like, maybe Australia. I never really looked into that option nor did I treat the MBA part seriously back then. All I knew was that with the additional MBA qualification to my resume, I would be more marketable myself and maybe take a managerial position or even start up a business of my own.

I was still thinking starting an ISP company to topple Telekom Malaysia was easily doable and realistic back then. The reason was that the internet services (dominated by TM) were poor and even broadband (Streamyx) was introduced into the market, customer service was atrocious and I believe it still remains below par now. Now that I have gotten my Bachelor's degree, I did once in a while hit up my Firefox browser (which is really the best internet browser alternative to Internet Explorer by the way) and look up more information on MBA programs in the US.

I came across Pepperdine University's MBA Programs and found out that Pepperdine's Graziadio School of Business has the reputation of being one of Southern California's leading business schools. The fact that I was temporarily residing in Santa Clara made Pepperdine much more "strategic" in terms of location. Graziado sounds like a top program's name. Indeed it is.

Brought to you by Pepperdine University.

Our Lunch at Red Lobster Madison

I finally used up my $25 Red Lobster gift cards last week. We went out for lunch at Red Lobster on the east side of Madison. We had to endure the hour long journey on a bus in order to taste some of Red Lobsters famously delicious dishes. Lunch wasn't cheap though. Even after a decent $25 off, it came up to about another $25.

Endless Shrimp and a Fire-Grillled Lobster and Shrimp - Skewered split Maine lobster tails and tender shrimp lightly seasoned and fire-grilled. Served over wild rice pilaf. On top of those, we added a glass of Malibu Hurricane to our order. You can't possibly take lobster out of the equation when you're at Red Lobster, right? Everything was delicious. The corn bread were amazing too. Definitely worth the money. Thumbs up baby!

Credit Cards from MINT

What on earth is the Mint Credit Card? have you ever heard of it? The Mint credit card was first introduced back in 2003. The card comes in two versions, a standard credit card (the regular one that you and I have in our wallets of purses right now) and the MC2 card which looks like this:

It's special because of the curved shape at one corner, the bottom right-hand corner to be precise is removed.

As the company expanded and grew over time, MINT launched the Mint Gift Card in September 2006. It's a gift card like any gift card, but with a plus in that it takes for of a pre-paid credit card. This ensures that it can be used anywhere where VISA Electron is accepted, which is virtually everywhere. They offer some really nice interest free credit cards which looks appealing to me. The current offer is:
0% on balance transfers (2.5% fee) until 1 December 2008
0% on purchases until 1 May 2008 and
0% bonus offer until 1 August 2009 on balance transfers debited to your account during February 2009 (2.5% fee)

It has the ever important 24 hour MINT Customer Service and the crucial online account management so you can access your account anytime with an internet connection. Further information about the company and these products can be found on the site. This is brought to you by MINT.

Logitech $50 Rebate Check Mailed (Logitech Wireless Headphones for iPod)

My $50 rebate check from Logitech was mailed on Oct-30-07. I requested for it to be reissued after the 1st check never reached me. One thing I hate about getting back my rebate checks is that I am constantly moving. Yes, it's part of the student life. I moved in and out twice every year. Once for the summer sublet and then moving out of the summer sublet to another new apartment for the fall semester. However, with mail forwarding by USPS, I don't see any reason why the checks would get lost.

The most important thing is, when you don't get your rebate check, fight for it. Call up the CSR hotline to request for it. I got them to reissue the checks almost everytime. This particular $50 rebate check is for my white Logitech Wireless Headphones for iPod which I reviewed long time ago. Only now I am getting my money back. Persistence pays.

p/s: Logitech at RebateStatus is really efficient and helpful when dealing with rebate problems.

Who Wants My $10 off $50 and $15 off $60 Office Depot Coupons

It has been a while since I bought something from OfficeDepot. I used to make use of dollar off coupons, free item coupons, FatWallet cashbacks and MyPoints rewards to get the best deal out of my purchases. Those free items aren't really that useful to me so I had to sell them off eBay or Craigslist. Free items coupons enable buyers to get free gifts/items after you reach a certain amount of total price.

Some of the free items which I can remember are the Bluetooth headset, portable mini fridge, luggage set, mini TV, tote and candy. Now I have a $10 off $50 and a $15 off $60 coupon (both expire on 11/5/2007) sitting in my inbox. I think if anyone needs one, feel free to take them, rather than letting them rot and expire in my crammed mailbox.

Yahoo! Says I'm a Power Mailer

I received an email yesterday from Yahoo! thanking me for being one of their "power mailers". They say that I am one of the select few to receive their exclusive Power User reward. Voila! Now I can send messages up to 20MB and enjoy priority customer care. Of course, don't believe it. Everyone gets it. Just ask your 70 year old gardener or that 5 year old kid next door.

Dell Laptops (700m, E1405, XPS1210) Can't Output to TV Using the S-Video Out Port?

A few weeks ago, we were trying to have a movie night and have the movie 1408 played on a laptop computer and output to the TV. However, as the lame tradition goes, DELL laptops can't seem to perform the task. The S-Video output of various DELL laptops were tried (700m, E1405 and XPS1210) but none of them worked. Hence, I went to check on the DELL support forums in my search for a solution.

To my disappointment, no solution was found. Many users posted their woes and tried the advice as provided by others on the forums. However, none of the advice was turned in by a DELL laptop user. My friend tried to do the online chat thing with a DELL CSR and the suggestions provided by the CSR were "too general". Checking each startup program to see which one is interfering with the problem is plain dumb. Dumber than Dumbo. Wait, I am not saying Dumbo is dumb.

My friend is really persistent and took out all the manuals to see what's to be done. All those didn't work. Not even the FN + F8 button. So she went all out to buy a PC to TV Cable.
A set of PC Output to TV Cable (S-Video + 3.5mm to Composite AV) for only $2.50 shipped. A worthy investment I would say. And a hot deal too! We'll see if it solves the problem.

Capcom Announces New Street Fighter 4 + Trailer

Capcom has just announced that a new version of the ever memorable Street Fighter series. The latest addition is Street Fighter 4. But for all Street Fighter fans out there (including me), it's going to be a long wait. The release date is more than a year away. Anyway, it's good to know that they are continuing to expand the Street Fighter franchise (finally). I am expecting new hi definition image and video qualities to accompany this latest addition. Here is a trailer for you to watch if you haven't seen it yet:

Street Fighter 4 Trailer

300 More Posts to 1000 - McD Monopoly 2007 Sucks

This is post number 700. Today, we had lunch at McDonald's and got some McD Monopoly pieces. I won 2 crappy game downloads from RealArcade. That's what I got for landing on the Community Chest. I was aiming for the Chance, GO or Free Parking spots but clearly the rolling of the virtual dice was well beyond my control.

It's all preset. There goes my odds of beating the odds. The prizes offered this time around are much worse and less worthy of playing for, what to say to have more intentional lunch visits to McD. A waste of money. Just as I was talking about me not buying the hot deals off the internet recently, I let myself fell into the cheap tricks by a giant corp like McD to lure more customers during this Monopoly game promotional month.

And offering guaranteed bucks to Footlocker or Toys R Us doesn't fancy me. And imposing a limit on the stackable amounts for redemption to $5 is just plain demoralizing to the spirit of the game. Back then I was able to collect several pieces of Best Buy bucks to get a collector's edition of Titanic for free! This time around, no PSP's and iPod's are offered. Heck I am not buying the pieces off eBay anymore too! Boo!

Since I Came Back to Madison, I Have Not....

1.) visited Jamba Juice to have a cup of their amazing smoothies and also to make use of my Buy One Get One Free coupon. Yes promotions like free stuffs, contests and coupons buy me into their business. I have nothing to lose, as long as I get a better than regular price. My ex housemate asked me the other day if I have been buying any hot deals off the internet. I said no. It's simple, I don't have a permanent place to stay which I pay rent and utilities for. So I am better off saving my money for something else, something like food and regular everyday expenses.

Life is absolutely different now with no school and no job involved, which means no sponsored allowance for me. Therefore, I have to take my spendings seriously while making an effort to make sure there is still some minimal income from the internet to cover up some portions of my expenses. Redeeming reward points and credit card cashbacks, writing reviews and doing surveys are just some of the options available. Redeeming a free flight to San Jose with my Southwest Rapid Rewards credits caps it off; saving my damn money for my future!

2.) been to the Wisconsin Badgers home football game at Camp Randall. Being an ardent fan and hardcore supporter of the Red, that's slightly surprising, even to myself. Tickets to the Iowa and Michigan State games were overpriced. I am guessing it was due to the fact that we WERE one of the top teams in the country, ranking as high as no.5 and riding on a nation best winning streak.

The attention given to us by the media regarding the nation best winning streak back then was a sign of something bad to come. The game vs. Illinois was on national TV, not because it was a intra-top 10 battle, not because it was a huge rivalry. It was because of the possibility of an upset. People wanna see top ranked teams fall, people wanna see big upsets. We got exposed. I somehow feel that we are left with no choice of being drawn into the disadvantageous publicity since we had no control over the media.

The coaches did their job by addressing the media with every possible encouraging comments and remarks, hoping not to dent the players' confidence and belief in their own capabilities. However, in the end, it was the media who won. The media is biased as they always are, because the media is run by humans. And humans are opinionated. We got dragged into the ugly wins and giving up big plays thing, which then was amplified by the media and made into national coverage. Once we got kicked off the no.5 spot, followed by the no. 19 spot, no one gives a shit.

Yes, that's the point, none of them gives a shit about us. Why is that USC only dropped to no. 10 despite losing to a 41 point underdog opponent in Standford, and playing at home while we, being the 3 point underdog going into the game against Illinois, playing in the opponent's ground. I mean, come one, when you pit Illinois against Stanford, you know who is gonna win. So why does USC deserve to the up there when they lost to the weaker team among the two upsetters? BECAUSE THEY WANT USC IN A BCS BOWL GAME! Damn.

Honorable mentions:
3.) Used my Red Lobster gift cards.
4.) Exercised much.
5.) Attended a hockey or volleyball game.
6.) Gotten a job offer.

Don't Vote Bret Bielema for Coach of the Year, For Now

After the pathetic 7-38 loss to Penn State today, I am going to stop voting for coach Bret Bielema for the Coach of the Year award. After being knocked off the no.5 spot thanks to the losing effort to Illinois, today's extremely poor performance is just another blow to all Badger fans. Sitting dangerously at no.19, Wisconsin knows damn well that losing to Penn State would have them kicked out of the rankings and also bid their Big Ten conference title hope goodbye considering that they have Michigan and Ohio State coming up in their schedule. Fumbling the ball on the very 1st play of the game at your own 16 yard line is simply inexcusable. When you know your team is without 2 of your biggest offensive threats in WR's Paul Hubbard and Luke Swan, RB PJ Hill should know better that he is the main channel for Wisconsin. And giving away the ball on your 1st touch neither highlights your leadership nor determination to produce results. It's called stabbing yourself in the foot. Ball security is the no.1 priority man! Already without RB Lance Smith's explosive pace as the bail out, the running game was not established, which brought the issue to the passing game. The WR's, Gilreath and Jefferson (both freshmen), did all they could, but all they could was not good enough for Big Ten football. Gilreath caused an interception for not grabbing down the ball thrown by QB Tyler Donovan. Ball came off his hands when he was open and picked up by Penn State's defense. The defense was not picking up the slack from last week, blowing covers and missing tackles and doing what they did best, giving up big plays. The defense is not stepping up, they are not correcting their mistakes which caused them to drop 14 spots in the national rankings. Here's the blunt statement, the defense is not up for it. Not in Big Ten, what more to say to chase for a BCS bowl spot in the post season. The offense would have to rely on inexperienced receivers and sub-par average yard per play of PJ Hill. TE Travis Beckum remains to be the main threat in the passing game, but he's the TE and he wasn't the main target in the loss to Penn State. I guess the coach chose to spread the ball to everyone instead of making TE Travis Beckum to haul down more than 10 catches per game. Hey, here's the deal, you're out of experienced starting receivers. Make TE Travis Beckum catch more than 10 passes because he has a pair of secure hands and the best athletic ability to haul down big play passes. If not, you shall wait for your defense to kick some senses into themselves and your receivers to run better routs and catch the ball when they're open and your RB breaking tackles and make big plays. By the time they all did that, you might be looking at a 8-4 season. Guess which bowl you're gonna end up in?

Recover From Bad Day, Recover From Bad Credit

Already having a bad Football Saturday as a Wisconsin Badgers fan? Don't let that hurt you as much as bad credit hurts you. Yes, it's an ugly loss and down right uncompetitive. This year, the number of upsets in college football is tallying up and the number of people suffering from bad credit is on the rise. Yes we are down, but we are not out. We should be brave and face it in order to improve ourselves. Don't just apply for any generic offer that you receive in your mailbox. Get to learn on how to choose on the best card which fits your needs and requirements. Spend some effort on doing a little credit card comparison. Stick to the rule of thumb to rebuild your credit history, make timely payments.
Just like Wisconsin, to rebuild the defense, start off from the basics, make timely tackles.

Join the Ticketmaster Group on Facebook Get 5 Free iTunes Songs (including iTunes plus)

Hey all Facebook junkies. Join* the Ticketmaster group on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2426357824. After joining*, the screen will show an iTunes code valid for 5 free song downloads, including the $1.29 drm-free songs. *You can leave the group right away after joining and still keep the code.
Codes expire November 15, 2007

I already got mine. 5 more free song credits to my iTunes account!

Related Link: Inside Facebook: Life, Work and Visions of Greatness

Happy Birthday Naruto and Bret Favre

Dattebayo! Related Link: Naruto Ultimate Ninja Heroes

The Day I Am No Longer 22

That's today.

Payperpost - Why and How and Now

I stumbled upon PayPerPost on some random blog and just decided to check it out for the heck of it. It turns out that PPP (as they usually call it) is a very good way to finance one's blog or website or whatever. PayPerPost allows bloggers to get paid for blog advertising, or blogvertising in short. It is an intelligent move, I must say, by PPP to launch this service as it is an instant hit! Words spreaded out faster that wildfire and so many blogs have PPP related contents on them. The blog market is so huge now it's like another Facebook type growth. Wowh! With PayPerPost advertisers are willing to pay you for your opinion on various topics. Search through a list of opportunities, make a blog posting, get your content approved, and get paid. It's that simple. Payments are received through Paypal after 30 days of of posting and after they check that it still meets the requirements set by the advertisers. Blogging has evolved. It has.
I have been payperposting since July of last year. So far I can say myself as one of the many loyal posties. Always looking forward to new introductions and improvements from PPP and also hoping the prosperity of payperpost which would then ensure the prosperity of fellow posties. You can meet new friends everywhere, even on PPP. Doesn't take a genius to figure it out, unless you have like only 10 friends over the last pathetic 20 years of your life. Payperposting used to be a routine for me, you know, one or two posts every day (on average). But having to deal with the hectic schedule of classes and the problems in life, sometimes things took a different approach. However, we work things out. We don't hide, we don't avoid, we face the truth and work on it. Just like PPP.
It's dynamic and innovative. It's one of the leaders in the field of consumer generated advertising. Made more than a grand so far and I believe that really eased my financial situation. It was by chance and I fit in just well. I don't forget my roots, I don't forget those who benefited me one way or another, by hook or by crook. But those who don't treat others well won't be remembered for sure. Popularity doesn't come free. If people like you, you are popular and you don't have to go around inviting people to whatever whatever whatever. Spread the love.

Wisconsin WR Luke Swan Out For the Season with Torn Hamstring

From walk-on to a starter to one of the premier wide receivers in the Big Ten. Wisconsin's #1 Luke Swan has seen it all. Never did he think that his career with Wisconsin football would end with a 17-yard reception which caused a torn hamstring after landing awkwardly after being sandwiched by 2 defenders. In six games this season, Swan had 25 catches for 451 yards and was the Badgers' top receiver. He is QB Tyler Donovan's favorite receiver and has often hauled down crucial passes to convert 3rd downs for Wisconsin.

Nicknamed the Fennimore Flash, Luke Swan is a smart wide receiver who knows how to create space to make plays, according to head coach Bret Bielema. Bret had noted earlier in the season that he thought Swan would be one of the guys who had a chance to be in an NFL team's preseason training camp. Swan's 170 yards receiving against Washington State was 11th best in school history. Swan joined the team as a walk-on in 2003.

With Saturday's defeat to a lucky Illinois team, Wisconsin's chance of taking the elusive Big Ten title has taken a huge dent. ESPN analysts have noted down Wisconsin to finish 3rd in Big Ten and a possible berth in the Outback Bowl.

Click on the following link to vote Bret Bielema for the Coach of the Year award. You can vote once per day.

Everyone Wants Cheap and Fast Broadband

My youngest sister asked to go back home soon because then she'll get to use broadband internet. That was the reason she wanted me to go back. Because my parents won't sign up broadband internet for her. Well, since she doesn't really manage her study and play time in a suitable manner, she deserves no broadband for now! One needs to work hard to be successful. Like what Professor Ron Amos once said in the class, if you work hard, you will succeed. Looking at this issue, the other reason why there's no broadband at home is because of the cost. So everyone is looking for the Cheapest broadband providers. I know sometimes there can be various Broadband packages options available to be chosen from, most of the time people would opt for the one which is cheap and affordable. People want a cheap ISP, a reliable ISP and also a high speed ISP. It's really hard to balance out between speed and cost. But it's all worth it. Having broadband is such a necessity in this modern world nowadays. Dial up is simply too slow. People are charged by time for the slow dial up speed, which I can no longer tolerate after a few years of broadband. It's undeniably true, everyone wants cheap and fast broadband.

I Think I Need A Break Soon

It has been almost 5 months since my last break. It's about time to take a break soon. I go on holidays normally twice a year, in the winter break and then i nthe summer break. So roughly once per half a year. I have been to New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington DC (twice), Orlando (twice), Miami, Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Las Vegas. I need a flight off to some place else. Somewhere which doesn't belong to me so I couldn't care less.

The Days When I Am No Longer A Student

It has been a few months since I attended my last day of class. After graduation, I am officially no longer a student. I have been a student for almost the entire of my life! Since I was 5, when I was in St. Joseph Kindergarden until the last day as a college student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Now I am no longer required to do homeworks or read aheads, I am looking for a job. School was tough, sometimes. Looking for a job is not easy too. When I was still in school, there are a set of certain things which I need to do and perform according to the timetable or schedule. Life had a straight forward, directed meaning. I woke up to the alarm rings, I woke up to the fall weather and the freezing winter snow. I brushed my teeth and got my clothes to be ready for school. I listened to lectures, learned my way through homeworks and exams. I did homeworks and blogged. I watched a little bit of TV. I recycled my "day" from Mondays to Fridays. Saturday and Sunday mornings, I woke up to go to work at the Memorial Union at 10 a.m. By the time I finished, half of the weekend day would be done for. And I got the other half to do something leisurely or whatever I chose to do. Those were the days.
Now, I am staying at other people's places. I don't go to school, I don't go to work. I stay at home. Yeah damn right, I stay at home for the most of the day. For some 3 freaking months. After years of spending half days in school, I can't help to sometimes feel aimless at wherever I am staying. It was expected. Maybe that's why it doesn't depress me as much as it would have. But still, apart from searching and applying for jobs online, other things which I do would be considered leisurely, too leisurely I would say. I get sick of watching too much TV. I get sick of watching ESPN. I get sick so sleeping. I get sick of using my laptop and have nowhere to go, both online and offline. I get sick of my blogged nose. I get sick of the weather. I get sick of. . . the days when I am no longer a student.

ABC Closeout - Deals and Liquidations

Sometimes you get the best deals on things when you buy them in bulk, in large amounts. Then you can resell them on eBay or Craigslist for profits thanks to the lower costs. One place you can get these things is ABC Closeout. It's the best alternative as they have overstock and liquidation merchandise of the no-name brands to the brand name items all to met your business profile.
And the liquidation and closeouts are available from major department stores, catalogue companies, manufacturers and companies going out of business or businesses going through renovation/relocation.

This site is very neat and looks quite well organized. You should have no problem navigating the website. Check this site out if this is something that you need for your business or thinking of getting an alternative stock supplier.
Here's a secret which is no longer a secret in today's world of eBay business. The major reason why all the Powersellers are earning big bucks on eBay are because they found the way to purchase bulk goods at below market value prices and selling them to eBay addicts for a profit. Closeout dealers provides the important supply source for many eBay sellers and also many home businesses around the U.S.

Friendster Now Available in Traditional Chinese

1GB Flash Drive Deal Alert: Sony 1GB Micro Vault Classic USB Flash Drive for $4.99 (No Rebates)

CircuitCity is selling the Sony 1GB Micro Vault Classic USB Flash Drive for $4.99 (no rebates) starting this Sunday October 7th 2007.

Comments Function Fixed

The comments function on this blog has been fixed. Previously there was something wrong with it (thanks to the old script) and visitors couldn't leave comments at all. Now it is officially fixed and back in working order. I should install a spam comments catcher to avoid spam comments ruining the natural flow of the blog. I'll do it if spam commenters get loose here. It's still safe for now :)

Time to Revamp My Cingular 8125, aka HTC Wizard

Yes, I checked some forums out on what's the latest and found out that the best thing I can do with my HTC Wizard (Cingular 8125) is to flash it to a HTC Touch. Yes, that means having TouchFLO in my phone without having to buy the newly launched HTC Touch. Fantastic! That's the best option for me I think. The other viable option is to change the appearance of my Wizard to that of the iPhone. Not exactly the iPhone, just look like the iPhone. It would still run on Windows Mobile 5 but would have iPhone's screens and buttons on the main menu thing. However, as I experimented with the Slider on my Wizard, it does not look stunning, at all. Having the iPhone "Slide to Unlock" screen on a HTC Wizard looks awfully out of place. iContact is a small application, around 12KB, which can give the contacts page the scrolling feature as the iPhone. Not very interesting to me. TouchFLO would be an added bonus, but having to flash the firmware and performing all the tweaks is not problem-free and if done incorrectly, it could brick my phone and deem it unusable forever. If I fail, I'll use the Nokia phone from the T-Mobile To Go package I bought from OfficeMax with my $10 gift card a while ago. Good thing that nobody bought it yet. Good luck to me. Thanks!

Win a God of War Demo from PSPfanboy

I missed my chance to get the free God of War: Chains of Olympus for PSP UMD demo. I didn't know about it in time. Forget about the past. Now there's a chance to get one, also for free. PSPfanboy is giving out 3 copies God of War: Chains of Olympus for PSP demo. Just leave a comment on the page to be eligible to win one. People are selling it on eBay for as high as $53.

I Want the Alarm Tone from Motorola Phones

Can anyone upload the alarm tones from Motorola cellphones? I had them when I was using the V600 but couldn't recover them from my water-damaged V600 (flash flood). I tried asking my friend to send it via Bluetooth from his RAZR but it doesn't have the send option. I would appreciate it if someone can post them here. Thanks in advance, cheers!

Buy One Get One Free Jamba Juice Coupon

Print this coupon to get the buy one get one free Jamba Functional Smoothie at your local Jamba Juice. Coupon is valid until 10/16/2007.

Breaking News: Britney Loses Custody of Kids

Britney Spears has lost physical custody of her sons. Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner Scott Gordon ruled Monday that Sean Preston and Jayden James' father Kevin Federline will be granted full custody on October 3. The news comes after Federline's lawyer, Mark Vincent Kaplan, presented his client's case in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday morning.

Reports suggest Kaplan raised concerns about Spears' parenting skills after she was spotted driving without a license over the weekend while her children were in the car.
Insiders claim Kaplan also brought up Spears' charges of hit-and-run and driving without a valid California license, when she was involved in an accident after crashing into a parked car.
The emergency hearing lasted an hour and took place behind closed doors.

The shocking outcome follows two weeks of bizarre behavior from Britney, which includes sightings of the pop singer partying and sobbing in the street, and an incident where she invited a member of the paparazzi to join her in a restaurant bathroom in Los Angeles.Gordon initially ruled the couple would continue to share custody for the duration of their new court battle.
Meanwhile, Spears could face more legal trouble if she fails a court-ordered, random drug test, administered twice a week.
Britney Loses Physical Custody of Kids; Monday 10-01-2007 4:36pm CT
World Entertainment News Network

Blogging Workspace of PujutEngineered

After looking at several people's blogging workspace, I would like to display my temporary blogging workspace too. It's temporary because it's not my table, not my house. I am currently looking for a full time job (no, full time blogging is not my target now) and therefore things can change easily. Just a normal setup of a square glass top table with black and white chess boxes and a piece of foldable chair.

I used to own a multifunction printer (Brother 210c) and a laser printer (Samsung ML1740) but those were destroyed when my apartment was hit with flash flood back in July 2006. From then on I have not bought a printer as I print whatever I need from the computer lab or the library. So, there's no paper on my workspace. I scribble and jot down notes/reminders on the notepad of my HTC Wizard. I save the documents into PDF files and bring them along in my 1GB SanDisk Cruzer Micro flash drive if I need them printed. Let me describe my workspace as seen from the photo.


I current have a HTC Wizard (aka Cingular 8125) smartphone and a Blackberry Pearl, both unlocked. In fact, I just listed my Blackberry Pearl for sale on eBay. I use a Dell Insprion E1405 with Windows Vista Home Premium which I purchased a few months back after my old NEC Versa E600 never came back to life. I chose it because I like to have a 13"-14" screen size and front panel media control buttons (and they light up thanks to the blue LED when you press them).

I was running a customized desktop with lots of LED fans and dual DVDRW drives and 4 hard drives, but now it's gone thanks to the flash flood. So the back up was the NEC Versa E600 laptop which served me well considering it was an old model with USB 1.1 and the amount of tweaking I enforced on it. I use a Logitech VX Revolution wireless USB mouse. Runs on a single AA battery with laser precision, I like it as it is light and very ergonomic. The newer version of it is the Logitech VX Nano which retails for $50 I think.

Then there's my 40GB iPod (no color 4th Gen.) which I use for my music and also as storage. That iPod survived the flood. I shook all the water out of it and let it rest to dry and to my amazement it still works!) I have 3 external 2.5" USB hard drives which I use as back up solution to my files and documents. Only 1 hard drive survived the flood, a 160GB SATA Hitachi. Maxtor and Seagate all drowned.

Then there's my Sony PSP which was sponsored by my blogging earnings and used to kill off time while I am on the road travelling. (in the bus, in the plane, in the airport, etc.) I have 5 Memory Stick Pro Duo's -- two Lexar 4GB and one Lexar 1GB for the PSP, two SanDisk 512MB for my Sony CyberShot T9 camera. I returned one SanDisk card before because it was corrupted and SanDisk gladly exchanged one for me. I have had no problems with the Lexar ones so far, so I think I'll stick to Lexar in the future. I bought a Sony 4GB MS Pro Duo from eBay and it turned out to be a fake, a counterfeit. I lost my vacation photos in it. Damn those eBay sellers who sell fake items. Made them return my money, but they can't return my lost memories. So screw them!

That's all folks. All the ramblings. Supposed to be a short description of my blogging workspace, now it turned into a half dead story. 10q. Yes, I did this after I saw LiewCF's workspace.

Book Your Hotel Stays from Hotel Reservations

Everytime the college semester hits the midpoint, I will start to think about travelling during the holidays. Vacationing to the different parts of US has been really fun. And obviously, I'll need a place to stay during my vacations, which in most cases, a hotel. And what I want are affordable and cheap hotel rooms for me to stay overnight, to recharge and replenish my energy and concentration to get ready for the upcoming adventures the next day. So I normally book a hotel room 2 weeks before my travel dates. And vacations don't come cheap, I have to deal with airfares, accommodations, foods, attraction admission tickets and also souvenirs. Planning for holidays? Or making last minute plans for your Spring Break? Hotel Reservations can help. A quick search with the destination, dates and number of rooms info produces quite a number of results of internet special rates which you can sort by Best Value, Quality, Price, A-Z and Show Hotels Near Landmarks, which is totally neat. So now you can choose the locations of possible hotels easier than just going by zones as going by popular landmarks really gets to the point. Right on!
Now, Hotel Reservations is providing great valuable information on hotels, flights, cars rentals and vacation packages and on top of that, they are currently having an ongoing promotion offering rebates up to $100 for booking your hotel rooms online! The rebates amounts are based on the number of nights that I book.
They claim to offer the cheapest prices on hotel room reservations. After a quick comparison with Expedia regarding hotel prices in Amsterdam, the result I found is that Hotel Reservations has low nightly rates that pose an edge over Expedia.com. Their rates are competitive with other travel sites and great discounts are offered to destinations worldwide. Hotel Reservations also provided with a large number of results, which allows customers to have a wide selection of hotels.In addition to their obvious offering of hotel reservations, Hotel Reservations.com also offers affordable flights, car rentals, vacation rentals, and vacation packages on par with the standard industry budget travel rates. Another feature of Hotel Reservations is its toll free booking over the phone. If you are old school, hate the internet, and/or prefer “actually talking to someone,” Hotel Reservations can accommodate you.

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